Mar 23 2007
Krauthammer Should Quit GOP/Conservatism
For his incompetence in feeding the liberal media and Democrat PR machine and his clear surrender on the AG issue Charles Krauthammer should resign as being a voice supporting the GOP or conservative causes. Every fight is worth engaging with the Dems, especially these easy ones. The AG issue was a partisan creation for political gain, it was not the fault of the administration. Krauthammer is tired of the battle of ideals – so he should just quit. Don’t call on others to quit. We either stand up to the left or we step aside. Krauthammer has said we should step aside. I therefore call on him to take his own medicine. Enough with quitters. Political battles are inconvenient and draining. Get used to it. He has lost the will to fight, but the administration has not. You can guess where I am standing.
Ya know, I just don’t care!
Gonzales is very close to Bush. Bush knows him from Texas. From the days when being competent didn’t matter all that much.
Now? Bush will fight for this man. But it’s like watching Donald Trump stand up for his wife; while one blonde, to me, is the same as another. Wife. Schmife. That’s not why The Donald is married to the latest version of German ice. Nor do I care, there, either.
As to Gonzales, there is so much WRONG with the way Bush operates; which is neither “hands off,” nor apparently loyal to Libby. That all you see ALL THE TIME is the guise of incompetence is “loyalty.”
Why shouldn’t Bush be loyal? His favorite people have shed their ego’s. They’ve got no spines. They wear nice suits and ties. And, they “reflect affirmative action.”
If we’re all lucky; Bush’s administration will be the closest the donks every come, again, to having a man in the White House more in charge of appearances, than just about anything relating to competence.
In other words? Bush brought baggage with him from Texas. And, he’ll defend this crap to the end. Nor, do I care. Not one way. And, not the other.
As fodder though? Works miracles when you put shit on plants. And, it’s gonna thrive within the voting public, for the future. When the peolosi driving skills up-end the stinkers in the House.
Because the whole thing now stinks to the high heavens.
Gonzales is worth fighting for? Why are we getting stuck watching these “neighbors fighting? Not worth two-cents. Wouldn’t even bother to call the police. It’s not even worth my time to make a call; or get stuck having to give my version of events to the paperwork artists.
If we had a real media we’d all be in a different boat.
Someday? Why not.
The one good thing? Which would have been worth spending time on here? Ah. TONY SNOW. He took on the idiot from CBS. And, he handled the frozen media questions (trying to hang the White House in another scandal); like a housewife with an efficient mop. Cleaning up the mess. Best line? Accusing CBS of trying to see things through a straw.
You bet. It was nice to see CBS crushed. Drudge ran the headline. Which gave a link to the U-Tube replay. WOW! My hat’s off to arguments like that!
Carol, what stinks are the Democrats and MSM.
Gonzales is Dead Man Walking. Credit Krautmammer for realizing two things: #1, Gonzales is Toast; #2, there is no winnable outcome for Bush on this issue.
D. Kyle Sampson has agreed to testify, and he will blow Gonzales out of the water. Gonzales (like his mentor Dubbya) does not use e-mail, specifically to avoid a paper (i.e., electronic) trail, but Sampson will testify about his conversations with Gonzales, and Sampson’s e-mails are incriminating in the extreme.
The American people have been told for the last 6 years that
I don’t agree with you Soothsayer. It looks like Congress is going to end up looking stupid in this one because it appears that these US-A were fired at least partially due to complaints lodged by DEMOCRAT members of Congress.
The Washington Post believes the Democrats have blown this and it is a complete waste of time and even one of John Dean’s most faithful waterboys, Lou Dobbs over at CNN, believes the Dems are wrong on this issue.
The issue is going to fade away and Gonzales is going to stay.
Fitzgerald and the D.C. jury proved that, if the arena is D.C., then you absolutely positively DO need to avoid testifying under oath whenever possible. (1) Some star reporter may remember things differently than you, thus giving some overeager prosecutor the means to have you brought up on perjury charges, even if you told the truth as best you remembered it, and (2) if you have to testify before Congress under oath, then Congress can ask you anything about anything — they don’t have to stick to the subject at hand; they can ask you about a drunk-driving incident from thirty years ago, and if you give an answer they don’t like, then Congress can nail you with perjury or contempt of Congress. That’s a helluva nasty combination, especially in today’s hyperpartisan political climat — I don’t care how honest you are.
Errr…back on topic, I guess. I stopped reading Krauthammer in the wake of the Harriet Miers fiasco. I think he was one of those who didn’t even want Miers to get in front of any sort of committee in Congress, never mind go through anything like confirmation.
By the way, AJ, you might want to correct that link. I found the article here instead.
thanx Aitch – had two WaPo articles up!
There is another reason this is going to fade. President Bush’s approval ratings ROSE in the face of this. So the public response was the opposite of what they were hoping to produce.
DinA – Only the president conducts foreign policy and is the CiC of the military. Congress has only one function and that is to spend our money. They fulfilled that obligation by appropriating funds to continue the war. Everything else is window dressing no matter what any of the media say about it.
Since every single member of congress knows that conducting a war is clearly outside their area of responsibility, I wonder what kind of arm twisting the speaker used to cause them to make fools of themselves voting yes on this resolution.
Krauthammer did the same kind of thing with Harriet Miers. The Democrats are the majority now, they don’t need Charles’s help. I like him most of the time but I am getting tired of all these pundits in general.It is easy to critcize, but if you had a job like that it would be almost impossible to avoid these kinds of things from time to time.
Krauthammer is too ready to surrender.
And the Democrats should realize that until now these political jobs were just that, politics and both parties accepted that, but now that they have decided to make an issue of this…in the future people of both parties will be paying a lot more attention and that might be something they will be sorry for someday.
” I wonder what kind of arm twisting the speaker used to cause them to make fools of themselves voting yes on this resolution.”
Left by erp on March 23rd, 2007
ERP –
there are quite a few news articles
noting the amount of Pork attached as riders
to the Iraq war funding legislation.
i’d say it’s a very safe bet that was the “kind of arm twisting the speaker used to cause them to make fools of themselves “.
AJ first I want to apologize to you I had said many months ago that you reminded me of being like Dr. Krauthammer. But for the last 6-8 months Dr. Krauthammer views have not been all that intellectual which is a shame because he is very intellectual. He now has become just another talking head.
I used to be a great Dr. Krauthammer fan. That changed after his column about Harriet Meiers, and I have not found his recent columns to be as keen and sharp as they used to be. I still read him, but more out of curiosity than anything else at this point.
Another example of an MSM “oracle ” struggling for relevance.
Sheer lunacy to ask Krauthammer to quit. That’s the donks’ approach.
In a free country, Krauthammer is more than free to spout his opinions. And, the worst rule would be the one that says you have to agree with them all.
Relax. You don’t have to agree. He gets paid, anyway.
As to what’s going on in DC; start with the fact the Bush is COMFORTABLE around Gonzales. That’s what happens when you’re high up the totem pole. And, you don’t make friends on the job. Instead, you bring them with you.
And, Bush is a stickler for a suit & tie. And, he needs mildly mannered people. That the donks shout at him? I don’t even think he thinks about this when he’s sitting on the toilet.
He knows politics is a vile and dirty sport. And, IF a republican pulled the stunts pelosi pulls, THEN you’d discover the art “OF THE COLD SHOULDER.”
As to the current “climate,” it’s way too bad Bush just noticed! Because you’ve got to wonder whatever possessed him to “hold out a hand,” and say he was “willing to get along?” Did he think it was going to make his life easier? Nope. It won’t.
But the learning curve happens to affect the American people. Since the donks got to claim this majority following the lackluster 2006 election, exactly what have they done? Let’s say you want to discount “how” pelosi, new at the speaker’s wheel, managed to drive right through the plate glass window. Well? She didn’t take driving lessons, first.
And, the house has been beset with stinkers from both the GOP and the donkey parade, sitting their fat asses in the speaker’s chair. When was the last time you heard there was a good one, there? No. I don’t want to define the term “good.” Suffice to say, they’re all interested in pork. And, very few of them see any advantages to doing more than stuffing as much money as they can into the people who sent them to Congress. That’s how they can go back, again. And, ask for more money.
It’s a whore house. And, it’s lackluster. And, we’re all surprised at the types of people that walk through the front doors.
On the other hand? What if all that we see is only making so many Americans so mad, they’re gonna want to see the meanest son-of-a-bitch coming into office in 2008?
I disagree. Krauthammer continues to be one of the few pundits who speaks with logic & reason, usually conservative. I don’t agree 100% with him, but this time he is right on, again. This is another non-scandal, but for the inability of the Bush team to articulate and assert sound policy, positions, or decisisions. He acknowledges the dems blood-lust to sack Gonzalez (and by extension other WH members), and so posits that Bush should not remove him right now. He makes clear here (and many other times) that Bush should not cave to the dems. But on this and other issues Gonzalez has done a poor job defending and explaining actions, which in turn leads to dem & MSM blather that hinders the Bush team.
And the Miers episode? Give me a break, with tens maybe hundreds of qualified, solid conservative, constitutional scholar-jurists to pick from, Bush went the diversity route. Miers was a terrible choice that deserved the criticism it got — it was not over the top or mean-spirited (at least the people I read & listen to). Fortunately, Bush corrected that mis-step with the solid Alito.
Wiley,
I generally agree. My point was that the MSM commentators are becoming less important with “new media” replacing them. And as a whole, they are a pretty mediocre lot with a constant need to differentiate themselves from each other .
I agree with AJ that every fight is worth fighting because the Democrats place their Mean Fighting Machine out on their front lines. All they have to do is fire the first shot, sit back and watch the show. Shovel in a little more fuel. Fire another bullet in a different direction. Their snipers, better known as MSM, fire the heavy artillery every day.
The Gonzales fight has nothing to do with Gonzales. Nothing.
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This makes me crazy. Who would hear it? Plus, I disagree. The only people who had the power to stop some of the Madness sat in Congress. The crap starts there and they are the ONLY ones that can stop it. They didn’t. They thought they could stay civil to those idiots that share space. They couldn’t let this crap go unanswered (since it was in their playpen by their playmates) and win. They lost.
.
It was nothing BUT over the top (paid ads) and not only mean-spirited but down right nasty. To this day, I seldom read Frum (even when he’s right), read certain blogs, or listen to Laura Ingraham without remembering. It was the first real damage to the party. Everyone repeat ‘blame Bush’. After all, he’s an idiot to have done this, right? The anti-Miers remind me of MSM…..just say their facts enough and it becomes accepted history. Wrong. It was a group getting their issue above all.
One of my favorite bloggers, the Capt is wearing his hair shirt again because he read the WaPo. I refuse to help the Dems and their MSM army. They don’t need it. It does not matter now if the line in the sand has to be Gonzales. No more helping promote the Dem’s crap. How many more are the Republicans willing to give up? You gave up Congress. Stop the Madness and fight.
BTW….just because it is the now the Republicans ‘accepted’ theory that everything is Bush’s fault because he is so incompetent …………no sale here. Zero. The same way that France came out of the closet at the UN, every anti-American force on the face of the earth came out, and that includes the Dem’s MSM army. Bush stood his ground better than anyone I could think to put in his slot. Yes, I imagine that George W Bush is tired, his wife and daughters are tired and his extended family is tired. I mean…..after all……a university even changed their policy so to not give Jed an honor.
George W Bush is the only one of the bunch I support 100% today. I don’t have to agree with every decision he makes but once again……..he has chosen correctly. Gonzales must stay. You give them Gonzales and they take the board. Krauthammer is wrong.
“Give them Gonzales”? When Gonzales is indicted or impeached – its going to be pretty hard to continue to support him. Us your head – its over for Gonzales.
The AG issue is over – no one outside the beltway is listening anymore.
OWL, you debate like the lefty MSM. You cherry-picked a line out of context — I most assuredly think the AG issue is worth fighting and that Gonzalez should stay (we agree), at least for now. However, I agree with Krauthammer in that Gonzalez has stumbled too many times, and this controversy would have been precluded had Gonzalez simply & confidently stated pertinent facts up front. He didn’t, and opened the door for the dems to fabricate a “scandal” when we know there isn’t one.
I don’t listen to Ingraham much anymore, but was listening when the Miers choice was made. And Laura was not mean-sprited or nasty in the least. She and other conservatives were disappointed and passionate since this was such an important matter. As I said, it was a bad choice that deserved criticism — Miers was woefully unqualified. I like Bush, but he’s made his share of mistakes. We were glad he rebounded nicely with Alito.