PAST DUE REPUBLICAN HOUSECLEANING

We need to get busy. The Other McCain describes a big part of the mess:

In the federal government, as the Framers intended, Congress represents power. But with growth of the imperial presidency, the White House represents prestige, and there is nothing that the elite covet so much as prestige.

The difference between the GOP elite in Washington and the ordinary grassroots Republican in Tulsa or Tucson or Tacoma can be summed up in a single word: Ambition. And this one word explains the struggle between elite prestige and grassroots power in the GOP.

The Republican activist in Tucson wants to see his party win elections and enact conservative policies. Perhaps the Tucson Republican has personal ambition in politics -- to be named county party chairman, to be a delegate to the national convention, maybe even to run for the state legislature -- but he understands that any small ambition he has is dependent on winning elections, and thus expanding the party's power.

For the Republican elite, however, a far different calculus is involved. Those who have attended the right schools, served the proper internships and made the right connections arrive in Washington at age 22 or 23 looking to scale the ladder of success. Whether they are think-tank analysts or campaign operatives, journalists or lawyers, these young people are almost universally dreaming of reaching the lofty heights of their especial avocations. It's a very competitive environment which favors the shrewd and cunning.

The status crawlers got to GO. Nothing was more disgusting to me that the sight of Republicans deriding Sarah Palin because she doesn't talk the way they do and because she can field dress a moose. It's all about status with this insecure dipshits. And as Im reading in the soon-to-be-classic, "Liberty and Tyranny," it is not only democrats who are statist. There are republicans who believe in expanding the state, as insane as that is. They got to GO, as well.