The Other McCain

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

That There’s Some Snark

Posted on | January 2, 2012 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Did you catch Dilbert riffing on Congress today? Ouch. By the way, you can customize it to ‘honor’ your Congresstool.
Also nicely done:

Via Political Class Dismissed

Category: humor, Video

The Familiar Pattern Emerges Again

Posted on | January 2, 2012 | 66 Comments

JOHNSTON, Iowa
Today I published another column from the campaign trail here in Iowa:

Rick Santorum made a bold prediction here Friday night: The Pittsburgh Steelers will go all the way to the Super Bowl for a rematch with the Green Bay Packers.
The former Pennsylvania senator was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation on the campaign trail here in Iowa, where voters will gather Tuesday night to cast the first real votes that count toward the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Santorum was wearing a University of Iowa Hawkeyes cap at the Okoboji Grille, where he gathered with supporters to watch the Hawkeyes play the Oklahoma Sooners in the Insight Bowl. When he arrived at the restaurant in Johnston, a suburb of Des Moines, Santorum was swarmed by reporters, photographers, and TV cameramen who have swooped down on his campaign in the past week as polls began indicating that he was surging ahead in the pack of GOP candidates.
Most of the reporters had left the restaurant (and the Hawkeyes were well on their way to a 31-14 loss to the Sooners) by the time I had the chance to ask Santorum about his beloved Steelers. “We will beat the Browns this week,” he said, sitting in front of a half-finished platter of nachos. “My prediction is, both the Patriots will lose to the Bills and the Ravens will lose to the Bengals and we will be the Number One seed in the AFC playoffs.”
But while the underdog-turned-contender was willing to risk prognosticating the NFL all the way to the Super Bowl, he has remained hesitant to predict how he’ll finish in Tuesday’s caucuses. Santorum obviously wants to exceed expectations, but the poll numbers and media buzz surrounding his campaign are making it hard to suppress those expectations. . . .

You can read the whole thing at The American Spectator, and I hope readers are not offended by my practice of linking my columns here, but I sometimes get the feeling that if I didn’t link and quote my own columns, no one would. Here, for the record, are my previous four columns from Iowa:

God knows that, having started reporting the “Santorum Surge” weeks before anyone else noticed it, I certainly don’t deserve any credit for my foresight now that the surge is headline news all across the country. In fact, conservative bloggers who ridiculed me for writing about Santorum a month ago are now linking and quoting MSM reports about the Iowa caucuses rather than quoting anything I’ve written. Read more

Category: American Spectator, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Iowa, Legal Insurrection

Shorter Cuccinelli: Forget That I Was Trying To Re-jigger The Rules For 2012

Posted on | January 2, 2012 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

January 1, 2012

Dear Friends and Fellow Virginians,

As many of you read yesterday in the news (link here for the story) I was considering supporting an effort to change the rules to allow the full range of presidential candidates on Virginia’s ballot on March 6th.

I obviously feel very strongly that Virginia needs to change its ballot access requirements for our statewide elections. However, after working through different scenarios with Republican and Democratic leaders to attempt to make changes in time for the 2012 Presidential election, my concern grows that we cannot find a way to make such changes fair to the Romney and Paul campaigns that qualified even with Virginia’s burdensome system. A further critical factor that I must consider is that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law – something I am particularly sensitive to as Virginia’s attorney general.

My intentions have never focused on which candidates would be benefited or harmed, rather I have focused on what is best for Virginia’s citizens, as hundreds of thousands of Virginians who should have been able to make their choices among the full field of presidential primary contenders have had their number of choices reduced significantly.

My primary responsibility is to the people of Virginia, and how best to fulfill that responsibility in these particular circumstances has been a very difficult question for me. I believe consistency on the part of public officials is an important attribute. And I believe that Virginians are best served by an attorney general who consistently supports the rule of law. That leads to my conclusion that while I will vigorously support efforts to reduce the hurdles to ballot access in Virginia for all candidates, I will not support efforts to apply such changes to the 2012 Presidential election.

I do not change position on issues of public policy often or lightly. But when convinced that my position is wrong, I think it necessary to concede as much and adjust accordingly.

Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli II
Attorney General of Virginia

The whole idea, while not without a certain appeal, sounded like a bridge too far, at least for 2012.

In a way, the situation as-is has some appeal as a litmus test. Understood, a Santorum campaign is under-funded. Yet the Tea Partiers, arguably, could have been leveraged more.

Category: Election 2012, Virginia

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.02.12

Posted on | January 2, 2012 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Park Ranger Killed By Gunman At Mt. Rainier National Park

Suspect in killing: Benjamin Colton Barnes

Park closed while authorities search for suspected killer; body armor and weapons found in suspect Barnes’ car

Police Want To Question Man On Video In LA Car Arson Attacks
Eight fires on New Year’s Eve and early Sunday; LAPD looking for man in black clothes, receding hairline, ponytail

Arab League Wants To Pull Syria Monitors
Murderous repression by Assad regime continues despite observers



POLITICS
Romney Tests His Ability To Take The Lead

Mitt Romney hugs a supporter in Atlantic, Iowa

Mitt says he can go the distance against Obama while the others continue to pound at his lack of conservative credentials

Gingrich: I’m In The Race To Stay Regardless Of Iowa Results



Hawaii, Delaware Allow Civil Unions As Of January 1

Obama To Pose As Outsider, “Warrior For The Middle Class”

Embattled But Confident, Bachmann Says She’s “The Complete Package”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Euro Leaders Aim To Buy Time To Save Currency
Exxon Awarded $908 Million For Nationalized Venezuelan Assets
Hyundai, Kia Eye 6% Sales Increase For 2012
Uncertainty Looms On 2012 Gasoline Prices
Sweden’s Bankrupt Saab Draws Interest From India’s Mahindra & Mahindra
Ethanol Tax Credit Expires After Thirty Years
Sony Slashes Tablet S Price, Signaling Trend
GoDaddy Turns Against SOPA, Sees Spike In Domain Transfers
GM Recalls 4900 Sonics For Possible Missing Brakes
There’s no stopping the Sonic! 😛



SPORTS
Giants Trump Cowboys 31-14 To Win NFC East

Ahmad Bradshaw celebrates his second TD of the second quarter

9-7 Giants will face the Falcons next Sunday in first playoff game after a two-year absence

Flynn Sets Records, Leads Packers To 45-41 Victory Over Lions




Broncos Win AFL West Despite 7-3 Loss To Chiefs

Kings Send DeMarcus Cousins Home, Say He Demanded Trade

Timbermutts End 18-Game Skid, Top Mavericks 99-82

#1 Syracuse Whips DePaul 87-68 For 15-0 Start



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Russell Brand Files For Divorce From Katy Perry

Russell & Katy

Filing cites irreconcilable differences, gives no date of separation

Wills & Kate Party With Pippa On New Year’s

Giuliana Rancic Says Double Mastectomy Was Hell

Kanye West Makes DJ Debut
Can’t be any worse than Skrillex

Amber Portwood Set To Quit “Teen Mom” As She Remains In Jail On Suicide Watch


Is A-Rod Dating Wrestler Torrie Wilson?

Kelly Clarkson’s Album Sales Surge 200% After She Endorses Ron Paul

LeBron James Gets Engaged, Preemptively Breaks His New Year’s Resolution To Stop  Being So Tacky



FOREIGNERS
Iran Claims Nuke Fuel Breakthrough, Test-Fires Radar-Evading Missile
Norks Call For Human Shields To Protect Great Successor
Egypt Defends Raids On NGOs
Fiji Leader Opens Door To Democracy, Suspends Emergency Regulations
Iraqi PM Al-Maliki Calls For Unity, Political Stability After U.S. Troop Withdrawal
Israeli Accused Of Starting Chilean Forest Fire Denies Blame
Pope Says Hope Of Future Lies With Youth In New Year’s Day Speech



BLOGS & STUFF
Weasel Zippers: Columbia U. To Offer “Occupy 101” Course; Students Required To Attend #OWS Protests
The Grumpy Economist: Krugman On Stimulus
Daily Pundit: Want To Push A Broom? That Requires A Master’s Degree
Atlas Shrugs: We Won’t Eat Halal Meat, Say MPs And Peers
Conservative Hideout: Occupod Roundup – Flag Burning And Death Threats, Oh My!
Jihad Watch: Hamas Cracks Down On “Fortune Tellers”, Mannequins
Gateway Pundit: Leader Of #Occupy Rose Parade Is Convicted Thief, 9-11 Truther, And Former Democratic Assemblyman
Fausta’s Blog: The New Year’s Must-Reads!
Zilla Of The Resistance: Free Speech Hating Peas In An Anti-Semitic Pod


SOTD: The Secret Life Of Arabia

Category: Live at Five

The Elephant In The Fail Room

Posted on | January 1, 2012 | 35 Comments

by Smitty

From Has the conservative elite really failed?

Alan Greenspan, a free-market hero, blundered horribly in failing to regulate shadow banking, followed by another Republican appointee, Ben Bernanke. They forgot the old adage that the job of a central banker is to take away the punch-bowl just as the party is getting good. If they had acted to pop the housing price bubble earlier, they probably would have been lynched–it’s easy to beat them up with hindsight–but they still deserve a lot of blame.
These were mistakes, to be sure, but do they imply that America has suffered an “unprecedented failure” of its conservative elite? Just what sort of conservative elite did Ross Douthat have in mind? The victors of the Cold War and the authors of the Reagan economic boom set the tone for an enormous expansion of conservative intellectual life. How could we have done it better?
More disturbing, I think, is the extent to which America has suffered not a failure of the elites, but a failure of the people. Do we measure up to the founders of this country? The fact that Americans fought a revolution against Britain in the first place continues to astonish me. When in all of history have prosperous men with property–farms and businesses–risked their lives and fortunes to establish a better political order? Only a spiritual grandeur of a depth we barely can imagine today can explain it. When in all of history has a country gone to war and sacrificed a 5% of its total population to suppress slavery? The evangelical zeal that sent the North to war, singing of the grapes of wrath in the apocalyptic vision of Isaiah 63, surpasses our understanding today.
Some of that sense of American purpose awakened after 9/11, and the conservative elite misspent the spiritual energy of Americans in the Quixotic pursuit of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Ron Paul is not the only candidate to state this plainly. Newt Gingrich has said the same thing.
What sets Mullah Ron Paul apart is something malicious, in my judgment: the assertion that a conspiracy of malefactors is responsible for the economic pain of the American people, and if these malefactors (for example the Federal Reserve) were to go away, the pain would disappear. That is demagoguery of the most insidious kind.
There is no truth-telling here: to absolve Americans of their greed, indolence, and cupidity in the great home price bubble of 2008-2006 is the biggest lie of all. Americans caught a ride on a $6 trillion wave of foreign capital inflows, and thought the free money would be there forever. The smartest kids got MBA’s and law degrees instead of learning engineering.

Why are we bashing Greenspan and Bernanke? The Federal Reserve is, to quote Thomas Sowell, “A cancer” The best those blokes can do is coax the tumor into growing more slowly. The unfortunate thing is that the ugliness of Ron Paul’s remarks is going to get blended with the idea of curbing the Federal Reserve, and thus it will be OK for our conservative elite to continue their failing ways, and protect the Fed.
The Federal Reserve is the crossroads of the Iron Law of Bureaucracy and moral hazard, he said, easing himself quantitatively. Ahhhh!

Do you have a reference for this claim? It would be very interesting to see where Ron Paul offered:

the assertion that a conspiracy of malefactors is responsible for the economic pain of the American people, and if these malefactors (for example the Federal Reserve) were to go away, the pain would disappear

Again, I’m no apologist for the fellow, but I don’t think he offered any magic wand in “End the Fed”. The conspiracy has been the tacit one of the Iron Law mentioned above. Significantly curbing the Federal Reserve isn’t going to reduce the net pain of fiscal policy, but, removing power from un-elected, opaque officials would at least be in keeping with the spirit of representative government for which we claim to clamor.

And what’s this noise?

There is no truth-telling here: to absolve Americans of their greed, indolence, and cupidity in the great home price bubble of 2008-2006 is the biggest lie of all.

Mister, I have not been late on my mortgage these 12.5 years. That a group of folks, along with Fannie/Freddie, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, the Federal Reserve, and some bad banks, engineered a vast wealth transfer since the Community Reinvestment Act was signed is not an indictment of “Americans”. Conservatives who were in office and want to claim anything like the title “conservative” are not exactly at fault, either; but neither are they blameless, having been in office as the crime went down. The conservative elite is so afraid to scare the horses that you’re a kook if you talk about chopping a trillion out of the budget. Say Social Security is a Ponzi scheme? Yeah, you’re out of consideration.

Our conservative elite is so interested in playing ball-control offense that it is in jeopardy of repeating 2008.

via Instapundit

Category: Instapundit, PJTV, Republicans, Ron Paul, Uncategorized

Don’t Underestimate Rick Santorum’s Campaign Strength in New Hampshire

Posted on | January 1, 2012 | 27 Comments

“Ten days ago I was at 5 percent [in the polls] and every question I got was ‘Why don’t you pack it up and endorse another candidate?’ And now they’re saying ‘You’ve got to win [in Iowa] to exceed expectations.'”
— Rick Santorum on NBC’s Meet the Press

JOHNSTON, Iowa
One of the stupid assumptions pundits keep making about Rick Santorum is that he’s got nothing happening beyond Iowa.

There is no need to call out by name the people who have been promoting this counter-factual nonsense that Santorum is “another Huckabee,” who will do well in Iowa on the basis of his support among hard-core evangelical Christians and accomplish nothing meaningful thereafter. This myth has become a sort of conventional wisdom among some conservative pundits, a talking point promoted by advocates of the campaigns of Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, who have insisted that only their well-funded “brand name” candidates have the wherewithal to fight Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination. And it’s high time for people to begin critically examining that conventional wisdom because:

A. It’s not true;
B. It prevents consideration of a viable alternative strategy for the “Anybody But Mitt” movement; and
C. The campaigns promoting it — Gingrich and Perry — are evidently on their way to finishing fourth and fifth in Iowa.

Conservatives: Why let a bunch of losers dictate strategy to you? Why outsource your thinking to people who are only repeating what they’ve been told by paid campaign operatives? Why not examine the facts and think for yourself?

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. What I want to point out is that, while Rick Santorum has campaigned relentlessly in Iowa, it isn’t as if he has ignored New Hampshire. In fact, Santorum’s campaign manager Mike Biundo is a veteran of New Hampshire politics with strong Tea Party connections, as was pointed out by ABC News a year ago:

Biundo is a seasoned Granite State political operative who most recently helped Republican Frank Guinta defeat incumbent Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in state’s 1st Congressional District. Biundo also served on Guinta’s successful campaign for mayor of Manchester and has been involved in politics for two decades.
“I am thrilled to have Mike a part of our team. His experience and knowledge will be invaluable in New Hampshire,” Santorum said in a statement. “As I continue on this journey, it is important we determine our ability to build grassroots support and Mike will be an integral part of this process.”
Biundo served on the presidential campaigns of former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and Pat Buchanan, who won the New Hampshire primary in 1996. He is also a veteran of grassroots organizing in the crucial early primary state and led the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, a group promoting limited government.
“As former Senator Santorum continues to consider a run for president, I am pleased to have the opportunity to play a part in that process,” Biundo said in a statement. “The Senator’s fiscally responsible approach to government and vision for America’s future will play well here in New Hampshire.”

Biundo was originally hired to run Santorum’s New Hampshire operation and is now national campaign manager and it is a national campaign. Santorum is already running this new TV ad in New Hampshire:

That’s a pretty strong signal that, while Santorum is now in the midst of an all-out final push here in the Hawkeye State, his campaign hasn’t neglected the rest of the country.

As I mentioned Friday, the plan is that if Santorum does well here — as he clearly expects to do now — his Iowa field director Jake Braunger will hopscotch ahead to South Carolina with two-and-a-half weeks to work on the “ground game” there before that state’s Jan. 21 primary. Given the possibility that Rick Perry is supposed to be the candidate to beat in South Carolina, and Perry may suffer a humiliating fifth-place finish in Iowa (and may not even try to compete in New Hampshire), there is a chance that Santorum could come into South Carolina with a wave of momentum, looking like the most viable conservative alternative to Romney.

We talked about this Saturday on Granite Grok’s “Grok Talk” podcast with Skip Murphy and Mike Rogers, and I’d urge you to listen to that because one of the things we talked about was the danger of looking too far ahead in the campaign, trying to base decisions on hypothetical suppositions about what will happen two weeks or two months in the future. Too many people, I suggested to Skip and Mike, began their 2012 calculations by asking, “Who can win?” And they ruled out the potential of a candidate like Rick Santorum (or Ron Paul, for that matter) to have an impact on the results.

We are now about 48 hours away from Tuesday’s caucuses, and I hesitate to predict what’s going to happen Wednesday until I know what happens Tuesday. But those who have pre-emptively dismissed Santorum as a possible contender for the final “Not Mitt Romney” role in this campaign may need to re-examine their calculations. And the sooner, the better.

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Iowa, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum Talks Steelers Football

Posted on | January 1, 2012 | 19 Comments

JOHNSTON, Iowa
My friend Dan Collins insisted that I must interview the candidate about his favorite NFL team, which I did Friday night:

SANTORUM: “We will beat the Browns this week. My prediction is, both the Patriots will lose to the Bills and the Ravens will lose to the Bengals and we will be the Number One seed in the AFC playoffs.”
ME: “And who is going to be your opponent in the Super Bowl?”
SANTORUM: “I cannot see how the Packers don’t get it. …”
ME: “So the Steelers and the Packers?”
SANTORUM: “Rematch. And of course, Green Bay, after the last Super Bowl says, ‘Ain’t gonna be no rematch.’ Well there is going to be a rematch.”
ME: “So you don’t give any credit to the Cowboys?”
SANTORUM: “Who?”

The kind of tough questions they don’t ask on “Meet the Press.”

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Football, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Rather Harsh, But Hard To Counter

Posted on | January 1, 2012 | 41 Comments

by Smitty

Goldfish and Clowns:

It’s becoming painfully apparent that the conservative movement has learned nothing from, or since, 2008. We continue to eat our own and mount a circular firing squad, not once stopping to consider whether our actions further the conservative cause or merely provide free ammunition to the left. It’s also becoming apparent that we have learned nothing from the 2010 election when we screamed that we wanted non-professional politicians, people who were committed to the ideals of the Tea Party, yet when we got them in the presence of candidates such as Christine O’Donnell or Sharron Angle we ran and hid, appearing only long enough to throw brickbats at them. Why was this?
The answer is it has become more imperative to maintain or improve position within the conservative blogosphere’s echo chamber than to embrace reality. Our commitment is not to conservative ideals, but rather how much credit we get for those ideals. We say we want a revolution, but unless we can assume the position of Washington crossing the Delaware we become quite disinterested.

In musical terms, we are The Ramones, in all their egalitarian glory, but we crave the virtuosity of the Satriani elite.

This is the paradox of American politics, to admire the seemingly effortless performance of the pro, while despising the orders of magnitude more time spent practicing than cranking it out on stage.

And yet, I’m not sure that the GOP nominee is going to be abandoned like O’Donnell or Angle. For all the primary support is scattershot, I anticipate the blogosphere (to the extent that it matters) will turn on a dime and support the nominee. What’s crucial, however, is communicating to that nominee that, in contrast to the cult-like support offered #OccupyResoluteDesk, that nominee can expect to have the hindquarters handed to him, insofar as he deviates from the conservative principles he ran on.

Category: Blogging, Goldfish & Clowns, Republicans
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