Rick Moran would like it known that while he still thinks your inelegant right-wing extremism is gauche and unfairly dismissive of those witty, urbane, educated Republicans who are far better than you any of you can ever hope to be and who simply can’t stand you and your stupid uncompromising “principles”, he nevertheless admits that — likely by accident, or dumb luck — you’re sorta kinda correct about their being a Republican establishment — albeit correct in that dirty, hillbillyish, non-witty non-urbane and non-educated way that seems to be the standard with filthy moronic declasse haters who simply don’t know their place and continue to mock their betters, among which Mr Moran may or may not count himself.
At least, I think that’s the gist of this bitter little screed, which drips contempt and resignation like creamy dollops from Tucker Carlson’s bow tie, were Tucker Carlson’s bow tie somehow made of butter or tallow and set carelessly near an open flame or other heat source.
Moran:
Of course there’s a GOP establishment and he’s Exhibit A. The existence of the Republican Party as a political entity demands there be some kind of establishment from which leaders are chosen, favors dispensed, and conduits created so that ideas can be channeled into the most productive venues and nurtured and incorporated. And the nature of political society demands that there be a conservative establishment also for much the same reasons. Whether one listens to or obeys establishment figures is another story, but whether you wish to marginalize them or ignore them, you can’t destroy them. Knock one off, another will take their place. The establishment is dead. Long live the establishment.
The establishment doesn’t refer to Obama as a “Communist” (although they may refer to his “socialist policies”), nor do they make reference to Obama as a “dictator.” What mostly defines an establishment member these days is the level of disdain exhibited toward Tea Partiers, the evangelical right, and the anti-science Luddites and anti-intellectual galoots who make up a sizable minority of the GOP base and who threaten to determine who will face Barack Obama in 2012.
The prospect of denim-wearing, dirty-fingernail, rank-and-file activists actually having an impact on the nominating process for the GOP presidential candidate has the establishment wringing their hands and scrambling to find another candidate more in line with their idea of governance. Take their money? Sure. Direct their energies into volunteer efforts for candidates? Absolutely.
But let them decide who should represent them as a candidate for president? Perish the thought.
Politics will have its way with them. If they nominate someone unacceptable to the establishment but who wins anyway, their wisdom will have been proven correct and their influence will grow. On the other hand, if a Tea Party-supported candidate gets clobbered, they will be taken down a few pegs and, as happened in 1968 following the Goldwater drubbing, a more establishment-oriented candidate will probably emerge next time around. In politics, nothing succeeds like success and the push-pull between Tea Party and establishment will work its way out at the ballot box.
This doesn’t solve the establishment’s current dilemma. While the Tea Partiers see Mitt Romney as the darling of the establishment, the button-down set isn’t sold on him. They might like the cut of the former Massachusetts governor’s jib but he changes his top sail too often and his spinnaker is often left flapping to port.
[…]
Three candidates have been prominently mentioned and would almost certainly meet with the establishment’s approval to one degree or another: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former New York Governor George Pataki, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Unfortunately for the Ralph Lauren set, both Christie and Pataki have declared themselves out of the race, while Guiliani is still mulling things over. Besides, even if they changed their minds, the challenges facing each of them would be immense.
[…]
So while there may be room for more candidates in the GOP field (Sarah Palin may eventually stop her “Dance of the Coquettes” and declare one way or another), the bad news for the establishment is that there is no one on the horizon who could fill their aching hearts and heal the breach in their souls as they survey the 2012 Republican field.
They are stuck with dopes, jokes, and frauds and they better get used to it.
Or maybe they can just dust McCain off and give him another go.
— The era of Reagan and his uncompromising adherence to conservative ideals being over and whatnot.
And who knows? If there is any social justice in the world, maybe the dull, grassroots galoots and the Visigoths with the dirty fingernails will get distracted by something shiny just in time to forget about both the GOP primaries and the 2012 elections. At which point Mr Moran and some of the better types can perhaps get together and choose for the right wing rabble a candidate to run against Barack Obama who wouldn’t so embarrass the establishment — this being, of course, the most important trait in a potential President.
Because sure, Obama is a faculty lounge socialist who’s been a complete disaster as President; but you can’t say he doesn’t hit all the proper identity markers as member of the swell and educated gentry.
And in the end, isn’t that what leadership is all about?
It’s always the same from the Morans of the world: “Shut up and let the Democrats pick your nominee already, would you?” Pataki?? Really?
It’s always useful to listen to the advice of those who don’t have your best interests at heart — and always foolish to take it.
So, thanks Rick — now sit down and be quiet until we want your money and support for our candidate.
I’m thinkin our intellectual betters could do with a few more smacks upside the head.
maybe with a board.
Republican Establishment = Those who hob-knob at cocktail parties in DC and listen to Democratic Establishment types and take their advice on how to pick a presidential nominee.
slave driver
the tables have turned
Moran fulfills Paul Simon: The way we look to us all. That’s some real circular movement, Rick, leaving those awful principles off the table because they were shoved over there by the folks whose asses you insist on sucking.
Ow.
Moran, whatever else he does, sure has a way of making establishment types out to be profoundly stupid, don’t he? They should look him up and pound his ass for the insult.
Ah, a longing for the Nixon days. The rise of the radical progressive left. The start of EPA, OSHA, Environmental Impact Statements, Affirmative Action, ERA and after all that pandering brought down in such a way so as to cement the dominance of the progressives in Congress for 20 years.
What’s not to like?
Ask yourself, Rick, who you have more regard for: The other side or a turncoat. Maybe then you can begin to see how you yourself are seen.
Oh, and: Jackass.
msnbc etc…
if u could pick one shakespeare quote…only one mind you…what would it be?
a- done to death by slanderous tounge
b-some cupid kills with arrows,some with traps
c-caviar to the general
d-For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In complement extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.
Comes a hurricane, look who decides to revisit his nest site out of season. Good place to hunker down, I guess.
They are stuck with dopes, jokes, and frauds and they better get used to it.
Moran is most certainly the first and forever too inconsequential to be the second. But it’s hard to assess whether or not he’s a fraud because that would necessitate giving a fuck.
it’s interesting how bobby jindal has so subtly yet so irrevocably fucked himself that he’s never even mentioned
At least, I think that’s the gist of this bitter little screed,
I’m not sure I grok his rhetorical stance, either:
This seems rhetorically similar to Jeff’s intro:
IOW, he seems to be employing Establican rhetoric to mock the Establicans. Because this formulation is essentially correct:
From the Establican POV, that’s prolly what it comes down to. Moran finishes with this:
I’d have to know whether Moran agreed with this last sentence himself or if he’s again imitating Establican rhetoric.
I’m going to vote the latter, becasue if I assume the latter, there’s nothing particularly objectionable about the essay.
i think bobby jindal should be a super-stock boy
who works wicked hard in his uncles company and he can never get a break cuz he’s terra-cotta not like his uncles
cherry red and he never got a break cuz he’s terra-cotta
and the cheery-reds are all ‘acting orange’ trying to be orangey..
but lil bobby jindal just puts his ..frankly-rectangular- head down and don’t cause no trouble with the cherry red- cuz he’s a good boy
then one day ‘alabaster-whites’ come in and kill all the cherry-reds’ …..
i have been drinking and if 2 people want to hear the end of the bobby jindal story
you are sick twisted people..
[pre-view- he spends time in a base-ball camp]
So I’m reminded of Jonah’s post from Friday: “My Rick Perry Problem — and Ours,” the thesis of which is:
Two-hundred sixty-one comments as of now, and all of the ones I skimmed through (a few dozen) totally missed Jonah’s point (in bold). Instead, they thought that Jonah was saying that the heartland candidates did sound folksy and that it was a problem somehow. And they predictably bristled.
But Jonah is saying exactly the opposite: there’s no need to defend the folksiness because it’s not really an issue, let alone a problem. It’s the Left (and some Establicans) who are making it an issue, and we should not let the Left dictate what we discuss.
Anyone know if there’s a blog out there that discusses this issue?
dicentra, I think this paragraph tells you where he’s coming from:
We’re just a bunch of uncompromising fundamentalists who don’t know when we’s well off.
17. I took it the same way. He’s using the language of drawing room liberals to spear the GOP Establishment. From what I gather, he’s a mainstream GOP kind of guy, which is fine, as long as he acknowledges that the root–and logical end–of GOP thinking are the limited government values the Tea Party is trying to restore.
PS: The hurricane wasn’t that bad.
The he is Moran, not Goldberg.
Perry is an ungodly promiscuous identity politics whore with his countless silly pledges to white trash christer interest groups I think. But he’s better than Obama.
Clearly, you haven’t been paying attention to Moran. This is the language he’s been using to describe TEA Party types for some time now.
Yes, he’s conflicted. But make no mistake about where he places himself.
I almost put in a line suggesting that this column appeared to be aimed at him, even though he wrote it. I truly believe that.
Or to put it another way, both you and dicentra are wrong.
More from Moran.
Here, too.
I should think you all would trust me by now, but then I also would think that being right would get you better gigs — not being consistently wrong. So there’s that.
Fuck it, I give up.
What did Iowahawk tweet today?
Um, that’s Jon Huntsman, isn’t it?
momma jindal hollowed out a gibson tree
to place her-frankly-rectangular head baby innit
for freedom and put him in the ganges for a three hour tour to amerika and said ‘look out for the turd blossom!”
i’ll always love my momma,she’s the only one
I’ve read Moran’s thing twice now, and while its a mish mash – most likely a reflection of his own inner cognitive dissonance – the scales tip to his fedupness with the dirty-fingernailed teabaggers.
In the opening paragraph he is mocking those that have questioned George Will …
That doesn’t sound like someone poking the GOP Establishment; except to be exasperated that the Establishment is not fighting back enough to put those eat-my-peas-with-a-knife-and-wipe-my-mouth-on-my-sleeve, fly-over mouthbreathers back in their place.
Part of Moran is attracted by the energy of the TEA Partiers, but like the Squire’s son distracted by the bountiful charms and innate intelligence of the kitchen cook’s daughter, he knows his own place in the political aristocracy – it may be empty of meaning but “winning” is all, even if it means he must wed some horse-faced, disinterested, cold fish to keep his place.
SDN, that paragraph can also be read as mocking the Establicans with their own rhetoric.
Yes, he’s conflicted. But make no mistake about where he places himself. I should think you all would trust me by now.
I was reading the article in isolation, not positioning it within Moran’s entire oeuvre. Which, that’s what context does for ya.
What did Iowahawk tweet today?
It almost sounds as if you care, or that you’d rather I mixed it up a bit.
So here’s a tweet from God:
Idiots. Political fucking idiots!
I have a 1968 Les Paul, three Telecasters, and an Alembic guitar, and I also have a 1972 Gibson Dove. Probably all illegal in the eyes of our Marxist emperors.
I am am in way deep trouble, because we have a bunch of screaming third grade fucking assholes who run this country. My fucking guitar bridge is illegal? FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! ASSHOLES! FUCKING ASSHOLES!!!!!
FUCK YOU, OBAMA AND HOLDER!!!! You are the stupidest, most inept fucking morons ever seen on this planet, and there ain’t no way around it! Grow up, you fucking ten year old twatwaffles!
Let me repeat. FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, OBAMA AND HOLDER!!!!!!
ASSHOLES! ASSHOLES!! ASSHOLES!!
Get it? Got it? Good! (Danny Kaye)!
Once agaian, the attitude problem rears it’s ugly head.
I think I’m upset because I just cooked my hot dog for 10:00 minutes instead of 1:00 minute in the microwave.
Dipshit, eh?
I guess I deserve Barry Sorento and Eric Holder to be my leaders…
Nice rant zino, but I think you want the next post up.
;^)
After reading this I went over to his site on a lark and noticed he has a podcast. The title of the latest was “Electability and the GOP Field”. Given this discussion I had to give it a listen. Clears the matter right up; Jeff continues to have Moran accurately pegged.
Side note: He has a habit of constantly laughing for no reason. Whether something wasn’t that funny or there is no humor to be found in the interchange at all. It’s really bizarre.
Side note: He has a habit of constantly laughing for no reason.
Hmmm. Inappropriate laughter.
Either he’s high on pot or he’s schizophrenic.
What does Moran do to raise the level of our politics? Nothing, so far as I can see. So what the hell good is he? Search me.
lil tiny bobby jindal had crutches made out
of smashed gibson guitars in the remnants of a capitalist society and he knew that
but he’s a fighter!
more food please,more food please, more
food please
[ pre-view-
he was a lifeguard on the ganges river
he was voted- ” most likelely to spot poo”
save me save me australian pink floyd! u gonna run to the rock
for rescue
there will be no rock
I think this needs just a touch of photoshopping and then it’s good to go.
Jeff,
I suspect you are correct and while you have disagreed with the guy in the past IIRC, I for one wasn’t looking at context.
I trust you so he could have written a column that was emblamtic of his own internal civil war, or, per you, his comic dismissal of the Tea Party as Sans Culottes.
Either way I’m wrong.
Roddy —
My fault for not including the line about his having written the column aimed at himself. It clearly is trying to have it both ways, but I think that’s because Moran has come under fire before for his attacks on the dirty “purists” (who, of course, don’t demand purity, but rather demand that “compromises” move us back toward first principles, not toward the left, which is how we’ve been playing the game since at least Woodrow Wilson) and he’s a bit more gun shy these days.
daleks vs. joni mitchell [ht jeff]
i’ve looked at sides from both sides now
EXterminate
from win or lose, and still somehow
EXTERMinate
it’s lifes illussions i recall
EXTERMINATE!
i really don’t know life at all
EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE< EXTERMINATE
Heh. You’d think he’d have figured it out before now.
The title: Tea Party Defines Losing as Winning
The pull quote:
The publication date: September 16, 2010
How’s that working out for ya, Rick?
Shakespeare quote? “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
I’ll make a few exceptions.
He’s struggling with an inescapable fact. He’s losing and he’s actually going to like it.
We’re not going to stay on the fence. We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. And the establishment he holds so dear has been enabling those things. It’s not going to work anymore. It’s old and busted. There is no compromise between surviving and collapsing.
See anyone you know, Rick?
And now, and old poem from Tarzana Joe
Utopia by Tarzana Joe
That notion, so delectable
That mankind is perfectible
Is once again respectable
And seems our current goal
We used to think divinity
Was out there past infinity
Perhaps in the vicinity
Of your immortal soul
But now we’re told perfection
For those who’re so inclined
Is nearer than it’s ever been
For it’s been redefined
We’re scolded to be perfect
By cries of the Incessants
We owe it to our neighbors
To use compact fluorescents
We owe this new utopia
To exercise for hours
We owe it to the planet
To all take shorter showers
Forget exploring oceans
Or some day visit Mars
The challenge of our lifetime
Is to all get hybrid cars
If we, in our obedience
Put out the selfish flame
We’ll turn our backs to heaven
And all will think the same
Is this the end of ice cream?
And vices that we treasure…
Is this the end of sparkling?
Is this the end of pleasure?
So down with your defiance
I recommend compliance
Join in the new alliance
And grasp the greater good
Forget what you’re pursuin’
It’s been your life’s undoin’
The past is but a ruin
See there, where it once stood.
bazooka joe poem
release the kracken
of chewy gum goodness
is that politically correct?
i hide my head in shame..
in a blue turtleneck
[is blue..aright..?]
Really late coming to this. That’s what I get for doing my labor day yard work a weekend early.
Anyways, regarding Moran and that extremist Reaganite, George Will, whose only fault, God love him, is that he’s getting a bit senile as the years accumulate: while I don’t know this for a fact, I imagine that if you went back and read his columns from ’78 through the ’80 election, you’ll find that he was a Bush supporter prior to Reagan’s securing the nomination, and continued to harbor doubts about Reagan’s chances right up until “ask yourself, are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
He was a Baker supporter. Then a Bush supporter. And finally a Reagan supporter.
Krauthammer was a Mondale guy.
Well, we’re all Reagan republicans now, even when we say the era of Reagan is over.
George Will did get this right…
These are the modern day Fops; perfumed and pampered. quite comfortable living the high life, while looking down their nose at those they suspect have had shit on thier shoes at some time in their lives.
[…] VISIGOTHS, revisited Rick Moran would like it known that while he still thinks your inelegant right-wing extremism is gauche and unfairly dismissive of those witty, urbane, educated Republicans who are far better than you any of you can ever hope to be and who simply can’t stand you and your stupid uncompromising “principles”, he nevertheless admits that — likely by accident, or dumb luck — you’re sorta kinda correct about their being a Republican establishment — albeit correct in that dirty, hillbillyish, non-witty non-urbane and non-educated way that seems to be the standard with filthy moronic declasse haters who simply don’t know their place and continue to mock their betters, among which Mr Moran may or may not count himself. […]
I’ll have to dig it out, but I have George Will’s book arguing for term limits on Congresscritters and it is refreshingly OUTLAW from the ‘our Founders set up the government to be limited in scope with citizen House members that took a mere two-to-four years from their private life to serve part-time, like jury duty. It was never meant to be a career’.
The “Goldwater drubbing” was in 1968?
To Mr. Moran:
Yes, Obama IS a communist, and if he ain’t a dic(k)tator, just what the hell is he doing by cutting Congress out of the loop?
Pablo, we’re all losing, and up until the rise of the TEA Party Moran was satisfied with ‘losing more slowly’. Now, the FEAR! is settling in his and the rest of the Establicon’s bloated carcasses that the TEA Party might be a movement too little too late to save ’em.
I’m referring to his losing to the Visigoths, serr8d, despite the utter impossibility of that ever happening.
[…] scolds them for their investigative Visigothery, supplying several historical examples of how the Bushies, eg., or Nixon, also tried to use friendly news sources to support their Administrations’ positions, marking […]