TweetI’ve been meaning to share some thoughts about this Ross Douthat column of Oct. 21, headlined “The Democrats in Their Labyrinth.” Sure I think the headline was cool, although it provoked in me a twinge of guilt for never having finished that novel. (I had thought I would love it, because in 5th and 6th grades my […]
Tweet Yow! I just watched this short video at thestate.com. Someone needs to contact the Guinness people, because this has to be the record for the most populist cliches packed into a minute and seven seconds. Wait, the phone’s ringing… It’s 2010 Nikki Haley, and she wants her Tea Party speech back… Let’s just hope […]
TweetFirst, Nikki Haley gave Ralph Norman money. Now there’s this: 5th District congressional candidate Ralph Norman got a big boost Thursday, winning the endorsement of former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-Greenville. DeMint, the former head of the Heritage Foundation and a Tea Party icon, said Norman “has a proven record of fighting for conservative principles” […]
TweetLet’s elevate this discussion to the level of a separate post. I regularly refer to “real Republicans,” a group to which Donald J. Trump — ideologically and otherwise — does not belong. This is an important distinction. To say he’s just another Republican — as plenty of Democrats and Republicans both would have it — […]
Tweet Some of you may have doubted that Mick Mulvaney, swept into Congress in the Tea Party wave of 2010, was ready for the majors. Well, he’s doing great by the standards of the Trump era. The Washington Post‘s Fact Checker gave him Four Pinocchios in his first at bat! White House budget director’s false […]
TweetFor your consideration… CBO projects 24 million more uninsured over a decade under Republican plan — OK, so that’s why Ryan didn’t want it scored by the CBO. On the other hand, this could help him with the Tea Party base, since people losing coverage is what they want. Bill allowing carrying firearms without permit advances […]
Tweet I see that Rep. Jeff Duncan has given Chad Connelly a boost — at least, I assume it constitutes a boost — in his efforts to differentiate himself from the crowd seeking the GOP nomination for Mick Mulvaney’s seat. But that endorsement isn’t what interests me. What interests me is this language that Duncan […]
TweetAs you probably know, everybody and his sister has lined up to run for the GOP nomination for Mick Mulvaney’s congressional seat in the 5th District. As of last week: So far, six candidates have declared on the GOP side of the race: former state party chairman Chad Connelly; anti-Common Core activist Sheri Few; Camden […]
Tweet The Washington Post had a nice piece over the weekend about the recent history of U.S. immigration policy (“Open doors, slamming gates: The tumultuous politics of U.S. immigration policy“). It began with this anecdote: In his farewell address to the nation in 1989, President Ronald Reagan told the story of a Navy sailor patrolling […]
Tweet Late on election night, the folks on PBS (Judy Woodruff, David Brooks, Mark Shields, and others), utterly flabbergasted and in desperate search for something to say, somehow got on the subject of “Whither the Republican Party?” Or something like that. I forget exactly how they got on the topic, but they got to talking […]
Tweet And before you answer, “Well, it accomplished a lot in the Civil Rights era 50 years ago,” let me say that I think it did — under those particular circumstances. But that was about a clear and obvious gross injustice supported by law as a matter of policy. The nonviolent resistance, the dignified witness of […]
TweetMy old colleague and friend Jeff Miller brought this to my attention, as he had not seen anyone draw a direct connection between Donald Trump and Ben Tillman, although he was “Surprised it took this long.” The relevant passage: As the civil-rights movement burgeoned, Wallace repositioned himself to lead the white resistance and famously declared, […]
TweetYou don’t find a more dutiful soldier in the South Carolina Republican Party than Henry McMaster. Even when he went suddenly from being the most logical GOP choice for governor to losing to Tea Party upstart Nikki Haley in 2010 (basically, he was Jeb Bush to her Trump), he didn’t brood — he became her […]
TweetI sent a link to this interesting editorial in The Washington Post this morning to Bryan: The rank nihilism driving the GOP’s acceptance of Trump THE PAST weekend brought yet more evidence of Donald Trump’s contempt for truth and essential political standards. Yet the reality-television star continued to consolidate GOP support, a fact punctuated by Republican […]
Tweet Caesar, beware of Brutus. Take heed of Cassius. Come not near Casca. Have an eye to Cinna. Trust not Trebonius. Mark well Metellus Cimber. Decius Brutus loves thee not. Thou hast wronged Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal, […]
TweetNikki Haley got off the fence today and backed Marco Rubio (and not poor ol’ Jeb!) in Saturday’s primary, which goes to show how weird and volatile the Republican Party is in South Carolina these days. Let’s step back a bit… In 2010, Henry McMaster was the perfect Establishment candidate for governor: A Reagan man […]
TweetMy last post arose from Marco Rubio’s response to what Donald Trump said over the weekend, at that debate I had to stop watching. Basically, Trump repeated the left’s “Bush lied” lie: “You call it whatever you want. I wanna tell you. They lied…They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none. And they […]
TweetI was amused by the way The Slatest described a contretemps between their guy Josh Voorhees and angry Bernie Sanders supporters: On Tuesday night, Josh Voorhees wrote that Hillary Clinton won the first Democratic presidential debate. A number of Bernie Sanders supporters subsequently wrote to Josh to inform him that he was a stupid man […]
TweetOh, yeah, I almost forgot… I almost ran off the road this morning when I heard someone on NPR saying that the crazies who ran John Boehner out of the House were wanting Trey Gowdy to be majority leader. Of the Unites States House of Representatives. And I don’t think they were joking. Oh, I’m sure […]
TweetFor years, my parents would ask me if I’d ever seen the cop drama “Blue Bloods,” and when I said I hadn’t, they urged me to check it out. They love it. Eventually, in casting about this year for a new series to get hooked on after running out of “The West Wing,” I tried it. […]