To be brutally honest, I am in no mood to blog today. Consider this an open thread.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 48 Comments
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.
Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.
This fight is for everything.
I really should read my own blog.
Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.
Let’s finish the job.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
Usually wrong but never in doubt
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?
Good lord, these people are nuts.
They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?
When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.
“woke” is the new caravan.
I was promised a recession.
We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.
Brian
I wonder if John’s going to live-blog the Super Bowl. Speaking of the SB, does anyone have a handle on the odds? I’m pulling for Seattle, only because they’re going the the Big Game for the first time, and because I’m a west-coaster.
Speaking of Big Game (although in this context, the hunting kind), did anyone see DNC DEan on Fox News Sunday, setting himself up for a trap with Chris Wallace? The shit’s gonna fly this week as “proof” comes out that Dem’s got payoffs directly from Abramoff, and/or got indirect money that affected their voting in favor of those interests. Dean said that there’s direct proof of the GOP doing this, but not the Dem’s. “This is a GOP scandal!!” Chris asked him if similar proof could be found on the Dem’s, would he change his tune? Of course, Dean had no choice at that point but to say “yes”.
Rove’s people are very busy at this moment. I love Dean. He keeps stepping on his dick, and acting like a boomerang that cuts the Democrats to pieces.
Bruce Moomaw
That diet is obviously having its effect. Sometime read S.J. Perelman’s account of his own experience with a 9-day diet (which he abandoned after 3 days). There are some things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Good for Dean. If the Dems are going to portray themselves as the party of integrity, they can’t shy away from ridding themselves of the tainted. If he had said ‘no’ to Wallace’s question, wouldn’t that make him a hypocrite?
Par R
GO SEATTLE!!
I see that over at the atrios site, Tiny Meat is all in a dither because the NYT didn’t fake their poll data even more and hit Bush harder; he writes in his best faux Andrew Sullivan mode: “I’m getting very tired of New York Times journalists writing about Bush’s rebounding support without evidence.” One can almost envision Tiny Meat stamping his feet while he was typing that sentence. He might want to visit Rasmussen’s site, wherein he will find Bush favorability numbers at 48% as of Saturday, nearing their highest levels in months.
chopper
i think that’s the most brutally honest thing i’ve ever read.
Brian
Yes, it would have made him a hypocrite, but that isn’t the point. The point is that the Dem’s are captive to lobbyists in measure proportionate to their power. Trying to paint a picture that the Left is not tainted is a fool’s errand. But Dean’s happy to play the fool.
His two main points are that the Left is clean, and that the Dem’s are drafting legislation to clean up Washnington. (If you’re clean, why clean up yourself? But I digress.) The first point will be demonstrated to be false, and pronto; the other point will be seen as Dem’s drafting new legislation that will give all politicians new rules that will allow them to do more of the same.
“Clean up Washington”, my ass. Dean and his ilk couldn’t clean a toilet with their tongue.
Brian
I’m heading over to Atrios. Par R has captured my interest in what’s happening there.
Paddy O'Shea
Is Saddam Hussein a Bush Conservative?
Let’s look at the facts:
1) Saddam Hussein led his country into a disastrous oil war. So did George W. Bush.
2) Saddam tortured prisoners, some to death. Many suspect George Bush of continuing to do exactly that.
3) They both shook hands with Donald Rumsfeld.
4) Saddam obsessively spied on millions of his own countrymen. Bush continues to do the same.
5) Both certainly seem to be spending a lot of time lately defending their actions while in office.
And then there’s the sartorial thing, you know, both liking to affect a martial bearing by wearing the clothes of the military.
Mac Buckets
John, I think the NFL open week is a good time to look back:
Have you ever been so happy to be wrong?
Steve
I love how Brian takes it as an article of faith that Abramoff, as partisan a Republican as there ever was, surely must have bribed Democrats too, “in equal proportion to their power.”
Keep waiting for that mythical “proof” to come out – maybe it’s in the same drawer as the Iraqi WMDs.
Have you ever heard of the K Street Project?
Paddy O'Shea
Lots of people seem to be entertaining a lot of “lameduck” nonsense about George W. Bush lately.
But obviously they have forgotten all about his stunning recent electoral successes!
1) The strong showing by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
2) The victory won by the pro-Iran Shi’ite Islamists in Iraq.
3) The stunning and completely unexpected (at least by the intelligence-challenged Bush admin) win by Hamas in Palastine.
4) Hezbollah’s recent victory in Lebanon.
George W. Bush said that when elections come to Islamic countries freedom will be the result. And as we all know, President Bush is ALWAYS right!
Will
Why are there no posts filed under “Democratic Stupidity” on the front page? I think it’s high time John finally admit what everyone else already knows.
Otto Man
It’s true. Just like when James Carville offered his strategic services to the Republicans in the 1990s “in equal proportion to their power.”
ppGaz
Who was able to see Bill Frist on MTP this morning?
It was a facinating 30 minutes of television. Tim Russert did an uncharacteristically good job of asking tough, well-crafted and well-researched questions.
But Frist was the star of the show. Every answer, every phrase, every sentence, every constructed thought, was a lie, a complete and utter fabrication and deflection from the truth. It was a performance worthy of an Academy Award. Watch the show on MSNBC streaming video … and pay attention to Frist’s facial expressions as he explains how the NSA wiretaps are okay, and why he “diagnosed” Terri Schiavo by watching a video tape.
Then, pay attention to what was going on under the table … literally, below the round table at which Russert and his victim are sitting. Frist looked electrified from the waist down, his legs and feet doing a bizarre gymnast’s routine down there, especially when talking about his HCA stock and the “blind trust” transactions that are the subject of inquiry.
Watch it, and learn. Learn how completely and utterly and absolutely a politician can lie and lie and lie again.
Amazing, classic, and depressing. You are watching the practiced dissembling and deceptions of a man who is a powerful figure in your government. Sobering.
ppGaz
What a fucking idiot you are. The same thing happened last week on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, save for the gratuitous question. Blitzer, like Wallace, knows that there is no evidence linking Abramoff to any questionable Dem contributions. If there were, it would be all over the place by now. The interview proves that there is no such evidence, proves it beyond doubt.
But you dumbshits don’t even have the good sense to approach the scandal from the only perspective that would give you any shred of integrity …. to decry the way your party has behaved and call for the corrupt to be held accountable and clean up your party. Instead you just follow your GOP and righty website talking points and talk glibly as if there is a bipartisan scandal going on here.
So far, Abramoff is a 100% Republican scandal. And the more you buttheads pretend otherwise, the more deeply and firmly it will be shoved up your ass.
Paul Wartenberg
I want to write an open letter to all American voters.
True political reform cannot occur with our current government in power. If you examine their proposed ‘reforms’ you will notice they are mostly for show, minor tidbits of concern (whoever pays for dinners, cutting back on limo rides, what have you) that the powers that be are willing to part with in order to keep their established methods of fulfilling their greed (massive campaign funding, which has devolved into legalized bribery, as the most glaring example) intact.
If you the American people want reform, and a good number of polling services show that you do, the power does not rest with Congress or the President: the power to install reform rests with you, the voters.
Take a good hard look at your Senators, at your Representatives. Step outside the party line and take a good hard look at them. Look at how much money they get from lobby groups and special interests. Look at how their votes are twisted not by ideology or by practicality but by how much money they can make off the deal for the ones who’ve filled their campaign coffers.
Take a look at their pork barrel projects, their earmarks, the amount of public money getting plugged into private interests, money that serves no useful purpose for the majority and always goes to a select few, if any.
Take a good hard honest look at your elected representatives. And then vote them out of office. The truest, simplest reform package is your power of voting. Show the political body that those who serve the interests of corruption and greed will lose their jobs.
It doesn’t matter if the political hack is of one party or another. Like I said, step outside that party line. It *does* matter if the pork barrel senator is Stevens from Alaska or Byrd from West Virginia: neither of them deserve to stay in office. It *does* matter if it’s a corrupt greedhead Rep like Tom DeLay or William Jefferson: neither of them deserve to stay in office. Your vote *does* matter in giving these guys the surefire sign that corruption and greed will not be tolerated: vote the bums out.
Simple as that.
Done with the speechifying. And now, Go Seahawks!
mycat
The editors of the National Review see this a a Republican scandal. If they can be honest about it, so can every member of the Republican rank and file.
Sorry, the K Street Project was of, by and for Republicans. Your party sold itself. If you want your party back, you will have to face that fact.
Richard Bottoms
Have a nice day.
Ancient Purple
Then where is that evidence? The FEC records make it very clear that Abramoff only donated directly to Republicans. There isn’t a single Democrat listed.
Once that was placed on the table, then it was “oh, well Abramoff clients were donating to Democrats.” Yup. They were. Both BEFORE and after Abramoff came on the scene. But once Abramoff did come on the scene, his clients started donating LESS to Democrats.
No one has ever said that Democrats were not receiving campaign contributions from Native American gaming interests except for the Karl Rove spin machine that says they were while clutching pearls and gasping.
I have yet to see any evidence that receiving money from Native American gaming interests is illegal or violates the rules of the House or Senate. You may find it distasteful, but it is hard to press a scandal around matters of taste.
Let’s repeat so Brian has a clear roadmap:
1) Abramoff only donate his money to Republicans.
2) Native American gaming interests donated to both Republicans and Democrats BEFORE Abramoff came on the scene.
3) Native American gaming interests donated LESS to Democrats AFTER Abramoff came onto the scene.
4) No one has ever maintained that receiving contributions from Native American gaming interests was or is illegal.
5) This is a Republican scandal.
Laura
The Abramoff affair is a Republican scandal, no matter how they’re trying to spin it. The stench from the K Street Project is strictly Republican. You might assume Democrats might be as corrupt as the current Republican congress if they had the same power. But since the Dems aren’t in power, it’s dishonest to pretend Congress’ current corruption problems are anything but overwhelmingly Republican. The media has been very helpful with the Republican spin of painting this as a bipartisan problem. If Dean’s a fool for setting the record straight, so be it. Fortunately, he’s got reality on his side.
Steve
You guys are wasting time by bringing up the facts. It’s clear that it’s an article of faith for Brian, that the whole reason the media hasn’t published all this evidence of Democratic involvement is that they’re laying a trap – a trap that Howard Dean, fool that he is, has fallen right into.
His tone of voice sounds just like the tone of the folks who are convinced that Joe Wilson will get indicted any day now. I urge you not to waste your time.
ppGaz
Yes. At this point, I generally assume that a politician is lying until I have reason to think otherwise. The day when I give them the benefit of the doubt is over. That ship has sailed.
But the issue in Abramoff is whether, or when, the Republicans will ever just take responsibility for any of the myriad things they have fucked up or done wrong in the last five years, or for that matter, going back to 1994.
They act as though they are responsible for the country they are running only when they choose to take credit for something good that happened on their watch.
ppGaz
True, but it’s an open thread and there’s no football today.
charliedontsurf10
Another day, another pathetic attempt by dumb scum reptiles tryin’ to make this a bi-partisan scandal.
Nice try, schmucks. Abramoff is all yours. All funds went to fellow reptiles. Take his pioneering efforts on shrub’s behalf, for example.
Still, it’s nice to see you shmendriks are so comfortable with your ignorance.
The republican party – wholly without merit factually and legally since 1960, proudly representing dumb white trash and white collar criminals from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mason-Dixon Line.
charliedontsurf10
Sure thing, shmendrik. They must be hidin’ that proof the same place they’re hidin’ the WMD and the fellas that remember servin’ in TANG with your boy.
Dismissed.
demimondian
Thanks for reminding me that I needed to contact Senators Cantwell and Murray to encourage them to vote for extended debate tomorrow. More than that, you convinced me to suggest the same thing to FDDD and the eldest of the demi-offspring, who will soon be of voting age, as well.
Mike S
Poor fella. People in his party are being nailed for bribary, by the Bush justice dept no less, and he is just dumb enough to think that a dies in the wool Republican was doing the same thing with Democrats.
Pb
Paddy O’Shea,
Regarding your inflammatory Bush-Saddam allegations: do you have any PROOF that Donald Rumsfeld ever shook the hand of George W. Bush? And really, so what if they did, that doesn’t prove anything, the President shakes thousands of people’s hands, it could just be another one of those “grip-and-grin” photos…
Take *that*, Rumsfeld!
Jon H
“ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman were seriously wounded today in a roadside bomb attack near Taji, Iraq, according to a statement from ABC News. Woodruff, who co-anchors “World News Tonight,” and cameraman Doug Vogt “are out of surgery and are both in stable condition,” an ABC statement said. Both had head injuries.”
I guess some of that “unreported good news” found them before they found it.
Par R
The posts above by Steve, ppGaz, Ancient Purple, and Laura, among others, certainly convince me that the Democrats are innocent and as pure as the driven slush when it comes to the Abramoff affair. On the other hand, it would appear that it may be an altogether different result when one examines the views of Americans at large, as Rasmussen has done:
“Does the Abramoff corruption scandal involve…
Republicans in Congress 17%
Democrats in Congress 5%
Members of Both Parties 52%
RasmussenReports.com
Ancient Purple
Par R,
I am simply requesting any evidence that Abramoff gave money directly to Democrats. I will reiterate that the CLIENTS of Abramoff gave money to both Dems and Reps BEFORE any one knew who Abramoff was. No one is claiming that there was anything wrong with Native American gaming interests giving donations to candidates.
As to the poll, I am sure many Americans do think both parties are involved with this. However, as Abramoff sings and the courts get involved, I am sure you will see those numbers change dramatically.
I am sure, in fairness, you will be posting a poll after all of this is done showing the numbers? Or will you conveniently forget to post a poll because you don’t like the results?
demimondian
Par R, you are absolutely right. It’s good to see someone who understands that the lefties on this site are just hothouse flowers, whose fragile lives would be snuffed in just a moment in the real battlefield, and whose ideals are the result of the left-wing MSM’s constant liberal cherrleading, by distracting Americans from the real acts of the President’s supporters with a steady stream of “pretty missing blondes of the week”.
charliedontsurf10
Ah, rasmussen. Always rasmussen with the wacks.
Tell me, what do the reputable polls say?
That’s what I thought.
Dismissed
Par R
From above: “The shit’s gonna fly this week as ‘proof’ comes out that Dem’s got payoffs directly from Abramoff, and/or got indirect money that….”
This appears rather unlikely to happen. However, a blogger over at DK claims that there are photos of Abramoff in bed with one or more prominent Dems. I won’t believe it until they release the photos.
Steve
So Republicans lie to the public about it being a bipartisan scandal, and some people believe them. This is news in what way?
Bob In Pacifica
Par R, what your Rasmussen survey shows, if it is accurate, is that Republican lying works. We already knew that. Bush lied us into war. In fact, with the help of the media, of course people would think that it’s bipartisan. This is apparently the first bipartisan thing in Washington in the last five years.
I think it was Brian who colorfully said that Howard Dean and other Demos couldn’t clean out a toilet bowl with their tongues. I certainly wouldn’t. So is Brian saying that this is something else that Republicans do better than Democrats?
Fact is that the Republicans have proven that if you don’t believe in government government won’t work when you control it.
+++
Of course, in this time of bleak midwinter, this is the saddest Sunday of all, because it is the first Sunday without football. Then the Super Bowl next week, and then half a year of no football. I think I’ll get my last Negra Modelo out of the fridge.
Sojourner
True. It was said long ago: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
ppGaz
Well, you claim to be “swayed” by bloggers and polls.
We are just reflecting the evidence.
It’s a subtle difference, eh?
Bob In Pacifica
I am always curious about how questions are phrased, etc., in these surveys. If there are 48% who are favorable to Bush, and earlier this week there was 36% favorable, what does that say? That Bush’s sales job for illegal NSA spying convinced 12% of the country to jump back on board the bandwagon.
And what does it mean that one day 54% of the people want to open impeachment hearings in Bush broke the law and then the next day 51% support Bush wiretapping bin Laden (and presumably all of us al Qaeda buddies here in the US)?
I doubt that there is that much movement at all, and that it really depends on how the question is phrased and in what context the question is asked. There hasn’t been anything to move that many people to change their minds about Bush. The only thing you hear at BJuice are the same big daddy-worshipping cheerleaders for Bush and those of us who decided Bush was crap long ago. I’ve seen no conversions either way.
Something like 14% of Americans think that the economy is going to get better in the next year. The price at the pump went up again today.
Bob In Pacifica
Somebody asked back there, “convince me that the Democrats are innocent.”
Sure, as soon as you convince me you stopped beating your wife, you aren’t a member of the KKK and that your aren’t a serial killer.
The evidence is that there is there is no evidence.
Mike S
As the [ublic learns more about just who Abramhoff is they will understand the falacy of the “both parties are guilty” BS being put out by the GOP message machine. Of course there will still be some GOP cultists that believe that a dyed in the wool Republican, a big member of the College Republicans, a good friend of Tom Delay, a man that gave his personal money only to Republicans, a man that set up many PACs and charities that gave heavily to the GOP and a member of Bush’s transition team was helping Democrats as well.
Richard Bottoms
Or a live man named Abramoff.
So throw out the crooks whoever they are.
My bet os the list of Republicans in bed with Mr. Abramoff is way longer then Democrats.
Laura
The only thing this poll proves is that lying works. While it’s good “politics” to convince Americans that Abramoff is a bipartisan scandal, the dishonesty of Republican spin masters is nothing to applaud.
If I were a Republican, I’d be less impressed with the politics, and more concerned about the dismal governing. By a 14 point margin, Americans trust Democrats to manage the country’s problems more than Republicans. That’s about governance, not scoring political points by painting the Democrats as “corrupt as we are.” And don’t think Republicans aren’t noticing. This morning, Chuck Hagel took a swing at Rove for making national security a political issue. He then joined the growing chorus of criticism about the illegal wire tapping. You have to expect this from Hagel. But it wasn’t just him going after Bush. Just about every morning show had a Republican suggesting Bush disclose his contacts with Abramoff.
GTinMN
The ‘Par R’ handle, and the accompanying Bushwa, to me looks suspiciously like a case where DougJ fat-fingered his recently employed ‘Pat R’ (Robertson) handle at some point, and is now sticking with the new variant, with no one the wiser.
I could well be wrong, of course, but if not, he’s surely caught himself his limit today.
Paddy O'Shea
To add to Laura’s excellent post on the impending demise of the disgraced Republican Party this fall, the following from the ABC News Poll:
“The Republican party is feeling the pinch as well. The Democrats lead them by 14 points, 51 to 35 percent in trust to handle the nation’s problems, the first Democratic majority on this question since 1992. And the Democrats hold a 16 point lead in the 2006 congressional election preferences, 54 to 38 percent among registered voters, their best since 1984. Independents – quintessential swing voters- prefer the democrats’ diection over Bush’s by 51 to 27 percent, and favor the Democrat over the Republican in Congressional races by 54 to 32 percent.”
Also:
“Bush’s problems clearly benefit the opposition. Americans – by a 16-point margin, 51 to 35 percent – now say the country should go in the direction in which the Democrats want to lead, rather than follow Bush. That’s a 10-point drop for the president from a year ago, and the democrats first head-tohead majority of his presidency.”
This is devastating news for the freedom hating right, and to me it looks like the only people being fooled these days are hardcore Republicans. And obviously they’re doing it to themselves.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=1549959&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Laura
Woodruff’s brother lives in Tahoe City, and a local Sacramento station had a phone interview with him. He said he’d heard that Bob’s ekg was fine, but that he had brain swelling and they had to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure. You can hear the interview here.
Laura
I think you’re right. My dad was a life-long Republican until the last national election. He’s now a registered Independent. He went to dinner a couple months ago with some friends, all Republicans. His friend’s elderly mother said she thought Bush had a screw loose. My dad said they all laughed, but they thought she was right. They then spent the evening talking about what a disaster Bush has been. They’re not politically active, so you’re not going to hear from them. But more and more, I’m seeing letters to the editor from “former” and “disgusted” Republicans. The John Murtha smear was the last straw for many. While moderate Republicans aren’t as vocal as the rightwing base, they’re not a small number. In addition, the numbered of registered “Independents” is growing. The Republican party under Rove has been so good at playing hardball politics, they thought that could distract Americans from their incompetence and negligence. These polls suggest otherwise.
ats
This is just more of the “last throes” perpetrated by the “dead enders” running this insurrection, insofar as it even is an insurrection. Scott McClellan will make it all clear to us on Monday.
Grover Nordquist has volunteered to drown Saddam in his Restoration Inc. bathtub. Life is good.