Faith Based Politics

For those who don't know, Tom Delay suggested that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are traitors. Salena Zito has written an article on the incident, picked up by Townhall.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "are getting very, very close to treason," DeLay said in a meeting with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"We have people dying," he said. "Not just our soldiers, but innocent citizens dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of these evil people, and you have your elected leaders making these kinds of statements that embolden the enemy. It's unbelievable."

This is sad but predictable. For one thing, Delay used to be a big cheese, and now he's, at best, a moderately sized cheese. That has to be frustrating. For another Conservatives are succeptible to making these kinds of wild allegations right now. Because reality has failed to conform to their faith. They can't accept that their faith might have been in the wrong, so they are casting about for why their plans have failed. And well they've always disliked Democrats. But as the evidence becomes more and more clear, they will lash out more and more, the rhetorical equivalent of putting their fingers in their ears and saying "Neener neener I can't hear you!"

The biggest question facing Democrats over the next year is what to do about President Bush. Do you continue to honor the man who brought you to this point? Or do you cut him loose and work on building up your new guy? I suspect a lot of that will depend on who they end up putting up as their person. McCain can't afford to cut Bush loose (as his foreign policy promises to be more of the same) but Guiliani probably could.

For those interested in more reading on Republican Faith Based politics, check out Garrison Kiellor's latest over at Salon.

Interestingly Direct Article About McCain

I'm not sure what to think about Salena Zito's latest article. First of all I don't remember any previous articles by Salena Zito. Secondly it takes a shot at McCain which is not that unusual, but it faults McCain for being too much like Bush which is a bit unusual. He notes that McCain moved to support President Bush, particularly on Iraq, and has surrounded himself with Bush partisans. Obviously this becomes a problem when the War in Iraq proves not to be a roaring success.

. . . instead of seeing -- and stating -- what is so obvious to so many, McCain has chosen to ignore it. He remains Bush's biggest advocate in the war; he has supported the president's call for more troops; he even went to Iraq and said it was safer than most big cities in America.

And it was perhaps at that moment that the transformation was complete: The maverick became a lap dog. The fabled political truth-teller now can’t tell the truth, even when it is obvious to anyone paying even a tiny bit of attention, even when it has become painfully obvious to most Republicans.

The Republican Party is tired of George W. Bush, his stubbornness and his war that cost it control of Congress. Its primary voters are looking for a change; it wants someone who does not remind voters of Bush, someone who does not share his stubbornness and optimism about a war that costs America more lives each week.

I have to say I hope that the Republican party ignores Ms. Zito's column here. Because her analysis seems pretty strong. Her solution, incidentally is Fred Thompson, who presumably will enter the race officially soon (unless he already has and I missed it). The comments indicate that a lot of Conservatives don't like McCain already (because of McCain Fiengold and other unpopular positions he's taken, but that they aren't writing off the Iraq war just yet. The conversation quickly segues into those vowing not to vote for McCain no matter what and those holding up the specter of President Hillary Clinton to whip them back into line. Fun stuff.