Multi Medium

Tales From Bizarro World

…Where Evan Bayh, Kit Bond, Judd Gregg, George Voinovich, Mel Martinez, Jim Bunning, Harry Reid, and John McCain are irreplaceable legislative titans:

With the retirement of Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), every Democratic presidential hopeful from 2008 will have exited the Senate by the time the 112th Congress convenes in January — and they’ll have taken an abundance of experience and star power with them.

Bayh joins a group of veteran Democratic and Republican senators, many longtime elected officials, who are set to end their careers at the end of the term. All told, those departures — as well as the death last year of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) — will leave the chamber with a deficit of 232 years of legislative know-how and Washington gravitas that has characterized Capitol Hill for a generation.

(…)

Additionally, four GOP senators are calling it quits, while one Republican, Mel Martinez (Fla.), resigned his seat last summer. Among those Republicans leaving are three former governors: Judd Gregg (N.H.) after 18 years, Christopher J. Bond (Mo.) after 24 years and George V. Voinovich (Ohio) after 12 years. Jim Bunning of Kentucky also is retiring after two terms.

One GOP lobbyist said the combination of Democratic and Republican retirements amount to a loss of “eons” of experience and include unique, irreplaceable characters who have left an indelible imprint on the Senate and American politics.

(…)

One former Senate Democratic leadership aide said the potential loss of experience from Reid or McCain — or both — would be a significant blow to the chamber and its ability to tackle large, complex issues.

A-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Because Reid and McCain have done such a great job of shepherding large, complex issues to successful conclusions in the past.  Okay, I’ll give McCain campaign finance reform, but I can’t think of any other major accomplishment other than laundering his image of the stink of the Keating Five.  And Harry Reid is one of the weakest and most ineffectual Majority Leaders of all time.

I’ll miss Byron Dorgan and Teddy, and that’s about it.

Add comment February 23rd, 2010 at 07:23am Posted by Eli

This Can Only Be Good For John McCain

To me, what’s most striking about these poll numbers is not that McCain’s overall approval rating in AZ is at 40%, but that the story offers up his 52% approval rating among AZ Republicans as its “but it’s not all bad news for McCain” graf.

Add comment January 29th, 2010 at 09:10pm Posted by Eli

Judicial Activism = Absence Of Conservative Judicial Activism

That’s really the only consistent definition that I can see in the Republicans’ usage of the term.  John McCain is the latest offender:

One day after he warned that Republicans have a “very, very deep hole that we’ve got to come out of” with Latino voters, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced that he would oppose the first Latina nominated to the nation’s highest court. Moreover, in his statement opposing Judge Sonia Sotomayor, McCain misrepresents his own record on judges:

Again and again, Judge Sotomayor seeks to amend the law to fit the circumstances of the case, thereby substituting herself in the role of a legislator. … To protect the equal, but separate roles of all three branches of government, I cannot support activist judges that seek to legislate from the bench. I have not supported such nominees in the past, and I cannot support such a nominee to the highest court in the land.

Despite his claim that he has never supported a judge who “seeks to amend the law to fit the circumstances of the case,” McCain voted in favor of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito; and he described both Roberts and Alito as “model judges” during the 2008 campaign….

[Insert Roberts, Alito, and Thomas' greatest hits here]

As a Yale Law School study published before Roberts and Alito joined the Supreme Court determined, Justice Thomas is the one justice who is most likely to vote to invalidate an Act of Congress — doing so a massive 65.63% of the time. The Court’s two Clinton appointees, Justices Ginsburg and Breyer, are the least likely to second-guess Congress.  So McCain has no problem with judges who “substitute [them]self in the role of a legislator;” he’s just upset that Sotomayor won’t push the same right-wing agenda as his favorite justices.

“Judicial activism” is transparently dishonest garbage, but I predict that Republicans will continue using it as an excuse to vote against moderate and progressive judges until roughly the end of time.

Add comment August 3rd, 2009 at 07:36pm Posted by Eli

People Unclear On The Concept

John McCain and David Gregory:

MR. GREGORY:  Should there be an investigation, do you think?

SEN. McCAIN:  I don’t know if–first of all, I’d like to know the facts of the case before there should be an, “an investigation.”

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

Um.

Add comment July 14th, 2009 at 10:05am Posted by Eli

More Sarah-Bashing

Heaven help me, I just can’t get enough…

Alaska’s lipstick-wearing pit-bull is a “Little Shop of Horrors.”

That’s how one longtime friend and campaign trail companion of John McCain, the vanquished 2008 GOP presidential nominee, described veep nominee Sarah Palin.

In an expansive story in the August edition of Vanity Fair, a slew of senior members of McCain’s campaign team told reporter Todd S. Purdum that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt following the 2008 presidential election.

“They can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be,” Vanity Fair reports.

During the campaign, there were reports of anonymous McCain aides describing Palin, the governor of Alaska, as a “diva” and a “whack job.”

The Vanity Fair article recounts how strained Palin’s relationship was with the McCain advisers. She maintained “only the barest level of civil discourse” with Tucker Eskew, the operative assigned to be her chief minder, the magazine reports.

She believed Steve Schmidt, McCain’s top strategist, had lied to her about conducting polling in Alaska – that was a “belief she conveyed to anyone who would listen,” the magazine reported.

(…)One McCain aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he “always wanted to tell myself the best-case story about her.”

“I think, as I’ve evaluated it, I think some of my worst fears…the after-election events have confirmed that her more negative aspects my have been there….”

As his voice trailed off, he said, “I saw her as a raw talent. Raw, but a talent. I hoped she could become better.”

I look forward to the inevitable counter-hissy-fit.  If Palin goes ballistic about Letterman jokes and a blogger having Photoshop fun with her and Trig, this should make her go nukular.

(I wonder if Sarah feels betrayed that a magazine named after her would say such mean things…)

Add comment June 30th, 2009 at 11:47am Posted by Eli

Still, Could Be Worse.

As much of a disappointment as Obama has been, sometimes we get little reminders of just how lucky we really are:

Speaking on Fox News this morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) condemned the Iranian election as a “sham,” declaring, “I hope that we will act.”

It is necessary to bomb the protesters in order to save them…

Add comment June 15th, 2009 at 09:27pm Posted by Eli

Co-Wanker Of The Day, Part I

Shorter John McCain: Torture is wrong and only helps our enemies… so we must never admit we use it.

Add comment April 20th, 2009 at 05:20pm Posted by Eli

Epic Rebuttal Fail

So… Meghan McCain laments that the Republican Party’s embrace of hate and mean-spiritedness as embodied by Ann Coulter (I wonder why not Rush?) is turning off potential converts, and Laura Ingraham responds by calling her fat:

In a mocking faux-Valley Girl voice, Ingraham made fun of McCain’s body, joking that she didn’t get a “role in the Real World” because “they don’t like plus-sized models”:

MCCAIN (on MSNBC): And I think there’s an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don’t understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.

INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don’t like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.

Listen here:

Well played, Laura Ingraham.  Well played.

2 comments March 12th, 2009 at 10:32pm Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Day

Chris Wallace, failure troll:

Wallace: How do you think he’s doing so far?

McCain: I think he’s working very hard. I think he continues to have the support of the majority of the American people. I think he’s making very serious mistake in this budget which will have very dangerous consequences in increasing taxes no matter who it is….

Wallace: You ever feel like saying ‘ I told you so?”

McCain: Oh, I’m sure that would be pleasant feeling, but the point is we’re in such a severe crisis….

Wow, he’s such a wanker he almost helped McCain sound statesmanlike.  But he rose to the bait just a little too much.

Add comment March 9th, 2009 at 05:55am Posted by Eli

Wednesday Why-I-Love-The-Weekly-World-News Blogging

As one would expect, the Weekly World News crack political team is covering the Congressional wrangling over the stimulus bill:

After criticizing the economic stimulus plan, Republicans have chained themselves to doors of the Capitol Building to block its passing.

Currently no one can enter or exit the Capitol as Republican leaders have chained themselves to every major entryway.

The audacious demonstration was led by John McCain who shouted to reporters, “I’m still relevant!  See!?  I’m still relevant!!!”

Republicans say that the stimulus package as it stands is too focused on supporting the middle class, without enough tax cuts to the already wealthy.  “That’s no way to run a business” said John Boehner of Ohio.  “You can’t help a country by strengthening the middle class, did Reaganomics teach us nothing?”  He stated that GOP members will continue to forcibly block entry to Capital Hill until their demands are met.

Democrats in the Senate and Congress, despite having a clear majority in both houses and several pairs of bolt cutters laying around, are already working on ways to appease the minority Republican voice.

This is actually remarkably similar to everything else I’ve been reading…

Add comment January 28th, 2009 at 11:34am Posted by Eli

Republicans Still Think Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong

I dunno which economy they’re looking at – maybe those of us making under a million dollars a year don’t count:

Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong.

The GOP has got to be the most tone-deaf, out-of-touch political party ever.

(DCCC has a screenshot in case the NRCC realizes they look like idiots)

1 comment January 23rd, 2009 at 07:12pm Posted by Eli

Lieberman Thinks Senate Democrats Are Stupid

Hopefully Joe is about to learn that actions have consequences:

Bolstered by a newly expanded majority, Harry Reid met with Joe Lieberman on Thursday to sketch out the conditions by which the Connecticut independent could continue to caucus with Senate Democrats. But Lieberman did not accept Reid’s initial offers, leaving his future in the caucus uncertain, and potentially setting off a campaign to pressure the Democratic steering committee to decide Lieberman’s fate.

Reid offered Lieberman a deal to step down as chairman of the homeland security committee but take over the reins of another subcommittee, likely overseeing economic or small business issues officials said.

Immediately after his meeting with Reid, Lieberman told reporters that he had not made a decision about his future in the caucus, and appeared to launch his first public appeal to members of the Democratic steering committee, whose members decide committee chair assignments.

“I completely agree with President-elect Obama that we must now unite to get our economy going again and to keep the American people safe. that is exactly what I intend to do with my colleagues here in the Senate in support of our new president, and those are the standards I will use in considering the options that I have before me,” Lieberman told reporters.

Joe The Warmonger seems to think that he’s got some kind of negotiating leverage here, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.  The Democrats already have a very comfortable majority, so they don’t need him at all for control of the Senate.

It’s possible that if all the remaining unsettled Senate races break Democratic, that Lieberman would represent the 60th vote for busting Republican filibusters… except that he’s already declared himself in favor of them. (Which is ironic considering that he voted against the Alito filibuster, but we’ll just pretend we’ve forgotten about that.)

I just don’t understand what a guy who habitually betrays his party when they need him the most can offer that the Democratic leadership could find compelling.  What’s he going to do, threaten to vote with the Republicans?

Personally, I think Reid is letting him off easy if he just strips him of his homeland security chair – he should kick him completely off all committees (if that’s even possible) and let him go crawling to see what he can get from Mitch.  Why should a Republican vote count towards a committee’s Democratic total?

4 comments November 6th, 2008 at 09:06pm Posted by Eli

It’s Over.

Obama wins Ohio.

Now it’s just a question of how big the landslide will be.

Add comment November 4th, 2008 at 09:27pm Posted by Eli

Do Not Read This

Chris Bowers explaining why Obama has it in the bag.

You still have to get out and vote to make it actually happen, people.

Add comment October 31st, 2008 at 07:23am Posted by Eli

Huh.

Beautiful.

Wolf Blitzer: And this just coming into the “Situation Room,” the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin now speaking out openly about her intentions in 2012 if, if she and John McCain were to lose this contest next Tuesday. In an interview with ABC News, Sarah Palin is now saying, she would be interested in remaining a serious national political figure, going ahead to 2012. She was asked what happens in 2012 if you lose on Tuesday, would you simply go back to Alaska? Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News asked her and Palin said this, and I will read it to you verbatim according to an ABC News transcript: “Absolutely not,” Sarah Palin says. “I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we’ve taken, that … that would … bring this whole … I’m not doin’ this for naught,” and that is a direct quote from Sarah Palin. Clearly, leaving open the possibility that she would be interested in leading the Republican Party in 2012 if she and John McCain were to lose this presidential contest right now….

Dana Bash: I just got off of the phone, Wolf, with a senior McCain adviser and I read this person the quote and I think it is fair to say that this person was speechless. There was a long pause and I just heard a “huh” on the other end of the phone. This is certainly not a surprise to anybody who has watched Sarah Palin that she is interested in potentially future national runs, and she is being urged to by a lot of people inside of the Republican Party if they do lose, but it is an “if” and people inside of the McCain campaign do not want any discussion that has an “if” in front of it six days before the election, they don’t want any discussion at all, any kind of hypothetical talk about running for the next time around. So certainly, this is not at least initially being received well inside of the McCain campaign.

Wolf Blitzer: I am not surprised, not surprised at all. It is one of those “wow, she is talking about 2012 if we lose,” that is not supposed to be something that you say. You are supposed to say, “well, I’m not looking ahead, I’m not looking ahead only to Tuesday,” and those are the talking points she’s supposed to be saying, but she is obviously blunt and she is looking ahead if something were to happen on Tuesday that she wouldn’t be happy with.

I just love the McCain campaign reaction to Palin’s naked ambition.  I think Palin is going to be in for a pretty huge disappointment if she tries to run for president in 2012.  Even if the excitement she generates in the conservative base is enough to carry her to the nomination, she has zero support outside of it.  She alienates and scares most normal people, and she has done absolutely nothing to make herself believable as President Of The United States.  Four more years as governor of Alaska will do nothing to change that.  She would be toast.

6 comments October 29th, 2008 at 09:53pm Posted by Eli

Deserting The Sinking Ship

My mom just sent me this handy list of Republicans and conservatives who have endorsed Obama.

The GOP and the McCain campaign have become so corrupt, ugly, and out of touch with reality that even conservatives are disgusted.  The ones who aren’t intellectually dishonest, morally bankrupt, say-anything, win-at-any-cost conservatives, anyway.

Add comment October 28th, 2008 at 11:18am Posted by Eli

Olaf Glad And Big

To not exactly paraphrase Olaf glad and big: “There is some shit I will not serve.”

At least three dozen workers at a telemarking call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being “dangerously weak on crime,” “coddling criminals,” and for voting against “protecting children from danger.”

Williams’ daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it’s located in Hobart, IN.

“They walked out,” Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren’t fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. “They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you’re not gonna get paid for the rest of the day.”

The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. “It was like at least 40 people,” the daughter said. “People thought the script was nasty and they didn’t wanna read it.”

A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that “at least 30″ workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.

“We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger,” this worker said. “I wouldn’t do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting.”

Good for them.  I really like these little reminders that despite the best efforts of the GOP and reality television, decency is still not entirely extinct.

Add comment October 27th, 2008 at 11:37pm Posted by Eli

Great Moments In Chutzpah

First up, the Mitch McConnell campaign:

Last week, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) squared off in a debate with Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford. But on Lunsford’s podium a GOP operative had placed a small voice recorder, presumably to pick up some off-mic comments Lunsford might make — apparently a violation of the debate rules.

(…)

According to the Lunsford campaign, Lunsford actually didn’t see the recorder. But since it was nestled in among his papers it was included when he handed his papers off to his staffers after the debate — staffers who say they later erased the recording since it violated debate rules to have a planted recorder on the opponents podium.

According to the McConnell staffers, however, Lunsford did see the recorder during the debate and essentially confiscated it. Richard St. Onge, II (who, in a separate story, may have absconded with his name from some neo-gothic southern novel) is the GOP operative who planted the recorder. And according to St. Onge, when he went up to Lunsford after the debate to demand his recorder back, Lunsford said, “No you won’t get it back.”

And now St. Onge and the chairman of McConnell’s campaign have filed a criminal complaint against Lunsford for petty larceny and destruction of property — because of the erasure.

Wow, they tried to bug Lunsford and then filed charges against him when they got busted.  Amazing.

The Tennessee GOP isn’t nearly as humorous:

The chairwoman for the Tennessee Republican Party draws a wild parallel:

“Hate is not a political party, policy statement, agenda or ideology – it is a pure evil that no place in civil society,” said Robin Smith, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. “Whether it is neo-Nazi skinheads plotting a racist shooting spree targeting Sen. Obama, or West Hollywood liberals hanging Gov. Sarah Palin in effigy and calling it ‘art,’ or unknown anarchists tossing bricks through the windows of a county Republican headquarters in Murfreesboro, Americans of all political views should be outraged.”

The Palin effigy was crude, but it’s breathtaking to compare that with indictments in a mass murder and assassination plot.

Yes, that’s right, they compared an effigy and some brick-throwing to a neo-Nazi murder spree.  Shame is completely foreign to these people.

Add comment October 27th, 2008 at 09:30pm Posted by Eli

Least. Impressive. Endorsement. Ever.

Wow, so “lifelong Democrat who hasn’t wavered in his presidential vote since 1980″ and war pimp Michael O’Hanlon finally, reluctantly endorses Barack Obama after being “unable to support [him] over the last two years.”  And only because he thinks Joe Biden is a stronger running mate than Sarah Palin.

Some lifelong Democrat – I’ve seen stronger Obama endorsements by Republicans.  But not to worry – O’Hanlon’s with us on everything except the war. Just like lifelong Democrat Joe Lieberman.

(h/t Elliott)

Add comment October 26th, 2008 at 11:52am Posted by Eli

It All Depends On What The Meaning Of The Word “Small” Is…

As the McCain campaign steadily defines deviancy down, it is also defining “small business” way up:

On Thursday in Sarasota, Governor Charlie Crist introduced J. Robert Long, the CEO of Marine Concepts as a “small businessman.” The man McCain dubbed “Bob the Boat Builder” spent, as Crist noted, most of his career at Wellcraft Marine, which reported revenues of $67 million last year, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Tonight in Colorado, Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of the McCains, described Cindy as “a great small businesswoman.” Her “small” business — Hensley & Co., a family-owned Anheuser-Busch distributor that is the third largest among the 800 in the country — had revenues of nearly $200 million last year, according to Yahoo.

Just keep this in mind the next time you hear McCain or his surrogates talking about tax breaks or other stimuli for “small business owners.”

2 comments October 25th, 2008 at 12:41pm Posted by Eli

At Long Last, Sir, Have You Left No Sense Of Irony?

Joe “Quavering Sanctimony” Lieberman, responding to local media questions about McCain’s smear campaigning:

“You look at some of things that both Senator Obama and (vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Joseph) Biden have said about McCain. One could say they’re intemperate,” Lieberman said.

He then went on to chide the media for “the demeaning of our politics by this kind of focus.”

Calling your opponent a terrorist is a little more than “intemperate,” Joe.  If you had anything remotely resembling the mighty moral compass that you pretend to have, you would recognize that there is absolutely no equivalence here.  You smarmy, dishonest little tick.

3 comments October 25th, 2008 at 11:37am Posted by Eli

The Hate Talk Express Rolls On

Watch this video from outside a McCain rally in Denver, and then try to tell me that the GOP is not the party of hate.

(h/t Progress Now Action)

4 comments October 24th, 2008 at 10:25pm Posted by Eli

They Report, You Decide

Fox EVP John Moody weighed in on Ashley Todd on his blog yesterday:

This incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.

If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

Now that Ashley Todd has been exposed, I feel certain that Fox News will take its cue from Mr. Moody and report accordingly.  Right?

Right?

(h/t Think Progress)

Add comment October 24th, 2008 at 09:30pm Posted by Eli

The Beginning Of The End, Or Just A Lull?

McCain’s smear campaign, with the “help” of third-party groups, has been not just unsuccessful, it has blown up in his face, destroyed the “Maverick” brand he spent 20 years fabricating cultivating, and made most Americans less likely to vote for him.

Will our simple-minded political pundits and consultants see this as a sign that Americans won’t stomach this kind of campaign anymore, or just that McCain and the GOP executed very poorly this year, or that Obama countered it very well, or that the economic conditions just weren’t right for it?  And will Democratic consultants take some lessons from Team Obama on how to combat Republican smears?

I would love to see Republican candidates forced to try to win on their own merits, because they have none.

4 comments October 24th, 2008 at 07:15am Posted by Eli

When Palin Supporters Attack

This is how worked up Sarah Palin’s fans get:

Jack B. Cheskaty, 62, of Grand Junction, said he pulled a handgun because “he wanted to be ready for anything” in what started as a verbal spat between drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving [a Palin Rally in] Lincoln Park around 8 p.m. Monday….

…A man behind the wheel of a Kia SUV attempted to inch in front of Cheskaty’s Chrysler, the affidavit said.

“If you want to get ahead of me you’ll have to deal with my insurance agency,” Cheskaty allegedly shouted.

The Kia’s driver reportedly replied, “I’ve got insurance too.”

The driver in the Kia alleged Cheskaty then displayed a handgun, “racked the slide” and held the weapon over the steering wheel, according to the affidavit.

A 14-year-old girl riding in the Kia noted, “Dad, he’s got a gun.”

Obviously, “I’ve got insurance too” is wingnut code for “LITTLE MAN, I WILL KILL YOU AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD,” and only Mr. Cheskaty’s quick thinking and borderline insanity averted a terrible tragedy.

(h/t Colorado Pols)

Add comment October 23rd, 2008 at 11:35pm Posted by Eli

What If This IS His Best Behavior?

Sounds like Joe McCain is hoping to be part of that long tradition of embarrassing presidential siblings:

He called the police emergency line because he was angry he was stuck in traffic.

The 911 call came into the City of Alexandria on Oct. 21st That’s creating some buzz because it appears to come from Joe McCain, John McCain’s brother.

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It’s not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: “(Expletive) you.” (caller hangs up)

(…)

But that wasn’t all. McCain apparently called 911 again, to complain about the message the operator just left him, warning him such use of 911 is criminal.

Appears to be Joe McCain: Somebody gave me this riot act about the violation of police.

Operator: Did you just call 911 in reference to this?

Appears to be Joe McCain: Yeah.

Operator: 911 is to be used for emergencies only not just because you’re sitting in traffic.

I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from, uh, the other apple.  Has anyone told Joe The Brother that maybe John won’t be president?

(h/t Raising Kaine)

Add comment October 23rd, 2008 at 08:36pm Posted by Eli

Can’t Wait To See This

I guess this is what happens when you pick a running mate you don’t even know:

Commenting on a new joint interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd described the Republican ticket as lacking cohesion, chemistry, and (he hinted) trust.

“There was a tenseness,” Todd told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “I couldn’t see chemistry between John McCain and Sarah Palin. I felt as if we grabbed two people and said ‘here, sit next to each other, we are going to conduct an interview.’ They are not comfortable with each other yet.”

Todd, who was remarking on the interview conducted by NBC’s Brian Williams (he was in the room), speculated that the candidates had come to the realization that “they are losing” the campaign, and guessed that McCain may have begun to hold his vice presidential choice responsible for his dwindling White House chances.

“When you see the two of them together, the chemistry is just not there. You do wonder, is John McCain starting to blame her for things? Blaming himself? Is she blaming him?” asked the highly regarded NBC newsman. “And maybe they don’t feel they can win right now, so they are missing that intensity. That was the thing that struck me more than anything. You almost wonder why they wanted the two of them sitting next to each other.”

I remember in the weeks after McCain announced her as his running mate, when the body language between them was awkward in a different way – McCain looked like the infatuated guy chasing her around the stage, while Palin looked repulsed and desperately trying to keep her distance.  I was expecting this to be one of the big untold stories of the election, something that just subliminally turned voters off, but they cut way back on joint appearances, so it kinda went away.

I do think it’s safe to say that when one half of the ticket thinks the other half is creepy, good chemistry is probably never going to happen.

Add comment October 23rd, 2008 at 11:28am Posted by Eli

Escalation

First it was shouts of “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!”, then it was death threats and hate mail, and now it’s bomb threats against the Senate and white powder at the NY Times.

I don’t know what’s coming next, but it will be bad.  And al Qaeda will have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Add comment October 22nd, 2008 at 09:22pm Posted by Eli

Connecting With Joe Six-Pack – Ur Doin It Wrong

So much for Sarah Palin’s blather about how she’s just a simple middle-class girl who understands the common man…

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Wow.  Who’s elitist now, eh?  But this might actually be my favorite part of the story:

Spokeswoman Maria Comella declined to answer specific questions about the expenditures, including whether it was necessary to spend that much and whether it amounted to one early investment in Palin or if shopping for the vice presidential nominee was ongoing.

“The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent,” she said.

Awesome.  How much Republican donor money the campaign plans to spend on the Palins’ wardrobe is a top-secret strategic decision.  Hey, I wonder how much Ayertime $150,000 buys?

Republicans ripping off Republicans always makes me smile.  Republicans ripping off taxpayers, not so much.

(h/t Americablog)

Add comment October 21st, 2008 at 10:52pm Posted by Eli

McCain Continues To Court The Women’s Vote

McCain sure has a strange way of reaching out to those disaffected Hillary voters…

On October 29, 1991, Senator John McCain went to the floor of the US Senate. The former Navy pilot was angry and disgusted. In recent days, the news had broken that the previous month Navy airmen and others had gone wild—engaging in sexual molestation, out-of-control drinking, and other misconduct—at the Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas, an annual gathering of retired and active-duty naval aviators. “I cannot tell you,” McCain proclaimed, “the distaste and displeasure that I have as a naval aviator…concerning this incident.” He bemoaned the fact that senior ranking naval officers and civilian leaders had been at the meeting. He called for an investigation and urged the Navy to suspend its traditional participation with the Tailhook reunions. “There is no time in the history of this country that something like this is more inappropriate,” McCain said, “and we cannot allow it. It is unconscionable. And we in the military…should be ashamed and embarrassed…that this kind of activity went on. And there is no excuse for it.”

Now, McCain has placed one of the men responsible for permitting—and encouraging– loutish activity at the Tailhook meetings in a powerful position: heading up his transition team.

McCain recently named John Lehman to oversee his transition effort and figure out how a McCain administration ought to get started—and whom it ought to hire for the most senior jobs—should McCain win the November 4 election. Lehman, now an investment banker, was secretary of the Navy during the 1980s, and he played a R-rated role in the Tailhook scandal.

Lehman was no longer Navy secretary when the Tailhook scandal exploded. But in 1991 and 1992, as military investigators and journalists probed what had happened at the 1991 convention—which included the so-called Gauntlet, a line of rowdy and drunk junior officers who harassed and assaulted women passing by–they learned that the events at the Tailhook convention of 1991 were predated by similar behavior in early years. And they discovered that Lehman, as Navy secretary, had been an enthusiastic participant.

In his 1995 book, Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy, Greg Vistica, the San Diego Union-Tribune reporter who broke the Tailhook scandal, described a scene from the 1986 Tailhook meeting:

When the door to the suite at the Las Vegas Hilton opened, a prominent member of President Ronald Reagan’s administration and a naked woman were clearly visible. He was lying on his back, stretched out in front of a throng of naval officers. There were probably one hundred men watching him, laughing with him….

Several of the Navy and Marine officers now crammed into the room…knew him personally and worshiped him. Many knew he was married and had three children. Almost everyone knew who he was, which made the show that much more fascinating….

Most of the officers in the room, including the man on his back, were hard-drinking renegades. Some had been partying for days, others for hours. The carpet was spongy and damp from alcohol spilled on it by drunken military men. The room itself reeked with the odor of booze and sweat. But nobody seemed to care much. All eyes were on the man and the naked woman standing over him, wagging her bare rump in a teasing motion. The men in the room went into a throaty uproar at the site, and their cheers and laughs grew louder as the show went on.

The man on the floor was Lehman. And this was the example he was setting at this particular Tailhook convention. Another account of the Tailhook scandal–The Mother of All Hooks: The Story of the U.S. Navy’s Tailhook Scandal by William McMichael–noted that Lehman ate whipped cream out of the stripper’s crotch.

Lehman, who had once been a Navy pilot, left his post as Navy secretary the following year—four years before Tailhook would become a controversy. But the 1993 report on Tailhook ‘91 conducted by the Pentagon’s inspector general concluded that the 1991 convention was “the culmination of a long-term failure of leadership” in the Navy. According to the report, “the nature of the misconduct at the annual convention was well-known to senior aviation leaders….We were repeatedly told that such behavior was widely condone by Navy civilian and military leadership.” A footnote in the report stated:

Throughout our investigation, witnesses told us remarkable incidents at past Tailhook conventions. Incidents related by witnesses included a high-ranking Navy civilian official dancing with strippers in hospitality suites.

The IG’s report noted that Tailhook had spun out of control during Lehman’s tenure as Navy secretary: “By many accounts, the increase in rowdy and improper behavior culminated at Tailhook ’85.” After that convention, one Tailhook Association board member privately complained to the group, “Dancing girls performing lurid sexual acts on Naval aviators in public would make prime conversation for the media.” But no steps were taken—by the association or the Navy–to rein in the Top Gun aviators. And Lehman’s antics at the 1986 gathering sent an obvious signal: party on, men.

1n 1996, Lehman, appearing on ABC News’ This Week with David Brinkley, downplayed the Tailhook affair. Asked if he had participated in public lewdness at one of the conventions, he said that was unimportant and railed against “gutter reporting,” insisting that Tailhook ’91 should have been nothing more than a minor story. Speaking more broadly about the military during the Clinton years, Lehman added, “This is not a touchy-feely bureaucracy here. It has to have a macho, tough, warrior culture, and that’s what’s being eroded.”

Dammit, if our aviators can’t harass women and cavort with strippers, they’ll turn into ineffectual pansies!  That is just the kind of bold, outside-the-box thinking that we need in a presidential transition team.  Maybe there will be lots of strippers and prostitutes on hand during the transition, you know, to keep morale up.

And plenty of whipped cream.

(h/t Jenn)

1 comment October 21st, 2008 at 11:38am Posted by Eli