By: Chuck Muth
Chuck Muth’s News & Views

CAP-AND-TRADE CHARADE

“Here they go again — our faithful representatives in Washington, that is. They’re about to pass, without reading its 1,200-plus pages, an incredibly expensive and destructive cap and trade bill, which has little prayer of accomplishing what it sets out to accomplish but satisfies their urgent need to pay homage to their liberal ideology and secular humanist worldview.”

– Columnist David Limbaugh

RINO ALERT! RINO ALERT!

The rotten, lousy, stinking’ Waxman-Markey national energy tax bill passed in the House yesterday by a vote of 219-212. That should come as no surprise since Democrats enjoy a huge majority. But the bill coulda/shoulda been defeated, because there were more than enough Democrats voting against it that all Republicans had to do was stick together.

Alas, eight Republicans sold out their party and their country and voted with the Democrats. Without those eight GOP votes, the bill would have been DEFEATED by a vote of 211-220. Yes, once again Republicans refused to blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity.

The eight Republican sell-outs were: Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Mike Castle (Del.), Mark Steven Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (NJ), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), John McHugh (NY), Dave Reichert (Washington), Chris Smith (NJ).

RIP GOP

“Conservatism lives on, just as it has from the time of Thomas Jefferson. But political parties, they come and go. As of today, the GOP cannot get its message heard because too many Americans have turned their backs—or a deaf ear —or are simply laughing too hard at the irony of the party once built upon less government, clean living and family values turned into the sad caricature it has become. It very well might be that, like Lazarus, the GOP must die before it can be reborn.”

– Reagan biographer Craig Shirley

IS IT CONTAGIOUS?

“I’m waiting for the World Health Organization to declare infidelity a pandemic in the Republican Party and then maybe they’d get some help.”

– Chuck Muth, Citizen Outreach, KTNV-Channel 13/Las Vegas, 2/24/09

BLACK HOLE ON THE RIGHT

“Until yesterday, Mr. Sanford was head of the Republican Governor’s Association — a spot usually given to top GOP prospects to help build a national network of allies. Grassroots Republicans across the country were quietly forming ranks into a Sanford volunteer army. Conservatives were attracted by his unflinching fight against wasteful government.

“What’s left is a void in leadership as conservatives seek a leader they can believe in. . . . Mr. Sanford was one figure who looked like he might have considerable appeal to both conservatives and moderates. There aren’t too many of those around at the moment.”

– Brendan Miniter, Political Diary, 6/25/09

AND THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL

“Obama’s ongoing promise that he’s “creating or saving” jobs is as plausible as the chess team captain’s claim that his supermodel girlfriend can’t fly down from Canada for the prom.”

– Columnist Jonah Goldberg

AS GOES CALIFORNIA….

“Americans should take a good, long look at the fiscal and social wreck of the Golden Land, because California is at a place to which all of America is heading.”

– Columnist Patrick Buchanan

MEDIA CONTORTIONISTS

“Swamis and carnival contortionists who can fit their bodies into a Happy Meal box could learn something from the press about flexibility, given its ability to effortlessly pat its own back. Silly me, I thought the main job of the press was to challenge slippery answers and ask tough questions…”

– Columnist Jonah Goldberg

HEADLINE NEWS

“Most readers – and an unforgivably large number of political operatives – aren’t aware that in most newspapers, headlines aren’t written by the reporters who write the stories. They’re not even written by their editors. In most newspapers, headlines are written by brilliant people whose only job is to find ways to shrink complex story lines into six-word grabbers. My favorite tabloid headline of all time was the one that ran over a story about a decapitated body found in a gentleman’s club: ‘Headless Body in Topless Bar.’”

– Bill Pascoe, CQ Politics, 6/25/09

FED-EXCESS UPDATE

Those of you who have been reading me for a long time know I’m like a dog on a bone when it comes to some issues – especially issues which legitimately divide conservatives of good conscience.

And I have to tell you, the ridiculous responses by some FedEx folks to my column on this subject a couple weeks ago (“Rush to Defend FedEx Is Wrong”) has moved this issue to front-burner status on my radar screen.

I don’t like it when opponents resort to misleading, if not outright fabrications, to justify their position on an issue – and I especially don’t like it when advocates hide and post insulting and false comments anonymously on the Internet.

So I’ve set up a “truth detector” blog on this issue and today took some of the misleading information posted on another website recently and blew it out of the water this morning.

Catch “FedEx Airline Argument Doesn’t Fly” HERE on FedExcess.info.