Picking up a tidbit from John’s post below…
House Republicans will hold a rally with President Bush on Wednesday morning, with all 199 members invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to show solidarity with the president, according to GOP sources.
You really have to sympathize with Newt. The President is a national disgrace. He polls worse than any President since they invented polling. At 28% he polls worse than the human papillomavirus. Blind, deaf Americans living under rocks for very long periods of time have figured out that everything the President touches is a half-assed failure. Any sane person would treat the guy as radioactive.
So what gives? I have to assume that this little pep rally will be about as well attended as Alberto ‘abu’ Gonzales’s farewell party at the DoJ. Still, if this is the political genius coordinating 2008 Congressional races you can sort of understand why Republican partisans outside of government have gotten so frantic.
r€nato
I wonder how many of those 199 will show, and of those that do, I wonder how many will allow themselves to be photographed with Chimpy.
SamFromUtah
“Solidarity with the President” on any particular issue, or is this just a raw attempt at ego-salving?
Abe Fucking Lincoln
Now there’s a line worth stealing.
r€nato
If you have to remind people that you’re relevant… you’re not.
cleek
i’m gonna grow a wart in his honor.
then i’ll burn it off with a soldering iron.
Ripley
Wow. That may be the dumbest political move these turdbirds have made in the last two years. Seriously – they’re going to use “we support Bush!” as a campaign position? God, for stupid…
I hope every one of them loses and is forced to live a life of poverty and despair. Fuck em! Fuck every one of them.
jake
Quick, everybody grab a deck chair!
CFisher
I’d say just about the only thing that can save the Republicans from being a minority party for the next 20 years would be if the Democrats managed things just as poorly or made a screwup the equal of Iraq.
I honestly can’t say I understand this adherence to party loyalty that trumps reason, evidence, or reality.
r€nato
don’t be surprised Ripley, these are the same geniuses who, in early 2007, thought the Iraq war should be the centerpiece of their 2008 campaign.
p.a.
last time georgie succeeded at anything without family help he was sporting a flagellum.
r€nato
That’s pretty easy to understand; guzzling the kool-aid has been a hallmark of Republicanism for at least the last 10 years.
Addiction is a difficult thing to overcome; admitting you have a problem is the first step. I give the GOP 10 years until they get there. In the meantime, we can look forward to more GOP trouncings at the ballot box, followed by strident declarations that the only problem was that the GOP did not run far enough to the right.
That’s a virtual certainty after the coming 2008 landslide, given the profound distrust of McSame among the GOP base.
Zifnab
They’re actually shooting DSCC and DCCC campaign commercials now. It’s almost like the GOP is trying to let the Dems win.
Keith
I have more sympathy for an actual newt than I do for Newt Gingrich. I still remember quite well how he ran the House, and the residual effects are still feltl.
Prospero
Actually, a good chunk of people who disapprove of him in those polls do so because he’s not crazy, destructive, and warmongering enough.
The Moar You Know
Gee, I wonder why they would do that?
Anyone remember Carter? The last “cleanup” president?
I guarantee you the GOP hasn’t forgotten the value of letting a Dem take the fall for years of Republican mismanagement.
Tsulagi
Wonder how many short busses from the GOP motor pool will actually be needed for that event.
Grand Moff Texan
Photograph them. Distribute the names of the collaborators. Pursue them into their districts and massacre them at the polls.
If they want to suck up to failure, let them.
.
Svensker
One of the reasons Obama seems like the better candidate — he MAY have the smarts and the smoothness to navigate the rough waters ahead. And them waves is starting to look real big. Hillary never seemed like enough of a leader to handle it.
r€nato
I just don’t buy that argument. The next president gets to appoint at least two SC justices. That alone is reason enough to want to win this November. Blaming the Democrat for the aftermath of Bush’s failures is merely the silver lining of losing the WH for the GOP.
charles
They can run from Bush, but they can’t hide. Those “I Bush” tattoos are hard to remove.
Jay B.
The “cleanup” theory is interesting of course. Assuming there’s a Carter and not, say, a FDR — another Democratic clean up president. In the former scenario, the GOP only lives in the political wilderness for another 4 years from the Executive branch and another 10 or so from the Legislative.
however, if Obama turns into a galvanizing JFK/FDR type of guy (and truthfully, he’s more like them personality-wise than the endlessly earnest Carter) — the GOP could just about pack up the tent.
And I love the GOP spirit rally. It’ll be like “We Are the World” with more pedophiles.
greynoldsct00
Has anyone seen any sign that this gathering occurred (or not due to lack of interest)?
Louise
The President is a national disgrace. He polls worse than any President since they invented polling. At 28% he polls worse than the human papillomavirus. Blind, deaf Americans living under rocks for very long periods of time have figured out that everything the President touches is a half-assed failure. Any sane person would treat the guy as radioactive.
I want to marry this post.
RSA
Lines like this are what keep me coming back.
Billy K
You beat me to it. That’s probably their game plan. Let the Dems take the fall for GOP fuckups, and poof! Another 20 years of dominance.
Rick Taylor
It’s not like they’re trying. By and large the Republicans are still wedded to Bush’s Iraq strategy, they still have nothing to offer for the economy other than corporate bail outs for companies to big to fail and the free market for the rest of us, tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts. The only thing the can distinguish themselves from him are on issues like immigration.
Punchy
Honest, serious question: do you think that Bush realizes he’s a failure? Or is he too isolated, pampered, and arrogant to realize this?
Or, perhaps if his only goal was to line the pockets of himself and his friends, perhaps that’s not failing….
Hmmm…..
Kevin
I don’t think he particularly cares, one way or the other.
Dennis - SGMM
Overheard at the rally,
“You know, I think we’re all Bozos on this bus.”
yet another jeff
Ding ding ding!
w vincentz
I noticed quite a while ago that the GOP had taken over the flag that symbolizes this once great nation (Old Glory) as their own. They wear it on their lapels, and perhaps even have it tattooed on their right buttocks.
It disgusts me.
It enrages me.
It makes me feel like burning one. Oh, never mind. I really didn’t mean to say this.
Remind me, who was the NY senator that had as her centerpiece of legislative proposals something to do with “flag burning”?
Fuck free speech and free expression. And FUCK the GOP too!
The Moar You Know
w vincentz: I’ve spoken to you already about the dangers of sniffing whiteboard markers and then posting. Please be moar careful; we care about you, man.
Chris
The flaw in the GOP’s hypothetical plan to let Obama play the role of Jimmy Carter presumes that they have a Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings for 2012. Who the hell among the current crowd of GOP party faithful can fulfill that role? Mitt Romney? Mike Huckabee? Duncan Fucking Hunter?
There’s reason Hillary has been trying so damn hard for the nomination. Serious job security.
Ed Drone
Someone mentioned a film of someone (Ayers?) stomping on a flag (they’ll use the film to attack Obama, of course), and I thought to myself, “If you’ll put the flag on your chest, I’d be glad to stomp it!”
Yeah, I know… but the “liberals are wimps” meme would mean that they couldn’t publicize that they were curb-stomped by a 60+-year-old liberal, so I’d probably get away with it.
Ed
w vincentz
Moar,
Thanks for caring. No markers.
I care about you too.
Dennis - SGMM
It’s always the ones who wave the flag the hardest who are doing everything they can to fuck us out of what it stands for.
wasabi gasp
I’d bet that he does care…a whole lot too. Enough to imagine a magnificent caped leotard outfit with Decider! splashed across the chest.
jake
LOL. Even then he needed a boost from daddy.
Tsulagi
Doesn’t matter whether he’s isolated or not. He’s always been a spoiled brat, and like any spoiled brat just knows he’s deserving to be pampered and arrogant. Any potential self-doubt about that or realization is firewalled by his retardation. His stupid serves him well.
KRK
I’d like to come up with a nice comparison to the 2008 election for this, but instead I’ll just say that it’s awe-inspiring. “Dirty thunderstorm” indeed.
h/t Plush Life
PaminBB
Great post. I also liked this line from the original Politico piece:
“[Newt] offered nine policy proposals designed to achieve that goal, including repealing federal gas taxes, reforming the Census Bureau and declaring English as the official language of the United States.”
The federal budget is crashing, Iraq is burning – I can’t wait for them to rally the base around Census Bureau reform.
slippy hussein toad
There’s a difference in the dynamic of then vs. now. Then, we had the tail end of the FDR-propelled Democratic dominance which was petering out. The Republican party was coming back in from almost 40 years in the political wilderness. Nixon was a case of overreaching too soon, too fast. So we had a rising Republican party, a falling Democratic Party, and an evil prick of a President who opened himself and his party up for attack. But the Democratic Party of 1976 didn’t have the cojones to stand up for their own ideals. Either that or they were extremely corrupt (as one might expect of a political machine that had been in place since the mid 1930’s) and therefore easily compromised. And think about what Nixon did in the ’70’s vs. what Bush has done — some pretty tame shit, when you think about it. Mostly he brought immense shame upon the office through his criminality (that, try as they might, conservatives have been unable to scrub clean).
Fast forward 25 years and we have a falling Republican Party which has caused untold havoc on the nation with their corruption (which has tended outward more overtly than the Democrats ever could have managed) and a rising and genuine populist movement bent on overthrowing them. The situation is much more like that of the 1932 election than the 1976 election.
The Republican Party will be lucky to survive the storm in November.
Brian Smith
To paraphrase Dr Johnson, “Patriotism is the first refuge of a Bush Republican.”
Aaron
Who are these 28% and what would it take to reach them?
Is it a cult?
Or is it just all those Faux News viewers?
HyperIon
i saw a frontline about GHW Bush last week.
Barbara Bush (looking REALLY fat these days) recounted that her husband called Chimpy from China and ask HIM (as senior son) to contact all siblings to determine if they liked the idea of GHWB taking the CIA job. BB said he called back so quickly with “Yes!” that SHE suspected he had not asked anybody but just wanted his father back in the US. She had that motherly twinkle in her eye at that point. And I thought: “You know he’s a lying turd and that makes you smile. We know he’s a lying turd and that makes us…pissed as shit.” I do not like that woman.
Mike Alexander
I wonder if folks fully appreciate the GOP game plan. Iraq is not a bug, it’s *feature*. It is now clear that the objective in Iraq is (and always was) to stay in Iraq indefinitely. Winning the war was never the goal; that would mean that we leave, which is failure. Winning is really losing. Remember there was no bigger war booster than Cheney, but Cheney correctly predicted in 1994 that invasion of Iraq with 500,000 troops would lead to a Shia/Sunni schism and a quagmire. Based on what Cheney believed in 1994, it stands to reason that Cheney must have at least suspected that that the 2003 invasion would lead to quagmire, requiring a length involvement.
There was incompetence, obviously some in the pentagon thought the war would be over soon because they did put up that stupid “Mission Accomplished” banner, but I don’t think that was Cheney’s idea.
The purpose of the war is to replace the Cold War, which gives the Republican brand a new policy focus to replace the God, guns, & gays themes that are losing cachet.
War “gives us meaning” and terrorists are way more scary than gays. Medicare goodies for electorally-powerful elders blunts a potentially powerful Democratic thrust. Add in rent-seeking and tax cuts for Republican interests and the package is complete. What’s not to like? And the best part? It’s all paid for by the Chinese.
Darkness
From the linked article
Oh my f**king god. What is it that as soon as there is an R next to your name you turn into a utter moron? We have tens of millions without health insurance, a freakin’ pair of war s (remember those?) our grandkids will be working in slave labor camps to pay off the debt to the Chinese, the constitution is in tatters and this flippin’ fat bastard wants an official language declaration? JC on a crutch, is he brain damaged or what? Oh, yeah all of Americas problems would just magically disappear if what? We can all order a taco in English at that cheap place on the corner.
I wanna be dictator just so I can bitch slap these morons around like the deserve.
By the way Newty-boy, gas prices are set by supply… see if you lower the taxes the price at the pump will stay exactly the same as it is now because if they let the price fall the suppliers will run out. The price is what it is, go lower there isn’t enough supply. It’s called supply and demand, day one of econ 101 that you and Bushie slept through. Look it up. Or learn to read and then look it up.