Republicans Becoming More Sane?

Republicans in the new House are fully taking advantage of their minority status. As they are no longer the majority, they are free to break away from their far-right base, in order to side with the more… umm, sane.

Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand of former leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), many back-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than their conservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting voter sentiment. The closest vote last week -- Friday's push to require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare -- pulled 24 Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans, the minimum wage increase 82.

"You're freer to vote your conscience," said Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.), who received an 88 percent voting record from the American Conservative Union in 2005 but has so far sided with Democrats on new budget rules, Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raising the minimum wage and funding stem cell research. "Or, really, I feel free to represent my constituents exactly as they want me to be."

November showed a rejection of far-right policy, and most Republicans realize this. Through the run-up to 2008, Republicans will abandon their far-right roots, realizing that America is not this, like, Christian Conservative theocracy that the Right would have you believe. Being a hardnosed Conservative will not get you elected in most areas, and finally Repubs are catching on, and changing their platform to reflect that.

Perhaps the hijacking of the Republican Party, by the nutters, has finally stopped.

Other Bloggers: Spacious Reasoning•Below The Beltway•Oliver Willis



Technorati Tags: Republicans•Congress•Conservatives•Democrats

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McCain And The Nutters- BFF

Jesus Christ, you must be fuckin’ kidding me.

John McCain guest blogs over at strange, Arab obsessed Powerline, trying to drum up some escalation points from the far-far-far-far-far-far-far-farthest of the far-far-far right.

Read it, and then ask yourself why McCain is trying to gain support from the nutter minority in politics, while ignoring the important, sane, anti-Iraq majority in America.

It’s almost like they only care about one group of people….

Technorati Tags: McCain•Iraq•Surge•Escalation•Nutters

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In The Army Now!

(Updated below...Updated Again)

Watch out liberal newswires, here comes the Malkin, to, like, let truth prevail.

I spoke with Jordan by phone before Christmas to learn more details of his offer, which I'm not going to get into for privacy and security reasons. (He asked that his discussion be off the record.) I let him know that I had received invitations to embed with the military and planned to follow up on some of these offers concurrently with the investigation of the AP's reporting. Since our conversation, things have moved at a fast pace on the embed side. Over the holidays, my Hot Air colleague Bryan Preston and I received word that our embed applications had been approved. We have been busy preparing our families and ourselves for the journey. Our overarching goals are two-fold:

1) to report on how the troops perceive mainstream media coverage of the war (with a particular focus on the wire services relying on local stringers); and

2) to report on progress and interaction between U.S. troops and Iraqi Army trainees.

The "Jamil Hussein" story is one important item on our agenda, but not the only one. As Curt and other bloggers on this story have noted from the beginning, Jamilgate isn't just about "Jamil Hussein." Bryan and I plan to do as much on-the-ground reporting as we can to nail down unresolved questions--not only about Jamil Hussein and the Hurriya six burning Sunnis allegations, but also about the AP four burning mosque story discrepancies and the many other AP sources that our military has publicly challenged--including "Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq" and more than a dozen police officers listed by U.S. military spokesman Navy Lt. Michael Dean. There's also the issue of detained AP photographer Bilal Hussein. And we are looking forward to reporting first-hand on the security situation in Iraq outside the so-called "Green Zone" (International Zone) and talking to as many American and Iraqi Army troops with insights on these and other broader matters.

Please, Malkin, enlighten us with your fair and unbiased reporting.

UPDATE1: 12:11 PM

Jamil Hussein has won the first Battle of Fakraq as he stuns the Malkin Brigade by announcing his existence!

UPDATE2: 9:11 PM

Oooopsie, it looks like Jamil Hussein is really, really real.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

But still, Malkin will be on the scene to convince us that Iraq is really a happy place with prancing bunnies and, like, sand creatures that frolic in the dunes. You know, nothing like the war zone that the liberal media would have us believe it is.


Other Bloggers: Firedog Lake



Technorati Tags: Michelle Malkin•Iraq•Jamil Hussein

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Virgil Goode: Racism and Republicans

From USATODAY -

A letter I sent in early December was written in response to hundreds of e-mails from constituents upset about Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran in connection with his congressional swearing-in. Their communications followed media reports that Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, had said that he would swear on the Quran. He repeated that at a gathering of Muslims in Detroit on Dec. 26.

I wonder if more Republicans will now come out against Goode and his use of racism to gain support for an immigration plan.

Doubtful… I wonder why….




Technorati Tags: Virgil Goode•Racist Republicans

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The Death Of Saddam and The Creepy Right

(Updated Below)

Let me start off this post with the obligatory “Saddam was an evil, evil man who did evil, evil things”, so the nutters don’t accuse me of an evil lovefest, or whatever other strange ad hom attacks they can think of to label the left, instead of actually debating their ideas. With that said, it seems quite set in stone that Saddam will be hung by tomorrow, giving the Bush administration what could, perhaps, be their final shining moment in regards to the Iraq war.

Watching Fox news (hey, I take that bullet so you don’t have too) and the Conservative blogosphere (that one too) cover this with such glee is quite creepy. There is no doubt in my mind that there will be Champaign (and pill) popping in many Conservative camps, once this execution has taken place. The fact that a group of people are so happy, so incredibly giddy, about the death of another human being, cannot be described as anything but a sign of insanity. To get a hardon over the destruction of another human life is intrinsically evil.

UPDATE1 1:16 AM

And it's done.

With all the effort, all the lives lost, all the money spent in the fight to get to this exact moment (well this exact moment a few hours ago… yeah, yeah, I’m behind), shouldn’t I feel more… something? I can honestly say it wasn’t worth all the pain and suffering of our soldiers, all the deaths, all the past and future destruction as this war drags on until Bush is no longer president.



Technorati Tags: Iraq•Saddam•Nutters

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