The spectacle of Democrats indulging in political cannibalism in the House, tossing away their good post-election press, and breaking the “Big Mo” they had towards positive imagery and unity is not the only Big Show in town.
There’s also a process of self-destruction going on within the GOP, perhaps because Republican party bigwigs got jealous watching the Democrats hurt their image and wanted the GOP to get into the act, too.
Some are not amused. Read this MUST READ from Ed Morrissey. A tiny part of it:
After the midterm elections, many of us hoped that the Republican Party would return to conservative First Principles in an attempt to recapture the energy that propelled them to majority status in 1994. Refocusing on the bedrock principles of limited government, fiscal discipline, strong national defense, and ethical governance would allow the GOP to reconnect to voters that grew to mistrust the Republicans after the last six years of big-government bloat and pork-barrel politicking.
Unfortunately, the leadership elections show that Republicans have not listened to their constituents, both present and former. Both House and Senate caucuses have chosen to support an old guard that led them back into the wilderness last week. At least in one case, John Boehner, some Republicans can justify that decision by noting that Boehner was in the wrong place at the wrong time, since he only served as Majority Leader since January, when Tom DeLay resigned. However, any pretense of reform was lost when the Senate caucus elected Trent Lott as its Minority Whip. Lott showed himself to be another iteration of the arrogant, out-of-touch old-style pol that manipulates federal dollars for political gain, and who doesn’t cotton to criticism of his game-playing.
He concludes with a feeling that may grow more widespread as we head towards 2008:
It may be time to take Mark Tapscott’s advice, offered over the summer, and look outside the GOP for alternate methods of pursuing conservativism. All we find there is a nest of those who want to manipulate federal power as an engine for their own agendas, instead of reducing its reach and its intrusiveness. We have at least a year to see whether we can be more effective outside the party — because the Republicans seem intent on proving that we have no place inside it any more.
WARNING TO DEMOCRATS: You could find some inside of your party begin to feel the same way, too.
And, if so, the stage would be set for some third parties candidate to pop up on the scene and throw a monkey wrench into 2008 calculations based on the strength of both parties. Third parties usually siphon the votes away from one party…but the time may be coming when one could overcome the institutional and systemic odds and truly be a player. One is already trying.
Read Morrissey’s entire post.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.