Tag: Conservative Values

Judging Sonia: Republicans Reveal Themselves

Trish

“It’s the American way that we judge people as individuals, not as groups. And by that standard we can say unequivocally that this particular wise Latina, with the richness of her experiences, would far more often than not reach a better conclusion than the individual white males she faced in that Senate hearing room. Even those viewers who watched the Sotomayor show for only a few minutes could see that her America is our future and theirs is the rapidly receding past.”

— Columnist Frank Rich, commenting on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and the hypocrisy and isolation of the Republican senators who questioned her.

Republicans Can’t Proofread

Buck Banks

At least the ones in Florida apparently are incapable of distributing a press release without grammatical or spelling mistakes, or in this case, missing copy. I have not altered this text. I copied it directly from the Republican Party of Florida’s press release. If it weren’t for the headline, that first sentence, although factually accurate, would make even less sense:

Carrie Prejean to Speak at DTD Exchange ‘09

Tallahassee-–The Republican Party of Florida today announced Carrie Prejean is a model and former beauty queen from Vista, California. She held the title of Miss California USA 2009, and placed first runner up in the Miss USA 2009 pageant. Prejean gained nationwide attention over her answer to a question about same-sex marriage during the Miss USA 2009 pageant.

Drive the Discussion Exchange ’09 will be a gathering for young people from across the State of Florida to discuss the future of the Republican Party. The event is open to all ages, but will focus on young voters, 18 – 35 years of age. The Exchange will include a keynote address by Bruce Jenner, special guest speaker Jonathan Krohn, panel discussions on “the benefits of social networking” and “What does the Republican Party mean to me,” as well as a trade show. Additional speakers will include technology professionals, elected officials, and professional athletes between the ages of 25-40.

The RPOF is really onto something here, with ancient athlete Bruce Jenner and homophobe Prejean, because they are likely to apeal to the 15 to 35-year-old demographic of potential Republicans.

Wonder if there’s a swimsuit competition.

Sex on C Street: GOP Rep Slept With Mistress in Christianist Enclave

Jon Ponder

The latest bombshell about the congressional Christianists’ residence and meeting house on Washington’s C Street comes in the form of a lawsuit in which the soon-to-be ex-wife of former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) is suing his alleged longtime mistress, Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering bunked at the C Street house when he served in Congress and Leisha Pickering alleges that Chip and Elizabeth were intimate in the C Street house — which, by the way, is listed in tax records as a church.

If you are keeping score, Pickering the third philandering Christian extremist politician connected with the C Street house to be outed as an adulterer in the last few weeks. The others are Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is also a C Street resident, has also been mentioned in the scandals. It was allegedly he who counseled Ensign to arrange payments to the family of Ensign’s former mistress.

The house was profiled in the Washington Post on June 26:

[…]

Poll: 71% of GOP Would Vote for a Quitter to Be President in 2012

Jon Ponder

In the Bush era, Republicans demonstrated their collective poor judgment by twice electing as president a bellicose, proudly incurious, anti-intellectual ideologue. A poll out yesterday suggests that they learned nothing from that disaster, and are ready to do it again.

Less than a week after Sarah Palin — who has all of George Bush’s intellectual deficiencies and then some — announced she is walking away from her job as governor of Alaska midway through her first term, USA Today found that 71 percent of Republicans would vote for her for president in 2012:

When it comes to a potential presidential run, the USA TODAY Poll displays Palin’s strength in the Republican base and weakness among swing voters, who traditionally decide national elections. Republicans by 71 percent-27 percent say they’d be likely to vote for her if she ran for president in 2012, while independents by 51 percent-44 percent would not.

As Todd Purdum put it in his profile of Palin in the August issue of Vanity Fair, “What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded?”

The question ought to be, what does it say that two such proud underachievers are applauded so roundly by the same party in the same decade.

Florida Republicans On Message, Off Truth

Buck Banks

The leadership of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is many things (dumber than a sack of hammers comes to mind), but one thing they do know how to do is stay on message. And like most Republican messaging, it matters little how true the message may be because as we’ve seen time and again, if they repeat a lie often enough, the American electorate will believe it.

The latest RPOF messaging blitzkrieg is aimed at bringing more African Americans into the GOP. To do this, they are closely aligning themselves with the group of reformers led by Abraham Lincoln who created the Republican Party in the 1850s. They are, of course, counting on Americans to A) not know their history and B) not bother to do the research to expose GOP lies.

The latest sally came in yesterday’s Miami Herald editorial section. In a letter to the editor headlined “Expose the racism in Democratic Party,” Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association from Sarasota questions a recent column by a Pulitzer Prize winner (and black man):

In his June 21 Issues & Ideas column, GOP blind to its race problem Leonard Pitts Jr. unfairly condemns the entire Republican Party as racist based on the actions of a few. In reality, the Republican Party, since its inception in 1854 as the antislavery party until today, has been the party of freedom and equality for blacks. A better case can be made that the Democratic Party is a racist party.

As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Democrats have been running black communities for the past 40 years, and their policies have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands.

[…]

Aw, What the Hey?

Trish

“I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details.”

— Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in an email to “Maria,” his Argentine lover.

Breaking: Sanford Says He Was Also Unfaithful

Trish

Does it get any better with these Republicans? I can’t look away.

Now Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) says that in addition to “recharging” from his tough legislative session and not hiking the Appalachian trail, he slipped in a little extramarital affair while he was MIA. Which would explain why his wife wasn’t really into answering questions about his whereabouts.

Recap: Drove the state car to the airport and hopped a flight to Argentina to —

I can’t go on.

Crusty Lawyers Get All the Best Lines

Trish
William “Willie” N. Meggs

“Since the legislature is building airport hangars instead of funding FDLE, they’re a little behind.”

— Florida State Attorney Willie Meggs, when asked when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would finish its examination of the computer used by former State House Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Destin). Sansom was indicted by a grand jury and forced to resign as Speaker for using the position to win a high-paying job at a community college and to build an aircraft hangar for a political patron at taxpayer expense. Full background story.