The "are we hurting the party" question goes meta

You knew it had to come eventually. Steve M., of No More Mister Nice Blog:

With so many prominent Democrats proclaiming that the party is being hurt by the prolonged nomination fight, I can't help wondering: Would this be hurting the party less if there weren't so many prominent Democrats saying, for attribution, that it's hurting the party?

This is what we in the world of serious political journalism call a "mindfuck".

...Of course, Steve M. is quite right to point out that Democrats are propping up the narrative that this endless campaign is gives McCain an advantage, despite minimal actual evidence (those poll numbers you hear cited, about 30% of Clinton supporters jumping ship if Obama wins and so forth, are transparently meaningless). We are much better off than the talking heads would have you believe.

But the real question: by accusing leading Democrats of such miscalculation, isn't Steve M. just engendering more dissension and disunity? WHY ARE YOU HURTING THE PARTY, STEVE M.????

Entropy

NYT:

“It was not a graceful exit,” said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, as events swirled on Friday.

No shit.

What has happened to the Republicans? The last week of their congressional session was supposed to be a high point -- where they pulled out all their legislative sucker-punches, rope-a-doping the clueless Democrats as they began to roar back towards November victory. The storyline would be the same as always, those intrepid GOP power players regaining their characteristic mojo off the back of national-security issues, and all would be right with the world. You could feel The Note writhing in anticipation.

(Seriously, does anybody still read that garbage? It's become the most vapid, idiotic, senseless repetition of Beltway blather that you can get on the Internet. At least the newspaper pundits put their sycophantism in vaguely serious, intellectual terms -- I swear to God, if Mark Halperin cracks one more joke about the "Daddy Party" or the "Gang of 500", I'm going to find him and kick him in the nuts.)

Anyway. After the jump, we'll see how wrong they were, and how the Republican position has disintegrated.

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