Other Stupid Party 'Victories'

We have a lot of ground to cover here. The stupidity of voters in general and Republicans in particular ranges far and wide and I could make it a full-time job listing the examples. I say this knowing full well that on the other side of the Obama yard signs is: For Sale by State. The Democrats are not going to Change. Their actions and rhetoric are completely predictable and thus not worth writing about. So examining Democrats would be similar to spending time examining why children whine and cry.

The same goes for hyperventilating over what the New York Times (The Associated Press, Time, Newsweek, People, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, et al.) does or doesn't write. It's kind of like writing about the direction from which one is likely to see the sun rise tomorrow. Or about how the price of gasoline is lower now than it was the past summer, when, ever since the first goat was exchanged for a flint spear, the law of supply and demand has predicted this change in price.

Will I be heralded as some kind of economic shaman if I predict that next May the price of a gallon of gasoline will start to increase steadily and peak around late August? Only by those who hesitate to change the channel after hearing "But WAIT! There's MORE!"

So I prefer to write about Republicans. These are the folks who could have made a difference and didn't. They are the ones who, when faced with a field of conservatives, consciously pulled the lever for John McCain. The Who's Who of Stupid Republicans must, however, begin with Newt Gingrich. I nearly passed a cup of coffee through my nose this morning when I saw this headline on the Blogs: NEWT in 2012?

This, to me, is the interesting question. It reveals a festering conundrum in which conservatives find themselves every election cycle. We thinking conservatives never gave John McCain a second thought during the Primary. We gave him half a chance during the General only because we thought there's no way more that 49 percent of American voters are stupid enough to vote for Obama.

Why would Alaskan Republicans vote for GOP embarrassments like Don Young and Ted Stevens? Why do some Republicans think it is a good idea to split the ticket against an incumbent? Ann Coulter has concluded that John Murtha's district in Western PA is dominated by the mentally retarded and Florida by Jewish retirees from Murtha's district. I have asked since last December why Newt Gingrich would stump for Wayne Gilchrest, then go on to propose legislative initiatives that Gilchrest would vote against!

Newt in 2012? One would have thought that Newt's political career sank with every liberal Republican he supported in 2008. He inadvertently let it slip on Fox News that he attended a fundraiser for Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut. Yeah. Another "loyal" Republican and friend of the environment. Is there a Save the Bay campaign in Connecticut? Well, it does share half the Long Island Sound with New York. I doubt seriously that Chris Shays will be co-sponsoring legislation to allow for oil exploration on the Continental shelf or ANWR or to make it easier to build additional refinery capacity, nuclear power plants and LNG terminals.

But Wait! There's More!