In the aftermath of this clear-cut demonstration of how Republicans can win, the revolutionaries are still pledging to purge the party’s moderates by rallying behind more Hoffmans in G.O.P. primaries from Florida to California. And they may get some scalps. But Tuesday’s loss revealed that they’re better at luring freak-show gawkers into Fox’s tent than voters into the G.O.P.’s. As if to prove the point, protesters hoisted a sign likening health care reform to Dachau at the raucous tea party rally convened by Michele Bachmann on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Should the G.O.P. avoid self-destruction by containing this fringe, then the president and his party will have to confront their real problem: their identification with the titans who greased the skids for the economic meltdown from which Wall Street has recovered and the country has not. If there’s one general lesson to be gleaned from Christie’s victory over Jon Corzine in New Jersey, it’s surely that in today’s zeitgeist it’s less of a stigma to be fat than a former Goldman Sachs fat cat, even in a blue state.
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Rich is a coward who hides in NYC.
Coward.
artist on November 8, 2009 at 10:24 AM
That’s OK, Obama dumped on tea parties for him.
deidre on November 8, 2009 at 10:24 AM
I don’t fringe means what he thinks it means.
sammypants on November 8, 2009 at 10:26 AM
oops forgot a word.
sammypants on November 8, 2009 at 10:27 AM
So if the tea party folks will shut up, then Mr. Obama will be held accountable for the take over of private industry and Porkulous? I don’t believe you Mr. Rich.
Cindy Munford on November 8, 2009 at 10:27 AM
I still don’t understand AP’s fascination with the NYT. We all know it’s crap, that it hasn’t published an actual news story in decades. Yet every day, there are several more links. Wouldn’t it be better just to let the paper die in its irrelevance?
rmgraha on November 8, 2009 at 10:29 AM
While it is still the “newspaper of record” it can’t be ignored. Besides I want it to stay front and center as it slowly circles the drain.
Cindy Munford on November 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Wouldn’t it be better just to let the paper die in its irrelevance?
rmgraha on November 8, 2009 at 10:29 AM
YES.
That’s why I almost never click.
artist on November 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM
What an odd mixture of contradictory points of view this article is. Hard to know what exactly what he’s getting at. Perhaps he didn’t know either? lol!
jeanie on November 8, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Let us have a run off election for that NY seat and see what happens there Mr. Rich.
CWforFreedom on November 8, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Agreed. I try to get as much as I can from what Allah posts. They can’t self destruct fast enough.
Cindy Munford on November 8, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Nobody clicks on that web-rag, but I do enjoy laughing at them as they get angrier and crazier, since this was supposed to be their moment, they were the ones they were waiting for. Hence, Allah’s sum-ups are very handy.
thebrokenrattle on November 8, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Cindy and brokenrattle FTW!
thebrokenrattle on November 8, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Nary a word on Virgina, Frank. Now why is that? Because it’s the most important? A Red State that that was turning purple, now suddenly tinging back to red?
No Obama coattails in 2010 in VA? Maybe even a drag on the ticket in 2012?
Wethal on November 8, 2009 at 10:52 AM
TRANSLATION:
“PLEASE GOP – GET A HANDLE ON THESE TEA PARTY FOLKS BEFORE THEIR ENTHUSIASM ENDS THE ERA OF HOPENCHANGE!”
Or … was that the era of … “Hope and CHARGE” ???
HondaV65 on November 8, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Virginia doesn’t support his hypothesis – so it’s data he ignores. Not only did the GOP elect a REAL Conservative Governor there – but the Conservatives took the entire ballot. It was a massive repudiation of Obama and the Democrats but I hope they keep their heads in the sand!!!
HondaV65 on November 8, 2009 at 10:55 AM
This garbage is not worth reading.
WisCon on November 8, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Consider this:
The Ft. Hood psycho killer was one person,we know a lot about his background, his actions leading up to and what exactly he did in murdering a number of people, and yet the narrative is that we will Never really know why he did it.
And we had thousands of tea-parters of disparate backgrounds who merely showed up to exercise their right to free-speech and peaceably protest.
But in this case We can cast all kinds of bad intentions on thousands that we know nothing about who did Nothing wrong.
There is definitely something wrong with people who believe in those two narratives at the same time.
Chainsaw56 on November 8, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Glad to see Rich really, really cares about the GOP to offer this helpful advice to get them to thrive and grow in these tough times. I mean, if he wanted the GOP to wither and die, he’d just let the fringe teabaggers run amuck, amirite?
Orange Doorhinge on November 8, 2009 at 11:10 AM
When did the “fringe” leftists become moderate in the Democrat party? I’ve heard, read and seen far worse from lefty protesters than from Tea Party Conservatives and concerned moderates.
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Conservatives, and Republicans, can show photographs, play video and audio clips, and make reasonable arguments all day long but Democrats, even moderates, will not listen. They talk over Republican voices just like Gov. Kaine did to Mr. Steele today on Georgie’s Lefty Chat and Coffee Klatch.
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Democrats pretend that they have all the ideas and that Republicans are the party of “No” because they have the complicity of a biased media which might as well be monolithic as far as equal time and perspective go. When they lose the majority again, Democrats should be made ot go stand in the corner for two years – silently.
They have certainly marginalized the Republicans and polarized the country. I even heard Sam Donaldson describe the Republican Party as older, whiter, and more male than female.
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At every turn the Democrats are presenting the snapshot that they want to the American electorate and Republicans are powerless to do anything about it. I guess some folks are going to sit down and cry about it and some are going to change parties, principles, and priorities. I’m going to find a small, effective way to fight back against the coming bureaucracy by using it, I’m going to find a way to cut up some Democrat insufferability on the campaign trail to ensure their defeat, in my state or out of it, and then I’m going to laugh, laugh, laugh.
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Tea partiers are irrelevant. But even though we hold both houses of congress and the presidency, lets talk about nothing except them.
Kataklysmic on November 8, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Corzine didn’t really have many ties to the NJ Dem machine. he was a Goldman Sacks banker who decided to buy himself a Senate seat after he retired from GS. That bored him, so he decided to buy a governorship.
He was useful to the Dems as a self-financing candidate, but the Dems couldn’t keep people from blaming Corzine for NJ economic woes (which predate Corzine, anyway).
Wethal on November 8, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Your twitter headline for this was a ton better, Allah.
lorien1973 on November 8, 2009 at 11:30 AM
You have all the appeal of a KKK Grand Dragon at a NAACP convention.
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 11:31 AM
I hesitate to take advice from my enemies.
But Frank’s concern-trolling is cute, isn’t it?
Almost a cute as the President calling us Teabaggers.
JeffWeimer on November 8, 2009 at 11:34 AM
You know, I always contend you liberal douches are obsessed with race. Thanks for making my point. By The way, It’s almost noon Eastern. Time to pull our your prayer mat, face the white house, and pray to your manchild god.
Kataklysmic on November 8, 2009 at 11:34 AM
I have no problem with linking to “Man Bites Dog”-style stories like the earlier “What Happened to Obama’s Oratory” (when Obambi loses the NYT, you know he’s in big trouble). But linking to anything Rich says is a waste of bandwidth; like clicking on a story that says “Scientists say the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning” — totally predictable. It used to be kind of fun watching the libs try to spin their stories, but since they’ve taken up total fabrication, lies, and distortion, it’s become ludicrous.
rmgraha on November 8, 2009 at 11:37 AM
How do you know so much about Islamic timetables, You Librul DumbA$$?
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I’m one of the most conservative people on this blog.
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Look at your original comment and revise if you are a real conservative and not a troll.
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 11:40 AM
OH!
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You were channeling Frank Rich !!!
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 11:41 AM
I didn’t include a /sarc tag. The point I was making was as if I were an Obama or Frank rich style liberal. Who, even though they hold both houses of congress with filibuster proof majorities, and the White House, they can’t seem to focus on that. They instead have to focus on the fact that Tea Partiers disagree with them, while insisting out of the other side of thier mouths that tea partiers are irrelevant.
Kataklysmic on November 8, 2009 at 11:45 AM
See my comment just above yours.
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I’ve been baiting trolls for the last few minutes so I missed the nuance initially.
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Hi! How are ya?!
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Given the excerpt I had to click, just to see if he dared talk about VA. And he didn’t.
Wethal on November 8, 2009 at 11:55 AM
LOL. No problem. I trollbaited blatantblue a few months ago not realizing he is a staunch conservative. I figure a little collateral damage once in a while to keep the trolls in check is well worth it. Overall HA has some of the best commentary on the web.
Kataklysmic on November 8, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Who cares what this idiot says?
Terrye on November 8, 2009 at 12:00 PM
I’ve been particularly offensive today because I’m PO’d.
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We do have some really smart, informed, involved people here.
ExpressoBold on November 8, 2009 at 12:13 PM
if only anyone read the NYT…
runner on November 8, 2009 at 12:44 PM