The Other McCain

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

Two Words In Reply To Stare Decisis On Progressivism, The Second Of Which Is ‘You’

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

Can we get a spine implant for Orin Kerr (emphasis original)?

I’m also a Burkean conservative stare decisis guy, and I’m acutely aware of the Supreme Court’s long struggle to identify principled and workable limits on the scope of the Commerce Clause. History has shown that it’s surprisingly hard to do that, and that unprincipled or unstable lines don’t last and just destabilize the law for a short window before being rejected. My comfort with the Court striking down the mandate therefore varies considerably based on how the Court could do it. Let’s imagine, hypothetically, that the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate but does not identify any genuinely principled or workable doctrine to justify it. The Court’s decision merely reopens the hornet’s nest of line-drawing problems that the Court has long struggled with in the Commerce Clause setting, with the significant likelihood that in 20 years the Court will abandon its reasoning. In that case, the Burkean conservative part of me would be dismayed by the Court’s decision. Sure, the federalism guy side of me would be happy, but it would be outweighed by my Burkean objections. But if we imagine a hypothetical opinion invalidating the mandate that did identify such a principle, and the principle proves a lasting one, then my Burkean concerns could be addressed and my reaction would be different.

A century ago, the Wilson administration hijacked our Constitution, and effected a slow-motion Article V re-write thereof. These many trillions of dollars of debt later, stare decisis amounts to ‘staring at the deceased’, i.e. our liberty. False ideas are not rendered true by trotting them out gradually, sir.

Step up to the plate, and understand that Amendments 16 & 17, plus the Federal Reserve Act, were the seeds. The New Deal and Great Society fed and watered Leviathan. And now the time has come to ensure that the SCOTUS notes that liberty has been substantially harmed by the last century of “Progress”, and does something more in keeping with the American exceptionalism. This ‘Burkean conservative’ concern trolling is worthy of faux conservative clowns like David Brooks.

That the government can tax me to support, and I cannot sue for emancipation from, this horrid Social Security beast is all we need to know about the fecklessness of stare decisis arguments. I hope that the decision that slays ObamaCare lays the foundation for a restoration of individual liberty.

Update: now a Memeorandum thread.

Category: Health Care, Supreme Court

Banning Traffic Cameras

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Insty’s link on Iowa banning traffic cameras leads to a subversive thought serious question: why do we have unmarked police cars? In military terms, the idea of having the authorities pose as civilians is a matter of OPDEC. Going undercover makes sense when, say, infiltrating criminal organizations.

Is that an example of overkill, in the common case of the work commute? Or are traffic tickets really part of the business model for police departments?

When elected Benevolent Dictator for Life, I promise to snuff both traffic cameras and unmarked police cars. Put the police bill right out front and center where it should be.

Category: Uncategorized

Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 43 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Longtime readers will perhaps need no introduction to Will Folks, the South Carolina political gossip blogger who made himself an infamous laughingstock by claiming to have had an affair with Nikki Haley. The vile human stain whom I dubbed “Deuce Bigalow, Blogger Gigolo” is now supporting Ron Paul — go figure — and when I expressed suspicion about his “Elizabeth Reichert” exclusive, was provoked to a series of Twitter eruptions, including these:


Right: He misspells “please,” while calling me “ignorant.” As I long ago observed, “Will Folks is going to keep this up until his skull has an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with somebody’s tire iron.”

Because bad thing happen to bad people.

UPDATE: In a post at his site, Will Folks engages in his usual annoying distraction technique: Referring to himself in third person as “our founding editor” and “Sic Willie,” while pretending that there was nothing suspicious about either the “Elizabeth Reichert” flyer or his own astonishingly rapid acquisition of the complete text of the flyer.

Keep in mind that the Ron Paul people have been doing dirty tricks — including the use of anonymous flyers — since Iowa. Folks is an admitted supporter of Ron Paul, and this flyer was surreptitiously distributed on the windshields of cars at a pro-life event where the Paulistas were out in force.

So I come out to the parking lot, get the flyer, drive to a McDonald’s to file my American Spectator column and, while I’m at it, decide to Google this “Elizabeth Reichert” to see if such a person exists. And the only reference to her online as of 10 p.m. Wednesday was … Will Folks at FITS News, who had managed not only to transcribe the 388-word flyer, but also to write a 475-word “news” story about it, in which he said, “Allegations are flying among the rival 2012 camps, but at the moment a majority of fingers are being pointed at Perry’s campaign.”

BULLSHIT.

No fingers were “being pointed” at the time he wrote that, because the flyer hadn’t appeared on car windshields at the Greenville Hilton until barely an hour earlier. There had not been enough time for Folks to contact any sources (you’ll notice that no sources were even mentioned, much less named, in his “news” story). Folks lives in Columbia — an hour-and-a-half drive from Greenville — and yet was able to get hold of the text of this flyer and transcribe it in less time than it took me to drive to McDonald’s and log onto their free WiFi.

And to return to my original question: “Who Is Elizabeth Reichert?” Read the Will Folks story and you’ll see he refers to her as a “pro-life activist,” but we have no reason to suppose that she is such an “activist,” if she even exists. Prior to Folks’s reporting of this mysterious flyer, there was no online record of her, certainly not in connection with any sort of pro-life activism.

So: How did Folks get hold of the flyer? Was he in Greenville that night? Three presidential candidates — Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich — spoke in person at the pro-life forum, while Ron Paul appeared via satellite TV hookup. If Folks was in Greenville to cover that event, where are his reports of those candidates’ appearances? Did he decide that what the candidates said at the forum was less newsworthy than this flyer distributed in the parking lot of the Hilton?

You see what I mean by “suspicious”? One suspects that, unless Folks himself wrote this flyer, it was written by one of his fellow Ron Paul supporters, who informed him in advance and provided him with the text of the flyer by e-mail, so that all he had to do was to cut and paste it and hit the “publish” button the minute his fellow Paulista informed him that the flyer had, in fact, been distributed. And the “fingers pointing at  Perry” riff was just a lie to distract attention from the probable fact that it was Will Folks’s Paulista pals who were responsible for the flyer.

On his own site, Folks is trying to treat these suspicions as a joke, while on his Twitter accounts, he’s calling me every obscenity in his limited vocabulary: This is the behavior of a liar caught in a lie.

You hear me, Folks? You’re a liar, and a disgraceful coward, to boot.

Category: Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

Deadline Hell in South Carolina

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 11 Comments

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley spins for Mitt Romney
after the CNN debate, Jan. 19, 2012

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Last night was one of those deadline nightmares that occasionally occurs when I’m exhausted, trying to make sense of a complex situation with a brain numbed by fatigue. I only got about four hours sleep after my 479-mile round-trip journey upstate Wednesday, and news was breaking fast Thursday, when I spent the afternoon down at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which is strung out at multiple sites over a four-block space in downtown Charleston.

By the time I left the North Charleston Convention Center last night about 11, I’d written the first 200 words of my column, then returned to the Marriott on Meeting Street, media headquarters for the SRLC, intending to finish up quickly. But Bryan Preston of PJ Media was here and we got to talking and by the time I filed the column it was 2 a.m. By the time I got back to the hotel where I’m staying with Ali Akbar of NotMittRomney.com, it was almost 3.

So I slept until nearly 10 a.m. today and then chewed up a bunch of time trying to upload video, which was thwarted by an uncooperative hotel WiFi system and by the time I finally gave up on that, it was time for us to come back downtown for Ali to moderate a panel discussion about vote fraud. Then we went to eat at a barbecue place on King Street — my 13-year-old son pronounced it the best food he’d ever eaten in his life — and I got back to the Marriott about 4 p.m.

All of this, you see, to explain the paucity of blogging this Friday, which is the one day of the week when I don’t have a deadline for the Spectator.

Last night after the debate, I was nearly crushed in a media scrum surrounding Rick Santorum, the only one of the candidates who appeared in the “spin room” at the convention center:


Reporters were wedged into such a tight circle around the candidate — TV camera crews and photographers were packing in three-deep — that it probably would have been illegal in South Carolina before the Supreme Court ruled state sodomy laws unconstitutional. But I got the quote I needed for the lead of my American Spectator column:

The race for the Republican presidential nomination has finally come down the Final Four, and the swift reduction of the field helped make Thursday night’s debate here arguably the most entertaining of the 17 televised debates during this long campaign.
Yet the debate was in some sense anti-climactic, coming as it did on the heels of so much drama elsewhere on the South Carolina campaign trail. “The last 24 hours, I think, will go down in primary history as probably one of the most tumultuous 24 hours that we’ve seen,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said after the debate at the North Charleston Convention Center, televised on CNN.
Thursday’s biggest developments in the campaign preceded the debate by several hours. First, ABC News began releasing excerpts of its interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, who claimed that the former House Speaker had asked her to have an “open marriage.” Next, officials in Iowa reported that the final count from the Jan. 3 caucus showed that Santorum had beaten former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney there. Then, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called a press conference to announce that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Gingrich.
Perry was the second candidate to drop out of the race this week, following Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s withdrawal Monday. This winnowing of the Republican field in South Carolina, strangely delayed after the usual proving grounds of Iowa and New Hampshire, produced a quartet of candidates — Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul — who mixed it up in a feisty battle that began with a volatile exchange between Gingrich and CNN moderator John King. . . .

Please read the whole thing.

UPDATE: And now the headlines via Memeorandum:

Fake CNN email used as dirty trick in South Carolina
— CNN

Clemson Palmetto Poll finds Gingrich leading,
20% of S.C. voters still uncommitted
— Clemson University

Romney’s ‘Prevent Defense’
Yielding Big Gains to Opponents
— New York Times

It looks like Newt will win here and — even though I’m for Santorum — that’s good news. Somebody had to beat Romney here to stop his momentum. Santorum beat Romney in Iowa and if Gingrich beats Romney in South Carolina, then all three candidates will be 1-for-3, and the campaign continues.

Category: Debates, Election, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

Will Future Historians View SOPA As A Bridge Too Far?

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 27 Comments

by Smitty

The whole notion of crushing the many in the name of the few is looking old and busted these days. Paul Hsieh offers a great roundup at PJ Media:

Steve Blank offered this analogy: “It’s as if someone shoplifts in your store, SOPA allows the government to shut down your store.”
But even though SOPA proponents in Congress appear to be backing down in the face of public pressure, the legislation is not yet dead but merely temporarily “shelved.” The Senate version, Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), is still very much alive.

Rule 5 celebrates the abysmal pun.

This blog has been concerned about Pippa, and rejoices at this news.

But is saving the world from online piracy enough, alongside the efforts to stop global warming and the Keystone XL pipeline? In addition to offering a world where the internet saves the masses from piracy, the government should also be saving us from poverty, don’t you know?

The implicit assumption driving the income inequality debate is that a decent life is one where your neighbor doesn’t have too much more than you do. The problem with this formulation is that if it’s true, then government can’t create a decent life for its citizens by raising their standard of living through government handouts.
When “a decent life” is defined as one where no one is allowed to have “too much” (too much income, too much profit, too much of anything), the only way to deliver a decent life is to reduce everyone to the same level.

As the ancient commenter from Nazareth noted: “For ye have the poor always with you. . .” I’m still trying to work out how the people who are so concerned with tolerance cannot tolerate private property. Somehow, rather than actual concern for the poor, I surmise it has more to do with political power. There is much power to be garnered from triggering crises, and then riding to the rescue, as Rahm Emanuel will tell you.

So, what are we to make of Bob Beckel’s admission that creating dependency upon government was a terrible mistake? My long-term contention is that this here internet is going to lead to the realization of the Founder’s dream of limited government. Too many people are realizing that the merely 71-page legislation is a bucket of tripe; that the Information Age should be enhancing liberty, not crushing it, and that all of the income inequality/99% hooey is nothing more than Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield for #OccupyResoluteDesk’s re-election effort.

Category: Politics, Rule 5

LIVE AT FIVESIX – 01.20.12

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Feds Bust Celebrity-Endorsed Megaupload For Piracy

$500 million in lost revenues from piracy, say feds

Site endorsed by Alicia Keys, Kanye West, others

Six NATO Troops Killed In Helicopter Crash
No enemy action involved




GOP Leaders Reluctant To Embrace Romney – Or His Rivals
“Free agent” RNC members not lining up behind any of the candidates



POLITICS
San Francisco Sheriff Pleas Not Guilty To Abusing Wife

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi

Judge bars sheriff from contact with family despite wife’s pleas, also, Name That Party!

A Honey-Do List For Rick Perry

Business Group: Reforming Visas Could Help Tourism


Keystone Pipeline Rejection Splits Democrats

Scott Brown Faces New Obstacles In Re-Election Bid

Christie Ally To Challenge Menendez For Senate Seat

Federal Attorney In Arizona To Plead Fifth Before Congress In “Fast & Furious” Inquiry



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Google’s 4Q Disappoints As Ad Revenues Shrink
Rally Pauses; Greek Talks Take Center Stage
Vodafone Wins $2.9 Billion Tax Battle With India
Wall Street Adds Third Day To Winning Streak
Nikkei Closes At 11-Week High, Buoyed By U.S. Economy
Brent Steady Above $111 As Europe Worries Ease; U.S. Gasoline Demand Drops To Lowest In Decade
“Resident Evil 6” Confirmed, Trailer Available
Microsoft Q2 Profit Drops Slightly As PC Sales Fall
Amazon Web Services Launches Managed “NoSQL” Database Service
Nike Announces FuelBand Smart Wristband
Talk Is Cheap And Reliable On Nokia’s $50 Smartphone



SPORTS
Canadian Skier Sarah Burke Dies Of Injuries

Sarah Burke, 1982-2012 RIP


Suffered brain injuries in January 10 training accident

Ailing James Lifts Heat Over Lakers

Marion, Mavericks Cool Off Streaking Jazz

Senators Set Franchise Mark With Win Against Sharks

Red Wings Edge Coyotes In Shootout

Braun To Attend Awards Dinner Despite Drug Furor

Penguins Make Rangers Pay For Sloppy Play

Indians’ Carmona Arrested In Dominican For False Identity

England Collapses To Humbling Defeat; Pakistan Wins By 10 Wickets

Fielder’s Choice: Slugger Still Waiting On The Right Offer



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
No Forgiveness For Russell Brand

Katy Perry, blindsided

Singer unpleasantly surprised by ex’s decision to market tell-all memoir

Zoe Saldana Is A Good Samaritan

Kenny G’s Wife Files For Legal Separation

Taylor Swift, Zac Efron Have Flirty Dinner Date

Katniss, Peeta Ready To Set “The Hunger Games” On Fire

Kelly Osbourne Off The Wagon Again?

Divorced “Dexter” Stars Giving It Another Try?

Katherine Heigl Wants To Come Back To “Gray’s Anatomy”

Courtney Love Wins Lawsuit Against Landlord

“Secret” Lesbian Life Of “Teen Mom” Kailyn Lowry



FOREIGNERS
“Costa Concordia” Divers Forced To Halt Search
Syria Killings Persist As Observers’ Mandate Expires
Chairman Of U.S. Joint Chiefs Begins Talks In Israel On Iran
Bangladesh Army Foils Coup Bid
Gilani Contempt Case Fascinates Pakistan
Enter The Dragons: A Baby Boom For Chinese Across Asia
State Pollster Calls It: Putin In First Round
Burma President Says No Turning Back On Democratic Reforms
African Union Troops Reach Outskirts Of Mogadishu



BLOGS & STUFF
Don Surber: Did CNN Just Hand Newt The Nomination?
Big Government: Tea Party Could Damage Its Brand By Endorsing Newt
Rush Limbaugh: Barack Obama Is The Problem
LifeNews: James Dobson Endorses Rick Santorum
Pat Dollard: DOJ Shuts Down Website It Doesn’t Like Without Notice, Complaint Or Trial; Anonymous Strikes Back, Offlines DOJ Website
PowerLine: More On Keystone, Solyndra, And Energy Policy
FDL: SOPA Activism Moves Republicans More Than Democrats
Jerusalem Post: Deja Jew
Byron York: After Perry Exit, Anger At GOP Debates
Lonely Conservative: Obama Can’t Run On His Record, So He’s Making One Up
WyBlog: Obama Kills Keystone XL, Christie Greenlights Marcellus Shale Gas Pipeline
Andrew Malcolm: Obama Goes To Disney World, Closes Main Street U.S.A.


SOTD: Goin’ Through The Motions

Category: Live at Five

Some Things Never Change

Posted on | January 19, 2012 | 19 Comments

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.
During tonight’s debate, Mitt Romney started talking about his father, George Romney, the former governor of Michigan who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968 and subsequently served in Nixon’s cabinet. When I heard that, I reached into my computer bag and retrieved a book I carry with me everywhere on the campaign trail.

“I went to Nixon’s inauguration [in January 1969]. Washington was a sea of mud and freezing rain. As the Inaugural Parade neared the corner of 16th and Pennsylvania Avenue, some freak threw a half-gallon wine jug at the convertible carrying the commandant of the Marine Corps . . . and as one-time Presidential candidate George Romney passed by in his new role as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the mob on the sidewalk began chanting, ‘Romney eats shit! Romney eats shit!’”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

Category: Debates, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, Fear. Loathing., Mitt Romney, South Carolina

CNN SOUTH CAROLINA DEBATE:
GOP MADNESS @ FINAL FOUR

Posted on | January 19, 2012 | 65 Comments

by Smitty

UPDATE (RSM): Shortly after the exchange among the candidates about abortion, Rick Santorum’s press secretary Matt Benyon appeared in the media filing center, distributing a stack of papers headlined: ROMNEY SIGNED PRO-ABORTION PLEDGE.

On the questionnaire by the Planned Parenthood ADvocacy Fund of Massachusetts is dated April 9, 2002, and signed by Mitt Romney. To the question, “Do you support the substance of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade?” Romney answered, “Yes.”

To the question, “Do you support state funding of abortion services through Medicaid for low-income women?” Romney answered, “Yes.”

21:55 EST Santorum: agreeing with Romney on the stakes. I am the candidate with the true contrast.

21:54 EST Mitt: liberty is the pursuit of happiness. BHO is creating an entitlement society.

21:53 EST Newt: we must defeat #OccupyResoluteDesk. His radicalism will be truly frightening in a second term. We must have a series of debates to convince Americans that a Saul Alinksy radical must be avoided.

21:52 EST Paul: I will protect individual liberty. That benefits everybody. The debt is the threat. I will cut $1 trillion from the budget.

21:51 EST SC has the record. Make your case.

21:47 EST Wow. The Santorum/Paul exchange on abortion really made the debate. Santorum played the Declaration of Independence card, and Paul shot back with the the 10th Amendment, arguing that returning the question to the states would repeal Roe v. Wade overnight. My head ‘sploded.

21:44 EST Paul: hey, medical topic, and I’m a doctor. When a woman is pregnant, you have two patients. The morality tanked, and the law reflected it. Abortion is an indictment of government-run medicine.

21:43 EST Newt: I have an enviable pro-life record. Did my best.

21:42 EST Mitt: I have further details supporting my pro-life record. Did my best.

21:41 EST Santorum: if you don’t explicitly preclude abortion, you know the courts will require it. Social issues are not a check in the box.

21:38 EST Mitt: I have excuses for every detail raised on every issue by every rival. So there.

21:37 EST Newt: why yes, Mitt has some weird details about his pro-life record.

21:36 EST CNN: can I get you to fight on abortion positions?

21:35 EST Newt: Drop federal prosecutions of states for supporting the law.

21:33 EST Paul: we are not looking at the economic incentives.

21:31 EST Mitt: I’m holding my position of four years ago. Mitt deftly co-opts any position that gets applause.

21:30 EST Santorum: I’m the son of an immigrant. Mitt has flip-flopped. Newt is like BHO. We need a clear contrast; somebody who has always held the correct position.

21:27 EST Romney: illegal aliens is among the more manageable challenges.

21:25 EST Newt: controlling the border, English as the official language of government, and modernize visas, and speedier deportations. A better guest worker program. And, yeah, some kind of way to handle people who are here for multi-decades.

21:25 EST CNN: ‘amnesty’ is such a lonely word. What about immigration.

21:24 EST Paul: no big changes, but maybenotspeakingsofast.

21:23 EST Santorum: wouldn’t change a thing. I am proud of doing it the old-fashioned way.

21:22 EST Mitt: I would take back all the time spent on other candidates and drop in on #OccupyResoluteDesk.

21:21 EST Newt: I would scuttle the first three months of standard rent-a-dolts.

21:21 EST CNN: admit your biggest screwup.

Linked at The Camp of the Saints and The Lonely Conservative.

21:15 EST Santorum: I agree with the need for freedom, and SOPA goes too far, but that intellectual property needs protection. The internet is not a wild-wild West.

21:14 EST Paul: I was the first Republican to side with Democrats against SOPA.

21:13 EST Mitt: we need freedom, and use existing law to go after pirates.

21:12 EST Newt: I favor freedom. The World’s Youngest Blogger concurs.

21:11 EST CNN: Time Warner wants SOPA.

21:10 EST Santorum: I’d sign a national right to work bill.

21:09 EST Paul: don’t oversimplify the trade question. Car companies are a bigger problem. The union problem is worse. We need more right to work states.

21:06 EST Santorum: cut the corporate tax to 0 for manufacturers.

21:05 EST CNN: Apple computer. Half a million employees in Chinese sweat shops. What gives?

21:04 EST Mitt: Hey, why don’t you quit carrying the Democrat party water and attacking people for being successful?

21:03 EST CNN: Mitt, will you follow your father’s example and drop 12 years?

21:02 EST Santorum: they’re on my computer, I do them myself, I’m not home to release them.

21:02 EST Mitt: I’ve been successful, and will release them if the nominee.

21:01 EST Mitt: I’ll get them out.

21:00 EST Paul: don’t intend to, too embarrassingly broke.

21:00 EST Newt: did an hour ago.

20:59 EST Question: what about releasing your taxes?

20:57 EST Newt: let me double down on history by contrasting Carter and Reagan. Let me pat my self on the back while sound just a little teeny bit like Elizabeth Warren.

20:56 EST Mitt: yeah, this Santorum/Gingrich catfight is perfect evidence of the need for an outsider.

20:54 EST Newt: I have shown 88 miles of courage, against the wishes of the party’s leadership.

20:52 EST Santorum: Pelican beak, hummingbird backside. I was in the House at the time of the anti-Newt coup, and the House checking scandal.

20:51 EST Newt: My resume can thrash anyone. Grandiose? I shop at BMF Wallets.

20:49 EST CNN: Newt said you should just punt, Santorum. Rick: Grandiosity has never been a problem for Newt. Beat him in IA and NH, for all he outspent me. I should get out? I’m steady, solid, and going to beat Barack Obama.

Photo curtesy of RSM:

20:43 EST Paul: I thought you were prejudiced against doctors. ObamaCare can be diminished, but government involvement in medicine is going to be hard to walk back. And Santorum has supported government involvement. We need to protect those dependent on medical care, and we need to follow the money.

20:42 EST Santorum: you ate the individual mandate for ten years.

20:41 EST Newt: I fought against HillaryCare. I will debate ObamaCare Lincoln-Douglas style.

20:41 EST Mitt: man, I got wrecked on taxes last time, and now RomneyCare. These debates suck.

20:40 EST Santorum: you’re defending a turd.

20:38 EST Mitt: Santorum is wrong, and the people of Mass. favor it 3:1. [Really?]

20:37 EST Santorum: RomneyCare sucked, and we should worry about trusting him when he’s standing by it. And Gingrich has been for an individual mandate. Mitt and Newt don’t have the clear contrast that I do. Wow.

20:34 EST Newt: people don’t trust Congress. To the people: elect Republicans, so the kids can move out and get their own insurance.

20:32 EST Mitt: the Day #1 Executive Order is the beginning, and then follow up with the Congressional repeal. Replacing it with a Bill That Does Not Suck.

20:31 EST Audience: can you really stop ObamaCare?

20:30 EST Newt: my dad went to college on the WWII GI Bill, and the tax cuts that kickstarted the economy. We should emulate it.

20:29 EST Romney: watch me break hard federalist, since Perry ejected. Furthermore we can’t eat BHO’s DoD cuts.

20:26 EST Santorum: veterans should have some preferences. BHO says he will cut benefits and military budget, but not a penny out of social welfare programs. Why does Rick not understand Democrats buying votes?

20:25 EST Paul: if we fix the economy, the veterans would be taken care of. Veterans need medical support.

20:23 EST CNN: should federal government tweak the market in favor of veterans returning from Iraq?

20:22 EST Santorum plays a strong populist capitalism card, in contrast to ‘high finance’. Points to economic squalor from Barack Obama. Rather well played.

20:20 EST Mitt had invested in Dominoes? No wonder “Godfathers” Cain had to be taken down. He’s going to stuff Adam Smith down BHO’s throat. Woo hoo!

20:19 EST Mitt parries the Bain jobs number by pointing to capitalism.

20:18 EST Mitt understands the need to speak slowly, and focus on #OccupyResoluteDesk. Crony capitalism. Solyndra, Keystone XL, NRLB.

20:16 EST Newt is determined to outspeak Ron Paul, going from the Panama Canal to the USACE to ports. My neck nearly snaps. Newt slows down for a gentle Bain drive by.

20:14 EST Ron Paul gets the ball and beats the currency, regulation, policy and mali-investment drums. Washington DC nearly executes evacuation plan.

20:12 EST CNN does Santorum want to take a swing at Newt? No, Rick leaves Newt to the people. Mitt wants to get to the issues. Paul piles on the corporations that run the media. And is proud to have his wife of LV years with him.

20:11 EST CNN has just given Newt a couple of points in the Primary. Newt turns the attack on him into an attack on the ‘elite media’ that is ‘protecting Barack Obama’.

20:09 EST Newt: I am appalled that you would start with that.

20:08 EST CNN: Newt, are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Swinger Party?

20:07 EST Introductions: Santorum celebrates his late Iowa victory, Romney has 16 grandkids, Gingrich is glad to be there, and Ron Paul is the only veteran.

20:05 EST The Citadel cadets, in a surprise attack, win the entire debate with a rocking rendition of the national anthem. Game over, we can all relax.

20:03 EST All four on stage, Santorum looking alive, while the other three stand stiffly.

20:00 EST 35 hours to the SC primary. The intro is fitting for a WWF spectacle. Get some!

19:51 EST Vodka Pundit is drunkblogging.

PREVIOUSLY. . .
Stacy will be in fine form, reporting live from the debate:

Lesser mortals such as myself shall have to settle for live blogging via TV, with the occasional phone-in from RSM.

The polling going into the primary on Saturday has Romney by a carefully positioned follicle over Newt, splitting under a third of the vote each. The Perry departure and endorsement of Newt has the potential to give Gingrich his first taste of triumph thus far. Or not. The Newt Ex-Wives Club is deploying Marianne, unexpectedly, to sandbag him in an ABC interview. Expect a statement from the Romney campaign decrying such tawdry muck-raking in 3. . .2. . .ummm, wait.

Rick Santorum goes into Saturday polling in the caboose, despite the news that the final Iowa result had him winning by 34 votes over Mitt. Welcome to the modern age, Rick, where the facts are less important than whatever news leaked first out of the media diaper.

Slightly ahead of Rick in the SC polls is Ron Paul, featuring some of the best domestic policy ideas around. . .in some of the least electable packaging.

Also happening in SC this week: Herman Cain is to appear with Steven Colbert.

In support of their non-candidacies, this Friday, January 20th at 1:00 P.M. at the Cistern in front of historic Randolph Hall at the College of Charleston, Colbert and Cain will co-hold “THE ROCK ME LIKE A HERMAN CAIN: SOUTH CAIN-OLINA PRIMARY RALLY.” The area will open to guests starting at noon.

and, four days later:

Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest tea party political action committee, is announcing that Herman Cain will be delivering the Tea Party State of the Union response at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on the evening of January 24th, 2012.

Herman Cain has endorsed “We the People” on CNN, and promises to support the nominee. Reacting to Marianne’s character assassination of Gingrich, he declares her “irrelevant”. Cain says we’re sick of the negativity and lack of focus on issues.
Go, Herman!

U.S. Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, appearing on CNN, with a ‘highly coveted’ endorsement. . .of no one. It’s your decisiveness we admire. Oh, you’re against SuprePACS. “We’ve got to regulate them.” Hockey puck Linsdsey: why don’t you let people spend money on ads, and viewers make up their own minds? Graham: “The wind is to Newt’s back.”

Category: Election 2012, Republicans
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