Category: Awards

“Sarah Palin is an example of what can happen when a person is consumed by bitterness and grievances. It has a corrosive effect, and over the last several years she has, if anything, become even more brittle and embittered. From a human standpoint it’s a shame. And from a political standpoint it’s precisely the countenance and bearing conservatism and the GOP need to avoid,” – Pete Wehner on Palin’s latest phony outrage at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, something she eagerly attended not so long ago (because there was a terrifying moment when I nearly ran into her).

No, I didn’t go this year. No media entity wanted me to; and the Dish has no White House correspondent, unless you call me one, and we’d rather spend our money on, well, journalism.

“We don’t want to have a litmus test. Somebody who disagrees with me on my pro-traditional marriage stance can still be just as good as a Republican as I am. It’s just that simple,” – Haley Barbour.

“Margaret Thatcher’s last years were spent coping with dementia, a terrible illness. If, like us, you were disgusted by how she treated the least well off in Britain and around the world, the old line about not wishing something on your worst enemies still applies. We can’t help but think it’s pretty lousy to celebrate or gloat over anyone’s suffering and death and we don’t want anyone else to do it either.

We just want to place front and centre people who had no place in the Thatcherite worldview. And we want to do that in a way that can actually do some good. You can help us by donating to the excellent charities we have chosen to represent a fraction of them – the homeless, miners’ families, gay teenagers, Hillsborough survivors and South African victims of the Apartheid regime,” – a quote from a British liberal group called “Don’t Hate, Donate.”

They’re afraid some of the truly horrible bile directed at Margaret Thatcher since her death may be backfiring. I sure hope so. I have every respect for those who disdain the Thatcher legacy and are now saying so forthrightly. There should be no phony squelching of debate or universal deference when someone of Thatcher’s stature dies. But there are some limits in decency. Death-parties? Misogynist placards? They remind me one reason why I was a Thatcherite in the first place. The ugly extremism of her opposition.

“Obama is very possibly a world-historical political figure, and until those who oppose him come to grips with this fact, they will get him wrong every time,” – JPod, finally getting it.

“A political party is not a church and its function is not to promulgate and support a religious doctrine,” – Ralph Reed.

(The sincerity of this statement should be viewed in exactly the same way one views anything Reed says, but, still, he said it.)