GOP vs. Republicans

What do you call this infighting? GOP v GOP or Republicans v Republicans? I settled for GOP v Republicans.

It's started a while back, behind closed doors. Then Palin was selected. The mumblings grew louder and louder. Then Palin gave a speech at the convention and everyone had a pacifier in their mouths until Palin sat with Katie Couric.

Out came the GOP.

Here the GOP are the combo of intellectuals who still believe that knowledge is required to solve problems, no nonsense boys and gals, and a few out to save their political careers and reputations. The republicans are those still carrying water for McCain.  

First came Kathleen Parker's "If BS were currency Palin would bailout Wall Street." She asked Palin to resign for the good of the country (for the good of the GOP ticket of course).

Then came George Will, Peggy Noonan, David Brooks. And finally, Bill Kristol.

What is remarkable about Kristol is that he spent the last 8 years rationalizing the idiotic policies of Bush. He has been carrying water for the McCain campaign for the last 5 months. This is the guy who predicted on June 30th that Palin would be the VP for McCain. He lobbied for Palin despite the maneuvering of Karl Rove to get Romney in and Palin out.

The inner circle broke down between two choices. Those close to Karl Rove united around Romney. Rove engaged in heavy lobbying in an effort to get McCain to embrace Romney. Others, of whom Kristol was the most prominent, pushed Sarah Palin-arguing that she was young, popular, vigorous, unknown and had the right connections to the Religious Right bloc which had proven so important to Republican wins in 2000 and 2004. Karl Rove himself recognized, with typical insight, that Palin was the real challenger. He attacked Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as an ill-suited candidate for the vice presidential slot on the Democratic ticket. Kaine, of course, had a resume almost identical to Palin's-he had been a small city mayor and then had served, for less than two years, as governor-and McCain campaign insiders understood the swipe differently from others. Did Rove really care about Kaine's darkhorse candidacy for the Democrats, or was he launching a cloaked attack on Palin? (In a recent appearance, Rove was asked if he thought Palin would make a good president. "I don't know" was his unenthusiastic answer.)

Kristol now calls the McCain campaign "pathetic". McCain spokesman responded by questionning Kristol's intelligence and accuse him of buying into "the Obama campaign's party line." Kristol's response?

Is John McCain the best messenger for his campaign? Why isn't he on this show? Why do we have Tucker Bounds and a bunch of nice young kids who are spokesmen out there spinning implausibly on behalf of the McCain campaign? McCain is better than his campaign.

Enjoy the comedy while it lasts.