Rumors abound that conservative Republican “activists” are now targeting the GOP naysayers for primary opposition. These reactionaries couldn’t be more misguided and wrong about what’s best for the Republican Party and the nation whose interest the party serves. Instead of excoriating Republicans who said no to Bush’s plan, they should be privately thankful that someone in their party broke ranks. In the long run, if handled right, those “no” votes will benefit GOP candidate recruitment and electoral success in swing districts, helping the party recapture majority control. ~David Hill

I rarely comment on quotes with which I agree so strongly.  Usually, the quote says it all and I leave it at that, but I would just like to cheer on David Hall here for making what seems to me to be the obvious, common sense observation about GOP anti-surge dissenters and the political insanity of the so-called Victory Caucus.  This is pretty sensible stuff.  Obviously, I would say this because I agree with it, but it does make sense.  I am less sure that Joe Lieberman’s support for the war had much of anything to do with the Dem victory in November, but leave that for another time.  The only thing I object to (there had to be something) is Mr. Hill’s bestowal of the noble name of reactionary on a crowd of Red Republican lackeys.  They don’t deserve that name.  I won’t let them have it.     

But Mr. Hill goes on to explain in greater detail why the Hewitts of the world are so stunningly wrong:

It speaks volumes the [sic] some Republicans feel so strongly about their principles that they chose to walk the hard path of defecting. It says that Republicans think. It says that Republicans listen to the people they represent. It says that Republicans are principled. It says that Republicans stand their ground even when it’s tough. These messages benefit all Republicans. 

Absolutely–and what a shocking change for most of these 17 from their behaviour over the last few years!  Of course, that is part of the problem.  With the exceptions of Paul, Duncan and Jones, you have never heard one of these Congressmen make a peep about the flaws of how the war was managed, much less the injustice of the war itself, and now all of a sudden they have become gravely concerned.  It is hard not to conclude that Keller, Walsh, LaTourette and others in competitive districts felt the need to distance themselves from the administration on this one for political reasons, because that is what their constituents are demanding.  Nonetheless, even if political pressure from back home is part of the reason why many of these Congressmen have offered even this small dissent from the party line, that is partly how representative government is supposed to work.  These Congressmen don’t work for “the base” per se, but for their constituents first and foremost.  That’s a good thing–it’s a sign that the system occasionally works, albeit in sputtering, irregular fashion. 

The message that Hewitt and his fellow lackeys would like to send to the country is that Republicans in Congress really are the blind, Bush-loving, Bush-supporting automatons that you have come to expect them to be.  The Victory Caucus is an organisation dedicated to spreading the news far and wide that Republicans are, or ought to be, mindlessly obedient to the executive branch’s propaganda about the war, which tends to confirm the low opinion so many of us have about Republican pundits and office-holders.