GOP Establishment Is Worried Trumpf Or Cruz Will Wreck Their Little Racket, Not So Concerned About America

Ted Cruz has a scaremongery anti-immigration TV ad (above) to compete with Herr Trumpf's scaremongery anti-immigration TV ad. The competition for the right-wing populist vote is on. Fiorina, now one of the margin-of-error candidates hoping to get a job in someone's cabinet-- though not Herr Trumpf's, apparently-- was asked on Fox and Friends about the new Esquire cover story, Hater-in-Chief. "[T]here is no doubt: Donald Trump is an extremely divisive candidate. That’s why he cannot win. That is why he cannot be our nominee. But honestly, Donald Trump reminds me of the Kim Kardashian of politics... famous for being famous, and the media plays along." I wonder why no one compares Trumpf with Toronto's disastrous ex-mayor, Archie Bunker-like, right-wing populist Rob Ford. Too obvious? As far as "famous for being famous," I don't mean to be cruel, but what is Carly famous for again?

Mitt Romney, whose son Josh is about to run for governor of Utah, is starting to worry that Herr is tarnishing the Republican Party brand. Really? The first poll of 2016, less than a month before the Iowa caucuses shows Herr still the most popular candidate among Republican voters. The nationwide NBC poll released yesterday has Herr at 35% and the only two also in double digits-- Cruz (18%) and Rubio (13%)-- trailing him even if their numbers were combined! As Alex Isenstadt explained for Politico readers, the kind of shivers this sends down the spines of establishment Republicans like Romney are not the good kind. Romney must have been particularly irked to hear Trumpf, in Lowell, Massachusetts, castigating Paul Ryan-- the one GOP bosses are whispering about giving the nomination to in the brokered convention scenario-- as a sell-out to the base.

"The level of alarm" [panic and terror], Isenstadt assures us "is reaching new heights." Back inside the Beltway, "Republicans are on the hunt for a political entity that can be used to stop Trump." These, unfortunately, are mean with little imagination and no ability to think outside their comfy little boxes. "In recent weeks, Alex Castellanos, a veteran TV ad man who was a top adviser to George W. Bush and Romney, has been meeting with top GOP operatives and donors to gauge interest in launching an anti-Trump vehicle that would pummel the Manhattan businessman on the television airwaves. Those who’ve met with Castellanos say he’s offered detailed presentations on how such an offensive would play out. Castellanos has said that an anti-Trump ad campaign, which would be designed to cast him as a flawed strongman, would cost well into the millions. It was unclear, the sources said, whether Castellanos, who did not respond to a request for comment, would ultimately go through with the effort." The effort, if he could find some GOP suckers to fund it, would certainly make Castellanos a lot richer.

Why do they care so much about Trumpf? Not because of the harm he will do to the country. None of them ever even mention that and I doubt any of them even think about it. No, it's all about the party and the damage Trumpf is doing to "the brand" and, worse, the losses his reverse coattails will inflict up and down the ticket, from senators and congressman to mayors, legislators and county clerks. And not just Trumpf, with the GOP's number two as well, the other proto-fascist.

One growing worry about Trump or Cruz, top party officials, donors, and operatives across the country say, is that nominating either man would imperil lawmakers in down-ballot races, especially those residing in moderate states and districts.

“At some point, we have to deal with the fact that there are at least two candidates who could utterly destroy the Republican bench for a generation if they became the nominee,” said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “We’d be hard-pressed to elect a Republican dogcatcher north of the Mason-Dixon or west of the Mississippi.”

“Trump and Cruz are worrisome to most Republican candidates for governor, senator and Congress,” said Curt Anderson, a longtime GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee political director. “Some will say they are not worried, but they are.”

Romney has been calling around to former advisers to sound them out about the race, and to kvetch about Trump’s surprising durability. But in the immediate term, at least, he has expressed unwillingness to lend his hand to a stop-Trump effort-- or to endorse a candidate more palatable to a GOP establishment paralyzed by his rise and worried that nominating him or Cruz would scupper an opportunity to control both the White House and Congress in 2017.

The concern is particularly acute in the Senate, where Republicans are fighting to preserve a relatively slim four-seat majority, defending more than half a dozen seats in hard-to-win swing states. Among them: Ohio, a presidential battleground state where Republican Sen. Rob Portman faces a perilous path to reelection.

When Trump traveled to the state in November, he met with Matt Borges, Ohio’s Republican Party chairman-- who warned the front-runner that “divisive rhetoric won’t help us carry Ohio.”

“It’s time for people who have never won squat here to listen to the people who have been doing it for decades,” Borges said in an interview. “I’m just looking out for how we win in November.”

In Wisconsin, some party officials fret that a Trump or Cruz nomination could sink Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who faces a tough race against his predecessor, Russ Feingold.

“Certainly, it would be bad for Ron Johnson if Trump is the nominee,” said Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble who, like Johnson, was swept into Congress in the Republican wave of 2010. “I think Trump is probably really bad down-ballot.” [It doesn't matter who the GOP has at the top of the ticket in Wisconsin. People there are determined to reelect Feingold and erase Johnson from their memories forever.]

Some top party strategists have spent months considering how the outcome of the primary will impact congressional races. Since last spring, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been poring over research and polling data in hopes of better understanding how each of the Republican candidates running for president would affect GOP hopefuls running for Senate. The committee has held internal meetings to discuss the pros and cons of each presidential contender and how they would affect each key Senate race.

The House, where Republicans have a historic 30-seat majority, is more secure for the party. But there, too, the GOP has reason to worry: The party must defend nearly three dozen endangered seats-- many of them in liberal-to-moderate states like California, New York and Florida.

Should Trump or Cruz win the nomination, party operatives say, some longtime officeholders in more conservative districts such as New Jersey Rep. Scott Garrett or Florida Rep. John Mica, who typically skate to general election wins, could find themselves in tougher-than-usual contests.

Luckily for Garrett and Mica (and other Republican incumbents in similar situations), Steve Israel has made sure that the DCCC has truly horrible candidates as alternatives-- Josh Gottheimer and Bill Phillips in New Jersey and Florida for example-- who, even if a Democratic tidal wave swept them into office, are so conservative so oriented away from working families' concerns that Democrats would refuse to vote for them in 2018... the story of Steve Israel's tragic time at the DCCC. In fact that dynamic is the tragic story of the DCCC under not just Israel but under Rahm Emanuel and Chris Van Hollen as well. When will the cycle be broken? Not while Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer is running the show for congressional Democrats.

If Cruz Beats Herr Trumpf In Iowa, It's Back To Reality TV And Shoddy Real Estate Deals For The Donald

Cruz has replaced Herr Trumpf as the Iowa front runner now. He's ahead of Trumpf among likely GOP caucus goers 40 to 31%, with Rubio way down at 12% for third place and no one else even close. Dr. Ben (6%) has got to be wondering when he drops out and poor Jeb is tied at 2% with Huckabee and Rand Paul.

So.... guess what happened on yesterday's gasbag shows. Actually, Jake Tapper had a worthwhile discussion on CNN's State of the Union with Rand Paul. Paul passed on an opportunity to attack Hillary but went right after Herr Trumpf, comparing "inaccurate" polling with American Idol polling and reiterating that Trumpf would "get wiped out in a general election" and questioning if he believes in any conservative values. He also reminded viewers that "during the debate absolutely Donald Trump no clue to what the nuclear triad is... so now that's he's discovered what it is, he's eager to use it... This is what is very worrisome about not only Trump but Christie and others on the stage who are really eager to have war, really eager to show how 'strong' they are and that gets away from the tradition we have of trying to limit power... and it also gets to temperament. That's why it very much worries me to have someone like Donald Trump or a Chris Christie to be in charge of our nuclear arsenal."

And then Paul went into Cruz's opportunism and flip-flopping. When Tapper asked flat out if he sees Cruz as "a craven politician... a craven opportunist," Paul hesitated a moment before reeling off some examples (immigration, TPP, domestic spying) showing that Cruz isn't someone whose word means anything. "I think on a number of issues, he wants to have it both ways, depending on which audience he's talking to." Certainly Rubio would embrace those sentiments whole heartedly. Yesterday on Face the Nation, Rubio's theme was "Ted Cruz- flip flopper," which may be true but is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Poking the new Iowa front-runner over immigration, a more important issue for Iowa wing nuts than for wing nuts in other parts of the country, Rubio said "I think Ted wanted to not talk about legalization during the primary and leave himself the option of being for it in a general election. I don’t think that’s fair to the electorate." He also went after Cruz on TPP in a way that is likely to go over the heads of most GOP primary voters. "There are multiple issues on which he’s tried to do these sorts of things. For example, when the free trade agreement was up he wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, he wrote it with Paul Ryan. And just three days later he flipped on it. I don’t know why. He got some pressure on the fast-track authority." Something that won't go over the heads of Iowa voters, though, are Rubio's accusations that Cruz flip-flopped when he voted against $3 billion in cuts to a crop insurance program, something he orginally voted for. Rubio: "He’s done it on votes on farm issues. In fact changed his vote on the floor of the Senate. If you’re going to attack someone on a policy issue, you need to be clear about where you stand on the issue and where you stood in the past. When you spend your whole time telling people that you’re a clear talker and you say what you mean and everyone else is a sellout but you’re the only purist, I think it’s fair to say, 'Well hold on a second, here’s where you’ve been on the past on some issues and here’s where you are now.'"

Why anyone would care what she thinks is beyond me but yesterday Fox News Sunday must have been hard up for a credible guest so they invited Fiorina on instead. The spectacularly failed former business executive-- currently polling 1% nationally among likely Republican primary voters-- asserted that "Trump can’t beat Hillary Clinton" and that if GOP voters nominate him they'll be giving Hillary "a big Christmas gift wrapped up under the tree." But despair not, Fiorina has a way out for Republicans: "I," she insisted, "am the lump of coal in Mrs. Clinton stocking, and she desperately hopes that she does not run against me."

Actually, Fiorina, a compulsive liar, who voters have grown to detest since first meeting her earlier this year, would be a dream candidate for any Democrat. Unless Cruz actually makes her his running mate, she has no political role going forward. The most recent poll of Iowa Republicans show her with just 2%. She trails Trumpf, Cruz, Rubio, Christie, Kasich, Jeb, Dr. Ben and Rand Paul among New Hampshire Republicans with just 4% for 9th place, and in South Carolina she's tied with Christie, Lindsey Graham, Huckabee and "no preference" with 1%.

Another candidate no one really wants to hear from-- except as comic relief-- is Lindsey Graham, who finally bowed out of the campaign this morning. In fact, some might say that Graham, whose national polling numbers have almost never-- and absolutely never since June-- strayed above zero percent, would have been insane to continue running for president, if that's what he was doing. He is the one who started babbling about The Princess Bride and seemed to be calling Ted Cruz Princess Buttercup. Let's hope he doesn't see himself as Wesley. And who's Prince Humperdinck, Herr Trumpf?

Lindsey, who is now at 1% among his home state Republicans, has raised $3,038,701 for his campaign and another $4,762,211 for his SuperPACs (primarily Security is Strength SuperPAC). So he has outraised Rick Santorum, Pataki, Herr Trumpf, and Kasich and is about tied with religionist nut Mike Huckabee. His biggest source of funds have been the Russian Mafia's Len Blavatnik  ($500,000), Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans ($500,000), Ronald Perelman, owner of holding company MacAndrews & Forbes ($500,000), Jonathon Jacobson, CEO of Boston hedge fund Highfields Capital Management ($250,000) and Scott Ford, CEO of Little Rock commodity traders Westrock Capital Partners ($250,000).

Graham, like Rubio and Hillary, is an unapologetic neocon. (Now Hillary is even blaming the whopper she told about Trumpf/ISIS recruitment at the delate Saturday on an alcohol-fueled Graham fantasy.) On most other fronts, he tends to be relatively mainstream, especially compared to the other Republicans vying for attention. But campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday, Graham said that 6 of his GOP primary opponents range from "mildly disturbed to completely insane." OK, and obviously Graham thinks of Herr Trumpf, Cruz, Dr. Ben, Fiorina and Huckabee as "completely insane." So who's #6, the "mildly disturbed" one? Christie? Santorum? Both are pretty nuts. And if he feels 6 of his opponents are mentally unstable, would he agree none of them should be allowed to purchase firearms?

Of course, as Republican Party strategist David Frum was tweeting yesterday, his party has far more to worry about than just crackpot presidential candidates like Trumpf, Cruz and Fiorina. One day Pelosi will be gone, a competent DCCC will be in place and the GOP will start losing dozens and dozens of congressional seats.

A “Craig's List” For Republicans- Republican World 2015 In Review- Chapter Three

-By Noah

What if Republicans had their own version of Craigslist; a place where Republicans could sell goods and services to other Republicans? Knowing what we do of the Republican world and the minds of those who live in it, it might look very much like this. Let’s call it Buchanan’s List after hate-mongering culture warrior Pat Buchanan. It just seems to fit.

Buchanan’s List:

1. Selling a can of vintage Campbell Chunky Chicken Soup that I had in the abandoned missile silo I moved into 7 years ago when the internet and FOX told me the president was going to take away my guns. Original label with the old logo is scuffed a bit but still intact so you can read the cooking instructions and the list of ingredients. Old logo makes this can REALLY rare. Expiration date also proves rarity. These are REALLY hard to find outside of Idaho. $100 or will trade for ammo. Citizen X.

2. Vintage pick-up truck. Some dents and rust, but nothing serious. Still has beautiful Reagan/Bush bumper sticker intact! $4000 includes CB Radio! Male drivers only. No homos. Mike H.

3. Ted Cruz supporter selling home meth lab to raise funds for his candidacy. I’ve made enough meth to last a lifetime for me, my wife-sister, and our home-skooled childs. $15,000 or best offer. Contact LubbockDude1.

4. Fabulous Readers Digest record collection of patriotic tunes performed by Lawrence Welk. Comes with autographed picture of Gerald Ford as a bonus! $60. Pat R.

5. Rick Santorum-style sweater collection. 18 sweaters. Please send me your bids! Perfect for Mr. Rogers imitators, too! Rickey@noonecares.pa.com/

6. Put a candle in your window for our freedoms. Selling homemade Red, White, And Blue patriot candles. Light one in your window for freedom! You won’t see these in the secret Muslim usurper’s White House but your neighbors can see them in yours! Scents available include Cheeseburger, Beer, Bourbon, Meth, and Napalm! 13 in a Constitution Box! Yours for $17.76 post paid. Alex J.

7. Custom “We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service” signs for your church or business! Gays, Blacks, Libtards, A-rabs, Chinamen, French… Whatever creepy, strange un-American people might hurt your business, I will make a beautiful custom porcelain door sign for you to keep undesirables away. $10.99 each. Up to 8 different for $120.00 plus shipping. RadioMike.

8. Gay Conversion Board Game- A home game version! A great home game that you can give to any suspicious children in your own family. Buy one for the neighbor kids, too! They play this godly board game which slowly but surly cures them of any gay tendencies through electro-therapy and a series of coded messages on the board that match up with messages on the cards dealt to each player. Comes with transformer and 4 electrode helmets. It’s a gift from God. Only $86.86 used (It worked!). Contact Mr.B.FromMN.

9. E-Z-EXIT Left Behind Shoes! Don’t risk losing out on rapture just because a shoe wouldn’t drop off your foot! Contact JerryF.Jr. on member board.

10. Re-useable Burning Crosses! Custom made! Using gas fireplace log technology, I have come up with a way to give you the opportunity to own a completely re-useable cross to burn! Now, that’s a satisfying experience! Wheeled model can even be hooked up to your pick up truck’s gas tank and you can tow it all over town! Believe me, libtards hate this! Works behind your boat, too, and I will provide the skis at a nominal cost to you! Megyn Kelly Signature Series coming in 2016! Ask for G.Wizard Poobah!

11. Telescope, well-used but still works fine. Surveillance is the key to a happy 21st century! Now you can keep an extra close watch on what all the neighbors are up to. Works in reverse, too, so you can keep any unwanted manifestations of reality at a distance. Leave message for Darth at Undisclosed.

12. Former mayor of major city available for commentary. One minute up to 12 hours non-stop. I specialize in blaming Democrats for anything under the sun, especially tragedies, natural disasters included. Will do TV, Radio, Weddings (The normal kind), Baptisms, Graduations, Funerals, PTA meetings, park benches, street corners… You name it. If the camera’s on and the money’s there, I will be there. If you want a one-two punch, my friend Bernie K is also available. Ask for Rudy G.

13. Race Card Specialist. Need to burnish up those race-baiting skills? Contact America’s number one race baiter. If you develop your skills well enough, I can probably even get you a high-paying job where I work! Ask for Bill O.

14. I will mow your lawn, naked for attention. Hot days only. Email Rudy at AmMayor.ny.com/

15. Will blow your horse for camera time. Email Rudy at above.

16. Experienced CEO needs job. Great experience with tech companies! Former CEO of HP. Been out of a job for quite a while which mystifies me. Really, I’ve got what it takes to change your company’s profit picture and my resume proves it. Please contact CarlyF@Ruinismybiz.com/

Blue America Will Match Your Giving Tuesday Money To Stand With Planned Parenthood

As we've been writing all weekend, the Republican candidates-- on all levels, presidential, congressional-- are running their campaigns by inciting their supporters, some of whom are, by definition, not very stable, to violence. As Eric Kingson, the Blue America-endorsed candidate running for the House in a Syracuse, NY-based district points out, "the harsh rhetoric of Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz who called Planned Parenthood 'an ongoing criminal enterprise' and Mike Huckabee who called for the U.S. Department of Justice to 'criminally prosecute Planned Parenthood' invites intolerance. It also offers aid and comfort to those willing to act outside the law of the land and the norms of human decency. The inflamatory rhetoric of Cruz, Huckabee and other anti-choice activists diminishes the dignity of all and assaults the right of every woman to make intensely personal decisions free from coercion about whether to bring a pregnancy to term. And sometimes worse..."

Lou Vince, our candidate in CA-25, running against a complete NRA shill who uses the same kind of inflammatory language about women's health clinics, Tea Party psycho Steve Knight. made a similar point:

The horrendous act of terrorism committed in Colorado against the Planned Parenthood clinic illustrates why this election is so critical. We must stand up for a woman's right to choose and her right to control her own body, a right that Republicans like Steve Knight want to take away. Secondly, we must stand up to the NRA and stop putting up with their woefully misguided lobbying efforts that ultimately contribute to so much violence. As a cop, I know a thing or two about guns and enough is enough, we need sensible gun control reforms. Unfortunately, these things will never happen with Steve Knight in Congress. It's time for him to go.

PG Sittenfeld, who is running for the Ohio U.S. Senate seat against two of the worst NRA-backers in the country, conservaDem Ted Strickland and right-wing Republican Rob Portman, has been campaigning on curbing the NRA corrosive-- and murderous-- political power. After the shooting he told us that "The devoted people who work for and support Planned Parenthood, and who are unwavering in their support for a woman's right to choose, will not be scared or intimidated by the threats of bullies and the violence a psychotics. In the U.S. Senate, I will continue to stand up for women's health as well as boldly advocate for common sense gun safety reforms to set our country on a different path."

We decided to spend out Giving Tuesday asking for contributions from our members for our pro-choice/pro-gun safety candidates and to match all contributions up to $1,000 with a check from the Blue America PAC to Planned Parenthood. If you're not a Blue America member you probably didn't see the letter Digby wrote yesterday. In reading it, keep in mind what Maryland Delegate an congressional candidate Joseline Peña-Melnyk said after the right-wing terrorist was apprehended. I think she spoke for all Americans when she said "It saddens me to see more innocent Americans dead because our nation refuses to address the flood of guns that are easily available to unstable people. Those who oppose all reasonable gun controls should be ashamed. They have trapped us in this cycle of repetitive violence."

Digby:

With Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday having become something of an orgy of over-indulgence, somebody somewhere came up with the idea that the Tuesday after Thanksgiving should usher in the benevolent side of the holiday with a call to give back. They are calling it Giving Tuesday and it seems as though it might be refreshing reset from the endless eating and shopping of the long holiday week-end.

Unfortunately, this past Thanksgiving holiday was not just marked by the usual Walmart brawls and long lines waiting for Best Buy to open. This year we had to endure an act of terrorism perpetrated on our own soil: a man gunned down 12 people, killing three, in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Afterwards, he was said to have declared "no more baby parts." Those two words-- "baby parts"-- are used by Republican demagogues to describe the practice of life-saving scientific research which uses fetal tissue. It refers to some hoax videos circulated by anti-choice zealots in furtherance of their cause.

It is inflammatory incitement and it did its job this last week-end.

The GOP presidential candidates were all very slow to condemn this murderous attack. And when they did, it was in the most grudging terms possible. Carly Fiorina, the candidate who blatantly lied before 25 million people in the GOP presidential debate, describing something that never happened in lurid, graphic detail even went so far as to cast blame on the left for even bringing up the possibility that rhetoric such as theirs may have contributed to this atrocity.

All Blue America candidates are crystal clear on where they stand, both in support for Planned Parenthood and against the NRA which makes it possible for zealots to easily acquire the firearms they use to carry out their deadly missions. This statement from state Senator Jamie Raskin, candidate for Maryland's 8th Congressional District speaks for all of us:

"The nightmare in Colorado Springs brought together two lethal threats to the American people: the epidemic of gun violence made possible by lax gun laws and the NRA, and the relentless attacks by right-wing fanatics on Planned Parenthood and the right of American women to access basic reproductive health services. Let this outbreak of homegrown terror in Colorado give us the resolve we need to impose civilized gun safety laws in our country and to stop all of the appalling efforts to defund and destroy Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of reproductive health services in the U.S."

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, Blue America has decided to match the first $1,000 we collect for any candidates on this page and donate it to Planned Parenthood. We want to help the organization in every way we can and that means giving directly but it also means electing leaders to congress who will stand up and fight for women's rights. It is imperative that we do both.

We are at a critical time in American politics. Please consider spending some of your "Giving Tuesday" dollars by donating to the Blue America candidates of your choice and we will double the effort by matching it with a donation to Planned Parenthood.

Is It Fair To Label Fiorina A Conspirator In The Colorado Springs Terrorism At Planned Parenthood?

"Victims of Our Games" by Chawky Frenn

Much like Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger said on CNN while the terrorist was still inside the Planned Parenthood clinic shooting people, Herr Trumpf, while having his candidacy boosted by another Meet The Press interview yesterday, pronounced him (not Kinzinger, the other terrorist) sick and a maniac rather than a right-wing domestic terrorist or just some guy going overboard in carrying out the Republican Party agenda.

Trump did not respond directly when asked about reports that the alleged shooter, Robert Lewis Dear, discussed “baby parts” during an interview with law enforcement officials.

"This was a man who they said prior to this was mentally disturbed," he said. "So, he's a mentally disturbed person. There's no question about that."

Trump did, however, cite "tremendous dislike" for Planned Parenthood.

"Well, I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it's terrible, all of the videos that they've seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you're selling parts to a car. I mean, there are a lot of people that are very unhappy about that," he said.

"I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood. There's no question about that."

Fiorina and Huckabee, who enabled the terrorist with their constant barrage of lies and Planned Parenthood selling "baby parts," have been unapologetic-- even aggressively assertive, after their tragic handiwork. Fiorina, perhaps an even more calculating, malignant and bold-faced liar than Trumpf, referred to people connecting the dots between her hate speech and the Colorado Springs murderer as "typical left-wing tactics." Fiorina admonished what she called "pro-life" demonstrators to "always be peaceful" and then implied if they weren't they'd be like BlackLivesMatter protestors (who, as far as I've seen, haven't been running around murdering people the way at least one Fiorina follower, so far, has, but instead have been murdered themselves, in all likelihood inspired by outrageous Republican rhetoric). She's a very sick and very dangerous person and, fortunately, even the Republican base, which, recall, embraced Sarah Palin, has rejected her. Fiorina's polling numbers have continued to plummet as her inability to speak truthfully became clearer and clearer. Now in 6th place at 3.7%, RealClearPolitics documents her breathtaking slide from a high of 15% in a CNN poll in September to a mere 3% in the latest Fox News poll last week.

Yesterday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos Michael McCaul pronounced the mass murder at the Planned Parenthood clinic "not an act of terrorism," but, in his words, "a mental health crisis." Right-wing Texas congressman, NRA-fanatic, anti-choice extremist and Boehner's Homeland Security Committee chair, McCaul, married into the Clear Channel fortune and is now the 5th richest Member of Congress with an estimated average net worth of $137,611,043. Since first winning the GOP nomination in 2004 for the then brand new 10th district, he has never faced a serious challenge and the DCCC hasn't recruited candidates to run against him. His district connects northern Austin-- Highland, Brentwood, North Loop, Rosedale, Allandale, Crestview, and North Shoal Creek-- to the western suburbs of Houston (Katy, Park Row, Cypress, Rose Hill, Tomball, and Hufsmith) with nothing much in between other than rural towns like La Grange, Brenham, Giddings, Round Top and Bastrop. When it looked like McCaul would be in jeopardy from an expanding Mexican-American population, the Republican state legislature illegally drew Hispanic voters out of his district. The DCCC didn't take them to court over it.

Jennifer Markovsky, mother of two.
Ke'Arre Stewart, father of two.
Garrett Swasey, father of two.

All murdered by a right-wing terrorist shouting "no more baby parts," inspired by self-serving Republican Party garbage Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Adam Kinzinger, Marco Rubio and Mike McCaul. Now these Republican scumbags refuse to say their names, let alone take responsibility for their deaths. In honor of Giving Tuesday, Blue America will be matching all contributions to our candidates up to $1,000 by writing a PAC check to Planned Parenthood. You can read all about that here-- why we're doing it, what our candidates think and how to get involved yourself.

Millionaire terrorist enabler Michael McCaul (R-TX)

UPDATE: Ted Cruz: "Rhetoric and language has consequences."

Yeah... they sure has! Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check reminded us that Ted Cruz, who adamantly rejects and relationship between right-wing hate speech and the murders and terrorism in Colorado Springs overrated weekend, didn't always feel that way. Well, he may have but he was once outspoken about the relationship between rhetoric and dire consequences. He tried blaming President Obama for the death of a police officer based on a spurious interpretation of something the president said.

"The violence we’re seeing directed against law enforcement," Cruz told the media,"is a direct manifestation of the harsh rhetoric and the vilification of police officers and law enforcement that sadly has come all the way from the top. Senior administration officials have chosen to vilify law enforcement."

There was no connection between anything Obama said and the deaths of police officers, of course-- Cruz was lying as usual-- but, as Jacobson wrote, "for Cruz and others in the GOP, this indictment of Obama serves a far-right meme percolating since at least the beginning of this year when, in response to Black Lives Matter (BLM)—the organic movement against police brutality that coalesced after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014—the right countered by blaming the victims of excessive police violence for their own deaths, denying the persistence of racism in our society, and claiming that efforts by Black people to assert their basic humanity were resulting in 'unprecedented' dangers for police.

Last Friday, two civilians and one police officer died and nine others were wounded in a vicious and wholly predictable attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The alleged gunman, Robert Lewis Dear, who used what the New York Times described as an assault-style rifle to blast his way into the health-care facility, reportedly said “no more baby parts” during his arrest.

This would be a direct reference to false and defamatory rhetoric ceaselessly repeated by GOP candidates and the anti-choice movement over the past six months to claim Planned Parenthood profited from the sale of fetal body parts for research, when not a shred of evidence of illegal or unethical activity has been produced.

It’s no secret that the GOP, now fully co-opted by what was once a radical Christian fringe, long ago set its sights on destroying access to reproductive health care in the United States. With callous disregard to the effects on the nearly three million a year who receive primary reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood clinics, the right has made a religious crusade of efforts to shutter Planned Parenthood, persistently threatening to shut down the entire U.S. government in an effort to do so. State legislatures and governors throughout the country have voted to strip funding from family planning and other forms of reproductive health care, destroying an essential keystone of public health. And an entire industry now exists devoted to, among other things, manufacturing lies about abortion and contraception; passing laws to reduce access to abortion care and make criminals of doctors and patients; picketing clinics; harassing and threatening providers and patients; and denying women medically accurate information.

In this environment, heated rhetoric about abortion providers is only one lit match away from a raging forest fire of hatred and violence culminating in unstable people taking matters into their own hands.

...In July... Cruz released a statement saying:

Today’s news regarding allegations that Planned Parenthood is possibly selling the body parts of the babies it has aborted is sickening. There is no place for taxpayer funding of organizations that profit from taking away innocent life, much less profiting off the bodies of the lives they have stolen. Congress should immediately begin an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s activities regarding the sale and transfer of aborted body parts, including who is obtaining them and what they are being used for. And it should renew efforts to fully defund Planned Parenthood to ensure that its morally bankrupt business receives not one penny of taxpayer money.

Cruz has continued to hammer this theme on the campaign trail. In a September op-ed, Cruz wrote about the “horrifying and barbaric nature” of Planned Parenthood, asserting, among other things, that “American taxpayers are currently forced to fund this likely criminal organization, which barters and sells the body parts of unborn children.”

Well after the videos were found to be falsified, GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, who as noted by University of California researcher Carole Joffe, “has the habit of forcefully doubling down on her [false] claims [even] when she is confronted with the truth,” continued to claim Planned Parenthood was guilty of “harvesting baby parts,” despite evidence that the video to which she pointed was falsified.

Mike Huckabee has made attacks on abortion providers and on Planned Parenthood a centerpiece of his campaign, claiming that clinics are “selling babies’ body parts like the parts of a Buick.” Huckabee has variously called Planned Parenthood a “kill for hire organization,” compared abortion providers to Hitler, and stated that “only since the Nazis have we seen such coldblooded indifference to human life.”

Variations on this theme have been endlessly repeated for months by presidential candidates Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush on TV, radio, and in print, and continued well after threats to clinics were directly linked by the FBI to the release of the CMP videos.

“Since the release of the initial video by pro-life organization Center for Medical Progress in July, investigators say there have been nine criminal or suspicious incidents across the country,” according to a report on the FBI findings by Jeff Pegues of CBS News.

Yes, Ted Cruz, rhetoric and language have consequences. And over and over again we’ve seen that the GOP and the anti-choice movement writ large blatantly disregard the likely consequences of their own rhetoric, and then cry foul when asked to do some soul-searching.

But by its own yardstick, the anti-choice community has this blood all over its hands.

And please don't forget to check this out as a means of just saying NO to ugly Republican hypocrisy and violence.

Is The Republican Establishment So Desperate That They'd Try To Draft Willard Again?

Friday, Carly Fiorina was happy to not have to fight with PolitiFact about another of her "Pants-on-Fire" Lies. Instead, she went to the safety of her Facebook page to attack Donald Trump and defend the honor of the falling apart Dr. Ben campaign. Solidarity of the outrageously mendacious?

Of course, it only took a few hours for Trumpy to strike back. His nearly 5 million Twitter fans were soon reading a typical Trumpian diatribe against Fiorina, although he has savvied up enough to not allow her to win sympathy by over-doing it. Before moving on to exploit the horrific tragedy in Paris to boost his own campaign he spent about an hour on Fiorina and her dismal, failing campaign:

Later in the day the five-day rolling Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely Republican primary voters showed Trump surging 17 points, despite-- or because of-- his shocking attack this week on Dr. Ben's obvious mental problems. Watch the astounding video at the bottom of the post. Trump's great leap forward came since Nov. 6 when he and Dr. Ben were tied at 25%. Trump is now at 42% and Dr. B. stayed the same. Worse news for the seemly impotent Republican Party establishment is that their newest white knight, Marco Rubio, at 10%, doesn't seem to be going anywhere... other than ahead of their last white knight, the poor Jebster, now bumping along at 4%. All that bullshit praise the GOP pundits heaped on Rubio after his sophomoric debate performance didn't impress the voters. And the fierce fascist? Cruz's always touted debate performance leaves him with an unimpressive 8%. So... panic-time in Republicanville again. How panicked? Now they want to bring back proven loser Mitt Romney. No... really.

Some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney— despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.

...Many of Romney’s 2012 National Finance Committee members have sat out the race so far, including Peter A. Wish, a Florida doctor whom several 2016 candidates have courted.

“I’m not a happy camper,” Wish said. “Hopefully, somebody will emerge who will be able to do the job,” but, he added, “I’m very worried that the Republican-base voter is more motivated by anger, distrust of D.C. and politicians and will throw away the opportunity to nominate a candidate with proven experience that can win.”

The apprehension among some party elites goes beyond electability, according to one Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the worries.

“We’re potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn’t fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job,” this strategist said. “It’s not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?”

Angst about Trump intensified this week after he made two comments that could prove damaging in a general election. First, he explained his opposition to raising the minimum wage by saying “wages are too high.” Second, he said he would create a federal “deportation force” to remove the more than 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

“To have a leading candidate propose a new federal police force that is going to flush out illegal immigrants across the nation? That’s very disturbing and concerning to me about where that leads Republicans,” said Dick Wadhams, a former GOP chairman in Colorado, a swing state where Republicans are trying to pick up a Senate seat next year.

Said Austin Barbour, a veteran operative and fundraiser now advising former Florida governor Jeb Bush: “If we don’t have the right [nominee], we could lose the Senate, and we could face losses in the House. Those are very, very real concerns. If we’re not careful and we nominate Trump, we’re looking at a race like Barry Goldwater in 1964 or George McGovern in 1972, getting beat up across the board because of our nominee.”

...There are similar concerns about Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is gaining steam and is loathed by party elites, but they are more muted, at least for now.

The Republican Party Base Rewards The Most Outrageous And Blatant Lies From Their Crackpot Candidates

I don't think anyone expects Donald Trump to ever say anything that's objectively true. When PolitiFact looked into 58 controversial statements he made during the last debate, not even ONE proved to be true (although 15 of the 58 were "mostly true" or "half true"). The rest were lies, including 10 that were such insane whoppers that PolitiFact rated them "Pants on Fire." Carson didn't say as much but none of his fact checked statements turned out to be true either! PolitiFact caught Fiorina, Rubio, Jeb and Cruz lying as well. Some of them-- Rubio, Christie and Jeb, particularly-- lie strategically and someone of them lie because they have created alternative universes they fall apart without a web of interconnected falsehoods. Fiorina and Trump were exposed early on in the process as inveterate liars who were much more likely to say something false than something true. And Carson... off the charts-- perhaps more flat-out insane than a manipulator like Cruz or Rubio, and someone with a dangerous world-view based on sheer nonsense that he accepts as fact. Carson, for one, lives in a world where it is not possible to distinguish between reality and fantasy-- a potentially volatile Pants on Fire world, where Mahmoud Abbas, Ali Khamenei and Vladimir Putin started plotting against America in 1968.

Every once in a while, religion will derange an otherwise intelligent individual in such a way as to leave no doubt that theistic faith – the fanatical conviction, based on no evidence whatsoever, that certain all-encompassing supernatural assertions about our species and universe are true – is a malady that needs to be cured immediately, lest the patient, already floundering in a self-induced state of unreality, cross into a gaga land of total psychotic delusion and do himself or others real harm (which includes educating children in said faith).

To wit: The recent, faith-related babblings of Republican 2016 front-runner Dr. Ben Carson show him to be hovering on the brink, and in need of a rationalist intervention, and fast, possibly with the aid of state-of-the-art neuroleptics. They should be provoking outrage, not the least because the reporter who solicited them did so for a major news outlet, AP, without asking a single question about the bizarreries of the Seventh-day Adventist cult to which Carson belongs or challenging him on the outlandishly false statements he so effortlessly emitted.

What's dangerous, though, is that the fabric of lies aren't just biographical like Rubio's, Fiorina's, Trump's and Carson's. Sure, Carson is pathological and made up a whole chapter of his life involving West Point and General Westmoreland that never existed and Rubio has been passing himself off as the son of anti-Castro refugees for his whole career (while lying about stealing money from the Florida Republican Party for luxury stays in Vegas casinos and back waxing sessions)... but it's when their fabric of lies come into the policy arena that Americans need to snap to and write these clowns off. I mean does it really matter that Rubio lies about his personal finances, when the policy agenda he's proposing-- built on a tissue of lies meant to grant immense tax cuts to the already woefully under-taxed 1% begin with-- would wreck all of our personal finances? Here's on lie Dr. Ben can't evade responsibility for by blaming his ghost writer:



Yesterday David Weigel looked at why older Republican voters-- but not older normal people-- are so easily scammed by snake oil hucksters like Carson and Huckabee and how that's become a very lucrative business model on the far right fringe of society.

Greg Sargent, writing for the New Republic pointed out over the weekend that when Republicans lie about Climate Change, they are actually endangering our existence as a species. "The Republican Party," he wrote, "could be the single greatest impediment to global efforts to slow climate change."

On stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in mid-September, two-plus hours into the second GOP presidential debate, the candidates were shifting under the glare of the klieg lights as moderator Jake Tapper began grilling Senator Marco Rubio about one of the Republicans’ least favorite topics: climate change. When evidence mounted in the 1980s that the ozone layer was shrinking, the CNN anchor noted, “Ronald Reagan urged skeptics in industry to come up with a plan … and his approach worked.” So why not “approach climate change the Reagan way?”

It was fitting that Rubio, who is working harder than any candidate to present himself as the party’s face of the future, was the one who had to field the question. Forward-thinking people, as the senator from Florida knows very well, do not deny science. But at the same time, as Rubio also knows, Republicans in search of conservative votes have long felt compelled to do just that.

So he glared down at Tapper and attempted a dodge, firing back: “Because we’re not going to destroy our economy the way the left-wing government that we are under now wants to do.” Rubio, clearly well-drilled to answer the question, went on: “We are not going to make America a harder place to create jobs in order to pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate, to change our weather.”

Other Republican candidates have taken a slightly different tack on climate: Yes, conservatives should accept the science, but they should be wary of drawing hard conclusions from it. Jeb Bush, for one, admits that “the climate is changing,” and says conservatives should “embrace science”-- but adds that claiming the science on climate is “decided” is “really arrogant.”

None of these rhetorical acrobatics will surprise anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the Republican Party’s approach to one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century. Faced with the inconvenient scientific consensus that the only planet in the solar system known to be fit for human habitation is getting hotter, and may soon be doing so irreversibly, the GOP-- one of the two major parties that govern the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases-- has for years responded by developing a complex, shifting series of denial mechanisms that preclude any serious participation in the debate over solutions.

These denial devices have become so sophisticated and all-pervasive that a whole journalistic subgenre-- a species of climate cryptology-- has sprung up to ponder and interpret their inner workings. Lately, the cryptologists have been detecting subtle signs of a GOP evolution on climate. While it’s long been standard for Republican candidates to question, evade, or reject climate science, GOP candidates in last year’s midterm elections began routinely responding to climate questions by throwing up their hands and repeating some variation of, “I’m not a scientist.” More recently, some GOP officials and presidential candidates have taken to acknowledging global warming while insisting that the private sector-- not Big Bad Government-- must solve it. It’s a step forward, if only a baby step.

NY Times reporter Michael Barbaro was also trying to figure out the reasons for the lies our current crop of politicians are telling us and he's come to the conclusion that "it may not matter. In the 2016 presidential campaign, the truth is starting to look deeply out of fashion."

The presidential campaign is still in its early and unsettled stages, and many subplots are still to unfold. But so far, the old and powerful structure of the venerable news media as a gatekeeper, seizing on the candidates for any untruth and deeply wounding them in the process, seems to be crumbling, replaced by a more chaotic environment.

Deep disregard for the news media has allowed candidates to duck, dodge and ridicule assertions from outlets they dislike and seek the embrace of those that are inclined to protect them.

Today, it seems, truth is in the eyes of the beholder-- and any assertion can be elevated and amplified if yelled loudly enough.

When a moderator in the last Republican debate tried to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his campaign’s description of Mr. Rubio as the personal senator of Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Trump simply denied it, volubly, over and over.

“I never said that. I never said that,” he declared to the moderator, Becky Quick of CNBC.

Ms. Quick tried to clarify the matter. “So this was an erroneous article the whole way around?” she asked.

Mr. Trump dubiously accused the news media of doing “bad fact-checking,” eliciting an apology from Ms. Quick.

After the debate, amid intense mockery from the candidates, it was CNBC and Ms. Quick who were derided. Mr. Trump never answered for his campaign’s description of Mr. Rubio, and paid no price for denying it.

In many ways, Mr. Trump has set the tone for the embroidery: His grandiose and sweeping claims have generated an entirely new category of overstatement in American politics. Several of his statements are so outlandish that they cannot even be disproved. Mexico, he assures voters, will pay for the giant wall he will erect along the border. Deporting millions of illegal immigrants will be simple, he explains. He can correct a trade imbalance with China, he says, because “I beat China all the time.”

Mr. Trump, to be sure, utters plenty of refutable claims. (PolitiFact has rated 40 percent of his statements “false.”) To buttress his argument that America has a “stupid” immigration system, he has asserted, repeatedly, that Mexico does not grant citizenship to those born on its soil, as America does.

That is false. Mexico, in fact, has a form of birthright citizenship.

...Give no ground, political strategists frequently counsel their candidates in today’s new arena of fact-twisting.

When journalists pressed Mrs. Fiorina on her description of an undercover video released by opponents of abortion, she stuck with her original wording about “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

Media fact-checkers have roundly disputed this account. Yet a few days later, when Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, asked Mrs. Fiorina to acknowledge “that you exaggerated this scene,” she refused.

The candidates complain about a news media fixated on “gotcha” questions and spotting small factual errors that can occur when fatigued candidates, traveling nonstop, slip up. But patterns tend to emerge over time, not in a single moment.

Other than Trump, the Republican candidates hoping for Carson to disappear, are wary of attacking him for his... quirks. "Numerous 2016 operatives said their candidates would be hands-off when it comes to questioning Carson’s resume and his claims of having received a 'full scholarship' to West Point when he never applied or was admitted to the military academy. 'All a candidate would be doing is engendering ill will among people who like Ben Carson,' a top operative for a second campaign said. 'That’s why I’m not on the record right now.'... Carson has soared to the top of the Republican presidential heap largely on the strength of his personal story and appeal. His story, as told in his own best-selling books and even a TV drama, is one of a young African-American from hardscrabble Detroit whose faith allowed him to become one of the world’s most celebrated brain surgeons. It has been a breakout hit on the campaign trail, particularly among evangelical voters. Carson has consistently scored the among highest favorability ratings of all Republicans, with an 82 percent favorable rating among GOP voters in a Quinnipiac poll this month. He was ranked the most 'honest and trustworthy' candidate among all voters; a remarkable 91 percent of Republicans called him 'honest and trustworthy.' Now operatives believe that reservoir of support is at risk. 'When your whole campaign is built around cult of personality and a portion of that message is proven not to be true, everything else becomes suspect,' said the senior Republican strategist." And it isn't "the liberal media" pushing a made-up story-- as much as Carsonistas say it is. Yesterday Rupert Murdoch's right-wing Wall Street Journal was raising the most intense questions about Carson's integrity and suitability for office. "Carson’s biography," Reid Epstein wrote, "a rise from poverty to become a top neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, is central to his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, his story-- told in nine books and countless inspirational speeches over the past 25 years-- has come under the harsh scrutiny of presidential politics, where rivals and media hunt for embellishments and omissions that can hobble a campaign... The threat to the Carson candidacy is that the inconsistencies or hard-to-check anecdotes, which were told long before he ever considered a presidential run, will put off voters only now getting to know him."

Bernie may be enjoying all this insanity less than most of us-- he is, after all, trying to run a serious policy-centric campaign-- and on Meet the Press yesterday he indicated that by focusing on the personal and biographical details of all the lies these Republicans can't help but spout, sight is being lost of the danger they present in terms of governance and policy agendas. It's worth watching-- and worth contributing to Bernie's campaign afterwards as well.

Lying Doesn't Matter In A Republican Primary... In Fact An Ability To Make Things Up And Get Away With It, Is A Plus For These People

David Brock may be discredited for his Republican-like sliming of Bernie Sanders on behalf of the Clinton machine that has helped finance his career, but the watchdog organization he founded in 2004, Media Matters for America, is as vibrant and essential as it ever was. In the video above, Media Matters' Eric Boehlert was on TV patiently exposing the cascade of ugly lies that fell from Carly Fiorina's lips during the Republican debate Wednesday night.

Boehlert repeated the point that Republican politicians and their base are now "immune from facts, living in their own bubble."

This is a classic example. Carly Fiorina has a problem telling the truth. Now she either didn't watch these videos, which is amazing because she wants-- she wants to shut down the entire federal government to defund Planned Parenthood. Or she did watch the videos and she just made this stuff up, because what she described, as you said, does not exist. I mean, how are you going to run for president and you're going to say this is what she saw on the video, when everyone can look at it in the video and say it doesn't exist? That's a problem. And, you know, if you want to go back for some context, when Al Gore ran for president, the D.C. press said he cannot be president because he has the tendency to exaggerate. Is the press going to hold Carly Fiorina to the same standard? She's just making stuff up about shutting down the federal government. This is kind of weird.

The bottom line is that even in the doctored tapes manufactured by anti-Choice fanatics, there aren't any images that Fiorina claims to have seen and there is no mention of instructions to "keep it alive so we can harvest its brain." Fiorina made that up to score points at the debate. Can anyone again ever take anything she says seriously?

But Fiorina wasn't the only compulsive liar spouting nonsense on that Reagan Library stage last week. To prepare for his NYTimes column Friday, Paul Krugman went over the transcript of CNN's debate and reported that he was "terrified."

Why is that scary? I would argue that all of the G.O.P. candidates are calling for policies that would be deeply destructive at home, abroad, or both. But even if you like the broad thrust of modern Republican policies, it should worry you that the men and woman on that stage are clearly living in a world of fantasies and fictions. And some seem willing to advance their ambitions with outright lies.

Let’s start at the shallow end, with the fantasy economics of the establishment candidates.

You’re probably tired of hearing this, but modern G.O.P. economic discourse is completely dominated by an economic doctrine-- the sovereign importance of low taxes on the rich-- that has failed completely and utterly in practice over the past generation.

Think about it. Bill Clinton’s tax hike was followed by a huge economic boom, the George W. Bush tax cuts by a weak recovery that ended in financial collapse. The tax increase of 2013 and the coming of Obamacare in 2014 were associated with the best job growth since the 1990s. Jerry Brown’s tax-raising, environmentally conscious California is growing fast; Sam Brownback’s tax- and spending-slashing Kansas isn’t.

Yet the hold of this failed dogma on Republican politics is stronger than ever, with no skeptics allowed. On Wednesday Jeb Bush claimed, once again, that his voodoo economics would double America’s growth rate, while Marco Rubio insisted that a tax on carbon emissions would “destroy the economy.”

The only candidate talking sense about economics was, yes, Donald Trump, who declared that “we’ve had a graduated tax system for many years, so it’s not a socialistic thing.”

If the discussion of economics was alarming, the discussion of foreign policy was practically demented. Almost all the candidates seem to believe that American military strength can shock-and-awe other countries into doing what we want without any need for negotiations, and that we shouldn’t even talk with foreign leaders we don’t like. No dinners for Xi Jinping! And, of course, no deal with Iran, because resorting to force in Iraq went so well.

Indeed, the only candidate who seemed remotely sensible on national security issues was Rand Paul, which is almost as disturbing as the spectacle of Mr. Trump being the only voice of economic reason.

The real revelation on Wednesday, however, was the way some of the candidates went beyond expounding bad analysis and peddling bad history to making outright false assertions, and probably doing so knowingly, which turns those false assertions into what are technically known as “lies.”

For example, Chris Christie asserted, as he did in the first G.O.P. debate, that he was named U.S. attorney the day before 9/11. It’s still not true: His selection for the position wasn’t even announced until December.

Mr. Christie’s mendacity pales, however, in comparison to that of Carly Fiorina, who was widely hailed as the “winner” of the debate.

Some of Mrs. Fiorina’s fibs involved repeating thoroughly debunked claims about her business record. No, she didn’t preside over huge revenue growth. She made Hewlett-Packard bigger by acquiring other companies, mainly Compaq, and that acquisition was a financial disaster. Oh, and if her life is a story of going from “secretary to C.E.O.,” mine is one of going from mailman to columnist and economist. Sorry, working menial jobs while you’re in school doesn’t make your life a Horatio Alger story.

But the truly awesome moment came when she asserted that the videos being used to attack Planned Parenthood show “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” No, they don’t. Anti-abortion activists have claimed that such things happen, but have produced no evidence, just assertions mingled with stock footage of fetuses.

So is Mrs. Fiorina so deep inside the bubble that she can’t tell the difference between facts and agitprop? Or is she deliberately spreading a lie? And most important, does it matter?

I began writing for The Times during the 2000 election campaign, and what I remember above all from that campaign is the way the conventions of “evenhanded” reporting allowed then-candidate George W. Bush to make clearly false assertions-- about his tax cuts, about Social Security-- without paying any price. As I wrote at the time, if Mr. Bush said the earth was flat, we’d see headlines along the lines of “Shape of the Planet: Both Sides Have a Point.”

Now we have presidential candidates who make Mr. Bush look like Abe Lincoln. But who will tell the people?

This culture of lying doesn't bother-- or even seem odd-- to a generation of Republicans who have been molded and formed by Hate Talk Radio hosts and Fox News. "What's all the fuss?" they must be thinking now. In November of 2016, though, whichever ticket-- either Trump/Sessions or Cruz/Fiorina most likely-- winds up running in the real world, they will have to face normal people who will be as horrified and disgusted as Krugman is. If the Democrats make the colossal error of running Hillary Clinton, though, what we'll hear is "both sides do it; all politicians lie." But they don't all lie.