People have struggled to define what the Tea Party stands for, but Sarah Palin has provided a manifesto for the incoming freshmen. She starts with the conceit that the results of the midterm elections have put the government back on the side of the people. But she quickly disabuses us of that belief. I will list Palin's priorities for you, so you don't have to read her entire screed.
1. Defund ObamaCare.
2. Eliminate earmarks.
3. Make it procedurally easier to cut taxes than to raise them.
4. Enforce zero-based budgeting.
5. Cancel all unstarted stimulus programs.
6. Return all non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels (she may have meant discretionary spending).
7. Extend all of Bush's tax cuts indefinitely.
8. Control the growth of Entitlement spending.
9. Control the borders, but decouple it from immigration reform.
10. Continue our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
11. Get tough with Iran.
12. Sign free-trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia.
13. Oppose ratification of the START treaty.
14. Side with Netanyahu's position that all of Jerusalem is part of Israel, and that no building in East Jerusalem can be considered settlement expansion.
15. Keep Guantanamo prison open and deny all prisoners there access to the courts.
16. Return to Bush's freedom agenda.
17. If anyone in the press praises your actions, do a reappraisal because you've probably gone off-track.
Now. Does any of this even remotely sound like "Compromise with President Obama to achieve bipartisan support to move America forward" to you?
There's a reason it doesn't. Sarah here has declared herself the de facto queen of the party, and I'm just wondering how long it's going to take before the rest of the GOP finally moves to toss her grifter ass off the island. At some point, somebody is just going to say "You know? There's no way anyone can take this woman seriously on Presidential policy when she quit her last chief executive job to go on a book tour and to snipe from Facebook."
And the second that happens, the GOP is going to detonate. I can't wait. The rest of the Presidential contender field isn't just going to let Sarah win, folks. It's going to be brutal.
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I share your skepticism about Palin's prospects. What shape that detonation will take is an interesting question, as is who'll be harmed in the fallout.
And if she's dumped, what will she do? Will she keep sniping from the sidelines - we know she's a sore loser - but spread her attention to whoever wins, will she try to set up that third party, or will she play the loyal Republican in the hope her star will rise in future?
I'm less convinced than some that she'll want to run for president - that would mean probably messy primaries and I don't think she could keep ducking out of debates and retain credibility. Maybe she hopes to position herself for yet another veep run, so she gets a free pass through all that, as she did last time?
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