GOP Party Unity? Not So Much

 

With Republicans set to make what might be record gains in the mid-term elections, I can’t help but reflect that we seem to be saddled with the sorriest bunch of sore losers ever seen within a political party.

Remember Dede Scozzafava, from last year’s special election in New York? Despite being “an ACORN-friendly, union-pandering, tax-and-spend radical Republican,” she was the Party establishment’s choice in the attempt to pick up the House seat left open when John McHugh was appointed Secretary of the Army. When Doug Hoffman, a dark horse solid conservative, started to surge in popularity, dear Dede withdrew from the race and gave her supporte to Bill Owens, the Democrat in the race.

Sore loser and traitor.

When Christine O’Donnell, to the amazement and dismay of the party elite, took the Primary last week in Delaware, did her opponent, Mike Castle, congratulate her and throw his support behind her, working to get a Republican in that Senate seat? Not a chance. Not only did Mr. Castle refuse to endorse her, but the NRSC promptly leaked that it would not support her either. After some serious outcry from the common folk, Sen. Cornyn (head of the NRSC) flip-flopped and allowed as how he guessed they’d send her money after all.

Sore loser and flip-flopper.

When Joe Miller in Alaska surged past Lisa Murkowski to take the primary in that state, Murkowski, a sitting Republican Senator, toyed with the idea of running on the Libertarian ticket, running as an Independent, and finally decided to run as a write-in. Against her party’s chosen nominee and clearly against the will of the people of her state. And when the NRSC threatened to strip her of her post on the Senate Energy Committee, it’s likely that she threatened something… what? — to vote with the Democrats if that happened? — because you’ve never seen such quick backpedalling:

“We all respect the system, and she still is a Republican senator,’’ said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah.) after the closed party caucus. “It’s just a matter of good taste.”

Sore loser, party traitor, and possible blackmailer.

And those are just a few. Ed Morrissey wrote a great article for the Washington Times last week, outlining many more in the Sore Loser Party, ending with the following gem:

“If the Republican Party wants to survive, let alone succeed, it has to stop acting like sore losers and start acting like a party that wants to win elections on principle and not just strategic posturing.”

To which I say, it’s not even strategic posturing. I say it’s behaving like a spoiled child or a drama queen; maybe both. There never was a party as adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, due in no small part to its penchant for sore loser-hood.

Party unity, my a**.

Stoutcat

It’s the Little Things: TV Edition

As a response to Stoutcat’s  post of yesterday, I got to thinking about the insidious nature of television commercials, and started a quick compilation of “little things” which, taken singly seem innocent enough, but which, when bombarded throughout the 24-hour cycle, are little short of damning in their  flaunting of  flat-out rudeness and out-and-out celebration of bad behavior…

• In one of the Nikon D-5000 ads, the all-too-full-of-himself photographer insists on getting his fashion show pictures by blocking the other cameramen
• Miller Lite depicts an antique appraiser joking about dropping a customer’s vase
• Not to be outdone, another Miller Lite commercial shows an indignant delivery man taking back product because a nightclub has a reserved section for paying customers
• Volkswagen commercials build on the old child’s game of “Punch Buggy” (hitting a chum on the shoulder at the sight of a VW) by having adults do the same
• Cat Genie has unhappy cat owners throwing out litter boxes, one of which almost hits a jogger
• In an Advil commercial, a woman rudely leaves a shopping basket full of other pain relievers in mid-aisle
• Let’s not forget Geico’s Charlie Daniels, as he embarrasses himself in a French restaurant, and then takes a customer’s bread stick
• Quality Inn has John Ratzenberger at a buffet line heaping his plate to the point of overflowing onto the floor and then walking away… his wife just watches and walks away as well
• Allstate shows a man being hit by a car and then asks, “Are you in good hands?”
• Starbucks shows the result of an affair uncovered – a slap
• Lite and Fit yogurt has a woman slurping an empty container like a five year-old
• A talking Super 8 sign berates a man (on his own property) for not taking a vacation

And so it goes. It’s reached the point where a reclusive billionaire feels the need to remind us of core values, putting his money where his mouth is in a series of public service commercials:

Sigh. Has it really come to this?

Alan Speakman