The Other McCain

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

Blogger Shocked — Shocked! — to Learn That John McCain Would Employ Backstabbing GOP Campaign Operative

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 26 Comments

Of course, John McCain is a man who has long cherished backstabbing as a fundamental principle of his political career, and yet R.D. Brewer at Ace of Spades HQ is nonetheless surprised by the perverse pride that the McCain campaign’s “chief strategist” Steve Schmidt takes in having helped destroy the GOP’s chances in 2008:

“For me and the experience I had on this campaign is that there are worse things than losing,” Schmidt said. When he was asked to spell that out, he said, “When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win.”

Hey, Steve: You were paid to do a job. Who paid you? Republican donors, that’s who. Doesn’t it seem like maybe you had an obligation to the people paying the bills to, y’know, elect a Republican?

But as the old saying goes, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence. Therefore, anyone who wishes to believe that Steve Schmidt wasn’t actively trying to help elect Barack Obama in 2008 should instead believe that Schmidt is an incompetent idiot who’s just trying to scapegoat Sarah Palin in order to exempt himself from responsibility for defeat.

It wouldn’t take a lot to be a better vice president than Joe Biden.

It would take a lot to be a more selfish a–hole than John McCain, but Steve Schmidt seems to be trying his best.

Category: John McCain, Sarah Palin, Vicious Backstabbing Crapweasels

‘Alabama Deserves Better’

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

A congressman under investigation for insider trading? Suspected of enriching himself in office? Say it ain’t so, Spencer Bachus!

The New York Times reports:

In Alabama, Representative Spencer Bachus, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is squaring off against State Senator Scott Beason, an architect of Alabama’s tough illegal immigration bill, who is running as the “true conservative” in the race. But two other challengers are also in the race, and Mr. Beason has to hold Mr. Bachus, a much better-funded House veteran, to below 50 percent of the vote to force a runoff April 24.

Category: Alabama, Congress, Election, Republicans

Voter ID, Eric Holder and the Increasingly Partisan Nature of ‘Civil Rights’

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 9 Comments

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, “civil rights” has become a code phrase for “whatever Democrats want,” so that anyone who disagrees with Democrats is said to be “anti-civil rights.” Case in point, the Texas voter ID law:

The Justice Department’s civil rights division on Monday objected to a new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas because many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification.

Why do Hispanic voters in Texas “lack state-issued identification”?

No drivers license? No passport? Nothing?

Is it cynical — or perhaps even racist — to suggest that many Hispanics in Texas don’t have ID because they are illegal immigrants and, as such, are not actually legal voters? Are Republicans just a bunch of xenophobic bigots for suspecting that Democrats oppose voter ID laws because they hope to use the votes of illegal aliens (or other methods of vote fraud) to elect Democrats?

Isn’t the Justice Department’s entire rationale for opposing the Texas voter ID law an extension of the belief that the partisan interests of the Democratic Party are coterminous with “civil rights”? Democrats actually believe they have the right to win elections, even by blatantly illegal means, and so any measure that might prevent ineligible people from voting is a violation of “civil rights.”

Now you know why “corrupt Democrat” is redundant: No honest person would ever get involved in the Democratic Party.

ADDENDUM: Doesn’t this show why “critical race theory” is relevant?

 

Category: Corruption, Crime, Democrats, Eric Holder, Texas

Expectations, Inc.

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 18 Comments

Ed Morrissey on tomorrow’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi:

Gingrich really needs to win both states to remain in the race, or split them with Santorum at worst case. If Romney wins in Alabama, he can claim to have won in every part of the country, while Gingrich can’t even claim to have won all of the Southern states that he feels is his natural base.

Ed suggests that the Rick Perry VP trial balloon was an attempt by the Gingrich campaign to boost Newt’s support with “very conservative” voters, many of whom once supported Perry.

Given the relative paucity of polling data, the evident closeness of the race, and the level of volatility, it is very difficult to make any prediction beyond “too close to call.”

We know that late-deciding voters are highly suggestible and subject to bandwagon appeals to vote for the candidate they perceive to be the eventual winner. That factor favors Romney, and if it weren’t for the fact that Santorum is being hit with negative ads from every direction (including the pro-Gingrich “super PAC” radio ads I first heard two weeks ago in Michigan), I’d be tempted to predict a third-place finish for Gingrich in both Mississippi and Alabama.

Because there is no way Newt can actually win the nomination, I’d say a vote for Gingrich is a vote for Romney, except that keeping Newt in the race might, by some unforeseen future turn of events, result in Romney being deprived of a majority of delegates going into the convention. Every delegate Romney doesn’t win — no matter whether the delegate is for Gingrich, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul — increases the possibility of a non-Romney candidate getting the nomination in that political wet dream, the “brokered convention.”

“Brokered convention” is, like “beautiful nymphomaniac,” too much of a fantasy to be believed. Political journalists dream of brokered conventions the way teenage boys dream of smokin’ hot babes who just can’t get enough, but in all honesty, which one are we more likely to encounter in Tampa in August?

Yeah: Tampa’s going to be crawling with sex-crazed hotties, except they’ll all be hookers whose ability to simulate erotic enthusiasm is a requirement of their profession. Nevertheless, there will certainly be GOP convention delegates willing to pay for that kind of fantasy-fulfillment action, although it’s highly improbable the delegates will then be so gracious as to fulfill the “brokered convention” fantasies that excite the press corps.

Michael Steele is just teasing us with this “brokered convention” talk, and I’m resisting it the way Republican primary voters are resisting Mitt Romney: Sure, they would like to believe he’s really conservative, just like a GOP delegate might wish to believe that hooker in Tampa is really hot for him — the fulfillment of his adolescent fantasy — but the motives seem rather suspicious.

However, this is not to say that there is no such thing as a beautiful nymphomaniac. After all, I married one. But I’m not sure that has any relevance to the GOP presidential nomination campaign.

UPDATE: King Shamus fears the fantasy:

The fear of a brokered convention forcing the party to put up a weak candidate against President Obama is too horrible for many GOPers to even contemplate.

Look, Shamus: If you think there’s a chance of the GOP putting up a strong candidate, could you please explain that to Karl Rove? Because Karl keeps going on TV to tell millions of Fox News viewers that Mitt Romney’s got this thing locked up.

The possibility that a brokered convention could result in Republicans nominating a weaker candidate than Romney is something that hadn’t crossed my mind. Now that you mention it, though, I suppose Jon Huntsman might be available . . . 

But don’t worry about it, Shamus. All this talk about a “brokered convention” is one of three things:

  1. Liberals messing with our heads by suggesting that the Republican Party is about to collapse in ruins;
  2. Mitt Romney’s supporters threatening us with a nightmare scenario if we don’t vote for Mitt; or
  3. Political reporters talking about their fantasy the way some bloggers talk about Christina Hendricks.

Uh . . . NTTAWWT.

Category: Alabama, Election 2012, Mississippi, Polls

That Popular #OccupyResoluteDesk

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Via The Hill, North Dakota Governor Dalrymple sends his love, emphasis mine:

“The second reason we are on the wrong track is that the Federal government is killing energy development with overly burdensome regulations. The best example of this is the Keystone XL pipeline which the Obama Administration will not allow to be built. The State of North Dakota is currently experiencing an oil boom in the Bakken formation. We have doubled our oil production in the last four years and are about to become the second largest oil producing state behind only Texas. But we cannot effectively market our crude oil domestically without a large North-South pipeline. North Dakota oil producers were scheduled to feed the Keystone pipeline with 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Now we will not be able to supply the choice American markets because President Obama says he needs more time to study Keystone. The fact is he has had over three years to study this issue. Congress should step in and pass Senator Hoeven’s measure which would authorize the Keystone project. It’s the common sense thing to do.”

It’s almost as though the governor thinks #OccupyResoluteDesk should cut into his golf time to, you know, do his job or something.
Via Left Coast Rebel:

With the filing of H. CON. RES. 107 by Rep Walter Jones (R-NC) impeachment proceedings against Barry have begun. The resolution brought forth by Rep Jones asserts that “President Pull-Ups” abused his power when he involved the US in military actions in Libya last year.

I don’t think that this will get much traction. Impeaching the President during an election year is going to be a precedent no one wants to set. Also, Drool Bucket Reid over in the Senate is no more going to try an impeachment than he is going to work on a budget.
Speaking of the Senate, more of #OccupyResoluteDesk’s strategy for keeping Reid in place and well-supplied with spit stands revealed. Obama is sending his clone to run for the Virginia seat being vacated by James Webb. If Reid is a drool bucket, then Timmy Kaine is a small, dented spittoon.

Update: linked by Temple of Mut.

Category: Barack Obama, Blogging, Left Coast Rebel

What America Really Needs Today: Meghan McCain Talking About Her Boobs

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 26 Comments

There are many important news stories I could be blogging about today. The latest polls show a statistical dead heat in the Alabama and Mississippi GOP presidential primaries. Greece has officially defaulted on its debt. Israel has reportedly delayed a military strike on Iran.

My ego tells me that there are thousands of readers checking their RSS feeds waiting to learn the answer to the question: “What will Stacy say about these breaking news developments?”

Yet I am a highly-skilled news industry professional, which is why I must suppress my narcissistic impulse to share my personal opinions on these topics, in order to give readers what they really want: Meghan McCain talking about her breasts.

“I’m not super skinny, I have large breasts, I know, they’re real, I can’t do anything about it, and like the Internet just has this really weird reaction to my body … I’ve seen a therapist about it. … I don’t really need people in politics or people sort of a little bit older to understand me or like me because there’s enough college students that seem to like me, and that’s all I really care about.”

So while I struggle against my egotistical delusion that you might be interested in my personal opinions about the Greek economy or the Republican presidential campaign, Cousin Meghan has no such dilemma: She knows exactly why you’re interested in her, and she’s making the most of it.

Category: Meghan McCain

Power

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 20 Comments

by Smitty

This is the unifying theme of the Ruling Class: acquisition, excercise, and retention of political power, at the expense of the individual. This post is me thinking out loud about how the Ruling Class views the populace.
Existence, in brief
Consider the human existential situation. We have to start with the individual before discussing the group. No one doubts the existence of our bodies, male and female, possessed of body, mind, and, arguably, ‘soul’.
The body is an emotional ‘bag of meat’, as Olbermann put it. Instincts, reaction, hormones, all mashed up together.
Things become quickly ambiguous past that. The mind is a fine tool; the pinnacle of creation according to Ayn Rand. And the soul may have some catalytic effect on the maturation and health of the body and mind. However, religion is within the scope of this essay insofar as it can become a tool or obstacle to power.
Taking the body, mind and soul together, we can related them to Maslow’s hierarchy. Read more

Category: Politics

NY GOP Set to Botch Re-Districting Plan?

Posted on | March 12, 2012 | 12 Comments

Last night I got a tip about shenanigans surrounding the congressional re-districting plan in New York State. The state legislature has been unable to reach agreement and a federal magistrate has become involved. A story from the Albany Times-Union has the background, but the bottom line is that they’re under deadline pressure, and there are rumors of “bipartisan” wheeling and dealing with Republicans in the state senate trying to strike a deal with Democrats.

Because of re-apportionment, New York will go from 29 seats in Congress to 27, so it’s like a game of musical chairs. Normally, the GOP could be expected to protect as many incumbents as possible in the re-districting process, but the New York Republican Party is run by a crew of inept insiders who look like they may be about to commit a blunder of Scozzafava-sized proportions.

According to my source, allies of GOP Rep. Tom Reed (NY-29) are angered by reports that some Republicans are trying to carve out a district for wealthy Buffalo businessman Chris Collins with an R+10 rating — i.e., 60% Republican. In order to do that, however, they would trim Republican votes away from neighboring districts, including those of Reed and freshman GOP Reps. Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25) and Richard Hanna (NY-24).

Collins is former county executive for Erie County, and there has been talk of him challenging Democrat Rep. Kathy Hochul, who won the 26th District seat in a special election last year after Republican Chris Lee resigned in a sex scandal. In that election, Hochul defeated the GOP candidate, Jane Corwin, with help from a third-party candidate, Jack Davis, who sought Tea Party support but whom many Republicans suspected of being a Democrat puppet.

Republicans want to create a large GOP majority in Hochul’s district in order to create a “safe” seat for Collins. Yet some conservatives say that nominating Collins, who is viewed as a moderate, would likely prompt a third-party challenger, perhaps on the Conservative Party line. This might replicate what happened in the NY-23 special election in 2009, when the GOP picked liberal Dede Scozzafava, and conservatives rallied behind Tea Party challenger Doug Hoffman. Scozzafava quit the race and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, who was elected in the previously Republican district.

Conservative allies of Reed are said to be angry at the rumored negotations to trim Republican-leaning precincts from Reed’s district, currently rated R+6, reducing it to R+3, in order to help Collins. As Reed’s supporters see it, this could endanger Reed’s re-election for the sake of what could prove a doomed effort on Collins’s behalf, to say nothing of the impact on Buerkle and Hanna.

There are also rumors that GOP leaders in the state senate might accept a new district map that would endanger re-election prospects for Rep. Bob Turner (NY-9), the Republican who won last year’s special election to replace Democrat Anthony Weiner, who resigned amid a sex scandal.

Category: New York, Republicans
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin