Friday, June 18, 2010

The Tea Party Turns on Ron Johnson

Looks like the fallout from Ron Johnson's "vetting session" is only just beginning.

There's a long post at RedState.com examining Johnson's interview and it is as scathing as it is paranoid. Here's a sample:

Johnson started out with a full eight and a half minutes of personal introduction. Less then two minutes in, he says something that might seem completely innocuous to anyone not paying close attention: “I realize I just received the endorsement from the Republican Party. I will say I was as surprised as anybody about that. But I do want to say that I view that more as an endorsement of my message.”

Why does this little snippet raise my eyebrow? Two reasons.

On Wednesday, May 26th, just days after the state GOP convention had concluded, the Wisconsin State Journal published an article on the party’s [use skeptical tone here] “surprise” endorsement of Johnson. Near the end, Reince Priebus, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, asserts: “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the race for two years or two months. This proves it’s about the right message and the right candidate.”

It sounds suspiciously like Priebus and Johnson are repeating talking points.

Wow ... nothing gets by these guys. Obviously, there's something fishy going on instead of, you know, a couple of people just saying a whole lot of nothing (which is exactly what the above talking point is).

And it only gets worse. The blogger starts derisively calling Johnson "RoJo" and seems oddly obsessed with politics over policy:

Unfortunately, RoJo didn’t even touch the answer to the question actually posed. He didn’t talk about strategy. He didn’t say a thing about how he’s going to win the confidence of independents, who have historically voted for Feingold. He didn’t broach how he might capture disillusioned Democrats. He didn’t hint at how he’s going to counteract the rich white guy image that Russ is bound to leverage against him. He didn’t mention where, how, or why he’d attack Feingold’s record.

Yeah, like the campaign is going to make that information public ... Note the bolded line above. A little later on in the blogger's post we get his recap of Johnson's opinion on the role of government:

“But also, I’m not reflexively anti-government…I want the government to have smart and effective regulation to make sure the free market continues to operate properly. I don’t want to see large companies with monopolistic practices. I think we should invoke anti-trust regulation so that— If there’s ever a business that’s termed too big to fail, regulation has already failed. We shouldn’t allow businesses to accumulate each other and merge to the point where they get too large to fail.”

Uh oh…

Let me get this straight: Ron Johnson, entrepreneur and millionaire, wants someone else to tell him when his company’s gotten too big? He’d really appreciate it if the government told him he couldn’t buy another company in order to expand or innovate? Or is it that—like so many in Washington—RoJo thinks those kinds of rules wouldn’t apply to him?

Ronny sounds suspiciously like a progressive—not a conservative.

This is, of course, an absolutely idiotic thing to say.

Johnson's opinion sounds perfectly reasonable. In fact, it seems like just the kind of statement that would, I don't know, win the confidence of independents, who have historically voted for Feingold ... and yet "Pompadour" dismisses the sentiment out of hand because Johnson does not appear to be an anarcho-capitalist. Good luck with that ...

That's really just the beginning of the post, which is in itself the first of at lest two parts (more promised tomorrow). The whole thing is an epic example of just how unreliable the Tea Party is.

There is no pleasing these folks. They have no interest in doing the work and making the necessary compromises needed to win elections. You're either 100% with them or against them. Why anyone takes them seriously is beyond me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was insightful and interesting. Not that unusual for you Chiefy-pie, but I especially like a bit of analysis that saves me time (goddam you just can't even begin to keep up on everything these days) but when bloggy observations are done in a way that allows a person to see the "evidence" right there that's really great, and then the reader is free to think "hell no! Chief's head is up his ass" if they want to. Well yeah, that's what good blogging/reporting is all about. IN addition, you know how to show your honest feelings without an attempt to manipulate the reader. It can be done. And that's what keeps writing from being Propaganda - NOT self-deluded attempts at "OBJECTIVITY" which totally is an Illusion.
So many will not go that route though, and pat themselves on the back for their "cleverness". Well, it works I guess. Morons of all political types love to be herded.

Okay back to the actual issue.
Holy Ca-RAP! once some group (or person) starts calling you some nickname like "RoJo" you can kiss it goodbye, eh? "RoJo" is pretty damn contemptuous. Wowser Scoob. RoJo laid down with dogs and got up with fleas. and a new name. Lol.

Nice comment about the "winning Independents" stuff. Its one thing to be really Idealist and Emotastic about politics. I can certainly understand the angst of feeling no one can measure up re: the compromises etc. that must be made to function in the system as it actually is. For some people that's a hard one. Well for everyone - how much compromise is too much, when has a person crossed a line and now has begun to (for lack of a better phrase) serve the devil. However, super-angry and super-childish "no one is good enough" -ness is really going on here with the Tea P.

But you KNOW that is they had any power at all they would go totally Taliban. These are the dangerous "anti-American" people. They are openly treasonous. That sounds sensational I realize, but their message goes there time and again.
Maybe some day I'll "defend" that claim in a blog post or something, but until that glorious morn I'll just keep repeating These are some scary scary folks.

later, dude.

Anonymous said...

one more thought - even if RoJo wanted to distance himself from the Tea party until the election was over with and EVEN IF that "break-up" and mocking was all STAGED (Ron - you asshole, you would do that, I know you would)

- it still just shits on his image.

cuz he's a NOOB!

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