Friday, December 21, 2007
35 down - 13 to go
I had always credited Bush with being a skillful pol and recent events have proven that out. He's won on Iraq and more importantly the narrative. In large part, the GOP has shown much greater party loyalty than the Dems are showing as the majority party or for that matter when in the minority. Some blogger that Jane Galt linked to probably had it right - at heart the Dems agree with the GOP on expanding government power, which is why the Dems approved the temporary FISA expansion (I will be curious how FISA will play out. Will the Dems cave again - in all liklihood yes which is disappointing), and generally approve of militaristic response to threats which is why they can't cut Iraq funding. What's a shame is that there's no libertarian coalition of small government types from the right and anti-government types from the left to counterbalance the expansion - guess there's a reason why Paul & Kucinich combined probably aren't at 10% of the vote.
Upcoming election - given the internecine fighting within the GOP, it's obvious the Dems are going to win the next election. In the legislature, the GOP will hang together to stymie whatever the Dems propose, but in the general election, the splinters shown in the 2006 election are showing again. The Theo-cons are pushing for Huckabee now having settled on him as their candidate, while the money-cons will not support him, but will support Giuliani, Romney or Thompson. Without those two key members of their coalition in agreement, they can't win the presidency, and this time, there is no candidate like Reagan or W to bridge that difference.
Side note - i've read the Club for Growth's "No Tax Pledge" and read Norquist's "Shrink the government until it's small enough to drown in a bathtub", but have never read that any of those groups presenting a "No more Farm Subsidies" pledge. The pledge all centre on taxes, not spending and the obsession on taxes only paints them as just another borrow-and-spend group.
Upcoming election - given the internecine fighting within the GOP, it's obvious the Dems are going to win the next election. In the legislature, the GOP will hang together to stymie whatever the Dems propose, but in the general election, the splinters shown in the 2006 election are showing again. The Theo-cons are pushing for Huckabee now having settled on him as their candidate, while the money-cons will not support him, but will support Giuliani, Romney or Thompson. Without those two key members of their coalition in agreement, they can't win the presidency, and this time, there is no candidate like Reagan or W to bridge that difference.
Side note - i've read the Club for Growth's "No Tax Pledge" and read Norquist's "Shrink the government until it's small enough to drown in a bathtub", but have never read that any of those groups presenting a "No more Farm Subsidies" pledge. The pledge all centre on taxes, not spending and the obsession on taxes only paints them as just another borrow-and-spend group.
