Morning Briefing for December 22, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing
December 22, 2011

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1. Lack of Principle Got Them In This Mess. Principle Gets Them Out.

The payroll tax holiday has become a mess for Republicans. I am beginning to believe raw sewage has greater political acumen than the Republican leadership in Washington. At least raw sewage can pick the path of least resistance when flowing through the bowels of Washington, D.C.Not so the Republicans.They have gotten themselves into this mess for three reasons.First, House Republicans were going to vote on their bill and leave town, but decided to play nice with the Senate Democrats. So instead, the Senate did to the House what the House had planned to do and then did not do. The Senate passed its plan and fled.Second, House Republicans let the Senate Republican Leader call the shots. Let us not forget that in the government shutdown against Bill Clinton in the 90?s, House Republicans were betrayed by Senator Bob Dole, the then Republican Leader, who announced the Senate was going back to work when the House expected to stay shut down.Third, and most importantly, the GOP lost — and they did lose, here being clubbed to death like a baby seal — because they abandoned long held Republican principles.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Ron Paul Newsletter and His Jeremiah Wright Moment

If you’ve been under a rock somewhere recently you may not know that Ron Paul published a bunch of crazy, racist newsletters in the late 80?s and early 90?s.Ron Paul, ten years ago, took responsibility for the content, even admitted at one point that he had written some of them.Today, Ron Paul claims he knew nothing about them even though they generated around a million dollars in income for him.The newsletters were the “Ron Paul” newsletters and each was written in the first person as if from Ron Paul, without an author’s byline, conveying that the views expressed were Ron Paul’s.No one doubts that someone other than Ron Paul wrote them, but they were written as if they were from Paul and he profited handsomely and at one point took responsibility for writing some of them himself.One of the newsletters claimed that gays were going to donate blood en masse in hopes of infecting the American blood supply with AIDS.Let’s presume Ron Paul did not write that.But I know many Ron Paul supporters, including some in my church, who cast aspersions on Barack Obama for attending Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years. They don’t believe Barack Obama didn’t know Rev. Wright believed the CIA invented AIDS to kill black men. They will give Ron Paul a pass, but they will not give Barack Obama a pass.Why?Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Ron Paul Hates Republicans and Everything They Stand For

Most people already know that Ron Paul refused to endorse John McCain in the 2008 general election. While I don’t necessarily agree with that decision, especially from a contender for the GOP nominee, I can certainly understand it. Lord knows I hated every nice thing I had to say about John McCain and wasn’t entirely pleased about pulling the lever for him (which is a dramatic understatement). Most people assume that Paul endorsed Libertarian candidate Bob Barr in 2008, which is partially true. However, that is not the entire story. Paul also endorsed three other candidates.The first of those was Chuck Baldwin. I don’t really know a lot about Baldwin except that he has been on record early and often in support of the proposition that the South should have won the Civil War. This sort of thing would ordinarily disqualify most normal people from endorsing Chuck Baldwin, but Ron Paul is not most normal people. And given what most Ron Paul supporters seem willing to forgive, a little Confederate sympathy (or even a lot of Confederate sympathy) seems like small potatoes.The second was Cynthia McKinney. Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Coburn Details $7 Billion in Waste from 100 Dumb Projects

At some point we will need to go beyond merely cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. We will eventually have to wind down the welfare state and close government departments and agencies. However, there is no reason we shouldn’t demand an immediate bipartisan effort to eliminate programs that are just plain dumb, even according to Democrat socialist ideology.Nobody has been more assiduous and instrumental in identifying silly government projects than Senator Tom Coburn. Yesterday, Senator Coburn released his annual “Wastebook” profiling 100 “unnecessary, duplicative, or just plain stupid projects spread throughout the federal government.” The total cost of these programs is $6.9 billion. Cutting these programs would only account for roughly 40 hours of our debt, but why spend a penny on this stuff?Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Why Do People Keep Asking Newt Gingrich About Meghan McCain’s Drivel?

I have a serious question: Why do people keep asking Newt Gingrich about the latest dumb thing that has fallen out of Meghan McCain’s mouth? Politico notices that Newt has zinged McCain yet again over her latest ridiculous criticism of his candidacy. This time, it was Laura Ingraham confronting Newt with McCain’s claim that Callista is “icy” and doing damage to his campaign. By my count, this is the fourth or fifth time a major media figure has thrust a microphone in front of Newt and asked him his opinion of something Meghan McCain has said.Am I the only one who sees what is wrong with this picture?Please click here for the rest of the post.

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