Month: February 2014

A Third Alternative: Just Answer the Freakin’ Question, Marco

Trish

If you want a taste of what passes for honesty and frankness from Republican leaders these days, here’s a quote from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio after he was asked at an educational forum if he ever smoked pot.

“If I tell you that I haven’t, you won’t believe me. And if I tell you that I did, then kids will look up to me and say, ‘Well, I can smoke marijuana because look how he made it. He did alright so I guess I can do it too.'”

So you see, Marco isn’t going to respond because he can’t control what people will do with his answer. If your idea of presidential material is cutesy mind games or outright stonewalling (a term originated to describe Republican Pres. Richard Nixon’s way of blocking information to the press), then Marco is your guy.

Newark Star Ledger Tries to Take Back 2013 Christie Endorsement

Buck Banks

Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

— The Newark Star Ledger, walking back its endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie (R) in last year’s gubernatorial election.

Biden Says LaGuardia Airport is a Third-World Facility

Buck Banks

If I blindfolded someone and took them at 2 o’clock in the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and said ‘where do you think you are?’ They would say, ‘this must be America. This is a modern airport.’ If I took them blindfolded and took them to LaGuardia airport in New York, he would like ‘I must be in some third world country.’ I’m not joking.

— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by CNN.

Liz Cheney Raised Less, Spent More Than She Told Reporters

Buck Banks

-$183,000

Amount of the deficit in ex-Wyoming Senate candidate Liz Cheney’s campaign account at the end of 2013, despite telling reporters that she raised $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Cheney raised just under $720,000 in the fourth quarter of 2013, but her campaign spent more than $900,000, FEC reports show. “The daughter of former President Dick Cheney dropped out of the race just days after the end of the fundraising period,” reports the National Journal.

GOP Prepares to Screw the Pooch on Immigration

Buck Banks

As political momentum in Washington, D.C. swings toward tackling immigration reform, the Republican Party once again is ready to squander a mighty electoral advantage heading into the 2014 midterms. The general failure of President Obama’s economic agenda, health-care reform, civil liberties record, and foreign policy is an electoral gift. Yet with a Senate majority in plain sight, the GOP faithful is crying that ‘Amnesty=Suicide’ and Republican leaders are calling for massively invasive new rules that will only increase the size, scope, and spending of the federal government. … And this is the party of small government? No wonder the country is so screwed.

— Nick Gillespie, in the Daily Beast.