The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein says the GOP has it wrong -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels should be running the party's show; not Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell.
The good Mitch, by contrast, is a principled but practical conservative who respects the intelligence of voters and would rather get something done than score political points. Daniels is a genuine fiscal conservative who took a $600 million state budget deficit and turned it into a $1 billion surplus but managed to do so without cutting spending for education and even increased funding for child welfare services.
.... Tellingly, both Mitches like to talk about the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Washington Mitch conjures the image of long lines and uncaring bureaucrats and asks, cynically, whether you want folks like that determining your medical care. The Indiana Mitch, by contrast, rolled up his sleeves and transformed his DMV into an efficient, consumer-friendly operation.
One can only imagine how Republicans could have reshaped health-reform legislation in the Senate if it had been Mitch Daniels rather than Mitch McConnell running the show, striking deals with the White House and moderate Democrats to win concessions in exchange for a pledge not to filibuster.
If you had to draw a talk-show host corollary, Mitch Daniels would be Bill O'Reilly and Mitch McConnell would be Sean Hannity.
Watch the hosts back-to-back some night, and you'll get the sense O'Reilly wants what's best for America, and Hannity simply wants what's worst for Obama.
Last night was a good case in point.
Bill O'Reilly focused on the hawkish muscle in Barack Obama's Copenhagen speech, Glenn Beck fixated on the fact Obama shouldn't have won the Peace Prize in the first place, and Sean Hannity obsessed about Obama's Gitmo allusions.
Ironically, if Obama seems to obsess about Gitmo too much for some people, Hannity is his willing accomplice, because that's the bit he endlessly loops and talks about.
[Hat tip: John Aloysius Farrell]
