South by Southwest: Republicans get in the news

Monday, March 02, 2009

Republicans get in the news

[3/2/09]

Republicans, the Minority Party, still have many ways of getting in the news. By and large they have a free ride with the mainstream media. Thus, by hook or by crook they manage to get platforms for their agendas. They had several methods that grabbed the airtime and page space in recent weeks.

Hold a conference/convention --
Governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll as the next presidential favorite of the activists at this last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CQ Politics has the story:

Of 1,757 registered attendees who chose to take this year’s survey, 20 percent said they would vote for Romney as president in 2012.

Win a Poll --
CQ Politics (2/27/09) headlined, "Palin leads, not by much, in early test of '12 GOP presidential support." To quote::

Palin, the governor of Alaska, led with 29 percent among the 462 Republicans who responded to the poll taken Feb. 18-19. Palin built a sizable fan club on the Republican right as the party's surprise vice presidential pick with her effusive campaign style and strongly conservative views, though she committed several stumbles that raised serious doubts among many other voters.

Grandstanding --
"G ubernatorial Grandstanding from the GOP," by Matt Compton at The Democratic Strategist. (See also, The numbers behind Gov's refusal of stimulus bucks). To quote Compton:

With most of the nation's governors in town over the weekend for the winter NGA meeting, much of the talk centered around the recovery bill signed into law by President Obama last week.

The stimulus package contains billions of dollars earmarked for state governments, but throughout the process, a handful of conservative governors -- namely South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- have threatened to turn the money down.

Ranting --
1) "Fury of the 'Winners'," and 2)"Palin-Santelli," by Ed Kilgore also at The Democratic Strategist. Quoting both posts:

1). . . The sheer self-righteousness of Santelli's rant--inflated by attaboy cries (genuine or facetious) from the prosperous white men on the trading floor around him--was what was rema[r]kable about it.
2) Careful readers of my last post just below may have deduced that I don't have a real high opinion of Rick Santelli, the CNBC reporter who treated viewers yesterday to a lengthy tirade on the outrage of Barack Obama trying to help "losers" who can't pay their mortgages.

Criticize your own party --Memeorandum carried a couple of interesting stories. One was by Ross Douthat: "Is The GOP Hopeless?" It discusses David Frum's criticism of the Republican Party.

Wave the flag --
ProPublica revealed a perfect example, the story of Dusty Foggo's conviction for defrauding the government: "Disgraced Senior CIA Official Heads to Prison Still Claiming He's a Patriot." To quote:

He took full responsibility, he said, yet he refused to elaborate. He characterized his guilty plea as a personal sacrifice undertaken to spare the government the cost of a trial that might have resulted in national secrets being exposed. Foggo and his attorneys argued that he was a patriot and loving and devoted family man even though prosecutors presented a hefty amount of evidence to the contrary.

But this is the Democrats reality --
Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher asked the key question (2/28/09), however: "What if the Wingnuts Threw a Fit, and Nobody Cared?" To quote:

One of the most interesting things about the latest Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll is that Nancy Pelosi's net favorability rating continues to rise. Despite being the target of right wing rage and held up as the poster girl for profligate spending, subject to Twitter attacks by GOP members of Congress and targeted by human bile machine Ann Coulter, her popularity hasn't been affected at all. Quite the opposite.

In fact, despite everything that the teabaggers have throw at them, Democrats in Congress had a whopping 13 point rise in their favorability ratings this week and moved into positive territory (their favorables are now higher than their unfavorables, 46/45). Only two possibilities that I can see. Either nobody is listening to the GOP tantrum throwers, or they have become negative validator -- i.e., they are so discredited that their disapproval now moves the needle in a positive direction.

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