GOP in disarray

[ProSense]

MEDIA NOTICING THAT REPUBLICANS ARE IN DISARRAY.

As I've noted before, one of the more underreported political stories of late has been the extent to which Republicans have been divided over the Iraq war. Today's Washington Post fills in the details of some of this GOP disarray:

In an interview from Israel yesterday, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said the political will of the United States is being stretched to the limit. He promised to offer a time frame for troop withdrawals when he returns next week from his 14th trip to Iraq.

"We have got to find a way to come to some kind of consensus, so we can do what's right for our country and what's right for the Iraqis," said Shays, an ardent supporter of the war who is in a political dogfight with his antiwar Democratic opponent. "We have to say 'This is the latest we will leave' and be able to live with that."...

On Thursday, Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) wrote a letter to constituents declaring that he was saying no to "President Bush's 'stay-the-course' strategy" in Iraq.

Snip...

Shays, of course, is buckling because Ned Lamont's victory -- you know, the one that was supposed to be so good for Republicans -- has racheted up the pressure on him to distance himself from President Bush on Iraq. The more Dems talk about Iraq, the more intense the pressure becomes.

Relatedly, it was interesting indeed to see in the Post piece that GOP strategists were yet again trumpeting the latest piece of bad news as a political winner for them. This time, it was the court's striking down of Bush's warantless wiretapping, which Republicans tried to say would give them another "opportunity," as an RNC mouthpiece put it, "to highlight the fundamental choice between the two parties."

But, as pollster Andrew Kohut explains to the paper, there's a very interesting dynamic at play right now which is swamping the GOP's hopes for recovery. The GOP is a victim of its own success: Because the party has been successful at conflating Iraq and the war on terror, Kohut says, its efforts to talk about terrorism now are failing because they're getting overshadowed by the public's far more pressing concerns about Iraq. So the more Republicans talk about "terror," the more people are reminded of the disaster they've created for us in Iraq.

In a way, it's a bit like watching someone drown in quicksand. The more he thrashes around to extricate himself, the deeper into it he sinks.

http://www.prospect.org/horsesmouth/2006/08/post_298.html

Conflating success brought to you by the media, of course.


The wingnuts are losing it over the NSA ruling. This from wingnut rag Town Hall:

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/099bd269-0072-4399-b75d-58558238cc57">Any Vote For Any Democrat Is A Vote Against Victory And A Vote For Vulnerability

[babylonsister]

1. I'm happy to read that for once it's all about them and their disarray.

A bit like someone drowning in quicksand! And oh darn, we're out of lifesavers!:evilgrin:

[KansDem]

10. Here...

...and don't think I wouldn't throw a Repub one of these if given half a chance!

[Waya]

2. Noticed that a long time ago................

[KKKarl is an idiot]

3. Karl is loosing hold of the party

[opihimoimoi]

4. The Pendelum has reversed at last>>>>>>Bwahahahaha

Their TURN to get confused, Flummoxed, and Stymied.

[ixion]

5. "The more Dems talk about Iraq, the more intense the pressure becomes."

That's a mantra.

[phaseolus]

6. Their big strength is also their worst weakness

Promote a philosophy that you can write on a 3x5 card, and the voters will always know what you stand for, and some voters appreciate that.

On the other hand, any philosophy which is simple enough to write on a 3x5 card is going to be dead wrong most of the time...

[calimary]

11. Well, why not? It's kkkarl rove's favorite war strategy, and it sure has

done a number on our guys. "Attack them on their strengths." Isn't it about time to turn the tables?

[MichiganVote]

7. Wearing the same dress to every party, everyday, makes one tawdry

[Golden Raisin]

8. Do NOT count your chickens

before they are hatched. We all thought Gore & Kerry won their respective presidential elections but look who is sitting in the Oval Office. And Shays is FAR from a typical Bush/Rove/Neocon Republican so he may not be the best example pointing to disarray in the ranks.

[ProSense]

9. You're right, but this is not about counting chickens

as is is about calling them out for their hysteria.

[ProSense]

12. Right winger takes issue with wingnut hysteria

POLIBLOG

Hewittian Hysteria
Writes Hugh Hewitt on his Townhall blog: Thus it is simply true: Any vote for any Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability. This kind of statement, like Vice President Cheney’s statement that voting for Ned Lamont is an aid to al Qaeda, is simply unhelpful, unnecessary and ultimately disturbing because they elevate the utterer of the phrase to the level of near perfection as they explain the rightness of their party’s position. Public policy positions have not been written in granite by the finger of God and therefore no one ought to be running around as those they are a prophet proclaiming the inerrant truth of their position while proclaiming all who disagree with them as apostates.

8/19/2006
http://daoureport.salon.com