The first round of Alec Baldwin vs. Joe Lieberman goes to Baldwin. Lieberman started with a tiresome old Reaganesque chestnut, badly delivered:
“You know, make my day.”Baldwin, who disclaims any intent to run, offers this rejoinder:
"Part of me would hate to see Lieberman go, because there are so few moderate Republicans left in the Senate today."Lieberman is going to need better writers, at least until Democrats get a candidate.
Never.
That would be good timing for the Bushists. Till then? No investigations of Darth Cheney arrogating to himself the power to abridge the Constitution.
Robert Gibbs's response to Duhbya was fine as far as it went:
"I think we've had a debate about individual policies. We had that debate in particular – we kept score last November and we won," Gibbs said.I would have put a sharper point on my rejoinder: Can you believe this guy? Can you believe that after all the things he botched, he still wants more of the same?
Could the public please, please, please turn on Elizabeth Edwards? We in the media haven't had a juicy, gossip-filled PR dust-up in a least a couple of weeks, and we're getting the shakes without it.
The Republicans have nothing to offer but a stunt that's a weak echo of something that really mattered more than 230 years ago. A very weak echo about the color of dirty dishwater, histrionics in the name of history.
But.
The media are covering the Republican nonsense as if it matters. The reason? Bullshit outlet Fox News is pimping the propaganda constantly. There is no corresponding media force on the Democratic side.
The media is not responsible for any of the intrusive "news" coverage of the Palin-Johnston soap opera. Sarah Palin's press secretary made them cover it.
I note for the record that Newt Gingrich objects to the silly coverage of the Obamas' dog but raises nary a peep about Palin's ex-intended-son-in-law. Yes, he still wants to be President. Being right on the dog story won't help him, but keeping silent on Wasilla Place will.
Is there anyone in big media who's more useless than Howard Kurtz?
For Mitch McConnell (R-Squirrel Brains, KY), it's all Duhbya's fault that the Republican Party is unpopular. Mitch himself? Didn't screw up at all.
Never mind that McConnell worked in lockstep with Duhbya for his entire disastrous reign, that he believes in the exact same platform as Duhbya, and that he even forgot his jealously guarded Senatorial prerogatives by dropping even the pretense of Congressional oversight of the Executive. McConnell's not going to take responsibility. He's from the party of everyone else's personal responsibility.
Instead, here's what we'll hear from Tobacco Mitch:
Why can Fred Thompson still get on TV? He's a snoozer. He's less popular than Dennis Kucinich, and you don't see him turning up on your screen. Is Kucinich's jaw wired shut or something?
I've got it. Fred is soooo gorgeous. That must be it.
What he says makes no sense either:
"If he takes us down the road of tripling our national debt in ten years and making us vulnerable to higher interest rates and higher inflation, and things of that nature, I want all those policies not to succeed," he said.Somehow CNN's John Roberts is not prepared to ask Reaganite Fred to compare Obama's plan to what Reagan and Bush did in their 12 years - multiply the national debt by a factor of four and a half! Saint Ronnie tripled it on his own.
David Vitter watch, day 610. What's he doing with himself now that he can't order out for companionship? But at least his sin was heterosexual sex, and what's a little kinkiness if you're making the pros pretend to be your wife!
Even though Vitter actually had sex again and again with his paid friends and Larry Craig didn't, the Christianists will stand by Vitter.
Remember this the next time political, professional Christians pillory a liberal for some personal failing.
The first principle of people like Tony Perkins is to win their vision of a theocratic America. Vitter's just a tool.
Jim Bunning (R-Crazyscrewy) has a career bio of:
“I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg.” (emphasis added)You'd think a professional bullshitter would know that the if clearly marks this apology as insincere.
Republican DNA has two deleterious traits:
Corruption is a bipartisan activity. Even among Republicans, many politicians are honest with money. Is Michael Steele one of them? I'm willing to listen to his defense.
What Steele has said so far is not very reassuring. He appears to be pounding the table, trying to make this go away with rhetoric.
Steele has attacked the source of the allegation for being a convicted felon. True, his former aide Alan Fabian is now a convicted felon, but that just opens another can of worms. His spokesman makes the same attack. Both claim that nothing Fabian says is substantiated. That's plain bullshit; there's a real paper trail with only the explanation at issue.
Steele could show us more complete paperwork and be done with it - if everything is in order. The fact that he hasn't suggests the need for further questions. Where are all the invoices? The dates disclosed so far actually seem to confirm that there's a real violation. Paying a company eleven months after it was dissolved doesn't look above board. All the suspicions can easily be answered by an honest man.
Yet what Steele has provided is partial and wrong. Without a trust-me explanation, it doesn't explain anything.
Truth be told, even some of the semi-honest politicians are heavily involved in insider dealings. They do things with their campaign funds that are strictly speaking not illegal but which they still don't want to see the light of day.
Here's the most minor example I can think of: When a politician gives his campaign money, he generally declares it to be a loan. I did this when I ran. That way, he can recoup campaign seed money after winning. The ethical problem is that others who might contribute to defray this sort of debt are usually lobbyists who know you've already won and who (always) want something. And you're taking their money and putting it right into your pocket with only the lightest washing. (I escaped this dilemma by losing.)
The fundamental problem is that politicians and their aides and families tend to think of their campaign kitties as theirs to do with what they please. They just aren't. They're more like trusts, and politicians of all stripes need to remember that the public trust is their first priority.
The media loves stupid scandal stories with hooks to prominent political celebrities. The media will print these stories even when they're just gossip, as in the case of Bristol Palin's future, cough, mother-in-law. (Hey, maybe this is good cover to call off the politically motivated shotgun wedding!)
Since I don't myself live in Wasilla, I wouldn't mention this sordid tale except that some wingnut lunatics are holding it up as proof of a liberal media out to get them! Seriously, these people will believe anything.
The first link, to "Liberty Just in Case" (huh?), actually has to push two lies in less than a hundred words:
Smirk, snort, giggle, tee-hee, titter, bwahahaha.But they have comment moderation turned on, so it'll probably never see the light of day there.
The Republican Secretary of State in Indiana, Todd Rokita, has some nerve complaining about ACORN's voter registration drives. Registering voters is his job, and he's not doing it, at least not in Gary. Protecting the honesty of the vote is his job, too, and he's a day late and a dollar short on that, too.
He could try explaining what no one has yet been able to explain: how a fraudulent registration, bad though that is, could possibly result in a fraudulent vote, especially in Indiana, which is willing to bar long-time voters - nuns, even! - because they don't have driver's licenses.
Instead, Rokita is playing politics. Oh, right, that's redundant. I already said that he's a Republican.
The RNC knows that if they could find this much money, they'd be cheating.
Update (10/6): Since Obama has contributions from millions of Americans, that's going to be some serious labor-intensive auditing. Could be a stimulus program using government jobs all by itself!
More Republican bullshit, the smearing ugly kind! Let's see, Obama runs into radical Bill Ayers by accident on the street. Sarah Palin does the nasty with an Alaska secessionist, her husband.
This is only going to get worse as the election nears. McCain and Palin can't win on the merits, but by damn they'll try mud-slinging. Even worse, they'll be proud of it.
I drink beer, wine, whiskey, gin, and just about every other form of ethanol. Who do I vote for?
I'm really surprised the smart-ass pollsters didn't ask (this time) about domestic vs. imported beer or about micro-brews. Hell, the Boston Globe is balkanizing coffee-drinking Democrats into Dunkin' Donuts for Hillary and Starbucks for Obama.
All the pollsters are trying to make their bones with the synecdoche (soccer mom, NASCAR dad, metrosexual) that all the purveyors of conventional wisdom can latch onto to add color to their useless analyses.
