The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

VP Tea Leaves: Is Mitt’s Short List Now Down to Pawlenty, Portman or Ryan?

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 37 Comments

There are signals — both in terms of actual evidence and what might be called “absence of evidence” — that Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential choices have now come down to three Midwesterners: former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

It appears that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been eliminated from consideration and, most importantly, that talk of Tea Party favoirite Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Romney’s running mate is just talk. Neither Jindal nor Rubio have taken the steps that would indicate they are finalists for the VP slot. Jindal, for example, has accepted an invitation to appear at an event during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, an acceptance he would not be able to make if he were indeed obligated to keep his schedule clear as the potential running mate.

Meanwhile, at the Weekly Standard — where Bill Kristol and Steve Hayes previously offered either Rubio or Ryan as the “bold” conservative choices for VP — the balance appears to have tipped toward Ryan, indicating that Kristol and Hayes have indications that Rubio is not among the finalists for the spot. (There has been widespread talk among GOP insiders that despite Rubio’s popularity, “vetting” proved problematic for the Florida senator.)

This week’s trial-balloon suggestions about other possible running mates — including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Gen. David Petraus — are regarded as irrelevant distractions by well-informed observers, who now believe the “veepstakes” to have been narrowed to the trio of Midwesterners. Pawlenty and Portman are viewed as the “safe” picks, while talk about a “bold” Republican choice now focuses exclusively on Ryan, the conservative chairman of the House Budget Committee. Tuesday, Robert Costa of National Review cited “sources close to the Romney campaign” as saying that Ryan had risen from “dark horse” to “contender” for the running-mate pick.

Conservatives pushing Romney to go “bold” have a key ally in Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a Wisconsinite who is said to be quietly exercising home-state influence on Ryan’s behalf. Meanwhile, there may be bad blood brewing between the two “safe” alternatives: Some supporters of Portman blame the Pawlenty camp for pushing reports that Portman once worked as a lobbyist for notorious Haitian dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier. (ABC News debunked that claim last month.)

How much longer will the GOP veepstakes speculation continue? Probably not too long. Some say Romney’s pick could be announced as early as Wednesday, but the Weekly Standard points to Thursday as the likely day, while Republican strategist Karl Rove says not to expect a selection before Friday.

UPDATE: Alex Moe of NBC News reported today that Paul Ryan’s planning a “vacation.” Just a coincidence?

Category: Election 2012, Marco Rubio, Minnesota, Mitt Romney, Ohio, Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Wisconsin

‘Scientology as a Criminal Conspiracy’

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 34 Comments

This phrase occurs in an article about the bizarre science-fiction cult that my friend Jamie Kirchick published last month:

The broad contours of Scientology’s inception are well-known: In 1950, the pulp sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard published a self-help book called Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which humbly claimed itself to be “a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the arch.” . . .
In 1952, Hubbard decided to merge his bunk scientific claims with his science fiction and market the mixture as a religion. He called it Scientology, or, “the science of knowing how to know answers.” According to Church defectors, and now infamous thanks to South Park, Scientology’s theology is essentially a discarded Hubbard novel. Human beings are the composition of spirits (“thetans”) cast off from the bodies of space aliens detonated 75 million years ago in volcanoes on the planet Teegeeack (also known as Earth) by a galactic warrior named Xenu. Man’s problems today are attributable to “engrams,” or the mental memory of painful experiences caused by the presence of thetans on our humanly bodies, which one can get rid of only through a process of spiritual “auditing,” a sort of counseling session performed on a low-rent lie-detector machine called an “E-Meter.” Those who join Scientology often end up spending vast sums on auditing and other Church gimmicks, leading detractors to characterize Scientology as a pyramid scheme in which members pay ever-vaster sums of money to ascend the Church’s “Operating Thetan levels.” A typical story involves the grief-stricken, 73-year-old widow who took on a $45,000 mortgage to pay for auditing after Scientologists preyed upon her following the death of her husband. . . .

Read the whole thing. It’s hard to believe anyone with an IQ above room temperature could be suckered into believing the nonsense promulgated by Scientology — but then again, is it really more absurd than the beliefs of the Democrat Party?

Category: Uncategorized

His Initials Are W.A.R.

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 13 Comments

The brilliant Wayne Allyn Root suggests that Mitt Romney call Obama’s bluff, Mitt offering to release his tax returns in return for Obama releasing his college transcripts:

My bet is that Obama will never unseal his records because they contain information that could destroy his chances for re-election. Once this challenge is made public, my prediction is you’ll never hear about Mitt’s tax returns ever again.

Of course, Obama would immediately fold under that circumstance — if there was nothing to hide in Obama’s Columbia transcripts, it wouldn’t be such a big secret — but I seriously doubt Mitt will take Wayne’s suggestion by raising the issue, so it will likely remain a moot scenario. (Via Memeorandum and Hot Air.)

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, Mitt Romney

VP Petraeus?

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Stacy will love this post. What can you pile better on speculation than. . .more speculation? The General Petraeus boomlet, therefore, is a counter to the VP Biden departure rumor.

Reasoning: without Biden around, the vast foreign policy void, (actually a gap spanning perhaps a couple of millimeters) can only be filled by. . .drumroll. . . Read more

Category: Election 2012

When Liars ‘Win’

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 14 Comments

Nothing should enrage honest people more than to see liars succeed through their skill at deceit — or, as often as not, to see liars succeed because so many people have become indifferent to truth, as in the case of the media’s favorite phony “expert,” Ryan Holiday.

When liars succeed, this represents the triumph of vice over virtue, the encouragement of evil and the discouragement of good. So we should take alarm when we see how Harry Reid’s vicious lies are being celebrated as successful politics:

L.A. Times’s Rainey: Hey, Maybe Harry Reid Is Lying, But
By Forcing Romney to Talk About His Lies, He Is Still “Winning”

A nation that considers it acceptable to “win” by lying is a nation far gone down the degenerate road to complete corruption.

James Rainey should be ashamed of himself, but if he had any sense of shame, he would not write for the disgraceful Los Angeles Times.

Category: Election 2012, Harry Reid, Media Bias, Mitt Romney

Stuff Your Fauxtrage, Cohen

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

Richard Cohen, you need to own the fact that that Harry Reid’s “Gutter Politics” are the next logical step in Democrat Progress.

Still, he is not some backbencher, but the Senate majority leader. He is the face of the Democratic Party in the Senate and the ally of President Obama. Yet, not a single Democrat has had the spine to rebuke Reid. The White House has been given the chance and explicitly ducked its duty. Other members of the Senate have run for cover. They fear Reid and, if truth be told, sort of like what he’s doing — constantly needling Romney, keeping him on the defensive about taxes and his insistence on releasing only two years of his returns.

Reid is a toad, a toad’s toad, and a toad stool par excellence. But he’s also what you get when you, Richard Cohen, of the purportedly free press in this country, have permitted Harry Reid to play Gollum to Obama’s Sauron for 3.5 years.

  • We haven’t had a budget for north of three years. Why? Because Harry Reid hasn’t done his bloody job!
  • We haven’t had as much as a vote in the Senate to repeal ObamaCare, despite repeated votes in favor of such in the house. Why? Because Harry Reid hasn’t done his bloody job!
  • We have had the Executive run amok on issues such as Fast & Furious with impunity, because anyone with a clue knows that Harry Reid won’t do his bloody job, and hold an impeachment trial!

And you, Richard Cohen, have been a little altar boy in this cathedral of horrors. But now you want to notice some drop of gutter politics from Harry Reid amidst the flood.

Fall off the planet, Richard Cohen, in the manner of the useless git.

via Instapundit

Category: Democrats

U.S. Allies Like Poland Deserve Better Than #OccupyResoluteDesk

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Hinderaker has the right of it:

This deserves to be a major news story. Perhaps it would be, if America’s reporters and editors weren’t so busy working on the Obama campaign.

The topic?

Reflecting Warsaw’s long-standing anger over the 2009 cancellation of a controversial Bush-era anti-ballistic missile system President Bronislaw Komorowski said Poland should build its own missile shield to ensure national defence.
“Our mistake was that by accepting the American offer of a shield we failed to take into account the political risk associated with a change of president,” said Mr Komorowski in a magazine interview. “We paid a high political price. We do not want to make the same mistake again. We must have a missile system as an element of our defences.”

Read. Link. Share. BHO has treated domestic policy like a chamber pot, and foreign policy like a spittoon, with Michelle swapping them around ever other day.

Category: Barack Obama, Poland

Dennis Miller’s Opinion Of Harry ‘Dingius Maximus’ Reid Hasn’t Improved

Posted on | August 7, 2012 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

Dennis Miller doesn’t have the rhetorical heft of this old chestnut, but it’s still a noticeable rant. Video below the fold for autoplay reasons. Read more

Category: Democrats
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