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Blogs Eric Reads
Republicans Abandon Ship!
- Ah, remember the good old days, when John McCain was the Republican nominee for President of the United States–you know, two weeks ago? Well, he lost the election (which means the GOP no longer has to believe in any of the same shit he does) so the RNC has filed a lawsuit claiming that McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional. Yes, you read correctly. The Republican Party wants the Republican nominee’s crowning achievement overturned. I guess they never liked that geezer after all. (Marc Ambinder)
- Well, looks like Palin for President is not off to the greatest start. Here’s five Republican governors telling the TV folks that Palin isn’t going to be ready for the top of the ticket in 2012. They were also unhappy about having to stand behind her at a press conference while she took questions about running for president in 2012. They did not like the appearance that they might be Palin supporters. Because they are not. At all. And they want that to be very clear. (YouTube/CNN)
- Palin for Senate isn’t going so well either. What, you didn’t know she was running for Senate? Yeah, she told CNN that she would be interested in running in a special election for Ted Stevens’ seat after he was reelected to and then expelled from the Senate. Only problem with that is that Mark Begich now leads Stevens by over 800 votes with many of the remaining votes expected to come from Begich friendly districts. (The Caucus/Anchorage Daily News)
Late Night Around the Blogosphere
It’s Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on what time zone you’re in. What did you miss while you were sleeping?
- Remember that time when everyone said nominating a black guy was a mistake because Hispanics would never vote for him? Or when people said putting money into Republican strongholds like Virginia and North Carolina was a waste of resources? jdawg1077 takes us back to all the things the pundits got wrong about the 2008 elections. (DailyKos)
- And while I’m over at DKos, JeffLieber posts his conversation with his six year-old daughter about California’s Prop 8. Turns out gay marriage really is hard to explain to a child, when it’s banned. (DailyKos)
- Meanwhile, for those who are still dealing with how Prop 8 affects them, Melissa Etheridge has a suggestion: if the state of California isn’t going to treat her like a first-class citizen, she’s not paying her first-class taxes. Doesn’t sounds like a bad idea to me. (The Daily Beast)
- So remember all that “change” stuff that Barack Obama’s been talking about for the past couple years? Well, it’s finally coming and… let’s just say you might want to keep track of your guns, flags, and daughters. (23/6)
- The RNC and McCain campaign contacted 30 million voters directly (including with robocalls) before the election. Team Obama contacted 68 million. I guess that kinda explains why this whole election thing turned out the way it did. (Marc Ambinder)
GOP.com: Where’s McCain/Palin?
With one week left until the election, isn’t there something missing from the GOP website?
GOP.com (click to embiggen)
Yep, there’s Fred Thompson up there in big, bright letters, Obama and Biden are all over the place… but not a mention of John McCain or Sarah Palin. Y’know, the Republican candidates for President and Vice President. It does say that they’re hiring though. Maybe looking for a new ticket.
For contrast, type in Democrats.org and what’s the first thing you see?
You know the Republicans aren’t looking forward to election day when they’ve already taken their candidates off their website.
(via Wonkette)
The GOP Civil War, Part 2
Ben Smith catches Republican infighting over Sarah Palin’s $150,000 shopping spree:
RNC Chairman Mike Duncan throws back the blame for Sarah Palin’s wardrobe by telling MSNBC that the McCain campaign asked for the RNC to pay for the clothes, and it came as part of the coordinated campaign.
This comes after a McCain advisor had said that it was entirely the RNC’s call to purchase the clothes (at around the 2:45 mark), and Palin blamed it on party bureaucracy.
Gonna be a good four years, I think.
Adventures in Fiscal Responsibility
Sarah Palin took the RNC’s money and went on a shopping spree:
The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.
According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.
The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.
The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.
This is something that the GOP is always hitting Democrats for–John Edwards’ haircut, anyone?–so it’s nice to see the Republicans eat crow for this potentially illegal and definitely stupid decision. Marc Ambinder is getting email from some rightfully pissed-off Republican donors who want to know what it says about their party that it spent $150k on pantsuits and shoes as the nation slid into a depression. After the initial statement, the campaign seems to be avoiding talking about it. I sure would like to hear their explanation, though.
Update: From a TPM reader:
“If Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe had a life of its own, it would get a tax cut from a President Obama.”
“We do not support government bailouts of private institutions.”
According to the 2008 Republican Party Platorm, as adopted at the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago:
“We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself.”
They Have No Shame
The Republican Party has absolutely no shame about exploiting tragedy for political gain:
One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.
The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers’ subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.
The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one’s opponents to Hitler.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Because then they can keep taking advantage of you.
RNC Video Used Fake Soldiers
It was going to be patriotic, until they faked it:
There’s the Continental Congress…A real WWII vet…Photos of workers at Ground Zero. A close-up of a folded flag presented to a grieving widow at a military funeral… profiles of soldiers swelling with pride in slo-motion.
But CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production.
The footage, sold by stock-film house Getty Imageswas produced by a commercial filmmaker in Chicago. Both Getty and the production company, Mr. Big Films, confirmed that the footage was shot on spec and sold to the Republican National Committee.
One of the actors, Perry Denton of Chicago, Ill. also confirmed that he was hired on a day-rate as an actor for the shoot and told CBS News he was surprised to learn the footage was shown at the convention.
The GOP vs. Community Organizing
So community organizer is the new angry black man, huh? Seems like an odd political tactic to take since community organizers devote their lives to, you know, helping people for little or no pay.
Here’s the best response I’ve seen to this new line of attack. (The bit about community organizing starts about halfway through.)
This recurring theme of turning the phrase “community organizer into some sort of epithet like “communist” or “homo” or something, that’s really despicable. The difference between a community organizer and a politician is that community organizers are the ones who take the responsibility upon themselves to help their fellow citizens without the benefit of a government budget behind them. And go out there every day doing the hard thankless work to make this country livable which is what allows you politicians to be able to go on TV and brag about how this is the greatest country in the world. And for you to go on that TV show and spit in those people’s faces for the sake of a rhetorical flourish is disgusting.
Update: Reflections from a Daily Kos reader:
Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.
Palin’s Big Speech
It’s over, but Jeffrey Toobin isn’t buying it.
If Toobin is too liberal for you to trust his views on Palin, try right-winger Ben Stein on for size. Palin’s not winning his money tonight.
(Full text of her speech here.)