Month: October 2014
Karl Rove Is Hated by Both the Left and Tea Party
I’m a myth. I’d have to be a super being to have done everything that’s attributed to me.
— Political operative Karl Rove, on being hated by both liberals and Tea Party conservatives, Kevin D. Williamson writes in National Review.
Obama Inadvertently Helps N.C. GOP Candidate
The president has done a good job of helping refocus this race for us. Thank you, Mr. President.
— GOP strategist Paul Shumaker, quoted by the Washington Post, on how President Obama’s handling of the Ebola crisis has helped North Carolina Senate candidate Thom Tillis (R).
Whatever the Game, Republicans Rigged It
The game is rigged, and the Republicans rigged it.
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), quoted by the Washington Post.
One-Fifth of Republicans Would Vote for Romney for President
21%
Of Republican voters back Mitt Romney for president, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds. “When Romney is excluded from the race, his supporters scatter, adding no clarity to the GOP free-for-all. In that scenario former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have 12 or 13 percent support from leaned Republicans who are registered to vote. All others have support in the single digits.”
A Logical Argument for Sealing the Border of South Carolina
I’m very concerned. We had people who, I’ll repeat it, the creed of Hamas: We value death more than you value life. What? That’s their creed. Okay, well, part of their creed would be to bring persons who have Ebola into our country. It would promote their creed. And all this could be avoided by sealing the border, thoroughly. C’mon, this is the 21st century.
— Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), saying that terrorists from Hamas could purposely infect themselves with the Ebola virus and then travel to America, BuzzFeed reports.
Poll: 61% Express Confidence in Govt Efforts to Fight Spread of Ebola
61%
Percentage of Americans polled by right-leaning Politico.com who expressed “a lot of confidence” or “some confidence” in the U.S. government’s handling of the spread of Ebola. Just 33 percent said they had “not much confidence” or “no confidence at all” that the government could stop the virus from spreading. Despite the positive result for the Obama administration, the headline on Politico’s story about the poll reads, “Democrats in Danger over Ebola.”
You Think Ebola Is Scary? Check Out How Many People Die from Plain Old Flu Every Year
Tragic as these cases are, the hysteria they have unleashed in the media and among Republican politicians is beyond over the top. The Ebola “crisis” has topped the hour on cable news channels for days. The lowest point, so far, was when news choppers tracked an ambulance for an hour or so one early evening last week as it transported one of the nurses to a hospital, bringing to mind the infamous “slow speed chase” on L.A. freeways that kicked off the O.J. Simpson murder scandal in 1994.
Meanwhile, with the midterm elections a few weeks away, Republicans have worked nonstop to blame the Ebola outbreak on Pres. Obama and, by extension, the Democrats. They have also incorporated the outbreak into their get-out-the-vote strategy by fanning the flames of fear to get their easily terrorized followers to the polls. Their unified message on Ebola — a call to ban flights into the United States from the affected areas in Africa — is typically anti-scientific and counterfactual. Experts say such a ban would likely create a bona fide crisis here, and there is the embarrassing fact that there are no direct flights into the United States from the affected countries.
GOP Does Double 180 Flip-Flops on Czars
The GOP and Fox News spent 2009 railing against so-called “czars” — actually senior level Executive Branch officials — appointed by Pres. Obama. Of course, presidents have been appointing czars for decades. See the chart below.
Recently, one of their leaders, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the GOP candidate for president in 2008, demanded that Pres. Obama appoint what he called an “Ebola czar,” to coordinate the government’s efforts in fighting the diseases. Predictably, after the president did just that — the appointment of Ron Klain, Vice Pres. Biden’s former chief of staff, was announced yesterday — now Republicans are in a full, spittle-spewing rage over the appointment.
Adding another layer of hypocrisy to the mile-deep pile: For over a year, Republicans in the Senate have blocked the appointment of a surgeon general, because the National Rifle Association objects to the candidate’s position that gun violence in America is a major health issue.
