The Other McCain

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

Friday Night Free Association

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

I’m reading too many blogs, but they’re all so good. It’s time for a Rule 1 grab bag, to note and quote some of our great net-friends.

Hot Air: “Internal White House debate: Is it time to start attacking Palin?”
Sure, go ahead. Nothing says cool, collected, and arriving with a head full of plans to address the country’s challenges quite like beating up on a woman. Has she not flogged the Administration sufficiently with her FaceBook page already? I bet this strategy can take the approval rating South of -25. Is the Administration this stupid? Sadly the track record argues ‘Why yes; yes, it is.”

Da Tech Guy: “Can someone tell me why such as story is even necessary?”
Let’s point out something in common between Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Christine O’Donnell: these ladies take a lot of flack.
Is there an immunizing effect, and wisdom in pursuing it? While I wouldn’t accuse Krauthammer and Rove of being Kernighan and Ritchie, one wonders if the past couple of days of napalm shower have not been intended to blow through the worst possible criticism, to inoculate O’Donnell against the October Surprise.
Political “tough love”, if you will.
Then again, the Pundit Priesthood is readying the “I told you so” card. Why admit that decades of being asleep at the switch by the Brooks, Will, and Krauthammer crowd have contributed to cratering the economy? Better still to let the Tea Parties put candidates in office and then blame the Tea Parties when the real depth of the crisis is laid bare (h/t Insty). Do I sound cynical?

Just a Conservative Girl quotes Fred Thompson:

During an interview on CNBC, Nancy Pelosi said “if I were not in politics, I’d probably be in business”.Well, if Pelosi weren’t in politics, a LOT of people would still be in business.

Right Klik announces B.J. Lawson in NC-4 as this week’s Ten Buck Fridays winner, complete with Senator Tom Coburn endorsement.

Right Network is live, and I hope to be able to check it out on Verizon Real Soon Now. Go, Little Miss Attila.

Category: Uncategorized

Democrat Congresswoman’s Staff Uses Nazi Campaign Smear in Illinois

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 19 Comments

Democratic campaign operatives working for Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Illinois, 11th District) staged a protest against the free-market group Americans for Prosperity, carrying signs that depicted Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Halvorson’s Republican opponent with Hitler mustaches.

Larry O’Connor at Big Government has video and photos:

More from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit and Dan Riehl. Two of those involved in the Nazi-sign incident have been identified: Anna Markowski, a Missouri-based staffer for Obama’s “Organizing For America” group who is evidently now working for Halvorson’s campaign; and Halvorson’s campaign manager Julie Merz, who formerly worked on Nancy Pelosi’s House leadership staff.

Halvorson’s Republican opponent is a 32-year-old Air Force captain named Adam Kinzinger who is demanding answers:

When I decided to run for office, I understood the nastiness of politics but never envisioned this kind of attack. Congresswoman Halvorson’s campaign has denied involvement, but video of protesters retiring to her office following the demonstration indicates otherwise. . . . I respectfully ask that she use the evidence at hand to launch an investigation into the activities of her campaign and its participation in the Joliet protest, and take appropriate action.

The following are questions that Congresswoman Halvorson and her campaign need to answer truthfully:

  • Was the protest organized or sanctioned by Halvorson, the Illinois Democratic Party or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee?
  • Who are the individuals leading the protest and later seen with Team Halvorson?
  • Are the individuals leading the protest staffers or volunteers for Debbie Halvorson? If not, why are they seen entering the Halvorson office after their protest and laughing with Campaign Manager Julie Merz?

The Illinois 11th District is one of those previously Republican districts that flipped to Democrats in the 2008 Obama wave, but polls indicate it’s flipping back to the GOP with a vengeance now. Halvorson is a first-termer who is well on her way to being a one-termer, and this Nazi stuff is just the kind of desperation tactics we can expect from other endangered Democrats this fall.

We need to fight back hard. Go to Kinzinger’s site and give him money now.

ADAM KINZINGER for U.S. CONGRESS

UPDATE: Dan Riehl suggests that Brian Wolff, former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director, may also be implicated in Halvorson’s Nazi scandal.

Guess what Wolff’s role is with the Halvorson campaign? “Messaging.” Yeah, it takes a certified strategic communications genius to draw a Hitler mustache on Sarah Palin.

UPDATE II: Gee, this is interesting: It appears that not a single major news organization in Illinois — not the TV stations, nor the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times — has done any actual reporting on this story.

Maybe there aren’t any reporters in Illinois who know how to cover a big story like this. And I notice Newt Gingrich is going to Illinois next week to hold a fundraising dinner for a Kinzinger, so that would be a big story, too.

Hmmmmm.

Category: Congress, Election, Illinois

‘Well, How Things Have Changed’

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 27 Comments

Her speech today at the Values Voters Summit:

“I want to start by asking you to think back for a moment to about a year and a half ago . . . Remember the despondency, the anxiety, even a palpable fear for the future of our country. . . . Do you remember it? I know I do. And the conservative movement was told to curl up in a fetal position and just stay there for the next eight years, thank you very much. Well, how things have changed.”
— Christine O’Donnell, Sept. 17, 2010

UPDATE: Thanks to Da Tech Guy for calling our attention to Byron York’s latest column:

Imagine for a moment that Republicans were not consumed with the various faults of the party’s newly chosen Delaware Senate candidate, Christine O’Donnell. What would GOP operatives, both in Delaware and in Washington, be doing right now? They’d be attacking the record of O’Donnell’s Democratic opponent, Chris Coons. As it turns out, there’s plenty to attack, if Republicans ever get around to it.
Coons inherited a surplus. Celebrating victory on election night in 2004, he said his “top priority would be to continue balancing the budget without increasing property taxes,” according to an account in the local News Journal. Yet in 2006, he pushed through a 5 percent increase in property taxes. In 2007, he raised property taxes 17.5 percent. In 2009, he raised them another 25 percent.
Coons wanted to raise other taxes, too. He proposed a hotel tax, a tax on paramedic services, even a tax on people who call 911 from cell phones.

So here’s Coons, who never met a tax he wouldn’t raise, and all the genius intellectuals in the Beltway GOP establishment are running around saying that this Democrat can’t possibly lose.

Why? Because Christine O’Donnell doesn’t approve of masturbation?

Hey, I’ve got an idea: How about asking voters in Delaware to compare the two candidates?

No contest. And besides, she’s right: You really do masturbate too much. Cut it out, you sick freaks.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Delaware, Election, Senate, Video

Townhall VP Garthwaite: Alan Moore’s Statements Slagging Christine O’Donnell ‘Unfortunate and Unauthorized’

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 24 Comments

After former Christine O’Donnell campaign staffer Alan Moore disparaged his ex-boss in an article at Politico, I called attention to the fact that Moore is employed by Salem Communications, which owns the conservative Web sites Townhall.com and HotAir.com. Soon after, I received an e-mail from Townhall’s Jonathan Garthwaite, which he has granted permission to publish:

If you want to chat, we can discuss the unfortunate and unauthorized quote by Alan Moore who manages software development and search engine marketing for me at Townhall/HotAir.
Alan is a good guy but he is not part of the editorial team at Townhall/HotAir, is not a spokesman for townhall and his quotes do not in any way resemble the feelings of the rest of the team at Townhall or HotAir.
As you might have seen, Ed Morrissey, Guy Benson, Katie Pavlich among others have been O’Donnell boosters for sometime.
I believe Alan’s issues with her stem from past dealings as a 2008 campaign staffer/volunteer and aren’t relevant to Townhall or HotAir’s support of her candidacy today.
An O’Donnell win in the primary was the best thing for conservative principles and her victory in November would be a win for the American people.

Jonathan Garthwaite
VP & General Manager, Townhall/HotAir

Thanks for the clarification, Jonathan.

UPDATE: Perhaps it would be helpful to explain why I feel so strongly about disgruntled former employees who disparage their erstwhile employers. Read more

Category: Delaware

Dear God, Please, No!

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 51 Comments

Lisa Murkowski is as consumed with pathological narcissism as her worst enemies said? She’s listening to demented Palin-haters like Andrew Halcro and John Bitney?

Ace is mocking the rumor/not-a-rumor, but trying to run as a write-in when your name is “Murkowski” is an epic case of mind-boggling stupid:

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has decided to run as a write-in candidate in the November election, according to an e-mail from a campaign supporter. And a Murkowski cousin, Mary Gore, wrote on her Facebook page today that Murkowski will announce her continued candidacy in Anchorage this afternoon.

On the bright side? This ought to silence all Republican criticism of Christine O’Donnell’s campaign. Hell’s bells, Charlie Crist has a better chance of winning in Florida than Lisa Murkowski has in Alaska — and Charlie’s got no chance at all.

UPDATE: Dan Fagan of the Alaska Standard:

Just as Frank and Lisa Murkowski put their own interests ahead of the nation’s eight years ago with nepotism, Lisa will once again put political ambition ahead of love for country.
Your television screen will reveal to you something very important today. . . .
Take a close look at those standing behind Murkowski. You will be looking into the eyes of establishment Republicans desperately trying to hold onto our country’s big government, special interest ways. The Murkowski live news conference will reveal to us those in the party who probably never were conservatives.

“Probably”? There are a lot of opportunists in the GOP, “Professional Republicans” whose partisanship is a function of career interest. Perhaps they’ve been in the game so long they can no longer distinguish between political principle and personal ambition, but they certainly never let the former get in the way of the latter.

Bright side? They’re falling like dominoes now: Arlen Specter, Dede Scozzafava, Charlie Crist, Bob Bennett, Bob Inglis, Mike Castle . . . and now, as Doug Brady points out, Alaska Sen. Veruca Salt:

JOE MILLER for U.S. SENATE

Category: Alaska, Election, Joe Miller, Republicans, Sarah Palin

I’d Like to Dedicate This Song . . .

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 28 Comments

. . . to Kristin Murray, Alan Moore and David Keegan:

What can I do
To get on the right track?
Wish they’d take some of these
Knives out of my back.

Let me say a few word about The Backstabbers — not just those faithless former servants who are now disparaging Christine O’Donnell, but the entire category of Republican campaign aides, consultants and operatives who specialize in tearing down their former employers (and each other).

When you apply for a job, you have made a decision to serve. If the terms of your service become onerous, if you dislike your employer or your colleagues or your position within the organization, then certainly you should seek employment elsewhere. Yet your dissatisfaction does not justify public disparagment of your former employer.

No harm, no foul: You got a job, it didn’t work out, you quit. It happens every day in the real world, and people go on with their lives without thinking much about it.

For some reason, however, that’s not how it works in Republican politics. I’ve lost count of how many internecine feuds I’ve seen among staffers, consultants and other political operatives during this long campaign season. The jealousy and self-serving vindictiveness of those who constantly gossip and scheme, who can scarcely wait to be out of earshot of their colleagues before they start running them down — this horrifies me.

In a word, such behavior is dishonorable.

If you’ve got a problem with your boss or your colleague, the right thing to do is to discuss the problem directly with them. Don’t go telling tales behind the backs of people who have no reason to suspect your malicious intent. Don’t sit around stewing about how you’re going to get even with someone who may not even be aware of your discontent.

Look, if I’ve got a problem with somebody, I don’t hide it. Ask Tucker Carlson. From the get-go, it was my belief that Tucker’s plans for The Daily Caller bore a dangerous resemblance to the memorable disaster known as Culture 11. So I spoke out publicly, laying out the sources of my own resentment and doubts, declaring: “It had better not suck.”

You know something? After a few weeks of my steady hammering, I got an e-mail from Tucker asking for my phone number. He called me and we talked, and when it eventually became evident that he was going to get the thing going, I took a vow to stop slagging the Daily Caller. All in all, it’s sucked far less than I originally expected, and their young political correspondent Alex Pappas probably deserves a raise.

That’s how you deal with a problem like that. Contrast that to the way Christine O’Donnell’s former campaign aides have conducted themselves: Lying in wait for two years and then dishing dirt to reporters, trying to build themselves up by tearing her down.

Dishonorable.

So far as I know, I’ve never met Kristin Murray, Alan Moore or David Keegan, and cannot be accused of harboring any personal grievance against them. But their names are now on a list, and it ain’t a good list.

UPDATE: Let’s quote that Politico story:

Alan Moore, who worked on press releases and policy statements for two months during the 2008 bid and now helps run the conservative site Townhall.com, said his conversations with the candidate led him to believe “her priorities were completely out of whack.”

Now a few questions:

  • Why is an employee of a news organization like Townhall giving this exclusive news to Politico?
  • Did Moore’s superiors at Townhall give him approval to disparage Christine O’Donnell in another publication?
  • Townhall is owned by Salem Communications, which also owns Hot Air. Were the employees of Hot Air informed that an employee of their parent company would be taking this action, which might tend to damage Hot Air’s reputation among conservative readers?

During my tenure at The Washington Times, I was occasionally called on the carpet for unauthorized actions outside my work duties. It was made clear to me that, as the centurion told Jesus, I was “a man under authority.” I fully expect that whoever is in charge at Townhall and Salem Communications will make that same point clear to Alan Moore, and that his employers will issue a statement making clear whether Townhall and Salem authorized Moore”s actions.

UPDATE II: Townhall VP Garthwaite: Alan Moore’s Statements Slagging Christine O’Donnell ‘Unfortunate and Unauthorized’

Category: Delaware, Republicans

Global Climate Disruption

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 16 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Nice Deb)

Goofballs Can’t Decide:
Gratuitous Consumer Destruction, or
Gaea’s Chicken Dinner.

Category: Global Warming, humor

He Was a Fratboy . . .

Posted on | September 17, 2010 | 45 Comments

. . . and I still remember his name, but that’s not the point. See, it was first day of class in summer semester during my sophomore year in college, and I’d noticed this cute new blonde freshman out in the smoking area before our political science class. Read more

Category: Alabama
« 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