The Other McCain

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

SANTORUM EXPRESS SUNDAY: Complete Iowa Tour Schedule

Posted on | December 4, 2011 | 17 Comments

Press release from the campaign:

SANTORUM IOWA PUBLIC SCHEDULE
FOR DECEMBER 4-6

Verona, PA – Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum will return to northwest Iowa on Sunday, December 4th on the latest leg of his “Faith, Family and Freedom Tour.”

Open press events are noted, all times are local.

Sunday, December 4:

2:00pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall meeting in Sidney, IA where Senator Santorum will focus on job creation and economic growth.
Location: Sidney Senior Center
2820 Northridge Road
Sidney, IA

5:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will hold a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Rally in Council Bluffs, IA.
Location: Mid-America Center
1 Arena Way
Council Bluffs, IA

6:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will hold a media availability following his “Faith, Family and Freedom” Rally in Council Bluffs, IA.
Location: Mid-America Center
1 Arena Way
Council Bluffs, IA

Monday, December 5:

9:00am CT: Senator Santorum will hold a media availability prior to his “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall Meeting in Sioux City, IA
Location: Stoney Creek Inn
300 3rd Street
Sioux City, IA

9:30am CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall meeting Sioux City, IA.
Location: Stoney Creek Inn
300 3rd Street
Sioux City, IA

12:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Le Mars, IA.
Location: 4 Brother’s Restaurant
1430 Two Rivers Boulevard
Le Mars, IA

5:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will be the featured guest at the Sanborn Winter Gala in Sanborn, IA.
Location: Jay’s Restaurant & Lounge
120 West 7th Street
Sanborn, IA

7:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will hold a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Rally in Sioux Center, IA.
Location: Dordt College Campus Center
498 4th Avenue NE
Sioux Center, IA

8:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will hold a media availability following his “Faith, Family and Freedom” Rally in Sioux Center, IA.
Location: Dordt College Campus Center
498 4th Avenue NE
Sioux Center, IA

Tuesday, December 6:

8:00am CT: Senator Santorum will hold a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall meeting in Storm Lake, IA.
Location: Lake Shore Café
1520 Lake Avenue

12:00pm CT: Senator Santorum will hold a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall meeting in Spencer, IA.
Location: Pizza Ranch
528 Grand Avenue
Spencer, IA

* * * * *

RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Republicans, Rick Santorum

Destination Iowa: The Intersection of Preparation and Opportunity

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 43 Comments

Rural intersection in Roland, Iowa, Aug. 6, 2011

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up . . .
— Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 (KJV)

“There are many elaborate theories as to why American religion persists. The best answer is so obvious it’s easy to miss: The founding idea of America is a theological statement. Take away the Almighty and problems sprout like crabgrass.”
— Jeremy Lott, “One Nation Under God”

Some people believe in luck but, although I seem to be on a losing streak lately, I don’t believe in luck. Nor do I believe in accidents. When a deer destroyed my KIA last year, the insurance company called it an “accident,” but surely there was some larger purpose served by that event, although the purpose is as unknown to me as it was to the deer.

Seemingly random things happen every day that are not really as random as they seem. Why do I wear a fedora? Because Pete Da Tech Guy wears fedoras. One day in January 2010, we were on our way to cover a Scott Brown campaign event and I picked up one of Pete’s spare fedoras on our way out the door of his house in Fitchburg, Mass.

How was it, that out of all the sofas in all of Massachusetts, I spent that week on Pete’s sofa in Fitchburg? How did I come to be Pete’s friend? See, it involved this guy named Charles Johnson — maybe you’ve heard of him — and on that day in September 2009 when I swore the war oath of Clan Cameron, it touched something in Pete’s soul.

Oh, did I say “soul”? Excuse my transgression of the separation of church and blog. I merely meant to say that my friendship with Pete was no more accidental than my acquiring a blog sidekick who plays the bagpipes and knows enough Gaelic to translate the war oath of Clan Cameron.

Luck? Accident? Nope. Don’t believe in that stuff. It was neither luck nor accident that accounts for these things, nor was it luck that brought me to the intersection of 100th Street and 570th Avenue that August afternoon in Iowa. My schedule in Iowa had certain fixed dates and locations, but on that Saturday I had nothing in particular on my schedule and so . . .

Perhaps 50 voters showed up Saturday for a campaign event held in a barn on a dirt road amid cornfields near Roland, about 20 miles north of Ames. While a few dozen voters isn’t much of a crowd by Republican presidential campaign standards, the audience inside the barn was enlarged — and enlivened — by the presence of scores of children, the offspring of several Christian homeschooling families in attendance. One family brought eight kids, another brought nine, and the hosts, Scott and Susan Hurd, have seven of their own, as did the guest from Pennsylvania whose “Road to Ames Barn Bash” was the occasion of this gathering.
Rick Santorum has been campaigning across the state for months and, as he told the voters (and their numerous children) during his speech in the barn, he has visited 51 cities in Iowa by now. . . .
— The American Spectator, Aug. 8, 2011

If there was any special purpose to that trip, it was as a favor to my devoutly Catholic friend, Lisa Graas, whom I first knew as the Twitter phenomenon “PalinTwibe,” which she abandoned in 2010 when Sarah Palin endorsed Rand Paul in the Kentucky Senate GOP primary where Lisa (a Kentuckian) favored another candidate.

Thursday, Sarah Palin praised Rick Santorum. Friday, Lisa got a phone call from Rick Santorum. Saturday, Herman Cain quit the race.

Coincidence. Accident. Luck. Like an earthquake in Vanuatu.

One month from now, I plan to be in Iowa, reporting the results of the Republican caucuses. And I’m asking readers to contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund to get me there — $10, $20, $50, whatever you can afford.

My plan is to leave on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, so you’ll have a full week of on-the-scene campaign coverage. I’ll cover all the candidates, but you guys know I’m a hopeless sucker for dark horses, long shots, underdogs and lost causes.

On this day, a month before the Iowa caucuses, what cause seems more hopelessly lost than Rick Santorum‘s campaign? He’s been stuck in single digits in all the polls. Nobody thinks he has a chance.

People laughed at me when I spent months covering Herman Cain, but they stopped laughing when magic happened in Orlando:

What Herman Cain did in Orlando this weekend was both completely unexpected and entirely predictable. As late as Friday afternoon, none of the pundits expected the Atlanta businessman to win the Florida GOP’s “Presidency 5” straw poll. But if what it took to win was a dynamic speaker who could bring a roomful of grassroots Republicans to their feet, Cain’s victory was in some sense inevitable.
“Send Washington a message!” Cain thundered from the stage of the Orange County Convention Center, prompting one of seven standing ovations he received Saturday in his speech preceding the vote in which he stomped Texas Gov. Rick Perry so badly that the Republican front-runner may never recover.
Perry’s disastrous debate performance Thursday — in which he said opponents of college tuition subsidies for illegal immigrants “don’t have a heart” — was the precipitating event of Cain’s triumph. As the old saying goes, luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity, and Cain was perhaps uniquely prepared to take advantage of the opportunity Perry’s stumble presented. . . .
— “Cain’s Magic Moment,” The American Spectator, Sept. 26, 2011

How quickly things can change, you see. And just as Cain’s years of experience as a public speaker was exactly the kind of preparation that made Orlando such a turning point, aren’t Rick Santorum’s months of grassroots campaigning exactly the kind of preparation needed to seize the opportunity in Iowa?

One month before Iowa, GOP field wide open
— The Hill

You say it can’t be done? You say Rick Santorum can’t possibly win the Iowa caucuses? One month before Election Day in 2009, I had never even heard of a guy named Doug Hoffman, and by the time it was over, that geeky accountant had become “an electric symbol of conservatism.”

Some of my friends who spent months riding with me on the Cain Train may not be huge fans of Rick Santorum’s politics. And if you don’t want to take this ride, I’ll understand. But to me, the message and the mission are the same things that made NY-23 a national crusade: To wreck the plans of those GOP Establishment insiders who think they can shove their bogus sold-out candidates down our throats.

We must rally the people to a good man who stands firmly for what he believes to be Right and True. And those who complained constantly about Cain’s weaknesses must admit that Santorum is strong exactly where Cain was weak: Experience in office, a firm grasp of foreign policy details, and the kind of solid campaign structure needed to turn grassroots enthusiasm into votes on Election Day.

Rick Santorum is a different kind of candidate than Herman Cain, but I know him to be a good man. I’ve met his family. I’ve hung out with him when other reporters on the campaign trail were ignoring him. He actually bought me lunch once. And he inspired Lisa Graas to write something beautiful:

I may be a crippled and mentally broken single mom in poverty in the Appalachian foothills — a coal miner’s daughter — but to hold onto and speak up for what is true … that is the kind of person I have to be because, as noted, to do otherwise is death for me. Rick Santorum knows that about me, and that’s why he called this broken woman in Kentucky and said, “You’re an inspiration.” No matter how broken I may be, I will stand, and seeing that in the various people he meets in his travels is what keeps his hope for our country alive. I know that to be true about him.

Go read the whole thing. We can do this, people. Make it happen. Hit my tip jar to send me to Iowa. All aboard the Santorum Express!

UPDATE: This just in:

“Karen and I understand how trying national political campaigns are — not just on the candidates, but the candidate’s family. We respect Herman’s decision to suspend his campaign and trust that he made the best decision for his family. As we have for all our fellow candidates, we will continue to keep Herman and his entire family in our prayers.”
— Rick Santorum

UPDATE II: Thanks to Joan in Georgia and Mike in New Hampshire (both Cainiacs, BTW) for hitting the tip jar. Here’s some groovy and hopeful music for you:

You know, I remember when Sarah said “no” and broke the hearts of the Palinistas. A lot of them ended up on the Cain Train. Now that’s gone off the rails and so here’s to hoping we can pull a shocking upset that will let the Establishment know that We the People are still willing to fight back.

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Iowa, Rick Santorum, Shoe Leather Fund

If DC Fails To Act, CA Will Out-Fail DC

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 26 Comments

by Smitty

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-Nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants could live and work openly in California with little or no fear of deportation under an initiative unveiled Friday by a state legislator and others.
Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat, is helping spearhead the measure, called the California Opportunity and Prosperity Act.
The proposal was filed Friday with the state Attorney General’s Office, marking a first step toward a drive to collect the 504,760 voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
Fuentes called the measure a “moderate, common-sense approach” necessitated by the federal government’s inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
“I hope this shows Washington, D.C., that if they fail to act, California will take the lead on this critical issue,” Fuentes said in a written statement.

California Opportunity and Prosperity Act? COPA? COPAcabana? The hottest spot west of Havana?

vid Drudge

Category: California

And Her Name Is ‘Quackenbush’

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 12 Comments

You need a laugh? I need a laugh. And we are therefore grateful to an erstwhile “rising star” in New York Democratic Party politics:

Albany County District Attorney David Soares today acknowledged a longstanding intimate relationship with a junior female staffer whose siblings have been prosecuted on multiple occasions by his office.
Soares, 42, said he has been involved in a “committed” relationship with legal secretary Stacey Quackenbush, 26, for at about a year. Soares is divorced from his first wife, Tina Pantuso, with whom he has two children.
The district attorney called his relationship with Quackenbush a “personal issue” that is “not newsworthy and certainly not appropriate for public debate or discussion.”
Soares said he is aware of the appearance of a conflict and indicated Quackenbush has been seeking employment elsewhere.
He also suggested a report of his connection to Quackenbush, which appeared Friday night on a local blog — Albanycitizenone.com — was politically motivated.
“I find it unfortunate that my personal relationships are the subject of political fodder less than 24 hours after the announcement of my political opponent,” Soares said in a statement released Saturday afternoon.
“This is clearly a political effort to malign my reputation for the simple reason that my record as Albany County District Attorney is one that I am proud of.”

(Hat-tip: Dave Weigel on Twitter.) Four relevant points:

  1. As we have recently seen, it is not generally an effective public-relations tactic for politicians accused of wrongdoing to suggest that the accusations are “politically motivated.” Well, of course, they’re politically motivated! People who make accusations are your enemies, not your allies, and politics is a contact sport.
  2. When a public official is having a sexual relationship with his workplace subordinate, this is wrong per se. Why? Because taxpayers are in effect being compelled to hire girlfriends for the public official. It’s one thing if two file clerks at the county courthouse fall in love. It’s another thing entirely for the judge to be banging a file clerk.
  3. It was not until the eighth paragraph that this story mentioned that Soares is, in fact, a Democrat.
  4. His girlfriend’s name is “Quackenbush”!

That there’s funny, I don’t care who you are! Merry Christmas!

Category: Dave Weigel, Democrats, New York, Scandal, Sex

FMJRA 2.0: It Hurts To Breathe

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

BARNEY FRANK WILL RETIRE UPDATES: ‘Corrupt Creature of Washington Who Helped Usher in the Great Recession’; Maxine Waters to Become Top Dem on Banking Committee

As If the Campaign Wasn’t Weird Enough

Herman Cain ‘Re-Assessing’ Campaign

Naked Scarlett Johansson: ‘It Would Be Irresponsible’ Not to Support Obama

‘Here We Go Again’

 

Hippie Weeps for #OccupyToronto: ‘We Just Want to Try and Build a New World’

Vasquez Sounds: El Talento Musical de Mexicali Lanzó a la Fama por el Video

Villaraigosa to Occupy L.A.: ‘You’re Wonderful. Now Get Lost, Ya Bums.’

BOOM! Michele Bachmann Publishes Gingrich’s 2004 Pro-Amnesty Letter

He Should Have Shopped Amazon.com

Attention, Lonely Women

Iowa Heats Up

VIDEO: Latma Works Out On Bob Dylan ‘The Times, They Are A-Changin’

Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader Endorses Newt Gingrich for President

Cain on CNN: ‘In Terms of the Mechanics of the Campaign, Nothing’s Gone Wrong’

Newt Gingrich Wins Coveted GOP Primary Endorsement From … Bill Clinton?

Gang-Raped for ‘Democracy’?

Not Yet Available on Amazon

FMJRA 2.0: Four Days In The Valley

Exploring ‘Explaining Postmodernism’ By Stephen R. C. Hicks

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.28.11

MONDAY DOOM WATCH: Europe Circling the Economic Drain

Hoffman at The College Conservative Misses the Genius of Meghan McCain

VIDEO: Gary Glenn Vows ‘We Will Restore the Greatness of Our Republic’

Rule 5 Monday

Was That Megan McArdle Or Meghan McCain?

Herman Cain Campaign Press Release

Exploring ‘Explaining Postmodernism’ By Stephen Hicks 3: Reason Is Over-rated

Bob Belvedere: Mega-Hitter

Another Under-Bus-Toss For The DOD?

#tcot @AceOfSpadesHQ So, You’re Still Kinda Butt-Hurt About Rick Perry, Huh?

Candidate Cain Said “I’m Not Supposed To Know Anything About Foreign Policy”, Whereas President Obama Lives It

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.30.11

Doubling Down On Ehlinger’s Argument

CRISIS LOOMS FOR HERMAN CAIN CAMPAIGN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE UPDATE: Cain Tells CNN He’ll Make Decision ‘Within the Next Several Days’

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.01.11

Santorum Heading to N.H. Friday

HERMAN CAIN ANNOUNCEMENT

Top linkers this week:

  1. The Pro From Poca (12)
  2. The Lonely Conservative (9)
  3. (tied) Da Tech Guy, Nice Deb, and Maggie’s Notebook (7)
  4. (tied) The POH Diaries, The Camp of the Saints, and Daily Pundit (6)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for next week’s FMJRA is Friday, December 9; if you are e-mailing in your links, please include “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.

Category: FMJRA Award

2012 Is About Barack Obama: This Cannot Be Over-Emphasized

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

Power Line nails it, emphasis mine:

What happened to Herman Cain is what the Democrats intend to do to whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be. They know they can’t win a debate on the economy or on President Obama’s record, so they will do everything they can to distract the voters’ attention from those matters, which should be decisive, and instead turn the focus to the GOP candidate and his or her alleged foibles. If Republican voters allow that to happen by nominating a candidate with baggage that permits the Democrats to turn him into the next Herman Cain, it is all too likely that President Obama will be re-elected, with consequences that can hardly be overestimated.

Spot on. When accusation is: “GOP candidate X flip/flopped on Y” the reply is: “Was Obama a greater domestic, or foreign policy disaster?”

Category: Barack Obama, Power Line

RSS Subscription Note

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

In an effort to defray some of the hosting cost, I finally go around to an AdSense account, and put ads into the RSS feed. This seems to have blown away the 250 or so die hard readers of this blog.
Should have expected such. At any rate, sign up for our RSS feed now, and win a link to a free blog post! And another! And another one! Then, click an advertisement and wallow in the unfettered capitalism of it all!

Update: Lo an behold, the 250-ish subscribers are back! #HappyDance

Category: How This Here Internet Thingy Works

HERMAN CAIN ANNOUNCEMENT
UPDATE: SUSPENDING CAMPAIGN
UPDATE: Therapeutic Vengeance

Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 75 Comments

2:10 p.m. ET: My 12-year-old son Jefferson asked, ‘What does ‘suspending’ mean?” It means “quit.” Cain will still be on the ballot in several states. He could, if he chose, resume the campaign at some future point, but in general, “suspend = quit.”

The good news? J.D. Gordon is now unemployed.

More good news? My “sources close to the campaign” can now speak on the record about who was responsible for screwing up.

And finally, for those of my friends worried about my future diplomatic career, it’s still morning in Vanuatu. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE 3 p.m. ET: Major media headlines via Memeorandum:

Herman Cain suspends his campaign
for 2012 GOP presidential nomination
— Washington Post

‘Plan B’: Herman Cain Says He’s
Suspending Campaign
— ABC News

Herman Cain Suspends His Presidential Campaign
— NY Times

Cain suspends campaign, vows
to work from outside the race
— The Hill

Churches seek wider consultation
as Vanuatu ratifies WTO
— Radio New Zealand International

Iowa law enforcement officials could not immediately confirm rumors that several of the remaining 2012 GOP presidential candidates have sought restraining order to prevent J.D. Gordon from coming anywhere near their campaigns.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m. ET: Linked by Bob Belvedere, Fausta Wertz and Nice Deb — thanks! And to all my friends wishing to console me in this moment of profound sorrow: Hit the freaking tip jar!

UPDATE 3:45 p.m. ET: Linked by Donald Douglas at American Power and by Conservative Hideout 2.0.

NOTE ON THERAPEUTIC VENGEANCE

UPDATE 6:30 p.m. ET: The disappointment of our hopes requires psychological healing, and my healing process has involved focusing my rage on J.D. Gordon. This is my fault and not J.D.’s. He showed himself a Christian gentleman by calling me on the phone just now to address my anger head-on.

More will need to be said, to explain all the misunderstandings, but it seems that I have unfairly blamed J.D. for things that were not his fault. Putting Robert Costa on Tuesday’s conference call and leaving me out? That was somebody else, and J.D. didn’t even know that media (including a Fox News reporter) were on the call until it was over.

As to the general errors of the messaging/P.R./communications operation under Gordon’s tenure . . .

Well, “extenuating circumstances” would be one way to say it, although those less charitably disposed toward Gordon might say “excuses.” Gordon spent 93 days in a crucible of nonstop crisis and, in retrospect, he never had time to fix everything that needed to be fixed, including many things that were not his fault — and being hated by some people merely because he wasn’t Ellen Carmichael.

Those of us in the press corps who admired Ellen Carmichael’s work — when she worked for a candidate best known as “Herman Who?” — are necessarily prejudiced in her favor. As my disappointment turned to rage this week, and I sought a scapegoat on whom to focus all my pent-up frustration with the failures of the Cain campaign . . .

Well, J.D. drew the short straw. And it was unfair to blame him, uniquely and personally, for destroying the Cain campaign.

But if life was fair, Obama wouldn’t be president and I would have been invited to speak on a panel at BlogCon.

I’ll try to explain more about my feelings, and what happened to the Cain campaign, when I’ve gotten some sleep. And switched to decaf.

So I’m sorry to disappoint those who were looking forward to a bloody death-match beween J.D. and me. But I hope you enjoyed a laugh at my ballistic fury.




** PREVIOUSLY **

1:45 p.m. ET: “I am not going to be silenced and I am not going away! . . . Plan B: I call it ‘TheCainSolutions.com.'”

1:42 p.m. ET: Cain says he is suspending his campaign.

1:41 p.m. ET: “I am at peace with my God. I am at peace with my wife. And she is at peace with me.” Chants of “Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!”

1:40 p.m. ET: “False and unproven accusations . . . It hurts the American people.” Chants of “Herman! Herman! Herman!”

1:39 p.m. ET: “I am the very first to own up to my mistakes . . . I handle it my way.”

1:38 p.m. ET: “I am proof that a common man can lead this country.”

1:36 p.m. ET: “We can say, I’m in the Final Four.”

1:34 p.m. ET: Cain jokes that his name recognition is now “probably 99.9 percent.”

1:32 p.m. ET: Cain’s verb tenses indicate he will quit?

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air doesn’t link me.

1:30 p.m. ET: Cain says his supporters are not “warm weather supporters.”

1:29 p.m. ET: Herman Cain takes the stage. “Well, you all are great. . . . I love y’all, too.”

** PREVIOUSLY **

We are awaiting Herman Cain’s appearance at an event where he is expected to announce whether or not he will continue his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

UPDATE: I’ve been told that Cain’s speech is actually likely to begin at 1:30 p.m., instead of the announced 1 p.m. time. The cable TV networks are full of speculation of what Cain will do if he quits. My sources say: “Full speed ahead.”

UPDATE II: Invocation prayer by Alveda King. The pledge of allegiance by Col. Michael Steele.


RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain
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