Eventually, the policy innovators and the "Spirit of '94" were largely replaced by political bureaucrats driven by a narrow vision. Their question became: How do we hold onto political power? The aberrant behavior and scandals that ended up defining the Republican majority in 2006 were a direct consequence of this shift in choice criteria from policy to political power.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
On Dead Skunks and Republicans
Here's a great editorial by Dick Armey, former House Republican majority leader. This is the real crux of it:
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2 comments:
Isn't this the same Dick Armey who referred to the media straw man "Christian Right" and specifically Dr. James Dobson as "thugs?"
Mr. Armey exposes his own deep prejudices against a loose association of Christians interested in affecting government policy whom he falsely perceives as a monolithic entity with a single agenda. James Dobson is many things both good and bad. Being a "thug" is not one of them.
If this judgment is used as a guage to measure Mr. Armey's ability to analyze the recent election outcome his conclusions are, at best, questionable.
Here's some background to Armey's "thug" comment, from Newsweek's article titled "An Evangelical Identity Crisis" in the November 13, 2006, issue:
On these issues, James Dobson remains the man to see—and hear. With a mailing list of a million names and a following built up over the years, he's a force to be reckoned with. "It's painful to have him angry at you," says Dick Armey, former House majority leader and chairman of a conservative Washington think tank. "He responds in a manner that's damaging. You know, he'll say, 'I'm leaving, and I promise you, I'm taking a lot of people with me.' Well, elected officials know what that means ... I think we call it a Dobson's choice."
This is not the way of the cross, my brothers.
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