Michael Steele is on my tv and is telling me that Republicans are done apologizing and that now they are done being nice and that the honeymoon is over and they are going to go after Obama, which makes me wonder what exactly have they been doing for the past two years? Playing footsie? It has been nothing but vicious smears and insanity since he has been on the national scene.
This new Republican approach of attacking the opposition should be entertaining.
Also, he has used the phrase “We are going to speak truth to power” twice in front of the RNC. Does he have any idea where he is?
And is no one in the Republican party capable of giving a speech?
And can none of these immature pricks say “DEMOCRATIC?” What is wrong with these people? Are they all twelve?
*** Update ***
Oh for chrissakes. This is so absurd I fully expect him to paint his face blue and go the full Braveheart. Did you wingnuts find some numbers to put in your budget yet?
The Grand Panjandrum
Little unclear as to who “him” might be. Obama?
JenJen
Oh, for sure. No more Mister Nice Guy from the Republicans. Gloves Off! We’re gonna do it with dignity and class, though, unlike the way the Democrat Party attacks us. OK?
It is puzzling to me that they now think, apparently, that the central problem the GOP is having is that they haven’t been shitty enough to the popular President, yet? Guess so.
Are they adopting the platform today, is that what’s going on?
Steele just said “Obama’s Reign of Error” and he paused, and he seemed super-proud of his new catch-phrase. This is gonna be interesting!!
me
Yup.
Bill Teefy
How far are we away from the beret, power fist, and calling Democrat, “THE MAN!”???
MTmofo
Steele crapped out a column to Politico at 9pm last night
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22687.html
InflatableCommenter
My favorite line so far is that the Obama administration has presided over the loss of 2.5 million jobs this year.
It’s hard to drink tea and listen to this without spraying the beverage all over the front of the tv at a line like that.
opium4themasses
@Bill Teefy: They already have that of their sort. They typically choose hood, noose, and fascist/gungrabber/FEMA trucks respectively.
Michael
~cackle~
One of the main gripes in Wingnutopia has been that “them goldurn librul homersectural RINO sellouts” don’t call out “them anti-‘Murkan demomarxist libruls” at every chance they can get.
The theory is that if average voters hear some fat, ignorant, bad tempered, foul-mouthed, racist Southern gun owner vent on a constant basis, the average voters will say to themselves “wow, these guys are impassioned and sound pretty good – I believe in their agenda, and will vote accordingly”.
Michael Steele is just giving those critics what they want to hear. Chances are real high that the “rebranding” vote will be to call the Democratic Party the “Democrat Soc!alist Marxist Muslim Atheist Wall Streeter Baby Killing Yankee California Fruitcake Party”.
Nellcote
“3rd turning point”? Doesn’t that mean they’re going in circles?
dbrown
I am sure that getting all the house repub-a-thug members to vote no on all Obama’s initiatives was their way of showing their love and attempts to ‘work’ with Obama for America’s good. Of course the three moderates in the Senate that refused to show their repug-a-thug love will now be dealt with – one has already seen the handwriting on the wall and as any good rat, has jumped ship. The other two will be lynched as needed by Steele (poor attempt at irony here.)
zzyzx
My question is why do the Red State writers think that the Democrats love Reed and Pelosi? They keep trying to attack them thinking that we’ll get all pissed off and still haven’t caught on that we’re fine with them being replaced if that’s the best course for the party and/or the country.
JenJen
@John Cole, top: Did you ever see that Hardball from a few months back, where Tweety rips Darrell Issa for using the term “the Democrat Party”? He did such a thorough shredding that for awhile afterward, I didn’t hear it at all from the usual suspects. But I see it is making a triumphant return, which Steele seems to be annointing right now on the teevee.
It’s part and parcel of the “To Piss Off Liberals” strategy, right? Do you have any insight into why they think it is particularly effective? I’ve always wondered why they get such smug satisfaction from it, you know?
Steele is wrapping up, namedropping Burke, Buckley and Reagan. That speech was some weak-ass tea, if you ask me.
sleestak
“This change, my friends, is being delivered in a teabag. And that’s a wonderful thing”.
Huge win. Huge.
joeyess
Yes.
In fact, I can’t believe you really have to ask yourself this question.
They’ve been doing this for 25 years.
Democrat Party.
They know it riles so they do it. It’s how they roll.
Twelve year olds with nukes. Kinda sends a shiver up your spine, doesn’t it?
opium4themasses
@InflatableCommenter: The equivalent of carefully balancing a broken vase on the mantle and screaming “Look what you did!” when someone inevitably knocks it over just by standing near.
cleek
The Base always wants the Party to take on the opposition. but apparently it’s only with the GOP that the Party listens. the Dem’s base shouts into the void while Reid sighs wanly and the Blue Dogs piss on the furniture. so, they’ve got that going for them. of course “going after them” probably means Newt will go on 15 talk shows per week instead of only 12.
Joe Lisboa
one has already seen the handwriting on the wall and as any good rat, has jumped ship.
Shouldn’t that be “handwringing on the wall”?
Scott H
I am trying to listen to Steele. I can put up with about anything but intellectual dishonesty. Those who have the interest and energy will parse and demolish this guy, line by line by line. Still, there have been a few phrases of unintentional hilarity.
Hunter Gathers
There is a very fine line between clever and stupid.
To say that they are all 12 year olds is an insult to 12 year olds. They all act like they are going through the terrible 2’s. Or a complete mental breakdown. This is either the funniest or saddest thing in the world. I haven’t figured out which yet. With Steele’s mid 90’s ‘street slang’, I’m leaning toward saddest.
jl
Steele gonna tour with Public Enemy?
That might be pushing him into the bigtime too soon.
Maybe better to start him out with a spot in Flavor Flav’s next reality show.
Fencedude
@zzyzx:
BECAUSE SHE’S A SUPER LIBERAL SANFRANCISCITE AND SHUT UP THATS WHY
Catsy
Link added to illustrate the unintentional hilarity in this statement.
Because name-calling on the emotional level of “I refuse to capitalize your name!” just radiates dignity and class.
BooBooBear
The strategery behnd the new (old) move is that they are of course talking to their base. Since rational people stopped listening to them the last couple of years.
The whole party is completely off its rocker. If only the media could somehow get a clue. . . if only . . . .
El Cid
Okay, up until now they’ve been holding back on the mean & crazy. Now they’ll show America how mean and crazy they can really get.
Joshua Norton
I will give ‘em this. What they lack in originality or irony, or despite having the quick-wittedness of a howler monkey, they clearly make up for it in spitefulness and thinly veiled animosity.
Yay RNC!
The Moar You Know
It’s only an insult if you let it be one. I’m a proud member of the Democrat party or whatever the fuck they want to call me; it’s still better than being one of them.
InflatableCommenter
@JenJen:
Even his audience thinks so. The polite but reluctant applause makes the thing sound even more pathetic than it already does.
Steele is so bad that even if the speech were good and inspiring, he could turn it into something weak and annoying.
How did this luzer ever get into a position like this?
The Grand Panjandrum
The stoopid reigns supreme. To dovetail on Steele and the Gang turning the page I think Larison has a pretty good take on the new Gallup poll showing the GOP might be the only entity in the universe tanking quicker than the economy. This little bit says it all:
Hey Steele! Yo! Is that the Fat Lady I hear warming up? Pretty soon the only tune you’ll hear at a GOP rally will be Dixie.
More tea anyone?
.
LD50
Especially Reed. I’d be thrilled if he stepped down. Make my day, replace him with Leahy.
The Republicans operate from a theory of blind obedience to authority figures and cults of personality. And, given how they isolate themselves from people who think different, they automatically assume the other side must be the same way.
gnomedad
This is what passes for “core principles” in the Republican party.
Joshua Norton
It’s hard to speak English correctly when all you know is fluent Hillbilly.
jon
“The Republican Party has turned a corner, and as we move forward Republicans should take a lesson from Ronald Reagan. Again, we’re not looking back – if President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward. Ronald Reagan always believed Republicans should apply our conservative principles to current and future challenges facing America. For Reagan’s conservatism to take root in the next generation we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age.”
whaaaa?
jl
Isn’t “No More Mr. Nice Guy” a Public Enemy song?
Or maybe not. I gotta go check.
Maybe that is what got me to thinking he could bust out some rhymes with Chuck D. To reach out to a new audience. Public Enemy is an olden goldie, I guess, but he could start out there, and then work down to the new generation.
Or, is that reach out plan over now?
Maybe Fonsworth Bentley would be a better match.
InflatableCommenter
Heard in the crowd on the way out the door after Steele’s speech:
LD50
I think this is MS’s bumbling way to make amends for pointing out how infantile their ‘Democrat Soçialist Party’ referendum is, dawg.
El Cid
But the Reaganauts already got Dixie. They ain’t got no other Dixie to go get.
Rey
Yeah, this really pisses me off when they do this. But according to Steele from this day forward the Repubs are gonna attack the President with class. Well start with saying Democratic- assholes.
ppcli
I read in a news article that the written speech contains this gem:
Please let him deliver this line. Please, please, please….
sleestak
Am I being overly sensitive, or do you think there was some coding in his “may God bless the Republican party and our great country” thing? Wouldn’t it usually be “The United States of America”, not “our country”? It sounds like they’re trying to word it to sound as close to saying “God bless everyone but the Democrats” without actually saying it. I realize this is a petty thing to notice, but that’s the point: with these guys, it’s probably not just my imagination. They almost certainly wrote it to sound that way. Because they think that little subtle jabs like that add up. Because they’re fucking idiots.
ppcli
Yipee! He said it. I no longer have to grope around for an example when I want to discuss self-refuting statements with my classes.
Michael
WOLVERINES!
MattF
The Republican party needs a suicide-intervention team– what it gets is Michael Steele, who is plainly part of the problem. “If the poopy-head Democrat party doesn’t go away, I’ll hold my breath and turn blue” is not a policy.
gnomedad
@El Cid:
Nutshell Award nominee.
TenguPhule
Cooincidently, the average Republican IQ dropped by about the same.
jl
Just saw this on Talkingpointsmemo blog:
05.19.09 — 1:17PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)
Check the Expiration Date
A gimmick on the RNC’s website — the “ObamaCard” — seems to be operating under the impression that Obama’s term ends in January 2012.
—
My observation:
A major political party losing track of the election cycle? That is a recipe for Fail. I guess they figure it doesn’t make any difference anymore.
Joshua Norton
Maybe he should rent “The Blair Witch Project” for ideas on how to get out of the woods they suddenly find themselves in.
Plenty of crying, runny noses, panic, fear and in the end they find themselves at the mercy of some crazed, fat-assed kiddie diddler. Again.
Martin
Well, the GOP isn’t completely lost at sea. To those who thought the credit card bill would be a tough sell, it passed the Senate 90-5. They may not be able to look sane in the spotlight, but they at least figured out one fight that wasn’t worth making (and that goes for a lot of Dems as well on this bill).
BombIranForChrist
The whole “Democratic” thing is hilarious.
I _think_ they think that this irritates Democrats, but based on my own experience, I think it just confirms to Democrats (and probably independents) that Republicans are little children incapable of governance.
Michael
Thing is, if they gave him a clear field in which to run, he could be effective at making the RNC look less white, less old, less mean and less nuts. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, but as a pleaser, will do what Al Quaeda demands that he do.
Roger Moore
@JenJen:
Of course it was. After all the teabagging, they didn’t have anything left that was worth brewing.
arguingwithsignposts
@jl:
Not just a recipe for Fail – a recipe for EPIC FAIL!
dbrown
I now understand why repug-a-thugs are so into tea bagging – they just don’t have any balls of their own and its the only way they believe they can get some.
dbrown
@TenguPhule: Woundn’t that now make them have a negative IQ?
Xenos
Someone need to do an autotune version of Steele.
Like this, if you are not familiar with it. I wish I had the skills…
zmulls
Honestly, here’s a modest proposal. The Democrats should start calling the Republicans the “Southern Conservative Party”
As in “Olympia Snowe is really out of place in the Southern Conservative Party.”
And as in “No, the Southern Conservative Party has really little in common with the Republican Party, of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and people like Colin Powell and the late Jack Kemp. Even the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan would have trouble recognizing today’s Southern Conservatives”
Or as in “No, ‘Republican’ implies a respect for a republic, and a representative form of government. The Southern Conservative party has little respect for the electoral process or elected representatives. It argues authoritanianism, and feels that fringe positions should be imposed over majority rule”
JenJen
@jl:
Sure enough!
Mousebumples
@Nellcote:
Well, generally a downward spiral involves moving in a circular nature of some sort …
chopper
i’m envisioning sonny liston, on the ground, saying ‘now i’m really mad’.
yeah, right.
flukebucket
And yet another GOP dream comes true.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Martin:
This is good news in the sense that they can learn, but it’s too little too late for their party’s reputation. If things go the way it appears and the economy makes any sort of recovery in the next year or two, all of them explaining the lockstep “No!” votes on the stimulus bills is going to be some rough sledding.
“Voted against the economic recovery…”
They were so proud of all that Nojo at the time, I’m sure it felt like storming the Bastille. Gonna be a rude awakening, or it already has….
El Cid
Confedepublicans?
jl
The Democrats can find a way to shoe-horn such diverse characters as Jefferson, Jackson, Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton into their current shtick. Even a numnutz president like Carter has redeemed himself enough post-presidentially to get a little space in the sales pitch. The corporatatist wing of the party such as Rubin (which have some good intentions, even if their misguided financial theology threatens to destroy the country) have latched on the Hamilton for public spending program justification. (Though I for one think Hamilton would gag at their unregulated financial market theology, but that is another matter).
The current GOP? No Lincoln, no US Grant, no Teddy Roosevelt, no Eisenhower. No HW Bush. Not even Barry Goldwater. Just Reagon, only Regan, Reagan all the time. And it is not even the real Reagan, but some fantasy Reagan that never existed.
Steele’s self-refuting Reagan worship shows that the current GOP has no past, just as it has no future.
Chuck Butcher
Folks, I think these people are about as stupidly mistaken as any of you, but despite this thing being televised Steele is talking to the RNC and that is the Base of the base. A speech to the DNC would be aimed more leftward to the base because these are the people who care enough to participate.
Analyzing the RNC or the Republican base or the Republicans in general at this point would seem to be an exercise in mind-boggle. In this short interval between a Presidential election and mid-terms there is a drop off in participation and mid-terms are always a problem that way so it is necessary to beat the drums and if you’re losers you beat the war drums. If you’re the losers of this magnitude you are facing keeping people who can see what is happening involved despite that. You’ve got to keep contributions coming in and those foot troops up enough to come out and play in the mid-terms. Given the nature of the GOP Steele’s job really sucks. That he’s an ass leading asses doesn’t help that.
Chuck Butcher
@El Cid:
Confederate Party of Republicanism
kay
Anyone else recognize this from losing campaigns?
Kerry, Clinton, McCain. Turn the corner, take the gloves off…..
Ugh. I used to cringe when Kerry said it, and it’s supposed to reassure supporters. It means you’re losing, and I knew it.
JGabriel
Scott H:
That assumes that some of the GOP leadership are honest idiots. Personally, I find dumb dishonesty at least as insulting as the intellectual variety – in a “Do you really think we’re stupid enough to believe that?” kind of way.
.
b-psycho
@sleestak: WTF…Did he really say that? You’re kidding, right?
Bill E Pilgrim
@kay:
“Taking the gloves off” is also what happens just after the proctologist is done with you, which might be the best analogy in this case.
TenguPhule
Yes, this is his shout out as a covert Democratic kamikaze.
JenJen
@sleestak: Video already! That didn’t take long!
Michael Steele: “This change, my friends, is being delivered in a teabag.”
Aside from teh obvious funny, what in the hell does that even mean??
@John Cole, top:
Just saw that update! Balloon Juice Wins The Internet, yet again. You really are at the top of your game after you go Galt for about 17 minutes and get it out of your system, John! Brilliance!!
kay
@Bill E Pilgrim:
It’s just so lame. Why would anyone in their right mind ever announce this big offensive? Almost by definition you would not, if you in fact had turned the corner, right?
When Kerry said he was going to take the gloves off, I knew we were screwed.
SpotWeld
Forget about representing thier constituents though legislation, they’re going to make fun of the other guy until the win the popularity contest.
Admittedly that’ll make them even less popular among the middle-of-the road folks, but the core minority will love them. And since when has a majority vote ever meant anything in politics.
It’s all about who the cool kids let sit with them at lunch.
gbear
Well the topic seems to be covered well, so two points:
1) Nice Spinal Tap reference in the title.
2) Tim Pawlenty can rot in hell. He purposely fucked up the budget process in MN so he could abuse an old policy to completely set the budget himself. People are literally going to die over this, Grover Nordquist will be pleased.
Wag
Not yet. It takes four right wing angles to complete the turn-around
Grumpy Code Monkey
Attacking Democrats and liberals for being Democrats and liberals is all the GOP has anymore. They don’t care about governing. They don’t care about policy. They have no alternatives to Obama’s plans (other than, of course, tax cuts). They don’t care about anything but winning the next election so they can enrich themselves. Demonizing the Democrats has worked so well for so long that they haven’t had to think about developing new strategies for winning.
SadOldVet
In response to the inquiry of InflatableCommenter
“How did this luzer ever get into a position like this?”
The RNC wanted to show that they include minorities in their party and leadership. J.C. Watts was not available and the other two options were even worse.
Catsy
We’re going to move forward without looking back–by obsessing over 30-year-old Reagan nostalgia!
I don’t know what kind of point he thinks he’s making either. Reagan would have no patience for looking backward? We’re talking about a man who frequently thought he was back in Hollywood but had a hard time remembering what he had for breakfast that morning.
BooBooBear
@ElCid
The plan is to turn the rest of the country into Ole’ Dixie.
Punchy
What Moar said. Who gives a fuck what they call Dems? In about 24 hours or so, they wont be the “Democrat Party”; they’ll be teh “Democrat Social’ist Party”, or so I’ve heard.
But again….who fucking cares?
TenguPhule
I don’t think they realize that they’re gonna be the slaves there, not the masters.
Tonal Crow
We should start a pool on when the first GOP representative or senator will call for Obama’s impeachment, and who it will be. I think it’ll be Bachmann, on or before 9/1/2009.
Brachiator
When i’m drivin’ in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He’s tellin’ me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can’t get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that’s what i say…
— Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones
J.D. Rhoades
I thought that was Alice Cooper.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Punchy: But again….who fucking cares?
Indeed. I do find the whole “Democrat Party” tic useful, though, because you can safely discount the opinion of anyone who uses it in earnest.
freelancer
Whenever Steele’s trying to come across as hip, I can’t help but think of Slurms McKenzie from Futurama
JenJen
@Punchy:
I keep hearing this, too. I absolutely hope they go through with it, because a lot of people are going to have a lot of fun with it, and I expect hilarity to ensue! I can hear Tweety yelling at Mike Pence about his Mickey Mouse name-calling all ready, but even louder, I can hear Stephen Colbert.
Democrat Social.ist Party. It is certain to make everyone who uses it appear very mature and serious about the issues and challenges facing America, isn’t it? ;-)
BooBooBear
I envision a Pajamas media business, the 24×7 Reagan Channel: Gipper24, all Reagan, all the time, get your Reagan on, bioxxxes
If only we could get them to sink several billion (their own money of course) ;-) .
b-psycho
@JenJen: …wow. Why was he not booed off the stage Apollo-style immediately after that line?
dbrown
When will Obama put Ventura into a post? The man is kick-ass; he tore hannity on fake-news a new A/O whem the teabagger tried to defend bushwhack. Crooks and Liars has the short segment and it is great. Don’t know how to link.
Cyrus
@J.D. Rhoades:
Hmmm, maybe he’s using it with permission, then. Cooper is a Republican. (Or at least he used to be; maybe it’s changed in recent years.)
NonyNony
@JenJen:
Damn fucking skippy. Please let them vote this in. Please get some RNC bigwig to go on and on about the “Democrat Socia.list Party” and use the phrase over and over and over again on camera. The bigger the name, the better.
Because really. Republicans have been calling Democrats socia.lists for as long as I can remember. This just formalizes it. And by formalizing it, they make it utterly and completely ridiculous.
Legalize
I would endorse a party, product, service and/or ideology that rolled with that moniker.
Tom65
this must be a dream, because I know God doesn’t love me this much.
MattF
@Tonal Crow
I tried googling “obama impeachment”. There’s a lot of… very unusual items. Alternate space-time continuum, and all that.
John PM
So, if you say Ronald Reagan’s name three times, does he appear, ala Beatlejuice, to help you run the modern Repubic Party? The only reason I ask is that using Reagan’s name four times in one paragraph for any other reason makes you look like a giant tool.
Beauzeaux
The Republicans are done apologizing? The ONLY apologies they’ve made in recent years have been to Rush Limbaugh. So that’s coming to an end now? Seriously? Limbaugh won’t like that.
BooBooBear
it’s like a talisman for them; it encompasses all that is good and right, full of truthiness and light.
It’s the verbal equivalent of a two year old’s blankie. . . But sometimes you know, those things get nasty and they need to be taken away and put in the wash.
JenJen
@NonyNony: Earlier this week while on “Morning Joe,” Lawrence O’Donnell unleashed a rather effective attack on Scarborough, proclaiming that, if the Democrats were social.ists, then he was too, and so was the entire GOP. I can’t find the clip, but he went on tell Joe that if the GOP were serious about not being social.ists, they would have, at the height of their power, immediately introduced legislation putting an end to Social Security, Medicare, and The Department of Education, just for starters.
I liked O’Donnell’s fresh and obvious take on the argument, and it had the delightful, bonus effect of shutting Scarborough up. As much as I abhor the petty arguments about language when we’re neck-deep in crises as a nation, it really can’t hurt to constantly explore and learn new and different ways to call bullshit on wingnuts.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Nothing says “I’m a true conservative” like standing astride history
crying “Stop”being struck from behind and squashed like a bug by a freight train you never saw coming, because you refused to look backwards.The new GOP motto: “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you”.
Joshua Norton
New Coke in da house, mofo’s!
And as I recall, “new Coke” was introduced by a black dude, also.
With the same resounding impact of a feather on a snowbank.
sloan
This reminds me of the good old days when Republicans prided themselves for being “on message” with their daily talking points. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the GOP smacked down any talk of accountability by referring to it as the “blame game.” Scott McClellan must have said “blame game” 100 times in the space of a week. “We aren’t playing the blame game”, “The Democrat party wants to play the blame game – we want to move forward” etc.
Long story short – when it was clear that Bush was being blamed for the Katrina response the Republicans had a new talking point: “The free ride is over!” And EVERY Repub was on TV saying that they would “take the gloves off” and start attacking Dems because their “free ride was over”. As if the Dems hadn’t been savaged by Repubs ever since 9/11. Republicans were whining about how mean the minority party was and how it was time to fight back.
And you have to cast your mind back to 2005 to fully appreciate how absurd this was. These were the days when Cheney shot his friend IN THE FACE and his friend apologized on national television for BEING SHOT IN THE FACE. Rick Santorum stood on the Senate floor and stated that gays were a bigger threat than terrorists. Bush flew back from Crawford at 3 a.m. to take away Michael Schiavo’s rights and appease the fundies. I’ve never seen a political party able to bully the opposition and the public like the GOP of 2001-05.
And now that they are dealing with Obama, who is handling them with kid gloves so far, they’re howling like banshees because they’ve had a Dem in the White House for 4 whole months. I can’t believe anyone was ever afraid of these guys.
dmsilev
Because nothing says “looking forward” like embracing the mythology of a man who left the Presidency 20 years ago.
-dms
Bill E Pilgrim
Oh I just assumed he meant that they were done apologizing to Rush Limbaugh.
Have they been apologizing to anyone else? Democrats? The country??
Damn, and I missed it.
They go all the way from “Sorry we destroyed everything” to “Wait, no we’re not”, and I missed the first part. Just my luck.
TenguPhule
And then the GOP upped the ante by declaring Terrorists worse then Nazi Germany.
Ergo, Gays are a bigger threat to America then Nazi Germany.
How will they top that?
gbear
Nah, Bachmann will just keep calling for him to be investigated.
Although he’s not an elected representative, I’ll put my money on Gingrich. He’s pertty close to blowing that fuse already, and he’s already comfortable with those words.
Betsy
I find it delicious that this comes w/in 24 hours of that Gallup poll finding that everyone in America is rapidly DTMFRepublicansA.
jrg
Yeah, all that apologizing about Bush, torture, destroying the line between church and state, massive deficit spending.
Why, I remember just the other day I was thinking: “you know, these Republicans should stop apologizing and start attacking Bill Ayer’s socialist Islamic pro-9/11 dhimmicrat party, which most Americans see as being the real problem, anyway”.
On a related note, I’ve discovered that peeing on an intervention counselor is the best way to avoid rehab. No one even cares that you’re drunk after the first couple of dribbles make it out.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Social ist Space aliens.
InflatableCommenter
@TenguPhule:
Janet Jackson’s tit was the greatest threat to mankind ever.
Because SHUT UP that’s why. What are we going to tell our kids?
@sloan:
What sloan said.
TenguPhule
@InflatableCommenter
To be fair, if it’s still being flashed around 20 years older from now, it would be.
Old Gringo
I’d love to see them all raise their kilts and show us the dark side of their collective moon.
Ha! Reagan lived in his B-Movies. He often confused them with reality.
InflatableCommenter
@TenguPhule:
True. It was the potential threat that was so horrifying.
Good catch.
LMFAO.
Comrade Kevin
“The Republican Party has turned a corner”
yes, but they turned into an alleyway with a huge brick wall at the end, and their brakes aren’t working.
TenguPhule
‘I don’t know where you went but I see you’ve won first prize!’
JGabriel
@Joshua Norton:
Minor correction. Hillbilly English (aka Appalachian Dialect) tends to be much richer and more nuanced, as it retains some Middle English archaisms, than Standard Republican English – in which only the ideas expressed are archaic.
.
TenguPhule
into the Shades.
And no dragon to save them.
gbear
Well their top guy (Cheney) had control of the armed services, the CIA, the FBI, the phone companies, and the major broadcast and printed mediabots, and big chunks of the judicial system. There were some reasons to be cautious. Check with Don Siegelman about that.
Comrade Dread
He would have no patience for Americans who looked backward, like a sorry man leading a sorry party that continues to invoke his name unironically about looking forward.
And always twirling, twirling, twirling toward the future…
Stephen1947
I’ve been referring to them as Publicans since they started this little pissing match – as in Publicans and Sinners in the Bible. They’re always trying to keep their base intoxicated on fear or hate or fear/hate or some such. But I’m with those commenters who find ‘Democrat Party’ more amusing than infuriating…
srv
If Steele gets kicked out of the RNC, he should run for president and ask Jane Fonda to be his VP.
gbear
@Stephen1947: I like ‘Publicans’.
flukebucket
at the end of the desert lies judgement
JGabriel
@Stephen1947:
That’s been tried and failed. Also, the Publican Party is the name of a Scottish party formed to fight the smoking ban in pubs.
I’ll stick with the Republic Party – it’s Sith Lord overtones are far more au courant and familiar to today’s voters.
.
Old Gringo
Publicans?
No! It besmurches the denizens of your local tavern!
Reptilians. (Reptilicants) They have always been reptiles. They only think with the lizard brain. Besides, no true small “r” republican would have anything to do with them. They haven’t a clue what true republican virtues and ideals are all about.
arguingwithsignposts
@John PM:
More like the Candyman.
gbear
How about Repelicans?
(not to besmirch our feathered friends)
Jon
Put me down in the pool that Steele is actually Sasha Baron Cohen filming his new movie “Steele.”
Michael
AHEM….(throat clearing)……
Who said this?
Boy, he sure did. If you thought 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 were fucked up, 2005 was a real banner year.
JGabriel
gbear:
That’ll just evoke pelicans, which are far too cute to deserve association with the Republic Party.
Sometimes, I really feel bad for elephants.
.
Nellcote
uh-oh
Cheney’s lost Laney Davis:
http://pundits.thehill.com/2009/05/18/the-cheney-dare/
Old Gringo
Did I misspell “besmirch”? Shame on me.
sgwhiteinfla
@JenJen:
They scrubbed all clips of O’Donnell being on the show that day, including his quip about conservative god, Barry Goldwater saying in 1984 that the CIA had lied to him. Now Scarborough says O’Donnell is crazy everyday to try to discredit when he busts them upside the head with those pesky facts and a little bit of logic. I don’t know what changed O’Donnell but I am really digging the new version of that guy.
Old Gringo
It was Bush who said that and I’d say the Bolsheviks or the NSDAP was their model.
I’m not surprised but O’Donnell has been using that argument for a few days now, JenJen. I first saw him use it on the Ed Schultz Show a few days ago. Essentially that America has been a “Socialist Nation” since the advent of Social security, (a German idea) and Medicare and the American voting public like it just fine.
Sasha
Works for me.
Instead of the ridiculous argument that Obama has failed to bridge the partisan gap and is otherwise not attempting to cross the aisle, with Steele’s shot across the bow it can be plainly demonstrated that the GOP are simply being reflexively and catagorically partisan and obstructionist.
dbrown
@Old Gringo: As for some of these stories I do not know if they occured but the one I saw myself (via TV) was the 50 year celibration of the D-day landings when Regan talked about how, when he was coming ashore during the attack, what he had wittnessed; however, the President of Franace (A Nazi enabler himself) looked on in both surprise and shock as he realized that Regan was was confusing a newsreel he saw at the time with reality and didn’t know the difference – priceless. This asshole (Regan, not the French ass) is the Godless old party’s gold standard?
AkaDad
Wasn’t Michael Steele the rapper in Digital Underground?
Xecky Gilchrist
@gbear: How about Repelicans?
The term I always use is “Redoublechins”.
ksmiami
John – late to the scene here, but you must be so sad to have switched parties now… I really do think Steele has to be a Democratic mole, right, right?? No one can be this hapless?
Ninerdave
When’s the vote to demand the Dems rename themselves the Democrat-Socialist Party?
I so, so hope that passes.
Original Lee
@jl: They haven’t lost track of the election cycle. They know their base can’t think their way out of a paper bag. If they put “January 2013” on the website, they would get a gazillion e-mails about how the election is in 2012, you betcha. Also.
Old Gringo
Speaking of true small “r” republican virtues and ideals, I’d have to say that Bernie Sanders comes as close to these as any American politician I’ve seen, and he’s a social democrat.
Just sayin’.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@zmulls:
fyp.
Xecky Gilchrist
This asshole (Regan, not the French ass) is the Godless old party’s gold standard?
Yes, and this is why.
If Attila the Hun had pulled that off for them, they’d worship him just as much as they do with Reagan now.
Dennis-SGMM
OT: Kennedy’s cancer in remission
This is good news for the Republicans.
Eric U.
If I can be bothered, I call them Republ’ans because they dont’ get their “ic” until we get our “ic.” I’ve also been known to call them Republics, but that doesn’t have the nice, juvenile symmetry. Now that they have lost their mojo, I like it when they leave off the “ic.” Saying “Democratic” properly gives them too much undeserved gravitas.
JenJen
@sgwhiteinfla: Now that is interesting! This morning, I thought it was a little weird that, at every opportunity, Joe Scarborough was dropping Lawrence O’Donnell’s name into the conversation for no apparent reason other than to call him c-c-c-crrraaaaaaazy! It didn’t make a bit of sense to me at the time but does in context.
Something happened, then, right? I wonder what, exactly, I really do.
Blue Raven
@Eric U.:
By registration, I don’t have a dog in that hunt (I am unaffiliated). Philosophically, I like this one a lot.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@Old Gringo:
Instituted by Bismarck, no less. The current U. S. Republican Party is to the right of Bismarck! Try and wrap your head around that for a minute and tell me it doesn’t hurt.
omen
@sgwhiteinfla:
scumbag tried to diminish o’donnell by calling him a mere “staffer.” pfft, it’s staffers who do all the work.
joe resorts to name calling whenever they’ve boxed him in and he can’t undercut the other guy’s argument.
this from a man who keeps insisting republicans need to emulate reagan’s moderate temperament. in other words, republicans need to stop acting like angry, knuckledragging bullies who throw a hissy fit whenever they can’t get their way.
sgwhiteinfla
OT
Abu Muqama has a post up with a transcript from one of Admiral Mullen’s recent speeches about the use of drones in Afghanistan.
http://abumuqawama.blogspot.com/2009/05/mullen-on-drones.html
Not saying that words mean anything until the actions change but at least it seems Admiral Mullen IS genuinely concerned about the deaths of innocents in these drone strikes.
Rick Taylor
He seems to be saying that the GOP has spent a long four months in the wilderness contemplating it’s mistakes. It’s learned from the past and can now put the past behind it. So it should certainly not be accused of jaw dropping hypocrisy when it attacks the administration for the deficits it largely brought about. Nor should anyone laugh at the suggestion that after having presided over a huge increase in the national deficit together with the worst economic crises since the great depression it is now the party of fiscal responsibility. Yes they did all that, but they now realize it was a mistake, so would you please stop going on about it? It was months ago after all, and definitely doesn’t count any longer.They’ve learned from those mistakes; they’ve said so themselves. They’re looking forward, not backwards. Besides, we need them for their fresh new ideas, like more tax cuts, deregulation, etc.
The Moar You Know
@Xecky Gilchrist: Ahhh, my first election. Dems were in a world of hurt that year.
omen
why did msnbc go outside for a new hire? o’donnell is preferable to ed.
Legalize
It’s sad that it takes the return of Senator Kennedy to get health care reform moving in the Senate. I hope he can deliver these bums a firm kick in the ass.
gbear
@Dennis-SGMM:
With any luck, Franken should be arriving shortly too. State Supreme Court is hearing the case on June 1. Each side gets an hour to state their case.
That said, Pawlenty seems willing to fight to the death (not HIS death, mind you) to put his super slim national chances ahead of anything good for the state of Minnesota. He’s on a roll and might not be willing to give it up. He’s got 500% approval from the wingnut 20% so he thinks he’s got a perfect job approval rating. Sorry to be whining about him today but what he just did to our budget process is borderline criminal.
Brick Oven Bill
Geithner’s Intrade account pays 2.1:1 that he is out by 30JUN. Steele’s Intrade account pays 4.0:1 that he is out by 30JUN.
The difference in the odds is due to the Republicans being scared of alienating the black community by firing a black man. This is stupid however as the black community has a clear history of voting for the party that promises ever-increasing government social promises, and will continue to vote Democrat as a block.
The Republicans should thus fire Steele. But as the odds indicate, they probably won’t, as they are cowards when it comes to the discussion of race. They are scared of the subject of human biodiversity.
Geithner too should be fired and replaced with, I would suggest, Sully Sullenberger, a man of integrity. The main job of being Treasury Secretary is to be an honest man.
Dennis-SGMM
There they were, all together in the same room, and they forgot to pass a resolution declaring George W. Bush to have been a Democrat. Tsk, tsk.
Rick Taylor
The trouble is, as John has pointed out, he’s currently one of the saner ones. Scary but true. At least he actually thought is was a bad idea to call the Democratic party the “Democrat Soc ialist Party”.
If they do fire him, it will be because he wasn’t Wingnutty enough, and they’ll replace him with someone worse.
gbear
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
flukebucket
I had no idea it took honesty and integrity to ditch an airplane.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
Crap! The boner-pill word was in a blockquote, so since I didn’t type it, I didn’t think about it. FYWP! And the horse you rode in on.
Xenos
@Comrade Kevin:
The image that comes to mind is the marching band in the parade at the end of Animal House.
kay
@gbear:
I appreciate the update. I personally think this tactic was stupid and short-sighted. The next close Senate race, and there will be one, where the Republican has more votes, Democrats can and will stall for months.
They’re inherently reckless people, Republicans. Not a thought for tomorrow. Forget “tomorrow”. Not a thought for 5 minutes from now.
Old Gringo
Three right turns and you are going left.
El Cid
Reagan reagan reagan reagan, reagan reagan, Ronald Reagan reagan reagan. Reagan? Ronald Reagan reagan reagan reagan reagan. Ronald, reagan reagan; Ronald Reagan reagan reagan reagan reagan: Ronald Reagan; reagan reagan reagan; reagan reagan reagan reagan.
kay
It’s just so wrong-headed. “The honeymoon is over”.
The “honeymoon” was never between Republican politicians and Obama.
It was between regular people and Obama.
You can’t just announce someone else’s honeymoon is over. That’s crazy. They were never ON the honeymoon. They weren’t invited. They were specifically uninvited.
gbear
@El Cid:
Mondale!
(see map at comment 144)
pablo
OT, but that
Thank you, I feel much better.
Colette
@TenguPhule:
The dumbest quartile of registered Democrats could switch affiliation to the Republicans and it would raise the average IQ of both parties.
@Jon:
Steele has got to be a Democratic plant. I’m just waiting for the big scene like the one at the end of every old “Mission Impossible” TV episode, where one of the villains would rip off his rubber full-head mask and reveal himself to be one of the good guys in disguise.
Max
@JenJen: My fav Tweet from Joey S. was a few days ago and was something like…. I don’t give opinions on MSNBC, they pay me to interview newsmakers, I only give my opinions on my radio show, which is where I’m paid to do so.
Uh, yeah, whatever.
JL
BOB I’m glad that you want to put someone who supports unions in charge of Treasury.
Wile E. Quixote
@Brick Oven Bill
Is this really BOB who’s been posting lately? I ask because although this post does contain BOB’s requisite “I’m totally gay for men in uniforms and want one to come and run my life because I need a daddy” schtick the whole “I hate ni99ers” vibe that this post, and most of BOB’s recent posts have contained, seems to be a bit extreme, even for our resident oil-shale and shirtless lesbian wrestling troll.
Wile E. Quixote
@pablo
I know, every time I see it I get hungry, and I’m trying to lose weight, damnit!
b-psycho
@Brick Oven Bill: Insinuating that all minorities want handouts (and by extension, that welfare spending is a substantial chunk of the budget compared to, say, the
WarDefense department). Classy…gbear
Hah!! Over at Crooks and Liars right now (along with some other good stuff);
John has a link to C&L in his blogrole
That One - Cain
@Brachiator:
Fixed.
cain
JenJen
@Brick Oven Bill: I don’t believe that’s really you; usually, we’re entertained with your tales of buddy trips while gazing at windmills and what-not, or, at other times, your eHarmony ratings for the ladies you run into at Glenn Beck/Crab Races/Dollar Wings Night at the local Bowl-N-Sip, so this entry seems rather out-of-character-racially-insensitive. I believe I am not alone in calling bullshit. No way is that the authentic BOB.
If that really is you, BOB, are you feeling OK?
Wile E. Quixote
And then there’s the insanity of this comment:
@Brick Oven Bill
Yeah, because after doing 40 years of playing every race card they could to get the votes of unreconstructed white bigots firing Michael Steele might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and finally drives their support in the black community below 10 percent.
Old Gringo
Ever since the advent of the Southern Strategy, BOB.
[Lee] Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry Dent and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964… and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster…
Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps…?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
The Moar You Know
Obvious to even the untrained eye that the answer is “no”.
That One - Cain
@El Cid:
Developers, developers, developers, developers.. developers, developers, developers, developers.. developers developers.. developers..
wow.. I wonder if there is a dance too when Steele starts doing that on the stage.
:)
cain
Joey Maloney
@gbear:
Let me fix your spelling error: “Repellicans”
There. I think that says what you meant it to.
Notorious P.A.T.
Awesome. Well done.
gnomedad
@El Cid:
You mean this?
ksmiami
“Hmmm, maybe he’s using it with permission, then. Cooper is a Republican. (Or at least he used to be; maybe it’s changed in recent years.)”
Alice Cooper recently supported Obama (big-time). Funny, most successful singers believe in free speech and a more libertine way of life. Someone once said to me if you want to live like a Republican, vote for a Democrat. So true isn’t it?
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Wile E. Quixote: Guys – just think of it as a nice cut of brisket…
freelancer
@ That One-Cain:
Spit-take. well played, sir.
Comrade Darkness
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: “Ronald Reagan never lived in the past… “Ronald Reagan was all about the future. If President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward.”
OH, RLY?
“This President is treated by both the press and foreign leaders as if he were a child…. It is major news when he honors a political or economic discussion with a germane remark and not an anecdote about his Hollywood days.”– Columnist Richard Cohen
Talk about selling the opposite of the truth: The past is the entirety of what an alzheimer patient has.
asiangrrlMN
@InflatableCommenter: I am still bitter that I missed seeing her tit live. I was getting a snack, and when I returned to the TV, the dirty deed had already been done. Of course, I got to see the pixelated version over and over again–which seems dirtier than the real thing.
I love dead-thread commenting.
@sgwhiteinfla: I noticed this about Larry, too. About when all the torture stuff came out, Larry lost his cool, urbane demeanor and turned into a liberal terror. I’m liking it a lot.
As for Democrat Party, I don’t care. I will laugh hysterically when they roll out the Democrat Soci a l ist Party since I consider myself a capitalist so c i alist.
Rainy Day
Call them the Republic Party. That conjures up lots of lovely imagery.
That would bother them WAAY more than Democrat Party bothers us.