Year: 2008

Hastings Apologizes to Hunters for Palin Comparison

Trish

Florida embarrassment, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Corruption), made headlines when he disparaged Sarah Palin, saying, “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”

Now Hastings is apologizing. But not to Palin. He’s apologizing to hunters.

Hastings: “If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention.”

“I regret the comments I made last Tuesday that were not smart and certainly not relevant to hunters or sportsmen,” Rep. Alcee Hastings said in a statement issued Monday.

Hastings did eventually apologize to Palin too, although he might not have needed to. He actually made a pretty good point, I think.

Last week, at a panel on the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats during the annual conference of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Hastings told attendees what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the importance of supporting Sen. Obama in November’s presidential election. “If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Hastings said last week. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” he added.

Most of the offense taken by Hastings’ remark came from the Republican Jewish Coalition (who knew there was such a thing?). They are calling the comment, “the worst kind of divisive politics” while running ads that might actually earn that title.

“There should be no place in our country for this sort of political discourse. We can constructively disagree on the issues without denigrating others,” added [JRC Executive Director Matt] Brooks.

True, true, Matt. I can see you’re a stand-up guy. Very considerate and respectful and above personal attacks. So why are you “denigrating” Barack Obama?

The Jewish Republican Coalition has already launched its own series of election-related ads in Jewish newspapers throughout the country. The latest ad refers to some Obama’s advisers as “pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and even hostile to America” and states that “You can know a man by the company he keeps.”

Following is one of the ads. Nice.

House GOP Defeat of Bailout Over ‘Partisan Remarks’ Is Worst Fit of Pique Since Gingrich Shut Down Government Over Clinton ‘Snub’

Jon Ponder

House Republicans killed the Wall Street bailout bill today because their feelings were hurt by remarks made by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to one of their leaders:
“You’ve been on the plane for 25 hours and nobody has talked to you and they ask you to get off the plane by the back ramp. … You just wonder, where is their sense of manners? Where is their sense of courtesy?”
— Gingrich, in 1995, explaining why he shut down the federal government

Without mentioning her by name, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., No. 3 Republican, said: “The partisan tone at the end of the debate today I think did impact the votes on our side.”

Reacting to the Republicans’ reason for killing the bill, House Finance Chair Barney Frank, who shepherded the bill through negotiations last week, spoke for millions:

Frank said that was a remarkable accusation by Republicans against Republicans: “because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country.”

According to the AP, in her remarks, Pelosi blamed the “right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation” for the crisis. This may be a “partisan” statement, but it also reflects historical facts.

The immature behavior these House Republicans exhibited today has a striking precedent. In 1995, GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted that he had shut down the federal government because he felt slighted by Pres. Clinton on an overseas trip:

As the government budget standoff continued Thursday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich indicated the Republican hard line was due, in part, to a “snub” from President Clinton during their recent trip to Israel for the funeral of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta called the Gingrich comment “bizarre.”

The speaker said Wednesday that tough terms in the government spending bill President Clinton vetoed Monday night were included partly as the result of pique he and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole felt on Air Force One during flights with the president to and from Israel for the funeral.

Gingrich and Dole had complained earlier about their lack of discussions with Clinton during the 25 hours of flying time. But Gingrich went a step further Wednesday by saying the incident contributed to the government shutdown.

“This is petty,” said Gingrich, indicating his displeasure at the way the two were treated. “You’ve been on the plane for 25 hours and nobody has talked to you and they ask you to get off the plane by the back ramp. … You just wonder, where is their sense of manners? Where is their sense of courtesy?”

That “snub,” the Georgia Republican said, was “part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution” — the stopgap spending bill that Clinton vetoed Monday. That veto led to the partial shutdown of the federal government, now in its third day.

“Not once did either of them say, ‘Let’s go in the back and sit down and try to cut a deal,” Panetta said. “Frankly, it would have been inappropriate. Everybody knew this was about a funeral. … This is bizarre. And even if that were the case — which it isn’t — why would you want to shut down the government because you feel snubbed?”

These people have no business being in government. The problem is, they wouldn’t last a day out in the real world.

Poll: The Early Line 09/29

Buck Banks

Obama/Biden 47%
McCain/Palin 42%
Undec 8%

– Nearly two in three RVs, 63%, surveyed by the Diageo/Hotline tracking poll this weekend watched Fri.’s debate.

– Debate watchers believe Obama prevailed in Oxford. 41% say Obama won the first debate, while 24% say McCain; 20% say they both won. Among Indies, 28% say Obama won vs. 23% for McCain; one in three Indies say they performed equally.

– Viewers also rate Obama’s performance higher than McCain’s. Two-thirds say Obama did an excellent or good job, while 53% believe McCain did the same. Meanwhile 30% say Obama did only fair or poor, while 44% say the same about McCain. Among Indies, Obama has a 58%/37% debate performance rating, while McCain’s is 49%/46%.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

She took over at the last minute. The last hour-and-a-half she really brought things together and made it possible to reach this point.

— A House staffer, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s role in reaching an agreement early this morning on a $700 billion bank rescue package

Obama Ad Shows McCain Winning

Trish

The Obama campaign provides a terrifying glimpse into the future, if people don’t register and then vote the right way.

I’m not sure how to feel about this ad. The New Age side of me worries about the power of visualization, which I believe is strong.

What do you think? Is this a good way to get out the vote?

Update: My mistake. The ad was produced by VoteForChange, not the Obama campaign. And it looks like they have pulled it.

Carl Hiaasen and The Sarah Rules

Trish

The Miami Herald’s Carl Hiaasen asks whether the press would follow The Sarah Rules and defer on every issue if Palin were a man.

Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain’s campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don’t treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you’ll be accused of character assassination…

…the same right-wing gasbags who’ve trashed Hillary Clinton for 16 years have morphed into sensitive souls when it comes to their own hockey-mom candidate. Each unsettling news revelation about Palin is automatically decried as a sexist smear.

But if the gender issue were removed? Think about it, Hiaasen says.

  • If Palin were a male candidate, Democrat or Republican, she’d be taking heat for ducking reporters when the election is only five weeks away.
  • If Palin were a male candidate, she might also be encouraged to discuss why she chose a high-school pal to head Alaska’s Division of Agriculture at a $95,000 salary. Among her flimsy qualifications, the woman, a former real-estate agent, claimed an affection of cows.
    • If Palin were a male candidate…
  • If Palin were a male candidate, she’d be asked why she put another childhood friend in charge of a money-losing, state-subsidized creamery that was supposed to shut down until Palin reversed the decision. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the doomed dairy cost Alaskans more than $800,000 in additional losses before it was finally closed.
  • [I]f she were a male candidate, she’d be pressed to explain why she billed the state more than $17,000 as ”per diem” expenses — for 312 nights she spent at her own home.
  • Imagine if her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, had been videotaped while being solemnly blessed against ”every form of witchcraft.” The Republicans would jump on it, running blistering ads to portray Biden as a whack job unfit for the vice presidency.

It’s hard to perform this same mental exercise with, “If Obama were white…” and come up with examples of how Obama has been given similar passes by the press. Lord knows, we discussed his pastor’s much less bizarre sermons ad nauseum. When you consider Hiaasen’s key Sarah Rule, there is no comparison.

…the Sarah Rules allow everyone to explain Palin’s words and past actions except Palin herself.

McCain Channels Reagan in Debate; Saves POW Card Till the Very End

Trish

Did anyone else notice how, once Barack Obama began really getting under John McCain’s skin during the first presidential debate, McCain started calling upon the ghost of Ronald Reagan as part of every response? McCain channeled the spirit of the Teflon Communicator four times during the last third of the debate.

We have a potential drinking game for the last two debates: a swig every time McCain mentions Ray-gun, and a shot every time he says he was a POW
  • Back in 1983, when I was a brand-new United States congressman, the one — the person I admired the most and still admire the most, Ronald Reagan, wanted to send Marines into Lebanon.
  • The point is that throughout history, whether it be Ronald Reagan, who wouldn’t sit down with Brezhnev, Andropov or Chernenko until Gorbachev was ready with glasnost and perestroika.
  • And we ought to go back to a little bit of Ronald Reagan’s “trust, but verify,” and certainly not sit down across the table from — without precondition, as Senator Obama said he did twice, I mean, it’s just dangerous.
  • But in the case of missile defense, Senator Obama said it had to be, quote, “proven.” That wasn’t proven when Ronald Reagan said we would do SDI, which is missile defense.

But even Ronald Reagan can only take old school Republicans so far. What you really need to seal the deal is a reference to your prisoner of war status. Except McCain left out the “of war” part and made it sound like he had been released from the state pen.

Jim, when I came home from prison, I saw our veterans being very badly treated, and it made me sad.

So we have a potential drinking game for the last two debates: a swig every time McCain mentions Ray-gun, and a shot every time he says he was a POW. Who’s the designated driver?

Polls: Obama Defeated McCain in Debate

Jon Ponder

The pundits who say McCain won the debate need to hold off on the mind-altering substances until after the election:

Fifty-one percent said Obama, the Democrat, did a better job in Friday night’s faceoff while 38 percent preferred the Republican McCain, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey of adults.

Obama was widely considered more intelligent, likable and in touch with peoples’ problems, and by modest margins was seen as the stronger leader and more sincere. Most said it was McCain who spent more time attacking his opponent.

About six in 10 said each did a better job than expected. Seven in 10 said each seemed capable of being president.

In a CBS News poll of people not committed to a candidate, 39 percent said Obama won the debate, 24 percent said McCain and 37 percent called it a tie. Twice as many said Obama understands their needs than said so about McCain.

Seventy-eight percent said McCain is prepared to be president, about the same proportion of uncommitted voters as said so before the debate. Sixty percent said Obama is ready — a lower score than McCain, but a solid 16-percentage-point improvement from before the debate.

McCain’s Debate Performance Dominated by Smirking and Grinning

Jon Ponder

McCain smirked, blinked and grinned but couldn’t seem to look Obama in the eye

The punditocracy has reached a consensus that the debate was a draw, and a few of these thought leaders are even suggesting that McCain won. If so, that’s a shame, because I found his performance to be appalling. Josh Marshall, said it this way, and I couldn’t agree more:

Whether it was contempt or condescension or some sort of fear or inability to — in the most literal sense — face Obama, it made McCain look small and angry. I apologize that I can’t link to them because I don’t remember who wrote it. But as someone wrote after the debate, for that kind of attitude to have ‘worked’ for McCain, Obama needed to come off as completely ignorant and unprepared. And I don’t think even his harshest critics believe that is what happened. Roll it all together and Obama just seemed like a bigger person than McCain. And in a race in which the issue agenda and party identification already work strongly in Obama’s favor, that’s an advantage that is very hard for McCain to give up.