One Trick Pony

I have seen a few postings on progressive blogs today about RNC Chair hopefuls Ken Blackwell's townhall blog and now a new Katon Dawson's youtube attack ad of sorts. First here is the rundown on both from CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Despite the climate of national goodwill surrounding Barack Obama as he prepares to take the oath of office, two of the candidates vying to lead the Republican National Committee unleashed harsh attacks against the president-elect on Friday.

Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, promised in a new a YouTube message to be Obama's "worst nightmare" and said it would be the party’s mission for the next four years to "expose" the Democrats for what they "want to do to this country."

"I can assure you that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will understand that Katon Dawson will become their worst nightmare," he says in the video. "We will expose them at every turn for what they are doing to the American public."

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Earlier in the day, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who has positioned himself as one of the most rigidly conservative contenders for the RNC's top job, published a column on Townhall.com accusing Obama's economic stimulus package of being a liberal "Trojan Horse" that has "serious flaws, some of which convey a partisan advantage."

Now at the Washington Monthly, Steve Benen chose to compare and contrast Dawson with remarks Tim Kaine recently made about his role as the newly appointed chairman of the DNC. I won't get into all of that but I wanted to point it out so you can understand the context of the excerpts.

Dawson, meanwhile, wants to fight. He wants to work hard to be a "nightmare" for his opponents. Democrats haven't started governing yet, but he's already outraged by what the majority party is "doing to the American public."

snip

Kaine has the advantage of helping lead the winning team. It's easy to be gracious when you've already achieved your goals. But putting that context aside, watching these two competing clips, on the same afternoon, on the same topic, makes clear how both parties have very different ideas about partisan warfare.

The DNC's vision is shaped by Obama; the RNC's vision has been shaped by Gingrich circa 1994.

Now I love Benen's writing and I comment on his blog a lot. I am not really disagreeing with anything he wrote, but I think he misses an essential point. This isn't partisan warfare for Dawson. This isn't just an "approach". What Dawson and Blackwell are engaged in predates 1994 by a long shot. What they are doing really shouldn't even be labeled attacks, rather what they are really doing is just being typical Republicans.

Katon Dawson and Ken Blackwell ARE the Republican Party. This is why their party's trip isn't going to be into the wilderness, its going to be into the abyss. They don't know any way other than to attack their opponents rather than promote their own ideas. Yes they attack when they are in the minority but a lot of people aren't pointing out that they also attack when they are in the majority. This isn't some stance they are adopting just because they got tossed out on their ass. Its truly all most of them know. And with the advent of new media it just makes it so much harder for them to be successful with any of the attacks they used to use. People don't have to settle for getting spoonfed propaganda by the mainstream media when the attacks come. Now they can go to the internet and find out for themselves if they are being snowed and that doesn't bode well for Republicans.

See its not that Katon Dawson or Ken Blackwell weren't paying attention to the election or don't realize that the people don't want this kind of bullshit anymore. I am sure he and other Rethugs know that. But when you have only one bullet in your gun thats really the only one you can shoot. The problem is their party has revealed themselves not to be committed to their own bogus policy platforms when they actually get into office so they can no longer point the finger at Democrats as big government spenders and their Reagan era "tax cuts cure all ills" mantra has been exposed again as "voodoo economics" by this current economic crisis. (As an aside I find it AMAZING that no Democrat ever points out that Reagan came into office when the top tax rate was above 70%. You have a lot of leeway to cut taxes at that point, 39% not so much). But I digress...

The more they continue expose themselves as one trick ponys all they are doing is sending their credibility level to new lows. But don't expect it to stop or change. For years that kind of politics worked so they never attempted to change or adapt. Now there is probably just too much ground to make up in the market place of ideas AND policy doctrine is you don't change your stance on issues even if they become unrealistic. Shorter me, they are fucked.

To use a baseball analogy they are like the character Cerrano from the movie "Major League". He could knock the cover off the ball if you threw him a fastball but he never learned to hit a curve. And after he was exposed the pitchers just threw him all curve balls and he kept striking out trying to swing for the fences. With all of the problems facing our nation and the kind of new politics Obama presents to them the GOP has curveballs coming to them at all angles. But like hard headed numbskulls they will keep looking for the fastball, swinging for the fences and ultimately striking out.