Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Super Tuesday and the Gang of Four GOP Team Franchise

Super Tuesday will be a test of the Gang of Four’s influence on the GOP. I’m referring to the attacks on John McCain by the political pundits who believe they are GOP Team Owners: Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Michelle Malkin. I would love to be privy to their late night conversations among themselves and with other GOP Team Franchises like Michael Reagan, Cal Thomas, or business consultant and motivational speaker JD Hayworth. Include Bay Buchanan in that group, too.

GOP voters should inform these people in the strongest terms that there are issues more important than narrowing the ideology so much that it fits only a handful of people who find in ideological “conservatism” a way to profit. Certainly, it’s no worse than the pandering conducted by left-liberal demagogues, but it’s no better either.

Fortunately, the largest number of Republicans believes in thinking for themselves and find Limbaugh more an amusement than a thinker. Like Shakespeare’s Falstaff, Limbaugh is capable of cracking you up while cavorting on stage, and is embarrassing only when he presumes to present himself as an intellectual.

Traditional GOP leader and former war hero Bob Dole recently wrote a letter to Rush Limbaugh rebuking him for going beyond free speech in attacking McCain. And Dick Armey was on a tv interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell politely chiding the extremist ideologues for the same reason. Armey sagely said that the Gang of Four types had an enlarged opinion of their own importance and power.

Sensible GOP minds will hopefully prevail today, Super Tuesday.

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