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New for 2007-08
RepublicanGazette
Monday, December 31, 2007 "When news breaks, we fix it" Published daily except some days
Submissions welcome
The Republican Gazette welcomes Emails to the Editor and press releases. All submitted items must include the name and contact information for the author of the article, and all articles will only be published with the author's name included. Thank you for reading and participating in The Republican Gazette, another of West Virginia's most biased publications.
All opinions are those of The Republican Gazette and its editor, Gary Abernathy, except letters or commentary signed by others, and do not reflect the views of anyone else, including clients of Abernathy Strategies.
Just published -- Sen. Russ Weeks tells the behind- the-scenes story of one man's fight for the truth!
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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Iraq fails Dems as a big issue in 2008 election
For the last two years, Democrats have counted on Americans being so disenchanted with the war in Iraq that the issue would carry them to the White House in 2008.But the Democrats' worst nightmare has come true -- the situation in Iraq has improved. Now, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and the rest are left to talk about other issues, much to (Hit refresh to make sure current page is displayed)
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West Virginian of the Year
The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail has named Jennifer Garner its West Virginian of the Year for 2007. The newspaper said Garner is a "role model and ambassador for West Virginia." Well, obviously. Garner joins past recipients of the honor like Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Dave Hardesty, Bob Pruett and Gaston Caperton. Garner beat out possible selections like Byrd, Rockefeller, Joe Manchin, Rick Thompson, and others. The Gazette-Mail apparently believed that among all possibilities, Garner was the most appealing choice. Well, obviously.
their chagrin, like immigration, health care, etc., all of which trips them up.
That the Democratic Party is so bereft of any positive ideas for America that their hope of winning the presidency is pinned entirely on failure in Iraq is a sad commentary. But when issues and not emotions determine the winner of the White House, the GOP tends to benefit.The myth of the 'center' pervades American politics
On Sunday's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer," a story featured an upcoming meeting of "centrists" like former Senator Sam Nunn and former Defense Secretary William Cohen. The meeting is supposedly geared toward forming a coalition that can encourage candidates to actually govern America, rather than engage in partisanship that, they believe, immobilizes the country.Most observers seem to suspect that the real purpose of the new coalition is to back a third party candidate for president, like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is also participating in the event.The development reinforces one of the great myths of American politics -- that most of the country is in the political "center" and wants a government that operates accordingly, and they are ready to "rise up" and take the country back.As evidence of partisanship, they point to Dems like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, who they accuse of catering to the extreme left of their party, or to Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney, who they accuse of the same behavior toward the extreme right of the GOP. (Fred Thompson, to his credit, seldom gets accused of pandering.)Some in the media are always ready to buy into the "everybody wants a centrist" notion, particularly because there is virtually no difference between centrists, or "moderates," and liberals. In reality, a moderate is just a liberal who isn't shouting at you.But third party candidates tend to fall flat at the polls, or never get off the ground to begin with. Why? Because most people in the political "center," even if they outnumber those on the left or right, are not involved or motivated enough to do the work necessary to win elections. And if they became interested and motivated enough, they would soon find themselves drifting to the left or the right.Becoming passionate about politics or government tends to make people begin to really think about what they believe, and when they do that they tend to develop strong feelings on issues and subjects. Another word for "moderate" could be "ambivalent." Ambivalent people are not motivated enough to make any changes, because they don't know what changes they want, except for generic feel-good notions like "let's stop fighting" or "can't we put aside our differences and just work for progress?"But when they finally find that passion, they sudden realize that they are no longer in the middle on issues like abortion, taxes, war, gay rights, immigration, etc. -- they suddenly discover through study and thought that they do indeed land on one clear side or the other on all those issues, and then they are no longer centrists, they are rightwingers or leftwingers. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have members who describe themselves as "moderates," although they exist in bigger numbers on the Dem side only because they don't like the word "liberal" (which is itself being replaced by "progressive"). So the new coalition of "centrists" will meet, and make some noise, and get some media attention, and possibly support a third party candidate for president. Then that candidate will lose by a wide margin, because his or her supporters will also be centrists who may say they want change, but who do not want it enough to outwork either the conservatives in the GOP or the liberals on the Dem side.So in November, a conservative Republican or a liberal Democrat will be elected. The centrists will whine for a while, but then they'll quickly turn their attention to something else, because they don't really care that much.Random thoughts and news about West Virginia politics
It looks more and more likely that Hiram Lewis will indeed be the Republican candidate to challenge Darrell McGraw in a rematch of the 2004 race for Attorney General. McGraw barely defeated Hiram in '04, mostly due to fallout from the aggressive campaign against the other McGraw in the Supreme Court campaign. The notion of Hiram winning in '08 is not out of the question, mainly because the idea of McGraw losing is entirely plausible regardless of who his opponent turns out to be. The key for Hiram is to convince the anti-McGraw coalition that he is a serious contender and get them to open their wallets, then to run a serious campaign that does not involve people in chicken suits or nearly all his money coming from out of state, as was the case in his 2006 primary race for U.S. Senate. Hiram is capable of presenting himself as a serious candidate, and I hope he will......Who will run for governor on the GOP side? State Senators Mike Hall and Clark Barnes each toyed with the idea, but both seem unlikely to pull the trigger at the end of the day. Chances are, the task will fall to a newcomer, which is not a bad thing for someone who wants to build a resume for the future. Eastern Panhandle activist and state GOP committee member Eric Goff is said to be mulling it over and would be a fine representive for Republican ideals......It will be interesting to see if all the candidates for president who are participating in the state GOP convention manage to come up with the 18 delegates to the national convention they need to file by today's deadline in order to stay in the mix......Republicans who signed up to vote online during the first two weeks of January started receiving their usernames and passwords in the mail over the weekend. Online voting is supposed to begin Tuesday and last through the 14th......The flap over whether Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter, Heather Bresch, earned an MBA from West Virginia University will either quiety go away with little more than a whimper or turn into a major scandal. There is no in-between, and which way it goes will be determined by WVU's ability to come up with transcripts and other hard proof that the degree was properly earned. If it was, she deserves an apology from the university. If it wasn't, it will cast a serious cloud over the college and anyone else connected to the chain of events......Former State Senator Russ Weeks was a guest on Hoppy Kercheval's "Talkline" program on Thursday talking about his new book, "No Strings Attached." MetroNews reporter Jeff Jenkins, who was co-hosting with Hoppy from the Fiesta Bowl site in Arizona, agreed with Weeks about how much time is wasted early in every regular legislative session when real work could be accomplished.