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You are here: Home / Open Threads / I don’t understand what they mean and I could really give a fuck

I don’t understand what they mean and I could really give a fuck

by DougJ|  May 9, 20135:19 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Jonathan Bernstein on the incoherence of #BenghaziGate:

What’s the real lesson of Benghazi? It’s that the party-aligned press works so well for Republicans that they’ve become too lazy to bother explaining their ideas, or doing the hard work of actual oversight.

Look, it’s May, and they’ve been at this since September, and still, no one outside of the conservative information bubble has any idea what the “there” is. Never mind whether the accusations are true; no one has even bothered laying out a set of accusations that makes sense

Nevertheless, this tale told by a wingnut has pundits like Ron Fournier (no link) saying that it hurts Obama’s and Hillary’s credibility. But credibility among whom? The “Morning Joe” crowd, presumably. Not an important demographic, to put it mildly.

Atrios was one of the first to put his finger on the increasing complexity of wingnut mythology:

I’ve written before that I think part of the problem that conservatives/Republicans face is that their mythology has become a bit too complex for mere mortals (people who don’t listen to Limbaugh and read The Corner obsessively) to comprehend. They reference rogues’ gallery of enemies and various “bad things” that most people have never heard of. Simply trying to navigate through the various wingnutty minefields while throwing out the appropriate red meat has become difficult to do, and the result is incomprehensible to most of the country.

I *do* think this is why Republicans are in so much trouble politically (no matter what you say, I think they’re long-term outlook is quite bleak): no one understands what they’re saying anymore, no one other than Mika and Joe and Mike Allen and Ron Fournier, that is.

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92Comments

  1. 1.

    GregB

    May 9, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    The entire phony scandal at the beginning was that the Obama Administration didn’t immediately declare the attack a terrorist attack and didn’t give out every ounce of information known immediately.

    Idiot Mitt bit the rightwing bullshit and got his ass handed to him.

    By the way, it was the rightwing nuts that were the first out of the gate claiming that this was a result of the anti-Muhammad video and that the US embassy in Egypt was outrageously wrong for “apologizing for freedom of speech”.

    I still say the real scandal is that the video and the riots were ginned-up with the help of Republican elements in the US.

  2. 2.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 9, 2013 at 5:24 pm

    I *do* think this is why Republicans are in so much trouble politically (no matter what you say, I think they’re long-term outlook is quite bleak): no one understands what they’re saying anymore,

    In the long term they may be die off as a viable national party, but they are killing us with their insane policies in the short term.

    Edited for clarity.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    May 9, 2013 at 5:25 pm

    No one knowing what they’re talking about is bad, but it’s probably manageable. The real death knell will be when nobody outside the bubble cares about what they’re talking about because they can’t be bothered to put in the effort. We obviously aren’t there yet, but I think it’s coming sooner than the Republicans are willing to admit.

  4. 4.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 9, 2013 at 5:25 pm

    There’s some truth in the idea that if it won’t fit on a bumper sticker, most people won’t get it.

    Now, all we have to do is get them out of office next year.

  5. 5.

    James Gary

    May 9, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    “Ryan and Cantor, they’re elegant bachelors–
    They’re–foxy to me, are they foxy to you?”

  6. 6.

    Riki Tikki Tavi

    May 9, 2013 at 5:27 pm

    “Right-wing media has stoked huge demand for scandal among conservative consumers, but there isn’t a supply. And so, Republicans have had to create them, latching onto mistakes and ambiguities, and magnifying them into epic examples of administration misconduct. With Fast and Furious, a poorly-executed anti-gun trafficking operation became a massive conspiracy to confiscate American firearms, and with Benghazi, it’s a broad cover-up of gross mismanagement. And depending on the political circumstances of the next four years, I wouldn’t be surprised if some Republicans tried to spin these “scandals” into grounds for impeachment. Already, Mike Huckabee is predicting impeachment over Benghazi and I expect to see more of the same other prominent Republicans.

    There is one question raised by all of this: Aren’t there responsible Republicans who see this behavior as damaging to the party’s brand? Absolutely, they just have little influence over actual GOP politicians and the voters they represent. For the Republicans who indulge this, there’s not much to lose.”

    http://prospect.org/article/demand-side-scandals

  7. 7.

    ranchandsyrup

    May 9, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    Is that a Range Life reference? I love Pavement. Billy Corgan is still pissed about that lyric.

  8. 8.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    May 9, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    The Republicans are in trouble long term, but it for many reasons, I go with the fact that they are total assholes, whether it is cutting food stamps to poor families because a kid has failing grades in school or slashing unemployment benefits to screwing over the seniors in the Obamacare. Of course they showed their ass in the debate of the gun issue.
    Nobody likes dickheads nor they wanted to be associated with them. This is their fate.

  9. 9.

    Hill Dweller

    May 9, 2013 at 5:30 pm

    Fournier is a f’n hack. Joe and Mika are f’n hacks. Mike Allen is a f’n hack. None of them have an ounce of credibility.

    Their only job is enabling wingnut insanity.

  10. 10.

    dedc79

    May 9, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    But what could have been simpler than saying “when a country goes through a civil war, you should have more security protecting your diplomats?”

    Romney and the GOP passed up a really simple critique (however mistaken or disingenuous) for something elaborate and non-sensical. They were determined to allege some scandal, when all they could find, at best, was mismanagement. I think mistermix talked about this a few days ago.

  11. 11.

    TruthOfAngels

    May 9, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    The teabagger caucus, they’re elegant bachelors . . .

  12. 12.

    Keith

    May 9, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    The biggest contradiction for me is just any moment from the Bush administration was brushed aside as just “executive prerogative/privilege” (giving out classified info automatically declassifies it, lying isn’t a crime) but now this stuff is Worse Than Watergate. And we’re constantly treated as if anything older than 4 years ago is ancient history.

  13. 13.

    jl

    May 9, 2013 at 5:34 pm

    TPM today has some stories on the GOP in Congress who are refusing to appoint health care reform panel today. Why? Well, if TPM is reporting correctly, because even though it is the law, they don’t like this law, so they ain’t gonna.

    Not sure how the pundits and hacks can spin that as anything other than mindless obstruction.

    But, apparently the health care reform law has a backstop so that if the full panel isn’t appointed, the Sect of HHS effectively becomes the panel. Which will have bigger influence in states with wingnut governments who will default to federal exchanges.

    So, besides being mindlessly obstructionist, they lose. Perhaps even lose bigger than they think. I mean, why not appoint people who will sabotage the panel, rather than let the Secty. of HHS run it (or, more precisely ‘be it’), probably more effectively?

    The GOP is in some kind of decayed decadent putrifying phase. They may cause a lot of damage, but I don’t see how they don’t come out big losers long term.

  14. 14.

    BGinCHI

    May 9, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: Love the band and that song.

    “Stone Temple Pilots those elegant bastards….”

    ETA: oops…”bachelors,” no? I’m always bad with remembering lyrics accurately.

  15. 15.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    One of the problems is buying their own paranoid echo chamber spin that actual scandals of the past involving Republicans, Iran Contra, Watergate, and so on, really were just trumped-up fever imaginings of liberals, and that neither Reagan or Nixon ever really did anything wrong.

    So even if they themselves suspect that there’s no real there there with whatever “Benghazi!” is supposed to be about, they figure “Well yeah but that’s how it works, right? They did it, why can’t we?”

  16. 16.

    beltane

    May 9, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing I looked at some RW blogs just to survey the landscape. I expected to be offended, but I came away mostly scratching my head at their sheer incoherence. It’s been a long process, but a third of this country has been transformed into gibberish speaking crazy people.

  17. 17.

    Patrick

    May 9, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    There’s some truth in the idea that if it won’t fit on a bumper sticker, most people won’t get it.

    Right after the Iraq war started in 2003, I saw an idiot who had the following bumper sticker on his car:

    “First Iraq, then France”.

    No word on how expected to pay for the two wars.

    And I assume he is one of those hypocrites who now screams his taxes are too high even though he wants to attack France.

    I wonder how he feels now about his pathetic little bumper sticker.

  18. 18.

    Hungry Joe

    May 9, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    I’ve been following this particular vaudeville routine … not closely, but probably more closely than the average (Hungry) Joe, and the notion that help was on the way but turned back on Obama’s/Hilary’s/Vince Foster’s orders is fairly new to me. Are they just continually adding new bits to the routine (“How about some tap dancing? … No? … A duet, maybe? Some juggling? Here’s a fresh young comic!”) to see if anyone applauds?

    And is anyone outside of Rushville applauding?

  19. 19.

    Calouste

    May 9, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    @dedc79:

    If they have said that, then the obvious answer to that would be that the GOP cut $500 million from the State Department’s security budget.

    So they can’t say that. And besides that, the goal isn’t to criticize the administration, the goal is to blame them, and Obama and Clinton in particular.

  20. 20.

    David Koch

    May 9, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    This is more confusing and unwatchable than Heavan’s-Gate

  21. 21.

    jrg

    May 9, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    @dedc79:

    But what could have been simpler than saying “when a country goes through a civil war, you should have more security protecting your diplomats?”

    Because that’s a talking point, not a justification to go on a fishing expedition. I love how wingnuts are all butthurt about HRC not spilling her guts to congress (after 20 years of Vince Foster bullshit). Seriously, if you want to go fishing that bad, charter a fucking boat.

  22. 22.

    jl

    May 9, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    Oh, and this TPM story is worth a link.

    Heritage Expert Contributed Articles On Hispanic Incarceration To ‘Nationalist’ Website
    Pema Levy, TPMLivewire

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/richwine-contributed-articles-on-hispanic-incarceration-to-nationalist

    And, BTW, I took a look at a preview of Richwine’s dissertation. One of the advisers was Christopher Jenks. I assume that is the same Christopher Jenks who does the dodgy genetics-based race based ability research.

    And Richwine’s field was Public Policy. The work and methodological knowledge of people in ‘Policy’ disciplines (if you want to call any ‘Policy’ whatever field a discipline) is a very mixed bag. From ferociously good, to someone who just knows what buttons to push on the computer to get statistical output.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 5:44 pm

    The real reason they didn’t send reinforcements to Ben al Ghazi was because they might have found Vince Foster was still alive and coordinating Hillary’s MENA policy from Libya. This whole time.
    Bitch is epic yo.

  24. 24.

    MattF

    May 9, 2013 at 5:45 pm

    I don’t really agree. I think the message from wingers is clear: they hate Obama. And it’s pretty much the way they hated the Clintons– obsessively and irrationally. Of course, Obama’s skin color plays a role, but it’s mostly just hate anyone who gets in their way.

    I do agree there’s a dynamic that makes the winger mythology get more and more complex- and I don’t really understand what that is.

  25. 25.

    jl

    May 9, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    @Corner Stone: What really scares the Obama administration is that secret agents from the Census Bureau are involved. IDing those people would blow the lid off of EVERYTHING!

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 9, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    Atrios was one of the first to put his finger on the increasing complexity of wingnut mythology:

    Nothing complex about Chappaquiddick, libtards.

  27. 27.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    @Patrick: What’s funny is that Chirac, all things considered, was a fairly conservative guy, but after George W Bush came over and was babbling about how invading Iraq was predestined as part of the ancient struggle between Gog and Magog, that nailed down the idea for Chirac that anyone who got in bed with this American religious fanatic nut case should have his head examined. Which kicked off the whole Wingnut anti-France campaign.

  28. 28.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    May 9, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    Come January 2017, with no black man to blame the nation’s problems on sitting in the Oval Office, the GOP is going to find they’re in shit up to their necks, as they’ve promised the rubes that as soon as the Kenyan menace is out of office America will once again be a shining city on a hill.

    And that ain’t going to be true.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    Benghazi, warriors of peace.
    Outsiders on the veranda.
    Benghazi, abandoned.

  30. 30.

    reflectionephemeral

    May 9, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    David Frum said that “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox”. That is, all GOP politics is a subset of the right-wing infotainment empire. It’s a lifestyle choice (a deviant one at that), requiring you to lap up whatever they’re shoveling out right now, and to drink more Ovaltine.

    Agreed that the GOP as we see it now won’t exist in 2030. But they still lack the ability to reform. The party’s purely tribal, so anyone who says, “uh, guys, this maybe isn’t a good idea” is at risk of getting purged. See, e.g., David Frum. Getting from here to there will be a bumpy ride. And in the long run, we’re all dead.

    ETA: Obviously all this transparent douchebaggery hurts the GOP with all non-Republican voters. But the 27% can buy a lot of books. And they show up to vote in primaries– Christine O’Donnell won in 2010 with 30,000 votes, in a state of 800,000. They’ll continue to be miserably unpopular overall, and quite successful in large swaths of the country.

  31. 31.

    ranchandsyrup

    May 9, 2013 at 5:48 pm

    @BGinCHI: I like it better with bastards.

  32. 32.

    Jay B.

    May 9, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    I remember when they lost their minds on Frances Fox Piven and I, a veritable Fifth Columnist, had no idea who they were talking about. On the plus side, they introduced me to Frances Fox Piven.

    And I called it then, but I really think Sandra Fluke was truly Peak Wingnut. It’s not that they won’t keep being crazy, but that one alone represented the crest of the bile. They can never top for sheer batshit crazy attacking a college student for being a slut because she testified in favor of contraception to help her roommate deal with cysts.

  33. 33.

    TAPX486

    May 9, 2013 at 5:50 pm

    I was just watching Tweetie discuss Benghazi with Lisa myers. She has several unanswered questions. One is why they did not have a contingency plan for a military response. Now I suspect that the military has a plan for invading Canada but a plan to respond to an attack at 5am in Benghazi Libya? She also wanted to know why the consulate didn’t have better security. While maybe a good question but we can’t turn every diplomatic outpost into Fort Knox.

    In the real world bad stuff sometimes happens and there is absolutely nothing any one can do about that.

    These are the same people who did not want to talk about the leadup to 9/11 in new York or the reasons why we went to war in Iraq

  34. 34.

    Yatsuno

    May 9, 2013 at 5:50 pm

    @jl: I’d rather the panel be the HHS secretary, who will most likely convene a panel of her own since this will be a shit ton of work. At least then the exchanges will have at least a couple of years of competent administration before a Repub can come in and fuck things up too badly.

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    @Forum Transmitted Disease: This is too funny.
    They’re going to be blaming Obama for shit for 50 years.
    Hell, they’re still blaming Carter 30 years later.

  36. 36.

    jl

    May 9, 2013 at 5:52 pm

    @MattF:

    ” I do agree there’s a dynamic that makes the winger mythology get more and more complex- and I don’t really understand what that is. ”

    What it is, is that 99 percent of their public pitch has nothing to with reality, or worse is just untrue (ie, exactly the opposite of true). So, for various reasons they have to create a fantasy world. It has to serve a specific purpose at regular intervals (edit: winning elections and raking in dough), and since it is distributed to normal people as well as wingnuts, it has to at least seem to all hang together and be part of a consistent narrative, and not piss off the hacks who peddle that garbage for money.

    So it ends up having less to do with reality than even Alex Jones ravings.

    Probably somebody should do a compare and contrast with how computer gamer and sci fi an fantasy popular mythologies grow.

  37. 37.

    SatanicPanic

    May 9, 2013 at 5:52 pm

    @MattF: And unfortunately for them, people aren’t willing to believe these crazy stories about Obama like they were about Clinton. In a way, their stupid birther crusade immunized Obama. He handled that one masterfully and the media doesn’t want to get spanked like Trump did.

  38. 38.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    May 9, 2013 at 5:52 pm

    What’s funny is that Chirac, all things considered, was a fairly conservative guy, but after George W Bush came over and was babbling about how invading Iraq was predestined as part of the ancient struggle between Gog and Magog, that nailed down the idea for Chirac that anyone who got in bed with this American religious fanatic nut case should have his head examined.

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Gotta feel for the British, who had no idea they’d elected a closet snake-handler. Blair got the same speech and was donning armor and codpiece and calling for his steed, he couldn’t get to the New Crusades fast enough.

  39. 39.

    PeakVT

    May 9, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    no one understands what they’re saying anymore,

    There are still plenty of people willing to be paid big bucks to make the wingnut legendarium comprehensible to non-wingnuts. And even if the result still doesn’t make much sense, the FUD sown is enough to keep some marginal voters from turning out for Democrats.

    It may be a problem for some Repuke politicians in marginal seats, but it’s certainly not the top one.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    May 9, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:
    As I recall, Chirac even had to ask his people who the fuck Gog and Magog were. Oh, how I would have loved to be there, to see the look on Monsieur le President‘s face when he heard the answer.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    May 9, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    @TAPX486:

    In the real worldRepublican administrations bad stuff sometimes happens and there is absolutely nothing any one can do about that.

    In Democratic administrations, bad stuff happens because the Democrats are incompetent at everything except conducting false flag operations to destroy the nation God loves but they hate.

  42. 42.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 9, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    If liberals can pull off something like Benghazi and get away with it, I don’t see any hope for our future.

  43. 43.

    Wag

    May 9, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    Republicans are starting to sound more and more like left wing Mother Jones reading Democrats circa 1984. Unfortunately, a lot more people listen to Limbaugh than ever read Mother Jones back in the day.

    And the Mother Jones reading Democrats were correct.

    today’s GOP, not.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    @TAPX486: “They” had a perfectly workable plan to repel/combat an attack on the installation in Benghazi.
    Congress refused to fund/defunded the resources needed to execute that plan.
    If there’s an asset that exists in Timbuktu I am 100% confident our paranoid (in the good way) security services have schemed out a way to transport nasty motherfuckers in to eliminate every threat.

  45. 45.

    Calouste

    May 9, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    @reflectionephemeral:

    27% is a great market share for a TV network. It’s a rather lousy market share for a political party in a two party system.

  46. 46.

    Trollhattan

    May 9, 2013 at 5:56 pm

    @David Koch:

    At least with Heaven’s Gate you can turn down the sound and watch the very pretty pictures.

  47. 47.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 9, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    Kevin Drum had 500+ comments on this basic theme yesterday, and another 200+ today.

    This isn’t a This is a conservative Uluru.

  48. 48.

    TAPX486

    May 9, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    @Baud: I’ll go along with that correction

  49. 49.

    Calouste

    May 9, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    How does one say “This guy is nucking futs” in French? :)

  50. 50.

    danimal

    May 9, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    @MattF:

    I think the message from wingers is clear: they hate Obama. And it’s pretty much the way they hated the Clintons– obsessively and irrationally. Of course, Obama’s skin color plays a role, but it’s mostly just hate anyone who gets in their way.

    Agreed. BTW–anyone waiting for Repubs to become rational once there isn’t a black man in office will be bitterly disappointed.

    If Hillary is elected, the racism will calm down…to be replaced with misogyny. There are many arrows in the GOP quiver.

  51. 51.

    scav

    May 9, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: Conservatives would insist upon it being their Ayers Rock thankyouverymuch!

  52. 52.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @Amir Khalid: He consulted a theologian to tell him what the hell Bush was talking about, and it was from the theologian that the story first came out, later confirmed by Chirac in his book.

  53. 53.

    scav

    May 9, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @Calouste: shrug “Americain.”

  54. 54.

    reflectionephemeral

    May 9, 2013 at 6:03 pm

    @Calouste:

    27% is a great market share for a TV network. It’s a rather lousy market share for a political party in a two party system.

    Agreed.

    No one within the GOP has the incentives– or perhaps even the inclination, much less ability– to do anything about it.

  55. 55.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 9, 2013 at 6:03 pm

    @scav: Only if it’s Bill Ayers’ Rock.

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    May 9, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    that nailed down the idea for Chirac that anyone who got in bed with this American religious fanatic nut case should have his head examined

    Chirac’s position on invading Iraq was simpler than that:
    – Either there are WMD in Iraq or there are not.
    – The only way to determine that is to allow the UN inspectors to complete their job. So far they have found no evidence…

    IMO Chirac was the only major western politician to emerge from all the lies and bullshit on the Iraq invasion with an enhanced reputation.

    p.s. Also worth noting that Dubya’s frequent claim that all intelligence agencies agreed that Iraq had WMDs was a lie…France never agreed.

  57. 57.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    @Calouste: Il est complètement dingue ce mec.

  58. 58.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:09 pm

    @Mandalay: That’s why I said nailed down. It wasn’t the entire reason, but it didn’t help Bush’s cause. The idea of such meetings is to persuade, and it definitely had the opposite effect.

  59. 59.

    gene108

    May 9, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    I’ve written before that I think part of the problem that conservatives/Republicans face is that their mythology has become a bit too complex for mere mortals

    He’s wrong.

    Going negative all the time will turn off otherwise engaged voters.

    My mom, who is a reliable Democratic vote and fairly liberal on economic issues, was thinking of not voting in 2012.

    The constant drone of “what’s Obama done for us lately” from CNN and the rest of the MSM, along with the trickle of noise filtering in from right-wing sources made her wonder what’s the point of voting.

    Only Romney’s general repulsiveness made her get up and want to vote.

    I think this gets a lot of non-rightwing voters to sit out voting, because they figure, if Obama’s guys are testifying before Congress, Obama can be just as corrupt as Bush & Co.

    You don’t need to understand all the dog whistles to get discouraged, when there are 100 negative pieces about Obama, with next to no positive ones to balance it out.

    The Benghazi hearings are just piling onto the negative vibe right-wingers are trying to generate around Obama.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    May 9, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    @Calouste:
    Il est fou, I guess, in standard French. But I don’t know the backward slang well enough to give you a closer translation.

  61. 61.

    scav

    May 9, 2013 at 6:12 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: T’es polit toi. Peut-être “Il est zar-bi, ce keum” would catch the flavor?

    Poli? spelling, bother, and my verlun is very weak.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    May 9, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    @gene108:

    It’s ok. Progressive blogs will balance it all out. ;-)

  63. 63.

    Trollhattan

    May 9, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    @danimal:

    They love being nuts and they love their endless list of complaints (which the more parental among them call, “disappointments”). None of this changes come January 2017.

  64. 64.

    Steve M.

    May 9, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    It doesn’t matter whether swing voters understand it. Joe Scar and the panel are the Broder and Friedman of this decade, and if they find something “troubling,” people will take on faith that it is troubling.

    The larger problem is that Republicans are always on offense, and they keep massive numbers of outrage stories out there at all times. This gives them a massive advantage in voter motivation in all non-presidential elections.

    That’s why it really may be that Dems have a lock on the White House for the foreseeable future and the GOP has a lock on virtually everything else.

  65. 65.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:15 pm

    @Amir Khalid: “Il est ouf”, in verlan.

    I hadn’t thought of that, it’s actually a pretty precise translation of “nucking futs”, but I’d never heard that phrase in English before.

  66. 66.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    @danimal:

    If Hillary is elected, the racism will calm down…to be replaced with misogyny. There are many arrows in the GOP quiver.</blockquote
    "In my Father's house there are many rooms."

  67. 67.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    @scav: Is that anything like Fraggle Rock?

  68. 68.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    @scav: Yeah I had actually missed the verlan in the English. “Ouf” is pretty common. Verlan is reverse of à l’envers, thus verlan.

  69. 69.

    EthylEster

    May 9, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    @TAPX486 wrote: While maybe a good question but we can’t turn every diplomatic outpost into Fort Knox.

    Hmm. Attackers might not get the gold but I bet they could kill people. Strange choice of words.

  70. 70.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Found this funny, re: insular wingnut world:
    Goodbye Liberal Morning Joe -’morning Joe’ Ratings Collapse By Double Digits In Key Demo

  71. 71.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 6:22 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Geez. What good are you anymore?
    Can’t even properly translate the freedom fries parlay.

  72. 72.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    May 9, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    Going negative all the time will turn off otherwise engaged voters.

    @gene108: the GOP’s not-so-secret weapon – turn all politics into discouraging, negative shit and then a very small minority of people can run the nation as they see fit. And it’s working.

    What is tragic and hilarious is that folks like the firebaggers – who in most cases I truly believe have good intentions, they’re just dumb as fuck for not seeing how they’re getting played – are not only part of the problem, they’re the useful tools to getting the job done.

  73. 73.

    Patrick

    May 9, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    @TAPX486:

    She also wanted to know why the consulate didn’t have better security.

    I’m assuming Lisa Meyers also wanted to know why Bush didn’t provide for more security to our embassy in Pakistan in 2002 when 10 of our diplomats got killed.

    I’m assuming Lisa Meyers also wanted to know why Reagan didn’t provide for more security to our embassy in Lebanon 1983 when 13 of our diplomats got killed.

    Regarding Benghazi, maybe Lisa Meyers could educate herself a little bit better. The GOP Congress cut security funding to our embassies before Benghazi. But of course, that doesn’t fit the beltway’s obsession in trying to follow FoxNews and pretend this is an Obama scandal. Sometimes I just want to scream…

  74. 74.

    Trollhattan

    May 9, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Holy moly, this guy has lost his mind.

    To those of us on the right, the back-stabbing Scarborough is becoming just another Keith Olbermann — a destructive, ego-fueled blowhard whose fall will be something to relish.
    We’re just hating you back, Joe.

  75. 75.

    reflectionephemeral

    May 9, 2013 at 6:27 pm

    @Forum Transmitted Disease:

    the GOP’s not-so-secret weapon – turn all politics into discouraging, negative shit and then a very small minority of people can run the nation as they see fit. And it’s working.

    That’s a writ-large version of what Mike Lofgren said as he left the GOP in disgust after decades as a Hill staffer:

    A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

    A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. …

  76. 76.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    May 9, 2013 at 6:32 pm

    @Corner Stone: I know, kind of scary if Wingnutese is floating out of my grasp just as ferriners are becoming more comprehensible.

  77. 77.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    May 9, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    @Corner Stone: Jesus, is this where you get your news from?

    Some other headlines:

    8 US Soldiers Disappear Removing 5000 Yr Old Flying Machine from Afghan Cave (Video)

    Clean Your Arteries With One Simple Fruit

    Navy Seal Team 6 Families Press Conference Live Stream 10:00am EST

    Terrifying Alien Encounter In Indiana

    Shock, Beyond Outrage! Obama Secretly Brought In Muslim Cleric To Curse Bodies Of Slain SEAL Team 6 Members

    Billionaires Quietly Dumping Massive Amount Of Stocks 90% Market Correction Predicted!

    UN Stand-Down – Pulling Out Of Border Region seperating Israeli and Syrian armed forces – WW3 is Imminent

    Seal Team Six National Press Club event streaming now! All star leaders and Seal Team Six families to speak!

    Sick Video: Obama Has Islamic Iman Curse Dead Soldiers at Their Memorial Service (Seal Team VI)

    The Coming World Financial Crisis: Lindsey Williams & Jeff Rense

    You gotta be fucking kidding me.

  78. 78.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 9, 2013 at 6:34 pm

    Not an important demographic, to put it mildly.

    God damn right. Television and print news are dying, because like their MBA brothers they can only see next week’s ratings, not next year’s. Oh, and the Buddy Club.

    no one understands what they’re saying anymore

    It’s even worse for them when people do understand (‘legitimate rape’) what they’re saying.

    @MattF:
    The dynamic that makes it get crazier – THAT is where the racism comes in. Racism and tribalism. Emotions are the cause, logic is the effect. A black man was elected president, and for a huge portion of the country that was Not Possible. They don’t even have to hate blacks, but they knew in their hearts it couldn’t happen. They’ve been vaguely aware for decades that all conservative demographics were shrinking and that made them scared. Now it’s crystal clear they’re no longer the majority, and they’re terrified of this alien new world.

  79. 79.

    David Koch

    May 9, 2013 at 6:44 pm

    @Steve M.:

    Joe Scar and the panel are the Broder and Friedman of this decade, and if they find something “troubling,” people will take on faith that it is troubling.

    I dare you to go out to a baseball game and ask 100 people at random who is Joe Scarborough.

    Your neurosis that make you unreadable, Steve. I still remember you wringing your hands saying no way McCain could lose.

  80. 80.

    Corner Stone

    May 9, 2013 at 6:47 pm

    @Forum Transmitted Disease: No clue what you are babbling about.

  81. 81.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 9, 2013 at 6:51 pm

    @David Koch:
    To be fair, he has correctly described Scarborough’s job, it’s just that Joe doesn’t have the power to do his job. Nobody in the Village is aware that the entire nation isn’t waiting breathlessly on the opinions of the Very Serious People, so Scar will have his job for the forseeable future.

  82. 82.

    geg6

    May 9, 2013 at 7:02 pm

    @David Koch:

    Well, he’s right if you define “people” as the Villagers. Myself, I define the Villagers as pod people. Tomato/tomahto.

  83. 83.

    Nylund

    May 9, 2013 at 7:10 pm

    If liberals can pull off something like Benghazi and get away with it, I don’t see any hope for our future.

    I read things like that and I think, “pull off what?!” I’m a liberal, what did me and my liberal buddies pull off exactly?

  84. 84.

    Unsympathetic

    May 9, 2013 at 7:29 pm

    @Nylund:

    Don’t feed the troll. Thank you, come again.

  85. 85.

    priscianus jr

    May 9, 2013 at 8:08 pm

    “the party-aligned press works so well for Republicans that they’ve become too lazy to bother explaining their ideas …”

    That is a very important advantage when you actually have no ideas.

  86. 86.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 9, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    “no one understands what they’re saying anymore, no one other than Mika and Joe and Mike Allen and Ron Fournier, that is.”

    You forgot Mark Halperin. He understands the Benghazi very well. Wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote a book about it (which becomes a movie).

  87. 87.

    DavidTC

    May 9, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    Simply trying to navigate through the various wingnutty minefields while throwing out the appropriate red meat has become difficult to do, and the result is incomprehensible to most of the country.

    Oh, I get it now. Fox News has Continuity Lock-Out. You have to have been following Fox News for a decade to understand anything, like season six LOST. (And even then you don’t actually understand, you just pretend it all makes sense so they’ll finish the damn story. How the hell did the man in black appear off the island to Jack as his father if the man in black was trapped on the…you know, nevermind.)

    So what Fox News needs to do is start each newscast with a ‘Previously’ segment to get new viewers up to date.

    ‘Previously, on Fox News:’ *Obama hate America* *terrorist fist bump* *airplanes hitting twin towers* *is our president Muslim?* (And play ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ over it.)

    (Or whatever information is relevant to whatever the current story is, I actually haven’t been following Fox News. I’m waiting for it to get canceled, then I’ll download it and watch it all at once. One thing I know for sure, Fox always cancels sci-fi and fantasy.)

    If they can’t do that, I’d suggest they reboot universe and start the story over…except they just did that like 4 years ago. Seriously, they can’t keep doing retcons and continuity snarls and expect anyone to follow them.

  88. 88.

    El Cid

    May 9, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    ‘They’ all know that Obama & Hillary wanted Our Americans dead, or at least that they don’t care in the slightest when they’re killed by the libruls’ jihadist friends.

    Since they ‘knew’ that already, this is a good enough incident to serve to demonstrate that already assumed fact.

  89. 89.

    Kropadope

    May 10, 2013 at 7:42 am

    @MattF:

    There’s an old axiom about deception and a tangled web…

  90. 90.

    karen

    May 10, 2013 at 9:27 am

    I had an abscess in my molar that went straight into my jawbone so when they yanked the tooth yesterday, they had to dig into my jaw and clean out the mess. Maybe it’s the vicodin they gave me for the pain but I am sick and tired about reading how in trouble the GOP are politically. It doesn’t fucking matter. They have things so gerrymandered that they proved in November that as long as their Governors and congressmen control the states, they still win.

    They’re winning the abortion and contraception battle.

    They’re making overtime pay the next special entitlement that the “makers” can’t afford anymore.

    They’re succeeding by having their puppets in SCOTUS quickly turn back parts of the Voting Rights Act that matter, so the GOP owned states will quickly follow suit where, like abortion, even though it’s legal, they’ll come up with laws that make it impossible for Democrats to vote. ‘

    Being Muslim is legal and a civil right but they’re trying to go around the back door and making merely practicing their religion (like Lindsay Graham saying that anyone going to an “islamist” website should be investigated) illegal.

    And they’re succeeding in their game with Obamacare by going around SCOTUS declaring Obamacare is Constitutional by denying funds for it to be implemented.

    Finally, if all that was “failing” their coup de grace is when Kokesh goes to DC with his armed militia on July 4, provokes a reaction from the DC police/federal law enforcement and they become martyrs in the Waco 2 they’re attempting to create.

    If this is the GOP in trouble, I hate to see what happens if they’re winning!

    I’m not trying to be a Gloomy Gus but until we realize that the GOP being in trouble politically is not enough and stop fighting amongst ourselves when everything isn’t perfect by not voting, it doesn’t matter.

  91. 91.

    sbjules

    May 10, 2013 at 10:52 am

    The repubs remind me of the Jackson family that trots out a new lawsuit when they are out of the news.

  92. 92.

    Jado

    May 10, 2013 at 3:31 pm

    Republican discourse now is akin to the metaphor language of the Tamarians from Star Trek:TNG

    “Benghazi and the Long Form”

    “Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra”

    Yep. They both have the same significance to me – none. We need some linguistic xenothropologists to translate the legends and metaphors

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