This time it’s Lester Crawford, former FDA Commissioner. Word says that he will plead guilty tomorrow to making false statements and conflict of interest during his tenure at the FDA.
On a semi-related note, I understand that HTML buttons don’t wear out. But even knowing that I have noticed that ‘Republican Stupidity’ button has started looking a little ragged. With any luck (see my post below) a Democratic sweep will help restore balance to the Force.
Doug
Guess I have to bookmark TPM’s “Grand Old Docket”.
Punchy
Tim, the phrase is repetitious.
Tsulagi
Or just interchangeable. Sorta like Rush Limbaugh and oxy moron.
Mr Furious
The photo caption in that article pretty much sums it all up…
Since he’s pleading guilty, I guess we’ll miss the round of rightwing whines about how George Soros and the Dems are really behind this. The way things are going, immediate guilty pleas may be the best thing Republicans can do. Try to get it out of the papers before anybody notices…
jg
He’s been damned by God? Seriously? That has got to suck above all things that have ever sucked.
ThymeZone
Today’s Krugman.
Even knowing how bad these Republicans are, just seeing this today is a jaw-dropper.
Had enough yet?
RSA
Wow. Thank God, I hope, that the Republican reign is coming to an end. Although it’s still entertaining to see headlines like Bush Appointee Resigns for Health Reasons–No, Really.
chopper
file under ‘facts that make me very, very sad’.
Davebo
The Red Staters have fired back at John Cole if anyone is interested.
Frankly I’m amazed they have the morale to post on any subject these days.
Pb
Well, they acted outraged enough, but I don’t think they managed to refute his original point. Really, if the latest thing they can dredge up on this is a post from September that got zero comments…
…then I’d say that they just proved his point, in spades.
Steve
They loved John when he was voting Republican, they even let him post on the front page. It’s funny to watch them whine about his “unhinged rants” now.
Perry Como
I’m surprised that RedState hasn’t focused on the campaign money Sen. Reid used for his holiday fund.
ThymeZone
“Trademark hysterical ire?”
Wow. Considering the crap his commenters give him, I consider it a wonder that John has only lost his temper a few times in over a year and half.
Red State must be hard up for something to bitch about today.
The Other Steve
I just glanced over at redstate… They’re averaging about 5 comments per post. Even then, they have the average intellectual curiousity as a Paul L rant about Harry Reid.
Anyway, gotta go. Glenn Beck is doing an expose on Porn this week!
ThymeZone
The face of modern politics — the “Stealth Pac.”
I got an expensive four-color flyer in the mail today from one of these groups suggesting that I call — ahem — Republican Senator Jon Kyl (up for reelection this year) and thank him for getting us that great prescription drug plan through Medicare.
I don’t think there is anything that pisses me off more in politics than stealth candidacy and stealth advocacy. Both of which the GOP now seems to have down to a science.
I’d vote against these turds for this reason alone.
Apparently the reservoir of dishonesty from which these people drink is just bottomless.
ThymeZone
Sorry, I forgot to add this link to my previous post.
DougJ
It’s Clinton’s fault. Isn’t this more or less was Socksgate was about, only Socksgate was much worse.
Bob In Pacifica
Is it really stupidity? How about a new button for corruption? Stupid isn’t necessarily a crime, and criminals are only stupid if they’re caught. Or something.
Mike
heh heh heh…
CaseyL
RS only averages 4 comments per post these days. Tacitus has shut down. Macho Nachos hasn’t posted on his blog since October 2005. No End But Victory posts are about anything but NEBV, and average 0 comments. Belgravia’s lost most of its RW commenters. JOM still gets hundreds of comments – by people who turn up practically nowhere else. Kevin Drum’s stable of raving loon regulars seems to be reduced to two or three.
Freeperville still seems pretty lively, and I guess LGF still is, too.
But I wonder where most of the stalwarts went. People like TallDave, Defense Guy, Tbrosz – I haven’t seen them commenting in their old hangouts for quite some time, now.
I’m not sure what the disappearance of the most egregious wingnuts signifies. Are they staying strictly in the nuttiest of the nuthouses? Do they only come out when the Zeitgeist is on their side?
Paddy O'Shea
The Fingernator
Scroll down for a delightful surprise!
http://tinyurl.com/ye8j3j
ThymeZone
“Retarded president?”
Uh, wouldn’t that require a constitutional amendment?
The Other Steve
They all went over to the site which shall not be named.
ThymeZone
Scrutator?
Perry Como
Probably Bukkake Logic.
MAX HATS
Probably because everyone else was banned.
When I first got into blogs, I heard RedState was a esteemed right-wing site. Some commentator posted a long conspiracy theory about how the real brains behind the Plame outing was the New York Times. I critisized that as civily as possible, given the insanity, and was immediately told by the administrator that I had recieved my “first and final warning.” Some guy is rewriting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and I’m the problem for noticing the lunacy.
a
Crawford was a Clinton appointee. Why not file
it under Democrat Stupidity? (Or both?)
Steve
I assume this is some kind of spoof attempt, but it’s not very well executed.
Nikki
Is it just an automatic response? To try and pin every bad thing on Clinton?
Paddy O'Shea
Clinton gets blamed for a lot of things because he is our country’s last real president.
The current fellow doesn’t really do much beyond reading the speeches other people write for him, so what would be the point of holding him responsible for anything?
Lee
This is not a “But But Clinton!!” post, I am actually curious to see if this administration is really an outlier with crooks.
Anyone keeping a count of Clinton’s Crook Count versus Bush The Lesser’s Crook Count?
or even comparing crooks across various administrations.
Faux News
Ah, why I love reading RedState! I have read posts where wingnuts advocate violence/death against muslims, liberals, abortion clinics/staff and not a peep from the moderator. In contrast, I have seen newbies post civil comments like yours pointing out the myriad of problems with Republicans and get banned. The rest of the braying jackasses howl with laughter at a “whale” (Troll) being banned on their first post.
Andrew Sullivan is correct. The conservative movement has been hijacked. Reagan must be rolling over in his grave.
Pb
Well, that depends, first we’ll need a working definition of ‘crook’. Because for some reason I think the good folks over at, say, the Clinton Body Count might have an axe to grind…
Lee
‘Crook’ would be someone found or plead guilty to a crime committed while in office.
DougJ
I don’t think that John would allow this, but I’d like to go back over to Scrutator and rig it so that every time there’s a new balloon juice post, Scrutator tracks back with “It was Clinton’s fault.”
jcricket
Remember what’s important a a time like this – Asserting that Iraqis are deliberately dieing so the NY Times can “write bloody headlines”.
And just when you think there’s no way to sink any lower, let’s ratchet up the threats to the independent judiciary by allowing citizens to sue judges for their rulings.
John has been refreshingly POed at the Republicans lately, so I hope that extends to other former GOPers like him. There isn’t an area of American life the current Republicans and their acolytes aren’t actively trying to ruin. And I’m not sure how much more we can all “take”.
jcricket
BTW – I’ve had it up to FUCKING HERE with the whole “extremists on the left and right” equivalency. There’s exactly no one on the left with any power issueing death threats to judges or telling non-Christian (or non-Pagan) legislators they’re sinful, or using the brain-dead shell of a woman as a political rallying cry.
The worst on the left are people like the ELF, who have exactly zero popular support and regularly get arrested.
Every single FUCKED UP thing, at a national level, in the past 6 years is a result of total GOP dominance of every branch of government. With the added bonus of emboldening our domestic whack-jobs (as shown in any number of posts on right-wing blogs these days, or all the initiatives sponsored by wingers across America).
Daniel DiRito
Crawford joins a long list of disgraced Bush appointees and he is one further reminder to voters of the hypocrisy within the GOP…the party that has used morality and values to garner the support of a large block of evangelical voters. It has become increasingly obvious that many of these discredited appointees and politicians were simply motivated by power and profit far more than by their religious values.
As we near the November election, I can only hope that voters take the time to evaluate the divide between the actions of the GOP and the rhetoric they have used so effectively for the last decade. Further, when history records the events since the launch of the “Contract with America”, one would likely expect that it will be concluded that the Republican Party abused the trust of their constituents and reneged on much of that contract.
Read more here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Bombadil
I agree with Bob — change it to “Republican Corruption”.
You should be able to use that button for another 3 or 4 weeks before it wears out, too.
Pb
Even that might be a bit slanted, due to the partisan witch hunts conducted at the time:
It’s pretty impressive–Clinton ended up with manufactured scandals that were still thoroughly investigated, which don’t really stack up to the laundry list of actual scandals George H. W. Bush was involved in–S&L, Iran-Contra, BCCI, Iraqgate… The principal people in those scandals are generally doing rather well, often with positions in government (or perhaps in their news arm), probably some lobbyists in there too…
The Other Steve
I’m not even certain ELF is a leftist group. I don’t know any leftists who sympathize with ELF. Leftists would rather see education on environmental awareness, not burning cars and houses.
But PETA is starting to become a righty group. There’s a lot of overlap in mentality with the pro-lifers.
jcricket
Steve – I would agree with you. My point is that even if you concede the ELF or PETA is the “far left”, none of those groups have any popular support or power. No one from the Democratic party meets with the ELF or PETA. At “worst”, the ELF is a group of arsonists with zero support from anyone but those to the farthest left of the green or socialist party (not exactly Democratic stalwarts, as we can see in the previous elections).
On the other side you have the militia/”Patriot” movement, the Minutemen, Dobson, Falwell, Malkin, Coulter & Limbaugh. All of whom enjoy far more popular support (oh, and pre-jail David Duke?) and political support from the official Republican party. They all regularly spout eliminationist rhetoric (or worse) and yet are invited to speak with GOP officials or at official GOP events.
That’s why the Republicans have tried so hard to make the the ACLU or Soros or MoveOn the left-wing equivalents of the right-wing eliminationists. They need a bogey-man to inspire fear and terror in the hearts of American “swing voters”. I think it’s a long-term losing strategy, because Republicans have moved so far right they’re now stuck with tarring 86% of the public (those that believe the President lied about Iraq) as “terrorist sympathetizers”. How long will that continue to work?
jcricket
I should just stop writing stuff and point to others who write it better: http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2006/10/dynamics-of-rising-american-fascism.html
and
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/10/enemies-within.html