CLAIMS & PRONOUNCEMENTS FROM THE INSIDE THE BELTWAY MENAGERIE

It's Friday and it was a busy week... pressure, stress, ups, downs, wins, losses tension, release; people say dumb things. People in Washington usually hold their cards pretty close to the breast. Maybe it was the aftermath of the election, but a lot of people said a lot of crap today.

One of the funniest was... well, you remember Rick Santorum, right? Used to be a far right Senator from Pennsylvania but acted like he represented Texas? Big gay hater... Opus Die kinda guy? Barely broke 40% in his sad, doomed-from-the-start re-election bid? Yeah, you remember. Anyway, poor thing, announced he isn't going to run for the presidency in 2008. I mean he would but he says the wife would kick him out of their ill-gotten, lobbyist-financed house. GOP hypocrite-in-chief Bill Bennett-- and believe me, that's a title that has a helluva lot of competition around it-- has been urging a Draft-Santorum "movement," in response to the not-conservative-enough-for-neo-fascists candidacy of right wing ideologue John McCain. And because Rudy's a drag queen. Personally, I think the ideal Republican ticket would be a combination of Santorum, Macacawitz and Frist.

Not that there aren't as many-- or almost as many-- imbeciles on the Democratic side of the aisle. It's all about the Beltway and who's inside. Once you're in there it gets more and more difficult to preserve any sense of humanity. Some manage it; but not many. Today Glen Greenwald answers the Beltway jackasses who have been braying about Nancy Pelosi for the last few days. "The mindless group-think driving the media's caricatures of Nancy Pelosi is truly astounding to behold, even considering the source. She's not even Speaker yet, and they've already pronounced her to be a bitchy, vindictive shrew incapable of leading because she's consumed by petty personal bickering rather than serious and substantive considerations. And all of this is based on nothing. Unsurprisingly, all of this has been concocted by the herd of all-knowing Beltway analysts who fancy themselves to be such high-minded warriors against conventional wisdom even though they are its most obedient vessels."

Glenn particularly singles out many of the usual suspects, (what's the plural of ignoramus?-- them) at The New Republican, always the best contrary indicator in town, none feebler than Marty Peretz. But you would never stray far from truth by claiming that either the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus or neoCon Slate's Timothy Noah is at least as dim witted as Peretz' pathetic gang. Glenn leaves them all on the floor bloodied and speechless and his whole article is worth reading. He ends it like this:

Yet the Beltway media mavens know better, and so they are already out in force attacking Pelosi's character with petty and baseless chattering. This country has extremely serious issues facing it, and yet these self-styled "serious" journalists are already trying to cripple Pelosi's ability to do anything before she has even begun, all based on giggly chit-chat and gossipy garbage that has no legitimacy other than the fact that they all repeat it in unison on television and in print.

It's what these pundits and journalists do. They have preconceived, vapid notions about everything and everyone -- all driven by deep self-love for their own superior wisdom -- and they distort reality and crowd out sober analysis of everything that matters. Nancy Pelosi, and really everyone, would be well-advised not to listen to them and, above all, never adopt as a goal trying to please or satisfy them. They are frivolous and out of touch with everything that matters and should be treated as such.

Another irrelevant Establishment chatterer, putatively on "our side," James Carville has had diarrhea of his piehole all week. Today the National Journal's Hotline looked at Carville's ranting and raving and explained why no one should ever pay him any heed again. Hotline's conclusion: Dean was smart and correct; Carville's a windbag. Chris Bowers over at MyDD takes it even further and fills in the hole Carville dug for himself-- and places a tombstone on top. (Let's hope someone remembered the silver stake through the heart.) " If Carville wants to blame someone for this, he should note that the netroots, the same people who give Howard Dean a 96% approval rating, could hardly be any more squeaky clean in our efforts in the close seats that we lost. We stepped up in these seats, big time. When Carville criticizes Howard Dean, keep in mind that he is using Howard Dean as a placeholder to attack the entire progressive netroots and the entire progressive movement on behalf of big donors and consultants who once again want to rule the party with an iron fist. But we were the ones fighting for these seats, tooth and nail, along with local Democrats on the ground. National Democrats from the corporate wing of the party were nowhere to be found in these races."

A couple of senile Republican senators widely expected to die or retire announced they're not retiring in 2008. The alternative works just fine too. The crazy tubes guy from Alaska, Ted Stevens (82) says he has lots more bridges to nowhere to build before he leaves the Senate. Stingy beyond reason when it comes to helping the poor, he's a pork barrel whore beyond any other U.S. Senator other than perhaps Trent Lott (KKK-MS). Stevens "gained the most national attention of his career when he chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee 1997 to 2005 except for the 18-month interlude when Democrats controlled the chamber. That position abetted Stevens’ career-long effort to steer federal funding back home to Alaska. In 2005 his bridge to nowhere made him the laughing stock of the entire Senate, regardless of political party. Stevens has a good for nothing son, Ben, best known for his corruption, who he wants to leave the seat to, but, like Queen Elizabeth... not quite yet. New Mexico's Pete Domenici, relative to Stevens just a kid at 74, also announced that he's not going anywhere either, but that isn't putting a halt to the jockeying for position among politicians of both parties who want that Senate seat. That just makes him dig in all the harder, of course.

McCain claimed voters rejected the right wing nuts who have been in charge of Congress for the last 12 years because they weren't right wing enough. I guess he still hasn't committed suicide like he said he would if the Democrats recaptured the Senate. Anyone know if Dredge has retired?

Probably the stupidest statement of all, though came from the amen choir known as the House minority party, which re-elected-- overwhelmingly-- the two radical right symbols of partisan corruption that is actually what made the voters turn against the GOP, Boehner and Blunt.