Tag: Tea Baggers

Florida’s Newest Democrat: Mrs. Charlie Crist

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CaroleCrist
Carole Crist: Too smart to be a Republican?

While the obvious question might be, “What took you so long?” the fact remains that even Carole Rome Crist, wife of former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, is now a Democrat.

Crist himself, of course, left the Republican party when it went all tea party crazy and lined up behind eventual winner Marco Rubio in the 2010 Florida Senate race. But Charlie simply dropped out of the GOP to become an independent while Mrs. Crist is taking the more active step of registering as a Democrat.

Which straw, we wonder, broke the camel’s back and turned Carole from red to blue?

It’s Different When It’s My Mob

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I sense a little hypocrisy unbound here. What we’re seeing on the streets of New York is a an expression of democracy. I think I remember how Mr. Cantor described protests of the tea party—I can’t understand how one man’s mob is another man’s democracy.

Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, responding to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s statement that he is concerned about “the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities [sic] across the country.”

Is This What the Tea Party Calls Progress?

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us-congressional-sealThere is so much wrong with this story, it’s mind-boggling.

The House of Representatives is expected to take action Thursday on a bipartisan agreement ending a dispute over disaster relief spending that threatened to cause a partial shutdown of the government by the end of the week.

Specifically, the House is set to approve a one-week government funding extension on Thursday, followed by a more comprehensive measure next week that will keep Washington funded through November 18, according to the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia.

The age of multitasking in Congress is over

So that’s how we’re doing it now? It’s a legislative victory when we muster all our resources to agree not to shut down the government and instead to continue relief for Americans devastated by disaster…for one week? And the more comprehensive measure, the big blockbuster deal, is to keep the government operating right through part of the month after next?

Houston, we have a problem.

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How Quickly Tea Partiers Forget

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It becomes plain quite quickly that history serves these people as religion does — not a complicated interaction of complicated people, but as a glossary of shibboleths, of fundamentalist code words…

They are deaf to the ironies of even their own personal histories. Rick Perry was in the Air Force. Herman Cain did ballistics analysis for the Navy. Jon Huntsman has worked government jobs for 20 years, and Mitt Romney’s father was governor of Michigan. Rick Scott proudly admits he grew up in public housing, and Paul Ryan got through high school and college on Social Security survivor’s benefits. And this is how they all came to become small-government conservatives who didn’t need a hand-out.

— Charles P. Pierce, in his Esquire column, addressing the tea party’s fondness for cherry picking quotes and intentions from the founders

Another Tired Tea Party Teleprompter Joke Delivered Via Teleprompter

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ScottTprompt
Scott and his two friends, Tele, left, and Prompter, right, at Presidency 5

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (Tea/GOP) misplaced his sense of irony at a recent appearance, according to TPM. Speaking to those gathered in Orlando for Presidency 5 (I don’t know why it’s called that but those at the event — who selected Herman Cain as their straw poll winner — inexplicably think the meeting important), Scott gazed deeply into his teleprompters so he wouldn’t flub the punch line on this joke about the president. Obama, like all presidents and other major public speakers since Herbert Hoover, often uses a teleprompter.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Presidency 5!

“I have to admit, I was a little nervous when I looked out here. I saw all the TV cameras and a teleprompter. I figured President Obama must be here – giving another speech about raising taxes!“[emphasis in the original]

Seriously, though, it’s great to see you all today.

Is that funny or what? Man, he had me at Pres. Obama being there, but then to go on to mention raising taxes – whooey, that is good stuff! I’m just glad he used the teleprompter so he could deliver it verbatim, word for word, just as the mad jokester who wrote it intended, and not lose a single shred of the funny.

It could have been worse, I guess. At least the governor didn’t read off any jokes about Obama’s birth certificate or the first lady’s fight against childhood obesity or any of the other hot button issues surrounding the Obamas of concern to tea partiers today.

After You

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So one of the new talking points to combat the higher tax rates for millionaires is this line: “If Warren Buffett thinks he should pay more taxes, he should write a check.” Sounds good. But is that how we’re doing it now? If you propose something, you have to go first? If so, then there are a lot of chickenhawk, eager-to-wage-war politicians who should probably drag their asses over to the frontlines of Afghanistan.

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel columnist, commenting on Facebook

Poll: Mainstream Republicans Share Only Tenuous Ties with Tea Party

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tea baggerNot all Republicans are comfortable in tin foil tricorn hats, according to a recent CNN poll. In fact about half don’t consider themselves active tea party supporters.

…roughly half (49 percent) of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support the tea party movement or are active members, with roughly half (51 percent) saying that they have no feelings one way or another about the tea party or that they oppose the movement.

More education is correlated with more tea partyism, which is odd until you remember that education is also associated with greater income. And no matter how successful the movement’s founders, Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, have been at portraying it as a grassroots effort, the tea party is all about protecting the assets of old, rich, cranky white guys.

Like Ron Paul, tea partiers are incoherent on social issues

…tea party Republicans are more likely to be male, older, and college educated, with non-tea party Republicans more likely to be younger, less educated, female, and less likely to say they are born-again or evangelical. Both groups are predominantly white.

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