The closing of this WaPo piece on the NY-23 affair really sums it all up:
Scozzafava, who was stripped of her Republican leadership position in the New York State Assembly on Monday, says she has no regrets and even leaves open the possibility of running for the seat again as a Republican. She sees herself as a champion of local expertise over ideological purity.
“How can Sarah Palin come out and endorse someone who can’t answer some basic questions,” Scozzafava asked. “Do these people even know who they are endorsing?”
Those conservative forces now descend on Florida, where former House speaker Marco Rubio, who on Monday received the endorsement of the Club for Growth, might shove aside centrist Gov. Charlie Crist, who was once on John McCain’s short list for running mate. And Scozzafava has a warning.
“There is a lot of us who consider ourselves Republicans, of the Party of Lincoln,” she said, her face now flush. “If they don’t want us with them, we’re going to work against them.”
The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes. You see it in the way they treat women, you see it in the way they treat minorities, you see it in the way they treat homosexuals, you see it in the way they treat anyone who is not a white Christian, and you see it in the way they treat anyone who disagrees with them slightly about anything. They just have no respect for anyone, and it shows. People don’t like to be treated like crap, and grown-ups don’t want to be associated with people who yell “You lie” or scream “socialism” or “Hitler” or accuse you of being a terrorist whenever they don’t get their way.
If you read the Corner or the Weekly Standard, or listen to any talk radio or any of the mouth breathers on Fox, or read any right-wing blogs, you will instantly know what I am talking about. You can’t help but notice that they are just loudmouthed jerks, stubborn bully boys, and insensitive and insecure cads. James Wolcott once wrote that Eric Cantor looked like the “pricky proprietor of the Jerk Store,” and that could be applied to the majority of the prominent Republicans out there. I guess that should be suspected from a movement in which the only thoughts are “Fuck you, I got mine.”
Seriously, how much time would it have taken for Hoffman to call Scozzafava after she withdrew from the race? But he didn’t, because he was a petty wingnut outsider thrust onto the scene by teabaggers and national loudmouths, and the people who were nice to her got the endorsement and the win. There is a lesson here.
inkadu
Being an asshole is the unwritten foundational axiom on every Republican Party platform.
Reason60
As I read this piece, I couldn’t help but think of Rick Santelli, standing on the trading floor amidst the stockbrokers, flush with a trillion in cash from American taxpayers, snarling about how he didn’t want to pay for the mortgage of “losers”.
As much of a mild mannered conservative (in the cautious sober sense of the word) as I am, I wanted to find my pitchfork and storm the NYSE.
Ad Reader
What is amusing is that Google put an ad next to this article for a product called the “jerkstopper.” http://www.jerkstopper.com
Unfortunately, it only works on computers, not on political parties.
thomas Levenson
Thanks for the Wolcott link, which included this gem about our own (former) Donkey party contribution to the self-righteous asshole party:
Joe Lieberman. We saw what a lethargic, uninspired veep candidate he was in 2000 and he hasn’t exactly picked up speed with age. His Joementum has pretty much come to a dead halt. Together on stage, he and McCain would look like a gay Metamucil ad.
Stooleo
The crazy thing is that this behavior is ultimately to their own demise. Its like they won’t be happy until the U.S. resembles Columbia or Brazil.
geg6
DeDe is pissed. And I don’t blame her a bit. All it would have taken was some simple human courtesy. But that was too much for these assholes. And now here is this nice (little-c) conservative woman who has given her all for the GOP for many years who has been treated like dirt because she represents her constituents and their interests, not that of the base.
I don’t know how they recover from this sort of thing and it is bound to happen over and over and over until the whole thing implodes.
It’s really quite sad.
David Hunt
I’s guess that it means that Sarah Palin has learned not to ask of others what she could do herself…if I were feeling mirthful. The reality is more likely to be that she saw a kindred spirit. “Answer basic questions.” Hah!
Dork
We finally understand the roots of John’s anger
Rick Taylor
The thing is they’ve been treating us liberals like this for years, but no one minded. But now more of the country has woken up to just how disastrous their policies have been, so they’re attack has expanded from us dfhp’s to include the administration of a popular President who’s obviously at least trying to clean up the mess the previous administration they favored made.
Pangloss
I saw some wingnuts over the weekend claim that the Obama administration was “rewarding friends and punishing enemies,” without any hint of irony whatsoever. It’s as if they’d never heard of Nixon, GWB, Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Brownie, Monica Goodling, etc., etc., etc.
Alan
The Democrats are worse. And really, everything that has gone wrong with this nation can be blamed squarely on Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, and liberal do-good-ism.
M. Carey
Finally, you put your finger on what I have thought for a long time. Its the ASSHOLE party. The ideology of “everything is for sale” including wars and hurricanes. The Ideology of “hate/ fear the other guy, so I can tell you lies”.
Listen to The Boss, pure asshole, nothing more.
PeakVT
I guess that whole “do to others what you would have them do to you” thing was one of those liberal mistranslations of the Bible.
cleek
I Got Mine.
the IGM idea really is what puts me off Republicanism and Libertarianism. that and the whole fundamentalist thing. and the racism. and the jingoism. and the militarism. etc..
gf120581
I could have said it better myself. Besides being a-holes, much of the GOP seems like it hasn’t emotionally matured past grade-school level. It’s difficult to have reasonable political discourse in this country when one side’s response to everything they don’t like or agree with is the equivilent of a third grader taunting a classmate, “Yeah, well, you’re a poopyhead, so nyah, nyah, nyah!”
I thought the Joe Wilson outburst was the worst, but then I saw some of the health care debate footage and was just appalled. Particuarly when Tom Price kept on objecting and refusing to allow female Democratic Reps to speak (he kept saying “I object” over and over in that flat monotone that made me think he’d been replaced by a droid or something). It was akin to telling them, “Woman, shut up and get back to the kitchen where you belong. This is the big boys’ business here.”
I don’t know if this is the case, but I think the combination of a black President and a woman House Speaker has completely blown the fuses of some of these guys, especially the white Southern males. Their world has been turned upside down and the only way they seem to cope with it is by blindly lashing out in childish rage.
Morbo
I like to say that people who complain about “political correctness” generally really mean that they want to be able to act like assholes with impunity. Lucky for them, “RINO” is an epithet that isn’t likely to get them accused of being politically incorrect. Just politically incompetent.
MattF
Y’know, I read the Scozzafava interview, and it reminded me that– although I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, and have lived in relatively liberal neighborhoods all my life– I used to, once in a while, vote for a Republican. It would happen when the Democrats nominated a novice party apparatchik whose only qualification was licking a lot of envelopes, and the Republicans nominated an experienced politician who had a reputation for knowing about and caring about local issues. But that was then.
Bud
Not to mention that I’ve been listening to GOPers for the past 30 years tell me how brilliant they are and how they know everything about business and economics and are the only national party with a clear-eyed and rational view of foreign policy.
The GOP has pissed all of that away, they know they’ve pissed all of it away and can only respond by screeching at the top of their lungs like toddlers.
Morbo
Ha, there was no image when I first refreshed, then as I wrote my comment there was Undisclosed Location Cheney, and now it’s Joe Wilson. It’s hard to decide who’s most appropriate, isn’t it?
Rick Taylor
What amazes me is that for years I heard the Republicans referred to as the “adults.” When Bush one, the refrain went up thank heavens the adults are back in charge.
It never made much sense to me, but now with tea baggers and cries of “death panels” and Acorn and budgets without numbers and calls for the birth certificate and on and on and on, no one even tries to equate Republicans with adults anymore. It’s impossible, especially when, even when I’m disappointed with him, Obama is easily among the most adult politicians currently serving.
This is disastrous for the Republican party, but most of them don’t seem to care. You see a few of them saying, hey, after eight years of Bush, what the electorate really wants is competent leadership, but it doesn’t even slow them down, and the people making these criticisms are being pushed aside.
It’s breathtaking. I never expected to see something like this.
cleek
there are a handful of complaints that the out-of-power party routinely makes about the other party, and that is one of the top three. (see also “… will stop at nothing…”, “…lust for power…”, “power-grab”, etc..
i’ve learned to disregard anyone who says those things, regardless of who they’re complaining about.
gnomedad
Slightly OT, I just watched this and got angry all over again at the asshats spewing their “thoughtful skepticism” about climate change.
Also, Rachel Pike is teh hot. :)
Brick Oven Bill
You don’t mess with Glenn Beck.
The irony is that Glenn Beck is probably way nicer than Andrea Mitchell, Barbara Boxer, and Diane Feinstein combined.
Obama is also a mean guy. Glenn gives 20% of his income to Charity. Obama’s brother Odongo still lives in a hut, despite Obama’s $400,000+/yr salary plus perks, the $500,000 book advance he took immediately before assuming office, and Michelle’s $300,000/yr job that disappeared after Barack left his Senate seat.
Odongo still lives in a hut.
Thus, Teabaggers are nicer, and more Charitable, than Democrats.
Stooleo
“I got Mine”
Some commenter over at Red State had this as his tag line ” The ropes of guilt wear thin” By (wait for it).. Ayn Rand.
I get it now. Its license to be an asshole.
The Grand Panjandrum
They’ve had decades to set about this Christianist jihad and it is coming home to roost. When Newt Gingrich is your voice of reason (and holds absolutely no power) you might be staring in the the long shadows of a very cold winter.
I smell another third party movement ala Ross Perot and Buchanan. I don’t know if the teabaggers will take over the GOP for good, or strike out on their own, but it really does seem to be in the wind. The more moderate faction might actually pluck off a few Democrats (e.g. Lieberman) to strike a center-right pose on the political spectrum. The difference between now and 94 are obvious and the problems facing us are rather stark by comparison. Sure the Democrats may lose a few seats in Republican districts they picked off in 2008 but the Right and the failed Bush Administration are still relatively recent events.
Even President Snowe is vulnerable to the teabaggers. That tells you how dangerous the they are–in northern New England. That is not good news for our country.
cleek
no, they don’t care. more accurately, they want the GOP to fracture, at least enough so that they can get the apostates and appeasers out of office. they’re on a political cleansing rampage. but that’s not exactly a strange place for a party to be; the Dems would do it too, if they thought they had a chance to replace some Blue Dogs with actual liberals.
the GOP base though, thinks people don’t like conservatism because they haven’t really seen it. the lib base knows people would like what the Dems have to offer, but they just can’t their agenda past the Blue Dogs.
BB
That article just broke my heart. The thing about her sitting in the car with the wipers going bawling her eyes out? Awful. This is a nice woman who was just not ready for the whirlwind of Crazy that the teabaggers brought.
To jump on your point, John…I don’t think any right wingers would read that part of the article and feel pity. It’s a mindset, it’s what sets them apart. It’s hard to quantify, but I agree- they (generally) are an angrier, meaner set of people.
Tsulagi
Hadn’t seen Hoffman on the TV until I ran last week’s Daily Shows off our DVR this weekend.
Of course shouldn’t judge by looks or demeanor, but could see why RedState swooned over him erupting into starbursts. Not only did he bring the stupid, Hoffman looks like a prototypical RSSF warrior poster boy. And damn, that guy’s personality could put a battalion of ADDs strung out on crystal meth to sleep.
Grace Nearing
Rep Cao (R-La) had the gall to vote in the best interests of his constituents (mostly poor, about 25% uninsured) and for his efforts he’s being called a communist. That’s a brutal comment since his father was a soldier in the South Vietnamese Army and imprisoned by the Communists. Look for Cao to change his party affiliation shortly….
soonergrunt
Ah, the broken trollbot is still with us.
Can John or somebody explain how it’s getting past the ban or was the ban lifted?
Punchy
@gnomedad: Re: RaPike: A tad bit butterface, but healthy front junk and what looks to be a great bumper. Agree she’s got some sexy.
The Dangerman
They can’t help it; they have been brainwashed by being told for a Generation or more that they are “the Real Americans”. The sad thing is that the more they lose support and the more they lose credibility, their strategy is to double down on The Stupid.
Now, let’s get to the important stuff; where can I get a copy of Carrie’s tape?
K. Grant
In the end, watching these hacks try to mandate purity is just unrelentingly draining. I see it not only on the national stage but also at work and at church – churlish assholes attempting to define who is in and who is out, and clearly not giving a damn that the people they are desiring to order about are real, live human beings with thoughts and feelings.
To top it off, this is all wrapped up in a grotesque anti-intellectualism that I simply do not get. What is wrong with thinking? What is wrong with doubt? What is wrong with questions? I seriously do not understand how people can live in such a world. In the same vein, why is it that all of these people demanding such short-sighted knavery are such joyless people? They never laugh. They rarely smile. They hate and growl and grimace. Who wants to live that way?
gnomedad
Goldstein and his heresies will never die.
kay
@BB:
I was glad she beat the teabaggers. And she did beat them, despite their delusional denials.
I loved that they declared victory well prior to the vote-counting. I was counting on that, and they came through. I knew they would.
An inability to exercise any self-control is almost the defining characteristic of tea baggers.
They can’t shut up. They’re incapable of it.
Joel
hoffman is just taking cues from alan keyes — whom some of you might remember refusing to offer barack obama a congratulatory phone call after the illinois senate race.
Mark S.
On page 3 of the article:
Petting a goat, huh? We know what that leads to.
DBrown
@gf120581: Just remember that after 1865, when the low life, pro-terrorist, American hating mass murdering scum called “Southern Gentleman” had finally run through a few hundred thousand red necks that were too stupid to realize who their real enemies were, these southern pigs saw the great opportunity to gain power through their standard ‘race hatred of the other’. Then, slowly at first, they exploited the “lets heal our wound’s’ foolish North and by 1890 won critical controlled of much of the political party that had originally won the war against these monsters. Today, after 140+ years, this cancer is slowly losing ground but is determined to aid all terrorist to destroy our mass democracy and replace it with the same southern elitist class system that kept the poor masses, poor and over 95% of the voters completely happy to live in that terrible state because, even though they were hated and despised by these elites, at least ‘the other as slave’ was below them.
Repug-a-thug dream = raise of the confederacy = capitalism in its true, naked form
reid
I don’t often talk politics with my mother, who’s age 74 and an old-school, mostly apolitical, NY small town (not NY-23) Republican. But at one point a few months ago, I tried to explain what was wrong with Republicans, and I sputtered “they’re just jerks!”. I’m not sure she was convinced, but I didn’t have the time or energy to back it up. If only she did the intertubage, I could point her here….
Ash
Why the hell do wingnutters spend more time talking about this dude that lives in Africa in a hut than they do about actual Americans living outside their houses on the sidewalks in cardboard boxes?
Go fuck a goat, Bob.
JackieBinAZ
@Alan: You forgot the Clintons and Bill’s penis specifically.
Comrade Dread
Well, there are plenty of liberal a**holes who blog too on the internet. It’s kind of an internet thing in general.
But I will concede that I don’t find any sane mainstream conservative websites. The ones I do are decidedly of a libertarian, paleocon, or old school moderate populist persuasion that is mocked and rejected by the GOP.
selskie
I’d like to think one reason why my generation went for Obama was because when I went through high school, student republicans were absolute assholes and politicized everything and anything. Between 9/11 and the Iraq War, these guys were hell. I can’t tell you how much they took regular school functions and tried to make them into some kind of referendum.
People get tired of that stuff.
Joel
@soonergrunt: i have a mental troll filter for the repeat offenders. works pretty well. i wish people wouldn’t engage them because it makes it hard to follow the comment threads. i know someone (cleek, maybe?) wrote a pie filter for greasemonkey.
ChrisZ
@Brick Oven Bill:
The fact that the three people you list as being “less nice” than Beck are all women is entirely coincidental. It has nothing to do, I’m sure, with your view on how women should behave differing from your view on how men should.
Little Dreamer
@Brick Oven Bill:
Ummm, I thought you guys were all about personal responsibility, taking care of yourselves by pulling up your own bootstraps and all that. Why is it Obama’s responsibility to pay a relative’s living expenses? I’m not against sharing, but, sharing is a personal choice, and your judgment of how someone shares or doesn’t gives away your lie. Your charity sources are only good for likeminded individuals. I wonder, would they be willing to share with a non-Christian who will never accept Christ and votes Democratic woman like me? Surely not!
Singularity
BOB: “You don’t mess with Glenn Beck.”
From the article he linked and obviously didn’t read:
So we now know that Brick Oven Bull just reads the headlines and nothing else.
kay
“Even as she now hopes to return to her normal life of local politics, laundry and choir practice for next month’s big performance of Bach’s Christmas Cantatas, the political forces that swept her up have not entirely let her go.”
This is who Sarah Palin targets. This person and the 19 year old father of her grandchild.
That’s because she’s “tough”.
Donald G
Does anyone remember when good sportsmanship was a prized American virtue? By the Reagan era, good sportsmanship was relegated to wimpy liberal quiche-eaters. Real Americans, who are by definition conservative, subscribed to Vince Lombardi’s “winning is the only thing” mentality and used that to as license to be assholes in all things. Bye-bye “gracefulness in victory and in defeat”, hello “Suck on this!”
The sensible men of the Village punditocracy have tried to brainwash us into believing that conservatives were the “adults” in politics, that they were the superego restraining the id of the DFHs. I would submit that today’s conservatives, weaned on a generation of swagger and loutishness are instead representative of the nation’s id. In the teabaggers – as in the Brooks Brothers riot nine years earlier – we see the national id unleashed.
FlipYrWhig
True. But our side has John Aravosis and David Sirota.
Warren Terra
Eventually, the R’s will get back in power. We’ll all be a lot better if when that happens they’ve some signs of sanity, maybe care about policy and their neighborrt.s.de speaking out may be a start.
ksmiami
The gaggle of angry right wing blowhards kind of makes that “angry left” moniker seem dubious now, no?
Why is BOB still spouting drivel and farting up this blog?
Anoniminous
After all the analysis, nuanced expositions, and psychological investigations it really comes down to:
Tea Baggers, the Galters, and glibertarians are intellectually negligible, incompetent, uninformed, ill-mannered boors.
Strawmanmunny
I concur about the arseholes meme. I just don’t get it. These people seem so angry and most are people that are doing well. So scared someone is going to come take the 12th biscuit from their dozen.
And as a gratuitous plug of this blog, one of the reasons I make this a daily visit is the fact that it seems to be an oasis in a sea of derangement on the web.
While no where near the vitriol of the right, I am now seeing similar type of “my way or no way” from left wing bloggers. It’s maddening. Like a Ping Pong game in hell. Nothing is ever enough, nothing is ever worth being the least bit happy about unless it involves the total destruction of the other “team”.
Nobody can give an inch or they “lose”. And winning and losing is the most important thing, even is that means making “perfect the enemy of good”
Midnight Marauder
@FlipYrWhig:
While those two are WATBs to the nth degree, I will take them over any conservative asshole any day of the week.
kay
@Donald G:
I don’t think there’s been a single day since the election where Sarah Palin has chosen not to weigh in. She has the self-control of an immature 12 year old.
Shell
How else can you explain grown people carrying on like it’s midnight on New Year’s when the US lost the Olympics?
And Florida and other future targets of the tea-baggers. What’s that saying, The definition of mental illness is doing the exact same thing but expecting a different outcome?
ppcli
@BB:
The part that leapt out at me was:
You know you’re doing something right, and your opponents are doomed in the long run, when the sooper-sekret plan to defeat the opponent is “Act with the sort of basic human decency that good parents try to instill in their children”.
Paul L.
I guess with jerks it takes one to know one.
gwangung
Yeah. Don’t like it. Don’t support. It’s arseholery that afflicts both sides.
Compromise is an art that seems to be lost, and there are a lot of people who are doing their damndest to make sure it stays lost.
Anoniminous
@Strawmanmunny:
The Left has intellectually negligible, incompetent, uninformed, ill-mannered boors as well. It’s just that being intellectually negligible, incompetent, uninformed, ill-mannered boors hasn’t been elevated to a Good Thing, a condition devotely to be wished, a goal to be achieved.
Bubblegum Tate
@Tsulagi:
He also looks like the type who would have bodies in his crawl space.
slag
@Brick Oven Bill: Read the books. Or STFU.
Strawmanmunny
@Anoniminous:
No doubt. I’m not saying they are as bad, but the victimization is starting to get tiresome on the left too.
I’m of the “left” and can understand the feelings of frustration, not to mention it seems the only way to get things done(or attention) is to cry,whine and do what Republicans do. I mean how many times does someone have to be wrong to NOT get invited on a cable talk show?
But, at some point, people are going to have to get over it and get things done. At this point, I wouldn’t bet on wingnuts doing it, cause like you say, they seem to be fine to let Rome burn if they don’t get their way.
But incremental progress is still progress. Not as much, not as fast, but we can at least move the ball down the field.
gex
@Joel: The greasemonkey filter is powerless to protect you from the people who feed the trolls though. You can filter out BOB all you want, but the people who blockquote him will spoon feed all of that crap to you anyhow.
Florida Cynic
I’m just waiting for the carnage here in Florida. Crist is electable, even with the persistent rumors about him. Rubio is a typically corrupt Miami hack who wouldn’t be on anyone’s radar expect for Florida’s ridiculous term limits at the state level. But the tea baggers don’t care about electability, just some weird “conservative” purity test that alienates everyone else.
Lex
@gwangung: The problem, and I say this as a registered Red State Republican since 1978, is that for decades the GOP has been trying to get us to compromise not just on legislation and policy but on basic human and constitutional rights. Moreover, particularly since 1994, the GOP idea of “compromise” has been “my way or the highway.”
Nuh-uh. Nah. Guh. Happen.
Nor should it. The ancestors of mine who pissed on Maj. Patrick Ferguson’s corpse at the Battle of Kings Mountain would be furious.
bemused
Good post.
Regular folks who still self-identify themselves as R’s & defend the low rent behavior of prominent R’s must admire assholes. I don’t know when it is going to occur to non-powerful R voters that if prominent R’s can so easily & viciously throw each other under the bus & back up over the bodies again & again, the R party absolutely doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them except for conning them for their votes.
Shade Tail
Anoniminous (#61):
This. I’m so sick of the idiots trying to push their “the left does it too!!!” false equivalence. Unlike the right, the left marginalizes its assholes and neanderthals. We do that because, by and large, we are decent people who understand that being respectful is better than being an incoherent mouth-breathing hate-screamer.
And therefore, because we understand that, we haven’t been reduced to a 20% minority.
gnomedad
@Brick Oven Bill:
Shorter BOB and his ilk: Because Obama has diverse relatives in Kenya, it is irresponsible for his to be President of the United States rather than personally providing for all of them.
Wingers love them some do-it-yourself nanny state.
FlipYrWhig
I definitely agree with that. But that’s because I generally support their opinions, not their style. Outsized self-regard plus purist complaining… luckily for us that’s not quite enough to make you a media star on the liberal side.
The Saff
John Cole, your commentary is spot-on. Excellent post. Now I’ll go and read the comments.
Balloon Juice, like John Slattery on “Mad Men,” rules.
Rommie
It’s not just the part about them being jerks. It’s the fact (from observational evidence of my roommate and others I know are Deep, Deep Red) that they believe it’s US who are the assholes, because we refuse to acknowledge The Real Truth(tm) so we are the ones who are uncivilized, not adults, and disrespectful when we don’t see the correctness of their worldviews.
It’s a decaying orbit around the Wingularity – they think the Blue side is increasingly wrong, insane, and asses for winning by deceit (because they HAVE TO BE cheating, as we know they are WRONG!) and can’t understand that the source of the behavior is from themselves. Because they can do whatever is necessary to win, including cheating, and since they are ALWAYS right, the other side MUST be doing the same thing, because it is what they would do themselves in the same situation. The more they lose, the more self-feedback they get that they were *right* all along.
That’s why they dance with glee when they do catch someone with a Blue tag misbehaving, as it affirms the belief that everyone secretly thinks the way they do, and they become even bigger assholes during their celebration.
Nothing new here, I know, but my Roommate has doubled down on the Deep Red in the past year, so I’ve seen the changes for myself.
Will
It really is amazing that he didn’t even call her. It is probably the most elementary of political gestures. That alone explains exactly why that toweringly arrogant and stupid man lost the race.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Brick Oven Bill:
“A couple days after Kelly’s wife, Terry, had a miscarriage, Beck called her live on the air and says, ‘We hear you had a miscarriage,’ ” remembers Brad Miller, a former Y95 DJ and Clear Channel programmer. “When Terry said, ‘Yes,’ Beck proceeded to joke about how Bruce [Kelly] apparently can’t do anything right — about he can’t even have a baby.”
Notorious P.A.T.
@Brick Oven Bill:
Dropping money into the Mormon Church’s coffers so they can build bigger and fancier temples is not “charity”.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Stooleo:
That is as clear a summary of Rand’s philosophy as possible.
Tea Party Taliban
Delirious at their success at having drawn blood in NY-23, the Tea Party Taliban is setting their sights on other seats to lose.
A new survey of Maine from Public Policy Polling (D) has some dire news for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), with the moderate Republican potentially losing her 2012 Republican primary against a generic conservative challenger — and by a landslide, no less.
Purify that party :^)
Notorious P.A.T.
@The Dangerman:
A. . . uh. . . FRIEND of mine looked it up, and it appears the tape has not yet been released to the public. So my FRIEND says.
Redshirt
To be fair, these assholes and grifters have always been with us. They’ve just never had entire broadcast networks and political parties geared towards their viewpoints.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Paul L.:
That’s a good comparison. Because Eric Cantor has the ability to shape government policy, and James Wolcott has the ability to. . . control hurricanes?
Fergus Wooster
@Bubblegum Tate:
I can see Hoffman’s wife on the CNN Headline News loop:
“I always wondered about Doug’s collection of little shoes. . .”
Anoniminous
@Strawmanmunny:
I’m on the Left also and got tired of “our” nonsense back in my SDS days. Need I mention the words “$ocialist” and “Workers” and “Party?” How about “Weather Underground?”
:-)
Need a coalition to actualize one’s agenda. To do that it is necessary to persuade people to one’s position and compromise with the other members of the coalition. Ideologues of all stripes have a difficult-to-impossible time doing that. They want their whatever and they want It NOW! When they don’t get it, they throw a hissy fit.
Anoniminous
@Shade Tail:
You’re correct. I should have nuanced my comment.
The Saff
@gf120581:
Exactly.
Picture a family with a couple of teenagers. Mom and dad take a month long trip out of town and leave the kids without adult supervision. “We trust you,” they say as they leave. The kids then proceed to trash the place beyond recognition. That’s my analogy of 2001-2007 under Dubya (before the Democrats won back the House and Senate).
Notorious P.A.T.
@Anoniminous:
But when did the Democratic Party cater to the Weather Underground like the Republican Party is catering to the teabagger?
Nutella
What? Scozzafava was stripped of her Republican leadership position in the New York State Assembly? For endorsing the Democrat, I presume.
That means the New York Republicans are a million times tougher than Harry Reid who is happy to let Lieberman keep all his privileges as a Democrat even though he not only endorses Republicans, he even left the party.
The Saff
@Brick Oven Bill: From the NY Times:
Notorious P.A.T.
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Bold fail.
Beauzeaux
It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Joel
@gex: which is why i implore them to stop responding, period! it’s an easy solution.
stickler
It’s not just “being an asshole” for most of these GOP loons. It’s also “bitch slap politics” — and for the last twenty years, it’s worked pretty well, especially against milquetoast Democrats. That was the whole point of the Swift Boating, nancy-boy treatment they doled out to Kerry. And it worked.
It’s not working particularly well now, because of the manifest failures of GOP governance. But it’s about all they have left, and the know-nothings inhabiting the RedState fever swamps still lap it up.
bemused
It’s easy to have no qualms about doing whatever it takes no matter how sleazy if God is on your side. I’m thinking of the C-Street gang who follow some kind of power worship religion and Goldman Sachs, I’m just a blue collar kind of guy, Blankfein, doing “God’s work”. Followers of the profit/power brands of Christianity can pretend they are special & don’t have to follow any rules.
JimPortlandOR
John: what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes.
Bingo! And quite often, very dumb and uninformed assholes as well.
You’re speaking the truth, dude!
ksmiami
John – I only take issue with the deep down part – Actually on the surface they are pretty much complete assholes and show it pretty vividly – at least earlier Republican prototypes like Reagan and Bush maintained some pretense of likability, but the current crew is all fanaticism and rage…
TheHatOnMyCat
Good post.
gocart mozart
@Little Dreamer:
Also he was quoted as saying that he doesn’t want a hand out and would consider it an insult if offered or words to that effect.
Sean
The worst part about to me is that they are also the whiniest titty babies whenever someone calls them on their bullshit, wins an argument, or — heaven forbid — just gets fed up and uses some coarse language.
Suddenly the erstwhile bullies are the biggest victims in the world and waaah, waaah, waaah.
They are party full of Eric Cartmans.
binzinerator
This was true even 25 years ago and has become more and more obvious as the years went by. I figure if someone still hasn’t figured this out by now its because deep down inside they are also a complete asshole.
Which brings me to people like Scozzafava: On the face of it, it sounds like she wasn’t an asshole; however she was willing to go along with republican asshole policy that brought us that disastrous governance you speak of. She was fine with it, that is, until the real double-dipped assholes in her party turned on her.
Wikipedia says she is pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage, and has strong ties to organized labor. That’s great, but honestly she had 8 vivid years of seeing her party’s policies bring disaster to this country and she had run her national campaign as a Republican and is still talking about being a Republican. This is the equivalent of having one’s face shoved in a bucket of steaming shit for 8 years and still not admitting shit smells bad.
All I learned about her is she is not the same kind of asshole like the assholes who now dominate her party. But after 8 years of the blatant stuff we have seen and she was still trying to get people to swallow the Republican horseshit it means she’s an asshole. It’s just a question of magnitude now.
Something Fabulous
re: dougj’s thread earlier and lack of proper copy editing anywhere anymore: “flushed,” surely? Otherwise, “flush”… against what? Sorry, I know not the point here, but ugh.
binzinerator
As I have said many times before, goopers are not really interested in democracy, they do not respect it nor deep down do they want it.
Democracy for them is a big foam-finger waving exercise in jingoism and self-congratulatory self-affirmation ‘conservative values’ when they get their way. They have no use or respect for such a system otherwise.
Anoniminous
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Never. But then I don’t consider the Democratic Party “Left.” I place them, using the global context as my absolute reference point, as a Center to Center-Right party.
licensed to kill time
I read this article in the New Yorker last night and this bit leapt out:
Now, despite the outcome in that case, can you even imagine this type of legislation being supported by any Republican in this day and age? It just reminded me that once upon a time, there were reasonable Republican politicians.
Redshirt
It’s fairly obvious to me that tribal identity is a large factory in political party representation, and if you were raised a Repub, you’ll find it hard to leave. I would assume this covers folks like DeDe.
Tribal politics are the worst, and we’ll never get away from them. We just need to expand the membership of the tribe until it encompasses all of humanity.
There’s little difference in my mind between a Teabagger and a hardcore Cleveland Browns fan — they both will identify with their “team” regardless of results.
LD50
@Tea Party Taliban: I’m sure it’s been pointed out here before while I was out of town, but I find it hilarious that the Democratic House candidates that the Teabaggers failed to oust last week (Owens and Garamendi) were both seated swiftly enough to cast crucial ‘yes’ votes on the HCR vote in the House last week.
It’s also hilarious that the ‘Baggers proclaimed that their performance in California’s 10th district was a ‘victory’ since Garamendi only won by 10%, and that this sets them up to take the seat in 2010. I live in California’s 10th, and it’s clear they don’t understand this area at all.
KevinNYC
anybody know what basic questions she is talking about?
I’m assuming she’s saying Hoffman was the one wouldn’t answer.
Anybody have the details?
dricey
We have a two-party system:
The Asshole Party, and the Chickenshit Party.
It’d be nice if someone started a third party: The Democrats.
Nutella
@binzinerator:
So Scozzafava should have dropped the party she had been in all her life? She should not have worked to turn it back to being more small-c conservative? Aren’t you applying a purity standard, too?
We’ve only got two political parties to hold millions of political positions. Some compromises are necessary to work as a group.
But I expect Scozzafava has been pushed past her compromise limit now.
The Populist
Anybody catch the interview with Rep. Gao of LA? I applauded loudly when he said the reason he bucked his party and voted for health care reform was simple: HIS CONSTITUENTS NEEDED IT.
If I have to throw a blessing to anybody, this guy gets one. Props to a LEADER even if I disagree with a lot of his other stances. I like that somebody can LEAD and DO WHAT’S RIGHT for their constituents over this bullcrap excuse to hide behind some imaginary need to obfuscate the “liberals.”
The Populist
Actually, they are all probably nice people in real life. The problem is Beck is a prick because he’s a grifter. He’s USING this nonsense as a means to make himself rich.
Beck could give a flying you know what about anybody. He will say stupid things because it gets him attention and money.
The Populist
Glenn Beck gives NOTHING to NOBODY. He harms civil discussion, he hurts intelligence and he destroys the idea we are all Americans at heart. You troll very badly.
So? Unlike Beck, Obama isn’t a multi-millionaire. How do you know for certain he hasn’t tried to help? How do you know what the family dynamic is? How do you know? You don’t.
That is not true. I know many dems who give a lot more in time and money to charity than a lot of cranky righties. Give it up already troll boy.
The Populist
Hey this is fun! From what I can tell Brick Oven Bill is:
A pauper who sits at the library using up their bandwith to post here.
He hates charity, not because he has no money, but he hates to see people get helped.
He must hate Americans. Seeing he likes Beck and teabaggers tells me he hates Americans. See, you cannot tell me you are an American when you want to destroy people who disagree with you.
LD50
@The Populist:
Not all. I have a strong hunch that O’Reilly, Malkin and Coulter are probably shitheads in real life, as well.
Mike G
Its like they won’t be happy until the U.S. resembles Columbia or Brazil.
Because they’re all smugly secure that they’ll be one of the few rich guys in estates behind barbed-wired walls with security guards, and can enjoy cheap household labor and schadenfreude at the plight of the miserable peasants. Repig paradise.
Mark S.
@KevinNYC:
This.
LD50
Mormon tithing is obligatory — it doesn’t count as ‘charity’, dumbass.
kay
@KevinNYC:
Hoffman was asked about local issues by a local newspaper, in that pro forma interview that all candidates endure.
He knew nothing about anything.
Which really speaks to absolute jerkism. He didn’t bother to prepare at all. That’s how much respect he has for the people he plans to “serve”.
I have no idea what he planned on spending an hour talking about, but I have a wild guess: himself. He was ready for that!
Alan
@Joel: When Randall Terry ran for state Senate in the Republican primary down here in Florida he too refused to concede and congratulate his opponent. It must be a pro-life/religious thing–nothing brings people closer to God than being mean and vindictive.
Praise Jesus, assholes.
binzinerator
@Nutella:
I do believe that’s what John did. As did many many other people. My father, a Goldwater Republican, as in he voted for Goldwater, left the republican party in the late 90’s. For him the Gingrich bullshit and the fundie-fication was just too much. He voted for Gore in 00, Kerry in 04, and Obama in 08.
You may argue that Scozzafava had more to lose, and that’s true. But you ought to expect more from leaders.
But you missed a key point: It was so fucking blatant what the GOP has become. After 8 years you’d think there would have been moment of soul-searching and honesty. For some it was the invasion of Iraq, for others it was Katrina, for others still it was torture. Schiavo was huge for many. After 2006 it was only the bigots, fundies, money-boyz, enablers, blinkered careerists and other useful idiots left backing the GOP.
In this respect I think Armey was right: She was a Republican as long as it enhanced her electability. There were wake-up calls aplenty. She ignored them all until she got hit over the head.
All the past 8 years was never enough until it came down to something that personally affected her. Only then did she change her mind. And only sorta.
Catsy
@cleek:
I’ll go one further and say that that isn’t, in and of itself, a bad thing.
You hear people talking a lot about how the Republicans shouldn’t be focusing on ideological purity right now, and the Democrats should be focusing on a big tent. And there’s some truth to that. But this argument seems to have morphed into the idea that a big, inclusive tent is inherently good, while ideological litmus tests are inherently bad.
I don’t think this is true. I think the key lesson a lot of folks are failing to take from this is that it’s not about how big your tent is or how much purity purging you do, it’s about how well your candidates reflect (and fights for) the wishes of their constituents.
The Republicans are losing right now and are going to continue to lose–not because they’re purging their party of moderates, but because the litmus test they’re using in that purge is hopelessly out of touch with most of the country. And Democrats will just as surely lose if they don’t call the Blue Dogs to heel–not because they’re out of step with the party line, but because they just as out of touch with America as their conservative fellow travelers in the GOP.
kay
@KevinNYC:
“A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions.
Coming to Mr. Hoffman’s defense, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who accompanied the candidate on a campaign swing, dismissed regional concerns as “parochial” issues that would not determine the outcome of the election. On the contrary, it is just such parochial issues that we expect our representative to understand and be knowledgeable about, if he wants to be our voice in Washington.”
I love that he whined that the newspapers should have done his preparation for him.
His response to showing up unprepared and making an ass of himself is “it’s not fair!”
The Populist
Well, good one there. I’d agree. Maybe Beck is a nice guy when you see him one on one. Nobody mentioned the three you came up with so, yes, they are legendary a-holes in real life.
I hear Olbermann and Maher are a bit much in real life too, but I can excuse him for it only because they make a lot of sense compared to the ramblings that pass for thought on the right.
Bobbob
…”they are just complete assholes.” And Van Jones got hounded by the press ( all. of. them! ) for stating the obvious?
[email protected]
You know for all the bitching about someone like Hillary being a carpetbagger in the New York senate race in 2000 (heck I was one of the ones who did the bitching), or Romney/Weld in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race (Mitt actually was half-decent prior to springing his Presidential campaign which when not consisting of acting uber-white and out of touch- “let the dogs out” and “my sons serve their country” respectively was basically all about denouncing the state he served and the positions he’d taken) they were at least willing to gain a familiarity with their respective states (and pure localism isn’t as important in the Senate or arguably even the governership).
keestadoll
@Little Dreamer:
I guess if it’s okay to spread the wealth around, why isn’t he? Regardless, helping one’s family should be exempt from wonkiness yes–?
Little Dreamer
@Catsy:
The difference is we have some very conservative Dems who are open to at least considering the Democratic agenda before choosing how to cast their vote. They may not all comport to the liberal viewpoint, but they are open to at least trying to make informed and conscious decisions, whereas on the right you have a group of people who have taken the Republican viewpoint and skewed it into only the most extreme variety of ideology and make voting choices based on that ideology. These right wingers have wrested the Repub party away from those who used to hold it and they are pushing both office holders and voters who don’t agree with their agenda away from supporting them, leaving moderate Republicans without a party.
Little Dreamer
@keestadoll:
Do you financially support cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces? Ummm, most people’s paychecks (and yes, that includes a president) shouldn’t be expected to go that far (and let’s face it, President of the US is not in the top percentages of income at all).
I think you are making an argument that you would fight against if it was you yourself who was expected to share.
If Repubs are for bootstraps, then why is this argument all of a sudden changing? Because it’s Obama, and that’s the only reason.
Mike in NC
B.O.B. also has to trek to Sears or Best Buy to watch his idol Glenn Beck on television. Must be that he objects to his good money going to pay for stuff imported from “Red China”.
Chuck Butcher
@Redshirt:
So your problem with the teabaggers is that they don’t win? I’m pretty sure the Browns play football by the same rules as the rest of the league. Politics ain’t sports, it isn’t even sort of like it. In what sport would the 39 D no votes be a part of the story? How many football players go on field with the delusion that they’re playing hockey? Winning is a clear cut result in a sport, they all have a common goal.
I’m a Democrat and sometimes I’m real upset with what or how they “win”, as a Browns fan I don’t give a damn if the win is because the other side can’t hang onto a ball.
bemused
@The Populist:
Yesterday, Stephanie Miller said on her radio show that when not doing his tv show, Sean Hannity is one of the nicest people you could meet. Also Michael Reagan.
She & her show sidekicks said some rightwing tv/radio personalities do believe their blather but others are just delivering the schtick for their very hefty paychecks & aren’t particularly ideological.
Beck would fit the latter from reading his history. Always been extremely ambitious to get to the top.
Those obscene salaries would not be one bit tempting to me if I had to knowingly regurgitate bs daily to get it.
Will
@Brick Oven Bill:
This parody jumped the shark a long time ago, “BOB”.
Ash Can
@bemused: I can’t help but believe that if these guys really were that decent, they’d have the principles to stop doing their sow-hatred, whip-up-the-masses schticks. Smiling and being polite and civil is one thing. Taking a stand for what’s right, and doing what needs to be done even if it means doing something difficult like giving up a fat paycheck, is something else altogether.
Mario Cantin
@ppcli: So so true! Good comment!
bemused
@Ash Can:
Yeah, I have trouble with the total separation from how you earn your paycheck & how you live your life away from your propaganda job that riles up some very scary people. He/she can come across as one of the nicest person you’ve ever met but if he/she can compromise that far for a fat paycheck, what else does he/she compromise on in life off air?
JB
Agreed.
Paris
@BB: She just demonstrated how weak she really is. She was supposed to “man up”. God I hate that term.
SiubhanDuinne
@thomas Levenson:
Too funny! I spewed balloon juice all over my new white sweater.
Kyle
I have a strong hunch that O’Reilly, Malkin and Coulter are probably shitheads in real life, as well.
I know for a fact that Dennis Miller is a sour douchebag in real life. Same for avowed Repig Rob Lowe.
‘Go fuck yourself’ politics tend to be highly correlated with ‘go fuck yourself’ personalities.
Penny
Frankly, I am baffled by the fact that supposedly intelligent people are listening to anything Sarah Palin has to say!
Dod
What a bunch of geniuses! Those that may have a different opinions then you are assholes!
Clearly we see here in some of these posts who the real Fascist Assholes are!
WERE YOU MOMMY’S LITTLE ANGEL – AND THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND – IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU – BOO-HOO!
POed Lib
@Paul L.:
I root for hurricanes too. The fat-cat morons who build their houses 1 foot from the sea deserve all the hurricanes they can get. So, BLOW BABY BLOW.
Bye-bye, fat cat houses.
zoe kentucky in pittsburgh
They are party full of Eric Cartmans.
Excellent.
They *are* the Eric Cartman party– arrogant, ignorant, shamlessly self-centered, characterize certain groups as dangerous without foundation (ie, Eric’s hatred of hippies), mean, manipulative, vitriolic, have a superiority complex, hates everyone who isn’t them…I could go on all day.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
This is too easy:
It’s clear that “petting” was a typo.
Comrade Darkness
In the end Sarah Palin of the Martyrdom of the Girlclub Political Pants came along and kicked her sister republican in the nuts. That’s my favorite thing about this whole thing. Because sister republicans can’t be mavericky and stuff and break with the old boy’s club. No-sirreee.
Sanka
This post reaches the height of hypocrisy.
I am waiting with baited breath, for the post that lambasts the hard left, the Kossacks, the Moveon.org nutcases, the shrill Hamshers, the “progressive” nutroots, et al., for railing against the “blue dog” Democrats, and the hatred and anger that the bloggers publish against them.
Waiting for the post that criticizes the shrill, California-based political consultant Kos for rallying the moonbats to “descend” on Connecticut to support Ned Lamont in a primary that was none of their business either. Not to mention how amateurish the left-wingers
wereare when they sniff a bit of ideological impurity in the Democratic party.Nancy Pelosi, the insane House Speaker, spent the summer referring to protesters as Nazis. The left applauds misogynsts like Keith Olbermann, a man who spews nothing but vitriol when he opens his mouth (when he’s not being spoon-fed the talking points pudding by the White House).
There’s plenty of stinky poo flying around and it’s not just coming from the right.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Thank you for prefacing your post with this. Such frank honesty is to be applauded.
Are you eating real worms?! I think that “stinky poo” you’re smelling is your own breath. Try the candy ones, you might like them a bit better.
BobA
Mirror, mirror on the blog, who’s the biggest hypocrite of them all. Oh…could it be John Cole…doing the very thing he accuses the opposition of….disparging GOP conservative women, disparging anyone who happens to present a rational case against his world view by using names like ‘teabaggers’ , ‘wingnuts’, ‘loudmouths’.
John, listen to yourself….record your words and play them back to hear who the real wingnut, loudmouth and teabaggers is. You’ll never want to look in the mirror again…. Why not trying making rational arguments against the points made by the opposition without resorting to 3rd grade name caller. And to all those who commented here with similar irrational name calling……get a life…in fact, get a job, pay taxes and try living in the real world for a change and you’re world view may actually start to take on some reality….rather than this bizzarOO world in which you currently live..
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I see BobA is trying the usual Republican tactic (commonly known in third grade as “No I’m not, you are!”). While the one paragraph is packed with loudmouthed wingnutty teabaggery, the somewhat gratuitous use of ellipses harkens back to Michael Gass of recent BJ hilarity does little to make up for the lack of all caps.
I award BobA a 1.2 out of 10. Better luck next time.
threegoal
Brick Oven Bill”
“Obama is also a mean guy. Glenn gives 20% of his income to Charity. Obama’s brother Odongo still lives in a hut, despite Obama’s $400,000+/yr salary plus perks, the $500,000 book advance he took immediately before assuming office, and Michelle’s $300,000/yr job that disappeared after Barack left his Senate seat. ”
Not true. Malik, also know as Abongo or Roy, (Closest name to Odongo) is a university graduate who consults part time in Washington, but “nevertheless settled in the Obamas’ ancestral home, Nyang’oma Kogelo, a village of several hundred people that he prefers to the city for its slow pace.[81] He runs a small electronics shop a half hour drive outside of town”.
From Wikipedia, “Family of Barack Obama” entry, with lots of footnotes. Reference 81 shown above is to a 2004 AP article about his brother. BTW Malik and Barack were best men at each others’ weddings, so i think they’re OK with their relationship.
I think the asshole disease to which John refers extends to BS posts when you are not on the side of truth, or stuck in the Brick Oven.
Gordon
It would appear to me John thay you to are an asshole.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Can’t these fuckers even write a proper sentence, spelling included? Jeez Louise! It’s like you are dealing with indignant drunks when the wingers flock in here.
Try again Gordo, this lay off the squeeze for a day or two. Next time, try being a bit more indignant and toss some outrage in for good measure. Just a suggestion.
Also.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): F’ing edit!
My bongwater for an edit funkshun. I’ll even toss in the bong scrapings.
Norman Rogers
Given that everything John says about the Republican Party is true, how is it that they were able to get control of Virginia and New Jersey? How is it that every time a Republican says something, Harry Reid freaks out and the media crawls into the fetal position?
Looking forward, I see a situation where the voters are going to embrace their own inner “asshole” and vote in a startling number of Republicans in 2010, simply because of what happened on Saturday when over 200 Democrats in the House voted for “tax increases.”
Now, you can argue that there weren’t any tax increases in the House bill, and you can argue that Pelosi’s version probably won’t survive the Senate, but the way that the “assholes” can win is by pointing out that the Democrats voted to raise taxes. We have an attention span of less than eight minutes in this country.
Vote asshole might work in 2010. It certainly worked for Doug Christie, who modified it slightly and made it all about “vote for the big fat asshole.”
RightvsWrong
That’s why they swept Va and NJ . . . You people are a bunch of liberal junkies standing around looking for a handout.
Texas Aggie
When you refer to these lowlifes as “Christians,” I wish you wouldn’t use a capital “C.” It would be much more accurate if you would refer to them as “christianists” because what they espouse has nothing at all to do with anything that Christ taught. They’re still stuck in the first part of Genesis when the Hebrews’ understanding of God was little more than that of a tribal totem who controlled the weather and got pissed off on a regular basis.
Using proper terminology goes a long way to solving a problem because it affects the way you understand the problem. If you use terminology that accurately reflects reality, you understand the problem much better than if it is hidden in misunderstandings.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Low hanging fruit(cake)…
RightisWrong: “That’s why they swept Va and NJ . . . You people are a bunch of liberal junkies standing around looking for a handout.
Yes, Virginia did what it has done since the 70’s and New Jersey was a given as Corzine wore out his welcome long ago and is about as popular as a cockroach. Do you want to talk about the two congressional seats that you guys just lost? Seats that are now held by Democrats who have stated they will vote for healthcare reform? What was this about a comeback?
Dumbfucking asshats. I hope you teabaggers lose your asses in the political forest and never find your way back out. In the meantime, keep doing a great job in getting Democrats elected in places like NY-23. The Repubs have held that seat since the creation of their party, only to be forced to cough it up by a bunch of unruly children.
It must really suck to be you when a reliably Republican district rejects you rejects. Thanks for the laughs! Teabags away!!
Norman Rogers
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Factually, you have it pretty much wrong.
Virginia has repeatedly elected Democrat governors and Senators–the last two men to hold the Governor’s mansion in Virginia now run the DNC and hold a Senate seat. Losing there was an embarrassment. Obama could certainly get re-elected if he were to lose Virginia in 2012, but there’s no Republican who could beat him if he were to win Virginia.
New Jersey is another problematic issue. In the Northeastern corridor, the Republican Party is becoming extinct fast. Doug Christie, being a confirmed, grade-A asshole, won there and almost automatically became the face of the Republican Party to the New York media market. I don’t think Obama has a chance of losing New Jersey in 2012, but I do think it speaks to something that’s been missed here and that is this:
Sometimes, the American people would rather have an asshole in charge of how their money gets spent.
Sometimes, the American people go with the asshole instead of the warm, fuzzy, benevolent guy because they sort of want to see their money spent only when necessary.
Are the Republicans going to try to become the party of “we are going to be asshole with your money?” or are they going to be the party of “we’ll take your money and give it to the assholes who give US money?”
Look for taxes to make a big comeback as an issue, and soon. Whether they can find someone to be the face of that issue is anyone’s guess.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
My (and others) assessment of VA and NJ governors races stands, the results were not unexpected. I have lefty friends in NJ and them and the press there, they made it clear to me that Corzine was worse than worthless to them. The results speak for themselves. Now Christie deals with a Dem controlled state house and senate so good luck with that. Christie also ran to the middle rather than going full wingnut.
In VA, did the press crow about how bad it was for Bush to lose VA in 2001? Where were the reports of gloom and doom then? VA has gone to the party who was not in the White House since the 70’s. On top of that, VA is NOT a blue state, just about any sane Dem would agree that McAuliffe was a loser before he ran, Deeds made far too many mistakes and ran a crappy contest.
Now about this:
The Republicans have been the “we’ll take your money and give it to the assholes who give US money” party for decades now. Are you expecting something different from them? Good luck with that. Finally, NJ and VA positions that the Repubs won are governors. Last time I checked a governor had no vote in the House or Senate in Washington D.C. yet we heard almost nothing of the congressional race won in CA and news of the win in NY-23 was over once the teabagger lost. Dems win, no news. Repubs win, big news! See how they do that?
So the Republicans are happy with coughing up House seats for governors seats? They sure would like you to think so but I am pretty sure that they aren’t.
XlLiberal
Interesting comments. Definitely ones to cause one to turn towards the Democratic Party.