These guys are getting federal attention so fast I can’t come up with clever titles for posts about them:
The Justice Department is investigating whether Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania traded his political influence for lucrative lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry.
The FBI, which opened an investigation in recent months, has formally referred the matter to the department’s Public Integrity Section for additional scrutiny. At issue are Weldon’s efforts between 2002 and 2004 to aid two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers with ties to strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a federal law enforcement official said.
The Russian companies and a Serbian foundation run by the brothers’ family each hired a firm co-owned by Weldon’s daughter, Karen, for fees totaling nearly $1 million a year, public records show.
Karen Weldon was 28 and lacked consulting experience when she and Charles Sexton, a Weldon ally and longtime Republican leader in Delaware County, Pa., created the firm of Solutions North America Inc. in 2002. Both are registered with the Justice Department as representatives of foreign clients.
Word of the inquiry, which has been closely held within the Justice Department and the FBI, comes from two individuals with specific knowledge of the existence of the investigation. They both declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of criminal investigations.
We are going to lose the war on terror because all of our agents are tied up investigating the GOP.
Steve
And shutting down online poker. Don’t forget the online poker!
Anyway, obviously this Weldon thing isn’t nearly as big as what Harry Reid did. Obviously!
Pb
Also, Duncan Hunter? And that story isn’t even about his potential involvement in the Duke Cunningham scandal.
Proud Liberal
Well.. all I have to say is that if the Dems can’t manage to take back both the House and the Senate with the hand they have been dealt, then they don’t deserve to win. The GOP can have the country and I’m moving to Montreal.
John Cole
My brother and I were listening to Hannity (I do it so you don’t have to) on the way home from the grocery store, and Hannity said “the Dems think they can ride this Foley scandal into power, but I don’t think we are there yet.”
My brother turned to me and said “Seriously. If the Democrats don’t win, what do the Republicans have to do? Shoot people?”
And then Dick Cheney’s name came up and the car got quiet.
Tsulagi
Yeah, but steering business to your daughter and helping her get millions of dollars in fees doesn’t even begin to rise to the level of corruption like Reid not identifying the property he listed was actually in a LLC. Not even close.
Proud Liberal
John.. I’m convinced that there would be a significant number of people that would vote Republican even if their platform advocated the killing of all kittens with hammers.
Proud Liberal
but what I am really hoping for… praying for.. is that all this corruption, lying and incompetence ushers in a “good government” era. Sometimes things have to get really bad before they can turn around. We may be at that tipping point – or at least I can hope so. And this has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It has to do with politicians that actully put their country above their own selfish interests. Ask not what your contry can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Ahhhh.. how I long for those sentiments again. I know. Fat chance.
jaime
But…But Harry Reid did some thing with the thing and the land deal thing with the thing and then covered it up.
Pb
Blah, Hannity. If he feels the need to say that he doesn’t think we’re there yet, then we’re no doubt way past there. I wouldn’t trust him to tell me the time.
Ok, that was then… and now?
What will he say next week? Next year? I wonder if he takes requests.
CaseyL
If the Dems take Congress, it’s going to be really interesting legislatively.
Quite a few new Democrats are former Republicans, like Webb, who became disgusted with the war and corruption. And quite a few new Democrats aren’t yet co-opted by the corporate world. We’re going to have a lot of neophytes who don’t already owe their political fortunes to either the major contributors or the established Party leadership, and determined to clean house.
I think there will be a flurry of anti-corruption legislation. If I dare to dream, there might be bills limiting or banning outright lobbyist-paid junkets, lobbyist-paid employment of Congressional spouses and relatives, and employing former Congresspersons as lobbyists. Maybe even something that forbids lobbyist organizations from employing only members of one political party. God, I’d love to see that.
I think – hope – we’ll also see some confrontation with the go-along-to-get-along SOP practiced by too many Democrats.
If it happens, it’s gonna be lively.
Pb
CaseyL,
I hope you’re right. If they do get a majority, at least we’ll get some oversight back, that’s the main thing. But barring a huge majority and/or a very scared GOP Congress, I don’t know if they’ll have the votes to really pass that much good legislation, especially with the veto in play–that might have to wait until at least 2008. However, hopefully it would cut down on the really bad legislation the Republicans have been passing lately.
craigie
Surely the way to save FBI manpower is to assume, quite reasonably, that if it involves the GOP, no investigation is necessary – just sentence them and be done with it. Guilt can reasonably be assumed by now, I think. And that being the case, let’s throw in a bit of
torturealternative techniques.Because you can never be too mean to the bad guys.
scarshapedstar
Well.. all I have to say is that if the Dems can’t manage to take back both the House and the Senate with the hand they have been dealt, then they don’t deserve to win. The GOP can have the country and I’m moving to Montreal.
And, somewhere, a Diebold executive cackles maniacally.
chopper
but harry reid filled out the wrong form on his disclosure to congress. that’s like a thousand times worse.
KC
Man, ain’t that true.
Steve
Gosh, remember how the left overplayed their hand on that one?
John Cole
I still think the immediate pile-on was overdone. And stop linking me or I will delete my archives.
Steve
We kid because we love.
demimondian
The pile on was overdone. You were right about that.
I’d be less willing to back down, except…this isn’t even the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. It’s that gang that can’t pepper straight.
fwiffo
The good news:
Constituent Dynamics poll
PA-07: Sestak (D) 52%–44% Weldon (R)
Well, you know what they say about “live boy or dead girl”, between Foley and Schaivo, looks like they’ve managed both.
Pooh
Ah yes, the pile-ons of the left (pile-on optional)
Barry
I’m wondering – have some decision-makers in the FBI decided to launch a surge against the GOP? Have some people who are privy to the inside information (official and unofficial) decided that the GOP *must* be taken down a notch?
snorkel
Bush does seem genuinely, serenely confident that the Republicans will keep their hold on congress. He is not a very good actor. Eiither he is even more in denial than we thought (a distinct possibility) or he knows something we don’t.
Pb
I stand by all my comments in that thread, but hey, no hard feelings–actually it’s nice to reminisce sometimes. The main thing I remember about it, thinking back now, is all the connections, cronyism, and corruption that was exposed in just that one short glimpse into a day in the life of Dick Cheney.
craigie
These are not mutually exclusive.
tBone
What about all the baby animals that aren’t being killed with hammers? Why don’t we ever hear about them? You moonbats always focus on the negative. It’s just who you are.
John Casey
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I just found out that the FBI has been crippled in its anti-terror activities. Seems the terrorists have devised a secret oral code, called the Arabic language, and the FBI can’t crack it. Agents capable of passing a security check can’t learn the language, and arabic speaking american citizens can’t pass a security check, because, y’know, they are related to people who live in foriegn countries and who speak strange languages. Oh, those clever terrorists!
Pb
So the Republicans have a platform that advocates the killing of all kittens with hammers–at least we have a plan! What’s the Democrat plan? We’ve already killed thousands of kittens, so we obviously can’t stop now, or our enemies would think we were weak–would you cut and run instead of staying the course? Is that really the message you want to send?
Pb
Or worse–all that funny talk turned them gay!
Perry Como
If it wasn’t for Clinton’s extra-curricular activities in the Oval Office the terrorists never would have devised an “oral code.”
VidaLoca
Wait … the Justice Department has a “Public Integrity Section”? And they do “scrutiny”?
Bwaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha..
VidaLoca
Right — let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The Democrats are the party that lost the election for Duke Cunningham’s seat, after Duke went to the slammer.
There is no lead that they cannot blow.
VidaLoca
Proud Liberal —
Attempts were made back in January to collect polling data on this very topic.
Paul Wartenberg
People keep forgetting: they’ve rigged the damn e-voting machines, so they’re stealing the elections. The Dems have already lost. Don’t be shocked to see the polls all go Dems and then the machines spitting out 63 percent ‘surprise’ victories for the GOP with the winners all declaring that the polls are liberal and biased.
You’ve been warned…
ThymeZone
Cunningham’s district was gerrymandered into a Republican safe seat. It is one of the most conservative in California, maybe in the country. It might not be possible for a Dem to win there if the Republican ate a baby on camera.
Gerrymandering is the reason why only ten percent of House seats are considered “in play” in any given year now. The GOP hasn’t been winning because people like them or because America has turned into the Bible Belt. It’s the result of many years of ground-game politics, organization and redistricting. In 2000, the Republican presidential candidate was declared the winner by the Supreme Court after getting the second most votes in the election.
Let’s not get carried away with the great Republican victory thing here. Their margins have been thin, and have hung on grotesque manipulations of the system at every level. Their appeal is also thin, and if it weren’t for 911, the “Republican Revolution” would have been over by now.
Bob In Pacifica
Proud Liberal: What kind of hammers?
ThymeZone
If the election were going to be close, I’d be very worried about this. I think it’s unlikely that vote stealing has not been going on, and will go on this year.
However, I also think that a Dem landslide is in the works at this point. I don’t think they can steal enough votes to keep the House, and this election is all about the House.
It’s the House, the whole House, and nothing but the House. With that body, we save the country. Without it, we have to wait two more years.
I’d have predicted 17+ Dem seats without Foley. I’ll say 22+ seats now. Even more are possible. With luck, we could be looking at a House Republican debacle of historic proportions.
I’ve got crow in the freezer if needed, but I just don’t think those shitheads can steal enough votes to save this election for the swine party. I think the country has had enough.
Ned R.
I’m avoiding overconfidence, frankly. Not good for the system. Rather, I’m considering the upside of both outcomes:
* Dems take House (and *maybe* Senate): all sorts of fun questions start getting asked officially, etc.
* GOP maintains control of Congress: two more years of ‘staying the course’ etc. destroys the GOP in 2008 and beyond. I have already said that whichever candidate gets their nomination must be doing so running *against* Bush’s record in order to win, and the result will be collapse and/or fracturing.
The unavoidable and tragic downside to both of these situations is that death in Iraq will continue to rampage for the foreseeable future, regardless of US presence.
Ned R.
The other thing that concerns me on a longer term is a starting-to-bubble conviction in some right corners that they’re going to be sold down the river on Iraq by Baker’s group as part of some larger ‘establishment’ conspiracy. That combined with the perceived ‘civilization is under assault OH NOES’ paranoia that’s always been around but has taken new forms leads me to think that some kind of ‘stabbed in the back’ mythology is going to arise pretty quickly. (I avoid Godwin’s Law by not naming you know who but draw historical parallels as you like; then again the US is not 1918 Germany.) What this could mean down the road honestly troubled me for the first time last night — as some sites/posters like Allahpundit start talking about ‘endgame’ in Iraq, I now start wondering about what happens *after* endgame.
ThymeZone
Could be right. Let me just propose an alternative scenario just for blogfun. Let’s call it the Clinton-Gore effect.
Pundits proposed in 2000 that Clinton-weariness would doom Gore. I don’t think it did. I think Gore doomed Gore, along with the debacles of Florida and SCOTUS. But my point is that Clinton fatigue did not hurt Gore that much.
I think that Bush fatigue doesn’t hurt the GOP nominee that much in 2008 … necessarily. It depends on who the nominee is and how they handle it. A strong GOP candidate who rejects the Bush “doctrine” and presents a new vision, and can distance himself from the Bush thing successfully, can have a good chance, especially if he is running against Hillary Clinton.
I think she’s the single biggest factor for 2008, and until we know (a) what she is going to do and (b) how the Dem primaries are going to fall out, all bets are off. I am hoping that she either doesn’t run, or runs and loses in the primaries. If she is the national candidate, I am not sure Dems can win the White House in 2008.
Unless of course the GOP puts up a really lousy candidate.
What if they convinced Powell to run?
ThymeZone
There is nothing but bad news for the Bush administration on the horizon in the next four weeks. The Iraq war is an albatross for the GOP now that they cannot escape from.
D. Mason
No, we are going to lose the “war on terror” because it’s a farce. The admin is clearly not trying to win anything except high dollar contracts for their cronies so they can enjoy plenty of free meals.
If the steelers, for example, went to a game with no pads, no bench and no playbook they clearly wouldn’t be playing to win. Similarly, if America goes to “war”(I use the term as loosely as humanly possible) against a phantom enemy with a skeleton force and no definition of victory we’re not fighting to win. I can’t understand why noone seems to get it. Everything that’s going on looks like rampant incompetance and corruption only if you look at it from the perspective of someone who wants what’s best for America. Think of this admin in terms of a smash and grab robbery and you will see that there is no incompetance whatsoever. If you adjust your idea of what is desirable then it’s easy to see that things are going splendidly for the Bush cartel.
Mike
I am amazed that Able Danger did not detect this obvious threat
The Ghost of Santa Claus
Then the base wouldn’t turn out, and they’d lose. I have a friend who used to be a staunch Republican. He says the reason he now votes Libertarian is the outright racism and threats to sit the election out that he claims he heard during the 2000 Republican National Convention when the rumor of Powell being nominated as Vice President floated around the floor.
I think more liberals could hold their noses and vote Hillary, than racists/troglodytes could hold their noses/nose-analogues and vote Powell.
Oh, yeah: Ho, ho, ho, bitches.
The Ghost of Santa Claus
Did any PDBs cover the topic? “Bin Laden Determined to Help GOP Win Elections”? Why didn’t Bush do anything to protect us from the threat posed by Bin Laden’s allies, the GOP?
I’m only half-kidding, fuckers. Fix me another White Russian and kiss my rosy-red ass, and you’ll get my vote back, Republicans of America.
Ho, ho, ho, bitches.
ThymeZone
I have to admit, it’s a more than plausible explanation for the last five years.
Demdude
Gerry Studds Died.
Probably planned in advance by the Democrats to coincide with the election. Pelosi & Reid should have to testify under oath they knew nothing about it.
Paddy O'Shea
Vote Or Get Off The Pot.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kCSeDTn1uUk
ThymeZone
Obviously, the Dems got rid of him so that he would not have to answer any questions about his outrageous behavior from 25 years ago. Proving once again that the Demon-crats will stop at nothing to hold onto power.
Ned R.
The distancing from the doctrine means that whoever it is will have to be a governor or high profile mayor rather than an admin member or sitting senator or congressperson, I’d be willing to say. They can at least claim direct non-involvement with said doctrine’s formulation or approval.
I often think Hilary Clinton would be better off in 2012 rather than 2008.
Ned R.
(And Gore definitely doomed Gore, that’s for sure. Even MONDALE won his home state against Reagan, FFS, and had Gore done that in 2000 Florida would be a non-issue, relatively speaking.)
r€nato
this is an important point to remember among all the defeatism here.
Every trend is against the Rethuglicans.
They represent a philosophy of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Naturally the rich are a small group and still have only one vote per person.
So the GOP has to peddle culture wars and pander to the fundamentalists in order to get the middle and lower classes to vote against their interests. (And as David Kuo has revealed, the GOP really doesn’t give a shit about gays marrying or prayer in schools, so long as saying they do gets votes from the rubes)
The demographic trends are against the GOP. Hispanic population growth is bad news for the GOP. While hispanics are not monolithically Democratic voters, they do tend to vote Democratic and they are certainly more moderate even when they are Republicans. Hispanics cost B-1 Bob Dornan his House seat in Orange County, and Bob’s seat was considered damn near bulletproof.
So the GOP clings to power by their fingernails, by gerrymandering like mad and pursuing divisive, partisan politics as well as highly sophisticated marketing and microtargeting of voters.
But their rule is resting on a foundation of quicksand. If we could just get a competent Democratic party which can win elections without relying on the GOP to fuck things up so badly that anyone would look better than them, then we could see the GOP exiled for an entire generation.
Zifnab
In that case, think about how many bank robbers live long, healthy, and financially stable lives. The Republicans have made a fortune today, but it will cost them in the long run. Democrats will be back, and they’ll be pushing a tax cut that everyone but the uber-wealthy will approve of. By then, the War will have cost so much and the public will have been so incensed by corporate greed and unaccountability that big money will see a great deal of pain in the years ahead. The backlash is coming and its not going to be pretty.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Instapundit is coming to grips with the looming reality of the GOP majority’s demise.
Guess what word is missing once again? You got it: Iraq.
The Pirate
According to Glen, the GOP could apparently be breezing to victory if only they’d listened to the blogs.
Someone send the man a box of Kleenex.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Doesn’t mention Katrina, either.
It’s work, hard work, being this clueless.
RonB
John, I’m sure I’m extremely late on the congratulations, but I really think you have turned a huge corner and your writing is very fresh and topical. You’ve always been consistent with your dislike of corruption, but you’ve really been sticking it to the people who deserve it lately.
I’m glad your sense of confident indignation has finally overcome your past ambivalence and unsureness. Liberating, ain’t it?
Pb
Another Republican under investigation:
demimondian
I didn’t see the words “Abramoff”, “DeLay”, “Ney”, “Cunningham”, “Casino”, or “Marianas Islands” in that Instapundit report.
Musta missed ’em somewhere. I’m that kind of m00nbat, you know.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Insty is getting it both barrels from his readers:
And…
Really, it’s awesome to see the the GOP in total chaos, turning on itself like this.
Pb
Wow, that sounds way worse. After all, right now, we lose our money through fraud wars and debt, our freedoms through Republican-appointed judges (and Republican Congressmen and Executives…), and we (start and) lose our wars with a “stay the course” leadership.
ThymeZone
Yahoo News.
So if you are keeping score at home, here’s the thing: Iraq is the center of the struggle for civilization, and oh by the way, we are losing and the thing is fucked up beyond all recognition.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled snarkacy.
Pb
While we’re on the subject, here’s a new Mehlman-Abramoff corruption scandal link, with some quid pro quo, White House ties, and whatnot…
I was still wondering if the FEC should be investigating him, the White House, and the GOP for those faith-based shenanigans, but what are the odds of that…
Punchy
Hey, Sir Cole, gimmie a freaking open thread so I can post shit like this:
Fucking sick, I tell ya. And to have Corso blast your D as ineffective…as if that fucking matters. I’d be red with rage to hear some old wrinkly talk that kinda smack.
As of today, I got $30 on 7-1 Dub-V to win the BCS. These guys are wicked tough. Slaton would be odds-on with Peterson out if it wasn’t so rigged towards Smith and his OSU ilk. Just one hell of a fucking game….Congrats.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
Freedom is messy. Stuff happens.
It’s not like Clinton wasn’t worse. After all, his wife whacked Vince Foster in the very same bedroom where Abraham Lincoln bedded his wife during the years of our nation’s darkest peril. That’s pretty low, even for a Democrat.
Dave_Violence
Speaking for myself, a “conservative” “republican”… The conservative republican blogs are pretty much disgusted with the GOP’s BS. I know I am, too. Here’s what Right Wing News (http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2006_10_08.PHP#006607) says:
National Review (print version, last week) – even – has gone so far as to say that if the GOP loses control of Congress it won’t be unjust. (WFB endorsed Lieberman, too – for obvious reasons.)
I like what Glenn Reynolds says: “Our political system doesn’t attract the best people — who, I guess, go into business or whatever. That’s good: A society where all the best people go into politics and government is a society in trouble. But I can’t help feeling that maybe we’ve gone just a bit too far in the other direction.”
BUT, it’s not good enough. Some of the country’s “best” people do go into politics (Hillary! for one…) Also, it doesn’t address that people who break the law OR think that it is OK (Ney, et al) to live ones life within a gnat’s ass hair of conducting criminal activity (and thus not know where the line really is). This is the reason I like the press just the way it is: dig for the sleaze. a) it sells papaers and b ) it makes the politicians uncomfortable.
As a New York voter who almost always votes Republican – I either don’t vote for the position at all or pick someone from a third party – how can I vote for a POS like John Spencer against Hillary!? Spencer did nothing for the City of Yonkers, letting it stagnate and he had an affair in office. Is he supposed to represent “conservative” types who don’t approve of the latter? Plenty would approve of the former, but all that means is that he was incapable of stimulating the local economy to the point that it became profitable… Why the hell Steve Forbes endorsed Spencer over Hillary! I can’t figure out. Forbe should’ve remained neutral…
How am I supposed to trust the GOP to protect my 2nd amendment rights against the jerk-off Donkey party if they can’t help but be jerk-offs themselves?
Zifnab
Yes, how oh how will we ever clean up all that Dem pork barrel spending after these menial 6 years in control of ever aspect of government? And what will become of our nation if we fall to the “multicultural nightmare” that is Europe – with all those Germans and French and British and Spanish people raping and rioting over each other? Good thing we don’t have any Germans in our country.
What the fuck country have these people been living in? Seriously? I mean, just the “multicultural” comment alone blows my mind. Did this guy just completely bomb his civics class in high school or what? It just… hurts my brain.
ThymeZone
I like it when the gist of something is right at the top of the post, which saves me time I’d have otherwise wasted reading the rest of it.
Yeah, the GOP is in trouble because it hasn’t done a good job explaining itself to the American people.
That’s right, this unprecedented rape and pillage of America, its values, its laws, its money, and its moral center, resulting in politics grounded in American against American, creation of more, not less, worldwide terrorism, massive debt, complete fuckover of the middle class, total sellout of the country to greed for money and power …. just needs better explanation.
This is what “conservative” sites are saying? Then you should abandon them, because they are idiots.
CaseyL
The GOP did “explain” itself.
It’s just that the explanations only work if you’re literally an idiot – with ADD, to boot.
The Right, esp. the RW blogosphere, is collectively, literally, idiotic. It’s kept within its echo chamber, getting its information only from RW-approved sources. It’s a closed system.
Infinitely Regressing Returns is the term for what happens in a closed system: the amount of anything (nourishment, information, growth) that comes out is always less than what goes in. Eventually you reach the level of self-cannibalism.
The Right is in an Infinitely Regressive Return loop. It’s already cannibalizing itself, referencing only itself for “insight” into national and world events, and what comes out bears no resemblence whatsoever to reality.
ThymeZone
No. America first. I believe that rapes should be confined to the halls of Congress.
Steve
It’s a delusion bred from the same litter as “We’re making such great progress in Iraq, why is the administration so reluctant to tell anyone about it?” and “Why is Santorum the only one talking about the WMDs we’ve found, this is a huge story!”
These are the same people who think the GOP should have run that ad about Madeline Albright and North Korea on TV, the same people who believe Bush’s popularity would shoot through the roof if he called a press conference to announce he was throwing the Supreme Court’s latest opinion in the garbage can. The Republicans, if you haven’t noticed, are not exactly the party of meek caution and dialing down their positions. If they refuse to make an argument, it’s most likely because it’s way, way out there in loonyland, even by their standards.
ThymeZone
That would make them even crazier and stupider than I thought they were, which would be quite a stretch.
For years, their approach to the radical agenda was to hide it. Stealth politics. Did you hear Bush campaigning on the loony Social Security scheme he had in mind? No. He bashed gays and ragheads, and got his second term, and then promptly announced that he had “political capital and he was going to spend it” on the loony SS scheme.
So you get into office by hiding the radical agenda, and then expose the radical agenda, and then decide that the reason people are running away is because you haven’t explained it properly?
Aside from being just childish-deluded-sociopathic-nuts, the model is doomed to ignominious failure. Americans don’t want radical agendas, righty or lefty. They want centrist policy, cake and eat it too. Dismantling of Social Security is not centrist. Tax breaks for the rich are not centrist. Exploding legions of uninsured familes is not centrist. Out of control healthcare costs, not centrist. Destruction of the environment, dirty air and water, not centrist. Collapse of public education, not centrist. Inability to copy with disasters, not centrist. Endless, useless wars, not centrist.
What part of this pile of shit did they think they could sell by offering more “explanation?” To whom would they imagine they should explain it? Not the 33 percent who are behind the insanity, they don’t need explanation.
Tsulagi
The reason the GOP is going to lose seats in November is because their actions have spoken far louder and much truer than their words. The American people aren’t lacking an explanation. They can see just fine that this president and his Coalition of Retarded Enablers are anything but American.
demimondian
The reason that the GOP is going to lose seats in November is something stereotypically democratic: they’ve failed as a governing party. JC’s is right: the conservative movement needs some time in the wilderness to remember what it stands for: a strong, effective America abroad and a free, entreprenurial America at home. The current crowd of K-street Enablers has undermined both, and will need to pay the price for a while.
(It’s worth pointing out that the progressive movement in America stands for two very different things than the conservative movement. Progressives stand for an effective, strong America abroad and an entreprenurial, free America at home.)
ThymeZone
There is no conservative movement. What there was of it got co-opted by the Gingrich movement, which gave way to the current crop of power-mad lunatics.
There may be some sentiment left out there in the middle of American politics for responsible conservatism, but that remains to be seen. Just because it is there doesn’t mean it’s a viable demo at this point. It isn’t even part of a viable coalition now. “No more taxes” is not a strategy, not a tactic, not a policy. It’s not even a useful bumper sticker any more. And it can’t compete with the liberal tsunami of the 20th century, which has produced most of today’s public policy. It can’t compete with Medicare and Social Security. Its ability to stave off single payer healthcare, or something that fixes the current broken system, is not assured.
As for security …. most of that edge has been based on demagoguery and myth. Keeping the world I grew up in and raised a family in teetering for fifty fucking years on the edge of nuclear annilhilation is not my idea of great security policy. It was madness, and the idea is still madness, whether being sold by the Dulles brothers and their descendants in Washington, or by Kruschev and his descendents in Moscow.
Fuck the conservative movement. For all of its seeming promise years ago, what has it actually delivered?
DougJ
What about all of Clinton’s illegal dealings with Russians and Serbians? Didn’t the police report show that Vince Foster was killed by Serbians? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Steve
Makes me wonder if they drove away yelling, “You got Serbed!”
demimondian
No, that was the John Cleese version: “Are You Being Serbed”?
Pb
Probably for the same reasons they endorsed him the first time he ran for the seat (against a Republican, no less)–because he was the more conservative candidate.
Exactly. In fact, Kerry called him on this before the election, and the Bush campaign lied about his plans instead of fessing up.
Because, you know, Bush would never try to scare people.
DougJ
Speaking of scaring people….boo!
The Ghost of Santa Claus
Sure, we all wish Clinton could’ve used American gangsters to kill Foster, but in this day and age, outsourcing is the only viable option if you want your clandestine murders performed quickly, cheaply, and efficiently.
You assassinate White House staffers with the gangsters you have, not the gangsters you wish you had.
The Ghost of Santa Claus
Ho, ho, ho, happy Halloween! Vote Republican, or Osama will hold a knife to your throat while a leftist/Darwinist Unitarian-Muslim religious officiate simultaneously converts you to Islam AND forces you to marry both Andrew Sullivan and Lassie.
You want a scare? Take that, you fuckers!
Otto Man
Can I suggest “Curt and Run”?
demimondian
Yes, and you animate zombies with the necromancers you have, not the necromancers you wanted to have, right, ZombieClause?
The Other Steve
80 some comments, and nobody mentioned Crazy Curt Weldon’s opponent?
Joe Sestak
I think Pennsyvanians have a pretty obvious choice this election, and that was clear even before this latest scandal erupted when Sestak was polling 52-44 against Weldon.
I’ve been incredibly impressed with the Democratic candidates we have this year.
The Other Steve
Actually the most signifigant aspect of that was that Kerry said if reelected Bush planned to start gutting Social Security in January.
And the Bush people claimed that was a lie, they had no plans to do anything with social security.
Guess what happened in January?
The Other Steve
Agree here. Although unlike ’76, it appears to me like the crew that is running is more experienced and not quite so naive.
I agree on the lobbyist-paid junkets and such. I think it’s important for congress critters to see the world, but they ought to do so on the government dime. Staying in the Motel 6 and eating dinner at Joe’s diner would be just fine.
But that last one is just Plain Stupid(tm). It won’t solve anything. That’s the kind of naive politicking we don’t need.
demimondian
You know what, TOS? I don’t want to jinx Sestak. I’d love to jinx Dave Reichart, though — sadly, he doesn’t represent me, so I can’t vote against him.
searp
Nothing much will change on the money side, because national elected officials need a lot of money to run campaigns. Good government won’tt work unless we start with legislation that funds elections with public money.
I know about free speech and political contributions, but if we really want our government back we simply must eliminate the influence peddling, and we cannot do it without public finance, in my opinion.
The Other Steve
Why do they need a lot of money?
Because they rely on television advertising, as the districts are so large it’s the only way to get the message out to so many people.
So why not fix that? Why not go back to the way it used to be? That is, instead of having a fixed number of representatives whose district size changes with the population. How about we set the district size to a fixed population? Like the way it’s described in the Constitution?
And set it back to a size that was reasonable. Say 1 representative for every 250,000 people.
Instead of one for every 600,000 as it is today.
Think outside the box.
The Ghost of Santa Claus
Uh, no comment into an ongoing magical investigation!