A couple political observations – then, back to critter-blogging!<\/p>\n
Apparently, some folks feel that the Republican party’s problem is that they didn’t run far enough to the right and\/or hold fast enough to principals. Good luck with that:<\/p>\n
Voting shifts – 2008 v. 2004<\/em><\/p>\n *<\/p>\n My hunch is that there are a lot of people like me – pragmatists – who have figured out that if you want government to work, it’s probably best not to elect people who have moored themselves to the idea that the government doesn’t and can’t work. As a fan of functioning divided government (notice the important 1st qualifier), I’d love to see the return of grown-up Republicans – folks who are now disparaged as RINOs: the Bill Welds and Christie Whitmans of the party. Not sure that’s going to happen though – in the inevitable backstabbing attendant on a loss, Caribou Barbie is being promoted by some as the future of the party. Insofar as she represents a near-perfect amalgam of corruption and Christianism, I guess she does make sense if you think the problem is that Republicans are not past-8-years-of-Republicanism enough. As an aside, the name of one of the components of the circular firing squad<\/a> – Operation Leper – is a nice counterpoint to the religious fervor of the woman they’re trying to protect. I’ll admit to not being the best CCD<\/a> student ever, but I thought the carpenter guy was in favor of cleansing rather than creating lepers. I found this clip over at Hot Air<\/a> – a nice visual representation of a post-November 2008 ‘lessons learned’ session:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/skydeviler.hawkdog.net\/pub\/pix\/NYT2008.jpg\")
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