It wasn't that long ago that Republicans were arguing that one of the good things about the Iraq War, was that it created jobs. But then, Cheney said in his 2000 debate with Lieberman that government had nothing to do with his financial success at Haliburton.

" Perhaps because of the fatuousness of one side of the argument."

Not so much fatuousness as the fact that Republicans have, at best, a child's understanding of economics. Because they cannot comprehend the terms, interactions, interdependencies, and so forth that go into making an economy operate, they're stuck with only the most simplistic, grade-school level slogans. And they don't even understand those.

So it's just not possible to have successful discussions with them.

I can only assume/predict Steele was implying that, rather than refer to people gainfully employed BY the government, no job was ever produced in the private sector that was directly influenced by actions by the government. Which is equally asinine - for example, all the outside goods & services the government needs aren't produced by elfin magic. The government isn't exactly thriving alone in a biosphere. And as the government makes decisions that affect economic growth, so too do they affect jobs.

I guess Steele really means they're not the ones in charge of interviewing potential Dennys' Waitresses?

To paraphrase Rumsfield, it seems like the RNC is going into battle with the leadership they have, not the leadership they want. Tell 'em what they wanna hear, Steelie! Reality's for liberals! Heckuvajob!

The repubs seem incapable of doing anything other than sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting threadbare barking points from the Reagan era. It's all they have, because anything else would require that they, you know, work. And if there's one thing a wingnut hates more than a brown immigrant, it's the work they invite those brown immigrants to perform.

While progressives set up workshops, the right sets up war rooms. Their solution to stimulus? Rather than work to improve it, they revel in fighting it.

For decades, the bottom line of republican policy has been to shift the tax burden from those who make money by already having it, to those who must go out and work for it.

Until the right overcomes it's aversion to actual work, I don't expect them to offer anything constructive.

Again... Republicans are simply not interested in policy. Not interested in policy. They are interested in the Two Minutes Hate against libruls. They are interested in thereby rallying their core supporters and consequently in getting money from said core supporters. Period.

As were the dinosaurs, so too are these Republicans completely oblivious to their pending extinction event, of which they are now well into the early stages. The blatantly-shallow ignorance of their political breed can be found in a comparison of Dan Quayle and the recently-anointed RNC chair: Both spell a noun ("potato" in the former case, and "steel" in the latter) by adding a totally-unnecessary "silent e...."

And McConnell addressed the troops the other day with a message on how the GOP must change and adapt if it is to survive. I don't doubt that he meant it while he was saying it. It's just that before and after delivering this little pep talk, he was busy rallying his troops to be total obstructionists on behalf of failed Bush policies.

These people are simply incapable of backing off discredited positions, even as the tragic results of their handiwork are all around them.

Interesting. I guess Steele argues that the millions of cops, firefighters, teachers, soldiers, etc. don't really exist nor have they ever existed in history.

The trouble is, though, that all of this fatuousness from Republicans gets played and replayed on television (especially cable) as serious opinion.

Once again, on TV pundits reign supreme, and experts are marginalized.

They're playing to their lunatic base, while wondering what the hell to do, and hoping for Obama to develop a clusterfuck all his own - in order to use that to try and build a new movement around the GOP.

But I wonder whether the voters haven't seen through it all now - they must be aware that the GOP is all delusion, all the time.

"rallying the troops to be obstructionists"

Dang it all, knew it was a mistake to let them keep their rifles and mules. "Spring planting"? All they know is how to plant hemlock and kudzu.

"turn the United States into France"

Sounds asinine but let us count the millions of voters who view France in the same vein as they did the USSR and will react to this, and all the other crap coming down from the GOP, by reinforcing the message liberals are communists. Underestimating the seductiveness of lunacy is lunacy.

Two words: Sarah Palin. Make that five: Joe The Plumber.

You are way too glum, MissMudd. I think the evidence shows that the horse crap that the GOP peddles as policy turns off more voters than it earns. We have a whole new generation of voters who grew up hearing that garbage and don't respond to it.

Fucking Idiot! that's all that needs to be said- at least they are consistent

let them go on and destroy themselves. 2010 could be the election we need to give them true minority status.

Republicans have, at best, a child's understanding of economics.

As do the people running our financial institutions, apparently.

You points are well taken, but Steele did not run for re-election as Lt. Governor. Steele ran for the US Senate instead (and lost to Ben Cardin). Ehrlich had a different running mate in 2006 (Kristen Cox).

I didn't realize that postal workers deliver my mail out of the goodness of their hearts, not because they're employed by the government to do so.

All of the above is true about the Republican leadership. It has been true about the 'rank and file Congessmen' but as soon as you get 'one olive out of the jar' I think a few more will follow, and then there will start being a small, changing contingent of Republican support for most proposals.

How do you get that? By realizing the constituents are not as crazy as the Congressmen, and the business interests in their districts -- I'm talking more about 'local bigwigs' rather than large corporations -- are frequently not crazy at all.

(This was, btw, the point of the speech on bippartisanship I wrote last week. Not to convince the Republican Congressmen directly, but to go 'over their heads' to the constituency, hoping they would pressure their Representatives.)

And for those of you who doubt this is possible, realize that many of the voters for the crazies not only aren't as crazy themselves, but might not realize just how off the wall their Reps. are.

Take the King of Craziness himself (I've decided the 'competition' is silly. Just call Michelle 'Queen Crazy' and Steve 'King Crazy.'). He gets talked about on other blogs, and recently one of his poor constituents -- NOT a supporter -- pointed out that there are no locally centered tv stations or ne2wspapers in the District, and that most of the coverage comes through Omaha, and that they might not see King C's more egregious remarks since there's no reason for a Nebraska paper to cover a minor Congressman from another state.

Even if a lot of his constituents are as crazy or *shudder* even crazier, a lot aren't, just Republicans who'll vote for the Party, not the person -- and yes, we have some of that type voting for some of our zanies, if none of them are at Steve-level.

We can pressure them indirectly, or even directly. Can you imagine someone like Barney Frank announcing he was introducing a bill 'accepting' the reluctance Republicans have to support the stimulus packages, and offering an Amendment forbidding expenditures in any district whose Representative has voted consistently against it.

Of course it would never pass, or even be brought up in committee, but Republicans (I've never denie they were stupid, just that they were all evil) don't notice that sort of distinction, and just the existence of the bill will cause a lot of Chambers of Comerce, Auto Dealer Associations, and the like to write "Is you crazee?" letters to their Representatives.

Well I'm sure the Daily Show and others are glad we still have Repub Bizarro World to enlighten and entertain us. Just think of the possibilities:

The RNC is offering free fiddling lessons for all those Repub Senators that feel compelled by historical norms to do something useless while our country crashes and burns during the Bush Great Depression. "Fiddling with the best: Nero would be Proud" Level 1 will be offered in the Green Room at 7PM this evening.

The RNC is providing a free video tape with directions and explicit warnings about the correct way to pay homage to the almighty leader Rush Limbaugh. Extreme care must be taken that the Repub Senator or Congress person gets no more than the lightest dosage from licking the ball sac. The effect has been reported as causing extreme hallucinations along with dizziness and/or heart palpitations. If this occurs, breathe slowly and deeply until the effect fades. Chemical analysis has found significantly higher concentrations of the hallucinogen 5-MeO-DMT than has ever been recovered from the largest Colorado River Toads.

"... wait for it ..."

Attention middle aged guy who wrote this. It is not 1998. And you are not Jon Stewart.

Me, January 28:

"I'm going to have to write a Greasemonkey script that takes "...wait for it..." out of blog posts. Middle-aged guys who've confused themselves with Jon Stewart putting that phrase into sentences in every third comment is really lame and tiresome. "

http://www.antievolution.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=14;t=1272;st=10920#entry134066

Another blogger, in response:

"Thankfully, this middle-aged blogger has only used that once, though not as a statement in itself. "

http://www.antievolution.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=14;t=1272;st=10920#entry134068

Me again, still Jan 28:

"I was thinking of the political blogs i read, like Washington Monthly, where the guys there think it's still clever after using it several times a week for years."

http://www.antievolution.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=14;t=1272;st=10920#entry134071

WashingtonMonthly, 4 days later:

"First, I suppose, it's worth remembering that when Steele was the lieutenant governor of Maryland, and sought re-election, he and his running mate took credit for creating 100,000 new jobs in their state. They also ran ads vowing to ... wait for it ... create more jobs."

LAME.

DARN!

I guess I'd better not quit my day job as an RNC event coordinator...

A Tax Cut Won't Educate Your Child

Well and needfully said! One thing, though: learn proper use of "reference" as a verb and stop replicating the moronic missue.

...turn the United States into France...".
Dibs on the Brie!