New York Times columnist David Brooks, in a piece touting the diversity of the GOP, writes:
Many professional conservatives do not regard Mike Huckabee or John McCain as true conservatives. “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party,†Rush Limbaugh said recently on his radio show. “It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.â€Â
Some of the contributors to The National Review’s highly influential blog, The Corner, look to Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney to save the conservative movement. Their hatred of McCain is so strong, it’s earned its own name: McCain Derangement Syndrome.
Yet a funny thing has happened this primary season. Conservative voters have not followed their conservative leaders…
***
While various conservative poobahs threaten to move to Idaho if Huckabee or McCain gets the nomination, the silent majority of conservative voters seem to like these candidates… (Emphasis added.)
Brooks, on the face of it, seems to be referring to our esteemed host, Jeff Goldstein:
I will not, will not, vote for John McCain.
I will not, will not, vote for Mike Huckabee.
***
So, what to do? Well, my first thought is to buy some remote land in Idaho and try to hole up for the next decade or so, learning to sustain myself with nothing but a Bowie knife and some animal pelts. And maybe Dish Network and a HD DVR receiver.
Brooks misidentifies Jeff — who is a classic liberal — which is why people should not get their information from Andrew Sullivan.
Of course, that is a fairly minor error in the Brooks column. His response to Limbaugh is to point out that Huckabee and McCain combined won a bare majority of self-identified conservatives in South Carolina. Unfortunately for Brooks, there is no genetically-engineered McHuck hybrid candidate lumbering out of the lab anytime soon (afaik).ÂÂ
Moreover, should McCain win the nomination, it is far from clear that putting Huckabee on the ticket would be a net plus. With the exception of the JFK-LBJ ticket in 1960, studies tend to show the Veep pick does not tend to afffect the election results. Unlike LBJ, it seems unlikely that Huckabee can bring a major state into his column through vote fraud, and his appeal to evangelicals may be offset by his distinct lack of appeal to non-evangelicals. Indeed, Huckabee’s appeal to conservatives is so great that he is apparently broke and bailing out of Florida.
Brooks also writes:
Mitt Romney ran as the movement candidate in Iowa and New Hampshire and grossly underperformed. Now he’s running as a nonideological business pragmatist for the exurban office parks, and his campaign has possibilities.
In the world outside the cubicles at the New York Times, Romney currently has more delegates than the rest of the GOP field combined. And more money going into Super-Duper Tuesday. Moreover, the recent movement in the polls after South Carolina suggests that Romney’s future “possibilites” stem not so much from running as “a nonideological business pragmatist” — an assertion for which Brooks provides no support — but from the fact that he is increasingly viewed as the NotHuckabee-NotMcCain candidate.
This is not to say the Brooks does not have some valid points to make about McCain’s general popularity and perceived electability, as well as his general point about McCain being more popular with the GOP rank-and-file than he is with right of center political junkies and thinkers. Rather, it is like being served a bowl of spaghetti and watching a few cockroaches scrurry out from beneath the pasta. The dish might be tasty, but the garnish is a little off-putting.
Update: Jeff G checks in below.
which is why people should not get their information from Andrew Sullivan.
Just one of many reasons….
Not really related, but the Corner and CNN are both reporting Thompson dropped out.
Yup – AP reporting that Fred is out.
No, I would say it’s definitely related. There is the question of where Fredheads align now. I think Fred likes McCain, but his voters may prefer Romney or even Huck.
McCain for Secretary of Defense.
It’s funny how these professional interpreters and analysts willfully bracket the rest of that Idaho bit — the part that winks and nods (HD receiver, Dish Network) to the reader — in order to create their strawmen. Or “poobah,” whatever the fuck that is.
If Brooks or Sullivan wants a fight, they might just get one.
After I figure out what this mass in my back is.
“McCain for Secretary of Defense.”
Someone who thinks waterboarding is torture and illegal combatants get Constitutional protection? I think not.
JG got back.
I dunno. I could kinda get into being a poobah.
Idaho? Patriots threaten to go to Canada and move to Brazil instead.
Well, you have a point. Does he think the illegal combatants deserve more than a hearing to determine that status? (That one hearing, I’m fine with. “Dude. We caught you with a gun pointed at a school. Back to your cell.”)
Fred thread is up.
“Does he think the illegal combatants deserve more than a hearing to determine that status?”
I am not positive on this, but I seem to remember him once advocating that Guantanamo be shut down and the prisoners transferred to Leavenworth, which would entail public defenders, habeas corpus and the whole nine yards.
As for the rest of this, I am waiting for one of the trolls to define poobah, before I make up my mind.
BECAUSE OF THE MODERATION!
Now, Jeff, do you get a funny hat for being a poobah, or is that just the Masons?
And, don’t you think if you were so influential in “conservative” circles you could’ve afforded paid web designers since all of the important conservative decision makers are on KKKarl Rove’s payroll?
Hey, do I get any points for having lived in Idaho for 35 years?
I mean other than from the resident proggs who will have already labelled me as a white-supremacist, gun-totin’, gay-hatin’, black ‘n jew-lynchin’, snowmobile-racin’, redneck who’s married to one sister, knocked up a 12 year old cousin and goes to a church where the preacher handles snakes?
Because that’s the usual response.
I seem to remember him once advocating that Guantanamo be shut down and the prisoners transferred to Leavenworth, which would entail public defenders, habeas corpus and the whole nine yards.
As SecDef, he does what the President says, I would think. SOME insulation, there.
Idaho? Do you have any idea how depressing that place is? Acres and acres of nuthin’, far as the eye can see. Wind blowing day and night, no reason at all. And the way those people drive? Can you say “speed limit”? That movie Napoleon Dynamite? Documentary.
But if there were ever any doubt, Maddox makes the case as well as anyone.
Only Poobah?
I’d have thought High Panjandrum, at the least…
It’s a pretty common mistake of the clueless lefty: Republican does not equal Conservative. These days it’s nearly the opposite.
Huh. Dicentra beat them to it. (j/k)
I’m just saying. Poobah? When I attack Jeff, if I attack Jeff, it’s as a Radioactive Bugbear. Otherwise you’re just gnawing at ankle.
Wasn’t the Grand Poobah something from the Flintstones? Or the local Masonic Lodge? Those damn Masons…
Must be why locals amuse themselves taking potshots at tanks.
“Poohbah”
….erm…
do you think they figured it out about the pants?
“Poo-bah” comes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado”…
Panjandrum was coined by Samuel Foote (1720-1777) in a piece of nonsense writing:
<fx: scowl> Damn pointy-headed libruls don’t even sing hymns in church, what’s this country comin’ to <mumble mumble>
Regards,
Ric
Brooks… isn’t he the supposedly conservative guy who thought that partisanship was a thing of the past, that the country was basically united around the ideas of good coffee, delicate cheeses, driving Volvos and the necessity of being a gentleman farmer, or at least a vacationer, in Vermont?
Or am I thinking Rod Dreher?
Naah, can’t be Dreher. He’s the guy who is crazy about Huckabee.
Oh, wait a minute…
That’s the theory, anyway. SecState, anyone? Or DCI? Neither of those agencies are known for giving a rat’s ass what the actual policies of the president are. Wouldn’t be hard to believe that could happen with SecDef.
And, hey, imagine McCain as SecDef in a Democrat administration!
As Al has been somewhat apologetic about ranting at length in prior comments, I hope he will take it as a compliment that #26 makes a nice sharp point with brevity.
Don’t knock good coffee, Al. I like good coffee.
Of course I’ve also drank garage coffee (the urn is cleaned every year whether it needs it or not) so my taste buds aren’t real selective.
Starbuck’s blows (What? Did you run this through the fireplace first?).
The amazing fact is that anyone with a still-working anal sphincter gives a rat’s sphincter what Andrew Sullivan says about anything, except perhaps in his suicide note.
His irrelevance is matched only by his worthlessness.
There is the question of where Fredheads align now.
Ace is doing an informal poll of his Fredhead regulars, about half for Romney, a quarter for Rudy, a few for McCain, a few for Nobody/Stay Home, almost none for Huckabee. I think this is a boost for Romney.
First of all, what the eff is a “professional conservative”? Does that make me an amateur conservative? And second, would the people in Idaho really want any poobahs moving to their state (I’m not sure I want any poobahs moving in around me)?
Bane,
I have previously addressed the “who cares” issue, but would add in this case that he seems the likely source for Brooks misidentifying Jeff, which is kinda relevant to the blog Jeff owns.
B Moe,
I tend to think that the breakdown you mentioned is likely, but am wary of this type of poll. It’s unscientific due to self-selection, though it would be interesting to know how representative blog commenters are of Thompson’s support.
jdm,
I wish I had focused on the “professional” thing. I don’t know if Brooks has ever claimed to be conservative, but he’s clearly a paid pundit, as is his NYT colleague and c-cheerleader for McHuck, William Kristol.
BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!!!
Karl, be my guest, focus. Please.
34> Well. That came out much changed from when it was floating around in my head and I was chuckling and drinking – or drinking and chuckling. Anyway, it doesn’t mean anything. Sorry.
I think Romney will be on the ticket. Of what’s left, he would beat everybody in a race of “find ass with both hands” with Giulliani a close second.
I say that in a good way. The other team? No decision, with GPS and hints allowed.
Last night’s Dem debate was like living in 1975 all over again. Except that the camps in California will be inprocessing Iraqi refugees this time….
“It’s unscientific due to self-selection, though it would be interesting to know how representative blog commenters are of Thompson’s support.”
I agree, I am not sure of Rudy getting that big a piece in the real world.
Poobah? If ‘poobah’ means a fuck-you-up, mixed martial art for the mind, ass-kicking pundit — I guess I could get behind that for Jeff G.
I keep getting this image of Sullivan and Brooks in dark suits doing their best Reservoir Dogs slow-mo walk-by. Then, up walks Jeff G. First he single legs Sullivan, then rolls right for a floor kick to Brook’s gut. That’s all these panty wastes can take. Jeff says, “We neeeeeed emoooootional cooooontent.” For good measure, he gives them each a good, stern lecture about how they need to be in a 12 step program for the humorless. Then he takes their wallets to pay a graphic designer for his new sites.
It’s like a Bruce Lee movie, except Bruce Lee isn’t in it, and it’s not a movie.
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Poobah is probably someone who won’t pick up Mark Shields’ dry cleaning.
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