It’s a goddamn Mittastrophe.
As the granddaughter of a school teacher who was fired from his job in the Philadelphia school district because he refused to “name names,” I’m going to need people to stop making dumbass comparisons of the mundane to McCarthyism.
I’m looking at you Eric Fehrnstrom:
“His charges are baseless and untrue. I would ask him one simple question. Do you have no sense of decency, is there nothing you won’t do to debase the office you hold in the name of dirty politics?” Romney’s chief strategist Eric Fehrnstrom told Fox.
His references to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy didn’t stop there. “Again, this reminds me of the McCarthy hearings back in the 1950s, and it was another son from Massachusetts then, Joseph Welch who finally asked the question that should be asked of Harry Reid, which is, have you no sense of decency, sir,” Fehrnstom said. “Is there nothing that you won’t do in the name of dirty politics?”
On the Senate floor Thursday morning, Reid doubled down on his recent claim to have an anonymous source who says Romney didn’t pay federal taxes for 10 years.
“So the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for ten years,” Reid said. “Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”
Riiiiight. Harry Reid is JUST LIKE MCCARTHY!
Except he’s not. Harry Reid is simply asking Mitt Romney to do what Mitt Romney keeps promising he will do — be open and transparent. Harry Reid is also asking Mitt Romney to do what Mitt Romney’s own father did – release his fucking tax returns.
Joe McCarthy, on the other hand, did actual damage to actual families — families like mine.
Here’s a blurb about my grandpa (which I just found on the Internet! I never thought to google my grandpa before!):
In Beilan v. Board of Public Education, School District of Philadelphia (747-749), a case from 1958, Herman A. Beilan was a teacher in the Philadelphia public school system for 22 years when the Superintendent informed Beilan that he had information which contradicted Beilan’s loyalty and would like to determine whether or not it was true. The Superintendent said he would ask one question and then Beilan could determine whether or not he wanted to answer it and others like it. The Superintendent asked Beilan whether or not he had been the Press Director of the Professional Section of the Communist Political Association in 1944. The Superintendent granted Beilan’s request to seek counsel before answering. Later that year he was again summoned to the Superintendent’s office where he declined to answer the previous question and others like. When the Superintendent informed him that failure to answer these questions might lead to his dismissal as they were investigating his fitness to be a teacher or to continue in the teaching work. The court determined that the question asked of Beilan was relevant to the issue of his fitness and suitability to serve as a teacher, therefore Beilan’s dismissal did not violate the federal Constitution.
When I was a kid, my grandma would regale me with tales of “that bastard McCarthy,” and how it was a shame that the lawyer who argued my grandpa’s case in the Supreme Court was too inexperienced and wet behind the ears. (She didn’t blame the attorney though — she blamed that bastard Joe McCarthy.) For forty years, and long after my grandpa had passed, it plagued her.
[full post at ABLC]
Steve
I thought the right wing still loved McCarthy. Surely the Redstaters can’t be happy with Ferhnstrom hauling out this analogy.
dmsilev
It’s the wrong analogy anyway. The right one is the LBJ ‘pigfucker’ story.
wrb
I just wanna know what profit center those MBA brain identified that caused them to decide to buy a business that collected fetuses and took them somewhere.
So many questions…
I can imaging the Harvard biz case-study assignment.: Here is a business that collects fetuses.
How do you make it uniquely profitable?… one, two three… GO!
The MBA mind is weird.
Mnemosyne
I do find it strangely amusing that now Republicans are coming strongly out against McCarthy and Nixon and accusing Democrats of using their tactics.
The schadenfreude is so delicious I could eat it with a spoon.
NonyNony
Oh my.
Well this just indefensible. How dare Harry Reid make such a base and untrue suggestion.
Mitt Romney should just show the world how much of a fool Harry Reid is by releasing his tax forms to let people see that Reid’s constituent was a big fat liar.
That would show Harry Reid. You show him Mitt. Show him those tax forms and show him he’s a big fat fool for believing that you’re the kind of worm who would make a few million dollars in a year but find a way to exploit the tax code to keep from paying any taxes on it!
Calouste
They’re just flinging shit at the walls, hoping something sticks. Remember that Fehrnstom is the guy who brought the Etch-A-Sketch meme into the campaign and managed to hold onto his job. How did Goldwater say that again? “Incompetence in the defense of Romney is no vice”?
Beauzeaux
I’m of such ancient material, I actually remember McCarthy and HUAC. Not until I was older did I see the irony in the name House Un-American Activities Committee. HUAC was around well after McCarthy and devastated the lives of many.
Harry Reid is not like McCarthy. Not the heir to McCarthy. Not anything like McCarthy.
McCarthy was a paranoid drunk with enough malice to power a locomotive. Harry Reid is a paragon compared to Tailgunner Joe.
Citizen Alan
Two weeks after Michele Bachmann accuses an aide to the Secretary of State and the wife of a Jewish ex-Congressman of being a mole for the Muslim Brotherhood. Just over a month after Allen West accuses the entire Progressive Caucus of being communists. And NOW the GOP wants to talk about Joe Fucking McCarthy. Jesus wept.
Yutsano
Inb4 link whine trolls. Oh and suck it up Eric: your Etch-A-Sketch is borked.
jl
Reid Stands By Romney Tax Charge
‘ In a call with Nevada reporters Wednesday, Reid said: “I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination. I have had a number of people tell me that.”
Reid told reporters that he won’t reveal his alleged source. “I don’t think the burden should be on me,” he said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?” ‘
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/reid-stands-by-romney-tax-charge
Litlebritdifrnt
@NonyNony:
That is what is so brilliant about Reid’s tactic. He is basically taunting Romney to prove that Reid is a liar. Meanwhile the rumor is half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on. Delicious.
Richard
http://news.yahoo.com/law-north-carolina-bans-latest-scientific-predictions-sea-165416121–abc-news-topstories.html
A new law in North Carolina will ban the state from basing coastal policies on the latest scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise, prompting environmentalists to accuse the state of disrespecting climate science.
The law has put the state in the spotlight for what critics have called nearsightedness and climate change denial, but its proponents said the state needed to put a moratorium on predictions of sea level rise until scientific techniques improve.
The law was drafted in response to an estimate by the state’s Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) that the sea level will rise by 39 inches in the next century, prompting fears of costlier home insurance and accusations of anti-development alarmism among residents and developers in the state’s coastal Outer Banks region.
Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue had until Thursday to act on the bill known as House Bill 819, but she decided to let it become law by doing nothing.
jl
I see on the intertubes that wingers and GOP poobahs are telling Mitt he needs to stop by some Chick fil A place near his campaign appearance today and show solidarity, by standing in line and eating one of their utterly forgettable and superfluous sandwiches.
I hope he does. I want to see Mitt picking through the Standard Sandwich, looking at it funny.
Ruckus
For decades we’ve heard about the famous, the actors, etc that were affected greatly by mccarthy. Lives ruined for years even after mccarthy was gone.
Little mention has been made about the many people who were not in the limelight and were scarred for life. This is the effect of conservative dogma. Regular people get hurt badly and very unnecessarily, like your grandfather.
Thoughtcrime
By inference Ferhnstrom just called Romney a communist.
Shawn in ShowMe
Let me get this straight. The right-wing shuns McCarthyism, reveres Dr. King, believes Obama is the most left-wing politician the country has ever seen and regards Harry Reid as a merciless bully. Truly that Dangerous Black Man in the White House has turned the entire GOP into his bitch. At this rate they’ll be denouncing Ronnie Raygun as a militant thug before the convention.
SFAW
@Thoughtcrime:
He can’t be a commie, for Pete’s sake – he’s running for President!
EconWatcher
Reid is just playing good, brass-knuckles politics, and bless him for it (although I think his comment that Mitt’s dad would be ashamed was probably overdoing it a bit; you have to be careful not to go so far that you provoke sympathy).
I suspect Reid has no credible information and no idea what’s in those returns. He just knows, as we all do by now, that it has to be something ugly, or they would already be disclosed.
Litlebritdifrnt
Ha! From the Great Orange Satan
Screenshot at the link
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/02/1116103/-This-is-what-Reid-did
General Stuck
I loves me some sounds of wingnuts screaming where is our ETHICS, CIVILITY, COMmITy , And, Oh noes, where has our rule following dems gone.
From members of the GOP mafia that would engineer stealing the love of their own mothers, if they smelled a profit or vote, and blame it on commie liberals in the US.
David Hunt
@dmsilev:
Oh, yeah. “Make him deny it.”
Egypt Steve
A-frakin-men. But Jon Stewart going all Dennis Miller on Reid’s ass really sucks … who does he think his audience actually is?
Another Halocene Human
Wait up, asking questions about a candidate’s missing tax returns is now “dirty politics”?
How charmingly naif, this babe-in-the-woods!
It’s like a purity test written by a virgin!
Another Halocene Human
@Egypt Steve: Jon Stewart looks tired. What a change from four years ago. He’s ramped up the broderism… I watch because Al Madrigal and Jennifer Williams don’t suck… but really, he seems like he is all out of caring but can’t quit because his kids arglebargle.
He needs to take a fucking break. Move on with his life.
Tom S
When did you stop beating your wife?
Steve
Some of you may not know the story of when Coleman Young, who served 20 years as Mayor of Detroit, testified before the Un-American Activities Committee. It’s worth sharing.
There is a lot of good and bad to be said regarding Coleman Young’s career, but this was surely his finest hour.
NancyDarling
ABL, just from looking at his picture, I know I would have liked your Grandpa. And the story of his courage and honor confirms it.
@Egypt Steve: I thought the same thing about Stewart’s little diatribe. It brought a great big “wut?” from me.
Thoughtcrime
“Governor Romney, how long have you been paying no taxes?”
fraught
Cute picture. Maybe, just maybe, Reid knows something. But I’d like it more if he’s bluffing. He’ll go to his grave without telling. Romney is ransacking his old personnel files looking for the leaker. Yum.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Egypt Steve: Stewart occasionally has delusions of being a very serious person and not the court jester he is. If the Daily Show can’t turn it into a joke and mock Reid about it, then they shouldn’t go there.
Comrade Mary
@Another Halocene Human: “Don’t you think he looks tired?”
Another Halocene Human
@Steve: Wowwowwow. No wonder the CCC hated “commies”. They didn’t know their betters. Wow.
NonyNony
@Litlebritdifrnt:
*slow clap*
Oh that’s brilliant Foxbots – just brilliant.
Another Halocene Human
Is this an appropriate time to mention that I’ve found The Romney Family Crest and it so happens that if he has a “special” relationship with Anglo-Saxons it’s because his family is Norman, that he is, in fact, Little Lord Romenel?
Ash Can
@Litlebritdifrnt: Getting its boots on, hell. Truth is still hiding under the bed in this case. ::munches popcorn::
Another Halocene Human
@Comrade Mary: Ah, internet says that’s a new Doctor Who reference. Never had time to watch it.
If only the Rethugs weren’t trying to fuck me up daily. I wanted to move out of the South years ago but life happened.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Comrade Mary:
Ha Ha Nice!
Another Halocene Human
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Exactly. Since when are they providing “commentary” rather than digging up zany stories from around our bizarre political landscape? It can’t be budget cuts.
ChrisNYC
Hold up. Don’t you all remember all those valiant GOP leaders, including Romney, who stood up when the Sideshow Trump and all the rest of them were alleging that the President was not born in the US? Remember how they were all so horrified and appalled at the scurrilous allegations? Who can forget those stirring words from one prominent Republican: “Was he born in the US? Weelllllll, he SAYS he was.”
Love love love Reid for turning the tables in this fantastic and substantive way. Also, the President never sobbed and screamed, “NOT FAIR!” like Romney’s doing. So that’s good too.
Another Halocene Human
@fraught: That’s a lovely mental image.
EconWatcher
@Another Halocene Human:
Sadly, Coleman Young then turned himself into a caricature of a corrupt, big city machine pol. He had a tough hand to play in Detroit, but he made it all worse.
redshirt
@Egypt Steve: Both sides do it! And in this case, our side needs to do more of it.
Rommie
@EconWatcher: I lean toward Reid having something in hand. I don’t think he has the brass balls to Troll Romney with a bluff. Prodding Mittens like this might just shake out the whole truth.
Jeffro
@Yutsano: 18 kinds of inside baseball references in just one line. Wow. I’m in awe (seriously!)
jl
Harry says, “May be you understand taxes, and may be you don’t understand ’em; may be you’ve had experience, and may be you an’t only a amature, as it were. Anyways, I’ve got my opinion, and I’ll risk my good word that Mitt can out tax avoid any other rich man in Nevada territory.”
schrodinger's cat
@Egypt Steve: He frequently gets an attack of Broderitis, these days. I much prefer Colbert.
Darkrose
Is that an Angry Black Baby Girl? Cause she’s adorable.
mainmati
@Litlebritdifrnt: Yes, it’s a bit similar to the guy who gets on the elevator and turns to another guy and says “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” No matter the answer, you look really bad.
KatinPhilly
@Ruckus: My grandmother was a REPUBLICAN, very conservative, and almost fired by her HUAC loving local govt. bosses because she dared to say that health care should be a govt.-run program. That she was born in Commie Poland (it wasn’t, at the time) made her more suspect. McCarthyism was not just dangerous, but stupid, and has survived like a latent killer virus in our body politic, ever evolving to adapt to the political and social climate.
Steve
@EconWatcher: You must be from the suburbs.
terraformer
@Mnemosyne:
Indeed. Methinks thou dost protest too much.
The irony is incredibly thick on this one.
g
Jeez, the hyperbole!! Harry Reid, for what it’s worth, is basically just passing along gossip. Whether it’s good info or not, he’s just passing along something he heard from an unnamed third party.
McCarthy? using the full force and power of his Congressional position to subpoena witnesses to testify against themselves?
Oh, sure, these things are totally alike.
Frankly, I think the Harry Reid thing is kinda brilliant. The unprincipled tactics of the Romney campaign has been to lie and make up falsehoods about the President. What fun it is to say, “Well, I heard…..” in the face of Mitt’s continuous stalling to release the tax returns.
And can I ask – why is it so important for the Right Wing to be able to see President Obama’s undergraduate grades, fergodssakes, yet Mitt Romney’s tax returns are of little interest?
Shawn in ShowMe
@NancyDarling:
I thank Mr. Stewart for his years of service. I am not surprised at his inching closer and closer to Broderism. At the end of the day, he doesn’t believe that the GOP’s support for slash and burn capitalism is the main problem. Instead, he hammers the corporate media for their lack of integrity without paying any attention to who their clients are.
jl
It is true that Mitt might lose a job due these
unfounded quite plausible charges, rich Mormon quiet back room gossip, Reid emitting rambling bullshit which very well might be true, thuggish McCarthyite tactics.It’s not nearly as bad as ripping four words out of context to lie about what a guy said, but…. where is the civility?
Edit: what would be thuggish would be for liberal blogs to start a rumor about a ‘no tax tape’ with Romney bragging to his rich buddies that he paid no taxes and would never have to release his returns to be President. I am sue they are already working on such an unthinkable unspeakable thing. /snark
Roger Moore
@Shawn in ShowMe:
FTFY.
Martin
His tax returns can’t be that hard to come by. He released them to the McCain campaign. Surely someone, somewhere has leaked them.
EconWatcher
@Steve:
I am, but what’s your case? I give him credit for integrating the police force and cutting down on brutality, but that was mostly very early in the game. After that, we get bundles of cash in Chief Hart’s ceiling, skyrocketing crime, etc. etc.
Admittedly, it’s a very segregated and racist part of the country. But I don’t think Young helped.
catclub
@Thoughtcrime: Governor Romney, have you now or have you ever paid your fair share of taxes?
Thoughtcrime
@catclub:
Ha!
aimai
ABL your grandfather looks just like one of my favorite actors, Stanley Tucci. You and he are adorable together. I looked up the case–I was worried it was one of my Great Uncles because he took a lot of the smaller, now forgotten cases (people like your grandfather, or some guy who ran the elevator in a big department store). But my Great Uncle was very competent so I don’t think it was him. Anyway, your grandfather looks so sweet in that picture. You must miss him very much.
aimai
Smiling Mortician
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The studio audience responded politely but not enthusiastically. Stewart gets a big response when he’s right, when he’s funny, and especially when he’s both at the same time. His Reid “Bullshit Shot” piece was neither, and the audience reacted accordingly.
jl
@Martin:
” His tax returns can’t be that hard to come by. He released them to the McCain campaign. Surely someone, somewhere has leaked them. ”
“Surely someone somewhere” I like dry humor. Sure, I bet gramps made them all sign a solemn oath never to breathe a word (until it was needed).
Edit: Romney’s returns are so gigantic, you could probably track them on google earth. We will probably get a few days heads up if he releases them, as the long convey of semis moves down the interstate.
EconWatcher
@Smiling Mortician:
Stewart’s missing the point. It’s outrageous for Romney to think he can get away with keeping those returns from the public. Any taunting or rumor-mongering he faces is completely deserved, until he turns them over. By the way, Sully agrees with Stewart.
Yutsano
@Jeffro: The legacy of a father who was a baseball coach and a brother who lives and dies by sabrmetrics. It sneaks in even without trying. :)
Raven
My grandfather told me Tailgunner Joe died of a broken heart!
mdblanche
@Shawn in ShowMe: So why is he beginning to mimic some of their worst vices?
@Raven: My grandfather told me Tailgunner Joe died of a broken
heartliver!Fixed that for him.
quannlace
Beat me to it.
Raven
scav
Let us in all openness of mind remember that, amid all the cheering of Dem’s taking over hardball tactics yeehaw! that linked to that comes the blows that the tactics adopted are not in themselves necessarily honorable ones and the “both sides do it” accusation moves that much closer to true. Not everyone will be thrilled with the direction that things are taking as many here might be.
Raven
@scav: xin loi mofo
Smiling Mortician
@EconWatcher: I don’t know a lot about Sully, honestly, but it strikes me that he doesn’t really have a problem with plutocrats. As for Stewart, I think he’s so immersed in the accepted political culture that when Republicans do/say completely batshit crazy things, he just rolls his eyes and mugs for the camera ’cause why should today be any different, amirite? When a mild-mannered Democrat dances up close to the line of established decorum and puts a toe over, Stewart’s off to the fainting couch ’cause OMG man bites dog!
redshirt
@scav: And it’s that impulse which has allowed the Republican party to walk over the Democratic party for 30 years.
Enough’s enough.
trollhattan
@Darkrose:
Amen. Awfully cute when she’s angry. What a great picture–grandpa sounds like a man of profound character.
scav
@Raven: I prefer the hardball style myself, but I’m not about to ignore the fact it has multiple edges. I’d also keep track of whatever battle datapoints I could find to see when to muffle the cheerful beserker brigades and send in the sneaky polite ones with darts in their umbrellas.
Soonergrunt
@Steve: That’s what I was going to say. As recently as a couple of months back, Tailgunner Joe (who never actually was a tailgunner) was their hero. What the fuck happened?
David Hunt
@EconWatcher:
When it comes to Mitt Romney, the truth often seems that way. Democrats ran focus groups earlier the year to gauge the response of normal people to the positions several prominent Republicans like Romney and Ryan. After being informed of their policy positions, people tended to view these guys more favorably, because they thought the positions had been made up. They couldn’t believe that any politician would hold positions that despicable.
kc
That is a ludicrous comparison.
That aside, did Ferhnstrom not get the memo? McCarthy’s reputation is being burnished by wingnuts. He was a hero and patriot, unfairly maligned by dirty communist liberals.
Steve
@EconWatcher: I just think it’s funny that it was so easy to peg you. I’m from the suburbs too. All you have to do is say “Coleman Young” in the suburbs and the Pavlovian response is “corrupt!”
I’m not saying he wasn’t, mind you. It’s just that I’ve learned over the years that it’s not all quite as simple as the suburban narrative would have it. I don’t really think Detroit would have fared any better under a different mayor.
Even though we suburbanites reacted to every single election by wondering, “how on earth can they re-elect that corrupt man?” the sad reality is that pretty much all the folks who ran against him were far worse. Ultimately the story of Detroit is about economics, not corruption.
kc
@kc:
Oh, I see everyone beat me to it. Y’all are too good.
Raven
@scav: Life’s a stone motherfucker. . .
Fax Paladin
@Comrade Mary: Oh, great — so you want Stewart to be replaced by an evil renegade Time Lord?
kc
Wow, that is something to be proud of!
scav
@redshirt: I didn’t say don’t use it, I was suggesting its adoption comes with a price so don’t everyone act all surprised about it. I don’t see how acknowledging a tactic or a tool comes with attendant dangers means ruling it in or out it or play in the current circumstance. Shit, if people think I’m one of the nicey nicey crowd, I really need to wonder . . .
mai naem
I think the Dems know Romney’s real tax situation. Somebody’s talked. McCain, McCain’s staff, Bain staff, some Mormon church leadership member,somebody who Romney pissed off whatever…they don’t smell blood in the water, they know there’s bright red blood everywhere. Harry Reid may not be as high up in the Mormon church as Romney but he’s hardly a nobody . I’m sure the Mormon church has to balance looking out for Romney’s interests and Reid who they probably has to reach out to help with government related stuff.
redshirt
@scav: I hear you. I just don’t care for that line of logic. We’ve been cowered by these bullies for so long, I relish every chance to strike back. Fairly, and above the board of course, but nonetheless, without mercy or reprieve.
Romney is very weak on this point. Every effort should be made to drive this weakness home.
Bobby Thomson
@scav: Oh, jeez, sack up, dude. Telling the truth about Republicans is not dirty politics.
Steve
@scav: I’m with you, brother. It’s troubling indeed to see the Democrats adopt the shameful tactics of Lyndon Johnson; the GOP will hang him around our necks any day now.
jwb
@Bobby Thomson: I agree that it’s not particularly dirty in this case, since Romney could easily disprove the charge and what Reid is asking for is more or less customary of all candidates seeking the presidency. If Reid is lying, he is giving Romney the perfect opportunity to make him look like a fool.
I love all this concern trolling from the left who have been complaining and complaining about how the Dems don’t take the fight to the GOP and then when they do, it’s to the fainting couch.
redshirt
@Steve: Yeah, better to just take it, be quiet, and eat our lunch (if we have any left!) in the corner.
Bah!
Johannes
@Fax Paladin: Well, to be fair, the Master has excellent comic timing.
Patricia Kayden
@Steve: Thanks for sharing that. Never heard of Young. Wonder if this is televised somewhere. Would be awesome to watch.
@ABL:
Very interesting post about your Grandfather. Looks like you inherited his chutzpah.
Person of Choler
“He just knows, as we all do by now, that it has to be something ugly, or they would already be disclosed.”
One could say the same about Obama’s college transcripts and writings as well, if indeed he actually wrote anything while there.
scav
@Steve: I’m actually not that personally troubled with hardball — I’m just in favor of an intelligent use of all weapons. Adopt their techniques when needed, but use them skillfully, figuring out which is the pointy bit, what are the possible side effects, anticipate the powder burns and know when to reach for something else in the arsenal. Steal their tools, not their mindset of hitting everything with a hammer at higher and higher volumes and with more and more CAPS under all circs.
Steve
@scav: My point, which was probably too oblique, was that it’s a little late for Democrats to start worrying about their reputation if the immediate reaction to Reid is “oh, he’s doing that Lyndon Johnson thing.”
The Democrats engage in plenty of dirty pool; less than the other guys, at least in my opinion, I hasten to point out. If there is anywhere in America that Democrats win elections based upon their reputation as clean and honorable campaigners, I want to know where it is. For all I know, a rather transparent ploy like Reid’s might gain more meta-votes (“I respect the Democrats for playing tough”) than it loses (“I’m voting for Romney because that Harry Reid is a jerk”). I don’t actually know.
Roger Moore
@Steve:
I’m not sure I’d describe Reid’s move as a transparent ploy. There’s a decent chance he’s telling the honest truth, and somebody from Bain really did tell him that Romney paid no taxes for a decade. If it is just a ploy, how it plays out will depend a lot on what Romney does. If he doesn’t respond at all, it will probably get lost in the great sea of speculation about the taxes. If Romney whines about it, Reid will probably get meta-points because he’ll look tough and Romney will look like a whiner. If hell freezes over and Mitt makes a wisecrack about Reid repeating scurrilous gossip, Romney will look good and Reid will look foolish.
Mnemosyne
@scav:
Your worry seems to be based on the assumption that Reid is lying (or to be polite, bluffing) and there’s nothing in Romney’s tax returns that could backfire on him.
I think that’s an unwarranted assumption. If we’ve seen nothing else from the Obama campaign, we know that they do not make attacks that they can’t back up with plenty of supporting evidence.
The reason this isn’t like McCarthy is that when McCarthy said he had a list of names, he was lying. I don’t think Reid is lying, and I don’t think the Obama campaign is bluffing when they demand that Romney release his returns. And I think Romney knows it, which is why he’s dripping flop sweat everywhere he goes.
As I said yesterday, I seriously doubt that there’s anything illegal in Romney’s returns. I think that every single line of them was claimed perfectly legally. And that’s going to be why they sink him.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@Darkrose: it is. thanks!
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@NancyDarling: thank you! he was a good man. heavily involved in the teacher’s union and veterans for peace.
Another Halocene Human
@EconWatcher: Isn’t that what always happens with the really bigtime radicals?
Christian radicals, communist radicals… they think they’re doing the Lord’s work and have a very black+white thinking pattern… it’s all for the greater good… some eggs must be broken… God would want me to have borrow these funds…
That’s why I don’t understand all the slagging on moderates. One may disagree with them politically and on policy but they’re often the best advocates for fairness, transparency, and maintaining some sort of functioning system (and that includes “comity”).
The Other Bob
Kinda OT – Ms. Gandy- Glad to see you using your full name, intead of ABL.
Love. LOVE! That photo with you and your Grandpa. Looks like my kids and my dad.
Another Halocene Human
@EconWatcher: But the whole country had a spike in violent crime. Apparently because of lead in gasoline. Who in any city (lots of cars idling) was able to stop it?
Another Halocene Human
@scav: It’s better to be pure than employ effective tactics. Because that’s worked so well for the Democratic Party for the last 30 years. People had this sense of fairness and just goshdarnit voted for the underdog and rooted for ’em even when the bully punched ’em in the face. American people just won’t stand for a party without decorum and restraint, by golly.
Kay (no, not that one)
@redshirt: Pssst. I think your irony detector may need oiling.
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
Here’s a bigger irony: the precursor to HUAC was created, pre-WW2,by a New York Democrat, who was in the pay of the NKVD, to go after fascist sympathizers.
Strange but true.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@The Other Bob: I came out of the social media closet. Thank you!