AJH

Personally, like Carter before him, I think incompetence, arrogance and just plain stupidity are large factors as well.

AJH

He “isn't black, slim, stylish or well schooled. He's a Republican with no elected office but a powerful hold on his party and a place in the news once again.”

It's Rush Limbaugh, “a big-bellied man who bellows into the radios of millions of people.”

AJH

AJH

AJH

I think George has taken some hints from the Bill Clinton playbook, very carefully parsing his words. No conference calls with the White House? How about private one-on-one calls?

Now, I like Stephanopoulos and think he's done a respectable job (most of the time) while at ABC's This Week. But his bias and background are there influencing (and sometimes tainting) his efforts to be a true journalist.

AJH

AJH

“Conservatives become acceptable when they disparage conservatives.”

[T]he controversy demonstrates anew the validity of O'Sullivan's Law. [Named after John O'Sullivan, former aide to Margaret Thatcher and former editor of National Review.] According to O'Sullivan's Law, in American culture if one is not firmly conservative, one will fall prey to the liberals who dominate the culture, polluting it with their left-wing politics and creating what I call Kultursmog.

In the smog, various timid conservatives have allowed themselves to become instrumentalities of the Democrats' hoax.

Among these timid folk are Michael Steele and David Frum.

My favorite among the timid conservatives is this Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist who apparently rose without a trace. Until this autumn, I never had heard of her, and to this day, about the only time one does hear of her is when she is puffing liberal gases into the Kultursmog. In the autumn, she was one of the conservatives sternly critical of Sen. John McCain for his choice of the pulchritudinous Sarah Palin as a running mate. Now she is equally stern in her criticism of the pulchritudinous Limbaugh.

 

Her presence in the mainstream media is another example of how the political culture works. Conservatives become acceptable when they disparage conservatives. Rush Limbaugh never has taken the coward's way out — and he is very amusing.

U.S. companies, consumers and communities may grow so addicted to government financial help that cutting them off could trigger another recession soon after the current one ends.

[T]here is increasing concern that when the flow of public money subsides -- beginning next year when much of that stimulus package is spent -- the economy still won't be strong enough to stand on its own.

"The stuttering attempts to repair the banking and lending mechanisms so far by the new administration suggests that by late 2010, the specter of a second dip into recession will be looming large," economist Sheryl King said.

The latest evidence came on Monday when insurer American International Group was awarded its third bailout. Each one has different terms.

AJH

In his campaign and inaugural address, Barack Obama cast himself as a moderate man seeking common ground with conservatives.

Yet, his budget calls for the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy, a sweeping redistribution of power and wealth to government and Democratic constituencies. It is a declaration of war on the Right.

Barack has no mandate for this.

Republicans are under no obligation to render bipartisan support to this statist coup d'etat. For what is going down is a leftist power grab that is anathema to their principles and philosophy.

We are not "headed down the road to socialism." We are there.

Who is going to pay for all this?

The president says he is gearing up for a fight on his budget.

Good. Let's give him one.

AJH

Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.

The strategy took shape after Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned [he] was deeply unpopular with many Americans, especially younger voters.

Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh.

The seeds were planted in October after Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling company run by Carville and Greenberg, included Limbaugh’s name in a survey and found that many Americans just don’t like him.

Paul Begala, a close friend of Carville, Greenberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they found Limbaugh’s overall ratings were even lower than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and William Ayers, the domestic terrorist and Chicago resident.