Our political Quote of the Day comes from John McCain’s former senior adviser Steve Schmidt who articulated what MANY non-Tea Party Republicans, moderate Republicans (they exist but are in exile, partially forced exile), centrists, moderates and independents feel when they watch the current Republican Party.
John McCain’s former senior adviser Steve Schmidt says he has “deep regret” for helping to create a “freak show” wing of the Republican Party when he had a hand in bringing former McCain running mate Sarah Palin to the national stage.
Schmidt said Monday on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that it’s time for the GOP to stand up to the “asininity” embodied by Palin and others.
No one stands up to it and those who’ve inched towards trying are quickly batted down by political talk show hosts, who can whip up their audiences. This quote deserves to be in bold face:
“For the last couple of years, we’ve had this wing of the party running roughshod over the rest of the party. Tossing out terms like RINO, saying we’re going to purge, you know, the moderates out of the party,” Schmidt said. “We’ve lost five U.S. Senate seats over the last two election cycles. And fundamentally we need Republicans, whether they’re running for president, whether they’re in the leadership of the Congress, to stand up against a lot of this asininity.”
When Schmidt was asked by Hardball’s Chris Matthews if he regretted the “Frankenstein Monster” he created in plucking Sarah Palin from her Governor’s job, and the rise of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who uses some of the same language as Palin, he said this:
“You finally you saw it with Ted Cruz. Maybe he was the one that who’s got a bridge too far,” Schmidt said. “Maybe we’ll start seeing our elected leaders stop being intimidated by this nonsense, have the nerve, have the guts to stand up and … to fight to take conservatism’s good name back from the freak show that’s been running wild for four years and that I have deep regret in my part, certainly, in initiating.
And of course without visiting some blogs or checking Twitter you just KNOW that Schmidt will be called a RINO, a liberal, etc etc.
Which does not obscure the accuracy of his comments.
Or the inaccuracy of the names that Schmidt is likely being called as you read this.
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.