Peggy Noonan-Bush destroyed the GOP

[Tropics_Dude83]

I've never got the crticism of her. She, William F. Buckley Jr. and George Will to some extent have all criticized the GOP to some extent. The rest of the conservative pundits not so much. Anyway, here's what she wrote in her most recent column. Interesting to see a GOPer write this:

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

I believe that some of the ferocity of the pundit wars is due to a certain amount of self-censorship. It's not in human nature to enjoy self-censorship. The truth will out, like steam from a kettle. It hurts to say something you supported didn't work. I would know. But I would say of these men (why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That's the way to help.

[harun]

1. I think it was that with a Republican controlled congress and

Republican president that the true nature of their policy was finally seen by the American people, and that is what destroyed them. While preaching small government, fiscal conservatism and social conservatism, once in power of all three we see what was realized was simply a policy to make the rich more rich and to try to extend American dominance in to more countries.

People looked in to the mirror at what they had become and now that they could see it, decided they didn't want it.

[YOY]

2. Naw Peg...Reagan did it

Of course Zippy was just using the same formula...except that we've got nobody to arms race this time around so it's even more pointless.

[Fridays Child]

3. Never got the criticism of her???

How much of her "body of work" have you read? The woman is positively orgasmic over Reagan and, when it comes to Bill Clinton, you'd think she was a woman scorned. Just because she's not in lock step with the GOP, lately, is not enough reason fro me to overlook her rabid behavior, in general.

[PCIntern]

26. Great minds think alike...

remember he during the Recount? the WORST!!!!

Eff her...

[TahitiNut]

27. Indeed. She's a pervert. No question about it, imho.

(Not that perversion is always a "Bad Thing," mind you.) :silly:

[Binka]

30. She's A Horny Old Hag In Search Of A Liberal Dick

Unfortunately for her good liberal dick will NOT touch her. Even with a stolen dick. :evilgrin:

[kstewart33]

4. Hey, welcome to DU! nt

[Winterblues]

5. Sounds to me like she is a Hillary voter..

(why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That's the way to help.

[malaise]

6. So then why do ROmney, Giuliani and McCain sound

like Bush clones. Why are they all so hungry to kill.

[jeanruss]

7. Noonan

She, along with the rest of the pundits also had their role in destroying America, much less the Republican Party. It appears now that The Party was just a tool to get into power to take down the USA. Now that they have caused the damage, they don't need the Party anymore. The last seven years transcends politics. It was a concerted effort to destroy America. Look at what we have: a wrecked economy, a wrecked military and a wrecked Constutution. This past seven years were about the globalists taking down our country. When the economy collapses, they will say we have to join with Canada and Mexico. Obama's chief adviser is Zbigniew Bresinski, who is the force behind the SPP which has been covertly working on this agenda of merging our country. America itself is at stake in this election.

[Mz Pip]

20. Uh, no

Obama's chief advisor is David Axelrod.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Selatius]

8. Noonan is absolutely WRONG. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

Like Tusken raiders, they will be back...and in greater numbers.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. You don't get the criticism?

In what became the despicable advent of "spinning," Noonan completely overlooked Reagan's obvious mental degradation during his 1984 debate with Mondale (aka The PCH Debacle).

She spun the meanderings of a faltering mind into an unadulterated hand job. Helping to insure that America would be saddled with an incompetent President.

That 1984 debate was the first time (that I remember) that partisans commented on the debates instead of the "news" organizations. Her bullshit was so profuse that they're still shoveling out the spin room.

Peggy Noonan? :thumbsdown:

[Demeter]

10. Greed Destroyed the GOP

Ronnie started the piracy, and a lot of would-be pirates joined in...the loot shrank and the available wealth got wasted in war or lost overseas, the workers starved and got laid off and no more wealth was being generated. So the various groups in the GOP started picking on each other, each blaming the other for the mess and all of them trying to blame the Democrats. But it didn't work.

As the bribes and thefts sifted from one side to the other and back, it all just evaporated. Now everybody's angry at everyone else, there's nothing left to steal, and a lot of the pirates are in jail, facing jail, or moving overseas to avoid the possibility.

Meanwhile, the Idiot in Chief dreams of a shining legacy and a mausoleum for a Residential Library full of his greatest hits: Iraq, the Economy, the Little People. He will be known as the Hit Man!

[ProgressiveFool]

11. WTF does "sack up" mean? Is that a reference to their genitals?

How crass.

[tanyev]

12. Well, Peggy, he broke everything else he ever touched.

Maybe ya'll should have taken a longer look at him before you anointed him your Messiah. Boo-frickin-hoo. I'm a lot more worried about how he's destroying this country.

[Marr]

13. Do you know what she's saying, really?

She's saying GW Bush isn't a real representation of conservatism. She's saying to Republicans, 'the thing you don't like about GW Bush-- whatever that thing is-- it's an example of him being too liberal'.

This is the most insidious angle that these people promote. It's far from some kind of honest appraisal or acceptance of failure. She's looking at the actual results of her ideology in practice, and saying, "doesn't count-- let's try this again".

This line of argument needs to be addressed head on. Conservatism has failed, and it must not be allowed to blame all those failures on someone/something else. Let them get away with this-- let them blame their failures on one man, and they'll be right back it, pushing the same corrupt philosophy before you know it.

Conservatism is what's destroying the GOP-- not GW Bush. Bush has served the *real* conservative agenda tirelessly and almost without exception. That is *why* he's been such a failure.

[gratuitous]

15. It is indeed the God that can not fail

Because if it fails, it clearly wasn't the pure, shining ideology of conservatism, which never fails and always triumphs. Peggy "Magic Dolphins" Noonan (Google it, and you'll get an inkling of just how batshit crazy she is) has been on the cheerleading squad for more than a quarter century, puking out speeches and columns to further conservative "ideals" (hint: all for me, and none for you), and now that the outlines of the colossal failure are becoming apparent, it's time for Peggy and the rest of the In Crowd to run away from the mess as fast as they chubby little legs can carry them. Like, gross!

[I Have A Dream]

16. I completely agree. They're trying to rewrite what happened. nt

[Tropics_Dude83]

18. Oh I totally understand what's she saying

I know that they're playing the angle of blaming Bush for their trouble and trying to absolve the conservative movement of responsibility. It's just sweet seeing these kinds of articles written about Bush by GOP insiders. I remember the post 9/11 era when he was god and anybody that criticized him was a terrorist and when he had 91% approval. It's nice to see the "rats" jumping off the sinking ship.

[TahitiNut]

28. "We wouldn't have a problem if it weren't for the stupid customers!"

Yes, believe it or not, I've heard that from right-wing business people. The sense of superiority and entitlement is so deep-seated that, no matter what, they're RIGHT and the blame is ALWAYS shifted to the 'other.' It makes absolutely no difference whether such absurdities are the result ... there is no limit to the denial and ideological zeal.

It's exactly the same thing with these neoconservatives (AND neoliberals) who worship at the altar of corporate greed. The indoctrination is thorough: The Company is Right. No matter what. 100% of their sense of "what's right in the world" is climbing the Corporate Ladder ... and all independent sense of justice and fairness is collateral damage to that Quest.

This is how the "businessman" has taken over government. Failures at doing business sensibly and in a "win-win" way with the customer, these people have HISTORICALLY blamed government for their own failures to achieve the 'happiness' that they presume comes from success (and riches) of doing business. Lacking the common sense to conduct their business successfully, all manner of regulation was necessary - the vast majority of which merely imposes sensible practices on the business. So ... their own failures are blamed on "government" (of customers, no less).

So ... the invasion of government and 'purchase' of politicians has been an ongoing JIHAD for decades. Nearly total at this point, there's STILL dissatisfaction. But it CAN'T be their own fault. It MUST be them dirty commies. The appalling absence of any analytical integrity is disgusting. But it still 'sells.'

[JerseygirlCT]

29. Exactly. I'd expect much more of it, too

It's a way of distancing themselves from their disaster at the same time they continue the same policies.

[Pathwalker]

14. Her orgasm on national cable tv killed her credibility for me.

The day Bush "took office", she was on MSNBC having an orgasm over Gore not being in office. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen on tv, and I've refused to allow her on mine ever since. She was as drunk as any town drunk ever gets before they're arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

[Jade Fox]

17. She's blowing smoke to distract from her own role.....

in getting this country where we are today, which started with her hero Reagan. Bushco is the logical end to the policies of people she has supported for years.

All the GOP pundit rats are jumping ship now. They're all saying, "Gosh, golly, gee, how did we get into this mess?" as a way to disavow their their own past support of Bushco and the Neocons.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. If you read more of what she's written, you'd understand. The rest is shameless Bush fellating.

So she will admit, NOW, that he's fucked over the country? Thanks a lot!

By the way, please supply a link.

[KG]

21. Bush is just a sock puppet - it's Cheney and the PNACers. and they have no real party loyalty

the GOP is just a convenient vehicle to power.

[dommyluc]

22. Slightly off-topic, but.....

...I was wondering if someone could answere a question for me.
If the right-wing Christian base of the Republican Party is supposed to be so united and so powerful a political force that each Republican candidate quivers on his knees before them, then why is it that Mike Huckabee doesn't have enough campaign money to barely buy toilet paper to wipe his God-ordained ass with? Just curious!

[NashVegas]

23. We Don't Call Her "Nooner" For Nothing

I left the Philadelphia convention two weeks ago thinking George Bush would probably win. I left Los Angeles fairly certain of it.

In tone and feel the Philadelphia convention was like that of 1980, the Reagan convention of spectacular unity in the face of high stakes. Philadelphia too was unified, and not only by hunger. The Christian Coalition was over here and happy and the Log Cabin Republicans were over there and happy; peace reigned, primarily for two reasons.
...
The other reason is that the overwhelming majority of Republicans have come to respect George W. Bush, and get what he's about. He is the next step after Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reagan spent his time awakening an economy in deep REM sleep and beating back Soviet communism. He knocked down walls. Now Bush the younger will spend his time building, doing the unfinished business of greater prosperity and freedom.

http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=65000124

http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=5000087

Rick Lazio and George W. Bush are Dumb-Good. They aren't followed by a thick cloud of scandal because they don't make scandal; they appear to be good, honest men, normal men, maybe too normal. They seem more or less average in their interests, affections, gifts. No one hates them, because they're not at all wicked. They're not liars; they're not thieves; they're not power-mad, and no one will ever call their wives Evita. They're good men. But they don't have first-rate minds; they don't inspire us with their insights or the brilliance of their understanding of the world. They would never say of an element of welfare reform that it is the biggest abrogation of governmental responsibility since the Corn Laws, as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said. They won't be writing learned monographs any time soon.

Mr. Bush, as we all know, has a tendency to mispronounce words, like a bright and nervous boy trying to show the admissions director that he's well-read. His syntax is highly individualistic. He's bouncy and affectionate and funny in a joshy way as opposed to a witty way.

But he is, almost transparently, a good man. He cares about children; he wants government to be honest; he wants to protect his country from bad guys; he wants to stand up for those who protect us. He is a good governor, he has a natural sympathy for those--the hardware store owner and the woman who starts her own housecleaning company--who are taxed and regulated to death in America. He thinks this abusive. He wants to liberate them. If he becomes president--when, I believe, he becomes president--he will drive conservatives to distraction with his tendency to think with his heart, and not his brain.

http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=65000306

[Johonny]

24. W just the figure head

I think Dick Cheney and the young Nixon/Ford White house Neocons destroyed the Republican party. They wanted a very partisan/loyal party and thus remove most of the Goldwater/Rockefeller Republicans from power. The Goldwater/Rockefeller type voters have slowly coming around to figuring out those type of Republicans no longer exist in office or get to run for office.

[otohara]

25. Bush Destroyed America

fuck the GOP.