Thinking Right

By Road Scholar

January 7, 2009 8:45 AM | Link to this

Poor babies! They are relegated to a lesser roll. Isn’t that the way the repubs addressed the Demos over the first 6 Years of Bush? You are reminded that Bush has been President for 8 years (reminder- until Jan 20- most Repubs think that Obama is now President). How many times has Bush reached out to the Demos with anything other than the back of his hand?

The way the country”s finances are, they are lucky to be in the room! Why should they be given a major roll? At least Obama appears to be reaching out to them to help formulate legislation.

By Mid-South Philosopher

January 7, 2009 8:45 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim.

I am sorry, but I can’t generate much sympathy for the Republicans. They had control of the Congress for a long time, including the bulk of Georgie Bush’s administration.

They spent like drunken sailors and acted obnoxiously in the interest of corporatist pigs, up to and including the great bail-out debacle.

Now, we will have a decade or so of, at best, radical liberalism, and, at worst, Marxian Progressivism.

Time to restock the Vaseline!

Wouldn’t it be the height of irony that the defender of “moderation” or maybe even some “conservative” ideas turns out to be Barack “Barry” Obama? I don’t think that will happen, but it would be one hell-of-a-joke on all of us!

By Peter

January 7, 2009 9:02 AM | Link to this

Republican’s took office 8 years ago with a budget surplus, and left America 1 Trillion dollars in debt……..

They should watch for decades !

By findog

January 7, 2009 9:03 AM | Link to this

Dear Jim,

The republicans may be spectators but conservatives will not suffer that fate. Obama is a pragmatic centrist and there are enough conservative and moderate-conservative democrats to keep the 111th Congress from suffering the fate of the 104th who dissolved under their own weight when Clinton moved into the White House.

Lets just hope that the republicans play the loyal minority like the press and work to get government to be more for the people than the special interests.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 7, 2009 9:05 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Please allow me to offer a partially-dissenting view – everything that happens in DC is purely for our amusement. The leftists are wed to a failed economic policy, one that affirms the wisdom of those who steal private wealth and give it to their friends for ineffectual good intentions. A policy need not have any meritorious potential (for improving the desirability of expanding business) for leftists to embrace it.

The economy is undoubtedly on a precipice now. Will new government winds push it off the cliff, or will the policymakers have the wisdom to simply allow it to recover? (For those who have not noticed, the Dow is up 20% from its low point, when then-ancitipated-president-elect Obama was publicly advocating most of the leftist agenda.) Now the Obama team is stressing tax cuts, and turning its collective back on the organized labor agenda, and minimizing discussion of “re-regulation,” the code-phrase for adding layers of bureaucratic constraints on the economy. Those attitudes affect business decisions.

I perceive a tension between the Congress and the incoming administration, one that mirrors the periods immediately before President Carter took office, and immediately before President Clinton took office. President Carter was almost immediately swept away by the leftist agenda, and whatever conservative tendencies he held (recall that he affirmed such beliefs) vanished, never to return. President Clinton was initially perceived as more leftist than President Carter, but he got religion quickly after the socialist health care power grab, and thereafter governed in a fairly conservative manner; free trade and welfare reform became his signature accomplishments. Obama has placed competent people, with individual histories of good judgment, into key positions. Whatever poor decisions may arise from Congress – and we should reasonably anticipate many – President Obama will have capacity to make it stick, or not. President Bush’s greatest failing was his unwillingness to confront a big-spending Congress early in his administration. On that score, President Obama seems to embrace the road to disaster.

Dr. Williams writes today on the democrats’s real motivation for big government.

By Erica-Nicole

January 7, 2009 9:06 AM | Link to this

Is Wooten suggesting that things could get worse?

What’s worse than unjustifable no-mission war?

What’s worse than Cheney?

What’s worse than foreign interests trumping our own? (With the bribes going to Cheney)

There’s nothing worse than the last eight years.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 7, 2009 9:09 AM | Link to this

Dear Road @ 8:45, you deceive – democrats controlled the Senate until 2002. Cooperation with the leftists early in the administration is precisely the single meaningful error of the Bush administration.

Dear Peter @ 9:02, how do you feel about Obama’s decision to increase the national debt by $1 trillion of new spending with his initial budget?

By Redneck Convert

January 7, 2009 9:14 AM | Link to this

Well, I see some good old FL boy in Congress asked the Pelousy woman to close down Congress for a day so he could go to a colledge football game. Leastwise we know one Congressman that’s got his priortys straight.

Anyway, it looks like the butt-whomping we took last election is almost complete. Heck, we can’t even beat a comedian in MN. My librul Democrat grandma could run against any Republican and beat him these days, and she’s been dead 40 years.

My advise to all my Conservative friends is just bend over and take it for the next couple years. With the turncoat Republican senators from Maine, the librul Democrats can just ram it to us whenever they feel like it, with or without the Vaseline. I already give up on Trickle Down and all the other dreams I had.

We just got to wait till they screw up big time. Then we can trot out Sarah and Bobby and see if we can’t get God and guns back in power. Have a good day everybody.

By Erica-Nicole

January 7, 2009 9:23 AM | Link to this

The GOP congress was already journalists: Yellow Journalists (sellouts to the chinese).

bwa

By Glenn

January 7, 2009 9:33 AM | Link to this

You are SUCH the journalist, Jim!

You actually read the House’s Rules statement, and thought to report it to little old us. God! I just love journalism when it’s working right.

And yes, politicians are graceless beasts who thrive whenever we’re not looking.

By Churchill's MOM..

January 7, 2009 9:38 AM | Link to this

Jim our “CONSERVATIVE Republican” Senators have never worked for the people of Georgia, they are owned lock, stock and barrel by the Lobbyist. Here is what you need to be writting about OUR NEXT PRESIDENT..or her maybe high school graduate son in law. I am think about running against that bum Johnny.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to work in an electrical apprenticeship program, Johnston’s father said Monday.

Johnston, 18, began working this fall in the Milne Point oil field with ASRC Energy Services Inc., a major Slope contractor.

Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin appeared together in September at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.• Presidential politics: The transitionIn a Sunday newspaper column, Anchorage radio talk show host Dan F* questioned how Johnston could take part in ASRC’s apprenticeship program without a high school diploma.

F* said he understood federal regulations require all members of apprenticeship programs to have a diploma. He also questioned whether the governor might have had a hand in getting Johnston into the program.

Palin adamantly denied that.

Johnston’s father, Keith Johnston, said the governor had nothing to do with getting Levi the job. Keith Johnston said his own position as an ASRC construction engineer accounts for any help his son received in landing work.

Both Palin and the elder Johnston added that the governor’s husband, Todd Palin, himself a Slope worker for BP, likewise had no involvement with getting Levi the job.

But because of media attention surrounding the matter, Johnston said he and his son conferred Monday and Levi decided to resign and concentrate on his education.

“He felt it was the best thing to do to kind of calm the waters, so to speak,” Keith Johnston said.

Johnston said his son always struggled with school and never got his diploma.

When Levi realized last year that he and the governor’s daughter Bristol were going to be parents —- Bristol gave birth to a baby boy Dec. 27 —- Keith Johnston said he counseled his son to start work on a GED and to apply for jobs.

Levi is mechanically inclined, and since age 8 has tagged along with his dad on housebuilding and wiring jobs, Keith Johnston said.

In early September, Levi finally landed a job as a roustabout on an ASRC project in Valdez, Johnston said.

Levi did well, showed a good attitude and didn’t complain about working in the weather, he said.

After that job ended and layoffs started coming, ASRC offered him a choice of two other positions, one in Cook Inlet and another through the electrical apprenticeship program in the Milne Point oil field, Johnston said.

Levi took the Milne Point position starting around the first of November. He also decided it would be better to work online toward a regular high school diploma rather than get a GED, his father said.

As for the requirement of a high school diploma to be in the apprenticeship program, Keith Johnston said, “It’s just something that slipped through the cracks.” He said the lack of the diploma wasn’t something managers at ASRC caught, and that neither he nor Levi gave much thought to the matter.

But now, Levi figures it’s best to leave the job and pursue his education, Keith Johnston said. Levi’s not eligible for the apprenticeship program without the diploma, he said.

“You guys are watching him so tightly,” Johnston said, referring to the media. “He’s being treated different than an average 18-year-old kid. He has to do everything by the book now.”

He added: “Sarah had nothing to do with him getting hired on the Slope. If there was any help getting him on up there, it was because of my associations and no one else’s.”

Levi Johnston and Bristol gained national celebrity in early September when they stood on stage with Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., where Palin accepted the nomination to campaign as John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate.

Palin, in an interview Monday, said she considered F*’s column “a political pot shot taken at me,” one that threatens to “destroy a young man’s opportunity for work.”

She denied helping Levi Johnston gain employment directly at ASRC. However, Palin said she wrote him —- and plenty of other youths who have asked —- a generic “To whom it may concern” letter of support.

The June 23, 2008, letter for Levi Johnston says in part: “I have known Levi and his family for many years and am most impressed with Levi’s work ethic. Levi is organized, efficient, extremely competent, and will prove to be an excellent employee. Also, Levi’s physical strength and determination are assets that will be useful to your company.”

ASRC representatives declined to comment on Levi Johnston directly, citing employee privacy.

In a written statement, the company said its electrical apprenticeship program eligibility requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent, “but this is not a requirement mandated by the federal government.”

The statement also says: “The information provided by the applicant to the company is relied upon to be true and correct.”

By Davo

January 7, 2009 9:39 AM | Link to this

A more appropriate analogy for the GOP would be the penalty box. They mis-behaved, didn’t play by the rules, and are now out of the game. They can still scream and yell for their team but nobody is watching them…everyone is focused on the game.

Maybe they should sit quietly and contemplate what they could have done differently.

By ron

January 7, 2009 9:42 AM | Link to this

Good morning,Republicans can be observers if they choose to be.Or participants,if their desires run in that direction.It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.I don’t believe that Obama is going to get the free ride that everyone is advertising.He may well need the two lady Senators from Maine.

Speaking of my two favorite Senators,Jim,they just keep getting elected,don’t they?They have two bad traits as far as RepublicanSenators are concerned.They care about their constituents and they listen to their constituents.In 2006,Snowe garnered 74% of the vote.In 2008,Collins raked in the vote in the high 60’s.I don’t know the exact number,but this was during times of Democrats rising in power,and they won handily in a pure Democrat state.Just maybe they’re on to something.

Dear Ragnar,——I didn’t read Dr. Williams this morning because I’m not sure I could stomach a conservative telling me about how to keep government small.Not after Reagan and Bush.

I think the ecomomy,left to it’s own devices will eventually recover by itself,but I’m not sure I want the same economy back that got us to where we are today.It needs changing.This is where Republicans can play an active role in government if they so choose.It’s going to be changed.It now depends on who does the changing.

Dear Nancy,Please cancel Congress for the duration of college football season.I need to be able to watch the games.

By Erica-Nicole

January 7, 2009 9:47 AM | Link to this

Country broke and broken. Needs leader.

Obama. SOS. Obama. SOS.

By Peter

January 7, 2009 9:53 AM | Link to this

Dear Peter @ 9:02, how do you feel about Obama’s decision to increase the national debt by $1 trillion of new spending with his initial budget?

Gee Looks like he needs to get the economy going…….

Apparently you hadn’t heard we are in the Republican created Recession ?

The reality is Bush took office with a Surplus, and Drove the country into the ground for a few……McCain would have been given a country with 1.2 Trillion in debt and rising as well.

Republicans = Zero Accountability……. I am truly Pleased the Republican’s will have to watch…….They will probably do all they can to continue the downward spiral of America…….

Greed is another Republican Family Value !

By John A. Boehner

January 7, 2009 9:58 AM | Link to this

Mr Wooten, this looks like the same thing I posted here on January 5, 2009 4:34 PM please give me credit..

By Peter

January 7, 2009 9:59 AM | Link to this

Hey By Ragnar Danneskjöld …..

How do you feel about Bush Spending over $500 Million for a New American Embassy in Iraq ?

By Maniac is accurate

January 7, 2009 9:59 AM | Link to this

It’s too bad all members of Congress can’t participate in governing. Oh, I guess technically, they get to cast their votes. But they’ve been too warring camps for years and no one there remembers how to get the two sides to work together.

And, it’s not just in Washington. Democrats kept Republicans in a box in Georgia for decades. Republicans are doing the same to Democrats now. Within minutes of assuming the speaker’s post, Glenn Richardson, to the delight of his GOP colleagues, conducted a very public neutering of the Democrats.

Don’t know what the solution is, or if there is one, or how to find one. All I know is it’s a damn shame.

By Disgusted

January 7, 2009 10:01 AM | Link to this

Just wait until the people on this blog discover that the federal rebates they received last spring get added to their federal income tax obligations for 2008 returns. You got $600 last spring? Then you will owe the federal government $600 on your 2008 return, plus whatever you would normally owe. In effect, the rebates were loans.

Smoke and mirrors. It doesn’t matter which party is in power.

By dave

January 7, 2009 10:26 AM | Link to this

The repulsivicans can blame only themselves for this… they had complete control for 6 years and ruined not only our economy but the rest of the worlds as well… they deserve all the hardships they now face. They rubber stamped approvals for a man that never should have been president in the first place. Spending went way out of hand and it is THEY who took a surplus and turned it into a deficit.

Wanna talk about no attacks? When did that start? On September 12th?

By Erica-Nicole

January 7, 2009 10:33 AM | Link to this

I think conservatism is alive and well. Congrats to the 4 year old who was 2009’s first assault-with-a-deadly-weapon perp when he shot his obnoxious baby sitter.

So much for the Nanny State, eh?

Good job.

By Laid off Fleetwood Homes workers

January 7, 2009 10:41 AM | Link to this

We would have been glad to build an embassy at our Douglas factory, ship it to Iraq and set it up. Is there a power pole, well and septic tank on the site?

By dave

January 7, 2009 10:43 AM | Link to this

The repulsivicans can blame only themselves for this… they had complete control for 6 years and ruined not only our economy but the rest of the worlds as well… they deserve all the hardships they now face. They rubber stamped approvals for a man that never should have been president in the first place. Spending went way out of hand and it is THEY who took a surplus and turned it into a deficit.

Wanna talk about no attacks? When did that start? On September 12th?

By Davo

January 7, 2009 11:01 AM | Link to this

”- if, heaven help us, the comedian Al Franken is allowed to count just the votes he needs in Minnesota”

Ya, God forbid that due process is carried out in the state of Minnesota. Get over it, JW. Didn’t your savior Reagan do some comedy? Something with a monkey, I think.

It’s about time you and your “Not Wrong. Not Left. Right. Common sense conservativism” buddies stop shaking your head in disbelief and give us an opposition party.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 7, 2009 11:03 AM | Link to this

Dear Peter @ 9:59, by “embassy” I assume you are including the six apartment buildings for the 1,000 US employees, the independent water and waste treatment facility, the independent power station, the American recreation facilities (gym, cinema, swimming pool), in addition to the two diplomatic buildings. To the extent that I support the concept of foreign-based State employees – not indisputably necessary in the modern world – the government got fair value for its complex. Suspect it would cost more in DC – wonder where Obama plans to put the additional 600,000 Federal employees?

In the case of the embassy, at least there is a hard good, and potential for later resale to Hilton, as their newest resort. In the case of additional Federal employees, and the wasteful additional $1 trillion Obama plans to spend, that is irrecoverable money down a rat hole. Note the lunacy, the Obamacrats intend to restart the private economy by sucking $1 trillion out of it. That is what passes as democrat logic today.

By DebbieDoRight

January 7, 2009 11:09 AM | Link to this

The new Congress convened Tuesday. For Republicans, it looks like a chance to get front-row seats to the Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid Show.

Geesh Jim! A little bitter today are we? Want some whine to go with that cheese?

By jm

January 7, 2009 11:15 AM | Link to this

Ragnar@9:09 - republicans controlled the senate from Jan 1995 - Jun 2001 (except for a brief period during Jan of 2001) - majority leaders were Bob Dole and Trent Lott and from Jan 2003 - Jan 2007 - majority leader Bill Frist. Democrats controlled from Jun 2001 - Jan 2003 - majority leader Tom Daschle.

By ron

January 7, 2009 11:17 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar,—-It seems to be a trend among Presidents lately to shove a trillion dollars down respective ratholes.I hope this trend reverses itself soon as the bill is coming due and I can’t pay it.I’ll need a bailout to pay for the bailout.What’s the chances?

By spankmonkey

January 7, 2009 11:20 AM | Link to this

In other words the Dems have been apt pupils.

You’ll really be screaming like a stuck pig once Biden takes office and asserts some of the executive power and privilege that Cheney has carved out for the VP spot, no wait the VP is not part of the executive branch, actually it’s not part of the legislative branch and beholden to NO ONE, just wait…

By DebbieDoRight

January 7, 2009 12:09 PM | Link to this

The new Congress convened Tuesday. For Republicans, it looks like a chance to get front-row seats to the Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid Show.

Geesh Jim! A little bitter today are we? Want some whine to go with that cheese?

By RA77

January 7, 2009 12:29 PM | Link to this

Exactly how long is it going to be before Dimwitocrats are going to be accountable? Blaming Bush & Republicans is only going to work for so long. I suppose TWO YEARS means nothing so far in Congress under Dim rule. Maybe if the a-s-s party had done more than focus on going after Bushie & Cronies, eh?

But alas, Dimwitocrats are the gift that keeps on giving. Right before the inauguration they are up to their ears in hoopla over seating Obama’s replacement in the Senate. They are punting the poor guy all over the place, and if it were Republicans doing it, you can BET it would be a racial matter.

This is the same party that stood by and allowed Minnesota to be stolen by some former SNL comedian.

Deficits no longer matter now.

It was critical Obama give input on the economy before taking office. Now that the Gaza issue has exploded, suddenly “we can only have one president at at time” and the O-Team says nothing about that issue.

Four years of this is going to be SO fun!

By @@

January 7, 2009 12:35 PM | Link to this

Jim:

If it’s any comfort, those sideline seats will allow Republicans to hand all dem “foul balls” back to the bat boys.

I foresee no homeruns for the dems in the early innings…..or 8th for that matter.

Time to stretch. Enjoy a cold one. Look to the left, the “Hot Dog’s” in the aisle.

By RA77

January 7, 2009 12:36 PM | Link to this

Hey monkeyspank: funny you mention what Biden will do as VP- he isn’t even recognized when he goes into restaurants. And I’d wager that many of those who voted for Obama didn’t even know who in the hell he was in the first place.

By Donovan

January 7, 2009 12:52 PM | Link to this

My God! What a bunch of Democrat sympathizers who fall into the following categories: Misinformed. Naive. Myrmidons. Pay-back voters. And pixie dust Obama followers. Grow up, get real, and go away.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 7, 2009 1:33 PM | Link to this

Dear jm @ 11:15, you are correct, democrats controlled the Senate until 2003. I misstated “2002” in my contradiction of Road Scholar’s false assertion about republican “control.” A more accurate way for me to describe the democrats’s influence in the early years of the Bush administration would be to affirm that republicans controlled the senate for only four years of the Bush administration – the four years with the best growth. My correctly-stated thesis is that President Bush’s cooperation with leftists was his administration’s economic downfall, that he erred in signing onto the Kennedy education bill, the Daschle agriculture bill, and in his pandering to rust belt democrats with steel import quotas. Only the tax cuts were a republican initiative from those early years, and I think all would agree the cuts were effective in creating the excellent growth from 2003-2007. The economy started to slow when Speaker Pelosi declared the cuts would not be renewed on expiration.

Dear ron @ 11:17, unless the republicans get religion about wasteful spending – we all agree the democrats are congenitally incapable of restraining themselves – the chances are “zero.”

By Curious Observer

January 7, 2009 2:09 PM | Link to this

Hey, Ragnar, tcoach, et al. Why don’t you guys form the Society to Reconstitute the 19th Century? We tried your formula, beginning with Reagan. It failed. Now you’re on the sidelines. In case you haven’t heard or you forgot what you preached to us from 2001 onward, then I’ll repeat it—get ready for this—Elections Have Consequences! How utterly ludicrous for you to blame your failure on George W. Bush’s adoption of left-wing spending policies, when Republicans were in control of Congress for six of Bush’s eight years. Gee, maybe Bush really did rule without Congress!

By Dave

January 7, 2009 2:13 PM | Link to this

It’s not like we didn’t ask for it Jim…

By reader110

January 7, 2009 3:36 PM | Link to this

At the American Prospect site, Paul Waldman’s written a good summary of the demographic trends that have largely doomed the Republican Party’s ancient strategy of winning national majorities by appealing to the “unpoor, the unblack, and the unyoung.” And as Waldman notes, there aren’t too many signs that today’s Republicans understand that the old strategy won’t work anymore.

I’d go a bit further than Waldman, whose main evidence for GOP cluelessness involves the “Barack the Magic Negro” incident. That’s bad enough, but there’s every indication that Republicans (beyond a few smart but powerless intellectuals like Ross Douthat or David Frum) are thoroughly united in the belief that a more rigorous fidelity to conservative ideology in all its particulars is not only consistent with the party’s strategic needs, but is essential to their achievement.

Even RNC Chair candidate Michael Steele, who has consistently condemned Chip Saltsman’s tone-deaf racist “jokes” as damaging to the party, still buys into the idea that there’s an audience of Democratic and independent—and African-American and Latino—voters who would gravitate to the GOP if they understood how thoroughly the party has resolved to eschew “moderate” heresies. The manifesto for his candidacy is very blunt on this central issue:

Moderates in our party, and liberal elements outside it, have tried to steer this debate toward the suggestion that we need to change our core views, desert our convictions and give up our conservative philosophy. This is nonsense. The country did not become liberal on November 4. In fact, just the reverse is true. So speaks the “moderate” candidate for RNC chair.

This raises a very simple question: is it possible to be rigorously conservative at this particular moment in history while successfully reaching out to demographic categories of voters who either have always been or are trending in the direction of a firm attachment to the Democratic Party? Or to put it another way, are the attitudes that have repelled, say, minority voters truly detachable from conservative ideology?

In my opinion, the true test of these dubious “move right and win more voters” hypotheses isn’t whether Republicans repudiate stupidly racist tactics and messages, but whether they repudiate sophisticated racist tactics and messages that amount to the same thing. And for that reason, it’s extremely telling that none of the candidates for RNC chairman, or any other conservative thinker or talker that I’ve heard, has yet to express any doubts about the demographic impact of the McCain-Palin message down the homestretch of the presidential campaign, which was heavily based on the argument that Barack Obama and the Democratic Party were determined to ruin the country on behalf of its unworthy minority-group constituencies.

Did efforts to promote minority homeownership actually cause the financial crisis? Is a progressive tax code truly “socialist?” Are refundable income tax credits really “welfare?” Is a presumption in favor of the right to vote geniunely “voter fraud?” Are doubts about the Iraq War in fact “treason” or “a failure to support the troops?” Is support for comprehensive immigration reform indeed a matter of subordinating the very idea of citizenship to a crass desire to build a dependent Latino political base? Are women seeking legal abortions carrying out an American Holocaust? Are gays and lesbians determined to destroy the institutions of marriage and family?

All these conservative talking points during the campaign carried all sorts of nasty and exclusive demographic freight, as evidenced by the fact that they were generally delivered by politicians who avoided the more hamhanded “Barack the Magic Negro” types of rhetorical overkill.

This is not to say that conservatives are subjectively racist, homophobic, nativist, or antifeminist. But conservatives need to come to grips with the very real possibility that large elements of their ideology are leading them ineluctably to political appeals that are perceived by people outside their coalition as excluding them or as terribly hostile to their own interests.

All things being equal, it’s probably good for the GOP to avoid sounding like Jesse Helms, to express at least occasional contempt for their talk-radio or Fox TV clowns, to recruit candidates who aren’t white men, and to do all the other practical things “reformers” are suggesting to improve the party’s mechanics and outreach. But all things aren’t equal when it comes to what Republicans need in order to break out of their demographic box. “Moving to the right” or even “clearly conveying core conservative values” are basically attractive to the same old coalition that is now failing the GOP. Perhaps more votes can be squeezed out of the old turnip with better technology, more attractive candidates, and a clearer message. And maybe fidelity to what conservatives consider to be the eternal truth of their ideology is worth losing a few more elections.

But the widespread, almost universal conservative search for anything, everything, other than ideology as the source of the GOP’s demographic problems could well be a blind spot that keeps them wandering in the wilderness, endlessly looking for more attractive ways to package the same product. It would be nice to see a few more conservatives consider that possibility.

Ed Kilgore

By Sharecropper

January 7, 2009 3:56 PM | Link to this

Beginning with the take-no-prisoners Newt (Husband-of-Three-Terms) Gingrich and through Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert, Democrats — half the country’;s voters — were excluded from the political process: no bills allowed, excluded in negotiations and, finally, when the Dems finally got a narrow majority, obstructionist to every Democratic effort.

What goes around comes around. Why don’t you bullies on the right wing stop whining.

And give me three reasons why Norman Coleman is better than Al Franken? Look what the Terminator has done to California, and you haven’t complained.

Grow up. Try to be men about it.

By David S

January 7, 2009 4:26 PM | Link to this

For 8 years the republicans have just sat back as virtual spectators while the president has walked all over the constitution, international law, the Geneva convention, the Just War doctrine, good sense economics and much more. The socialist rampage of the Bush administration would make LBJ blush and tremble with excitement.

Not a single finger was lifted nor were the concerns of any constituent addressed except for the actions of Ron Paul.

Why should anyone now be surprised that the republicans sit idly by on the sidelines as the minority. The only difference now is that they will be blaming the democrats for the problems knowing full well that their republican support base is too stupid and too scared to vote for anyone with real principles who might actually get america back on track.

Oh well, we had our chance but fear on both sides of the aisle won out. We will all soon see very clearly who the losers are going to be.

By Bill Shipp

January 7, 2009 4:28 PM | Link to this

As 2009 dawns, the next cycle of Georgia politics is coming into view. We already have seen coverage of the budding race for governor, with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine preparing to run for the Republican nomination.

Other GOPers considering an entry include Secretary of State Karen Handel and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland.

On the Democratic side, coverage to date has focused on whether ex-Gov. Roy Barnes will mount a comeback attempt. Retired adjutant general David Poythress looks as if he’s prepared to go for the state’s top job whether Barnes jumps in or doesn’t.

However, the 2010 contest with the greatest potential for fireworks has received little attention so far. The primary for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor features (for now) Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson of Savannah and Sen. David Shafer of Gwinnett County. Johnson and Shafer have been on opposite sides of most intra-GOP fights in the state Senate. The two haven’t hit it off personally, either.

While campaigns infused with personal bitterness may not do much for the Georgia political system, they provide great entertainment value. Besides, the joust for lieutenant governor often is a prelude to bigger things. Since 1967, seven governors - three of them lieutenant governors - have come from the ranks of legislative leaders. In 2006, Ralph Reed, a dynamic Republican figure with a national profile, saw his career as a Georgia politician destroyed, perhaps forever, in his quest for lieutenant governor.

During the 2006 campaign for lieutenant governor, Johnson, like most of Georgia’s Republican establishment, was quick to jump on the Reed bandwagon. Johnson figured he might as well get an early start with Reed, who appeared at first to be a shoo-in for the post. Reed, an adviser to President George W. Bush, also looked likely to eventually move on up to governor.

At the height of pundit talk of a permanent national Republican majority, the only real question was whether (or maybe how soon) Ralph would be changing his address to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Shafer, who had lost to Reed when Reed was elected chairman of the state Republican Party in 2000, was one of the few willing to plant his flag with Cagle’s then-long-shot bid for lieutenant governor. Shafer’s gamble paid off when Reed’s association with tainted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as well as allegations of other less-than-ethical transgressions, made national headlines during the campaign.

The cloud around Reed helped Cagle coast to victory. Then Cagle expeditiously dispatched hapless Democrat Jim Martin in the general election. Of course, Johnson, who had committed to Reed too early, lost his place in Georgia’s Republican power lineup.

Now Johnson has launched a bid to regain his supremacy in the Senate by becoming lieutenant governor. You may expect his campaign to be sparked by his anger over the indignities he thinks he has suffered throughout the four years of Cagle’s term.

Shafer has his own baggage. He was Guy Millner’s right-hand man during Millner’s not-quite-successful attempt to become Georgia’s first modern-era Republican governor in the 1990s.

Shafer was Oxendine’s top aide in the state Insurance Department and lost a race for secretary of state in 1996. His race for lieutenant governor will be fueled by his ambition to reach the highest levels of state government and elbow Johnson out of the way once and for all.

Expect both Republicans to go bare-knuckles in this battle. Johnson may have unexploited weaknesses that Shafer can expose, in a manner similar (if less spectacular) to the drumbeat that took Reed down in 2006. Johnson’s dealings as an architect and real estate developer, and his alleged use of his position in the Senate to benefit those enterprises, never have been fully examined by a hard-charging opponent.

Johnson also was close to disgraced former U.S. Attorney Rick Thompson. Before Thompson was removed from office for violating the public trust, Johnson bragged to a Republican state convention about his ability to get Democrats prosecuted.

Now that Democrats are taking charge of the U.S. Justice Department, don’t be surprised to see the scandal around Thompson resurrected at an inopportune time for candidate Johnson.

Johnson has enjoyed a position of relative power as the top Republican in the Senate, but endured little scrutiny from a Capitol press corps that has dwindled in number and initiative during the last several years. Now that he is a candidate for statewide office, Johnson well may emerge as a better candidate for a little old-style investigative journalism.

By @@

January 7, 2009 4:36 PM | Link to this

reader 110:

‘Ya know what I like about Michael Steele? I mean, really, REALLY like about Steele…..

when he was attacked by liberals for being an “oreo”, and “Uncle Tom”, he just sloughed it off. He is confident enough in who he is that he gives no one, nor any political party, the benefit of using HIS race for their political or personal gain.

He’s attractive, funny, charming, articulate in his message, confident and yet humble — all at the same time. He doesn’t hesitate to point to stupidity regardless of from where it comes. I remember his response to the “oreo” and “Uncle Tom” attacks by liberals. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this *If they wanna be stupid, who am I to stop ‘em? Ours is a country where freedom of expression is encouraged.”

He’s been impressing me for years now. He refuses to be THE VICTIM.

Luv the guy!!!

By Saxby Chambliss LOBBYIST BEST FRIEND

January 7, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this

By any measure, $775 billion is a lot to absorb, particularly when the details of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan keep shifting. To help keep score, here’s a cheat sheet of the tax cuts the new administration is shopping to Congress.

The Policies

The plan has three major components, the specifics of which are still being flushed out:

• Individual tax credits — Taxpayers would get refundable credits that would reduce their taxes by $500 per individual and $1,000 for a family. Workers who pay less than that in taxes would get paid the remainder of the money. The tax would apply only to those making money from earnings, leaving out retirees, the unemployed and others not currently in the work force. Nonetheless, a substantial number of people are likely to benefit from the credits. During the campaign, Obama aides said the proposal — then called the Making Work Pay tax cut — would affect 150 million workers and eliminate taxes for 10 million Americans.

• Business refunds — The current tax provision that allows companies to collect refunds by counting current losses against previous profits would be expanded. That means that if a firm posts a loss this year or next, it could refile profitable income tax returns from the past five years and get a refund. Currently, companies can refile returns from the previous two years or carry the losses forward until they post profits again. By pushing the window to five years, companies that would eventually see a refund anyway would qualify for larger rebates faster.

• Encouraging spending — The trickiest part of the plan, according to economists, is creating incentives for companies to spend those refunds now. Obama has proposed offering a one-year tax credit to companies that make new hires, or avoid layoffs, and raising the limit of write-offs for small businesses expenditures from $175,000 to $250,000.

The cost

The tax cuts and incentives in Obama’s recovery plan are estimated to cost about $300 billion over two years, making up nearly 40 percent of the total stimulus package.

The reaction

Left-leaning economists and pundits were skeptical about some of the details of the tax plan, questioning whether the proposals were actually aimed at drumming up support for the stimulus package among unconvinced Republicans.

But the general consensus among more liberal economists is that spending is a better way to stimulate the economy than tax cuts. By allocating 40 percent of the stimulus bill to tax cuts, some analysts worry that Obama is cutting short the spending side of the bill. Tax rebates — particularly for higher income taxpayers — can be largely saved, they argue, and do very little to spur job creation.

I wouldn’t have put as much into the tax side, mostly because my preference would be to spend the money where it would make sense to do it, even if we didn’t have an economic downturn,” said Leonard Burman, director of the left-leaning Tax Policy Center. “Giving tax cuts to middle-class people who are mostly doing OK doesn’t excite me so much. But it’s not awful policy.”

In early December, the Center for American Progress recommended that about $50 billion of a $350 billion one-year stimulus come from tax cuts. That’s a third of the tax provisions that Obama is proposing per year in his stimulus package.

Jim Horney, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, argued that Obama should first allocate money to help strapped state and local governments prevent budget cuts, fund shovel-ready infrastructure projects, increase unemployment benefits, and expand the food stamp program. After that, he said, money can go into tax cuts.

But the problem the new administration faces, said Horney and others, is that it’s hard to come up with enough spending that can give the economy an immediate boost, particularly given the limited supply of shovel-ready infrastructure projects.

“There’s no magic formula,” said William Gale, a director of the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution.

The key, argued Gale, is structuring tax cuts in a way that maximizes their stimulative benefits. A one-time rebate to taxpayers almost overwhelmingly ends up being saved. A better approach, said Gale, would be to structure the tax credit as a weekly or biweekly payroll deduction. And designing business tax breaks to encourage corporations to spend, rather than hoard their cash, is a significant challenge.

Those structural changes don’t satisfy the political concerns of Americans for Tax Reform and other anti-tax Republican groups. Ryan Ellis, ATR’s director of policy, argued that Obama’s individual tax cuts would really increase spending because they would give money back to people who pay no income taxes.

“If we say, ‘OK, count that as tax cuts,’ then, going forward, the Democrats can put forward nothing but refundable credits and we never ever get a real tax credit ever again,” Ellis said.

That distinction doesn’t bother the business community, though. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce cheered the cuts, many of which they’ve been promoting for years, and asked for more. Business lobbyists said they’d like incentives such as the research and development tax credits, repatriation of foreign earnings, and enhancing tax credits for home buyers to be included in the Obama administration’s plans.

By won't miss 2008

January 7, 2009 4:41 PM | Link to this

Sometimes the sideline is the best place to be. You may not get the praise but you, also, don’t get the blame. The democrats have been wanting to govern the country the way they think is best. They now have a chance and no excuses. They have a mandate (at least that’s what they tell us).

I can’t wait until the PEOTUS becomes the POTUS. If nothing else it will be interesting. And I’m just talking about the news coverage.

By Saxby Chambliss LOBBYIST BEST FRIEND

January 7, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this

Sharecropper 3:56 PM

By Lynn Irvin

January 7, 2009 4:58 PM | Link to this

Jim: Today you make the point that Republincans and (Ga. Congressional Delegation) are now on the side lines looking in at the game in Washington. But should that really bother us? Isn’t this the group of sycophants (to Bush) and talentless men that pretended conservative principles at home and went to Washington and outdid the Democrats on spending, pork barrell spending and incompetence? Last year they didn’t run with the ball when they were in the game, and this year they won’t run with the ball on the sidelines. But tell me what is the difference? This delegation went to Washington to belong to a country club known as the U.S. Congress and to feed off the perks paid for by lobbyists and taxpayers; not to buckle down and WORK to solve problems like energy, immigration, transportation, eudcation and health care. Now it will be up to the Democrats to find solutions to these problems. I was a Republican; but no longer. I together with many others worked for many years to try to elect people who WANTED TO BE DIFFERENT — Republicans with integrity who wanted to do the right thing; who wanted to go to DC TO WORK to find conservative solutuions to difficult problems. The people we elected pretended they were going to be different from their Democratic predecessors — but they lied; this pathetic Republican delegation has outdone the Democrats on spending, laziness and a disregard for conservative principles and the honor and integrity of our Country. Where are our conservative policies on energy, transportation, immigration, education, and healthcare? Ombama is smart and well educated and unlike G. Bush who surrounded himself with incompetent sychophants — Obama has surrounded himself with really bright, competent people. That should scare, conservatives because we have no real conservatives in the Ga. Delegation and the Republicans we do have are not smart eoungh and/or well educated enough to out maneuver Obama and his administration. In the Clinton years we had Newt. Not enough credit has ever been given to Newt for his ability to stop the Clintons. Now I ask you — what Republican in the Ga. Delegation or in the whole of Congress has the smarts to deal with this new and savy administration?
Obama has a vision for this country vehemently not shared by me. I am truly afraid of how different our country will be after this administration. But how many elected officials with true integrity and conservative principles have we had for the last 8 years in Ga.?
Until the Republicans who vote in the Republican party primaries start throwing out these people who got us into this situation, we have no chance of steming this tide towards turning our lives over to the government to run. Porductivity by the average American is not being valued or rewarded. But is this surprising? — for a decade we have sent a Ga. Republican Delegation up to Washington to do absolutely nothing, and we have rewarded their lack of productivity by continuing to reelect them. This group didn’t produce while they were in the game and they won’t produce on the side lines. Nothing has changed. Productive people who want to reamin in a free society continue to lose with this Republican bunch. We need a new team.

By Lynn Irvin

January 7, 2009 5:03 PM | Link to this

Jim: Today you make the point that Republincans and (Ga. Congressional Delegation) are now on the side lines looking in at the game in Washington. But should that really bother us? Isn’t this the group of sycophants (to Bush) and talentless men that pretended conservative principles at home and went to Washington and outdid the Democrats on spending, pork barrell spending and incompetence? Last year they didn’t run with the ball when they were in the game, and this year they won’t run with the ball on the sidelines. But tell me what is the difference? This delegation went to Washington to belong to a country club known as the U.S. Congress and to feed off the perks paid for by lobbyists and taxpayers; not to buckle down and WORK to solve problems like energy, immigration, transportation, eudcation and health care. Now it will be up to the Democrats to find solutions to these problems. I was a Republican; but no longer. I together with many others worked for many years to try to elect people who WANTED TO BE DIFFERENT — Republicans with integrity who wanted to do the right thing; who wanted to go to DC TO WORK to find conservative solutuions to difficult problems. The people we elected pretended they were going to be different from their Democratic predecessors — but they lied; this pathetic Republican delegation has outdone the Democrats on spending, laziness and a disregard for conservative principles and the honor and integrity of our Country. Where are our conservative policies on energy, transportation, immigration, education, and healthcare? Ombama is smart and well educated and unlike G. Bush who surrounded himself with incompetent sychophants — Obama has surrounded himself with really bright, competent people. That should scare, conservatives because we have no real conservatives in the Ga. Delegation and the Republicans we do have are not smart eoungh and/or well educated enough to out maneuver Obama and his administration. In the Clinton years we had Newt. Not enough credit has ever been given to Newt for his ability to stop the Clintons. Now I ask you — what Republican in the Ga. Delegation or in the whole of Congress has the smarts to deal with this new and savy administration?
Obama has a vision for this country vehemently not shared by me. I am truly afraid of how different our country will be after this administration. But how many elected officials with true integrity and conservative principles have we had for the last 8 years in Ga.?
Until the Republicans who vote in the Republican party primaries start throwing out these people who got us into this situation, we have no chance of steming this tide towards turning our lives over to the government to run. Porductivity by the average American is not being valued or rewarded. But is this surprising? — for a decade we have sent a Ga. Republican Delegation up to Washington to do absolutely nothing, and we have rewarded their lack of productivity by continuing to reelect them. This group didn’t produce while they were in the game and they won’t produce on the side lines. Nothing has changed. Productive people who want to reamin in a free society continue to lose with this Republican bunch. We need a new team.

By dave

January 7, 2009 5:11 PM | Link to this

The photo of the 3 from GA (our sad delegation) should have had the following caption beneath it: “GA, last in education and here’s the results folks!”

By Jake

January 7, 2009 5:22 PM | Link to this

The people have spoken and resoundingly voted for change after the disastrous Bush administration. He had congress and the supreme Court and still made a huge mess of almost everything he touched. My only regret was the Dems couldn’t find an honest man for Senator or Chambliss would have gotten the boot he deserved too!

By Peter

January 7, 2009 6:08 PM | Link to this

Poor By Ragnar Danneskjöld …..always willing to SPEND BIG……..Just like a True REPUBLICAN…….

With Zero Accountability !

True Republican Values……. $465 thousand on some Plates …… Very Conservative ! HA HA HA…..

By Saxby Chambliss LOBBYIST BEST FRIEND

January 8, 2009 8:37 AM | Link to this

The job cuts are just the latest in a yearlong series of layoffs at manufacturing and distributing companies throughout Northeast Georgia.

► CertainTeed laid off 125 workers at its Social Circle plant in May, when the company shut down its vinyl-siding production lines.

► Weyerhaeuser, an engineered wood products company, announced in November that it would close a Madison County mill indefinitely, leaving 105 people without jobs. Workers at the plant, on Georgia Highway 72 east of Colbert, made pressed-wood beams and planks.

Weyerhaeuser laid off about 100 people from the Colbert plant in 2007 when it closed a veneer manufacturing line.

► Ninety-two people lost their jobs Nov. 3 when the Louisiana-Pacific Corp. slashed operations at its Athens strand board plant on U.S. Highway 441 just north of the Jackson County line, cuts blamed on the depressed housing market.

► About 80 employees at Southwire’s electrical wire plant in Watkinsville were scheduled to be laid off starting Jan. 1, cutting the work force in half, the company announced in November.

► The Hagemeyer distribution center in Winder will lay off about 60 employees when the trucking hub and warehouse closes in March. Hagemeyer, a Dutch company that provides electrical, maintenance and health and safety products to businesses around the world, opened its Winder distribution center off Georgia Highway 316 in the Barrow County Industrial Park in 2002.

► Invista laid off 50 workers the week before Christmas at its yarn-processing plant on Voyles Road amid sagging demand for its products. Invista is one of the world’s largest producers of polymers and fibers, primarily for nylon, spandex and polyester applications.

By Rascal

January 8, 2009 1:02 PM | Link to this

Peter, your understanding of our nation’s debt is comical. We just finished the year of 2008 with an added debt of $1,000,000,0000,000+, that’s TRILLION. Our actual debt is closer to 50 times that when you look at real unfunded liabilities and legacy costs of SS, Medicaid and Medicare and others social programs. Idiot Republicans and Democrats are crying over the current Trillion while ignoring the bigger elephant in the room. TIme for Libertarians or libertarians to take over. Our only way out of the economic mess we are in is for government to begin shrinking in real dollars not phony “we aren’t going to increase spending as much as we wanted to so that is called a cut in the budget” BS.

By BSD

January 8, 2009 3:38 PM | Link to this

@ Road Scholar: you are not a road scholar — did you mean roll or role? Synonyms baby, snynonyms.