Where's the Outrage?

I will not pretend to know the inner workings of the Republican Party. I do find it compelling that the ink on national newspapers which stated, “Obama Wins!” was not dry before the finger-pointing began in the John McCain camp. I don’t know how smart Sarah Palin is, but I do know she performed terribly in several different interviews. The rent a car bulgariastream of unnamed Republican sources that have called Sarah Palin this or that is somewhat mind-boggling. Remember, just four years ago, we were talking about the discipline of the Republican Party. I guess it is much easier to be disciplined when you’re winning than when you’re losing.

I think we’re seeing more here than simply knee-jerk backstabbing. I think we’re seeing people beginning to jockey for position within the party. The big question is in which direction is the Republican Party going to go? s it going to be the party of Sarah Palin? She clearly energized the base but does not appeal to anyone outside of the base. Will it be the party of Mike Huckabee…or Mitt Romney? What about Ron Paul? Is the Republican Party going to push the religious right out? I don’t know the answer to these questions and I’m not sure that anyone in the Republican Party has a good answer either. I do believe that there are several major players within the Republican Party who would like to diminish Governor Sarah Palin’s luster.

Tags: Party Politics by ecthompson md
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Friday afternoon News RoundUp

• Tomorrow on the Errington Thompson Show (9 am EST – streaming here), one of my special guests will be my friend, blogging guru at Campaign for America’s Future, Bill Scher. I’ll also speak with the editor from the popular news website, Buzz Flash, Mark Karlin.
• On Wednesday morning, newspapers from across the country had big banner headlines announcing that Barack Obama had won the election. Stunningly, the paper in Terrell, Texas led with their local election. Nowhere on their front page even today was there an acknowledgement of the presidential election. For this there is no excuse. Information on how to contact the editor can be found by clicking here.
• Dan Froomkin, from the Washington Post, wrote a very nice article before the election asking a simple question. Did we really expect President Bush and Vice President Cheney to go quietly? President Bush enacted a whole host of federal regulations which free up private industry, power plants, mines and farms. For polluters, this is a dream come true!
• Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman seems to be in a bit of hot water with Senator Harry Reid and the Democratic Party. Senator Lieberman campaigned hard for John McCain. He accused Barack Obama of being soft on terrorism and not understanding the problem. Remember that Lieberman was a Democrat before he changed his status to Independent when he lost the Democratic nomination in Connecticut back in 2006. He continued to caucus with the Democrats but now there is an intense discussion over stripping Senator Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Senate committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Senator Lieberman has not held the Bush administration accountable for any wrongdoing. He has not investigated anything. His counterpart in the House, Henry Waxman has been investigating many aspects of the Bush administration. These last two years, Lieberman has been anything but an Independent. He has supported the Bush administration and John McCain on almost every major issue over the last several years. I’m not sure how allowing him to keep his chairmanship helps our country to move forward. In my opinion, what we need is someone to thoughtfully investigate some of the egregious violations of our Constitution which the Bush Administration inflicted on the American people. On the other hand, I don’t think we need to investigate every single aspect of George W. Bush’s White House. We do need to be thoughtful. I’m not sure that Senator Lieberman is the right person to head this job.
• A friend of mine sent me an e-mail the other day. It was one of those “everything is great in the land of the free” emails. Though it was attributed to David Letterman, it was clearly written by some right wing think tank. The underlying point of this email was to tell Americans stop whining and be happy!  My response to this suggestion is to point out that most of the major things in our country are not going right. An excellent example is today’s job numbers. In October, for example, our economy lost 240,000 jobs. Since January,our economy has lost a little over 1.2 million jobs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has dissected the numbers and it is not a pretty picture. To whomever wrote that email: Bite Me.
• Kathleen Parker of the WaPo has a great personal story of what Barack Obama’s election meant to her.  Her story is one of the thousands/millions of American stories about race in our country.  Although race surrounds a lot of what we do and who we are, there have been signs for a number of years that things are changing.  Tuesday was a very emotional night for millions of Americans – Black, White or Brown.  It was more than Obama’s great words.  It is the simple fact of him and his beautiful family standing on that stage.  He was the president elect.  It is still an amazingly powerful image.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Senate by ecthompson md
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