Category: Elections

The “Responsible Democrat”

Once Upon A Time has a very good take on what it means to the right when the left capitulates and folds:

If you believe the United States has the “right” to take “offensive military action against Iran” — that is, against a nation that does not threaten us now and will not threaten us for years to come, if ever — and if you believe, in the event we do launch an unprovoked, non-defensive attack on Iran, which is to say, if we commit another monstrous war crime, that it would be nice, but hardly necessary, “if the rest of the world saw it as a position of last resort”; and

If you think the United States should still have troops in Iraq at the end of your second term as president, which is to say, at least through the end of 2016 — which is, of course, the view of the entrenched foreign policy establishment that believes in a foreign policy of aggressive, neverending global interventionism maintained by an empire of military bases around the world, all to guarantee American hegemony….

Reminds me of Jeff Foxworthy, “You could be a redneck.”

Hillary right now tops the Democratic charts, and apparently has some appeal to the right.  But at what cost?


And The Field Narrows

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has dropped out of his race for the White House.  According to the AP:

The campaign statement said Thompson intends to take some time off before returning to the private sector and his nonprofit work.The 65-year-old said he’s comforted by the fact that he thinks he made a difference for people during his campaign.

He finished sixth among 11 candidates in this weekend’s GOP straw poll in Iowa, garnering a disappointing 7 percent of the vote. He had said before the Iowa event that he would drop out of the race unless he finished first or second.

The statement didn’t say whether he would endorse another candidate.

The Republican field thins out by one.


G.O.P. Afraid of You(Tube)

Time Magazine is reporting that key G.O.P. presidential candidates are suddenly finding scheduling conflicts and other excuses to back out of the September 17 YouTube debate on CNN.  From Friday’s story in Time:

The Rudy Giuliani campaign has cited scheduling conflicts in saying it will skip the Republican version of this week’s Democratic debate, while Mitt Romney has mocked the seriousness of the questions and also seems likely to withdraw. John McCain, one of two candidates who had agreed to participate (Ron Paul is the other), has also expressed doubts about the Democratic debate’s level of decorum and aides say he may reconsider his commitment. Undeclared candidate Fred Thompson may still not officially be in the race by the event’s Sept. 17 airdate.

The Republicans’ sudden aversion has political observers wondering whether abandoning an opportunity to participate in the fledging format shows a potentially costly reluctance to engage with voters or is simply an exercise in prudent message management.

Are the Republicans afraid of facing real voters?  Skating through the presidential campaign while only answering carefully scripted, carefully crafted and negotiated questions in debates with  pre-screened audiences?

That seems likely, although the Republicans will try to spin this differently.


Obama v. Clinton: The Case of “He Said, She Said”

Oh, no. It was bound to happen. Here we are just taking ourselves a bit too seriously. Yes, it’s an election, but Hillary and Barack are having at it, tearing each other apart. Barack isn’t yet the seasoned campaigner Hillary Clinton is. He’s tremenous, don’t get me wrong, but he his competition caved in more ways than one on his way to the U.S. Senate.

This week was just all about poor manners, and an over-hyped exchange between the two Democratic powerhouses that left both sides looking weak. From the Washington Post:

A debate moment that might have quickly come and gone has erupted into the sharpest battle of the Democratic nominating contest, with Sen. Barack Obama yesterday comparing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s position on meeting with the leaders of hostile states to the adamant refusal of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

“You’ll have to ask Senator Clinton what differentiates her position from theirs,” Obama challenged reporters on a conference call, stoking a fire ignited four days earlier when both were asked how they would approach countries such as North Korea and Iran if elected president.

Clinton waited a few hours, then shot back. “Whatever happened to the politics of hope?” she said in an interview with CNN, sarcastically referring to the Obama campaign theme.

Yes, Obama pledged to “run a different kind of campaign.” And he did, up to now.

During his run for the Senate against Republican Jack Ryan, the word among campaign insiders is that Barack knew full well of the dirty laundry shared between Jack and former wife Jeri Ryan. To his credit, Barack did not use that information during his campaign. Yes, dirty laundry like this:

The court filings by Jeri Ryan revealed that she claimed that her husband had taken her to sex clubs in New Orleans, New York City, and Paris, where he had begged her to perform sex acts with him in front of other attendees of the clubs. Jeri Ryan described one as “a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.

Barack stayed away from that, and really did “run a different kind of campaign,” much to his credit. This time, everybody’s getting dirty. We really don’t want to see that happen again. I hope these two grow up and start acting like adults. We have too many spoiled children running around the White House right now. The Democrats need to step away from all that foolishness.


Don’t Know Who Will Win, But These Dems Sound Like Fun

I don’t know who will win the next presidential election. Don’t waste my time with such trivia. Prefer to work my ass off up to and including election day, and then kick back with some friends, count the votes, and hope like Hell.

But these Democrats sound like fun.

What Republican presidential candidate would open his white-male-conservative-Christian self up to a wide-open debate as the Dems did tonight. From the Associated Press via Yahoo News:

“Wassup?” came the first question, from a voter named Zach, after another, named Chris, opened the CNN-YouTube debate with a barb aimed at the entire eight-candidate field: “Can you as politicians … actually answer questions rather than beat around the bush?”

The answer was a qualified yes. The candidates faced a slew of blunt questions — from earnest to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, responded in kind.

To Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois: Are you black enough? “You know, when I’m catching a cab in Manhattan … in the past, I think I’ve given my credentials,” he replied.

To Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York: Are you feminine enough? “I couldn’t run as anything other than a woman,” she said.

Her answer drew a challenge from former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who said he was the best advocate for women among the contenders. “I have the strongest, boldest ideas,” he said.

Posing a question that few, if any, of the candidates had fielded before, one voter asked whether young women should register with the Selective Service, as do young men in case the draft is reinstated. Clinton, Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said yes.

The debate featured questions submitted to the online video community YouTube and screened by the all-news cable TV network. A talking snowman, two rednecks and a woman speaking from her bathroom were among the odd, Internet-age twists to the oldest forum in politics — a debate.

A Clio, Mich., man named Jered asked about gun control while brandishing an automatic weapon.

“He needs help,” Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware snapped.

When was the last time a presidential candidate was forced to promise to work at minimum wage? That is effectively what happened when a voter asked whether the candidates would serve four years at $5.85 an hour rather than the president’s annual $400,000 salary.

“Sure,” replied Clinton.

Sounds like a blast. One of these guys or gals deserves to win just agreeing to this format. Contrast that with “W” and his staged town hall meetings and noticeable lack of press conferences.

Can’t wait ’till you’re gone, George. George? Sorry. Think I’ll call you, “Prezzy.” Can’t wait ’till you’re gone, Prezzy. This country is long overdue for a President.


Looking Twice at John Edwards

I admit I didn’t really consider John Edwards much when he ran for President the first time.  I thought he was making his move too soon.  As John Kerry’s running mate, however, he impressed me far more than did Kerry.  Edwards may be well off, but he didn’t flaunt it during the campaign.  He actually appeared, and appears now, to be down to earth.

Enter Elizabeth Edwards.

Again, first time around, I didn’t notice her that much at all.  I was too preoccupied defending Kerry from the absurdly weird Swift Boat people.  But Elizabeth is someone I want to get to know more.

From our friends at Salon.com:

At the end of June she won the nation’s attention — and the gratitude of many — for confronting right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter live on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” after Coulter called John Edwards a “faggot” at a conservative conference in March, and joked in June about wishing he’d be assassinated. Since then she has been in San Francisco twice campaigning for gay rights, keynoting before the annual gay pride march in June and addressing the Human Rights Campaign’s awards dinner on July 14. And where her husband, like the other leading Democrats in the presidential race, supports civil unions but balks at gay marriage, Elizabeth Edwards has come out behind full marriage rights.

Wow.  And she understands her husband for only making it up to civil unions:

Well, I think it’s a struggle for him, having grown up in a Southern Baptist church where it was pounded into him. I was raised a Methodist in military churches. Poverty was talked about; I don’t remember homosexuality ever being mentioned. And I don’t think that Christians who aren’t engaged in a political campaign ever talk about it. They talk about poverty and other issues talked about in the Bible. But in churches, in political season, there’s plenty of ginning up this issue.

The rest of the interview is equally spectacular.  Asked if she expected criticism for working on John’s campaign in spite of her health, her answer is brilliant:

I had no idea I’d get that kind of criticism. But you know, people who’ve been in this situation haven’t criticized me. And the people who haven’t — I just hope they never go through it. And it got worse after [the] Coulter [incident]. Well, we were talking about home-schooling the kids anyway, before I got sick. John’s gone all the time, I’m gone a lot, and it was going to be the only way for us to be together as a family.

But you know, after all I’ve been through, I realize: You don’t know exactly what life lessons you taught your kids until much later. You don’t. And maybe the most important life lesson for them is for me to say, When bad things happen, you don’t let them take you down. If I hadn’t continued to campaign, I’d be sending the opposite message: When bad things happen, go hide. Do I know with absolute certainty we’re doing the right thing? I don’t. Having been through what I’ve been through, I hope people trust I wouldn’t risk my relationship with my children. I think this is the right choice.

Mrs. Edwards, if you come across this, my hat is off to you.  I’ll be paying more attention to John now.  Much more.


We Need The Democrats Now — Not In Two Years

The Washington Times is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has refocused his antiwar crusade as his and Congress’ job-approval ratings plummet to all-time lows. The story continues:

Mr. Reid began the week Monday by vowing to “push very, very hard” for troop withdrawal from Iraq in a Defense Department budget authorization bill in two weeks.
The next day — as the Senate began work on the energy bill and tried to revive immigration legislation — the Nevada Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California sent a letter to the White House imploring the president to heed the Democrat-led Congress’ call for a pullout.
That same day, Mr. Reid railed against the war and U.S. military leaders in a conference call with a group of liberal bloggers.

Well, hats off to these so-called “liberal bloggers.” Everybody and a some day grandmother is running for President of the United States right now. Yes, it’s nice to see Barack Obama testing the waters so early, and it would be very nice if he was successful. I’m glad that Hillary Clinton is running for president, and, while I give the edge to Barack, I would not be at all disappointed to see her measuring for curtains some day in the Oval Office.

The Republicans have demonstrated a profound limp wrist in running this country and defending her properly. This preemptive war with Iraq that is not officially a war has ruined us. We may be more vulnerable now than we’ve ever been before. Which is exactly why we need leadership from the Democratic Party now — not in two years after everyone has battled it out, we regain the White House, and then try to start working together again as a party.

Enough is enough, already. While Joe and Christopher and Hillary and Barack and John and Mike and Dennis and Bill spend millions flying around the United States, taking people out to dinner, searching for just the right song, or making sure their hair is perfect. Meanwhile, we fall deeper into the crevasse that is Iraq — and the Party-Boy-Who-Would-Be-President prepares to turn the guns on Iran.

So, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Mike Gravel, Senator Christopher Dodd, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich — WE NEED YOU NOW. We need your voices to stop this madness right now. The trouble with all of you running for president is that, while you run, more people are dying, our national economy is tanking. The problem is all of you are trying to find incredibly unique solutions to our national crisis, and you are not working IN CONGRESS. We need you to work together, collaborate, right now, and quit trying to save the world — and your own political careers — by yourself.

The people of the United States of America need you all to stand together right now.

Get off your damned high horses already and start working together to find solutions for things that cannot be solved by one person now. Two years hence may already be too late.


Kerry Apologizes. Boehner pulls, well…, a Boehner

John Kerry apologized today for his “botched joke” today. All that fuss because he left out the word “us” from his planned speech:

I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.”

That was the planned statement, and he’s said it many times in previous speeches. This time, however, he botched it.

U.S. Newswire reports that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid released the following statement on House Majority Leader John Boehner’s decision to blame the troops for Republican failures in Iraq.

“John Boehner ought to be ashamed. He’s blaming our troops for failures in Iraq. If he wants to cast blame, he can start by looking in the mirror because he and his Congressional Republican colleagues have rubberstamped the Bush Administration’s failed policy for nearly four years. Our troops in Iraq have performed bravely. It’s political leaders like Congressman Boehner and Donald Rumsfeld, who have failed. I expect President Bush and Congressional Republicans, who demanded John Kerry apologize, hold their own party’s majority leader to a much higher standard. There’s no spinning his disparaging comments. He made them. He needs to apologize.”

The remarks?

House Majority Leader John Boehner: Wolf, I understand that, but let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.

Wolf Blitzer: But he’s in charge of the military.

House Majority Leader John Boehner: But the fact is the generals on the ground are in charge and he works closely with them and the president.

Boehner should be House Majority Leader for a few more days. After that, well, let’s see what happens Tuesday.

In the meantime, since Republicans are always poised to “Swift boat” Democrats for every grammatical error, let’s not forget the education president, father of No Child Left Behind, and enjoy these priceless gems from U.S. Commander in Chief, the POTUS himself, George W. Bush:

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George Bush at signing of defense appropriations bill, August 5, 2004

“I mean, if you’ve ever been a governor of a state, you understand the vast potential of broadband technology, you understand how hard it is to make sure that physics, for example, is taught in every classroom in the state. It’s difficult to do. It’s, like, cost-prohibitive.”

Washington, D.C., June 24, 2004

“I’m honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.”

Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004

“The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”

Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

And, perhaps the greatest testimony to his presidency:

“I’m the master of low expectations.”

Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

What a country.


Judges Contribute to GOP

Salon.com reports that at least two dozen federal judges appointed by President Bush since 2001 made political contributions to key Republicans or to the president himself while under consideration for their judgeships, government records show. A four month study by the Center for Investigative Reporting finds that 6 appellate court judges and 18 district court judges contributed a total of $44,000 to pols who were influential in their appointments.

The entire report is very revealing:

CIR’s investigation analyzed the campaign contributions of 249 judges who were appointed by President Bush to U.S. District and Circuit courts around the country. While some judges did not give contributions at all in the years leading up to their appointments, others continued to make political donations while their nominations were pending in the Senate.

There are no laws forbidding such contributions. The official Code of Conduct for United States Judges does prohibit political contributions by sitting federal judges.? It does not address donations made by judicial candidates seeking appointment.? However, it can certainly appear unethical.