‘Itch’ Strikes Again
(Warning: Imbedded in this post is an act of shameless self promotion.)
Despite my flirtation with Web 2.0, I’m a bit old fashioned. My favorite media remain newspaper and radio — especially intelligent, reasonable, non-Limbaugh radio, which explains (in part) my growing love affair with National Public Radio (NPR) and its affiliate in my area, KWMU.
Late last year, this love affair induced an “itch.” Twenty-four months earlier, a similar itch drove me to start blogging. The more recent edition of that itch compelled me to engage with KWMU — and that engagement resulted in my first 90-second guest commentary for them, aired earlier today. (It’s far more difficult to say something intelligent in 90 seconds than I realized. You be the judge of whether or not I achieved that goal.)
The commentary considers the potential impact of independent voters on the race for the open U.S. Senate seat from Missouri in 2010, a seat that Republican Kit Bond plans to vacate after holding it for nearly a quarter century. The race to fill his seat will, of course, play out in the larger context of GOP efforts to protect if not strengthen the party’s hand in the Senate, and thus embellish its role as a counterbalance to President Obama.
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2 Responses to “‘Itch’ Strikes Again”
Putting Senate races in national context will almost certainly happen.
For example, moderate Republican Arlen Specter is going to face a primary challenge from the right, for being willing to comprise with Democrats.
Complaints about earmarks are currently all the rage among Republicans. And yet the recent omnibus bill is full of Republican-sponsored earmarks. Those earmarks got funded thanks to Democratic votes. It's possible that every single Missouri Republican will be defending earmarks he sponsored–on spending bills he voted against!!–because Missouri needs money to solve its problems.
Probably, Specter will say he was trying his pragmatic best to solve some very real problems facing America. Certainly he will make the claim for compromise as a virtue.
It seems likely that all the Republicans will do from here to 2010 is obstruct. In that case, the argument to protect if not strengthen their ability to keep on obstructing may seem pretty hollow.
PS– You have a pretty good radio voice.
George: Thanks for the comment … and the compliment.