The Other McCain

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

Maggie Mac Moves Mouth,
Mad Monsoon Materializes

Posted on | January 13, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Meghan McCain, the daughter of Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, often refers to herself as a Republican, but rarely as a “conservative.” And on Wednesday night’s broadcast of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” she suggested former President Ronald Reagan would fall in line with her — especially on the issue of same-sex marriage.

See, Maggie, the debt just blew by the GDP, and #OccupyResoluteDesk is trying to panhandle another $1.2 trillion.

Now, Maggie, you might, at a high level of abstraction, you might call what the President has done to the Constitution, the economy, and our culture as a form of sodomy.

But it’s substantially the case that most are worried about. . .federal government, not feral gay problems. Less, not more, sexuality in politics, please.

via Fire Jim Moran

Category: Meghan McCain

Half A Million $ Back To The Treasury?

Posted on | January 13, 2012 | 23 Comments

by Smitty

Who is this Rand Paul guy, and why is he violating the Iron Law of Bureaucracy?

The half million dollars represents about 16 percent of Paul’s annual budget. He contended no senator had returned as much to taxpayers, though at least two senators disputed that claim. An aide to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said his office returned $636,036 in unspent money to the Treasury in Fiscal Year 2010 and another $503,161 in 2011.

Somebody tell Paul that Progress sucks, as in moving budgets in the vertical direction.

via Bluegrass Pundit

Category: Rand Paul

Empaler

Posted on | January 13, 2012 | 23 Comments

by Smitty (via Pundette)

At least that’s the French verb ‘to impale’, to answer Pundette’s question “What’s the French word for ‘skewered’?”

People can say what they like about Bain. My chief gripe is that there is one candidate with a history of swinging a meat cleaver when required, sure, but the one whose putting the frogskins where his mouth is happens to be someone else.

In 2008, Republicans nominated John McCain’s war record, and we got four years of #OccupyResoluteDesk. Mitt has the cash, even if his tax returns are as visible as Obama’s college transcripts, but is his business record going to save us from four more years of #OccupyResoluteDesk, or merely provide a convenient Gekko figure from which Obama can ‘save’ the country?

As much as Ron Paul’s past and foreign policy positions make him hard to consider for the nomination, I hope that he continues to do well and help the GOP dislodge its head from that sunless location.

Also, via Colmes, Dogs Against Romney features a famous female, But I Think Cattiness Hinders.

Category: Mitt Romney, Republicans

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.13.12

Posted on | January 13, 2012 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Torn Between Defending And Attacking Romney

Mitt Romney

Loving capitalism while hating Romney: the backlash against the Bain Capital attacks

Security Expert Agrees With Tehran: It’s The JOOOOS!
Professor says scientist’s death has all the hallmarks of a Mossad hit

Missing Alabama Teen Declared Dead
Judge closes door on Natalee Holloway



POLITICS
Gov. Haley’s Support For Romney Shocks Tea Party

Gov. Nikki Haley with Mitt Romney December 16

“It was like your best friend took up with a really bad boyfriend.” – Karen Martin, Spartanburg Tea Party

Sioux Tribe Looks To Teens To Revive Demand For Buffalo

Michigan Judge Jails Bridge Owners For Contempt

Officer Recommends Court-Martial For Wikileaker

Obama Back For Another $1.2 Billion Increase In Debt Limit

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Announces Retirement



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Euro, Stocks Up Ahead Of Italian Debt Sale
Delta May Try To Buy Troubled AMR
Brent Rises Above $112 On Supply Fears
CIT Reportedly Stops Backing Sears Supplier Loans
Home Depot Accelerating Plans To Hire 70,000 Seasonal Workers
Wall Street Ekes Out Gains For Fourth Day
For Investors, It’s All About The Dividends
December Retail Sales Weak, Jobless Claims Up
Angry Crowd Eggs Beijing Apple Store After iPhone 4S Launch Botched
EPIC To FTC: Revamped Google Search May Violate Privacy, Antitrust Rules
Buyers Hang On For Cheaper, Faster Windows 8 Ultrabooks
No High Score For Video Game Sales In 2011
CEO Confirms Dish Network To Close More Blockbuster Stores Than Originally Planned



SPORTS
Magic Center Howard Smashes Free Throw Record

Dwight Howard takes one of his 39 free throw shots against the Warriors

Breaks 50-year-old record set by Wilt The Stilt; scores 45 points with 23 rebounds in Orlando victory over Golden State

43 All Out! Sri Lanka Hits New Low



Habs Trade Cammalleri To Calgary

Hawks’ Al Horford Injures Pectoral, Expected To Miss Three Months

Grizzlies End Knicks’ Streak At Four With 94-83 Win

Daytona Testing Underway, Danica Begins Prep For 500

Red Wings Top Coyotes In Shootout, Jimmy Howard Gets 100th Win

Used Car Salesman Gets Two-Year Extension As MLB Commish



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Heather Locklear Hospitalized After 911 Call

Heather Locklear

TMZ says it’s booze and prescription pills

Madonna Worried The Royals Will Hate Her

Sinead O’Connor Seeks Help On Twitter After Suicide Attempt

Halle Berry Says It’s NOT An Engagement Ring!

Toni Braxton Hospitalized

Minka Kelly Snubbed Jake Gyllenhaal

Celebrity Trainer Tracy Anderson Is Pregnant



Camille Grammer: Why I’m Keeping Kelsey’s Last Name

Brittany Murphy’s Dad Sues L.A. Coroner, Disagrees On Cause Of Death

“Vampire Diaries” Stars Laugh Off Proposal Rejection Rumors



FOREIGNERS
Despite Video Outrage, No Halt To Peace Talk Moves
Taliban Say Marine Video Won’t Hurt Afghan Talks
Burma Frees High-Profile Dissidents In Amnesty
Candidates Make Final Push Ahead Of Taiwan Vote
Haiti Marks Anniversary Of Devastating Earthquake
Shimon Peres Denies Israel’s Involvement In Iranian Assassinations
Pakistan PM Gilani: I Don’t Need Confidence Vote
Japan PM Noda Reshuffles Cabinet After Embarrassing Gaffes
Thousands Of Gay Marriages Performed In Canada May Not Be Legal



BLOGS & STUFF
Powerline: What Really Happened In Gaffney?
JustOneMinute: Battling Back On Bain
Riehl World View: The GOP Is Embarrassing Itself
Althouse: The Left Blogosphere Freaks Out Over Its Own Inability To Distinguish Between Hard To Believe And Falsifiable
Mark Meckler: Now That NYC Gun Charges Have Been Dropped, I Can Speak Out
Atlas Shrugs: Obama Hated And Refused Photos With Troops
Mediaite: C-SPAN Getting Hammered With Prank Calls About Romney’s Package
American Thinker: A Portrait Of The First Lady As An Angry Young Woman
Weasel Zippers: Holder’s Justice Department Backs Obama’s Illegal Pro Forma “Recess” Appointment
Zilla Of The Resistance: Flames, Fevers, Furnaces, And Other Fun Stuff
Lonely Conservative: Conservatives Outnumber Moderates, Liberals


SOTD: Cosmik Debris

Category: Live at Five

“Driving That Bain / High On Rogaine
/ Timmy Kaine You’d Better
/ Watch Your Speed”

Posted on | January 12, 2012 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

Virginia Right points to Open Secrets, where, nestled cosily amongst the usual suspects for a Democrat, we see Bain Capital supporting former governor Timmy Kaine in his bid to replace Jim “Browser” Webb in the Senate.

“Just how Conservative is Mitt Romney?” asks Virginia Right. The CPAC propaganda arrived today, and I see Willard Mitt is on the agenda. Hopefully it goes better than the Protecting the American Dream Summit in November, where WMR went over like the Beatitudes in a synagogue.

via Fishersville Mike

Category: CPAC, Fishersville Mike, Mitt Romney

Governor Zombie Stumbles Relentlessly Toward Humiliation in South Carolina UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh Compares Perry ‘Vulture’ Attack to Fidel Castro

Posted on | January 12, 2012 | 44 Comments

While I was in Iowa, a source told me that suspicions about Rick Perry’s weak debate performances being caused by back pain — which I had first reported Sept. 23 — were essentially correct. At one point, said the source, the governor had been prescribed oxycontin for the pain, but when his advisers realized that this was causing problems, his medication was changed. Of course, as anyone familiar with such things can tell you, changing medications can be a tricky business, sometimes involving bad side-effects, and it is possible that continuing medication-related problems explain some of the bad judgments and mental lapses Perry has exhibited in recent months.

I didn’t make a big deal of what my source told me in Iowa because it was difficult to explain the circumstances that lent credibility to his information without identifying either him or his source. And it wasn’t until I got to New Hampshire that, when I mentioned this to other journalists, several of them said to me, “Yeah, everybody knows that.”

But nobody’s reporting it, of course, because you can’t prove it, and it’s not as if the Perry’s campaign staff is going confirm that, yeah, the governor’s gobbling all kinds of pills every day, just to be able to endure the physical and emotional rigors of showing up at events and saying the stupid things he keeps saying:

“Listen, I love capitalism,” Mr. Perry said at a campaign stop at Duke’s Bar-b-q in Orangeburg, S.C., but “this corrupt and fraudulent activity in Washington, D.C. — between them and Wall Street — has got to stop.”
Mr. Perry stopped short of explicitly criticizing rival Mitt Romney and his business record at Bain Capital. But he highlighted workers at factories in South Carolina where Bain had cut jobs during Mr. Romney’s tenure. . . .
“My whole concern about Wall Street is the Republican Party should be about creating jobs, not creating instant wealth,” Mr. Perry said at a stop at a Lizard’s Thicket restaurant in Blythewood.

After calling Romney a “vulture capitalist” the other day, now Perry is unwilling to criticize Romney by name? Listen to Perry’s interview with Laura Ingraham:

Ingraham: You know I am going to raise the issue of Texans for Public Justice, their analysis of your campaign contributions since 2000 you have received more than $7 million from private equity firms and private investment firms.  Are any of those “vulture” firms?
Perry: Listen, I didn’t paint with a broad brush and say that every private equity firm out there is…
Ingraham: Only Romney’s are vultures? None of your guys, only Romney’s?
Perry: Look, Romney is running for president.
Ingraham: Yeah, you are running for president too and you have benefitted from these firms.
Perry: Correct, and I don’t have a problem with that.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, Joe Scarborough said Perry “sounds like a stoned NYU grad student in Zuccotti Park.”

It’s a zombie campaign at this point: Dead, but undead, the former frontrunner shuffling onward in a bizarre ritual simulacrum of campaigning for president.

UPDATE: Perry is sixth in the latest South Carolina poll by Insider Advantage, and also sixth in the latest Florida poll by Rasmussen. Maybe Erick Erickson can explain what purpose is served by Perry’s continued candidacy, other than spending the rest of the millions the Perry campaign collected in August and early September, before the wheels fell off that bandwagon.

UPDATE II: If Perry’s lost Rush Limbaugh . . .

After Perry described rival Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital as “vulture capitalism” (rather than venture capitalism), Limbaugh lashed out.
“That is indefensible!” he said on his EIB broadcast [Wednesday]. “It’s absurd…this is the language of leftists! This is the way Fidel Castro thinks, or says he thinks.”As you probably know, Limbaugh is no fan of Romney, whom he views as a flip-flopper and a closet moderate. He says he’s irked because Perry and others are going after Romney on “the one thing he’s actually pretty clearly conservative about.” He directed his ire at both Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“The attacks that they’ve mounted on Romney are indefensible,” Limbaugh said.

Stupid attacks like Perry’s are probably actually helping Romney.

Category: Election 2012, Rick Perry, South Carolina

Rick Santorum Adds Staff, Offices, Money and Key Endorsement in South Carolina

Posted on | January 12, 2012 | 35 Comments

Rick Santorum brought his surge to South Carolina yesterday:

Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign announced yesterday that it was opening “five new campaign offices to supplement its existing South Carolina headquarters in Mt. Pleasant, SC.” The new offices are in Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Spartanburg, Rock Hill and Columbia.
“We feel very confident … that the voters are going to end up coalescing around Rick Santorum, and I think that South Carolina is a good place to start that,” his campaign manager, Mike Biundo, told reporters Tuesday night in New Hampshire.
Biundo said Santorum’s campaign in the Palmetto State will benefit from the addition of the staff that helped the former Pennsylvania senator come within eight votes of beating Mitt Romney in Iowa.
“We took all our Iowa staff that wanted to go down,” Biundo told reporters. “We feel very good about our operation in South Carolina. I think we’re going to do very well there. … We’re already up with ads. We’ve gotten a mail piece out. … We’re gonna go everywhere on the ground. We’re obviously gonna put a lot more money into media than we did [in New Hampshire], certainly more than we did in Iowa, as well. … I think we have about a million dollars committed [to advertise in South Carolina] between what we’re putting in and what we’re gonna put in. So I feel pretty good about that now and we’ll be adding more and reassessing as things go along.”

Those quotes are based on a press “gaggle” with Biundo that I got on video Tuesday night but didn’t have time to post until now:


In other Santorum news, he announced 169 “county captains” in South Carolina and announced this morning that Santorum had won the endorsement of South Carolina state Rep. Greg Delleny, who was named the state’s “Pro-Life Legislator of the Year” in 2008, and recognized as “Legislator of the Year” in 2007 by the Palmetto Family Council.

Ed Morrissey is analyzing the latest Florida poll, but that’s getting way ahead of the game. The key point here is that while there was only a week between Iowa (Jan. 3) and New Hampshire (Jan. 10), there is an 11-day interval between New Hampshire the South Carolina primary Saturday, Jan. 21, then 10 days before the Florida primary on Tuesday, Jan. 31. We’ll have two debates in South Carolina (Monday on Fox and Thursday on CNN), and a lot more polls between now and Jan. 21.

So if Santorum can get his mojo working in South Carolina, he’ll have a chance to turn a good performance there into money and momentum in Florida. I strongly suspect that South Carolina will be the end for Rick Perry and I heard a rumor yesterday that if Santorum out-performs Gingrich in South Carolina, Newt might quit and endorse Santorum, with the hope of rallying conservatives in Florida to stop Romney.

Today I’m back home, quite literally blogging in my pajamas and trying to rest up before going back out on the campaign trail. My current plan is to leave early Sunday, although this plan is to a great degree dependent on tip-jar hitters. So if you’re feeling an urge to contribute $10 or $20 to the Shoe Leather Fund — hey, don’t fight the feeling!

Category: Election 2012, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum, South Carolina

Rick Santorum Distances Himself From Newt’s Lefty ‘Hit Job’ on Mitt Romney

Posted on | January 12, 2012 | 48 Comments

Newt Gingrich’s “super PAC” has unleashed its 27-minute documentary about Bain Capital, When Mitt Romney Came to Town, which a Daily Kos blogger calls a “hit job” that “you’d expect from a lefty operation.” It’s as if Newt hired Michael Moore. Avowed lefty Steve Benen calls it “devastating”:

Desperate to gain some traction in South Carolina, Rick Perry has joined in on this weird left-wing beatdown of Romney. The fact that the latest South Carolina poll shows him in sixth place — behind Jon Huntsman, in what was supposed to be Perry’s “firewall” state — perhaps explains Perry’s willingness to engage in an “Occupy”-style attack on free-market capitalism. Rick Santorum refuses to go down that road:

“It’s this hostile rhetoric, which unfortunately – I don’t want to stand here and be a defender of Mitt Romney, but unfortunately even some in our party now, even some running for president will engage in with respect to capitalism,” Santorum said to a town hall of nearly 200 people. “It is bad enough for Barack Obama to blame folks in business for causing problems in this country. It’s one other thing for Republicans to join him.” . . .
Even when prodded by reporters to take a shot, Santorum instead has only said he believes in the economic model that allows people to be successful.
However, that does not mean Santorum has shied away from taking jabs at Romney. The candidate trying to portray himself as the only true conservative in the race has elected to use Romney’s record as a governor, not a businessman, to go on the offensive.
“The other side is going to look at my record and look at Gov. Romney’s record on health care and say, ‘You want to attack me on health care? Who are you to attack me on something that I used your plan to build my health care method?'” said Santorum. “He’s taking away the biggest issue that we have in this election.”

Good on ya, Rick. The problem with attacking “vulture capitalism” (to use Perry’s rhetoric), is that shutting down inefficent and unprofitable segments of a company’s business is essential to maintaining economic viability. Romney did some stupid things at Bain Capital — e.g., his crony capitalist moves in the “My Twinn” debacle — which are subject to criticism. But closing down inefficient operations in an effort to turn around companies that were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy is just the way business works. Perry’s rhetorical appeal to economic ignorance is backfiring disastrously in South Carolina:

BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. (AP) — Presidential candidate Rick Perry’s criticism of Mitt Romney’s business past has cost him the support of a prominent South Carolina Republican.
Investment fund executive and top GOP donor Barry Wynn told The Associated Press Thursday that he’s leaving the Perry fold to endorse Romney. Wynn says he was irritated by Perry’s attacks on Romney’s time at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital.
As Wynn put it, “It’s like fingernails on the chalkboard.”

Isn’t it time somebody stuck a fork in the Perry campaign?

UPDATE: Linked by Protein Wisdom, The Rhetorican, Wake Up America and The Lonely Conservative — thanks!

Category: Economics, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, South Carolina
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