I can’t believe someone at the RNC leaked this to Ben Smith:
The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to “save the country from trending toward socialism.”
The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes”.
This reminds me of my all-time favorite email exchange:
‘Did we win it?” Scanlon wrote back.
‘The [expletive] troglodytes didn’t vote on you today,” Abramoff responded.
”What’s a troglodyte?” Scanlon asked.
”What am I, a dictionary? :) It’s a lower form of existence, basically,”
Update. I guess some idiot left it in a hotel.
The 72-page document was provided to POLITICO by a Democrat, who said a hard copy had been left in the hotel hosting the $2,500-a-head retreat, the Gasparilla Inn & Club. Sources at the event said the presentation was delivered by Bickhart and by the RNC Finance Chairman, Peter Terpeluk, a former ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush.
robertdsc
Get a brain, morans.
eastriver
I hearby dub myself a proglodyte.
kdaug
I read it was left at the hotel and found by a democrat, who turned it over to Ben Smith. I don’t think the RNC did this…
geg6
I heard that this was something left behind and someone else found it.
Oh, wait. kdaug beat me to it.
Zifnab
They know what they are and they know what they’re getting.
Non-wealthy donors probably aren’t reading the Politico (or, if they are, they’re probably naive to believe the $200 they kicked last week in was a lot of money).
Either way, I think this presentation at least demonstrates that the Republicans know their audience pretty freak’n well.
Svensker
Who doesn’t love tchochkes? Although the prune-filled ones are not my favorites. But with apricot jam? Yum!
SpotWeld
GOP… or base is panicky idiots and rich people who are easily distracted by shiney objects?
Brachiator
@robertdsc:
It may be too late for that (with a tip of the hat to Young Frankenstein).
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck’s?
Igor: [pause, then] No.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?
Igor: Then you won’t be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby Someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Normal?
Igor: I’m almost sure that was the name.
Paris
“save the country from trending toward socialism.”
Wow, that’s a new approach. How original.
JenJen
Oh, dear gawd, DougJ, that has to be your best post title ever. Yes, yes, I know I’ve said it before. But this time I really mean it.
(speaking of which, ever look at Chachi’s twitter feed? The guy is a raging wingnut asshole these days. He may have been in those days, too, but who knew?)
Sentient Puddle
From the article:
…and once again, we must point out that if you’re trying to find a villainous symbol for socialism, the Joker is facing about 180 degrees away from where you’re aiming.
Midnight Marauder
My favorite slide so far has to be this one:
Don’t call it a comeback…
Edit: Goddamn WordPress and your filtering. I AM JUST TRYING TO SHARE HOW WE CAN SAVE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, WORDPRESS! You asshole.
freelancer
I liked Scott Baio better as Bob Loblaw (no espanol)
DougJ
@JenJen:
Scott Baio’s a wingnut?
dmsilev
The Powerpoint presentation (linked near the top of the Politico story) is worth flipping through, just for the giggles. DId you know that the RNC is planning to ‘put the Fun Back in FUNdraising’? And that their tools include ‘LISTS, LISTS, AND MORE LISTS!’? And that their minor donors are reactionary? (hard to argue with that one, admittedly). And that a ‘Front Line Mentality’ is important for motivating donors?
Direct quote: “What can you sell when you do not have the WHite House, the House, or the Senate?
Save the country from trending towards soshalism”
(they spelt it correctly, alas).
And did you know that while Nancy Pelosi is Cruela de Ville, Harry Reid is Scooby Doo? Are they trying to say that Pelosi wants to breed Reid and harvest his descendants for their pelts? Or am I missing something?
-dms
JGabriel
Jeepers, what a tableau. I’m not sure why, but I just don’t think Cruella and Scooby would get along that well.
And one can only speculate about the The Joker’s interest here …
.
Midnight Marauder
Well, my first post is in moderation (FYWP), but I’ll also note how much I enjoy that Nancy Pelosi is apparently now to be referred to as “Cruella DeVille” and Harry Reid will be known as…”Scooby Doo”?
JenJen
@DougJ: What, you don’t believe me? Allow me to submit the following, from earlier today, as proof:
freelancer
@DougJ:
Why should you pay for a crime that someone else…noticed?
r€nato
@dmsilev:
I wish we could put the TORT back in torture.
By the way, the right-wing justices on the SCOTUS today inadvertently revealed that they think Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and a few other ex-Bush regime thugs just might be war criminals and need legal protection from furriners and their fancy-pants war crimes treaties to which the US is a signatory.
dmsilev
Oh, sweet Jesus. Later on in the presentation, we get “The RNC is a heavily regulated business”, and the list of agencies that apparently have jurisdiction over them include the FAA, the SEC, the DOJ (granted, that’s probably just planning ahead for the inevitable indictments…), the ‘Merit Systems Planning Board’, and probably the Girl Scouts.
-dms
NobodySpecial
@JenJen:
If it’s Dennis Miller’s show, thoughts are not required.
Pasquinade
tchochkes = right wing Christian gay-bashing beauty contest entrants
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
That’s ok, there are plenty who will buy it. One of my facebook contacts, an active member of the Navy going on 15 years now, posted in response to one of my posts that she would like Medicare to end because we need to go it alone more. I wrote back about how she’s part of the largest soshulist group in the country and does she even understand how she gets paid and gets her medical care.
Joshua Norton
‘with such baubles, men are led.’
– Napoleon Bonaparte
Max
@JenJen: Didn’t Chachi also recently make some horribly racist comment about Michelle?
FlipYrWhig
@Midnight Marauder: I saw that too. How is Harry Reid similar to Scooby Doo? Does he hang out with hippies and save himself from monsters with Borscht Belt comedy skits?
Mike Kay
@DougJ:
he hasn’t worked in decades. and what is a winger if not angry.
JenJen
@Max: Why, yes. Yes he did.
No worries, he insists he was just being funny. In that sense, he probably should take that Dennis Miller gig, who also has to explain his alleged hilarity quite often.
JGabriel
Oh, man, they include the web address of their Exchange server in the presentation.
Webmail.RNCHQ.Org/Exchange, expect the hacker onslaught any minute now.
.
JGabriel
“Tchochkes”. Sooo, that’s what they’re calling strippers these days.
.
MikeJ
@JGabriel: Why bother? They already ruined a perfectly good machine by putting exchange on it.
Mike Kay
@JenJen:
which begs the question: if you guest a radio show that no one listens too, digya make a sound?
Fwiffo
For the best post title ever, DougJ wins one internet.
FlipYrWhig
@JGabriel: Hoochie tchochkes?
Mike Kay
@JGabriel:
you mean hookers. rich guys are to impish and nerdy to walk into the red light district.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I’m in moderation heck because I used the s word, so I’m reposting:
That’s ok, there are plenty who will buy it. One of my facebook contacts, an active member of the Navy going on 15 years now, posted in response to one of my posts that she would like Medicare to end because we need to go it alone more. I wrote back about how she’s part of the largest soshulist group in the country and does she even understand how she gets paid and gets her medical care.
Max
@JenJen: I like how he says … my wife’s best friend is black and shows a picture of him with her to prove he’s not racist.
He’s a fuckstick.
JenJen
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Do people even begin to fathom what this “Go It Alone More” country would actually look like?
It would be more dying elderly/pregnant women/kids on streets + roving gangs of criminals, less Galt’s Gulch, wouldn’t it?
@Max: A fuckstick has-been from a bad teevee show. Call him a has-been on Twitter and you can really light him up, if you’re ever, say, Max +8 and bored on a Wednesday night or something.
Joel
@JGabriel: It’s fitting, in fact, because I’ve always envisioned the Republicans like this.
Brachiator
If they had put this on a pdf file loaded into an iPad, their evil plot might never have been foiled.
And by the way, a $2,500 a head retreat? Sounds … elitist.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Well some Democrat once said that ‘all we have to fear is fear itself’. That in itself is more than enough reason for the Repubs to embrace fear as a strategy. The Republicans want to cash in on fear because it’s the one commodity that their party never runs out of and right now it’s all they got.
OT: How come Luke Russert looks like he is already wearing a rug?
Batocchio
Good post, but best post title of the month. (Yeah, the month is young, but I think this one can hold the title.)
Mike in NC
Another opportunity for Michael Steele to shoot himself in the foot?
Rick Taylor
WTF?
Zach
Honestly, I’ve been to a Dem fundraising how-to session that wasn’t much better. It’s all about selling access. The fear bit is secondary and, I suppose, more important with the increased fraction of fundraising coming from small donors. There’s a Democratic equivalent, but it’s less hyperbolic and the folks pushing it actually believe what they’re saying for the most part.
JGabriel
@FlipYrWhig:
Actually, “hootchie cootchie” is probably derived from Cajun French, “hoocher et coocher (hoocher et couche?)” meaning “drinking & fucking”.
So, um, yes.
.
colleeniem
I didn’t read the whole comment threat, but one eagle-eyed wonkette commenter did notice a (typical) damning quote regarding politico in the article (I’m not clicking through, but thanks to the always venerable Sayitwithwookies, who’s comment is after the quoted text):
“The RNC reacted with alarm to a question about it Thursday, emailing major donors to warn them of a reporter’s question, and distancing Steele from its contents.”
They’ve been sitting on this damn story for almost a week?! What the hell? Next we’ll find out they only ran with the story because their source got sick of waiting and was floating the .ppt to other outlets.
kommrade reproductive vigor
And they would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!
JGabriel
Among the listed fundraising events: Young Eagles, Ohio State vs. Michigan (pg. 59 of the presentation).
Interesting that a college football game is now a GOP fundraising event.
.
hal
The new strategy sounds amazingly similar to the old strategy.
John Cole
Good thing those guys don’t have to be trusted with sensitive information. Wait, what?
We never had a fucking chance in Iraq, did we?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Wait, ain”t Obama a corporatist sellout, or Rahm’s poodle? Being an independent Obot fanatical follower sycophant, I just don’t know anymore who to believe.
JenJen
@colleeniem: Now that is some interesting shit right there. Seriously, how long did Politico have the documents?
JGabriel
Oh. My. God. Some highlights from the legal section:
And:
Holy fuck.
.
Mike Kay
@John Cole:
have you seen “The Hurt Locker”?
Its funny how when you drop a lot of bombs on people, they become so unfriendly.
Midnight Marauder
@Rick Taylor:
I know…I know. I, too, was equally confused and bewildered. I mean, we call Harry Reid a lot of things around these parts–A LOT OF THINGS–but has anyone, anywhere, in the history of ANYTHING ever tried to claim that Harry Reid is just Scooby Doo in human form?
I don’t want to speak too soon, but this could be the kind of thing to spark Wingnut Event Horizon. Oh sure, it seems like an innocent enough comment, but this is how
realignmentSarahgeddon happens…demkat620
So this is basically you give me 10k and I’ll give you a keychain.
Man, these fuckers got it wired.
Mike Kay
@colleeniem:
yup. he/she should of sent it to HuffPo or TPM or Maddow
demkat620
Nope. SA2SQ.
John, did you ever read Imperial Life in the Emerald City?
Jon
Sorry to go off topic, but did anyone read Elizabeth Warren’s comments on the Consumer Protection Agency fight?
Wowwowowow. I think I just got aroused.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/fight-for-the-cfpa-is-a-d_n_483707.html
Mike Kay
@demkat620:
can you provide a synopsis?
kay
@hal:
It is the old strategy.
“Capitalize on fear”……lotta bs filler…..”save the country”
Bob L
This is up there in self defeating GOP imagery with the 2006 GOP portrayal of Nancy Pelisy and Darth Vader.
Consider:
Obama as The Joker. The Joker is a Nihilist, sort of libertarian done to the illogical extreme. That kind of undermines their whole Obama a socialist meme. (so that makes Beck Batman?)
Nancey Pelopis as the Cruella; passing health care = skinning puppies. So the Health Insurance companies are cute little puppies?
but the best
Harry Reid as Scooby Doo: So are they saying come Nov 12th the GOP will be saying “we would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids”?
This has to be a beyond the Wingnut event horizon moment. You really have to be a rich and venial conservative to buy into that imagery.
colleeniem
@JenJen: I know. I mean, you have to confirm that they were from the rnc if you’re a journalist, even one of the politico vein. But to sit on the story until you can report on their damage control?
I feel vindicated in withholding my clicks.
WereBear
[email protected]Zach: Whenever one of their actual strategies gets out, they get all sweaty and denial-y.
It’s almost as though they know all of their strategies are sleazy. Hmmm.
Elisabeth
@Brachiator:
One of the funniest cinema moments evah.
demkat620
@Mike Kay: Here you go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Life_in_the_Emerald_City
It is being adapted as a movie. This book made me want to scream and cry and yell and punch Dick Cheney in the neck repeatedly.
They saw Iraq as a perpetual tchotckie machine, if you will.
Pasquinade
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Wait, ain’‘t Obama a corporatist sellout, and not really wanting HCR, or Rahm’s poodle? Being an independent Obot fanatical follower sycophant, I just don’t know anymore who to believe. Somebody set me straight please.
Michelle
This headline is so full of win. So. Full.
Pasquinade
@John Cole
Your tweet has been retweeted at least 3 times.
I keep a window open: http://tinyurl.com/yepkonz
freelancer
@demkat620:
Wow, link FAIL.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Life_in_the_Emerald_City
demkat620
@freelancer: Sorry. Thanks for fixing that. I found something better.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Obama is an arrogantly decisive islamofascist commie corporatist sellout who lets Rahm make his decisions for him because he’s too stupid, weak and indecisive to do it himself.
I’m sure I missed something in that mess of words.
demkat620
@freelancer: Apparently I have general Balloon-Juice fail. Thanks for your help.
FYWP
demkat620
Wow did I break the internet?
freelancer
@demkat620:
I just don’t know how you posted the URL, and then linked the URL back to a nonexistant BJ site. It was just impressive.
As far as Iraq is concerned, No End in Sight should be required viewing for every voter. IIRC, there’s a scene in Spring 2003, where a college professor is part of a delegation to help prop up the infrastructure, and while in Baghdad, he runs into one of his 22-year old former students, some fresh faced grad who’s like, “I’ve been put in charge of traffic. For the City.”
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Okay, democrats. This shit ain’t done for free. I just ponied up for the final push. And I ain’t even a democrat.
And please use the activist template that comes up after you donate. It’s one stop for doing something to push HCR across the finish line.
arguingwithsignposts
O/T, but Alan Grayson will be debating Michelle Bachmann on Larry King tonight. Set your DVRs to stun. Of course, there’s a young white girl who was just killed in San Diego, so that will leave 5 minutes for health care.
David
“save the country from trending toward socialism.”
That’s rather ambitious now that anything and everything can be called socialism!
mr. whipple
I had to Google:
“Tchochke—originally from a Slavic word for “toys” (Ukrainian цяцька, tsiats’ka; Polish cacka, tsatska; Russian цацки, tsatski)—adapted to Yiddish טשאַטשקע tshatshke, “trinket”, are small toys, gewgaws, knickknacks, baubles, lagniappes, trinkets, or kitsch. The term has a connotation of worthlessness or disposability, as well as tackiness, and was long used in the Jewish-American community and in the regional speech of New York City.
The word may also refer to swag, in the sense of the logo pens, key fobs, and other promotional freebies dispensed at trade shows, conventions, and similar large events. Also, stores that sell cheap souvenirs in tourist areas like Times Square and Venice Beach are sometimes called “tchotchke shops.”
demkat620
@freelancer: I finally followed the link and couldn’t stop laughing.
I don’t know how I did that either.
Its just it is so devastating to read or see what they did over there. What they thought would work. It was every conservative Randian wetdream in action and when it failed they were completely shocked.
And the sad thing is we have never held these clowns accountable.
trollhattan
So, IIUC Nancy Pelosi is after both my BIL’s big screen teevee and my Dalmatian?!?
Darn you all to heck, Nancy Pelosi!
trollhattan
@ Argueingmitsignposts
Alan Grayson vs. Michelle Bachmann? Holeee sheepshit, that’s must-see teevee. Larry best get a new pacemaker battery.
Anya
@dmsilev:
I thought Scoopy Doo was a good guy who helped Inspecter Gadjet catching criminals. Am I wrong on this one?
JGabriel
demkat620:
And then they did it again here.
.
freelancer
Sully Borg just posted this, and I demand it go viral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNIqArJj8Eo&feature=player_embedded
JGabriel
@Anya: No, you’re not wrong. That why so many of us find the GOP’s teaming up of good dog Scooby with evil rich GOP animal abuser Cruella DeVille so perplexing and surreal.
.
gbear
@freelancer:
I need to kill myself now.
JGabriel
@freelancer: More evidence that: Aussies = Brits without self-consciousness or shame.
Not that that’s a bad thing.
.
MikeJ
@JGabriel: We know that Mr. Burns is in the GOP, and he has much in common with Cruella
http://www.hulu.com/watch/17102/the-simpsons-mr-burns-see-my-vest
(BTW, Paul Westerberg did the definitive version of CdV.)
freelancer
@JGabriel:
@gbear:
I knew a guy in HS who could probably cream everyone here at Wii Curling. His nickname was Johnny 25.
ETA: and yes, I went to an all-boys Jesuit prep school! How’d you know?
John O
I’m sort of impressed they get that fear is all they have left.
Sadly, it will work.
FlipYrWhig
So does anyone have any ideas about how Harry Reid is like Scooby Doo?
The Pelosi-Cruella DeVille comparison is basically “mean stylish older lady,” I guess. Not smart or clever, but obeys some rules of basic logic.
How is Reid like Scooby Doo? Scooby Doo’s main characteristics are that he’s, well, a dog; when he speaks he begins most words with “R”; he’s hungry; and, I guess, easily scared. Maybe you could say, like the Firebag crowd might, that Reid doesn’t fight hard and is hence a coward. But is that really what comes to mind when you say “Scooby Doo”?
I got nothin’.
LuciaMia
“tchochkes?
So now they’re offering them Hummel figurines ? Maybe troll dolls?
JGabriel
@FlipYrWhig:
You’re forgetting the previous lessons in Wingularity Theory.
Beyond the Wingnut Event Horizon is where Wingnut Density, f(W), becomes so concentrated and self-referential that no one who is not already a wingnut can comprehend its meaning.
Therefore, by definition, we are incapable of knowing how Reid is like Scooby Doo. If we were capable, that would mean that either it isn’t beyond the Wingnut Event Horizon, or that we ourselves are.
.
Midnight Marauder
@FlipYrWhig:
I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure this out also, and I honestly just can’t come up with any rationalization for how this works. Which is comforting on many levels, as I am not quite yet able to reach the same plane of enlightened thinking that Michael Steele and Co. seem to have at their disposal (and El Cid, for that matter).
But in all seriousness, the Scooby Doo comparison doesn’t work because…Scooby Doo NEVER lost! I think I speak for a great deal of people here when I say that if Harry Reid had the same winning percentage in the Senate that Scooby Doo enjoys in taking on ghosts and goblins…well, our lives would all be infinitely better.
Anya
@JGabriel: I think what normal humans find good, for republicans is evil. But that does not explain Cruela Deville, shouldn’t they consider her a heroine?
MikeJ
Remember when Obama ran against a guy who had been held as a prisoner of war and tortured in south east Asia and Obama was the one called a “Manchurian candidate”?
Don’t look for logic in GOP name calling.
maus
It’s pretty hilarious, but this is by far not the most egregious example of treating their fundraisers like idiot children, I doubt it’ll resonate in the news or among their following.
JGabriel
@Anya: I can only refer you to the Balloon Juice Lexicon:
We remain, I hope, the uninitiated.
.
Donald G
@demkat620:
I know. If they’d only donate their ill-gotten gains to public television instead of to the GOP, they’d at least get some tote bags, some Lawrence Welk compilation CD’s and maybe some “Grow Your Wealth” motivational speaking claptrap DVD’s out the deal.
mr. whipple
I know he’d never do it, but I’d bust a freaking gut if Reid said, “roh roh” at his next press conference.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I seem to remember a Presidential candidate who got in a heap of trouble for saying to fundraisers that the common folk were “bitter” and clinging to guns and religion. What was that fellow’s name.
gbear
The only thing I can think of is that, with typical conservative accuracy, they got Scooby Doo mixed up with Droopy Dog. Even that comparison doesn’t make sense, but it’s extremely likely that they could get the dog wrong. What other cartoon dogs could it have been? Most of them are good guys.
jl
What “tchochkes” will be distributed to their base, which apparently consists of ego-driven wealthy people? And is that description of the base a surprise?
Cole better watch his store for runs on Tunch ‘Obey’ gear, sounds like something an ego-driven person might fall for (The Tunchforce can be a powerful force for either good or ill, and must be monitored carefully).
jl
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): thanks. Their base is the “Reactionary” and “ego-driven wealthy”. I think that makes an accurate summary of their base.
dmsilev
@FlipYrWhig:
At the end of the
episodeterm, he and Obama pull the mask off the ghost and reveal that it’s Old Man Cheney who’s been scaring everyone away from the pirate’s treasure?-dms
FlipYrWhig
Maybe it’s supposed to be that they’re both bumbling?
Or maybe they both are involved in exposing that there are no real supernatural presences, just ridiculous schemes contrived by bitter old white men to scare people?
FlipYrWhig
@gbear: Goofy?
Cat Lady
Wow, the people behind this RNC FAIL have totally lost the plot. Scooby Doo? Srsly? Although, the professional bull-riding show is probably right in their wheelhouse. That has RIDE ME HARD COWBOY written all over it. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that crowd.
Annie
@Svensker:
LOL. I think you are confusing hamantashs with tchochkes. Tchockes are things that filled every available space in my grandmother’s house. After all of these years, I am still trying to figure out who to give some of them too. Hamantashs, particularly prune filled, are clearly something either the Republican party has eaten too much of, or should eat more….
FlipYrWhig
@Annie: I thought Svensker meant rugelach.
Phil
Here’s hoping the Democrats go the reconciliation route. Hell, let’s assume they even pass the bill.
The Republicans then run on repeal, and win the House in November (this was already the case, but even more so post passing this crapola) and now quite possibly the Senate.
With the precedent set by the Democrats that the filibuster no longer applies to anything (if radically tampering with 1/6th of the economy doesn’t apply, then nothing applies), the R’s simply reconcile the bill away and pass it every single day, forcing the President to veto it every single day for the rest of his Administration. And again, since the Democrats set the precedent for reconciliation, the R’s should simply pass every popular piece of conservative legislation on a strict party line vote (don’t even bother talking to the Democrats) and force John Cole’s boyfriend to veto every piece of popular legislation coming down the pike.
And since you guys set the precedent, here’s what we’ll do in response to your whining….
…..
…..
…..
That’s right – nothing.
Of course, this assumes it passes. If it doesn’t, you’ve already set the precedent so we do all the above anyway.
I like where this is headed…
Doctor Science
I can’t figure out how Harry Reid=Scooby Doo is supposed to be an insult, either. I mean, Scooby always *won*. He was the *hero*.
I immediately thought that they were thinking of Reid and Pelosi as this Scooby and Velma, in which case — I only wish. Please.
gwangung
@Phil: 7.2 from the Pacific Northwest judge.
Gave yourself away with
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Phil: I am not going to raz you Phil. Because you are a a historic BJ genuine wingnut troll and they are scarce these days. Carry on. And don’t nobody run Phil off, at least for awhile.
Would you like a cookie Phil. Pie, maybe an Acorn? just make yerself at home. We need you so we can stop fighting with ourselves.
Phil
Silly progressives, Trix are for kids! Look, I know you silly boys and girls have managed to convince yourselves that this is really popular, which is why I fully encourage you to embrace your fellow “community based reality” buddies and continue to insist on passing this crapola.
The pink slips are due this November. There will be lots of them.
gwangung
@Phil: Well, damn, you’re taking it down to a 5.5 with the run on….
Ya had a 9.5 in your sight, but…
dmsilev
@Phil: Oh, dear, you’re serious, aren’t you?
Free clue: The health care bill has already passed the Senate, under regular rules of order. The reconciliation “sidecar” which is being discussed would essentially amend the already-passed bill to make some changes which the House would prefer to see in the bill. But the main bill has already passed the Senate.
-dms
Mark S.
@Phil:
You had me until that part, because you equated “conservative legislation” with “popular legislation.”
Phil
Well, not everything can carry the 35-40 percent approval this piece of shit bill does, but we’ll see what we can do!
Mike in NC
Replace “Jeffersonian democracy” with “Cheneyite kleptocracy” and you pretty much have it right.
Leave Joe Lieberman alone!
Chyron HR
@Phil:
Wait, who is the Trix rabbit? Rahm? Soros? I can’t keep up with this new “U R CARTOON CHARACTER” party platform of the GOP’s.
Mike in NC
Um, up your ass? Like your head?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Phil:
So quaint. Referring to polls are we. George Bush once said when confronted with bad poll numbers. Something to the effect that the only poll that matters was the one on election day. True dat. And those polls will change once the bill is passed and people can read it for themselves. Gooper lies and distortions will fade away with Sarah Palin’s tweets on “death panels” and the like, into the dustbin of bad history.
Annie
@Phil:
LOL. Have a hamantash, particularly one prune filled…
El Cid
It took me quite a few passes before I got the title joke — indeed, before I even knew it was a joke.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
No need to run Foaming Phil off, his specialty has always been the drive-by post. Poor Phil cruises by, fires off a round and then he quickly departs.
Fortunately the turd he launches always falls short or misses it’s target completely. What I want to know is how he is able to drive with his ass hanging out the window.
Phil iz talented!
Edit: I see that Phil must have had chili last night. He’s actually made a few passes to unload it all here. Ain’t we speshul?
jacy
@Anya:
I would think Sarah Palin would at least idolize Cruella Deville, what with her penchant for slaughtering cute little creatures with glee.
Phil
You’re correct. I don’t have the time to convince losers of the folly of their ways. Especially when they are knee deep in the stupid. And John Cole is neck deep in The Stupid.
Do you hear that truck? Listen closely. Ah there it is. It’s still quite a distance away but it’ll be running you over sometime in early November. You were warned.
Phil
I’d add that it’s been fun. But it hasn’t been. So I didn’t.
kay
I don’t think Joker, Cruella De Ville or Scooby Doo works, either individually or particularly together.
It has to be true on some level to be funny and memorable.
Someone funny or clever might have stayed within one cartoon, or set of characters. These three characters have no common thread or theme. Scooby Doo is actually loved, and why would he be in the same set with Cruella, who skins dogs? He is a dog. The Joker is just out there alone, the scary non-cartoon.
Honestly, I can’t believe they paid for this. And you know they did.
If I were a donor, I’d wonder where my money’s going.
arguingwithsignposts
Now an open thread, with added smudgeness!
Chyron HR
@Phil:
Wow, that’s some grade A trolling right there. “I spent my evening insulting people for fun, but I didn’t have any fun after all. Go me.”
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Phil:
Maybe, but you will still have to report to the wingnut MASH units for checkups at Camp Xray. Fine print dude.
dmsilev
@Chyron HR: You have to admit, though, it’s probably the most accurate thing he wrote in the entire thread.
-dms
kay
@Chyron HR:
Now my head is spinning. It’s a rabbit. A silly rabbit. And a lovable dog, and a rich lady and a joker.
JGabriel
Phil:
Which is exactly what the GOP did for 12 years, 1995-2006. You’re threatening us with what you’ve already done.
Clinton was there to block or ameliorate the worst of it for the first six years, but once Bush became president they enacted all the GOP legislation they’d been waiting for: including tax cuts for the wealthy that are responsible for ~50% of the continuing deficit; deregulation that trashed the economy and led to repeated recalls and deaths from tainted food; and a war against Iraq, a country that hadn’t attacked us, wasn’t a threat, served as power balance against Iran, and which costs us another ~16% of the continuing deficit.
And now we have to use reconciliation to clean up the mess you left behind.
Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it, Phil?
.
kay
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
He took the seminar. “Capitalize on fear”. He may have left the materials behind, or, worse, be a donor.
I think he just called you a rabbit.
Midnight Marauder
@Chyron HR:
You took the words right out of my
mouthkeyboard. This guy seriously needs to rethink his defintion of “fun”.Shabbazz
Yes. It’s true. Democrats are setting the precedent for using reconciliation. Republicans have NEVER used it. Ever.
Also — there were no attacks on the US under GWB.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@kay:
Didn’t see that, but it does not surprise me. He once smeared Kermit the Frog in a flame war on ancient. Phil has no scruples/ the beast/
Chyron HR
Wait, I’m starting to get it now–so health care reform and the stimulus are Smurfs, because the GOP is going to turn them into electoral gold, right?
4jkb4ia
This is our season, here at the crossroads of time.
4jkb4ia
I can hope to enjoy the NIT game at home even if the state of my house will prevent it from being any fun at all.
Svensker
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes. I was actually just being silly, but “tchotchkes” always makes me think of food, something yummy, like rugelach.
It’s funny tho. Grew up in the NW where there were very few Yiddish speakers (quite a few Sephards, but that’s a different story). And so the electric utility was named: Public Utility District…or P.U.D. The headlines in the local paper when the P.U.D. did anything like raise rates were hilarious.
Svensker
@Chyron HR:
LOL
maus
@Donald G: .
Well, the GOP is pretty much inseparable from Amway at this point.
Annie
@arguingwithsignposts:
Ah…I do love our Lady Smudge. If we “bronze” her, we can make her a tchochke my grandmother would have loved…
DougJ
@JenJen:
Do people even begin to fathom what this “Go It Alone More” country would actually look like?
I take it you haven’t seen The Road.
bobbyp
Socialist? ….well, OK.
slag
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
Funny. That was my favorite part too. I used to think that only Democrats called Republicans those things. But then when I read that Republicans also called Republicans those things, I thought: “Bipartisanship! At last!”
JGabriel
slag:
It does begin to suggest how deeply cynical those guys are at the RNC.
.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Phil:
No need to warn us, the odor coming from it is overwhelming and we have been pointing that out for some time now.
Kineslaw
My theory on why they used Scooby Do for Harry Reid is
1) Someone came up with using Cruella DeVille for Namcy Pelosi and the other people loved it.
2) They then decided to use a dog for Harry Reid to show how unmanly he was and how much more important Pelosi is (basically calling both Pelosi and Reid b*tches).
3) No one in the room was able to stop giggling at their collective cleverness long enough to realize this made no sense.
mclaren
Now watch the GOP throw the Democrats into confusion and disarray by standing up for principled honest debate and transparency in government and balanced budgets and an end to torture and a reduced Pentagon budget and the reinstatement of civil rights.
Yes, that hard copy of their electoral strategy was a disinformation campaign! A deliberate plant by the GOP!
Well…we can hope….
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: It’s been too long since I’ve seen that adorable face!
@Chyron HR: I know you are, but what am I?
@mr. whipple: I would pay some serious money (ok, like a dollar) to hear Harry Reid do a Scooby Doo imitation at his next press conference.
bob h
They really should leave this stuff to Frank Luntz
Macha Maguire
Because I had to google it too….
the second bit makes sooo much more senses – presumably they’ll offer whores of both sexes, to account for all tastes?
Malron
@Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: I didn’t catch the pun until John pointed it out. Ralph Malph would be proud.
Tonybrown74
@Anya:
Nope … that’s Brain.
Gawd, I am a dork!
EIGRP
@JGabriel: That gives new meaning to the song that goes “I’m your hoochie coochie man!”
-Eric