Whiny
The only word that can describe the Romney response to the WV loss:
“Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain’s inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney’s campaign of conservative change.“Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today’s first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party.”
Look, I am not the one who designed WV’s truly bizarre and byzantine convention system, but the rules are the rules. You need 50% to win, and they take multiple ballots until they have someone who crosses that thresh-hold. There was nothing “under-handed” about what happened, nothing sneaky or cheating, and it was all part of the rules of the game. In fact, when they thought Romney had one, many felt quite comfortable with the back-room deal aspect of it (read this thread for a positively hilarious anatomy of a meltdown, including Adam C praising Romney for being able to cut back room deals for a win).
Again, McCain and Huckabee did nothing sleazy. Claiming otherwise is absurd. Actually, Romney automatons, claiming otherwise is positively Clintonian and reminds me of her wanting to change the rules in Michigan and Florida after formerly agreeing to them.
Think about that for a minute.
I just can not stress enough how much the Romney wing of the GOP needs to be defeated.
Grand Moff Texan
Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party.
I take it Mitt’s speechwriters have left the building?
What a pathetic sentence.
SHOW, don’t TELL.
.
The Other Steve
Whiny?
Sounds to be like Romney is a true Republican. I don’t understand why WV didn’t vote for them.
Blue Neponset
Romney just isn’t a good politician. He can’t fake outrage, compassion or interest. In short, he isn’t a good liar.
I hope he wins the R nomination because Hillary or Obama will wipe the floor with him.
binzinerator
Just more of that liberals-stabbed-us-in-the-back shit, now trotted out because McCain is really a liberal. Or at least not conservative. Which means the same thing.
Jake
IOOKIYMR.
(It’s only ok if you’re Mittens Romney.)
Being absurd, contradictory WATBs what the party of Lincoln/Reagan is all about. The only thing missing from the current bout of crying for their binky is some sort of hint that McCain is a tarrist.
Oh well, it makes great theater.
binzinerator
Only just one wing of the GOP? The whole fucking turkey needs its neck wrung.
Jen
Fixt, so I likes it.
merciless
I just can not stress enough how much the Romney wing of the GOP needs to be defeated.
I like it that each piece of the fractured GOP has its own standard bearer; Mitt is the money guy, McCain is the all-war-all-the-time guy, and Huck is the 3G guy.
They all need to lose.
peach flavored shampoo
That RedState thread is proof-positive that contemporary Republicans, having been in power so long, simply are unable to contemplate what losing feels like. They simply cannot fathom what it’s like to not get their way.
They’re all adults acting like 5 year-olds. This promises to get funnier each day.
Zifnab
Oh, and Romney isn’t the only belly-aching whiner in the Republican Party.
See Dobson, James:
Whu~ whu~ whu~ Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My issues?! Why will you not listen to them?!
Mary Poppins smackdown! Oh no he did’n’t! OMG! Yes he did!
~ h/t DKos, because we love you.
OMG! So good! I love you Schadenfreude! I love you so much!
Jen
I have a feeling as this election goes on, I am going to regret getting myself booted from RS’s deliciousness. Others have principles about trafficking in evil. Can we please mock them on the front page, frequently and enthusiastically?
wvng
Clinton pulled another one today, not unlike “her wanting to change the rules in Michigan and Florida after formerly agreeing to them.” She agreed to a debate on Faux “News.”
As Jane Hamsher said on hearing this: “Fox is not a news outlet, it’s an openly partisan opinion factory and the Democrats should not be legitimizing them (and allowing them to recruit Democratic viewers to propagandize to) by doing this.”
Clinton’s delegate games moved me from her camp to Obama’s. The latest b.s. confirms that decision.
TR
Oh, their tears are so sweet.
Enjoy the circular firing squad, fuckers!
Z
I sooo want to celebrate watching HH, the Corner, etc wreath in agony over Mitt’s loss in SC, but I fear the Karma. If McCain does win, there is a danger the democratic candidate would lose…
... oh but their tears would taste SOOO good
... BAD Z! Back in the corner!
D-Chance.
“I’m not voting for YOUR guy!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m not voting for YOUR guy, either! So, nyeh!”
“Nyeh!”
“Nyeeeeehhhhhh!”
“Phony!”
“Liberal!”
“Whaaaaaa!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Nothing like a little family feud…
libarbarian
Maybe, but I think the Romney faction is the most dangerous because Romney is almost universally the candidate of the identity-conservatives who are, by far, the most responsible for turning the Republican party into what it is today: a dogmatic movement largely purged of any belief in or loyalty to empiricism or free inquiry.
Pat Hynes said:
This is the language of an identity group, not a movement….My conservative friends…were interested in being shown respect.
But respect is a two-way street, which brings me to my second point: Identity-group conservatives have shown a shocking lack of respect for fellow conservatives who stray on a particular issue or two. ... A healthy movement can withstand the occasional division on key issues; a chauvinistic identity group cannot.
EXAMPLE:
This really is a sham.
I don’t even know where to begin…..
Horselover Fat
It’s all good!
I have a wingnut brother who just emailed me Dobson’s rant, which he says is a big deal to him. He is, of course, furious that nasty old John and Mike are picking on poor widdle Mitt.
Dennis - SGMM
The delicious nougatty center of this is Republicans taking to their fainting couches over “backroom deals.” Next thing you know they’ll be getting the vapors over the politics of exclusion.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
St. Paul said that.
The Republican establishment fuckers are harvesting the rich crop of divisiveness, secretiveness, and dirtier-than-usual politics which they have so assiduously cultivated.
I said that.
Apologies to Bob Dylan.
PaulW
This absolutely nails it. The Whinebot wing of the GOP INSISTS on getting things THEIR WAY, otherwise it’s a massive disaster of epic proportions, and those who don’t cave in to them are TRAITORS or COWARDS or worse yet COMMUNISTS (pssst, guys, Cold War’s over, we won, YAY CAPITALISM). THEY cannot compromise. THEY are always right and should be treated as such. In short, THEY are
sshl-s and idiots.Brainster
Mitt may be a Mormon, but he enjoys a fine whine now and then.
PaulW
With regards to the McCain/Huckabee deal, is there any evidence that Romney tried to broker any kind of deal? After all, the first round of ballots at their convention didn’t have a clear winner. At that point, like all conventions where there’s no clear winner, deals start getting made. So what deals were Romney working with? If he wasn’t, then what the hell is he doing being a politician or even a businessman? Deals are what they do! Sheesh!
qwerty42
Ana Maria Cox had an article yesterday. About the dislike the different Republican candidates had for Mitt.
Psycheout
Romney supporters are a bunch of crybabies. Mitt Romney consistently attacked his opponents, going so negative as to turn off supporters of other candidates.
Huck and McCain supporters don’t mind if the other gets the nomination for the most part, but they will never support Romney. He’s burned those bridges rather than trying to court supporters who are not already in his shrill fanclub.
Mittens has a low ceiling even if he has talk radio blowhards behind him.
Brainster
PaulW, the Romney forces have been going nuts in Georgia trying to talk Huckabee supporters into switching over with the “a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain” meme. But this quote probably reveals why it’s not working:
“The problem for Romney in Georgia is simple: Some voters are too stupid to understand that, at this point, a vote for Huckabee is effectively a vote for John McCain.”
The doltish part of this strategy, and why it’s doomed to fail and might even backfire is that the latest poll shows Huckabee tied with McCain in Georgia. Suppose Romeny gets just enough voters to switch to him that McCain wins.
The Mitt campaign has made some unbelievable blunders this year.
Jake
ReBleat after me:
Bathroom deals, g-o-o-o-d!
Backroom deals, b-a-a-a-d!
Civilized Crank
(cross posted at Cantankerous Gentlemen)
Like John, I was once a Republican (voted for W twice in fact), but I registered independent in 2006 after the mid-term disaster. I couldn’t stand the identity politics that had come to dominate the GOP, the bunker mentality that made conservatism a check list and not a temperment and viciously sought to destroy debate and free inquiry. So to see the party implode like this is bittersweet. Sweet because I know that the ideas that rose after the Goldwater massacre will rise again like the phoenix, but bitter because I know that there will be a Democrat elected in November and that the cause of limited government will be set back (though the best argument for limited government is actually having a party embrace the idea again).
PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » Glenn Beck Doesn’t Understand Conventions…
[...] 3: Well, thanfkully someone understands how these things work. Sphere: Related Content Filed under: US Politics, Cable News, 2008 Campaign || [...]
binzinerator
Fixed to agree with reality. If you want to really be like John, you have to first be intellectually honest.
Jake
And then burn again like the phoenix and then rise again … What the hell it makes good television.
Geoduck
I’m sorry to see Romney flagging, because he’s both the least-odious remaining GOPer and the most likely to lose the general election. McCain is dangerous: a unrepentant warmonger and a “maverick” whom the press loves.