I think David Frum is probably right that there will be further revelations in CainGate and that they will not be “conclusive”. But can I get a what what?
People on the right-hand side will pounce on the perceived hypocrisy and double standard. What about Bill Clinton? What about John Edwards? It’s the biggest deal on earth when one of our guys makes a joke–but it’s “personal and private” when your guys carry on flagrantly?
Clinton was impeached. Edwards is being prosecuted. Edwards’ political career was ended and Clinton’s nearly was.
In what sense did either get away with it?
There’s another weird angle here. I would love for Cain to be the nominee. He’s both less electable and less frightening than Rick Perry to me (he’s more frightening but much less electable than Romney). When these allegations came out, my initial reaction was “shit, we’re stuck with Mitt”. I think most Democrats feel the same way. I’m not going to defend Cain because I don’t know what happened and, frankly, his song-singing turned my stomach, but, yeah, I hope he recovers, I wish him the best politically.
cathyx
I think we should change the name of this blog to Cain Juice.
Baud
Who exactly is this person on the left that is saying this disqualifies Cain from running from President?
tkogrumpy
Please give me a nominee named Cain.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I think it’s the voices in the Republicans’ heads who are saying that. That’s who it usually is when they make claims about what left wingers are saying.
Paul W.
I think we can close this thread now, the OP and the first two comments covered everything…
Spaghetti Lee
@cathyx:
Ew.
arguingwithsignposts
David Fvcking Vitter. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
DougJ
@cathyx:
You know, I go online and see what’s in the Times, a few other papers, and the 50 blogs I read. If I’m not interested, I find another topic. If two or three days go by and they’re still all talking about it, I give up.
I do find the conservative reaction here interesting, anyway. I don’t find the initial story all that interesting. Awkward CEO hits on assistants, it’s not exactly Don Draper seducing Alison and Megan, it’s pretty sad, boring, and depressing. Not my bag, baby.
DougJ
@arguingwithsignposts:
Before we’re done here, y’all be wearing gold-plated diapers.
Warren Terra
I like the idea that the NRA (no, not that one) throws around $35,000 ($46,000 in 2010 dollars) like candy, to make baseless allegations go away. We’re supposed to believe that there was no there there because she’s muzzled, a muzzling the NRA (still not that one) could cancel at any time. But won’t, of course.
As ever, it’s not so much the offense (he was a youth of 55 at the time, he could always say; and he’s found Jesus) as the lying and prevarication. Although in part that’s just because we don’t know that the offense was; I reserve the right to change my mind on that part.
Villago Delenda Est
David Frum is a serious fuckhead.
That is all.
Jenny
This is all a liberal media hit job!
Redshift
Actually, you’ll note that Frum goes Brooks one better and goes beyond the fallacious “got away with it” to the more outrageous “carry on flagrantly.” Both Clinton and Edwards did their best to keep their activities under wraps; the only thing “flagrant” about it was the drive of Congressional Republicans to publish salacious details that they would decry if they were in a work of fiction.
And “when one of our guys makes a joke”? Disgusting. Frum may have been cast out and declared a RINO for daring to disagree with any part of conservative orthodoxy, but he’s still on board with “it was a joke” excusing anything.
Warren Terra
@tkogrumpy:
I know, right? I mean, even after the Cain-and-Abel joke and the direct uses of his name (No We Cain, The Hermancain), there’ll be the rhymes. I say all future candidates should have monosyllabic names.
Jenny
Dream ticket: Palin/Herb Caen
Lyrebird
@arguingwithsignposts: And Senator “Wide Stance”, and Gov. Sanford… vs. Spitzer – gone, Weiner – gone… ARGH.
tkogrumpy
Almost forgot, what,what?
The Dangerman
So, the Reign of Cain rises or falls mainly on the stains?
AA+ Bonds
So are we going to get a thread about punching that prick Bloomberg in his fucking throat
WeeBey
Will I never escape the Clenis?
MikeJ
DougJ is slipping with his titles.
He hasn’t used it yet has he?
arguingwithsignposts
@DougJ: BTW, if you want a neat RSS reader for the iPad, try River of News. It’s $2, but i like it.
AA+ Bonds
BTW it’s fucking open season on anyone who says gay marriage is a problem when it comes to sex, marriage, and relationships, up to and including the Clintons
Villago Delenda Est
@WeeBey:
The power of the Clenis surpasses that of FSM herself. Darth Sidious WISHES he had 1/10th of the power of the Clenis.
Respect the Clenis…or die!
Omnes Omnibus
I am waiting for the Kung Fu references.
jwb
@Villago Delenda Est: Wait, the filter allows Clenis through, but it won’t allow soshulist? FYWP doesn’t even begin to describe it.
AA+ Bonds
If anyone missed it:
Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas
Redshift
@Warren Terra:
And the fact that he’s shown he’s completely incapable of handling a crisis, one that he was warned was coming. It’s not just a campaign thing; if he had even followed reasonable corporate damage-control practices, instead of making it worse at every turn, this wouldn’t be such a big deal.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes Omnibus: Snatch the pebble from my hand?
cleek
Rudy, Arnold, Vitter ?
they weathered their sex scandals pretty well. no?
RossInDetroit
@AA+ Bonds:
I don’t think anyone’s gonna beat Dr. Shrill calling him an ignoramus in a post title and then demolishing him and his arguments in clear, concise terms.
A thing of beauty, it was.
Reality Check
Romney is coming, DougJ. Romney is already the nominee, and you just have to deal with it.
AA+ Bonds
our good friend Block from the Herman Cain campaign publicly fingered Rick Perry’s people for the sex hit
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: Thank you. Also too, the idea of Herman Cain wandering the country barefoot and righting wrongs is intriguing.
ABL
Frum is out of his fucking skull.
Satchel
The right-wingers seem unable to distinguish between consensual sex and sexual harassment. This frightens me.
DougJ
@MikeJ:
You are so right!
scav
@Satchel: But does is really surprise you.
AA+ Bonds
@RossInDetroit:
I just want everyone to gaze upon Thomas Friedman’s President and his core, a wad of semen-soaked Treasury notes where his heart should be
Redshift
@AA+ Bonds: Speaking of which, has everyone seen the Clint Eastwood quote from the GQ interview?
Chyron HR
@Reality Check:
Romney couldn’t even beat McCain. Bring him on.
Can we assume you agree with Cain that he has the wrong “DNA” to be President?
DougJ
@Reality Check:
Yeah, I know. Denial ain’t just a counterfactualist, right-wing historian.
Jay in Oregon
@AA+ Bonds:
Phrasing! /Archer
kindness
@Jenny: You’re dating yourself there.
Palin could say something stupid and Herb would be able to write a mean column about it all the while dropping 10 swank set names in it.
Redshift
@Satchel: But we already knew that, from their equating of gay marriage with pedophilia and bestiality. It is still scary, though.
pegleghippie
Revealing insight into conservative minds. Edwards and Clinton were engaged in consensual behavior, Cain was (allegedly) engaged in harassment.
PhoenixRising
@Redshift:
It’s not even so much that, although that should give pause to his supporters. It further really doesn’t matter whether he “did it” in the sense of a hypothetical reasonable woman being offended or embarrassed by his conduct.
It’s that he was definitely advised, by internal experts–regardless of what he thinks he did in the first place–to *quit doing* whatever it was that all these young ladies whose paychecks he happened to sign kept taking the wrong way and getting huffy about. And he didn’t stop. The first complaint should have been the last, but other shoes keep flying.
That tells me that this person, who is proud to be ignorant of policy specifics both domestic and foreign, is a failure at taking expert advice. End of story.
DougJ
@kindness:
I never did quite understand that guy. What a fucking joke of a paper the Chron is, it’s like if the whole New York Times revolved around MoDo. (It doesn’t, right?)
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshift: One begins to suspect that they need the government to impose strict limitations on behavior because they have no internal governors at all and would act like coked up bonobos in a fetish shop if given half a chance.
Redshift
@PhoenixRising: Good point.
So much of the GOP field (and the GOP in general) constantly reminds me of Molly Ivins’ description of Shrub: “Not stupid, but willfully ignorant and proud of it.”
handy
Cain is out of his league. Saw a clip of him getting hostile with a reporter who kept bringing up the “scandal” (scare quotes because this whole thing is a classic Rovian torpedo job). The guy doesn’t get it.
The Ancient Randonneur
It’s hard out here for a RINO.
Rome Again
With this extended election campaign (really, we still have a year to go, and what, about fifteen more GOP debates?) – I really hope Cain is the nominee. At least it won’t be boring. :)
jl
Suddenly, my life seems so empty without a GOP presidential primary debate. It such a welcome change from the dreary round of things making any sense at all. Pray tell, there will be another soon?
I do hope that nice Mr. Cain attends. He always has interesting things to say.
Rome Again
@Reality Check:
A lot of Republicans disagree with you (I’m not saying it’s the majority right now, but there are still a lot). Shouldn’t you be on a Republican blog getting them organized to vote for your man? You can only help your own candidate if you do that. But since you want to sit here and talk about how Romney’s got it in the bag and not spend time organizing your own side, I’ll take it as either willful denial that Romney still faces clear competition from those who hate the establishment or are afraid of putting a Mormon in the White House.., or fear of confronting those who aren’t committed to him because you know there’s a good chance you might be wrong.
Warren Terra
@AA+ Bonds:
How about yesterday? Is yesterday good for you?
Punchy
Anyone read Sully’s latest screed where he posits that Cain sired Palin’s latest spawn in order to win the 2012 nommy by appealing to the white wimmen and Charles Barkley crowd?
Spokane Moderate
Sorry for the hit-and-run, but I won’t be able to check back. Anyhoo…
Perhaps Frum could consider for a moment the difference between Clinton/Edwards and Cain perhaps might maybe kinda sorta have something to do with consent.
gbear
@Redshift: He just made my day.
dmsilev
@jl:
Next week, I think. Whether or not Herman will be there is an open question. At the rate he’s going, by Monday we’ll learn that his sex life follows in the footsteps of Mickey Kaus.
Rome Again
Why the title change?
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: Even though I have always considered myself to be an almost insatiably curious person, it turns out that there are things I just do not want to know.
cmorenc
@DougJ:
In retrospect, the country might have been immensely better-off had Clinton resigned rather than soldiering on to beat impeachment, despite the obvious countervailing merits of standing up to the GOP’s blatant abuses of the Special Prosecutor’s office under Ken Starr and of the impeachment process. That’s because Al Gore would have been in a vastly stronger position to run in 2000 as the incumbent President of an otherwise successful Administration in then-flush times, and George Bush would have had a much more difficult uphill campaign to attempt to defeat him. Not only that, but constitutionally Gore would have been in a position, had he won in 2000, to run for yet another term in 2004. And there would never have been the disaster of a Bush Administration to put this country in the clusterfuck position it’s now in. There certainly would have been vastly different Justices on the US Supreme Court than Roberts and Alito. Perhaps even Gore would have been paying enough attention to intelligence warnings that Bin Laden was planning some sort of attack against the US to have headed off 9/11, instead of what-me-worry Bush shrugging them off while relaxing at his ranch.
nautilator
@Satchel: that really needs to be pointed out more.
Again, conservatives see no difference between consenting sex and sexual harrassment.
Villago Delenda Est
@Punchy:
I’ve got news for Sully. The “Charles Barkley crowd” sailed, along with their namesake, into the Obama Nation three years ago.
dmsilev
@Rome Again:
Depending on the blog in question, that may not work out so well. For instance, Free Republic has declared Romney to be unclean (nb: Politico link), and RedState isn’t far behind. (Also of note from that story: there exists a hypothetically-independent blog called mittromneycentral.com.)
RossInDetroit
@Rome Again:
We haven’t had an Elvis Costello quote in a while?
lamh34
So the accuser who it was reported wanted to “tell her side” of the story has changed her mind, which I understand she “doesn’t want to become the next Anita Hill”.
There are what 2 other accusers so far, 1 of which filed suit and settled, the other is the AP source who didn’t file suit and was anonymous.
So if no one comes forward and Cain doesn’t “ask” NRA to open the file, then like I thought earlier, Cain will whether this storm, and teathards will still want Hermain to be their man.
Rome Again
@Spokane Moderate:
Exactly. What I want to know is what causes a man who has these sorts of allegations in his past (a settlement, included) to choose to run for president? Did he really think this wasn’t going to come up?
The Audacity of Grope, indeed!
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus:
Some knowledge is unavoidable
Baud
@lamh34:
They’ll want him even more for defeating the evil liberal media machine.
Julia Grey
You mean the hoofprints of Kaus’s “special friend.”
Rome Again
@RossInDetroit:
Oh, is that a rule that was overlooked when the first title came up? How many Elvis Costello references do we need per posting capacity? 1/100? 1/1,000? LOL
RossInDetroit
@cmorenc:
Yeah well maybe but…
I see your points but I don’t underestimate the depressive effect on the Dems of having a President resign in disgrace, and the stimulative effect on the GOP from having run him out of town. I think both of those would have contributed to the outcome of the 2000 election if Clinton had stepped down. Every time the GOP wins a big one they’re convinced that this is their moment to steamroller all opposition and bring into being their 1,000 year reign.
jl
@Punchy: No, the very idea of reading that scares me.
Hope Cain and Perry are there at the next debate. The feuds are piling up, and it will be like a multi way steel cage death match.
But I hope they don’t turn it into cable pay per view. I’m too cheap to pay. Unless they have some good preliminaries. Maybe some state GOP debate, would be a good middleweight match in the card. Would need to throw in something else.
If they could get a little Lucha Libre action, that would be fun, but they would probably want top billing, which might be a good idea but not sure the GOPpers would go for it.
Bill E Pilgrim
@DougJ: Sigh. Yes, mostly it’s true. The paper especially, once someone did a survey of the “ten worst big city newspapers” and all they had was a note at the end that said “We didn’t include the San Francisco Chronicle by the way because it’s so bad that it can’t be a called a city paper”.
If you read Herb Caen only in say the 80s or something onward (you mentioned that you had lived there for a while) or even the 70s, he had become a joke to anyone who wasn’t old. He would go on about jazz but he seemed to despise any of it from after about 1942. He hung out in North Beach which was already dead and buried and would go over to the Marina and write about the “great kids” over there, “don’t anyone tell me kids today are bad” etc — meaning yuppies and preppies, the yacht club set, in other words. He hated hippies and beatniks despite having coined the latter term himself, a name the Beats themselves despised, and he had done it in the spirit of ridicule, not affection.
And yet. If you grew up there, you read him every day, starting at birth I think, and wanted to get an item in his column at least at some point in your life. I finally did in the mid-90s. He got it totally wrong and screwed the whole thing up, of course, but that was him to a T. The point to all this is that the farther back you go, I think he really was sort of cool, but you know, only until about 1950, even though the column went on another almost 50 years, through not one but several eras where he neither got nor liked nor paid much attention to the actually thriving current things going on.
He could write, by the way. He’d get reflective and drop the “three dot” shtick now and then and it was pretty impressive.
I was coming off the ferry one day in the mid/late 90s and walked right into a scene where Joan Baez was standing on a small stage singing at his memorial service. It was pretty cool.
Rome Again
@dmsilev:
LMAO, and Reality Check was just telling me on another thead that they’re going to vote for Romney because they hate Obama so much they’ll have to. LMAO!
Suffern ACE
@handy: Well, I’m still not certain what the “scandal” is in this case. People are “scandalized”, but I still not certain why. Since we haven’t had any “Honest Abe here’s your penny sir, I chopped down the cherry tree father” candidate since 1864, who cares what he says in response to scandalized people?
Lojasmo
@Reality Check:
Good. Randian Fucktards like you will have to deal with terminal cognitive dissonance, and the jebus-fellating base will flee the Mormonz in droves.
DougJ
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I read him only in the 90s, when I lived there.
Dee Loralei
I eavesdropped on two elderly Republican gentlemen at a restaurant bar in Ormond Beach FL last week. They were all for Cain, thought he would get 45% of the “black” vote from Obama. And after that, Dems would never win another Presidential campaign ever again.
I was proud of myself for keeping my mouth shut. But I did wonder if they had ever met an African-American before. Sheesh. But it was a great restaurant.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Actually those bonobos would be infinitely better behaved. But then bonobos are smarter, so it’s hardly a surprise.
Julia Grey
Yeah I’ve had lots of those enchanting, softly glimmering Gore Presidency dreams in the last dozen years.
Then I wake up and realize someone left the coffee pot on the burner again.
amk
So will there be cage matches in the rethugs’ “debate” ? Will cain take a swing at the eternally hammered perry ? Will mittens hand him over that folded chair through the cage ?
Martin
@Rome Again:
Today’s word of the day is ‘hubris’.
There will be a quiz on Friday. Please be prepared to spell it correctly and be able to use it in a sentence.
jl
@Bill E Pilgrim: The Chron has risen from so bad its was good camp, to merely bad, to blandly below par.
I really miss the misprints. They had great misprints when I was a just a young nipper.
I think the Chronicle got me interested in literature when I was starting nursery school. I think looking at a whole column or page dissolve into gibberish and nonsense patterns intrigued me, and I wondered what meaning lay in these mysterious marks on paper. Was bit disppointed when I realized other printed texts did not do that.
Before my time, but you can look it up, the publisher started a campaign to put diapers on wild animals that lived near the City, for the sack of decency (actually, for publicity).
Ahh, the Chronicle was a great, a unique, paper, back when San Francisco was A Real City! It’s glory years ended just as I learning to read. Makes me sad, for I missed my time.
Which reminds me, never understood why anyone wasted a second reading Herb Caen. So boring, especially when the other columnists were truly insane and repellent, in a black comedy way.
Edit: actually, the Chron has some excellent reporters. Too bad the paper doesn’t print much of what they do, and I seem to hear more from them on radio and articles picked up by other papers. Then too, I have read stories and heard interviews with other reporters who seem, sorry to say, a little retarded.
brettvk
While I agree with this strategically, I find myself becoming enraged (moreso) at the GOP and Brooks et. al., over the continuous insult to my intelligence. Why are these people pretending that any of this crew of mopes and dopes should be given the nuclear football? What the hell has happened to this country, that these idiots are within spitting distance of the WH?
Martin
@Dee Loralei:
Fucking black people, how do they work?!
Rome Again
@Martin:
Thanks Martin. I keep forgetting people have a capacity for such a thing because I don’t. I don’t know how to think like a criminal either.
handy
@Suffern ACE:
But my point was not so much what he said. It’s about being a political candidate in the spotlight. You don’t get defensive or surly. You can try to pivot to “lamestream media asking gotcha questions” but even then you can’t put yourself in a light that makes it easy to paint you as being isolated. Politics is dirty, it’s knives out, and stonewalling the press is not how you win.
Shorter me: you’re running for president, grow thicker skin or get out.
patrick II
Cain is running in the Republican primary. Only Republican voters vote in Republican primaries, not Democrats. The “hypocrisy” of democrats is irrelevant. Republicans can vote for Cain if they wish and Democrats cannot vote against him. I wish them all the best of luck.
Rome Again
Holy shit! Is Lawrence O’Donnell offering to pay for the woman who refused to break her confidentiality to do so? Is that what I just heard?
handy
@Martin:
Or maybe he just didn’t think he would ever frontrun at any point in this race.
Martin
@Rome Again: Yeah, when the job description is ‘leader of the free world’ you’re going to attract some people that think so highly of themselves that they believe themselves to be invincible.
I’m not that way myself, but I’m learning a new boss of mine is.
amk
@Rome Again: lod should audition for an ‘anchor’ post at tmz. Anything for ratings.
arguingwithsignposts
@Martin: Seems to also be a requirement for most leaders in the EU as well.
Martin
@handy: Well, he entered for some reason. He thought highly enough of himself to feel he could at least fundraise and get book sales off of the effort. He’s not exactly a shrinking violet in the debates either or of declaring that China is seeking nukes, or that his staff shouldn’t speak to him unless spoken to first.
Nah, he’s a type-A master of the universe douchebag.
Suffern ACE
@jl: The Chron gave us The Far Side when it was going to be cancelled in Seattle, and pushed its syndication. Almost half of any deficiencies in the paper may be excused.
Steve
There were certainly plenty of people who thought Eliot Spitzer’s deal was his own business and nothing for anyone to pry into. But did anyone seriously defend John Edwards? I thought he was pretty much universally condemned. And he was no longer running for President at that point, of course.
jl
@Martin:
Elderly Republican gentlemen, how do they think?
I frankly do not care much about the supposed Cain harassment scandal there are a hundred other more relevant reasons why he would be a horrifically bad president. If he is elected, I hope it was all a stunt for his book tour because then he might lose interest and let his cabinet run everything. That would be making lemonade out of lemons.
Watching the punditators lash out at Democrats is hilarious, both because it reveals our wise pundits as callous doofus retro dorks who (as I have said before) be laughing stock minor characters in a old school sitcom. And also, because looks like this is a GOP inside job, but the cowardly nincompoop pundits, or weary hard working party hacks, are afraid to touch that angle from what I have seen. Except for Politico, which I assume is on contract with some part of the GOP, and doing some deep cover something or other that I do not understand.
jl
@Suffern ACE: That is true. The Chronicle has some good sides, and done some good deeds. I was making mean fun of the poor old Chron.
Bill E Pilgrim
@jl: I haven’t even seen it in years, so can’t speak to anything past the mid/late 90s. When I visit I read the NYT or something else.
The reason people read Herb Caen is simple: When he used my little item that one time he included my name and where I lived, and for the next two, three weeks I couldn’t freaking believe the number of people who told me that that they’d seen it, including exes, high school friends, people who got in touch again after years, my mother would tell me her friends had seen it– it was truly amazing. Everyone read him, I realized then. It was sort of like our pre-Internet Internet.
@Suffern ACE: This is true. Hey I loved the paper growing up, since I didn’t know any better. It’s also where you read about what Willie McCovey did yesterday and read “the pink section” to see what was going on. Fond memories.
jl
@Bill E Pilgrim: Caen was harmless fun for San Franciscoinados in love with the image of SF as The sophisticated City. I never understood his appeal, though. But really had no problem with it, it being good natured piffle for the most part.
Glad you got a mention, though. You saved the column, right?
handy
@Martin:
My impression has always been that he ran to sell books. That’s engaging in a little mind reading of course, and the simplest answer is the guy really believes he can run, win, and “save this country.” I’m still going to go with selling books.
AA+ Bonds
@Warren Terra:
Another plz
jwb
@Rome Again: Just legal fees, I think.
AA+ Bonds
This is now the Kill Bloomberg thread
Martin
@handy: A lot of people sell books without resorting to running for President.
handy
@Martin:
Sigh. Yeah. Okay.
AA+ Bonds
Bloomberg’s not the President and he’ll never be the President so we can crack wise about assassinating him all the ding dong damn day long
AA+ Bonds
I also hope everyone will remember that Perry was sunk by Rove and Co. because, as Taibbi puts it,
that is, Rick Perry’s gay and one of his rentboys was sure to pop up eventually
Bill E Pilgrim
@Suffern ACE: By the way even more praiseworthy in a way is that they presented Odd Bodkins, at least until they fired him.
Bondo
Hmm, sexual harassment is against the law. Having an affair isn’t. I don’t see how Cain and Clinton are comparable according to Frum’s calculus of things meriting privacy.
jl
@AA+ Bonds: Sounds like Taibbi is doing a spoof. I’ll check it out.
Edit: Don’t see it on his blog or twitter. Must be from the teevee?
AA+ Bonds
None of the Republican candidates have a conscience; all of them should be committed before they kill Americans.
ABL
@Martin: i just spewed beer on my monitor. please email me a new monitor. thank you.
AA+ Bonds
Remember when Monica Lewinksy sued Bill Clinton and that was how we heard about this, I totally remember that real lawsuit that totally happened
AA+ Bonds
@jl:
Quote is from here
jl
@Bill E Pilgrim: OMG. I forgot about Odds Bodkins. I’m sorry great Chronicle, forgive me.
Thanks for reminding me.
I hang my head in shame.
ABL
@Dee Loralei: republicans really cannot comprehend that black people tend to vote democratic and tend to be democrats for a reason. they think “southern strategy” is some fancy chess talk. they think that all they have to do is throw up some billboards that say “MLK was republican”, have cain creepily smile at us, and we’ll be sold.
it’s preposterous, sad, and funny all at once.
then again, they thought women would vote for moose lady just because she and HRC both have vaginers.
Calouste
@Rome Again:
I’m waiting for Larry Flynt to step up to the plate. A family values candidate with a sex scandal should be right down his street.
AA+ Bonds
What I find absolutely side-busting is that Cain led the Republican field for WEEKS before this came out – and if the right people had kept their eyes open, he’d be considered sub-Ron-Paul in seriousness. This was such a big fuck up for the Ailes set I could barely believe it.
jl
@AA+ Bonds: thanks.
Calouste
@ABL:
Identity politics is such an addictive drug. Once you start with it, you can’t quit.
Calouste
@AA+ Bonds:
Maybe it’s just paving the way for the next non-Romney. And as non-Romneys have a shelvelife of 6 weeks, someone needed to fill the gap after Perry expired and Bachmann turned out to have an even shorter shelflife.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: At some point, Buddy Roemer is going to get his turn.
Anya
David Frum should know the difference between sexual harassment of a subordinate (against the law), and having an affair with another consenting adult. The fucker is from Canada, where politicians’ affairs are not a headline news, while they have very strict rules against workplace harassment.
Villago Delenda Est
@ABL:
They don’t realize that black people, unlike them, vote in their actual interests, not on the basis of emotional whims.
I know this will be hard for some people to take, but Obama won because he was the sane one. McCain’s utterly ridiculous choice of a running mate, with no vetting and on the recommendation of Bill “I’m wrong all the time, every time, and damn proud of it!” Kristol indicated that sanity was not one of his strong traits. The guy had fucking MONTHS to find a suitable running mate, an apparently had his heart so set on Joe “Israel First, Last, and Always” Lieberman that he didn’t bother to wargame out what would happen if there was a floor fight over the veepship when the knuckledraggers at the convention revolted so he chose Palin at just about the last possible minute, with zero vetting done on her.
The rest is history, with Katie Couric asking questions that my cat could answer, but Sarah could not.
Oh, sure, it’s cool that we elected a black guy President and all, but that was NOT the decisive factor in his election. His sanity was.
Bill E Pilgrim
FWIW I don’t think what’s funny or entertaining or ironic coming from a typical moralizing Tea Party blowhard is “man apparently hit on women”. Not at all. I think what’s funny is:
“No one has ever accused me of that. Okay maybe someone did, but it wasn’t true. And we didn’t settle, or well I didn’t know about it if they did. Okay, we did settle, but not that much. Okay, it was….”
It was all so compact it was like a Haiku version of the usual crumbling defense that can take months.
MikeJ
Didja see that the freepers have banned Romenyites?
eemom
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??
Why are you sucking up this tabloid emmessemm bright shiny object shit like a pack of crazed low information voters?
This. is. meaningless. Cain was never gonna be the nominee, EVERYBODY fucking knows that. So now he’ll be out sooner rather than later…..meanwhile giving the bobblebots and the, ahem, MORONS who suck at their sensationalist teats another sordid sideshow to distract from actual serious goings on — there ARE a few of those, aren’t there? — for the foreseeable future.
Jesus H. Christ on a Morning Joe.
Villago Delenda Est
BTW my cat is a very dizzy (but quite intelligent) American domestic medium hair/Maine coon cat mix, so at least she’d LOOK good in the interview.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
I’m shocked that a bunch of authoritarian asswipes who think that Franco was a lefty would do such a thing.
Villago Delenda Est
@eemom:
I just love watching Repukes stab each other in the back, repeatedly.
More fun than slowing down in the northbound lanes to check out the accident over in the southbound lanes.
MikeJ
@eemom:
Everyone was looking for a little entertainment,
So they’ll probably pull his hands off when they find out his name.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@ABL:
For quite a while, there was one of those billboards along southbound US 101 in Monterey County, around Soledad.
eemom
Yeah, sure, they’re stabbing each other in the back NOW — a year out from the big day.
We all know how much that’s worth.
This is entertainment, pure and simple. Nothing wrong with that, of course — just as long as folks realize that’s ALL it is.
JCT
@Suffern ACE: Yes! I was cleaning my attic recently and found my collection of “The Far Side” clipped from the Chron (or the “Comical” ) from the 80’s. It was one of the toughest things to get used to when I moved to the Bay Area from LA….
I remember complaining to my Aunt (who had lived in SF most of her life) that I just didn’t “get” Caen. She said the same thing as someone else said upthread — you had to be a real native to appreciate him.
But Randy Shilts was really superb — I still remember the bathhouse fight.
magurakurin
So, this blog is now officially all Herman all the time? Something going down in Oakland…hey look what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down…
jl
@eemom: An excuse to reminisce about the good old SF Chron?
Bill E Pilgrim
@eemom: What gave you the impression anyone thought otherwise?
Cain wasn’t going to be the nominee. It would be better for Democrats if he were, but he won’t be. Ever, with or without this.
I can’t speak for others, and I guess I could go back and read the thread to see, but it strikes me that I didn’t see people claiming “Great news for Democrats in 2012!” about this.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@JCT: For me, he was just someone who was just there, kind of like the weather, along with other oldies like Stanton Delaplane and Art Hoppe. Of those, my favorite was always Hoppe.
AT
Is it wrong that i want K-Lo and Maggie Gallagher from NOM to write and article saying that they’ve never been sexually harrased in the workplace so therefore sexual harrasment musn’t be an issue….
Bill E Pilgrim
@JCT:
It was kind of like having a cranky uncle.
AA+ Bonds
@eemom:
Agreed, it’s Romney time.
AA+ Bonds
Your first Romney study assignment: The 2008 Failure
AA+ Bonds
Here’s the problem and they know it. Romney has to be anointed before South Carolina. Because every possible cold call can be done on him: Massachusetts, abortion, unacceptable environmentalism, Obamacare, etc.
Romney is the Bush model of executive: a vacuous suit, for members of the Bush Administration. Expect that to persist for a while.
Also note: under a Romney presidency, Karl Rove would likely have more personal influence over the country than under Bush.
AA+ Bonds
You have to admit that it’s pretty hardcore for the Republicans to invent a health plan and then paint it as a Communist conspiracy when it’s implemented
Anya
@Rome Again: Where’s Gloria Allred when you need her.
AA+ Bonds
Mitt Romney is talking about putting more of our troops in more countries in the Middle East as tax revenue is reduced at home.
There are a lot of possible interpretations for that, even one where Romney is simply wrong. But those are also American soldiers he’s talking about.
burnspbesq
OT, but Yutsano and MikeJ are being set up for another night of cruel disappointment. Sounders got two early in the second half, and trail 3-2 on aggregate with 20 minutes to go.
MikeJ
@burnspbesq: 20 minutes left to get one goal? You never know.
AA+ Bonds
Here’s one thing that stands out about 2000 for me: the press had a hard time picking on George Bush for being stupid because it seemed almost cruel to do so.
Romney needs to be exposed as Bush III. A better puppet for the same ol gang.
RossInDetroit
I wonder what the GOP of 1974 would have done in this situation. They always seemed to have the eventual nominee picked well in advance. They’d probably just corner McCain and make him go take (another) one for the team, with instructions to set them up with a shot for 2016.
JCT
@AA+ Bonds:
Sure– just stick Romney on a different ventriloquist’s lap every so often so he can change his message. He won’t mind as long as he gets to be President. He’s reprehensible.
sugarfreelowfat
Obama got a higher % of support from blacks than Kerry did – 5% more I think. That’s usually cited in the whole “Blacks voted for Obama because he’s black”.
What people don’t really understand is that Obama’s skin color didn’t increase *support* from blacks, but rather it increased *turnout*. And he vastly increased turnout from a demographic that supported him by an even higher than normal amount – black youths.
The absolute best case scenario for a black Republican is 25% I think – that’s what a moderate-sounding Republican got against an old white male Democrat in an open seat election – Maryland 2006 with Michael Steele.
Whackjob, borderline minstrel shows like Cain against an incumbent black President? He’ll be lucky to do half as well as Keyes did in 2004 – 8%.
Auldblackjack
Fuck’em
This is like getting dragged into a neighbor’s domestic dispute. This is a case of one Republican tribe ratfucking another Rebuplican tribe. Don’t ask me to take sides, much less any responsibility. The only value this has to me is as entertainment. Pass the popcorn, STFU, and make sure the Tivo Is recording this shit for summertime when Jersey Shore is in reruns.
Suffern ACE
@eemom: Well this is a political blog, so we need our sexy-time talk to be about political figures. At least once a month we need to list out every sexy scandal involving poltics to remain human while covering serious politics.
I was going to write that Bobo’s Red State Inequality was actually a defense of Kim Kardasian, who may be with child and never went to college. And David Frum swatting off Democrats…because Bill Clinton and John Edwards…is really an advance defense of fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, who may see his sales of his Christmas album slump because of his love child. Herman Cain is just there to distract us from that. To misdirect us from who the real enemies are…Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are at the center of it all.
Suffern ACE
@RossInDetroit: They do have their candidate picked. Unfortunately he’s Romney, and I’m thinking they fear more people get to know him, the less they’ll like him. So they want the conversation to be as little about him as possible.
xian
@Bill E Pilgrim: Caen’s three dot columns were basically a Dave Winer-style blog.
eemom
I have one further thing to say.
Yesterday evening I had the misfortune to turn on Tweety while I was fixing dinner, and was further cursed to hear the yellow-headed dipshit, Joan Walsh, and Chris Cilizza — an absolute cockroach of a “villager,” if ever there was one
— “debate” over how close next year’s election might be…..or whether it could be, in their moronic words, a “blowout.”
None of their posited scenarios had a “blowout” going in Obama’s direction. Know why? Because they are all so fucking stupid, and so utterly the slaves of Conventional Wisdom, that they take it as carved-in-stone truth that Economy Bad=Incumbent Fucked.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think the lessons of history are that simplistic. I think it is quite possible there will be a “blowout” next year, of the best kind.
And where will those assholes be then? Still raking in the millions.
handy
@eemom:
Who did they think would “blow out” Obama. I mean, surely they broke down which member of the GOP Clown Car had it in them to pull it out, right? Right?
I know, I bet it was Bachmann wasn’t it! Damn she’s good.
Jebediah
@ABL:
At least, when that blew up in their faces, they took stock of reality and adjusted their thinking accordingly… right?
RossInDetroit
@Suffern ACE:
Yup. From this point on it’s just a matter of convincing the base to take their medicine.
The GOP power brokers have to be primarily worrying at this point about how badly Romney will depress turnout. Not only is he desperately uninspiring, his religion and record are significant negatives for a lot of the base.
I can’t say this enough, but Romney could be poison to GOP candidates down ticket.
Kane
If one employee accuses you of sexual harassment, you might be considered a sexual harasser. If three or more employees accuse you of sexual harassment, you’re a sexual predator.
Martin
@Suffern ACE:
This really is where our political construct fails. If we had an instant runoff voting system, where candidates were ranked preferentially, Romney would be leading every poll handily. In the end, we’ll almost certainly get to that result, but holy fuck are we going to have to birth it sideways, in the least efficient, most expensive manner possible, mainly because the electoral power brokers haven’t figured out that it’s no longer the 18th century.
Jenny
@eemom: Tweety is the worst. Right after Labor Day, Tweety came back from the Hamptons and said there was no way Obama could beat Rick Parry because of Parry’s record on jobs and his regular guy persona.
I mean, even at this point, everyone knew Parry was unelectable because of his attacks on Social Security and Medicare. Everyone, except the Broderville.
different-church-lady
Clinton was clearly impeached over having an affair. But Edwards is being prosecuted for misuse of election funds, not over infidelity.
RossInDetroit
Gail Collins and I are so over the Cain Failathon, now entering its 3rd month though it seems like infinity squared months.
If only there was something else going on in the GOP nom race besides fail.