Stupid Is As Stupid Does, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #311 | @MDWorld

January 28, 2013 Mike Gold 15 Comments

At the meeting of the Republican National Committee a few days ago, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal uttered a statement in his keynote address that some find astonishing but others find offensive. Regarded by some as a 2016 presidential contender, Jindal told his fellow Republicans “We’ve got to stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults… We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that.”

He didn’t define “we,” although a few other GOP voices have voiced the same view, albeit in less direct terms. Hopefully, somebody’s listening. For example… the next day Fox “News,” the Republicans’ version of Pravda, dumped their far-right-loony-tea-party commentator and ongoing national embarrassment Sarah Palin.

Yes, it’s being phrased as a contractual issue. Here’s the issue: Fox offered Palin a contract that was so cut back it actually bled out. For a fraction of the money, she’d get a fraction of her previous airtime. Not at all dissimilar to the deal Fox gave her fellow tighty-righties Karl Rove and Dick Morris after their election night calls about a Romney victory proved to be delusional.

Fox “News” executive vice-president of programming Bill Shine said “We wish her the best in her future endeavors.” This is corporate-speak for “fuck off.” They had already filled her spot the previous week when they hired former Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, a man who is so far to the left that he’s the anti-matter universe version of Sarah Palin.

For over a decade there’s been a debate among media types about Fox “News” and the Republican Party regarding who is the dog and who is the tail. So maybe, just maybe, the quiet chorus of Republican reform is reaching the ears of the Masters of the Elephant. Maybe. They’re rudderless without any real leadership, torn into factions representing the Tea Party, the Religious Right, the Business Right, and the very few unpurged Republican “moderates” – defining “moderate” as “still right-wing, but not as loony as Sarah Palin.”

Maybe there’s hope for the Republican Party yet. We’ll see if they can pull it together as we get closer to the 2014 elections. Thus far, their attempt to remove Hillary Clinton from the 2016 Presidential Race backfired bombastically.

Well, old habits die hard. And when it comes to the Republicans, old habits are akin to vampirism… and not the new twinkly sexy kind either. But still, maybe there’s cause for hope.

Maybe.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com , every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check the website above for times. Gold also joins Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.