Dave Weigel asks:
“How did Carly Fiorina become an anti-abortion hero?”
And the simple answer is- because she said so. That basically is all you need as a Republican- just say something, and the spin machine and the rubes take care of the rest. I mean, really:
Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, with their seven+ (and I may be missing a few) marriages are staunch defenders of family values. Why? Because they said so!
Sarah Palin even though she gave out the biggest socialized oil revenue checks in Alaskan history, is a staunch anti-socialism crusader. Why? Because she said so!
Mitt Romney is firmly pro-choice! And now he is firmly anti-abortion. And he had nothing to do with Romney care. Why? Because he said so!
John McCain was a maverick for a decade and then he was never a maverick. Why? Because he said so!
Republicans, despite offering no plans for substantive budget cuts and promising to waging multiple wars while cutting taxes are fiscal conservatives. Why? BEcause they said so!
See how this works?
Brachiator
It’s magic! Kinda like Republicans promising to show how more deregulation involving the oil industry will eliminate oil spills related to offshore drilling.
What’s that old song?
Oh, ho, ho It’s magic, you know
Never believe it’s not so It’s magic, you know
Never believe, it’s not so Never…
licensed to kill time
“I am the Great and Powerful Oz! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
cat48
Speaking of “because she said so”, does anyone know if the US can nationalize a foreign company? That is tweety’s new suggestion/complaint that “the president should nationalize BP.” Curious.
JGabriel
John Cole:
This example is different from the others, in that the press actually called out McCain on that one. He’s probably still puzzled over why.
For that matter, given the press’s record, so am I.
.
Mumphrey
Wouldn’t it be great if reporters asked things of politicians? Maybe even checked things they say, and then come back to them if they seem like they’re worth looking into?
I’d love some reporter to ask Gingrich about his failed marriages. Not because I think that getting divorced is really that big a deal, but because he holds himself up as the guy (or one of the guys) who gets to say who’s moral and who isn’t, who’s a good person and who’s a bad person.
We could’ve used a little bit of this reporting stuff while Bush was president, too. Why do people even become reporters any more? It’s a thoroughly disgraced and debased line of work.
russell
Can I try this at home?
“I never forgot that we were supposed to meet your parents for dinner!”
“I never spent $127 on iTunes last month!”
“I never said I was going to paint the garage this weekend!”
What’s the over/under on whether that’ll fly?
Cris
Yes, but it requires an AUMF.
jeffreyw
I am the greatest goldfinch painter ever. On these I went with the blue paint.
jrg
My favorite dittohead response every time the Fiorina HP clusterfuck gets mentioned is “You all are just repeating the talking points of your liberal masters”.
It’s like they think reality is pulled from someone’s ass, and no one heard of Fiorina before gramps started hauling her out on the campaign trail. “Because they said so”, indeed.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Well, uh, um. CLENIS! So there!
Violet
It works in reverse too.
Barack Obama is a soshulist, Muslim Kenyan. Why? Because they said so!
clone12
The irony of a country that helped overthrew another country’s leader for having nationalized BP’s assets itself nationalizeing BP’s assets is kind of interesting….
Martin
@cat48: Sure we can. First we need to annex Great Britain, but I’m almost certain they would greet us as liberators.
Martin
Well, I think we’re seeing the last chapter of the GOP war on science. Train the base to deny any and all inconvenient evidence and eventually they’ll learn to ever even look for it in the first place. Then you can say pretty much anything you want without fear that someone will actually do any research. All you need are enough loudmouths to repeat that information to drown out any dissenters and there’s really nothing you can’t baldly lie about.
Martin
@clone12: What do they say about those who fail to learn the lessons of history…
Good catch.
EvolutionaryDesign
I sense you’re getting a little burned out on the circus there Cole.
cat48
Good to know what’s possible legally since tweety has decided the prez is not doing enough suddenly. I haven’t decided myself.
The guy at MMgt supervising drilling is leaving/retiring suddenly this month. Frankly that’s good news. Don’t know if it was prompted or he’s leaving because he saw the writing on the wall.
Chris
How did Elena Kagan become a progressive? Because Obama said so. Apparently that is all that Democrats need.
Brandon
No fair making fun of all of Rush and Newt’s failed marriages. You know better than anyone that they wouldn’t have had some many failed marriages if it was not for teh gheys.
Glidwrith
@Violet: Best one of all: you have a working brain therefore you must be a liberal. Why? Because all the morans say so!
Citizen Alan
At what point are we allowed to start speculating that all Republicans are alien lizard people sent to take over the world. From what I’ve read, the GOP didn’t start going completely barking mad until after Roswell back in ’47.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Citizen Alan: I’ll sign on to that one.
Alan
Yeah, but the Democrats are worse.
Bob L
I am curious why anyone right or left would think Fiona would make a good anything after the way she trashed Helwitt-Packer? I figured it was a fine sign of how out of touch with reality that Fiona was his way of showing he was in touch with high tech. Paid off well when she screwed that up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Good stuff there, Maynard.
Also, too, Orrin Hatch is an outsider, because he says so. And he only stays in a job hates for thirty-five years because he’s so good at it. Which I guess also falls under the bh/sss rule.
If you’re talking to Laura Ingram, and she’s the smarter, more rational, more honest person talking, it’s time to start over with your life
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JGabriel:
Yeah, but if anyone mentions it on McCain’s next non-Fox Sunday appearance, I’ll eat my hat.
cat48
@Chris:
Actually, I don’t recall Obama calling her a “progressive” His quote pls. Some people have R & L, but he doesn’t normally categorize justices that way that I recall.
Brian J
@cat48:
That was actually part of Brad DeLong’s list of suggestions to meet environmental and economic “challenges.”
Bill Section 147
@Chris: Is she? Did he? I missed that. I mean, I know he nominated her but I missed the, “Here is my pick, she’s a real progressive…”
Rick Taylor
They are the Tinkerbell party.
Anne Laurie
@cat48:
“We” could seize control of whatever assets BP hasn’t managed to hide sufficiently well… and there’s been much speculation that BP is spending much more of its time & effort on better hiding their assets than on capping that annoying little gusher. I assume Matthews is agitating for President Obama, Action Hero, to send Jack Bauer & Bruce Willis to take over the Deepwater platform and use a suitcase nuke to “solve” the crisis within no more than 2 hours and 20 minutes. Of course, apart from the whole “starting a global panic, crashing the international stock markets, and encouraging America’s political enemies to use it as an excuse to start another war or seventeen”… right now ‘nationalizing’ the platform would mean American taxpayers assuming permanent liability for all future legal claims against the destruction of a significant area of international habitat. So it’s even dumber than it sounds, which is just about par for Tweety’s off-the-cuff “ideas”.
Ruckus
@Brandon:
No fair making fun of all of Rush and Newt’s failed marriages. You know better than anyone that they wouldn’t have had some many failed marriages if it was not for teh gheys.
Are you saying that the women they married turned homosexual after waking up and realizing no amount of money was worth being married to either one of them?
/tongue firmly in cheek.
liberal
@Chris:
Heh.
Brick Oven Bill
Not only that…but Carly Fiorina is spending $65M of her own money to get a $300K a year job while running as a fiscal conservative.
That’s Carlyfornication.
Standing Pat
You are misinformed on Palin’s distribution of oil revenue. The program was in place long before she was elected. She simply did what Alaska’s constitution required of her.
From http://www.groundswellusa.org/cdann.htm
“The Alaska state constitution claims common heritage rights of ownership of oil and other minerals for the people of the state as a whole. Citizen dividend checks are distributed every year in Alaska out of the interest payments to an oil royalties deposit account called the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) created in 1976 after oil was discovered on the North Slope. The APF is a public trust fund – a diversified stock, bond and real estate portfolio – into which are deposited the oil royalties received from the corporations which extract the oil from the lands of Alaska. The first citizen dividend check from the interest of the APF was issued in 1982 and was for $1000 per every person for everyone in Alaska who had resided in the state for at least one year. Annual citizen dividends have been issued every year since then, for a total of more than $23,000 per person.
In 2003, each of the nearly 600,000 Alaska US citizens (residents of Alaska for at least one year) received a check for $1,107 from the APF. The total amount dispersed was $663.2 million. The $25 billion investment fund’s core experienced stock market losses which led to the dividend’s decline this past year compared to the several previous years. The amount was $433 less, a 28 percent drop from the 2002 pay out of $1,540, and a 44 percent decrease from the all-time high of $1,964 in year 2000. The amount changes based on a five-year average of APF investment income derived from the bonds, stock dividends, real estate and other investments.”
dj spellchecka
maybe they’re all parents…. pretty sure that group thinks “becuase i said so” is always effective …as long as the target audience is under 10 years old, of course
Liz
That’s a great thread. Perhaps a bit of a cluster but I enjoyed reading it. Am waiting breathlessly for edta’s next response. :-)