Frum Skewers Fellow Repugs: "This week we looked not only irrelevant, but clueless and silly."

[jefferson_dem]

THE PARTY THAT LOST ITS MIND
Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:13 AM

Have you heard about the marsh mouse? The little swamp critter that got $30 million of stimulus bill spending thanks to Nancy Pelosi? Of course you have! The mouse was highlighted on Drudge and chortled over by Glenn Beck. One Republican congressman actually dandled a toy mouse in debate.

The story’s not false exactly. The stimulus money really does contain money for wetlands restoration. One of the wetlands that might benefit really is located on San Francisco Bay. And the marsh mouse really does live there.

So the Republicans who promoted the mouse story came closer to the truth than Nancy Pelosi’s spokesmen did when they blasted the story as a “fabrication.” I’m prepared to bet my share of the Obama tax cuts that the mouse will indeed get its money in the end.

The problem with the story is not that it was false. The problem with the story is that it was stupid.

The US economy has plunged into severe recession (94% of Americans describe economic conditions as “bad,” according to the Feb 2-4 CBS poll, and 51% say conditions are getting even worse).

President Obama and the Democrats have responded by steering the US radically to the left. Since World War II, the federal government has most years spent less than one dollar in five of national income. Once the stimulus gets underway, the federal government will spend more than one dollar in four. The cost of everything the Democrats want to do comes closer to one dollar in three.

We’re facing more regulation of everything from high finance to the ordinary workplace. The Democrats are expanding Medicaid to crowd out private insurance. The federal government wants a huge new role in redirecting private investment in transportation and energy in the name of “green jobs.”

And facing all this – we’re talking about mice?

<SNIP>

http://www.newmajority.com/ShowScroll.aspx?ID=fff3278f-1d5c-4c86-abc1-a821e742ea06

[Gabi Hayes]

1. in what stinkhole did you find that muncha buncha garbage?

did you read the responses? a slightly less rabid, more 'intelligent' version of freeperville.

Frum only cares about the pugs gaining power, and he only cares about the PR aspect: healing the wounds HE helped created as one of dumbo's earliest, most influential image makers is very low on his bucket list, which I hope he kicks very soon

not criticizing your letting us know where the 'leading lights' of incipient fascism stand in the latest fight for the hearts and minds, but the name Frum turns my stomach about 540 degrees

[jefferson_dem]

7. Oh, I know.

Frum is an scumbaggy asshat of a fairly high order. I just find it refreshing that he's whining and moaning about how clueless the repugs are. So he's on point this time. This post was linked to via Douthat's blog. He's one of the few righties I can tolerate. http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/02/is_the_gop_hopeless.php

[Cha]

9. Exactly~ I'm glad to

see it..I wondering if every goper thought that acting like idiots in Congress was the way to go.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Funny how all the things he mentions as dire warnings sound like progress to me..

[phantom power]

3. And yet Frum is just as stupid and irrelevant.

He's mad because all the ink spilled about mice stole momentum away from the GOP "tax-cuts-for-ever!" program.

[DJ13]

4. "the payroll tax holiday, an idea endorsed by almost every reputable right-of-center economist"

......both of them. And they will be happy to tell you as soon as they're out on parole.

[Marsala]

13. Well, it IS better than the completely absurd capital gains tax cut idea...

Tax cuts targeted to the middle class, as a payroll tax holiday would be, should in theory stimulate the economy more efficiently than government spending. The problem is that people are more likely to save the money now, so tax cuts are of limited utility.

I'd rather have someone marginally insane like Frum leading the opposition instead of the completely insane leadership they have now.

[last_texas_dem]

5. >>>>The problem with the story is not that it was false. The problem with the story is that

it was stupid.>>>>

Hey, but who can blame the 'pugs for this? They've been winning on "stupid" for decades now. "Stupid" apparently often appeals to a majority of Americans...

Frum's mistake is in thinking that the Repugs can actually win on the majority of issues by advancing "big ideas" to contrast the Democrats'. On the majority of issues, the American public agrees with Democratic and (gasp!) liberal ideas, even if they're more likely to call themselves conservatives.

The Repugs have traditionally been able to win by muddying the waters enough so that people vote on a handful of wedge issues or irrelevant matters such as whether one candidate sighs too much.

Now that they aren't succeeding in winning that way, they have proven themselves to be the party that they've been for quite a while now: a party bankrupt of good ideas. And now they don't even have a decent platform from which to promote their bad ideas.

[Danger Mouse]

6. Frum complains that GOP looks clueless and silly while himself looking clueless and silly.

:rofl:

[Cha]

10. And, they all look "clueless and silly" because Voila~

THEY ARE.:bounce::rofl: :rofl:

[Cha]

8. Rec'd~Hey, I agree with david frum on something..

"The problem with the story is not that it was false. The problem with the story is that it was stupid."

It's so last century>rove political claptrap..doesn't fly anymore except the the cmwhores who think it's awesome:silly:

[tanyev]

11. "to crowd out private insurance"??????

Wow, that takes a helluva reality disconnect to come up with that one. Private insurance is jettisoning people with inconvenient claims just as fast as it can.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. My reply to Frum--

Let's steer the government even farther to the left! Get rid of health insurance companies altogether! Nationalize banks that are on the brink of insolvency! Make green jobs a priority!