Say What?

(via Democratic Underground)

This is what you call "clarification"?

As Virginia's Governor (Vaginal Bob) McDonnell was chairing the GOP Platform Committee meetings, adopting the Anti-Choice plank that reaffirms the official policy of the Republican Party (and commits their candidates) to pushing for an Amendment to the US Constitution intended to outlaw all abortions, we have Reince Priebus all over the joint on TV saying Romney doesn't agree with it.

'Scuse me, Mr Priebus; a question, sir:  What's the point of putting in all that work on a platform, if you then choose somebody who doesn't agree with that platform to be your party's national leader?

After 30 years of saying one thing (ban abortion), and doing as little as possible once they get elected, maybe the jig is finally up.  The Rubes are kinda hip to the tricks now - and it looks like the GOP is starting to implode.

Flippin' Willard

Sometimes, a 30 second attack ad has to be 4 minutes long just to get it all in.

With Apologies

..to Mel Brooks.

GOP Pollster: "Sir, the base voters are revolting!"

Willard: "You're tellin' me - they stink on ice"

(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)

Yo, Repubs

(ed note: This was hangin' in the Drafts File.  Not much new here, but it's generally a good idea to recap once in a while)

  

It's gotten so bad for you guys that the Repub candidates who might actually have a chance to beat Obama aren't going to bother running any real campaign in states like Iowa and South Carolina.  Why?  Because your party's "leaders" have allowed the loons to grab control.  

There's a pretty severe purity test at work here.  If you look at what it takes to get "the base" to vote for somebody in sufficient numbers to win the nomination, you might notice the list of issues requiring absolute fealty is getting pretty long - gays, God, guns, abortion, taxes, immigration, plus one or two others.  The point being that when you insist on strict adherence to this widening list of issues, the effect is that you're not just narrowing the field of candidates who could reasonably cleave to that platform, but you're severely narrowing the number of voters who're willing to go along with it, because what it really shows us is a party that seems bent on controlling way too much of our lives.

You're supposed to be the party of personal responsibility, and small government, and "just leave me the fuck alone".  But when you tell 5% of the population they're not allowed to marry someone they love, you're not holding to your own philosophy.  

When you say you can't vote for somebody who isn't in your chapter of God's Fan Club, then you're ignoring the part of the US Constitution that outlaws tests of religion for elected or appointed office (Article VI).

When you control the Alabama (eg) Legislature and pass a stupid Immigration Law which leads to the arrest of a Mercedes-Benz Production Manager on a visit to the plant in Tuscaloosa, you don't get to piss and moan about how government regulations are hurting business.

Wanna talk abortion?  Here it is:  You outlaw abortion, and you'll be requiring an expansion of government power that'll make Nicky Ceauşescu look like Calvin Coolidge.

The saving grace is that your rapid acceleration toward the logical extreme is causing the GOP to run in tighter and tighter circles, which will eventually make it disappear up its own asshole - which should let the rest of us get back to makin' shit work again.

A Revoltin' Development

South Carolina Tea Partiers are gearing up to put on quite a show for us next month.

"The Tea Party" isn't monolithic.  Like most political entities, it's an amalgam - but unlike a "real political party" where the point of the exercise is to cobble together a coalition of interests that's as wide and as deep as possible, Tea Partiers are all about purity.  And I think that means they'll have to keep splitting into smaller and smaller factions as they try to rid themselves of "the non-believers".  Listening to their language, I hear the telltale signs of Fundamentalism taken to the Logical Extreme.
1) Compromise is not an option.
2) Compromisers must be expelled.

So what happens when Fundamentalists start feelin' their oats?
(hat tip = The Firebrand)

Organizers of a tea party convention scheduled to convene next month in Myrtle Beach are fending off accusations that they called for “armed guards” with concealed weapons permits to staff the event. A senior leader of one tea party group in the Palmetto State raised concern about heat-packing patriots amid a flurry of email backlash after supporters of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann announced their intention to hold a straw poll at the event to promote their candidate.
Read more: The Daily Caller

And be sure to drill down into the comments to get a good taste of what's in store for us.

If it was any less tragic, it wouldn't be funny.

Bless Their Pea-Pickin' Little Hearts

From The Richmond Times-Dispatch today:

Anyone who wants to vote must sign a form at the polling place pledging to support the eventual Republican nominee for president. Anyone who refuses to sign the pledge will be barred from voting.

During a brief meeting Wednesday at the state Capitol, the State Board of Elections voted 3-0 to approve three forms developed by the election board’s staff to implement the loyalty pledge requested by the state GOP.

(hat tip = Wonkette)

It's nuts.  Obviously, the oath is unenforceable unless they can tie an individual's Primary Vote to the vote he casts in the General Election.  It's just a guess, but I'm thinkin' there's a coupla dozen laws in place at various levels of government that are supposed to ensure the Secret Ballot.  Are they telling us they intend to break the law trying to impose a little party discipline?  (insert sardonic Political Crook reference here)

For me, the real problem is the simple fact that anybody in a leadership position would think it's legitimate even to propose such a thing.  Somebody please tell me how this is in keeping with any of the traditions of democracy, in any way, at any time.

I don't vote for Repubs any more because they insist on doing stupid shitty things that make it impossible for me to vote for them.

One From Wonkette

Wonkette is on a roll.

...what we need is another ultimately unsuccessful Third Party Candidate to safely release the steam of rage from the national pressure cooker. It worked in the 1980s and the 1990s and all the way to 2000, heh heh. (Funny how Liberal Democrats kind of lost the taste for Third Party candidates after the GOP stomped back into the White House using Nader’s cover, right?)

A Quick Take On Newt

The Gingrich has figured out how to make his troubled (and troubling) past go away.

First, the rubes are kinda predisposed to forget and/or ignore things that happened 10 or 15 or 20 years ago - or 20 minutes ago for that matter.  It's history, y'know, and ol' Newt's a highly regarded "historian"; and they'll take his word for what happened over the word of some librul doofus with a google machine any day of the week.

Second, he sounds like he's adopting a style of narrating his past as a story of sin and redemption.  And the timing couldn't be better.  After a parade of false prophets, Jesus Newt is finally born in the dark days of December blah blah blah.  Starting in January, he's visited by the wise men, and gifted with wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina (ok, maybe a close 2nd in NH).  And by Easter, in a flood of heavy donations covered by the din of heavenly choruses, he's fully resurrected and takes his place at the right hand of The Lord our Reagan blah blah blah.

Or he could revert to his usual form and just self-destruct in the middle of it all.  Every time he's held real power, he's over-reached in the most imperious way possible, and come crashing down under the weight of his grotesquely over-sized ego.

(BTW: I managed to screw the pooch by predicting success for Herman Cain, so there's no way to take this but with a handful of salt - as always)

But - ya heard it here first.

Stunned? - Really?

The old guard GOP establishment must be really nervous about where the nutters are taking the party.



Remember, there are no accidents and no surprises on DumFux News. This was on the air because Roger Ailes wanted it on the air. And it was "shocking" because Ailes intended it to be shocking.

It could represent a direct swipe at The Limbaugh Wing - Rush's been flacking for Gingrich pretty hard lately so the message could be, "OK, you've had your fun, but it's time to end this flirtation and get down to business". 

Unfortunately, that genie's outa the bottle now. There's a TeaBagger Caucus in The House. The big money aggregators helped 'em get organized. They were dispatched to disrupt meetings and throw rocks thru windows. Etc.

Now the GOP Graybeards are nervous about how stupidly fascist the whole thing looks and they're making desperate attempts to get the rubes back in line.

(Driftglass made some great points on The Professional Left podcast this week)

So I'm wondering about the fault lines, and how serious the fracturing will get.