Tag: National Review

Roger Ailes Attempts to Not Reap What He Sowed

It is becoming clearer to those who fomented this conservative revolution that the party’s most faithful are too far to the right to nominate an electable candidate.

The conservative side of the Republican Party has come out of the closet over the past few years. Encouraged by Fox News and right wing talkers the Tea Party has emerged as a major force. Conservative purity has become the price of admission to Republican politics.

Far be it from me to dissuade anyone from their convictions. I don’t have to. The Republican establishment is doing it for me!

It is becoming clearer to those who fomented this conservative revolution that the party’s most faithful are too far to the right to nominate an electable candidate.

Hey, conservatives, I feel your pain. I was for Eugene McCarthy back in 1968. Mainstream Democrats thought he was too liberal and disappointed the base by nominating Hubert Humphrey who then lost to Richard Nixon.

What’s interesting to watch for me are the voices in the Republican party putting down Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. Either of those two, or both, could outpoll Mitt Romney in Iowa and upset the apple cart.

Romney might not represent the passion of the Republican party faithful, but he’s acceptable to those traditionally with power. Winning with Romney is better than losing with a more conservative candidate. Oh, the humanity.

This week the conservative National Review (see above) made their opposition to Newt Gingrich perfectly clear. Others in the Republican establishment are doing the same to Ron Paul.

This is the kind of political cannibalism normally reserved for Democrats!

The election is still more than a year away. My interest is already piqued.

Cherry Hill and Back

We had to make a rush trip to Cherry Hill, NJ earlier today. Google’s new maps program says the round trip was about 354 miles. That seems right. It’s about the limit for driving and getting anything accomplished before heading home.

Luckily for us traffic wasn’t too bad. We missed morning rush going into New York City and afternoon drive coming home. The only real snag on the trip was here in Connecticut, around 6:30 PM, traveling through Fairfield County.

I have no idea why went went slowly… but it did. It was worse than anything we saw on the Cross Bronx Expressway, if you can believe that.

I would guess a large park of our traffic free passage had to do with the advent of E-ZPass. Having this RFID tag in your car eliminates making the trip unnoticed, but it sure does speed things along.

The toll booths near Meadowlands Stadium were always a choke point. With E-ZPass we breezed through at highway speed. Same thing for the George Washington Bridge.

My only concern was a cryptic message at NJ Turnpike exit 4, when we saw a sign that told us to go – though our tag hadn’t been read. Honest officer, it was on the windshield.

It will be a surprise to find out what the toll actually is. I have no idea. It wasn’t posted anywhere.

This is a trip we used to make all the time while Helaine’s parents were alive.

I remember stopping on the Jersey Turnpike, driving our Mazda 929. When Steffie was an infant, the 929’s trunk made the perfect open air changing table.

The rest areas are still named after famous New Jersey residents like Joyce Kilmer, Vince Lombardi, Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Edison.

Is Grover Cleveland’s family proud to know that this former president’s most conspicuous achievement in the 21st century is having people mention his name when they need to make a pit stop&#185? It would probably be defensible if he were still on the $1000 bill.

Speaking of the rest areas, it looks like they’ve been rebuilt, adding additional outward ugliness to what were ugly buildings to begin with. There are flowers near the sink (and loud music) in the mens room. The restaurant section is a medley of your favorite fast food joints in a food court arrangement.

New Jersey continues to lead the nation in “Full Service” gas stations. From a National Review commentary:

It is illegal to self-pump in New Jersey. You must have a gas-station professional pump your gas and ring up your purchase. This might have made some sense in 1949 when the law was passed and when most of the population still smoked and stupidity could conceivably kill at the gas station. But times have changed and pumping gas is a safe activity that almost everyone but the handicapped can perform with the greatest of ease. Pay-at-the-pump technology is standard at gas stations coast to coast. Motorists fly through stations with the breathtaking efficiency only Americans can take for granted. That is, except in New Jersey and Oregon