This is no time to block appointments to the health related offices of the cabinet. Now we need a Surgeon General.

the right forced delays in the HHS confirmation, which only made Republicans look worse given the H1N1 public health emergency.

...which in turn forced Republican apologists to come up with such arguments as "Obama created swine flu just to get Sebelius confirmed".

the right forced delays in the HHS confirmation, which only made Republicans look worse given the H1N1 public health emergency

Actually, it makes the public understand that the Repubsareworse.

Olympia Snowe is all over the op-ed pages whining about how the Repubs don't appreciate her. Might she be the next to jump over the broomstick and marry the Dems? Or is she angling to be the new face and de facto leader of the Repubs?

Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?

No.

Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?

No. This has been another edition....

--------------------------
Actually, what I think this is about money for the organizations who mount these mindless campaigns. Losing doesn't hurt fundraising. This is especially true on abortion-related issues. Losing actually helps, because they can say that they have to fight harder.

You see this on the other side. NARAL's mailings exaggerate, by quite a bit, the risk of reversal of Roe v Wade.

Reality, that liberal whore, keeps interrupting the winger dreams and keeps makes their strategies backfire.

One death in the US today already due to swine flu, a 23 month old baby in TX. My sympathy and condolences to the family. Perhaps the 'culture of life' party can console the parents and tell them about how, at this time, they are willing and able to block any and all Public Health related positions in the Obama government as long as they disagree with any position or statement the appointee has ever made or held. I suppose the family will also feel better after they explain that they stripped out all the money for pandemic prevention from the stimulus bill, since preventing disease and protecting the public are "not stimulative". Who exactly are the swine here? I guess that they don't call them repigs for noth'in.

Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?

Sober reflection and self-analysis are not typical of extremists, and the remaining dregs of the Republican Party are nothing but extremists.

Who are the dominant faces of the right? Boss Limbaugh, Gingrich, Beck, Macklin? What do they have in common? They are un-elected. They are skilled communicators invested in the sounds of their own voices. Their power is measured in intensity of their audiences. They can avoid facing the reality of their ever shrinking audience if they whip up the volume of their remaining dittoheads to 11.

As long as the professional talking heads are running the Republican party, and the Democrats don't over reach, the Republicans are in a world of hurt. Of course at some point the advertisers will notice.

This is the pattern of virtually all right-wing "values" campaigns: huge outcry, undue attention, zero results. We've seen it for years with abortion, flag burning, the 10 commandments, etc.

Hopefully we can soon include gay marriage in that list as well.

It seems people are missing the very real Medical/Political phenomenon taking place as Republicans catch "Donkey Flu" and become Democrats.

Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?

Perhaps, if they weren't insane.

Actually, I think losing battles like that serves to reinforce the sense of victimization in the right-wing, and builds the passion and cohesion among their number. When nominees that have been opposed get approved, it just enables the righties to believe that they've been shut out of the system, and they are being oppressed. It proves that "we never get our way!" (More and more, the right-wing's behavior can best be understood by thinking of it as an petulant teenager.)

One of the main reasons behind the opposition to KS was that she is Catholic. Catholics in this country are shooting themselves in the foot politically by holding their co-religionists in politics to an abortion litmus test.

Are they actively trying to reduce their own political influence? Do they really want to refight the battle that was already won back in 1960 - when JFK's opponents predicted that he would be a shill for the Vatican?

It is a difficult prospect to "pick their battles more effectively" simply they've been foisting scorch the earth politics upon us since the early days of that obnoxious Congressional representative from Georgia showed up and began using the chamber as a bully-pulpit for his dastardly ambitions to become president. The future looked so bright for such a pol, he just needed to serve his first wife the divorce papers so he could find a spouse who looked more presidential - now where was she to be served her divorce papers? Why her recovering hospital bed - hey Newt may have thought he was doing his soon to be ex-wife a favor. He gave her two recoveries for the price of one.

No, the politics of personal destruction is so last century. I wonder when these pious groups will realize that! -Kevo

Who. Cares. What. They. Think. Anymore.

conservatives rallied about as aggressively as they could to derail the former Kansas governor's confirmation.

It didn't come close to working.

Quite to the contrary: they held up the nomination for months. As far as the GOP base probably sees things, that's something of a win.

-Z

It is a difficult prospect to "pick their battles more effectively" simply they've been foisting scorch the earth politics upon us since the early days of that obnoxious Congressional representative from Georgia showed up

Speaking of the former speaker, he was on the Today Show again, angling hard for the "Americans want less government and less debt meme". It's fast becoming their favorite defense against changing the Corporate America status quo.

However, there still remains the question of the Kansas City, Kansas Catholic Archbishop denying her communion because of her veto of an abortion notification bill. The right would love for this to expand to the denial of communion for any voter voting for any pro-life politico. Lovely way to attempt to build the right wing base, eh?

Actually, the new Secretary is not pro-life, but, a Catholic who believes in upholding the law of the land, no matter what her personal and religious views may be. But, this move by the ulra right Catholic bishops is chilling, eh Blue Girl?

There are good reasons to oppose some appointees (like Bernie Kerik).

To the religious right, appointing a pro-choice person to HHS is something they oppose the same way environmentalists would oppose appointing an industrial polluter to run EPA.

In the minds of the religious right, the debate lies in whether or not people believe that a fetus has a soul. The religious right believes that God places a "soul" in the fetus at the moment of conception. This is the primary issue of the pro-life movement, but it is rarely framed in that manner because it would be a debate about religion and religious beliefs (which it is). Religious beliefs are not really debatable. Either you believe or you don't or you are non-committal.

One thing that confounded me is that NPR's report Tuesday morning identified Sebelius's connections to "notorious abortion clinic owner" (without context) as having been the major obstacle. Nothing like editorializing in a news report -- although I am reminded that many folks are positive that NPR stands for "Nice Polite Republicans."

Interesting that those champions of bipartisanship John McCain and his sidekick Lindsey Graham both voted against confirmation.

Not much, other than maybe reinforcing a feckless reputation.

I think Repukes will be lucky if they appear as merely feckless. They have shown (again) that they are willing to put the nation at risk to satisfy a radical minority of the population.

The Republicans, since the 1970s, have used the anti-abortion movement as a launch pad for all kinds of terrible policies. Now that their other policies have been exposed, anti-abortion seems to be all they have left. So they pick their battles with one purpose in mind--stop the abortionists!! But now their anti-abortion positions just make them look like loonies, not people of principle.

I admit that I am gobsmacked. I never thought I'd see the day.

One thing that confounded me is that NPR's report Tuesday morning identified Sebelius's connections to "notorious abortion clinic owner" (without context) as having been the major obstacle. Nothing like editorializing in a news report -- although I am reminded that many folks are positive that NPR stands for "Nice Polite Republicans."
Posted by: Nanuq on April 29, 2009 at 9:27 AM | PERMALINK***************************************

NPR is OFF my giving list! I also noticed this morning that they are referring to Democratic Senators as "Democrat Senators". LINK TV and Free Speech TV (FSTV) are getting the money that I used to give to NPR.

The right wing GOP tried to portray the governor of Kansas -- frickin' KANSAS, fer crine out loud -- as a lefty pinko God-hater. Sometimes you have to take a step back to observe how sublimely ludicrous these folks have become and just marvel.

"Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?"

The GOP non-stop attack strategy was actually pretty damn effective for a long time. It wore out the media and frequently made Dems fight battles on Republican terms. But no strategy works forever.

Mike

"Perhaps the right can reevaluate their entire approach? Pick their battles a little more effectively?"

You must be one of the devil's minions, Benen, trying to dissuade us from G-d's work. Yes, this time we could not stop the forces of darkness from installing their bloody handed henchmen, but this just means the fight for America's soul is even more important, and requires more effort. G-d's warriors, I assure you, are up to the task. The temporary setbacks we are experiencing mean only that we must double down on our efforts, and develop new, more effective strategies for advancing G-d's will. Glory be the most blessed on high, King of Kings and savior of souls Jesus!!! Hear our prayers, and give us the strength to smite the craven, godless heathens from our holy land!!! Inshaballahbalalla noonittintoillingin......

Hey Steve, I'm seeing that the NYT says there were 9 R's voting Yea, and you say there were 6. The senate.gov list (Bond, Brownback, Collins, Gregg, Lugar, Roberts, Snowe, Specter, Voinovich) is clearly wrong about Specter's affiliation at 5:37 p.m. April 28 ... so are you saying you know a secret about, say, a couple of gentlewomen from Maine?