Tag: Fox News

Stampede! Elephants Flee D.C. Ahead of Inauguration

Trish

Politico:

“What better way to mark the Obama Inauguration (and his millions of adoring fans that will be in DC) than to get out of town to fabulous Las Vegas!” wrote Charlie Spies, a Republican lawyer and former CFO to Mitt Romney’s campaign in a blast email to GOP friends. “We hope you can join us for dinner and a fun evening on Monday, January 19th to celebrate the last few hours of our Republican president in the White House.”

Spies and his wife Lisa, a Republican fund-raiser, have gotten about 15 takers so far for this last supper or, as they billed it in the e-mail, their own “Inaugural in Exile.”

They’re far from alone. Other [Republicans] will usher in the new era from the slopes, the islands, the NFL playoffs and even on a serendipitously-timed honeymoon. Full Democratic control of Washington may be a bitter pill, but it’s easier to get down from a lodge, beach, 50-yard-line or, especially, honeymoon suite.

If only they would just stay gone.

GOP Analyst: ‘The California Republican Party Is Dead’

Jon Ponder

More evidence that Californians are no longer buying what Republicans are selling:
Even with Prop 8’s coattails, California Republicans lost ground in Sacramento, where Democrats picked up one seat in the Senate and two seats in the Assembly on Nov. 4

“The California Republican Party is dead,” election analyst Tony Quinn, himself a Republican, wrote last week on Fox & Hounds Daily, a political blog. “Call the undertaker, haul away the corpse.”

Others apply a less severe metaphor: dismal health. Either way, signs of doom abound.

Starkest of all was McCain’s loss to Barack Obama in the presidential contest last month by a staggering 3.3 million votes — or a margin of 61 percent to 37 percent. Since 1900, the only Republican nominee for the White House to be trounced by a wider gap in California was Alf Landon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s challenger in 1936.

Also alarming for conservatives is the hemorrhaging of Republicans from the state’s voter rolls, even in the party’s longtime strongholds. When California’s election map was last adjusted in 2002, Republicans made up more than half of the voters in 11 of the state’s 173 congressional or legislative districts, and Democrats held 66. Now, Republicans constitute a majority in zero, and Democrats hold 57.

Here is Quinn’s postmortem:

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Why There Are So Few Black Republicans

Trish

Chip Saltsman, out standing in his field

As if it bore explaining, we get why Republicans have a diversity problem. Chip Saltsman, who announced his candidacy for head of the Republican National Committee just a couple of weeks ago, has a pretty tone-deaf sense of humor.

The campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee, former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party, and Bill Frist protegee sent out a real knee-slapper of a Christmas gift.

Saltsman on his “Barack the Magic Negro” CD: “I think RNC members understand.”

[Saltsman] said Friday the CD he sent committee members for Christmas — which included a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — was clearly intended as a joke.

“I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. “I think RNC members understand that.”

Chip’s got a point there.* RNC members probably totally get the joke. And that’s the problem.

According to The Hill, other song titles, some of which were in bold font, were: “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.”

Now we’re talking funny! I mean, jeez, I didn’t know he dissed all those Cuban Republicans who rule Miami and make up the backbone of Florida Republican fund-raising. I’m sure he’ll get their vote for RNC chair. Hey Chip, just ignore those humorless minority groups and keep on being exactly who you are. Democrats everywhere thank you.

* But if he combs his hair right and wears a hat, maybe no one will notice.

Don’t Ask Sherry Johnston for a “Cup of Coffee” — Bristol Palin’s Future Mother-in-Law Busted for Selling Drugs by Texting with Code Words

Trish

Sherry Johnston, last September

Bristol Palin’s future mother-in-law might not crowd around when her son’s baby is born. Sherry Johnston, mother of Levi, himself father of Sarah Palin’s first grandchild (maybe) is kind of busy these days. Grandma Johnston was busted in Wasilla last week on five counts of sale and possession of a controlled substance, namely Oxycontin.

Johnston text message: “There’s only so many times I can go for coffee a month. The rest of the time I need to have it at home!”

The amazing part is not that someone so close to Gov. Palin, the hero of the religious right, would be involved in drug trafficking. No, the mind-blowing thing is that she sold drugs during the presidential campaign, in some cases, with the Secret Service nearby.

“Hey Sherry, quit texting for a minute and come tell these reporters that your son really is going to marry our daughter.”

“OMG. BRB. L8R.”

The affidavit says she “did admit to selling her Oxycontin pills to (an informant). The affidavit, dated Dec. 22, details how troopers used two informants to collect evidence that Johnston sold OxyContin on Oct. 11, Oct. 22 and Nov. 26…

Trooper-supervised buys were set up by cell phone text messages and took place in Target and Fred Meyer parking lots. On each occasion, troopers charge, she got $800 for 10 pills. Troopers say that in the text messages, Johnston used the code words ”coffee” and ”cup” for OxyContin.

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All That Republicans Want for Christmas is a Good, Old-Fashioned Obamagate

Trish

Ed Kilgore, in his column at the Democratic Strategist, wonders why the mainstream media is trying so hard to link the pay-to-serve scandal for the Illinois senate seat to Barack Obama.

After all, every single indicator points to the lack of involvement by not only Obama, but all those who sought to replace him. That no one would attempt to buy the seat is what left Gov. Rod Blagojevich a-sputter in four-letter words. But does that keep such media outlets as Time magazine from running stories titled, Can Obama Escape the Taint of Blagojevich? Nah.

The basic media dynamic is to find some Republican to say it’s a problem for Obama, and thus they have a “story” manufactured out of thin air and partisan malice

…as BarbinMD shows at DailyKos today, none of this has kept political reporters from darkly suggesting that the Blago scandal is casting some sort of giant shadow on the Obama presidency. As she explains, the basic media dynamic is that reporters find some Republican to say it’s a problem for Obama, and thus they have a “story” manufactured out of thin air and partisan malice.

Maybe all this represents sheer journalistic laziness, or the cynical calculation of reporters who know they can get serious ink by linking two big stories–the juicy Blago scandal, and the Obama transition. Or maybe it’s a sign that some folk in the MSM, still smarting from endless claims that they are “in the tank” for Obama, want to prove otherwise by coming up with an “Obamagate” before the man has even taken office.

But at some point, it really needs to stop, or get derisively hooted off the front page and the evening news.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Crist in Europe Spent Like Palin in Bloomingdale’s

Trish
Crist and Palin: “Heck, it’s not our money!”

Charlie Crist’s travel bill is starting to look a lot like the tab for Sarah Palin’s wardrobe — it ain’t pretty.

You might recall us telling you last July about how the Republican Florida governor and his newly-announced fiancee jetted off to Europe under the guise of a trade mission. We thought the trip a bit of an extravagance, what with news reports at the time that Florida’s budget shortfalls would likely be much worse than previously anticipated.

We didn’t know the half of it. The bill to Florida taxpayers for Crist’s entourage was officially announced at $255,000 back then. Crist’s own travel was supposedly underwritten by business interests, not Florida residents. Now, thanks to an investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the invoice has been revealed to be closer to $430,000.

First, there’s who went on the 12-day spree: the governor, his fiancee, his fiancee’s sister (who is not a Florida resident), nine bodyguards, an official photographer, a spokesperson, and numerous lawyers, business people, and realtors. The Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell puts the list at six pages and 90-odd people. Maxwell also scrutinized the hotel bills.

Crist and Palin both spend too much time in tanning beds, have never passed a mirror they didn’t like, and believe public service means the bill always goes to someone else.

First of all, I’m thinking soon-to-be Mrs. Gov. Good Times was responsible for some of the drink bills. Because “minibar” receipts show someone (or some ones) in Crist’s room imbibed 14 times in Crist’s suite on the three-day stay in London.

Maxwell also questioned the need for so many bodyguards.

The bodyguards alone, split up among the four countries, spent more than $148,000. And keep in mind: We’re talking relatively safe places such as London and Paris…where people go to celebrate their anniversary. One can only imagine the bills if Charlie had gone to Baghdad.

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Rove Hawks Book by Threatening to Expose Bush-Haters. Huh?

Trish

The two chums, back in the day

All we can say is, Karl Rove must be writing a very long book.

The man widely credited with Bush’s two presidential victories says his new book will include an accounting of those in Washington who never accepted the president as a legitimate commander-in-chief.

“I’ve got behind-the-scenes episodes that are going to show how unreceiving they were of this man as president of the United States,” Rove told Cox News in an interview published Sunday. “I’m going to name names and show examples.”

I wonder if I’ll be in there. Having never met Karl Rove and not being in Washington, I doubt it, but you never know. If the White House’s domestic spying is as good as I think it is, I might have a shot.

Still, it seems like it would be an easier task to name the names of those who regarded Bush as legit, not the other way around. What would that be, maybe a dozen or so folks? Karl Rove, Jeff Gannon, Harriet Miers, um…maybe some of the members of the Bush cabinet? Wait, I doubt it. They, of all people, know what a doofus he truly is.

Bush and Rove Launch ‘Legacy’ Campaign to Rewrite History

Jon Ponder

On Tuesday, Stephen Hayes, a conservative columnist and analyst for CNN, revealed that George Bush and Karl Rove have launched a new propaganda campaign with the monumental goal of rewriting the history of the past eight years. The newspeak title of the enterprise is the “Bush legacy project.”

The campaign rolled out this week, first in an “exit interview” Bush gave Charlie Gibson of ABC News and then in an Oxford-style debate in Manhattan in which Rove argued against the proposition that “Bush 43 Is the Worst President of the Last 50 Years.” In the separate venues, both men attempted to reposition Bush’s role in the invasion of Iraq from resolute war president, as he depicted himself at the time, to a reluctant warrior who was misled by bad intelligence into making what many analysts rate as the worst military decision in U.S. history.

Bush was up first, on Monday night, with the interview with ABC’s Gibson, but notice how Bush whiffs on the revisionist script when he is supposed to second-guess the decision to invade:

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The Wedding Crashers: Gay Protest Planned for Florida Gov. Crist’s Nuptials

Trish

Bride-to-Be Carole Rome and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Florida newspapers are breathlessly covering the minutiae of the Dec. 12 “marriage” of Gov. Charlie Crist and socialite-divorcee-Halloween costume designer Carole Rome. It’s the second time around for both of them, she having been married to Bluestar Jets CEO Todd Rome, and Charlie spending seven months during 1979 in some type of legal entanglement. Crist is widely rumored to be gay.

Which brings us to the matter at hand. Until a few days ago, all that press coverage concerned who was (hardly anybody) and was not (most members of the legislature) invited to the 200-person ceremony, what the invitations looked like (cream and pale pink with a note reminding guests that by Florida law, no gifts can be accepted), where the wedding will be held (First United Methodist Church of St. Petersburg) and the reception (Renaissance Vinoy Resort), and what the bride and her two young daughters will wear (bride: silk, ruched bodice gown by a Spanish designer and three-inch heels; flower girls: cream-colored, floor-length dresses).

But here’s an element the happy couple can’t select: the ensembles for the protestors outside. Impact Florida is organizing a celebration of Crist’s so-called marriage, followed by a candlelight vigil for the thousands of gay people who don’t have the same opportunity to wed in Florida as do the governor and his fiancee.

We will be joining together in Pink Tee Shirts and bluejeans to congratulate Governor Crist on his wedding. The wedding is set to take place at the First Methodist Church in Downtown St. Pete.

After the positive Congratulatory observance. There will be a candlelight Vigil close to the Venoy in Downtown St. Pete to mourn the loss of Gays right to get married.

We ask people from all over Florida to join in at these events and that it is kept peaceful and respectful event.

Crist seemed to find the anti gay marriage amendment distasteful and claimed he had bigger fish to fry during the campaign, such as auditioning for the role of Sarah Palin before John McCain picked a running mate. That didn’t keep the governor from doing the mandatory Republican thing of supporting it.

“I’ll support it, I’ll vote for it, move on,” the governor said of the Amendment 2 gay-marriage ban in an interview during a trip to tour flood-damaged areas in Central Florida. “It’s not top-tier for me, put it that way.”

I wouldn’t think so. But Crist should get used to the idea that his personal life, which makes no sense no matter how hard he tries to live as a straight man, is relevant here. Impact Florida certainly thinks so.

“Our goal is to celebrate the governor’s and every Floridian’s fundamental right to marry,” said [spokeswoman Lorna] Bracewell, a singer and songwriter from St. Petersburg. “Our theme is going to be, Congratulations Governor – When I Can Get Married?”

Parting Shot: Bush Lifts Mining Ban That Protects Mountain Streams

Jon Ponder

George Bush’s trashing of America is not quite complete:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.

The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn’t been enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an increase of erosion and flooding.

The 11th hour change before President George W. Bush leaves office would eliminate a tool that citizens groups have used in lawsuits to keep mining waste out of streams. Mining companies had been pushing for the change for years.

It also means that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will have to decide whether to try to restore and enforce the rule, a process that could take many months of new rulemaking. Obama’s transition team declined to comment on its plans on Tuesday…

For now, however, the EPA’s approval means there are no further obstacles to the Office of Surface Mining’s plans to change the rule. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget approved it on Monday. The Department of Interior, which includes the mining office, plans to make the rule final in December after briefing members of Congress, and it will go into effect 30 days after that, said spokesman Peter Mali.

Hard to see what motivates this behavior other than greed and meanness.