From Juan Cole:
I really have not paid too much attention to the immigration bill, and anything with the handprints of Kennedy and Bush is probably something that is flawed in so many ways it is hard to count, but I have to admit, what I am really enjoying is the reaction from the 28%ers. Hugh Hewitt and Dean Barnett are going to explode any time now, and Michelle Malkin is equally volcanic (really, just go to the top and scroll). Their readers and echo chorus are in a predictable lather, as well.
Bush and the last few congresses have betrayed every principle conservatives ever stood for, and these folks were there with pom-poms the whole ride, degrading the debate and attacking anyone who dared to disagree with Bush. These are the folks who pushed Schiavo, these are the folks who said little to nothing over the hideous bankruptcy bill, these are the folks who told us all to STFU and let Bush lead us in the debacle in Iraq, these are the folks who insist that torture and invasive surveillance are first order conservative principles. I could list 100 more things, but why bother?
And now their ox has been gored, and they are freaking out.
Personally, I am experiencing wave after wave of sheer joy at their expense. They brought it on themselves- their cheerleading already cost them the House and Senate, as it was their bullying of dissenters and unflinching support of the Bush/Cheney axis of incompetence that lead to the mess we have now. You want to know why the GOP lost the House and Senate and will lose the Presidency in 2008?
Because this administration has been so coddled by its internet cheerleaders and the base, that no matter how inexcusable the administration incompetence, they had still had the full support of the rightwing nutroots bootlickers. It got so bad, that the vast majority of the country, when faced with Bush’s assertion that you are either “With us or against us,” the choice wasn’t so clear any more.
And the folks screaming hysterically today are the root cause. Excuse me while I gloat.
You’re excused, Juan.