CNN has once again paid tribute to Thomas Pynchon, whose statement “if they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers,” characterizes the mainstream media. CNN is asking: “who speaks for conservatives?,” dragging out the likes of McCain, Huckabee, Limbaugh, et. al. from which to choose. CNN might as well throw such names as Nixon, Reagan, and Ford into the inquiry. The network at least had the decency – perhaps the intellectual honesty – to not include Ron Paul’s name: why should he, whose libertarian credentials are in stark contrast with whatever it is that passes for “conservatism” these days, be dragged down to the level of the named political hacks?

The conservative movement does not move; it is moribund, if not ossified. It has gone the way of anti-vivisectionism and the Anti-Saloon League. Let Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sarah Palin play out their roles as honorary pall-bearers to escort its petrified bones to history’s graveyard!

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