Republicans!

[FOTD]

Ignore this website!

http://www.evilgopbastards.com/

[FOTD]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_deep__is__your_love

How Deep Is Your Love?
 
Republicans are up to their usual tricks -- questioning the patriotism of their opponents. The media, as usual, is playing along because it lauds political success, not virtue.  
 
Paul Waldman | May 6, 2008 | web only  
 


In September of 1988, the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush decided to demonstrate that their Connecticut Brahmin candidate was positively turgid with patriotism, particularly in comparison to his opponent (a guy with a name that was just too ethnic). So they sent Bush to a flag factory in Verona, New Jersey, where he lovingly fondled Old Glory for the cameras. To any reasonable observer, it was just too much. But Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, and the rest of the Bush brain trust didn't mind a bit of criticism. They made their point.

It was not the first time a Republican campaign made the argument that their candidate loved America like all good Americans do, while their opponent might not. And more and more, the current campaign, at least from the Republican side, is shaping up like pretty much like every other presidential campaign of the last forty years. You've got your lack of patriotism charges, your elitism charges, your race-baiting, your fear-mongering – all the carefully prepared dishes from the GOP campaign menu. The current target of the patriotism attacks is Barack Obama, but have no doubt that if Hillary Clinton is nominated these particular cannons will be quickly shifted in her direction -- you may have noticed that she does not wear a flag pin!

With a naïveté that might be charming if it did not have real consequences, many Democrats think that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain just has too much integrity to claim that his opponent is somehow less than truly American. Veteran Democratic consultant Jim Jordan, for instance, was quoted in Sunday's Washington Post speculating that John McCain might not "be the kind of man who would play this kind of dishonorable campaign against someone." But we don't have to wonder about whether McCain is too honorable to wield this attack, because he already has.

Like the man he wants to replace, McCain is implementing a strategy based on a division of labor. The most despicable lies (Obama was educated in a fundamentalist madrasah! He refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance!) circulate in anonymous emails and on right-wing websites (and rest assured, right now a team of conservative operatives is assembling a slander strike team on the model of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth). These lies are then blasted, in only slightly less insane form, from every instrument in the right-wing noise machine's marching band, including talk radio and Fox News (and the occasional nincompoop politician).

Finally, you have the candidate himself, who will not come right out and say the things his supporters are saying, but will find ways to cue discussions of his opponent's patriotism by dropping in subtle and not-so-subtle hints on the topic. McCain has already aired ads calling himself "the American president Americans have been waiting for," thereby suggesting that other candidates are either not Americans themselves, or might be the American president foreigners have been waiting for. He has also said, referring to Obama, "I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States." (A side note: given how good the Bush presidency has been for Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and pretty much every terrorist group on the planet, there can be little doubt that they'd be much happier with the guy who wants to stay in Iraq and generally continue the Bush foreign policy.)

So there's no need to wonder whether McCain's hand will be stayed by the conscience we have been led to believe lies somewhere within him. He flip-flopped on immigration, the Bush tax cuts, and ethanol because he wants to be president and he knows this is his last chance. He sucked up to repellent radical clerics like Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, and Rod Parsley for exactly the same reason. And if he thinks that attacking his opponent's patriotism is what will get him to the White House, he'll do that too.

You won't, of course, see anyone in the press condemn the Republican nominee for this, and not just because John McCain could strangle a puppy while taking a hit from a crack pipe, and David Broder and Chris Matthews would say it shows what a straight-talking maverick he is. No, the reason the press won't condemn it isn't because of their love for McCain, but because of their absolutely bottomless cynicism. No attack is considered too low, no tactic too unethical. The only question is whether it works. If it does, they will praise it; the only thing they condemn is political failure.

So the Democratic nominee will have to find novel ways to demonstrate his or her patriotism. But what would a president with insufficient patriotism look like? Other qualities we want in a president might be assessed for their relative quantity. Judgment, wisdom, foresight, morality -- of these, it would seem you can't have too much, and the more you've got the better. Yet we're supposed to believe that at some point, an adviser would say to President Obama, "Sir, this is what's best for America," at which he would finger his empty lapel and reply, "America? Eh."

Perhaps the general election debates should feature some sort of patriotism-off, in which the two candidates engage in a competition to prove the depths of their love for this great land of ours. Renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" could be compared, with extra points given if the candidate cries actual tears. Candidates would then be given a blue towel, a white towel, and a single sewing needle; first one to produce a proper flag, using his or her own blood to dye the red stripes wins. That covers the "American Idol" and "Project Runway" portions of the competition -- don't ask about the dancing.

If the primary debates are any measure, what we'll see in the general election may not be much more edifying, so long as the agenda is being set by the collection of bottom-feeders that populate our press corps (to take just one recent example, when Obama appeared on last Sunday's "Meet the Press," Tim Russert spent the first fifteen minutes asking him question after question about Jeremiah Wright, as though there could possibly be anything more to say on the subject). Again and again, the "issue" of flag pins and the location of hands relative to hearts will be solemnly raised, all justified by the fact that the lamest and most dishonest attacks are "out there." None of it will have anything to do with what the next holder of the world's most powerful post will actually do once reaching office.

But of course, that isn't really the point. Republicans don't raise these attacks every four years because they truly believe that their exists some real relationship between a president's degree of patriotic fervor and the good he'll do for America. Instead, it's one more way of arguing that the Democratic candidate isn't "one of us," that he stands outside the circle of our tribe. He doesn't share our values, he doesn't speak our language, he doesn't love what we love and hate whom we hate.

And there's one more reason they'll be making these attacks, just as they did in the last election, and the one before that, and the ones before that: because it works.

Ha Ha .... How deep is YOUR love?

[FOTD]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10238.html

Politico: GOP getting crushed in polls, key races

John McCain is planning to run as a different kind of Republican. But being any kind of Republican seems like some sort of death sentence these days.

In case you've been too consumed by the Democratic race to notice, Republicans are getting crushed in historic ways both at the polls and in the polls.

At the polls, it has been a massacre. In recent weeks, Republicans have lost a Louisiana House seat they had held for more than two decades and an Illinois House seat they had held for more than three. Internal polls show that next week they could lose a Mississippi House seat that they have held for 13 years.

In the polls, they are setting records (and not the good kind). The most recent Gallup Poll has 67 percent of voters disapproving of President Bush; those numbers are worse than Richard Nixon's on the eve of his resignation. A CBS News poll taken at the end of April found only 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the GOP — the lowest since CBS started asking the question more than two decades ago. By comparison, 52 percent of the public has a favorable view of the Democratic Party.

Things are so bad that many people don't even want to call themselves Republicans. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has found the lowest percentage of self-described Republicans in 16 years of polling.

"The anti-Republican mood is fairly big, and it has been overwhelming," said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis.

With an environment so toxic, does McCain have even a chance of winning in November?

See Also
Limbaugh: 'My impact will increase'
Under Clinton's rules, Obama still wins
Why the Obama-Clinton ticket is nuts
The McCain camp thinks so — but only if he sands down the "R" next to his name. "Nobody ever gets elected president by running on their party label," said Charlie Black, a senior McCain adviser. "The character, the qualities, the independence — that certainly allows him to rise over the party label. It is more important than usual to rise above the party label."

This statement seems a little at odds with the current McCain strategy. The presumptive GOP nominee has spent much of the recent campaign fastening himself to the traditional Republican brand and even to Bush himself. McCain's views on the war, the overall economy (especially supporting the Bush tax cuts he previously opposed), the mortgage crisis and judicial appointments are hardly the stuff of a new kind of Republicanism.

McCain risks looking inauthentic and conventional to both camps if he simply solidifies his standing with conservatives and then races back to the middle to appeal to swing voters.

For now, Republicans are heartened by how well McCain sometimes does in head-to-head polling with Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee. But it's silly to watch those numbers: They fluctuate and reflect nothing more than momentary feelings about the candidates, and they come at a time when public attention is fixed on the final rounds of the Democratic slugfest.


Right now, most voters with any familiarity with McCain probably know him as a war hero, somewhat of a maverick in the Senate and a pretty affable candidate. Let's see how they view McCain after Democrats use their decisive money advantage to paint him as a much-older Bush clone who loves an unpopular war and knows little about the economy.
Democrats provided us a look at their polling data from 17 swing states — data they're using to craft new attacks on McCain as Bush 44. The Democratic National Committee polling, according to a memo it provided, has two-thirds of swing voters expecting McCain to pursue policies very similar to Bush's. The voters' top three concerns about McCain: his age, his support for the war and his similarities to Bush.

The latest DNC ad ties two of the three together, slamming McCain over the war and showing a picture of him embracing Bush. Lots more to come on that front, DNC officials said. The DNC will leave the age issue alone for now.

Many top Republicans seem heartened by Obama's likely victory on the Democratic side. They say they're confident Obama will pay a big price for his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the persistent questions about his patriotism and his inability to connect with working-class whites in swing states.

These are all big problems for Obama. But he will have a massive cash advantage when it comes time to fight back, and the Republican National Committee's fundraising edge over the DNC won't be enough to overcome it. Consider this fact: Since the beginning of last year, Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the DNC have raised $460 million total — about $200 million more than what McCain, Mitt Romney and the RNC raised together in the same time span.

Rich liberals operating outside the traditional fundraising structure are also in private talks to vastly outspend the GOP on issue ads and voter mobilization efforts.

Still, McCain's biggest problem is the toxic political atmosphere for his party.

It's so toxic, some Republicans are pointing to 1976 as a favorable historical comparison. That was the year Gerald Ford ran in the dark shadows of Watergate and lost to Jimmy Carter. Says Dick Wadhams, the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party: "When voters really homed in on the choice between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and what each stood for, Gerald Ford almost won the election despite this horrible environment."

[FOTD]

Tax Free yachts brought to you by those left coast Repugs!

The California Republican Party's answer to a $20 billion budget deficit?
Tax loopholes for yacht owners.
Watch our new ad and sign up for Courage Campaign updates on the "Yacht Party"


Q: What is the "Yacht Party"?

What else would you call the California Republicans who decided to support an appalling tax loophole for yacht purchasers while our state is facing a massive
$20 billion budget deficit and teachers are getting pink slips?  The Republicans earned this new brand.  Credit California bloggers for this good piece of snark.

Q: How does this yacht tax loophole work?

Say you live in California and you just can't live without a new yacht. So you buy one.  If you want to stiff the state on your sales tax, you simply stash the boat
out of the state for 90 days.  Poof, you don't have to pay your taxes like the rest
of us.  Nice, eh?

Q: Why does the yacht tax loophole (sloophole) matter?

If we close this loophole, the state would bring in about $26 million. It is a relatively small sum given how massive the budget deficit is, but with our
economy in free-fall and schools and parks being closed, every dollar counts.  

We shouldn't be protecting the personal profits of yacht and private jet
purchasers when California's future is in jeopardy.  Not to mention that the state and its workers are losing out on any renovation work these new owners want done to their new boats, which is now done out of the state, or country.

Q: Why didn't the Republicans repeal it?

Beats the heck out of us.  They had two chances to repeal it in the Assembly (on February 15th & 19th) and the members either "took a walk" or voted against repealing the loophole.  The California Constitution requires a 2/3rds majority vote to our change taxes.  That means we need a few Republicans to do the right thing.  With California facing a catastrophic budget crisis, they failed to repeal this outrageous loophole.

Q: Why not the "Yacht & Private Jet Party"?

This loophole covers both airplane and yacht owners, but really it is much more fun to just call them the "Yacht Party," don't you think?

Q: How can I help you air this ad on TV?

Click here to contribute and help us brand the Republicans as the "Yacht Party".  It sure is a lot snappier than "Grand Old Party" (GOP).

Q: How else can I help?

Sign-up below to get more information from the Courage Campaign as we continue to work to change the conversation in Sacramento and make 2008 a new era for progressive politics.


http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/yachtparty

[TeeDub]

Can you please use some bizarre color choices to go along with all your random font sizes.

[FOTD]

It's painful. I know.

[FOTD]

You Might Be A Democrat If...
•   You own something that says, "Dukakis for
President, " and still display it.
•   You've ever said, "We really should call the ACLU
about this."
•   You believe that a few hundred loggers can find
another career, but the defenseless spotted owl must live in its preferred tree.
•   You ever based an argument on the phrase, "But
they can afford a tax hike because..."
•   You keep count of how many people you know in each
racial or ethnic category.
•   You believe our government must do it because everyone
in Europe does.
•   You can't talk about foreign policy without using the
word conspiracy.
•   You think Ralph Nader makes a lot of sense.
•   You don't understand why anyone was bothered by
Jane's trip to Hanoi.
•   You think solar energy is being held back by those
greedy oil companies.
•   You've never been mugged.
•   You actually expect to collect Social Security.
•   You think the State of Florida should have tried to
reform Ted Bundy.
•   You think the Great Society has actually worked.
•   You don't see the similarity between WONK and WANK.
•   You got teary-eyed during the film "The American
President."
•   You think Ayn Rand is an African currency.
•   Your house smells like a garbage dump because of your
commitment to recycling.
•   You think political patronage describes the Kennedy
family.
•   Your High School Year Book goals included the words
"help people."
•   You think the Free Market is where they hand out
Government cheese.
•   You think Carter should be on Mt. Rushmore.
•   You believe personal injury lawyers when they say
they are just trying to defend the little guy.
•   You know that those profit mongering drug companies
could find a cure for AIDS if they really wanted to.
•   You actually believe the NY Times and Washington
Post.
•   You know at least one Vegan.
•   You trust Teddy Kennedy when he said that she was
driving.
•   You'd rather own Birkenstock than Merck Stock.
•   You think public housing is great, but just NIMBY.
•   You think the anti-war protestors from '60s are the
real heroes.
•   You think that Supply Side Economics refers to your
dope dealer's stash.
•   You think Michael Jackson is a great example of
diversity.
•   You actually think that poverty can be abolished.
•   You think that Joan Baez had something to say.
•   You admire the Swedish welfare system.
•   You know that Jefferson really meant to say
"Entitled to Happiness."
•   You think the Flat Tax should be at 95%
•   You go to Gay Pride Day parades so that no one can
call you homophobic.
•   After looking at your pay stub you can still say,
"America is undertaxed."

[FOTD]

NO? CAN THIS BE?

Republicans fear public has lost confidence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-14-gopfallout_N.htm

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Republicans must regain the confidence of Americans and recast their message to voters to avoid a catastrophe in the fall congressional elections, top GOP officials said Wednesday in a stark postmortem of a loss in rural Mississippi.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi — after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana — was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party."


Mississippi: Dem wins House seat in special election

"What we've got right now is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence by the American people to do what we say we're going to do," Cole said in a conference call with reporters.

He said, "When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong with your product?"

Cole did not elaborate on potential defects, but Democrats had a ready answer.

"The Republican message is 'no, veto, and status quo,' " said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said Republicans couldn't win in Mississippi even though they poured $1 million into the race, sent Vice President Cheney to campaign and tried to link Democratic candidate Travis Childers to the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's former pastor.

Obama mentioned Childers' victory in a speech in Michigan. "This is a hard-core Republican seat, and they lost it by 8 points. They did everything they could. They ran ads with my face on it."

In a memo to GOP leaders posted on Politico's website, retiring Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., offered a blunt verdict: "The Republican brand is in the trash can. ... If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

"This is as bad as it gets for any party," said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, which tracks each race. "I've never seen a more defeated tone." Nevertheless, Wasserman said, his analysis shows the Democrats will pick up far fewer districts than they did in the 2006 election, when they gained 31 seats. He estimates the Democrats will gain five to 10 seats in the fall. "Democrats won most of the low-hanging fruit in 2006," he said.

Democratic leaders, not surprisingly, have a different view. They hope to capitalize on their winning formula in Mississippi and Louisiana, where their candidates' cultural conservatism played well.

"This clearly is a sign that there is no congressional district that is safe for Republican candidates who are following in the Bush shadow," said Van Hollen, whose committee has $44.3 million on hand, compared with $7.2 million for Cole's National Republican Congressional Committee.

Davis called the atmosphere for House Republicans "the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006."

House Republicans met with Cole in the Capitol to sift through the ashes of defeat in Mississippi's 1st District, which became vacant when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to the Senate to replace retiring Republican Trent Lott. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the result "a wake-up call." But there is no consensus on how to fix it.

Former speaker Newt Gingrich has urged House Republicans to come out with a series of dramatic proposals, including a moratorium on congressionally directed spending items known as earmarks. His ideas were not widely embraced.

Boehner is rolling out an "American Families Agenda" this week focusing on national security, tax cuts, balancing the budget and boosting domestic oil production.


The sleepy people.....well, they'll wake up Nov. 5th and figure out all their redistricting and gerrymandering backfired because they never thought in a million years a black man would lead %95 of black voters to the booths and nullify their plans of erradicating the African American sector where only %35 normally vote.

Just like the war, the economy, the environment, and justice, they know not the right way to accomplish much good. Failed policies and nothing short of fear mongering make bipartisanship unlikely.

The world we live in is filled with enemies. A hysterical diatribe is inapropriate. Avenues of communication must be maintained. The republicans better wake up and ditch their current dirt. They need to learn to follow the will of the people.

[FOTD]

Gonna be many Repugnant losers come fall..... many die hards at TulsaNow seem to have jumped ship already.


Contests for Senate Signal Big Trouble for GOP
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/331699

"As it turns out, a review of polling data from around the country makes it obvious that a lot more than three seats could fall to the Democrats. "

Just breaks my heart....

[Conan71]

With Congress' approval rating at about 12%, I'm surprised ANY incumbents would be doing well in the polls.  Pelosi and Reid have been nothing but impotent blow-hards, not any better than what they replaced.

No one in DC seems to care anymore.  That is what's disappointing.  

[YoungTulsan]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

With Congress' approval rating at about 12%, I'm surprised ANY incumbents would be doing well in the polls.  Pelosi and Reid have been nothing but impotent blow-hards, not any better than what they replaced.

No one in DC seems to care anymore.  That is what's disappointing.  

People just hate the other 434 Representatives and 98 Senators that DON'T represent them.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by YoungTulsan

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

With Congress' approval rating at about 12%, I'm surprised ANY incumbents would be doing well in the polls.  Pelosi and Reid have been nothing but impotent blow-hards, not any better than what they replaced.

No one in DC seems to care anymore.  That is what's disappointing.  

People just hate the other 434 Representatives and 98 Senators that DON'T represent them.

Now that's classic.  Spot on as usual, YT.

[FOTD]

Jane Pauley's hubby NAILS IT again!!!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3571364

Millard Fillmore sux....

[Breadburner]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

With Congress' approval rating at about 12%, I'm surprised ANY incumbents would be doing well in the polls.  Pelosi and Reid have been nothing but impotent blow-hards, not any better than what they replaced.

No one in DC seems to care anymore.  That is what's disappointing.  

It's in the single digits now.....heh...

[cannon_fodder]

The Democratic Congress has a lower approval rating than the President?  That's bad.

I'm not really partisan, I think they are mostly all bums.  Certainly when they get together they are.  The low approval ratings are well deserved on both accounts.