Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

So very ready.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

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Fully vested

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I’m so jacked up about Santorum that I’m going home to change into a sweater vest. Reader J says the Santorum-is-strong meme is really taking off:

“Santorum looks stronger than Romney, now. He’s from Pennsylvania, a key state. He is a more dangerous opponent for the Obama campaign”.

This was said on CBS this morning by….. wait for it…. Charlie Rose.

I watched MSNBC in-and-out yesterday, and that’s the new meme in the Village, even among the GOP consultants: fear the frothy mix.

Look, Santorum lost as an incumbent by 18 points, wrote a book saying that women shouldn’t work, the guy is a shit general election candidate and no amount of double-reverse contrarianism will convince me otherwise, so laissez le Santorum roulez.

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  3. 3.

    Guster

    That video is the best argument for why Santorum can’t beat Romney. He’s dumping his money into a pro-Romney ad.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    Voice in Charlie Rose’s head: PA is the keystone state.

    Voice coming out of his mouth: PA is a key state.

    Thanks Charlie. Don’t forget to cash your paycheck.

  5. 5.

    Rafer Janders

    “Santorum looks stronger than Romney, now. He’s from Pennsylvania, a key state. He is a more dangerous opponent for the Obama campaign”.

    Odds that Santorum would win in PA against Obama? Approximately zero. So they’d have a presidential candidate who wouldn’t even win his home state (which, to be honest, would also go for Romney, if we count MA as his home state).

  6. 6.

    Veritas

    Any candidate can beat Obambi, though Romney has the best chance (and most importantly, the most money).

  8. 8.

    cathyx

    I don’t think you should change into a sweater vest just yet, he hasn’t primaried out west yet.

  9. 9.

    shortstop

    Here’s a story about Karen Santorum suing her chiropractor for a cool half-mil — although the medical bills were only $18K — while her hubby pushed for tort reform, including a $250K cap on awards.

    What a gruesome family. And I will note that although Rick was worried about his wife not being able to walk, bend or lift, he managed to knock her up once again right about then, when he wasn’t “[having] to do more stuff around the house.” I also point out that he totally throws her under the bus by pretending it was her lawsuit and he didn’t agree with it (though he testified on her behalf). How often do you guys think someone in that house does something that Rick hasn’t signed off on?

  10. 10.

    Feebog

    Please let it be Frothy the Gnomeman. We will take back the House, keep the Senate, and maybe get something accomplished.

  11. 11.

    Zifnab

    I should note that back in 2011, Santorum was barely polling in the single digits nationally. Now he’s edging the People’s Champion for a lead in the primary.

    Combine that with the automatic 40% every Republican walks in the door with under our conservative-states-count-more-than-liberal-people electoral college system, toss in a shaky economy, and never forget the media’s capacity to sell out in a heartbeat, and it is never safe to write the other guy in a two-party political system off entirely.

    I’d love to believe Santorum is the Presidential equivalent of Christine O’Donnell. But we elected George Bush. Twice. So… :-p

  12. 12.

    Steve

    Doug, you’re not really doing God’s work when you remind people that Santorum is a truly hopeless candidate. Please let them talk themselves into this one!

    Also not doing God’s work: Daily Kos with this campaign to get Democrats to cross over and vote for Santorum. I know they’re having fun, but there is no chance of getting enough of a crossover vote to matter, and all you do is give Romney an excuse that people might buy for getting clobbered in his home state.

  14. 14.

    freelancer

    Wow, we knew Rih was Looney Tunes. Now we know his campaign marketing is Looney Tunes. Jesuh Chrih!

  15. 15.

    WJS

    So they’d have a presidential candidate who wouldn’t even win his home state

    Ouch, shades of Al Gore not winning his home state.

    Santorumania fits in with my belief that the Republicans want another four years of an Obama Administration so that they can “discover” an abuse of power and impeach him. Someone has to take the fall and nothing would please certain elements of the GOP than to see Romney beaten again and thus be rid of him.

    Will Romney be the Harold Stassen of the 21st Century? Or is he simply too smart to keep running for President? Is that even possible?

  21. 21.

    shortstop

    BTW, I’m not doubting you, Doug, but can you tell me more about Santorum saying women shouldn’t work? I missed that gem. Spill the wretched details, please.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    Markos at GOS has launched “Operation Hilarity” to get people to vote for Santorum in open primaries.

  23. 23.

    Mark S.

    The American people agree with the bishops on this.

    Rick Santorum is a dangerous candidate in the general election.

    I didn’t think our Villagers could get any more stupid than they already were.

  24. 24.

    Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity

    Oh yes, please God tie Santorum to the GOP some more. I have not lived a good enough life for the awesomeness that this election is turning into.

  25. 25.

    cathyx

    @shortstop: Well, you know, she doesn’t need to be able to walk, bend, or lift to get pregnant. And she probably looked all hot just laying there unable to move.

  26. 26.

    Mark K

    shortstop, wow, thats telling. Nothing more hypocritical than a RW Republicon. Tom Delay & his family sued for huge $s when his dad got hurt trying to build some trapeze-monorail contraption, for ex.

    Obama vs fascist cult Opus Dei-boy would be like Reagan vs. Mondale. Santorum might not even get more than 27%.

  27. 27.

    shortstop

    @KG: I actually doubt that, or I should say I doubt it’s the case when he’s home, which is apparently hardly ever. He is a very, very strong authoritarian and I’d bet it shows in every aspect of his parenting.

  29. 29.

    JGabriel

    And in other The-Santorum-Is-Strong-In-This-One News (reposting from last thread):

    Rick Santorum got the Megadeth Guitarist Endorsement:

    The endorsement of Megadeth guitarist Dave Mustaine hath been given. Apparently, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is the best possible choice for Americans kicked out of Metallica who join new metal bands.

    Congratulations, Rick. Nothing like getting the endorsement of someone who’s such an asshole even Metallica couldn’t put up with him.

    .

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ripley:

    There’s a reason why guys like Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, and Limbaugh did not go to Vietnam.

    Niedermeyer was killed by his own troops.

  31. 31.

    Steve

    @Zifnab: Liberals thought George W. Bush was an idiot from day one. A lot of us may have rhetorically wondered how anyone could vote for him, but was there really a widespread sense at any time that Bush was unelectable? I recall thinking prior to the 2000 campaign that it was pretty obvious Bush was the Republicans’ strongest candidate, but maybe the consensus was elsewhere.

    Having said that, I do think it’s a matter of record that a lot of liberals thought Reagan was unelectable. That was a bad call. But I don’t think it follows that now every time we think someone is unelectable, we’re wrong. Michele Bachmann was pretty unelectable.

  32. 32.

    Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity

    And she probably looked all hot just laying there unable to move.

    @cathyx: I like my women like I like my politics: paralyzed and fearful.

  33. 33.

    KG

    @Zifnab: GWB wasn’t a terrible candidate circa 2000, peace and prosperity and all that bullshit. Kerry was a terrible nominee in 2004. Obama 2012 is better than Gore 2000 or Kerry 2004, and both Romney and Santorum are worse than GWB 2000 or 2004.

  35. 35.

    Southern Beale

    Also, according to this CNN/ORC poll, Romney leads among Republican women by 9%.

    And the same survey shows a big % of Republicans as not satisfied with their choices at all.

    Santorum is the flavor of the month. Just like Perry was. Just like Herman Cain. He will end up in the dust bin along with the rest of them.

    I just hope when we get to the end of this, all of the Republican donors are substanitally worse off financially.

  36. 36.

    rob!

    I really wish my fellow godless heathen homo commie libruls WOULD SHUT THE F*CK UP about Santorum. Let Conservatives think he’s electable all the way through November.

    I was a wee lad when Reagan kicked the shit out Mondale; I’ve been waiting my whole life to see the reverse happen. This might be my chance.

    So everyone please be quiet about Santorum, and we can reconvene November 7th in San Francisco. First five people in line get a free abortion!

  39. 39.

    Rafer Janders

    @shortstop:

    I also point out that he totally throws her under the bus by pretending it was her lawsuit and he didn’t agree with it (though he testified on her behalf).

    Same as how anything in his book, written under his name, that he now wants to disavow was apparently written by his wife instead.

  40. 40.

    Davis X. Machina

    ….I do think it’s a matter of record that a lot of liberals thought Reagan was unelectable.

    I never figured that out. Reagan was by then the twice-elected governor of the country’s largest state, and a veteran of one nearly-successful national presidential campaign already.

    The blindness of GOP true believers, claiming their man — whoever he is — will fillet that empty-suit-teleprompter-bound affirmative action hire in the White House in the very first debate reminds me of what liberals were saying in ’79 and ’80….

  42. 42.

    General Stuck

    @shortstop:

    How often do you guys think someone in that house does something that Rick hasn’t signed off on?

    Every Saturday night, Rick puts on his Pilgrim gear and chases Pocahontas around the teepee with his purity stick. These kind of folks always have a crazy hour or 5 nobody hears about. Then it’s back to playing Calvinball for jaysus. AKA GOP politics

  43. 43.

    schrodinger's cat

    The Villagers seem to be acting like moles, feeding people dubious propaganda. I actually like it.

  45. 45.

    bobbo

    Josh Marshall just posted this ad, saying it was a brilliant job by Santorum of mocking Romney. I am pretty sure he wasn’t kidding.

  48. 48.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders: I believe the way to deal with that is for some men to ask him in mocking tones why he lets his wife boss him around all the time like that; doesn’t he want to sack up? The ensuing sputterfest would be entertaining. Dude clearly has issues with his male authority.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @Southern Beale:

    I just hope when we get to the end of this, all of the Republican donors are substanitally worse off financially.

    They could dump billions into this race and not have it impact their quality of life one bit.

  51. 51.

    Patricia Kayden

    Actually, at this point, I believe President Obama will beat any of the Repub candidates. None of them strike me as presidential. It will be interesting to see if millions spent in negative commercials will be enough to get a Repub win in November.

  52. 52.

    MikeJ

    “Radical feminists have been making the pitch that justice demands that men and women be given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace.”

    Yeah, why even give the bitches a chance?

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @Zifnab:

    I should note that back in 2011, Santorum was barely polling in the single digits nationally. Now he’s edging the People’s Champion for a lead in the primary.
    __
    Combine that with the automatic 40% every Republican walks in the door with under our conservative-states-count-more-than-liberal-people electoral college system, toss in a shaky economy, and never forget the media’s capacity to sell out in a heartbeat, and it is never safe to write the other guy in a two-party political system off entirely.

    So, where is the part that anyone should worry about Santorum becoming the GOP nominee? A national poll before the GOP primaries have all run is worse than meaningless.

    Apart from this, an automatic 40% Republican vote is not even a guess. GOP women are going to vote for this guy, just because?

    Has Santorum said anything remotely sane about economics?

    The media doesn’t owe any candidate anything. Not even facts and truth. But it’s hard to see even the dopes in the Village giving Frothy a pass.

    Two party system or otherwise, I would love to see the Frothman Cometh.

    And if by some weird chance, Santorum won, then we need to go looking for massive voter fraud. Otherwise, a Santorum win would mean that the great American experiment with democracy was effectively over.

  54. 54.

    Dee Loralei

    Ed Kilgore over at WaMo has bizarre excerpts from a speech Santorum gave in Iowa. Read it and not think about Franco. Or not go fully Godwin, in your own damned mind! I’m telling you, it’s batshit scary stuff.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Egg Berry:

    Dunno. I got that once when I used Veritas’ old handle in a post, apparently that’s a BJ only bad string, unlike the boner pill strings that are WP wide, and unalterable by individual site owners.

  57. 57.

    shortstop

    @Mark S.: Hmmm. I see several quotes there whining about how stay-at-home moms don’t get enough genuflection from society, and an obvious lack of commitment to the concept of busting the glass ceiling, but these quotes don’t say he doesn’t think women should work. Did he say that explicitly anywhere?

    Not that I don’t think his views on women’s issues are crystal clear and will hang him whether he said it explicitly or not.

  58. 58.

    Steve

    @Davis X. Machina: In hindsight, Reagan had established himself for decades as an incredibly charismatic political speaker in front of conservative audiences. But it wasn’t the Age of YouTube, and most Americans weren’t even that familiar with Reagan’s actions and speeches as governor. These days I don’t think someone with Reagan’s talent would sneak up on anyone.

    Compare Bill Clinton, who was totally unknown to most of the country, and yet the Republicans power-brokers knew well in advance of the 1992 election that he was the one they had to stop.

  59. 59.

    JGabriel

    @shortstop:

    How often do you guys think someone in that house does something that Rick hasn’t signed off on?

    Everytime someone makes the Bible pages about Bathsheba sticky again.

    .

  60. 60.

    Chuck Butcher

    the guy is a shit general election candidate and no amount of double-reverse contrarianism will convince me otherwise, so laissez le Santorum roulez.

    Good grief, don’t discourage these people…

    Reverse psychology? Like with Sarah? OK then, carry on – let us make sure they figure we’re actually frightened of it.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    @Dee Loralei: Yep. This is why we really shouldn’t worry about Santorum – he does not know how to suppress that stuff. It’s going to come out in a general election and it’s going to absolutely destroy him with anyone outside of the 27%.

  62. 62.

    shortstop

    @JGabriel: I heard you’ll be out of the house all day tomorrow and your office doesn’t accept personal packages, so the internets will be at your local UPS Store waiting for your pickup.

  65. 65.

    Zifnab

    @Steve: @KG: Perhaps that’s true. But 2010 was a crazy year, and I’m not ready to write off gullibility of the purple state voter when $1 billion in advertising pressure is applied.

    Romney nuked Gingrich in Florida with wall-to-wall negative ads. Could a Wall Street fueled anti-Obama hate parade do the same thing in Ohio or Maryland or Pennsylvania or Colorado? We don’t know what effect all the anti-voter legislation guys like Mitch Daniels, Scott Walker, and Rick Scott passed are going to have.

    I want to say Obama should walk all over the GOP in ’12. I’m just not brimming over with confidence after seeing him bowed and blooded two years previous.

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @Dee Loralei:

    Ed Kilgore over at WaMo has bizarre excerpts from a speech Santorum gave in Iowa. Read it and not think about Franco. Or not go fully Godwin, in your own damned mind! I’m telling you, it’s batshit scary stuff.

    Maybe someone who’s good at video stuff could make a mashup.

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Let me just say that as a secular humanist and redistributionist liberal, I am terrified of Rick Santorum. I think if Senator Santorum were to triumph in the great Republican battle, I would be so discouraged I wouldn’t even bother to vote in November.

    I’m so jacked up about Santorum that I’m going home to change into a sweater vest.

    Are Santorini starting to wear sweater-vests as a show of support? I saw a pic from a rally with three or four young guys dressed like him. Or is this still another fashion trend I’m missing by being an Old.

  68. 68.

    Violet

    @Zifnab:

    I want to say Obama should walk all over the GOP in ‘12. I’m just not brimming over with confidence after seeing him bowed and blooded two years previous.

    Obama wasn’t on the ballot in 2010. Presidential election years are very different from midterms.

  71. 71.

    Mark S.

    @shortstop:

    I report, you decide.

    I didn’t think what he said was that shocking, but I read a lot of wingnuts so it takes a lot to shock me. He was apparently embarrassed enough by the passage to say his wife wrote it:

    Santorum replied that he wasn’t familiar with that quote from the book, and agreed that people should have equal opportunity to rise in the workplace – before punting on responsibility for the quote by saying that his wife, Karen, actually wrote that section.

    Now that’s a man!

  72. 72.

    gex

    The wild card is how many Kathryn Harrises and Diebolds and hanging chads and voter caging and voter ID requirements are in place. If they feel they’ve gamed it enough, they might feel free to go with a guy like Santorum.

  77. 77.

    Steve

    @Zifnab: Look, even if I grant you all that for the sake of argument, doesn’t that just mean we’re totally fucked no matter what we do? I mean, if Citizens United means that from now on the Republicans can just elect whoever the heck they feel like electing, then why even bother worrying?

  80. 80.

    Mark B

    Seriously, it’s beginning to look that the only way to win the Republican primaries is to be so far to the right that you alienate 65% of the American population. Their only hope in the general is to get their 35% to show up at the polls and try to discourage or disqualify as many of the 65% that they can get away with.

  81. 81.

    Violet

    I went to the gym at a different time than I usually do today. These two old guys were on the two treadmills next to mine. MSNBC was on the overhead TV and they both had it on their personal TVs on their treadmills.

    They kept offering running commentary about everything they saw. They called Boehner a liar, then noticed Cantor standing behind him and said he was worse. Then they proceeded to have a discussion about how you can’t trust a word out of any Republican’s mouth. Then MSNBC switched to showing a segment on the election and they started calling Santorum “Sanitarium”. For the ten minutes or so they were next to me on the treadmills they kept up a running commentary about how awful the Republicans were. It was awesome!

    I live in a red state and most conversations about politics I’ve overheard at the gym have been favoring Republicans. I have no idea who these two old guys were, but I’m cheered they feel comfortable enough to have such a conversation in public at the gym.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    @Mark B:

    Their only hope in the general is to get their 35% to show up at the polls and try to discourage or disqualify as many of the 65% that they can get away with.

    I think if you look at the voting id laws and the personal attacks on Obama you’ll realize they figured out they had that problem years ago. And it’s not going to change until they face absolutely humiliating losses.

  84. 84.

    Tom Q

    @Steve: Also recall that, in 1980, the only national experience Democrats had had with a candidate who espoused the ideas Reagan was promoting — Goldwater — had been utterly demolished. And I don’t think there’s much evidence Americans fell in love with Reagan during the campaign: the polls famously showed a dead heat pretty much right up to election day, suggesting serious resistance among the electorate to handing over the keys to someone of Reagan’s ilk.

    What won it for Reagan were the circumstances in the country, which were objectively terrible. Carter was uncharismatic, with few major accomplishments, and endured, in his election year, a punishing intra-party challenge, an ongoing foreign policy fiasco, and then a recession during the voting period. Anyone would have beaten the incumbent in that situation; Reagan was probably the weakest GOP candidate (someone like Howard Baker might have led all the way).

    Obama’s circumstance is wholly different: a charismatic incumbent with major accomplishments, a united party, a huge foreign policy success in getting bin Laden, no overseas failures, and, now, a recovering economy. He’s unbeatable by most metrics, and an extremist candidate like Santorum is dog chow for him.

  89. 89.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Thank you! God, the “every Republican is dangerous” meme is annoying.

    Yes, folks, we know that Republicans come with a +30%, probably +40. And Obama won in 2008 while black. We will work our butts off again to get him reelected.

  90. 90.

    Violet

    Since we’re on the subject of the election, Sarah Palin says a brokered convention is possible:

    Well, for one, I think that it could get to that. And I — you know, if it had to — if it had to be kind of closed up today, the whole nominating process, then we would be looking at a brokered convention.
    __
    I mean nobody is quite there yet. So I think that months from now, if that’s the case, then, you know, all bets are off as to who it will be willing to offer themselves up in the name of service to their country. I would — I would do whatever I could to help.

    Oh, yes, please, let the Palinistas try to push Sarah as a savior candidate after a brokered convention. There’s not enough popcorn in the world….

  91. 91.

    some guy

    off topic, but it was sweet to watch Speaker of the House Orange Julius wave the white flag on the payroll tax cut on my TeeVee just now. Nice Polite Republican News is about to do their story on the Santorum Surge (now with more froth) and I am giddy with excitement.

    and here it is, GOP Publicist Gwen Ifill is, in fact, giddy about Rick.

  96. 96.

    Chris

    @Violet:

    I’m not really clear about this: exactly what does happen if one of the parties has a brokered convention? How do they then pick a candidate?

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Violet: Watching Grifterella try to pose as a party elder and power broker has been one of the funniest things about watching politics lately. Tweety said something today about “Palin doesn’t want to be left up in Alaska”. I was trying to think of a position a hypothetical Romney could/would name her to. Is there a country that wouldn’t be offended by an Ambassador Palin?

  102. 102.

    Martin

    @Chris:

    exactly what does happen if one of the parties has a brokered convention? How do they then pick a candidate?

    No, basically various people are pushed forward and the delegates vote until there is a majority. You have to have at least 3 factions to get into the spot, and the party is basically hunting about for a candidate that will appease at least 2 of the factions. It’s turns vaguely parliamentary in a brokered convention.

    Our elections have been reworked to take power from the delegates, so that they don’t do anything more than cast a pre-known, token vote. In a brokered convention, they get that power back to choose the nominee. Ron Paul is playing a ‘delegates have power’ strategy.

  104. 104.

    Heliopause

    @Zifnab:

    The chances of Santorum beating Obama head-to-head are small but nonzero. A slightly better (but still low) probability is a Romney/Santorum ticket beating Obama, in which case Santorum would have a seat at the meetings. How much actual influence he would have is anybody’s guess, but something else to ponder is some right-wing nut (not a left-wing nut, a right-wing nut) seeing the assassination of President Romney as a golden opportunity to put Jesus’s boy in charge.

  105. 105.

    trollhattan

    @Martin:

    If Sarah(tm) is predicting a brokered convention, I’m guessing she thinks it’ll be sponsored by Wall Street firms.

  106. 106.

    Violet

    @Chris:
    When one candidate doesn’t have enough votes/delegates so that the first ballot is a mere formality at the convention, then there is a bunch of jockeying for position and trying to get votes/delegates by the candidates. A savior candidate can be put forth that might earn enough votes during one of the ballots. Most Republicans are wishfully thinking about a Chris Christie or a Jeb Bush in that role. Sarah Palin is thinking she’d step in and be a savior candidate. Hilarious.

  109. 109.

    MCA1

    @Steve: You don’t need to go all the way back to Clinton to see a rising Democratic talent that scared the shit out of Republicans long before he became President, actually. They started freaking out about Obama about 90 seconds into the 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address. About the same time a lot of us started thinking “There is absolutely no doubt that guy’s gonna be President someday.”

  110. 110.

    shortstop

    @JoyfulA: JoyfulA, Balloon Juice’s go-to poster for forgotten tidbits about Santorum heinousness. Every day you come through for us!

    @Mark S.: Oh, I thought it was shocking, but in a “Hey, women can work, but the pushy beotches better not expect to get decent career advancement or equal pay out of it–what? What did I say?” kind of way. This is about what I’ve come to expect from Santorum: he says assholish things, then insists he’s been misunderstood or blames his wife.

  111. 111.

    Samara Morgan

    hei, Mastertroll.
    wanna know why Kain is back is here again?
    heres why.
    the guy has all the moral authority of a mitt romney, and more positions than the kama sutra.

  113. 113.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chris:

    There are several stages in this, but traditionally there’s a lot of “smoke filled room” activity where party panjandrums swap deals for delegates…things like “I’ll commit my delegates to your guy if you promise x pork for my state” or “my guy gets to be Secretary of State”, stuff like that.

    That’s traditionally. There hasn’t been a brokered convention in decades, though, no telling what the hell will happen in Tampa if there is indeed one there. All I know is the Village idiots will be prostrate with ecstasy over the pure horse race goodness of it all.

  115. 115.

    Chris

    @Martin:
    @Violet:

    Thanks for the education y’all.

    Most Republicans are wishfully thinking about a Chris Christie or a Jeb Bush in that role. Sarah Palin is thinking she’d step in and be a savior candidate. Hilarious.

    Christie and Bush are too smart to try and Palin’s too dumb to succeed. Nope, they’re just going to have to make do with what they’ve got.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Heliopause:

    but something else to ponder is some right-wing nut (not a left-wing nut, a right-wing nut) seeing the assassination of President Romney as a golden opportunity to put Jesus’s boy in charge.

    This scenario crossed more than a few people’s minds last cycle, as the possibility of President McCain having an unfortunate kiln explosion accident or falling down a flight of stairs in a one floor building seemed ideal for getting the obviously power hungry Mooselini access to the “football” and the UNLIMITED POWER! that she and her followers seem to crave.

  120. 120.

    Suffern ACE

    I think I’ve mentioned this before, but for all Santorum’s piety, he’s not a very honest guy. (although I read him defined as “squeaky clean” in one of the major mags, which makes me wonder what squeaky clean means). Why did the voters get rid of him?

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Suffern ACE:

    Why did the voters get rid of him? There are older posts in older threads that outline this, but part of it had to do with his bogus residency in Pennsylvania, his billing of his “home” school district for home schooling programs to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and his rather interesting attitude about showing up for jury duty.

    He’s got a past of grifting that would cause Mooselini jealousy as well.

  122. 122.

    gex

    @Violet: Maybe if we all start popping corn now. The gubment pays plenty to grow tons of it, so we should be able to do this. Go brokered convention! Throw Sarah back in the mix! All the Christian fascism of Santorum without the penis!

  123. 123.

    Citizen_X

    Is there a country that wouldn’t be offended by an Ambassador Palin?

    The Russians would react with fury, but would keep breaking down into fits of hysterical laughter.

  128. 128.

    MosesZD

    Republicans are pretty screwed no matter who wins… If the Cultist wins, the evangelicals and reich-wingers stay home… If the frothy-mix wins, the moderates will go heavily for Obama, protest vote or sit it out…

    In either case, I think the Republican vote is severely hampered come this fall.

  130. 130.

    KG

    The really interesting part of a brokered convention would be the VP nomination process. Normally, the presumptive nominee nominates a VEEP candidate and he/she is unopposed. Let’s say, though, that Romney, Paul, Santorum, and (FSM help us all) Gingrich all go to the convention with delegates but no majority. Do they each nominate a VEEP? Will there be other nominees offered? No delegates would be bound to any VEEP candidate. That could turn into a real shit show.

    Then of course, there’s always the possibility of someone who declined to run throwing his hat in the ring (basically what happened the last season of the West Wing when Al Bundy was governor of PA and instead of endorsing someone announced his candidacy a week before the convention).

    In reality, I don’t think Romney survives the second ballot because there’s no way any of the also-rans would pledge their delegates to him and there’s no way the delegates, who are usually activists would stay loyal, because, well, no one is loyal to Romney, nor enthusiastic about him.

    The shitshow value alone would make it soooooooo worth it.

  132. 132.

    Monkeyfister

    Boy, that $10 per pay check from the Payroll Tax “Holiday” is not worth the concessions that the Dems allowed the Republicans to hack out of the Affordable Care Act. I said it last year– the Payroll Tax boondoggle would be a shipwreck…

    tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/gop-snatches-obamacare-cuts-as-payroll-fight-wraps-up.php?ref=fp…

    Repeals key parts of ObamaCare and includes other health savings

    —Cuts to ObamaCare pay for more than half ($11.6 billion) of the Medicare spending in the agreement.

    —Cuts an ObamaCare slush fund (the Harkin Prevention Fund) by $5 billion.

    —Eliminates an ObamaCare giveaway to Louisiana saving $2.5 billion.

    —Reduces Medicaid spending (DSH rebase) by more than $4 billion.

    —Other health savings total $9.6 billion and include reductions to Medicare “bad debt” and clinical laboratory payments

    Don’t spend that $10 in one place– you’re going to need to save it for future Medical Lab work.

    Killing the “Louisiana Purchase” is the only decent thing in this package of gutting.

    Won a battle– losing the war.

    I hope that six-pack of cheap beer and pack of smokes taste EXTRA sweet for you folks who screamed me down when I said this Payroll Tax “holiday” was not worth fighting for last year.

    And we’re still de-funding our ability to cover future Social Security payouts.

    I continue to say it is not worth it.

    –mf

  133. 133.

    gelfling545

    both Romney and Santorum are worse than GWB 2000 or 2004.

    And that’s a hell of a thing to have said about you. Who cold have imagined the bottom of the barrel had not been reached then?

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @KG:

    The really interesting part of a brokered convention would be the VP nomination process. Normally, the presumptive nominee nominates a VEEP candidate and he/she is unopposed. Let’s say, though, that Romney, Paul, Santorum, and (FSM help us all) Gingrich all go to the convention with delegates but no majority. Do they each nominate a VEEP?

    Probably not. Would anyone want to be associated with the candidate that did not ultimately win the nomination?

  135. 135.

    jheartney

    Throughout his political career, Obama has had this absolutely scary ability to make his opponents self-implode. We’re now watching it happen to Dog on Car, and although I’m an atheist skeptic, I can’t entirely rule out witchcraft.

    If Santorum gets the nom, it’ll be another Obama vs. Keyes election.

  136. 136.

    Cain

    @Zifnab:

    Romney nuked Gingrich in Florida with wall-to-wall negative ads. Could a Wall Street fueled anti-Obama hate parade do the same thing in Ohio or Maryland or Pennsylvania or Colorado? We don’t know what effect all the anti-voter legislation guys like Mitch Daniels, Scott Walker, and Rick Scott passed are going to have.

    If you have a really good ground game then you’ll be able to counter it. That’s the key. That’s what they were telling us in Obama volunteer training (having the oregon obama guys over on saturday!) The commercials won’t have as much effect if you’re out there knocking on doors.

    So get your ass in gear and start volunteering. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get these swing states into the Obama side.

  138. 138.

    General Stuck

    @Monkeyfister:

    in this package of gutting.

    LOL, gutting? 12 billion of a 1 trillion dollar spending bill that is the ACA. Don’t think so Gracie, but concern troll on.

  139. 139.

    Hill Dweller

    @Monkeyfister: Those cuts were made to offset the cost of the ‘doc fix’ and unemployment insurance extension. Both were more important than said cuts. Moreover, those missing funds can be replaced down the road.

  143. 143.

    Monkeyfister

    @General Stuck:

    Look at where the cuts are. One Lab test is equal to 14 pay checks worth of Payroll Tax Holiday, Bubba. A SIMPLE, routine Blood Lab test just cost me $143 AFTER FEHB insurance. Tell me how your $10 a pay check is worth giving up that coverage.

    –mf

  144. 144.

    Brachiator

    @Monkeyfister:

    I hope that six-pack of cheap beer and pack of smokes taste EXTRA sweet for you folks who screamed me down when I said this Payroll Tax “holiday” was not worth fighting for last year.

    The TPM description of one of the programs as a “slush fund” causes me to doubt the value of their entire story.

    Also seems as though there was some politicking going on.

    But it wasn’t just the payroll tax cut that was important. It was also about provider reimbursements.

    I’m just not seeing much to get worried about here.

  145. 145.

    Monkeyfister

    @Hill Dweller:

    Read the article.

    Those are the demands for continuation of the Payroll Tax “Holiday” only.

    The other two issues will assuredly result in more poison pills.

    –mf

  146. 146.

    KG

    @KG: Also too, I would think that any of the potential presidential candidates going in would want “their guy” as the VP. So why run the risk of someone else’s guy being the VP nominee?

  147. 147.

    General Stuck

    @Monkeyfister:

    Read the article.

    I did, before you posted your mouthbreathing nonsense.

    A senior Democratic aide downplayed the cuts, telling TPM that “these are mostly consensus items that don’t touch benefits.”

    yawm. Marshall’s crew trolling for page hits for suckers like you.

    Update: A Dem aide adds some context, emailing: “Democrats stopped Republicans efforts to cut benefits for Medicare beneficiaries and to undermine health coverage for millions of Americans and now the GOP is trying to spin that away.”

    Oh noes, the wingnuts are spinning again. Let’s all cut ourselves.

  148. 148.

    Jeff

    @Cain: The Romney carpet bombing worked because Gingrich didn’t have the money or the organization to counter it. That wont work in the general election where Obama will have the cash to run counter ads.
    Secondly, I hear some of the anxiety that we should not take Santorum too lightly, that it could be seen as hubris, and the prelude to an upset. However if Santorum were such a strong candidate why wasn’t he doing better months ago? I think he was pegged rightly the first time around as a third-stringer, and it’s only the panic of the tea-bagger right that cant abide Romney that he is being considered at all.
    Finally, remember that all campaign money is not created equal. You need a message to run. If you have a message, then you wont need as much money to get the word out. REmember that Bloomberg spent 200 bazillion dollars to win the NYC mayors race against a nobody, and only won by, 8 points?

  149. 149.

    Hill Dweller

    @Monkeyfister: I did read the article, which ended with this sentence:

    The money will be used for a 10-month override of the 27.4 percent cuts to Medicare physician reimbursements scheduled for March 1.

  150. 150.

    Bago

    Santorum is a result of the Precisely one Penis Principle, otherwise known as POPP. For him, Marriage is defined as a legal entanglement between two humans with precisely one penis. Two penises is a bridge too far, and no penises can’t bridge the gap. It takes precisely one penis to create a happy Santorum.

  151. 151.

    Baud

    @General Stuck # 147

    Marshall’s crew trolling for page hits for suckers like you.

    I like TPM but they concern troll a lot.

  152. 152.

    MikeJ

    What many people don’t understand is that if the Social Security trust fund gets smaller so does the national debt, and at no real cost down the road.

    Every dollar of social security surplus is marked against the national debt (you may remember the debt limit fights). At some point, every dollar in the trust fund has to be paid for out of the general fund. Running down the trust fund doesn’t really make any difference, now or then. The same number of dollars need to be paid out. Reversing the Reagan policy of higher taxes for FICA payers kicks the debt ceiling argument down the road a bit, and if we can fix the stupidly low cap gains we can make up the difference.

  153. 153.

    General Stuck

    @Baud:

    I’ve gotten to the point, where I can recognize their antics. And they don’t push it very far, usually. Welcome to the world of click on me for cash. They shall remain my go to on left leaning journo.

  154. 154.

    eemom

    @General Stuck:

    I also read elsewhere that the “Prevention Fund” which was the primary target of the cuts has always been anticipated as such by the WH, because “prevention” programs in general are the most politically vulnerable (i.e., because the results are essentially invisible). Also that none of it is a done deal yet.

    But hell, we’re on a blog where idiots tell us to Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. of Santorum, so what’s another concern troll or two gonna matter.

  155. 155.

    MikeJ

    @General Stuck: When they started spamming I stopped going there. Of course if you were never so foolish as to give them your email address you won’t have had that experience.

    Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 1:37[1] PM was the timestamp on the first spam I got from them and the last time I went to their site.

    [1]The hed on the spam: BREAKING: Hazmat Crews Respond To Utah IRS Office

  157. 157.

    Brachiator

    @KG:

    the VEEP normally gets nominated first, and they’re going to have to nominate someone.

    Not if it’s a brokered convention, which is, by definition, not “normal.”

    But when Sarah Palin starts musing about a brokered convention, I figure the GOP will do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t happen.

  158. 158.

    Bago

    Seriously, are we going to create the Penis Police, to ensure a Proper Penis Permutation amongst the Populace?

  159. 159.

    General Stuck

    @eemom:

    I think Obama had already put that fund in his budget for cutting. I’m not a wonk person, but the amount of cuts for this deal, ought to add perspective to it. Plus, the 2.5 bill rail grease money for Mary Landrieu, to get her ACA vote. She’s probly steamed about that. But all this shit is shuffled around and always has been for doing bidness, for pol purposes for each side to claim VICTORY for a pound of red meat for the faithful. It is all and all a good sign, that things might be getting back to normal to actually pass bills that matter, with a few peanuts lost or gained to save face and crow about to voters. Democracy, can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

  162. 162.

    Argive

    He’s from Pennsylvania, a key state.

    This is mind-boggling to me as a PA resident. That Santorum was a two-term senator here won’t matter. He barely won in 1994 and the Democrats ran a bad candidate in 2000. Most people here were quite sick of his bullshit by the time 2006 rolled around. Bob Casey Jr., who is an actual native son (and it helps that people still talk about what a great governor his dad was), kicked Rick’s ass with great ease.

  168. 168.

    amk

    @Veritas:

    poll of battleground state voters

    Obama 47 — Romney 39
    Obama 52 — Gingrich 32
    Obama 48 — Santorum 38
    Obama 48 — Paul 37

    Guess whose poll is that ?

  169. 169.

    Steve

    @Argive: Well, I’m pretty sure Santorum wouldn’t come close to carrying any swing state against Obama, but I hope you’d agree that Bob Casey Jr. is a much stronger candidate in Pennsylvania than Obama. I don’t think PA really plays to Obama’s strengths.

  174. 174.

    grandpa john

    @Violet: and it could end up like this

    The 1924 Democratic National Convention, also called the Klanbake,[1] held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9, took a record 103 ballots to nominate a presidential candidate. It was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It was the first major party national convention that saw the name of a woman, Lena Springs, placed in nomination for the office of Vice President. It was also known for the strong influence of the Ku Klux Klan. John W. Davis, initially an outsider, eventually won the presidential nomination as a compromise candidate following a virtual war of attrition between front-runners William Gibbs McAdoo and Al Smith.

  176. 176.

    WeeBey

    There is literally nothing around here that won’t get concern trolled.

    Santorum? Be scared!

    Money moved from one part of ACA to Medicare? OBAMA’S WORSE THAN BUSH HE SOLD US OUT!

  177. 177.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @grandpa john:

    I’m already picturing the glee of Tampa Bay hoteliers and restaurateurs. Two weeks of big-spending Republicans? Brokered convention, yeah!

  181. 181.

    Argive

    @Steve:

    I agree with you, although I don’t think Obama has a major uphill battle in Pennsylvania. He’s pretty well received in the densely populated parts of the state, especially the greater Philadelphia area.

  182. 182.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Raven:

    Yes, but the point is to kick the ball into the open net, which is after all as challenging as it is when Veritas is guarding it.

  183. 183.

    Argive

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m sure the gentlemen’s club owners are gleeful as well. They will no doubt be more than happy to accommodate the inevitable requests for some discretion from the more religious members of the Republican caucus. Why, I’ll bet there are numerous new champagne rooms being built in Tampa right now.

  184. 184.

    Bago

    Possible Pennsylvania Patriarch Prohibiting
    Prophylactic Prevention perscribed per peer, piece prescribing parenthood prevention.

  185. 185.

    Suffern ACE

    I’m still bitter about the whole Davis campaign, and those macadobots are worse than Harding as far as I am concerned.

  186. 186.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Rafer Janders:

    Can we start calling him Il Douche now?

    Well, that’s what I called Guilliani when he was the GOP’s great white hope four years ago, before Florida sank him but good.

    Seeing he’s the guy that Jimmy Breslin characterized as “a small man in search of a balcony.”

  189. 189.

    cmorenc

    @Steve:

    Also not doing God’s work: Daily Kos with this campaign to get Democrats to cross over and vote for Santorum.

    Even over in Kos-land, that proposal (initiated by top Kos diarist Chris Bowers) is going over like a lead balloon, with the voluminous feedback responses from fellow Kossacks overwhelmingly saying that this is a terrible, probably even counterproductive idea and they won’t support it. See: “How Operation Hilarity will work” by Bowers (and comments)

  190. 190.

    Mnemosyne

    @Zifnab:

    I’d love to believe Santorum is the Presidential equivalent of Christine O’Donnell. But we elected George Bush. Twice.

    Correction: we elected George Bush once. He lost by 500,000 votes in 2000. So the people telling you in 2000 that he was “unelectable” were actually right since he only won because the Supreme Court intervened and stopped the recount.

  191. 191.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    The TPM description of one of the programs as a “slush fund” causes me to doubt the value of their entire story.

    Yep. I try not to take stories that are built around wholesale blockquotes of Republican press releases at face value, but apparently Monkeyfister still thinks that Republicans always tell the truth.

  193. 193.

    Lojasmo

    @MCA1:

    I am sure some of you will be sick of this, but about two minutes into the 2004 DNC keynote I said out loud to my wife: “that guy will be the next president.”

  195. 195.

    jefft452

    “[Santorum]is a shit general election candidate ”

    Sure, but so is Romney

    so “He is a more dangerous opponent for the Obama campaign”
    is not necessarily wrong, just irrelevant

  197. 197.

    BC

    He’s from Pennsylvania, a key state.

    Our punditry are so stupid that they automatically award a state to the person from that state regardless of the politics involved. I don’t think Ricky S could get elected dog catcher in any PA county today. I remember in 2010 talk of wanting Meg Whitman to win California governorship because then in 2012 she could be VP candidate and put California in play for Republicans. Stupid, stupid pundits.

  198. 198.

    David Koch

    I find it hilarious that a firebagger is wringin his hands over money moving from ACA to Medicare to temporary fund an unemployment insurance extension when the firebaggers wanted to kill ACA in the first place.

    If we only listened to Hamsher and lake bat shit we wouldn’t have to deal with the turmoil of funding UI or fighting the dress-wearing-bishops over whether women should receive a yearly contraceptive benefit of $700.

  201. 201.

    Pseudonym

    From Wikipedia: “In 2008 at the age of 48, Karen Garver Santorum gave birth to her eighth child, Isabella, who was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome (Trisomy 18), a serious genetic disorder, with only a 10% chance of survival past the first year of life.”

    According to one web site, the risk of a chromosomal abnormality for a child of a mother age 48 at birth is one in five.

    I’m pro-choice when it comes to motherhood, but I just can’t imagine choosing to have an eighth child at that age while ruling out termination of pregnancy with those kinds of odds that the child will have a brief life filled with nothing but pain and suffering. But Rick Santorum and the Catholic Church want to force women to get pregnant at that age by withholding contraception, then deny women the right to abort a pregnancy even to save the woman’s life.

  203. 203.

    Samara Morgan

    @ChrisNYC: on it.
    check this out.

    Samara Morgan – February 16, 2012 | 8:38 am · Link
    __
    hei, juicers.
    lookie here.
    Sullivan links Kains Forbes blog.
    Still looking for love in all the wrong places pop culture Kain? do vampires have “conservative values”?
    __
    Not to go all conspiracy theory on you but is this some unholy alliance between Cole and Sullivan to get Kain enough pageclicks to make a living blogging?
    __
    Trust, TAS and Culture 11 are belly up.
    im wondering where will the young glibertarian grifters come from now?
    Membah, those two blogs gifted the blogverse with Ross and Reihan, and with Young Conor.

  205. 205.

    Samara Morgan

    hei juicers.
    Kain has more front page posts at Sullivans than anyone else, even Chait.
    heres another one.
    add the vampires post and the conservatives mormons values post, that is three.
    what is going on Cole?

  206. 206.

    Samara Morgan

    wallah…..could Cole actually be exploiting the juicitariats loyalty to help Kain earn a living?
    hahaha

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