Mental Lint

Guys, I Don’t Think We Should Open that Second Bottle of Tequila

I know that a handful of items do not a trend make but it has been interesting to read a sudden flurry of comments from some prominent Republicans and conservative commentators trying to push away from the talk radio/Fox News/hate-everything-about-Obama-and-the-Dems crowd.

First, there was Lindsey Graham dismissing Glenn Beck and the birthers.

Then there was David Brooks column in today’s Times, dismissing the conservative radio and TV talk show hosts as not actually influential.

Follow that up with Joe Scarborough’s piece in the Huffington Post reacting to the Olympics decision and defending Obama from criticism regarding his trip to Denmark to push Chicago’s bid.

While Brooks might have a point that the radio/TV talkers can’t translate ratings into additional Republican votes, they certainly can cause trouble for Republican candidates or office holders who pursue positions the gabbers contrary to “true conservatism.” The talkers virtually function as a veto player in Republican politics, and although they didn’t prevent a McCain nomination, if McCain didn’t have to contend with them he would have picked a different VP candidate.

I doubt much will change on the Republican side but it is interesting to see that some folks consider it important to step up, knowing they’ll take some fire.

Best Line of The Week

From John Cole, at Balloon Juice:

Some days I honestly think the current Republican party is little more than a long running Second City comedy sketch…

Speech Etiquette

Lots of commentary regarding the behavior of some Republicans during last night’s speech by the President. The consensus seems to be that the Republicans ended up looking pretty bad. A few writers have noted that boisterous reactions are quite common in the British House of Commons. But here’s the right way to do it in the USA.

And congratulations to Mel Brooks on his Kennedy Center honors.