More Mavericky Behavior
So apparently aging sociopath John McCain slapped a hold NLRB nominee Craig Becker back in October, and even though Becker has been a nominee for six months and answered 280 written questions, McCain never found the time to submit any questions. Al Franken comes to the rescue:
You’d think with his 20 some appearances on Sunday talk shows, he would have had enough spare time to ask even one question to get at why he had a hold on Becker. Apparently not.
McCain’s only principle is what benefits him the most at that very minute. That is why he is able to be so mavericky and switch his postion on everything- he simply doesn’t really believe in it, so why not change your mind if there is some immediate political gain and some camera time to be had.
Meanwhile, the worthless shitheels in our national media (I’m talking to all you McCain fluffers, and especially you Sunday show hosts- Mr. David Gregory, Mr. Bob Schieffer), continue to pretend that McCain is a man of honor and integrity, and a man who stands on principle. Rather than confess their sins and admit what they helped to create, they’ll sit idly by as a bitter geriatric makes them his bitch.
The suicide rate for j-school professors has to be astronomical these days. Are any of David Gregory’s professors still alive?
(video courtesy of the Jane Hamsher’s of the left)
Make7
Is it even possible for a former prisoner of war to be morally wrong on an issue?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Couple of points:
McCain’s only principle is what benefits him the most at that very minute.
You vastly overestimate him. On a pie chart of John McCain’s motivations, personal resentment and vindictiveness would take up at least half, maybe as much as two thirds. Political self-interest is probably about 15% (that’s why he has Joe and Lindsey, to tell him what to do). Sheer marble-skulled stupidity about another 10%. This is a rough estimate off the top of my head.
McCain fluffers, and especially you Sunday show hosts- Mr. David Gregory,
Gregory’s flufferism is a learned behavior, learned from Brokaw and Russert in this case, two men who channeled all their near-pathological daddy issues into Gampy War Hero.
Violet
David Gregory may have taken a journalism class or two, but his degree is in “International Studies.”
I love Al Franken in the Senate. More like him, please.
dmsilev
If so, I’m sure they’re busy airbrushing him out of old gradebooks and the like.
Oh, and there’s a typo on line 3. ‘Af Franken’.
-dms
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Violet: Al is one of the reasons I have faith in the PTDB first, Fix it later strategy.
Comrade Javamanphil
This post and the accompanying video are good news for John McCain. Maybe he should run for president or something?
Violet
@Make7:
Real world answer: Yes, of course.
Village insider answer: No! It’s impossible! His POW experience proves that he’s always right about everything.
Riggsveda
McCain is an abusive son of a bitch to his wife, whom he nabbed after he dumped the one who stuck with him through the war years and the rehab upon return. He is a pitiful excuse for a human being, a bully who likes to publicly humiliate those weaker than he, and no amount of promo for his Hanoi Hilton days is going to change that.
feebog
Two words for this: Recess Appointments. I know they are only good for that term of congress, but so what? If McCain, Vitter, DeMint and the rest of these obstructionists knew that hold=recess appointment maybe they would stop their bullshit. BTW, Becker is extremely qualified.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Great post. Gregory is a whore.
And what Jim, Foolish Literalist said at #2.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Perhaps McCain intends to act upon the principle of self-interest, but he is too stupid to carry it out effectively. Reckless and impulsive behavior, rather than cunning self-interest, is the common thread that runs through McCain’s entire adult life. If it feels good at the moment, he does it, and sometimes revenge feels good. Temper tantrums feel good, too.
de stijl
You vastly overestimate him. On a pie chart of John McCain’s motivations, personal resentment and vindictiveness would take up at least half, maybe as much as two thirds. Political self-interest is probably about 15% (that’s why he has Joe and Lindsey, to tell him what to do). Sheer marble-skulled stupidity about another 10%. This is a rough estimate off the top of my head.
I’m working on a pie chart of my own. It has two segments: pie I have already eaten & pie I have yet to eat.
Max
Surely, you can’t be talking about Sir David Gregory of MTP fame, who has not made one mistake since taking over the hosting of that show.
Sorry for the HuffPo link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....33144.html
KG
@feebog: yes, but then Obama would be acting so very, very partisan.
de stijl
#12 First paragraph was supposed to be blockquoted.
Midnight Marauder
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
You don’t know the half of it.
beltane
@Violet: The Villagers confuse being a prisoner of war with being a political prisoner. McCain was a POW solely on account of having the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, not because he deliberately took a principled stand against an oppressive government and was forced to pay a hideous price for it.
It is one thing to honor John McCain for his service to his country; it is another thing to confer sainthood on him for it.
Blue Raven
Jane Hamsher’s what of the left?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Midnight Marauder:
That reminds me of someone… who was it now? short guy, stuttered and stammered a lot…
dmsilev
@Midnight Marauder:
Fixed.
-dms
kommrade reproductive vigor
Fxd.
See for example: Picking Palin to Persuade the PUMAs.
Cat Lady
If Hayworth beats McCain, which is more and more likely, then our long national nightmare of President McCain may end. The fellaters in the press won’t do their jobs, so I guess I have to root for Hayworth. You’d think Halperin would want to get some more mileage out of his gossip rag by discussing McGrumpy’s cuckolding, since the Edwards’ marriage is old news. That’s the only thing that would shame him into going away – not all the crashed planes and being pantsed by Bush. What a fucking loser.
Comrade Mary
Sorry, I doubt it. If and when McCain loses, he’ll get an endless pity fuck from the media. Not only will they feel so, so sorry for St. BBQ, he’ll be perfectly positioned as an impartial and highly experienced observer. Expect him to have his own tv show, too.
Alice B. Stuck
I’m so sick of these self serving wingnut clowns. It’s why I haven’t turned my teevee on except for cspan, and even then when I turn to the senate, there is spittle flecked Mccain whining about how he and his fellow wingnuts are being shat on by the dems and Obama denying them their native right to run this country with a 41 percent pure white majority.
They are insane, and at least the progs make a little sense and don’t drool too much when wrestled with. Well, some of them.
Wanna fight, huh, do ya ?
West of the Cascades
This is what makes Cole and Balloon Juice so essential to our survival as a democracy (it’s not frequently posting cat photos): the term “worthless shitheels” and “national media” ought to be used over and over and over in the same sentence. Yet I have never before seen it that starkly stated.
Thank you, John, and hope your shoulder feels better. And please post some Tunch shots.
darryl
She’s a multi-millionaire who made him sign a prenup. I doubt he’s all that abusive. You’ll have to show me more than mean words from a single fight to convince me otherwise.
handy
People people. You fail to consider a far simpler explanation: Gramps “Get off my lawn” McCain switches positions because he can’t remember what he ate for breakfast let alone what his position on a given issue has been at any time.
mr. whipple
@Alice B. Stuck:
“I’m so sick of these self serving wingnut clowns.”
Do you need a hug?
Midnight Marauder
@dmsilev:
This is a fun game.
Alice B. Stuck
@mr. whipple: HA! touche my friend . touche’
Spell Czech
Typo in line 1. Should be NLRB (not NRLB).
Ming
jesus fucking christ.
Martin
@Violet:
And Franken always delivers with the hot aides, though I prefer the other one.
But I think this campaign of shame could be an effective one. Moar plz.
Sly
McCain does have principles. One such principle, typified by this particular piece of obstructionism, is “Fuck Workers and the People Who Stick Up for Them“.
John O
Thanks, John.
Thanks, Al. That was a comedian’s expertise in sticking the shiv in lightly.
Why not him?
Ash
I actually felt like I was watching some sort of tv show in that clip. Not real life.
Two Works Of Art « Beware The Man
[...] under Political | Tags: Al Franken, Balloon Juice, John Cole, John McCain | Leave a Comment The blog post, and the Senatorial evisceration. [...]
mcd410x
Speaking of wingnut clowns ... “Left, Right, and Forward: On the Future of America” featuring Harold Ford Jr. and Michael Steele.
The joke is on you.
rob!
Ah, fuck it, how do I donate money to Hayworth?
srv
@Blue Raven:
BJ history.
mcd410x
Is this peak wingnut?
Comrade Mary
@srv: Pssst. I think the grocer’s apostrophe is the issue here.
John O
@mcd410x:
No.
That’s civil war, dude. We’re up to almost a third. 42% yes or not sure.
SATSQ and all.
gbear
@Martin:
The hot aides must be good for office morale. When you call Al Franken’s office, the staffers who answer the phone always sound incredibly energized and aware.
Cat Lady
@mcd410x:
No. SATSQ. Imagine Grumpy and Starbursts running the show.
Texas Dem
That was a fine effort from Sen. Franken, but, alas, except for political junkies like us, no one will ever see it. That’s what happens when you don’t have a media infrastructure to get your message out. Olberman and Maddow notwithstanding. (and I don’t know what’s going to happen to them after Comcast takes over NBC). I wish I could be optimistic, but I fear we may have to wait for the GOP to destroy itself, and probably the country along with it.
Martin
@gbear: They’d keep me energized and aware…
Ash Can
“I meant to blow those
goatsRepublicans, and by golly I blew them!”DonkeyKong
Well, at this point in your political life you’d be pretty vindictive if you had to wear “Oop’s I Crapped my Pant’s” without the Presidental Seal on it.
LuciaMia
Is there a transcript of this somewhere? Please take pity-yes, i am one of those internet dinosaurs that still only has dial-up.
Texas Dem
Until we lose net neutrality, and that’s only a matter of time, given the enormous power corporations now have over our “democracy.” Then it’s lights out; party over.
Bobby Thomson
I think you’re all forgetting something important. For five years, John McCain couldn’t put a hold on any nominations because he was a POW!
In any event, this is excellent news for John McCain.
BruinKid
I believe it’s the NLRB, not the NRLB.
recusancy
I can’t stop laughing. But mostly because it’s either that or crying.
morzer
John McCain has a very clear and consistent set of principles:
1) Never know anything about anything
2) Never do anything that somebody else can be made to do for under minimum wage for you
3) Never remember anything (unless it involves promoting yourself)
4) Never work for a house that your wife can loan to you
5) Never remain faithful when you can trade up
The Moar You Know
With just a little more effort by the Viet Cong, all this could have been avoided.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bobby Thomson: I hereby declare a new rule:
As an online discussion about U.S. federal politics on a progressive/liberal blog grows longer, the probability of the use of the phrase “This is good news for John McCain” approaches 1.
I’m calling it “Halperin’s Law.”
Mike in NC
Ah, Bob Schieffer. Texan, Republican, regular George W. Bush golfing buddy. You couldn’t ask for a more objective host.
DCr
I love the idea of Al Franken in the Senate. This was excellent.
But I can’t shake the belief one day he’s just going the shed the straight face and deliver his punchline: The joke’s on you. It’d be epic.
DCr
Tenzil Kem
Hayworth’s a start, but is there any halfway-viable Democratic candidate for the general election? Bruce Babbitt’s, what, 70? BFD, so’s Mike Castle.
El Cid
@Mike in NC: Didn’t Bob Schieffer actually cry or at least weep & blubber like two Sundays in a row during the Presidential campaign on some nonsense in which somebody didn’t sufficiently praise Saint John McCain for having been a POW?
Dan Robinson
I have a man crush on Senator Franken.
But it is a tasteful man crush. My man crush is just the opposite of the one the media has on Senator McCain. Mine is all lips, no tongue.
El Cid
That’s right. Bob Schieffer freaked out and super-indignantized hisself when Wes Clark correctly pointed out that being a POW didn’t make John McCain qualified to be President, and then the next week he freaked out and super-indignantized hisself when John Kerry questioned McCain’s judgment on foreign policy.
slag
I wonder if this is one of the “grudges” Obama mentioned with regard to people holding up his nominees. McShame…never could stand that guy.
suzanne
@Tenzil Kem:
Arizona has some good Dems, but I don’t know if they’re interested. Terry Goddard (current state AG, former Phoenix mayor) is apparently going to go for the governorship. Congresscritters Grijalva and Kirkpatrick are rad. Giffords and Mitchell (mine) are OK. I would love to see Grijalva in particular go for the Senate seat, but I’d hate for him to take the chance and lose.
Llelldorin
@mcd410x:
No. Wingnuts are essentially a pudgy, cheeto-stained variant of ninjas, and obey a variant of the appropriate inverse law. (To be clear, they’re technically ninjas the way Nac Mac Feegles are technically fairies.) The fewer remain, the crazier they are. Peak wingnut won’t happen until the last wingnut Senator stops all Senate business to deliver a continuous week-long rant on how evil feminist witches working for the ACLU and the communist-front PAW are poisoning our children with fluoridated water as part of the gay agenda. We’ll finally pass peak Wingnut when his voice gives out and he goes Galt.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Looks like Al is cracking Walnuts. Big mistake though, all he will find is shriveled, bitter nut devoid of any meat.
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Why are you down on whores? Unlike Gregory, whores are honest about what they are. The only thing Gregory and whores have in common is that when you are dealing with either of them you know exactly what they are going to do.
That and the whores display more variety when performing their ‘jobs’. Gregory is a one-trick pony in a boring carnival show.
Fix’t.
Da Nihilist
@The Moar You Know: Too far, dude. Too far.
Anonsters
@Comrade Mary:
For whatever bizarre reason, this made me laugh.
Jeff Fecke
@Tenzil Kem:
Cwazy Babbit.
(Sorry, old Mark Russell joke that I had to dig out. I mean, how often do you hear about Bruce Babbitt?)
xian
if Hayworth beats McCain I predict they will continue to book him on the sabbath gasbag circuit.
Thoughtcrime
@West of the Cascades:
But have you seen the video?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUBfzq8ysdg
polyorchnid octopunch
@Da Nihilist: Fair! WHO’S THE FUCKING NIHILIST HERE! WHAT ARE YOU, A BUNCH OF FUCKING CRYBABIES? /lebowski.
asiangrrlMN
I love Al Franken. I am very proud to have him as my senator. It’s a shame we don’t have more of this, gutless media reactions be damned.
Aspasia
If you care at all about Arizona and the USA, please please please do not even joke about Hayworth’s being elected. He is a vicious loudmouth whose politics are slightly to the right of Limbaugh’s.
McCain’s other opponent in the primary is a former Minuteman. You know, the people who blow up trains and banks to make their point, whatever it is.
An earlier post was correct about prominent Democrats in Arizona—there are only four since Janet left. We have to hope, though, that someone will emerge to run against whichever of these cranks the Republicans nominate.
Rick Taylor
A trip down memory lane.
Has a theory ever been so quickly and thoroughly discredited? At the time, I confess it made sense to me; how could they get any nuttier or more extreme than they are now, I thought. Well. . .
Paul L.
Becker Lied to McCain
On a subject of more important. Who is the hottie with the glasses behind Senator Smalley?