"A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics

[FlameOfCallandor]

If straw polls mean anything than Ron Paul is president of the Solar System!

[Flannel Boy]

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.

http://politicalwire.com/

stolen from cajole's blog: http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/animated-gifs/

[Human Snorenado]

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.

http://politicalwire.com/

That's not the cpac straw poll, that gets done tomorrow.  That's just some random ass poll.

[ToxicAdam]

Whew .. I thought it was teh CPAC poll. I was fearful for our future.

[Human Snorenado]

Whew .. I thought it was teh CPAC poll. I was fearful for our future.

What are you doing, still holding out hope for a Newt run?  You guys are almost certain to nominate a yahoo in 2012.  For fucks sakes, they're so dumb that they're regurgitating the "socialist" attack against Obama, cause, you know, it worked so well in THAT FUCKING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WE JUST HAD. 

And be honest with yourself- Newt is just a well spoken yahoo.

[ToxicAdam]

I've determined that Newt is lazy. He'd rather sit back and critique others and collect checks instead of actually doing something. He's like Al Gore. I still think he's terrific though. The best Republican politician in my lifetime.

I really think Obama is the next Reagan. He has caused (or capitalized on?) a paradigm shift in the national scene. We could effectively see the next 16 out of 20 years run controlled by Democrats. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Phoenix Dark]

Jindal has youtube ads on lock. Apparently he's gonna be on 60 Minutes. Wonder if they'll ask about the fake story...doubtful

[Van Cruncheon]

if newt's the best you can do, you're sunk. remember his BUY EVERY LITTLE GHETTO BABY A LAPTOP proposal?

[ToxicAdam]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94900671


Here's a September 22, 2008 NPR interview with Newt. Behold and weep. It's a shame we didn't have more patient, thoughtful leaders like Newt in charge at the time. We had a bunch of pansies that allowed themselves to get snowed over.

You can nitpick Newt on some minor gaffes or kooky ideas he has from time to time. You can still be brainwashed from the 90's that Newt was evil incarnate (the same way every other Republican leader has been demonized in the past 30 years) ... but overall the guy just gets it.

[Van Cruncheon]

is this the same newt gingrich that was wrong (or lied outright) roughly EVERY SINGLE TIME he attempted to justify the iraq war? the same newt who suggested that war critics were akin to hitler supporters, effectively godwinning himself? the same newt who regularly freaks out about gay people and atheists? the same newt gingrich that suggested that having your tires inflated at service stations was supporting big oil?

yeah, if this is the best republicans can do, it's all over for your ideology -- if you can even call it one these days.

[Rman]

In other news, the gay hating Dobson has stepped down from Focus on the Family.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/27/dobson.steps.down/index.html?eref=rss_latest

[ToxicAdam]

(Image removed from quote.)

Brbrbrbrbrrrbrrr .. Why I never!

[Phoenix Dark]

In other news, the gay hating Dobson has stepped down from Focus on the Family.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/27/dobson.steps.down/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Last year, Dobson caused a huge political stir when he announced he "cannot and will not" vote for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. He later changed his tune, after McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, calling her selection "one of the most exciting days of my life," on the syndicated Dennis Prager Show.

FML 

[Phoenix Dark]

Obama at the Wizards game 
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290227027



[youtube=560,345]AeTWzCpalok[/youtube]

[ToxicAdam]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30725


Pat Buchanan laying it down ...

Bush Boom Continues" trilled the headline over the Lawrence Kudlow column, as George W. Bush closed out his seventh year in office.

"You can call it Goldilocks 2.0," purred Kudlow.

Yes, you could. But what a difference 12 months can make.

Final returns are now in on the eight years of George Bush. Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services has crunched the numbers. And, pace Kudlow, the only relevant comparison is to Herbert Hoover.


From January 2008, right after Kudlow's column ran, through January 2009, the U.S. economy lost 3.5 million jobs. The private sector loss of 3.65 million jobs was slightly offset by 148,000 jobs created by federal, state and local governments. Say what you will, the Bush years were boom times for Big Government.

And the private sector? Beginning and ending in recession, the Bush presidency added a net of 407,000 private sector jobs over eight years, less than 51,000 a year, the worst eight-year record since 1927-35, which includes the first six years of the Great Depression.

By January 2009, the average workweek had fallen to 33.3 hours, the lowest since record keeping began in 1964.

From Jan. 31, 2001, through Jan. 31, 2009, 4.4 million manufacturing jobs, 26 percent of all of the manufacturing jobs in the United States, disappeared.

Semiconductors and electronic component producers lost 42 percent of their jobs. Communications equipment producers lost 48 percent of their jobs. Textile and apparel producers lost, respectively, 63 percent and 61 percent of their jobs.

As a source of American jobs, manufacturing, for the first time in our history, fell below health care and education in 2001, below retail sales in 2002, below local government in 2006, below leisure and hospitality, i.e., restaurants and bars, in 2008.

Between this unprecedented loss in manufacturing capacity and jobs, and the $3.5 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods alone, run up by George W. Bush, the correlation is absolute.

Last week, final trade figures for 2008 came in. They make for riveting reading for Americans who yet believe that manufacturing is an indispensable element of national power.

With China exporting five times the dollar volume in goods to us as she imports from us, Beijing's trade surplus with the United States set yet another world record: $266 billion.

In those critical items the Commerce Department defines as advanced technology products (ATP), our trade deficit with China in 2008 reached an astonishing $72 billion. Since Bush took office, our total trade deficit with China in ATP exceeds $300 billion.

Which of us, China or America, has the trade profile of a mature industrial and technological power?

Americans deplore our deepening dependence on foreign regimes for the vital necessity of oil. Are they unaware that the U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods, $440 billion, is $89 billion greater than our all-time record trade deficit of $351 billion in crude oil?

Why is a dependence on Canada, Mexico, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia for oil a greater peril than a reliance on China and Asia for vital necessities upon which our prosperity and military depend?

A week ago, the Washington Times ("Volcker Blames Recession on Trade Imbalances") reported that ex-Fed Chair Paul Volcker told Congress the "massive trade-related imbalances in the United States economy were the source of the financial crisis."

Pressed by Sen. Chris Dodd, Volcker said, "Go back to the imbalances in the economy. The United States has been consuming more than it has been producing for many years."

What "imbalances" was Volcker referring to? Perhaps these.

Since 1982, the United States has run $5.7 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods, and $2.1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and automobiles. In the Bush years alone, the United States ran more than $1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and cars.

These statistics, these realities -- factories closing in the United States, manufacturing jobs being outsourced in the millions to China and Asia, enormous, endless trade deficits in goods -- testify to a painful truth: America is a receding and declining world power.

And in dealing with this systemic crisis, Obama's stimulus package is as irrelevant as were the Bush tax cuts.

How do we correct those "trade-related imbalances" of which Volcker spoke? We must export more and import less, save more and spend less, produce more and consume less. We need to emulate the ants and behave less like the grasshoppers of summer.

But how do you tell that to two generations of Americans who have been raised in an era of entitlement?

America needs an Industrial Policy.

But how do you tell that to Americans indoctrinated in the hoary myth that Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley caused the Great Depression and anything that sounds like America First risks a rerun of the 1930s?

This is why I think we will never truly recover. We don't have a manufacturing base anymore.



--- ---


Krugman says that UHC will cause middle class tax increases down the road.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html?_r=1

[brawndolicious]

eh, America is losing power in the manufacturing field but it keeps on gaining a lot in the information, communication, and entertainment fields.  no other country is close in that.

[Cheebs]

Obama at the Wizards game 
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290227027

(Image removed from quote.)

[youtube=560,345]AeTWzCpalok[/youtube]

[Eric P]

shit man, that's our president at a basketball game drinking a beer next to a bored hyperactive white kid

[Human Snorenado]

You know how Bobby Jindal was criticizing the 8 billion federal fund for high speed rail in the stimulus the other night?

Seriously, you can't make this shit up.

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's transportation department plans to request federal dollars for a New Orleans to Baton Rouge passenger rail service from the same pot of railroad money in the president's economic stimulus package that Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized as unnecessary pork on national television Tuesday night.

The high-speed rail line, a topic of discussion for years, would require $110 million to upgrade existing freight lines and terminals to handle a passenger train operation, said Mark Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

You know, these guys should probably just stfu and go try to figure out how conservative ideals and principles can relate to issues that concern Americans in the 21st century.  Instead we get to see them open their mouths to scream about the evil federal gubmint while at the same time they line up to suckle on the teat they were just bitching about.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't kind of like it, tho.

[Human Snorenado]

FoC sighting

[Crushed]

http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain

please tell me that's not the real john mccain

[Human Snorenado]

Oh yeah TA, here's your boy Gingrich's 12 point plan to recapture the hearts and minds of the American people.

1. Payroll Tax Stimulus.
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief.
3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate.
4. Homeowner’s Assistance.
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget.
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud.
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration).
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains.
9. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from… Unions)
10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley.
11. Abolish the Death Tax.
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure.

Half of that shit is tax cuts, and most of them are the same old tired Republican canards.  But Newt's an "ideas" guy, amirite?

Face it.  You guys' ideas suck.

[Human Snorenado]

http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain

please tell me that's not the real john mccain

No, it is.  Well, it's someone on his staff, but you get the idea.

I find it hilariously awesome that he's still banging the earmarks drum.  His list consists of about 10 million or so in projects- big fucking deal.  Some of them are useful stuff, too, but in typical Republican "let's take something out of context so we can make fun of it to score cheap points" style you'd never know it from reading his list.  For instance the "beaver management" item is actually to go in and break up beaver dams to prevent flooding.  I guess it's a total waste to spend a little more than half a million on that- why don't we just ignore it and then let rivers flood their banks and ruin houses and shit?  Makes sense to me!

[Crushed]

http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain

please tell me that's not the real john mccain

No, it is.  Well, it's someone on his staff, but you get the idea.

I find it hilariously awesome that he's still banging the earmarks drum.  His list consists of about 10 million or so in projects- big fucking deal.  Some of them are useful stuff, too, but in typical Republican "let's take something out of context so we can make fun of it to score cheap points" style you'd never know it from reading his list.  For instance the "beaver management" item is actually to go in and break up beaver dams to prevent flooding.  I guess it's a total waste to spend a little more than half a million on that- why don't we just ignore it and then let rivers flood their banks and ruin houses and shit?  Makes sense to me!

Someone screenshotted that part before he changed it:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

He should ask Todd Palin.

[close]

Also, controlling pig odor is a great help since it makes the area surrounding pig farms actually, you know, livable; studying grape genetics prevents vineyards in Washington, California, and Oregon from being wiped out from exotic fungal diseases; removing prominent gang tattoos can allow people to successfully re-enter the workforce; Mormon crickets are serious agricultural pests and can swarm roads causing traffic hazards.

tl;dr people who mock helpful applications of science and education as "pork" are dumb

[Cheebs]

To Republicans anything they don't understand or don't like is automatically pork.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Anything not spent on defense or corporate subsidies is automatically considered pork by the GOP.

[ToxicAdam]

1. Payroll Tax Stimulus.
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief.
3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate.
4. Homeowner’s Assistance.
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget.
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud.
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration).
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains.
9. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from… Unions)
10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley.
11. Abolish the Death Tax.
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure.

That's a reworded list from a biased source. I suppose I could go point by point and defend it .. but it won't change your mind, so it's wasted time.

I don't understand how you would be against some of those things.

Why are you bagging on tax cuts? 30 percent of the stimulus package had them. I don't see you railing against YA BOY, Obama.

[Cheebs]

Why are you bagging on tax cuts? 30 percent of the stimulus package had them. I don't see you railing against YA BOY, Obama.

Those were tax cuts for people who don't make a lot of money. Newt's tax cut ideas mostly benefit the rich.

[TakingBackSunday]

[youtube=560,345]bcuXV99asO8[/youtube]

Just awesome.

[Cheebs]

[youtube=560,345]bcuXV99asO8[/youtube]

Just awesome.

I hate that guy for some reason, his impression annoys me.

[siamesedreamer]

So what happens to the budget if we don't have GDP growth of 3.2% next year and 4% for the three years after that?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28recession.html?_r=1&hp

Seems just as unrealistic as their assertion that unemployment will peak at 8.1% this year.

Many economists expect that the labor data to be released next Friday will show that as many as 700,000 jobs disappeared in February, lifting the unemployment rate near 8 percent and pushing total job losses to more than four million since the recession began in December 2007.

Someone pass the hopium.

[Dickie Dee]

Old people and twitter seems like a bad combination.

[AdmiralViscen]

So what happens to the budget if we don't have GDP growth of 3.2% next year and 4% for the three years after that?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28recession.html?_r=1&hp

Seems just as unrealistic as their assertion that unemployment will peak at 8.1% this year.

Many economists expect that the labor data to be released next Friday will show that as many as 700,000 jobs disappeared in February, lifting the unemployment rate near 8 percent and pushing total job losses to more than four million since the recession began in December 2007.

Someone pass the hopium.

Is Beardo gonna eat his shoe now, wasn't that the deal?

[Human Snorenado]

Romney wins the CPAC poll.

Romney took 20 percent of the vote, followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 14 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 13 percent, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 13 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 10 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 7 percent. Others on the ballot included South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Nine percent were undecided.

I bet if Jindal hadn't come off as the bastard child of Kenneth the Page and Mr. Rogers and/or had bothered to show up he would have won, though.  If you look at it you've got 34% going to the wingnut brigade of Palin, Jindal and Huckabee... maybe those three will hurt each other's chances if they all run early on, but I still say that Palin is mean enough to beat them all down.  Hell hath no fury like a bitchy, half bright PTA mom scorned.

[Phoenix Dark]

Duude Palin could potentially make Rove's SC smears on McCain look like a day on Sesame Street. Huck kinda took jabs at Romney's faith but Palin would go all out. I bet her fliers will bring up Jindal's real name 

[Cheebs]

The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.

[Human Snorenado]

The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.

Uh, there are millions of half bright, mean PTA moms across the country just waiting to give their precious Palin piles of cash.  If Libertopians can get Ron Paul flush with cash, then whack jobs can with Palin.  And she won't spend it on blimps.

[Phoenix Dark]

There are plenty of wacky religious rich donors who could fund her.

[Cheebs]

Speaking of that. What the fuck did Paul do with all that money? He didn't run really many ads nor had many big time rallies. All he fucking did was those debates yet had oodles of cash being spent.

[AdmiralViscen]

hoarded guns

[Human Snorenado]

Blimps aren't cheap.  He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.

[siamesedreamer]

Is Beardo gonna eat his shoe now, wasn't that the deal?

What was the bet?

[Dickie Dee]

Mayer is a Ron Paul supporter? Just when I thought he couldn't get douchier.

Edit: This is the first link that pops up on Google http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrPCkMSTH9A, haha, what a turd.

[Fragamemnon]

The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.

Palin's an incurious twit by any appreciable measure. She'd let big conservative business interests do whatever the fuck they wanted if she was President. I don't think she'd have problems raising large sums of cash provided she had decent well-known conservative insiders in her campaign to coordinate it.

[Cheebs]

The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.

Palin's an incurious twit by any appreciable measure. She'd let big conservative business interests do whatever the fuck they wanted if she was President. I don't think she'd have problems raising large sums of cash provided she had decent well-known conservative insiders in her campaign to coordinate it.

I don't think even the most conservative corporate business owner would actually believe she'd have a shot in the general election though.

[Phoenix Dark]

Depends. If the economy is totally ruined sure, she might have a chance. But I still think the only way Obama loses is if he starts lying to the public/scandals/raises reg people's taxes/etc

[Human Snorenado]

Even then, as long as the Republicans look like they're distinguished mentally-challenged he'll still probably get elected.  Clinton whipped the shit out of Dole in 96 even tho two years earlier there was supposedly this massive "rebuke" of democrats for reaching too far or some shit.  Basically, as long as the Republicans are the party of Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Clown Shoes Michael Steele and the distinguished mentally-challenged Governor's Alliance, Obama could probably show up to the 2012 debates with a doo rag and a 40 and still win relatively easily.

[siamesedreamer]

Playboy is making a connection between Santelli, the Koch family, and Zach Christenson/Milt Rosenberg (the guys who run the Chicago radio show that got the Obama/Ayers link out into the mainstream via Stanley Kurtz). The jist is that there was a plan developed by these guys to "astroturf" Obama's economic plans. So, they gave Santelli a script (not in the literal sense) to use for a rant on CNBC. He does so and almost immediately the internet blows up with the story. Drudge has it in big red letters and websites like chicagoteaparty.com go live.  

From what I've read there may be something to this as the chicagoteaparty.com website was registered by Christenson back in August. Its certainly resonable to expect that Santelli and Christenson know each other as they are both in the media in Chicago and are of the same political persuasion.

This is a pretty damn big charge that Playboy is making. So, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

[Cheebs]

Even then, as long as the Republicans look like they're distinguished mentally-challenged he'll still probably get elected.  Clinton whipped the shit out of Dole in 96 even tho two years earlier there was supposedly this massive "rebuke" of democrats for reaching too far or some shit.  Basically, as long as the Republicans are the party of Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Clown Shoes Michael Steele and the distinguished mentally-challenged Governor's Alliance, Obama could probably show up to the 2012 debates with a doo rag and a 40 and still win relatively easily.

Yep.

And the GOP's that a unfixed economy could sink him isn't exactly true (as PD stated as well) The economy was far far from fixed or close to it in 1936, yet FDR won re-election. It takes a good politician, and one who has prepared the public to believe it may take more than one term to notice improvements but they are happening. Which has happened in the past, smart politicians and good leaders can do it and have done it.

Yes, the economy helped take down George HW Bush and Carter but did either of them ever have the type of personal connection from the public Obama does right now? No.

[ToxicAdam]

It wasn't really the economy that brought them down .. it was their reactions (or no action in Bush Sr's case) that brought them down.

[Phoenix Dark]

True, but also Carter didn't instill much confidence in people, especially when compared to the charisma of Reagan. Same with Bush Sr. I don't think Obama will have that problem as long as he tells the truth. If the GOP can effectively frame him as Mr. Smith-Becomes-Washington then he's in trouble. I don't see him giving them that opportunity - at least I hope not

[Phoenix Dark]

[youtube=560,345]sopRKVaiSc0[/youtube]
Jindal ANNIHILATED

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindals_office_tries_to_spin_katrina_story_digs_it.php?ref=fp1

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

A lot of you guys still underestimate Palin.  She is a religious fanatic who doesn't believe abortion clinic bombers are terrorists.  She is also very flexible, where she will meet and deal with anyone from big business interests to neoconfederates as long as it helps her out.  Trust me, she can get the funds.  All she really needs is some assistance to deal with "gotcha" questions and then she will be good to go.  Plus you know that she will resort to every dirty trick possible.  "Piyush?  Why is he hiding his real name?"  "I don't think Joseph Smith is a real Christian and anyone who follows his beliefs shouldn't be considered real Christians either."

The best part is that she is going to chew up and spit out the remaining scraps of the GOP.  Once Obama slaughters her, the GOP will on its deathbed.

Obama has done a pretty good job of letting people know how serious the problem is and that the solution isn't going to be fixed overnight.  All he has to do is show the public that he is making significant strides to repair the economy and they will re-elect him.  The GOP is acting too boneheaded to show any clear counterleadership.  The far right will piss and moan, like they always will, even if Obama were to get the Dow up to a miraculous 15,000 at the end of the year.  They will bitch and moan every step of the way.

Obama could lose if he does a lot of backroom shit but in even minor instances (ie, Daschle), he does a good job of purging those ranks.  He will be fine in 2012 or at least another Democrat.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Blimps aren't cheap.  He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.

His campaign didnt pay for the blimp.

[Human Snorenado]

Blimps aren't cheap.  He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.

His campaign didnt pay for the blimp.

Must have been the Amity Shlaes option, then.

[Phoenix Dark]

Blimps aren't cheap.  He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.

His campaign didnt pay for the blimp.

You did? smh, how does it feel to throw your money down a vacuum

[Barry Egan]

yea how much money did you spend on Paul FoC?

[FlameOfCallandor]

You did? smh, how does it feel to throw your money down a vacuum

Yes PeeDee, you got me. I paid for the blimp with all the obscene profits I was making through my hedge funds.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would go into more details but I have some workers I need to exploit while I light up a cuban with a hundred dollar bill.

[close]

[FlameOfCallandor]

yea how much money did you spend on Paul FoC?

like $50

[Human Snorenado]

This is why the GOP is dooooomed for the foreseeable future.  Sure, lol it's a post on kos, but it's chock full of freepers and redstaters freaking out that Michael Steele and Cantor would dare, DARE I say question the wisdom of the almighty Rush.  As long as these people are allowed to dictate the direction of the party, the GOP is fucked.