Year: 2009

Olbermann: Reagan Would Fail GOP’s New Purity Test

Jon Ponder

Trish has a great article up about conservative hypocrisy about trips to Hawaii. They castigated candidate Obama as an “elitist” when he went there to see his dying grandmother after he’d won the nomination last year, and now the same folks who came up with the GOP purity test at the RNC are holding their next meeting there.

She also does a point by point rebuttal to the purity test, which collapses under its own weight under scrutiny — not surprising since these are the same goomers who proposed unilaterally changing the name of the Democratic Party (which was established in 1790, and is one of the oldest political parties on the planet) to the “Democrat Socialist Party.” Idiots. It should be Democratic Socialist Party.

In a similar vein, last week, Keith Olbermann dissected the new Republican purity test and found that St. Ronnie Reagan would have failed it, big time.

Transcript:

OLBERMANN: After Republican Tea Baggers undercut and sabotaged moderate Republican Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava in New York, some members of the Republican National Committee have come up with a plan to make their party bigger, kick more people out. In our third story tonight, they’re doing it in the name of Ronald Reagan, except that the plan they have chosen would have resulted in them kicking out Ronald Reagan.

A proposed RNC resolution says President Reagan considered his friends those he agreed with 80 percent of the time. So it would deny funding to any Republican candidate who did not agree with 80 percent of ten Republican principles.

One, smaller government, reducing taxes and the deficit.

Two, oppose health care reform.

Three, oppose cap and trade.

Four, oppose card check.

Five, oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Six, support military recommendations like troop surges.

Seven, contain Iran and North Korea.

Eight, support Defense of Marriage Act.

Nine, oppose health care rationing and federal funds for abortion.

Ten, oppose gun control.

Sponsor Jim Bop (ph) told the RNC this would free the party, quote, “future party splitters,” such as former Senator Lincoln Chafee, no longer a Republican. Senator Arlen Specter, no longer a Republican. And Scozzafava herself.

Who else would fail the Reagan litmus test?

Number one, Reagan expanded the government taxes and the deficit.

Number five, he supported amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Number six, he ignored the military recommendation to pull out of Beirut.

Number seven, he sold weapons to Iran.

Number eight, he opposed California’s anti-gay Prop 6, and hosted the first openly gay sleepover at the White House.

Number ten, he signed a gun control law in California and supported the Brady Bill after he and his press secretary were shot.

President Reagan, four out of 10.

Welcome back to the Democratic Party, sir.

Tiny Bubbles of Purity: RNC to Meet in Obama’s Hawaii

Trish

HawaiiRemember after the 2008 Democratic primary finally ended and candidate Obama took the family to Hawaii for a little vacay? Remember how the Republicans labeled him “elitist” for doing so? Let me refresh your memory, just in case.

TNR’s Michael Crowley noted:

I know he grew up [in Hawaii] and all. But if Obama’s being smeared as a highfalutin celebrity who is somehow “other” and distant from the American heartland, is Hawaii really the ideal vacation destination? It sounds trivial but such things can resonate…

I might have counseled a nice cottage beside some Illinois lake with a wholesome name…

Even ABC’s Cokie Roberts chimed in.

I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he’s going to take a vacation at this time.

So when it was recently reported that a wingnut Republican national committeeman named James Bopp, Jr. from Indiana is proposing a so-called “purity test” for GOP candidates at the RNC’s winter meeting, we were surprised to learn where the event will take place. No, it won’t be at some nice cottages beside an Illinois lake with a wholesome name, or even Myrtle Beach, S.C. No my friends, the RNC will try to figure out how to keep even more people out of its odious party in none other than Honolulu. You know, as in Hawaii.

Actually, it wouldn’t matter where this particular discussion took place. In a leaked memo, Bopp called for the party to only fund candidates who support at least seven of the following idiotic positions. If it can be shown that someone violated more than three of these tenets, the money pipe will turn righty-tighty, not lefty-loosey.

1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill. [Editor’s note: And pretty much everything George W. Bush ever did since both the size of government and the national debt swelled under him.]

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare. [Editor’s note: Because that’s worked really well up to now.]

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation. [Editor’s note: Because that’s worked really well up to now.]

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check. [Editor’s note: Or to put it another way, we’re against unions so if you have any in your district, you might want to pick Number 4 as your tenet to violate.]

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants. [Editor’s note: Because we’re just really anti-immigrant but phrasing it this way dolls it up.]

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges. [Editor’s note: Unless that’s what Obama supports, and then we’re against it.

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat. [Editor’s note: Someone please let the Republicans know this does not differentiate them from Democrats.]

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act. [Editor’s note: So if any gay people want to be Republicans, just forget about it.]

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion. [Editor’s note: We only support denying health care to women who want an abortion.]

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership. [Editor’s note: Especially the right to bear arms at presidential town halls.]

I like the idea of a test to get Republican funding. After all, only the ideologically pure, like Myrtle Beach’s own Gov. Mark Sanford, who probably agrees with every one of these ideas, should be able to share Republican booty. And the more of such morons the money gets wasted on, the better for our team. Assuming, that is, that they have any money left after their elitist, exotic, highfalutin, other, distant from the American heartland trip to Hawaii.

The Family: DC’s C Street Group Tied To Proposed Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda

Jon Ponder

With their reported $13 billion tax-exempt financial empire, the Mormons may be the wealthiest cult in America — and Scientology may be the big thing among the rich and powerful in Hollywood — but when it comes to political power neither of those sects holds a candle to the Family, the Christian extremist political group that operates the now infamous C Street house on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Members of the Family have occupied seats in both houses of Congress going back to the 1930s, but for all but its most recent history, the hallmark of the Family has been secrecy. In the past year, however, three sex scandals involving highly placed associates — Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss. — have thrust the group and its C Street house into the national spotlight.

And just this month, Family members Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat from Michigan, and Rep. Joe Pitts, an evangelical Republican from Pennsylvania, brought more attention to the secretive group when their Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed as part of the House health-care reform bill, threatening to further restrict abortion funding for the poor, if it remains in the final bill. (Pitts, like all his GOP colleagues, voted against the bill, even though it included his amendment.)

But what many people may find surprising is that the Family has branches around the world. In fact, yesterday, Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,” reported on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that it was a Family member in the Ugandan parliament who introduced a bill that would increase the punishment for homosexuality from life imprisonment, which is the maximum sentence today, to death:

SHARLET: [The] new legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that’s aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be – I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex – in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you’re subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don’t report it, that could mean – you don’t report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.

And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it’s really kind of a perfect case study and the export of a lot of American largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.

And who is David Bahati?

SHARLET: [The] legislator that introduces the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of the Family. He appears to be a core member of the Family. He works, he organizes their Uganda National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which the Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda…

Looking at the the Family’s 990s [IRS records], where they’re moving their money to – into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which [it] has described in the past as an international “invisible family binding together world leaders” and also, an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads – graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO’s through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by – according to Ugandan media – which is run by David Bahat…

So who are the members of Congress who belong to the Family and tolerate, if not encourage, this sort of extremism overseas? According to Jeff Sharlet, while most cult members are Republicans, members of both parties are welcomed. “Jesus didn’t come to take sides,” the members are fond of saying. “He came to take over.”

Here is a list of current elected officials Sharlet mentioned in the interview who he says are associated with the Family:

Current Elected Officials

  • Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas
  • Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
  • Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wy.
  • Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
  • Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.
  • Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
  • Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
  • Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.
  • Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Penn.
  • Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C.
  • Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.
  • Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.
  • Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.
 Other Notable Members

  • Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. – caught visiting mistress in Argentina.
  • Rep. Chuck Pickering, R-Miss. – had sex with mistress at C Street house.
  • Chuck Colson – Watergate felon.
  • Late Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. – provided classified documents to cult leaders.
  • Late Sen. Absalom Robertson, Dixiecrat-Va. – father of televangelist Pat Robertson

The mainstream media avoids referring to the Family as a cult, but check out this description of the group’s belief system from Jeff Sharlet and decide for yourself:

They have a very unusual theology in the sense that they think that Christ had one message for an inner circle and then a kind of different message for a sort of slightly more outer circle. And then the rest of us, Christ told us little stories because, frankly, we couldn’t handle the truth. And the core members are those they think are getting the real deal.

In other words, only they, the members of the Family, truly know what is best for the rest of us.

If it walks like a cult and talks like a cult…

*

Listen to Terri Gross’ entire interview with Jeff Sharlet here.

Here’s the transcript of their discussion about the proposed Ugandan law:

Let’s talk about The Family’s connection to Uganda, where there’s, really, a draconian anti-gay bill that has been introduced into parliament. Uganda already punishes the practice of homosexuality with life in prison. What would the new legislation do?

Mr. SHARLET: Well, the new legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that’s aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be – I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex – in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you’re subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don’t report it, that could mean – you don’t report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.

And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it’s really kind of a perfect case study and the export of a lot of American largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.

GROSS: This legislation has just been proposed. It hasn’t been signed into law. So it’s not in effect and it might never be in effect. But it’s on the table. It’s before parliament. So is there a direct connection between The Family and this proposed Anti-Homosexual Legislation in Uganda?

Mr. SHARLET: Well, the legislator that introduces the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family. He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes ther Uganda National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.

GROSS: So you’re reporting the story for the first time today, and you found this story – this direct connection between The Family and the proposed legislation by following the money?

Mr. SHARLET: Yes, it’s – I always say that the family is secretive, but not secret. You can go and look at 990s, tax forms and follow the money through these organizations that The Family describe as invisible. But you go and you look. You follow that money. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It’s not so invisible anymore. So that’s how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family’s work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni’s kind of right hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family’s National Prayer Breakfast. And here’s a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda’s executive office and has been very vocal about what he’s doing, and in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family.

GROSS: So how did you find out that Bahati is directly connected to The Family? You’ve described him as a core member of The Family. And this is the person who introduced the anti-gay legislation in Uganda that calls for the death penalty for some gay people.

Mr. SHARLET: Looking at the, The Family’s 990s, where they’re moving their money to – into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which has described its in the past as an international quote, ?invisible family binding together world leaders,? and also, an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads – graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO’s through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by -according to Ugandan media – which is run by David Bahati, this same legislator who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

GROSS: Now what about the president of Uganda, President Museveni? Does he have any connections to The Family?

Mr. SHARLET: Well, first, I want to say it’s important that you said it, yeah, it hasn’t gone into law. It hasn’t gone in to effect yet. So there is time to push back on this. But it’s very likely to go into law. It has support of some of the most powerful men in Uganda, including the dictator of Uganda, a guy named Museveni, whom The Family identified back in 1986 as a key man for Africa.

They wanted to steer him away from neutrality or leftist sympathies and bring him into conservative American alliances, and they were able to do so. They’ve since promoted Uganda as this bright spot – as I say, as this bright spot for African democracy, despite the fact that under their tutelage, Museveni has slowly shifted away from any even veneer of democracy: imprisoning journalists, tampering with elections, supporting – strongly supporting this Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009.

He’s come out just this – just last week and said that this bill is necessary because Europeans are recruiting homosexuals in Uganda, that Europeans are coming in and trying to make Ugandans gay. And he’s been rewarded for this because this is sort of where these sort of social issues and foreign affairs issues and free market fundamentalist issues all come together.

GROSS: How did The Family create its relationship with Museveni?

Mr. SHARLET: In 1986, a former Ford official name Bob Hunter went over on trips at the behest of the U.S. government, but also on behalf of The Family, to which – for which both of which he filed reports that are now in The Family’s archives. And his goal was to reach out to Museveni and make sure that he came into the American sphere of influence, that Uganda, in effect, becomes our proxy in the region and that relationship only deepened.

In fact, in late 1990s, Hunter – again, working for The Family – went over and teamed up with Museveni to create the Uganda National Prayer Breakfast as a parallel to the United States National Prayer Breakfast into which The Family every year sends representatives, usually congressmen.

GROSS: What’s the relationship of Museveni and The Family now?

Mr. SHARLET: It’s a very close relationship. He is the key man. Now?

GROSS: So what does that mean? What influence does The Family have on him?

Mr. SHARLET: It means that they have a deep relationship of what they’ll call spiritual counsel, but you’re going to talk about moral issues. You’re going to talk about political issues. Your relationships are going to be organized through these associates. So Museveni can go to Senator Brownback and seek military aide. Inhofe, as he describes, Inhofe says that he cares about Africa more than any other senator.

And that may be true. He’s certainly traveled there extensively. He says he likes to accuse the State Department of ignoring Africa so he becomes our point man with guys like Museveni and Uganda, this nation he says he’s adopted. As we give foreign aid to Uganda, these are the people who are in a position to steer that money. And as Museveni comes over, and as he does and spends time at The Family’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a place called The Cedars, and sits down for counsel with Doug Coe, that’s where those relationships occur.

It’s never going to be the hard sell, where they’re going to, you know, twist Museveni’s arm behind his back and say do this. As The Family themselves describes it, you create a prayer cell, or what they call – and this again, this is their language from their documents – an invisible believing group of God-led politicians who get together and talk with one another about what God wants them to do in their leadership capacity. And that’s the nature of their relationship with Museveni.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

And so the rewriting of history continues ….

We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.

— Bush administration Press Secretary Dana Perino, in an interview on Fox News, blithely ignoring the fact that George W. Bush was president of the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Catholic Sex — Pray Before You Play

Buck Banks

A new prayer book just published encourages Catholic married couples to pray together before they do the nasty.

The Prayer Book for Spouses offers a prayer before sex that asks the Holy Spirit to “place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites … [and] loving physical union that welcomes” before asking to “clothe us in true dignity and take to yourself our shared aspirations, for your glory, forever and ever. Mary, our mother, intercede for us. Amen.”

Other prayers in the 64-page book are for raising children and caring for sick or dying relatives.

But the book is not catching on very quickly. As of a week ago, St. Paul’s Publishing, which is handling the distribution of the book, had only sold 35 copies at $6.95 each.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

I grew up a Democrat in a Democrat family. My husband and I both worked on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. The first time I ever came to Washington was to dance at Walter Mondale’s inaugural ball. It was a thrill for my husband and me, and we were both happy to work on behalf of Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter. We really believed in them when we were in college. So in some ways I don’t understand why the Democratic Party would be opposed to me, because I stand for the same values that my parents stood for when we were Democrats.

— Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), expressing confusion about why she’s the target of so many Democratic attacks.

Hold, Please: Florida’s New Senator Holds Obama Nominee Hostage for Cuban Support

Trish

ShannonIt’s hard to overemphasize to the other 49 states the impact the smallest gestures toward Cuba have on politics in Florida. Case in point: Florida’s new Republican senator, George LeMieux, is blocking the appointment of an Obama nominee as ambassador to Brazil because of a stand by that nominee on Cuba. Hanging in the balance is a $7.5 billion contract to build Boeing planes in Seattle.

LeMieux was selected by Gov. Charlie Crist to fill the vacancy created when Mel Martinez pulled a Sarah Palin and walked off the job with a year and a half left to go. He was largely considered a seat-warmer for his former boss, Crist, who is running for the Senate 24/7, except for when his primary challenger wants to schedule a debate. Then, of course, Charlie has pressing gubernatorial duties to perform. But LeMieux recently raised eyebrows when he opened a PAC, indicating he likes the feeling of power that elected office is giving him and intends to pursue it someday soon.

So far, his Senate record is in line with his party: say no to everything, and be as much of an obstruction and hindrance as possible. LeMieux’s method in the short time he’s been in office is to employ the hold.

You won’t find a description in the rule books, but a “hold” is one of the most powerful, many say abused, weapons available to the 100 men and women who make up the Senate — even to a neophyte like LeMieux, who was never elected and is serving on a temporary basis.

“It’s the power of one,” LeMieux says.

Because the Senate works by unanimous consent, a lone lawmaker can block a bill or nomination from reaching the floor by notifying party leaders. Holds can be ignored by leaders or broken with 60 votes, but that rarely happens in this clubby institution.

Sometimes holds are done in secret or with little fanfare, hence the nickname “silent filibuster.” Other times lawmakers publicize them to settle a score or in search of a bargaining chip or a headline.

LeMieux has used the hold a couple of times already, currently to block the confirmation of Thomas A. Shannon Jr. as ambassador to Brazil. It seems that Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric affairs under George W. Bush, helped the Organization of American States (OAS) better define its membership rules. It would no longer exclude Cuba just for being Cuba, but would bar any nation that does not “practice OAS’s democratic ideals of multiparty democratic government, human rights and freedom of the press.” Theoretically, if Cuba ever met those standards, it would be admitted.

For the anti-Cuba faction in Florida, even this is too generous. So LeMieux, whose buddy Charlie Crist is running against Cuban-American Marco Rubio in the Senate primary, is taking the opportunity to pander for Cuban votes by putting a hold on Shannon’s nomination.

…last week, nine former assistant secretaries of state sent LeMieux a letter urging him to give up. “This continuing, prolonged vacancy sends an unintended signal that the United States does not consider Brazil an important relationship,” they wrote. One suggested the delay could hurt U.S.-based Boeing’s bid to sell Brazil $7.5 billion in fighter jets.

To LeMieux and Crist, the good of the country is secondary to playing politics. We couldn’t agree more with the headline on the matter in the St. Petersburg Times: “Partisan politics isn’t service.”

Verbatim

Buck Banks

Culture is politics. [Sarah] Palin is at the red-hot center of age-old American resentments that have boiled up both from the ascent of our first black president and from the intractability of the Great Recession for those Americans who haven’t benefited from bailouts. As Palin thrives on the ire of the left, so she does from the disdain of Republican leaders who, with a condescension rivaling the sexism they decry in liberals, belittle her as a lightweight or instruct her to eat think-tank spinach.

The only person who can derail Palin is Palin herself. Should she not self-destruct, she will doom G.O.P. hopes of a 2012 comeback. But the rest of the country cannot rest easy. The rage out there is larger than Palin and defies partisan labeling.

— Frank Rich, New York Times columnist.

Poll Shows McCain’s Re-Election Bid in Trouble

Trish

hayworthJohn McCain doesn’t even have an opponent in the 2010 U.S. Senate primary, but a new poll shows the race would be tied if he did. Conservative polling firm Rasmussen asked likely Republican voters whether they would vote for McCain or J.D. Hayworth, a former Arizona U.S. Representative and talk radio star. McCain had only a two-point lead, with 45 percent choosing him and 43 percent backing Hayworth, who hasn’t even declared himself a candidate yet.

Hayworth’s appeal is apparently to younger, hot-headed, anti-immigrant Arizonans. He and his former chief of staff wrote the book, “Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror,” in which, according to Wikipedia, he criticized George W. Bush for taking contributions from industries like meat packing and construction that depend on immigrant labor. He also claimed the Constitution bars children of illegals from U.S. citizenship, and advocates “Americanization” ala Henry Ford, who said immigrants should speak English and be taught “the right way to live.”

The bombastic Hayworth, described by Wonkette as an “Arizona-American,” currently hosts an afternoon drive-time radio show from Phoenix and fills in for Laura Ingraham when she is indisposed.

Hayworth ran into trouble while serving in Congress from 1995 through 2006, not for taking huge donations to his PAC from Jack Abramoff, but for using about a quarter of all the money raised by his PAC to pay his wife for bookkeeping services.

McCain has drawn no Democratic opponent in the race.