July 31, 2010

August_3f64e.jpg

Admittedly, it's a little hard to see, but you can see the full thing here at GOP.gov (.pdf).

And again, I must ponder whether the Republican Party is truly this clueless when they opt to illustrate their booklet of summer activities for Republican members of Congress with photos of Denis and Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa, Ike and Mamie Eisenhower, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Winston Churchill and Jack Kemp. Let's see--they've used three foreign leaders (including one fervent labor organizer and Iraq War critic) and three (four, if you count Teddy Roosevelt bringing up the rear at the bottom of the page) American Republican politicians who have all long since passed away. This is "treading boldly"? They can't even find a living Republican to hold up? And really, Jack Kemp? What's that about? A fairly undistinguished House career, two failed presidential campaigns and then finally Secretary of Housing and Urban Development--this is the coverboy for the Republican Party's plan to sway those all important "independent" voters for the mid-term elections?

Brilliant.

But wait, it gets better. Take a look at page 6, where they outline a typical August calendar: it is literally re-tweeting the RNC talking points. That's it. The booklet recommends holding town halls and setting up media interviews...but never forgetting their daily re-tweet.

Amazing. We're in the midst of two wars, the most severe economic dire straits since the Great Depression, and we have lunatics of the right wing noise machine all but directly calling for armed revolution and the GOP's answer is for its members to log on to Twitter.

The second half of the booklet is ostensibly the GOP's platform. Are you surprised to learn that it's heavy on spin and provable falsehoods: "Most Americans do not want a government takeover of health care that was forced upon them and would like to see it replaced with common sense solutions that lower costs and protect jobs." and light on actual solutions (lower taxes! less regulation! repeal health care! That's it in a nutshell.). Energy is barely mentioned except as a way to point out those mean old Democrats' onerous regulations on energy is a job killer.

In fact, there's a distinct lack of anything of substance in the kit. No discussion of immigration reform, other than the meaningless "secure the borders." Calls to reduce the size of government without the honesty to admit that it grew under their majority during Bush. Calls to stop runaway spending without acknowledging their own profligate ways.

There's enough cognitive dissonance in that kit to keep an analyst busy for years.

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