Speaking of Rats Fleeing the Sinking GOP

Friday UPDATE: 2 GIs, 22 Iraqis Killed; 15 22 Iraqis Wounded
Also, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are
threatening to attack Turkish pipelines
if Turkey attacks their bases.

Mel Marinez was never an easy fit for the face of the GOP, and while it looks like our friend Oliver exaggerated a bit when he said Martinez quit the GOP, Mel has stepped down as Chair of the Republican National Committee . . .

to spend more time . . .

with his . . .

(wait for it) . . .

(no, not his family, too easy . . .)

Constituents? :'-D

That's a new one. Ya think there might be some kind of trend coming? --Nya.

There's more...
Maha doesn't single out individual defectors and retirees that now seem to be running over each other to leave the GOP, but looks at the general trend of corporate types and evangelicals deserting a party that they thought they could control and through which could redraw the globe in their image -- but instead they became the party's vassal, subordinate and beholden to hacks they discovered were incompetently stupid, greedy, arrogant beyond tolerance, and are not going to be missed by the people who put them in power only to be jerked around.

But in the annals of the profoundly stupid, there's two types we usually see -- especially on shows like Keith Olbermann's Countdown: stupid Republicans and stupid criminals. TPM Muckraker scores the rare TwoFer: a really stupid Republican criminal. In fact, Duke Cunningham was so stupid, the defense contracters who were bribing him to strong-arm the Pentagon brass for those sweetheart deals Duke's benefactors were paying him to get had to literally spell out exactly what Duke was to tell the military officials. And when I say spell it out, Duke was given talking points -- which included a script.

4. I (Duke) would like you (Mr. Oliver) to take the following steps.......
5. I (Duke) would like to handle this immediately.

Rarely does one end up in jail if they didn't do something just plain stupid. Amazing that these neo-con-poops could turn the tables on anyone at all. But the story from Paul Krugman that Maha quotes does blow your mind, especially since this comes to us through a convoluted trail that started at Politico.com of all places. See, the party hacks of the GOP didn't take long to understand they didn't need to wait around to be bought by the K-Street lobbyists, but could sell their wares to the highest bidder:

According to The Politico, “many C.E.O.’s” used the term “extortion” to describe “the annual shakedowns by committee chairmen with jurisdiction over their industries.” And now that Mr. Santorum is out of office, heading the America’s Enemies program at a right-wing think tank, the faint sound you hear from K Street is that of lobbyists singing: “Ding, dong, the witch is dead.”

But, Sadly No. Or more accurately, MoJo alerts us that the Living Dead: Santorum, Blackwell, and Gingrich are out on the rubber chicken circiut.

It's a real horror show here at FRC's WB [The super-Christian Family Research Council's Washigton Briefing -mark]. Former senator Rick Santorum came out to slam Hillary Clinton on abortion, former Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell came out to jabber about civilization or ideas or something, and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich came out to talk about how Americans support certain things in massive majorities (prayer in schools, the pledge of allegiance, etc.) only be see their near-consensus on these issues overruled by the courts and the elites in Washington.

Mind you, I wouldn't trade places with the Republicans for a minute. But I'm rather disgusted watching our own leadership cower before these hyperventilating outrage merchants because one of the few elected Democrats with steel instead of pudding in his spine called Bush out on his bloodlust and mentally defective priorities. It wouldn't take too many missteps for there to be outright revolt against Pelosi and Reid among the base of netroot activists, myself included.

Reid is especially bothersome as we end the week. You simply don't make nice with the likes of Limbaugh, and you certainly don't undermine one of your own, especially when he's doing the right thing despite running for President. But don't worry Harry, I guess nobody but us bloggers give a damn.

If Chris Dodd puts a hold on the Telecom immunity bill and everyone ignores it, did it really happen?

Nope, especially when even the leader of your caucus blows you off.

Hey GOPers! Any room on that raft of yours? This ship of state is almost too full of holes to save.

Distilling Truthiness

Steve Young pens an exceptionally snarky primer on how one actually can survive on the "fact-like" material spewed forth from Fox New -- which to the casual observer lacks any nutritional (let alone informational) value whatsoever.

Digesting Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris:
"One day during the last presidential campaign Bill O'Reilly said that he would not bring partisans on to The Factor to discuss the election because they would only be spinning the same ol' same ol' and just rehashing their side's nothing-new and biased talking points.

'We learn nothing new and that's not what we're about,' reminded the always blunt, looking-out-for-you host. That same night on O'Reilly Factor on Fox, not grasping the screaming comic irony, Bill brought on Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris to discuss John Kerry.

Young provides a needed a bit of mental reinforcement to combat the constant barrage of noise and subterfuge coming from the wingnut wankers, explaining just how their crap can be ingested, sifted for rare factoids, and excreted with little or no harm to your sensibilities.

In that, um ... spirit, Matt Stoller removes the curtain from Sean Hannity's feeble spin (actually, outright lie) that he is just too awesome for any real liberal to debate, and that we all cower before his manliness.

The Faux Noise mavens will never lack for an audience of frothing cult members willing to plunge the whole damn planet into the abyss rather than listen to reason or believe or an instant that they don't possess exclusive rights to the real truth. Without doubt, the Limbaughs and Coulters have sole proprietorship of the most paranoid and conspiracy minded mental cases in the country.

Maha wrote over the weekend about the the noise machine's unending ability to Say Anything and their capacity to exert influence over people with "the critical thinking skills of moth larvae." Isn't it interesting that it's Keith Olberman, Jon Stewart, John Edwareds and others on the left are the recipients of white powder mailings, and not the O'Reilly and Malkins of the world -- or have we forgotten that there have indeed been terror attacks on our soil since 9/11.

For some reason the U.S. has always had a disproportionate number of whackjobs among its citizens; that ain’t new. And the whackjobs have had political influence at various times in the past, also. What’s different is that mass media and the Internet are allowing them to live in their own self-made Crazy World on a mass scale. And the Republicans are heavily invested in keeping them crazy.

When you see this poll, you understand the critical importance of these propaganda outlets to the GOP.

"Fox News viewers supported George Bush over John Kerry by 88% to 7%. No demographic segment, other than Republicans, was as united in supporting Bush. Conservatives, white evangelical Christians, gun owners, and supporters of the Iraq war all gave Bush fewer votes than did regular Fox News viewers." [Political Wire]

Shrinking this allegiance is certainly desired, but even more important (because it is doable) is denying this beast any legitimacy

Barack Obama freezing out Fox, and John Edwards leading the way to cancel Fox's Nevada Democratic Debates were outstanding first strikes at the heart of their Orwellian manipulation of the body politic. The beast must be starved, weakened, hunted down and finally slain once and for all.

That's why it is so disturbing to see Democrats adopting Republican frames, whether it's Obama admitting that Edwards is "kinda cute," or Harry Reid's initial willingness to have Fox host the debates because the can reach out to a whole new demographic.

88% Harry.

88% to 7% are unheard of odds, even in Vegas, Harry. What WERE you thinking? You don't win over such people. They are lost and prefer their dementia to facing the responsibility for the problems they cause. Ignoring them is a start, marginalizing and silencing them is better. You certainly don't cater to them, give them ammunition or a platform. They are spoiled children and you do not give spoiled children attention. You punish them and ignore them until they stop or go away.

Progressive Blogtopia has been keeping track of the Congressional Black Caucus courting Fox News as a debate sponsor as well. As risky as this might seem, I think it would show real leadership and backbone for Barack Obama to denounce this as even a remote possibility and declare, well in advance of the event even being put on the schedule, that he will not attend no matter how much they suck up to him.

Shame on Harold Ford Jr., too. I really, really like that guy. I can't believe he can't find a better place to keep his face in the public eye (where it should be, because he does indeed deserve a platform) than becoming a Fox News Regular. I would hold out hope that Ford going on Fox might mark some kind of transformation at the unofficial propaganda wing of the republican party -- except that the very reasonable and frighteningly smart Ford is paired with Rick Santorum -- a victim of hypnosis gone bad if ever there was one.

Stop it Harold! Please. You won't see any changes at Fox until Hannity, O'Reilly and Roger Ailes are gone. Putting a random centrist Democrat on that channel to be vilified as a true liberal is bad enough, but it also moves the center further and further to the right no matter how well Ford comports himself.

And Harold, for future reference, when your principle talking point is that we should get all the facts on the table -- as it was when you were discussing the U.S. Attorney Purge -- it will help if you get a firmer grasp on the facts that are available yourself.

You could have blown Little Ricky away when he gave the example of U.S. Attorneys should be fired if they for instance, don't follow an anti-child-pornography initiative the President orders. For one of the fired attorneys, Charlton, the opposite was the reality -- and I wish Ford had known that. Charlton was fired for being more, not less inclined to use his finite resources to go after child obscenity cases instead of being unwilling to take good cases like porn suppliers sending smut across state lines that did NOT contain any underage victims.

Update: Chris Bowers hit's the nail right on the head.

Lines In The Sand

Howard Dean just called out all the GOP Presidential Candidates to kick Ann Coulter in her balls.

"There is no place in political discourse for this kind of hate-filled and bigoted comments. While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the issues, we should all be able to agree that this kind of vile rhetoric is out of bounds. The American people want a serious, thoughtful debate of the issues. Republicans -- including the Republican presidential candidates who shared the podium with Ann Coulter today -- should denounce her hateful remarks."

In case you didn't hear, after being introduced by Mitt Romney, she took one of her patented cheap shots at John Edwards:

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot' – so... Kind of at an impasse. Can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions."

You know, that's fine if your doing stand-up in a seedy bar or even a late night cable TV show.

She was standing on the same stage as people who want to be your president. Brownback was there, Rudy too. Dick Cheney opened up the Conservative Political Action Conference right after leaving Afghanistan.

She crossed a line and not to denounce her is to own her and her filth.

---

The other line wasn't so notorious, but could have much more pronounced effect on the course of the war, the '08 elections, and the future of this country.

[Que dramatic John Williams music.]

The netroots are no longer giving Harry Reid and Barack Obama a free pass.

The pressure has been on Obama to clarify his progessive credentials after missing the AFSME Candidate Forum in Carson City, NV, and only seeing Hillary Clinton to the right of his current anti-war stance -- John Edwards' endorsement of John Murtha's redeployment plan and Biden's partition plan being both more concrete and less enabling of the Bush Administration's designs.

While truly an inspirational speaker, the absence of specifics in his policy initiatives has left Obama vulnerable to criticism that he has not used the megaphone the media has bestowed on him to actually, you know, lead.

Not so long ago, Obama was liberal Blogtopia's darling and we cheered that Harry Reid would stike a blow for sanity in the Halls of Congress. Now, scant months since November's irrational exuberance, Obama is being challenged to put some teeth in his Iraq proposals and use the power of the purse and defund the occupation. KOS front pager, McJoan describes Obama's position as an "ultimately defeatest point".

Even more disturbing, for the Democratic Party as a whole, is Harry Reid's pandering to the heart of Wingnuttistan. First, he set us up for humiliation by having FOX News host the first Debates in his Native Nevada. But that wasn't enough to truly alienate all the netroots.

Not to be distracted from his apparent goal of distancing himself from what he must consider unwashed, untouchable nuisances, he really pissed of the KOSsacks and the rest of the progressive online community by tapping Joe Lieberman (CFL) to make the Democratic Response to President Bush's Saturday radio address.

Hey Harry, this is no way to run a revolution.