Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Let there be snark.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republicans in disarray!

“Squeaker” McCarthy

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This fight is for everything.

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Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    martha

    I’d be curious to see how that video plays with the troops. I’m guessing they’re smart enough to see that those horrible candidates didn’t support them.

  3. 3.

    Tom Hilton

    I would love to see someone at the next GOP debate ask them all: “do the people to whom you pander frighten you?”

    Because they scare the shit out of me.

  4. 4.

    Josie

    I hope a Democratic ad producer somewhere is putting together a montage of these debate moments that define the Republican party so beautifully.

  8. 8.

    Ben Cisco

    Oh, John.

    For the GOP, troops are for hiding behind, unless they are injured, get medals without dying, are paid poorly enough to qualify for food stamps, dare to love someone outside of the approved gender grouping, or fail to vote GOP.

  10. 10.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Soon enough, these yayhoos will realize that they look like monsters to the general public. Then it’ll be time to blame it all on liberal infiltrators.

    Or have they already?

  11. 11.

    Librarian

    We can wail about it all we want, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing unless the GOP is somehow made to pay a political price for all of its fuckery.

  12. 12.

    cleek

    how many more debates are they going to have – 17, 18 more?

    just think of how many more chances the American public will have to see the slithering id of the slobbering, bigoted, sociopathic GOP base.

    every debate is a gift!

    the teabagger yahoos clearly think their success in 2010 means they can be as un-“PC” and rude as they want to be now. and that’s great news for Dems.

  14. 14.

    me

    Back in Orlando, TPM asked Gary Johnson … if the crowds at the GOP debates were meaner than he’s seen before. … “In my opinion, when you have booing this is not indicative of Republicans,” he said. “This is not the Republican Party that I belong to.”

    Well Gary, that is the Republican Party you belong to. Maybe you should reconsider your membership.

  17. 17.

    Elie

    This is exactly as what one would expect. They have gotten themselves out so far and narrowed their appeal to capture the tea partiers and “they have normalized” their own deviance. They purged all of the members of the party who would have coached and selected reasonable and intelligent candidates (in fact the Republican party has been doing this for years — this is just the most advanced iteration). It also speaks to me of “last stands” and desperation.

    Yes, from MLK and Saul Alinsky — let your opponents’ behavior speak for itself…they show themselves up and while it is early in the campaign, it is not too early to see their futility — one worse than the next… disgraceful..

  18. 18.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    What kills me are these fucking assholes on Facebook that see a forceful negative reaction to this bullshit and come up with all this “oh, this is what is wrong with American politics, you people are so mean and judgemental”.

  22. 22.

    cmorenc

    @Josie:

    I hope a Democratic ad producer somewhere is putting together a montage of these debate moments that define the Republican party so beautifully.

    Now that would be unfair, since the GOP would never stoop to making videos trying to associate Democrats with unsavory riff-raff such as Black Panthers or underage prostitutes seeking abortion advice from democratic activists.

  27. 27.

    Nevgu

    No DOW charts showing that the stock market obviously reacted to this as well?

    Or perhaps common sense is making one of it’s rare appearances in your pea brain?

  29. 29.

    Napoleon

    @JPL:

    they booed a soldier

    I forget who I saw make this point but then when Rick S. answered the question he did not treat that soldier with any amount of respect by saying something like “Before I answer I just want to thank you for your service . . .”

  31. 31.

    fasteddie9318

    @Nevgu: Is there literally no other topic you can cover besides whatever the Dow is doing and the reasons why John Cole spurned your love?

  32. 32.

    Platypus

    GOP in a nutshell? I saw what you did there. Nuts they are.

    While I was talking to my wife last night about the CR vote, I observed that the GOP seems to have two factions full of very unpleasant people, and they can’t even stand *each other* any more. I got it wrong, though. The GOP actually contains three groups of unpleasant people who are losing tolerance for each other – those who worship God, those who worship money, and those who worship bloodshed. It’s always worth figuring out which of these three factions is behind any particular statement, because that same statement might represent a wedge between them and the other two.

  33. 33.

    cmorenc

    @Elie:

    This is exactly as what one would expect. They have gotten themselves out so far and narrowed their appeal to capture the tea partiers and “they have normalized” their own deviance. They purged all of the members of the party who would have coached and selected reasonable and intelligent candidates (in fact the Republican party has been doing this for years—this is just the most advanced iteration). It also speaks to me of “last stands” and desperation.

    We would hope this dynamic would catch enough attention with a large enough percentage of voters to induce their repulsion and result in a humiliating broad defeat of the GOP in 2012 from the top to bottom, national to local. HOWEVER, the countervailing problem for the democrats, top to bottom, is whether too many less-informed voters are too frightened and frustrated with the prolonged economic downturn to get past that as the far more strongly predominant gut-level feeling they carry into the voting booth. To what are they paying the most attention as they personally feel economic vulnerability and struggle to make it past next week, next month?

  36. 36.

    PWL

    Well, if these shite-heads don’t like gay soldiers serving in Iraq, let ’em volunteer THEMSELVES to take a chance on the IED lottery….

  37. 37.

    Nevgu

    @fasteddie9318: Clearly you are a devout follower. I can just see you sitting in your parents basement collecting every single post and known handle of mine and obsessing over every little word.

    Thanks for your support my little furry super groupie.

  39. 39.

    Sasha

    Well, consider the upside of GOP bigotry: If homosexuals in the military really is a dealbreaker for the right wing, perhaps that will mean that such conservatives (in disgust) will stop supporting unilateral and unquestioned military spending, finally allowing deep cuts in the defense budget.

    Probably not though …

  40. 40.

    OzoneR

    @Josie:

    I hope a Democratic ad producer somewhere is putting together a montage of these debate moments that define the Republican party so beautifully.

    No, but a Republican ad producer probably is. You think they’re ashamed of themselves?

  42. 42.

    Jennifer

    Government: NOT competent enough to deliver health care (or even the mail), according to Republicans, but competent enough to determine innocence or guilt and kill people. And also, to save your children’s precious immortal souls via requiring prayer in school.

    These people are totally fucked in the head.

  43. 43.

    Argive

    I take a small measure of comfort in knowing that that gay soldier could beat the holy shit out of every single cowardly asshole who booed him, and also that everyone in his platoon could, and would, do the same.

    If shit rolls downhill, these debates are taking place in a valley.

  44. 44.

    amk

    If only there were a real fourth estate that is not fifth columnist. Look at the latest ugly responsibility shirking ‘jamming’ tactic by boner. Treasonous bastids all.

  45. 45.

    ppcli

    Also Santorum’s answer was even more moronic than usual. “I don’t think we should give special privileges to any group” – WTF — the whole point of giving up DADT was that you are no longer making discriminations that single out a special class. YOU, Mr. Santorum, are proposing to reintroduce a rule that creates a separate class based on sexual preference. And it gives special privileges to one group – the heterosexuals – based on their sexual preference. So what’s with this “we shouldn’t have such rules” bullshit?

  47. 47.

    Elie

    @cmorenc:

    No matter how scared you are of the slump, if you think of replacing what you have — don’t you want to believe that they have some solutions? What are these shitbirds offering? Breaks for the wealthy at every turn! Crazy social engineering and that fence to keep out those Mexicans who are stealing all those high paying American jobs?

    I’ll tell you what is going to turn the worm… Bravo and HGTV just need to keep putting on those shows about the privileged and wealthy — keep rubbing the noses of the everyday person into it.. There will definitely be a breaking point/s. Things are not nearly bad enough — yet but I know that the administration is praying that the international banking situation holds on cause we don’t know shit like that would be if Greece defaulted and the banks crash…

  48. 48.

    ppcli

    Also perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves of Mitt’s answer in the last election cycle when people asked him why none of his five son’s were serving: (in paraphrase) “They’re all working to help me be elected president, and that’s a way of serving the U.S.”

  50. 50.

    jibeaux

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Just agree wholeheartedly. I mean, can you imagine being so mean and judgmental that you would boo an American soldier that you didn’t know from Adam who was asking a polite question just because of who he loves? That’s really mean and judgmental.

  51. 51.

    Paul in KY

    @cmorenc: Don’t hold your breath. I’ve seen 1,679 things in the past 6 months from the Repubs & their yahoos that would make great commercials. Yet, I have seen not-so-much commercials from our side.

  52. 52.

    Cris (without an H)

    @me: Well Gary, that is the Republican Party you belong to. Maybe you should reconsider your membership.

    He already has, but he’s just smart enough to realize that ninth place on the GOP ticket still beats frontrunner on the Libertarian ticket.

  53. 53.

    OzoneR

    @Jennifer:

    Government: NOT competent enough to deliver health care (or even the mail), according to Republicans, but competent enough to determine innocence or guilt and kill people.

    The other day while chatting about a high school basketball player shot and killed in New York, someone said to me “Well she was in gang”

    When I asked how he knew this, he said “Well she lived in the projects and she knew the people who killed her, so…”

    It’s not about being guilty of the crime, it’s about guilt by association. You must’ve did something to wind up being accused of murder, so even if you’re not guilty of murder, you’re guilty of something else.

    And let’s be real, if Americans can execute people for things other than murder, they totally would.

  54. 54.

    jibeaux

    @Paul in KY:
    Well, there is plenty of time. Given that plenty of people really hate campaign ads, there’s good reason to wait until a little closer to the election.

  56. 56.

    Paul in KY

    @ppcli: That was the kind of answer that got McCain the nomination. I would think he’ll be asked that again. Be interesting to see if he (and his consultants) have formulated a better lie.

  58. 58.

    deep cap

    and yet the Log Cabin Republicans see no problem with being both Republican AND gay…

    Why on earth to they continue to vote for the party that hates them?

  60. 60.

    FlipYrWhig

    @deep cap:

    Why on earth to they continue to vote for the party that hates them?

    Same reason anyone votes for Republicans: to keep lazy darkies from getting a free ride.

  61. 61.

    OzoneR

    @deep cap:

    Why on earth to they continue to vote for the party that hates them?

    Because black welfare mothers, taxes, hippies, Muslims, illegal aliens and “oh, they’re not crazy, you’re just saying that cause you’re a liberal”

  62. 62.

    James E. Powell

    The Republican base voters are odious and in some respects horrifying, but that party knows its people and it makes sure that they are enthusiastic. About what? It doesn’t matter so long as the vote Republican. The hate-based campaigning worked very well in 2010 and I expect the Republicans to go all in on it for 2012.

    And this stuff never seems to alienate the ‘independent’ voters, more accurately called the inattentive voters, who either don’t know about it or accept that both sides do it.

    It may be that the president can get elected by running a defensive, the Republicans are crazy, campaign. But that won’t win any senate or house races.

  64. 64.

    Elie

    @OzoneR:

    Media can only do so much. No one is watching as much anymore. The hard core Fox news audience is small and old — getting older — and poorer everyday… Don’t now how engaged the youth are in any message right now..

    We are in the midst of major change economically – the job landscape is radically changing – , demographically and socially — of course it impacts psychology and the still majority population of white folks who have a basic sense of entitlement that is being rocked to its core. They are tantruming in frustration and fear and have no leaders that seem to be able to calm them down… the only methods they are using are to displace the anger onto others… not really a solution if you have anything else..

    So hold onto your hats — we aren’t even past the beginning and given the attributes of the candidates that the White People’s – Oops, Republican Party has put up, they are past clueless and if elected would definitely make things even worse.

  67. 67.

    ppcli

    @Paul in KY: I hope the campaign people on the Democratic side are not going to give him a do-over on this one – prepare a draft of a commercial now that features last night’s debate (“Romney stood by without a word while a serving soldier was boo’d. And what did he say when asked why his own children weren’t serving?…”)

  68. 68.

    Svensker

    Executions? YEAH!
    Uninsured Dying? Hell YEAH!

    Don’t forget torture! (Although they haven’t cheered for that yet in a debate, have they?)

    And @Platypus:

    those who worship God, those who worship money, and those who worship bloodshed

    In the folks I know, those three categories pretty much overlap. Because Jesus was all about the guns and job creation!

  72. 72.

    NonyNony

    @deep cap:

    and yet the Log Cabin Republicans see no problem with being both Republican AND gay… Why on earth to they continue to vote for the party that hates them?

    From what I’ve seen the demographics of the Log Cabin Republicans tend toward white, male, and wealthy (or at least “upper middle class” if not outright wealthy).

    Think about it – if they were white, male, wealthy and straight you wouldn’t be asking the question. You’d know why they vote Republican – with that little shift the answer becomes “because they’re assholes who don’t give a tinker’s damn about anyone but themselves”. Also known as the “I’ve got mine, fuck you” demographic.

    Log Cabin Republicans are assholes. They have thought for years that their white, male, wealthy selves should be allowed their natural place amongst the other assholes in our society. It doesn’t, but they continue to delude themselves into thinking that any day now it will.

    Some people feel sorry for the Log Cabin Republicans. I don’t. They’ve constructed their own Hell and they can leave it at any time – they don’t even have to stop being assholes! (plenty of assholes in the Democratic Party – it’s a Big Tent you know).

  79. 79.

    Hoodie

    @Elie: The striking thing is that these and other incidents over the past few years really reveal a near-psychotic break from reality, to the point that truly weird stuff doesn’t register with even the nominally sane among them, e.g., none of the candidates on that stage reacted all, weren’t instinctively appalled. The death penalty cheers are for execution of fantasy villains; not guys sentenced on dodgy forensics and police work, low-IQ or mentally retarded, etc. The die-without-insurance victim hypothetical was a pure caricature; most folks without health insurance simply cannot afford it and/or have been denied or run out of benefits. The soldier was talking to them from Iraq and gets booed, but the filter is so dense it didn’t even register with the candidates or the audience. They’re starting to act like my 40 year old psychotic cousin, who’s stabilized on his meds but still suspects there’s a giant warlock conspiracy that covets the plastic crystal from his Pokeman toy set.

  80. 80.

    harlana

    @NonyNony: Thank you for answering the question I posed this morning, why do gay republicans exist? i totally get it now, and now that i think about it, most of teh gays (yes, white male) i ever knew were well off or extremely comfortable, so i probably knew some of those LR republicans!

  81. 81.

    HG Hay

    The only fun part of that debate was Cain’s 9-9-9 thing. He was showing himself to be every bit the pizza retailer. 9 pizzas, 9 toppings, just 9 dollars each! 9.99 more gets you 9 99 oz pepsis!

  82. 82.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Svensker:

    In the folks I know, those three categories pretty much overlap. Because Jesus was all about the guns and job creation!

    Rambo Jesus, storming the commanding heights of the post-industrial economy, kicking ass and taking names! Yeeehaw! Praise the Lord and Pass the Profits!

  83. 83.

    harlana

    @ppcli:

    Also perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves of Mitt’s answer in the last election cycle when people asked him why none of his five son’s were serving: (in paraphrase) “They’re all working to help me be elected president, and that’s a way of serving the U.S.”

    the irony, it burns

  84. 84.

    NonyNony

    @harlana:

    Thank you for answering the question I posed this morning, why do gay republicans exist? i totally get it now, but now that i think about it, most of teh gays i ever knew were well off or extremely comfortable, so i probably knew some of those LR republicans!

    Just to be clear here, let’s make sure that we’re not committing a logical fallacy.

    Almost all Log Cabin Republicans are well-off. That doesn’t mean that all well-off gay men and women are Log Cabin Republicans. It takes a special breed of well-off person to be a LC Republican in this day and age – you need to not only have money but you ALSO need to have an “I’ve got mine, fuck you” attitude towards your money.

    So while you may have known some gay folks who are doing well for themselves, it’s not necessarily that they’re Republicans. It takes a special breed of money-worshiping asshole to be a Log Cabin Republican – in fact I suspect that the typical Log Cabin Republican voter needs to be more of an asshole than the typical Republican voter, though I have no way of proving that.

  85. 85.

    Emma

    @deep cap: Because money trumps everything else. They’re either rich or want to think of themselves as rich, so they support the party of the rich. Fellow gays who aren’t wealthy and therefore part of the peasant mass are not worth worrying about.

  86. 86.

    James E. Powell

    @Hoodie:

    none of the candidates on that stage reacted all, weren’t instinctively appalled.

    Each of those candidates knows that he or she must have the support of those voters or there is no hope of more than 10% in any primary or caucus. Also too, consider how beyond the fringe a right-wing audience would have to be to appall those candidates.

  87. 87.

    harlana

    @Elie:

    The hard core Fox news audience is small and old—getting older—and poorer everyday

    and yet go to a restaurant, bar, bank, car repair place, law office, doctor’s office, ELEVATORS (yes, elevators and you can’t change the channel) – Fox News is on. I don’t get it.

  89. 89.

    NonyNony

    @Svensker:

    In the folks I know, those three categories pretty much overlap. Because Jesus was all about the guns and job creation!

    Doesn’t every church open with a reading from the Book of Armaments?

    And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the Lord did grin. – Armaments 2:9

  91. 91.

    OzoneR

    @xian:

    sounds like code to me. the person was trying to say, “well, she was black so it’s not really a tragedy.”

    maybe, but I grew up in Southern Indiana, there was no code, people flat out said things like that.

  92. 92.

    OzoneR

    @Elie:

    Media can only do so much. No one is watching as much anymore.

    it’s not just TV, it’s chain emails, Twitter, Facebook status, newspapers, Yahoo and AOL homepage, etc.

  93. 93.

    Elie

    @harlana:

    Days gone by and the purchasers of their services haven’t tuned in yet… they will..They had ten years of republicans marketing their crap for general consumption…and the left progressives don’t really have an alternative vehicle — not our style anyway to have a network blaring our propaganda.

    Anyway, my two cents for what its worth

  94. 94.

    Svensker

    Doesn’t every church open with a reading from the Book of Armaments?

    The thing that skeeves me out so much is that all the really blood thirsty folks I know are Christians — fundies, yes, but they consider themselves followers of Jesus. I just don’t see anything in the gospels about blowing people up or worshiping the US of A, but I am near-sighted, so who knows.

    (Course, many of the pacifists I know are Christians, too, not that there aren’t pacifist Muslims, Buddhists, etc., I just don’t know too many of those folks.)

  95. 95.

    Silver

    I noticed that Sullivan was up in arms today.

    With apologies to a racial insight from Paul Mooney, how many faggot wake up calls does the guy need before it sinks in?

  97. 97.

    soonergrunt

    @Sasha: The only thing they’ll support cutting will be benefits and Servicemember support. They’re so hard core to make sure that gay people won’t have benefits usable by their dependents, that the moment that DOMA is repealed or found to be unconstitutional or whatever, they’ll introduce legislation to make military families ineligible for military medical care, on-post facilities, and everything else.

  98. 98.

    Elie

    @Hoodie:

    I know I know…

    But if you have ever had the misfortune of watching the life of somone you know, spiral out of control for some reason — big personal tragedy, drugs, mental illness — there is a sense of futility as people see it and try to intervene but things just keep getting worse and worse. All those futile hostage situations or death by cop are preceded by some period of increasing insanity that no one that the affected person knows can do anything to save.

    Its like that to some extent right now with the Repubs, and even though their promoters seem all on board, I believe that many know its crazy — just like Auntie trying to mellow out the drunk uncle at the Thanksgiving family gathering — he gets placated and folks try to bury their objections “for the sake of the holiday, etc”, but things just keep flying apart and the next gathering there is more of the same with more crap surfacing in between — cops called to the house, crying jags, fights among family members..

    The GOP is having a big family crisis for which there is no pleasant fix. They will have to go through it and pay the price. In my humble opinion, they are headed for catastrophe — thanks be — and they got nothin — nothin to save themselves. Not that Obama will ever have an easy time… guaranteed to continue his labors in the Stygian stables, but the GOP is in Hades. I think Rick Perry has major probs whether due to his back or more likely, what is in his head. Romney is weak weak weak and there is no one else. Period.

  99. 99.

    schrodinger's cat

    @BGinCHI: Theoretical physics can be very mathy.
    A physics joke for Friday:
    A neutrino walks into a bar, orders a drink, how much? neutrino asks. For you there is no charge, says the bar tender.

  100. 100.

    piratedan

    @Elie: all this and yet….. there is no Rubicon that these people cannot cross for folks I would normally consider sane that continue to vote for them because they’re “good for business”.

  101. 101.

    James E. Powell

    Do you all recall the McCain town hall event in 2008 when McCain tried to chill out some woman who was worried that Obama was not American or not Christian or some such? That’s why the Republican base never loved McCain. That’s why they had so much crazy love for Palin.

  102. 102.

    Chris T.

    @OzoneR:

    When I asked how he knew this, he said “Well she lived in the projects and she knew the people who killed her, so…”

    This is when you punch the guy in the gut, and when he recovers and gasps out “why did you do that?”, you say: “well, you were standing next to me, and you know me, so you must be guilty of something.”

    (Alas, this probably would not actually teach him anything. :-) )

  104. 104.

    Paul in KY

    @NonyNony: Counteth thee to 3 only, nay shalleth thy count to 4 or thy holy body willeth water the ground upon only ye remaining feet shall rest.

  105. 105.

    asiangrrlMN

    @NonyNony: What you said, NonyNony. They see being gay as being incidental, almost, to their identity. If they weren’t gay, they would be Republicans, no doubt. But, even they were shocked by last night. They demand an apology from Rick Santorum. Snort. Yeah. Whatever. I don’t feel sorry for them, either.

    ETA: It does comfort me a little to realize that none of those cowards would boo Stephen Hill (the soldier) to his face. Still.

  106. 106.

    Thoughtcrime

    @Paul in KY:

    Counteth thee to 3 only, nay shalleth thy count to 4 or thy holy body willeth water the ground upon only ye remaining feet shall rest.

    King Arthur: One, two, five!
    Sir Galahad: Three sir!
    King Arthur: THREE!

  110. 110.

    No one of importance

    @asiangrrlMN:

    You’re confusing GOProud with the Log Cabin Republicans, which is a much more progressive group than GOPRoud (note, the later aren’t remotely liberal, even on gay rights.) Log Cabin Republicans brought the legal case that declared DADT unconstitutional. GOPRoud *supported* DADT *and* DOMA. At least DADT was repealed, then they suddenly claimed credit for the repeal (puke).

    Neither group are lovely but GOPRoud are serious dickfaces.

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