The Other McCain

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

Romney Campaign Infiltrated By DHS-Certified Right Winger In Black Ford Mustang Thinking Santorum Thoughts

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

Stacy called to gloat about arriving at the car rental and getting a souped-up Ford Mustang for the price of a mid-sized rental. Spys reporting to Sissypuss the Blog Kitty reported that this was really a Romney campaign stunt, intending to rely on Stacy’s big foot on the gas to get him thrown in jail, and thus be unable to report on the details of whatever Iowa fix is in.

Bolstering the theory was a Speed Raaaaacist screed by Dan Collins, some deep fried Southern reminisce full of code words, dog whistles, and semaphores. Have a go. It’s got everything but a banjo, as far as I can tell. Little did Dan know that Stacy, while not competent yet on TweetDeck, or bluetooth headsets–though his teeth were better unmentioned–has in fact mastered the fine art of cruise control.

It seems that Stacy hasn’t been behind the wheel of a black vehicle with anything resembling an engine since his stunt driver days on the set of Smokey and the Bandit, and the thought of being crushed in Iowa for speeding like he was crushed at the roulette table in Vegas is really too much of a bother for Stacy in his dotage.

Thus, Stacy’s arrival at the Romney event in a Black Chariot of Justice may thus catch Romney’s campaign off guard. A nearly Gingrich-ian surprise, IYKWIMAITYD. At that point, the challenge becomes keeping the Rule 5 political cling-ons from piling up too thickly on the hood. Oh, who am I kidding? Stacy will end up giving Dave Weigel a lift. But that’s how it goes.

Just remember, Stacy: if you meet a young co-ed named Mary Jo, that car is not a submarine. Okay?

And yes, the Romney campaign has the vehicle bugged. When you give the gnarly old guy in the bib overalls a lift, and

he says “Knock, knock.”,

and you reply, “Who’s there?”,

and he says, “It’s the plumber. I’ve come to fix the sink,”

that is your cue that the Semi-Conscious Liberation Army, in conjunction with the Ron Paul campaign, is preparing to pull off an operation previously only seen in the pages of the Illuminatus Trilogy, but which they think they can operationalize. Remember: if the operation fails, the statute of limitations on you for that job in Peru is expired, and Jorge really could use a favor. Whether it succeeds or fails, it will help the Santorum campaign. That’s all you need to know.

Godspeed.

Update: linked at Reluctant-Rebel

Category: Conservatory, Farce, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul

The Santorum Surge: Mainstream Media Finally Beginning to See Omens in Iowa

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 27 Comments

IOWA CITY, Iowa
If you’ll check Real Clear Politics, you’ll notice we haven’t seen any new poll numbers out of Iowa lately. With no new polls and no more debates, suddenly reporters are forced to focus on the actual on-the-ground campaign here in the Hawkeye State. And once you start paying attention to that kind of stuff, you can’t help but notice that somebody’s doing a lot better here than the poll numbers might suggest:

He has received key endorsements from well-known social conservatives in the state, and has had solid performances at each of the debates. And he’s running an old-school style campaign that Iowa voters expect in the retail-style politics of the Hawkeye State.
The man whose at the back of the polling pack — despite recent buzz giving him a late boost — is taking nothing for granted but has nothing to lose.
“My feeling is when you’re sitting last, if you can do better than that, that’s good,” he told Fox News.
Santorum said he’s got 1,000 caucus representatives in a contest with about 1,700 caucus locations. He acknowledges that means no official representative to make his case at each of the locations, but at “almost all of them, and no other campaign is going to have someone there who’s going to get up and speak on our behalf.”
Santorum, who claims organization and message will make the difference, is also banking on a divide and conquer strategy.
“There’s really three primaries going on here,” Santorum said. “Ron Paul has his own primary, the libertarian primary. And (Newt) Gingrich and (Mitt) Romney are sort of the establishment primary. And I think there are three who are vying for the conservative mantle to go up against the Gingrich-Romney duo. And I think that I’m going to be the one coming out Iowa with that mantle.
“And if we can do that, then we’re off to the races here, and conservatives around the country, just like they’re doing here in Iowa, are going to start rallying around our campaign,” he said.

Dan Collins also writes about the Santorum Surge today, and check out Curt’s headline at Flopping Aces:

Newt Implodes As Santorum Surges

Evidently, the “Newt Romney” factor is both real and spectacular. Nothing says “kiss of death” quite like the revelation that you’ve been walking the RINO walk while trying to talk the conservative talk.

The apparent collapse of Gingrich — at least insofar as it involves conservatives in Iowa — will be one of the big stories to keep watching. Multiple sources confirm the lack of organizational “ground game” for Newt here, but the key questions are, “How far will he fall?” and “Who will benefit most from Newt’s losses?”

Another sign the beneficiary might be Santorum: “Huck’s Army” founders Alex and Brett Harris today endorsed Santorum.

Today I had a long conversation with influential Iowa talk-show host Steve Deace, who remains skeptical of Santorum’s Cinderella potential. Listening to Deace’s analysis, I’d say the unreported story is this: Perhaps the real reason Steve King didn’t endorse Santorum yesterday is not only King’s longstanding friendship with Bachmann, but also that re-districting has given King some new territory that includes a lot of fired-up Ron Paul supporters. The last thing King needs is a bunch of fanatical Paulistas backing a primary challenger against him next year.

There are layers and layers of complexity to GOP politics in Iowa, and I don’t pretend to understand it at more than a superficial level. But I think the situation here is a lot more volatile than most people realize.

Santorum has not yet polled better than 10% in Iowa. If this surge is for real, and he finishes third or fourth — which could put him ahead of a big money “contender” like Gingrich or Perry — then it’s Katy-bar-the-door. And Santorum himself is entirely willing to put his fate in the hands of folks in the Hawkeye State.






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

Red At CHWAC Doesn’t Get The Class Warfare Joke

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Caught Him With A Corndog posts about Princess Pelosi’s Hawaii trip:

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, who served as Speaker of the House and is now head of the House minority, is once again spending her Christmas at the exotic Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii.

Nancy Pelosi exemplifies the notion that Socialism is the über-capitalism: there is nothing wrong with the idea of the corporation; only that there be more than one. Government is sort of a Highlander character in the economy, whacking private sector challengers. Sears and K-Mart, for example. If the government can tag every taxpayer for a quarter-mil per Chevy Volt, stand by for some future retail bailout, and a new line of politically correct, raaaaacially fair clothing. Nancy would, no doubt, make a pile of cash on the stock moves, but will not wear any of the new apparel, of course.

The joke, of course, is that Nancy and the gang actually give a flying French. . .fry about the various constituencies that keep them in power.

Category: Blogging, Democrats

Ed Driscoll Missed One: Introducing The New Lefty Craze ‘M-bowing’

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

First, there was Obama’s bowing, and then Tebowing, and now M-bowing (Mao-bowing?), with the arms forming the outsides of the character, with the middle V described by the outline of the leg. The left leg.

This new body language is suitable for an #Occupy mike check near you. Try not to bite your mousy tongue while reading Driscoll’s whole post about the sad, drool bucket Left. But don’t laugh too hard, though: these creepy crypto-Marxists have the ear of #OccupyResoluteDesk. Just because they are not terribly bright does not render them harmless.

Category: Celebrities, Ed Driscoll

Tea Party vs. GOP

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 33 Comments

by Smitty

I find myself mostly agreeing with this analysis in Canada Free Press:

The Tea Party is like a young boxer with great skills and a knockout punch, but with skinny legs: a seemingly unstoppable force in the early rounds, if a wily opponent can just survive his initial dynamism, it will be possible to get the better of him in the late rounds, as his tired legs force him to stand flat-footed more often, thus exposing himself to attack.
In the case of the Tea Party, the wily opponent is the Republican Establishment itself; the main event is the presidential primaries. Consider this year’s candidates. Everyone can name the ones who were actively involved in the Tea Party, who attended Tea Party events, and proclaimed their principled alignment with the movement even before the 2010 elections. And everyone knows that the Tea Party is the movement that single-handedly made 2010 possible, leading the charge for radical realignment of congressional priorities, and dragging dozens of hopelessly milquetoast Republican candidates along in its jet stream.
And yet, barely a week away from the Iowa Caucus, the official story of the campaign is that the frontrunners are Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, the only two candidates in this race (Jon Huntsman aside) who can be called big government Republicans, and the only ones whom no one could call Tea Party Republicans. (Aside from Gingrich himself, of course, whose history shows that he will proudly call himself whatever the crosswinds of the moment seem to be whistling.) The only other candidate getting any attention from the mainstream attention-providers, at this pivotal stage of the process, is Ron Paul, who, like Donald Trump before him, is primarily a convenient straw man for the anti-Tea Party forces. “See,” they say, “the Tea Party is represented by kooks and ignorant blusterers; so it’s time to get back to the serious Republicans, Romney and Gingrich.”

Just to pick up the other end of the argument, you can’t overturn 157 years of GOP development in just a year or two. The two keys in political struggles are (a) showing up, and (b) having the stamina to figure out the rules and remain in the game.

If you’re the GOP, and you think back to Ross Perot, you figure that if you wait long enough, this Constitutional hot flash will subside, and people will go back to doing what they are told. And they would be getting away with it, too, if not for these meddling bloggers.

via Northern Virginia Tea Party

Category: GOP, Tea Party

Republicans With Shotguns

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 14 Comments

You know you’re in Iowa when the big story of the day is how many pheasants the candidate killed:

Rick Santorum bagged at least four pheasants during his hunting trip Monday at Doc’s Hunt Club. Those four birds were just the “clean kills” that he was certain were the result of his own marksmanship — a conservative count, Santorum emphasized to the crowd of reporters who showed up at the hunting club in Adel, west of Des Moines.
While the former Pennsylvania senator was pleased with his outing, most of the reporters who showed up were more interested to know if Santorum had bagged even bigger game during this political season — the endorsement of his hunting companion, Iowa Rep. Steve King. But the conservative Republican congressman said he wasn’t quite ready to make that commitment.
“You know, I came here today to shoot some pheasants with my friend Rick Santorum and we’re having a great day,” King told the reporters assembled for Monday’s press conference. “So I’m going to deliberate on all of this and I’ve got a few days yet before a decision has to be made.… I’m leaving that open.” . . .

Read the whole thing at the American Spectator.

While King didn’t give Santorum his endorsement, yesterday’s hunting trip and press conference garnered the candidate a huge haul of publicity. Doc’s Hunt Club was crawling with reporters:



The bald guy in the dark coat is William Petroski of the Des Moines Register, who has been covering the Santorum campaign for weeks now. Petroski points out a useful bit of history:

An endorsement, or even a nod of approval from King, could be helpful to Santorum, who has been showing signs of gaining momentum.
In 2008, King endorsed Fred Thompson, who finished third among presidential candidates with 13.4 percent, narrowly ahead of fourth-place finisher U.S. Sen. John McCain, who went on to become the GOP presidential nominee. The first-place Iowa finisher four years ago was Mike Huckabee with Mitt Romney in second place.
University of Iowa political scientist Tim Hagle said that King’s Dec. 17, 2007, endorsement of Thompson was important to his candidacy.
“I have heard many times that the effort King put into the Thompson endorsement helped Thompson get to a third-place finish even though it was only just ahead of McCain,” Hagle said. While it is getting late in the 2012 caucus race, an endorsement of Santorum by King might help convince some that Santorum is the best bet among him, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and Perry, he said.
Drake University political scientist Dennis Goldford said that in a tight caucus race “even a feather on a scale” could make a difference.

The fact that 13% was good enough for third place in Iowa four years ago is important to keep in mind. The expectations game is everything in Iowa. Yesterday, toward the end of the press conference, after Santorum talked about how many pheasants he shot during his hunting trip, Dan Balz of the Washington Post asked, “Senator, you said you killed four, but how many did you expect to kill?”

Ba-dum-BOOM-crash.

Anyway, here’s video of the start of the press conference, where the talk was all about hunting and 20-gauge Weatherby shotguns:


Category: Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum On Greta

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

Rick Santorum appeared “On the Record” last night. What an excellent outing! You can chalk it up to friendly media all you like, but Santorum seems both prepared and pleasant; American, even.

The interview alluded to this retro video:
which is a breath of fresh air. Rick’s Iowa ground game sounds like he’s all in, having supporters at most of the precinct caucuses. I’m wishing that his campaign had had more heft here in Virginia, and made the primary ballot. Hitting all of the rural counties for 400 valid signatures was just a bridge too far, apparently, but I don’t hold that against him. His Tea Party insurgency relies on doing well in Iowa and building momentum toward Super Tuesday.

Mitt, of course, needs to put on a good show, and try to counteract the perception that “the fix is in”. Elsewhere on Greta, mention was made of all the candidates giving Iowa the bus blitz over the next several days.

Virginia’s primary ballot continues to be an issue. In fairness to Mitt, doing the homework to meet the ballot requirements is not “a fix”. There is a risk of a variation on the theme of class warfare if people hate Mitt merely because he has invested the time and the money to staff a rock solid electoral machine.

Does that seem ‘unfair’? Whether or not you think it unfair, hearing Newt Gingrich compare the Virginia situation to Pearl Harbor does not elicit sympathy. Yes, its effect on him might be of similar magnitude, but the comparison simply doesn’t set well. Being caught asleep at the switch is one thing; invoking a military sneak attack in a political context is goofy at best.

If there is any Pearl Harbor comparison afoot, it’s the attack on liberty by creeping government. The over-reaching Federal government is becoming downright inimical to the day to day conduct of private life, sending waves of legislation, regulation, and irritation to bum the American people into submission. You could kill someone by forcing them to read the U.S. Code. We need a Declaration of Independence from this.

Is Santorum the guy to declare that independence, and lead us away from it? Maybe. Newt, Mitt, and Governor Asterisk excite no confidence. As you can tell by the tone of my posts, I want to sympathize with some of Ron Paul’s domestic ideas. I hope the good ideas survive his campaign, and he fades with the bad ones. Besides Santorum, Perry and Bachmann offer some hope.

But really, it isn’t about the election, or who is on the ticket. It is about the involvement level of the American people. The Ruling Class, of which Romney, Gingrich, and Huntsman seem to be anointed members, seem to be more about their own power, making these noises about social safety nets as a modern form of bread and circuses.

Category: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul

Ron, When You Accuse Israel Of Starting Hamas, You Need To Cite A Good Reference

Posted on | December 27, 2011 | 15 Comments

by Smitty


Ron, you can build a case that the history and politics are complicated, and unfortunate, and never moreso than the Middle East. But when you claim that Israel started Hamas as a means of checking Yassir Arafat, you had better back that up. Otherwise, you risk sounding like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist.

Some of the various tidbits I’ve seen indicate a general blend of the last century’s totalitarians and anti-Semites as informing the more radical and militant aspects of Islam and anti-Israeli organizations. More to the point: Ron Paul could have as easily discussed the fundamental theorem of calculus in two minutes as recapped the Gaza situation. Instead we hear the broken ‘blame Israel’ record.

It’s a shame that, since 1948, Yassir Arafat is the ‘best’ example of a statesmen that the West Bank or Gaza Strip have produced. Maybe this underscores the exceptional nature of the crop of thinkers who created these United States. The existential truth of human nature seems to be that the leaders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip find it simpler to perpetuate old evils than set about improving the situation.

Support Israel? Darn right I do, with a sad eye toward the common folk of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are the ones mostly getting burned by the oxymoron labeled ‘peace process’.

via Yid with Lid

Update: Israel Matzav amplifies the situation with some better accuracy than Ron Paul. Ron, Ron, Ron: two places for sloppy, sensational statements are (a) used car advertisements, and (b) tabloids. Just trying to help your career planning, sir.

Update II: linked by Surber.

Category: Israel, Ron Paul
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