REPUBLICANS FLIP, REPUBLICANS FLOP-- RUDY, MITT, BARRASSO, HAROLD FORD

Fox faux Democrat Harold Ford, doesn't qualify as a Republican per se-- although he has always voted like one and his stands on all the important issues of the same are the same as Bush's-- but as Chair of the DLC he's pretty much owned by the same interests that own the GOP. DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas made mincemeat out of a defensive but pathetically exposed Ford on Meet the Press yesterday. Poor Ford is not used to rejection and he was just getting over the fact that he was virtually the only high profile Democrat to lose a Senate race in 2006 when Markos treated his bogus charm offensive with the scorn it merited. Forlorn and depressed over his public humiliation, Ford's press shop is trying to blame his miserable performance on his drunken escapade a few nights before at NYC's most expensive-- and fanciest-- sushi restaurant. Three blondes! Oh my-- but not really and truly a flip flop for Harold, who is a well-known serial philanderer. The flip flop is his claim that he wants to make nice with the grassroots Democrats the DLC has always betrayed and demonized. Not likely to work while he leads a campaign to undermine the Democratic incumbent, Steve Cohen, who won Ford's old House seat in Memphis. It's especially repulsive to real Democrats since the Ford Machine is trying to play on Cohen's support of the Hate Crimes Bill (which all Democrats-- with the exception of the 14 worst reactionary bigots in Congress-- voted for). Ford's allies are pushing a shill, Nikki Tinker, on a platform of reactionary policies and homophobia.

As for the more traditional Republicans, the newly appointed Wyoming Senator, John Barrasso, long rumored to be more than a little light in the loafers, did the ultimate flip flop as he prepares to run for the seat he now holds by appointment: he's announced his engagement... to a woman. That's special-- and it seems to have worked for Congressman McCrery (R-LA).

And speaking of gay Republicans, I mentioned earlier that their hero, Rudy Giuliani, has pulled the rug out from under them. Today's Boston Globe is reporting that Mr. Civil Unions is now in favor of a "much more modest set of rights for gay partners than civil union laws," including the ones he's always favored. Must be getting close to the South Carolina primary. Giuliani also claims he "misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at Ground Zero" than 9/11 workers. The 9/11 workers didn't appreciate that-- which is why he decided he misspoke. And speaking of misspokes and flip flops, you can't do a story on flip floppin' Republicans without looking into Flip Flop Mitt's latest flip flops.

Yesterday on friendly territory (Fox News Sunday) Romney said he too misspoke. Remember that mornonic remark he made about his sons' doing their duty for America by working for their dad's campaign? And how he equating driving around a $50,000 RV is the wilds of Iowa was roughly equivalent to driving a tank in Al Anbar province? Oops. First he tried the "out of context" defense. But the video showing the context only made it worse-- much worse-- so he switched to the "misspoke" defense. Do you think Fox let him get away with it?