Romney confidant Ron Kaufman says he's "sad for my kids, my grandkids, and my country.” "I leave for Israel tomorrow. I may not come back.”
— Matt Viser (@mviser) January 30, 2015
One suspects he’ll recover, somehow [warning: Politico link]:
… The Republican made his name in politics working for George H.W. Bush in the 1980 presidential campaign. He was, in the parlance of Bushworld, “With Bush Before Iowa,” meaning he was on board before the long shot even won the 1980 caucuses. Kaufman went on to serve as political director in the Bush 41 White House and has remained close email buddies with the former president. He’s deeply involved in Bush’s presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M.
In recent years, he has mixed rainmaking lobbying with his RNC work, fundraising and Romney advocacy. When Romney was the Massachusetts governor, Kaufman effectively served as his liaison to Republican Washington. As early as 2005, Kaufman was squiring the governor around the capital and helping him secure support for an eventual White House bid…
More proof the GOP establishment really is the Bush Family. They just put a cap in the Zomney and his minions in broad daylight.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) January 30, 2015
Mitt also talked about new/next generation of GOP leaders producing the nominee. He will be the Waldorf/Statler of the Jeb campaign
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 30, 2015
As Driftglass would say: There’s a club; you’re not in it.
Wag
The GOP will eat itself.
I’ll supply the ketchup
srv
Real Leadership for Real Americans. Rigth To Whine.
gordon schumway
I think Romney might be strategically waiting out the ear
ly primaries and caucuses, letting the clowns snipe at each other instead of him , then riding in to save the day…
It would be irresponsible not to speculate!
West of the Cascades
Fuck these people with the sharpest and longest stick available. +6
Joseph Nobles
I believe the club line came from George Carlin, though Driftglass would be the first to acknowledge that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJeFrqBJF6E
Violet
Some pundit type on the Diane Rehm show today, which was on air as the Mittens announcement happened, said it would be Jeb and Hillary. Diane Rehm said, “You’re ready to call the 2016 candidates now?” and he wouldn’t say a definitive yes, but then essentially said yes. The Village has already decided.
Tree With Water
“With Bush Before Iowa,” meaning he was on board before the long shot even won the 1980 caucuses”.
I wouldn’t characterize Bush as being a particular long shot. If anyone was ever groomed for that office, and groomed for it deep in the heart of Texas, it was former CIA director Bush by 1980.
fuckwit
@Violet: And the electorate yawns, and will continue to yawn for several years. Like I said, with old dynasty versus not-so-old dynasty, turnout could be the worst ever, which is a really bad thing for Democrats. That’s what the situation is if we end up with Bush vs. Clinton.
The Congress is what really worries me. We need somone to run not just a campaign but a MOVEMENT to sweep the Democrats back into the House and Senate.
I think we’re doomed unless Hillary can bring out young women to vote in huge, unprecedented, never-seen-before numbers. And maybe she will; I can only hope.
Little Boots
oh good lord, with the may move to israel thing.
do you have to be the ultimate republican caricature?
Little Boots
@Little Boots:
well, other than mittens himself.
piratedan
@Violet: well in all honesty, The Village anointed Hillary in 2008 too, so while they are plugged into the GOP (after all, what group of henchmen don’t know what their master’s desires are?) the Dems, well are people that actually vote their own consciences… hence how Obama won the nom and the Presidency thanks to a better message, better organization. I get the distinct impression while HRC may run, so may a few others, like Gillibrand or O’Malley who would build upon Obama’s legacy, not distance themselves from it and that may actually play with a LOT of Dem voters, which is a concept so foreign to the village as to be seen as otherworldly.
Little Boots
@piratedan:
elizabeth warren is not, not, not running. let us all deal with the pain. have we dealt? okay, it is hillary. it just is.
piratedan
@Little Boots: respectfully disagree, and if it is, that’s fine, I’ll vote for her, but Dems get funny when you tell them that things are over and done before a single ballot has been cast
lgerard
So long to the new “Middle Class” Mitt
we hardly knew ya
Little Boots
@piratedan:
yeah, nothing is over until it’s over, but warren is not running. and bernie will not get nominated. it’s a thing. but in fairness, she seemed inevitable in 2008 and then not so much, so who knows. but if you have to guess, yeah, hillary 2016
Phylllis
@srv: From Huckleberry’s email announcement (how I got on his email list, I have no clue):
I have begun the process to ‘test the waters’ for a potential 2016 run for President of the United States.
We have established a new political organization, called Security Through Strength, that will allow me to travel the country listening to Americans’ concerns and gauge support for a potential presidential candidacy.
mdblanche
@srv: @Phylllis: Lindsey Graham is the answer to a question nobody asked.
piratedan
@mdblanche: the question has always been, how many GOP senators does John McCain have surgically attached to his ass?
Little Boots
@mdblanche:
heh.
mdblanche
@piratedan: Two; Graham and Ayotte. The rest of them can’t stand McCain any more than we can.
@Little Boots: heh indeed.
wasabi gasp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Z_hskvz1M
Frankensteinbeck
The whole point of the elite deciding things among themselves is… that they decide things among themselves. Just because Romney wasn’t picked doesn’t mean he wasn’t in consideration. There’s no need for the Bush family to be all-powerful Chosen Ones. The field of even semi-competent candidates is small, and Jeb is the obvious choice. Romney lost to Obama. The only question was whether even his friends could penetrate his titanic MBA ego and convince him it’s over.
@piratedan:
It was Hillary/Guiliani. Nobody else need apply, sewn up, done. Turned out, not so much.
EDIT – Hell, it was ‘Obama? Is that guy running? You’re kidding, right?’
SRW1
@Phylllis:
So, The Huck actually is planning to make Muslim-bashing the cornerstone of his campaign and he’s pretty much in. Bobby Jindal is still sitting on the sideline, sees his lunch box raided and has a sad.
Hal
I think if you look at the various sure thing predictions of the pas on the right; Giuliani, Newt, Santorum, you see where they were fundamentally flawed. Lack of actual support, appeal, money etc.
HRC was the obvious pick out of all those contestants on the Dem side until Obama won Iowa. That momentum carried him to the nomination, but it’s not like Hillary, unlike her GOP also ran counterparts, barely received any support or votes. Obama and Hillary were neck and neck and if Michigan and Florida had just had their regular primaries, who knows? Hillary as the most likely nominee makes sense unless there is another Obama.
The momentum behind another historic run, the wariness of another Bush in the white house (if it is Jeb) combined with the lack, at least right now, of anyone who seems to be White House ready on the Dem side is all in Hillary’s favor.
Simply saying “that’s what they said in 08” is ignoring the actual 08 events that led to Obama and not Hillary. Those events are not in play this time around. If anything, I’m more worried about screw ups once HRC is the nominee as opposed to her screwing up getting the nomination in the first place.
Keith G
@Violet:
Well shit, what are they going think…..O’Malley vs Huckabee?
Most of us feel the same way…Hils vs Jeb. Not much of a decision there. At least the other side has the makings of a contest of ideas (poor as most of their ideas are).
FWIW…Christy might well make a show of it. I view him as a streak player. Good chance he will spectacularly flame out and an equal chance he will put together a run that leaves him in a very good position to be there at the end. A Christy vs. Hils campaign would worry me more than one with Jeb.
sm*t cl*de
Am I a bad person for reading these things and automatically translating them back to the original German?
Another Holocene Human
@fuckwit: Hilary exciting anyone of any gender age below 40: assuming facts not in evidence
Another Holocene Human
@Little Boots: I don’t think Bernie is running. We haven’t heard a peep since he floated the idea. He’s a senator from a small, poor (but scrappy) state. Where’s the money coming from?
SRW1
@sm*t cl*de:
Kraft durch Freude?
Another Holocene Human
On second reading, Kaufman’s statement sounds like a classic flounce. Oh you’ll be sorry. You’ll come crawling back to me on your hands and knees when everything is burning to the ground because then you’ll realize that I was right.
The thing about flounces is, they never stick the flounce.
Another Holocene Human
@SRW1: Dammit, beat me to it.
Another Holocene Human
@Frankensteinbeck:
There was an Anybody But Hilary vote in 2008 and Obama played it to the hilt. He didn’t vote for the Iraq war (little detail that he wasn’t a senator at the time, of course) and some of us loved him for it.
Okay, to be fair, I had read his book, but his firm stance against the stupid drew me in, I will admit. For whatever reason I never really warmed up to Edwards, didn’t see through him, didn’t fall for him, but it is amazing to look around and see who did.
mai naem mobile
I.know its not going to happen but i would love to see the shock on everybody’s face if HRC decided not to run. Also, I’ve never paid that much attention to Jeb!. Even being a Bush, isn’t he kind of out of practice for running in an election and he really doesn’t come across as having much charisma. I keep on thinking the GOP.nominee will be somebody who is not actively being thought of currently like Brian Sandoval or Suzanna Martinez or some other governor/former military???
Another Holocene Human
One of my biggest reasons to be ABH back in 2008 was that I had hated all the RW drama around the Clintons and I felt Bill was a little sleazy, and I just didn’t want to go through the misogynist right wing Hilary hatefest. Once Bill and Hillz started showing out in the primaries I felt even more strongly about that.
Boy was I naive.
I also though Hilary’s vote on the war authorization was cowardly and I never cared for her associations with content censorship in the 1990s (Tipper’s music crusade made me wary of Gore but not so wary I didn’t vote for him, fuck Nader).
You know how I feel about the misogynistic bilge today? Bring it on, head rolling, tongue lolling, demonically posessed rug-chewin’, leg-stompin’, mouth-frothin’ ragebeasts. Your derangement amuses me.
Tokyokie
The Koch Brothers and those who joined them at last weekend’s plutocratpalooza are not going to drop nearly a billion dollars into the campaign coffers of somebody they think is a lost cause. The Bush family maystill have the clout to be able to sway the Villagers to their side, but the Koch family represents the 0.001%, and that’s where the power really is. Jebbie didn’t feel the need to supplicate before them, and they won’t feel the need to support him. Rubio topped the informal straw poll Frank Lutz organized, but his initial apostasy on immigration will doom him, and Rand Paul finished last, so he’s probably burnt toast as well. Which leaves the Nixonian Scott Walker and the McCarthyesq Ted Cruz, two Gumby candidates whose thirst for power will allow them to be bent into whatever shape pleases their patrons. (Walker and Cruz were also the only two to make the Kochs’ tête-à-tête as well as Steve King’s pig-kissing contest last weekend, so they’re willing to play for the king and the rabble.)
And maybe, just maybe, once a few of the more sentient members of the Villagers realize that the fucking Bush family isn’t sufficiently well-heeled to compete with the Kochs, they’ll figure out that the Citizens United ruling has greatly accelerated the country’s descent into a plutocracy in which even their influence counts for little.
Kay
@fuckwit:
Bush is the best pick for Hillary. It’s a choice between two. She’s the less conventional of the two “insider” candidates.
To me, it’s like 2012’s; “Obama won’t win because he’s below 50% in polls”. Except the person on the other side matters :)
I think she wins Bush v Hillary unless she affirmatively blows it, which she might do.
mai naem mobile
@Another Holocene Human: I fell for Edwards. I thought Bills Monica crap and closeness.to Wall Street would lose the general and i didn’t think this country would vote for a black guy because of racism. I felt as stupid as falling for Gary.Hart who,well,looked lile a movie president.
Kay
@Hal:
Me too. I’m sort of dreading the announcement. I just don’t think we can overestimate what a big deal her campaign will make out of it. More planned and elaborate and over-thought than we can possibly imagine :)
She should just stop listening to 1/2 of the people who are advising her, right now. Just make a list and line-thru 1/2 the names before it gets out of hand :)
mai naem mobile
@Kay: Hillary definitely has the more compelling life story. Middle class girl gets to elite school, graduates top of class, works on Nixon impeachment committee, wife of governor, FLOTUS, Senator, losing nomination, SOS. You couldn’t write a movie script like this and be taken seriously. Bush – rich boy, married light brown chick, still stayed rich.
Zinsky
Two years ago I told my wife, “watch the Republicans run Jeb Bush in 2016 and watch him win”. I stand by that prediction. The smear campaign against Hillary will be the most vicious we have seen in American history – her age, her eyesight, allegations of lesbianism, Vince Foster will rise from the grave, Cattlegate, Benghazi, Monica and on and on and on. And it will work. To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, no one ever lost money betting on the stupidity, short-sightedness or apathy of the American people. Then the only question becomes when to get out? Before America turns into a fetid Republican swamp with endless gun violence, no social programs and lucre for the rich and crumbs for everyone else…
Bystander
Frum (rhymes with…) was warning everyone that HRC is “scandal rich” yesterday, and Alex Wagner couldn’t find it in herself to ask just what scandals he was referring to. So we can expect murky retellings of Whitewater with an emphasis on blow jobs and a sidestep as to the results and cost of the investigation. Bush’s wife’s smuggling French couture and tax evasion, probably not. As a brown one, she’ll be viewed as Jebula’s Burden, ennobling his patrician brow.
That said, Obama was the breath of fresh air that so many Dems wanted. Don’t think anything’s blowing behind HRC this time, so I can get enthusiastic. Especially in view of the potential of living in a world governed by President Huckleberry and David Duke’s proxy.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
I think it’s a bad year for the “wonky” Bush brother. George W. would be better. But he was a good candidate. He’s a good politician. Bad President, good politician.
Clinton was a good populist candidate in Ohio vs Obama. She beat him soundly, and it’s not “a real populist” or “the best populist in the country” in Bush v Hillary-it’s a choice of two.
I think “economic insecurity” as a center theme (which is what I think it will be about) actually benefits a known quantity like Hillary. Obama led with economic insecurity in his SOTU. That’s Democrat’s strongest hand. Huckabee is actually using the word “security” and he’s a good politician and what passes for a populist on the Right.
raven
This is, by far, the most serious Saturday morning thread EVAH!
Baud
Is Newsmax trying to get itself back on the website?
Marc
@Zinsky:
You and Ron Kaufman should form a club.
Please hold your meetings in some other country.
chopper
@Little Boots:
I love when goopers threaten to move to Israel, the socialist land of sky-high taxes and universal healthcare.
vhh
@SRW1: I think that “Sicherheit durch Kraft” captures it better.
Buffalo Rude
@chopper:
It reminds me of the “I’m moving to Canada” canard from the Shrub years.
MazeDancer
A Biden/Gillibrand ticket would be mighty fine.
Upbeat, fun, smart, likeable.
Right now Hillary is as beloved as she is ever going to be. She can use her power for whatever she wants that is innovative and world-changing that doesn’t require the rest of the country to be reminded of the sinkhole of self-absorption and bad advisors the Clintons can be. She can bask in the glory of her accomplishments and add to them, shining her legacy.
That will all go away during any campaign.
The vast right wing conspiracy has limitless money and the press in their pockets, a press that will seek the scum and trash talk. People do not love Hillary enough to suffer all the months of attack. It will exacerbate Clinton fatigue. Especially while Jeb is talking in excellent Spanish next to his lovely Hispanic wife, offering good schools – lot of people would like vouchers – and maybe some new found environmentalism, and with a not-crazy female running mate.
Jeb being a Bush may be a free ride for him not to pander to the base through the primaries in the same way as the others. He can be the “sane one”. He can lose the first contests and hang in there. The press will pump it.
Hillary is not that charismatic. She isn’t a dazzling orator. She doesn’t emotionally rally the troops. Bill can. But his doing that will also remind people why they don’t want him back in the White House.
While Hillary’s nomination may be hard to stop, her winning won’t be as guaranteed. Especially with all those Secretary’s of State in the GOP. Not to mention all the money they’ll use to prevent minority voting.
chopper
@Buffalo Rude:
More like those teatards threatening to move north to avoid Obamacare.
BruceFromOhio
@Kay @Kay:
It’s all about the messaging. Senator-Secretary Clinton has plenty of record to reference for anyone interested in what she has actually *done* in her career, so there’s plenty of anti-spin force available if the handlers or the fascists start free-lancing. There’s also risk in “you can win by not screwing it up” that can cause risk-aversion-itis, being too focused on not making mistakes rather than making good choices. Can a contest between an old white guy and an old white lady sufficiently engage the electorate? Low turnout hurts Dems, she’s got to get people to the polls.
As for the Clinton bashers that are already showing up, fuck the hell off. I’ll take the shittiest, rotten Democrat or Independent over any Republican, ever, anywhere, forever. Those two-bit soulless ratfuck criminals have no business being anywhere near anything to do with any of the branches.
(On a sidenote, I also went for Edwards early in the 2008 race, he was one of a very few pols talking to and about the people who got totally fragged in the economic meltdown. I’m a sucker for the populists, it’s that inner idealist still trying to escape into the daylight. The Clinton-Obama drama was tiresome, I was happy to vote for either, and still am)
BruceFromOhio
@MazeDancer:
Stop teasing! ;)
SRW1
@vhh:
Well, if you want to make it a literal translation, it would have to be “Sicherheit durch Staerke”, But that’s nowhere near as comical as “Kraft durch Freude”, given that KdF was an actual program with an entirely different aim: Mass recreational undertakings such as trips or the attendance of cultural events for people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford that. Of course, you had to be in good standing with the Nazis to be offered such luxuries.
kindness
Oh the humanity!
Think of Romney’s poor, poor children….Now all they have to look forward to is their millions of dollars.
Frankensteinbeck
@Zinsky:
Sharon Adelson would like to speak to you. For that matter, the Kochs blew a truly insane amount of money, literally beyond counting thanks to the secrecy PACs are allowed, trying to block Obama’s reelection. Down the drain. What they got, they got thanks to the gerrymandering of 2010. It’s not like the American people aren’t stupid, short-sighted, or apathetic, but you also can’t rely on it.
Another Holocene Human
@vhh: wouldn’t Schutz fit better? cue bitey German Shepherd
Another Holocene Human
@Buffalo Rude: Canada pulled the ladder up behind them, the bastards
and then they elected Republi-scum
I mean the party calls itself something different, but same idea
J
And whence the strength through which the security? Perhaps through joy? I don’t think Graham means to be echoing the Nazis and am sure it’s an accident, but the resemblance to their Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) did leap out.
J
@sm*t cl*de: I should have noticed that someone was ahead of me.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Buffalo Rude:
If you ignore that it’s the opposite thing.
Liberals like universal marraige, universal health care, and such.
jackalope.
pseudonymous in nc
@Zinsky:
It’s 2015. There will be voters in 2016 who were shitting themselves in cradles when the Starr Report appeared, and I don’t just mean the GOP base.
But: if there is going to be a Hillary campaign, then it needs not to be managed by retreads from the 90s or 2008. No Mark Penn. And it has to be part of a broad campaign to win back the Senate and take a chunk out of the House.
Mike in NC
GTFO, scumbag. Hey, let’s waterboard Ron a few times as a going away present since he was so close to the Bush family.
Mike G
@srv:
Everybody is sick of hearing him complain.
His “We’re all gonna die” arm-flapping vapors over ISIS should have had him laughed out of DC forever.
Full metal Wingnut
@Violet: I don’t think Jeb will be able to pull it out. He’ll look strong until early 2016 but I think Walker will come out with the nomination. A few years ago I would’ve said Walker is too rough around the edges but he’s gotten better.
Christie will do about as well as Giuliani in 08. Maybe a little better if he’s lucky. He was talked up big in 2012 and 2013 but I think his star has already flamed out.
Full metal Wingnut
@Tokyokie: What should doom Rubio is that he comes off as even dumber than if Dubya and Gov Perry somehow had a love child and then fed it lead paint chips and dropped it on its head repeatedly. I’ve never heard anything resembling an intelligent thought emanate from that cotton mouth of his.
catclub
@Tokyokie:
The money cannot go into campaign coffers. It can go into SuperPACs that do note ( heh, heh) coordinate with the campaign.
Tokyokie
@Full metal Wingnut: I never thought that stupidity was a liability among Republicans and that ignorance was considered an asset.
@catclub: If the Koch PACs put up $889M as promised last weekend, they will become the campaign.
cmorenc
@Full metal Wingnut:
Walker’s ability to consolidate a thin, but solid two to three% majority across three elections, each time against determined, well-organized and opposition, in a state like Wisconsin that historically has tended to have at least a mildly progressive lean – could make him the most formidable of all the GOP candidates in the general election, if he somehow wins the nomination over Jeb et.al. Yes, he’s a Nixonian sleaze-bag, but he’s proven his ability to channel and appeal to enough of the sort of blue-collar and middle-class voters who should more naturally lean democratic. And the Koch Bros. have already demonstrated in these previous elections that he’s their sort of guy they’re willing to pour whatever support it takes for him to win, and he’s already demonstrated his enthusiastic willingness to govern by implementing their agenda.
True, Walker’s maximum upside potential win margin is only low single digits – but he’s repeatedly demonstrated his ability to consistently win over and turn out that extra margin – and a one percent (or less) win is enough for the Koches and GOP to regard that as enough of a mandate to implement extreme, radical, fundamental structural change in government (or, mis-government) by and for the 0.01%.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Buffalo Rude: Socialists moving to a socialist country verses Libertarians moving to a socialist country to escape socialism. Can you see the difference here Buffalo?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@cmorenc: what makes you think Walker can do that? Mittens got an historically high white vote and it did him no good. The only way Walker can get get the margin is to appeal to a minority vote like GW Bush did with the Hispanics and it’s hard to see how that will happen with Walker’s message of “the socialists are talking your socialism away and giving it to the browns”
VincentN
I think the biggest problem is that if Hillary looks ‘inevitable’ then a lot of Democrats might not bother to vote because they’ll think she’s got it in the bag or won’t be an enthusiastic as they otherwise would be if the election was a close one. Also, she’s not exactly the symbol of “hope and change.”
One hopes that the opportunity to vote for the first woman president might be enough to motivate our side to get out and vote. I worry that it might not be.