Thursday, August 18, 2011

To the Right of Goodlatte and She Hasn't Fallen Off the Earth Yet

Karen Kwiatkowski
It is fascinating that the 6th Congressional District version of the Tea Party thinks Rep. Bob Goodlatte is a big-spending, granola-eating, tree-hugging liberal who must be sent to the streets.

Valerie Garner's story today about the Thursday announcement of ultra-wingnut Karen Kwiatkowski's announcement of her candidacy to unseat Goodlatte (who's been in the House for about 20 years after vowing he was a term limits guy initially) gives some indication of how far right we've come. Goodlate is about as conservative as a reasonable person can be, but to Kwiatowski, he's “a go-along, get-along guy … he is an establishment Republican.”

Kwiatkowski is a former Air Force colonel whose political experience is pretty much limited to letters to the editor. She has a doctorate (like many Libertarian candidates) and is something of an out of balance egghead. She calls Social Security and Medicare a "Ponzi scheme" and wants U.S. Senators to be appointed by state legislators. She wants troops put on the U.S. borders and governors to be in charge of them (keep those damn Canadians out!).

On the plus side (and Libertarians frustrate all of us because they always have a plus side), she opposes the Patriot Act and supports bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan (though those are the guys she'd put on the border). She opposes subsidies (though the absolutism here is typically Libertarian and Tea Party, not considering that some of those might be worthy, corn notwithstanding).

If Kwaitkowski is nominated in the Republican dealie (I don't know what they'll have to determine it), she'll face a guy named Andy Schmooker, who is also a member of the All-Name Team. The reporters covering that race will have a lot of practice cutting and pasting those names.

By the way, calling the Obama Administration's health care initiative "Obamacare" is fine for Republicans trying to demonize and score points, but when the press does it (as is the case in Val's story) it is editorializing in support of the right wing. Reporters need to think about what they're writing all the time.

(Photo: wanttoknow.info)

2 comments:

  1. Entitlement is another word I wish the media would stop using. These things creep into the language and the Republicans are very good at marketing. They know exactly how to hit that emotional core.

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  2. CD: The Bush admin was top-heavy with marketing people (at the expense of people who knew how to legislate and govern) because the goal was getting elected and re-elected. The latter was accomplished, the former was not.

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