Memo to Kathleen Parker: You're not relevant anymore

For the last couple of months a few so-called conservative pundits have been spouting off, and frankly we're getting sick of them. Among them is one Kathleen Parker. Now Kathleen is a bright person, and while she's entitled to her opinion her op-ed today in the WaPo has sealed the deal with us. This woman is no longer relevant in the world of political punditry. I'm not going to cite any of that op-ed. You can follow the link and read it yourselves, but I've got a couple of gripes about her reasoning in this piece.

First, her specious argument that it's time for conservatives to turn their back on the religious conservatives in the party. This is asinine on it's face because the Republican party is a big-tent party. (I think that was made evident in having moderates, conservative Democrats, and inedependents in the ranks; she'd be wise to note that as she, herself, at this point tends to be more moderate in her opinions.)

The point here is a simple one: We have no problem with having a wide variety of people int he party. The problem we have is when the conservative platform is hijacked and watered down by moderates telling us we need to move to the center -- to the LEFT -- in order to win elections, hearts and minds. This is nutter insanity. Ronald Reagan didn't move to the center when he ran fro president. He stuck true to his conservative ideals, and people flocked to him. It wasn't the other way around. This is just one of the reasons why John McCain lost this year. He tried to reach out to everyone instead of sticking to conservative principles. Of course, he'd have to be a true conservative to do that, which he wasn't. He was a centrist Republican.

Second, the very issue that gave Kathleen her first level of notoriety is also alive and well in this op-ed. That'd be Sarah Palin. Lord knows what Governor Palin did to garner this level of distaste, but she is still harping on about her. In fact, she states towards the end of her piece "Let's do pray that God shows Alaska's governor the door." This from a woman who claims we need to shut out religious conservatives? And she invokes God's name in hoping that Sarah Palin is shown the door? Kathleen, I'll quote your former boss in response to this idiocy: "I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said."

Yes, William F. Buckley said that, and the point is one that is ground in reality. Do I really think that Kathleen Parker believes half of the tripe she writes? Possibly, but none of it, recently, seems grounded in logic. Did she not pay any attention to the election, or is she simply hung up on the two or three gaffes made by Governor Palin? I'm guessing the latter. Kathleen liked to point to the two interviews that Sarah Palin had. "See! See! She's not prepared!" Yes, yes, Kathleen, but put the blame where it belongs. That's on McCain and his advisers. The bungled her roll-out, and decided the first interviews she should have was with the MSM using their gotcha tactics.

Had McCain been smart, her first interviews would have been with talk radio, and with bloggers on conference calls. Nope. McCain tossed her into the shark pool. So it was only natural for pundits like Kathleen to point out how much of an inexperienced rube Sarah Palin seemed. Way to go John. Nothing like tossing your greatest asset under the bus. She drew crowds that McCain never could have. It's that simple. She's the reason he garnered enhanced support, and she's the reason he racked up 58 million votes. People like Kathleen can continue to take swipes at her, despite the fact the election was weeks ago, and they will. Mark my words, a year from now she'll still be spitting mad at Sarah Palin.

I'll let the erudite Jonah Goldberg at NRO's The Corner sum this up, because he's more spot-on than I am:

I don't know what's more grating, the quasi-bigotry that has you calling religious Christians low brows, gorillas and oogedy-boogedy types or the bravery-on-the-cheap as you salute — in that winsome way — your own courage for saying what (according to you) needs to be said. Please stop bragging about how courageous you are for weathering a storm of nasty email you invite on yourself by dancing to a liberal tune. You aren't special for getting nasty email, from the right or the left. You aren't a martyr smoking your last cigarette. You're just another columnist, talented and charming to be sure, but just another columnist. You are not Joan of the Op-Ed Page. Perhaps the typical Washington Post reader (or editor) doesn't understand that. But you should, and most conservatives familiar with these issues can see through what you're doing.

For the record, I have no problem with arguments about how the GOP has become too religious. I ended my book with pretty much that argument. I opposed Mike Huckabee vociferously because he seemed the quintessential rightwing progressive imbued with a rightwing social gospel. These are all good arguments to make and they have good responses to them. But please drop the nonsense about how the G-O-D people or the Palin people are low brows and beasts. There are low brows and beasts everywhere, on every side of the ideological spectrum. Maybe if you got more ecumenical hate email you'd realize that.

He's right. She's trying to fall on her sword and claim she's a martyr because she all told us this would happen. Yeah, yeah, but falling on your sword doesn't make you a martyr. It makes you stupid. It also makes her an attention-starved pundit. Will people like Kathleen Parker or Peggy Noonan disappear from the op-ed pages? Nope, not anytime soon, at least. But because both decided to turn their backs on the nominee -- all because of the running mate chosen -- conservatives won't be the ones clicking to read them in the future.

It'll be the moderates, and independents, and Democrats that will be reading the, And they'll click their tongues, and nod as they talk amongst themselves about how intelligent people like Kathleen and Peggy are. We hope they enjoy their time at the Beltway cocktail parties, hobnobbing with people that they had been slamming just years before.

This isn't courage for Kathleen. It's a demand for attention and relevance. Sorry, babe, but you're not my wife, and I'm fresh out of both for strangers.

Publius II