The Other McCain

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

My Day (and Night) in D.C.

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 34 Comments

ROSSLYN, Virginia
Greetings from the ninth-floor office overlooking the Potomac River that is headquarters of The American Spectator. I’m working on a borrowed computer that doesn’t have a slot for the digital memory chip that contains photos and video I shot today at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Candidate Forum. So I’ll upload that tomorrow. Meantime, word pictures will have to do.

My reasons for coming down to D.C. today were fourfold:

  1. A 1 p.m. interview with Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada);
  2. The RJC forum;
  3. Trying to talk my bosses at the Spectator into giving me some travel expense money; and
  4. A party tonight on Capitol Hill.

So I began by renting a car. The deer-damaged KIA finally has been repaired, but I’ve still got to pay some fees to the DMV to get the tags and stuff, and I have a visceral aversion to dealing with bureaucracy. Anyway . . .

Raining cats, dogs and other small mammals in the D.C. area today. This means traffic was even worse of a mess than usual. Washington is full of people who can’t drive worth crap on a clear sunny day, and a rainstorm is an almost insuperable challenge for these incompetent vehicular menaces. The District of Columbia is the only place in America where they offer the driver’s exam in braille, and the laws against “discrimination” are so stringent in Washington that it’s considered a human-rights violation to deny a license to the mentally handicapped. 

D.C. gives licenses to people who are too stupid to figure out how to buy a bus pass, and the taxis are all driven by guys from Ethiopia and Eritrea, where the nuances of such words as “merge” and “yield” seem to have been lost in translation. At least 15% of the drivers in our nation’s capital are recently released inmates of St. Elizabeth’s. I’m pretty sure the guy who cut me off on Constitution Avenue today was John Hinckley.

Did I ever mention I hate driving in D.C.? And it’s a deeply personal hatred. Everybody here complains about “traffic,” as if it were some amorphous inevitable thing. But bad traffic is caused by bad drivers, so every trip into town is for me a non-stop cussfest against the idiots responsible for this godawful mess. Anyway . . .

So I was a half-hour late getting to the Russell Senate Office Building for my interview with Dean Heller, but they understood that this was not my fault, and the interview was wonderful. Heller is a great conservative facing a 2012 challenge from Shelley Berkeley, a corrupt liberal pawn of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis. Go give Senator Heller $25 or $50 for his re-election campaign now.

Once we’d finished the interview, I hailed a cab and went to the Ronald Reagan Center for the RJC shindig. No sooner had I signed in at the media credentials table than I encountered Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his entourage entering the auditorium. Got some pictures then went inside where Newt Gingrich was talking. And talking and talking.

Let’s face it: If you want a president who can spontaneously deliver a five-minute policy seminar on any topic under the sun, Newt’s you’re guy. Dude opens his mouth and entire paragraphs come tumbling out, each paragraph including at least one “frankly” and one “fundamentally.”

The RJC audience seemed to dig Newt’s act, but frankly, I’m fundamentally opposed to his candidacy.

Didn’t stick around to hear Perry’s speech, although I’m told his three-point plan for Middle East peace was excellent, if only he could have remembered the third point.

Of course, I missed Rick Santorum’s RJC speech this morning. Fortunately, Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times was there:

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said there’s good reason why he’s talking a lot more about foreign policy than other Republican candidates.
“Because I believe that there’s a very good chance that by next election day, the national security issues in this country will be of higher priority in the eyes of the American people than the economy,” he said Wednesday morning in Washington. . . .
Invoking the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the former Pennsylvania senator slammed President Obama for a policy of “appeasement” with regard to Iran that has allowed that nation to become a much bigger threat.
“I know people in this country are tired of war. But our Pearl Harbor already happened,” he said.
Iran has grown stronger because of Obama’s indifference, he argued. The so-called Arab spring should have begun in Iran in 2009, but Obama failed to support democratic uprisings there. And yet he threw an ally of the United States and Israel — Egypt — “under the bus” in the face of demonstrations that included the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The president, for every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, has had nothing but appeasement,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen, learn from history.”

My sarcastic friend Dave Weigel mocks the “Santorum surge,” but Dave will be laughing out the other side of his face when Santorum claims victory Jan. 3 in Des Moines. Go give Rick Santorum $25, $50 or $100 just to spite Weigel. Anyway . . .

So I was standing out in the lobby after the Gingrich speech with several other reporters (including S.A. Miller of the New York Post, whom I used to work with at The Washington Times) who were on Newt stakeout duty, and guess who walked by? Scooter Libby, who is now a foreign-policy expert at the Hudson Institute.  That was cool.

The reporters and I were standing around talking Iowa caucus travel plans when — whoosh! — a couple of camera guys took off running: Newt had been spotted, and I raced to catch up with the scrum, getting pictures and videos.

“No more questions,” Newt was saying, as he posed for pictures with some of the event attendees. But reporters kept sticking microphones in his face and asking questions he’d just said he wouldn’t answer. The TV camera guys were really just shooting B-roll, and I was mainly trying not to get trampled by the scrum. There is nothing quite like a mob of media surrounding a Republican presidential front-runner.

Oh, and Trampled By The Scrum would be a great album title for an alternative-rock band.

Then I hopped a Metro train across the river here to The American Spectator office where I wasn’t really surprised to learn that they didn’t have any travel expense money for me today.

Maybe next week. Gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Hit the freaking tip jar.

Now I’m due for a party tonight hosted by the Prosper Group, an “online strategy” operation smart enough to invite me to their party. Expect incriminating pictures tomorrow of Republican operatives having decadent fun, some of whom will be buttonholing me in the near future to write nice things about their clients.

This is why you pay me the medium bucks, eh?


Category: Election 2012, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Shoe Leather Fund

Blago Gets 14 Years

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 7 Comments

Somebody’s got to take the fall. It’s the Chicago Way:

Disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison after he made a final plea for leniency, acknowledging his guilt and saying, “I am unbelievably sorry.” 

So how is Blago “disgraced,” while Obama is still wonderful? How is it that Blago was prosecuted by a federal Justice Department headed by the “disgraced” Eric Holder?

Category: Chicago, Corruption, Crime, Democrats

Let’s Face It: Jesus Railed Against The ‘Archbishops’ Of His Day

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

Hot Air recirculates some heated breath from Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams says Jesus would have joined protesters from the anti-corporate Occupy movement who have been camped outside London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for more than seven weeks.
In a British magazine, the leader of the world’s 78 million Anglicans worldwide insisted that Jesus would be “there, sharing the risks, not just taking sides.”

If you read the Gospels, Jesus’s encounters with people generally took one of two tracks: if they were people in authority, or ought to know better, he lowered the rhetorical boom. The rest of the people were dealt with far less harshly.

Since Jesus, it’s become something of a sport to attempt to rebrand the carpenter whose job was to bring salvation to fit whatever cause is at hand. What a demotion.

Somebody needs to politely suggest to Rowan Williams that he may be as far off base today as the Pharisees were in the day of Jesus. The notion that the secular effort of the #Occupy movement has even the slightest overlap with Jesus’s mission is daft, as un-Biblical as an ‘Archbishop’, and arguably heretical. Jesus, for example ensured the taxes were paid.

The archbishop said that when Jesus said “give Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” he was asking “what’s the exact point at which involvement in the empire of capitalist economy involves you fatally.”

Really, you Archie-comic Bishop? What was the context of Jesus’s famous statement?

And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. (Mark 12:13)

The authorities were begging the question: “Have you given up cheating on your taxes?” And Jesus, masterfully, cut the inquisitors to the bone. Furthermore, what do you mean by “involvement in the empire of capitalist economy”? Judea was a Roman province at the time of Jesus’s physical life. Are you making an economic assertion about how the economy worked then? Are we still clinging to the fiction that the British or American economies are purely capitalist now?

Lord have mercy on you sir, and may the Holy Spirit give you an unction to study the Word with some real, prayerful, un-polluted understanding. Because right now, it looks like the rebukes that Jesus laid on the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of his day may apply to you, as well.

Category: #Occupy, Religion

Rush Nails It On The Craven GOP

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Rush Limbaugh went ballistic about both the Obama 06Dec speech, and the corresponding spinelessness of the GOP in refusing to attack #OccupyResoluteDesk. Of local note is the Timmy Kaine run for Senate.

Face it: rather than gearing up for the next concession speech in 2012, the GOP needs to take this class warfare speech of Baracks and parse it, break it down, and fire it right back at Barack, word for word.

Don’t back down, double down. The country is at stake. Let’s find out who the little children are at GOP HQ and gently toss them in the broom closet until after the election next November. ‘Not going after Barack’ was John McCain’s path to victoryconcession speech in 2008; fear of a reprise in 2012 is exactly why no one wants Mitt on the ticket. Let’s put on our big boy pants now, GOP, and git ‘er done. But even if Mitt simulates gumption, is there any way he can convince conservatives that he isn’t a method actor in a bureaucracy play?

Fischersville Mike with the pithy observation:

Blue Virginia seems awfully excited by Barack Obama giving a speech where Teddy Roosevelt talked in 1910.
Roosevelt was the former president in 1910.
Obama will be a former president in 14 months.

Pithier still, the IowaHawk, via LI

via Atlas Shrugs

Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, GOP, Rush Limbaugh

Rick Santorum: Praise by Sarah Palin ‘Absolutely Critical’ to His Money Surge

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 43 Comments

When Sarah Palin singled out Rick Santorum for praise last week during her appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, she got a lot of people’s attention. Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal and Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review took notice, as did America’s leading practicioner of Neutral Objective Journalism.

Far more important, however, was the attention Palin’s praise generated among her most loyal admirers:

For Santorum … her words may have been answered prayer, providing the underdog candidate with the kind of fundraising boost his low-budget campaign needs in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
“Our small dollar donations have just dramatically increased, which is, you know, a great sign for us… and I think Sarah Palin’s comments were  absolutely critical to that,” Santorum said, adding that there has also been a noticeable “spike” in traffic to his campaign website. …

Please read the whole thing. Since Palin broke her supporters’ hearts with her Oct. 5 announcement that she wouldn’t be a candidate in 2012, a lot of pundits seem to have decided that she is no longer  politically relevant. Yet Palin still has a powerful influence over the many thousands of grassroots conservatives who admire her and some of them — especially including Lisa Graas — are quite literally praying that she’ll make her magic happen by endorsing Rick Santorum.

Crazy? Yeah, but crazy things have been happening all year in the fight for the Republican 2012 nomination, And you know if Sarah Palin were to shock the world with an endorsement before the Iowa caucuses, outraged reactions from “experts” like Karl Rove would be like a gift-wrapped present under somebody’s Christmas tree in her home on the shores of Wasilla’s lovely Lake Lucille. I’m just sayin’ . . .

You can say that’s just crazy-talk, but it’s not crazier than this: Only one candidate in the 2012 Republican presidential race has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, and he’s also the only candidate who knows the title of the national anthem of Vanuatu.

I’m not kidding. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Neutral Objective Journalism, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Vanuatu

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.07.11

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Obama Pitches Populist Vision Of America

I SUMMON THE GHOST OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT!

President Obama attacks “breathtaking greed”, formerly known as “the capitalist system”; recalls Teddy Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”






FAA Chief Babbitt Resigns After Drunk Driving Arrest
SecTrans accepts Babbitt’s resignation

Dozens Dead In Rare Attack On Shiite Mosque In Kabul
Suicide bomber kills dozens, wounds almost 200



POLITICS
Few Pearl Harbor Survivors Left To Keep Memory Alive

Emerie Arsenault and other survivors at the U.S.S. Arizona memorial

Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Association holds last meeting at historic site before planned disbandment at year’s end.





Alabama AG Urges Changes In State’s Immigration Law

Protesters Swarm Congressional Offices

House Bill Would Raise Medicare Premiums For Elderly

Romney Supporters Push for More Pointed Rhetoric

U.S. To Promote Gay Rights Abroad, Obama & Clinton Say



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Merkel’s Path: Brinksmanship For Debt Crisis
Asia Stocks, Copper Advance Before EU Summit
Bernanke To Congress: Reporting Flawed On Fed Loans
CEO Pandit Says Citigroup To Cut 4500 Jobs
Prudential Sells Its Real Estate Brokerage For $110 Million
Shale Gas Industry Has Profound Impact On Economy
With TVs, Microsoft Is Right And Apple Is Wrong
Verizon Galaxy Nexus Won’t Support Google Wallet
New .xxx Domain For Porn Debuts To Mixed Feelings
Minister Sibal Warns Social Websites On Objectionable Content
Chrysler Teases New Alfa-Based Dodge Dart



SPORTS
SEC Examining Financing Of New Marlins Stadium

Miami Marlins new home at the 70% complete mark

Probe focusing on whether federal securities laws were broken in financing of stadium and parking garage

Can New Magic CEO Convince Dwight Howard To Stay?



Mets Trade Pagan To Giants, Shore Up Bullpen


Pavelic Makes 39 Saves, Little Scores Winning Goal As Jets Cool Off Bruins

Clarkson Scores In OT To Help Devils Beat Leafs 3-2

NHL Realignment Raises More Questions



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Bravo Forced Kim Richards Into Rehab

Kim Richards

Network pushed reality star into immediate rehab check-in

Angelina Jolie On Directing, Family, And Being A Closet Geek

Jesse James Trash Talks Sandra Bullock In His Return To TV




Terrence Howard: My Wife Is Lying, I Never Threatened To Kill Her

Grandson Of Rita Hayworth Found Dead In Apparent Suicide

Naked Rage At A Body Politic

Alec Baldwin Reamed By Flight Attendant For Being Self-Centered Jerk Who Can’t Follow Safety Instructions

Director Patty Jenkins Exits Marvel’s “Thor 2”



FOREIGNERS
Kremlin Backers Challenge Protesters
Homs Killings Spread Fear Of Sectarian War In Syria
Violence And Bloodshed Erupt In Congo as Election Results Delayed
Greece Passes Austerity Budget After Street Riots
Belgium Finally Gets Six-Party Coalition Government After 18-Month Standoff
Hezbollah Leader Comes Out In Support Of Assad
Foreign Ministry Slams SecState Clinton’s Criticism Of Elections As “Unacceptable”



BLOGS & STUFF
Don Surber: Gallup – Gingrich Collects The Cain Vote
Ramesh Ponnuru: Heartbreak Awaits Republicans Who Love Newt
Hit & Run: Ron Paul, Still Rising
Volokh Conspiracy: Newt Gingrich, Right-Wing Progressive?
Atlas Shrugs: Obama’s Anti-Capitalism Speech In Kansas
Weasel Zippers: No Joke, Republicans Told Not To Attack Obama
Rush Limbaugh: The So-Called Conservative Media Attacks Newt Gingrich
Michelle Malkin: Hollyweird Distraction Of The Day – Alec Baldwin Booted Off Plane
Ben Domenech: $250 Million Spent On Penis Pumps By Medicare, Medicaid
Esquire: Could Jon Meacham Be The Most Insufferable Human In Washington?
Reihan Salam: Is The Enemy Of My Enemy My Friend?
Ed Driscoll: Building A Bridge To The 20th Century
Lonely Conservative: Don’t Blame Obama For The Rotten Economy, Blame The Internet!


SOTD: Balls To The Wall

Category: Live at Five

Pardon Me, Allahpundit: The Gerald Ford Analogy? Pardon Me

Posted on | December 6, 2011 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Allahpundit, in the update to Tina Korbe’s post on the latest bit of #OccupyResoluteDesk flatus:

I’m honestly curious to see how he draws the inevitable Gerald Ford analogy before his term’s up.

This administration is going to exit on the most egregious stream of Presidential pardons imaginable. Holder and Corzine, for starters, plus the various and sundry cling-ons and strap-hangers that have done the dirty deeds of swindling and obfuscating for the litany of scandals begotten by this administration.

Personal lubricant should be the top seller this Christmas season, and we look likely to need it. While BHO takes breaks from golfing to campaign next year, we’ll see major flare-ups in every theater of interest, as the economy continues to tank, and GOP front runners take turns making noises like they really want to trim the federal government, while putting in enough winks and codewords that the bloated DC bureaucracy knows it’s all just what you say to win the election, not any serious call for reform.

The only president to whom BHO will never seriously be compared is George Washington. GW had such character as to reveal, in the most personal way, what a useless insult to everything American that #OccupyResoluteDesk has been.

Category: Barack Obama

Glenn Beck, American At Large

Posted on | December 6, 2011 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

Along with Limbaugh, Beck is going to be remembered as one of the voices that helped turn this country around. His audience draw actually got may parents to buy an interface and subscribe to GBTV, a miracle that could only be topped by Stacy McCain installing TweetDeck.

While busy with all precocious ~17 lbs. of The World’s Youngest Blogger, I missed the bun fight with Newt Gingrich, though I did tune in for the Michele Bachmann piece, where Michele called Newt a ‘frugal Socialist’. Mitt speaks in bumper stickers. Newt speaks in scholarly digressions, and seems drawn to arguments for their own sake, irrespective of any real-world impacts. Has either man internalized the fact that the Tea Party cares about liberty, and neither of those big government, nominally conservative chumps is exciting?

Beck, on the other hand, engages in random acts of patriotism and sensible acts of honor. The advertisement for Thursday’s show embedded below hints at a major announcement. I haven’t the foggiest clue what he’s got cooking, but if it involves a large gathering on the Mall sometime this Spring, then I am totally there. Another idea might be the 1,000 day anniversary for that useless clown of a Senate Majority Leader to have failed to pass a budget, rolling by in about 7 weeks. But even a grizzled event planner like Stacy McCain would have a challenge stringing that together, so that’s unlikely. Tax Day in April?

Update: clownface Newt due to Jaded Haven. Remember, conservatives: the Left swooned over BHO’s wonderful baritone. How well or poorly a candidate emits words, while not nothing, should not be the main reason for fancying their campaign.

Category: Glenn Beck
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin