It’s as if Phyllis Schlafly, Bay Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingrham and Michelle Malkin were un-persons.

Yes, yes they are. Hateful, crazy, intellectually dishonest un-persons.

This was a change made, in 2007, when the President was an incompetent Republican.

Upon hearing the hoopla over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I realized that I’m so old now that I actually remember a time when the Berlin wall was there. I was 11 when the wall came down and I can still remember thinking at that very moment that I had always assumed my entire life that it would always be.

I also remember the sheer joy of the German people as they poured across it as the restrictions were lifted, and even at that young age I was aware something of mighty importance had occured.

The idea that the wall came down simply because Ronald Reagan said so is absurd. But at the same time, President Reagan’s words and actions did have an effect and he was right to back the cause of freedom in Germany. What made the wall fall was Reagan, Gorbachev, and most importantly the people wanting to be free.

Its not a coincidence that the same mindset that drove the country into a ditch over the last 8 years has come up with this ass-backwards political strategy. Look, if this purging for pure conservatives was going on in solid GOP states like Alabama, Georgia, etc. it might make sense – but while there are pockets of that sort of knuckle dragging in Florida, a statewide nominee has to be a little more rooted in reality.

One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers tries to make the case that the conservative movement was sane in 1994 when they took over, even more hilariously they claim Rush Limbaugh’s critiques of the Clinton administration were “pointed”. Are you kidding me? As Sullivan points out, that was the fevered swamp of nuttiness. Limbaugh led the charge into every nothingburger investigation of the Clintons, and push the same bull he pushes today – the only different is his attacks are more racist nowadays.

The larger point is that the modern conservative movement has a long lineage of nuttiness. The same people today bleating about a government takeover of healthcare are the same ones who wanted to impeach Justice Earl Warren, supported the use of tactical nukes, and were convinced fluoridated water was a mind control plot.

Too often liberals lament that today’s conservatives don’t somehow have the seriousness of Goldwater, but Goldwater was nuts and we were lucky he never got anywhere near the presidency. Modern conservatism has no basis in facts or reality, and never has.

Previously the CW was

Health care reform couldn’t pass the House
Obama couldn’t beat Clinton for the nomination
Democrats couldn’t take back the House and the Senate in 2006
America wouldn’t elect a Catholic president
Dewey had Truman beat
The allies couldn’t defeat the Nazis
No way the colonists could defeat the British Empire.

Sometimes the CW is wrong.

[W]e were often critical of President George W. Bush.

John Hinderaker, 2005:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Whatever, playah.

Also, anti-semetic.

The Redskins are dead. Dead, dead, dead. There is no life left to this season. In fact, its clear now the two wins on the record were mere flukes. There is no offense, or defense. The coaches stink, as do the quarterback and running back. The only decent player on the team – Chris Cooley – is hurt on the sideline.

Stick a fork in ‘em. This is the ultimate Dan Snyder team.

2-14, here they come. And Snyder will do something dumb like draft Tim Tebow.

Call in Dr. Kevorkian.

There is no reason to think, in other words, that the students in House District 15 should have gotten such profoundly superior results to the “students” in Strategic Vision’s survey. Nor could Strategic Vision’s results have been the result of any sort of mathematical or methodological oddity. Consider their claim that literally none of the 1,000 students they surveyed were able to answer more than 7 of the 10 questions correctly — lower than the average score achieved in Cannaday’s test.

There are, rather, only two possibilities. Either the Strategic Vision survey was entirely fabricated — or Cannaday’s was.

The man who is a suspect in the Halloween night slaying of a Seattle police officer is a ‘domestic terrorist’ who had explosive devices in his apartment, police officials said Saturday.

Christopher J. Monfort is believed to have worked alone in the fatal shooting of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton, as well as the Oct. 22 firebombing of four Seattle police vehicles, said Jim Pugel, Seattle Police assistant chief.

‘This man, from everything that we can tell, appears to be a lone domestic terrorist,’ Pugel said at a news conference.

An American flag found near where Brenton was shot provided a link between the cases, a law enforcement source said. Pugel told reporters there was one critical ‘piece of evidence’ at the homicide scene that resembled something else found in the Charles Street arson case.”

We should support the primary opponents of the following Democrats, and in the case of Artur Davis, not support his run for governor of Alabama. It would be great for Alabama to have a Democratic governor who is black, but it isn’t worth it if that Governor is going to be a lackey for the health insurance industry and the forces of the status quo.

The 39 Democrats who shouldn’t bother to be Democrats:

Adler
Altmire
Baird
Barrow
Boccieri
Boren
Boucher
Boyd
Bright
Chandler
Childers
Artur Davis
Lincoln Davis
Chet Edwards
Gordon
Griffith
Herseth-sandlin
Holden

Kissell
Kosmas
Kratovil
Kucinich
Betsy Markey
Marshall
Massa
Matheson
McIntyre
McMahon
Melancon
Minnick
Scott Murphy
Nye
Peterson
Ross
Shuler
Skelton
Tanner
Taylor
Teague

Office of the Press Secretary

_______________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 7, 2009

Statement of President Barack Obama on House Passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act

Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.

Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.

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