News
Sarah Palin And The Republican Strategy of “U Lie”
Alex Moore :: Monday, June 21st, 2010 5:00 pm
Sarah Palin Tuesday denied the existence of one Republican philosophy by employing another.
Responding to Rahm Emanuel’s assertion that Joe Barton’s apology to BP over the federal $20 billion bill constituted a Republican philosophy, she tweeted, “u lie” at him, invoking Joe Wilson’s infamous “You lie!” shout at the president during last year’s address to Congress.
While most Congressional republicans sought to distance themselves from Joe Barton’s apology last week, many influential voices from the GOP’s sphere of influence, including Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, and Conn Carroll of the The Heritage Foundation, applauded his reasoning. Lest there be any ambiguity about this, Carroll even wrote a piece called Joe Barton Was Right: There Was a $20 Billion Shakedown in the White House called Joe Barton Was Right: There Was A $20 Billion Dollar Shakedown in the White House.”
But many Republicans have repudiated the apology, seeking to appear tough on oil and champions of the populist outrage over the spill.
With all the arguments for uniform deregulation, traditional championing of corporate interests, and ties to the oil industry, there does appear to be room for debate on whether Barton’s apology actually represents a GOP policy philosophy.
Sarah Palin, however, by invoking Senator Joe Wilson’s famously rude interruption “You lie” clearly underscored a Republican debate philosophy: Whoever yells the loudest wins.
Rather than creating a cohesive counter-argumnet with an alternative set of ideas, the Republican policy philosophy has largely turned into the party of “no.” Now, it seems the Republican debate strategy has tuned into the party of shouts.
