Last week I expressed my disappointment in (un)Sound Politics contributor Matt Rosenberg for stooping to the level of his fellow travelers, by attempting to spin a single, anonymous, whacked-out post on an open blog into evidence of a vast, criminal lefty conspiracy. In doing so, I gave Matt the following backhanded compliment (or maybe it’s a forehanded insult):
Of all the contributors to (un)Sound Politics, Matt Rosenberg is perhaps the one who I kinda, sorta, maybe, almost respect the most. His politics are less predictable, his vitriol less vitriolic, and his writing more writerly than his fellow Drudge wannabes.
Well today, Matt has shown me once again why he’s the righty blogger I least love to hate the most. In a post that he surely knew would raise the ire of many of (u)SP’s regular readers, Matt lays into former Montana Gov. Judy Martz for telling a Tacoma Dome crowd of 2,800 at Friday’s 27th annual Pierce County Prayer Breakfast, that the removal of prayer from public schools in 1963 has lead to increased teen pregancy, divorce and lower student test scores, claiming “We have to get back to being a praying nation.”
As Matt points out, teen birth rates have actually been declining since 1963, and teen pregnancy and abortion rates have fallen steadily since 1986 (22% and 43% respectively.) He calls Gov. Martz on her misleading rhetoric:
Former Gov. Martz may tell evangelicals what they want to hear, but does herself and her party no favors making erroneous factual claims on teen XXbirthXX PREGNANCY rates, and ludicrously calling for the re-institution of mandatory prayer in public schools. Worse than that is the imputed causality: as if we could simply peg divorce and academic performance to lack of forced prayer in public schools. What planet is this woman from? This is not MY “big tent” GOP. But rather than run, I say flush out the zealots. We’ve been through the Ellen Craswell thing here in Washington State already, Gov. Martz, give us a break, OK?
If we are to “get back to being a praying nation,” Gov. Martz, it should not, and will not be, because the government compels prayer in public schools, as in the instances leading to the ’63 Supreme Court ruling. Such Nanny-Statism and religious authoritarianism, is antithetical to supposed GOP values of small government.
I think “supposed” is the key word there, Matt. Replay some of the extreme statements from Tom DeLay, Bill Frist and their Justice Sunday patrons, and today’s GOP leadership makes Ellen Craswell look like Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Anyway, that’s what I like about Matt… he’s not afraid to disagree with the party line, if in fact he really um, disagrees with the party line. So I wish him the best of luck in defending his party from the evangelical extremists… and I sincerely apologize if my compliment further discredits him in the eyes of his (u)SP readers.
So I wish him the best of luck in defending his party from the evangelical extremists…
Yeah, the ditto heads went after him there pretty badly. He would have been labeled a troll except that he was the one making the posting. (Troll poster?)
Matt learned the hard way that there is not much left of the moderate republicans in Washington. The stateman republicans like Dan Evans, concerned about fiscal responsibility, have long been displaced by the Ellan Craswell forces in the Washington republican party.
Hear! Hear! I’m an independent voter, but I find myself voting an increasingly Democratic ticket because the GOP refuses to offer credible alternatives. In 1996, I was so pissed off over the various stadium funding shenanigans that I would have voted for anybody against Gary Locke — anyone except Ellen Craswell.
I still manage to find a few GOP candidates to support in every election cycle, but that number’s getting smaller all the time. Good luck in saving your party, Matt. We need credible alternatives.
You libs are nuts.
GOP is full of moderates(that is, the voters, not always the elected); unfortunately our energized right wing can sound like rubes. You have the same thing w/ your tree-hugging buddies.
Now who will defend the Democrat party from the leftwing extremists?
Judy Martz certainly hurt the GOP in Montana. Cost them the Governor’s office and control of the Legislature in 2004. Probably more so by doing a really crummy job as Governor, than by having any extreme positions. Here is a brief political biography written about Martz from:
http://judy-martz.biography.ms/
“Judy Martz (born July 28, 1943) has served as the governor of the U.S. state of Montana since 2001. She served as the Lieutenant Governor under Marc Racicot, and she is the first woman to be governor of that state. She is a member of the United States Republican Party, former Olympic skater, and owner and operator, with her husband, of a garbage disposal service in her hometown of Butte, Montana.
In the gubernatorial election of 2000, Martz defeated her Democratic opponent, Mark O’Keefe , by a margin of 51 percent to 48 percent.
Within weeks of taking office Martz declared she would proudly “serve as the lapdog of industry.” Several weeks later she told the attendees of a women’s conference that she had never been abused by her husband, because, “I’ve never given him any reason to hit me either.” More seriously, Martz took fire in the media after a fatal drunk driving accident that killed House Majority Leader Paul Sliter . Martz’s most trusted aide, Shane Hedges, was the driver, and was charged with negligent homicide. That night Hedges, whom Martz claimed was a friend for life, went to the governor’s mansion where Martz allowed him to stay and even washed his bloody clothing (she said it was a “motherly reaction”). Bad press over her shifting stories and various personal scandals policies involving land deals as well as using the phones in her official office to raise money for the state GOP’s Political Action Committee (which she ran at the time) took their toll—by 2003 her approval ratings were in the 20% range, some of the lowest ever for any governor in the history of Montana. Martz saw the writing on the wall and announced well before 2004 that she would not run for a second term (in spite of that, many blame her for the relatively strong performance of Democrats on a statewide level that year). On a lighter note, more recently Martz made it into the news, through no action of her own, because of a supposed similarity to the face and hair of one nude bordello dancer sculpted by Seattle artist Kristine Veith, and placed in a new development in downtown Helena. Both Martz and Veith deny the similarity, with Martz reporting, “I’m a very modest person, no one would ever see me like that. My husband doesn’t ever see me like that.” Martz finished her time in office campaigning for President Bush in Ohio, Arizona, and other swing states, and sparring with incoming Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer over transition of state government.”
If Matt Rosenberg has the courage to go against “the party line”, when are we going to see you do the same, or do you think the party line is just fine?
when are we going to see you do the same
You mean be a winger? It’s so fun and comforting to be a winger. Sets frazzled nerves at ease… So mainstream. Let’s see:
a single, anonymous, whacked-out post on an open blog
Not comforting enough? Didn’t think so.
WingersAreWhiners @ 7:
Huh? Why is asking Goldy not to repeat the party line “being a winger”. Sauce for the goose, WAW….
Jon @6,
Good point. I read the comments here and realize that most of the readers of HA are very sheltered from reality. It’s funny to see how many really believe that anyone who is a Republican or conservative is some kind of wacko and there’s the usual religious implications as well.
There are a lot more moderates on both sides than there are extremists. Even here in WA.
Goldy, why don’t you tell us more about your own views instead of just agreeing with other writers all the time?
Jeff B. @ 9
Speaking of sheltered from reality, if you haven’t visited Rossi Country lately, most of the Rossi counties would be uninhabited without government money. There are only two kinds of jobs in Rossi Country: Farming and government jobs, and the farmers get government subsidies (not to mentioned water and electricity from government projects). Everybody else is either a teacher, works for a public utility or federal agency, or works on road construction.