Peggy Noonan Still Doesn’t Get It

American Spectator ^ | May 4, 2009 | Matthew Vadum

[vadum]

We didn't need another reason to avoid reading the slippery Peggy Noonan, but she gave us one anyway.

Still in awe of the Dear Leader whose news conference Wednesday night was in her words "a bit of a masterpiece," in her Friday Wall Street Journal column Noonan shows that she has become a captive of liberal conventional wisdom on yet another issue.

Noonan implies that the Republican Party is too conservative and as such it forced liberal Sen. Arlen Specter to defect to the Democrats. Noonan complained that the people inside the party "can't always be kicking people out of the tent. A great party cannot live by constantly subtracting, by removing or shunning those who are not faithful to every aspect of its beliefs, or who don't accept every pole, or who are just barely fitting under the tent," she wrote. "Room should be made for them. Especially in those cases when Republican incumbents and candidates are attempting to succeed in increasingly liberal states, a certain practical sympathy is in order."

If only the party had kicked some people out of the tent years ago, but I digress.

[...]

[BOBTHENAILER]

She could have dismissed Clinton as a Saul Alinsky-adoring, rapist-enabling, body-counting soulless ambitionist--but wafted off into vaporous nebulosity.

Peggy's mind has been in the ether for quite some time. She seems to cherish her warm,motherly hugs to murderers, rapists and communists, dreaming, I suppose, that her warmth alone can transform the rigid.

[andy58-in-nh]

I believe there is an organized effort underway to exacerbate the divisions within the Republican Party and to demoralize those on the Right who seek to regain control of the GOP.

The primary strategy appears to involve the use of selected "moderate" (read: liberal) Republicans who have dominated the party for years, by playing on their desire for positive news media coverage. That's an old game, but it still works.

A tactic in the service of this strategy is to have friendly news media sources run with Democrat talking points about how Republicans need to "moderate" their views (as thought it were the GOP and not the Democrats who are now radicalized). Squishy GOP members are then invited to "comment" in the expectation of friendly treatment if they answer properly. It's audacious, but effective when 90% of the media acts as a Democrat party megaphone, and their Democrat guests are treated appropriately.

Another strategy is for the Administration to quickly promote multiple initiatives in major policy areas (taxes, health care, the environment), using the advantages of their large Congressional majorities in a way that Republicans never did. A related tactic here is loudly announcing they want to "work with" Republicans, while quietly planning to freeze them out via parliamentary maneuvers.

Finally, the left-wing blogosphere (Daily KOS, HuffPo, FiredogLake, etc.) is being used by Democrat operatives as kind of a "meme" support infrastructure. Broad themes expressed in identical verbiage (basically: propaganda bytes) are easily disseminated and reinforced (by repetition) at regular intervals coinciding with the daily news cycle.

The GOP, for its part, is standing around with its thumbs firmly embedded in its...ears, oblivious to the existing infrastructure of conservative think tanks (the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Hudson Institute) who continue to crank out incredible volumes of research and policy papers, just in case conservatives ever reclaim the GOP for themselves and decide they want to lead again.

[mentor2k]

Noonan is jockying for a position in the teleprompter pool.

[Condor51]

"It would be my hope ... that this would be a wake-up call and the [GOP] would move for a broader big tent like we had under Reagan," Specter said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Exsqueeze me? "Big Tent"?
Then why did Ronald Maximus say this?

"The Republican Party cannot be all things to all people".

Kinda shoots down that whole 'big tent' thingy now doesn't it Arlen.

caveat: In one respect the tent is big. Just believe in the principles of what a Republican is, then come on in, there's room for you in the tent.

[MeekOneGOP]

Noonan implies that the Republican Party is too conservative and as such it forced liberal Sen. Arlen Specter to defect to the Democrats. Noonan complained that the people inside the party "can't always be kicking people out of the tent.

- - - - - - -

So ...

How does one go from MASTER speechwriter for Ronald Reagan to THIS tripe (above snippet) ?????

CRAZY !!!

Give 'em heck, Phil !!!

[Lady Jag]

Could it be . . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

ha! maybe!

I mean, this person WROTE major speeches for RR !!

What gives !?!?

[Lady Jag]

Public people have more faces than normal people. If she had written for herself rather than Reagan we would have gotten to know her better.

Plus the reason we're so poor is those bass turds have all our money and are using it to influence others. It's a madhouse out there.

[MeekOneGOP]

It’s crazy alrighty. :(

[dixiechick2000]

Excellent, and spot on, post!

Great graphic!

Ya’ done good, Phil!
Thank you for the ping!

[Melas]

its the voters that want to kick Specter out, or does Peggy has contempt for the little ppl?

Unfortunately that's not true. The voters are apparently in love with Specter, as they've been sending him back for the last 29 years. Time will tell if his party switch change that.