When he said:

“Sure your guilty conscience may make you vote Democratic but deep down you long for a cold hearted Republican bastard who will cut taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a King.”

That’s what Americas wanted (well around 48% of them who actually voted for Bush) and that’s what we’ve gotten.

Bush cut taxes (for the rich), brutalizes the terrorists (whether they’re terrorists or not he brutalizes them) and rules us like a King.

All hail King George.

Why I use to respect and occasionally even like Newt Gingrich. Back before he became Speaker of the House, before he sold his soul to the far Right to gain power he use to give speeches like this all the time.

Gingrich at his best is articulate, highly intelligent and amazingly thoughtful.

At his worst, he’s an attack dog with no moral compass.

But at times like this, I remember the Gingrich of the 80s and early 90s who use to explain and defend the core conservative principles of fiscal and personal responsibility with wit and charm. Who use to propose bold educational initiatives to close the “technology gap.” Who, rather than just dismissing the other side’s arguments as ‘anti-American’ (meaning ‘anti-Republican’), use to listen and respond with real criticisms and improvements. The Gingrich who once actually talked passionately about using conservative values to aid the poor (not the soulless ‘compassionate conservatism’ of Bush) and proposed real policies to carry out that goal.

It is a shame that that Gingrich has not been seen in some time. Hopefully this speech signals a return of the old Gingrich. It appears that the old guards of the conservative movement have recognized to late the genii they’ve let out of the bottle.

And have Congress enact a law that bans Iowa and New Hampshire from having primaries ever again. I am sick and tired of those two states getting way too much say in who gets to be President.

That is corrupt in Alaska. The article seems to try and hold up the notion that the Democrats in Alaska are paragons of virtue that never lapped up to the troth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Former Governor Tony Knowles (Democrat) was just as likely to use his position to line his own or his friend’s pockets. The financial shenanigans around the Anchorage construction boom of the Mid-eighties presided over by Knowles when he was Mayor will never be fully understood (where did all that money come from/go?). From land buys to contract awards the entire process was rife with favoritism, corruption and bribery. The only reason it didn’t spill over into full born scandal is the state was running so high on oil revenue at the time that nobody cared because there was enough money to line everybody’s pockets (Republican, Democrats, dog catchers). And Knowles is just the tip of the iceberg among the Democrats.

Republicans are bad, but the Democrats in Alaska are just as bad. The entire political class in Alaska is geared towards corruption and payouts.

I remember growing up on jokes about our state politicians. Two of my favorites were; the best investment the oil industry ever made was the Alaska State Legislature and the dropped boxes on the doors of Legislators offices being used for envelopes filled with cash (although technically they’re not really jokes if they’re true).

And while Republicans have owned the Congressional delegation for decades they do not dominate statewide politics to the extent this article implies. Democrats have held the Governorship (Knowles left office in 2002) and key statewide positions on multiple occasions. And even within the Republican Party there have been numerous splits. Palin is not the first insurgent from the libertarian wing of the party to grab power (Hickel did something similar in the early nineties bucking his party’s leadership and running as an independent, although admittedly he was hardly a libertarian and his goal wasn’t to stop the corruption but to get back into the game after being locked out for years).

Internal politics in Alaska are far more complex and shifting than this article implies.

The lock on Congressional seats has less to do with party affiliation than it does ‘brining home the bacon’. As long as the Congressional delegation is successful in bringing in money and rewarding their constituents they are going to keep getting elected.

On another note, many others have done a good job pointing out the various factual errors with this article that a little basic research/fact checking could have easily corrected.