Viguerie on Steele and Rush
Richard Viguerie is one of the founders of the modern conservative movement. He's not the player he once was but he still carries clout and I think actually makes a reasonable point about the current crisis of leadership in the GOP. Congressional Republicans haven't really seized the leadership mantle so it's been left to the likes of Steele and Rush. He just released this statement:
Broadcasters and commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage are seen as the de facto leaders of the Republican Party for a simple reason, Richard A. Viguerie said today: "It's because no one else is acting like a Republican leader.""The 'Rushification' of the GOP is the natural and inevitable result of the fact that those who are supposed to provide leadership - Republican elected officials and party officers - are doing little to bring the party back," said Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
"Nature abhors a vacuum, and there is no vacuum in nature as empty as the leadership of the Republican Party today."
Said Viguerie: "The GOP absolutely refuses to replace the Congressional leaders who helped get the party and the country into this mess. There are many Republican governors campaigning for the Obama 'stimulus' plan that is wrecking the economy and will push America deeper into socialism. Governor Jindal's speech was technocratic, without passion and toothless, and Michael Steele's foolish attack on Rush Limbaugh will, I'm sure, cost the party many millions in contributions."
The anger of grassroots conservatives continues unabated at the weak-kneed, spineless, earmark -loving Republicans.
In contrast to GOP officials, "Limbaugh and Hannity and most all of their conservative colleagues have something to say. They actually believe in something. They have the confidence of their convictions. They don't cower in fear of the President's popularity. They know that his popularity is built on the sand of false promises and false premises. Like Ronald Reagan facing the Soviet Union, they know how this story ends."
Even Jim Cramer of CNBC, who isn't a conservative, is providing more honest and outspoken leadership than the 'loyal opposition' about how Obama's policies are destroying the life savings of Americans.
"Americans are already beginning to realize that the new president is every bit as reckless and extreme as conservatives said he was," Viguerie said. "But the Republican Party can't get any traction, because the party leadership is as confused and clueless as the Obama administration."
Had Jindal not blown his speech or in Palin had been more out there during the last week--she chose to skip the National Governors Association meeting and the Conservative Political Action Conference--then she might have more of the mantle now. As it is, nature does abhor a vacuum.
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
I think actually makes a reasonable point about the current crisis of leadership in the GOP
That nature abhors a vacuum?
It's hard to give credence to someone who says:
When reality so obviously contradicts that statement. And Jim Cramer isn't a conservative? Then WTF is he?
You think this is a meaningful commentary on the state of the Republican Party? Really? With such obvious detached-from-reality statements included in it?
That's like saying if you ignore what Dick Cheney said about Iraq, he had some pretty good insights into the direction the war was heading.
March 4, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
You gotta search through the automatic dogma and find the truth. The 'crisis of leadership' is a truth. The 'reckless and extreme" is Republican dogma. Even the criticizers can't get away from the typical methodology of the Republican Party. Heck, Viguerie, I guess, was one of the crafters of that methodology.
Anybody bring a sieve to separate the spew from the truth? (I'd say wheat from the chafe, but hasn't that been used before somewhere?....)
March 4, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The inability to identify and state the truth without spewing dogma every other sentence is their problem. The inability of Beltway media figures to see that Richard Viguerie is a dangerous crank who is as responsible as anyone for the coarsening of our politics and the intellectual bankruptcy of the GOP because he's a familiar face at cocktail parties and always provides entertaining quotes is a big part of our problem.
March 4, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
good point
March 4, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then there's this little gem at the bottom:
"...Obama's policies are destroying the life savings of Americans."
Ah, the mating call of the stranded loon. Next, we'll be hearing all about how Obama is putting young lives at risk in Afghanistan.
March 4, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Viguerie probably believes what he says.
But let us not get confused about the blowhards on radio and TV. They are paid to be shills. Every one an Elmer Gantry.
The poor boobs that fall for this puppet show are to be pitied.
The plutocrats who pay for the puppet show remain behind the curtain. How they manage to remain concealed is the real mystery.
March 4, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's not a lick of difference between the Republican party and the conservative movement and these guys know it.
They are deathly afraid that their most important tool, the right wing echo chamber, is under the threat of being marginalized.
March 4, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Palin? Really? You think she could be the leader with a wink and a blast or two at Obama calling him communist?
Nah, the Iditarod starts in 2 days and it's snow machine racin' season. She's too busy skinnin' moose.
March 4, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
No way either jindal or rambo would have the mantle of leadership right now. No way. Both are not ready for prime time. Actually, rambo is playing it smart by trying to stay out of the limelight for a while. She can swoop in again in 4 years and rally the base, what is left of it by then and win the primary. She will get slaughtered in the election in 2012.
The republican party has a huge leadership vacuum right now being filled by lush. Steele is trying to fill it, but he is too much of a fool and has no credibility. Plus, shhh don't tell the base, but he is not the right color for the base. I actually think that is a huge problem for them.
This vacuum is so similar to the whig situation, it is astounding. Who is the leader? Noone and noone on the horizon. Amazing. They will be floundering about for years at this rate.
March 4, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shouldn't that be Rambi?
March 4, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, she's too manly with her huntin and skinnin and protectin alaska from the great red menace to be called a rambi, she is definitely rambo.
March 4, 2009 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
This guys is as dumb as the rest of the Republican Party. Limbaugh and Hannity and most conservative pundits have no real power becuase they are elected officials. Most of these guys couldn't get elected in Utah.
These guys are loyal to one the ratings of their shows and keeping their advertisers happy. That is why when George Bush was in power they cheerleaded for George Bush not conservative principals. There is nothing conservative about the prescription drug program or turning surplus into a defecit.
Limbaugh, Hammity, and Kudlow are all howling at the moon. Republicans will realize this in 2010 when Demcoratic party has a 63 seat majority in the senate. Republians already have no power in the House and letting Limbaugh become the spokesman of the REpublican brand will lead to no power in the Senate. Legislation will come down to 15-20 "centrist" Dems.
March 4, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
OMG, and here I sit hoping some of that extreme assistance hits California soon.
Once again the Republicans choose to ignore the severity of this financial crisis and believe that shouting silly slogans is the answer. Or perhaps "he who has filled the vacuum" is dead on and the Republicans want to see just how ugly a depression really can be.
At one point I believed that Republicans simply had a different political view point than my own. That has changed. Now I see them as a different life form.
I believe that any group that holds Rush Limbaugh as its icon needs its own nation. Would it be possible to move Wall Street to Alabama or Mississippi and encourage all Republicans to move to one of the Red States? Of course, all Democrats would need to move toward the coasts, or at least a bit north. This would solve a lot of problems for everyone and free up some great apartments in New York.
March 4, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jon Stewart nailed it in his show a couple nights ago with his coverage of CPAC. He contrasted the tools like Gingrich trashing Bush, with the crowd's adulation and cries of "4 more years" when Bush spoke at CPAC in 2004. In other words, Republicans have to take responsibility for how they acquiesced for 8 years in the groundless war, failed economy, deficit spending and all the rest, but refuse to do so.
Republicans love to call on so-called welfare queens to take "personal responsibility" for their condition, but refuse to do so themselves. And Americans know it, and called them on it the last 2 elections.
March 4, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
That clip of Bush wasn't even 2004. It was 2008. If they knew something was wrong already, they covered under obligatory adulation of the leader. I grant the conservatives this: at least they've figured out something has gone wrong. They're still utterly delusion about just what went wrong, but I suppose that's progress. I was hoping they'd still think the last two elections were flukes and give us a third straight win. Oh well, doesn't hurt to have to earn it.
March 4, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Viguerie is right about the leadership vacuum, but completely misses the boat as to WHY there's a leadership vacuum. The reason is simple. All the Republican leaders are tied to a philosophy of government that has been exposed as fraudulent. Yet the true believers go on thinking that the failure is that they weren't extreme enough. The echo chamber is shrinking while most of real America ignores them.
March 4, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
... how Obama's policies are destroying the life savings of Americans.
Oooo, this is my favorite part. I mean, all those headlines in 2008 about Americans losing their life savings were ... imaginary? So, Obama was president then? Where was I???
They STILL think we're too stupid to catch them at this stuff. Sheesh.
March 4, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
So ranting about Obama and socialism and what a great guy Jim Cramer is qualifies as a "reasonable point"? What's next -- a warm and admiring TPM profile of that all-American patriot, Joe the Plumber?
I think Cooper needs to take his pseudo-centrism and inside-the-beltway "moderation" (i.e. watered down conservatism) back to Time. Because at this point, I really don't understand why Josh hired him.
March 4, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Be patient. I never thought I'd ever get over the urge to spit at the mention of the name "Joe Klein," but a couple of years blogging at Time's Swampland site, and dealing with the instant commenter feedback, have done wonders for the guy. He's much more in touch with reality, much less reflexive in his regurgitation of Beltway faux-moderate CW, a little more concise, and, amazingly, he's lost a lot of the hypertouchy defensiveness that used to pracatically be his trademark.
On the other hand, Michael Shererer is still a total tool, just like he was at Salon.
March 4, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awhile back there was a TV commercial showing a couple of consultants spouting off about what the CEO should do to bring his company around.
"Great!" the CEO, "Let's do it!"
"Uh, we're consultants," was the reply, "we don't do anything."
The blabbermouths on rant radio are just like consultants. They never grow tired of whining about what's wrong and spouting cliches, but they never have to do anything. That is why they are so smug.
March 4, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's right that the GOP needs to replace the congressional leaders - but to take it a step further they should be primarying out anybody in a safe red state. Get people in who haven't been rubber stamps for Bush the last eight years who can thus criticize Obama without looking like hypocrites.
I think the Senate is doing just this with the retirements of Bond, Brownback, Voinevich and the attempt at Bunning. Three of those four are safe GOP seats and Voinevich was probably an easier beat for the Dems than whomever runs in his place.
March 4, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
"In contrast to GOP officials, "Limbaugh and Hannity and most all of their conservative colleagues have something to say. They actually believe in something. They have the confidence of their convictions. They don't cower in fear of the President's popularity." - HA! These guys are no different from the GOP officials. Both groups have to tell their audience/constituents what they want to hear or they might not get enough ratings/votes in order to come back for another season/term. They are all cowards and are terrified of Obama that's why they rail/vote against Obama's policies using lies/bigger lies to frighten Americans.
March 4, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Said Viguerie: '... There are many Republican governors campaigning for the Obama 'stimulus' plan that is wrecking the economy and will push America deeper into socialism.' "
Huh? The Obama plan which was just passed and hasn't yet begun to go to work is already "wrecking the economy"??
Another Repo gone through the looking glass...
March 4, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink