The Michael "Meathead" Stivic Of The Week Award

Who will it be?

Bryant Gumble? David Gregory? Lincoln Chafee's Campaign Manager Ian Lang?

Let's look at the nominees.

Bryant Gumble on Real Sports talking about the Winter Olympics:

Like try not to be incredulous when someone tries to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of Blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something's not really a sport if a psuedo-athlete waits in what's called a "kiss and cry area" while some panel of subjective judges decides who won. And try to blot out all logic when announcers and sports writers pretend to care about the luge, the skeleton, the biathlon, and all those other events they don't understand and totally ignore for all but three weeks every four years. Face it, these Olympics are little more than a marketing plan to fill space and sell time during the dreary days of February

David Gregory at the White House Press briefing on Monday:

"The vice president of the United States shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way."

Lincoln Chafee's Campaign Manger Ian Lang, on the endorsement by NRO of his opponent Steve Laffey:

For anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Mr. Laffey's record, the idea of describing him as you did as a tax cutting, pro-life conservative is just plain ludicrous. Since he became mayor, Laffey has raised taxes a whopping 20 percent - hiking the average Cranston homeowner's tax bill by $1,000 three short years ago, while also increasing government spending. In fact under Laffey Cranston taxpayer dollars were spent on among other things; an increase in the number of employees in the Mayor's office, money to soundproof the walls of his own office, and a new luxury SUV for him to drive.
NRO also overlooked the fact that Laffey has consistently flip-flopped on his views on abortion. Laffey says one thing when he talks with editorial boards in Washington, but when meeting with potential voters he has offered just about everything except a clear answer. Just this fall Laffey said that while he was "pro-life" he considered Roe v. Wade "settled law" so "let it go."...It is clear that Laffey is no conservative. But don't take my word for it, take Laffey's. In a September 16, 2005 story in the Providence Journal, Laffey himself admitted, that "when you say the word 'conservative,' I don't even know what that means."

And the winner is...


Ian Lang.
Because I know that the other two will continue to step up to the plate as the year goes on.

I mean the settled law comment was the same thing that Chief Justice Roberts said in his confirmation hearings that alowed Senator Chafee to vote for Judge Roberts. Remember The NARAL RINO only will only vote for judges that support "a woman's right to choose".

Jonah Raises A Good Point

Here is a great piece by The atLarge Editor of NRO, about the battle between the GOP and conservatives. He raises a bunch of great points about the difference and helps me to raise a point I have mad in private before.

One thing he states is

To a principled conservative, it is bad news when the Democrats lurch to the left, even if it makes the Democrats less likely to win elections. Why? Because when the Democrats move left, so do the Republicans.

This confirms the truth that most of my conservative friends state without hitting the nail right on the head. We may support the Republicans more often because they are on average closer to conservative values, but then there are always going to be Republicans who are as far from conservative values (Linc Chafee) as the majority of Democrats are.
He also states

of course the GOP is a mess (although I would remind liberals that it is better to be a majority party with problems than a minority party with problems).
Congressmen are hanging out in K-Street warrens like addicts in 19th-century opium dens - but instead of Chinese dudes passing out pipes, there are lobbyists handing out checks, golf trips, and other prizes from behind Curtain No. 2 on Let's Make a Deal. The Contract With America that brought the Republicans to power more than ten years ago is a distant blur in the GOP's rearview mirror. Smaller, competent, and restrained government has been sacrificed to the new coalition of Republican rent-seekers.

This, along with having wonderful mental pictures, is the source of most all of the problems with the conservative movement and Republicans. Read thewhole piece to get the true flavor of what he is getting at when it comes to Big Government Republicanism.
Now onto that point, I have a comment the builds off of this:

When the Bush presidency is over, it will be more obvious in hindsight how much he moved the GOP to the left - by making the nanny state bipartisan.

Here he gets to a root problem with this administration that I have been gnawing on for a couple of years.

George Bush is Richard Nixon. Not in the evil way that the LLL portrays him, but in a different way for followers of American politics.
Just as Nixon moved to the right in the primary season to defeat a liberal Republican darling of the media, Nelson A. "Boots On" Rockerfeller, and had to run against an uber-Liberal "war hero" half way thru, he has spent the rest of his administration building up the government and helping to grow the size of the fever swamp known as Washington.

Even with the great things done in the WOT, the War On Big Government is being lost daily.

Now the best thing we on the right can hope for is another Ronald Reagan, a man on a white horse who will ride in and set the GOP right.

Peggy You're Loosing It.

In today's WSJ Peggy Noonan has this piece about the media frenzy known here as Quailgate.

Now in the past I have loved most of what Ms. Noonan has written since leaving the employ of RWR, but after this she is beginning to act more and more like another Reagan alumna David Gergin.
But with deep incites like:

But what are they thinking that they're not saying? Here's a hunch, based not on any inside knowledge but only on what I know of people who practice politics, and those who practice it within the Bush White House.
I suspect what they're thinking and not saying is, If Dick Cheney weren't vice president, who'd be a good vice president? ...
Why would they be thinking about this?
It's not the shooting incident itself, it's that Dick Cheney has been the administration's hate magnet for five years now. Halliburton, energy meetings, Libby, Plamegate. This was not all bad for the White House: Mr. Cheney took the heat that would otherwise have been turned solely on George Bush... at a certain point a hate magnet can draw so much hate you don't want to hold it in your hand anymore, you want to drop it, and pick up something else. Is this fair? Nah. But fair has nothing to do with it.
This is a White House that likes to hit refresh when the screen freezes. Right now the screen is stuck, with poll numbers in the low 40s, or high 30s.

Sorry Peggy, it is beginning to look like you've been in Washington too long. This is the kind of "Inside Baseball" crap that I would expect from a "moderate Republican" hack, not someone who was right there, pushing the ideas that lead the revolution that changed this country for the better.
The Gipper would not be proud.
Please reconsider this thought and come back to the winning side.
Remember we have won, recently and we will continue to win if everyone keeps fighting for the same victorious endgame.

This is not an Administration that worries about who the next President is, as long as that man (or smart, goodlooking Stanford educated woman) stands by the present course to bring freedom and Democracy to the rest of the world. If it was Dick Cheney would have been asked to step down during the '04 Presidential race, to set-up the next race in '08. That didn't happen so...

Please Peggy think about what you've said here and recant, we'll still love you.

Hunting Accident As National Scandal.

In one of the great WTF moments in the history of stupidity, the LSM has its collective (pun intended) panties in a twist over the Veep's mishap with a quail gun.

Who cares?

Isn't it about time that the supersmarties that "report" for the Big Nets and Big Dailies realize that: We don't care how much they think that the Bush/Cheney Administration is vial and nasty, they've won TWO national elections, and there are no more chances to defeat them at the polls.
Get over it, you lost, we won, deal with it and MOVE ON.

Jonah has a great point on The Corner about what should happen if The Fat Swimmer gets on the Senate floor

to denounce Cheney's accident reporting protocols

Read it and giggle.