2013 in Review -- A Prayer to the Janitor of Lunacy,* Part 4: A great anniversary approaches!

Plus more "Quote of the Year" nominees

[*TO MEET THE JANITOR OF LUNACY, SEE PART 1]



by Noah

One of the greatest anniversaries in our nation’s history will happen this year. Forty years ago, on August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned! It was either that or certain removal from office via impeachment, and it was bipartisan. That’s how bad it was. If Nixon wanted to retire with a pension and perks, it was the only way.

The anti-semitism. The racism. The criminality, the paranoia, and the screaming down the halls of the White House. Psychosis. "I am not a crook." Yes you were, Richard, and worse. What a horrific human being! We can be thankful that he is gone, and we can be very thankful that he wasn't the president during the Cuban missile crisis or we wouldn't be here at all.



True story: One day, back in the early '80s, I went to the Fifth Avenue Doubleday record dept. here in NYC. It was on the second-floor mezzanine. When I got there, I immediately saw Tricky Dick at the counter with his daughter and son-in-law Julie and David Eisenhower. No one else was in the department except two very large bodyguards, who always managed to place themselves between me and His Evilness (I discreetly played with that one a bit). Here's the kicker: Nixon was buying blank tape! Tape! The very thing that had sunk him!

There was just one employee, a young kid who was nervous as hell. The kid was so nervous that he dropped all the boxes of cassettes all over the place. Nixon, in an unexpected (by me, at least) display of humanity, said in his distinctive voice, "Ah, that's all right, young man." I will say that other than the irony of Nixon buying tape, I was struck by the fact that he was very charismatic, but then, many psychotic bigots and war criminals are. They always said that Zodiac and Ted Bundy were very charming, and that Adolf dude could sure give a speech!

But there he was, wearing an expensive royal blue overcoat. I wanted to scream, but I knew I’d be thrown over the balcony or something. So all I did was mutter “war criminal” within earshot of one of the bodyguards as I walked out of the store. My desire to purchase anything was gone.

I had seen the man, in person, who, in an act of treason, sabotaged the 1968 Paris peace talks that President Lyndon Johnson was working on to end the Vietnam War. LBJ’s tapes reveal that he knew of the treason that would lead to tens of thousands of addtional American casualties, but he and his VP, Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic Party’s 1968 presidential nominee, did nothing. They didn’t want to expose some wire-tapping. Humphrey thought he was going to win anyway, and LBJ was also thinking that America couldn’t handle the knowledge that a presidential candidate was guilty of treason. LBJ was wrong, just as he had been wrong about our ability to deal with the truth of JFK’s murder.

Sleazy cover-up artist Gerald Ford

Not only had the Paris peace talks been wrecked, Nixon -- who said he had a “secret plan” to end the war -- was elected president. Eventually he got some of what was coming to him, but so many got so much that they didn’t deserve. A sleazy cover-up artist named Gerald Ford was handed the presidency, and he in turn pardoned Nixon of any and all crimes, famously saying that no one wants to see the former president in jail. Really?

So many families were destroyed, all because one lunatic had to be president at any cost. I spit on your grave, Dick Nixon.

There’s huge irony to be seen as we look back on the Nixon presidency. The irony lies in the fact that he was a Republican and there is no way he would ever be able to be in today’s Republican Party. Here’s why:

1. Nixon improved Social Security benefits. He increased some taxes on the wealthy, and he also championed finding a way to guarantee a minimum income.

2. Nixon supported a Clean Air Act and affirmative action.

3. Nixon created the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency.

4. Nixon created OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

5. Nixon’s top economic advisor, Herb Stein, is on record as saying, “Probably more new regulation was imposed on the economy during the Nixon Administration than in any other presidency since the New Deal.”

The man had well-documented issues. The tapes and the eyewitness accounts don’t lie, but if not for the complete evil of the treason for which he should have been hanged, or at least jailed, Nixon would be considered a socialist by the lunatics that inhabit the Republican Party today -- not just a liberal, a raving socialist. They would treat him much like they treat President Obama today. That’s a measure of how sociopathic and psychopathic today’s Republicans are. Obama and the Conservadems? They would fit in fine in the Republican Party of the early 1970s. The Janitor of Lunacy is in full force.


Note the blue-penned time and initials from the witness, the bouncing-off-the-walls Nixon's companion of his final days in office, Henry Kissinger.


NEED MORE EVIDENCE OF THE INGRAINED
LUNACY OF REPUBLICANS? HERE ARE SOME
MORE "QUOTE OF THE YEAR" NOMINEES

1. Judge Edith Jones, U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals, Reagan appointee

Sigh, where do the Republicans keep coming up with these troglodytes? Well, in this case, while Judge Jones may “serve” in Louisiana, she’s from the ultimate loonyland, Texas!


“[C]ertain racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime and prone to commit acts of violence.”

And: “Some groups seem to commit more heinous crimes than others.”

Really? Really? If I didn’t know that she had already made it clear that she was talking about African-Americans and Hispanics, I might have thought she was talking about 20th-century Germans, Nixon’s napalm, Stalin’s Russia, 16th-century Spaniards pouring molten gold down the throats of Incans -- or Texans aiming their trucks at Mexicans on their highways, for that matter. Who or what brought this cretin up? And what kind of people invite such a person to speak? This is a judge -- on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, no less? This horror show of a throwback to the Civil War, a Reagan appointee, was even on the short list for promotion to the Supreme Court under both Bushes. Well, no surprise there, is there?

She said this in a talk before the Federalist Society at U. Penn’s law school. I guess she felt comfy as she gazed out into an audience of sheet-wearing Republican morons. What’s next? “Why, I hear them darkies loves pig's feet and fried chicken. And they love our prisons, for the free meals and other free stuff”?

Really, where do they get these people? I guess Judge Judy wouldn’t take the job.

A couple of hundred years ago, people in Europe thought you could tell a person’s criminal proclivities by measuring the size and shape of their skulls. In Republican World, it is still a couple of hundred years ago.


2. John “Where’s My” Boehner, to CBS’s Bob Schieffer


“Well, Bob, we should not be judges on how many laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal."

Rrrriiiight, John-boy. Damn all them laws and regulations. They just get in the way of Republican free expression. Now those folks in Florida, they’ve got it right. See a black kid in a hoodie? Blast him! Voting rights? Hah, who needs ‘em? No one important anyway! Employee pensions? Follow the lead of Michigan’s Governor Snyder: Declare the cities bankrupt and steal the workers' pensions and give that money to the corporations! We don’t need no stinking laws. Do the same with Social Security! Obamacare? Why do we want those people to live anyway? They don’t vote for us.

I wonder why.


3. $en. John Cornyn, $enate Republican whip

From a bizarre place called Texas (which translates loosely from the Mexican as “Land of Los Locos”), comes yet another apparently peyote-button-induced word jumble from the $enator. Cornyn seeks to prove that, while Texas has given us straitjacket candidates like Rick “1-2-?” Perry, Louie “The Bestiality Guy” Gohmert, Canadian-born Rafael “Ted” Cruz, and Steve Stockman, the guy who thinks Cornyn is a liberal, nobody does wackobird better than he, his sun-baked self.

Heeeere’s Johnny as he follows the Fox lead in resurrecting ACORN in another deep-digging desperation attempt to destroy Obamacare, orchestrate more deaths by cancer, increase the infant mortality rate, and do all the other fine things on the Big Republican Wish List. They’ve tried everything else except claiming that Obamacare caused Fukushima.


“We’ve already heard some anecdotal reports about Obamacare navigators, including a woman who had an outstanding arrest warrant at the time she was hired, along with former members of an organization known as ACORN . . . . ”
   
Maybe Obama hired that “Cadillac-driving welfare queen” from the mind of Ronnie Reagan too! “Anecdotal reports”? Some guy who knows some guy who knows some guy who got the real story from the Bigfoot family that live in the treehouse in his back yard. Hey, Cornyn, you want true crime? Take a look around you on the $enate floor. While you’re at it, the House of Representatives is just down the hall. You can find someone with a legal problem in any group of size.

You know it’s bad when people reference something they got from Fox “News” as if it were actually factual. Consider the source. We already know what righties think of “community organizers.” They buried three of them in an earthen dam in Mississippi back in 1964.
   

4. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) and Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI)

I started this post with Dick Nixon so why not end on an impeachment theme too? I’m putting these two together because they’re really just two cheeks of a horse’s ass.

Notice that we have yet another twit from Texas. We'll let him go first.


“If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it.”

I’m sure Boehner would drink to that, but wouldn’t Ol’ Cheez Doodle Face drink to just about anything?

Now, the guy from Nugentland gets his say. Ain’t free speech grand?


“If I could write that bill and submit it, it would be a dream come true.”

I have to say that if I were a congressman, writing a bill that would create jobs or alleviate poverty and hunger or give people a shot at health care or help children get an education would be my dream come true. I have to admit that I’d also be tempted to write a bill that would send cretins like these two into space -- to one of the big gas giants like Jupiter, where they would be at home. No need to be cruel about it.

And I’m sorry, I don’t really mean to insult horses. That’s just not fair of me. I should have compared these men to cockroaches, the kind that have imbibed too much insecticide and just race around in circles accomplishing nada. If that isn’t an apt metaphor for the current poison-fueled House of Representatives, I don’t know what is.

Oops, there I go again. Sorry, cockroaches.

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NOAH'S 2013 IN REVIEW --
A PRAYER TO THE JANITOR OF LUNACY*

Part 1: Take a bow, Repugs! (*including Nico's "Janitor of Lunacy") [Monday]

Part 2: Remember when Reagan cut funds for insane asylums? (Storms, guns, bombs, free stuff, and the secret gay life of Obma: Some top Republican lies of 2013) [Tuesday]

Part 3: No Cruz control (Rafael "Ted" Cruz in his own words) [Wednesday]

Part 4: A great anniversary approaches! (Nixon's resignation) (plus more "Quote of the Year nominees") [Thursday]

Part 5: Everyone's a critic, including me -- Some people really try my patience (Bill-O, Howie Kurtz, E. W. Jackson, et al.) [Friday]

Part 6 (and last): In the words of Dan Quayle, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" (Exploiting tragedy for a buck; Miss America's not American?; "Quote of the Year" winner) [Saturday]

And don't forget Noah's recent --
"Need a last-minute Christmas gift suggestion?" [12/22]
"50 Years Ago Today: The Beatles" [12/26]
"A Tale of Two Popes -- the one in the Vatican and the one in North Carolina" [12/27]

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Teabaggers Making Trouble For The GOP Again

Trouble in paradise

What a shame there was no teabagger running for RNC Chair yesterday! Apparently, though, they're all too busy running for everything else. Last year, implausible teabaggers O'Donnell, Buck and Angle cost the GOP Senate pickups in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada. And this year just the threat of a teabaggy primary has sent Kay Bailey Hutchison into a premature retirement, rather than face the same fate meted out by the extremists to mainstream conservative incumbents Bennett (UT), Murkowski (AK) and Castle (DE). Richard Lugar (R-IN), on the other hand, thinks he can kick any teabaggy ass that comes his way. Lugar, after weeks of negotiations with teabaggers demanding he change his mainstream approach on a wide variety of agenda items, says he's expecting a primary challenge in 2012.

"I anticipate that there will be a candidate or candidates running in the Republican primary against me," Lugar said on an episode of Bloomberg TV's Political Capital to air this weekend. "This is why we have taken a very early campaign stance of vigorous fundraising, vigorous campaigning, anticipating that that kind of a campaign might occur. It's not one that I welcome, but nevertheless, this is a democracy... People are free to express views that they want to," the Indiana Republican said. "But likewise, I'm free to as vigorously as possible point out the things that I think are very important for our country."

Lugar knows he has too much clout inside the Senate for King Teabagger, Jim DeMint to fuck around with his race. DeMint picks on girls but he wouldn't dare lift a finger against Lugar. In fact, yesterday when he came barreling into the Texas Republican primary against Establishment favorite, Lt. Gov. Dave Dewhurst-- and on behalf of extremist teatards Michael Williams and Ted Cruz-- Texas' other senator-- and purported NRSC Chair-- John Cornyn, who has pledged neutrality in the race, swatted him down.

"Is that guy from Texas?" Cornyn said, after asked about DeMint's involvement.

"I'm certainly not going to weigh in or try to steer anybody in any particular direction. That's what the primary campaign is for," Cornyn added. "I just don't think these kinds of endorsements have that big of an impact. People want to jealously guard their prerogative to cast their vote, especially people who are living in that state. They don't want to delegate that authority or responsibility to someone else."

And in Virginia, where Republicans are hoping to score against the kind of conservative, uninspiring Democrat who did do badly in November, the Tea Party just threw a spanner in the works of a GOP Establishment that has already decided on ex-Senator and good old boy George Allen. Jamie Radtke, chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation filed to run for the Republican nomination for Jim Webb's seat on December 23.

She had considered running for state Senate but switched to U.S. Senate after Virginia's first tea party convention, which drew an estimated 2,800 people to Richmond in October. She said she worries that her children will suffer from a ballooning national debt and criticized Congress for its recent deal on President Bush's tax cuts.

"I am the mother of three young children, and my first priority is both to protect them today and protect their future,'' she said in a statement. "I truly worry about what the next five years holds for our children and the nation, given this climate of reckless and immoral spending. Someone must step into the gap so that our children and America are not crushed in the coming years under the weight of insurmountable debt and debilitating taxes."

There are at least 3 other Virginia teabaggers looking to jump into the race. And why not-- the more the merrier. After all, how much damage can a crazed teabagger actually do? Oh, yeah... that guy in Maine... "Maine's governor told critics Friday to 'kiss my butt' over his decision not to attend the state NAACP's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations over the holiday weekend. Gov. Paul LePage declined the organization's invitations to a dinner in Portland on Sunday night and a breakfast in Orono on Monday because of prior commitments." I got this statement from Mary Erin Casale, Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party:

"Monday is a day for both the celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the tireless movement for equality and understanding that he helped foster. Through non-violent action, peaceful assembly and soaring rhetoric, Dr. King helped show all Americans a better way forward and reminded our nation that all are created equal.
 
"The Maine Democratic Party holds the principles and vision of Dr. King as an integral part of our core values. While we remain imperfect, we have come a long way since Dr. King's speech nearly a half century ago. On this day we certainly reflect on our progress, we also look forward to bettering ourselves and our nation and to upholding the values Dr. King spoke of when he addressed a nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The continued struggle for economic justice and equal opportunity for all. 
 
"We find it unfortunate that Governor LePage dismissed one of the oldest civil rights organizations, the NAACP, as a 'special interest group' in advance of this holiday. Equality is not a special interest and we hope he can find a way find a way to use more respectful language in the future."

Cornyn Better Watch His Back-- DeMint's Got A Million Prayers He Can Turn Loose On Him

In 2002 Texas Senator Phil Gramm, having accomplished all the banksters had asked him to do, decided that rather than run for the Senate again he could make a lot more money as a bank lobbyist. So John Cornyn ran for the open seat and won. (Gramm sucked up $5,513,718 in contributions" from the finance sector and so far Cornyn, in a much shorter time, has taken in $4,690,892 from the same crooked banksters.) Gramm was the third biggest recipient of legalistic oil company bribes in the history of Congress-- after John McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Cornyn is 4th but is expected to overtake Gramm's record early next year and surpass Kay Bailey and McCain long before his next reelection bid in 2014.

He was just reelected to head the NRSC, the corrupt committee charged with winning Senate seats for Republicans. And this week, in closed door caucus session, he went after Jim DeMint, who is widely blamed for having kept the GOP from winning control of the Senate by helping torpedo mainstream conservative Republicans in favor of reactionary and-- more to the point-- unelectable sociopaths like Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell. DeMint doesn't get the kind of corporate bribes that Cornyn does. Big Oil has only given him $231,939 and the finance sector a mere $2,612,173. But if "Big John" Cornyn were to piss off DeMint badly enough, DeMint could make his reelection propsects a lot less bright. DeMint has a different kind of non-traditional power inside the GOP.

DeMint did not respond to Cornyn’s comments, the Republicans said. However, the two lawmakers have had several conversations since Election Day, GOP aides familiar with the situation said.

NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh declined to comment, but according to Republicans, Cornyn delivered his warning in a speech to the entire Conference during their leadership elections. In the speech, Cornyn noted that some members of the Conference were unhappy with the conservative credentials of Cornyn’s picks and opted to actively work against them during the 2010 cycle.

Rather than attack candidates who have been backed explicitly by the NRSC or by a state’s party, Cornyn said, unhappy Members should come to him with their concerns.

Cornyn’s speech and his post-election meetings with DeMint are unlikely to curb the South Carolinian’s efforts to forge a more conservative GOP Conference in the Senate. Although he did not have the kinds of successes this year that would warrant the title of conservative kingmaker, he nevertheless was a key player in the victories of Sens. elect Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rand Paul (Ky.).

His Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee also helped funnel thousands of dollars to conservative [when Inside-the-Beltway publications like Roll Call say "conservative," they actually mean "reactionary" or "fascist;" conservatives are called "moderates"] candidates, and DeMint has built over the past two years a significant donor list to help fund future campaign efforts.

Additionally, there have been long-standing rumors that those close to DeMint actively worked behind the scenes to help Republican Mike Lee in his successful primary bid against Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah), although DeMint has repeatedly denied those claims. Lee went on to win the general election.

While DeMint is still expected to actively support conservative candidates in primaries for open seats or seats held by Democrats, he said Thursday that he has agreed not to “plan” to support primary challengers looking to oust any of his colleagues.

“I have no plans to oppose incumbent Republicans in primaries, but I do plan to play an active role in primaries where there is a Democrat incumbent or an open seat. It’s important that principled candidates like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are not overlooked by our party,” DeMint said.

Cornyn and McConnell had not just backed mainstream conservatives Charlie Crist and Trey Grayson for those two seats, they had recruited and helped finance them. DeMint's interference in those races-- as well as in Utah-- have weakened the Establishment conservatives and strengthened the reactionary-- or even neo-fascist-- forces inside the GOP caucus. Although Rubio is likely to revert to his Establishment roots-- many say the teabag thing was just a pose-- Mike Lee and Rand Paul are out-of-control kooks on a level with some of the more outrageous and dangerous Republicans elected in the House-- from Daniel Webster, Allen West, Sandy Adams and Steve Southerland (the 4 fringe lunatics elected in Florida) to anti-gay zealot Vicky Hartzler (who replaced less of a zealot but still effectively plenty anti-gay incumbent Ike Skelton), obsessed racist Lou Barletta, all around teabag crackpot Alan Nunnelee, and Karl Rove protégé Tim Griffin. And DeMint has plenty of fringy allies if he really decides to take Cornyn (or McConnell) down a peg:

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, issued the following statement regarding a declaration in support of Senator Jim DeMint signed by 56 Tea Party and conservative leaders that was sent to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, National Republican Senatorial Committee John Cornyn, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele:

"As recently as two days ago, a bitter Lisa Murkowski joined the ranks of GOP establishment whiners who wrongly claim Senator Jim DeMint's support for constitutional conservatives somehow cost Republicans a majority in the Senate.

"Members of the GOP establishment tried to undermine Ronald Reagan in the '60s and '70s, but failed. They will fail in their efforts to undermine Senator DeMint, and the consequences will be far-reaching to the party committees.

"Conservative leaders want it made clear that they consider any attack on Senator Jim DeMint as an attack on conservatives and Tea Partiers.

"Constitutional conservatives stand behind Senator Jim DeMint, who, more than any elected Republican official, is responsible for energizing the conservative base and keeping the Tea Partiers in, or moving them to, the GOP."

On top of that the American Taliban, led by hatemonger Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, is asking religious fanatics to pray for DeMint. "When the establishment failed to energize the base with its moderate platform, Senator DeMint became a crusader for principled conservatism that reached beyond the GOP,” Perkins said. “We want the men and women from both parties to know that an attack on Senator DeMint is an attack on all conservatives and people of faith. He says hee'll have a million of his followers "pray on a regular basis for Senator DeMint.”

Inside the Beltway Fail: Handpicked Candidates Melting Down

I got a funny e-mail yesterday-- unintentionally funny-- from a friend who works at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The subject line had a glaring typo: "DSCC Fail: Handpicked candidates melting down  coast-to-coast." I couldn't imagine what snark it could be and hurried to open it. I mean, where they about to announce they had made a grievous error in recruiting Cal Cunningham and then pushing his candidacy against the far more popular Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall? Menendez? That would be a first. Or maybe they were ready to announce what a terrible mistake they had made in jumping into the Pennsylvania primary on behalf of "ex"-Republican Arlen Specter? Not likely. Really not likely!

That's when I realized it was a typo and he meant to push out a story about the other anti-grassroots Inside-the-Beltway shitheads' backing of wrong candidates-- John Cornyn's NRSC. They're the ones picking the candidates their grassroots hate. OK, all true... but it really is about how badly both Beltway party establishments absolutely blow chunks and are, by their very nature, always at odds with real Americans, regardless of ideology.

The TPM post is all about how the NRSC's recruitments of establishment hacks are being rejected by GOP activists in the states-- just the way North Carolina Democrats are telling the DSCC to go back where they come from and take Cal with 'em. By now everyone knows about how Charlie Crist's only chance to win a Senate seat would be to run as a Democrat because unless someone has a picture of Marco Rubio tickling a bunch of teenage boys, he's the Republican nominee. And the chances of Rubio's tickling pictures coming before the public before entire scrapbooks of Crist tickle and snorkel sessions, is pretty unlikely. And Crist isn't the only NRSC endorsee being rejected by teabaggers and Republican voters. Carly Fiorina is a total dud and she'll be lucky if she comes in second in the primary. Dan Coats (IN), Jane Norton (CO), Trey Grayson (KY), Rob Simmons (CT) Sue Lowden (NV), and Kelly Ayotte (NH) are also NRSC picks who are having trouble back in their own states-- not to mention incumbents John McCain (AZ) and Bob Bennett (UT).

And, unlike the Democrats where no one ever stands up to the Stalinist party leaders, the Republicans have an effect anti-Establishment rallying point: South Carolina extremist Jim DeMint (SC). His Senate Conservatives Fund has taken the lead to blatantly challenge Cornyn's candidates in California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania.

"The rules have changed and the political ground has shifted under the feet of the establishment and they are still trying to get their footing," Mike Connolly of the conservative Club for Growth told me in an interview today. The group was backing outsider candidates before it was cool, encouraging contested primaries by running Pat Toomey (R-PA) against Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.
In many cases, DeMint's candidates seem to be prevailing. For example, Rubio has won more than two dozen Florida straw polls over Crist, who is being targeted in part for supporting President Obama's stimulus plan last year.

The current TPM Poll Average of this race shows Rubio with 56.9% and Crist with 28.5%.
Last weekend Colorado Republican Jane Norton-- dubbed the mainstream candidate by conservatives-- lost a straw poll to Ken Buck... Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), a top recruit to run for the seat Sen. Evan Bayh is vacating, came in last in a very small straw poll conducted by a tea party group backing the candidate who prevailed, State Sen. Marlin Stutzman.

The party which best responds to its grassroots is probably the party that will chalk up the most victories in November. And it's something the Republicans are at least talking about. Menendez and his crew of idiots are prepared to preside over a half dozen Martha Coakleys before they ever realize something needs to be addressed. I haven't found conservative Democrats Pat Caddell (yeah, the Fox guy) and Doug Schoen particularly worth paying much attention to over the years, but Thursday they worked on an article together for the Washington Post about how dismal its looking for Democratic prospects in November. Why? Because Democratic insiders think they know what's best and they're ignoring Democratic voters.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November... [T]he battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.

Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats' current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.

Predictably Caddell and Schoen are then off and running about how the public wants whatever Fox tells them to want because, of course, that's exactly what Caddell and Schoen want. But the grain of truth in their self-serving anti-Democratic Party rumbling is that no one does want the crap health care bill-- other than Big Pharma-- Obama and the Senate are pushing through. It has good aspects, but the bill as a whole is too flawed for the Democrat's pathetically dismal message machine to turn it into a winning platform for anyone-- and that includes Democrats outside the Beltway!

Alan Grayson's Public Option bill is gaining tremendous momentum. It might not get any more bipartisan support than Obama's and the Senate's horrendous bill, but at least Democrats and independents will love it. When we first mentioned it, there were 10 co-sponsors. Last I counted there were over 60-- and growing: Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Donna Edwards, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carol Shea-Porter, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia Fudge, Danny Davis, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, Rush Holt, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Tammy Baldwin, Mike Doyle, Diana DeGette, Steve Cohen, Bennie Thompson, Andre Carson, Yvette Clarke, Steve Israel, James Moran, Emanuel Cleaver, Judy Chu, Donald Payne, and John Garamendi.

If you missed Grayson's floor speech when he introduced the bill Tuesday, here it is again. Unlike most of his colleagues, he speaks for ordinary American working families.

Has Palin's Political Career Tanked?

Wisely, Harry Reid, has finally told Max Baucus to stop wasting time watering down health care reform by compromising away benefits for working family to make Medical-Industrial Complex, Insurance CEOs and their Republican shills happy. The sooner they realize that the Republicans are irrelevant, the sooner the country can start making progress for the ordinary American families who have been fleeced and sheared by Big Business with the active connivance of the political establishment over the last few decades.

The hard core base of the GOP, may still be so unhinged from their own best interests to want to place a Know Nothing extremist like Palin into the White House but... they're pretty much alone. Mainstream Republicans-- as well as independents-- were less likely to have voted for McCain because of Palin's presence on the presidential ticket.

A look at other national data reveals that on balance, John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin hurt him more than it helped across most segments of the American electorate. The data also reveals a lesson that is often forgotten among political operatives: voters want more than a candidate who holds certain positions or values; the character, tone, and competency of candidates also matter. Voters can and do distinguish between someone who shares their values and someone who would serve the public well.

...Among white evangelicals, the religious core of the GOP base, three-quarters (75%) agreed that Palin shares their values. But even among this group, only 3-in-10 said her selection made them more likely to support the McCain ticket. In contrast, a majority (54%) of white evangelicals say her selection made no difference for their support for McCain, and an additional 14% say her selection made them less likely to support McCain. But the real evidence against a successful Palin national campaign appears when we look into the electoral middle, at the attitudes of two important swing groups, white Catholics and political independents.

Among white Catholics, Palin was a clear drag on the ticket. White Catholics supported McCain over Obama (52% to 47%), and nearly 6-in-10 (58%) white Catholic voters reported that Sarah Palin shares their values. However, only 16% of white Catholic voters said McCain’s decision to tap Palin made them more likely to vote for him. In contrast, more than 1-in-4 (27%) reported that Palin’s selection made them less likely to support the GOP ticket, and a majority (55%) of white Catholics said it made no difference.

Even 40% of Republicans think her new quitter status has hurt her chances to win the GOP nomination. She's virtually tied with Romney as the most likely Republican for the sacrificial lamb position for the 2012 election. Most Democrats, of course, are praying that Palin's the one. She's accumulated quite a record... of abject lies and serial deceptions.


Above And, Um, Beyond



UPDATE: Do Mainstream Republicans Want Palin Coming In And Campaigning For Them?

It would probably work in the secessionist parts of the Old Confederacy but normal Americans, even mainstream conservatives, aren't that interested in having Palin on the campaign trail with them. New Jersey Republican Chris Christie, who persuaded his party's primary voters that he's a fanatic right-wing lunatic-- and worthy of their votes-- might have wanted Palin to appear with him in some lilly-white suburban shopping malls a few months ago but now-- when he needs independents and moderate voters to win a general election-- he won't get anywhere near Palin. She says part of the reason why she decided to step down as governor of Alaska is to help Republicans win elections in the Lower 48. Christie has sent some not so subtle messages her way suggesting she stay south of the Mason Dixon Line. The head of the state GOP, a slimy political type named Jay Webber, said "We don't have any plans on having her in."

Palin is getting a lukewarm response in Virginia, the other high-profile governor's race this year. Republican candidate Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had conversations with the Palin camp, but stopped short of saying whether he wanted her help.

In an interview with ABCNews.com, McDonnell called Palin a "good spokesman" and said he would welcome anyone who wanted to come to Virginia on his behalf. McDonnell, a former state attorney general, is in a tight race with Democrat Creigh Deeds to succeed outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine, a moderate who now chairs the Democratic National Committee.

For their part, Democrats in both New Jersey and Virginia were eager to link their rival GOP contenders to Palin.

Down in the Deep South, of course, it's a very different story. Closet KKK members, anti-American obstructionists, and secessionists like Palin herself are clamoring for her to come to their events. Texas' secessionist governor is in a tight re-election primary campaign against a mainstream conservative, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and he has been bragging that Palin will be in Texas to help him round up the red neck votes in some of the state's most far right areas. Remember, even if normal Americans-- including mainstream Republicans-- see Palin as a joke, the far right GOP base, nurtured daily by brain-killing propaganda from Fox, Limbaugh, Dobbs, Hannity, Coulter, fundamentalists, etc, love her the same way mobs of ignorant tools in Germany, Italy, Austria, and Spain embraced fascists with similar world views in the 1930s.

Of all the dimensions on which Palin can be viewed, the one that is most crucial for any national ambitions she may hold is the most fundamental: is she qualified to be president? One might focus on her issue positions, her personality, her policy knowledge but the most basic question voters could and did ask in 2008 was "is she qualified to take over as president if that became necessary?" That's what all the other details boil down to. So let's take a quick look at how the 2008 campaign affected that view among voters.

From the announcement of her pick as VP through the convention and before her first national news interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, Palin had a small plurality seeing her as qualified to be president rather than not qualified. For an essentially unknown governor from a remote state, this reflected a mix of partisanship, trust in McCain's judgement, a well received convention performance and a bit of benefit of the doubt.

Confidence in Palin's qualifications declined following the ABC interview, though this also coincides with the financial crisis and the suspension and then resumption of the McCain campaign. That period also represents a shift of support which had briefly trended in McCain's direction following the GOP convention. So we should be reluctant to attribute all the change in views of Palin to her ABC interview alone and other events undoubtedly affected perceptions. Nonetheless, by mid-September a significant plurality of voters had come to see Gov. Palin as not qualified to be president.

In late September Palin appeared on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, first on September 24 and 25, then again the next week on the 29th and 30th. Two polls taken after the first two interviews and simultaneous with the second two, suggest some further negative impact of these appearances. And of course, reaction among political professionals was that the interviews were disasters.

These interviews were followed almost immediately on October 2 by the Vice-Presidential debate, which was generally seen as a success for Palin, certainly in comparison to the expectations set by the Gibson and Couric interviews.
The flurry of polling following the VP debate clearly shows more movement in public opinion. While the percentage seeing Palin as qualified held steady at about 40%, those seeing her as not qualified rose from just under 50% before the Couric interviews to about 53% after the debate.

But the ultimate problem Palin faced with the electorate at large is not about individual events of the campaign, but about the overall trend. From the beginning to the end of the campaign, Palin steadily lost ground with the electorate. Each week more voters perceived her as unqualified to be president. Her base of support was about 40%. Those seeing her as qualified declined from the high 40s to a stable 40% through the last 2/3rds of the campaign,  with one final poll falling a bit below that.

The "not qualified" trend rose, from the low 40s in early September, to nearly 60% by election day.

Qualified, schmolified... stuff like that doesn't matter to Texas Republicans. They just want someone as stupid, bigoted and ignorant as they are themselves in office. Remember, in any normal part of America, John Cornyn would be considered an extreme right wing fanatic. At a Texas tea-bagger party a few days ago he was booed for not being far enough to the right. There isn't much further right you can go than Cornyn without getting into some dangerous treason-- but if there is... it's Sarah Palin. She wouldn't get this kind of reaction Texans gave their own lunatic fringe senator:

Will Cheney Help Bury The Republican Party In The 2010 Midterms?

As though the GOP doesn't have enough problems to face going into the 2010 midterm election cycle-- primarily a perception among moderate voters that they caused the country's problems and that now they are mindless, partisan obstructionists, coupled with high level retirements in blue-trending (and not so blue-trending) states and an inability to recruit competitive first tier candidates-- the most detested figure in American politics has now inserted himself, front and center, into the campaign.

Pollsters may debate whether Cheney has a higher public approval rating than Paris Hilton or not, but in the shriveled and shrunken Republican Party he's still considered a respectable figure. Always looking to promote ratings-friendly food fights, the media has shamelessly propped him up. A few days ago, the beleaguered chair of the NRSC, Texas Know Nothing John Cornyn, said he'd be "proud to appear with the vice president, anywhere, anytime.” Not even anywhere in Texas would be a good idea and for many Republican candidates the idea of campaigning with Cheney is anathema. McCain refused to allow him out of his cage bunker during the 2008 campaign and many non-Southern Republicans wish he was still locked away somewhere.

Even a high profile right-wing Mormon, Utah Senator Robert Bennett, facing a serious primary from an even more extreme winger, has indicated that he doesn't want Cheney coming around Utah during campaign season. Utah! (That's almost as lame as Oklahoma.)

Asked whether he’d like Cheney to campaign with him, Utah Sen. Robert Bennett-- who faces a primary challenge in 2010-- said: “The most powerful national politician in Utah is Mitt Romney, and he’s already come to Utah to campaign for me. And I think I’ll leave it at that.”

Bennett isn't the only Republican who doesn't want to be identified with the unpopular ex-vice president who most Americans see as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. Even radical obstructionist Richard Burr, a complete Cheney clone, isn't eager to see Cheney coming to North Carolina to lend a hand. And, petrified, neither Florida's Charlie Crist, Ohio's Bush Regime leftover, Rob Portman, nor Lisa Murkowski (AK) would go on the record when asked if they'd like having Cheney campaign with them or not.

In Florida, Marco Rubio, who almost makes Cheney look mainstream by comparison, is eager to have the ex-VP come help him out against his popular closeted gay opponent. KKK supporter Johnny Isakson (GA) as well as John Thune (SD) and Tom Coburn (OK) also feel they would benefit from some joint appearances with Cheney in their states. McCain, who just reminded a writer that Cheney's position on torture is basically advocating a war crime and comapared it to the Spanish Inquisition, still doesn't want Cheney campaigning for him. Not that Cheney would. Cheney hates McCain with a passion and is far more likely to support Chris Simcox, founder of one of the Minutemen terrorist groups, who is challenging McCain for the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona next year.

Interesting rumor: when someone asked right-wing ex-football player Mike Minter, who we reported was mulling over a run against popular freshman Larry Kissell, whether he was interested in having Cheney come down to North Carolina to campaign for him, he said he'd pretty much decided not to run after all but that he would have been proud to campaign with Cheney. We also asked a Paul Ryan (R-WI) staffer if the congressman would invite the former vice president to Kenosha, Racine or even Janesville and the string of expletives was so intense that I wish I had had my recorder on! Anyway I hope someone asks Cheney enablers like Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), David Dreier (R-CA), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Peter King (R-NY). They all rubber stamped the Cheney agenda that landed us in trouble. They should all appear onstage in their home districts with Cheney around their necks.




h/t: Glenn Greenwald

Rightist Bloggers Crying About Cornyn & The NRSC Again

First deranged Georgia extremist Erick Erickson started a Facebook page called Not one penny to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and started sending out anti GOP messages:

First they supported Chafee.

Then they supported Specter.

Now they support Crist.

I pledge to give no money, no support, no aid, and no help at all to the efforts of the NRSC.

There are scores of messages from angry and disallusioned Republicans threatening to join millions of normal Americans in dropping their GOP registrations. Then Erickson teamed up with another lunatic fringe wingnut, John Hawkins to send a petition to Cornyn demanding he rescind the NRSC's endorsement of the Republican Party's one outreach to a gay candidate. And when they got on a conference call with him yesterday he refused to respond to any political questions, pissing them off even more. Maybe that's why Erickson sent me this today:

Subject: Charlie Crist admits he'll be just like Arlen Specter

Florida media is reporting that, having taking [sic] the "no tax" pledge from American for Tax Reform last week, Governor Crist will not use his veto pen to stop the Florida Legislature from raising taxes to balance the state's budget.

More troubling, Governor Crist himself said yesterday that were he in the United States Senate, he would have voted with Arlen Specter to support Barack Obama's +$1 trillion stimulus bill.

Senator Mel Martinez voted against the bill.  Crist's Republican primary challenger, Marco Rubio, also opposed the stimulus.

Nonetheless, Senator John Cornyn, the NRSC, and the Senate Republican leadership have lined up behind the tax hiking, Obama supporting Florida Governor.

Call John Cornyn at 202-224-2934 and ask him if his endorsement of Charlie Crist is an admission the GOP should stand for nothing in order to win.

It sure seems that way.

Erick

On top of all that this video is driving the nutroots crazy crazier:



I wish them all the success in the world-- and was delighted that they managed to scare off the Republican Party of Florida from continuing to back Crist and that they attack him at every opportunity-- and we should all do everything we can to make sure Marco Rubio is the GOP candidate for the Florida Senate seat, something that would make all the wingers happy as clams-- until the inevitable Election Day vote count. Rubio is widely viewed as unelectable to any statewide office, although it is the very self-righteous extremism which so turns off mainstream voters that gets the lunatic fringe wet in their panties.


UPDATE: Erick The Red's Newst Attack On The NRSC

Maybe he expected something different from the NRSC? I mean the "R" stands for Republicans. This is what they do. Or have you been sleepwalking?

Subject: What is the NRSC hiding?

Yesterday, I ambled over to John Cornyn’s page on Facebook and wrote on his wall.

I told him, very politely, that I was disappointed in the NRSC endorsement of Crist. At a time when Senator Cornyn says we can capitalize on the anxiety people have about spending and deficits, it undermines his goal by endorsing a man who supports the spending and deficits and also says he’d vote for Obama’s stimulus.

Senator Cornyn responded that given a recent third party poll showing Crist at 54% and Rubio at 18%, Crist is the candidate who can hold the seat and the NRSC wanted to go on and support him.

I responded that there were more than 365 days before the election, Crist was elected statewide with high name identification, and Rubio has 365 + days to show people that Crist would support the policies that are increasingly unpopular in Florida.

I tell you this all here because you cannot now go to John Cornyn’s page at Facebook to see the exchange.

Whoever runs the page for him has deleted it.

That's a shame.

Erick

The influential and extremist GOP fringe group, Club For Greed jumped into the Florida controversy opposing Cornyn (again). The shady group's fanatic president, defeated member of Congress Chris Chocola, went on the attack against fellow Republican Charlie Crist. “Charlie Crist has shown he’s willing to say one thing and do another,” he said, in reference to Crist signing off on a budget to rescue Florida's devastated economy. The bill included a cigarette tax hike and was presented to him by a Republican state Senate and a Republican House. “Voters," Chocola continued, "deserve to know just how far he'll go for the sake of political expediency.” Chocola supports far right extremist Marco Rubio. Rubio is also being supported-- although not publicly-- by dangerous right-wing fanatics, the Diaz-Balart brothers, former Cuban terrorists currently representing two Miami Dade districts in Congress.

And the bloodletting between Crist and "Jeb Bush's personal hand-puppet" is spilling over into the rest of the Florida electoral battles. Many are not happy with the far right's gubernatorial candidate, ex-Congressman (and Bill Clinton inquisitor) Bill McCollum.

This is just what the Republican Party needs-- fresh blood, a young buck, a visionary whippersnapper.

Enter Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a man never shy about resisting the burdens of charisma, who has proclaimed his desire to succeed Gov. Charlie Crist.

In an announcement that had all the thrilling excitement of a novena, McCollum, who will be 66 come election day next year, launched his gubernatorial bid surrounded by more middle-aged white men than the Gasparilla Krewe.

The aging Howdy Doody of Florida politics has held this strange sway over the state Republicans. For McCollum it is always his "turn" at bat, pursuing nominations for higher office as if it was a matter of sub-tropical Manifest Destiny.

Back in the 2000 U.S. Senate race, Tom Gallagher, an infinitely better candidate with superb retail stump skills, was pressured to step aside by Gov. Jeb Bush and other party leaders to make room for then U.S. Rep. McCollum. At the time, it was felt McCollum had earned the right to run against Bill Nelson based on his leading role in the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

That's not a political campaign. It's awarding a nomination as if it was a Miss Congeniality contest. So McCollum won his party's sash and now Bill Nelson is in his second term as Florida's senior U.S. senator. Say, that was some keen political strategizing.

Now Florida's Republican mandarins are once more lining up like Apollo Creed's entourage in Rocky behind the Urkel of Tallahassee's quest for the governor's mansion.

Just how pulse-challenged is McCollum? His presumptive Democratic opponent is Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who also has never been confused with Charo when it came to an effervescent presence on the hustings. Yet, compared to McCollum, Sink is now being touted in some circles as a veritable Margaret Thatcher meets Cher of the 2010 gubernatorial contest.

McCollum has been marketed as a steady, experienced candidate who has been repeatedly tested in the political arena, which is a nice way of saying this chap is extraordinarily skilled at giving concession speeches.

Still, if you are a Republican power broker sitting around the men's grill contemplating your goblet of 300-year-old Glennfidditch, no doubt McCollum's jib might well be to your liking - as jibs go. After all, throughout his political career McCollum has carved out a reputation as a highly partisan conservative Republican true believer.

So it had to leave some of the GOP purists standing behind McCollum choking on their Monte Cristos when the candidate suddenly started singing Kumbaya at his campaign announcement, albeit the Lawrence Welk version.

Doing his best impression of Mr. Rogers, McCollum noted he wanted everyone to be his neighbor, insisting he would reach across party lines and welcome bipartisan access and inclusion.

Of course when, according to several recent polls, only about 23 percent of the body politic regard themselves as Republican, one better give at least lip service to wanting to dance around the maypole with all manner of constituencies, unless one aspires to become less relevant than Katherine Harris.

Considering all the GOP smoking jackets slapping him on the back, McCollum's conversion to diversity did seem a bit odd. After all, when Gov. Charlie Crist starting palling around with less the than ideologically pure such as Democrats and independents, going so far as to heretically appear on a dais with the president of the United States in support of Barack Obama's stimulus package (Oh dear!), he was vilified by the Roundhead wing of the Republican Party as the Lord Haw-Haw of the Tallahassee's Apalachee Parkway.

Indeed, Crist was regarded as such a Republican apostate, when the popular governor announced his own intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, the keepers of the Republican Da Vinci code of conservatism promptly started pimping Jeb Bush's personal hand puppet, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, as a more worthy and dogmatically acceptable alternative.

Apparently news that the Republican gubernatorial primary was supposed to be more of an exclusive affair than a Skull and Bones smoker, didn't find its way to Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, who had been mulling over the race himself and whether Mrs. Bronson would let him go out and play. She didn't, and on Thursday he announced he won't run.

And thus the GOP apparently gets a clear primary pathway for a candidate whose prospects for election are at best problematic, while causing mischief in a Senate campaign where Crist is a virtual lock to win.

Perhaps this is what happens when the Republican brain trust regards 23 percent party identification as a mandate, rather than a product recall.

Cornyn Endorses Crist In Florida But Too Scared Of Blunt's Corruption To Back Him For Missouri Seat

Is John Cornyn now a champion of gay outreach?

Both Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Kit Bond (R-MO), a pair of undistinguished right-wing hacks and rubber stamps, have had it with being part of the Senate minority. Each announced he would be retiring after the current session. And each represents a swing state leaning towards the Democrats and away from the disintegrating GOP. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan is overwhelmingly favored to win the Missouri Senate seat regardless of which far right fringe loon the Republicans put forward and as you can see from this St Petersburg Times straw poll from today, progressive Democratic state Senator Dan Gelber is polling better than Republicans Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio + corrupt Democratic shill Kendrick Meek combined:

John Cornyn and Orrin Hatch, chair and vice-chair of the NRSC are so nervous that the Senate Republican caucus could wind up with an impotent 35 members (which is what will happen if they pick up no seats and lose in Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Missouri and Florida) that they took the unprecedented step today of kicking a young right-wing up-and-comer and fave of the nutroots, Marco Rubio, to the curb while endorsing-- in a rare GOP example of gay outreach?-- a relatively moderate Republican with a very spotty record. (Crazed right-wing bloggers are up in arms and demanding Cornyn resign.)

Crist's endorsement has sparked speculation about how close Roy Blunt is to being indicted for his notorious K-Street/Tom DeLay corruption. There is panic in the Missouri GOP that the NRSC folks are refusing to endorse a former Republican congressional leader in a tough primary against former state treasurer Sarah Steelman, another right-wing fanatic (like Rubio).

Meanwhile the éminence grise of Missouri Republican politics, John Danforth, has teamed up with Swiftboat financier, Sam Fox, to recruit someone they feel is more mainstream than either Blunt or Steelman-- a former Bush Regime functionary named Thomas Schweich, who started off as an expert of violent cults and later wound up representing Bush in Kabul as a special ambassador in charge of narcotics. A Bush holdover, he's currently a special representative for Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Missouri has an awful lot of meth labs but he should probably run for governor instead of senator if he wants to use his expertise to solve that one.

Blunt is pissing in his pants because Sarah Steelman's comments about him enriching himself at the public trough portends a primary that will expose one of the worst records of corruption in the history of contemporary congressional politics. The non-endorsement by Cornyn-- coupled with the Crist endorsement in Florida-- is seen as a huge slap in the face to the party's far right and to especially to Blunt, whose contributions have been pretty moribund lately as word has leaked out that the national Republican establishment has no faith in his ability to win statewide office.


UPDATE: Response From Florida

I've been barraged with e-mails from Florida today. One tireless Democratic activist wrote this:

I've been talking to some prominent Democratic operatives and quite a few are so disappointed with Meek that they're seriously considering helping Crist if it came down to a choice between those two. Their reasoning goes something Iike "at least when we disagree with Crist it's because he's a Republican."

More humorous was this from someone who has a twitter account:

RedState's Erickson is already hinting about "salacious stuff" re: Crist on twitter:

http://twitter.com/ewerickson/statuses/1773542078

NRSC Endorses Crist. That will blow up in their face big time when the salacious stuff comes out.
about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck
ewerickson

Cornyn And Chocola On Opposite Sides Of Pennsylvania Senate Battle Between Specter And Toomey

Although NRSC chair John Cornyn continues to encourage primary challengers to poor senile Jim Bunning (R-KY)-- and continues to urge Republican donors to not contribute to his flagging re-election campaign-- the far right Texan wouldn't dare try any such thing against another endangered Republican, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter. Funny how Cornyn and Bunning have almost lockstep obstructionist voting records-- they rate #89 and #90 out of the 100 senators in terms of willingness to support progressive legislation-- while Specter's record is the closest to the Democrats of any Republican-- even closer than Olympia Snowe's. In fact, so far this year, on critical issues, Specter has the exact same score as reactionary Democrat Ben Nelson (NE), 35.71; they rate 58 and 59.

So why would Cornyn seek to undermine the endangered true right-winger Bunning while supporting the equally endangered but barely Republican Specter? Cornyn knows Bunning will continue voting the obstructionist party line and he dismissed the idea that Bunning would resign in anger to get revenge against McConnell and himself by allowing Kentucky's Democratic Governor to replace him with Dan Mongiardo. So while Cornyn is hissing in the ears of the big GOP donors at the oil companies and war contractors not to donate to Bunning, he's writing letters to Pennsylvania Republicans urging them to forget about far right fanatic Pat Toomey and to stick with Specter. The letter:

March 26, 2009

Dear Friend,

I write today to you and other Pennsylvania GOP leaders on behalf of my friend and colleague, Arlen Specter. His re-election in 2010 is vital if we are to regain our majority in the Senate.

As I survey the political landscape of the upcoming 2010 elections, it’s clear we need more candidates that fit their states. While I doubt Arlen could win an election in my home state of Texas, I am certain that I could not get elected in Pennsylvania. I believe that Senator Specter is our best bet to keep this Senate seat in the GOP column. A vote for Arlen Specter is a vote for denying Harry Reid and the Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate.

The political math for Republicans in 2010 is tough. We must defend 19 of our Senate seats-- six of which are in states (such as Pennsylvania) won by President Obama. The Democrats have to defend just 17 of their 59 seats, only two of which are in states Senator McCain won. With just 41 Members in the Senate Republican Conference, it’s vital that we focus our limited resources on growing the party and beating Democrats.

The fact that Pennsylvania has become a reliable “blue state” for the Democrats isn’t the only reason they’re targeting Arlen. For example, they didn’t like it when he:

• Declared recently he would vote against cloture and oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as 'card check'

• Voted against the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” (which would enable government censors to prevent local radio stations from carrying conservative talk radio)

• Cast the deciding vote to defeat a bipartisan tax hike in December 2007

• Led the GOP’s effort to repeal the Democrats’ increase of the Alternative Minimum Tax rates

• Voted for the Reagan and Bush tax cuts

• Sponsored the Flat Tax, the Balanced Budget Amendment and Line-Item Veto

• Sponsored the Flag Protection Amendment

• Voted to keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance

• Voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and Defense of Marriage Act

• Sponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

• Stood up for Israel’s right to protect her citizens against terrorist attacks

• Protected the individual right to bear arms enshrined in the 2nd Amendment

• Sponsored the bill to deport convicted felons who are illegal aliens

Arlen and I do not agree on every issue, but as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), I rely on Senator Specter for advice and counsel on key issues. As a fellow member of the Judiciary Committee, I’ve seen Arlen’s strong leadership first-hand. His work shepherding through the confirmations of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito was unparalleled.

My job as head of the NRSC is to guide the GOP back to a majority in the Senate. I can’t do that without Arlen Specter. With him as our nominee, I can target our campaign resources toward beating Democrats and growing the Senate Republican Conference. Please join me in that effort.

Thank you.

Sincerely Yours,

Senator John Cornyn

Pretty desperate-sounding, but this was part of the payback for Specter to switch his support as an Employee Free Choice supporter to an opponent who has sworn to join the Republican Party filibuster of the bill. CQPolitics reported this morning that round one went to Specter. You may recall how Specter started running an ad early this month that Toomey claimed was slanderous. Specter removed it from his own website. The upshot was that "Specter has shown himself to be an ugly campaigner who can’t get his facts right, while Toomey has demonstrated his ability to respond quickly and counterattack ruthlessly." Are extreme rightists were happy. Not so fast, says CQPolitics.

Specter is already well known, and well-disliked by GOP primary voters. Nothing Toomey is going to do is going to change that, and nothing Arlen Specter is going to do over the next 12 months is going to change that, either.

Toomey, on the other hand, is not well known, despite having served three terms in Congress representing the Lehigh Valley and having run a strong campaign for Specter’s seat six years ago. In fact, Toomey is barely known at all-- in a recent Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey, 78 percent of all state voters (and even 73 percent of Pennsylvania Republican voters) said they didn’t know enough about him to form an opinion. Toomey is, for all intents and purposes, a blank chalkboard.

The communications challenge for both campaigns, then, is simple: Define Pat Toomey. And the next 12 months will determine how it’s accomplished and by which team.

Specter’s team is hard at work, trying to define Toomey as a greedy former Wall Street trader who is now on the take from the greedy Wall Street traders who brought down the house and got us into our current financial mess. Specter’s team is trying to raise Toomey’s negatives to something approaching the same level as Specter’s negatives, among GOP primary voters.


By controlling the terrain of the conversation so far, they’ve done themselves and their candidate well.

Toomey’s team, on the other hand, has responded to and rebutted Specter’s charges. But Toomey’s team should not be working to raise Specter’s negatives. They’re already plenty high enough, and they show no signs of going down. In fact, Specter’s attacks against Toomey are going to drive Specter’s own negatives even higher-- there’s always recoil against attacks.

Instead, Toomey’s communications team should be hard at work building Toomey’s positives. Toomey’s team should ignore Specter tactically-- that is, don’t respond to Specter’s daily provocations-- while smothering Specter strategically, by offering his own compelling positive vision for Pennsylvania’s and America’s future.

Right now, Specter’s team must be quietly laughing at Toomey’s team.

And the winner is... Democrats.

Meanwhile, Toomey has resigned from the neo-fascist operation he has headed, Club For Growth, leaving it in the hands of another bizarre fanatic, Chris Chocola, who was defeated after chalking up a startlingly extremist voting record in his 2 weird terms in Congress. A spoiled and pampered multimillionaire heritage kid, Chocola has spent immense sums of family money to win election to Congress. He ran on a pledge to privatize Social Security, bitching that Bush wasn't right-wing enough, two ideas he shares with Toomey and most other Club For Growth loons. He was considered suspiciously-- even shrilly-- anti-gay to the extent that usually suggests someone is sneaking around and blowing strangers in public toilets. No photos of Chocola have surfaced yet.

Chocola, who raised huge sums of money from every right-wing fringe group and from corporate PACs wanting to buy easy votes on the Budget and Ways and Means committees, was the sixth biggest recipient of tainted funds from Tom DeLay's PAC. His biggest single donor in his catastrophic re-election bid in 2006 was from Club For Growth which funneled $150,000 into his campaign. Now he's busy intervening against Snarlin' Arlen on behalf of Toomey in what's shaping up to be the dirtiest primary in America. Many congressional Republicans tell us they detest Chocola and were privately overjoyed when he lost his seat to right-wing Democrat Joe Donnelly, who votes with the GOP against Obama's vision for America more frequently than any other Democrat. A short post at NRO helps put into perspective why Chocola is so hated among Republican lawmakers.

The Club's most significant and most controversial activity since its inception — its involvement in Republican primaries on behalf of conservative candidates, even at times against Republican incumbents-- will definitely continue.

"You can't get the right policy without the right people voting," Chocola said.  "When I was in the House, we had enough seats, we just didn't have enough votes. One of the things I came away with is that the enemy is not really the Democrats, it was the Republicans. We just couldn't get enough votes to take political leadership... I think we lost the majority because we didn't live up to expectations about what people expected us to do. I think if we'd done entitlement reform, tort reform, we might have expanded our majorities."

Aside from targeting Specter, other Republicans likely to feel the wrath of Chocola's lunatic fringe operatives next year are Michiganders Vernon Ehlers and Fred Upton, who Chocola is said to personally hate, and North Carolina conservative Walter Jones, who is a co-sponsor of the new campaign finance reform bill, the Fair Elections Now Act, which drives corporate shills and plutocrats like Chocola into a hysterical frenzy. (By the way, co-sponsors, besides Jones and Specter, are mostly clean government progressive Democrats: Donna Edwards (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jared Polis (D-CO), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Rush Holt (D-NJ), John Larson (D-CT), Jim Himes (D-CT), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and Michael Capuano (D-MA).

John Cornyn's Sad, Hopeless Task

Cornyn thinks GOP needs a new... image

Though most of America was either repulsed or nonplused by "Bobby" Jindal's creepy rebuttal to President Obama's speech this week, Republican politicians are using it to appeal to their dwindling base for donations. Fellow obstructionist wingnuts and governors-- especially those who say they will turn down unemployment money for their states, extremists like Haley Barbour (MS) and Mark Sanford (SC)-- are particularly enthusiastic. The head of their party's efforts to get back in the game in the Senate, Texas obstructionist John Cornyn, says the time has come-- on this very day when the full scope of George Bush's good-bye gift to America has become clear-- for the Republicans to start recruiting mainstream candidates and not just extreme right-wing fanatics (like himself).

He spoke at the GOP's NutFest today and warned the drooling loons and neo-fascists gathered there and waiting for some red meat to be tossed their way that they may be in for a disappointment if they're expecting more Republican candidates who espouse the ideals set forth by Hitler, Coulter and Mussolini. He "warned the gathered conservatives, in town for their annual three-day pilgrimage to hear from Republican luminaries, that not all of the candidates the party recruits will adhere to conservative orthodoxy all the time, a message at odds with other speakers at the conference who urged a return to Reaganite roots."

"Not all of these candidates are going to hold conservative positions on every issue," Cornyn said. "It's critical that our candidates fit their states if they're going to win.

"I understand when people are occasionally frustrated with the way some of my colleagues vote. I am too. But a circular firing squad within our party is no solution," Cornyn said. "We must broaden our party and increase our appeal among groups that share our values but don’t necessarily identify as conservatives or vote consistently as Republicans."

Cornyn acknowledged the "thumpin' " Republicans took in the last election, though he said the movement is "regrouping, reorganizing and renewing itself."

Andy Barr from Politico reported on Cornyn's NutFest chat earlier today and got right to the heart of the GOP dilemma: "The GOP may need to recruit fewer conservative candidates in order to win in 2010" and he clearly differentiated himself from Michael Steele, who is willing to ostracize and even finance campaigns against Republican incumbents who are not 100% obstructionist.

"To be a national party we have to put blue and purple states in play," the Texas senator told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I would rather have a Republican that would vote with me 80 percent of the time than a liberal Democrat voting with me 0 percent of the time."

He told the gathered conservatives that attacking moderates in the GOP who have voted with President Barack Obama is counterproductive to the party's goals. He added that a "circular firing squad" will not help Republicans regain the majority.

Cluelessly, he told the audience that the party controlled by virulent racists and stark raving mad xenophobes needs to cater to Hispanics to win in the future. Now that is some stretch! He said Republicans will have to venture out of their country clubs and gated communities to meet Hispanics above and beyond the ones who work for them as gardeners and housekeepers.