Okay, so the Republicans had a really bad, losing season. They have fired the head coach, but kept the rest of the coaching staff on and gave them all big raises, in the hopes of perpetuating the mischief somehow. It will probably work.
There is no elected Republican on the national stage with any kind of real stature, and so the “loyal opposition” will (for the next two years, at least) consist of conservative television hosts, authors, radio talk show hosts, and magazine jockeys. So here is my round-up of the prospective leadership for the loyal opposition.
Sean Hannity is a talking points pit bull. If you need someone to pound your good points into the ground, and ignore completely any decent points made by the other guys, then Sean’s your man. He seems a likeable fellow, but he is just going to be passing on what the research monkeys dug up today. I don’t think he matters unless the politics have gotten to the pushing and shoving stage.
Rush Limbaugh is funny, astute, and pretty shrewd. If he ever became a real conservative, he would be formidable. I like him though.
Bill O’Reilly really is insufferable, and that is all I will say about it.
Newt Gringrich really wants to be president. Whenever he is asked about it, watch him closely. He laughs in that tell-tale hearty way. Danger, danger, danger.
Ann Coulter is really intelligent and has guts. Out of all the mainstream conservatives, she is our best representative, which ought to tell us something . . . our best man is a girl. She is willing to talk sense when there does not appear to be a market for it. But like most contemporary conservatives, she fails to see how perpetual war is big government’s truest friend, and I would like her to become more cynical about every government department that considers billions to be chump change. Still, I think she matters a great deal in a good way.
Chronicles magazine has got some really good writers and thinkers, and I really like their paleo-stances, but they all remind me of a gathering of Elves at the Grey Havens preparing to sail into the distant West.
National Review still has the desperately needed “merry warrior” attitude, and some solid writers like Jonah Goldberg, but they are no longer standing athward history, as they were at their inception, yelling stop. Stop has been replaced by go slower than Obama! and go faster than LBJ! That, and wait up!
Sarah Palin will be very important in three years if she stays in Alaska, staying way outside the Beltway, if she hones and refines her pro-life commitments, and if she spends a lot of time on Alaskan trade missions around the globe.