A First

Here's a first for Nettertainment: I'm linking to Erick Erickson at RedState because he's slamming the "new" GOP "Pledge For America" for being milquetoast garbage. While I diverge from Mr. Erickson on political issues (all?), I admire his integrity here towards his own side. As he closes, "I will vote Republican in November of 2010. But I will not carry their stagnant water."

And, of course, in the Internet Age we find out immediately that:

In a draft version of The Pledge that was being passed around to reporters before the official release, the document properties list "Wild, Brian" as the "Author." A GOP source said that Wild -- who is on House Minority Leader John Boehner's payroll -- did help author the governing platform that the party is unveiling on Thursday. Another aide said that as the executive director of the Republican leadership group American Speaking Out, Wild's tasks were more on the administrative side of the operations.

Until early this year, Wild was a fairly active lobbyist on behalf of the firm the Nickles Group, the lobbying shop set up by the former Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Don Nickles. During his five years at the firm, Wild, among others, was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast, more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.

I actually don't find the Democratic water at all stagnant. I like that there are healthcare reform benefits going into effect tomorrow. I like that Obama/Clinton have Middle East peace talks going again. I'm all for rescinding the Bush Tax Cuts for those who are doing estimably well while so many Middle Class and less fortunate Americans are not. I was delighted to hear Obama's old friend from Harvard grad, Elizabeth Warren, on NPR today talking about how she's setting up the new Consumer Protection Bureau to help average families across America keep more of their money from unscrupulous and predatory business practices.

California is a state without the media narrative enthusiasm gap. Jerry Brown is pulling ahead of Meg Whitman in the polls, while she's spending upwards of $115 million. Barbara Boxer is looking good against Carly. We need to keep the enthusiasm growing, beat back this reactionary threat that wants to (in the Pledge itself) dismantle the very health insurance reform advances we'll start experiencing this week. (And yes, there will be glitches, dodges and learnings as it works through the system -- and that's important to go through as well, pragmatically.) Their agenda is something the Dems and the White House should run against: it's a rollback agenda.

American moves forward, GOoPers. It's what's took our nation from frontier to superpower.

Give it a rest.