Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The willow is too close to the house.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Come on, man.

A consequence of cucumbers

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

You are here: Home / Politics / Ask the Leadership

Ask the Leadership

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The Truth Laid Bear has an interesting compilation of questions from bloggers that they would like the Republican leadership candidates to answer as well as having readers rank which are the best questions. Many/most are mundane (“How will you get us back in the majority,”, but some of them are pretty damned interesting:

What books have you read about Islamic terrorism against America and the West?

And others are flat-out insane:

Will you actually defend yourselves in the mainstream media, and assign some members to a continous media communications task, or instead allow the MSM to paint you however they wish, especially to independent voters? I realize that Lynne Cheney is not an elected official, but her recent CNN interview is quite instructive.

Sadly, that is currently the second-most popular question. Because, as we all know, the reason the GOP lost was insufficient media bashing and not getting out our message.

At any rate, check it out.

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    HeavyJ

    “I realize that Lynne Cheney is not an elected official, but her recent CNN interview is quite instructive.”

    Yes, much more like that please. Inane ranting at Wolf Blitzer from the wife of a dissolute alcoholic will cement the GOP’s permanent majority.

  2. 2.

    Pb

    Actually…

    Will you actually defend yourselves in the mainstream media, and assign some members to a continous media communications task, or instead allow the MSM to paint you however they wish, especially to independent voters?

    That’s a question I wouldn’t mind asking of the Democratic leadership. Of the lot of them, I think Murtha probably makes the rounds the most, followed by Biden, and they do ok, but neither of them would be my first choices. I was watching Meet The Press–they had McCain and Lieberman on–and Russert mentioned that they had invited Reid and Pelosi, but both of them declined. At least Reid was on Face The Nation, not that I watch it.

  4. 4.

    ThymeZone

    Here’s a question they can ask Republicans:

    Your administrations were wrong about Iraq in the 1980’s, wrong again in the 1990’s, and horribly wrong after 911.

    We went from shaking hands and having our pictures taken with Saddam, to declaring him to he Hitler, to declaring a war on him, to backing off from that war, to declaring him Hitler again and declaring another war, to being stuck in what’s left of his country with no end in sight and no plan to get out, all in the span of about 18 years, all under Republican presidents.

    Why should we care what you think about anything, at this point? What will you do to rebuild your credibility on foreign policy?

  5. 5.

    scarshapedstar

    In Dave Barry Turns 40 (or possibly 50, I forget) there’s a guide to “Aging Gracelessly (or, How To Geeze)”. In it, he recommends that whenever your children come to visit you, you spend all your time complaining about how they never come to visit you.

    This seems an awful lot like the wingnut strategy for electoral recovery, at least as far as dealing with the Axis of LLL/MSM goes: get as much face time as possible and spend all that time whining about how the LibrulMedia won’t let you on TV.

    Yeah, that’s the ticket. Godspeed! You whiny, stupid, white emperors.

  6. 6.

    Pb

    ThymeZone,

    How about “who’s the next Hitler gonna be?” Or, uh, “which Hitler is worse–Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Howard Dean?”

  8. 8.

    Jay

    You want insane?

    Considering that Hezbollah sympathizers and agents have already been arrested and prosecuted in the US and that Hezbollah is now in Venezuela recruiting South Americans to Islam and into the Hezbollah fold, how do you see that the continued unchecked and unstopped movement of individuals across the southern US border with regards to Hezbollah Agents that are ethnically hispanic, but religiously tied to Hezbollah?

    Quite a few people think the GOP spent too much time kow-towing to the Democrats (???) and want their leaders to stop. Not a few want the dreaded Liberal Media’s habit of telling lies about Republicans curbed or punished. Interesting since many liberals think the MSM is a tool of the Neo-Con Empire. Sheesh. Make up your minds! A number of people think putting a question mark at the end of a statement makes it a question. Oh well.

    There are quite a few interesting, substantive questions sprinkled through out the madness:

    Will you honestly and consistetly communicate and vote conservative values, even against a President of your own party?

    He/she doesn’t define “Conservative,” but it is still a good question. But right now I want to know which of the Ballon Juice crew asked this:

    What are your three favorite conservative blogs and why?

    ‘Fess up.

  9. 9.

    RSA

    Check out the least popular question (with a score of -43):

    Will you make it a goal to make the party more appealing to moderate secular voters or will you continue the policy of reliance on the Evangelical movement?

    It’s phrased in a somewhat challenging way, but it’s a perfectly reasonable question that I think gets to the issue of whether the Republican party can hold together its fiscal conservative/social conservative coalition. Apparently the readers of the blog just don’t think this is important. To me, it looks like hiding one’s head in the sand, but maybe I just don’t understand the GOP’s dynamics.

  10. 10.

    The Other Steve

    I was watching Meet The Press—they had McCain and Lieberman on—and Russert mentioned that they had invited Reid and Pelosi, but both of them declined.

    I can’t blame them. Who wants to respond to an hour of Tim Russert asking them intelligent questions like “So tell me, why do you hate America and want the terrorists to win?”

    Russert is a hack.

    I saw the Face the Nation interview, and it was quite good.

  13. 13.

    Mike S

    These people are NUTS.

    Do you understand that the 2006 midterm elections were NOT a referendum calling for the U.S. to leave Iraq short of total victory, but instead they were a referendum on crushing the enemy and to cease fighting a politically correct war? A GREAT example of our politically correct failures is our refusal to bomb the 100+ Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan because the were congregating in a cemetery.
    –submitted by Jeff Buchanan

    Popularity Score: 79

    Yeah, that’s the ticket. The country really voted to turn the ME into glass.

    Do you concur that two of the major reasons Republicans were turned out of office in 2006 are 1) because of Republican failure and refusal to perpetuate the 1994 Contract with America and 2) because your electoral base was very frustrated over the perception that Republicans were NOT conducting themselves as though they were the WINNERS of the elections for which the conservative electoral base fought so tenaciously? Do you concur that Republicans conducted themselves in a manner consistent with a MINORITY party instead of the party in charge of both houses for 12 years?
    –submitted by Jeff Buchanan

    I didn’t know that the GOP refused to give itself conference rooms.

  14. 14.

    craigie

    Since those are Republicans asking the questions, I wonder why none of them asked

    “Will you earmark the next budget to give me five million dollars? If you do, I’ll contribute $25,000 to your campaign.”

    I mean, isn’t that a core GOP value?

  15. 15.

    Pb

    Who wants to respond to an hour of Tim Russert asking them intelligent questions like “So tell me, why do you hate America and want the terrorists to win?”

    Someone quick enough and eloquent enough to respond appropriately, or better yet, rhetorically take him apart. I don’t know if Pelosi and Reid necessarily fit the bill, but it would have been nice if there had been *a* Democrat on there.

  16. 16.

    craigie

    Also,

    Which do you think is more important, the United States of America, or the GOP?

    would be worth asking.

  17. 17.

    ThymeZone

    Someone quick enough and eloquent enough

    Like this?

    Russert: (your Vietnam service?)

    Bush: Well, I flew fighter jets in Alabama and I enjoyed it.

    Russert: { cricket chirping }

    I mean, that quick-witted Texan just shut down the smarty tough reporter from Buffalo.

    Buffaloed him, you might say.

  18. 18.

    SeesThroughIt

    This is awesome. My favorite so far is this:

    1)There is a cold wind blowing in your chambers with the far left socialists rejoicing and the James Baker/Scowcroft appeasers/isolationists haunting the hallways. Will you stand firm, with steady hand and intestinal resolve to support Israel…our only true friend in the gravest danger spot in the world?

    “There is a grave disturbance in the force….”

    So that…amassing of words is then followed two questions later (same guy–he has a list of 10) with this:

    3)Will you finally realize that as goes the center, so goes the vote? And quit alternately pandering to the fringes like some out of control pendulum?

    Beautiful.

  21. 21.

    RWB

    That was a very amusing list of questions. Actually, there were a few good ones in there, and some very pointedly specific ones (Joe Barton appears to have a few enemies). And so many questions that were frankly delusional, like the ones asking the Republicans to finally stop caving into the Democrats as they have been doing for the last 12 years.

    Anyway, I added my own question:

    “What is a Shiite? What is a Sunni? Is there a difference between them? If so, explain.”

  22. 22.

    fwiffo

    This is my favorite.

    What are you going to do to educate Americans as to WHAT CONSERVATIVISM IS?! How can you get around the media, stop preaching to the choir, and get the message out?

    Well now, that would be a wee bit incompatible with the GOP regaining the majority.

    What three liberal blogs do you read and why?

    I’d also like to know which three conservative blogs they read. And that goes for reps from both parties. Too bad it’s way down the list. I also liked some of the conspiracy theories:

    What is your position on the “North American Union” , including its laws and governing board which will supercede U.S. law, being created by Bush(U.S.), Fox (Caldourn)(Mexico),and Martin (Canada)without the consent of the United States citizens and their representatives?

    It got a positive rating, and is in roughly the top 25% of the questions.

  23. 23.

    Tsulagi

    That list of questions is funny, but at the same time a little interesting. Easy to see who phrased them. Plenty from message bots like the one in the #2 spot. Some from conservatives and maybe a few from right-leaning libertarians. But the most telling is the one with the most negative votes…

    Will you make it a goal to make the party more appealing to moderate secular voters or will you continue the policy of reliance on the Evangelical movement?

    Yeah, that’s what the GOP needs to return to power…more Dobsons and Haggards. More Schiavo, not less.

    I would like to see a list of questions for the Dems and the votes each got. That could be interesting.

  24. 24.

    Pooh

    I think Murtha probably makes the rounds the most, followed by Biden, and they do ok, but neither of them would be my first choices.

    Well, I don’t mind Biden going on all the time, because the more often he talks, the worse he will do in the ’08 primaries, and that ain’t a bad thing.

  25. 25.

    Zifnab

    Would you be willing to repeal Campaign Finance Reform and enact measures that will nullify its abrogation of the First Amendment? Indeed, would you be willing to make your starting point of conservativism those measures that at the very first pass the muster of the strict interpretation of the US Constitution and not allow partisans with a vendetta to undermine it?
    –submitted by Sharon Ferguson

    Hehe. That’s the problem with America. Too much campaign finance reform. Not enough soft money and corporate contributions affecting our political system. All those good, hard working, honest politicians going to jail over squibbly little things like “accepting bribes” and “receiving illegal donation”. Entirely unacceptable.

  26. 26.

    Zifnab

    Are you sufficiently telegenic to effectively serve as the face of the Republican Party? What evidence can you cite that you are good on TV?
    –submitted by Chris Blanchett

    hahahaha. Another good one. “Are you pretty?” Where’s Katherine Harris? Can we just nominate her boobs or something? Cause that’s totally what the ‘Pubs need.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    This shouldn’t make me laugh, but I am deeply disturbed anyway. Ranking at 27:

    Will you block the Fairness Doctrine or any similar legislation that seeks to dilute if not destroy conservative talk radio?

    Calm down and pop another Oxy, Rush.

  28. 28.

    Perry Como

    There is a cold wind blowing in your chambers with the far left socialists rejoicing and the James Baker/Scowcroft appeasers/isolationists haunting the hallways. Will you stand firm, with steady hand and intestinal resolve to support Israel…our only true friend in the gravest danger spot in the world?

    There are exits to the north and east.

    > e

    You are in a private bathroom. A Congressional page has a mirror with lines of cocaine on it.

    > unzip pants

    I don’t understand unzip.

    > drop pants

    You can’t do that yet.

    > get cocaine

    You pick up a rolled $100 bill and snort a line of cocaine.

    > drop pants

    With a nose full of coke, you swiftly remove your pants as the page gazes at you.

    …

  29. 29.

    Buck

    intestinal resolve

    I think this is something that can be discovered during a colonoscopy.

    Or wiped away with toilet paper.

  31. 31.

    chefrad

    I know lots of people at the POST and I agree with boss Leonard Downie. The paper is liberal–but only on social issues (gay rights. civil rights, environment). In geopolitics the Washington Post is actually quite hawkish under Fred Hiatt. Certainly more right wing than the paper’s readers as a whole.

    This may be true of many major newspapers.

  32. 32.

    chefrad

    I know lots of people at the POST and I agree with boss Leonard Downie. The paper is liberal–but only on social issues (gay rights. civil rights, environment). In geopolitics the Washington Post is actually quite hawkish under Fred Hiatt. Certainly more right wing than the paper’s readers as a whole.

    This may be true of many major newspapers.

  33. 33.

    jenniebee

    cont. from Perry:

    > drop pants

    With a nose full of coke, you swiftly remove your pants as the page gazes at you.

    > stand firm

    Your support for Israel is noted.

  34. 34.

    DougJ

    I realize that Lynne Cheney is not an elected official, but her recent CNN interview is quite instructive.

    Quite instructive on how to look like a lunatic in front of millions of viewers (okay, maybe hundreds of thousands, this is CNN we’re talking about).

  35. 35.

    SeesThroughIt

    Hahahaha, awesome work, Perry Como. That question did seem rather RPGish to me, but I couldn’t come up with a good joke along those lines.

  37. 37.

    Rick Taylor

    Well here’s something disturbing: unless I missed it somehow, there’s not a single question on climate change or global warming. Not one. Some day we’re going to look back and wonder how we could have been so short sighted.

    -Rick Taylor

  38. 38.

    Zifnab

    Well here’s something disturbing: unless I missed it somehow, there’s not a single question on climate change or global warming. Not one. Some day we’re going to look back and wonder how we could have been so short sighted.

    “What will you do about the hoax of global warming that is being foisted upon the naive and unwitting American public? How will you better educate our nation about the virtues of clean coal, clean nuclear, and clean dead liberal technology? How soon until we can just light all of Alaska on fire to keep us warm at night?”

  39. 39.

    SPIIDERWEB™

    You post the very good question:

    What books have you read about Islamic terrorism against America and the West?

    However, a more poignant probe might be: Have you read any books about Islamic terrorism against America and the West or about Islam the religion?

    And this question should be directed at all elected officials regardless of party affiliation.

  40. 40.

    b-psycho

    I would ask them what they thought of the head of “al-qaeda in Iraq” openly stating that the war there is helping jihadi influence in the region & how that jibes w/ them portraying the slightest questioning of the war as defeatism, but as a non-republican it’s not really my place to ask on there.

  41. 41.

    scarshapedstar

    However, a more poignant probe might be: Have you read any books about Islamic terrorism against America and the West or about Islam the religion?

    “One of the first things I would do would be to sit the Nazis and the Jews down and say, “Stop the bullshit.”

    -John McCain, in a parallel universe, explaining his vision for ending WWII.

  42. 42.

    Rusty Shackleford

    Rick Taylor Says:

    Well here’s something disturbing: unless I missed it somehow, there’s not a single question on climate change or global warming. Not one. Some day we’re going to look back and wonder how we could have been so short sighted.

    -Rick Taylor

    November 13th, 2006 at 5:13 pm

    Reading the selected questions gives me the feeling that the people asking them “just don’t get it.”

    Sample Question: “Would you be willing to crank up all of our actions and initiatives that make voters doubt our ability to handle power and run the government?”

    Basically, they’re asking for ‘double-time’ on the objectionable.

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