The above is from Gingrich’s February 20 CPAC address.
The dude’s doing comedy again, like when he he pressured his wife for a divorce in 1981 while she was recovering from cancer surgery. She was Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, who he married when he was 19 years old.
Newt Gingrich: still crazy after all these years.
An online effort to draft Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Indiana’s Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is building up steam.
Twitter is abuzz with the rumor and three separate Facebook groups have been set up, with the largest boasting about 2,000 members.
Mellencamp is no stranger to politics. In 2008, he recorded a radio commercial supporting Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and requested that Republican candidate John McCain stop playing his songs, including "Our Country" and "Pink Houses," at his rallies.
I would certainly send him a donation.
They have got to be kidding.
No, they’re not.
Did the speakers at CPAC really think no one would take a picture of their teleprompters, especially when they were criticizing others for using teleprompters?
The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off this morning with several speakers chipping away at White House policy and why Democrats are bad for your health. Excessive riffing was done on Obama’s teleprompter addiction, but the twist is that the CPAC speakers were making such jokes … while using teleprompters.
Will there come a day when we will get substantive contributions from conservatives to our national dialogue? Or are they just good for the occasional clown show?
From our friends at Media Matters for America.
The vice chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Central Committee was arrested early Thursday morning for driving under the influence.
Andrew Nelms, 26, of the 32000 block of Pleasant Hill Road in Genoa, was arrested about 1:30 a.m., according to a news release from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were assisting a motorist whose vehicle was in a ditch on Somonauk Road south of Fairview Drive, according to the news release. Police arrested him for DUI and took him to the county jail.
Nelms posted $100 bond and his driver’s license, according to Lt. Joyce Klein at the DeKalb County Jail, who said that is the statutory bond for that charge. He was released from custody about 3:30 a.m.
Hello to a few years of lawyer fees, fees to the court, DUI classes, counseling, and more. And hopefully this never happens again.
Sean White wanted to call his signature trick the Tomahawk, after a steak he enjoyed. Plus, it sounds much cooler than the double McTwist 1260, which is honestly as hard to get off the tongue sometimes as it may be to land. Doesn’t matter what you call the trick, it is White’s to own.
The American captured the gold medal in men’s halfpipe with as impressive a performance as any since his 2006 victory in Turin. It was his second run in the final, 48.4, that did it. But his first run of 46.8 would have been enough.
Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen took silver and Scotty Lago of the United States won bronze.
And it was sweet.
Congrats.
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So, where are the People of Color at the tea parties?
Something about pots calling kettles something comes to mind here…
Sen. Christopher S. Bond regularly railed against President Obama’s economic stimulus plan as irresponsible spending that would drive up the national debt. But behind the scenes, the Missouri Republican quietly sought more than $50 million from a federal agency for two projects in his state.
Mr. Bond was not alone. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers, while denouncing the stimulus to the media and their constituents, privately sent letters to just one of the federal government’s many agencies seeking stimulus money for home-state pork projects.
The letters to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, expose the gulf between lawmakers’ public criticism of the overall stimulus package and their private lobbying for projects close to home.
“It’s not illegal to talk out of both sides of your mouth, but it does seem to be a level of dishonesty troubling to the American public,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Some in the GOP are working to steer money to their home states in a backhanded manner:
But the USDA letters also reveal a more discreet way for lawmakers to try to steer money to home-state projects.
Several Republicans who sent letters to the USDA for home-state projects seeking an infusion of stimulus cash are facing competitive re-election races.
Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican who became famous after yelling, “You lie,” during Mr. Obama’s addresses to Congress in September, voted against the stimulus. Nonetheless, Mr. Wilson elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash in a letter he sent to Mr. Vilsack on behalf of a foundation seeking funding.
“We know their endeavor will provide jobs and investment in one of the poorer sections of the Congressional District,” he wrote to Mr. Vilsack in the Aug. 26, 2009, letter.
So Joe “You lie!” Wilson knows the Democrats are on the right track, that their efforts will provide jobs. And that would be especially nice for Mr. Wilson around election time.
Imagine that.
Nod to Jed Lewison at the Daily Kos for this, and to Americablog for the original nod.
The mother of former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese continues to receive health care benefits from the town, even though coverage should have expired when she stepped down as a member of a town commission in 2001.
Kitty Loren, 88, who served on the town’s Police and Fire Commission for 10 years, said today that she is covered by the town and provided documents to the Tribune indicating she currently is in a plan for retirees over 65.
"Betty set up the insurance for me," said Loren at her home in Alabaster, Ala., today. "Nobody ever took it away from me. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to have it."
A town spokesman said the town does offer health care to individuals who serve on commissions and boards, but the coverage ends when their terms are completed.
The spokesman, Ray Hanania, said he "is concerned" and doesn’t know why Loren is getting insurance from the town but said he needs more time to look into the matter.
That’s one way to add to the tax levy.
Patronage never pays.
"Less talk, more action," might be a motto for President Obama’s approach to the two wars he inherited from President Bush.
The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.
The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder, and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.
It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials. Most immediately, they hope he will provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader.
Disclosure of Mullah Baradar’s capture came as American and Afghan forces were in the midst of a major offensive in southern Afghanistan.
No Mission Accomplished, for sure. But certainly a big move in Afghanistan.