The new Weekly Standard is hilarious. William Kristol, in the editorial, opines that current Republican ideas all suck so bad that uniting behind them would lead straight to disaster:
Where's the coherent message? What's the strategy? Why the disunity? Who's going to lead us out of the wilderness?"
To which the answers are: Calm down and be careful what you wish for.
Calm down because Obama has just become president and the ball is in his court. There are severe limits to what the GOP can do over the next couple of months. In fact, Republicans might be better off doing nothing at all.
-- snip --
Kristol goes on to plea for anyone, anywhere, to come up with better stuff than he's been peddling for the past eight years:
Republicans, newly liberated, need to resist calls to shackle themselves to prematurely announced agendas and already anointed leaders. This is the time for a thousand Republicans to bloom. Congressmen used to looking to the White House for guidance or approval--or fearing disapprobation--should show some healthy ambition and unleash their inner policy entrepreneur. Backbenchers need to come forward with heterodox ideas. There should be vigorous debate. Disharmonious disarray is in the short term much less of a danger than a false and stultifying unity.
Just below on the table of contents, Fred Barnes argues that Republicans ought to love them some Obama, loudly and publicly, because absolutely nothing else will work:
For the foreseeable future, attacking Obama will be counterproductive for Republicans. He's both enormously popular and the bearer of moral authority as the first African-American president. So the idea is for Republicans to make Obama an ally by using his words, from the inaugural address and speeches and interviews, against Democrats and their initiatives in Congress.
Obama is for bipartisanship. Pelosi, Reid, and their cohort are heavyhanded partisans with no interest in accommodating Republicans. Obama favors transparency. They don't. Obama says he wants "to spend wisely" and promises that "programs will end" if they don't work. That's hardly the philosophy of congressional Democrats.
Obama's words may be bromides or boilerplate that bear little relationship to his true sentiments or real plans. But so what? Republicans in the House and Senate are a badly outnumbered minority. They have few political weapons at their disposal. Citing Obama's words makes political sense. It's at least worth a try. Republicans have nothing to lose.
"This is not as silly as it sounds," Barnes assures us.
What it is, is just embarrassing, guys. The honest thing to do is admit that your own ideological leadership has stalled your party in the parking lot behind "Irrelevant" and you need to hand over the keys.
Tell ya what, though: President Obama must be one hellacious dinner raconteur.