The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Baseball Crank Explains It All

Posted on | January 27, 2012 | 25 Comments

— by Wombat-socho

Well, as much as anyone can explain what’s going on with the GOP and its primary voters this election season. I readily admit I’m a sucker for blog posts like these; everybody who writes books about our party seems to be either a) an insider with an axe to grind or b) a Democrat who would love nothing better than to use that axe on our necks, but the Crank is one of us slobs in the trenches, and seems fairly honest in his assessment of not only the candidates, but the other players in the primary game: the conservative commentariat, old pols like Bob “Viagra!” Dole, and radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh.


What The Republican “Establishment” Really Means
This post should be read first. It’s long, but well worth your time when it comes to understanding why nothing ever seems to change on Capitol Hill and who the players are in the GOP -not to be confused with the conservative movement, as you all should be aware by now, although that distinction is becoming increasingly meaningless as RINOs have become a threatened species within the GOP.


Establishments And Our Money: A Response To Avik Roy
This is a follow-on to the first post, answering the criticisms of sometime National Review writer Avik Roy, who appears to have taken the Crank’s comments excessively personally.

By and large, the two essays explain why the Tea Party and other populist chunks of the GOP base aren’t meekly falling into line behind Mitt Romney; as Billy Joel sang so long ago, it’s a matter of trust, and when it comes to Mitt, there ain’t none. This is something the people so eager to tear down Newt Gingrich don’t understand. His supporters know about his record. It’s been factored in, and at this point they just don’t care. They want a bomb-thrower, an iconoclast, a Samson in the Temple, and so far Rick Santorum just hasn’t been mad, bad, and dangerous to know enough. And every time Ann Coulter or the NR crowd tees off on Newt, it just hardens peoples’ resolve to stick their thumb in the eye of the Establishment. Because what goes around comes around, and it’s a lot more fun to dish it out than it is to sit back and take it.

Category: Baseball Crank, Election 2012, Republicans

Comments

25 Responses to “Baseball Crank Explains It All”

  1. richard mcenroe
    January 27th, 2012 @ 12:56 pm

    “This is something the people so eager to tear down Newt Gingrich don’t understand. His supporters know about his record. It’s been factored in, and at this point they just don’t care. They want a bomb-thrower, an iconoclast, a Samson in the Temple, and so far Rick Santorum just hasn’t been mad, bad, and dangerous to know enough. And every time Ann Coulter or the NR crowd tees off on Newt, it just hardens peoples’ resolve to stick their thumb in the eye of the Establishment. Because what goes around comes around, and it’s a lot more fun to dish it out than it is to sit back and take it.”

    I’ll show those lousy Bolsheviks — I’m voting for STALIN!

    Seriously, a reflexive protest vote can be in many ways as dangerous as a sheeplish conformity.  Read if you haven’t Ibsen’s The League of Youth.

  2. Cynthia Yockey
    January 27th, 2012 @ 1:20 pm

    Please check both links in your post. They didn’t work just now when I tried them.

  3. reg_rollins21
    January 27th, 2012 @ 1:35 pm

    Newt’s accomplishments as speaker and ability to defend conservativism make him not a simple protest candidate.  Santorum is a protest candidate, he’s accomplished nothing significant except have his name associated with excrement.

  4. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

    Did you even read the essays at the links, or is your knee uncontrollably jerking at this point whenever someone mentions the ex-speaker’s name?

  5. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

    Thanks for the heads-up. Fixed now.

  6. serfer62
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:00 pm

    I will not vote for another dole, mcasshole or oromney. NO.
    I will vote for whomever The Establishment hates though.
    My preferance is Santorium after Palin

  7. Adjoran
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

    Maybe he understands that the reasons people want a bomb-throwing champion are IRRELEVANT if the bomb-thrower cannot win.  Gingrich cannot win and isn’t all that conservative. 

    Look at that debate, or any of them except his two “moderator moments” and tell me with a straight face how he will “mop the floor with Obama” again.

    My philosophy is:  “Stab me in the back once, shame on you; stab me in the back a thousand times, screw you.”

  8. Adjoran
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

    Obama thanks you  for your support.

  9. Adjoran
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:29 pm

    Just because people are willing to overlook Newt’s record does NOT make it off-limits.  I intend to pound home the truth about that double-crossing POS as long as he is in the race rather than allow him to spoil our electoral chances just to satisfy the blood lusts of the lemmings.

    Besides, it has exposed many so-called conservatives in the blogosphere who are willing to lie for Newt.  Their lack of integrity should be noted for the future. 

  10. Mikey NTH
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:33 pm

    This is why it sometimes feels to me like it did around the 2004 election, only this time the parties roles are reversed.

  11. ThePaganTemple
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:38 pm

    Nobody is going to beat Obama this year, for the simple fact the GOP is full of shit and everybody knows it. They aren’t going to reduce government, its a fucking pipe dream. They don’t want to reduce government. They just talk that shit, but they know better. That’s all right, cos so do I. And I strongly suspect you do as well. Why would anyone in government do anything to reduce their power? Yeah, I feel bad about all these women throwing themselves at me, it ain’t right, so I should reduce the size of my dick. Give me a fucking break. If the GOP does eke out a victory it will be the same old fucking shit. And if they do pretend to do something to reduce government, they know they can count on the Democrats to “stop” them. And round and round it goes.

    Bottom line, the GOP is pushing Mitt because they know we are so filled with fear and loathing, to use a favorite RSM term, at the thought of Obama getting a second term we’d support anybody they put up there. So who do they put up? A person they know ain’t going to do jack fucking shit to change a god damn thing.

  12. richard mcenroe
    January 27th, 2012 @ 2:50 pm

    Wombat, you’re breaking the rules,  We’re not allowed to remember anything about Newt after 1994, 96, tops.

  13. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 3:17 pm

    Wow.  What a great argument.  You convinced me.

  14. ThePaganTemple
    January 27th, 2012 @ 3:24 pm

    Do you know who Obama should thank? The GOP party leaders. (You know, some people call them the “establishment”)

  15. ThePaganTemple
    January 27th, 2012 @ 3:26 pm

    I wonder what the Libertarian Party is up to these days. Any recent news on Gary Johnson’s stated attempt to get their nomination. I’m thinking of making a statement this coming November.

  16. richard mcenroe
    January 27th, 2012 @ 3:41 pm

    /FINAL DRUDGE POLL READERS FROM FLORIDA ONLY: ROMNEY 34.78%… SANTORUM 24.61%… PAUL 22.7%… GINGRICH 17.92%

  17. ThePaganTemple
    January 27th, 2012 @ 3:47 pm

    That poll is not right. Paul third, and Gingrich last? Sorry, no way in hell. Not in Florida.

  18. Edward
    January 27th, 2012 @ 4:15 pm

    I should just make a webpage and link to that instead of repeating myself endlessly.

    As long as conservatives are willing to hold their nose and elect the Craptastic Du Jour as presented by the establishment GOP then we’ll continue getting the Craptastic Du Jour.

  19. richard mcenroe
    January 27th, 2012 @ 5:46 pm

    That’s why I named the source.

  20. Zilla of the Resistance
    January 27th, 2012 @ 6:19 pm

    Will go read you links, but first, I like to see you doing your own posts in addition the link-arounds, Wombat! More, please. 

    I want the enemies of America, namely mohamadeens and commie pinko rat bastard d-bag jackasses to pee themselves in fear at the thought of what we might do to them if they continue to fuck with us. They haven’t done that since Reagan.
    That’s why I was hoping Allen West would run, but that didn’t happen so I the best hope for someone like me who wants to see the bad guys get mudholes stomped in their asses, is Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich. Rick would be the better President, but he needs to tap into the righteous badassery that people like me want to see in a leader (like Newt did before he went full-retard on immigration last night when he tried to attack Newt from the left).
    The people who want to destroy us do not respect asskissers, hence the fuckarow we’ve seen resulting from Obama’s limpdick “leadership”, but they understand the consequences of fucking with people who will happily annihilate them.

  21. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 7:36 pm

    Thanks for providing Exhibit 1,000,001 for Stacy’s false equivalence…..

  22. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 9:32 pm

    Yeah, I’m not impressed either. :/

  23. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 9:32 pm

    Rules? We don’t need no steenking rules!

    OUTLAW!

  24. Anonymous
    January 27th, 2012 @ 9:34 pm

    Thanks!

  25. Edward
    January 27th, 2012 @ 11:40 pm

    Well then go right ahead.  But be careful of your sources because let’s face facts here.  There is a full on push by the establishment GOP to wreck Gingrich and do to him what they did to Palin, and no I’m not drawing an equivalence between them.  Just the kind of tactics being used.

    You got a beef then go for it.  But don’t make the mistake of taking everybody at their word because so far I’m not entirely impressed by this anti-Newt effort.  And frankly I don’t like Newt at all.

    Look on Drudge for some of the push back from Mark Levin and others.  Does this whitewash Gingrich?  Not at all.  But it also doesn’t make him a devil either.  And when so many Republicans come on out to attack Gingrich all I can wonder is wtf is going on.

    And now Bob Dole is attacking Gringrich?  You gotta be kidding me on this.  Maybe my memory is bad.  It’s been an eventful few years lately.  But I don’t remember Bob Dole breaking out the beatstick when Palin needed some defenders.

    Might want to take a look around at who you’re running with.