Heavens, the shoodenfrooder is just dripping off the walls over in the Red State comments – a fine, heady mix of sweet sweet tears, dribble and bullshit, mixed up in a big ol’ bucket of dumb and flung all over the place.
What we need to be doing is buying voting stock in Comcast, Disney and Time/Warner. Until we have a bigger say in the MSM, and that will be done by strong-arming the boardrooms of these companies to have their news divisions actually be NEWS divisions, we could re-elect a senate full of Jesse Helms’ and a congress full of Bob Dornans, nothing will change. You cannot do that by screaming online, as most people still get their news traditionally.
What is your opinion on Paul Ryan (R-WI) as a replacement for Boehner?
NO NO NO he has proven to be a big amnesty supporter and never sticks up for conservative principles anymore. i have no idea what happened to him
144 fighters in the House and 19 in the Senate. These patriots we owe our gratitude for continuing the fight. However, the 26 Senators and 87 House RINOs must be challenged, including leadership. The same goes for anyone who continues to talk down of conservatives. The battle may have been lost, but the war is far from over.
Look at the bright side…the funding levels for the government were very low compared to what Reid and Obama wanted. Is there a way to oust Boehner from the Speaker’s chair mid-congress?
The ONLY positive to come out of this disaster is the fact we now know the true nature of the enemy within.
They must be removed by the root.
I don’t care if we lose some elections. All RINOS out. NOW!!!
This will accrue to the Republican Party brand in the future as the epic fail of Obamacare inflicts more and more pain on the middle class and the restrictions, loss of privacy and unfairness that is obamacare awakens a sleeping mass of voters who fell for the lie that you could have “free” healthcare for all with no cost to anyone.
This was a win win long term despite the Presidents strutting right now!
… and my personal favorite:
The Palin, to whom Cruz gives credit for his Primary win, is now in Iowa, I believe. A Palin Cruz ticket would float all Conservative Candidates, who had fought their way thru the Primary. The work ethic of the Palin will draw votes from all quarters.
Please proceed, wingnuts.
EconWatcher
“The work ethic of the Palin”???
tofubo
“The work ethic of the Palin will draw votes from all quarters.”
ha, and ha, she’s hinting at running for the senate, the 1st and only question she should ever be asked is “should you win, who do you want the governor to appoint to finish your term when you leave 3 years in ??”
Sly
Palin/Cruz 2016: Kein Feind Hat Euch Überwunden
Anya
The Palin? Work ethic? Such a delusional soul. I think it’s not fair to make fun of someone who’s so far removed from reality.
Elizabelle
“The work ethic of the Palin”
I think doug j was out trolling.
Release the Palin!
Derelict
Shorter All Wingnuts: We lost this round because our congress-critters wuzn’t conservative enough to crash the world economy. So we’ll have to elect even more people who are even more crazy so that next time we can make Great Depression II: The GOP Bugaloo.
gene108
>>>>>> Golf Clap <<<<<<<<<<<
Please proceed to lose some elections. You will be doing the country a favor.
agrippa
That is how hotheads think.
You cannot expect anything else.
tybee
back in 2010, i had some T shirts made up that said “Palin/Quayle in 2013.
handed them out to some family members who work for the federales.
guess i wasn’t that far off…
Kay
Lurking Canadian
I read a book once that was a collection of writings from the Black Panther Party, after it had peaked and was drifting towards dissolution. That’s what these RedState comments remind me of.
Keith G
The problem is, the crew over at Red State are the type of people we need not be concerned with. They are just the idiot squad. The task on our side is to see if we can cement in the small advantages we have just gained. We have just won an important skirmish and now we have to get ready for the important battles soon to follow.
Elizabelle
@Lurking Canadian:
I would suspect the Black Panthers had more authentic grievances.
Please proceed, wingnuts.
NonyNony
@Elizabelle:
Yes. The person who posted the Cruz/Palin ticket with the “work ethic of Palin” as an asset to the duo is likely a troll egging them on. I mean, Poe’s Law and all so I’m not going to say 100% that it’s a troll and not a moron, but I think a real RedStater would even subconsciously avoid bringing up “work ethic” and instead talk about how tough a fighter she is.
Though if any RedStaters are lurking here to get a reaction I want to point out that, as a liberal, I am outraged and terrified at the thought of a Cruz/Palin ticket for President. The only thing that would scare and anger me more would be a Palin/Cruz ticket for President. So, you know, any lurking conservatives out there, now you know what will definitely piss off and terrify this liberal.
Elizabelle
@Keith G:
So true. Eyes on the prize.
Emma
OK, which one of you put the atropine in their coffee?
Baud
@Kay:
And there are no foreign troops in Baghdad.
aimai
@EconWatcher: I know. The Palin? Is this some kind of important stage in the beatification process, when you get Nouned?
PurpleGirl
The work ethic of the Palin will draw votes from all quarters.
Whatever this person is drinking… make mine a double.
Suffern ACE
I have to agree. The floaters buoyed by a Cruz/ Palin ticket would remind me of Bob Dornan.
gene108
Holy crap!
I went to Free Republic to drink wing-nut tears first hand.
Before I even got to the comments to quench my thirst, I noticed the site has a 4th quarter fund raiser, which has a goal of raising 85k by the end of the year. The blog host says it is needed to keep the website up and running. They have currently raised 24k and change.
The blog host is making a cool six figures annually off his readership, assuming these fund raisers happen every quarter.
Good lord oh mighty I did not know you could so easily scam your readers by having a wing-nut website.
Poopyman
@Lurking Canadian: The Black Panthers were overrun by trolls?
(Actually, you might call it just that. Hmmmmm.)
BudP
@Sly:
Palin / Cruz 2016: Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken
hueyplong
While I agree that “the work ethic of the Palin” is one of the more breathtaking phrases in the history of internet comments and therefore probably a fake, it’s a little surprising that no one has yet commented on the horror that is holding up Jesse Helms as the very model of a modern major Senator.
aimai
@Lurking Canadian: This is a good point. I’m actually related to a few people in things like SDS and the Weather Underground (the old one, not the web site) and let me tell you in the last throes an isolated cel of revolutionaries starts to sound a lot like this. At first they are all planning to edify and exhort the workers/peasants to seize control of the electoral process and bring good things to life. But after a while they completely cease to engage with the outside world–all sources of information are considered compromised, they retreat to a mental bunker, and although they still have the same goals they no longer believe they can be reached through ordinary methods like working with “The people” or through the electoral process. You really see that at Red STate where “the people” are alternately pathetic and in need of rescue or are themselves traitors to the cause. Kos had a great post from Redstate up–the one where the guy excoriates Kentucky for accepting obamacare and basically gives up on the people of kentucky because they have been bought and their purity of essence sullied.
aimai
@gene108: If you believe what you read.
Skippy-san
These people are insane.
FonsieScheme
Is it too early to make fun of all the chickenshit posters who thought Obama was going to give away the farm on this one?
raven
@aimai: Combined with the fact that they were infiltrated by a good dose of agents provocateurs.
The Red Pen
One of the best comments I found on Free Republic was this little fantasy about what the GOP House leadership should have said to Obama. Offered without further comment:
Redhand
You’re to be commended for mining these fever-swamp quotes. Batshit insanity doesn’t even begin to describe them.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I wonder if it means something a little different. The Republican pundits and others who chose Palin believed she was a working class hero, or that was the plan. She uses that language a lot – for example, she can’t attack union members so she always phrases her anti-labor tirades in terms of “union bosses”. Palin is the professional GOP operative idea of a populist figure.
IMO, it didn’t really work outside the grifter-sector reality tv show world because it’s a caricature. A real populist wouldn’t dismiss something like sending your kids to college, because most people actually want their kids to go to college, no matter their income level. Palin is what happens when Bill Kristol attempts to reach the proles. He still believes this in 2013:
raven
@aimai: Tommy the Traveller.
Nunca el Jefe
@BudP:I’ll riff further on what you said, to capture the full flavor: Der Hut meines Vaters ist sehr gross und hat drei Ecken
That should satisfy the various wings of the tea party AND talibangelicals
rk
@Kay:
Am I missing something? Did they not vote to defund Obamacare numerous times already?
gene108
Since I ventured over for Freeper tears, here some favorites. Comments are in response to a WSJ editorial entitled Was the Point Republicans Made in the Shutdown Worth the Price?
Lee
Being a Texan here is my by far fav RedState quote
If only that were true.
Kay
@rk:
I don’t think you’re missing anything. The only remarkable thing about Cruz to me is how quickly the cycle happens now. They go from “elected” to “full time grift” in a matter of months and they don’t bother to quit the first job before they begin the second. Palin actually quit the government job first. Cruz doesn’t feel as if he has to.
cmorenc
This is a truly incredible revealation that Jesse Helms was actually and undercover Bolshevik acolyte of Lenin parading falsely in the clothing of an arch-conservative.
MomSense
@BudP:
drei Ecken hat mein hut.
Danke for the ear worm.
NotMax
Note what the Feb.7 date for the debt ceiling boils down to. With juggling of funds (extraordinary measures) the drop dead date can be pushed back into March, the beginning of the primary season, when would-be voters are paying more attention.
WereBear
Dang! I have been very silly trying to help cats.
I should have been advocating letting them starve, instead. Must be more money in it!
bjacques
@Lee: Further up in the comments was a post supporting Dwayne Stovall’s primary challenge against Cornyn, who voted *with* the Tea Party. And someone else was looking askance at Paul Ryan.
N’yi shagu nazad!
MattF
@The Red Pen: Fantasy, it’s so wonderful. You get all the neuro-sensory benefits and none of the pesky details of interaction with reality.
gene108
@gene108:
I missed a few:
Emphasis mine
The Red Pen
@gene108:
Actually, they have about $50K.
The fundraising is broken into two segments: one-time and monthly. Currently, they have $11k/month in monthly donations, so that’s $33k a quarter. After the early donations start to peter out, they add in the contribution of the monthlies and the tally makes a huge jump toward the finish line. This motivates the “let’s finish this” late donations.
Ten years ago, they wrapped this up in four weeks. Now it takes 8. I once saw it actually overflow the quarter. It was after Obama was elected and right at the start of the Teahad. It was a low point for the Freeptards. I’m curious to see how this Freepathon goes. Either it will ebb, showing that the grass roots is dispirited, or it will accelerate. If it’s the latter, that might be good news because it might indicate that those Tea Party primary challenges might have some real support.
raven
@WereBear: A friend of mine and I were trying to help a stray that ran in front of our cars. My friend, the MD, got the shit bit out of her and is now getting rabies treatment.
TR
@The Red Pen:
I don’t know what impresses me more — that the delusional person who wrote that is able to operate a computer, or that they were able to type it with one hand while furiously masturbating with the other.
dedc79
@gene108: So when choosing between comparing their movement to the bacteria or the antibiotic, it’s telling that they’d choose bacteria
hoodie
@TR: I was wondering if his mom would notice that crusty tube sock in the morning laundry.
JPL
@Kay: If he believes that, maybe he should be admitted to the same hospital where Diane Reidy (House stenographer) was taken.
Keith G
@Kay: Human behavior defaults to an easy attraction to demagogic behavior. See Father Coughlin or Huey Long.
Cruz is in the same league as Oral Roberts or Jesse Duplantis – applying a balm of snake oil to the wounds of the suspicious and the desperate. And yes our current media landscape allows him a much quicker market penetration.
Patricia Kayden
@EconWatcher: The Quittingest half-term Governor of them all. Yes, such a strong work ethic she’s got going there.
Marc
@Elizabelle: Seconded.
NotMax
Each and every one of those highlighted in the post a Rebel Without A Clue.
JPL
Someone needs to inform Schumer, that there is no peak wingnut.
TPM
Southern Beale
“The Palin”?? What fresh hell is this?
Seriously, “THE PALIN”???
WTF is wrong with these people.
Lee
From this I just posted this quote (and a link to the article) to my FB.
Should make for an interesting morning!!
(I have a bunch of wingnuts as friends)
gelfling545
@PurpleGirl: No, really. You don’t want to drink anything that will mess you up that bad.
Kay
@Keith G:
Right, but the reason it matters, IMO, is because this is the actual strategy of the larger GOP. We’re all pretending this is Tea Party-specific, but it isn’t. Conservatives in the NYT are pondering how to tap into “populism”. Populism in GOP-land means “white working class voters”, but the NYTimes is too polite to put it in those terms.
After 2012, they had a choice. Try to expand the base OR figure out which parts of the existing GOP base they could rile up and turn out. They chose the second option. They would go all-in on turning out the existing base. THAT is based on reality, numbers. In Ohio, for example, they can point to numbers to back up the theory that they HAVE white working class voters, those voters just didn’t come out in 2012. Republicans in Ohio at the county level say it straight out, and they’re not “Tea Party” Republicans, they’re mainstream life-long Republicans who participate in Party politics.
I don’t think they can cut the Tea Party loose. They need it.
Cermet
@raven: Damn! Hope she recovers well without any issues – those types of wounds (bites) can heal badly (too deep and small for proper cleaning) without proper treatment AND we all know that MD’s are the worse patients because they know it all (lol) resulting in treating themselves and sucking at it!!! Extra vitamin D!!!! and consider raw honey for the wounds – honey’s currently unknown but highly effective anti-bacterial properties are without equal.
Hawes
I know DougJ is in charge of ratfucking these days, but it seems that a concentrated trolling of Red State et al with the idea that Wall Street Republicans are to blame, could help drive a wedge between the money and morans. Considering the Supreme Court is about to end all campaign finance regulations, that might be helpful.
WereBear
@raven: I’m sorry to hear that! It sucks when it was a good deed.
All the more reason to manage strays, rather than ignoring them.
RSA
My favorite lines are from Erickson himself:
I mean, it’s like losing a big vote and imagining how things would be if the Senate were filled with, say, Tom Udall and Bernie Sanders and ponies. Yeah, that would be great.
Karen in GA
Don’t ever talk down of the Palin.
Interrobang
@Cermet: It doesn’t have to be raw honey, plain old white sugar works just as well. It’s not some mysterious property of honey, sugar is an antibiotic, and honey is just an expensive and flavourful form of liquid sugar. People have known about sugar’s antibiotic properties since at least the Middle Ages, when it became cheap enough to start using it as a food preservative.
In one of the episodes of the excellent medical documentary Great Ormond Street, the crusty old Irish surgeon tells the assembled Grand Rounds to treat an intractably septic wound with sugar, so this is a known thing in medicine, even.
one of the jasons
Shareholder activism? That’s their plan? Good luck, bozos.
The Red Pen
@TR:
Browsing more threads, I found that posted a second time. I then realized that it was written by Jeff Head, a Freeper since 1998 and a prolific generator of lunacy.
jibeaux
@Kay: This is a part I heard on NPR, and that he said it was all worth it because we had this conversation. Wasn’t that a great conversation? I know we all enjoyed that conversation. But since it was just a teeny bit pricey, do you mind if in our next conversation, America calls you an idiot for free?
boatboy_srq
@EconWatcher: If the MSM is to be believed, she had one when she worked for a) Wasilla and b) Alaska. Once McNasty called, thought it was all gravy and no train.
I’m more taken with the idea of The Palin than with any work ethic The Palin observes.
raven
@WereBear: Our property back up to a wetland area and Dixie Painting is on the other side of the ditch. There are cats and whistle pigs all over and there have been attempts to manage the cats that have not done too well.
Keith G
@Kay: To me the question becomes one of: Is there a populist message right away a portion of those voters like the ones you mentioned in Ohio?
Anger fear and division, the currency of the Tea Party can only go so far.
danielx
A Palin/Cruz ticket in 2016? Couldn’t be, God doesn’t love me that much. Although there are a couple of minor issues, one being “the work ethic of the Palin”. (the Palin? Is that like the One?) Palin doesn’t have a work ethic; that’s why she’s a grifter.
The second being that Ted Cruz is never going to play rhythm to anybody else’s lead, especially somebody who is dumber than a barrel of hair. Cruz/Palin maybe, provided he keeps enough duct tape on hand to shut her up as necessary. Egotistical asshole and outright liar he is, stupid he ain’t. There are a lot more people out there who know Cruz’s name now than there were a month ago, although one could argue that increasing your name recognition by being a major league egotistical asshole and liar is…counterproductive.
Although judging from the Red State (let’s just say the Republican base) comments, being an asshole is a virtue and being an outright liar is merely a tactic, nothing to get upset about. If indeed they noticed the lie(s) at all – those people haven’t just gone down the rabbit hole, they live there full time. Kudos to all those who have actually read those comments, I wouldn’t have the stomach for it m’self. It’s no wonder they make so many typos and have so much bad grammar; the amount of spittle and…er…other substances on the screen must make typing difficult at best.
liberal
Anyone have a link to the actual vote? I wanted to see which Rethuglicans voted against the measure.
Cermet
@Interrobang: Maybe so but the research by MD’s in the field of new drugs believe otherwise; doesn’t make it so, however. Sugar is not an antibiotic – bacteria cannot process pure sugar. A bit different on how antibiotics work. Same end result but not the same process. Honey has been used by MD’s for diabetic wounds with great success, but I’ve never heard of using sugar (nor of it being used in current research relative to MD researchers in the field. Again, not saying sugar isn’t useful. )
raven
@Cermet: I’m not sure but I don’t think she has health insurance!
jibeaux
@Kay: I think “refudiate” is maybe the word he’s searching for there.
Brian R.
Carol Costello is blathering on about how no one has apologized for the shutdown “and I’m including the president here.”
Go fuck yourself, moron.
Cermet
@liberal: The Washington post has the results:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/congress-votes-to-end-shutdown/house.html?hpid=z3
NickM
@The Red Pen: That’s a lot of words to type with one hand.
Cermet
@raven: An MD! Makes perfect sense and follows with the logic of MD’s!!! Again, hope all goes well (rabies is rare so the odds are in her favor.)
NonyNony
@RSA:
It’s a bit worse than that. I mean, I can imagine what kind of healthcare reform a Senate with 61 people farther to the left of the current members of the Senate would be like, and I can even work to get to that.
Erickson, though, it talking about the fact that “squishy Republicans” decided that they’d rather not collapse the government at this time. And so now he wants to primary them over it. This isn’t a policy argument that Erickson is having, this is a hissy-fit over tactics.
It’s even over a fairly minor difference in tactics – Erickson and the “squishy Republicans” agreed that taking the country’s economy hostage was a good tactic. They also agreed that holding out to the last minute was a good tactic. Where the disagreed was when it came to what to do when it became obvious that the hostage plan wasn’t going to work. Squishy Republicans decided that it was time to cut losses, start doing some damage control, and figure out what to do next. Erickson wanted them to shoot the hostage to show that they were manly. Apparently with the thought that “next time” everyone would take them seriously when they decided to take a hostage.
Erickson will fall back into line before the next election. It’s what he does.
danielx
I really missed TBogg.
Platypus
@hueyplong: I was thinking the same thing. Jesse Helms and gay-baiting Jew-baiting assaulted-a-colleague “B1 Bob” are two of the worst people to have (failed to) serve in Congress, and this creep holds them up as *examples* of what he wants? The idiocy astounds.
johnny aquitard
This has to be our DougJ spoofin’ on the morans again. Right?
If it isn’t I am awed by the bottomless stupidity, the limitless credulousness, the utter..the … omg words just fail.
jibeaux
Something that will surprise no one here…
So, if the R’s approval rating is currently roughly the crazification factor, discuss: can their approval rating actually go lower with increased insanity, or have we hit the floor?
NotMax
@liberal
In the Senate? Right there on the front page.
For the House? Here.
johnny aquitard
@Kay:
Yeah, it was a remarkable victory..for Obama.
Quelle dumbfuck.
Nerull
“the palin”? What is with the conservative need to deity everything. I thought their God was the jealous type.
Tone in DC
Don’t get me going on the surrender monkeys/Chicken Littles. According to them, the only president with a spine was Lincoln.
aimai
@raven: Fascinating! I’ll ask my uncle about him.
I thought you meant generically like The Man Who Was Thursday.
Tone in DC
@The Red Pen:
Fuck! Don’t put that shit up this early, I haven’t had my caffeine yet.
Whoever composed that screed has been watching too much Bronson and Eastwood. The only thing missing is the sneer and the large caliber firearm.
cleek
on the bright side:
this was a defeat so embarrassing that a wingnut will STFU about politics?
success!
aimai
@Kay: On the subject of Palin–Palin was not at all a stupid choice. I mean, she ended up being unable to crossover because she really was who she was instead of a mythical composite of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kali the Destroyer, Mother Jones and Mother Teresa. But that clearly was her role and their goal–throw up a “woman of the people” who could “speak their language” (as opposed to McCain), who was young, vital, and fertile, religious and demotic, but they hoped she would not disgust the imaginary middle of the country and the country club republicans. At the time they really did not think they would ever need to appeal to Democrats except in the form of Reagan Democrats/elderly white ethnics.
Its kind of what they try to do with all their totemic candidates–Cain and the other Black Republicans as well. They presume that their narrative/top storyline will make up for any deficiencies in political skill or what we might call reality.
Populism is all they have left, so expect them to try to find another Palin type or to ride Palin all the way down the historical memory hole.
boatboy_srq
@gene108: Interesting how the Reichwing commentariat is claiming that Fauxnews has shifted left. Then again, when you’re sprinting Rightward, everything looks like it’s moving left.
flukebucket
My God that is Gold! Pure Gold!
boatboy_srq
@hueyplong: You’re making the assumption that McConnell, Cruz, Rubio et al are any better. They’re not: they’re just less blatant about their
hatred and bigotrypolicy positions.Ruckus
@rk:
Of course they voted to defund the ACA. Numerous times.
But understand this is a much about grifting and building the base as it is trying to defund the ACA. Does cruz think he can get the ACA defunded? I’ll bet not. But it is a hot button issue with his gang and he’s going to keep pressing that button, even if he knows it’s not attached to anything.
He thinks he won because he made his point. Which of course he really didn’t.
Cacti
Joe the Plumber for Secretary of State!
raven
@aimai: Nah, they were all over the place. The VVAW was heavily infiltrated.
Knight of Nothing
I’ve been arguing with a person who is trying to say that Boehner is “brilliantly” and “ruthlessly” purging the influence of the Tea Party from the Republican Party. His point is that Boehner is purposely sinking the TP/GOP brand at the behest of Wall Street & “sane” monied interests, so that the corporate agenda may continue. Does anyone here want to subscribe to such a theory?
David Fud
We just finally, after so many years of patience, have observed that much-heralded and often discussed event variously known as Peak Wingnut, the Wingularity, and the Wingnut Event Horizon. It has come and gone like a high tide of stupid, stink, and sludge. It cannot help but recede at this point, broken into its component pieces after taking a huge dump on the lawn of every impure Republican, evil Democrat, and uninterested bystander. Which, basically, is almost everyone in the whole world.
So long, and thanks for all of the good memories!
There will be plenty of flare-ups, much like a receding hemorrhoid on the body politic, but the thing has done its best and fallen well short.
Rob in CT
I’m sure that 100+ comments in someone else highlighted this, but…
This is accurate.
Zaftig Amazon
@Cermet: Sugar is an antibiotic, in that it does not allow bacteria to survive. A pile of sugar sucks up all the water in the vicinity, denying bacteria a vital ingredient for survival. Since this a mechanical process, not a pharmacological one, it only works on open wounds.
Zaftig Amazon
@Cermet: Sugar is an antibiotic, in that it kills bacteria. A pile of sugar sucks up water, thereby denying bacteria a vital medium needed for their survival. Since this a mechanical process, not a pharmacological one, it only works on open wounds.
jamick6000
@Rob in CT: yeah i don’t think sequester-level funding is a win for our side
El Caganer
The Work Ethic of the Palin
The Majesty of Rock
The Dignity of Roll
Marc
@aimai:
And that’s why Palin was a stupid choice.
Well, that’s part of it.
Lurker
“The work ethic of the Palin will draw votes from all quarters.”
LOL!
Marc
@Rob in CT: But we did get a budget conference that can potentially change that.
Rob in CT
@jamick6000:
Right. This was a win for the country, in that hostage-taking was beaten down. It was a win for the Democratic Party in that their opposition wandered around drunk in public in clownshoes for a few weeks. It was not actually a win for Democrats on policy.
I’ll take it, don’t get me wrong.
jamick6000
@Marc: lol
shelly
Yeah, look how well her touch of death worked here in NJ yesterday.
Booker 55% of vote
Lonagan 44%
(Tho in my mind it shouldn’t have even been that close.)
***********
Which House vote to defund Obamacare is Cruz talking about? There’ve been 42 of them so far.
Rob in CT
@Marc:
Right, hopefully. We’ll see about that. I’m not expecting to be thrilled by whatever deal gets struck (IF a deal gets struck).
jamick6000
@Rob in CT: yeah i agree.
Lee
@David Fud:
While I certainly believe there is reason to think we have just witnessed Peak Wingnut, we have certainly underestimated them before. I think the next 2 elections might exceed what we just witnessed.
Matt McIrvin
@FonsieScheme: I didn’t think Obama was going to fold this time. I did think the Republicans were deluded enough that some sort of default and an acute economic crisis would have to happen before they would fold. I was fortunately wrong about that. Boehner was a paper tiger.
johnny aquitard
@aimai:
I gotta admit, we’ve done that to the South lately, I’ve been guilty of it myself. The South does have a major representation in this teaparty sabotage, but it’s not all Southerners by any means. And as someone pointed out in a downstairs thread, a lot of AA’s live in the South as do many other people who aren’t down with this neo-confederate revanchism. It’s their home too.
On the other hand The South is more than just a region it is a state of mind, a way of thinking that is belligerently rigid when it comes to change and very tolerant when it comes to internal contradiction. So yeah, fuck the South.
David Fud
@Lee: If I am incorrect, that is ok – I will be in good company.
john f
@Rob in CT: Agreed. As another blog opined, in the long war, the Tea Party are just shock troops that just died on the beachead. The plutocrats have moved the budget closer to what Romney and Ryan campaigned on, which ultimately widens the gap between the 1% and the rest of America.
David Fud
@Lee: It’s hard to see how, short of revolution, that it could get much worse than what we have seen, I have to say.
stratplayer
Unless and until the rabid right gets over the conceit that they are always and invariably objectively correct on every issue, they are going to be a chronic impediment to democratic governance in America, and perhaps ultimately an existential threat thereto.
fuckwit
How can we remove these 144 lunatics from office next year?
What do we have to do?
These reckless morons and their supporters should not be allowed anywhere near Congress.
What’s the strategy, when can we start, and what can I do to help?
Lee
@David Fud:
They don’t have the balls to move against the government at any sustained level. You might see one or two crazies in a bell tower somewhere. Sadly that now seems to be the status quo.
I think their next move is to primary every single non-crazy Republican. I think their anger is going to turn inward against those that they feel betrayed them.
Lee
Awesome chart from Maddow. I’ll post it later on FB.
What they got
Liberty60
I couldn’t help but wonder at the age of the person who referenced Bob “B1 Bob” Dornan, and Jesse Helms, both of whom have been out of office for over a decade.
Even sweeter, is that I live adjacent to Dornan’s old district. He was ousted by Loretta Sanchez, a terrific Democrat in a now-majority Latino district of Orange County.
The times, they are a changin’.
dporpentine
Someday I’ll be able to stop laughing at this.
Someday.
johnny aquitard
@Knight of Nothing: If he is, he is way more intelligent and skillful a politician than I have given him credit for.
Pooh
@Elizabelle:
100% my thoughts.
Matt McIrvin
@Knight of Nothing: I just heard the theory that the whole default drama was just market manipulation so that the money folks could buy on the eve of default and then sell when the market rebounded.
Southern Beale
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m cynical enough to believe that one.
Jockey Full of Malbec
@Poopyman:
“Trolls” in Florsheim shoes, no doubt.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
They’re like the guy who winds up with a broken nose, two black eyes, flat on his back and groggy from just getting his ass kicked, who then gets up and insists he won and asks who’s next. In other words, too dumb to know when they got their asses kicked. Let the beatings continue until they figure it out or wind up in the hospital.
gelfling545
@raven: A lot of MD’s don’t. They rely on “professional courtesy”.
aimai
@Knight of Nothing:
This is a complicated proposition. I, personally, do not believe that Boehner had that much skill. I think he is political plankton. If you truly wanted to fuck over the tea party–for the benfit of the Wall Street Journal types, you could have slammed them back down into the sewers by simply denying them the power to hold government hostage (the shutdown) or shown them that the middle path with democratic votes was going to be the way forward (on the default). Boehner and the “moderate” republicans believe that the only energy in the party lies on the tea party fringe–those are the only voters they can grow with–and in addition they know for a fact that the kind of leverage the tea party was using is the only leverage left for their crazy, destructive, policies. They simply can’t get to a negotiating position that works for them as a party by working with the Democrats. They have to try blackmail.
So Boehner went into this because he was pushed into it by the tea party and because he hoped that they would get something for nothing, something for their ransom demands. Since that was a major miscalculation and they ended up getting less than nothing and losing ground with generic voters and tea party voters Boehner is no genius. QED.
priscianus jr
@Kay: He said the House vote to defund Obamacare, rejected by the Senate, was “a remarkable victory.”
Ya got-ta AC-centuate the positive, E-liminate the negative, LATCH on to the affirmative, but don’t mess with Mr. In Between!
And he’s right, it WAS a remarkable victory — for the Democrats.
catclub
@aimai: “Boehner and the “moderate” republicans believe that the only energy in the party lies on the tea party fringe–those are the only voters they can grow with”
But note the article in Washington Monthly, that the TP is only a force in the deep south
and appalachia. There is no promise of growth in other areas, and it may have already reached its maximum impact.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/10/regional_differences_have_doom047323.php
catclub
@Cermet: Darryl Issa votes to reopen his investigations.
gelfling545
@Knight of Nothing: If this is so he is really willing to be a martyr to the cause because he just looks like an incompetent jackass.
aimai
@Marc: Yeah, I think that the people who picked Palin were under a certain kind of illusion about who Palin was, and who her voters were. Its the view from 30,000 feet. We all thought Kristol et al were crazy for assuming that she wasn’t, in fact, a lazy, grifting moron but I think at the time they were touting her to McCainthey really didn’t know who she was. They didn’t know just how low the salt of the earth can go.
aimai
@catclub: Well, sure–its not a smart strategy but they seem to have committed to it. People have been pointing this out to them for several years that they are increasing their commitment from their hardcore voters in certain counties, but that they are losing their appeal everywhere else. They don’t listen because they can’t count and because they are frozen with demographic horror. The other thing is that some of them are still counting on voter supression at the national and local level. There’s been some interesting stuff written–though I can’t find it right now and can’t remember where I saw it, maybe it was Michael Lind, arguing that the local oligarchs in small communities and in red states are pretty happy simply returning to a fragmented, alienated, isolationist strategy which preserves local white power.
Matt McIrvin
@Southern Beale: I find it kind of hard to believe that a member of Congress would intentionally self-destruct politically just to get campaign funds. I mean, doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose? I guess you could just spend it all on hookers and blow.
Uncle Cosmo
@BudP: Palin/Cruz 2016: Die Sinnlosigkeit siegt an alle Fronten.
Redshirt
Love the Freeper chat here. I’ve long followed the site, and have always urged all of you to read it – or read synopsis of it. It’s a direct window into the Wingnut brain and as such it’s a valuable resource. Dangerous though – peering into abysses, etc….
NonyNony
@fuckwit:
For starters, realize that you don’t need to remove 144 of them. Only about 20 if Dems can hold onto the seats they’ve already got.
And you don’t need to remove 20 of the 144 loons either. Any 20 Republicans will work nicely.
So find 20 Republicans who sided with the Tea Partiers on everything EXCEPT that last vote who happen to be in precarious districts due to Gerrymandering and throw your help behind the Dems that run in those districts.
The Tea Party may even help you with that one – if we’re lucky they might be running primaries against those guys anyway.
(Also some portion of those 144 will face primary challenges from non-Tea Party types. Republicans and the media will claim that it is a challenge “from the left” because they think in dichotomies, but it will be challenges from people who basically agree on policy choices but disagree on tactics. I wouldn’t actually waste money helping Republicans primary their own, but again – if damage is done in the primary perhaps there will be a Dem available to pick up the pieces and take a district that way).
priscianus jr
@Kay:
Here is a breakdown of the “remarkable victory”:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/chart-the-house-gops-demand-list
priscianus jr
@Knight of Nothing: His point is that Boehner is purposely sinking the TP/GOP brand at the behest of Wall Street & “sane” monied interests, so that the corporate agenda may continue. Does anyone here want to subscribe to such a theory?
I do — and amazingly enough, he’s doing it so well, he still has the respect of the tea party.
One of the biggest misapprehensions the left has about Boehner is that he’s incompetent. Same mistake many of them make about Obama (although I apologize for the comparison, which goes only for political skills!) Boehner is a very experienced, professional politician who, like Obama, is playing on a very difficult board. If you can get away from how horrible this was for the country, you have to admire his skill in managing the extreme right of the party. He gave them all the rope they needed to hang themselves — so he didn’t have to hang himself.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
Drain bamage from drinking the tea.
Kay
@aimai:
I think I disagree. Palin is Bill Kristol’s idea of what white working class people are. She doesn’t strive, she doesn’t work hard, she dismisses learning anything or knowing anything as “elite.” That’s a caricature of white working class people.
I don’t think there is a person in this country who wouldn’t be proud if their kid did well, went to a good college, left the working class for more security and more wealth. Kristol’s mistake is to miss that “striving” factor, and I think it comes from his own privilege and isolation.
Pailn is what she is, she doesn’t “mean” anything big, but what might be bigger is the arrogance and absolute cluelessness that led to their belief that she would emulated, admired and followed by some meaningful majority of people.
Bill Kristol doesn’t have a whole lot of regard for white working class people, bottom line.
Jay C
LOL
Why does this conjure up the image of, say, Erick Erickson and Jonah Goldberg buying 100 shares of GE or CBS, and “storming” the annual meeting (you know, the public one they have to hold in Madison Square Garden or wherever to deal with the crowd) and standing up to boo the Chairman and “demand” “fair” reporting of the Tea Party…
I do also think that this isn’t exactly what they’re referring to by “storming the boardroom”, but I also don’t think they’ll find much more support there than down on the street…
Sad_Dem
@EconWatcher: Aaand we’re done here.
ally
@Southern Beale:
Could it be like, “The Donald”?
Gendry
@EconWatcher: The Silence of the Boehner?
TheWatcher
@BudP: Palin/Cruz 2016: Mein Asch, es tut mir weh!
liberal
@Cermet, @NotMax: Thanks, guys (gals?).
g
The work ethic of the Palin
Oh, hah!
g
@NonyNony:
Can you imagine the highjinks of those two out-sized egos battling it out for the top of the ticket?
g
@The Red Pen:
and the park in my state. And the WWII vets memorial. And don’t forget the panda-cam!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Kay:
She was sold as working class. I heard admiration for her from a lot of otherwise intelligent people between her introduction and the point where her reality could no longer be denied. Lots of relief that someone who would actually know the price of diapers was stepping into the center ring.
boatboy_srq
@Villago Delenda Est:
Hoocoodanode there were benzene and PCBEs in the water.
g
@Marc:
Yes, she was a stupid choice. The Republicans looked at Hillary as a candidate and thought to themselves, “We can get a woman, too!”
This is the cheapest, easiest form of exploitation marketing there is. Pick the most visible superficial characteristic of a successful brand, and copy it, quality of content not important.
It was much like a second-rate TV or film studio looking at a successful, creative show and then copying it on the cheap. The Addams Family sit-com was based on a classic, creative body of work by a famous cartoonist, and it was an oddball unique hit. So a rival studio came out with The Munsters. After Star Wars came out, every B level studio did a space adventure film. The success of the poorly written “50 shades of gray” gave rise to scores of even more poorly written imitations.
See also: Michael Steele and Herman Cain.
BruceFromOhio
Dear Gaia, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let it happen, I honor you and adore you now, this would seal it for all time and forever, PLEASE let it happen.
Kisses,
BFO
@aimai:
Plan is better than no plan, but alas: Hope is not a plan.
aimai
@g:
I agree. I think I should have used a phrase like “A Palin Like” candidate. One part was definitely a miscalculation–they sincerely believed that democratic and suburban women would vote their vaginas, just like they think that black people voted for Obama because he was black, rather than because he was the democratic candidate and they have been voting for the democratic candidate for a long time. Thats the function of Herman Cain and Michael Steele too, as you point out. They are “lookalike” or stalking horse identity candidates.
But the larger point we were trying to make is that Palin stood for a certain kind of white populism which the Republicans were not wrong in trying to tap–because its the only thing going for them.
Tim in SF
SP&T,
The worst thing about this post is that it is not ten times longer.
I could read these quotes ALL. DAY. LONG.
BruinKid
Notably, the 144 do NOT include Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Steve Daines of Montana, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. They are all trying to upgrade to the Senate, and don’t seem to have contested primaries (like in Georgia) where they need to wrest the Tea Party vote away from another right-winger.
We can hope that them voting for ending the default crisis will spur some Tea Party person to jump into the primary, and bruise them enough to keep those seats in Democratic hands.
Ramalama
I try to stay away from schaudenfreestating because some of my beloved relatives were reactionary yellers against policies that they shoulda liked, and I can easily slip and fall and never get out of ha ha ism.
My question is – what’s gonna happen to all of that hysteria our Republican countrymen and women feel toward Democrats, or everyone minus Ron Paul or Scalia or something?
It’s not as if they’re going to poof! go away should Dems take the house in the next election.
Grover Gardner
These people remind me of the Dodos in ICE AGE.
Uncle Chris
@Grover Gardner
You make me laugh :)