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You are here: Home / Politics / Death Throes

Death Throes

by John Cole|  October 25, 20062:18 pm| 28 Comments

This post is in: Politics

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How bad are things going for the GOP this election cycle? Pretty bad if this is all the ammo left in your quiver two weeks out:

The “Pelosi question” –is she qualified to be third in line for the presidency in an age of terror– is a real one and troubles not just one Congressman from Georgia, though the prospect of more than a few Dems going Jeffords on the left must cause them some additional sleeplessness.

Vote Republican… because Pelosi would make a bad President. Seriously, though- if the Democrats take control of the house, I really do not see a bunch of them defecting to the GOP simply because of the fear of Pelosi as President.

I have no idea if the Democrats will win in two weeks- by all rights they should- but you never can tell what will happen over the next two weeks and you don’t know the outcome until the votes are counted. However, if this is what the party loyalists from the GOP are holding on to, it looks pretty bad for the Republicans. Or, as I have come to view it recently- pretty good for the country.

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Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    October 25, 2006 at 2:32 pm

    I’m sure there are many conservative Democrats who aren’t huge fans of Pelosi. I doubt they dislike her enough to want to be in the minority, though.

  2. 2.

    Bombadil

    October 25, 2006 at 2:41 pm

    Jeebus, I’m terrified now with Denny “Who’s Foley?” Hastert third in line for the presidency. He can’t even remember a conversation about a predatory page-pestering pedophile but he’s qualified to be third in line?

  3. 3.

    Al

    October 25, 2006 at 2:45 pm

    This really is getting pathetic. I’m no fan of Pelosi (or either party, truth be told), but the “oh, no…Democrats will legalize gay marriage and force abortions on the God-fearing people of America!” bit is getting really old.

  4. 4.

    caroline

    October 25, 2006 at 2:45 pm

    I think that Pelosi will probably suprise a lot of people. Of course, the GOP is scared of her, they are scared of their own shadow.

  5. 5.

    Salty Party Snax

    October 25, 2006 at 2:53 pm

    The GOP guys have a babe problem. Cindy, Hillary, Nancy P. If it wears a skirt and talks politics, all they want to do is run whining to mama and ask why all girls can’t be as sweet as their first and only true love.

    It never was about stay the course. It is, “We should stay, of course!” Doesn’t everybody know this?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jq0j80UB_c&eurl=

  6. 6.

    Andrei

    October 25, 2006 at 2:54 pm

    I’ve never quite understood the hysteria on the right about Pelosi. What exactly is the main complaint about her?

    Being from the Bay Area, you’ll find the largest segment of what people now seem to be calling “Libertarian Democrats.” While most of us out here believe in social freedom, most of us make quite a lot of money and have conservative fiscal interests for reasons that should be plainly obvious. And given the magnitude of the technology industry and the success we have wrought out here, I’ve never quite understood why people in the GOP seem to revile San Francisco and the Bay Area instead of embracing our obvious corporate success.

  7. 7.

    Baby Jane

    October 25, 2006 at 2:55 pm

    If sometime within the next two weeks I lose my right hand and then, by some crazy bad luck, I also happen to lose my left hand, it seems I’m gonna be pulling the lever for Nancy Pelosi as President with my right foot since it’s third in line.

  8. 8.

    Pixie

    October 25, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    I have to second Andrei’s sentiment…what the hell is the big fear of Pelosi? It’s as if she’s as terrifying to wingnuts as teh Hillary. What is their problem? What do they think will happen if these women are in charge? Or is it merely the fact that they are women in positions of power that upsets them so much? I don’t think Barak Obama is exactly qualified yet to become the next president, but you don’t seem the same hysteria from the right wingers about him.

  9. 9.

    Denny Hastert's Mom

    October 25, 2006 at 3:03 pm

    Jeebus, I’m terrified now with Denny “Who’s Foley?” Hastert third in line for the presidency.

    All you moonbats are a bunch of whiney bitches. Think of all the good things Hastert could do as president. Like universally lower the cost of all Chinese buffets. Demand insurance companies cover liposuction and gastric bypass. Force biotechs to start cloning humans without so many damn sweat glands. Make gigantic optical eyewear mandatory, and not just for nerds and Harry Carey. And don’t even get me started on reinforced tiolets, oversized towels, and back-hair removal technologies…

  10. 10.

    Pb

    October 25, 2006 at 3:04 pm

    Agreed, the current line of succession is scary as hell:

    1 Richard B. Cheney Vice President
    2 J. Dennis Hastert Speaker of the House of Representatives
    3 Ted Stevens President pro tempore of the Senate
    4 Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State
    5 Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Secretary of the Treasury
    6 Donald H. Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense
    7 Alberto Gonzales Attorney General

  11. 11.

    Andrei

    October 25, 2006 at 3:13 pm

    Well Pb… I don’t really care about that list. I’ve been living in utter fear of an idiot like George Bush being in the position already!

    Now that a large majority of Americans have had to suffer that travesty, I guess a little discomfort with Pelosi being third in line by the other half of the country can be considered acceptable collateral damage.

  12. 12.

    Mr Furious

    October 25, 2006 at 3:13 pm

    Wow. What do I need to do to skip right to number five? That would actually kind of kick ass if Paulson were President…

  13. 13.

    Bombadil

    October 25, 2006 at 3:15 pm

    Wow. What do I need to do to skip right to number five? That would actually kind of kick ass if Paulson were President…

    I think you’re thinking of Pat Paulsen, and sadly, he’s dead.

  14. 14.

    Pb

    October 25, 2006 at 3:22 pm

    Regarding Paulson, I think he signed on for the piratization agenda:

    Though Bush’s plan stalled in Congress last year, the new Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., has said he took the job in part to tackle the rising cost of government health-care and Social Security spending, which he has called “the biggest economic issue facing our country.”

  15. 15.

    Tsulagi

    October 25, 2006 at 3:29 pm

    Pretty bad if this is all the ammo left in your quiver two weeks out

    Yeah, I was expecting some serious shit from Karl by now. Especially after Foley. But so far the best they got is Reid was sloppy on a disclosure form entry and Pelosi makes the Republican Foley men like Hewitt uncomfortable. Kind of hard to believe the Dems are THAT clean, but I’m sure Karl has been searching.

    Oh, almost forgot, Hillary’s Senate opponent said she’s had “millions of dollars” in plastic surgery. Wow, that should get the Republican manly men chattering.

    It would almost be kind of funny if Rove goes into total desperation mode with less than two weeks to go. Flinging bullshit in the last week with the thought it couldn’t be cleared until after the election. That kind of crap this late could just motivate more to vote. Plus no need to do it for the base as they gleefully latch on to Pelosi in a million to one shot of becoming president being much less fit than a retarded incompetent and a cartoon version of Darth Vader.

  16. 16.

    mjb

    October 25, 2006 at 3:32 pm

    …you don’t know the outcome until the votes are counterd…

    Is that “counted” or “countered”. Very freudian, Mr. Cole.

  17. 17.

    Pb

    October 25, 2006 at 3:36 pm

    Dude. Millions of dollars in plastic surgery is way, way overkill–you could make Hillary look like her opponent, or vice versa, or both, and then retire in Bangkok or something.

  18. 18.

    Davebo

    October 25, 2006 at 3:41 pm

    Should we be at all suprised that the same folks who think Osama and his Islamofascists could take over the western world plunging us all into the dark ages also wet their pants at the prospect of a Speaker Pelosi?

    I’m amazed they muster the courage to get out of bed in the morning.

  19. 19.

    RSA

    October 25, 2006 at 3:43 pm

    3 Ted Stevens President pro tempore of the Senate

    Holy crap! Would a bridge to Iraq fit in the budget, do you think, when he’d ask for it?

  20. 20.

    sglover

    October 25, 2006 at 3:54 pm

    Well, wasn’t so long ago that they were portraying Tom Daschle (!!!) as a cunning schemer. Demonizing is all they can do, all that the Great Masters, Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater, left them.

    For my money, puffing up fear of a dystopian Epoch of Pelosi is mighty weak tea, compared to the latest disinfo gambit — “‘Stay the course’?!?! Where’d you get that from? We never said that! Never even heard the phrase!” Nowadays the scumbags are thrashing so badly, the dissembling is so amateurish, that it’s getting downright hilarious watching them.

    I hope that, if that happy day arrives when Bush and Cheney get the sentences that they so richly deserve, their prison cells are equipped with webcams, so that the whole world can can watch them pacing and muttering their daily rationalizations…..

  21. 21.

    Tsulagi

    October 25, 2006 at 4:16 pm

    I really do not see a bunch of them defecting to the GOP simply because of the fear of Pelosi as President.

    Apparently, neither do they.

  22. 22.

    scarshapedstar

    October 25, 2006 at 4:26 pm

    you don’t know the outcome until the votes are counted.

    Well, if that’s the standard, then we won’t know the outcome.

  23. 23.

    Zifnab

    October 25, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    “It’s not the votes that count, but who counts the votes.”
    ~Joseph Stalin

  24. 24.

    Blue Shark

    October 25, 2006 at 5:01 pm

    You write:
    “you don’t know the outcome until the votes are counted”.

    …WRONG.

    …If we have learned anything from 2000, 2002, 2004, and (Reform Ohio Now) 2005 … it is the Hackable, Secret-Source-Coded, Unaduitable, Black-Box-Voting machines and tabulators in the hands of Republican Operatives…can pretty much guarantee any outcome they desire.

    …Rove state this week he is “confident” that Republicans will maintain majorities in both the House and the Senate. He has never been wrong.

  25. 25.

    Tax Analyst

    October 25, 2006 at 5:31 pm

    I have (unfortunately) a brother who is way-out there on the extreme far-right, and every time a Democractic WOMAN is mentioned in a political story or situation he goes off on this bitter tirade about whoever it happens to be and what a worthless “c_nt” she is – or some other angry or dismissive epithet. If it happens to be a Republican Woman he MIGHT mutter, “Well, I don’t like her, but I guess she’s not too bad”. But I can’t cure his misogyny so he’ll just have to deal with it if it happens. So, yeah…he’s undoubtedly freaking out at the possibility of Pelosi being in a position of power. I’ve checked out her record and her statements and I don’t see anything but a rather knowledgeable, well-informed representative of a left-of-center community. Just what exactly COULD she do that would be a bigger massive fuck-up and more harmful to our national well-being than the laundry list of things just about everybody on the CURRENT LIST has ALREADY been an ACTIVE participant in?

  26. 26.

    SeesThroughIt

    October 25, 2006 at 5:57 pm

    Just what exactly COULD she do that would be a bigger massive fuck-up and more harmful to our national well-being than the laundry list of things just about everybody on the CURRENT LIST has ALREADY been an ACTIVE participant in?

    Repeal the tax cuts for the mega-rich. Which, obviously, would destroy American civilization as we know it. Are you prepared to take that risk? Are you?!?

  27. 27.

    Tax Analyst

    October 25, 2006 at 6:19 pm

    OOH!…I don’t know…we’ve all been served SO WELL by those Tax Cuts for the Rich…you know, you don’t have to be a TAX ANALYST to see through the malarkey that was packaged in…and don’t get me started about their “Eliminate the Death Tax” scheme. I don’t know about you, but I think a $2 million exemption is a reasonable place to be. If your heirs can’t manage to deal with $2 mil and more than 1/2 the excess of that amount maybe they just need to be poor.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    October 25, 2006 at 8:14 pm

    Just think; two impeachments, convictions, sentencings and executions away from a Democratic President in 2007 if all goes well.

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