I saw a bizarre thing yesterday: CNN pundits … at least one reputable reporter … going 3 against 1, trying to convince that John McCain was an environmentalist, a major greeny, almost liberal in his outlook … and a guy who will appeal to the newly-green evangelical movement. Paul Begala minced no words, bless him — I don’t remember his exact comment but he indicated Mac was a fraud; straight up. He cited the NRDC rating for conservation votes, giving John 20-some percent, as opposed to Obama’s 80-some. It seems that because McCain is not a Pub-clone, one of those never-go-off-message Stepford’s that Bush has depended on to march in lock-step … he’s finagled his way into the media’s hearts and minds as a liberal hero, a magnet for Indy’s and conservative Greens.
When we finally get around to campaigning against McRib, we better make short work of illustrating the HUGE differences between the positions being offered this country. The press loves ‘em some barbecue.
Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma had a comment on the Pub losses that is FINALLY something of a reality check:
“When you lose three of these in a row you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a hard look and ask if there is something wrong with your product.”
Well, hell. Ya THINK SO? When I think of all the national angst, sweat and tears of progressives everywhere to send that message loud and clear … or just yours and mine … I marvel at all the time lost, the opportunity squandered, the victimization and brutishness that the nation has endured, the loss of liberty and treasure, the assault on the Constitution — the disrespect to the world and the muddying of our reputation.
Something wrong with the product??? Lord save us, these folks are dense.
The United Steelworkers Union came out for Obama today. I’m very pleased, of course, at Edwards stepping up to get his back — this is being analyzed to death, but I’d think the “hard-working white” dialogues got to him, especially after the numbers tell us only a lightning bolt from the Thunder Gods will change the result of the nomination. Edwards was meticulous about playing above the negative spin — slander not only annoyed him, he thought it a waste of valuable time. There’s buzz he is interested in the AG position, and … wow! … wouldn’t that be something? A Republican nightmare!
And that’s our subject, today — with their hastily acquired new slogan, “The Change You Deserve,” also the trademark slogan of a popular anti-depressant … perhaps that will be a good reminder for them of what they need now, given their gloom. Deserved gloom, I’d add — they’re lucky they aren’t in orange jumpsuits … and probably worried that, out of power, they’ll end up in one. Be still, my heart.
So, let’s look at the Pubs and their ‘maverick’ champion, Johnny McRib … who has a hair-trigger temper and who has been diagnosed with an “overdeveloped superego.” Yeah — he would make a terrific Bush44. [Roy Blunt … my own Boss Hog … said as much, below, still plumped up with pride in his Decider; but then density is his forte … and my state is caught in a stilted National ID storm, typical of the Hog’s influence.]
These reads give us a peek at important Johnny-topics — health, Supreme’s, plans, taxes, bias and record. Mac has been given no hurdles to jump in the last weeks — he’s just droned on, ignored by the Left and observed by the reluctant Right … who have begun to panic. But don’t worry, kids — he’s not really George Bush … why, today Johnny even said he might have most of the troops home by 2013.
Jude
America Network Decides
Mark Fiore ‘toon
McCain Iraq 2008
Mark Fiore ‘toon
Agitated? Irritable? Hostile? Aggressive? Impulsive? Restless?
Dana Milbank, WaPo
Thursday, May 15, 2008
House Republicans may be heading off a cliff in November, but give them credit for perseverance. Even after the new slogan they floated — “The Change You Deserve” — was discovered to be trademarked ad copy for the antidepressant drug Effexor, GOP leaders decided to go with the rollout anyway.
“The Republican agenda, ‘The Change You Deserve,’ is directed at America’s families,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.) announced at a televised news conference with House Republican leaders yesterday morning. “And you may be a little surprised at this agenda.”
Why, yes, we are. And Democrats are manic over the medicinal mantra.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) called reporters into his office. “Democrats, not drugs, is what the American people need,” he said. He flashed the Effexor side effects on a large flat-screen television. “Nausea, up to 58 percent,” Hoyer said. “Actually it’s higher than that for Republicans.”
“Are depression symptoms keeping you from where you want to be?” Effexor’s maker, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, asks in its promotions. “Not feeling as good as you used to?”
For House Republicans, the diagnosis is obvious: They are suffering from Election Anxiety Disorder. Tuesday night, they lost the third special election in a row to Democrats in heavily Republican congressional districts. Eighty-two percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, and they’re largely holding President Bush and his party responsible. This week, panicked House Republicans defied Bush and voted with Democrats to pass a farm bill and to divert oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Leaving the weekly House Republican breakfast meeting yesterday in the basement of the Capitol, the congressmen wore grim faces. “How’s it going in there?” a reporter asked.
“Hard to tell,” said Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), brushing past.
“I’m running late,” said Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio).
Among the few to emerge smiling was Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia; he’s retiring from Congress and just presented his colleagues with a memo about the many Republican ailments. Reporters asked Davis to diagnose his party.
“Well, this is the floor,” Davis said, stomping on the concrete beneath him. “And we’re underneath the floor.” Without strong medicine, he said, Republicans will lose 25 seats in November. “We’re the airplane flying into the mountain.”
Davis disappeared, and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the man in charge of the House Republicans’ campaign effort, appeared. He looked to be a candidate for mood elevation as he described the meeting he just left. “People are concerned, and legitimately so,” he said. “Clearly we’ve got problems that are deep and serious in terms of how we’re going to do in the fall elections.”
John Boehner, the House minority leader, had a similar case of Election Anxiety Disorder when he arrived a few minutes later in the House television studio. “Well, it was another wake-up call,” he said of Tuesday’s loss in Mississippi, using the same words he used after last week’s loss in Louisiana. His eyes watery, Boehner allowed that “we’ve got to do a better job.”
“Last question,” a staffer called out. The news conference, including opening statements by four officials, was just nine minutes old.
Will “The Change You Deserve” give Republicans the relief they need? Democrats thought it to be a prescription for ridicule. “John Boehner,” Hoyer said at his news briefing, flashing the Effexor brand on the screen, “says he has a new mantra . . . ‘Change You Deserve.’ Interesting where he got that.”
And Hoyer didn’t even mention the warning label, which states that patients should be watched to see if they are “becoming agitated, irritable, hostile, aggressive, impulsive, or restless.”
Hostile? Aggressive? Boehner aide Michael Steel dashed off an e-mail to reporters.
“I heard that Rep. Hoyer showed an image from a pharmaceutical advertisement at his pen and pad, highlighting the GOP’s new ‘Change You Deserve’ message,” he wrote. This, he said, is “foolishness,” a “silly stunt” and “campaign-style hijinks.”
Agitated? Irritable? Adam Putnam (Fla.), the Republican Conference chairman, and Eric Cantor (Va.), the chief deputy whip, held their weekly briefing. They were not themselves. “It’s Monday, isn’t it?” Putnam asked wearily.
“Members are not in a great mood, nor am I,” Cantor added. The assembled reporters pummeled the pair with sharp questions — “So, what are the changes? … How do you possibly address those problems? … How is this different from what you said before you lost Mississippi?” — until it was time for the rollout, on the Capitol steps, of the “Change You Deserve” agenda.
“The Change You Deserve,” announced a sign on the lectern. “The Change You Deserve,” confirmed a poster displayed nearby. Aides distributed a 20-page booklet with “CHANGE YOU DESERVE” printed in red capital letters on the front. Boehner vowed to give Americans “the kind of change they deserve.”
But Election Anxiety Disorder is a serious ailment, and only about two dozen Republican members had the courage to show up for the rollout. Fortunately for the rest of the GOP caucus, the change they deserve is within reach: The recommended starting dosage of Effexor is 75 milligrams a day. ++
Republicans Who Just Don’t Get It
Cenk Uygur, YoungTurks via SmirkingChimp
May 14, 2008
The Republicans lost another crucial election last night. It was their third special election loss in a row. All three were deeply Republican districts in the past. This one was in the heart of Mississippi and was in a district that George Bush won with 62% of the vote in 2004.
The Republicans are in deep, deep trouble. If they lose in these districts (the other two were a Louisiana seat they had kept for three decades and Dennis Hastert’s former seat in Illinois), they can literally lose anywhere. The whole electoral map can be redrawn.
So, what’s their new plan? Go further to the right! No, you schmucks, that’s what got you in trouble in the first place. The problem is the Republican Party has become so extreme there are no moderates left to tell them they should head in the opposite direction.
Usually when a political party is beaten this bad (as they were in 2006 and the elections since then), they correct course by going toward the other side of the political spectrum. They head to the center to pick up lost ground. The Republicans, on the other hand, have been like drunken gamblers who are sure that their next double down bet is going to make it all up. If we just double down one more time…
Well, they did double their bets on these special elections. They spent $1.3 million in Mississippi of the precious $7.2 million the NRCC had left. They brought in Dick Cheney to campaign for their candidate (talk about heading in the wrong direction). And they lost again.
They have got to realize that they are not unpopular because they haven’t been true enough to their principles, it’s because they have. Their principles are merciless and lack all compassion. And it turns out that the American people look for some degree of compassion and competence out of their leaders. So, the Republicans are in a bind.
They wanted to drown government in a bathtub. They did and wound up drowning their own party instead. It turns out the American people want a government.
They think it serves a purpose.
The problem isn’t that conservative principles are never right. Of course it makes sense to lower taxes when the highest marginal tax rate is at 70%, as it was in 1980 when Reagan came into office. But equally obvious is that at some point taxes can be too low for the government to function effectively. And when you have a gigantic national deficit, a government that can’t respond to national emergencies like Hurricane Katrina and a disastrous war you can’t pay for — that might be the point where taxes are simply too low to pay for the government the American people want and expect.
There might be a time for war, but it’s not the answer at all times for any reason at all. We might have to get tough on immigration policies, but we don’t have to crush people’s souls to do it. There might be a time to get tougher on crime, but the answer isn’t always vengeance. The Republicans have lost sight of all moderation.
If the Republicans keep heading due right, they will burn their party to the ground. And someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Charlie Crist will have to rebuild from the ground up as a more moderate, reasonable party. But it will take decades.
Remember George Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative” in 2000 and won with lots of smokes and mirrors by convincing people that he was a kindhearted Republican. I think history will look back at 2004 as the aberration. It will be the outlier in history.
In 2000, it was hard to know what Bush was exactly up to and he lied about his intentions (remember his “no nation building” and “humble foreign policy” pledges). But in 2004, we should have known what we were getting into. That election will be known as the Great Mistake.
But right now, as we speak, the American people are looking to correct that mistake. And when the Republicans run their tired, old campaigns based on pessimism, attack ads, fear-mongering and dark outlook, they will get crushed. Bank on it. There is a tidal wave coming in 2008. And apparently, the Republicans have no idea what is about to hit them. ++
(more…)
May 15th, 2008
That Was The Week That Was … sad business, cyclone and all — Cyclone Daffodil, no less. If giving it such a name was designed to appease the Wind Gods … it didn’t work. The snip of info on how the junta is handling this will piss you off. But then, we lived through Katrina — we’re already pissed off.
John Edwards took 7% of the vote last night in W. Virginia; there’s speculation that he will throw his chip to Obama tonight, whose camp has announced a major endorsement. Meanwhile, Hillary took ownership of the state by 67% [and there was evidently some shenanigans going on at the polls … well, duh!]
Still, Obama got three more Super D’s today along with a nod from NARAL Pro-Choice; Hillary’s camp, evidently blindsided on that one, commented with surprise. He now needs only 17 more pledged delegates to have the majority … which won’t stop Hil as she picks up Kentucky and waits to see if he will implode, arguing that the white people are in her pocket [cynical at least, hubristic at best … the Blue does not carry West Virginia, and 7% going to a guy out of the race since February means they’re not so hot on women either.] I don’t begrudge her the rest of the states, at this point — her moment to be selfless came and went — this has been an egocentric campaign for awhile now. Those who passionately want her deserve to cast their vote.
The truly stunning event of last evening was ANOTHER long-held GOP seat going to a Dem, this one in Mississippi … this was the third to cut into their sacred power-holdings and the second race marred by Pub ads including the Rev. Wright sound-bite [soundly ignored by voters.]
The Dubby’s done ‘em in, kids — big time. The Pub’s are beside themselves with angst, now — couldn’t happen to a nicer group of toadies. I’ve added a couple of articles below Harpers; this is worth a big grin of satisfaction. A BIG one!
Jude
HARPER’S WEEKLY REVIEW
May 13, 2008
The military junta in Myanmar put the official death toll
from last week’s Cyclone Nargis (Urdu for “daffodil”) at
28,458, while foreign observers, taking into account that
heavy rains were expected to continue, with malaria,
tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery to follow,
expected that as many as 100,000 people would die. Before
distributing foreign-aid packages, the junta re-labeled
them with the names of its generals; a referendum on a new
constitution that will perpetuate the junta’s rule was not
delayed. “Let’s go cast a vote,” sang two female pop
vocalists on state-run television. “With sincere thoughts
for happy days, let’s go cast a vote.” John Goodyear, whom
Senator John McCain had chosen to manage this year’s
Republican convention and who once managed public
relations for the Myanmar junta, stepped down, and one in
four Republicans voted against McCain in primaries in
North Carolina and Indiana. Senator Barack Obama crushed
Senator Hillary Clinton in the North Carolina Democratic
primary, lost by a small margin in Indiana, and then took
the lead in pledged superdelegates. Clinton pointed out
that she still enjoys support from hard workers and white
people. “A woman is like a teabag,” she said, quoting
Eleanor Roosevelt. “You never know how strong she is until
she’s in hot water.” One hundred seventy-eight House
Republicans voted against a resolution “celebrating the
role of mothers in the United States,” and Yup’ik-speaking
voters in Alaska demanded better bilingual election
materials, citing a 2002 ballot in which “natural gas” had
been rendered as “this gas in the stomach.”
U.S. military reports on the interrogation of four
captured Shia militia members concluded that Hezbollah was
training small groups of Iraqi insurgents in Iran. John
Bolton, ex-ambassador to the United Nations, said that
attacking Iran was “really the most prudent thing to do”;
the Iraqi government said that it would conduct its own
inquiry. “We do not want to start a conflict with Iran,”
said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. “We need
our own government documentation of this interference, not
from the Americans, not from the media.” The U.S.-backed
government of Lebanon tried to dismantle Hezbollah’s
extensive telecommunications network there, and Hezbollah
temporarily seized half of Beirut. “The hand that touches
the weapons of the resistance,” said Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah, “will be cut off.” One Wing, a bald
eagle that lost its other wing in the 1989 Exxon Valdez
oil spill, died of a heart tumor, shortly after the death
of its mate, The Old Witch; three northern elephant seals
were found shot in the head, lying in pools of blood, in
San Simeon, California, near the Hearst castle. Oil
exceeded $125 a barrel. Refined french-fry grease was 32
cents per pound, up 20 cents from 2006.
The FBI raided the headquarters of the Office of Special
Counsel, a federal watchdog agency charged with protecting
government whistleblowers, and the home of its director,
Scott J. Bloch, after Bloch was accused of destroying
evidence on government computers. David S. Addington, Vice
President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, was subpoenaed by
the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, and the Humane Society
of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, increased to $1,500 its
reward for information about the torture and murder of a
ten-year-old blind pony named Kahlua. DNA tests revealed
that a skull long thought to be that of German playwright
Friedrich Schiller was not his. “Such an exact double,”
said anthropologist Ursula Wittwer-Backofen, “couldn’t
have got into the coffin just by accident.” Three
home-schooled teenagers in Texas were accused of digging
up the corpse of an 11-year-old boy and smoking pot out of
the skull. “He regurgitated in his plate of food when I
asked him about it,” a policeman said of one of the
boys. “So I knew there was some truth to the story.”
Mildred Loving, a black woman whose 1958 marriage to a
white man led the Supreme Court to declare bans on
interracial marriage unconstitutional, died at age 68, and
two women in Denver, Colorado, were found guilty of
trespassing after they refused to leave the office of a
county clerk who denied them a marriage license. “They
held hands as long as they could,” said Rev. Michael
Morran, who was there to conduct the ceremony, “until the
officers put their hands in handcuffs and led them away.”
Pop country singer Eddy Arnold, known for such hits as
“Make the World Go Away,” died just days before his
ninetieth birthday. “He died,” said Grand Ole Opry star
Jim Ed Brown, “of a broken heart.”
– Sam Stark
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/WeeklyReview2008-05-13
Childers victory gives Dems a third straight takeover
Aaron Blake, TheHill
05/13/08
Democrat Travis Childers won Tuesday’s Mississippi special election runoff for Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R) former House seat, handing Democrats the biggest of their three special election takeovers this cycle and sending a listless GOP further into a state of disarray.
Childers led GOP candidate Greg Davis 53-47 with more than 90 percent of precincts reporting. Turnout increased substantially over the 67,000 voters who cast ballots in the April 22 open special election, with more than 100,000 voting in the runoff.
Childers, who beat Davis 49-46 three weeks ago but came up just shy of a race-ending majority, joins new Democratic Reps. Bill Foster (Ill.) and Don Cazayoux (La.) to give Democrats a trifecta of upsets in conservative House districts over the last two months.
The loss could send shockwaves through the Republican Party, where murmurs about a leadership shakeup have become more and more audible.
Democrats are backing up the assertion that they remain on the offensive in the cycle following a 30-seat gain, which has historically not been the case after a “wave” election.
Wicker’s former district voted 62 percent for President Bush in 2004 and, by that measure, is one of the most conservative seats Democrats have taken from the GOP over the last 18 months, including the 2006 election.
“After three consecutive special election defeats in districts President Bush twice won easily, it is abundantly clear the American people have turned their back and shut the door on the special interest-driven agenda of the Republican Party,” said the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates because President Bush’s failed policies have hurt every community in America.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), issued a somber and self-reflective statement following the loss, saying Republicans were “disappointed” and that they need to prepare to run against Democrats campaigning as conservatives.
“Though the Democrats’ task will be more difficult in a November election, the fact is they have pulled off two special election victories with this strategy” in Louisiana and Mississippi “and it should be a concern to all Republicans,” Cole said.
Cole added that “the political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general. Therefore, Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward-looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for. This is something we can do in cooperation with our presidential nominee, but time is short.”
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the result should serve as a “wake-up call” to Republican candidates around the country.
Childers, the longtime Prentiss County Chancery Clerk, campaigned as a conservative Democrat and overcame GOP efforts to tie him to more liberal elements of the Democratic Party, including presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).
Republicans brought out the big guns toward the end of the race, including a visit from Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday in Davis’s home county of Desoto, where the GOP candidate serves as mayor of the Memphis suburb Southaven.
Despite Cheney’s visit, Childers actually made headway in Davis’s home county, more than doubling his vote from three weeks ago and partially thwarting a sizeable rise in turnout there. About 7,500 more voters cast ballots, according to unofficial results, with Childers drawing about 3,000 of them.
Childers drew about 2,000 of the 12,500 votes in Desoto in April.
Davis and Childers will square off again in November, as they have already been elected their parties’ general election nominees.
Republicans cried foul Tuesday after the DCCC circulated a flier stating Davis wanted a statue of Ku Klux Klan organizer Nathan Bedford Forrest moved to his home city.
Davis’s campaign disputed this and pointed to a 2005 Memphis Commercial Appeal article that states he was willing to accept a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, while another mayor would accept the Forrest statue. A later New York Times article stated Davis had welcomed the Forrest statue.
Both national party House committees plugged more than $1 million into the race, and spending by the candidates and outside groups like GOP-backing Freedom’s Watch pushed the race over $5 million total.
The NRCC’s investment was particularly painful given its stark cash disadvantage with less than six months to go until the November election.
The NRCC had just $7.2 million in the bank as of March 31. It spent $1.3 million in Mississippi.
The Democratic majority in the House has now expanded to 236-199. ++
The Bell Tolls For Thee, GOP
Houston Chronicle
5/14/2008
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the special Congressional election in Mississippi, the results are complete, Democrat Travis Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis by a 54% to 46% margin last night.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Republicans old tactics of screaming “liberal” and trying to tie Childers to Barack Obama didn’t work. In fact the association with Obama had just the opposite effect, it increased the turnout of black voters and assured Davis’ defeat. Back to the drawing board GOP.
As an example of Republican thinking, they brought in Dick Cheney and Trent Lott to make last-minute pitches for Davis. What was the result of those endorsements? Turnout in heavily Republican precincts was down. More brilliant strategy. For more details on spending and campaign tactics read this at Swing State (thanks eljefebob).
Tom Cole, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, couldn’t spin this one away, issuing this statement:
“We are disappointed in tonight’s election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short.”
But then proving the old axiom that stupid is as stupid does he added this:
“Republicans must be prepared to campaign against Democrat challengers who are running as conservatives, even as they try to join a liberal Democrat majority.”
Librul, librul, librul, don’t you guys get it by now, it doesn’t work any more, sheeesh. Then in what might be considered the understatement of the millennia, Cole said this:
“The political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general. Therefore, Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for.”
Pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Party in general? Gee Tom, do you think? What was your first clue? Maybe it was the poll that showed 80% of the country thinks we’re off the track.
But wait, there’s more from the Mensa members of the GOP. House Republicans have unveiled their new strategy for the fall campaign. From the New York Times:
“In a memo to be sent to Republican members today, the leadership hints at a new slogan building on the change message that has already been shown to have political resonance with a public unhappy with the nation’s direction.
It looks like Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, “the change you deserve.” The first element of the party agenda developed over the past few months by the leadership and select party members will focus on family issues.”
So, after months of ridiculing Barack Obama for his message of change as just a meaningless, feel-good line, the House Republicans in all their originality have come up with the theme of “the change you deserve.” Is it any wonder they face a Democratic landslide in November?
One more thing, apparently the GOP research people are brain-dead as well. The words “the change you deserve” is the marketing slogan for Effexor, an anti-depressant drug.
‘Nuff said. ++
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
May 14th, 2008
