Quote(s) of the Day: Peggy Noonan

Columnist and former Reagan speech write Peggy Noonan has a great column today entitled “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”

There is a lot to be read but what stands out for me is this quote which I think truly captures what is going on with the Democrats.

But the Clintons are tearing the party apart. It will not be the same after this. It will not be the same after its most famous leader, and probable ultimate victor, treated a proud and accomplished black man who is a U.S. senator as if he were nothing, a mere impediment to their plans. And to do it in a way that signals, to his supporters, How dare you have the temerity, the ingratitude, after all we've done for you?

I have always said that it is the Clintons’ sense of entitlement that disgusts me. It is just now Democrats are getting a taste of what Republicans have endured for years. The Clintons’ make Rove look like nothing.

Hopefully the Clintons will realize two things soon:
1) There is no monarchy or Royalty in the US
2) And if there is, you ain’t it and never were.

In regards to the GOP, Noonan says what needs to be said. Sure, it hurts to read and is harder to agree with... but I agree with her.

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

I believe that some of the ferocity of the pundit wars is due to a certain amount of self-censorship. It's not in human nature to enjoy self-censorship. The truth will out, like steam from a kettle. It hurts to say something you supported didn't work. I would know. But I would say of these men (why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That's the way to help.

So here we are... A broken GOP versus a visceral self imploding Democratic Party. The question may not be who wins the White House. The question may be, does it matter?