Monday, May 19, 2008

Recent Laugh Out Loud Moments From the Michigan Republicans

More sidesplitting hilarious hypocrisy from the Goopers. First - knowing that they couldn't attack the Obama-Edwards rally with any success, they decided to go after Jon Stryker to try to raise money from their dispirited and probably a bit confused base.

Here is your "It's OK If You're A Republican" moment of cognitive dissonance from Bill Nowling-

Spend $15 to stop a billionaire," reflected the "high-volume, low-dollar" trend of online fundraising, a technique the Obama campaign has mastered. Republicans say the $5 million Stryker spent to help Democratic candidates and causes in 2006 played a large role in giving Dems control of the state House. They say this time he's coming after conservative state Supreme Court Justice Clifford Taylor, the only justice up for election this year. "If he (Stryker) succeeds -- the Court will be a rubber stamp for his extreme, anti-family agenda," the mailing said.


But it was fine with the Republicans when their own billionaire, Dick "The Biggest Loser" DeVos spent $35.5 million of his money to buy the governor's office. We don't even need to get into the part about the "extreme, anti-family agenda"; Republicans wrote the book on that.

The mind reels.

Watch how the Republicans are picking up on the Dems tactics and talking points though. We will probably see this a lot this year. Not only are they targeting lower dollar donations like the Dems, they are picking up on the catch phrases as well. Concerning the recent '09 revenue projections and budget reductions, House member Bruce Caswell (R- Term Limited) had this to say-

"We have to downsize in an intelligent and reasonable matter the state government that we have while protecting our most vulnerable citizens but realizing our taxpayers can't continue to pay more taxes every year to keep the government we have," Caswell said. "It's a simple concept and it's doesn't have to be slash-and-burn."


And then he pointed to welfare benefits as one area to look at, because single mothers still don't qualify as "vulnerable citizens" in the eyes of the GOP. Also, someone mentioned the Earned Income Tax Credit. Although a party wasn't specified, since the idea originated with Cassis, you can probably guess which side of the aisle that came from.

Republicans has no problem suggesting "slash and burn" last year, but when it came time to put their vote where their mouth is, they wouldn't do it. This year, the tune will change as they scramble to try to re-brand themselves - even when those attempts re-branding go beyond belief.

Watch and see. The "vulnerable citizens" this year may very well turn out to be GOP strategists.