RINO?

August 9th, 2012

Following up on a profile  in The Nation of Mike Huckabee and his radio program, Noah Kristula-Green takes a look at the blowback the former governor has received for, well, his general decency and politeness:

"For some, the best indicator of your conservative values is how loudly you shout and how much you scream. Huckabee's situation is actually very similar to a problem Jon Huntsman faced when he ran for president. Substantively, Huntsman was a very conservative governor but because he did stoop to name-calling and radical accusations, he never caught fire with the conservative base."

This sums things up pretty well. A demeanor that is anything less than overtly vicious is now deemed impure in some conservative circles.

How The GOP Got Here

Feb 28th, 2012

A lot of folks are discussing David Brooks' column today and rightly so. He has stepped back and taken stock of the GOP. His take away:

"The wingers call their Republican opponents RINOs, or Republican In Name Only. But that’s an insult to the rhino, which is a tough, noble beast. If RINOs were like rhinos, they’d stand up to those who seek to destroy them. Actually, what the country needs is some real Rhino Republicans. But the professional Republicans never do that. They’re not rhinos. They’re Opossum Republicans. They tremble for a few seconds then slip into an involuntary coma every time they’re challenged aggressively from the right.

Without real opposition, the wingers go from strength to strength. Under their influence, we’ve had a primary campaign that isn’t really an argument about issues. It’s a series of heresy trials in which each of the candidates accuse the others of tribal impurity. Two kinds of candidates emerge from this process: first, those who are forceful but outside the mainstream; second, those who started out mainstream but look weak and unprincipled because they have spent so much time genuflecting before those who despise them."

I think no one can reasonably argue.