Monday Quickies

• Why are Republican candidates in hiding?  Illinois GOP senate candidate Mark Kirk has stopped talking to reporters altogether about his military record, a record he substantially embellished.  Sir Rand Paul will only take questions in writing.  Rick Perry in Texas refuses to debate his opponent.  Sharon Angle is a basket case.  I thought the GOP was the party of tough guys?  If you can't handle the Liberal Media...

• My man Steve Benen is on a role with David Broder's latest column about the Tea Baggers.

For one thing, Tea Partiers aren't really a "movement" -- we're talking about an effort with no real leadership, expertise, policy agenda, clarity of thought, or internal structure, made up almost entirely of the most hysterical wing of the Republican Party base. For another, Tea Partiers aren't really populists -- they're anti-government zealots, actively hostile to efforts to materially improve the lives of working Americans.

Not only are they not a movement, they aren't even sane.  They are, for the most part, a group of people who widely receive government benefits protesting people receiving government benefits.  It's like rich people protesting people having too much money.  Their almost clinically insane.  Benen goes on:

The problem isn't that Broder's advice is wrong; it's that his advice seems oddly out of place. The Tea Party crowd will succeed, he argues, if they appear mainstream, craft a coherent policy agenda, back off their demands to destroy nearly every federal program, and distance themselves from the "kooks."

That's fine, as far as it goes, but what about the realization that the Tea Party crowd isn't mainstream, doesn't know enough about government to craft an agenda, wants to destroy the modern welfare state, and includes an overabundance of kooks?

Steve is finally catching on.

• Kevin Drum points out that John Judis and Ruy Teixeira were right about the emerging Democratic majority.  Now it seems, even better news for the future of the Democratic Party.  Here's my two cents.  Quit letting Republicans stifle the debate.  Death panels, socialist takeovers, and freedom fighting is so last summer.

• Do Democrats have a plan for this November?  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was very realistic on the Sunday talk shows plainly stating there's no doubt Republicans will pick up seats with enough in play for Republicans to possibly gain control.  I'm glad to see him being so forthright.  It also seems liberal and progressive bloggers are in an uproar about why Democrats aren't hitting back so they don't lose the house.  Here's my two cents.  Quit letting Republicans stifle the debate.  Death panels, socialist takeovers, and fighting is so last summer.