An Idle Thought

Good thought, except that RINO's are to the right of McCain. Where is our next R.R.?

The public IQ has to be zero digits to back this pack of bozos.

Idea would be more probable were McCain not a sitting Senator. He would likely feel disloyal to use this tactic.

Indeed Rand. When I first heard the ad, there is alot there to for Obama to support, and so it was bad enough. Still, I couldn't get over the missed opportunity to say how bad things are in just 2 years of Democrat Congressional rule. It's like he really wanted to drive home his disconnect from the Republican base by slapping them a few times.

Of course, with all the other mistakes, he steps in it big time by mentioning Congressional corruption. Thanks McCain for the reminder of your involvement as a Keating 5 member. Idiot.

As Glenn would say, an unforced error on McCain's part.

Senator Dennis DeConcini took the big fall for the Keating 5, retiring after the episode. McCain didn't take much heat at all in comparison. I doubt he considers it political baggage at all at this point.

Do expect a movie of the week in late October, right?

Rand, you're right, but the fact that you are having to give that kind of advice at this point in the campaign just indicates how incompetent Republicans have become at the basics of politicking. Bush not supporting the House Republicans in the recent political theater that was a great opportunity is another example of how too many in the Republican establishment just don't get politics. Politics requires the mentality of the insurgent constantly looking for opportunities to exploit, perpetually organizing, being prolific in the creation of memes and disseminating them with a single-minded devotion and never, ever giving up. Right now there is no pro-liberty political movement that operates on these principles, but the left is doing this every day. The "conservatism" that has dominated the Republican party over the past few decades has jumped the shark. It is a product of the 1950s and is out of date. Now is the time to create a 21st century pro-liberty, pro-American movement that is relevant to our time. The question is do we have the imagination and the vision to create such a movement? We'll see. No doubt there will be naysayers but this is what needs to be done.

Making that point might help him get elected.

I'm not sure it would help him accomplish useful legislation after he was inaugurated.

I've also wondered if Joe Average knows who runs Congress. Although I disagree with Rand on "mismanagement". Perhaps a new term needs coining. The term should be "unmanagement", because the've done NOTHING!!

Not sure this will work, Rand. McCain can't get around the fact that he is just another legislator who thinks that the right solution to any problem is more government intervention. I expect this type of behavior from Democrats but am unforgiving when it comes to Republicans.

In the opinion of this independent voter, the Democratic Congress could have lessened the current turmoil if it had been competent, but the chickens now coming home to roost were hatched by Bush, Delay, Rove and Lott.

Right after the Republicans lost Congress in 2006, they gave this independent voter the finger by restoring Trent Lott to the Senate leadership. Although I intend to vote for McCain unless he picks a horrific running mate, the GOP shouldn't try me too high...

Does McCain want to be running against the Democratic Congress while the media are full of the Ted Stevens trial?

Does McCain want to be running against the Democratic Congress while the media are full of the Ted Stevens trial?

How about if he just runs against Congress? If you had a complete turnover, and threw out all the incumbents, it would give it to Republicans...

How about if he just runs against Congress?

I'll tweak that: how about if he runs for divided government? He can't do it openly, but there are ways to get the point across.

The Democratic Congress is terrible, but IMHO they haven't been terrible for long enough to get thrown out.

Maybe they've been terrible for long enough to make the voters hesitant to replace Bush/Delay/Lott with Obama/Pelosi/Reid.

Yeah, I hate it when those Congresscrats raise the price of gas. Who do they think they are?

Snuck in while Rand was out didn't he?

No jerk weed they didn't actually, but they've fought building new refineries and drilling domestic oil for 40 years. That does raise the price. It's called supply and demand.

Look up the words, better still here's an example,

When anon was born, there was a supply of brains, but he didn't demand one.

Perhaps the Republicans simply cannot lower themselves to the level of Democrats, and don't see any other way to compete with them. After all, with a press that is in all regards part of the Democratic party, it's hard for any Republican message to get out to the majority of voters who aren't already Republicans, and who don't frequent the internet for news.

The good news is public belief in the MSM is fast dying. The bad news is, as the power of the MSM wanes, their bias is fast growing. In short, their power to sway elections is holding firm, but they are burning out that ability to do so at an ever-faster rate.

It's a good point, Rand, and has historical precedent: Harry Truman ran for re-election in exactly this way in 1948, continually excoriating the "do nothing" Republican Congress. The result is of course his surprising upset (given his huge unpopularity going into the election) over Dewey.

I think the answer, in terms of McCain, is partly that he has been a member of the Senate for a long time, and considers it a bit of a gentleman's club, where you do not savage other members. That may also explain his light touch so far when it comes to Obama, although that may be changing, partly because Obama is such a newcomer.

Or it may be that, as Gavin says, he is thinking afterward, when he wants to work with Congress, and calling them a bunch of shitheads now isn't going to be helpful. You'd have to know more about McCain's intentions in being President.

Although...actually, I don't even understand why at his age he *wants* to be President. It's nuts. I can only imagine he's just been on auto-pilot -- year's divisible by 4, time to run for President again! -- and someone forgot to push the OFF switch on the Eveready Bunny campaign.

> Yeah, I hate it when those Congresscrats raise the price of gas. Who do they think they are?

You'll have to take that up with the folks who wrote the Dem's "take back Congress" platform in 2006.

They promised to reduce the price of gas so why is it wrong to hold them responsible for increases?

The man was trying to question Mr. Kanjorski about his remarks that Democrats had overpromised during the 2006 congressional elections by implying they could end the war if they controlled Congress.

"Now, anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn't true," Mr. Kanjorski said at an Ashley town hall meeting in August. "But you know the temptation to want to win back Congress — we sort of stretched the facts, and people ate it up." - The Times Tribune

The less difference there is between the two parties, the harder they work to make you think there's a difference. I guess these are the "facts" Kanjorski "stretched".

Article 1, Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Yeah, Congress has no power at all over the armed forces. The Democrats are as useless as the Republicans. But you don't dare not vote for one of the two big parties because the country will go straight to hell if you let the wrong one of the two get in power.

Yeah, Congress has no power at all over the armed forces.

That's not what he said. Do you have a point?

The Democrats not only had the ability to defund the war, they had the votes. They chickened out on a number of occasions.

The reason is simple: Bush began to win the war, and if there's one thing Americans hate more than fighting a dumb war, it's losing a war -- even a dumb war -- when they could win it instead. Simple as that.

Had the Democrats opposed the war from principle, the change in the war's progress wouldn't matter, but since they always opposed it for convenient political reasons, when the politically advantaged position switched, they had to switch with it. These days the Democrats sound nearly as militant as the Republicans, which is such a laugh.

Sounds like a good plan, Rand.