Meow

Looks like some GOoPers can't take the heat...of exposing their ideas in public. First, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor bagged out on a speech about "income inequality" because of admission was not restricted, and now Texas Governor Rick Perry may skip some of the admittedly endless Republican Presidential debates because...he sucks at it.

Mmm, "manly" Republicans...maybe want a little bowl of milk with your Meow Mix?

Meowww

Republican once were though "strong on defense", mostly thanks to two 1950's terms by President (former General and WWII Supreme Commander) Dwight D. Eisenhower. Now, however, they seem to purr, screech and meow.

While the Democratic Party just had a highly successful YouTube format debate with rather braver-than-journalist user-gen questions, it seems the Republicans are just too scared to face regular American voters. Per Andrew Sullivan:

Rudy won't bite, apparently. Romney's decidedly cool to the idea. The others are getting iffy. Hewitt declares YouTube and CNN biased. Heh. For my part, the current old white men running for the GOP already seem from some other planet. Ducking YouTube after the Dems did so well will look like a party uncomfortable with the culture and uncomfortable with democracy. But then, we kind of knew that already, I guess, didn't we?

Ho ho, we did!

But a reader of Talking Points Memo thinks that maybe the problem isn't American voters, maybe the GOP is terrified to reveal exactly who are the core Republican voters:

As far as issues like illegal immigration and "coercive interrogation techniques" go, how does one ask questions like this in a Youtube format in an amusing way? The differences between the GOP base and the political mainstream can seem less extreme when asked by someone like Wolf Blitzer, but if presented from the standard GOP rank-and-file member of the base, it seemed like a great way to show how unhinged the GOP has become on some of these issues. Personally, I'm surprised the GOP ever got close to agreeing to this format, and once the Democratic debate happened and showed the format in action, I didn't see how it could have been pulled off by the GOP.

Mark my words: if they do hold the debate, filter will be on Rovian. You know, like 11.

Who else is making like a kittykat in the crazy camp? Why, none other than Bill O'Reilly, who has been trying his damnedest to demonize DailyKos, a place where people can go and express their opinions for all to read. You know, Participatory Democracy. O'Reilly has made such a massive misfire (he'll fail at anything here but playing to his base -- this is just strengthening Kos) that Stephen Colbert is getting into the act. By condemning...uh...promoting the site himself.

Unlike with his target, to post on O'Reilly's site you have to pay $5/month. That's $60 per year for "free" speech. And he sure can't take the heat when he's called on the hate speech posted to his site -- he's so feline he has to turn off Jane Hall's microphone and smear her, shouting, as a liar. (You can help fight back here.)

I guess when they're not chicken or chickenhawk, they're abusing their seats of power by breaking the law. In this New York Times article, they name 14 Federal lawmakers from sea-to-shining-sea who are current subjects of criminal investigations.

Yes, two of them are Democrats, well deserving of inclusion. That leaves 86% as Republicans.

They also commit perjury.

They've got that cat scratch fever.