Surely you jest.

From committee chairmanships to pretty much every power position there is, from what bills get introduced and what gets killed in committee, the "Power Party" is key to accomplishing things, and being a member comes with perks the out-of-power party can do absolutely nothing about.

Surely you learned about some if this in a history class along the way?

The Republican party is more liberal today than it ever was, IMHO. They've tried to please too many people with the whole "Big Tent" philosophy. Other than Ben Nelson of NE, I don't know of any pro-life Democrats who have survived the wrath of the DNC. From the Log Cabin Republicans to the Pro-Choice Republicans, you'll find many areas where the tent has been widened with the intention of pulling in voters who agree with the platform except for one or two key issues. The result has been a loss of identity.

Look back to the time of Nixon and Ford and Reagan and Bush 1 and read a speech or two and see if the Republican party of 2009 is more or less conservative than it used to be.

It has certainly drifted Left.

Therefore, Spectors claims are not at all true. He just wanted re-elected and saw this as the best chance he had.

The thing is...as much as I don't care to see the Democrats in power all across the board, I have to say that from what we've seen from King FlyOver and his Band 'o Merry Men, it won't be too long before the American people are just weary of the whole lot of 'em and will send them back home. I've never denied that Obama is an eloquent speaker, but I've gotta tell ya... despite the fact that I was terribly impressed the first time I heard him speak (not so much with what he said, but with his delivery), he's wearing on me. Today I had the radio on as I was picking up my kids from school and he was on and waxing eloquent.

And... I'd like him to just TALK once in awhile.

It's not necessary to make everything sound like it went through twenty-seven editors and three PR firms. Just get up and talk, Man! For the State of the Union address, fine - use your fancy wordsmithing. Otherwise... lose the facade, please.

There has to be a happy medium between Bush's stumbling and Obama's pontificating.