Pity Party [Peggy Noonan on the Republican Party]

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 16, 2008 | Peggy Noonan

[Irish Rose]

Pity Party

Big picture, May 2008:

The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born.

The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They're frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at the sound. Crunch. Twig. Hunting party. ...

"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.

The Bush White House, faced with the series of losses from 2005 through '08, has long claimed the problem is Republicans on the Hill and running for office. They have scandals, bad personalities, don't stand for anything. That's why Republicans are losing: because they're losers.

All true enough!

But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. "Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.

[Antonio C]

Well, this thread has really brought the Republican-hating bitcons out in force.

[denydenydeny]

Look, geniuses, I have absolutely no problem with criticism of the Republicans from the Right. But that’s not what Peggy is doing in this piece. She clearly accepts the premises of the Left on Iraq and “gas prices” and seems to be in every way a full-fledged creature of the Left.

Criticize Republicans all day. But if you join arm in arm with the Obama Democrats, I have nothing but contempt for you.

[x]

No matter what Clarke Reed may think, Dick Cheney was NOT a mistake.

Well, if Bush wanted to leave anything behind wouldn't he have nominated a Vice President who could run to succeed him? It would be a lot less likely that we'd be going through all this dissatisfaction with the party's nominee if Bush had made a better choice eight years ago.

Heaven help us if we've come to the point of keeping skilled, intelligent conservatives out of government because the public doesn't adore them and the media dislikes them.

As a member of the public, I kind of resent that. We're smarter than you might think and sometimes pick up on things that more ideological people miss.

[pgkdan]

Criticize Republicans all day. But if you join arm in arm with the Obama Democrats, I have nothing but contempt for you.

Did you even bother to read the article? Nowhere does she join arm and arm with obama and nothing I have said or posted does so either.

[B Knotts]

Buchanan had it right when he saw what was coming and left the Bushlican Party before they threw conservatives under the bus.

Largely agree. I had a very bad feeling when Republicans ran as fast as they could from his 1992 speech.

Looking back at that speech, it is amazing how accurate his predictions were.

[FFranco]

Here are a few thoughts on the current political situation:

1. President Bush and Rove were planning on a generation of Republican rule. That was hubris and that it is failing should not surprise us.

2. The Republicans overreached and forgot their principles.

3. One party government is Not Good, and I believe the American people understand that.

4. The norm is for divided government, where the 2 parties can check and counterbalance each other. I think that is where we are headed.

5. I think McCain will win the election in November and the Congress will be dominated by the Democrats.

[gusopol3]

thanks for the info, I hadn’t paid attention, although I’m sure it was followed here on FR.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I appreciate your comments on my post and profile page. That was nice of you.

[DoughtyOne]

We do need new ‘clean’ leaders. We have so many tainted ones. When it comes time for them to run for national office, they have to run from their past harder than run to their future.

Some of the folks running this year were terrible. They’ve ruled as liberals their whole political careers, and now have to promise that they’ll be good from here on out. That shouldn’t have to be the case.

Congressmen should stick to Conservative views during their tenure in Congress. If they do, they’re going to have an easy go of convincing folks they’re genuine.

Don’t sign on to leftist legislation. Don’t agree to soil yourself just this once.

The rank and file aren’t stupid. They look up your record and tell everyone they know what they have found.

I’ll tell you, I’m not happy with what I have seen of the Congress and the Senate over the last few decades. There have been some bright spots to be sure, but they have been too few and far inbetween.

I like what you have said here and agree with it. Thank you.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I agree with your comments about the article as well.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for your comments I enjoyed them.

That last point was right on target. They pretend all the time. So true.

[muawiyah]

Noonan is falling for Davis' BS hook, line and sinker. Before her there was his wife ~ he convinced her she could win a seat in the VA state senate. Lost her butt!

Davis is not a good guide to either Virginia or Republican political currents.

[muawiyah]

McCain could get smart and get out front to condemn "Fascist Nostrums that are not real Solutions", and simultaneously repudiate "the failed policy of McCain-Feingold" and demand its repeal before Congress recesses.

Frankly, I can't believe that old guy is so enamored of his clinkers that he's hanging onto them like they are bright stars in the firmament.

McCain's been in the Senate long enough that he could come up with yet another "let's repeal this law" deal every day and be believed.

He's also going to have to demand that anti-illegal alien law enforcement is going to have to come down hard on employers ~ really hard ~ and let the ag processing interests cry ~ 'cause if he doesn't do that the Dems will win and they'll stick us with open borders for the foreseeable future.

[Gene Eric]

>> Our problem is not primarily time but ... an absence of a leader who has the will to ... break with the double crosses ...

Why is it that our success must be keyed to one individual, the ‘leader’, or less the representative? McCain is not a bad choice, he’s a symptom of a broken community that relinquished responsibility.

Noonan’s spectacular potshots are obnoxious and divert our attention from the system that produces the losers she belittles. If published opinion really serves any purpose these days then it’s time to eject the old and invite new talent capable of relevant commentary. Let’s save the arcane diatribe for Sunday brunch.

[nathanbedford]

Last week Peggy Noonan wrote a column which I criticized severely as falling into the trap of Manhattan political correctness for asserting that Hillary Clinton was somehow morally deficient for pointing out the obvious, that Barak Obama's appeal was strongly attached to and to some degree limited to his race. Morally deficient Hillary Clinton might be, but there are stronger grounds upon which to detail her declensions.

This time I think Noonan is performing a service. Consider her audience to be wider than we Freepers consisting of the whole of the mushy middle and the Rockefeller Republicans who read the Wall Street Journal and the millions of people who do not think of politics all until after Labor Day. These people need a wake-up call, they need to be shaken out of their sleepwalk.

I have long been posting the Republican Party has been sleepwalking toward a calamity. We cannot change course until we understand the peril.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you Lainie.

[Gene Eric]

No single article written within the bounds of decency will pin an author from inescapable judgment. Noonan has the latitude to ‘swoon’ if she’s enamored, and rebuke by proxy if she’s unwilling to risk her decorous stature, but still I’m concerned with the projection of her sentiment and the subscribers that wish to reference it. Something is sorely absent from the dialog ‘they’ engage. The force of divinity offered to our forefathers will never be found among the chattering class.

>> I have long been posting ...
I know.

[nathanbedford]

Let me put it this way: the entire Republican establishment urgently needs a come to Jesus meeting. I quite agree with you that Peggy Noonan is not John the Baptist.