Topic Header
I still think Bush is very lucky to have even this much support:
Bush’s own job approval ratings have hit a new low in the aftermath of the elections. Just 32 percent of Americans approve of Bush’s job performance compared with 58 percent who disapprove. Bush’s job rating stands at just 24 percent among political independents, who proved crucial to the Democrats’ victory on Nov. 7.
Boy, those independents are smart.
Who is responsible for the Republicans’ loss of Congress last week? Some say it was George W. Bush and his negative coattails. The president, of course, blames someone else: his very own turd blossom, Karl Rove.
But a strong case can be made that Rush Limbaugh lost the Senate all by himself:
[My] favorite Election Day moment occurred at the very end of the process, when newly elected Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill slyly thanked Limbaugh for his role in her victory…
In contrast to Limbaugh’s trademark, piercing proclamations, McCaskill made her remark while flashing a big, triumphant smile. But she clearly relished in twisting the knife.
Fair enough. Limbaugh went too far when he blasted actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, on the eve of the midterm elections.
One view is that all’s fair in politics, and Fox had put himself in the public arena by becoming a spokesman for the pro-stem cell research faction. But everyone deserves to be treated with respect and compassion. Whether Limbaugh was guilty of bad manners or bad politics, it didn’t matter. And even when he explained his remarks afterward, his comments had a hollow ring.
In hindsight, it would have been wise for Limbaugh to leave Fox alone, especially after Fox shook violently during television commercials. But Limbaugh couldn’t do that.
Instead, trying to make Fox look as bad as possible, Limbaugh said he suspected that Fox hadn’t taken his medication. He reckoned that Fox had exploited his illness as a slick way to boost the public’s appeal for federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The stem-cell issue had become a pivotal part of McCaskill’s campaign in Missouri (and the initiative ultimately passed).
Here is the irony. If Republican Jim Talent had defeated McCaskill, the Republicans would have held on to control of the U.S. Senate. Not only did Limbaugh hurt Talent, he ended up screwing the whole Republican Party.
The truth is, the Republicans only have themselves to blame. No one forced them to give the Worst President Ever carte blanche to run the government to ruin. They deserved what they got, and whatever else may be coming their way.
It’s official. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has been elected Speaker of the House for the 110th Congress.
UPDATE: I got a little ahead of myself. The entire House will vote to elect the speaker when the 110th Congress convenes in January. The candidates will be Pelosi and a Republican. Until then, she is technically the “speaker designate.”
In the race for House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) defeated Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Penn.) this morning 149 to 86.
Chad Castagana was arrested over the weekend for sending threatening letters to prominent liberals, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and television personalities David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, as well as Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone.
The alleged terrorist is 39 and lives with his parents in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. He was apparently a frequent contributor to the ultra-rightwing extremist website Free Republic, whose members are known as “Freepers.”
Castanaga was arrested by the Joint Federal Terrorism Task Force in part because he purchased a money order for $15 that he had made out to “Friends of Katherine Harris” at the same time he purchased stamps and envelopes with which he intended to send another round of fake anthrax mailings.
On MSNBC’s Countdown yesterday, host Keith Olbermann, in an interview with Radar Online’s John Cook, revealed that Castagana was a follower of rightwing militarist talking heads Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham:
OLBERMANN: [The] Ann Coulter-Laura Ingraham-Michelle Malkin connection is—how is that best described? Is that hero worship? Or crushes of some kind, or do we know what that is?
COOK: Well, I mean, if he is idolizing them, that sounds like hero worship to me … They sort of present a kind of rhetorical world view where they have their troops out there, and I think he thought of himself as one of their troops and wanted to live up to their standards. And I mean, I don’t think we can always hold these people responsible for the actions of the least hinged of their followers, but I think it is clear that he was an acolyte of the Coulters and the Malkins, and I think that they clearly enjoy having acolytes, and they clearly sort of issue calls to action — not necessarily to send threatening powder-filled envelopes to you in so many words, but they certainly exhort their followers to let themselves be known.
If convicted, Castagana could face 15 years in prison.
Our friend Alice at 10,000 Monkeys & a Camera missed the election because of a family tragedy. Our thoughts have been with her, and we’re glad to see she’s back and moving again.
Our thoughts have also been with Mike Ostroy at the Ostroy Report, whose wife, the actress Adrienne Shelley, was murdered in her home office in the West Village on Nov. 1. The Ostroy Report has been dark since the tragedy occurred, but we’re hoping Mike will return to fight the good fight as soon as he feels able.
Finally, I have to acknowledge the passing of Richard Nagle, an old pal of mine and Page’s, and husband of our old pal, Nancy Rhyne. Richard died suddenly Friday night in Charlotte of a heart attack at the ripe young age of 51. He was as funny and smart as they come, and his passing is a huge loss to everyone but the fish along the shore of the Outer Banks.
The hallmark of the conservative agenda over the past quarter century has been the ceding of power and resources from the government to corporations. The election last week may signal a reverse course away from corporatism toward a brand of liberal populism that has been out of favor since the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Populist themes that resonated with voters this year included raising the minimum wage, slowing the transfer of manufacturing jobs overseas, making healthcare affordable, ending corruption of elected officials by lobbyists for corporate interests and the stopping the rise of undocumented immigration and its perceived strain on local economies and social services.
Even the conduct of the Iraq war, with the unprecedented outsourcing of war operations to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, has played into the idea that Republicans are hellbent on handing the government over to Big Business.
The Republican attack on Florida governor candidate U.S. Rep. Jim Davis consisted of slamming him for campaigning. A TV ad was played nonstop for weeks, depicting an empty chair whizzing around Washington, while a Florida tourist family (with vaguely Ohioan accents) trails behind. “Do you think we’ll see him next time, Dad?” the son asks. “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know.”
Davis missed votes, we were told. He was too busy with politics to do the work we sent him to Washington to do. Wonder if the GOP will be trotting those ads out in 2008, when Florida Sen. Mel Martinez is running the Republican National Committee?
Doubt it. Predictably, Martinez’s split shift workday is being hailed not as a callous ditching of responsibility, as was Davis’s campaigning, but a big ol’ plus for Florida.
“It’s awesome for Florida. It says a great deal about this state and its strength,” said Republican Party of Florida chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan.
…Martinez, who will keep his Senate seat, will bring that much more attention to a state that is already considered to be a top prize in presidential politics.
Oh come on. Martinez was chosen in large part because he’s Cuban, and the Republicans did almost as badly with Latino voters this time as they did with African-Americans. While 8 percent of all voters were Latino, only 26 percent to 42 percent (it’s an estimate) of them voted Repug.
…Florida Democrats noted that their party won the Hispanic vote in last week’s election for the first time in three decades.
“This reflects the renewed emphasis by Democrats in using multimedia communications to win support from the fastest growing community in the United States, as well as Hispanic support for finding real solutions to raising the minimum wage, affordable health care and the war in Iraq,” said Florida Democratic Party executive director Luis Navarro in a statement.
It also shows Republicans are doing something wrong.
Mel was one of the chairs of the Bush campaign in 2000, helping Katherine Harris in her strategy to keep the votes from being accurately counted. He has been consistently rewarded for his nefarious deeds while Harris has been treated like the embarrassment she is.
But at least one analyst noticed Mel already had a job when he took on his new one.
…the duel role will be difficult, said [Poltical Scientist Matthew] Corrigan.
“Being a senator is a full-time job, so is taking on the RNC. I think it is a serious challenge,” he said. “How he balances those roles is an important question.”
It’s also a question not nearly enough people are asking.
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
