Peggy Noonan: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

The Wall Street Journal ^ | January 25, 2008 | Peggy Noonan

[Aristotelian]

Declarations: The primary campaign is tearing the Democrats apart. President Bush already did that to the Republicans.

We begin, as one always must now, again, with Bill Clinton. The past week he has traveled South Carolina, leaving discord in his wake. Barack Obama, that "fairytale," is low, sneaky. "He put out a hit job on me." The press is cruelly carrying Mr. Obama's counter-jabs. "You live for it."

(snip)

As for the Republicans, their slow civil war continues. . . . The rage is due to many things. A world is ending, the old world of conservative meaning, and ascendancy. Loss leads to resentment. (See Clinton, Bill.)

(snip)

It will all come down to: Whom do Republicans believe? Mr. Romney in spite of his past and now-disavowed liberal positions? Or Mr. McCain in spite of his forays, the past 10 years, into a kind of establishment mindset that has suggested that The Establishment Knows Best?

Do conservatives take inspiration from Mr. Romney's newness? Or do they take comfort and security from Mr. McCain's rugged ability to endure, and to remind?

It is along those lines the big decision will be made.

[AmericanInTokyo]

yes, correct. thanks for correcting me publicly

[RGSpincich]

George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other.

Read my lips, Margaret, no new news here. Reagan had conservative heads exploding when he, among other things, raised taxes, increased the deficit and gave amnesty to millions of illegals. Yet, he is the standard bearer of conservatives today. Noonan isn't the only overreactor. The chicken little syndrom is flourishing here on FR as well.

[muawiyah]

The professional left had agents in place inside the FBI, CIA and DOJ who worked to make sure that no investigations into 9/11 or the Anthrax Attack involved their friends.

We are only now able to identify some of these pukes. Several were removed ~ Valrie Plame, Mary McCarthy, etc. You'll see even more of them gone as the lawsuits Dr. Hatfill has filed surface uncomfortable truths.

The only conclusion we can draw is that The Left was involved in the attack.

[TheRightGuy]

yes, correct. thanks for correcting me publicly

OUCH ... we'll deserved smack

[Stentor]

taking your head out of your ass to suck it

Sounds like something from a Jim Webb novel.

[muawiyah]

Bwahahahahahahaha! LMAOROTFLMPMP ~

[Rb ver. 2.0]

“Do you really want Hillary to appoint the next 3 or 4 Supreme Court Justices? If that happens it’s all over.”

Bullcarp. It’s over when the last bullet is spent and a dictator shoves a bayonet through my skull.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words.

[DoughtyOne]

BTW, wouldn’t that be a great job...

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for that. It had been my understanding that the City itself had been taken to task on the grounds of constitutionality, could they ban a class of weapons or not.

Wouldn’t you still say that if their law stands, it opens pandora’s box? And didn’t the solicitor argue for provisional denials.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for realting what you had observed.

[RobbyS]

Moral of the story: never turn down a woman writer who offers to serve as a speech writer for your guy in the White House.

[DoughtyOne]

I realize that Congress is the ultimate authority in the district. Does that preclude the city itself from devising any city measures such as the one we’re addressing?

For instance, a city in a state doesn’t have to check with the state capital to implement city ordinances.

Is that forbidden in D.C.?

[RobbyS]

As for the constituent parts, critics of Bush seem unable to understand that a large faction of the Republican party was and is opposed to every part of the Conservative agenda. Bush was never a conservative; neither is he a liberal. But he is much more open to conservative opinion than men like MCain. My greatest disagreement with him is in the border issue: he is like nearly all the elite unable to grasp the implications of open borders, because wealth insulates him from the practical effects. Mexico is simply too unstable to allow such huge numbers of economic refugees free access to our borders. I was a bit disappointed that the radical did not win the Mexican presidency. That would have woke Bush up as much as the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. (On the other hand, fat good that has done; Annapolis was painful to witness)

[muawiyah]

The Dillon Rule is the one that says a city cannot enact any rules without specific state authorization. The Home Rule is the one that says a city can enact rules provided they aren’t specifically disapproved by the state.

Congress has what is described in the Constitution as “Exclusive Legislative Jurisdiction” ~ and that means there’s no subordinate body with authority to legislate over the district.

I think the Constitution prohibits the form of city government Congress established because it has independent authority to legislate.

The implementing legislation passed by Congress gave Congress the power to disapprove specific legislative items.

I don’t think that is going to pass Constitutional review by the Supreme Court.

BTW, this question has never been before the Court.

[CrosscutSaw]

George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

So true. GW's presidency has been a disaster for the Republicans and the nation. It has almost completely reversed the Reagan revolution.

[ladyinred]

Guess what? I still like President Bush. I think he has done a terrific job, and no one can change my mind, not even Peggy whom I admire! A President has to do what he has to do!

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for the clarifications. The true nature of the D.C. goverment has been somewhat confusing to me. If the city government cannot do anything, why have one? Strange setup...

[Thermalseeker]

It is going to take a real leader to put that wreck back together: McCain!

McCain is a Rockefeller Republican who compromises and goes along with Liberal Democrats at every available opportunity. He also has also demonstrated a clear and unmitigated contempt for the First Amendment and for American sovereignty. I don't see "leadership" in either of these traits.

Rush is spot on with his analysis. A McCain Presidency will return the Republican party to they days when Republicans in Congress were irrelevant because of their country club "go along to get along" mentality. This is not what I or any other true Conservative wants to see happen to this country. You don't compromise your principles to appease the opposition. That is not leadership. That is the absence of leadership.......

[Clintonfatigued]

The end of this editorial is controversial, but it clearly has merit:

“On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party. It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it!”

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don’t know what broke the elephant you can’t put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can’t trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

I believe that some of the ferocity of the pundit wars is due to a certain amount of self-censorship. It’s not in human nature to enjoy self-censorship. The truth will out, like steam from a kettle. It hurts to say something you supported didn’t work. I would know. But I would say of these men (why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That’s the way to help.”