Ignore pandering, except when it's done by us

Okay, this morning in the Badger Herald I read a piece by the chair of the College Republicans criticizing, among other things, pandering by the Democrats via Pell Grants. When I got to the Republican kick-off tonight, what do I hear? Support some candidate for governor because the current Democrat raised tuition. Hmmm.

I did a head count right at the official start of the meeting, though people were still filtering in, and came up with ~110. So yes, the Democrats are bigger, maybe twice as big.

The highlight for the meeting was a speech by the state senate majority leader. Pretty bland speech puctuated by one bit of hyperbole: "In Madison, the left displays an intolerance that's almost Taliban-like." Yes, they patrol the streets searching for non-conformers, but they only almost the same because they use metal clubs instead of bullets. At the end he took questions, and one audience member asked if he supported the Academic Bill of Rights. The majority leader didn't seem to be familiar with the idea; he said he supported it, but heged by saying he wasn't sure about the details of any particular bill. At other times, there was general talk of liberal dominance in the classroom, but nothing specific.

Various points of comparison between the two groups: T

The Democrats had a better t-shirt sologan this year, but the Republicans one from last year was awesome (Flush the Johns in 2004).

The Republicans managed to find a room with no MoveOn.org signs in it; the
Democrats held their meeting with a ProtestWarrior sign looking on.

The Republicans had a hotter fire for frying smaller fish. While the Dems had speakers getting fairly worked up about Bush&co., the Republicans got into a booing frenzy about Jane Fonda.

Also, the Democrats didn't have their own party newspaper to pass out at the end; my thoughts on that tomorrow.