Midnight Meme Of The Day

-by Noah

Sarah Huckabee Sanders gets a lot of shit from people. People talk about what a lying sociopath she is, how unbelievably pathetic she is, and all that. They wonder how anyone can have so much low self-esteem that they can go out behind a podium every day and lie, obfuscate, and show such contempt for America; all for, Trump. Some wonder what meds she must be abusing just to do what she does, how she can face herself, etc. Is it even worse; is she just a true believer? Did she ever have a soul?

Does she deserve it all? Hell, yeah. In fact, she's gotten off so easy its ridiculous. In my own personal fantasy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the 4th grade substitute teacher that gets pelted with 100 chalk dust filled erasers.

Some even dwell on the eyes of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Rosemary's Baby allusions aside, social media is rife with commentary on the dullness of her eyes, some going so far as to say that eyes like hers are often a sign of inbreeding; in her case, inbreeding Ozark Mountain style. But, there's that old saying that the eyes are the windows to one's soul, so, perhaps the truth is just that she has inherited something else from her father, i.e. his extremely poor character.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a lightning rod. That's her job. She is a masochist and Trump loves masochists. To Trump, masochists are "tremendous people." After all, they help fulfill his needy sadism. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is one of his instruments of showing how he really feels about Americans and America. You know Vladimir Putin thinks she's perfect in every way. To him, she'd make a fine agent of the Russian intelligence services.

You Have To Go To A Dead Language To Find The Best Definition Of Trumpism

McConnell had hoped the Senate would vote to repeal Obamacare on Thursday night. He was wrong on two counts: the Senate rejected the repeal again-- and it came on Friday morning, the 52nd anniversary of Medicare.

My great-grandparents came to the U.S., refugees from the genocidal tyrannies of Eastern Europe, in the early 1900s. When I was a kid my grandmother sometimes used Yiddish words from her childhood around the house. When I was trying to think of a word to describe Trump's horrifying, degenerate, shameful and dysfunctional regime one of those words popped into my head: hegdesh. Perhaps the last time I heard it was 5-6 decades ago and I recalled it meaning "a messy, confused place." Before using it I thought I should look it up in an English-Yiddish dictionary. My memory was close: "filthy place." Sounds like everything attached to Donald J. Trump and his family and Regime.

Did you know he was angry at Priebus for not getting into a public fight with The Mooch when The Mooch told Ryan Lizza that the then-chief of staff is a "fucking paranoid schizophrenic" and a "paranoiac" and seems dot threaten to get him either investigated by the FBI or fired by Trumpanzee. Trump's management style-- divide and conquer-- is primitive, counterproductive and feckless. It may work in a mom-and-pop family business like Trump's but it doesn't work in the real world, not in the corporate world and certainly not in government. The Webster dictionary describes it as "to make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one." That's Señor Trumpanzee in a nutshell.

McCain got him back but good this week. This was his official statement after he joined Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and the Senate Democrats to kill TrumpCare Friday morning:

“From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people. The so-called ‘skinny repeal’ amendment the Senate voted on today would not accomplish those goals. While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The Speaker's statement that the House would be ‘willing’ to go to conference does not ease my concern that this shell of a bill could be taken up and passed at any time.

“I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote. We should not make the mistakes of the past that has led to Obamacare’s collapse, including in my home state of Arizona where premiums are skyrocketing and health care providers are fleeing the marketplace. We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.”

Writing for the Washington Post after the vote, James Hohmann noted that "There is nothing Trump can do any more that will get to McCain. Battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, the maverick was willing to vote 'no' on the 'skinny repeal' amendment so that other GOP colleagues who were also opposed to the measure could vote 'yes' to save face with the conservative base. To this day, Trump has never apologized for saying that the former fighter pilot was not a war hero because he got captured in Vietnam. It gets less attention, but the president also besmirched the Arizona senator’s character by repeatedly accusing him of not taking care of other veterans. McCain has never forgotten."

And Trump isn't smart enough to remember. Maybe he'll adopt an idea gaining currency among the crackpot right to repeal the 17th amendment that allowed the electorate to pick senators.

The Trump wing of the GOP is on the warpath-- and Trump (and Bannon) love it, of course. They're all about disunity, turmoil and chaos... always places for opportunists to thrive. Here was FreedomWorks' statement after the vote Friday:

Last night’s vote was a slap in the face to every conservative who has been promised that Republicans would repeal ObamaCare. Sens. John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins voted against the ‘skinny repeal’ of ObamaCare, theoretically the least repeal that can be achieved because so many Republicans went back on their votes for a 2015-style repeal. The Republican Party has been all about ObamaCare repeal for the better part of a decade, and now we see that they have been writing checks to voters that they knew the Bank of Obama wouldn’t cash. Now that President Trump would sign it, they have exposed themselves as frauds.

Trump probably would have been just as happy to have signed a Medicare-for-All bill. It's all the same to him. Serious conservatives looking to move forward would be better off reading John Harwood's OpEd for CNBC, GOP needs to buck the crushing partisanship that just toppled health reform, than the incoherent drivel from FreedomWorks.

Ohanian's Obamacare Repeal

Something collapsed of its own weight last night, but it wasn't Obamacare. It was a partisan legislative effort that had grown completely disconnected from its ostensible purpose. Congressional Republicans, in the name of improving American health care, ended up searching for any bill they could pass-- whatever its content.

Thursday's bizarre spectacle included Republican senators demanding assurances that a bill they were about to vote for would never become law. In the end, the fact that the "skinny repeal"-- like every other variant the House and Senate had considered-- would have left millions more Americans without health insurance proved too much for Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain.

Given the GOP's narrow 52-seat majority, their "no" votes were enough to sink the party's seven-year anti-Obamacare crusade. Spectacular dysfunction within the Trump White House-- where a disengaged president oversees open warfare between his chief of staff and new communications director-- only made the effort harder.

Now that GOP implosion threatens prospects for tax reform and President Donald Trump's entire legislative agenda. A similar disconnect between campaign commitments, policy goals and achievable legislation hangs over the remainder of the Republican agenda, which includes overhauling the tax code.

But Trump and Republican congressional leaders have no consensus on specific objectives. And since their legislative plan is to proceed with only Republican votes, they have minimal margin for error.

Trump, who championed the "forgotten" working class in his 2016 campaign, says his principal concern is cutting taxes for middle-income Americans. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who favors cutting top marginal tax rates above all, specifically rejects the idea of focusing a plan around cutting middle-class taxes.

Ryan, reflecting conservative deficit hawks in his caucus, wants a tax reform plan that does not increase budget deficits after accounting for economic growth. Trump and his aides emphasize tax cuts and are willing to accept higher deficits.

A tax reform statement released Thursday, just as health-care legislation foundered yet again, showed that the White House has prevailed on that point, at least for now. It shelved the so-called border adjustment tax that Ryan hoped would finance deep rate cuts for businesses.

What's not certain is whether a cuts-only plan that increases the federal debt could pass even in the House, where Republicans hold a substantial majority, much less the Senate. And while Ryan backs cutting the top personal tax rate, neither the Senate nor key players within the Trump White House have embraced that goal.

Hopes for a major infrastructure plan face the same dynamic. The White House has pledged a $1 trillion investment that uses $200 billion in taxpayer money to attract $800 billion in private capital.

But GOP leaders, already struggling to boost defense spending, raise the debt limit and pass a budget, face resistance from conservatives on infrastructure spending. Democratic lawmakers will insist on more spending if the White House decides to seek their votes.

For now there's only one clear lesson from the GOP's health-care failure. The size of Republican majorities now make partisanship for its own sake too heavy a burden to bear.

And, keeping the essence of the word, hegdesh in mind, let's not forget that to Trump all this is a distraction anyway-- anything and everything to get the focus off Putin-Gate.

Deutsche Bank Laundromat-- Scrubbling Rubles Into Greenbacks

Trump Will Rule By Public Spectacle And Humiliation

Trump led Ted Cruz into thinking he was up for the Attorney General job, all the time laughing his ass off at the despised Texas ego-maniac. He called Cruz in for a very public meeting, encouraged him to blab to the press that he was being considered to head the Department of Justice... and then promptly humiliated him by appointing an incompetent DC joke, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. Thursday we were wondering if he wasn't doing the same thing to Romney with the Secretary of State position. Huckabee and Gingrich have been leading a smear campaign against Romney inside the transition apparatus. Huckabee went to the press and said that "It would be a real insult to all those Donald Trump voters who worked really hard" if he picked Romney and Gingrich's take was-- aside from hoping for the position for himself-- the same, almost word-for-word, as Huckabee's. On Fox Huckabee said that the only way Romney "could even be considered for a post like that [is if] he goes to a microphone in a very public place and repudiates everything he said in that famous Salt Lake City speech and everything he said after that, where he said Donald Trump wasn’t fit, that he lacked character. I mean on and on. That’s beyond just the normal political infighting that we all experience."

Will Romney grovel for job? Fox News is reporting that Romney basically has no dignity left at all and he's prepared to grovel to Trump's heart's content. They want that public apology, as part of the Trump 3 ring circus-- and humiliation of the establishment.

A transition official told Fox’s Ed Henry that some in Trump’s inner circle want the former Massachusetts governor to apologize in order to be seriously considered for the secretary of State.

Trump is reportedly considering whether to pick Romney or former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the coveted cabinet position.

Giuliani is the preferred choice of Trump’s loyalists and grassroots supporters, while Romney is a favorite of establishment conservatives.

And the Wall Street Journal claims Giuliani is actively and aggressively lobbying for the post. "He has spent the last two weeks," they reported, "engaged in an unusually public fight to land the secretary-of-state slot in the next administration. Mr. Trump, the Republican president-elect, is also considering nominating Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee and former investment banker. But Mr. Giuliani and his allies continue to press his case."

Giuliani’s quest for the nation’s top diplomatic post is a sharp deviation from prior presidential transitions, in which candidates for top jobs avoided the news media so as not to damage their prospects. A spokeswoman for Mr. Romney didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In addition to secretary of state, Mr. Giuliani is being considered for the country’s most senior spy position, director of national intelligence, according to people familiar with the transition team’s deliberations.

...Ethics experts said Mr. Giuliani’s work for foreign governments wouldn’t prevent him from taking a job in the Trump administration but would likely raise questions about potential conflicts of interest.

What an administration this is going to be! Yesterday, Daniel Larison, writing for the American Conservative called the choice between Romney and Rudy a dreadful choice, pointing out that the quarrel between the two camps "is that it has essentially nothing to do with the contenders’ qualifications for the position in question."

This is not an argument over whether it would be better to choose an experienced foreign policy hand or to pick a political ally, but rather it is a fight over which unqualified individual with no foreign policy experience to speak of should get the job. The Trump loyalists’ objections to Romney are not based on policy differences, nor are they even questioning Romney’s managerial competence in running a government department, but are focused entirely on Romney’s opposition to Trump during the campaign. Likewise, the argument for Giuliani is not that he is better-prepared to be Secretary of State, but simply that he was on board with Trump early on and served as a loyal surrogate.

Lost in all of this is that neither of them is remotely qualified to do the job, and choosing either would represent the elevation of someone with dangerous foreign policy judgment. One is reflexively hawkish, and the other is absurdly belligerent. One tends to be more fixated on provoking Russia, while the other is in league with a deranged cult and obsesses over the threat from Iran. Both are remarkably ignorant about foreign policy issues, and neither one has any business heading the department responsible for our relations with the rest of the world, but it seems that we’re going to end up with one or the other. Republicans may prefer one or the other based on their views of Trump, and some rightly prefer neither, but whichever one wins this contest our foreign policy and our interests will be the losers.

Will Willard Get His Own Ring In The Trumpy-the-Clown Circus Tent?

Tricia Erickson is a well-known one woman anti-Mormon freakshow and right-wing, Trump-backing sociopath. While most normal Americans are freaking out over Trumpy-the-Clown appointments like Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Betsy DeVos, Mike Pompeo, Ben Carson-- and threats of positions for a collection of dangerous misfits and grifters from Rudy Giuliani, Kris Kobach, Wilbur Ross, Jan Brewer, Forrest Lucas, Harold Hamm, Mike Huckabee and Harold Ford to Joe Arpaio, Steven Mnuchin, Sarah Palin, Jeb Hensarling and John Bolton... Ericsson is obsessed with someone else she fears Trump is about the give a job to, Mitt Romney. "[I]t is quite astounding," she wrote to her e-mail list yesterday, "that Trump would even consider bringing Mitt Romney into any office under his administration. Romney has not only been working for years to keep Trump out of office, but he (Romney) has a track record of horrible judgement that has already changed and harmed the landscape of our country and the American People on so many levels that it would take a book to cover it all... I am hereby warning, not only this new administration, but also the entire country regarding EVER placing Mitt Romney in ANY seat within POTUS."

So what's her gripe against Romney, apart from the anti-Mormon bigotry she's best known for? She has pages and pages of anti-Romney boilerplate-- from raising taxes in Massachusetts and promoting "the homosexual agenda" there to RomneyCare, liberal judicial appointments and assertions that Romney is pro-Choice. (He was but, like Trump, he changed his position, actually long before Trump did.) She accuses him of being a draft dodger (as was Trump, of course) and of being a racist. "Why, she snarled like a rabid dog, "hasn't Mitt renounced the HORRIFIC RACISM AGAINST BLACKS & Native Americans in his Mormon 'faith' and historical doctrine?"

Mitt Romney was relying on the backlash against Barack Obama’s radical policies to propel him into the presidency. Ever the image master, like Obama, he is, again, positioning himself as the white horse, the savior of the country. He is counting on the American electorate to ignore his record, flip flops and insatiable quest for power that began with his father. Where Obama’s brand was hope and change and the anti-Bush, Romney’s is Mr. Fix-it and the anti-Obama.

To make himself relevant again, he rebranded himself as the "anti-Trump"....as he flip flops again.

She bills herself as a "recognized expert on Mormonism," when, in fact, she's a recognized bigot, misanthrope and sociopath. Her book, Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters. I bet Thom Hartmann is embarrassed for having put her on his TV show!



So while Joe Scarborough is pushing Trump to pick Romney as Secretary of State-- and implies to his morning audience that it's in the bag, other Trumpists have other ideas. Many people say who's ever with Trump the moment before he goes up to the podium to announce his choice, will pick the next Secretary of State. Many say it's come down to a choice between Romney and Giuliani, although others see him making Giuliani the Director of National Intelligence, a very frightening prospect. Other Trumpists-- primarily Newt Gingrich-- want him to give the job to Newt Gingrich and supposedly David Petraeus and John Bolton are still in the running. Mike Huckabee is an advocate of the insanity pushed by Erickson and is hissing it into Trump's ears whenever he gets the chance. In a message Huckabee later deleted, he tweeted: "Nice to have meeting--but no admin spot; Mitt said Trump was con man; phony. That's insult to Trump voters."

Yesterday, Politico reported that Huckabee and other Trump allies are making a concerted effort to steer him away from Romney.

Huckabee warned that appointments of disloyal Republicans could prove to be a distraction in a president’s administration, arguing that such a person could be a problem because he or she doesn’t have a sense of commitment to or compatibility with the president-elect.

“It’s not about that I don’t care for Mitt personally, but I’m still very unhappy that Mitt did everything he could to derail Donald Trump,” Huckabee told Fox News. “He didn’t just go after him from a standpoint of saying I disagree with his policy on immigration or I disagree with his policy on taxes. He attacked him on a personal level about his character, integrity, his honor.”

The president-elect is looking at both Romney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani for secretary of state, but the search for that post could still broaden. It does not appear that a final decision is imminent, even though Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller said on Wednesday that Trump is spending "significant time" on the deliberations.

Romney delivered a blistering speech in March in Salt Lake City in which he called Trump a “phony” and a “fraud.” He also tried to pick a convention floor fight, boldly calling on voters to cast their primary ballot for whatever Republican had a chance to beat Trump in their state.

He also used his speech to warn of the dangers of a Trump administration, mocking his business acumen-- “A business genius he is not,” Romney said-- and blasting his “flimsy at best” policies. He also described his foreign policy chops as “very, very not smart,” and said that “dishonesty” was the hallmark of his campaign.

Trump, who had repeatedly dismissed Romney as a failed candidate, immediately returned fire, saying Romney was a “choke artist” who begged for his endorsement and would have “dropped to his knees” had he asked him to.

On Wednesday, Huckabee accused Romney of not only “savaging” the man Republicans overwhelmingly elected as their nominee with his rhetoric during the campaign but also “savaging the voters.”

“It would be a real insult to all those Donald Trump voters who worked really hard. That’s what I think he has to stop and consider,” Huckabee said.

The only way Romney “could even be considered for a post like that,” he continued, is if “he goes to a microphone in a very public place and repudiates everything he said in that famous Salt Lake City speech and everything he said after that, where he said Donald Trump wasn’t fit, that he lacked character. I mean on and on. That’s beyond just the normal political infighting that we all experience.”

Gingrich characterized Romney as Trump’s “most vicious and most explicit opponent all through the campaign on the Republican side” and suggested his loyalty would be to himself, citing his presidential aspirations.

“You have to list out all the things he said and think, ‘Is this guy really gonna be loyal?’ But also, you know, Governor Romney wanted to be president, not secretary of state, and you have to ask the question: When he goes overseas, is he gonna be the secretary of state for President Trump or is he gonna be Mitt Romney’s own secretary state?” Gingrich asked. “I will support whoever President-elect Trump picks because he has the right, I think as the new president, to build the team he wants to build, but I would suggest there are a lot of other people who are more qualified than Romney in foreign policy and who are also have not been as actively hostile as he’s been.”

Trumpf Wants To Know: "What Are Calgary Values?" He's About To Find Out

As you can see from the video above, which Cruz has been sending around to justify his "New York values" comment, he's not going to curl up in a ball and whine the way the other Republican commander-in-chief wannabes have when Herr Trumpf looked at them crosseyed. As Fox's Chad Pergram pointed out on twitter yesterday, when Cruz was rescued from a stalled elevator in South Carolina Saturday morning, he emerged asking "Who put Donald Trump in charge of the elevators?" That may have been a comment on Trump trying to harm him or a comment on the shoddy workmanship Trump projects are so infamous for worldwide. But Cruz's attack, vicious as it might be in Republicanland, is pretty much water off a duck's back to Trumpf fans who don't care what he said in an interview in 1999. They're looking for a fuehrer, a caudillo... end of story.

This morning, Herr was on ABC's This Week, taking pot shots at Cruz and pontificating about how little chance he has to win, also calling him "a nasty guy... Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a very... he's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy... Oh, he's a total hypocrite. How about his fundraising and how about when he does his personal financial disclosure form, and he doesn't put on that he's borrowing money from Goldman Sachs and then today it comes out that he's also borrowing money from Citi Bank and he doesn't list it. You know why? He wants to look like Robin Hood. That he's the one protecting the people from the banks while he's actually borrowing money and personally guaranteeing it and not disclosing it, which is illegal."

He added that "if you look at the polls I'm leading Ted Cruz by a lot. He even lied about that. You know he got up and said, 'Well the polls.' Well the polls are showing that I'm the one that's on the upswing. He's the one on the downswing. A big downswing."

But none of that will stop Cruz from trying to re-define Trumpf as "the other," not one of us (meaning not a real conservative or, at least in Iowa and South Carolina, not among "the people of God"). He's not talking about how much he likes and respects and admires Herr Trumpf any longer. He knows Trumpf is what's standing in the way of him and the White House. And he knows what kind of a welcome he'd get when he slinks back, vanquished by the clown, into the Senate. Saturday, Trumpf was attacking Cruz in South Carolina but the audience didn't want any of it-- and booed Trumpf loudly. At least no one boos Trumpf on Twitter, his favorite toy:

The ole strategy of not alienating the Trumpists so that after Herr imploded they'd eventually come over and vote Cruz, seems to be sitting on the smoking garbage heap of history now. Cruz has no choice but to batter Trumpf's brains out or have his own battered out-- unless he wants to come off looking like a girly-man that way Jeb Bush does. Over the last few days the Cruz surrogates have been out in force, spreading their poison far and wide.

“If Donald wants to have honest, open policy contrasts, we’re ready for that,” campaign chairman Chad Sweet said. “If, on the other hand, he’s going to engage in discussions over nonsensical issues, over birther issues or who’s the real evangelical-- which, by the way, someone from his background should be careful about questioning the faith of our candidate,” something Trump has also done recently.

Asked what he meant by Trump’s “background,” Sweet continued, referencing a Trump appearance at a cattle call in Iowa last summer. “I think it’s interesting that Trump … basically said at [a] family values forum he’s never asked for forgiveness, but yet he is Christian. I would ask most Christians the question, ‘What is the first thing you do to become a Christian?’ Christians know what the answer to that question is.”

Charlie Condon, the former attorney general of South Carolina and a newly minted surrogate, was more pointed in discussing Trump’s “background,” a preview of the potentially nasty nature of the new Cruz-Trump dynamic.

“A thrice-married man is going to come into South Carolina expecting to be the Republican nominee?” Condon asked incredulously. “He’s pro-choice. He’s pro- gay marriage. He’s against traditional values. He’s New York, and he’s got to talk about that.”

Yesterday Trumpf suggested, via twitter, that his fans read a meandering and unfocused column by Wall Street Journal fossil Peggy Noonan, mostly because of this slam at Cruz: "It matters what people think of you. It’s important that people have a high opinion of your essential integrity, trustworthiness and good faith. It matters that they like you. Mr. Cruz, when challenged by Mr. Trump, could have used some backup from prominent Republicans, but they didn’t throw him a lifeline. John McCain: 'I am not a constitutional scholar on that, but I think it’s worth looking into.' You know why Mr. Cruz had no backup? Because almost no one who works with him likes him. They haven’t experienced him as a trustworthy person of good faith. They waited, as people do, for a chance to hurt him, and when they got it they did."

Trumpf is being inadvertently helped by the hapless Rubio, who is still stomping his high-heeled booties and punching up towards Cruz, even if he's now in the Christie/Jebster league. After the Thursday debate he was on Fox and Friends, his message that Iowans can't trust Cruz because he's a sneaky, unreliable flip-flopper without a moral compass to guide him, who has gone back and forth on issues of great import to them, like ethanol subsidies, crop insurance and trade policies. "He campaigns as a consistent conservative. The only thing consistent is the consistent political calculation that 'I’m going to change my position if it helps me politically in a given moment.'" Huckabee, clearly running for a post in a Trumpf Administration is also attacking Cruz. "Look," he told the media, "if you want to talk about candidates who've switched positions, you've got a bunch of them out there who've changed on the Trans Pacific Partnership, and on ethanol, and on foreign policy. Donald Trump's positions, if they've changed, have changed over the last 15 years; not the last 15 minutes." Trumpf must have been jumping up and down and barking like a trained seal about get be thrown a smelt.

Does The Idea Of Rich People Buying Presidential Candidates Turn You Off?

At a rally in Amherst, Massachusetts yesterday, attended by between 3 and 4,000 people, Bernie addressed the structure of campaign finance: "You are not looking at democracy, you are looking at oligarchy and together we are going to put an end to it." After the rally he tweeted, "We're proud to have raised more than $33 million this quarter, with an average contribution of $27." Actually, Bernie did slightly better than that-- $33,281,952, none of it through SuperPACs, bringing his total to $73 million. He has $28.4 million cash on hand to Hillary's $38 million, one million more than she raised in the 4th quarter. The only Republicans who have announced their 4th quarter totals so far are Dr. Ben ($23 million) and Cruz ($20 million). Neither Clinton nor Cruz has announced how much dark money their various SuperPACs have brought it and in Cruz's case, likely far more than his own campaign has managed to bring in. Before this quarter, Cruz's shady SuperPACs had taken in $38,655,257 (to $26,567,298 for the campaign). Jeb, Rubio, Christie and Huckabee all bring in SuperPAC money in excess of money from normal contributors. The 2,513,665 individual donations so far to Bernie's campaign broke the all-time record, 2,209,636 donations, set by Obama in 2011. The average donation to Bernie this last quarter was $27.16.

The key here-- and what makes it significant-- is that Bernie has refused to take part in a campaign finance system that stinks of corruption and because of the advances in social media can appeal directly to voters. This is discomforting to the oligarchs backing Cruz, Jeb, Hillary, Rubio and the rest of their corporate candidates/captives. Peter Nicholas wrote for that Wall Street Journal yesterday that "More than one million people donated to the Sanders campaign, giving an average of about $27, the campaign said. Of these donors, a fraction gave the maximum contribution of $2,700, meaning Mr. Sanders can go back to virtually all of his supporters and ask for more money as the primary season plays out."

Let's use Huckabee as an example of how that works. His campaign raised $3,246,200 (less than Kasich, less than O'Malley, less than Christie) but he was able to persuade a tiny handful of very rich pals to get around the rules by donating to a SuperPAC which he controls-but-denies-controling, Pursuing America's Greatness. (He slipped up on Fox News Sunday that he tells them what to do, which is completely illegal.) Anyway, Pursuing America's Greatness SuperPAC has taken in $3,604,987. Of that, though, almost all of it came from 2 donors: Ronald Cameron, a rich chicken processor from Little Rock who inherited the company his grandfather started in 1914, Mountaire Corp, and who gave $3,000,000; and then Sharon Herschend of Herschend Family Entertainment which runs, among other things, Dollywood, Ride the Ducks and Stone Mountain (the Confederate Mount Rushmore and a birthplace of the KKK) and forked over $500,000. And then 2 other oligarchs, Cary Maguire of Maguire Oil in Dallas and Jon Gibson, a real estate investor in McCook, Nebraska gave $50,000 each and Huckabee has a SuperPAC. Maguire has covered a lot of bases, having given Scott Walker's SuperPAC $50,000 and the Jebster's SuperPAC $100,000. Looks like he really doesn't like his home-state senator much and has only written him two checks, $1,000 each one in 2011 and one in 2012.

In the past we've talked about how just 3-- technically 4 although two are brothers-- reactionary billionaires are funding Cruz's SuperPACs. Long Island hedge fund crook Robert Mercer committed $11 million and has now upped it to $30 million. The two crackpot Wilks brothers gave $15 million and Toby Neugebauer, a crooked energy manipulator and son of far right Congressman Randy Neugebauer, got the ball rolling for Cruz with $10 million in seed money. Yesterday, The Hill did a rundown of some of the lesser known billionaires betting on the corrupt politicians greedily taking their money and Farris Wilks was included:

If Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wins the Republican presidential nomination he will owe a major debt of gratitude to the billionaire pastor Farris Wilks and his family, which made their fortune from fracking.

Until 2015, Wilks, who leads the Assembly of Yahweh, 7th Day, in Cisco, Texas, and his brother Daniel had made zero impression in the world of big money politics. FEC records show that Daniel had donated not a penny to any federal candidate, and Farris had only given $61,620.

But in 2015 these brothers, reportedly inspired by their social conservative values [they are obsessed with homosexuality and think Cruz will end it or something], made donations to Cruz’s super-PAC, which immediately announced them as two of the highest-capacity check writers in conservative politics. Between Farris, Daniel and their two wives, they have so far been reported giving $15 million to Keep the Promise III.

While Cruz’s super-PACs have spent very little to date, their unexpectedly large bank accounts gave other establishment donors early confidence that Cruz was a serious candidate who could raise money both from grassroots donors into his campaign and from large donors into his super-PACs.

Cruz’s combination of high and low-end donors is unique in the current Republican field-- and positions him to compete right through the nominating season.

Actually, a couple of these other billionaires are a hoot too. Here in California everyone in right-wing politics knows who nutty billionaire John Jordan is. The maker of extremely mediocre wines at the Sonoma winery he inherited from his parents, his true vocation is picking right-wing political losers and wasting enormous sums of money on them. People in California say he is the poster child for much higher estate taxes. This time around he's glommed onto Marco Rubio or Rubio's glommed on to him and started his own SuperPAC for the effort, Baby Got PAC. Jordan likes making his own dramatic, usually nasty, manipulative videos, like this one he did for Rubio:



So far he's reported spending $237,230 on Rubio's behalf. The Hill also mentions Mel Heifetz, Pennsylvania's biggest Obama donor who gave a million dollars last year but wasn't enthusiastic about anyone this year... but now grudgingly says he'll support Hillary. We all know who the notorious neo-Nazi Koch brothers are, Charles and David, but there's a third one from the litter who isn't close with the other two monsters, Bill. He is a right wing Republican of course and this month he's opening his Palm Beach mansion for a high dollar Rubio fundraiser. Although he's given to Rubio in the past, he expresses his conservatism, at least financially, by giving Chuck Schumer huge sums of money for the DSCC ($83,000).

Today's gas-bag shows gave free media exposure to:

• Bernie- ABC's This Week and CNN's State of the Union
• Trumpf- CBS' Face the Nation (pre-taped)
• Rand Paul- NBC's Meet the Press
• John Kasich- NBC's Meet the Press
• Dr. Ben- ABC's This Week
• The poor Jebster- Fox News Sunday
• Christie- Fox News Sunday
• Fiorina- CNN's State of the Union

If you'd like to see someone in the White House who will really work to get billionaire bucks out of our political system, there is just one person committed to that for real: this guy (yes, the one in the video below).

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/

Right Wing Automaton Mike Huckabee And Benghazi!

When I was growing up, I looked forward to watching 60 Minutes every Sunday. Not so much after I grew up. For me it had lost its relevance some time in the 1980s. I haven't watched it since. So when the whole Lara Logan kerfuffle exploded, we didn't cover it here at DWT and I only followed it second and third-hand in news reports about how CBS-TV had allowed one of their reporters to twist a Benghazi story into deceitful right-wing propaganda that fit her own political agenda and then gave her a paid vacation to shut the critics up. Unpleasant but not something that surprised me coming from corporate media.

Yesterday my friend Jack sent me a story about how Mike Huckabee is ending his daily Hate Talk Radio show in a few weeks, wondering if that augurs another presidential run for the former Arkansas governor.

Mike Huckabee will host his final radio show on December 12, ending the former Arkansas governor’s foray into daily talk radio that began in April 2012.  Syndicated by Cumulus Media, The Mike Huckabee Show currently airs from noon-3pm Eastern on more than 200 stations.  In a Facebook posting, Huckabee said his contract was at “a decision point for both Cumulus Media and me, and we mutually agreed to conclude.”  He’ll continue to host his daily short-form Huckabee Report commentaries.

“I have loved doing the Mike Huckabee Show and its success of going from launch to over 200 stations in less than 2 years is significant,” Huckabee said on Facebook.  “I have opportunities in some other areas that cannot be accomplished given the 8-9 hours a day I was devoting to the daily long form show.”

Let's hope one of those "other areas" isn't electoral politics. Huckabee works hard to sound reasonable and moderate but, in reality, he's a deranged, pig-headed extremist with a dangerous and unAmerican right-wing belief system. His response, in fact, to the Lara Logan 60 Minutes cluster-fuck-- motivated by opportunistic anti-Hillary Clinton/anti-Obama hysteria on the right-- was typical Huckabee. Knowing full well he has a low-info, reality-isolated and easily-manipulated audience, Huckabee's take-away on the completely discredited 60 Minutes Benghazi report is to paint Lara Logan a victim and a "hero journalist."

When one of the Fox News propagandists, wormy little wing nut Brian Kilmeade, asked Huckabee what he thought of 60 Minutes suspending Logan, he said he was "very shocked."And I think that the fact is that we’re missing the big story here. We still don’t know what happened in Benghazi. Our government lied to us, they covered it up. Lara Logan is certainly a hero journalist to at least attempt to get the story out."

Even Without A Direct Hit From Isaac, Romney Has His Hands Full

This thing doesn't look like the Unity Convention Romney desperately needs it to be. Last night's David Brooks column in the NY Times-- he's their conservative guy-- was like a harbinger of bad tidings for Romney. The fake bio is probably not Romney's idea of a joke-- not like asking for Obama's passport.

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal.

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired.

...Romney is also a passionately devoted family man. After streamlining his wife’s pregnancies down to six months each, Mitt helped Ann raise five perfect sons-- Bip, Chip, Rip, Skip and Dip-- who married identically tanned wives. Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs.

After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P. He then decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. His campaign slogan, “Vote Romney: More Impressive Than You’ll Ever Be,” was not a hit, but Romney won the race anyway on an environmental platform, promising to make the state safe for steeplechase.

After his governorship, Romney suffered through a midlife crisis, during which he became a social conservative. This prepared the way for his presidential run. He barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed. At the convention, where his Secret Service nickname is Mannequin, Romney will talk about his real-life record: successful business leader, superb family man, effective governor, devoted community leader and prudent decision-maker. If elected, he promises to bring all Americans together and make them feel inferior.

At least no one expects Mike Huckabee to use his prime time speaking slot tomorrow right before Condoleeza Rice for a Mount Carmel Moment on behalf of Todd Akin, who he feels has been wronged. He wouldn't dare cast the Mormon in the role of Baal... would he? Well, he did tell a coven of radical right Baptist preachers that “I’ve never seen an effort like what I’ve seen this week with party leaders coming together expressly for the purpose of taking one of their own wounded soldiers on the battlefield-- and instead of coming to get him off the field and to the hospital-- basically opening up rounds and rounds of fire on him, and then running over him with the tanks of the trucks, leaving him to be ravaged by the wolves of the other side.” He was talking about, among others Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, NRSC Chair John Cornyn, RNC Chair Reince Priebus and Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, among others.

But I sense Huckabee is trying to calm the waters a little. I don't know if he still can, especially not with the other side-- the Country Club Establishment-- still working hard to undermine Akin and force him out of the race. Over the weekend Mary Matalin told ABC News that the Establishment would run a write-in candidate of their own and screw Akin over completely. "We are going to win Missouri and Wagner is going to be our candidate," the former Cheney flack told George Stephanapolous. "The party is going to get Ann Wagner in... Or we’ll run a third party, we’ll run a write-in. We can do it. We have the money to do it. We are going to transfer the money. It’s not as easy. But it’s a good state for Romney and we will get it back." Can Huckabee defuse that kind of derangement?

“Today, the rhetoric was dramatically dialed back,” he said. “You did not see the NRSC, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, coming out with the kind of harsh statements because they’ve dialed it back. They’ve assured me that they will no longer be threatening the business of some of the vendors in politics and telling them that if they do anything to help Todd, they’d be blackballed and not get any business.

“That kind of stuff’s been going on, and I told these people yesterday that I talked to: That’s got to stop. It can’t continue. That’s what union goons do: breaking people’s kneecaps when you cross a line. And Todd Akin has done nothing but make a mistake for which he has roundly repudiated the comment and apologized. There’s nothing else he can do.”

The NRSC went on record to say Huckabee made up the whole thing and that "no one at the NRSC has even spoken with the governor this week.” Huckabee later admitted he lied but excused lying because his lies were "on my own forums of radio and to the people who choose to receive communications from me." OK. I think he'll make believe there's no such thing as Todd Akin on Wednesday night.

Another one of the kooks, John Yeats, said if David Vitter could survive his multiple prostitution scandals, Akin could weather his problems too. “David had been exposed for going places he shouldn’t have been going. And there were calls for him to step out, but he stayed by his campaign and restored his relationship with his wife. As I think about Congressman Akin, his quote, ‘transgression,’ was not nearly as vile as Vitter’s. So I think this thing is survivable. And beyond survivable, I still think he has a real shot at winning the race here in Missouri. One of the things we have to remind ourselves of and remind our people of is that Congressman Akin represents the mainstream of our values. He is the mainstream of our values.” A fellow Baptist preacher, David Baker, agreed that Akin had to stay in and fight: “We have a responsibility as prophets to speak out. One thing I know about Missouri Baptists is that we don’t like to be told what to do.” Akin is also a Baptist preacher.

So while the Romney folks deal with this insanity on the extreme right of the party-- a nasty fight Romney and Ryan have personally weighed in on-- and in a way that doesn't please the base-- on the more mainstream end of the party they already have a major defection. We're not talking about some desperate publicity hound like Artur Davis looking to get wingnut welfare... we're talking about former Republican Governor Charlie Crist. He endorsed Barack Obama... the day before the convention was due to start in his hometown. And he didn't just endorse Obama; he savaged his old party.

As Republicans gather in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney, Americans can expect to hear tales of how President Obama has failed to work with their party or turn the economy around.

But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.

The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.

And then beyond the realm of right or left, there's the Ron Paul problem. Maine Governor Paul LePage is boycotting the convention-- some say because Romney laughed when he demanded a speaking slot, but he claims because of the shabby way Ron Paul is being treated. Romney wouldn't let him speak-- not even at his own video tribute Wednesday night!-- unless he endorsed the ticket... and allowed them to edit his speech. He refused both demands, saying he can't endorse Romney until he sees what he's hiding in his tax returns. As for letting the Romneybots have veto-power over what he says... “It wouldn’t be my speech,” Mr. Paul said. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”

Huckabee Makes A Play For The Far Right Base-- the Core Of The GOP-- For 2016

Whatever normal people think about Todd Akin and his bizarre pronouncements, the kind of claptrap he spouts is standard Republican fare they all talk about amongst themselves when they think no one else is around. He just said it on a TV station other than Fox News. And the GOP base isn't happy seeing Romney, who they mistrust anyway, leading a charge against him. Akin, far more than Romney will ever be, is one of them. Romney got Reince Priebus, John Cornyn and Paul Ryan to call and threaten Akin. Then he got the 5 still lucid Republicans who have represented Missouri in the Senate to all issue a joint statement demanding Akin give up his hard-won nomination. They even got media shill Sean Hannity to make a spectacle of himself-- and of poor Akin-- on Fox. To a real hard core base type Republican they saw something play out that they did not like-- not one bit. The whole pointy headed establishment that always sells them out, unceremoniously beat up on a true believer-- and what for? Just because he was going to have a bit of a harder time to win a state Romney can't lose anyway? Watch this video:



When Huckabee first endorsed him (see video below), he said "Always placing principles over politics, Congressman Akin has remained true to our conservative ideals, especially his belief in the sanctity of human life." Akin was generally endorsed by the furthest right and most extreme politicians among Republicans, the types who presided over the losses last cycle of Nevada and Delaware by pushing unelectable purists. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX): "If I were to sum up Todd Akin in a word, that would be 'principled.'  You can always rely on Todd to make that tough vote no matter who might be calling or what might be promised.  Count me 100% for Akin." Jim Jordan (R-OH): "Todd Akin is one of the conservative leaders you can count on to always do the right thing, even when under pressure from political leaders in either party.  He stands true to  his principles, and he has the commonsense approach that we need in the United States Senate." Steve King (R-IA), who makes a point of being even more radical than Akin and, unlike most of his fair-weather friends, is still backing him: "Congressman Todd Akin is my friend, he is running for the United States Senate and he is the man that will always stand on the principles that we believe in.  Too many people bend or sway in the wind or they get drawn into the mesmerizing idea that somehow someone can guide you up through a leadership channel if you just go along to get along.  He is not going to put up a vote for the sake of going along to get along and neither will I.  We have a sacred obligation to all of you, that’s to keep our oath of office.  That’s to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  I look forward to the day that he is sworn into the United States Senate, because I want to pass out of the house the repeal of Obamacare, and I want to send it over to Todd in the Senate to do the same." Bachmann, was a big booster in the good times-- “I am proud to endorse Congressman Akin in his bid for the US Senate. I’ve known Todd for years and worked well with him in the House. He’s a principled conservative and will make a great United States Senator.”-- but now she's disappeared, along with most of the politicians who had backed Akin.

The base sees. And they see that the radical right organizations and hate groups they admire and get most of their info from are all fired up for Akin. Huckabee is throwing his weight behind a battle being waged by the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and other deranged hate groups.

The Family Research Council hopes to make up the lost air-support from groups like American Crossroads and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which have dropped their planned advertisements:

Leaders of several conservative Christian and social-issues groups said they would step in with organizational, financial and news-media help. The Family Research Council said it now hoped to sponsor independent advertising and phone banks and solicit donations for Mr. Akin. And by Wednesday evening, those tiny donations requested by Mr. Akin’s campaign several times this week were starting to add up. Mr. Akin’s Twitter account reported that he had set a goal to raise $100,000 by midnight and had raised $88,000.

Akin also met with the secretive, right-wing Council for National Policy in Tampa, days before the city hosts the Republican National Convention... The embattled Missouri Senate candidate flew to Tampa to meet with members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive coalition of powerful conservative and evangelical leaders, activists, and donors.

...Concerned Women for America’s Janice Shaw Crouse defended Akin as a victim of “the politics of personal destruction”:

He has been a pro-life advocate his whole career. He's been a man who has worked in crisis pregnancy centers. He's reached out to women and helped women in numerous ways in his private life. So it's very unfortunate that he's one who used words so insensitively, and he apologized for them, of course, and retracted from them.

But I think the bigger question for me is this whole business of the politics of personal destruction. We have a very, I think, appalling double-standard in this country where Republicans are held to these standards that are appropriate but somehow the Democrats get a pass. Vice President Biden, for instance, most recently and most-- in the headlines talked about you're going to put those, put everybody in chains.

Gary DeMar’s American Vision even accused the GOP leadership of engaging in a “legitimate political gang rape” of Akin:

We expect leftists, liberals, and other miscreants to pounce opportunistically, to lie, cheat, and twist (all the while drooling) over a phrase like “legitimate rape” when uttered by a strong conservative Christian politician. But should we expect the same from alleged conservatives?

Yet this is exactly what we’ve seen from several prominent conservatives in the wake of a media gaffe from U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-MO) in regard to alleged “legitimate rape” and abortion.

These are the folks Huckabee is counting on when he tries to win the GOP nomination in 2016 to run against Cuomo, Clinton, Gillibrand, Biden, O'Malley or Warren. It's interesting that he judges the path to victory very differently than Republicans have traditionally gone after it. He's giving the finger to the Establishment and appealing directly to the base. Akin's ideas are exactly the same as Paul Ryan's, exactly the same as Mitt Romney's (on alternative days), exactly the same as almost all Republican Members of the House and exactly the same as the Republican Party Platform of 2012, written after the national freakout over what he had to say. Who's in trouble with the base won't be Huckabee, it will be the squishes in the Establishment like Scott Brown and Denny Rehberg and the ones they view as cowards unwilling to stand up for... you name it... like Bachmann.

McCain Leads Off Today's Budget Debate With A Retread Of Failed Republican Ideas

You probably heard McCain barking on TV this morning about his own personal budget-- put together for him by his favorite lobbyists-- and how every Republican in the Senate would follow his leadership and vote for it. I would guess that almost every Republican hates his guts and doesn't see any need to put up with his egocentric showboating any longer. When the McCain budget came up-- more tax cuts for the rich, coupled with the destruction of Medicare and Social Security-- it was soundly defeated 60-38.

Not only couldn't McCain get his best buddy Lieberman (I-CT) to vote for his harebrained scheme, not even ritual aisle crosser Ben Nelson (D-NE) would lower himself to be part of this kabuki silliness. As for "every Republican," Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME) and even Bob Corker (R-TN) looked it over, laughed and voted "no," along with every single Democrat. Specter is too scared to stray from partisan orthodoxy and he's letting John Cornyn and Jim DeMint determine his votes from now until primary day, 2010.

After the Senate voted down McCain's budgetary version of 4 more years, two serious amendments did pass, one from Chris Dodd and one from Bernie Sanders. Once burned, Dodd wanted to make certain that there would be enhanced oversight of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System concerning the use of emergency economic assistance. It passed 96-2, only bitter obstructionist fanatics Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) voting "no." Sander's amendment was more controversial since it requires more information than the Federal Reserve likes sharing with Congress. But is passed 59-39, in a very hard to read bipartisan vote, although I noticed that many of the more corrupt Democrats who are in Evan Bayh's anti-Obama bloc voted against it, along with die-hard obstructionists like Chambliss, Shelby, Miss McConnell, Gregg, Isakson, Kyl, etc.

Mike Johanns (R-NE) then offered the ritual Republican motion to recommit (kill) the budget. That failed, of course, 55-43, sickeningly Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh voting with the GOP. David Diapers Vitter followed up on that with a frivolous amendment to pull the plug on Bush's TARP program and he was joined by 26 Republicans plus Ben Nelson as the amendment went down to a 70-28 defeat. Jack Reed had a much better idea-- to spend the rest of the TARP money to benefit consumers rather than banksters. Vitter and his hypocritical Republican cronies were unwilling to vote for that, but it passed 56-42, with George Voinovich crossing the aisle in one direction while Nelson crossed in the other. And then the budget passed, every Republican voting obstructionism, joined by reactionary Democrats Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson.

Meanwhile, over on the House side, when a procedural vote was taken to consider the budget, every single Republican voted no-- presumably still preferring Paul Ryan's Never-Neverland term-paper. It passed 242-182, 6 of the slimiest and most corrupt Blue Dogs slinking across the aisle to, once again, show utter contempt for working families-- worst of the worst: John Barrow (GA), Chris Carney (PA), Travis Childers (MS), Frank Kratovil (MD), Charlie Melancon (LA) and Gene Taylor (MS). If you're wondering where Heath Shuler's name is, he chose not to vote and hid in the cloakroom, sure to rush back to the floor in time to vote against the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, one of only 8 Democrats to do so.

Finally at 7:16 this evening the House passed the budget, 233-196, every Republican voting no. They were joined by 20 Democrats, John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Bill Foster (Blue Dogish-IL), Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL), Suzanne Kosmas (FL), Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Betsy Markey (CO), Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA), Tom Perriello (D-VA), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS) and Harry Teague (NM). At least none of the filthy Blue Dogs voted for Paul Ryan's ridiculous budget "alternative," although 38 Republicans didn't have the stomach to vote for that garbage either.

Will corporate media persuade voters that suddenly Republicans will protect taxpayers from overspending and break with their past of running up gigantic deficits while mouthing off about responsibility? And what's the chance that knuckleheaded Republican House Whip Eric Cantor is correct when he predicts that the Party of No will retake the House in 2010? Well... even if Newt Gingrich is wrong about a breakaway third party of disgruntled rightists, unless grassroots Repugs follow Mike Huckabee's suggestion to cheat, there is no chance. Would a man of Gawd, like Rev Huck for example, suggest to Republicans that they steal elections? Watch for yourself as he gave Virginia Republicans their marching orders today: