The Other McCain

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

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

#OccupyOvalOffice: A Reasonable Title

Posted on | February 4, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

McEnroe offers:

I’m not going to make a big deal out of this. Who wants to hear somebody natter on with the whole ‘mine is better’ argument? Just because my notion, #OccupyResoluteDesk had more educational value (everyone knows the POTUS sits in the Oval Office; how many know that the furniture he’s crouching behind in the picture there is called the Resolute Desk?).

Sure, McEnroe’s idea leaves room to turn it up a notch with #OccupyOvalOrifice, for that extra bit of sphincter allusion. But what about that Resolute Desk, that remnant of HMS Resolute? Everybody and his Kenyan half-brother can offer the brown eye for the Commie guy gag, but what about the subtle British connection, given BHO’s repeated insults of Old Blighty?

But nah, I’m all about being a team player. My ideas need not receive any recognition, any praise, any traction. It’s OK. Just happy for the privilege to have served. It’s all good. I love you, man.

(Jerk).

Category: Barack Obama

FMJRA 2.0: Sirens Of The Sea

Posted on | February 4, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Florida Fever: Naples Struck by Sudden Outbreak of Raging Mitt-Mania Epidemic

BREAKING NEWS: MITT ROMNEY WINS FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

Palin Giving Lessons In How To Give Appropriate Criticism

Like an Earthquake in Vanuatu: Michelle Malkin Endorses Rick Santorum!

Madness On The Conservative Front

Congratulations, Perry Supporters!

Should Eric Holder Resign And Become Head Of A Green Energy Start-Up?

Wild Bill Nails It

Vice President Rex KramerBiden Wasn’t Sure On The Bin Laden Raid

Madness Beneath the Palms

Daily Pundit: Let’s Think This Through

A Federalist Progressive Disaster: Scant Improvement Over A Progressive Disaster

Santorum Daughter Hospitalized

Herman Cain Endorses Newt Gingrich

Steak & Eggs Morning News Round-Up: Florida GOP Voter ‘Horrified’ by Newt; Romney Opens Double-Digit Poll Lead

FMJRA 2.0: My Way

Charlotte Bergmann Is Running For Congress In Tennessee’s Most Racist, Misogynist Corner

Front Page Flogs The Dead Horse Known As The Buffett Rule

Rule 5 Sunday: Lily Was Here

Much Needed Palate Cleanser From Marco Rubio

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.30.12

UPDATE: Newt’s Populist Turn

Tea Party Patriots Bringing It March 24th

Aw, C’mon, Dan: How About A Little Real World View? UPDATE: Meet. . .
Willard Fabio

Global Warming Is Dead. Will ManBearPig Campaign For ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran Again In 2012?

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.31.12

‘Why Do Younger Men Shorten Women’s Lifespans?’

Newt Gingrich: Graceless in Defeat?

Dana Loesch And Rick Santorum? Tea And A Scone, In My Humble

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.01.12

‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran Can’t Differentiate Between Allen West And A Hyena; Thinks That Barack Obama Is The Lion King

Will Donald Trump’s Hair Style Challenge That Of Willard Mitt?

Woo Hoo! The CPAC 2012 Schedule!

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.02.12

While I Was on My Way Home, Apparently, Everybody Went Crazy

Troglopundit Is Not Only an Acromegalic Sideshow Freak, But Is Also Wrong

Florida Conservative to Limbaugh: ‘I Don’t Think That I’ve Ever Been Accused of Being an Establishment Republican!’

Quin Hillyer Denounces Jeffrey Lord as a ‘Purveyor of Smear Jobs … Despicable’

I Repeat: The Bible Is Not A Political Tract

Little Miss Attila Resurfaced

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.03.12

Gingrich, Romney, Trump Monopolize Media; Santorum Keeps Campaigning

The Media Is The Gaff; That Romney Courts The Gaff Is The Worrisome Part

Very Nicely Played By The Gipper

I’m Not A Newt Fan, But This Ad Should Give You Pause

First, They Came for the Reese’s Pieces …

Allen West’s Enemy: Mike Haridopolos?

Lying With Numbers: How Obama Has Corrupted The Bureau Of Labor Statistics

Only Roseanne Barr Can Save Us From The Chinese Pollution Menace!

Top linkers for this week:

  1. Daily Pundit (11)
  2. Katy Pundit (10)
  3. (tied) Don Surber, The Lonely Conservative, and The Camp Of The Saints

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Lord knows when next week’s FMJRA will actually get done, what with CPAC looming on the horizon, but the deadline remains Friday, February 10.

Category: FMJRA Award

Due To Unpopular Demand, The World’s Youngest Blogger May Not Attend CPAC

Posted on | February 4, 2012 | 26 Comments

by Smitty

Bill Quick links to Red State discussion of the plans for #OccupyCPAC.

Let’s face facts: CPAC is a high-risk evolution. I’m talking about traveling to and from a major hotel in the capital city of the country, in daylight hours, using a mix of public and private transportation. That is really living on the edge, isn’t it?

Except that our President, #OccupyResoluteDesk, has engendered conditions such that these #Occupy losers can flaunt civic ordnances, and bully law-abiding tax payers with thuggish behavior. The president has sympathized and abetted these #Occupy losers. What a disgusting insult to our heritage.

While trying to keep the tone civil here, I am close to shaking with rage. Unfortunately, in trying to ensure that the country I hand over to the World’s Youngest Blogger at least somewhat resembles the land of opportunity in which I grew, I cannot go risking a six-month-old to these Occupy losers. They are going to have to be permitted to win that much.

That is all.

Category: #Occupy, Barack Obama, Uncategorized

Zilla On A Stand-Alone Site

Posted on | February 4, 2012 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

Out of the Blogger ghetto, and onto the web proper. Go, Zilla!

Category: Zilla of the Resistance
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