53 posts tagged “democratic party”
Really? Yes, really.
This has become my favorite word. I think I must say ‘Really???’ about a hundred times a day.
· Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his opponents use ‘Hitler tactics.’ Really? Mr. Abmadinejad, one of the world’s most famous and infamous Holocaust deniers, has accused his political rivals of behaving like Adolph Hitler when they insulted him: It is illegal to insult the president in Iran. He furthermore threatened to put them in jail for saying that he had lied about the economy. And they’re acting like Hitler? So the man who thinks Hitler really didn’t do anything all that bad is threatening to throw people who disagree with him in jail. Really? Yes, really. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5592OM20090610
· The GOP ‘disses’ Sarah Palin. Palin disses David Letterman. The press wonders what this means for the Party. Really? Sarah Palin was invited to speak a fundraiser in DC but the offer was rescinded when she didn’t give a firm answer and Newt Gingrich stepped in. Her response seems to have been to call David Letterman ‘pathetic’ and the media ‘buffoons.’ Before jumping on Palin, it should be noted that the press really hyped the infighting and given the current position of the GOP in America, this is what makes them think it is in disarray? And Mrs. Palin, this is the battle you want to have? With Letterman? Really? Yes, really.
· Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) thinks President Obama’s ‘paygo’ idea is hypocritical. Really? Eric Cantor sure is living up to his new nickname, ‘Dr. No.’ He has opposed pretty much everything President Obama does or says. First he accused the president of being a hypocrite when he asked Congress to make the ‘PayGo” (any spending needs to be paid for) rule law – mostly because of the new spending. Apparently, he was absent during his first eight years in office when the Dubya admin spent like drunken sailors and ran up our deficit and debt. Of course, it didn’t look as bad then because the costs for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were included in the budget (nice accounting trick there). Then he said “the stimulus package is not a success story, people are still suffering.” Note to Rep. Cantor – the bill passed about six months ago, it took us longer than that to get into this mess, it will take longer to get out. So, the Minority Whip both thinks it is ok when his party spends money on unnecessary wars (Iraq) and tax breaks for the uber-wealthy but cannot stand to see it spent on Americans and wants policy changes he doesn’t like to work immediately. Really? Yes, really.
· When all else fails, we know Joe will find a way to remind us all what a (insert your favorite expletive that means jerk here) he is. Really? Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have said they plan to do everything in their power to block CIA photos of ‘enhanced interrogation’ from being released. By anything, they mean stop the Senate from getting any work done until their amendment is added to a bill that would fund our troops. Hey, it’s not like the Senate has work to do, right? They only have to hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, work on overhauling health care, fix the economy, deal with escalating violence in Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iraq, prevent a pandemic, keep an eye on North Korea…. And did I mention the first bill they want to filibuster is for funds for our troops? Really? Yes, really.
As a final note on torture, mom you might not want to read this, this quote seemed really appropriate for the torture debate: “If you beat this motherfucker long enough, he will tell you he started the fuckin’ Chicago fire but that won’t make it true.” ‘Nice’ Eddie – Reservoir Dogs. Exactly, thanks Eddie for making my point so eloquently.
The craziness just keeps on coming… (or in case you missed these gems)
The last few months have been fun for most Democrats, with the GOP imploding in the most public of ways. Last week’s bombshell was Senator Specter’s defection and nothing topped that but that doesn’t mean the week wasn’t funny and strange.
· Conservatives attack President Obama’s condiment choice: Arlington, VA residents were treated to a rare POTUS/VPOTUS visit when the duo went out for a ‘working lunch’ at a local favorite. Personally I thought the most absurd thing to come out of the stop was the amount of time MSNBC devoted to it until I read this: http://mediamatters.org/research/200905070031 Sean Hannity, and a host of his colleagues, were outraged that the President ordered his hamburger with mustard and not ketchup. I get that they have been trying to paint him as someone who is out of touch with the American people but is this really the best they have? Does anyone really think FOX News is ‘fair and balanced?’ What-ever.
· Republicans attack each other over ‘listening tour’: In an effort to ‘re-brand’ the party, several prominent Republicans set out on their listening tour. The team, made up of Mitt Romney, Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Jeb Bush held a pizza party in northern VA. Now there is an inherent irony in having Mr. Cantor (aka ‘Dr. No’ to the people on the Hill for his obstructionist positions and rhetoric – he even got into an argument with President Obama regarding the decree John Boehner issued instructing all GOP Members of Congress to reject any Obama proposals even before reading them) speak about this issue but there’s more to this than that. Shortly after, Michael Steele, head of the GOP, told the press that moderates ‘are welcome in the party as long as they don’t change it.’ My translation: We are a big tent party as long as we don’t have to listen to anyone who doesn’t share every one of our views. The National Council for a New America has said they want to focus on the ‘traditional’ Republican values such as reducing the size of government, increased personal liberties (and probably responsibility) and supply side economics and move away from the cultural issues. For some reason this just reminds me of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. It’s as if some Republicans understand the menu that has won elections in the past (during the first W administration Ohio lost more than 300,000 jobs but the state went for him in 2004 because of gay marriage) doesn’t work anymore but others want to stay where they are. Mike Huckabee said this was a ‘sad day’ – maybe for them, it sure made me laugh. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22242.html
· Ron Paul makes sense, sort of: I don’t often get to say that I agree with Ron Paul and think most of what he said about the flu is wrong, he did get it partially right. I did read a headline that indicated the former presidential nominee and Congressman thinks the federal government is hyping the flu for its own nefarious reasons and while I DO NOT believe that, a little less paranoia about it would be a good thing. Back in 2006, I was always talking about the bird flu and all my friends and colleagues thought I was crazy. Maybe I burned through all my flu fears then but I just cannot worry too much about H1N1. Should people be careful? Sure. Should we all stock up on three months of food and water? I don’t plan to and will not get vaccinated should a vaccine be developed. My only remaining concern is that the outbreak will subside in the northern hemisphere, it will come back next fall when the regular flu season begins. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/03/swine.flu.react/
From the news the past few weeks, 2009 looks a lot like 2008. That will suck if it continues.
· Polls = “lies, damned lies and statistics.” One added benefit to Barack Obama’s election would be the cessation of the endless polling the news networks did during the campaign cycle. Wow, was I wrong about that. The polls have shifted from which candidate people support for the 2008 campaign to which GOP candidate is most favored (it’s Sarah Palin right now) to beat Obama and/or how much confidence the public – including the same Republicans who are already lining up to support Palin – has in Obama. WTF? Can’t the guy take office before the snarkiness starts? Apparently not.
· Petty, partisan politics are over. Uh, not in the US. Just as Minnesota says Al Franken won, Norm Coleman and his pals in the Senate vow to fight on. Granted, with an election so close, it’s hard to blame them. It’s how they got the White House in 2000. The other split seems to be in how the GOP machine will respond to President Obama. So far they have released obnoxious and racist videos. When called on the blatant racism of “Barak the magic negro” their response was “it was a joke.” Yeah, so were your response to Katrina, our participation in the ICC or adherence to the Geneva Conventions the economy and your general ability to govern. See, none of us are laughing at those either.
· No, really – everything I do it totally legal. One might think that if one governor is in the newspaper every day over a ‘pay for play’ scandal that if you maybe did the same thing, you might not want to subject yourself to anything that requires Senate confirmation. Poor, silly Bill Richardson. Of course, the adage that ‘those in glass houses should not throw stones’ never did mean much to politicians. Nice.
· Just because I am about to be impeached does mean I lose my rights to govern. Speaking of Governor Blogojevich, he hasn’t actually been indicted on anything. I understand that the ‘appearance of impropriety is worse than the impropriety itself.’ I do but legally he has the right to appoint anyone, who meets the requirements to be a Senator, to the Senate. He could make things easier on Harry Reid, but why should he? He should because anyone he appoints will be tainted and that may make it harder to them to keep the seat in 2010 when they have to run again. A veto proof Senate would be, well, I can’t say how strongly I feel about it because then I would have to list this post as ‘offensive’ but it would be awesome.
· Winter is cold and there is still plenty of war to go around. After 10 days in Florida and too many hours of CNN/the Weather Channel, I can tell you that in the winter most of the US is cold and people still try to kill each other all over the world. Israel is pounding Gaza (and I do blame Hamas for this), conflicts continue in the DR Congo & Darfur and pirates are taking ships off the horn of Africa. Good times.
I know I sound glib here and promise that is not my goal. It’s hard for me not to not be cynical about the state of the world. The US made great progress by electing Barack Obama but we have a long way to go in terms of the rest of the planet, our role in it and what we do within our borders. Democracy does not equal stability and peace. The US is not the only country on earth and political corruption runs rampant. We get the government that we settle for.
Newt Gingrich to the rescue! Newt Gingrich to the rescue! Newt Gingrich to the rescue!
Go, Newt Gingrich! Go, Newt Gingrich! (Sung to the song Jim Dandy to the rescue)
Being a liberal Democrat, few things put a smile on my face like watching the GOP so stupid things that show people their true colors. Their recent attempts to link President-elect Obama to Governor Rod Blagojevich really smack of both of their normal smear tactics mixed in with a fair amount of whining. You can watch their new video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2M1zMaZPmI. The announcement on their page is here: http://www.gop.com/News/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=be000046-39ad-4992-8e7e-05bdcbb80189. I would have thought that Obama’s landslide victory last month coupled with the fact that even most Republicans polled want to see him succeed – not because they like him so much but because the country needs it so badly – would make them reconsider this path. It has been the path you are on and maybe they are just following the old adage that when things get tough, just keep doing what you’re doing. A policy that clearly helped them this past election.
The one GOP name that keeps popping up again and again is Newt Gingrich. He knows a thing or two about revenge. He might agree with the saying that holding a grudge is like taking poison and hoping you enemy gets sick. He is very familiar with that one because after he swore he would get Bill Clinton out of office, the first casualties of the impeachment fight were Newt Gingrich the then-Speaker of the House and his designated replacement Bob Livingston. Both resigned when their own infidelities were brought to light. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, at the time, Henry Hyde – also an R, had to admit he had also had affairs but they were ‘youthful indiscretions’ (he was 52 years old, which means I have loads of time to make the same claim should I do something stupid but I digress). The last force behind the ridiculousness was Tom Delay, who probably inhaled too many chemicals as an exterminator, also had to resign a while later for other ethical failings. In fact, the one person who remains pretty much intact after all of that is President Bill Clinton. He’s a total rock star. Love him.
Now that all this happened and Newt is back in favor – he did orchestrate the Contract on America. Oopsie, I meant with. That PR ploy – and 40 years of Democratic arrogance – got him the House of Representatives in 1994. Not only did they win but they managed to oust the then-Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D-WA), which was the first time a Speaker lost since 1860 (side note: in a poll of Foley’s Congressional district I think about 60 to 70 percent of the voters assumed anyone they elected would be Speaker, yeah, our education is system is the best in the world). So it’s natural to look to him, he is a very smart guy.
This week he proved himself to be even more valuable when he announced he was unhappy with the way the GOP is behaving, and you know that will always get news. According to the Post :
Gingrich boils it down to a single sentence: "Republicans should be eager to work with [Obama] when he is right, and, when he is wrong, offer a better solution, instead of just opposing him." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/more_republicans_revolt_on_oba.html?nav=rss_blog
Gingrich has also called the video a ‘destructive distraction.’ He is absolutely correct but I hope the RNC sticks to its guns. What’s been good for them has not been good for the country.
· Dick Cheney meets our expectations. Apparently he admitted to supporting waterboarding. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney16-2008dec16,0,5456856.story Looks like he may not be the warm and fuzzy VPOTUS we have all grown to know and love. And just as he leaves office, maybe the indictments won’t come through until after he and Dubya have left town. Can a POTUS pardon people in advance?
· Obama fatigue – catch it! Sorry. I love the fact that Barak Obama will be our president soon. He is a great person and will be a fantastic leader. It was an amazing night here in DC – election night was like Mardi Gras, the Superbowl, all tennis grand slams, every sporting event championship and New Year’s Eve rolled into one. For weeks people walked around being nice to each other, like the local government had removed the chlorine from our water and replaced it with Prozac or Xanax. It has been great but the scale has tipped. No, thank you, I do not need a toilet seat cover with a picture of the new first family on it. There are more stalls here with Obama memorabilia than Washington Post stands (maybe the newspapers should think about that as they all file for chapter 11.)
· The holiday season is upon us but so is the apocalypse. No, I am not talking about the economy, the auto industry or the Illinois governor. I went to my second movie of 2008 – yes I need to get out more often – and heard some crazy music playing. It was the Chipmunks. It was a cover of an old Journey song. It was every bit as bad as you can imagine.
· Speaking of hell, if I am not there now I think I am headed there. Or at least that’s what every random religious door-to-door congregation in the city thinks because they come to my house five times a week. I am starting to think there is a big “Satan lives here” sign on my door. I thought I scared the Mormons away when I gave them a copy of “Under the Banner of Heaven” but they keep coming back. And if the two overly friendly women with the Watchtower come calling again I am just going to answer the door naked and see if that keeps them away.
· Christian Bale may be about to jump the shark, he make take the phrase with him. One of the previews I saw was of a new Terminator movie. Bale’s big line in the preview was “You tried to kill my mother, you tried to kill me, I am not gonna let you.” Then let them kill me. Death sounds better than this. Didn’t the writers’ strike end last year?
· Keanu Reeves found his ideal role: disaffected alien. Don’t get me wrong, I love Keanu. I loved him as Neo (even despite that line “You can’t die, I love you too damn much.”) and who didn’t love him in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”? He uttered my favorite line in any movie EVER. In “River’s Edge” he says, “You just come around here to eat our food and fuck our mother. You motherfucker. You food eater.” If you cannot appreciate that line, well, I can’t help that.
· And because it’s there: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/swear-words
Now that 2008 election is finally over it is interesting to look back at how different it was from 2004. While a lot has changed, such as the economy which was only threatening to tank back then as opposed to now, there are things that are the same. We have the same unpopular president. We are in the same unpopular war. The number of uninsured Americans is still roughly 47 million. We still face most of the same problems as we did back then. Moreover, the candidates themselves weren’t as different this year as you may think. Not in terms of what the general ideas they support or the worldviews they espouse. Democrats still want to work on the environment, provide health insurance and go back to using diplomacy. The GOP went right back to what it always does in campaigns, which is use smear tactics and try to stir up ‘culture war’ issues.
The main differences were that the Democratic candidate really was something new, his organization was better and the negative message just didn’t take hold. Maybe the voters felt they had heard enough of the name calling and wanted someone who was going to help with their lives. I hope that is the case.
I also do not want to sound like what I am about to say detracts from what an amazing thing Senator Obama did. President Bush said Obama’s win was “the triumph of the American story.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/05/bush-obama-win-kings-dream-fulfilled/) This has to be a first. I agree with George W. Bush on something and I quoted the Washington Times in a good way. While the underlying themes of this Democratic presidential campaign did not differ significantly from those before it, the messenger did. This is not because he is ‘attractive’ as some have said. Nor was this purely a repudiation of Dubya’s failed policies. The Republican leadership has been falling all over itself to explain away this year’s election results. John Boehner said in today’s Washington Post that Tuesday’s election does not give the Democrats a mandate. Whatever helps get you to sleep at night. Barack Obama was not hurt by his eloquence but that alone won’t win you the presidency and more than a lack of it will. Obama connected with people and made them feel they mattered. Moreover, his ideas and way of explaining them reminded people why having an intelligent and thoughtful president is a good thing. John McCain’s defining moment did not happen when he announced Sarah Palin nor was it when he jumped back and forth on the economy. It was when he decided he cared more about winning this election than by staying true to his nature. Granted those were two public examples of such a bad decision but only he knows when exactly that happened.
If failure is an orphan and success has a million fathers, there is no shortage of ideas about what went right for the Obama campaign. Aside from the candidate himself, and his now brilliant campaign, there was the economy, Iraq and the Internet. That is where Howard Dean comes in and is one name I have not heard as much this week as I would have thought. MSNBC has said the Internet won Obama this campaign and while it didn’t hurt, it didn’t completely do it either. There is another big difference between 2004 and 2008, that is who was at the helm of the DNC in the four years leading up to the election. Many well seasoned professionals scoffed at Howard Dean’s ’fifty state strategy.’ Back when he took control of the DNC he said, “You can’t be a national party if you are writing off states.” He was right. Obama proved him right by winning the primaries with that plan vs. Hillary Clinton’s plan to focus solely on large states. Oh and how do the Republicans plan to work with the even more Democratic Congress and Obama administration?
“Republicans for the next four years will demand accountability,” (Mike) Duncan said. “I speak for Republicans everywhere that it’s time to put loyal back into loyal opposition.” http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/07/1662854.aspx
Should be an interesting few years. I can hardly wait for John Boehner’s next op-ed.
Someone sent me this and then I told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on...
Everyone who knows me knows I want Barack Obama to win. Anyone who knows me well knows there is only one thing closer to my heart than politics and that is baseball. You can only imagine my horror at comments Barack Obama made about the World Series. No, I do not mean his 'flip-flopping' between the Rays and the evil Phillies. I mean what he said before then. He said he is a White Sox fan. I am sorry, what? I haven't felt this way since Hillary Clinton, also from Chicago, stood up at an event at the beginning of her first Senate campaign in NY and declared herself a Yankees fan -- and before she put the cap on she straightened out the bill of the cap. WTF?
We all expect politicians to pander to their audience on policy or maybe when the locals are the the championships but what are these people thinking. Barack Obama is a White Sox fan? It's a darn good thing he is as smart and decent as he is or well, I would still vote for him but I am not happy about his choice. Seriously, has he not heard of the Cubs? I am not so sure about these American League fans. Maybe they are part of the fake America that Sarah Palin is always talking about.
Don’t believe me? Good. Never take one person’s word for statements like that. Go here: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/15/gop-site-california-removes-waterboard-obama-graphic/ and take a peek at what will be starting to pop up under voters’ doors and on their voicemails.
Seriously? I know not all networks covered the campaign using the split screen to show the reactions but CNN (clearly they are the ‘best political team on television’ because all their commentators had laptops) did. I am no mind reader but I swear I could tell what John McCain was thinking, and it went something like (clear the kids out of the room, profanity is about to be served) That little fucker. I spent five years in a POW camp to have to run against this guy? He shouldn’t even be allowed to be here. I have proved I love my country. What has he done that makes him so great? Oh, he went to Harvard. Oh he can move his arms. Oh, his ideas inspire people. Oh, he’s going to make people believe again. What a crock. I hate him. Back in my day we worked for a living and when we walked 10 miles up hill – each way – barefoot in the snow, we liked it!!!
As I predicted, I did not win the lottery, nor was I struck by lightning and no, John McCain refused to take the high road that I thought would lead him and his campaign back to some sort of honor. He looked so peeved to be anywhere near Barack Obama that taking the high road was clearly never an option. That is too bad. John McCain has done a lot of things that make him deserve our respect but he just looks old and mean. Bob Dole had the same problem in 1996. Then a bigger problem was that President Clinton was really popular and it seemed the GOP ran Dole because it was ‘his turn’ not because he could win. We all got to know the Senator Dole that I saw around the Hart Senate office building back when I worked there. He had a sense of humor. I didn’t agree with him on anything but that’s never what you expect in this business. He was not the stiff, bitter, pissy old man his campaign let us think he was. And as someone who worked for President Clinton’s reelection, I thought it was unfair to him. The problem here is that the McCain campaign isn’t making McCain look bitter, he is. And I don’t think it’s a simple cosmetic thing, I think it is how he is. Ronald Reagan was a bad president, in my opinion. Just because he is dead does not mean I have to like him but he understood that to win people over to the idea he was able to govern was not to look bitter and pissy but to use humor. He did it well.
Then again, if members of my own party were leaving me like rats leaving the Titanic I might be bitter about it, too. Check this out: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/et_tu_gop_the_conservative_bet.html
First I read about Christopher Buckley endorsing Barack Obama and then basically resigning from the National Review, which is only, the conservative magazine his father started. That cannot feel good to McCain. Then you have the ever growing list of conservatives and Republicans who don’t think McCain can win and many have said not only is Sarah Palin a disaster but she should ‘put country first and remove herself from the ticket.’ And to think he really wanted Lieberman. I am not sure he even knows that much about Sarah, did anyone else catch that he said ‘Sarah certainly knows about autism.’ Why? Because her child has Down ’s syndrome? Yes, all these developmental problems are the same.
Oh, and while I am feeling frisky, what’s up with the ‘Joe the plumber?’ If he was not a plant at that rally I will eat a hat. His story fit just a little too neatly into the sweet spot of Obama’s economic plan. As for ‘spreading the wealth around’ you know who knows a little something about that. You sure do. Her name would be Sarah Palin where they do have lower taxes and one of the state’s main income supplier is the federal government. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that the $1200 she sent everyone in the state came from those of us living in the lower 48. To the rest of the world that’s called ‘income redistribution’ and if a Democrat did it, they would be called a communist. As it stands, Alaska’s system looks more socialist than France (read “Letter from Alaska by Philip Gourevitch, www.newyorker.com, when a liberal mag like that calls you socialist, you probably are.
Back to ‘Joe’ – who was probably watching the baseball game if he was watching TV. I have come to hate the anecdotes candidates use. Usually because they are made up crap that I think wastes everyone’s time. This may not have been that but could John McCain have been more condescending to Obama and well, anyone whose head has not been up their butt for the last eight years? No, Mr. McCain you aren’t President George W. Bush (I so wished Obama had said, How long have you been waiting to use that line?). You are worse than Dubya. Sure he lied when it came to nation building and uniting the country but on most things his intentions have been clear from the get go. I don’t like him. History will judge him as one of the worst presidents ever but McCain is worse. He’s worse because he had a long record of not being a wishy washy, say-anything guy and he opted to run as someone else. That’s too bad, too bad for him anyway.
And kudos should go to Barack Obama. No politician wants to tell the public that they bear some responsibility in anything. It’s not OUR fault. We haven’t been asked to do anything really. The only people who have given anything up for the ‘war on terrorism’ – and those that have lost something have lost a lot – are the military fighting it and their families. The rest of us were told to shop. Right. Every time you spend a dollar, God kills a member of al Qaeda. Obama said that some of the current economic crisis was caused by people who live beyond their means. It was the first time in a long time that I have heard that and I hope he has more of it coming. Thank you Senator Obama.
So the debates are over and we are left to nothing more than crappy stump speeches and even worse political advertising. I don’t know who these ‘undecideds’ are, I just hope they decide to vote for Barack Obama.
