Former Hastert staffer's CNN Op-Ed piece: "Why Democrats give GOP hope"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Commentary: Why Democrats give GOP hope

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/22/feehery.democrats/index.html

By John Feehery
Special to CNN

Editor's note: John Feehery worked as a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients, including the News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America.



(CNN) -- Much has been said and written about the decline and fall of the Republican Party. That is unsurprising, given the last two elections, when Republicans got their heads handed to them.

In the aftermath of President Obama's coronation earlier this year, political analysts were writing confidently about the imminent disappearance of the Republican Party. The party was too Southern, too conservative, too narrow-minded and too extreme to compete nationally. And I admit, I wrote some of that analysis myself.

But if the Republican Party is too cohesive for its own good, a case can be made that the Democratic Party is not cohesive enough. We are already seeing signs of the vaunted Democratic coalition falling apart over difficult issues such as health care and climate change/energy tax policies. The party is also not nearly as unified on social issues such as gay marriage, for example, as their leaders would like it to be.

A Gallup Poll paints an interesting picture of the Democratic coalition that should give GOP strategists a road map to the future. The analysis says, "Forty percent of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as liberal. There is an important distinction in the respective ideological compositions of the Republican and Democratic parties. While a solid majority of Republicans are on the same page -- 73 percent call themselves conservative -- Democrats are more of a mixture. The major division among Democrats is between self-defined moderates (40 percent) and liberals (38 percent). However, an additional 22 percent of Democrats consider themselves conservative, much higher than the 3 percent of Republicans identifying as liberal."

[trumad]

1. The moon face zombies attack

Look at that picture and you'll know why the Repub party is close to extinction.

[WCGreen]

2. They all write in the same voice...

[Johonny]

3. Wow he manage a whole op-ed on a gallup poll

that has totally unbelievable results. All recent polls show the vast majority of Americans don't consider themselves aligned with the Republican party. That's not good news for this loser no matter what BS gallup makes up.

[Peregrine Took]

4. DId anyone catch this guy on Ed's show last week with Nancy SKinner?

She interrupted him at one point and he went completely bonkers and started screeching at her. It was very alarming.

[Political Heretic]

5. This is little more than an attempt to hush pressure from the left for real change.

The only people an engaged public calling for actual change scares more than Democrats is Republicans. :)

[OHdem10]

6. Conservative holds many meainings. Very often people say they

are conservative only because they think that is the proper answer.
It has nothing to do with what a person really believes.

This is where the GOP went wrong. They keep believing Americans
are conservative. Therefore they push far right policies and push
people right out of their party.

Try again.

[rocktivity]

7. The fact that he'd ADMIT to having been a Hastert staffer

is enough doubt his judgment.



x(
rocktivity

[Winterblues]

8. If Democrats get the same Rep as Republicans as not being truthful

then all bets are off. Democrats are on the fast track for getting that label. There is a very good chance that a good many that voted Democratic the last several elections will just bag it. If you can't believe a word they say why bother to vote for them?

[ThomWV]

9. And his fucking point is ...?

[Contrary1]

10. "In the aftermath of President Obama's coronation..."

:puke:

Can we get a gif for a really big puke?