How Fox News Is Really Destroying the Republican Party

[babylonsister]

I know, close to a month old, but I couldn't resist the title. ;)

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/10/how-fox-news-really-destroying-republican-party/43941/

How Fox News Is Really Destroying the Republican Party
Elspeth Reeve
Oct 20, 2011


Would more House Republicans rather have John Boehner's job or Sean Hannity's? How many Republican presidential candidates would rather be in a Fox News studio than the White House? The wave of stunt candidates so far -- Donald Trump, Herman Cain -- and those who have opted out of the race to keep their TV gigs -- Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin -- suggests the answer is a non-zero number. Even seemingly serious establishment candidate Tim Pawlenty has reportedly hit up Roger Ailes for a post-campaign contract (Ailes shot him down.) If the GOP's presidential circus this year has taught us anything it's the allure of conservative media over Republican politics, and media seems to be winning.

Tea Partiers have two career tracks: get elected or become a pundit. And it often seems like they're using one to audition for the other. Louisiana Rep. Tom Graves, whom his local newspaper describes as a guy with "a far noisier, more peppery style, {who has} proven quite adept at drawing free media attention," is one of the House freshmen who, as we noted earlier, House Speaker John Boehner is having a hard time controlling, largely because the top Republican on Capitol Hill doesn't have much to offer him. Graves, of course, is a popular guest on Fox.

Donald Trump scored a regular spot on Fox & Friends by claiming his researchers had found evidence Obama might not have been born in America. He's not a big fundraiser, he's not a policy wonk, and the majority of Americans don't like him, but candidate after candidate has lined up to meet with him in Manhattan, not some farm in Iowa. Sarah Palin, too, pretended to run for president for months, only to opt to keep her day job as paid TV analyst, which she said would leave her "unshackled." Mike Huckabee, who was in the top two in national polls for the first half of the year, decided to stay on the network having just built a nice mansion for himself in Florida. Fox cancelled Rick Santorum's Fox contract when he started running for president, but given that Santorum lost his last election in 2006, it might be nice to get that job back once he loses this one too. Michele Bachmann rose to prominence with her many cable news interviews, but in recent months, she's been undone by her own unscriptedness, implying vaccines cause mental retardation just because a woman walked up to her and told her so. That might be something a conservative talk show host can get away with, but much harder on the campaign trail.

And then there's Herman Cain. He's going through a crisis of seriousness despite ascent in the polls, in no small part because he seems more interested in selling books than building a political organization that can win elections. At least, as he told Businessweek's Joshua Green, he's not being greedy about it. "I'm still doing paid speeches," Cain told Green, "But I have not raised my prices. This economy's on life support, so I'm very mindful of those companies that would like to have me come and speak. But I'm not gonna take advantage of my newfound popularity just to put more dollars in my pocket." Yet!

Is it any wonder why the only guy who seems to want the GOP's nomination more than he wants a timeslot on Fox News is the one who's already too rich to care about Roger Ailes's money?

[Laelth]

1. Destroying the Republican Party?

If so, I wish it would hurry up and succeed.

Skeptically,

-Laelth

[Scuba]

3. +1

[rhett o rick]

7. Be careful of what you wish for. The demise of the republicon party has only

corrupted the Democratic Party. As the conservatives stream from the republicon party they are jamming into the crowded Democratic tent. There is not enough room for them and the left. We have already seen that lots of Democratic leaders have tried to exploit the Old Republicons/New Democrats at the expense of the left.

I am not looking forward to a one big "centrist" party system.

[Laelth]

9. I hear you, and I fully agree that the Democratic Party's tent is too crowded.

I say now, as I have said before, that I look forward to the fracturing of the Democratic Party, and I look forward to embracing the more liberal of the two parties that emerge from its self-destruction. It appears that the demise of the Republic Party is a prerequisite to the split I eagerly await.

In other words, I know full well what I am asking for.

-Laelth

[rhett o rick]

11. I think the same thing will happen if the moderate conservatives were to kick out the

wacko's. This would push the Democratic Party back where it belongs.

[Laelth]

13. Either way would be fine with me.

I am done supporting a party that pretends to advance my ideals but fails to do so 95% of the time.

-Laelth

[Old and In the Way]

2. Herm's not stupid...he knows a lucrative long con when he sees one.

Herm will be gone when the RNC ponies up with the right buyout price. Everyday he stays in, that price goes up. There are 6 others who'll sacrifice their principles for the principal, but none will get the same golden parachute offer Herm will get. Polling assures that.

[msongs]

5. he's holding out for at least as much as Palin has made over the past several years lol nt

[Doctor_J]

4. Horse hockey

I have to think people who write this are moles for the Repukes.

[KurtNYC]

6. Fox News IS the Republican Party

If you are too irresponsible and extreme to get elected, you become a pundit.

[rhett o rick]

8. Fox-Up News is a tool of our overlords as is the republicon party. nm

[Zoeisright]

10. Let us hope.

If there is ANY justice in the world, FUX news will go down in FLAMES.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[Fumesucker]

14. Fox News and even more so right wing talk radio have enabled the far right like a bunch of addicts..

Every time the Republicans move the Overton window to the right some, Fox and RWTR start screaming they haven't gone far enough so they move even further to the right.

The Republican party fears its base, the Democrats loathe theirs so they don't respond to leftist pressure the same way Repubs respond to the right.