Here’s something we don’t hear every day in Washington: Ronald Reagan‘s dead, get over it. That’s a blunt paraphrase about conservatives and GOP traditionalists who want to relive the good old days from a senior Republican senator, speaking on background. “Ronald Reagan ran in the 1970s. That was a long time ago,” says the senator, a member of the GOP message team. His point: The party has to reach past its traditional base and especially to younger and Hispanic voters. “It’s about survival,” he tells us.

Oh, that is SO going to piss off Mister Liberty Girl.

Senator, ALL of you are dead.  Dead in the brain, dead in the heart, dead in the soul.  Is it any wonder conservatives and near-conservatives (like the Liberty Family here) lionize Reagan?  He’s the last one of you to show any guts, to have any vision whatsoever for the future.  You speak of “survival”…that is truly your guiding star at this point.  Not interested in principles or core values, just keep that gravy train rolling, RAWHIDE!

I’m done with the lot of you.  If any of you truly care about the Republican party’s survival, we won’t see snippet one of your pallid, wizened faces in the next Presidential cycle.  It will instead be represented by the firebrands, the Palins and the Jindals.  The people who still have hope and dreams for the future.  Citizens, we can still have the Shining City that Reagan envisioned, but we need to be MUCH more careful to whom we entrust its stewardship.

I said “almost.”

Rock and a Hard Place is a game show featuring various has-been and currently-are rock/pop stars, answering music-related trivia questions, and mediated by…wait for it…Meatloaf.  It’s formatted like a classic gameshow.  The Loaf leans on the podium of each team, asks a few quick questions about which charity they’re playing for, then on with the show!  

The show has apparently been around for a bit, so there’s a decent backlog of clips on Youtube.  Last night’s ep featured members of Toto vs. members of A Flock of Seagulls, competing in games like Guess the Album Cover, Name the Video Star/Song, and true or false trivia about the band members themselves.  A particularly agonizing game had each contestant playing a song on the kazoo for their teammates to guess.  The show is great fun to watch and play along with, especially the album cover game, and it’s nice to see these geezers out and about again.  

And just look at these upcoming episodes:

1. 10/28   Right Said Fred vs. Bananarama
2. 11/4    Leif Garrett vs. Bay City Rollers
3. 11/11   Divas vs. Color Me Badd
4. 11/18   Jeffrey Osborne vs. Tony Orlando
5. 11/25   Quiet Riot All Stars vs. Air Supply
6. 12/2    Jimmie Van Zandt vs. Sisqo
7. 12/9    The Skinners vs. The Shredders
8. 12/16   Tommy Tutone vs. Ray Parker Jr
9. 12/23   Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam vs. Da Brat
10. 12/30   Everclear vs. Starship
11. 1/6/09  Sha Na Na vs. War