Say, aren't these the same people who've been telling us what a brilliant politician Obama is right up until last week?

Charles Krauthammer and I are in good company with Bill Buckley in believing that in politics, it's better to have power, i.e. seats in Congress, than ideological purity. Not every district or state is going to elect the kind of conservatives I'd like, and to hear Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin arguing otherwise is dispiriting.

However, this is a different kind of election year. Palin's endorsements have been surprisingly powerful. Who knows for sure that Angle and O'Donnell can't win? I don't. But if they don't win, the tea partiers could be responsible for blowing a chance to re-win the Senate, and even if they do, Palin and DeMint are going to look less competent and more like ideological tyrants than true republicans. I'm probably as conservative as either of them, but I would really hate to see a situation where the likes of Mike Huckabee could boot me from the party over religious differences.

Check out the Fox News clip from today's Special
Report of Mort Kondracke's exchange with KT McFarland over the impact of the tea party movement on national politics. [Clip is not up yet, but will be within a day or two]

It started as a discussion of the number of women getting into politics and the influence of Sarah Palin's Mama Grizzlies, but Mort came out swinging at Palin, Sharon Angle, whom he called "nuts" and Christine O'Donell. He was alarmed that the Republicans might be swinging as far to the right as it is under Obama. His litmus test, he said, is whether they want to get rid of the Department of Education. He seemed to be one of those David Brooks talks about in his current column, "The Backlash Myth."

KT McFarland was having none of it. I was loving it.

It's the spending, stupid!

The President on why conservatives are winning:

"They saw the Recovery Act," he said. "They [the people] saw TARP. They saw the auto bailout. And they look at these and think, 'God, all these huge numbers adding up.' So they're right to be concerned about that."

You might also notice the arrogance of those like Mr. Obama who dismissed those concerns as "astroturf," disloyalty and fear mongering.

Life in the swamp, up close. Eleanor Holmes Norton puts the blatant squeeze on a lobbyist for donations to be passed on to Pelosi.

They should both be investigated and disqualified from holding office.

I'm glad I can't vote for Christine O'Donnell

If she had ever won an election or served in an office lower than U.S. Senator before, or managed a successful business, I'd probably support her, but she seems kind of flaky to me. Polls suggest that she can't beat the Democrat, so the main effect of her primary victory will probably be to let the Republican party know that it needs to run real alternatives to Democrats in liberal states. Of course, that will depend on how long-lived the tea party movement is. I hope it becomes a permanent gadfly to those who claim to be conservative, but don't act like it once in office.

On the other hand, the onslaught of liberal attacks on her, based on irrelevancies like her religious and moral views illustrates what kind of bottom-feeding trash are hustling for the status quo.

UPDATE: Former aides are telling stories about her from earlier campaigns, lending further support to the flake image.

UPDATE: Bill Maher has footage of O'Donnell on his HBO show, "Politically Incorrect," talking about her dalliance with witchcraft. So if you didn't mind her being an evangelical Christian nut, you may find that her having tried witchcraft influences your opinion of her as Senate material. Doesn't the Tea Party vet these people?
Karl Rove is looking better all the time, along with Charles Krauthammer, Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson and those former staff members.

Lady Gag

Giuliani says it like it is.