Because asking that the laws be followed and the Constitution respected is now gauche and “fundamentalist” — whereas the opposite, doing whatever the zeitgeist seems to suggest, is labeled approvingly as “pragmatism.”
Well, sorry, Mort. But I happen to know crass populism when I read it. And what Kondracke is advocating for here is nothing more than an overtly political and topically detailed version of the story of the Wise King.
To wit: Once upon a time there was a Wise King, adored by everyone in his kingdom. One night, however, a witch sneaked into the village and poisoned the well from which all those in the kingdom, save the King, drank. And the poison made them all crazy.
The next day, the people of the Kingdom came together and began planning to kill the King, for they suddenly believed him mad.
The Wise King heard of the plot and retired to his castle, where he thought on a solution.
The next morning, the King awoke early and drank from the well himself.
– And all in the kingdom rejoiced, because the King had regained his sanity…
Be like the Wise King, says Kondracke. To which I say, I’d rather be an OUTLAW, thanks. And when I hit the road to take back freedom from the “pragmatists” who would trade principle for consensus and harmony, I’ll be sure to stop by Mort’s place and force him to make me and my gang a bunch of sandwiches and pitchers of iced tea.
Then we’ll skinny dip in his pool.
(h/t BJ Tex)
Comment by Cowboy on 11/25 @ 3:12 pm #
Braunscheiger on rye for me, Mort.
Comment by BJTexs on 11/25 @ 3:15 pm #
From the E-Mail I sent to Jeff:
Exactly! The battle lines for the narrative framing are being formed and the RINO’s are drafting the first documents. Their approach will be that the country has moved away from the social conservative concerns and the limited government and individual liberty principles of classical liberalism/conservatism. The Party is at fault for not recognizing the move and they are being restrained from running in that direction by the screeching harpies that are religious fundamentalists and the mind numbingly insidious effect of Rush, Hannity, et al.
The shear scale of the intellectual dishonesty (by the so called “intellectual elites” of the apple paneled beltway sniffers) is stunning and nauseating. It’s nothing more than identity politics cover for a fundamental shift in the positional principles of what will define the Republican Party. It’s not anything to do with “Religion in politics” but has everything to do with with devaluing the issues and positions of those who happen to be religious … or real limited government conservatives … or classical liberals.
So much for the big fucking tent.
God it just makes me want to vomit.
Add Kondracke to the intellectual pragmatist tent of Parker, Brooks, Buckley, Will, Et al. Oh and if you believe in Jesus? STFU! Oh and you too, you limited government heartless swine and classical liberal fundamentalists! STFU!
Comment by Roland THTG on 11/25 @ 3:19 pm #
Fuck that.
I’ll give Morty a knuckle sammich.
Comment by Pablo on 11/25 @ 3:20 pm #
This is why the Republicans shouldn’t take advice from a Democrat.
Comment by BJTexs on 11/25 @ 3:28 pm #
Take the sum of the “pundits” mentioned above and let’s summarize in three easy words.
Surrender Your Principles
But rather than say that they are hiding behind “the electorate has shifted” or “Limbaugh is hypnotizing everyone” or “those religious wackos are scaring voters away.”
Buncha dishonest surrender monkeys. As ric stated before, they want us to be “Democrat Lite.” (Only with nicer haircuts and better fitting suits.)
Comment by TaiChiWawa on 11/25 @ 3:29 pm #
And in a characteristic display of his professionally-honed eloquence, Mort rejoined, “But you ah-ah-ah you, that is, ah-ah you can’t, or I mean ah-ah-”
Comment by Sdferr on 11/25 @ 3:29 pm #
The world’s greatest experiment in governance too experimenty for Morts, fire Locke, fire Madison, fire Jefferson, fire Franklin, fire Hamilton, fire ‘em all, those rots and line up on Baracky’s tail feathers, he knows the way he does, just trust him.
Comment by parsnip on 11/25 @ 3:30 pm #
Real outlaws break off and form ineffectual third parties.
Comment by Roland THTG on 11/25 @ 3:30 pm #
Pragmatism, the new “Fuck Me”.
Comment by Pablo on 11/25 @ 3:44 pm #
Real outlaws blow shit up and groom future presidents.
Comment by Mossberg500 on 11/25 @ 3:46 pm #
Mort Kondrake is a mental eunuch, similar to parsnip, without an ass pussy.
Comment by Joan of Argghh! on 11/25 @ 3:58 pm #
Real outlaws go over to Michael Steele’s new website and leave cynical suggestions for the RNC on his blog.
I swear, the RNC wants to choose leaders as though they were selecting a beer: less filling, tastes great.
Comment by peter jackson on 11/25 @ 4:03 pm #
First off, to the best of my knowledge Kondracke is a Democrat, so consider the source.
Second, like most bored housewives, using the state’s coercive power to enforce his own overweening sense of visual order on world around him sounds like a great idea to him.
Comment by Brendan on 11/25 @ 4:07 pm #
show the country how conservatives can solve problems
Well, if he means “by getting the government out of peoples’ way and giving them an opportunity to solve their own problems”, then he’s got a point.
I suspect he means “by instituting big government programs that are slightly smaller than those proposed by Democrats, thereby abandoning the principles of small government while still getting raked over the coals by the Democrats and MSM because the program isn’t big enough (‘enough’ being an arbitrary size defined as ‘bigger than proposed by Republicans’)”, though, so fuck him.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 4:10 pm #
I agree.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 4:10 pm #
Michelle Malkin loves this game.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 4:12 pm #
but Mort is still a douche and I think his suits usually look cheap
Comment by kelly on 11/25 @ 4:21 pm #
Kind of like having the one person in your life who dislikes you most write your obituary.
Comment by kelly on 11/25 @ 4:28 pm #
Or the coach of the opposing team draw up your game plan.
Comment by kelly on 11/25 @ 4:30 pm #
Or your soon-to-be ex lining out the property settlement and continuance.
Comment by kelly on 11/25 @ 4:32 pm #
Or asking Russ Feingold to help you contrive a plan to drive evil money from election campaigns!
Comment by mojo on 11/25 @ 4:40 pm #
“Kondracke? KONDRACKE!? He still owes me money!”
– Stripes
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 4:56 pm #
The witch got off scott-free. I think the witch represents the media in this little tale is what I think. Mort is the media too he thinks he gets a pass though cause his suits are so obviously cheap.
Comment by Hvy Mtl Hntr on 11/25 @ 5:31 pm #
Alas, Mort- I never knew ye. Another elitist lapdog waiting for a few crumbs from the B-Ho table.
Comment by Sdferr on 11/25 @ 5:40 pm #
The Mort has been patiently waiting for years to finally feel free to say what he thinks and this is the thanks he gets?
Bwahahahahahah
Comment by Oklahoma on 11/25 @ 5:42 pm #
I think we will let Oklahoma State draw up our game plan for Saturday. What could go wrong?
Comment by Old Texas Turkey on 11/25 @ 7:00 pm #
Happy that cheep suit goes well with flobee haircut.
He looks like smells like old people – a mix of hot dogs and ben-gay.
And his ideas are butt.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 7:03 pm #
He is old fartness personified. Novak somehow avoided that. Pat Buchanan never was nothing else.
Comment by C. Smith on 11/25 @ 7:20 pm #
>Surrender principles and get rid of those who give them voice
Isn’t one Democratic party enough?
Comment by Bob Reed on 11/25 @ 7:31 pm #
The original purpose of the Senate, in addition to representing the interests of the individual states, was to be a bulwark of rationality and good sense, against the transient and self serving masses of the publuic and their elected representatives…
But that all went out the window in the early 20th century when the entire Senate began to sit for popular election…
Is there no restraint left on the mass hysteria of a populace that has discovered that they can vote for folks that will reward them with money..?
Mort is way out of line with this…The GOP needs to go back to their conservative principles. They just need to remember that religiously motivated issues of morality cannot be legislated…
They need to stand for strong defence and foreign policy, fiscal responsibility, small government, and classical liberalism; appeal to all conservatives, both Democrat and Republican, as well as the libertarians too…
Maybe after 4 years of O!-bammy the GOP, and the public, will be open to this…
Comment by Jim Ryan on 11/25 @ 7:40 pm #
Hey, Morton, why don’t you take your %$^&# $%#& and go $%#*@ it in a %$&#&# goddam bucket of $%#@. Or better yet, stick your %#&*# bid to have a career in a center-left America into your sock and %$#^& it off of a goddam #$%&@.
Comment by sherlock on 11/25 @ 8:12 pm #
Mort is saying Surrender Your Principles, presumably for the Sake of Electoral Success?
So the Dems lecture on the danger of compromising on principles of individual rights for the sake of national security, and defend the rights of murdering terrorists as a matter of highest principled integrity, but apparently they think that if you are in need of political success, well, you can shuck your principles like a dirty shirt!
You know, I have to admit that at least on this one they have put their money (or someone’s) where thir mouth is.
Comment by Jeff Y. aka The Continental on 11/25 @ 8:21 pm #
Let’s resurrect “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” for asshats like Mort.
Comment by A Conservative Teacher on 11/25 @ 8:28 pm #
I agree. In my little nook of the woods, Oakland County Michigan, the battle is under way, and so far, there is no change in our party- which means still RINO at heart. This Republican Party needs to be retaken and needs to go back to the basics- Reagan, conservativism, and founding fathers. See my blog for more posts on this stuff.
Comment by Richard on 11/25 @ 10:38 pm #
Like Marcus Aurelius said: “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding one’s self in the ranks of the insane”
Comment by B Moe on 11/25 @ 11:02 pm #
I feel like there has been a big rip in space/time and a bunch of pundits got bounced over here from an alternate reality where the Republicans ran Pat Buchanon or some shit. It is the only way this makes since, really.
Comment by geoffb on 11/25 @ 11:35 pm #
Since after the election there has been an seeming increase of “concern trolling” Mort Kondracke plays one on TV.
On TV he can be more effective and take less invective. Concern trolling it’s his calling in life. So sad, a mind is a terrible thing to turn to waste.
Comment by Andrew the Noisy on 11/26 @ 7:43 am #
It’s all premised on the notion that principles have no real-life application. There the world of ideas, and then there’s the *!*REAL*!* world, and never the twain shall meet. As though the Wise King and his insane subjects are going to suffer no consequences from being loony.
Earth to
democratsprogressives: we did not derive our principles from a bong-hit or a particularly pictureseque sunset. They are the lessons of history, the real-life experiences of untold generations. We do not make them up, we are their care-takers. We will pass them on. We will rage ‘gainst the dying of the light.Your principles, derived from your will-to-power, will lead not to plenty and peace but to poverty, tyranny, and conflict. They did in the last century, they will in this one. So call me a crank. Call me hidebound. Call me a ZOMG-racist-Palin-crypto-Fascist watchama-thing. It no longer registers. You’ve guarunteed that they don’t mean anything anymore. Your words cannot compel a leaf from a tree, much less build a tower that will stand.
And that Goes for YOU, too!
Comment by MarkD on 11/26 @ 7:53 am #
Didn’t his wife die a few years ago? He kind of lost it then, from the few times I saw him on TV. I think he drifted to the side where everything ought to be unicorns and rainbows and it’s so unfair that it’s not.
Welcome to the world where some thug who can play basketball really well will make more in a month than both of us will in our lifetimes, Mort.
Comment by maggie katzen on 11/26 @ 8:28 am #
I think it’s more than a few,he wrote a book about it and there was, I think, a movie. he’s since remarried.