The Republican establishment acts as if this season’s goon squad of presidential candidates has come out of nowhere, an act of God — a tsunami that hit the party and receded, leaving nothing but nitwits standing. In column after column, conservative commentators lament the present condition, but not their past acquiescence as their party turned hostile to thought, reason and the two most important words in the English language: It depends. …

This rampant anti-intellectualism is worrisome. The world is a complex place, but to deal with it, the GOP presented a parade of hopefuls who proposed nostrums or, in the case of Michele Bachmann, peddled false rumors about vaccinations. When this started I cannot say — the late Richard Hofstadter won the Pulitzer Prize for his “Anti-intellectualism in American Life” in 1964 — but the embrace of Sarah Palin by the GOP establishment has got to be noted. The lady has the gift of demagoguery and the required anti-elitism, but she knows next to nothing about almost anything — and revels in her ignorance. …

Subtlety is banished. Yahoos stride the stage. …

The Republican Party has veered so far from reality that Gingrich is lambasting Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate” — moderation being, as it was with the clueless Barry Goldwater, an epithet. Romney, who has all but collapsed his rib cage to conform to conservative dogma, must be perplexed. Others have prudently stayed out of the race.

The Republican establishment that has now risen up to smite the bratty Gingrich has only itself to blame. For too long it has been mute in the face of a belligerent anti-intellectualism, pretending that knowledge and experience do not matter and that Washington is a condition and not a mere city. The endorsement of Gingrich by Cain was not a bulletin. It was a feeble blip on a scope. The GOP is brain-dead.

Establishment Republicans have only themselves to blame – The Washington Post

Establishment Republicans have only themselves to blame: “The GOP is brain-dead.” — Richard Cohen is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

It reminds us that Republicans are no longer about sunshine and can-do. These days, they simply seem cranky and dyspeptic. As in Herman Cain vowing to build a fence to electrocute Mexicans, Newt Gingrich verbally punching out the media and debate audiences cheering for record executions and the death of the uninsured. As in Jan Brewer poking her finger in the president’s face.

Under Reagan, optimism about the future was the Republican brand. But that brand has curdled in the ensuing 30 years and the party that once sold hope has become instead the party of grouchy codgers yelling at the future to get off their lawn.

Thus, it has become the party of resentment and resistance, the last stand against ongoing racial, religious, cultural and sexual upheaval, the Alamo in the fight to forestall change. …Ronald Reagan would not recognize his party today. Morning in America is almost 30 years gone. It’s high noon now.

Looking for morning in America – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

“The party that once sold hope has become instead the party of grouchy codgers yelling at the future to get off their lawn.” — Leonard Pitts Jr. [amen] #qotd is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

Does the sudden appeal of the bloviating Perfessor indicate a change is afoot? Are Republicans simply cowed by big words and desperation for Anybody but Mitt (the one guy who could threaten Obama – at least, until Newty gutted him)? 

Could ideas matter again, someday? Are Republicans ready for thought and debate, to be persuaded, to negotiate and – gasp! – to compromise? No way. Not this year.

Does Newty Gingrinch’s ascendance suggest Republicans are tired of being stupid on purpose? is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

Gingrich is a Rorschach test: If you don’t think he’s nuts, you are. …

Gingrich channels George C. Wallace, the four-time Alabama governor who ran as many times for president. …

Mitt Romney adds nothing to the national debate, not so far anyway. If he’s the GOP nominee, we will get more of his nonsense about running a business — tell me what great president ever ran a successful business — and how he’s a job creator. With Gingrich, it would be different. He might actually challenge Obama to think hard, to be creative, to come out of his shell …

Of course, if Gingrich becomes the Republican nominee, it’s incumbent upon him to lose. He’s an unscrupulous man, a one-car demolition derby, but if he goads Obama to unaccustomed bravery and other Democrats to rethink outdated liberal dogma (affirmative action, etc.), then he will have done his nation a great service. Take a bow, Newt. Then take a powder too.

Gingrich’s restless mind could push Obama forward – The Washington Post

Cal Thomas Official Web Site – It’s complicated

A longtime conservative friend sent me an email after reading something positive I had written about Newt Gingrich: “Whoever votes (for) or supports Newt for president is out of their mind.”

It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called crazy.

He continued: “You can believe in redemption, as I do, but you are not thinking seriously if you support a person for president with the baggage he is carrying. What an example for our children and future generations when we dismiss character as the foundation for leadership.”

There’s more, but I get his point.

Cal Thomas Official Web Site – It’s complicated

Gingrinch as consensus-builder: Left and Right agree he’s mad is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

Satan tweets support for Santorum (from tonight’s Simpsons) is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

President Harry S. Truman, in his 1949 State of the Union Address:

We must spare no effort to raise the general level of health in this country. In a nation as rich as ours, it is a shocking fact that tens of millions lack adequate medical care. We are short of doctors, hospitals, nurses. We must remedy these shortages. Moreover, we need–and we must have without further delay–a system of prepaid medical insurance which will enable every American to afford good medical care.

63 Years Ago Today | NewMexiKen

A Republican for Health Care is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

”Santorum? Is that Latin for asshole?” is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

“A message for the winner of the Iowa caucuses?” Huntsman asked with a smile. “Welcome to the winner. Nobody cares.”

Huntsman on Iowa: ‘Nobody cares’ – PostPartisan – The Washington Post

Santorum, Huntsman and the future of conservatism – The Washington Post

If the Republicans want to have a genuinely searching debate about the future of their party, they’d send Santorum and Huntsman off for the long fight. Huntsman is a forceful economic conservative but also resolutely modern. He’s a defender of science, a hard-eyed realist on foreign affairs who rejects Santorum’s neoconservative moralism, and he speaks the policy language of an upper middle class that likes its politics to focus on deficits and our future competition with China.

Santorum, Huntsman and the future of conservatism – The Washington Post

Three very different GOPs in Iowa – PostPartisan – The Washington Post

[T]he split in the Republican Party is no longer between conservatives and moderates, but between members of the party who are very conservative and those who are only somewhat conservative. The days of Rockefeller Republicans are long gone. Close to half of Iowa caucus-goers thought of themselves as very conservative; a third said they were somewhat conservative. Fewer than a fifth were moderates, including a very tiny (and brave) group of self-described liberals.

Three very different GOPs in Iowa – PostPartisan – The Washington Post

Ron Paul’s consistency doesn’t make him right – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

[U]nless you enjoy salmonella in your food and lead in your paint, unless you think it’s OK that your doctor has no medical degree and your lawyer no license, unless you’re fine with breathing sooty air and drinking tainted water and unless you really think a black woman in Mississippi, locked out of public places by threat of violence and force of law, should have been required to wait on market forces to rescue her, you must regard Paul’s moral imbecility with a certain appalled awe.

Heaven help us if the intellectual rigidity he symbolizes is really the only alternative to the intellectual malleability of so many of his colleagues.

At its best, government vindicates and defends a people’s noblest ideals. The Civil Rights Act was government at its best. Paul disputes this and styles himself a defender of freedom for so doing. Too bad he can’t spend a day being black in Mississippi in 1964. He might emerge with a better understanding of that word.

As it is, Paul’s extremism only proves this much: Emerson didn’t know the half of it. ["A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." - Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Ron Paul’s consistency doesn’t make him right – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

The Fractured Republicans is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

The irony is that most of us honor the Fourth of July because we believe it’s a day on which Americans secured their freedom. But the truth is that the Declaration of Independence really only secured freedom for white and wealthy men [mjh: landowners]. It took freedom of speech, press, religion, petition and assembly — the five freedoms of the First Amendment — to lead to suffrage for women, the emancipation of slaves and equality for all. Please join in celebrating freedom this Dec. 15. It’s long overdue.

Tweet for freedom on Dec. 15 – From Our Inbox – MiamiHerald.com

No modern committee, especially one full of attorneys, I’m sorry to say, could come up with such a succinct yet powerful document. Two hundred-twenty years later, we are still striving to get there, but we have the map. The Constitution is a living document subject to the times. Claiming “original intent” is the height of arrogance and ignorance.

The Bill of Rights | NewMexiKen

Originally 12 amendments were proposed to the legislatures of the 14 states by the First Congress. [read more…]

The Bill of Rights | NewMexiKen

Happy Bill of Rights Day! is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

By Heath Haussamen

Newt Gingrich has a big lead in New Mexico in the Republican presidential primary, a new poll indicates.

The survey from the left-leaning group Public Policy Polling found Gingrich leading with the support of 39 percent of Republican primary voters to Mitt Romney’s 14 percent, Gary Johnson’s 11 percent, 8 percent each for Ron Paul and Rick Perry, 6 percent for Michele Bachmann, 3 percent for Rick Santorum, and 2 percent for Jon Huntsman.

The survey of 300 GOP primary voters was conducted between Saturday and Monday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percent.

Gingrich has a big lead in NM | NMPolitics.net

Why should NM Republicans be smarter than any others? Or have a memory. Or care about his ethics, adultery, ad nauseum. Vomiting again.

Newty Gingrinch has a big lead in NM and I’d cheer if I weren’t vomiting is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh