Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Come on, man.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

In my day, never was longer.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

No one could have predicted…

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / But What About the Genius of “Drill, Baby, Drill?”

But What About the Genius of “Drill, Baby, Drill?”

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Richard Posner (via):

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

Concomitantly, right-wing bloggers have finally ended their 72 hour fascination with Wanda Sykes and now have a new item topping memeorandum:

I would argue there is a relationship between these two things. All that we are missing is for Douthat to make Prejean the focus of his column next week.

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  3. 3.

    Mr. Stuck

    By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

    Twisty oxymoron with double axle dismount.

  4. 4.

    freelancer

    All that we are missing is for Douthat to make Prejean the focus of his column next week.

    But John,

    We don’t want Ross to try to out-do himself. It would be embarrassing for everyone: Readers, writers, illiterate conservatives, and even chunky Reese Witherspoon look-alikes.

  5. 5.

    jon

    @demkat620: I’ve been telling people since she popped up on the national stage that if you want to understand Palin, understand MacBeth.

  6. 6.

    Rick Taylor

    By the end of the Clinton administration, I was content to celebrate the triumph of conservatism as I understood it, and had no desire for other than incremental changes in the economic and social structure of the United States. I saw no need for the estate tax to be abolished, marginal personal-income tax rates further reduced, the government shrunk, pragmatism in constitutional law jettisoned in favor of “originalism,” the rights of gun owners enlarged, our military posture strengthened, the rise of homosexual rights resisted, or the role of religion in the public sphere expanded. All these became causes embraced by the new conservatism that crested with the reelection of Bush in 2004.

    It’s interesting to see how the meaning of conservatism has evolved. There’s nothing “conservative” about embracing torture, launching reckless war, etc.

  7. 7.

    kay

    I don’t know what the Joe the Plumber strategy was. It’s not even populism. It’s anti-populism. It assumes “regular people” are stupid.

    The whole point of populism is that regular people can be smart.

    Bill Clinton ran as a regular person, first term. He didn’t run as a stupid person.

    They’re not the same thing.

  8. 8.

    Mr. Stuck

    All that we are missing is for Douthat to make Prejean the focus of his column next week.

    I expect he’ll get right on it once he figures out how to remove the little nipple stars.

  9. 9.

    jenniebee

    I don’t see this going anywhere for Republicans but out. The wingnuttier and purgier they get, the less reason monied interests have in supporting them.

    My prediction: we’ll see the Democratic party split down the DNC/progressive divide before we see a return of Republicans as a credible national party.

  10. 10.

    InflatableCommenter

    Ms. Prejean still has not explained why she is so obsessed with having control over whom other people can marry.

    The whole concept doesn’t compute with me. I wouldn’t pretend to give a flying fukk, or spend one second worrying about, whom Ms. Prejean would marry. I don’t care. In fact, I don’t care, with prejudice. I never ever want to care.

    But she seems to care a lot about whom somebody else might marry. I cannot shake the idea that this makes her a lunatic, a crazy person, and that she should be on medication of some kind, and kept away from the public.

    Am I missing something here?

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    Note that, as I predicted, Limbaugh didn’t dare address what Sykes said for fear of her responding. Chicken.

  12. 12.

    Jon

    @jenniebee: Thats basically what happened to the Whigs. They lost their leadership(by death and expulsion for not being ‘Whiggish’ enough), the party operatives stopped raising money(both from people refusing to give money and party leaders deciding they had better things to do) and they were broken in half by the Dems and the new Republican party.

  13. 13.

    TR

    Can someone (not insane) explain how she’s a victim here?

    She spoke her mind, people disagreed, and … what? She didn’t lose her “crown” for it, she didn’t even face the threat of losing her “crown” for it (that was for the nudie pics), and she’s won a ton of attention and presumably a lot of cash for speaking fees and appearances.

    I’d tell her to cry me a river, but it’d only make her mascara run.

  14. 14.

    Pug

    …once he figures out how to remove the little nipple stars.

    I’d like to figure that one out myself. Very distracting.

  15. 15.

    kay

    @TR:

    I don’t know why she’s a victim. I think beauty-queen-naked-pictures-surface is fairly standard at this point, right?

    It’s almost part of the process. Pageant, then pictures.

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    The Posner column was very interesting.

    I don’t know much about him, but what I’ve read I like.

    I saw that he was the most cited judge of our era. Gregg Easterbrook’s brother is second. I don’t know what to make of that.

  17. 17.

    Jon

    @TR: Well, the wingnuttery would have you believe that her answer cost her the crown since Perez Hilton gave her a zero(nevermind that this is allowed by the rules and it didnt cost her the crown).

    If I was pushing the anti-Gay marriage message, I wouldn’t have some airhead as my masthead. She’s bound to say something stupid that makes her a laughingsto…too late.

  18. 18.

    John Cole

    I don’t know if she is a victim, but Perez Hilton and the California pageant commission sure have been a bunch of assholes. I have repeatedly said that her position was no different than Obama’s, and I was unsure why people were freaking out about it. I guess it is because she seemed so eager to join up with the NOM idiots. Hell, even the folks on Wait Wait on NPR pointed out her position was the same as Obama’s.

    I do think there has been an eagerness to jump in her shit not unlike what I saw happen to Palin over her daughter or Edwards and that blonde he had the affair with. I just hate people jumping into people’s private lives.

  19. 19.

    Mr. Stuck

    @Pug:

    I’d like to figure that one out myself. Very distracting.

    Splash the entire breast on the front page and it’s acceptable long as the nipple is hidden. WTBD. Ever body has em. And we wonder why the rest of the world thinks we’re nuts, or half nuts, as it were.

  20. 20.

    Alan

    By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

    He’s wrong of course. Rush Limbaugh and sites like Hot Air tell me the Party’s face was John McCain. Proving moderates can’t win.

  22. 22.

    Mr. Stuck

    @John Cole:

    I think she lied on her application and contract about having had these kinds of photos circulating. At least that’s what I heard on the teevee.

  23. 23.

    Ash

    There’s nothing private about a beauty queen taking topless pictures. She’s a gigantic moron if she didn’t know those would come out eventually, and thusly deserves all the mocking she’s receiving.

  24. 24.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I’ll give Posner credit for one thing-he’s one of the most prominent supporters of the “law and economics” school of thought, which means he gets quoted as an economics expert. Despite having zero academic degrees in the subject.

  25. 25.

    InflatableCommenter

    @John Cole:

    No, I don’t think I can agree with that. I haven’t heard Obama say that “God said marriage is between a man a woman.” I think Obama said things like the ones mentioned here:

    In a carefully hedged statement, Obama said he “respects the decision of the California Supreme Court.” He respects a decision that disregarded the will of the people in California, as expressed by a 2000 referendum that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

    Notice that after this blurb, Obama is being punished … er, criticized …. for basically saying that the current lay of the legal and political landscape is not supportive of gay marriage, but he is not being an activist against gay marriage or invoking God, is he? He strikes me as being willing to let the thing work itself out through the various processes out there.

    I don’t find this approach to be weak, or worthy of criticism. It’s not that far from my own position. I don’t care who anyone marries, and I do think that all couples who want to be joined together in some ceremonial way and be each others’ closest relatives should be able to do so. I don’t get behind the M-word angle, as explained at length in the past. But I’m not against it either. I’d never vote against it. I’d always vote for it if given the chance.

    But the major point here is that Obama is certainly not saying what Prejean is saying. Prejean in a scold who wants to stop gayitude. Obama is a practical libertarian on the issue as near as I can tell.

    Eh?

  26. 26.

    DougJ

    I’ll give Posner credit for one thing-he’s one of the most prominent supporters of the “law and economics” school of thought, which means he gets quoted as an economics expert. Despite having zero academic degrees in the subject.

    Good point.

  27. 27.

    kay

    @Ash:

    I think there’s a difference between Palin’s daughter, John Edwards, and the beauty queen.

    Consent, for one thing. Palin’s daughter wasn’t running for Vice President. Palin’s daughter didn’t volunteer.

    I’m just not seeing “victim” re: the pageant.

    Beauty pageant judges are nasty? Get out. Never. I thought they’d be GREAT.

  28. 28.

    D-Chance.

    Concomitantly, right-wing bloggers have finally ended their 72 hour fascination with Wanda Sykes

    The fascination didn’t last nearly as long as Media Matters’ obsession with David Feherty’s one joke. They’re still trying to get him fired from his job.

  29. 29.

    Rob

    Note that, as I predicted, Limbaugh didn’t dare address what Sykes said for fear of her responding. Chicken.

    You got that right. Ever notice how MSNBC keeps showing that footage of Limpballs at that conservative dinner/meeting several weeks ago. He is jumping around, sweating, sniffing and wiping his nose. Me thinks that old Limp is in the middle of another addiction of sorts. I just have this feeling that he will be doing another stint in rehab- verrrry soon or die from an overdose.

  30. 30.

    Gus

    I can’t exult in the confusion of Republicans today. Reading this and this I’m disillusioned and depressed. If, after reading the Glenzilla piece, one of you bastards tells me Obama’s playing the long game, I will hunt you down.

  31. 31.

    joes527

    @John Cole:

    I do think there has been an eagerness to jump in her shit not unlike what I saw happen to Palin over her daughter or Edwards and that blonde he had the affair with. I just hate people jumping into people’s private lives.

    Try living in San Diego. They are trying to get the school districts to declare a “Carrie Prejean Day.” OK. I guess. But will they have nipple stars on the t-shirts or not?

    My first reaction to the whole thing was “look – another miss wherever” Here answer was a bit garbled, with folks can gaymarry – but I don’t think that folks should gaymarry. It brought to mind that whole thing about maps.

    I think beauty contests are stupid. I think Perez Hilton is stupid. I think that this whole controversy is stupid. I think that folks that want to make here a hero/villain are stupid.

    But what I _really_ think is that she was way hotter before the boob job.

  32. 32.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    I do think there has been an eagerness to jump in her shit not unlike what I saw happen to Palin over her daughter or Edwards and that blonde he had the affair with. I just hate people jumping into people’s private lives.

    Sorry, a photo shoot does not now and never will = private life.

  33. 33.

    Jon

    @John Cole: The difference is that if/when a state supreme court rules that Gay marriage is legal, Obama will respect it. Prejean and her ilk will rail against “activist judges”(assuming Miss Cali knows what a judge is) and rail against “activist legislatures” when state legislatures decide to legalize it.

  34. 34.

    someguy

    Republicans = stupid swine.

    It’s the setup, punchline, and denouement that always delivers. I’m thinking about using it as an answer on my annual blood pressure test. I bet it’s considered an acceptable answer.

  36. 36.

    wasabi gasp

    One cool side effect of all this is it got me diggin’ through some old punk vinyl in search of a SST Records compilation with a song by Painted Willie. The song is titled The Big Time and its subject is Vanessa Williams. It still rocks all of its 137 seconds.

  37. 37.

    freelancer

    The voices who have the microphones of a once national, but soon to be regional political movement are spastically darting between Dijon Mustard, an asinine beauty pageant contestant, and Torture as a morally ambivalent subject for pundits to gasbag over; its no wonder that Idiot America is being expanded into a full book.

    That’s the heart of the problem. Wild, loony ideas aren’t dangerous in themselves — what’s dangerous is when criticism is set aside and wacky ideas are given unquestioning acceptance and allowed to set the national agenda. It changes the dynamic: no longer do kooks have to work to get their voices heard, but the more insane their claims, the more likely they will be given media attention, promoted and passed around, given the imprimatur of authenticity because, well, Larry King featured them on his show.

    What has America become? America has become an episode of The Office, where lovable assholes are put in charge to fumble their way along incompetently, coasting on the slack, disinterested efforts of their underlings. The show is a comedy, and it can be hilarious, in part because there is some stinging truth to it.

  38. 38.

    DonnaInMichigan

    Sarah Palin just signed a deal to write a book. (OK a ghostwriter is actually gonna write it)

    This is going to be fun!!

    She will have to do interviews, to promote this book of hers.

    I am stocking up on the popcorn.

  39. 39.

    Left Coast Tom

    I think Prejean’s 15 minutes have already more than expired. I couldn’t care less about her pre- or post-surgery boobs, I am as uninterested in her opinions as I was before I knew she existed, and I really wish she would go away and take Sarah Palin and Not-Joe-the-Not-Plumber with her. She is not, and has never been, a victim in all of this because she chose to be a public figure, and is an active participant in inflicting her inanity upon the public.

    Also, too.

    It’s alleged that the GOP contains sane people who would like to counter Teh Crazy. If they exist they could start by doing something about this nonsense of picking out the slightest wild-assed gimmick and beating it beyond the point of death.

  40. 40.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Ms. Prejean still has not explained why she is so obsessed with having control over whom other people can marry.

    Because if she doesn’t, her god will punish her.

  41. 41.

    mclaren

    By 2008…conservative intellectuals had no party.

    This makes it sound as though conservative intellectuals had a party back in, oh, say, 1981.

    Hello?

    Anyone home?

    As if “conservative intellectuals” ever had a home in a party run by the senile sociopath Reagan gibbering drivel like “Forest fires emitted more pollution than all the smokestacks in America,” and “We can recall the missiles” if we get into a nuclear exchange with the USSR, or the claim that he helped liberate the Nazi death camps (Reagan spent WW II making movies in Hollywood. Like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan was too big a coward ever to have actually fought for his country in WW II).

    Conservative intellectuals had a party? Led by a fool so senile he couldn’t even recognize his own son?

    Pure comedy gold.

  42. 42.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Rob

    You got that right. Ever notice how MSNBC keeps showing that footage of Limpballs at that conservative dinner/meeting several weeks ago. He is jumping around, sweating, sniffing and wiping his nose. Me thinks that old Limp is in the middle of another addiction of sorts.

    Do you mean this footage?

  43. 43.

    IndieTarheel

    I can honestly say that on this one, both sides suck.

    In other news, I just pulled a piece of lint out of my belly button. Perhaps the GOP can wax poetic on THAT for a week or two.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    All that we are missing is for Douthat to make Prejean the focus of his column next week.

    Isn’t Douthat the Talibangelical who thinks even the most discreet tattoo labels a woman a “harlot”? I don’t think he can write a whole column about the contestant who got the committee to buy her breast implants (as a “self-esteem measure”) without bursting a blood vessel.

  45. 45.

    asiangrrlMN

    I don’t think Sean Hannity has said anything, either, about Wanda Sykes dissing him.

    As for the whole beauty pageant thing, meh. The whole thing is a charade. I agree with David Schuster.

    I don’t give a fuck what she thinks. Perez Hilton is an ass. Bah. A pox on both houses.

    I will have to say that Keith’s new segment, WTF? is spot-on, too.

    P.S. I gotta say, I don’t think Prejean is attractive at all.

    Anne Laurie, seriously? Do you have a link to Douthat’s horror and disgust at women having tattoos? I need a good laugh.

  46. 46.

    Doctor Science

    I read the Posner article and found it bizarre: it’s an account of the shifts in US politics over the course of my lifetime that never mentions race. Surely he’s heard of the Southern Strategy. Is there some kind of a Gentleman’s Agreement to abide by it but never mention it?

  47. 47.

    Comrade Baron Elmo

    Isn’t Douthat the Talibangelical who thinks even the most discreet tattoo labels a woman a “harlot”? I don’t think he can write a whole column about the contestant who got the committee to buy her breast implants (as a “self-esteem measure”) without bursting a blood vessel.

    Ross Dough Hat has his difficulties with females, Lord knows… but I believe that the source of that little gem is similarly-initialed Crunchy Conservative Rod Dreher.

  48. 48.

    RememberNovember

    You think the Donald would let a piece of a$$ like that go? Remember when his other beauty queen was in a scandal? She kept her crown. Prejean’s a no-brainer. Her and her hydrocephalic breasts can go take a walk off Morey pier.

  51. 51.

    Pasquinade

    Carrie Prejean (pronounced pray-ZHAN)

    Why aren’t all these rightwingersand Bill Reilly dumping on Miss California for the French pronunciation of her surname?

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