Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on the floor of the Senate yesterday:
“When it turns out there are no death panels, when there is no bureaucrat between you and your doctor, when the ways your health care changes seem like a good deal to you, and a pretty smart idea, when the American public sees the discrepancy between what really is, and what they were told by the Republicans, there will be a reckoning. There will come a day of judgment about who was telling the truth.”
I hope he’s right. Here’s his speech from yesterday where he nails exactly what Republicans are. .
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Conservative David Frum on where Republican’s “no, no, no policy” has left the party.
The furious rejectionist frenzy of the past 12 months is exacting a terrible price upon Republicans. We’re getting worse and less conservative results out of Washington than we could have negotiated, if we had negotiated.
As is, we’re betting heavily that a bad economy will collapse Democratic support without us having to lift a finger. Maybe that will happen. But existing party strategy has to be reckoned a terrible failure. Most Republicans will shrug off that news. If polls are right, rank-and-file Republicans feel little regard for the Washington party, and don’t expect much from it. But it’s the rank-and-file who are the problem here! Republican leaders do not dare try deals for fear of being branded sell-outs by a party base that wants war to the knife. So we got war. And we’re losing. Even if we gain seats in 2010, the actions of this congressional session will not be reversed. Shrink Medicare after it has expanded? Hey- we said we’d never do that.
I hear a lot of talk about the importance of “principle.” But what’s the principle that obliges us to be stupid?
This is what happens when a party allows demagogues like Palin and Limbaugh to speak for it.
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I could not care less how Tiger Woods or any other athlete conduct their private lives (unless they’re operating a dog fight operation, of course). Whether or not Woods is having an affair should be of concern to only his wife and their children. But in a world where the public is fixated on the minutiae of rock stars and athletes, it turns out that it is a big deal…for Woods…and I’m not referring to his rocky marriage.
Tiger Woods is a money machine, and while many fans might think he earns most of his money by winning golf tournaments, it’s his outside commercial endorsements and ventures that bring in 90 percent of all his money. He’s made an estimated $1 billion in endorsements in his 13-year career, the most of any athlete ever, far eclipsing Michael Jordan’s athlete-as-mega-business model of the 1990s; Sports Illustrated estimates he’s now bringing in almost $100 million a year pitching products.
What this all means: Tiger Woods is not dealing just with medical recovery, marital strife, and legal headaches following his car crash early Friday morning. Enormous financial issues are at stake.
[...]
…some of his largest endorsements—brands with more mainstream images—could be threatened if Tiger dithers and the personal story gains a tawdry steam. With a large pool of athletes to choose from, large companies are extremely reticent to tie their products to anything with the whiff of scandal.
As we’ve seen in politics countless times (Sanford’s Appalachian trail anyone?), the intoxicating allure of sex numbs the rational part of even the strongest minds. It is only with this understanding of sex and human nature, can we begin to fathom how anyone living in a fishbowl can for a moment convince themselves that inappropriate behavior can go unnoticed. Combined this with the sense of invincibility which comes with power, fame or wealth and it’s not difficult to figure out at all.
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Palin faced a choice–seriousness or celebrity–and she chose the latter.
But while Palin’s choice means that we’ll be spared of the prospect of Senator Palin or President Palin, that doesn’t mean that we’ll be rid of her any time soon. In fact, Palin’s choice augurs a longer period of relevance for her. Defeated politicians fade away (Mike Dukakis anyone?), but, in this day and age, celebrities, even talentless ones, linger. Less like pneumonia and more like a certain communicable disease, I’m afraid Sarah Palin is one of those things that will always be with us.
The reason for Palin’s staying power will be the same thing that keeps a celebrity like Richie’s old running partner, Paris Hilton, in the spotlight. No, not a sex tape, thank God, but something related: shamelessness. These days, once someone has attained a certain level of celebrity (as Hilton and Palin have), if that person is willing to say or do anything (as Hilton and Palin are), then it’s pretty much impossible to lose it (which Hilton and Palin won’t).
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A judge on Friday blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.
The law that took effect in July allowed handgun owners with permits to pack their pistols in places serving alcohol, providing the establishments made more than half their profits from food.
Nashville Judge Claudia Bonnyman said the law was “fraught with ambiguity” and ruled in favor of a suit brought by restaurant owners who argued gun owners would not be able to determine if an establishment met the criteria.
“We will have vigilantes shooting up bars all over,” said Randy Rayburn, the owner of three upscale cafes, who led opponents of the law.
Supporters were considering a possible appeal, or new legislation.
Now if they could block the law allowing guns in parks, I might consider visiting Nashville someday.
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President Obama has conducted a final meeting on his military review for Afghanistan, administration officials said, and he is planning to explain his decision in an address to the nation next Tuesday.
“After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision, and he will announce that decision within days,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday morning.
[...]
The conversation settled around sending about 30,000 more American troops, two officials said, the first of which would deploy early next year to be in place in southern or eastern Afghanistan by the spring. The troop reinforcements would most likely be sent in waves, according to an official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss war strategy.
The entire Afghanistan situation is a lose-lose situation for Obama. History as well as the last eight years tells us that this war is almost impossible to win. Yet pulling out leaves Afghans in the hands of the Taliban. As well it would weaken the president’s national security credentials and leave him open to claims that he is not fighting the war on terror.
Sending in more troops will only extend the war and put more American soldiers in harms way. There is no immediate clear way out of this disastrous war and there probably never will be.
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Matthew Dowd, a former Bush strategist, makes the case that while not likely, a President Palin (I just shuddered at the sight of those last two words side by side) is a possibility.
Polls show that Palin’s favorability numbers are a mirror image of those of Obama. She is respected and loved by the Republican base, while Democrats despise her. Granted, independent voters have significant reservations about her capability to be president, and this would be a hurdle in the general election. But to win the Republican nomination, Palin needs only to get enough support from the base to win early key states. Already, in nearly every poll today, she has a level of support that makes her a viable primary candidate. Just look at the crowds and the buzz her book tour is drawing.
[...]
Like it or not, if Sarah Palin decides to seek our nation’s highest office, she has a shot. The probability of her success depends on her ability, and that of President Obama, to admit and learn from their mistakes as we head into 2012.
At first thought, I’d laugh at any possibility of Palin ever making it to the White House…and then I remember George W. Bush. I have a clear recollection of the first time I heard Bush being interviewed and thinking, nah, never in a million years could this dolt draw enough votes to become president. There aren’t enough sheep in the country that this jackass could ever possibly fool. I was wrong. Not once, but twice.
As we are all painfully aware, there are more than enough fools out there who were willing to put the welfare of their country into the hands of a complete imbecile. I can sort of understand the first time with the Clinton mess still stinking the joint…but a second time?
Enough sheep, fools and misguided simpletons out there to vote Sarah Palin into office? Perhaps. Here’s some of ‘em. .
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Joe Lieberman is now going around claiming that the public option was never part of the presidential campaign. Take a look at this bit of exchange with TPM.
Lieberman: This is a kindof 11th hour addition to a debate that’s gone on for decades. Nobody’s ever talked about a public option before. Not even in the presidential campaign last year.
TPM: How do you reconcile your contention that the public option wasn’t part of the presidential campaign given that all three of the [leading Democratic] candidates had something along the lines of the public option in their white papers?
Lieberman: Not really, not from what I’ve seen. There was a little–there was a line about the possibility of it in an Obama health care policy paper.
The line Lieberman refers to reads, “Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program, available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees.”
TPM: And at the time Senator Clinton, and John Edwards also had…”
Lieberman: Edwards probably had it more than anybody else. But Clinton, Obama, McCain–I don’t see it. Anyway, I’m opposed to it.
That’s a U.S. Senator talking nonsense and when challenged and presented with facts, he dismisses them and responds with a “anyway, I’m opposed to it.”
Spoken like a true twit, Joe. Good job.
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But the Palin assault keeps getting more surreal, and more intriguing. Wednesday night came the news that Palin wouldn’t rule out the idea of Fox News host (and professional paranoid) Glenn Beck as a possible 2012 running mate.
“I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I’m not there yet,” Palin told Newsmax. “But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he’s so bold — I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he’s very, very, very effective.”
In the unlikely event that this was ever to be, Obama takes all 50 states easily…and Canada and Mexico.
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