Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Everybody saw this coming.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republicans in disarray!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Bark louder, little dog.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

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How To Be A Hack and Secure a Lifetime Position at the NRO

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Andy McCarthy in 2004 discussing the 9/11 commission:

Analyzing the intelligence failures attendant to 9/11 is a twofold process. First, the counterterror system designed during the Clinton administration, which was at the helm for eight years while we were under attack by militant Islam, was a prescription for disaster: reducing counterterrorism to a strict law enforcement matter, putting the Justice Department in charge of it, and institutionalizing, as official government policy, a wall that forbade criminal and intelligence investigators from pooling information. Second, that counterterror system was largely maintained by the Bush administration during the eight-month run-up to the attacks. As to the latter, Bush officials have been aggressively questioned for actions they took, or failed to take, between January and September 2001, including the failure to tear down Gorelick’s wall prior to 9/11. This is entirely appropriate. Indeed, it is essential if the commission is to be at all a useful exercise in helping us avoid future 9/11s.

But for a sizable faction of the commission, that exercise is not what this is about. It is, instead, about myopic focus on the eight Bush months as if the preceding eight Clinton years had never happened.

Andy McCarthy today, discussing the stock market:

Veronique, with due respect, it is absolutely preposterous to blame our president for the nearly 3000 point plunge in the stock market. I don’t know how you or Businessweek can sleep at night after repeating such a baseless, slanderous canard.

He is, of course, responsible for today’s rally …

Putting aside the fact that 2000 of the 3000 point drop that McCarthy is attributing to Obama happened under PRESIDENT BUSH (not to mention the entire cause of the collapse and the several thousand point drop during the rest of 2008), a pithy observer might remark that it is almost as if he wants to pretend the preceding eight Bush years had never happened.

Any luck uncovering Obama’s birth certificate yet, Andy?

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Notes From An Alternate Reality

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It just never stops:

“The president certainly remains popular, but his policies are becoming less and less popular,” Boehner said, citing the continuing slide in the financial markets. “Certainly the stock market hasn’t acted very well” since Obama’s inauguration.

As the markets continue to falter, Republicans are becoming more confident in their criticisms of the president — some have already taken to using the phrase “the Obama economy.”

Yeah. About that “Obama economy,” Rep. Boehner:

Ironically, Obama’s high marks come at a time when Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the state of the economy. Only 7% say they’re satisfied about the economy, which is an all-time low in the poll. Moreover, 76% believe the economy still has a ways to go before it hits rock bottom. What’s going on here? The public doesn’t blame Obama for the economy — even as critics try to attribute the Dow’s decline to Obama, and also even as Obama yesterday gave stock advice (!!!). Per the poll, 84% say Obama inherited this economy, and two-thirds of those people think he has at least a year before he’s responsible for it.

They aren’t even trying any more. This has gone beyond silly to just sad, and what is even worse for the Republicans is that as they keep saying things that the public knows to be completely untrue, it erodes what little trust they have in them. Think about it. If somebody keeps telling you things you know are false, eventually you just write them off altogether. At the risk of Godwinning this thread, the Republicans really do seem intent on testing the reaches of the Big Lie.

The other thing that strikes me about that poll is how, well, reasonable the American people are. Maybe a year is too long, maybe it is not long enough. But the fact that the majority of the public is willing to wait a while before casting judgment seems exceedingly rational. It is almost if the American people understand how big a deal this current mess is, even as the Republicans continue to play games.

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Imagine a Massive Highway Pileup. Now Imagine Clown Cars. Awesome, Isn’t It?

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This just keeps getting better and better:

In a little-noticed interview Saturday night, Steele dismissed Limbaugh as an “entertainer” whose show is “incendiary” and “ugly.”

Steele’s criticism makes him the highest-ranking Republican to pick a fight with the popular and polarizing conservative talk show host.

But the new RNC chairman’s extraordinary comments won’t sit well with the millions of conservative listeners Limbaugh draws each week, and Steele aides scrambled to limit the damage Monday morning by trying to change the subject.

And Rush fires back:

Yes, said Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, I’m incendiary, and yes, it’s ugly. Michael Steele, you are head of the RNC. You are not head of the Republican Party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the RNC and right now they want nothing to do with it, and when you call them, asking them for money, they hang up on you. I hope that changes. I hope the RNC will get its act together…

It seems to me that it’s Michael Steele who is off to a shaky start….

Now, Mr. Steele, if it is your position as the chairman of the Republican National Committee that you want a left wing Democrat president and a left wing Democrat Congress to succeed in advancing their agenda, if it’s your position that you want President Obama and Speaker Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid to succeed with their massive spending and taxing and nationalization plans, I think you have some explaining to do.

Why are you running the Republican Party? Why do you claim you lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama succeeds? I frankly am stunned that the chairman of the Republican National Committee endorses such an agenda…

I am wondering how Mark Halperin will spin this as excellent news for John McCain.

*** Update ***

This is my mental image of the current inner workings of the Republican party:

Follow me! Follow me to Freedom!

*** Update #2 ***

More here.

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Get Outta My Dreams, and Into My Clown Car

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Hugh Hewitt on what he calls “The Speech”:

Rush gave a speech at CPAC today that will be talked about for years and even decades.

***

Rush eschews “leadership.” He doesn’t tell people who to vote for or where to show up and march.

But he does communicate with quite extraordinary clarity the deep, abiding attachment that conservatives have for liberty. He does so with great, good humor, and it is this quality that drives the left to distraction. Rush is funny; really, really funny. This is of course the reason he has succeeded far beyond every other radio talk show host. The “women’s summit” this week was just the latest in a long string of innovative –and profitable– firsts that amused even as it made key points.

And Rush is authentic. And deeply appreciated as a result. Long may he prosper.

Is this the tipping point? Will Hugh’s advocacy for Rush push him the way of Harriet Meiers, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and the many others that have given Hugh starbursts? Time will tell.

*** Update ***

A comparison. By the way, I was thinking to myself that compared to the clowns currently angling for the top seat at the GOP table, Multiple Choice Mitt Romney looks downright dignified and Presidential.

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Firsts! Seconds!

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First sighting of a Republican using “Wolverines!” as a serious battle cry and not as a joke: Robert Stacy McCain:

We are now a mere 18 months from Labor Day 2010, when that climactic political battle will be fully engaged. There a lot of important work to be done — and done now, over the next three to six months — if there is to be any hope of anything but the abomination of desolation. Our utter destruction is at hand unless good men rally to the colors, and we no longer have the luxury of indulging in these petty playground feuds and the children who enjoy them.

To the extent that conservatives need a philosopher now, I’d say we need to be studying Sun-Tzu.

If Rod Dreher wants to join Andrew Sullivan and David Brock (yes, I said “Brock,” not “Brooks”) in the ranks of the vaunting army outside the camp, let him go over and be gone. But don’t sit pouting inside the camp, giving aid and comfort to the adversary by your demoralizing pronouncements. If that stuff is going to be tolerated among conservatives, there won’t be enough left of a constitutional republic after Nov. 3 for anyone to bother trying to “conserve” it, and no hope at all that it might be restored.

WOLVERINES!

The all caps and the red just make it even better. What a way to start the week.

*** Update ***

Title amended to reflect reality.

<del datetime="2009-03-02T14:56:52+00:00">Firsts!</del> Seconds!Post + Comments (57)

Delusional “It must be very strange to be Rush Limbaugh. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius….”

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Speaking of Rush, this Breitbart piece is the most delusional thing I have ever read:

The mood at the Omni Shoreham Hotel late Saturday afternoon was off the electrical meter when Rush Limbaugh took center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

***

It was an address that could have altered the election had it been delivered early last fall by any Republican presidential candidate.

About midway through Mr. Limbaugh’s clear-headed, timely and sometimes rambunctious call to ideological arms, my BlackBerry began buzzing with elated text messages from across the Omni and across the nation.

A friend in Los Angeles e-mailed a one-liner: “Best speech I have ever seen.”

My urbane father-in-law, the first person I knew who copped to listening to Mr. Limbaugh and who has been witness to most of the big events of the modern age, called it the “most thrilling thing [he’s] seen on TV.”

No one who can write full sentences is this crazy, so this has to be an act designed to corner the wingnut niche. Later on, Breitbart informs us that Limbaugh also killed newspapers. And I thought it was the internet and cable news. Silly me.

<del datetime="2009-03-02T03:30:11+00:00"> Delusional</del> “It must be very strange to be Rush Limbaugh. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius….”Post + Comments (50)