Thread: Laura Ingraham to battle Mort Kondracke tonight (11/21)

Laura Ingraham just announced that she will take on notorious pro-amnesty talking head Mort Kondracke tonight on the O'Reilly Factor.

Can someone tape this or post highlights.

November 20, 2008

First Steps to GOP Recovery
By Mort Kondracke

How can the Republican Party rebound? The first step would be to quit letting Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham set its agenda.

A second step would be for Congressional Republicans to actually try to help President-elect Barack Obama succeed in addressing the country's dire problems -- offering better ideas where appropriate and opposing just when necessary, not reflexively.

And the third -- maybe the biggest one -- would be for GOP governors to use their posts to show the country how conservatives can solve problems, especially the dismal state of American education and its menacing cousin, lagging American competitiveness.

If one governor would fully implement a widely circulated proposal to transform U.S. education -- based on having most children graduate after 10th grade and using the savings to pay teachers like professionals -- it could serve as a model for the nation and bring the United States back to world standards.

But Step One is to fire Rush Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP. They shouldn't be muzzled, as some liberals want to do by reviving the "fairness doctrine" in broadcasting, just ignored more frequently.

In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies -- over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage -- that have branded the party as troglodyte.

The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 -- Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and "seculars."

As former White House political guru Karl Rove observed last week, "the GOP will find it hard to regain the majority" if it keeps losing Latinos.

Immigration scarcely was an issue during the fall campaign. But the damage was done over the past two years as the radio screamers roused the rabble, who then beat on GOP Members of Congress, presidential candidates and even the Bush administration not just to control the border but treat undocumented residents as felons.

At a briefing last week jointly sponsored by the "New Democrat" Progressive Policy Institute and Web site Democratic Strategist, author Ruy Teixeira said that the gist of his widely doubted 2002 book, "The Emerging Democratic Majority," is now becoming reality.

"Democrats are going where they're growing," he said, while Republicans are isolating themselves in a fading portion of the population -- old, white, less-educated, highly religious Southerners.

Others at the briefing, notably Bill Galston, a former Clinton White House aide now at the Brookings Institution, cautioned that the country has not taken a sharp left turn, a re-alignment has not yet occurred and that Democrats should beware of overreaching.

Which brings us to Step 2 for Republicans: Be positive and pragmatic, not negative and fundamentalist. If Democrats go off the left end, following their Rush Limbaughs in the blogosphere, the GOP may only need to sit and wait until the inevitable reaction occurs.

But Obama appears to be a pragmatist and is hiring pragmatists -- Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) in the lead -- to run his administration.

So Republicans should follow the advice of Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.): "if [Obama] governs from the center, we'll support him and suggest better ways of doing things. If he goes too far left, we'll object."

Part of the problem, of course, lies in deciding what's "center" and "too left." Right now, Republicans are merely saying "No" to a new economic stimulus and rescues for auto companies and homeowners, rather than devising alternatives.

Conservative economist Martin Feldstein of Harvard University, for instance, contends that the government should prevent a cascade of mortgage foreclosures by lending "underwater" homeowners part of the difference between their home's value and what they owe -- but on terms that allow garnishment of their wages if they don't pay the debt.

Longer range, as Alexander says, Republicans can't simply dust off 20-year-old mantras of the Reagan era, but have to devise 21st century solutions for America's problems like health care, entitlements, energy and transportation.

And GOP Members of Congress should do everything possible to assist GOP governors in addressing their problems -- and also learn from what they are doing to solve them.

Which brings us to Step 3. Governors like Sarah Palin (Alaska), Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), Bobby Jindal (La.), Haley Barbour (Miss.), Charlie Crist (Fla.) and others actually have responsibility for implementing health care programs, building infrastructure, saving energy, developing economies and balancing budgets.

Three governors -- Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. (Utah) and Democrats Deval Patrick (Mass.) and John Lynch (N.H.) -- have set up pilot projects partially implementing proposals of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, issued last year.

Significantly, their initiatives have been blessed by leaders of the National Education Association, though its rival, the American Federation of Teachers, opposes them.

Under the proposal, states would take over schools from local boards, teachers would form corporations to run schools on contract and hire principals, salaries would go up significantly to attract first-rate teachers and standards would be set to international norms.

Most students would graduate after 10th grade and go on to upgraded trade or tech schools, while others stayed and took college-level courses. And money saved would also fund preschool for needy kids.

If one governor fully implemented the proposal, his or her state could be a competitiveness juggernaut, set a model for the nation -- and begin solving America's biggest long-term problem.

Actually solving big problems -- not pandering to a shrinking demographic base -- is the key to Republican success. Good luck.

Mort Kondracke is the Executive Editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... overy.html

Originally Posted by Texas2step

Immigration scarcely was an issue during the fall campaign. But the damage was done over the past two years as the radio screamers roused the rabble,

What an elitist dumbass!!

The rabble he refers to are legal American citizens - US!! He's calling all of us rabble!!

The reason, Mr. Comrade, or whatever your name is, that immigration wasn't an issue is because BOTH candidates had the same view, so what was there to debate?

No, what the GOP needs to do to recover is purge neocons like this jackass from the party!!!!!!!!!!! If anybody needs to be fired, it's THIS jerk!!

Republicans didn't lose because they alienated Hispanics over illegal immigration (note how he does the usual OBL trick of leaving out the word illegal to make us seem anti-immigrant). Republicans lost because they tried to become Democrat Lite.

The sooner neocon jerks like this guy get thrown on the garbage heap of history where they belong, the better!!

n recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies -- over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage -- that have branded the party as troglodyte.

Mort obviously believes in the policy of expediency. Mort believes in Power without principals. Say whatever is necessary to get elected. Do whatever is necessary to get elected even if it is wrong. Mort is correct about one thing: the Democrats do go to where they can get votes: the homosexual community; illegal aliens; criminal gangs; infanticide supporters; socialists; communists; and urban terrorist groups (e.g. Weathermen).

show the country how conservatives can solve problems, especially the dismal state of American education and its menacing cousin, lagging American competitiveness.

Then Mort suggests, nay, recommends, conservatives show how they can solve problems. Mort, the dismal state of American education and lagging American competitiveness are a direct result of Democrats pandering to the groups you say the Republicans are out of touch with.

Sorry, Mort. I don't think you get it. Republicans DID try to pander in this last election, and they lost. And they lost in 2006 because they spent like Democrats (actually, they put the Dems to shame). In both cases Republicans lost because they are out of touch with MAINSTREAM America. The elites took over the party and screwed it up.

Originally Posted by 4thHorseman

The elites took over the party and screwed it up.

. . . with their Neocon ideas and agenda. Which is why neocon boobs like this Klondike, or whatever his name is, need to be purged from the GOP, or the GOP will be dead.

oh boy, this should be good! i hope its for more than one small 5 minute segment though

Originally Posted by jamesw62

oh boy, this should be good! i hope its for more than one small 5 minute segment though

That's probably exactly what it will be. with both of them talking over one another, so no one can understand what's being said.

Originally Posted by patbrunz

Originally Posted by jamesw62

oh boy, this should be good! i hope its for more than one small 5 minute segment though

That's probably exactly what it will be. with both of them talking over one another, so no one can understand what's being said.

actually, it was very weak, not alot of time spend on illegal immigration at all, if you missed it, call yourself lucky

Originally Posted by jamesw62

Originally Posted by patbrunz

Originally Posted by jamesw62

oh boy, this should be good! i hope its for more than one small 5 minute segment though

That's probably exactly what it will be. with both of them talking over one another, so no one can understand what's being said.

actually, it was very weak, not alot of time spend on illegal immigration at all, if you missed it, call yourself lucky

It was mostly about how Talk Radio was responsible for the Republican loss blah blah blah. Hpw Republicans are alienating young voters, blacks, hispanics, asians, jewish voters and what have you due to the hard right talk show hosts.

Originally Posted by jamesw62

actually, it was very weak, not alot of time spend on illegal immigration at all, if you missed it, call yourself lucky

That's too bad. Laura, on her radio show this morning, made it sound like she was going to really go after him.

I wish old Mort would retire though and take his stale opinions with him.