Looks to me like there’s a sanity streak breaking out amongst some Republicans.
$47,621.14 raised
$51,174.85 spent
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$27,319.20 cash on hand…
I’ve got nothing against the Tea Party folks. I agree with probably 90% of what they stand for. But being angry at Democrats and some Republicans and showing up at a rally every twenty years or so is not enough….
Beware the siren song of the teabag. In the heat of the moment, passion rushing through you like Sophia Loren’s probing tongue, it seems like a good idea, but you won’t respect yourself in the morning!
In 2000, when he dropped out of the Presidential race, GOP Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich called W. Bush his “soul brother.”
In a June 26, 2009 CNN story on the Bush years (featured on Kasich’s campaign website), Kasich said:
“The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master,” he said. “I mean I am here to try to bring prosperity back to this state, to make sure families are better off. I’m not here to carry anyone’s banner.”
…
“They [The Bush Administration] stopped solving problems,” said Kasich, who after his House tenure worked on Wall Street and as a cable TV political commentator and host. “Whenever you don’t have any ideas and are afraid to put things forward, you are going to lose energy. That’s what happened to the GOP and frankly I’m as mad as anybody in this country about what they did in the last 10 years, or since 2001.”
Today, in the Dispatch:“Jeb Bush in Ohio for Kasich”
Since Barack Obama was elected president, the opportunity to seize national security credibility from Republicans for the long term has been there for the taking, and awaiting only a few things. Capture or death of Osama Bin Laden is the big prize, of course. But the inevitable attempted terrorist attack on Barack Obama’s watch, and the Republican response to it, offers the same opportunity.
The Christmas Day attack has given Barack the best of all worlds. Thank God, the attack failed, hilariously. Just as hilarious has been the utterly predictable Republican attack in response, whose main effect is to place a hard microscope on the Bush administration’s failings under similar circumstances. That hard look, to date, has never survived a media environment skewed toward Republican war mongering. That environment is gone, but Republicans attack as if it were still there. Republicans imagine that Americans like partisan sniping during, before, and after a national security crisis. That is a grave miscalculation. Thank you, GOP.
Under this new microscope, the specifics of this attack point to a long term failure of the Bush administration to button down even the most minimal level of governmental coordination demanded by 9/11, the 9/11 commission report, and much else. Such a systemic level of miscommunication, when warning flags are evident, is the exact same failure that led to 9/11. There is almost no substantive difference.
Republicans will try to blame the Obama White House, but what will follow is deep congressional investigation into the systems that the Bush administration left behind, systems that should certainly have been strong enough to prevent this attack no matter who was president. Those investigations will be done by a Congress that is no longer oriented toward long term military commitment in foreign lands, but oriented instead toward making sure this failure never happens again.
In other words, governing is about to ensue.
The Republican Congress under George W. Bush was simply not interested in governing, on any issue, particularly the weeds of internal US security. They were interested in neo-conservativism, proving their ideology even as it failed spectacularly before their eyes, cementing their majority through fear, and endless partisanship designed to perpetuate a perception within the electorate that Democrats can’t protect the country. That same perception is now about to haunt Republicans, particularly if (big if) Democrats in Congress take the lessons to heart which the Republican Congress refused to even acknowledge.
I’m quite certain this is an opportunity Barack Obama will take full advantage of.
This is what it means to be a modern day Republican. Obfuscate to the point where a late night (early morning) vote is necessary and then pray that those who might vote for health care reform cannot make the vote. They prayed for rain on Obama’s nomination acceptance speech. Now they pray that the ill are either too sick to make it or die before they are able to?
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon — nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation’s passage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight,” he said. “That’s what they ought to pray.”
Just fucking sick.
Coburn surely knew that Robert Byrd is in frail condition and had to be brought in by wheelchair. He made it, of course, and was heard giving the Republicans who forced such a late vote a “shame…shame” upon entering the chamber to cast his vote.
0-2 on the rain prayers. Apparently God doesn’t like Republicans or wingnut asshats.
Mike McIntyre of the PD has himself one of the finest emails of all time – a dissertation on the size of Republican Mayor Dave Bentkowski’s penis – written by Dave Bentkowski, Republican mayor of Seven Hills – about his own penis.
Repeat.
Republican mayor of Cleveland suburb Seven Hills, David Bentkowski, has written a NINE PAGE EMAIL DISSERTATION about the SIZE OF HIS OWN PENIS. One small excerpt.
The commentary started out with people labeling me as a farm animal such as a donkey or a horse.
That is from REPUBLICAN MAYOR DAVID BENTKOWSKI’s NINE PAGE DIATRIBE regarding the SIZE OF HIS OWN PENIS.
Forget the GOP Senate primary. If you’re looking for evidence of Tea Bagger rebellion in the GOP in Ohio, look at the potentially GOP primaries for the Secretary of State’s race (Former House Speaker/Man of Many Residences Jon Husted v. County Treasurer/Social Conservative gladfly Sandy O’Brien) and the Attorney General’s race (Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine v. Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost.)
Last night, the Yost campaign announced it was endorsed over DeWine by the Butler County Republican Party. If you’re not familiar with Ohio GOP geopolitics, let me explain it to you this way. Think about your last county party dinner and who your county party got as its featured speaker. Maybe you got the Governor or a statewide.
Well, the Butler County GOP has regularly gotten people like the late Tony Snow or Karl Rove. This is Boehner-land, after all. The Ohio GOP held its state party dinner in nearby Warren County this year.
In order to get any endorsement, you had to get a supermajority, at least 60% of the county’s central committeepersons. Yost got 68%…. over a former U.S. Senator.
DeWine has run, a, well, unusual campaign for someone with his political resume. His campaign website hasn’t been updated at all since his announcement speech. He was not a featured speaker at the Ohio GOP’s state dinner. He’s seemed to be virtually nonexistent on the campaign trail ( I can find little evidence through local media of him actually campaigning.)
You have to wonder if DeWine is either extremely confident to the point of being complacent (Yost’s press release actually touted a poll showing DeWine still polling at 58% among registered Republican voters in a primary matchup with Yost) or simply disinterested.
Regardless, the Butler County GOP endorsement means than DeWine is facing a credible rebellion on his right flank smack dab in the middle of the Ohio GOP’s geopolitical base.
[UPDATE:] In what can only be described as a dumb political move, the DeWine campaign later this afternoon actually gave credence to Yost’s spin that this endorse is significant by issuing a statement that was picked up by the Hamilton Pulse Journal:
“We are confident that Republican voters in Ohio will nominate Mike DeWine to be their Attorney General candidate. In poll after poll, Mike DeWine is the only candidate who can beat Richard Cordray. DeWine is known across the state by an overwhelming 93% of voters. As a former county prosecutor, he has the vision and experience to clean up corruption, fix the state crime lab, and make sure our state does everything possible to promote economic growth and job creation.”
I don’t think this response helps DeWine’s cause at all when all they say is that he can defeat Richard Corday because 93% of voters have heard of him.
I wanted to do a quick snap poll of Ohio’s “thoughtful center-right bloggers”. How many of you are birthers and how many of you are conservatives? Or both?
Just wondering. Please feel free to comment (even those of you previously banned). This is a very serious inquiry into the current psyche of the Ohio wingnut blogger base.
Thank you,
Plunderbund
PS – If you answer birther, or think there is any hint of a doubt in your mind about possibly being a birther, Bill Pascoe wants you to stop!
Best line hands down: “Is that as fast as you can go?”. Said to Congressman running away from questioner. LMAO
I love watching these GOPers do the duck and cover from their wingnut base. It’s so fun and entertaining. In case you missed the best comment ever about the birther phenomenon, check it out. All your base are belong to you. So great!
If there was any self awareness among those on the right they’d be rightly embarrassed by the state of their so-called leadership. That’s a big if. The lack of self awareness is fairly well documented. The entire wingnut base is either afraid to look in the mirror or damned proud of their insipid emptiness.
The first dose of this vapid wasteland of ideas came in the form of a Governor from Alaska who had a sly little wink and a folksy manner that endeared her to masses of American zombies who were lobotomized by years of listening to a soulless talker with a golden mic. They showed up in droves like lemmings to a cliff, willing to spew hatred and vitriol in the names of their masters.
The next chapter came in the form of a non-plumber from Ohio who questioned Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential Campaign under false pretenses. He became a hero that the lemmings followed as well, eating up his wingnut guano like young nested birds. Mouths open wide and necks stretched to get their share of the shit he was feeding them.
Limbaugh. Palin. Wurzelbacher. They’re all a bunch of cheap whores riding their 15 minutes of fame like cheap mules. Beating those bastards into as much fame and money as the creature celebrity will bear.
Limbaugh has done it for years and has racked up far more than his 15 minutes.
Joe the Plumber went from random dude to book deal at a breathtaking clip, never mind his working class credentials that should have called him back to the fold as a hard working, greasy fingered, blue collared working class plumber. No, Joe would rather jet around book stores talking about hard work rather than doing it. He’d rather sell you a book about “being a regular guy” than actually being one. He’s a cheap whore riding a cheap mule.
So now Sarah Palin quits a job where she can actually have some kind of impact to do what? Run for President in 2012? The idea seems unlikely given Americans tend to prefer those who fulfill their elected commitments as a condition of their obtaining higher office. Quitting is uniquely un-American. Don’t think I wouldn’t love her making a run, but I think it much more likely we’ll see her as a regular on Fox and Friends.
The story becomes a bit more clear today and confirms suspicions of many – Palin quit to cash in. She missed her target of VP and wants to at least gain something out of if before the flame begins to fade. Levi Johnston, once a part of the Sarah Palin Wingnut Sideshow Circus, dishes:
Johnston says he lived with the Palin family from early December to the second week in January. He claims he heard the governor several times say how nice it would be to take advantage of the lucrative deals that were being offered, including a reality show and a book.
So for all the rhetoric and hand-wringing, for all the folksy cuteness and engineered sloganism, in the end Sarah Palin is yet another in a long line of cheap whores on cheap mules.
I read this post by Jason Linkins at HuffPo earlier today and meant to post and comment on it. I was reminded of it by ModernEsquire, who links to a previous PB post and – as usual – does a thorough dismantling of his target. in this case, our beloved Bizzy Blogger Tom Blumer.
Modern does as good a job as Linkins in bringing up the DHS report angle. Worth a read:
When militia commanders start calling someone a “fanatic” about abortion, the debate is over, Bizzy!
Why can’t he just admit that he was wrong and the DHS was right? How many security measures were quashed because the politicization of this intelligence summary which, sadly, has been proven deadly accurate?
The takeaway? Now that the DHS report – which raised concerns about home grown terrorism in the form of right-wing extremists – has been proven to be absolutely spot on, will the right admit they were wrong to blow a gasket over it?
In the rear window of the 1993 blue Ford Taurus that he was driving was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of his car was a Christian fish symbol with the word “Jesus” inside… Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said. “Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds,” she said. “Then he (Roeder) said, ‘I’ve seen you now.’ Then he turned his back and walked away, and they were scared to death. On the way out, he gave me a great big hug and he said, ‘I’ve seen you in the newspaper. I just love what you’re doing.’”
Nothing to see here. Lone gunman. Please move on. Amen.
_ May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.
_ April 2007: Authorities say Paul Ross Evans placed a homemade bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women’s Health Center in Texas. A bomb squad disposes of the device, which contained two pounds of nails. There are no injuries.
_ Oct. 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian is fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. Militant abortion opponent James Kopp is convicted of the murder in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
_ Jan. 29, 1998: A bomb explodes just outside a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic, killing a police officer and wounding several others. Eric Rudolph later pleads guilty to that incident and the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He justifies the Alabama bombing in an essay from prison, writing that Jesus would condone “militant action in defense of the innocent.”
_ Jan. 16, 1997: Two bomb blasts an hour apart rock an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic. Seven people are injured. Rudolph is charged by federal authorities in October 1998.
_ Dec. 30, 1994: John Salvi opens fire with a rifle inside two Boston-area abortion clinics, killing two receptionists and wounding five others. Sentenced to life without parole, he kills himself in prison in 1996.
_ Nov. 8, 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis, who performs abortions in Vancouver, Canada, is shot in the leg while eating breakfast at home.
_ July 29, 1994: Dr. John Bayard Britton and his volunteer escort, James H. Barrett, are slain outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic. Barrett’s wife, June, is wounded in the attack. Paul J. Hill, 40, a former minister and anti-abortion activist, is later convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
_ Aug. 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller is shot in the arms as he drives out of parking lot at his Wichita, Kan., clinic. Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon is later convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
_ March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn is shot to death outside Pensacola, Fla., clinic, becoming the first U.S. doctor killed during an anti-abortion demonstration. Michael Griffin is convicted and serving a life sentence.
Can someone point me to the center-right sensible conservatives among the Ohio blogosphere? Need I document the wingnuttery that instead exists? I think not. Pure Orwellian joy. LMAO.
AP — U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil…
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