What was the GOP smoking?

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Excerpt

For right-wing Republicans, the presidency of George W. Bush began as a dream come true. People calling themselves "conservatives" ran everything in Washington. Even before the GOP won both houses in 2002, Congress gave Bush everything he asked for. Republican apparatchiks controlled every agency from the Pentagon to the Treasury Department. Fox News savants expressed intermittent outrage that dissent was permitted. Rush Limbaugh's interviews of Dick Cheney sounded like a high-school girl gushing over the Jonas Brothers.

To rational minds, the resultant disaster could hardly have been more comprehensive: a lagging economy (the worst job creation since Hoover), yawning budget deficits (Bush doubled the national debt in eight years); two unfinished wars, costing thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars - one completely unnecessary, the other so forgetfully prosecuted that Gen. Stanley McChrystal warns the United States and NATO could yet lose it...

By the time the make-believe cowboy retired not to Photo-Op Ranch, but to the Dallas suburbs, his approval ratings hovered in the mid-20s. That they were so high testified to GOP team spirit. But what on earth were Republicans smoking?

Courtesy of Palin, Beck, Bachmann, Limbaugh and a passel of pusillanimous GOP congressmen, we're definitely finding out.

With the alternatives being rethink or go crazy, much of the GOP base has chosen the comforts of delusion.

Continued:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2009/11/11/republican_crazies

[spdirty]

Well its obvious that your Bush Withdrawal Syndrome hasnt subsided at all yet. Hopefully in time, it will.

[bronclvr]

I thought Bush already finished his sentenc....er, term, coming up on, well, almost a Year-

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Well its obvious that your Bush Withdrawal Syndrome hasnt subsided at all yet. Hopefully in time, it will.

Translation:

"Damn it, I wish people would just forget all about Bush (even though he's arguably the worst president in U.S. history) and stop mentioning him.

Americans with short memories are my party's only hope for survival."

:D

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

The GOP's looming (media) civil war

Link (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/24897)

Excerpt:


It's not easy to flip a congressional district that's been Republican since the late 1800s, but after being willingly hijacked by the right-wing media -- after getting steamrolled by Fox News' embrace of third-party handjob Doug Hoffman - Republicans managed to hand NY-23 to Democrats last week. And they did it just in time for the newly elected Democrat to help (barely) push health care reform through the House of Representatives during Saturday night's historic vote.

Doug Hoffman was, first and foremost, a media creation, which means we are entering a very new and different realm in American politics. We're entering a sort of Fox News Era where media outlets -- where alleged news organizations - essentially co-sponsor political campaigns. We've moved well beyond the time when Fox News, for instance, leaned right and gave conservative candidates more air-time and tossed them lots of softball questions. We're now watching unfold a political reality where Fox News literally selects candidates and then markets them through Election Day.

There's a reason Hoffman described Glenn Beck as his "mentor" and pledged his "sacred honor" to uphold the "9 Principles and 12 Values" of Beck's 9/12 Project. There's a reason Sean Hannity wanted to "declare" Hoffman the election winner, and why Fox News' on-screen graphic read "Conservative Revolution?" when Hoffman was
being interviewed (i.e. prematurely crowned) by Hannity on the eve of Election Day. Hoffman's outsider bid, originally opposed by the Republican Party, was a media production, plain and simple, which means his loss was a media loss, as well.

[Garcia Bronco]

Re What was the GOP smoking?


Your stash? Because we all know you burn.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Quotes

"By April 2008, Bush's disapproval ratings were the highest ever recorded in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll for any president, with 69% of those polled disapproving of the job Bush was doing as president and 28% approving. In September 2008, Bush's approval rating ranged from 19%—the lowest ever—to 34% and his disapproval rating stood at 69%. Bush left the White House as one of the most unpopular American presidents, second in unpopularity only to about-to-be-impeached Richard Nixon."

- from GeeDubya's Wikipedia entry, Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w_bush#cite_note-tpm-162)

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Quotes

"Republican resurgence? They have a favorable rating of 23% and an unfavorable rating of 66%. (Dems are 42-50.) Republicans in Congress have favorable-unfavorable ratings of 15% and 70% (Democrats are at 40-53). If this is a resurgent party that has captured the national mood, ...I’m Herbert Hoover."

- Chris Edelson Link (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/07-0)

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

<center> http://www.bartcop.com/obama-fail-talking-points.jpg
</center>

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://bartblog.bartcop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/cartoon-gop-dying-3.gif

[Arkie]

Translation:

"Damn it, I wish people would just forget all about Bush (even though he's arguably the worst president in U.S. history) and stop mentioning him.

Americans with short memories are my party's only hope for survival."

:D

Both parties will survive in the two party system. Their platforms may gradually change. From 1860-1930, the Republicans counted on blacks, city dwellers, and northerners. The Democrats have most of these votes now.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

If the GOP had their way...

Link (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/24918)

Excerpt:

Always the political instrument of moneyed elites, and a retrograde societal force, the GOP today is more negatively impactful than ever.

Its agenda, if fully implemented, would prove catastrophic. Here's what an unfettered Republican Party would do "for" America:

1) Greatly reduce or entirely eliminate taxes on the rich, thereby forcing hard-pressed working families to painfully make up resulting revenue shortfalls.

2) Bust labor unions, cruelly preventing the collective bargaining that's the key reason why US workers ever won decent wages and benefits.

3) Stubbornly deny the existence of ominous climate change while blithely pumping more pollutants into the environment from lucrative, dirty industries and practices. Although reputable scientists say 350 carbon parts per atmospheric million is the safe limit for sustained life on Earth, Republicans dismiss the frightening fact that we're already at a carbon level of roughly 390 ppm.

4) Remove "restrictive" regulations on everything from investment banks and credit card companies to a broad array of "profit-eroding" consumer protections, leaving the American masses exposed to a host of resulting abuses and dangers..."