After Plamegate culminates, who would the GOP want as prez?

[jmowreader]

There are four Republican Parties in the United States. You knew that, right?

One Republican Party is full of religiously insane people with a death wish. These people just can't wait to get into heaven. They also hate women's rights, abortion, people not being required to go to church...

One Republican Party is full of people who hate paying taxes so much, they'd vote for Benito Mussolini if he ran on a tax-cut platform.

These two groups got together and elected Bush, and look what happened: local and state tax rates were adjusted to compensate for reduced federal spending with result that their total tax bill is now higher than it was under Clinton, women don't have to wear the special Subservient Republican Woman costume (chador below the neckline, Jan Crouch above it), abortion is STILL legal, churches are STILL not allowed to march people in at gunpoint...oh, and two thousand of our troops have died in Iraq so far, but that's okay, they all went to heaven.

The third Republican Party is full of "three for me, one-half for you" businessmen like the Waltons. Sam Walton's evil spawn knows that if an American worker costs $12 per hour and a Chinese worker costs $2, they will make more money by telling their suppliers, "close your factories and move production to Vietnam." This party is actually a subset of the no-tax GOP, but I define them as a separate party because most of the no-tax GOP doesn't run corporations and all of the three-for-me GOP does.

The fourth Republican Party feels like it's been left out of the party. This is the classical GOP. They believe in smooth, steady growth. They believe in reasonable taxation and some are still shocked by JFK's brash tax cut, where he chopped the top rate twenty percent in one fell swoop WITHOUT cutting any spending! (This is the cut the Norquist-led tax hatred brigade uses to claim the Democratic Party has flip-flopped on tax cutting. What Norquist leaves out is that the top marginal rate in 1960 was 90 percent--set that high during World War II and not lowered after the war ended--and JFK lowered it to 70 percent. And you know something else? The absolute best, most innovative time there ever was to be an American businessman was between 1946 and 1965.)

Now that the first three Republican Parties have shot themselves in the feet, it's time for the fourth party to make a resurgence. They'll be looking for a strong, steady leader. They'll be looking for a strong, pro-sustainable-growth cabinet. And they'll be looking for economic policies that discourage imports and globalization.

Your assignment for today: If you were a fourth-party heavy and the other fourth-party members elevated you to their leader, who would you want to be president?

[William769]

1. In my opinion

The fourth Republican is extinct.

[chemp]

2. I have friends from the fourth party

they all voted for Kerry.
Held their nose, but voted.

[phiddle]

3. McCain---

He will do their bidding andproject a clean image.

[WI_DEM]

4. McCain would ride in on a white horse

He probably would be tough to beat too.

[elehhhhna]

5. Charles Manson. n/t

[belle]

6. You know, somehow, I find myself not giving a shit what they want.

[cynatnite]

7. There doesn't seem to be a decent repub in the lot...

Normally, I can always find one or two tolerable ones, but there isn't.

Arlen, I like, but he's not running nor is he interested from what I've seen.

Other than that...none of them.

I think Frist is out of the running with his legal troubles as of late. :evilgrin:

[librechik]

8. Dead Reagan

they would if they could

[jmowreader]

11. Reagan is the antithesis of the fourth-party Republican

He's a tax-slasher, he crashed the economy HARD, and he kowtowed to the religious right.

Please always remember: fourth-party Republicanism values sustainability over all.

Back in the days when fourth-party Republicans ran the nation's corporations, line managers would get in serious trouble for allowing growth to rise too fast. You were supposed to give three to five percent per quarter. Two percent was bad; six percent was worse. Worse because they knew people would expect the extra growth every quarter, and would get pissed if growth didn't always exceed expectations.

Alan Greenspan was a fourth-party Republican. His manipulation of interest rates was intended to hold growth down to a sustainable level. It would have worked, too, if the whole rest of the economic system wasn't being run by second-party and third-party Republicans.

[BigYawn]

9. Gen Schwarzkopf or Gen Franks

Can't see any one else in prominence who has any credibility left.

[jmowreader]

10. Schwarzkopf isn't electable but he'd be good

He's not electable because he's the second-biggest prick to ever put on the uniform in the history of the Republic.

The biggest prick is Command Sergeant Major Rudy Brown. His prickishness is no subject for GD. Ask me in the Lounge. But trust me, this fucker really needs to be locked up for the protection of the rest of the world.

The thing I like best about Schwarzkopf is that he doesn't want to throw people away needlessly, unlike some OTHER individuals I know.