The Winner of the Iowa Caucus is...

Despite President Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment ("Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"), the infighting among the GOP presidential candidates as voting for in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary draws near, while profoundly disappointing, is perhaps to be expected. It is also getting boring, which is why most ordinary Americans find themselves disengaged from politics with good reason. The negatives ads that the GOP rivals are dropping on each other in Iowa are only a warmup for what the Obama reelection campaign a.k.a. the mainstream media will dish out in the fall.

But the vitriolic comments on the various right-of-center blogs (and sometimes on TV) have been unbelievable. Perhaps some are paid trolls from the opposition, but the hostility to Candidate A by someone who supports Candidate B (or C, D, or E) seems way out of bounds.  Express a preference for one candidate--that's great, go for it, knock yourself out--but hysterical diatribes are something else again.

And to what end? Granted this roster of candidates is far from A-list perhaps. The GOP has a strong roster of governors but unfortunately none of them are ready for this particular cycle. That's the reality. But once there is an official nominee, that person will be vested by default with a certain amount of stature. [As an aside, in an odd way it's kind of like a title switch in pro wrestling from back in the heyday of the 80s and 90s. Suddenly the challenger who "won" the belt (promoters call it "dropping the strap") who might have been viewed as a "jobber" or also-ran becomes elevated to the top of the card.]

Aren't most politicians full of it to a greater or lesser degree? That being said, to rescue the country from socialism and crony capitalism, one has unify around and to vote for whoever the Republicans eventually nominate, despite the flaws of that particular person. It's that simple. If you believe in personal freedom and economic freedom, the stakes are just too high.

Please remember, when you cast a presidential ballot, you're not just voting for one man or woman. You are voting for hundreds/thousands of officials who will carry out the president's policies. Does anyone want Obama to have four additional years, for example, to appoint radical leftists to the federal courts, let alone the Supreme Court?

A commenter on the InstaPundit blog put it well:

You know, I just wish that my friends on the Right—whom all say that they detest the policies of Barack Obama and his supporters—would just soldier their way through this next election. I’m afraid they will sit it out, in a electoral fit of pique because the nominee isn’t conservative enough or is too conservative or whatever.

After we get this gang (and I use that word intentionally) out of the Oval Office, then, my friends on the Right can form their Third Party, or push a candidate that they feel is “conservative enough” and so forth.

2012 is too important. And sitting out the election, or carping about a particular candidate…well, it just makes Axelrod smile. And it smooths the path not toward “Four More Years,” but “Four Worse Years.”

Along these similar lines, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is right on target in addressing dissatisfaction with the record of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown who only voted with the GOP leadership 75% of the time:

Next year is going to be a tough fight. Would you prefer someone who’s with you 75 percent of the time ... or 3 percent?

 And now the moonbats have settled on one of their own. Professor Elizabeth Warren is just so ... perfect. She’s a carpetbagger, from Oklahoma. And she teaches at (prepare to swoon) Harvard Law School. Yes, the home of Obama, Kagan and Patrick. What could possibly go wrong?

 You know that she bragged about providing the “intellectual foundations” to the filthy Occupy vermin who defecated on New York City police cars. More recently she said, “I don’t want to go to Washington to be a co-sponsor of some bland little bill nobody cares about.”

Nobody except the person who asks you to write a letter to the U.S. Naval Academy on behalf of their son. Or who needs some help getting Social Security for their aunt.

 This state already has one preening narcissist in the Senate. Do we really need another legend-in-her-own-mind limousine liberal?

 I know, it’s early, but all you Brown haters, be careful what you wish for. Do you really want six years of buyer’s remorse?

Appeals Court Reinstates Political Discrimination Lawsuit

As we mentioned in a prior post about James Franco, adjunct or part-time college faculty (i.e., without tenure or job security) usually have to navigate a public relations minefield in terms of student evaluations to make sure their contracts get renewed.

Getting a college teaching job (and especially qualifing for a full-time or tenured positon) often requires a strong publishing track record, but there's a Catch-22 in relation to political ideology: Try getting hired or promoted in academia if you have right-of-center publications or activity. In general, fuggedaboutit.

So anyone who supports the First Amendment should applaud the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit for reinstating a political discrimination case for trial in federal district court.

As a result of the appellate panel's ruling, Teresa Wagner "who alleges she was denied a job at the University of Iowa College of Law because of her conservative politics can proceed with a discrimination lawsuit against the school’s former dean," The Wall Street Journal reports.

Wagner, a registered Republican and known social conservative, was a part-time instructor at the college's Writing Resource Center who was turned down for a full-time gig despite apparently having the appropriate credentials and recommendations. A lower court judge had dismissed the case but the appeals court determined that there was enough of a dispute over whether then law school dean Carolyn Jones “would have made the same hiring decisions in the absence of Wagner’s political affiliations and beliefs” to put the case back on the trial docket.

According to the On Brief blog, there is only one registered Republican among the 50 faculty members at Iowa's law school.