Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Mike Murphy ·
Jul 14, 2011 at 10:48am
I know the knee jerk reaction of many here will be to dismiss the argument and just call names: RINO, Sell-out, liberal media conspiracy... blah blah. But I know Al Hoffman well. His credentials are very strong: Good conservative. Worked with him twice to help elect Jeb Bush, best conservative Governor FL has ever had. Al has not been carping on the sidelines, but in the tough front lines of helping a great Republican conservative win and change FL. His take on the debt crisis is here. I could not agree with him more.
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May '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
David Williamson
Mr Murphy - now that I have time to think about this...
You sound a lot like Mr Obama - we voters are too stupid to figure this out... leave it to the elites of the Harvard faculty lounge, or the master strategists of the GOP that got us into this mess - there is no difference.
Maybe it was Mr. Murphy who penned the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial today:
"It's astounding that the economic health of the nation is being held hostage by people least willing or able to comprehend the issues, many of them swept into office last year by people with only the vaguest notions of reality." (Read the entire thing here.) "Close parentheses," Peter & James.
I like Murphy & his discussions. However, I grow weary of hearing that we must compromise over fuzzily-defined terms and make that shaky territory the baseline of the next go-around.
Were Ron Johnson's and Reid Ribble's wins meaningless and rube-induced?
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
I'll toss a buck into the kitty
Again with the cats.
Aug '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Pseudodionysius: I'll toss a buck into the kitty
Again with the cats. · Jul 14 at 2:46pm
And why not? Everyone knows (though few will admit) that Ricochet is merely a pawn of the Vast Feline Conspiracy.
(And Pseud, I have proof you're in collusion with Claire's cats. So watch yourself, kitty. Or I'll get Claire to get "medieval" on your fluffy hindquarters -- and we all know how you hate it when medievality is abused.)
Feb '11
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Hehe, Pseud! When I saw Murphy's new avatar I thought to myself, if Murphy can make fun of himself like this, maybe he isn't such a jerk after all.
Put me down as one of the Ricochetoiseerians that likes it. · Jul 14 at 1:11pm
Unfortunately, Midge, I think you may be projecting your own amiability onto Mike Murphy. I don't think that avatar was meant as self deprecation.
Feb '11
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Mike Murphy: I'm learning from the posts today that all it takes is $3.58 a month and you guys are all ready to run the national political strategy for the GOP. Talk about credentials... Also love the "Swing voters are all unprincipled lemmings" bit. Try that message out... and see how it pays off in November.
Meanwhile, we find out that Bachmann cannot figure out how to pronounce "Chutzpah"... Video:http://t.co/2RtGLRU
Maybe she can build a time machine and go back to Lexington NH and founding father and anti-slavery crusader John Quincy Adams can explain it all to her. · Jul 14 at 1:08pm
I'd just as soon spend my $3.58 on an actual cup of coffee if this is what's being served up.
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
The new avatar is totally self deprecation. A joke.
BTW, I borrowed it from Rob Long...
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
FTFA, as they say on Fark: "The pledge states not only that signers will oppose hikes in marginal income tax rates, but also that they will “oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.” In other words, signers of the pledge are supposed to vote to keep an irrational and corrupt system of tax loopholes if even $1 of savings goes toward deficit reduction."
That's supposedly the handcuffs Grover Norquist got Republicans to put on, possibly by hypnosis. Well: The GOP agrees to reduce and/or eliminate deductions and credits; the Dems agree to reduce tax rates. That would seem to be a Grand Compromise. Is there any pressure on the left to do the noble thing and strike a bargain for the sake of the Republic?
You'd think it would be good for them to bray about reducing taxes for Working People, and maybe do something to dissuade people from the belief that they react to the idea of reduced taxation like vampires who wake up in a crucifix showroom.
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Funny, my first experience in politics was stuffing envelopes for Nelson Rockefeller in NYC when he was running for the GOP nomination for President. My father was a speechwriter for Nelson and I was a young teen. I was pretty clueless and soon would become a de facto member of the SDS. Ten years later, living in a third-world country, I grew up and understood what it means to be an American.
But it's not a joke. It's a poke. I'd like to hear where Murphy disagrees with Mr. Rockefeller. Essentially he doesn't. How can it be self-deprecating?
Murphy has taken off his gloves with this post. I'll do the same.
Murphy has worked for a long line of Republican traitors and losers. I don't know whether it's because they hire him that they lose or because they are losers and so they hire him. A couple of his candidates have won, and when Murphy's candidates win - watch out and hold onto your wallets.
Murphy is worse than Rockefeller. Rockefeller would have evolved a bit by now.
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
I don't see where Murphy's "credentials" make him any smarter than those of us here given his record. How is he the authority? I don't get it..This is the, "I have my credentials, I can now screw up forever" mindset that we poor peons have to live with in corporate America, in government, and in punditry.
Feb '11
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Mike Murphy: The new avatar is totally self deprecation. A joke.
BTW, I borrowed it from Rob Long... · Jul 14 at 3:29pm
I know it's supposed to be a joke; I just don't see it as self deprecation in this context. Self deprecation doesn't usually have the effect of "putting a stick in the mouth of the wolverine" as Pseudodionysius described it. There's no deprecation if the joke teller obviously doesn't actually think he's flawed or feel any cause for modesty.
Mar '11
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Wouldn't a McCain avatar have been funnier?
Mike Murphy: The new avatar is totally self deprecation. A joke.
BTW, I borrowed it from Rob Long... · Jul 14 at 3:29pm
Oct '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Jeez, nothing to say that hasn't been said, but what a comment-fest! I think if Mike Murphy combined the debt crisis and Sarah Palin into one post, he could bring down the entire Ricochet Empire.
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Dear Mr. Murphy - If you smart guys don't figure out how to motivate the Tea Party in the '12 general, the Repub candidate is toast. Deal with it.
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Aaron Miller
You invited our input by creating this thread. Ricochet is about conversation. "Join the conversation," Peter says in the advertisement. If you're here only to talk at us and not with us, then you're on the wrong site.
If Ricochet's administrators are not willing to back me up on that, then my estimation of Ricochet is obviously too high. · Jul 14 at 1:27pm
Aaron, you're right: discussing such matters is the point of this whole thing.
May '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Thanks, Logo.
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
It was the reference to "Lord Vader" that sprung him into action.
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
Mr. Murphy – Our difficulty with you I believe is whether you are more an effect or a cause, and our great worry is that you’re an effect. Let me explain via an example.
It’s easy for us to believe, for example, that you were in the room, so to speak, when W and Rove dreamed up the prescription drug benefit, a big gov program if ever there was one. I’d guess that the rationale for that was that you’d pick up a few votes from seniors, maybe enough to put W over the top in the ’04 election. And congratulations to you as a political strategist; it worked. Now I really don’t think you’re a big gov guy; you simply do things to win elections. In other words guys like you are not a cause of America’s problems.
But you may be a symptom of something far more troubling for us; i.e., conservatives cannot win elections by sticking to their principles. So you may be nothing more than an effect of the situation in today’s America. Is it any wonder that commenters on Ricochet are ambivalent about you?
Sep '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
For the record, I find Mike Murphy vaguely amusing in a ball of string sort of way.
May '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
It's pretty obvious that Murphy is the designated ball of string these days around here. Personally, I'd prefer to unravel Obama.
Dec '10
Re: Al Hoffman in NYT on Debt
There once was a man from Punditry,
Who mixed politics with puppetry.
With hubris and conceit,
Every time he would treat
Conservatives like a dog a tree.