# Is there currently any sane, intellectual leadership in the Republican party? If so, who? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768 "2010-03-25T17:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/161 "2010-04-02T00:46:26Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m sure it is, but so what? The question is whether or not he’s providing any kind of sane intellectual leadership at this point, and while he’s not the worst of it, I’d say the answer is no. I think he will moderate after this November if he wins. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Reading the investigator’s affidavit it looks like the suspect could just as easily be a far-right whackjob as a far-left one. Cantor is Jewish, remember. > > Not so fast. We did go for Obama last time around, you know. If there’s a knock on Bush, it’s that he shares his brother’s foreign policy outlook; he’s a card carrying New American Century type, and he’s likely to be just as gung ho about military adventurism as W. Hurrah for intervention in Darfur and the DRC! > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > She’s going to be badly damaged in that regard if Hayworth beats McCain in the primary – maybe she can raise money, but her influence will be revealed as a paper tiger. Doubt that. If Hayworth is elected in the primary he will lose massively in the general election and the Tea Party fanatics will be discredited. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/162 "2010-04-02T02:56:20Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Sarah Palin will not win the Republican nomination in 2012 any more than Pat Buchanan could in 1996. You don’t know how much I wish I could believe that. Unfortunately, unless the next crop of candidates is stronger than the last one was, I think she has a chance based on being more lively than anyone who ran in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/163 "2010-04-02T06:15:36Z")
Mitt Romney’s favorite book is _Battlefield Earth_. That scares me as much as anything Palin’s ever said. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/164 "2010-04-02T06:26:26Z")
Get thee behind me, thetan! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/165 "2010-04-02T06:29:34Z")
I mean, you’re totally making that up, right? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/166 "2010-04-02T11:32:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I mean, you’re totally making that up, right? From the _[You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Dept](http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/romney-favors-hubbard-novel/)_. : > [@](#): > > When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/167 "2010-04-02T11:38:25Z")
It was a calculated move to appeal to the crucial ‘people who think Mormonism is weird but Scientology is friggin’ awesome!’ demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/168 "2010-04-03T15:53:49Z")
I’m waiting for Tom Cruise to say _Ender’s Game_ is his favourite book. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/169 "2010-04-03T18:02:38Z")
Finally, a voice of sanity in the Republican nuthouse: [http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/mchenry-census/](http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/mchenry-census/) Countdown on when he will be forced to apologize for these heretic remarks… ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/170 "2010-04-06T06:25:43Z")
According to Professor DeLong, today’s Republican party is “[bespelled by three curses](http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/03/is-michael-steele-the-best-possible-chairman-for-the-republican-national-committee.html)”: [quote=Brad DeLong] [ul] [li] The curse of Ronald Reagan: it believes that over the long haul somehow America can tax like Calvin Coolidge and spend like Lyndon Johnson and everything will come out fine because it is morning in America.[/li] [li] The curse of Richard Nixon: it believes that the purpose of politics is to win high-paid jobs with no heavy lifting involved and to humiliate your political adversaries, rather than to make a better country and a better world, and so anything goes.[/li] [li] The curse of Barry Goldwater: it believes that the big threat to liberty comes from government attempts to enhance equality of opportunity, and so the Republican Party must abandon its historic commitment to equality of opportunity. [/ul] [/li][/quote] So even Republicans who are sane in private, feel obliged to pander to the crazy when out in public. But occasionally the mask drops, and is even caught on tape. At a recent Cato forum, Grover Norquist asked Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) about [whether the Iraq War was a mistake](http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/19/gop-congressmen-iraq-mistake/). Two out of three thought it was, and furthermore thought that “Everybody” agrees on that. Duncan refused to say, but implied consent: he had voted against the authorization of military force and noted that when he had a primary challenge based on his Iraq vote in his conservative military district, his opponent got about 12%. So yes there is sanity in the Republican Party, but it is kept under wraps: by no means is it permissible for the Republican leadership to show signs of sobriety and careful analysis in a high profile forum. That might mess with their talking points. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/171 "2010-04-06T16:55:48Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > But occasionally the mask drops, and is even caught on tape. Far be it from me to make a call on (in)sanity, but I came across this [article about Tom Coburn](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001827-503544.html) this morning. > [@](#): > > At a town hall meeting, Coburn suggested that a woman who said “they can put us in prison” for not obtaining health insurance under the health care reform bill is misinformed. > > “The intention is not to put anybody in jail,” he said. “That makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn’t the intention.” He also defends Nancy Pelosi as a “nice person”. I admit, I didn’t see that one coming, and good for him. Although at the same time, adding a teaspoon of wine to a barrel of sewage… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/172 "2010-04-06T17:01:18Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > …So yes there is sanity in the Republican Party, but it is kept under wraps… Sometimes breaking free when it can chew its way through the leather straps… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768.md?page=8)