Republicans Jump, Hi-Five Shark

Sounds like an Onion headline:

Republicans Irate of Expansion of Republican-Approved Program

Rats Jumping Ship

Reuters:

Roy Blunt, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, will announce on Thursday he will not seek another term in leadership after his party's blowout election losses, Republican sources said.

Blunt will be the second senior Republican not seeking another term in leadership after Adam Putnam of Florida said on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election to his third-ranking job of Republican conference chairman.

I think Cantor is gunning for Blunt's job. Let him have it.

The Republican party has a lot of soul searching to do before it can be nationally viable again. Fortunately for us, I don't know what it can do. The party is disintegrating into civil war between the corporate-, theo- and neo-cons, as well as a large part of the base that won't take anything less than all three together (let's call this the National Review wing of the party), a philosophy that was hardly two days ago soundly rejected in the election.

The biggest mistake they can make is to enshrine themselves even further in their cocoon and claim that it's because they weren't Republican or conservative enough that they lost, which is what the National Review wing of the party is claiming. If they continue to cling to this and nominate a similar candidate in 2012 they will consign themselves to the wilderness for a very long time.

Terrorism

Domestic Republican party-style:

Today, the Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia was the target of a mailed threat that also contained a white powder. It was found by a volunteer opening the mail and resulted in a full scale hazmat and police response. The office was evacuated and containment and testing instituted to find out what the substance was.

Fortunately, the powder turned out to be sugar and all staff and volunteers are fine. Since the letter was actually sent through the mail, the matter is now a federal investigation, as it rightly should be.

Barack Obama, well-known terrorist-at-large, hates America.

Obstructing and Abetting

Republicans and their media lapdogs.

What Digby said.

Romney Just Lost the Nomination

This dog won't hunt with the Republican base:

Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, declared Thursday that as president he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause," and said calls for him to explain and justify his religious beliefs go against the profound wishes of the nation's founders.

At the same time, he decried those who would remove from public life "any acknowledgment of God," and he said that "during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places."

U.S. Constitution, Article VI:

no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States

Too bad for us being a Republican means never having to say you're sorry. Now where'd I leave my flag? I need to go wrap myself in it.

Planet Republican

Maybe it's Mars? Either way, one of its physical laws seems to be that you can only talk about Republican issues:

Not only did they allow Keith Kerr's question, they invited him to the debate. Had they bothered to research, they would have discovered his connection to Hillary Clinton's campaign. He's a member of the LGBT Americans for Hillary Steering Committee and co-chair on Hillary's National Military Veterans group. He also was an active John Kerry supporter in 2004. And last night Anderson Cooper willingly gave Mr. Kerr the Democratic activist a soapbox. Anderson has yet to apologize for either his willing participation or incompetent handling of the situation and failure to research.

Consider the other Democratic plants. Mary LeeAnn Anderson is a known Edwards supporter and union activist. She asked the protectionist question disguised as a lead paint question. Consider "Journey" the abortion questioner who, if CNN had paid attention to her YouTube profile, is a huge John Edwards supporter. And consider David Cerone, who asked the Log Cabin Republicans question -- his YouTube profile lists him as an Obama supporter.

It's disgusting to see these people open their mouths. They're taking issue with a question. Think for a moment about how insidiously pathetic that is. It's almost like a child who sticks both fingers in his ears and starts screaming when his parents ask him why there's mud on the kitchen floor, except it's even more fucked up than that because a better analogy is to a child who sticks both fingers in his ears and starts screaming when his parents ask him about the weather. It makes no sense.

Can they fucking understand this? These people's affiliations don't impact the validity of their questions. They are real Americans with real concerns about issues that not only affect them but also other Americans. But that gets at the heart of why these Republicans are so fucking twisted. To Republicans, these people and their concerns don't matter. They might as well not exist, and they will do everything they can to stamp them out. Wednesday's debate took place on Planet Republican, where only Republicans are allowed to talk to only Republicans about only things that they want to talk about. I'm sure they'd have no problem throwing everyone else who differs in a concentration camp or waterboarding the dissidents.

Imagine the outcry if this was turned on its head: Democrats went apeshit because CNN let a question through about gun control, abortion, Iraq, or one of the other contentious issues within the party at their YouTube debate. Oh wait, that fucking happened. Was a jihad - or crusade, take your pick - called to hunt down the people who asked the questions? Did Democrats call for CNN's producers' scalps? Obviously not.

The difference between the two parties has never been more staggeringly clear than since the days of the Civil Rights movement. The Democratic party stands for every American, while the Republican party only cares about things that they feel comfortable talking about. It's not like Republicans don't have stances on gay marriage or abortion, but so much of their basis for those stances is predicated on their own racism and xenophobia - meaning that they preach their creed from far away and never interacting with the people they hate - that it's a completely different ballgame when they have to look such person in the eye - literally, in Keith Kerr's case - and tell them that they don't exist. That they don't matter. That they're inferior and irrelevant to themselves.

This is why Republicans and the right wing are losing their shit over these questions. I can't possibly believe for a second that CNN had these goals in mind when they picked their questions, but those questions accomplished two things very well. First, they gave us a clear look at how disgusting and psychotic Republicans and their candidates are. Second, they showed us how uncomfortable they are with even acknowledging these people exist. This tells us all we need to know about how they would govern. We don't need to be ruled by assfucks who treat people who disagree with them as sub-human, we need to be governed by responsible people who can handle everyone's concerns. They don't have to agree with them, but they have to acknowledge that these people and their concerns are real.

Democrats have proven that they're mature to stand up and govern everyone in this country. Republicans are on the floor kicking and screaming because someone asked a question that they don't want to talk about.

Republican Reactions to the YouTube Debate

Anthropologist Joe Klein:

In the next segment--the debate between Romney and Mike Huckabee over Huckabee's college scholarships for the deserving children of illegal immigrants--I noticed something really distressing: When Huckabee said, "After all, these are children of God," the dials plummeted. And that happened time and again through the evening: Any time any candidate proposed doing anything nice for anyone poor, the dials plummeted (30s). These Republicans were hard.

But there was worse to come: When John McCain started talking about torture--specifically, about waterboarding--the dials plummeted again. Lower even than for the illegal Children of God. Down to the low 20s, which, given the natural averaging of a focus group, is about as low as you can go. Afterwards, Luntz asked the group why they seemed to be in favor of torture. "I don't have any problem pouring water on the face of a man who killed 3000 Americans on 9/11," said John Shevlin, a retired federal law enforcement officer. The group applauded, appallingly.

Somehow this is news to Klein.

Thoughts from the Republican YouTube Debate

I attended the debate-watching party sponsored by Drinking Liberally in NYC. Many thanks to them for hosting!

Looks like the Huckster - ooh, I like that - won this one. He stayed mostly above the fray and delivered his responses with a feel-good tone. I thought he sort of faded as the debate went on though. He creeps me out the most of any of the candidates.

Everyone in the room seemed to really despise Romney because he's such a ridiculously unabashed, craven liar with no firm moral footing, but that actually makes him the most palatable to me because it means that he would probably be the least conservative of all the candidates, even if we don't know exactly where and when.

Rudy! gave a decent showing but wasn't really inspiring. Anderson Cooper caught him off guard about the Politico story yesterday that Rudy billed NYC departments for his weekend trysts out to the Hamptons with wife #3. I think he brushed it off by blaming it on the bureaucratic mess of government (ok...), but this is hardly over. Rudy got laid, New York paid.

Ron Paul is crazy fun! Let's give him a pat on the head and send him back to Congress.

John McCain looked like he wanted to end his own life for most of the debate. I thought he was going to stab himself in the heart with his veto pen (blessed by Saint Ronnie).

Who is Duncan Hunter? Why do I care? I think he wants to build a fence around our country, except it would be semi-porous, and goods and services could flow in and out by osmosis, I think.

Tom Tancredo oozes hate like a custard donut oozes creamy filling when you squeeze it, except you don't need to squeeze Tancredo, just mention brown people.

Fred Thompson must lick his lips to keep his blood flowing. The man didn't stop the whole night. Don't think he had anything remarkable to say otherwise.

Who knew "Sanctuary City" was even a concept? I gotta say that immigration is a total non-starter for me. It doesn't grab my attention at all, but the xenophobic, racist GOP base is all over it. Why?

I learned that tax-cuts and flat taxes will make the world a better place. The candidates struck me as responsible because many of them said they would not rule out hiking taxes in the face of national emergencies, like war. Since we're at war with the greatest threat to our existence ever - Islamo-HillaryClinton-fascism - and have cut taxes, that means we're in the clear! Tax cuts and responsibility for everyone!!!

Roe v. Wade has just gotta go. Just gotta. Now. Just go.

The environment....

...

...

Mars, bitches! MARS!!!!!!

Loving the War

Means never having to say you were wrong:

Way back at the beginning, McCain was a charter member of the “Iraqi-people-will-greet-us-as-liberators” club. Then he made his first trip to the war zone in August of 2003, and came back very worried about the way things were going. “If we do not meaningfully improve services and security in Iraq over the next few months, it may be too late,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. And after that deadline passed with no plans for sending additional troops, he simply kept grumbling on Sunday morning talk shows and making speeches to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Now McCain sees this conflict as a potential “fight for survival,” and at minimum, the only thing standing between the Middle East and “catastrophic consequences and genocide.” If he realized the war was being run so badly, you would really expect a level of dissent somewhat higher than you hear when the issue is, say, inadequate funding for the No Child Left Behind Act. You would figure that McCain would be delivering a passionate speech every single day. Offering amendments that threaten to withdraw funding unless more troops are added. Staging hunger strikes in front of the Washington Monument.

Instead, he helped George Bush get re-elected. Introducing the president to a crowd of soldiers in Fort Lewis, Wash., in 2004, McCain reminded the audience that we were in a fight between good and evil. He warned them that if the terrorists got hold of weapons of mass destruction we would all be toast. As far as how things were going, he said: “Like all wars, this one has had its ups and downs.”

That's all it comes down to. Big, manly Republicans with little, baby egos. They can't admit they got the big one wrong and spin rationalization after fabrication to avoid living up to reality. It's true, admitting you got something as important as this so colossally wrong would destroy your credibility forever, but it's the right thing to do. Instead, our leaders are either willfully ignorant or too insecure to say they were wrong. Their collective fragile psyche is holding Iraq and our troops hostage. When a Republican opposes withdrawal, it's because he's afraid for himself.

Trust Us

What Digby said.

Stevens' Home Searched

It feels like the entire Alaska GOP is involved in one form of corruption scandal or another.

Federal agents searched the Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens in a widening investigation of alleged public corruption in Congress and the Alaska state legislature.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Mr. Stevens accepted bribes or unreported gifts from oilfield-engineering firm VECO Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Another Alaska Republican, Rep. Don Young, is under criminal investigation in the same case, the Journal reported.

In the raid last night, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service
agents searched the senator's home near Anchorage, an FBI spokesman said. Mr. Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican, is a former chairman of the Appropriations Committee and has long been a powerbroker in Congress and the Republican party.

When your sole purpose of having power is to further that power - the Republican raison d'etre - this is what you get.

Republican Obstructionism

Children's healthcare-style.

Shorter Republican Party

What Digby said:

Their only purpose in government is to steal from the taxpayers, help their rich friends, cover up their leaders' crimes and destroy Democrats. That's it. That's all they do.

Indeed.

Fantasy-Based

Republicans:

"The Republicans who were most in support of the war continue to believe that weapons of mass destruction have been found and al-Qaeda was in Iraq and Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were in cahoots. They reduce their dissonance by rejecting evidence they were wrong."

Remember how we are still winning the war?

Bush Republicans

Edwards:

"If Mayor Giuliani believes that what President Bush has done is good, and wants
to embrace it and run a campaign for the Presidency saying, 'I will give you
four more years of what this president has given you,' then he’s allowed to do
that. He’ll never be elected President of the United States, but he’s allowed to
do that."

The Republican party - and all Republicans in it - is the party of Bush. Let's not forget it.

Corrupt Republican of the Day

Teresa Shaw - Federal Financial Aid COO.

Lizard Brains

Never admit you were wrong, never admit defeat, never let go of power and never stop trying to get more.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has hired a high-profile lawyer who hopes to
present to a special bank committee Wolfowitz's case that he was not unethical
in directing a promotion for his girlfriend.

...

He said Wolfowitz would not resign and said he had not been hired to negotiate a
termination agreement for the embattled bank president, the former U.S. deputy
defense secretary and architect of the invasion of Iraq.

Talk about a pattern.

(Reuters)

Joe Lieberman (R-CT)

Sleazebag.

But new data show the extent of the help he got from big GOP donors in the last
weeks of his 2006 campaign, as they poured more than $1.5 million into his final
pre-election push - with subtle but unmistakable help from the White House.
The information was compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive
Politics. Its data are the first detailed look at the sources and amounts of GOP
money that went into the Lieberman campaign.

Not that this is news to anyone who followed the CT-Sen race. Shame on all the establishment Democrats who did not lift a finger to help Ned Lamont beat this sorry hack out of office.

Empathy

What Digby said.

No, seriously. It is something that I have thought for a long time, but never articulated as eloquently as Digby did. People who do not have empathy for others, even those they have never met, are psychopaths and should be treated as such, even if they occupy the highest echelons of power.