WaPo Op-Ed Column:
Now listen to what Gingrich has to say about "changing the playbook" after Katrina. His comments are drawn from two memos he has circulated to Republican leaders since the storm hit and from a conversation we had this week exploring some of his ideas.
Gingrich argues that the values debate that has divided America so sharply during the past decade is over. There's a broad consensus about most issues, and anyway people realize that the country's big problems aren't about morality but performance. "We're not in a values fight now but over whether the system is working," Gingrich told me. "The issue is delivery." And that's true at every level -- city, state and federal.
What is Gingrich REALLY saying here? What I have been saying -- that Republicans have ridden "values" as far as they can. They can not wring another ounce out of it. Indeed, Gingrich recognizes the political danger the Republicans are in BECAUSE they have become the Party of Dobson. He just can't say it publically.
I mean really, does he believe this -- "There's a broad consensus about most issues"? On Privacy? Choice? Science? Of course not. What he is saying is that Republicans are caught on the wrong side of the political fence on those issues. Will Democrats please open their eyes and see what Gingrich sees?
And let's start with John Roberts. Let's see where he stands on these issues. Democrats should demonstrate where WE stand on those issues and contrast it with where Republicans stand on those issues.
David Ignatius asks:
This is the moment for the Party of Performance to take center stage. The breakdown in public life was obvious before Katrina. We have a government that can't control its borders, can't find a viable strategy for its war in Iraq, can't organize the key agencies to address the terrorism problems it has been trumpeting. The yearning in the country for something different has been palpable this year.
Well, it is obvious which Party is the Party of Performance. The failures he describes are Republican failures. Each and every one. The Democratic Party has ALWAYS been the Party of Performance.
Only non-performing DC pundits like Ignatius fail to note that. But Ignatius is part of the problem - a Media that fails to hold the party in power accountable for their failures. Democrats need to wake up and hold folks like Ignatius in contempt - they are part of the problem -- enablers of the incompetence of the Republican Party.
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