Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is almost 100 percent certain to run and is already assembling his 2016 presidential campaign. Republicans should not make the mistake, as many did in the lead-up to 2008, of basing their entire plan on beating Hillary.
In fact, it’s by no means certain that Clinton will even seek the nomination in 2016 and — more to the point — Republicans have got to put 2016 out of their minds for the time being and focus laser-like on winning the 2014 mid-term elections, now less than 21 months away.
[A] promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of [FreedomWorks] and a [Matt] Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton. . . .
A former FreedomWorks official says Kibbe and Brandon ran the group as a “cult of personality” geared toward promoting Kibbe, and that Kibbe at times issued crude guidelines for hiring women based on their appearance. . . .
“I heard complaints of insensitive, boorish behavior and of obnoxious references to the condition of pregnancy,” [former FreedomWorks honcho Dick] Armey says. “Such comments put you in jeopardy of lawsuits.” . . .
Some FreedomWorks staffers worried last year about a promotional video created ahead of FreePAC, a FreedomWorks conference held on July 26, 2012, where thousands of conservative grassroots activists nearly filled the American Airlines Center in Dallas to hear from tea party favorites, including Glenn Beck and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The short film hailing FreedomWorks was intended to play on the large video screens inside the arena.
In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently performing oral sex on the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. (See here, here, and here.) Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was “an inside joke.”
Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that “Yes, this video was created.”
Well, my hands are clean here: Somebody at FreedomWorks blacklisted me back in 2010, so of course I wasn’t invited to “FreePAC,” and nobody asked me if it was a good idea to make a video of Hillary Clinton having sex with a giant panda. NTTAWWT.
What I can’t understand is why liberals pretend like they disapprove of “inter-species intimacy,” when this is a favorite practice — indeed, a cherished right — of Typical Democrat Voters™.
A new petition on Change.org calls on the [Nobel] committee to present the prize to Hillary for her work around the world for President Obama and Bill Clinton for his post-presidential international involvement.
“President and Mrs. Clinton have had a lasting impact upon promoting peace in this world. Both have reached out to the poor and economically deprived nations of this world and emphasized the need for tolerance for women’s and minority rights,” reads the new petition.
Well, shag it. Giver her the Nobel for her non-accomplishments as Secretary of State, and a Best Actress Oscar for her performance at the hearings.
This blog, noting that that Nobel backward spells LeBon, hereby presents some Duran Duran to Hillary.
Because, like a 1980s British hair band, “What difference at this point does it make!?”
“In an age of spin, Clinton offers feeling and authenticity. Her message is consistent–unshakeable, in fact, no matter the evidence–but she commands daily attention by her on-the-spot, invective-rich variations on the theme. Her lunatic counterfactual art is more appealing than the banal awfulness of the Reliable Sources. See is a Method Actress in a production that will close in a couple of days. She stands superior to truth.”
I was gonna fix the security, but Ambassador died
I was gonna tell the American people, Ambassador died
I was gonna have Ms. Rice come clean, but talking points fried!
Ambassador died, Ambassador died, Ambassador died.
[To Congress] LaDaDaDaDaDa
I was gonna spring Nakoula from the can, cuz Ambassador died
I was gonna honor the other dead man, cuz Ambassador died
I was gonna ‘splain about the two ex-SEALs, and I know why!
Ambassador died, Ambassador died, Ambassador died.
{To Congress} LaDaDaDaDaDa
I was gonna ask me the Turkish envoy, cuz Ambassador died
I was gonna find me a Syrian gun-toy, cuz Ambassador died
I was gonna plumb me a Taliban death-ploy, and I know why!
But, of course, the ripped-from-context quote is “What difference, at this point, does it make?” It’s already being seized on by National Review and Fox News and The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard and Glenn Beck’s Blaze and Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy and the Free Beacon and, of course, Breitbart. There’s already a popular hashtag, #whatdifferencedoesitmake. . . .
Will the wingers be able to turn this decontextualized soundbite into a deceptive sign of Secretary Clinton’s indifference?
This is an Andrew Breitbart/James O’Keefe tactic, but its use is not limited to O’Keefe and the carriers of the Breitbart torch — this is a mainstream GOP tactic.
Quoting what a Democrat says is a tactic! An Andrew Breitbart/James O’Keefe tactic! A mainstream GOP tactic!
The point seems to be: Anything that is bad for Democrats is wrong. These unfair “tactics” include (a) direct quotes, (b) facts and (c) math.
SEN. JOHNSON: Yeah. The point I’m making is a very simple phone call to these individuals I think would have ascertained immediately that there was no protest prior to this. I mean, this attack started at 9:40 p.m., Benghazi time, and it was an assault . . . Why wasn’t that known? And again, I appreciate the fact of the transparency of this — of this hearing, but why weren’t we transparent at that point in time?
SEC. CLINTON: Well, first of all, Senator, I would say that once the assault happened and once we got our people rescued and out, our most immediate concern was, number one, taking care of their injuries . .. getting them into Frankfurt, Ramstein . . . to get taken care of, the FBI going over immediately to start talking to them — we did not think it was appropriate for us to talk to them before the FBI conducted their interviews, so — and we did not — I think this is accurate, sir — I certainly did not know of any reports that contradicted the IC talking points at the time that Ambassador Rice went on the TV shows.
And, you know, I just want to say that, you know, people have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of, you know, misleading Americans. I can say, trying to be in the middle of this and understanding what was going on, nothing could be further from the truth. Was information developing? Was the situation fluid? Would we reach conclusions later that weren’t reached initially? And I appreciate the –
SEN. JOHNSON: But Madam Secretary, do you disagree with me that a simple phone call to those evacuees to determine what happened wouldn’t have — wouldn’t have ascertained immediately that there was no protest?
I mean, that was — that was a piece of information that could have been easily, easily obtained –
SEC. CLINTON: Well, but Senator, again –
SEN. JOHNSON: — within hours, if not days.
SEC. CLINTON: Senator, I — you know, when you’re in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process going on. . . . Now, we have no doubt they were terrorists, they were militants, they attacked us, they killed our people, but what was going on and why they were doing what they were doing is still — is still unknown.
SEN. JOHNSON: No, no, no, no, I’m — I — again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that. And that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact –
SEC. CLINTON: But could — but, you know –
SEN. JOHNSON: — and the American people could have known that within days, and they didn’t know that.
SEC. CLINTON: And — with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans.
SEN. JOHNSON: I understand.
SEC. CLINTON: Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.
Well, gosh, I can think of a few reasons why it matters. First, it mattered enough for the Obama administration to send Susan Rice to five different Sunday talk shows to insist that the sacking was a spontaneous demonstration of anger over a months-old YouTube video, while saying that there was “no evidence” that it was a terrorist attack. On one of those appearances, the president of Libya told US audiences the exact opposite — that it was the work of terrorists and that they had a pretty good idea of who they were. If it didn’t matter, what was Susan Rice doing when she tried pushing that meme, which the White House had to abandon within days as leaks within State and CIA made plain that there was no demonstration?
It also matters because Barack Obama at the time had been bragging about crippling al-Qaeda while on the campaign trail. That false narrative made it seem as though State and our intel community couldn’t have possibly known that the sacking would have occurred, and got blindsided by a grassroots reaction to the video. Instead, it turned out to be a planned terrorist action about which the US embassy in Libya had warned State for months, repeatedly requesting more security.
Maybe Tina Brown was literarily spoofed by someone wanting her to appear the demented love child of Andrew Sullivan and Rachel Maddow:
The idea of losing Hillary has seemed especially unbearable at this political moment. It’s as if she has become, literally, the ship of state. She stands for maturity, tenacity, and self-discipline at a time when everyone else in Washington seems to be, in more senses than one, going off a cliff—a parade of bickering, blustering, small-balled hacks bollixing up the nation’s business. She’s a caring executive too, and that takes its own emotional toll. What a disgrace that John Bolton and his goaty Republican ilk accused Her Magnificence of inventing a concussion to get out of testifying at the Benghazi hearings. Bolton is not fit to wipe her floor with his mustache.
This blog must double down on its unwavering stance regarding the physical condition of this storied civil servant:
May Secretary of State Clinton receive better treatment than Ambassador Stevens, Smith, Woods or Doherty. #Benghazi
And, indeed, Hillary has exited the hospital building. Let’s hope she chills out in Hawaii with the Preshizzle and doesn’t get too stressed about matters.
