The much-ballyhooed Republican wave seems to be cresting in May, which should be good news for all those who prefer government to be ... you know ... interested in governing. "Columnist" Ann Coulter is already casting blame for the inevitable Republican letdown in November, which should also give comfort and encouragement to those fighting for progressive goals. Details below...
Ann Coulter actually makes a handful of good points in her latest column...
Republican consultants are doing a wonderful job raising expectations sky-high for the November elections, so that now, even if Republicans do smashingly well, it will look like a defeat (and an across-the-board endorsement of Obama's agenda). Thanks, Republicans!
I think (or at least I hope) that Coulter might be on to something here. Could it be that the Republicans, devious politicos though they have been in the past, may be faltering, falling prey to the ignorance, disengagement, sloppy thought, and downright stupidity that they have fostered all these years in the "culture war" ? Has the stupid, in effect, filtered up? Here's what Coulter says about PA-12:
Thanks to all the happy talk, if the Republican actually had won, it would have been Page 16 news. But when the Democrat won, it seemed like an against-all-odds, come-from-behind Hoosiers victory!
And she points out that the GOP has inexplicably been following the same bizarre media strategy for the November midterms:
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner is ludicrously predicting Republicans will pick up 100 seats in the House in November. Newt Gingrich puts the figure at an equally insane (and weirdly precise) 78. He also predicts the Cubs will win 132 games this season and six games will be rained out.
She sounds a little testy, doesn't she? Sticking the knife into Boner and the Newt? She's not done with Neon John yet, though:
No sooner had the news come out that Goldman Sachs had given Obama an astronomical $1 million in campaign donations, than Republican John Boehner decided that this was the time to suck up to Wall Street! So Boehner flew to New York to meet with Wall Street bankers and ask them to be Republicans' friends.
Yes, folks, it's been said on this site and many others for some time. When it comes to the GOP, the inmates are running the asylum. The Tea Party is the natural evolution of that reality. And the Republicans should be in for a nasty surprise in November. Here's Coulter on the Connecticut Senate race in the aftermath of Blumenthal's Vietnam-gate.
Blumenthal may as well have shown up for a press conference in a dress. Suddenly, Connecticut is in play!
Naturally, therefore, Republicans are planning on running a World Wrestling Entertainment "impresario" against Blumenthal. Yes, in Connecticut ... a state that is among the wealthiest and most highly educated in the nation ... a state that isn't Minnesota. The average Nutmegger doesn't even know what a turnbuckle is, and that includes me.
Republicans could run Rob Simmons, a Connecticut legislator with a distinguished record of service in the House of Representatives, the CIA, and as a Yale political science professor -- who actually did serve in Vietnam, winning two Bronze Stars and retiring as a colonel.
But defeat is so close! Republicans can almost taste the bitterness of yet another crushing loss!
Here's the kicker. If this had come from someone besides Coulter, it would be a devastating shot across the bow of all the Republican media outlets that give pep talks instead of information (Weekly Standard, much of FOX News). Instead, because Coulter is usually part of that very problem in the GOP, it's just sweet hypocrisy coming from her:
Your job, Republicans, is not to go on Fox News and whisper sweet nothings in conservatives' ears. Your job is to repeal the Obama agenda. Raising expectations so high that a 30-seat Republican pickup will seem like a loss is not helping.
While the Republicans are busy shooting themselves in the foot, Democrats should be taking heart. This fight is just beginning. It's winnable. And if we can keep the Congress in Democratic hands for just a little while longer, the economy will recover, people's attitudes toward government will be re-evaluated without the panic of economic hardship, and Obama / Pelosi will have succeeded in re-aligning American politics for generations to come.
Why be satisfied with mitigating losses? Let's really shock them. Let's kick their asses in November. As Coulter points out, all that really requires now is holding close to even.