Testing the waters..

[evil eggplant]

First Frist on stem cells, now Santorum on Intelligent Design. What's happening here?

Here's the way I see it.

Those in power want to stay in power. What they do now will have a huge impact on their political futures. The agendas crafted today are based on speculation as to what will become of chimpCo down the road.

Blackwell was on Hardball the other day. He stated that second-guessing the president is the wrong thing to do. Blackwell is betting his political future on the stability of chimpCo.

Frist, and now Santorum, seem to have taken the wrong side on key issues, at least according to their base.

This implies a few things-

That the Neo-Conservative Religious Right is not representative of the republican party. That the repugs are becoming aware that they have been sold a bill of goods, that those they have empowered do not represent istead choosing to represent themselves only. A small (but powerful) group of far-right neocons. This can be risky for Frist and Santorum, but knowing who really comprises their base may be information that's worth the price.

That is one possibility. Here's another...

Perhaps Frist, Santorum (and possibly many more)realize that those in control really do represent a small (but powerful, vocal) percentage of the party. Maybe Frist and Santorum risk alienating the religious rightjust to see what happens when they put some distance in between the chimp and themselves. This course of action comes with risk, but they are not placing all their eggs in the chimpCo basket.

Lastly, they may be testing the waters. Just to see what would happen should they decide to commit themselves to putting real distance between themselves and chimpy.

These scenerios are more similar than different, I suppose.

Just thinking out loud...

[shraby]

1. They are, but that doesn't mean they aren't

still nutty as fruitcakes. They aren't changing their stance on anything, just the words they use.

[evil eggplant]

2. why piss off your base?

Are Frist and Santorum decent people who are doing what their conscience dictates? Not a chance.

So why are they pissing off their base, and why would you say that they're playing semantic games?

Frist was clear enough that he disagrees with chimpy on stem cells. I haven't had much time to look into the Santorum thing.

Something is going on. Isn't it?