Nightmare social con scenario: Huckabee, Santorum and Cruz all run, Jeb wins Iowa with like 28% of vote.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2015
Elizabeth Titus, at Bloomberg Politics:
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Saturday he is ending his show on Fox News because he is not ready to rule out running for president in 2016.
“There has been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would run for president,” the Republican said in a statement posted on his website. “If I were willing to absolutely rule that out, I could keep doing this show. But I can’t make such a declaration.”
“I won’t make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015, but the continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that is not fair to them nor is it possible for me to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race,” he said…
Huckabee… took fourth place in a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers in October, with 9 percent. Romney was included in that poll and led with 17 percent. The Hawkeye State caucuses, which Huckabee won in 2008, will kick of the nominating race in 2016.
Yeaaaah… Huck’s not running. He’s just taken a lesson from the Gingrich/Cain/Palin School of Political Grifting, where announcing that you’ve chosen to explore the ramifications of campaigning give you increased media shelfspace to market your brand. He’ll be back on Fox no later than October 2015, “analysing” all the other Repub candidates for a bumped-up fee, and sitting next to John McCain on every Sunday talk shows to explain how anyone who complains about the ramped-up eliminationist rhetoric from his Talibangelical marks fellows is the real racist/sexist/homophobe/ratfvcker.
shelley
You forgot to mention ‘Trump’
Corner Stone
Unlike Newt, I don’t see Huckabee locking up a major benefactor for any extended grift run. So it will all be on the periphery trying to scam the rubes.
Which I guess in the GOP is a pretty good business model.
Yatsuno
Four dead cops in Washington that Huckabee has a direct connection to will keep any sort of White House run from being anything but a grift. And if that doesn’t stop him, his psychopathic children will.
Buddy H
@Yatsuno:
Fascinating. I’m not familiar with these stories. Can you elaborate? Thanks
Corner Stone
Pretty tight contest so far for CIN at IND. A little sloppy but still entertaining.
Anne Laurie
@Yatsuno: Ergo, my link.
MattF
@Yatsuno: Also, once people get to know Huckabee, they get a teensy bit uneasy. Really not a nice guy.
David Koch
RIP Stuart Scott
WereBear
@MattF: Aw, but the Republicans love the Strong Men.
Too bad, for them, that Putin wasn’t born here. A former KGB operative is just what they love!
PIGL
@Yatsuno: What do we know for sure about his children? I mean, I have seen photos of a substantially unprepossessing family, but that alone is not evidence of much.
Roger Moore
ITYM “Hucksterbee”.
MattF
@WereBear: I think one thing they like about Putin is his mastery of the art of political confabulation:
http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/5889/full
Lauqueur tends to be long-winded, but he has a point. There’s a difference between lying and confabulation.
SiubhanDuinne
@PIGL:
One of his sons and a friend allegedly tortured a dog for shits and giggles — I have mercifully buried the details very very deeply in the hidden recesses of my subconscious, and I’m about to eat lunch so don’t want to go looking them up again — but I imagine someone here can provide particulars.
rikyrah
say it with me, boys and girls…
SLAVE CATCHING SAMBO
Example A-Z of why Black Conservatives are despised by the larger Black population.
……………….
Mia Love defends Scalise
By Kevin Cirilli January 04, 2015, 10:40 am
Rep.-elect Mia Love (R-Utah) on Sunday defended House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and said he should remain in House leadership despite having spoken to a racist group in 2002.
Love, who is the first African American Republican woman elected to the House, denounced the racist groups on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
“I believe he should stay in leadership,” Love said.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/228434-mia-love-defends-scalise
PaulW
Just noting, I will be previewing potential 2016 candidates using Barber’s Presidential Character methods… http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2015/01/predicting-presidents-for-2016-ere-it.html
As for Huckabee. he might just actually do it. Despite all the hate-on he gets within our circles, he’s surprisingly popular among the social conservative base of the GOP. It was a mild shocker he didn’t run in 2012 as he was a clear alternative as a Not-Romney to the Mittmentum that crashed and burned (of the named guys, Huckabee was the only one who gave Obama a challenge in the polls), but Huckabee was/is savvy enough to know when to do what he does.
Huckabee has the advantages of 1) not being a Bush, 2) having actual religious bona fides in his ordained Southern Baptist ministry, 3) avoiding the major gaffes that turned the likes of Bachmann and Santorum into national jokes.
Of course, Huckabee still carries the disadvantages of 1) being a Far Right Hater, 2) hanging out with unhinged gun-nuts, 3) still gaffe-prone obsessing over anti-Muslim diatribes and pro-Christianist BS (this is someone who needs to have the No Religious Test section of the Constitution tattooed to his forehead), 4) being accused by the Randians of raising taxes in this here Reaganite Utopia of eternal tax cuts. And that’s not even getting into the disasters of his governorship’s abuse of prison clemencies (just Google “Maurice Clemmons” and see what comes up).
Big Picture Pathologist
@rikyrah:
Ummmm… are we allowed to? I thought those expressions were used, er, ‘internally’.
PhilbertDesanex
@Yatsuno: Yup. I went to tech school around there. Maurice Clemmons was the killer of the 4 police Huck let loose for loving Jesus so much. Given all the NYPD news + remember Willie Horton?, I totally look forward to this coming up.
Mike E
@Corner Stone: A defensive play has this game close…it’ll take a couple more for CIN to stay in it, possible, but not likely.
PurpleGirl
@PaulW: Also Google serial rapist Wayne Dumond, who Huckabee pardoned. Dumond went on to rape and kill two women in Missouri. Overall Huckabee pardoned or reduced the sentences of close to a thousand criminals. More than the previous 3 governors combined.
rikyrah
MEDIA ALERT
Oprah Prime – Celebrating Dr. King and the Selma Matches 50 years later.
Tonight, 9pm EST on OWN
Oprah’s Master Class- Stories from the Civil Rights Era from following:
Dr. Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Lionel Richie, Berry Gordy and others
Tonight, 10 PM EST on OWN
Mike in NC
@rikyrah: She’s also a convert to Mormonism and tight with Mitt, so she has had a good mentor as she moves up the GOP grift/food chain. By 2016 the media will be speculating about her chances at getting the VP spot on JEBs ticket.
PaulW
Just to note, Gohmert is challenging Boehner’s Speakership: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gohmert-challenge-boehner-speaker
rikyrah
@Big Picture Pathologist:
you know…..
there are some things, that, as a Black person, are non-negotiable.
defending a muthafucka who spoke in front of a group that was the hangout for the local leader of the KKK
Did I say KKK?
There are no other words for her.
Mike in NC
Huckabuck will spend a few months pondering a run, showing up at Liberty U and Bob Jones for photo ops with wingnuts, and then he’ll surely go back to fleecing the rubes like the televangelist he really is.
MattF
@PaulW: …and what are Curly and Larry’s positions on this issue?
Mnemosyne
@Big Picture Pathologist:
Rikyrah will use expressions like that in front of white people like me, but I know better than to think I can use them in return. :-)
rikyrah
water is wet news
……………..
Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions
JAN. 3, 2015
excerpt:
Other studies have also examined race and employment. In a 2009 study, Devah Pager, Bruce Western and Bart Bonikowski, all now sociologists at Harvard, sent actual people to apply for low-wage jobs. They were given identical résumés and similar interview training. Their sobering finding was that African-American applicants with no criminal record were offered jobs at a rate as low as white applicants who had criminal records.
These kinds of methods have been used in a variety of research, especially in the last 20 years. Here are just some of the general findings:
■ When doctors were shown patient histories and asked to make judgments about heart disease, they were much less likely to recommend cardiac catheterization (a helpful procedure) to black patients — even when their medical files were statistically identical to those of white patients.
■ When whites and blacks were sent to bargain for a used car, blacks were offered initial prices roughly $700 higher, and they received far smaller concessions.
■ Several studies found that sending emails with stereotypically black names in response to apartment-rental ads on Craigslist elicited fewer responses than sending ones with white names. A regularly repeated study by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development sent African-Americans and whites to look at apartments and found that African-Americans were shown fewer apartments to rent and houses for sale.
■ White state legislators were found to be less likely to respond to constituents with African-American names. This was true of legislators in both political parties.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/upshot/the-measuring-sticks-of-racial-bias-.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
Mike J
@PurpleGirl:
That’s not a bad thing itself. The question is how he chose who got sprung, and why did he make such phenomenally bad decisions?
The story at the time on the serial rapist who was released was that his victim was a relative of Clinton. My family has known her family for over 50 years and I had never heard that they were related. If they were is was distantly. But raping somebody who might be related to Clinton was enough to out of prison thanks to Huck.
Big Picture Pathologist
@rikyrah:
BTW, I TOTALLY agree with your diagnosis. I just wasn’t sure whether we Caucasians were allowed to use THOSE terms…
Quaker in a Basement
I apply a simple rule: If I think I’ll have to explain why it’s OK for me to use a term, I try avoid using it. Anybody can see where Rikyrah is coming from, but if I wrote the same, that would require explanation.
KG
y’all are missing the point with Huckabee. Yeah, he couldn’t win a presidential general election unless he was running against a ticket of Manson/Kaczynski. But this isn’t about winning a general election, it’s about winning the nomination. And despite the pardon issues, he’s got as good a chance as any of them. The pardon issues he can play off two ways: first, I tried to do the good Christian thing and have learned from that experience; second, that’s something that happened a long time ago, and if you’re attacking me for something that happened in the 90s then that means you’ve got nothing to argue against my positions today.
He can totally win the nomination. He’s got a claim to next in line (from 2008), he can point out that Republicans tend to nominate (and win) with governors rather than Senators, he can win enough of the socially conservative early states where Jeb, Cruz, and Paul will be less than endeared, and he’s a known commodity within the wingularity thanks to nearly a decade on Fox News.
My money is still on Huckabee, but I’d hedge with Jeb and maybe throw some money on Romney if the odds were right (because the GOP is just delusional enough to think that running a campaign based on “see I told you so” would win)
AxelFoley
@Yatsuno:
Beat me to it. Huck wouldn’t last the first round of the GOP primary because of this. One of the other clowns will shank his ass quick by bringing it up.
Bobby Thomson
@PaulW: J
Barber? A tautology masquerading as a typology.
KG
@Mike J: IIRC, and it’s been a while, but Arkansas had/has a pardon system that involves the parole board giving the governor recommendations on clemency and pardons. It gives the governor cover on pardons because the “experts” have weighed in.
Corner Stone
@KG:
I have as much chance of winning the GOP nom for president as Huckabee does. He is not even in the “outside, outside, outside” puncher’s chance of possibilities.
KG
@AxelFoley: Huckabee won 8 states in 2008, it didn’t matter then, why would it matter now?
ETA: and came in second in 15
AxelFoley
@KG:
The guy he pardoned killed those cops in 2009.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120102601.html
Mike E
Speaking of being wrong about everything… who thot Phil Simms would make a passable color guy?
KG
@AxelFoley: you’re not thinking like a Republican… 2008 was McCain’s to lose because he was next in line. 2012 was Romney’s because he was next in line. If you want to know who will win the GOP nomination, all you have to do is ask who is next in line, and in 2016, Huckabee has as much a claim to that as anyone.
Citizen_X
@PaulW:
Cthulhu doesn’t love me enough to make this happen.
KG
@AxelFoley: true, but the Wayne DuMond case was an issue in 2008, it didn’t really hurt him. I’m not sure that the Clemmons case will hurt him in 2016.
Corner Stone
@Mike E:
Agreed, but INDY isn’t exactly killing it so far. Still a big chunk of the 4th to go. Maybe Red Rider can start winging it. The concussion protocols really F’d up Cincy’s chances in this postseason. But I would have bet on Indy even if AJ Green was playing.
Corner Stone
@Citizen_X:
I would come and love on you if this happened. So, you got that going for you. Which is nice.
Tokyokie
@Mike in NC: Considering the LDS church’s traditional views toward blacks and women, any black woman who converts to the faith pretty much must be a self-loathing opportunist.
PurpleGirl
@Mike J: Huckabee seemed to be impressed if a criminal said he had found religion while in jail. Often though he didn’t have information as to the truth of that claim.
The teenager who Dumond was in prison for raping was thought to be a distant Clinton cousin and many of the state RWNJs decided that his arrest and conviction was a conspiracy by Clinton forces because the distant relationship. (So, he couldn’t have really raped her…?)
ETA: Regardless of when these incidents happened, I still think they can lead one to question his judgment.
WereBear
@rikyrah: Holy crap, that’s depressing.
Mandalay
@PaulW:
Well unless you’re a Bush everyone has advantage #1, and I’m not persuaded by #3 – even without gaffes Huckabee will get tagged as the friend of cop killers by his opponents.
But what Huckabee does have going for him more than any other Republican is his likability. He comes across to many as warm and genuine and calm and reasonable and authoritative, especially when compared to his rivals. I’d trust him as far as I could throw him, but Hillary Clinton would not walk all over him in a debate.
Mnemosyne
@KG:
Wayne DuMond didn’t hurt Huckabee because of the (supposed) Clinton connection, plus it was a rape case and we all know bitchez lie, amirite?
Four dead cops is a whole hell of a lot harder to explain away. And, I hate to say it, but the fact that Clemmons was a big scary black man who killed nice white cops is what’s going to put it over the top for Republicans.
Hal
Oh look. The NYPD once again turns their backs on the Mayor. Liu’s wife asked them not to, but fuck the families wishes. There’s honor to defend!
WereBear
Huckster has serious drawbacks in the actual race. But I don’t see them as difficulties with the base, who just love that old time religion/psychopathic tendencies/Fox fame/mean eyes combo he’s got going.
But as previously mentioned, it would take Cthulu to make him the nominee.
SRW1
I suspect that Huckabee has come to the conclusion that it is time to rejuvenate his bona fides as a culture war general after he meekly sat out the 2012 rearguard action.
How far he will take the campaign exercise presumably depends on a) whether he can find enough sugar daddy dough to make it worth his while, and if that doesn’t happen to a satisfactory degree, on b) when he judges the expected ROI on his brand rejuvenation gymnastics acceptable.
Huckabee has every reason to believe that Fox will likely be happy to have him back if he doesn’t commit a major screw-up while purportedly being on the campaign trail.
schrodinger's cat
@Tokyokie: I was reprimanded for pointing out something similar about Messrs Jindal and Haley. Specifically for suggesting their religious conversion and name change smacked of political opportunism.
Corner Stone
Who would possibly think the Colts were actually going to go for it in that spot?
Corner Stone
Regardless of what the CEO of an NYC brokerage firm is trying to push, this is a bubble, and not good for anyone except the rentier class.
H/T Atrios
ETA, give me a fucking break
“Over all, at least 6,500 new condo units are expected to open for sales below 96th Street across more than 100 buildings in 2015, as opposed to about 2,500 units in 59 buildings last year, according to the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which tracks new development. Inventory will be the highest it has been since 2007, when 8,052 new units were listed. “
Mandalay
@KG:
What has he done to claim that? Huckabee didn’t even have the cojones to run in 2012, and he hasn’t been a politician since 2007.
Paul Ryan is in his eighth term, he was nominated for VP, he has influenced Republican policy, and is mainstream compared to some of his rivals. I think that “next in line” stuff is hogwash, but Ryan would be a mile ahead of Huckabee if you are looking for the Republican next in line.
Howard Beale IV
This is what would happen to all our citizens under a MIke Huckabee presidency.
(Huckabee references David Barton, is a 1st-class Talibangical loon.)
Corner Stone
Colts ball off the fumble. That’ll do whatever it was that might’ve been possible.
bg
Aren’t y’all bothered that Weigel’s tweet buys into the pervasive lie that JEB is not a social conservative? That he is some kind of moderate?
Remember Terri Schiavo?
Charlie Pierce sure does
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/charlie-pierce-terri-schiavo-jeb-bush-idiot-america-excerpt
As do those of us who lived through it here
JEB is right wing
even his immigration “reform” is geared to help businesses exploit workers.
Mike E
Ball. Game.
Corner Stone
I like Indy, and really like Luck, but just don’t think they are a playoff team at this point.
Corner Stone
@bg: He’s a social con opportunist hiding in establishment clothing.
Corner Stone
Can’t NFL.tv find better ex-player commentators than Eric Davis or LeVar Arrington?
Tokyokie
@schrodinger’s cat: In their cases, I’d cite general opportunism rather than specifically political opportunism. They want to fit in with white elites, and a name change to something those folks can pronounce is crucial. Which isn’t to say that politics didn’t factor into the calculus as well. That’s horrible enough, but in Love’s case, she converted to a religion that up until about 40 years ago didn’t consider blacks fully human, and still thinks women should have no role outside the home, and you have to be seriously fucked up to embrace that crap.
VFX Lurker
@rikyrah: That’s depressing.
When I was a kid, I saw Eddie Murphy’s “White Like Me.” At the time, I laughed, because I took the short film at face value.
As an adult, though…I see another layer of meaning in that film. :-(
KG
@Mandalay: ever since the GOP went to the primary system in 1960, this is who has won the nomination:
1960 – Nixon, sitting Vice President
1964 – Goldwater
1968 – Nixon (see above)
1972 – Nixon (reelection)
1976 – Ford, sitting President (challenged by and nearly lost to Reagan)
1980 – Reagan (came in second in 1976)
1984 – Reagan (reelection)
1988 – GHW Bush, sitting VP, came in second in 80, and a life time of service
1992 – GHW Bush (reelection)
1996 – Dole (VP nominee in 76, ran in ’88, Senate Majority leader)
2000 – GW Bush
2004 – GW Bush (reelection)
2008 – McCain, sitting senator (20 years), came in second in 2000
2012 – Romney, fmr governor, came in second in 2008
’64 and 2000 are the only two times they didn’t pick the guy that was next in line. ’64 was a blowout. In 2000 W tried to clear the field, and nearly lost the general election. They’re going to pick the next in line. I think it’s Huckabee. Maybe it’s not, but it’s definitely not Cruz, it’s not Paul, and it’s probably not Jeb (like Gingrich, he’s got a decent claim but is tarnished for other reasons).
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@schrodinger’s cat:
Possibly funny name story: I had an Indian friend growing up and everyone called her younger sister “Shubie,” which I was told meant “little sister,” instead of her given name. Because she went by that name everywhere, she has now adopted it as her first name and even her patients at the pediatric clinic call her “Dr. Shubie.”
(I am almost certainly spelling/transliterating the actual name wrong, but that’s the general idea. ;-)
KG
@Corner Stone: ESPN, CBS, NBC, and Fox got to pick before NFL tv?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@KG:
Actually, I don’t think it’s crazy to think that the next in line should be Paul Ryan — like Dole, he’s a previous VP nominee. But I think the big money guys are going to let Jeb jump the line the way they let W jump the line in 2000 when it should have been McCain’s nomination if they’d followed the succession.
Corner Stone
@KG: ED is just really depressing (hmmm, that doesn’t sound right), but Arrington is like doing a loud clog dance on stage.
Tree With Water
I don’t understand the Bengals play calling. Why on earth did the they run the ball trailing like they did inside a few minutes on the clock? Sure, the secondary is packed protecting a lead, but the odds of a pass interference call alone makes more sense that grinding it out. Not to mention a Bengal receivers might actually catch the ball for the type of yardage the situation demands. If I owned the Bengals I would expect an answer from the coach, and it had better be good.
KG
@Tokyokie: Jindal’s case was unique because he’d been going by Bobby since he was a kid (if you’re making political calculations at 8 years old, you need to see a shrink) and he converted in high school or college. I don’t know enough about Haley to say anything. But as a general rule, I don’t hold it against people if they want to change their name (or go by a different name) or if they change their religion, whatever the reasons.
mdblanche
Have Bialystok and Bloom signed onto Huck’s exploratory committee yet?
Corner Stone
Jeb will have 45% of all the money. Mitt will have another 45% of all the money. The other grifters will be fighting for one rich benefactor apiece, and split the other 10%.
Corner Stone
@Tree With Water:
Who was Dalton going to throw at? Sanu? They had a backup RB as their #3 WR today.
Mandalay
@KG:
They may or may not pick the next in line, and they may or may not pick Huckabee, but if they do pick him it definitely won’t be because he’s “next in line” – he’s a TV host who has been out of politics since he ran a failed campaign in 2008.
KG
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Ryan is an interesting choice, I don’t think he’s going to run though. He’s young enough at 44 that he doesn’t need to do it this year – he’s got three presidential election cycles still before he turns 60. And he’s probably got enough of a cache that he could make a run at the Speakership (or governorship in Wisconsin) between now and then.
I’m just rooting against Clinton/Bush because, sweet baby buddha that is depressing.
KG
@Tree With Water: have you met Marvin Lewis? It is honestly amazing to me that with only 32 jobs, NFL teams continually choose poorly when it comes to selecting head coaches (at least from a general strategic philosophy point of view).
Corner Stone
@KG:
Case in point, SanFran. Who lets go a head coach who had the kind of success Harbaugh had there?
Just like how many value over replacement QB’s there are in the NFL, how many head coaches would any team trade for?
GregB
Any chance Newton Leroy Gingrich will soar to the top of the dung heap again? Like a penis rising from the ashes?
JPL
@KG: If the Bush family thought there were a chance, Fox news would be bloviating about the pardons next week. Fox has already anointed Bush. Rupert Murdoch wants a winner.
KG
@JPL: well, they weren’t because Huckabee was still in the building, and that’d be uncouth. but now that he’s leaving his show to explore a run? it might start happening.
KG
@Corner Stone: I think if Harbaugh would have stayed it would have gotten worse for the 49ers. He just doesn’t strike me as someone who is going to last as a coach in the NFL, he’s going to burn out too many people around him. In college you get guys for 3-5 years, in the NFL the best players are going to be there for a decade (and know that it’s easier for a team to fire a coach than it is to cut a player because of the salary cap).
AxelFoley
@Mnemosyne:
Said it better than I did.
Black cop-killer pardoned by Huck? You don’t think the other GOPers won’t jump on that either during a debate or by ads against him?
raven
Hello Golden!!!!!
raven
@KG: Michigan deserves him, he’s as big of an asshole as Bo was.
danielx
@WereBear:
This is true, and besides, George W. Bush looked in his eyes and saw his soul! What more do you need?
Nasty cynical person that I am, when I heard that particular bit of Bush bullshit my immediate thought was “the guy was a full colonel in the fuckin’ KGB. Assuming he has a soul at all, it’s probably a damned ugly sight”.
I confess that I’m looking forward to watching Republican primary debates to see the candidates compete on who can really bring teh crazy. It’s no great wonder that Republican strategists would prefer to limit the number of debates so as to not “overexpose the candidates”, as Molly Ivins used to say, lest too many people listen to what said candidates are actually saying* during the course of the debates. Shorter: exposing this particular crop of candidates too long is going to be like exposing a dead possum to sunlight for too long.
*Not to mention doing; I am convinced that one requirement for a successful Republican candidate in 2016 will be strangling with bare hands onstage either a) an illegal migrant or or b) a young black male wearing a hoodie. Which hate figure the audience would prefer is likely a tossup. Biting the head off a live bat onstage during the debate, a la Ozzy Osbourne, just won’t do it any more.
I’m really looking forward to those debates, does that make me a bad person?
Note: this post really needs a Clown Shoes tag in addition to those assigned.
raven
Golden strikes back!
Howard Beale IV
And the Motor City Kittehs drew first blood.
Kathleen
@Corner Stone: I agree about favoring Indy. Bengals looked lackluster today. I’m glad they kept Green out (he had I believe another concussion earlier this season that kept him out) but I think not having Maualaluga in the lineup hurt them just as much.
Corner Stone
Haha, Romo you suck.
Corner Stone
@Kathleen: Yeah, trying to run down T.Y. from behind probably isn’t the best choice for an LB.
Corner Stone
@KG:
If you’re getting paid multi-millions of dollars a year, and have a head coach who gets you within spitting distance of winning the Lombardi Trophy two out of four years, and in the NFC championship game 3 out of 4 years, and you piss yourself because he’s a full-on jerk asshole…I don’t know how to finish this sentence.
Fuck these babies. Tell Ray McDonald to stop beating his SO. Tell Aldon Smith to stop driving drunk and hire a fucking driver. Tell Scampernick to just take what’s there and stop forcing everything.
ETA, and in the vein of my comment, who the F are you going to replace him with?
Corner Stone
Holy Shit Matthew Stafford!
Howard Beale IV
Now that’s how you do playoff football, dammit.
ruemara
@Big Picture Pathologist: You’re not, Mem, has it correct, but it’s good of you to ask.
Corner Stone
Reggie Bush off the block by Tate!
Howard Beale IV
Touchdown Detroit.
Be still my heart.
JordanRules
Nice run Reggie
Corner Stone
I’m sorry, Steepman. But I am absolutely unable to resist the video game commercials by Kate Upton.
Yes, Ms. Upton, I will be your hero.
raven
@Howard Beale IV: I couldn’t figure out why you guys were ahead of me? Then I realized a friend came by with his little girl to thank us for a xmas gift and I paused it!! Duh.
Howard Beale IV
If the Lions hold there’s gonna be some serious bookie blood.
JPL
I googled Huckabee pardons and hit the news section of google. Breitbart an article and so does wtop . I didn’t click on to read the articles but expect the dems to be blamed. The Bushes like to keep their hands clean.
Corner Stone
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome TE?
KG
@Corner Stone: eh, I just don’t think people like working with (in your words) “full-on jerk assholes” even if you’re winning and being paid well. I mean, reading this profile again, all I can think is I wouldn’t want to play for him.
And to answer your question of who they’ll hire – probably the wrong guy, since they’ve apparently already met with Rex Ryan.
Corner Stone
Down goes Romo! Down goes Romo!
Howard Beale IV
Chris Jones gotta good leg.
Howard Beale IV
Lions just eat up the clock like its a gazelle kill.
rikyrah
Pope Francis names 20 new cardinals, a majority of them from Africa, Asia and Latin America
Pope names 20 cardinals, emphasising non-Europeans
2 hours ago
Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis on Sunday named 20 new cardinals, a majority of them from Africa, Asia and Latin America, increasingly key areas as the Roman Catholic Church’s support shifts from its traditional European stronghold.
Fifteen of the new cardinals — considered “princes of the church” — are under the age of 80, meaning they are eligible to join the conclave which will elect the pope’s successor.
In announcing the new voting cardinals, Pope Francis said they come “from 14 countries from every continent (and) manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome” and churches around the world.
The list of newly named cardinals includes three from Africa, five from Latin America as well as a combined total of five from Asia and the Pacific.
With the naming of Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga, he becomes the first cardinal from the Polynesian archipelago. At 53, he will also be the youngest.
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-names-20-cardinals-including-africans-latin-americans-150054244.html;_ylt=AwrBJR77kqlUQXoA.qTQtDMD
Corner Stone
Matt Stafford just looks like the frat boy carrying the ping pong ball between his butt cheeks, trying to make it to the shot glass at the end of the course.
raven
@Corner Stone: I have to give up.
Howard Beale IV
Ewwww. Chris Christie and Tommy Lasorda are at the DAL/DET game.
Howard Beale IV
Romo goes down again
Corner Stone
Don’t be pissed about that shorthop, Romo. That’s classic playoff Romo.
Mike E
Oh, it’s feeling like that Germany v Brazil cup blowout…Romo’s back is toast.
Texas tears are delicious.
Corner Stone
@Mike E: Don’t jinx it, you fool!
Howard Beale IV
@Corner Stone: No shit. Especially against the Lions.
Mike E
@Corner Stone: I am history’s worst monster!
Howard Beale IV
Awwww, fuck.
PaulW
@Bobby Thomson:
I find that Barber’s methodology works. I’ve looked at various others – I’m currently re-reading “Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House” by Rubenzer and Faschingbauer – and Barber’s just seems easier to classify the types. The biggest problem with Barber is how the pundits – George Will, John Dean come to mind – keep mis-reading Barber’s definitions of “Active-Passive” and “Positive-Negative.”
JPL
Well that was disappointing.
Betty.. If you are around you could put up a football post..
KG
@rikyrah: the big question will be whether the new Cardinals are more like Francis or Benedict and JPII
Howard Beale IV
Since 1984, when trailing by 10+ point at halftime, the Cowboys are 8-71.
Mike E
After that Custer quip in the pregame show, I bet they took away Terry Bradshaw’s mic away.
Corner Stone
Fuck.
Howard Beale IV
@Corner Stone: Ah-yep.
Corner Stone
Fuck you, Detroit. How are you gonna let these fucking stump hole motherfuckers back in this goddamn game.
Steeplejack (tablet)
How do you go out of the game with “dehydration” in a sport where there are rampant substitutions and minions standing around ready to squirt water/Gatorade in your grille at any moment?!
raven
Typical fucking Detroit cheapshot.
Corner Stone
Good Fucking Christ.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): BY being dehydrated.
Many conditions may cause rapid and continued fluid losses and lead to dehydration:
Fever, heat exposure, and too much exercise
Vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination due to infection
Diseases such as diabetes
The inability to seek appropriate water and food (as in the case of a disabled person)
An impaired ability to drink (for instance, someone in a coma or on a respirator)
No access to safe drinking water
Significant injuries to skin, such as burns or mouth sores, or severe skin diseases or infections (water is lost through the damaged skin)
Corner Stone
Did someone murder Calvin Johnson?
Corner Stone
The Ghost of Calvin Johnson!
Howard Beale IV
Just grind it out and score, dammit.
Corner Stone
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?!
Mike E
Jerry Jones buys a call.
Corner Stone
I’d have a few fucking words for the ref also. Fuck that fucking guy. Fuck you, asshole.
raven
Los Choke El Grande!!!!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
Thank you, Captain fucking Obvious. Of the conditions you listed, the only one that would seem to apply in the middle of this football game is “too much exercise.” Maybe vomiting. Certainly not heat exposure in this game. And I think we can rule out diabetes, skin diseases and disabled persons.
Corner Stone
A 10 yard punt?
This is laughable at this point.
Howard Beale IV
@Corner Stone: OMFG.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): hahaha
Corner Stone
It’s fucking face guarding! You can’t not turn to the ball and play pass defense!
You can’t pick that flag up. You just can’t.
Corner Stone
A 10 yard punt? Is Rahim Moore playing punter for the Lions?
Mike E
Nice hatchet job by Lara Logan on 60 Mins piece about Afghanistan, just posing a series of statements without asking the Gen a question…even the video framing shot of the new Afghani president is skewed. She really has gone off the deep end.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, that was a bullshit un-call.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): How’d ya like that one???
Corner Stone
FUCK YOU!! GO FUCK YOURSELF! FUCK YOU, COCKSUCKER!
Mike E
@Steeplejack (tablet): Yeah, mebbe the water/gatorade they’re getting isn’t enough. Erin Andrews reported that the conditions on the playing surface were “quite warm”. Some of the athletes were getting over colds/flu.
You’re welcome!
Corner Stone
What, no flag?
raven
D HOLDING!!!!!!
Corner Stone
This is fucking pathetic.
raven
Pound the rock, don’t give them a second!!
Corner Stone
Holy crap, they can actually call something on Dallas.
raven
Too much time.
Corner Stone
Not going to call the holding, I guess.
Howard Beale IV
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
raven
1st down Lions.
Corner Stone
This is hilarious. Too fucking funny.
Mike E
Leon Lett lives!!
raven
NuhNNNNa NUH
raven
What the fuck does fat boy have to do with this?
Corner Stone
Ahhh, Chris Christie dancing in the owners box. Perfect.
raven
Mike E
welp…this makes for some more decent games next week, if Carolina has any chance in Seattle…
Corner Stone
@Mike E:
God, you’re going to jinx Seattle now, too?
hoodie
Christie givingJerry fucking Jones a reacharound after a Dallas win. Geez, he is fucking desperate.
Roger Moore
@raven:
He’s in the Dallas owner’s box. My guess is that he’s a front-running asshole, which is the usual reason for people who aren’t from the Cowboys’ attendance area to be fans.
Tree With Water
I did not have a dog in the fight. Admittedly, I do not- repeat not- like the Cowboys. But Detroit got hosed by the refs today, to the degree that law enforcement should look into that pass interference un-call. My initial reaction is that it’s much more than a blown call. It was beyond inexcusable.
Mike E
@Corner Stone: Embrace the Dark Side!
Hildebrand
This tape should prove more damaging to Christie’s prospects for 2016 than the bridge scandal…and will ruin my appetite forever.
Jerry Jones, Chris Christie Share Intimate Moment of Ecstasy
raven
@Roger Moore: Yea, I goggled them after I posted that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: You mentioned Superbowl XII earlier, my roommate in college’s BIL played in that game(Cowboys). I even seen da ring.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Hildebrand: What? They’re rollin’ E?
Corner Stone
Detroit didn’t score a point in the 4th. Had 3 points in the 2nd and 3 in the 3rd.
Just ridiculous.
catclub
I thought that the next in line for the GOP was Santorum, who held on till the end against Romney in 2012. He also wond Iowa, but we did not learn that fact for about three months.
There were two problems for Huckabee: 1. the pardons, but 2. he raised taxes and the big money of the GOP was dead set against him. He won states in 2008 and then could raise no money. Has that changed?
I still think Cruz is the united Far rightwingnut savior. He will unite them more than they were in 2008 or 2012. PLus Jebmentum will not catch on with the GOP primary voters.
Hoping for injuries.
mclaren
@Mike J:
What evidence is there that Huckabee made “phenomenally bad decisions” in pardoning anyone?
By sheer statistics, you’d expect 2 out of 1000 people pardoned or early-released to commit further crimes. That’s inevitable when you pardon or reduce the sentences of large numbers of violent felons.
What I’d like to know is: how many of the other people Huckabee pardoned committed violent crimes? If only 2 committed such crimes, then 1 out of 500, or 0.5% of the people Huckabee pardoned, went on to commit further violent crimes. Do you call that a bad record? I don’t.
Turn it around. 99.5% of the people Huckabee pardoned didn’t go on to commit further violent crimes, assuming only those 2 did. How is that bad?
What the commenters seem to be edging toward is the crazy conclusion that any governor who pardons or reduces the sentences of any violent felon becomes automatically responsible if any felon commits further violent crimes.
Let’s think about that for a moment.
Logically, this means that no governer should ever pardon anyone. After all, there’s some finite probability that this prison inmate will go on to commit further crimes.
But we must go further, since if our goal is to prevent inmates from committing further violent crimes, the surest way is to lock all prison inmates up for life so that they die in prison.
Are you people thinking about you’re saying here?
This is really the logic you want to use? Lock up all prison inmates forever until they die? No parole? No early release? No commuted sentences?
And we can go even further. The best way to avoid having inmates commit violent crimes while in prison is obviously to kill all the inmates. A dead inmates can’t murder a prison guard, right? So logically, what this line of reasoning leads to is that anyone who gets convicted and sentenced to prison should really be shot in the head. This saves lots of taxpayer money and keeps the public as well as the prison guards safe.
At this point, it should be clear just how crazy your thinking is.
The goal of prison is not to keep society safe. If it was, prisoners would never be released — would never be imprisoned, in fact, but just shot after being convicted.
If public safety if your main concern, a prison system shouldn’t exist at all. Just shoot everyone convicted of a crime in the head.
Clearly sentencing people to prison or commuting their sentences or paroling them is not about public safety.
Ruckus
@Mike J:
This.
We talk about over the top sentences for blacks, men especially and many have suggested that governors could commute their sentences. Huckster did that. He was horrible at it and apparently did it for all the wrong reasons and using idiotic rational for selection but was that better than say TX that executes so many and celebrates doing so?
Now on the other hand if that’s the best that can be said of him, and I think it is, then I’d make a dramatically better president. Along those lines, my dog would have made a better president.
mclaren
@catclub:
Not sure about that. Ted Cruz is widely hated for the stew he got Republicans in by threatening the government shutdown and forcing all the senators to come back from their funraising trips.
Jeb Bush has got gobs ‘o cash and all that CIA blackmail amassed by George H.W. to run on. Can you imagine the dirt George H.W. must’ve amassed on people in Washington when he ran the CIA in the 1970s? I’ll bet half the beltway powerbrokers’ children are still paying George H.W. to deep-six those telephoto-lens pics of their parents with farm animals or snorting Peruvian marching powder off a mirror-topped table.
That’s real power.
J. Edgar Hoover was said to have three filing cabnets full of dirt on every important person in Washington, and Hoover was just the FBI director. George H.W. ran the biggest spy agency on earth. I’m guessing the Bush family uses recordings of Washington powerbrokers phoning up for hookers as ringtones. The Bush family members probably send each video clips of George Will in bed with an underage boy as gag gifts on Christmas.
mclaren
@Ruckus:
But do we know for a fact that Huckabee was horrible at pardoning prison inmates? Does anyone have a total of the number of pardoned inmates who committed crimes as opposed to those who didn’t?
Let’s have the data, please. Run the numbers. Until then, we can’t judge.
mclaren
@Mike E:
Eh? In what sense was that a hatchet job?
Logan seems to be skirting around a very simple basic question: why the fuck is America still in Afghanistan after 13 years of total failure?
Why is that a “hatchet job”? How is that “going off the deep end”?
Logan points out that the American people are ignoring Afghanistan and have no interest in it. Why should they? What vital American interest does a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan serve?
America laughed and laughed when Russia bled itself dry in Afghanistan without accomplishing anything. Now foolish America is doing the same thing, only this time, to itself. Why shouldn’t 60 minutes producers and 60 minutes correspondents start asking tough questions about this 13-year-long quagmire?
rikyrah
@Howard Beale IV:
LMBAO!!
Ruckus
@ruemara:
Going to ask a question here along the same lines of using language that’s OK from some perspective, but certainly not mine. At the VA a few weeks ago had an almost hour long conversation with a black vet just a few yrs younger than me. We discussed a lot of subjects and work came up. He said he was retired while his wife still worked and he had taken up the job of house nigger. He was pretty careful to make sure I was the only one who heard him say it but it made me uncomfortable. I understood his meaning very well both from context and from knowing a few black men over the years. IOW, I’ve heard this before. But I haven’t heard the term in decades (one reason for giving his age) and I wondered if it was because of his age. A few decades ago it would have seemed normal in the type of conversation we were having. I hope that kind of usage and idea has gone away, I thought it had. BTW I don’t feel he was using it to convey subservience at all just to use the fewest words to get an idea across.
Gvg
@mclaren: Speculating about how Republican primary voters will react is not the same thing as thinking they are right.
as a matter of fact I have thought over the years that our voters have made it a no win situation on pardons for both Govenors and 1st term Presidents to pardon anybody. It is not just republican voters that tend to judge pardoned criminals subsequent actions harshly tho they tend to react worse. we voters are responsible for some kinds of timid ness in politicians. On the other hand we can be cynical here about the masses without thinking it’s good.
I do recall one of Hillary’s comments about a black man couldn’t win the presidency didn’t offend me as much as others because watching her, I thought she was just being cynical about voters that time. I also knew she was wrong but wouldn’t have been about 10 years before. she made other comments that went to far but for that one I just thought older Dems had lost too many elections in prior years…
Reforming the prison system seems impossible because we voters aren’t going to actually support it. it is pretty discouraging.
I recall earlier articles I read about Huckabees pardons that said he was gullible about prisoners who claimed to have found Jesus. In some ways I think that means his religious belief is real not a put on. I think his understanding is wrong, but I don’t think that part is fake. Of course that was years ago so I don’t know if it would still be true anyway.
catclub
@Gvg:
Maybe it is just me, but I think someone who has really found Jesus might say that they should do the time, rather than be pardoned. O)n the third hand, maybe the best way to be pardoned is to say that oneself does deserve to do the time, and then get pardoned for being sincerely repentant. Complicated.
Gvg
@catclub: Not what I understand to be the Christian point of view. If they really did sincerely repent, then their was no point or virtue in doing prison time. If Huck or any sincere Christian doubted them, then they would be doubting an important truth of their religion as understood by the sincere good hearted people of the Christian community. In other words he would be attacked as a hypocrit if he didn’t believe their conversion.
I can’t think of any reason the converted would be expected to want to serve their term.
this was awhile back, and since then it looks to me like the good hearted mainstream Christian I swear used to seem numerous, has died out and been replaced with people who cheer when they hear of someone dying due to lack of health insurance.
when I was growing up being Christian meant feeding the poor and being nice not the worship of money.
SWMBO
@hoodie: Which one?
Chris
@PaulW:
He’s popular within a specific subset of the conservative base – e.g. the religious fundamentalists for whom the religious fundamentalism really does mean something. He’s popular among people for whom abortion or gay rights are the hill to die on, but he’s got serious issues with his SoCon cred in other places. Not only is he vulnerable to attacks that he’s “soft on crime” because of the pardons (as other people here have said), but I’ve also heard several conservatives dismiss him as “soft on immigration” for having said nice things about Hispanics. (Christ, he’s actually said that Hispanic immigration gave America a chance to prove it’s not racist by accepting them – all his opponents need to do is run that add, which the SoCons WILL take as a slap in the face, because “DON’T CALL US RAAAACIST! HOW DARE YOU CALL US RAAACIST!”)
So Huckabee’s a mixed bag as far as the conservative base is concerned. He might muddle through with enough elite support and financing, but here’s the thing: Wall Street doesn’t like him either. He’s said a few things about “Wall Street versus Main Street” apparently which they, in the current climate, are hypersensitive to – they don’t want to take any chances of ending up with another William Jennings Bryan on their hands. So he won’t have their support either.
With that much skepticism from both the elites and the base, I don’t think he’s going anywhere.
Plus, in a Republican Party that’s worked so hard in the last twenty years to enforce uniformity, it shouldn’t be that hard to find candidates who have Huckabee’s religious cred (maybe not to the same extent, but have all the right stances) without sharing his “soft on crime,” “soft on Hispanics,” and “potentially not a friend of Wall Street” baggage.
(And also, too, call me a cynic, but I think “tough on crime” sadism and “tough on immigration” racism actually go farther in firing up the conservative base than any religious idealism in the first place. Much of the point of the religious right was simply to give the old segregationist bloc a flimsy makeover to hide behind, anyway).