Month: March 2011

Verbatim

Trish

Let me get this straight: the big “controversy” uncovered by James O’Keefe (the hidden camera doofus) is that someone called the tea party a bunch of racists? Who could imagine that anyone could reach that conclusion just by seeing a bunch of middle aged white men holding up signs comparing President Obama to a monkey. What’s next, will he uncover the shocking revelation that the NAACP is run by a bunch of black people? Or perhaps he can blind-side us all by discovering that the morons from Westboro Baptist Church hate gays. What incredible investigative journalism!

— William Smith, a Baltimore Sun reader, in a letter to the editor

Protesters Shout ‘Shame, Shame, Shame’ after GOP Rep. Sensennbrenner Abruptly Adjourns Town Hall Meeting

Jon Ponder

“This is what democracy looks like,” GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s constituents shouted as he scurried away after abruptly adjourning a town hall meeting in his Wisconsin district in order to stifle dissent.

Sensenbrenner shut down the meeting after the crowd reacted derisively to GOP State Sen. Leah Vukmir’s false claim that Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget” bill would not end collective bargaining for state employee unions.

This is not the first time Sensenbrenner has adjourned a meeting to shut off debate. In June 2005, when Sensenbrenner chaired the House Judiciary Committee, he gaveled a hearing on the PATRIOT ACT to a close because he did not like Democratic criticism of the bill.

Sensenbrenner is perhaps best known for serving on the House prosecution team during the Clinton impeachment.

Frum: ‘Anyone Can Dump a Sick Wife, Gingrich Dumped Two’

Jon Ponder

It’s not the infidelity. It’s the arrogance, hypocrisy, and – most horrifying to women voters – the cruelty. Anyone can dump one sick wife. Gingrich dumped two.

— David Frum

There are so many reasons why Gingrich is the lead balloon of presidential politics, but Frum really has this right that the infidelity thing is just something he cannot survive. Not because voters won’t tolerate infidelity — in many circumstances they will — but because the pattern with Gingrich shows a level of hypocrisy, cruelty and emotional immaturity that most people won’t accept in a president.

— Josh Marshall

Don’t Tell Floridians in Support of Public Workers That the Numbers Aren’t With Them

Trish

While the news media in Florida featured heavy coverage of tea party members at “Awake the State” budget protest rallies, YouTube video and eyewitness accounts tell a different story. Here is just one gathering in Jacksonville, where a mayoral primary was being held. Other events were staged around the city, and repeated throughout the state.

Florida Residents Unite to “Awake the State”

Trish

AwakeStateSign at an “Awake the State” rally in Orlando

When the Florida legislature opened its 2011 session, there were a lot more people than usual in Tallahassee. The tea party sent in folks from all over, not just Florida, to support Gov. Rick Scott’s proposals to give away billions in revenue breaks to corporate interests and make it up by slashing paychecks and benefits to public service workers like teachers, rescue personnel, and law enforcement officers. But across Florida, counter-protests by these public servants and their supporters carried the day.

Ocoee Elementary School media specialist Isabel Chipungu electrified the Orlando crowd, declaring that teachers are being demonized.

“I love my job, but I’m angry,” she screamed from atop a picnic table in Senator Beth Johnson Park in downtown Orlando. “Teachers in this state are once again being made the scapegoat for all of the budget problems our politicians created. And we are again asked to pay the price. We have not had a raise in five years.”

While tea party zealots cultivate an air of chronic aggrievement and persecution, their leaders think nothing of taking back promises – and legal contracts – to union employees.

“People seem to have forgotten that the middle class is made up of hard-working individuals — firefighters, police officers, teachers, the people who pick up your garbage,” said Ron Glass, an Orlando firefighter who is secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Firefighters-Orlando, Local 1365.

Boehner’s ‘Incompetent Daycare Supervision’

Jon Ponder

I also see Boehner’s performance to date as one of incompetent daycare supervision. Grandma Nancy had her charges lined up and ready for inspection by 7 a.m. each day, while Mr. Boehner gives every indication of a man at wit’s end. He stands at the door yelling for everyone to settle down, quiet down and listen up, but they’re too busy playing cops and robbers and cowboys and indians and wrecking the place and tying up Eric Cantor to hear him, or care.

— PM Carpenter

Verbatim

Buck Banks

Just the idea of whether the American electorate is ready for someone a bit unconventional, who is willing to tell it as she sees it, not be beholden to special interests or such obsessive partisanship as to let a political machine get in the way of doing what’s right for the voters.

— Sarah Palin, quoted by the BBC, on what she needed to think about before making a decision on a presidential bid. Oh, and there’s the scheduling deal, too — Palin has booked a speaking appearance in Denver on May 2, the same day as the first Republican presidential debate in California.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

If they care at all about their children or grandchildren, and sometimes I doubt that — I think, you know, grandchildren now don’t write a thank-you for the Christmas presents, they’re walking on their pants with the cap on backwards listening to the enema man and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg, and they don’t like them!

— Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), in an interview on Fox News, scolding the elderly for complaining about possible Social Security cuts and demonstrating his deep understanding of popular culture.