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June 28, 2006
Backslap and backlash
Saying that he'd rather send a "preacher" than a "professor" to the United States Senate, Lynn Sebourn tips his support to Van Hilleary.
It must be all the vorticity that's getting Sebourn so dizzy and confused. Who in his right mind picks a largely emotional display over one "much more reserved and logical with an emphasis on policy"?
I wouldn't pick either Bryant or Hilleary, but if I had no other choices but these two, give me the "professor" any day. Furthermore, what he interprets as a United States Senate that "guts conservative principles" with "watered down" compromise is what I call a situation where "cooler heads prevail." (There are, without doubt, notable exceptions.) Van Hilleary -- the "preacher" -- doesn't seem to have that cool a head. The TN GOP establishment didn't work against Hilleary in 2002 because they are pro-income tax. That's absurd. No, they did it because it would be downright embarrassing to have Van Hilleary as our Governor, if you ask me, and Phil Bredesen is enough of a pro-business guy and is, in general, smart enough to have obtained their approval.
Elsewhere, the VOLuntary Conservative joins in the yelping about Roger Abramson's credentials. I'm amazed that more people don't see what's going on here. The issue is this: Conservatism is not something that can be measured on a 1-10 linear scale. Furthermore, the social/cultural brand of "conservatism" isn't even conservative, in most ways. For starters, it advocates big, meddlesome government on some very private individual matters. Witness another recent post by Huddleston, wherein he blasts Maryland's governor for appointing an openly gay man to the District Court up 'ere in Bawlmer. His The FRC's [sorry, Rob] use of the phrase "lurch to the left" betrays the fallacy in this kind of thinking. Governor Ehrlich claims a libertarian influence on his action, and I can't but agree. Keeping the government out of the bedroom is not a move leftward, it's a move upward on the, you know, the little diamond quiz thingy.
Limiting the field of potential public servants to the ideologically pure can only spell doom for a party -- especially when the doctrines in question are not shared that widely.
Politics is Personal , US Senate Elections | By joe lance | 12:04 PM