LIVE AT FIVE – 02.06.12

“Gingrich should carefully play a tape of his post-Nevada caucus performance, and then he would quickly grasp that it was little more than a litany of excuses, whining, and accusations — characterized by stream-of-conscious confessionals and rambling repetitions. And, I think, will hurt him more than anything yet in the campaign.”
— Victor Davis Hanson, National Review

Some commenters have been dogging me out over my negativity toward Newt’s campaign, but I insist that this is Newt’s fault, not mine — and I also say in my defense that Newt’s stunning meltdown in the past two weeks has vindicated my repeated warnings against climbing aboard the Gingrich bandwagon.

Let’s pause, my friends, to recognize that what I write on this blog, and what you reply in the comments, will never change anything about the Republican presidential primary campaign. And we would be guilty of exaggerating our own influence if we thought otherwise.

Narcissism is a phenomenon I’ve written about at length, in regard to the madness of Pentagon shooter J. Patrick Bedell: “Paranoia is rooted in the narcissist’s need to rationalize failure, to find scapegoats for his own shortcomings.”

The characteristic trait of the narcissist is his inability to accept responsibility for his own failures. Everybody likes to believe that they deserve credit for their successes, but no one wants to believe that they are at fault when they screw up. This is normal. Yet the damaged ego of the narcissist makes it impossible for him to acknowledge his own contribution to his failures. He cannot even admit to himself that he is at fault, which is why he attempts to focus blame on scapegoats.

And so when Newt starts pointing the finger, blaming others for his failures, portraying himself as the victim — of Goldman Sachs, “money power,” George Soros, “the elite media,” Mormons (!) and a “blatantly dishonest” opponent — even his supporters ought to recognize these unseemly eruptions as symptomatic of Gingrich’s narcissistic tendencies.

Why do you think I warned you against jumping onto his bandwagon?

For all his excellent qualities — abilities that no one can deny — Newt also has this personality defect, a tendency to think of himself as a person so transcendently important that the rules which govern the behavior of normal people don’t apply to him. And when those insignificant Lilliputians (as he regards them) insist that the Great Man must account for his transgressions, Newt angrily lashes out at the scapegoats he blames for his failures, because he is incapable of accepting the blame himself.

One might have thought that his experience as Speaker of the House, of being tossed aside by his own Republican caucus and forced into more than a decade of political exile, would have taught Gingrich a lesson about the need to rein in his ego. But his resort to scapegoating (see my Tuesday column, “Fear and Loathing in the Sunshine State“) would seem to indicate that he has learned nothing, and Ed Morrissey comments on Newt’s Nevada tantrum:

If people thought that the lack of graciousness after Gingrich’s loss in Florida was a careless mistake, this press conference dispelled that notion and made Gingrich’s speech in Florida look courtly by comparison.

Indeed. And there is a danger that those who believe so fervently in Gingrich’s conservative message that they are willing to overlook the flaws of the messenger will be sucked into the vortex of Newt’s narcissistic meltdown. Read more

Category: Newt Gingrich

Rule 5 Sunday: Patience

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 15 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Before we begin this week’s parade of pulchritude, The Tiki Blog (formerly the Pegu Blog) offers a pair of useful instructional videos from EyeHandy on making mojitos and cleaning your Glock. While we’re on the subject of education, Laughing Conservative invites you to study anatomy – the anatomy of Candice Swanepoel, to be precise.

Now that you’re done with that, The POH Diaries has some Pam Bondi for your consideration. Also, Gisele Bundchen! Valley of the Shadow gets retro with Hammer horror cutie Kate O’Mara, and the Rio Norte Line offers former Miss Great Britain Leilani Dowding. Also, topless ice hockey! Randy’s Roundtable has a nice selection of lingerie, all with Pania Rose inside. Fishersville Mike exhumes a post from 2009 since he’s all about Madonna in the Super Bowl. Eye of Polyphemus offers Eva Mendes, who apparently has nothing against fur. Good on her! Over at Three Beers Later, you might be a masochist if you enjoy these pix of Christina Hendricks completely clothed in garments that conceal everything.
On the other hand, there’s Reaganite Republican, reporting on the very important swimsuit competition at the 2012 Miss America pageant. Jake Finnegan’s Burkalesque Babe this week is Kylie Minogue, and Three Beers Later brings us more Juliana Moreira. Because it’s been a while.

Proof Positive has Dagmar Liekens and vintage babe Erin Gray; Scarlett Johanssen does the Sex in Advertising bit this week, and there’s also some nekkid loonies for PETA. Over at The Camp Of The Saints, Bob brought us Patricia Navidad, the ever-popular Rule 5 News, Kirsty Corner, and some anti-Rule 5 as Hillary Clinton plays Bond villain.

A View From The Beach has Elizabeth Hurley, monkey dacker moviemakers, a collection of links about sex, Femen protests, and the fastest bow in the West.

El Opinador Compulsivo opens with a strategically placed bunny tattoo, then continues with Adriana Lima, Milla Jovovich, Liz Hurley, and a hi-res trifecta. For the ladies, a very very young Christopher Walken and Alain Delon.

Soylent Green commemorates his two millionth hit, which also fell on his birthday. Bonus! The Monday Motivationer was Beth Williams, followed on Tuesday by Mia Presley, Claire Sinclair, a post about farming, overnight awesomeness, the Greatest Spam Of All Time, Corset Friday, and…um…goulash?

Dustbury posted about French singer Shy’m and Drew Barrymore; Maggie’s Notebook went with Kelly Brook. American Power featured Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Brook (also here), Blake Lively, and more Paltrow.

The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this week included Fann Wong, Shashi Naidu, some random sexiness, Even Babies Love Hooters, Asian Babe Monday, Chandella Powell, Jennifer Gonzalez, and Lauren Conrad.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for the CPAC Rule 5 Sunday will be Saturday, February 11.

Category: Rule 5

‘It Looks Like I’m in the Process
of Getting Completely Boned’

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 12 Comments

No, that’s not a quote from the memoirs of JFK’s teenage mistress, who performed oral sex on a Secret Service agent at the president’s request. Instead, it’s Little Miss Attila describing her situation:

It looks like I’m in the process of getting completely boned by a well-known right-wing activist organization, which contracted me to work on a project through mid-March, and is now reneging on the agreement. Did I get it in writing? No; I did not.
Now, the project is off, and it looks like I won’t even be going to CPAC (which I was going to self-fund, on the expectation of working with these people through mid-March, at least).
My boss is still insisting that we might go to CPAC after all, but I don’t see how that happens if they aren’t even willing to pay me for the past few weeks’ work. I’m certainly no longer willing to pay out of pocket.

“Getting completely boned” is pretty easy to do, if you’re willing to start doing the work before they actually give you money — working “on spec,” as we call it. And in most cases where somebody gets “boned” on a deal like that, the explanation is simply that the people organizing the project promised more than they could deliver. It just didn’t work out the way they hoped.

They meant well, honestly.

Which is why my practice is (a) to work only with people who have previously demonstrated that they will pay promptly, or (b) to insist on some sort of advance payment before I do a lick a work, and also (c) to make it clear that nobody gets away with f–king me over.

There are publications I won’t write for because I’m aware, from the experience of fellow writers, that when it’s time to get paid, the freelancer has to raise holy hell in order to get a check. Such shoddy practices anger me because I know that the editor, who solicited and/or accepted the freelance piece, she’s getting her paycheck regularly. Why should she force the freelancer to beg to get paid?

Anyway, it’s not too late to send Little Miss Attila to CPAC. She doesn’t have a PayPal button on her personal blog, but there is a PayPal button at The Conservatory — the group blog she co-founded with Dan Collins — and so I just hit the tip jar there, adding instructions in the payment form that the money is intended for Little Miss Attila.

Please go hit the tip jar at The Conservatory now.

Category: CPAC, Little Miss Attila

Dick Armey on Newt Gingrich: ‘Taking a Second-Rate Campaign and Turning It into a First-Rate Vendetta’

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 30 Comments

The Hill has a short story based on what Dick Armey said today on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley, but CNN sent me the complete transcript, so here’s more from the interview, excerpted to focus on Armey’s answers (Tony Perkins of FRC was also a guest):

CROWLEY: If you look at strong tea party supporters, South Carolina , Mitt Romney got 21 percent of these strong tea party support, but by the time we got to Nevada , it was 39 percent. He bested everybody in the field.
So my first question, as Mitt Romney’s support among tea party conservatives, among the very conservative, seems to be growing, and certainly is besting others in the race, could you — and let me start with you Congressman Armey, could you see your way clear to support a Mitt Romney nomination?
ARMEY: Well, first I’ve got to point out, South Carolina was an aberration because Newt Gingrich had — was likely to be in final analysis his best moment in South Carolina. Now the fact of the matter is we know we’re not going to get a…
CROWLEY: Do you think that Newt Gingrich is done in terms of the nomination, getting it?
ARMEY: I don’t think Newt will be able to replicate that magic moment he had in South Carolina, because he had a confluence of circumstances that came. And he had just one masterful moment where he transformed himself from perpetrator to victim, attacked the media, which, Candy, as you know, is always popular with our base, and just sort of took that momentary surge. But I think he has played that string out. Now in the meantime, Mitt continues to work along. The governor continues to work along at a steady pace, and we are left with a dilemma that we are not going to get a reliable, small government conservative out of this nominating process.
That’s why we’ve focused our attention on the House and Senate. Our notion is, we will get the legislative initiative coming out of a conservative-dominated House and Senate, we will build a legislative wall.
We’ll either be walling a Republican president in or walling a Democrat president out. But we will — our aim is to make the legislative initiative come from the House and the Senate, not wait upon the White House. . . .
CROWLEY: Congressman Armey, could you support Mitt Romney? Could you work for Mitt Romney . . .
ARMEY: Oh yes.
CROWLEY: . . . in whatever way you could be helpful?
ARMEY: If he gets the nomination, remember this, whoever is in the White House always is going to be drawn to his base. We would rather have a Republican president that’s not fully the guy we adore wanting our affections than a Democrat president who despises us and covets the affections of our mortal enemies on public policy.
So clearly it’s in the best interests to our policy objectives to support whatever Republican president might want to take the office and then seek our respect and admiration. . . .
CROWLEY: I want to play both of you something that Newt Gingrich said last night in the news conference he held after the results were in, in Nevada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: If you can’t tell the truth as a candidate for president, how can the country possibly expect to you lead as president? And I frankly was stunned, I make no bones about this, in the second Florida debate, I had nothing to say because I had never before seen a person who I thought of as a serious candidate for president be that fundamentally dishonest and it was blatant and it was deliberate and he knew he was doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: He being Mitt Romney. Congressman Armey, I know the party line is oh, this kind of primary, no matter how long it goes, it just strengthens us but I cannot believe that you believe that this sort of rhetoric aimed at Mitt Romney is at all helpful for you all in the fall.
ARMEY: I don’t think it’s helpful even to Newt. I feel bad for him. I think he’s digressed into a state of taking a second rate campaign and turning it into a first rate vendetta. And I think he’s putting himself out of the game because he can’t get over his obsession about his own hurt feelings over the campaign in Iowa . He needs to get beyond that and get to the nation’s people’s business, if he expects to have any chance whatsoever.
I thought that last night was really sad for him, and quite frankly, again, so much of Newt’s whole life is overstates. He overstates the case is in a hyperbolic fashion, it just looks vindictive. . . .
CROWLEY: OK. And Congressman Armey I am totally out of time, but I want to make sure I gave you a chance, was I correct in the way I described your relationship with Newt Gingrich because I sort of said it and left you. And I wanted to make sure, you’re not close friends, let’s put it that way.
ARMEY: Well we worked well together during the time we worked together. But you know I’m sure we both had disappointments in one another. But I think right now the question is, is Newt going to have an effective campaign that presents the best of his ideas for America , or is he just going to have a constant patter of attacking Romney.

Category: CNN, Newt Gingrich

The Curmudgeon Brings Another Sobering Video

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Another one of those reminders we need:
These videos serve as good reminders of the details that #OccupyOvalOffice would prefer we forget, as evidenced by his “just-forget-the-last-three-years” SOTU address.

Category: Barack Obama

Hate Hoax Busted by Cop’s Dash-Cam (Also: You Idiots, Get Out of My Way!)

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 33 Comments

You might think that a lawyer would know better than to try something as stupid as this:

A Queens lawyer has been suspended for six months for falsely accusing a New Jersey state trooper of using anti-Semitic slurs against him, according to a ruling released yesterday.
Attorney Elliott Dear said he made up the outrageous allegations in hopes of getting out of a speeding ticket.
Court papers say the unidentified trooper pulled over Dear, an orthodox Jew, for going 84 in a 55-mph zone while driving with his wife in 2007.
Six days after getting the ticket, Dear sent a letter to the traffic court saying, “This ticket shall be dismissed immediately” since he wasn’t speeding and “the officer called me a ‘Jew kike’ — and this prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket,” the papers say.
The letter was forwarded to Internal Affairs, which contacted Dear, who repeated that he had been the victim of an ethnic slur.
Unfortunately for Dear — and luckily for the trooper — the traffic stop had been videotaped on the officer’s car camera, and the trooper was wearing a recording device.

Next time I get pulled over for speeding, I’ll accuse the cops of prejudice against NASCAR-Americans. High speed driving is a hereditary trait.

On a related topic, last month Charles G. Hill had a post that turned into a comment thread on long-distance driving. One reason I drive fast is precisely because I so often drive long distances.

In an age of relatively cheap plane tickets, most people don’t do much long-distance driving, and when they do, they tend to drive like commuters, with insufficient concern for the “slow traffic keep right” rule. On a jammed-up metro-area freeway in rush hour — which is the kind of driving most commuters do, day in and day out, year after year — the “slow traffic keep right” rule doesn’t much matter. However, when you’re driving 500 miles from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Myrtle Beach, S.C., as I did a few weeks ago, you understand the need for speed.

Slow-poke drivers don’t get this. On your 20-mile rush-hour commute, the difference in road-time between driving 40 mph and driving 50 mph is inconsequential. But on a 500-mile trip, an average speed of 62 mph means an eight-hour trip, while an average speed of 77 mph means a 6-and-a-half-hour trip. Why should I spend an extra hour-and-a-half on the road, if I can safely drive 77 mph without getting pulled over? (On a 70-mph freeway, no trooper will waste his time busting you for 77, when so many drivers are actually doing 80.) Read more

Category: Crime

Mitt Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses; Gingrich Blames Mormons for His Loss

Posted on | February 5, 2012 | 31 Comments

The questions now become very serious: “Can he be stopped? And if so, by whom?” But first, the news:

Mitt Romney won Nevada’s GOP caucuses by a wide margin Saturday, a victory that was long expected and helps further his campaign’s argument that he is the inevitable nominee.
Romney held a big lead in early voting results, and The Associated Press and TV networks projected him to win when the last caucus locations closed.

Results of the caucuses were ridiculously slow. As of 2:30 a.m. ET, only 45% of precincts had reported and the results were:

Romney ……………. 43%
Gingrich …………… 26%
Paul …………………. 18%
Santorum …………. 13%

We will have to wait and see what the final numbers are, but at this stage it appears once again — as in Florida — that the combined votes of Gingrich and Santorum are not equal to Romney’s total. And this undermines Gingrich’s oft-repeated claim that his problem is that Santorum won’t quit and “coalesce” with him.

Instead, it could be argued that the problem is so many conservatives were persuaded to put all their eggs into Newt’s flawed basket. Ginger Gibson of Politico reported Friday on the hapless “mess” of Gingrich’s campaign in Nevada. This was an embarrassment for a candidate whose “super PAC” has received millions of dollars from Vegas kingpin Sheldon Adelson. It wasn’t merely that Gingrich lost, but that he ran such a conspicuously shoddy campaign in Adelson’s home state. But Newt seems immune to shame:

Following a second lopsided defeat to Mitt Romney in a week, Newt Gingrich on Saturday night again pledged to go on the Republican nomination fight all the way to the Republican convention this summer in Tampa.
“I will be a candidate for president of the United States,” Gingrich told reporters at a Las Vegas hotel following projections from CBS News and others that Romney would handily win the caucuses. “And we will continue to campaign all the way to Tampa.” . . .
In anticipation of a Romney victory in Nevada, Gingrich scheduled a press conference rather than the traditional election night rally. Gingrich spent much of the news conference attacking Romney, and in particular blasted him over comments the former Massachusetts governor made earlier this week when he said he was “not concerned about the very poor.”

The Lonely Conservative:

Newt Gingrich gave an angry speech. He even brought up Mormons. At this point, I’m all for anyone but Newt. The guy is nuts.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post:

Newt Gingrich predicted during a press conference following Saturday’s Nevada caucuses that he would emerge as the GOP front-runner again by the Texas primary.
Gingrich’s remarks about regaining his front-runner status by Texas — which he repeated — capped a bizarre press conference held Saturday in Las Vegas. . . .
Gingrich seemed to dismiss his performance in Nevada’s caucuses, noting Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) emphasis on caucus states and Romney’s inherent advantages in the state.
“It is a very heavily Mormon state,” Gingrich said, referring to Romney’s religion.

Gingrich is neither helping himself nor hurting Romney with these attacks, and Romney is ignoring Newt the nuisance: “In three campaign appearances Friday, Romney did not even mention Newt Gingrich.” Meanwhile, campaigning in Colorado, Rick Santorum ratcheted up his attacks on both Romney and Gingrich:

“We are not going to win this election if either of these two guys is nominated,” Santorum declared. “Let me assure you. We will not win.”
Santorum claims neither candidate can compete with President Obama, saying both are simply too flawed and will be “destroyed” and “picked apart” by the Democratic incumbent. . . .
“On Tuesday I think we are going to do well in Missouri,” [Santorum later told Fox News]. “It’s going to be interesting because it’s a head-to-head between Governor Romney and myself. Speaker Gingrich is not on the ballot. We will see the idea that one conservative can go up against Mitt Romney head-to-head and win.”

That kind of rhetorical escalation in a GOP primary is unfortunate, even if what Santorum says is true — and who doubts that he is expressing his own sincere belief? Every candidate believes he is best qualified to defeat Obama, or else he wouldn’t be running. There are surely Republicans out there who believe that the GOP lost its best chance to beat Obama when Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry dropped out. But public doomsaying by candidates during the primary campaign is best avoided.

UPDATE: Also best avoided, “a highly delicate campaign by Mr. Romney and his top Jewish financial supporters to dissuade Mr. Adelson from adding to the $10 million that he and his wife have given to a pro-Gingrich ‘super PAC,’ Winning Our Future, that has been tearing into Mr. Romney through television advertising.” (Hat-tip: William Jacobson.)

This kind of thing — one candidate’s “top Jewish financial supporters” putting pressure on a rival’s top Jewish financial supporter — could lead to some very ugly accusations. Just imagine what Ron Paul’s people must be saying after reading a story like that. Or course, they were saying that stuff before reading the story, but still . . .

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Nevada, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul

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The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.06.12

Newt’s Narcissism Problem (and Ours)

Rule 5 Sunday: Patience

‘It Looks Like I’m in the Process
of Getting Completely Boned’

Dick Armey on Newt Gingrich: ‘Taking a Second-Rate Campaign and Turning It into a First-Rate Vendetta’

The Curmudgeon Brings Another Sobering Video

Hate Hoax Busted by Cop’s Dash-Cam (Also: You Idiots, Get Out of My Way!)

Mitt Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses; Gingrich Blames Mormons for His Loss

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

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