Jumping the shark elephant (continued)
: John Podhoretz comes as close as I can imagine someone in the New York Post coming to confessing that the Republicans have crossed a few lines and gotten themselves into a political twist:
Ever since the Terry Schiavo controversy took its unexpected turn against the Right in polls ó I say “unexpected” because major Democratic politicians acted as though they thought the issue would benefit the GOP when it was taken up in Congress back in February ó Republicans are privately worried that they’re losing touch with the American people.
The president’s decision to focus the first months of his second term on Social Security reform seems to have backfired, with the public reacting skeptically and nervously about any change to the national pension system. And the media assault on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is beginning to pay off, in part because DeLay’s undeniable tactical brilliance as a legislator is matched only by his advanced case of foot-in-mouth disease….
Add to this a 1,000-point decline in the stock market occasioned in part by rising oil prices and fears of inflation, and you might say that this is the spring of Republican discontent.
There’s a lot of dark talk in Republican and conservative circles about the mainstream media ó about the one-sidedness of the coverage of current political issues and how the American people are being manipulated, especially on the Terri Schiavo matter.
No question about it, the media are on the prowl against the GOP ó but there’s something unseemly about the right-wing whining.
This is why I like Podhoretz: He calls bullshit, even sometimes when it’s his party’s bullshit.
