Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

The GOP Crackup

by BooMan
Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 05:47:08 PM EST

It's somewhat unsettling to see swine like Ken Adelman endorsing Barack Obama, but it's telling. Yes, a lot of people are beginning to see what side of the bread the butter is spread on. But there's more to it than that. Adelman didn't express any disappointment with McCain's tactics. His big concerns were with Palin and with McCain's erratic performance during the economic meltdown. But the elites within the Republican Party are definitely seeing the race-hatred that McCain and Palin are stirring up. And they don't want to be associated with it. They've tolerated the whole anti-abortion, war on Christmas, anti-science-gibberish trend of modern Republicanism because indulging those people gave them the votes they needed for lower taxes, less regulation, and bigger defense budgets. But outright calling your opponent an anti-Ameican, socialist, terrorist-coddling, welfare-king? That's too over the top for the likes of Ken Adelman or Colin Powell or Peggy Noonan or Lincoln Chafee, or Chuck Hagel, or Dick Lugar, or the editorial boards of countless right-leaning newspapers, or George Will, or David Brooks, or pretty much anyone with an ounce of self-respect and respect for others.

It's an excellent sign for Obama's presidency that he has such a broad range of elite support. He will have a nice honeymoon. But, what about the rancid, snarling, remnant of the modern conservative movement? Is this it? Railing against imaginary socialism? How long will it take for the GOP to regroup and retool enough that they can begin to attract back the Adelmans and Powells and Brooks and Wills and Chafees and Lugars and Hagels?

In the short-term, I only expect the GOP's image to deteriorate further. No longer will we see people like Schwartzeneggar, Bloomberg, Whitman, and Pataki self-identifying as Republicans. The Scottie McClellans and Andrew Sullivans and John Coles are long gone.

McCain has unleashed the dirty, ugly, secret-underbelly of the GOP's base. It's the base the enabled center-right rule on Wall Street and in the Capitol. It's going to be a while before it can make a comeback. This is a total crack-up for one of the two major parties.

The GOP Crackup | 16 comments (16 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 1)

Jim Jeffords was a canary in a coal mine.

by BooMan on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 05:49:48 PM EST

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 1)

Why has Adelman turned to Obama? Maybe he remembers what he learned in history class, and it is beginning to worry him.

People who hate "the darkies" aren't exactly fond of the Jews, either.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

by Steven D on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 05:57:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

I didn't even know he was Jewish.

by BooMan on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 07:22:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

Oh yeah, there's a real anti-semitic fringe element on the web that has been upset about all of Bush's "Jews" for quite some time.

I think I first came across one 2 or 3 years ago. Quite unhinged.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

by Steven D on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 07:28:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

well, hopefully people won't take offense for the wrong reasons and will take it for the right reasons.

by BooMan on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 08:06:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

BTW, I would remove swine since it exposes you to charges of anti-semitism by wingnuts (unfair, yes, but all too real these days). There are plenty of insults that are just as appropriate. Personally I like warmonger myself.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

by Steven D on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 06:00:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

Ol' John still has Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman in his corner...now there's a team to build on...nothing succeeds like success, hmmm?

by Archimedes39 on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 06:31:55 PM EST

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

and Obama has Google's CEO hitting the campaign trail

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 06:39:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

Ah Google, the king of data mining and invasion of privacy. Just because they make fantastic products doesn't make it right.

by MNPundit on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 07:17:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

CEO Schmidt is a loner

Google is tied in with the McCain campaign.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Tue Oct 21st, 2008 at 09:11:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Throw them an anvil! (none / 0)

Quickly!

Al Gore won!

by paradox on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 07:15:13 PM EST

Re: The GOP Crackup - Pataki?? (none / 0)

Wrong call there. Pataki has always been a bland GOP tool--Sarah Palin-lite, 1990s version.

You've got a slightly better case with Whitman, who married into that name and is not-poor-DAR by birth, and probably still would have been a Republican. (Whether she could win the nomination now--the NJ Republican Party has an extremist-oriented primary system, which is why they generally lose badly in an open election--is another question, but she willingly had Cokehead [Kudlow] writing her tax plan at the same time he was writing Macaca-man's.)

Similarly-but-differently, Bloomberg identified as a Republican because the Dem field was too strong, not out of any party loyalty. That would still be true in NYC.

Schwartzenegger is another question. His friends and political allies are Republicans—c'mon, Orrin Effing Hatch endorsed him for President—and even Darren Issa backed down from him after engineering the California Coup. His governing style is similar to Bloomberg's&mddash;Anything that makes me look like The Good Guy Goes. And there's a strong argument that such an attitude works better in the Democratic Party under current conditions. But opportunism knows no party.

by klh (houghton.ken@gmail.com) on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 07:44:32 PM EST

Re: The GOP Crackup - Pataki?? (none / 0)

Schwartzenegger is hitting the trail in Ohio, set to appear with McCain himself. But he's cut his own path, pissing off enough of the base yet surviving the fatwas it looks like he's staying on for the long haul.

Mark Adams from Dispassionate Liberal

by Mark Adams (markwadams.esq@gmail.com) on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 08:30:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

Add Susan Collins to the list with Schwartzeneggar, Bloomberg, Whitman, and Pataki. She's our "independent" senator in all of her ads.

"...these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off done from the cool, bare rocks"

by Maine Owl ([goto]maineowl[dot]net[slash]blog) on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 08:12:22 PM EST

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

And she could be headed to a real independent.

The logistics don't favor it since she'll have a good seniority in the GOP and she'll have just won a fresh term. But she won't like how her colleagues behave any more than she likes McCain's robocalls, and she may cease calling herself a Republican, even if she still caucuses with them.

by BooMan on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 08:39:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The GOP Crackup (none / 0)

The destruction of either part will lead to the division of the remaining party. And fast.
The list of Centrist, popular republicans (arnie, hagel, lugar, etc) are exactly who will inherit the party and have them competitive on the national level in the next presidential election. The Dems will have completely worn out there welcome by then. It's just a fact of power and majority rule.

Declaring the bottom is the only way back up..

by anarchronarchist (mincers (-at-) hotmail (-dot-) com) on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 09:31:42 PM EST

The GOP Crackup | 16 comments (16 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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