Move over, Robot/Zombie ’12. The real players at the RNC are the ones not running for office at all.
Nevada billionaire and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, are getting ready to create more political buzz. They have decided to attend this week’s Republican convention, CNN has learned.
They are expected to arrive in Tampa on Monday, one source with knowledge of their plans told CNN, and will undoubtedly draw a lot of attention.
The couple will take in much of the convention activity and are expected to listen to many of the speeches, especially ones by Mitt and Ann Romney.
Least they could do is look in on the candidate they paid tens of millions for. And if you don’t know much about Sheldon Adelson’s wife Miriam, well you should meet her.
Another possible stop for them is the “Woman Up!” Pavilion here in Tampa named in honor of Miriam Adelson. The pavilion will be the scene for a series of events and policy discussions this week and is sponsored by the YG Network, a non-profit organization aimed at supporting conservative political positions and those politicians who support them. The Woman Up! effort was launched to emphasize issues key to women.
“Dr. Adelson is a passionate and successful woman who has balanced work and family life remarkably, and we are honored to welcome her to this effort,” Mary Anne Carter, executive director of the YG Network’s ‘Woman Up!” effort, said in a statement last week. “A renowned medical doctor, Miriam Adelson’s experiences in the Israeli Army, as a working mom, and a philanthropist equip her with a unique understanding of the challenges that women from all walks of life face.”
Uh-huh. And it turns out the YG Network is exactly what you would expect, full of press releases about “liberal schemes” and imploring that the best thing for women in America is to cut taxes on people like the Adelsons, because this will free up money to go to deserving conservative women or something rather than those awful liberal ones, otherwise, well, everyone will have to suffer instead, you see.
Women from all walks of life have their own pavilions at the conventions, right?
gbear
Given how the GOP feels about a woman’s place in the scheme of things, couldn’t they have just gone ahead and named the tent ‘Fuck Up!’?
Joseph Nobles
This used to be called “holding court.”
red dog
The Adelsons are the worst of American jews; they support everything and everybody who will make Israel powerful and use the wealth acquired in this nation to do so while shortchanging the USA on taxes. They steal from our treasury to give to Israels. They are traitors.
eric
hold on, let’s back this up….when she was a “working mom,” was she married to a millionaire, billionaire, or neither. Cause if she was married to a billionaire, sign me up for the challenges of being a working mom.
Pitch room: Executive #1: Get me Barbara Ehrenreich on the phone!!
Executive #2: Why, what you got in mind?
Executive #1: A new reality show. Remember when this Ehrenreich ‘chick’ did that reality book thing working as a poor woman? Well, what if she takes the place of working billionaire’s wives to show how hard ‘that’ must be?
Executive #2: Brilliant! We could call it “Wined and Dined.”
Mike in NC
These Adelson folks truly are the scum of the earth.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I think they forgot the comma in “Woman Up! That or it sounds like a group for conservative bachelors suspected of being gay.
@Joseph Nobles:
Yup, the servants must hold a fête for their kings and queens or it will be “Off with their heads!”
scav
Funny how the whole tight-rope balance thing with “family” and “career” becomes apparently so much more worthy of mention and tent-name-meriting when managed with the invisible aid of cooks, cleaners, the rest of the Help and that big golden safety net.
me
Will they have a palanquin to carry him around in?
Villago Delenda Est
@scav:
Really. It is amazing how Ann Romney does it, too, with all that infrastructure to support her.
The stupid. It burns!
Mustang Bobby
OT, but check out Chris Matthews opening a can on RNC Chair Reince Priebus on Morning Joe.
Meanwhile, Mika and Joe were absolutely mortified by such incivility. Much pearl clutching ensued.
japa21
If the Romney campaign people were smart, which they obviously aren’t, they would try to keep Adelson hidden away somewhere.
He is a ticking time bomb which can be the final straw. Gambling is a major no-no for a lot of the RW fundies. Perhaps, the Obama campaign will make sure that those voters know just where a lot of Romney’s money is coming from.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Holee shit, Tweety ripped The RNC PR Bus a new asshole on Morning Blow this AM.
Via the GoS…
Good on ya Tweety!
ETA: Retire already Brokaw, you’re a worthless media ball washer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
CNN anchorbot just now: One of the most important speeches at this convention, Anne Romney’s…
I guess given how stupid our politics are, there’s some truth to that, it’s self-fulfilling bit of idiocy, but fercrissake
rlrr
Suppose Romney is still well behind in the polls in late September/early October, will these clowns still throw money at the Romney campaign? They didn’t get super wealthy by throwing money away without a potential return on their investment…
Tom65
@rlrr: He can’t be that bright – look at the money he threw at Gingrich.
Kiterea
These people infuriate me. These are the same people who condemn me and millions like me for “neglecting our children” because we have to work to provide for their needs.
scav
So now it’s the vital importance of her Altessaa Ann’s speech they all point towards — we’ve certainly heard the entire lineup of speakers over the past few days, plus all the mission-critical news of the post Isaac rescheduling and chicken-entrails reading. Has anyone to date mentioned or anticipated the importance of His Rombot’s speech? The man’s the doughnut hole in his own campaign.
bootsy
I just want to thank all the juicers for holding their noses and writing about this stuff during the KKK convention. The focus should stay on how horribly extreme the GOP is during their get-together. This time, instead of moving toward the center in the general, they seem to have moved toward Nuremberg.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rlrr:
What makes you think that? It’s probably more like more “deciders”, born rich, who are surrounded by an army of retainers that do the real work to make more money and a rich family to cover up any mistakes junior makes.
Njorl
Adelson will be seated in the owner’s box.
General Stuck
@Mustang Bobby:
Matthews simply destroyed Colonel Klink and his RNC race based dog whistle strategy. That left his fellow msm weenies with a paralyzing case of vapors. You can look far and wide, but won’t find anything like it on yer teevee. My day haz been made.
Waynski
@Mustang Bobby: Tweety was teh awesome. Although I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have to issue some kind of apology for his “tone” or something on his show tonight. Of course, Brokaw was first to jump in with both sides do it, but the funny thing was they all looked miffed, because every single thing he said was true and you couldn’t stop Tweety with facts, cause they had nothing. More please.
kd bart
@Mustang Bobby:
Might’ve been the finest 5 minutes of Matthews’ career. Paricularly the European stuff at the end.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@General Stuck:
No shit, that takedown was a thing of beauty. Brokaw can pull his dentures out and go suck on a corndog, he’s a worthless fucking media hack that plays the “both sides do it” bullshit while clearly favoring the conservatives.
I like it that Tweety basically ignored the asshole and kept going for RNC PR BS’s throat every time he blew on his racist teabagger dogwhistle.
Romney/Ryan 2012: Yes we Klan!
Culture of Truth
Mary Matalin says women have a duty to sacrifice abortion rights or America will go into an irreversible decline.
Butch
Working mom my ass. Mary Ann Carter, you’re an idiot.
Waynski
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Brilliant. I’d love to see that as a flier or bumper sticker. Give Mitt the Grand Wizard hat that he deserves with some photoshop. I’d do it myself, but I’m not a graphics person.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Mustang Bobby:
I know he’s not very popular here, but Teh Tweety’s been pretty good at calling Romney/Ryan’s bullshyt these past few weeks.
Shame he’s on MSNBC, where he’s basically preaching to the choir. He needs to be on network primetime to get to the people he’d actually be able to sway.
General Stuck
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
If we could get a few more cable teevee pundit wranglers to follow Tweety, maybe the river of shit GOP lies can be at least slowed down a little. But probly not. It’s the only thing the nutters have left to win. Focusing their campaign like a laser on the butthurt white males out there, that Obama gonna steal their stuff and give it to colored riff raff.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Rich ladies can hire more domestic help. Think Downtown Abbey. They’re the real job creators.
Culture of Truth
Yeah, well Tweety wouldn’t be allowed to do it on another network. Be glad we’ve got this one.
Linda Featheringill
I [heart] Chris Matthews sometimes. :-)
That was fun to watch. Chris didn’t back down an inch. And he was talking about the absolute truth.
The audience [staff?] on the set was applauding for Chris at several points.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Waynski:
It’s not my line, another B-Jer here coined it yesterday. I wish I had because it’s fucking perfect. :)
@General Stuck:
The M$M has too much invested in pleasing their corporate masters by pushing the bullshit horserace/both sides do it crap. The parrots know that they are replaceable and their careers/paychecks mean everything to them.
They’re not reporters, they’re propagandists who whored themselves out for a ‘career’.
Elizabelle
Visited a beloved rightwing relative last week. Who is ailing.
Anyhoo, he lives in FoxNews land, but allowed that he will watch NBC Nightly News from time to time, because they get it right.
Kind of says all you need to say about NBC.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Njorl:
Where’s Guy Fawkes when you really need him?
scav
@Culture of Truth: So it’s the lack of that magic feather that’s keeping the GOP Dumbo juggernaut of ‘merca grounded? Was there any feeble pretense of justification surrounding this call to servile obedience to one’s moral and Y-bearing betters?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
No question he can be a buffoon, and he had a homo-erotic fascination with The Shrub, from the flight suit to sunny nobility to towel-snapping, but he was also about the only TeeVee pundit to be flat out against the Iraq War. Brokaw is, among other things, a complete fucking moron.
General Stuck
@Culture of Truth:
You raise a good question, concerning how far GOP privilege can go, with purposeful manufactured lies that are not coded, or barely coded racist panders. The wingnuts have always used these tactics, to one degree or another, but usually with a sense of limit and dressings, that they can take such noxious memes.
Everything I see, is that all of the scales of plausible deniability are falling from view, with the Romney camp going all in with unfettered race baiting. So will it be too much, even for the gooper friendly media outside of MSNBC? Not to mention at least a portion of the white vote that are at least considering voting for Romney. I don’t know. But looks like we may find out sooner rather than later..
dan
Matthews almost said, and it looked like he wanted to say, “wipe that fucking smirk off your face.”
mainmati
@Mustang Bobby: Yeah, woo boy Prince Reibus is really a pathetic debater. First time I had ever heard him speak. Chris whooped his butt good.
elisabeth
If I’m remembering my polling correctly Rmoney is the undercard on the ticket much like McCain was in ’08. Fitting since Ryan is Palin with a peni$.
EconWatcher
Adelson is really creepy. If he can buy this election in plain view of everyone, this country really is over as a world power.
mds
Renowned? Really? I hadn’t ever heard of her in that capacity. If only she were a man.
Fun completely unrelated fact of the day: In Israel, abortion is legal if the woman is under seventeen or over forty; if the fetus is likely to have a birth defect; in cases of rape, incest, or a risk to the woman’s physical or mental health; or if the conception occurred outside of marriage. What does Dr. Adelson think about that? Feel free to answer in detail, Ma’am. Use an extra sheet of paper if necessary.
Yeah, I see plenty of other commenters have already called out this Romneyesque horseshit.
mdblanche
@japa21: If Adelson were smart, he’d keep himself hidden away somewhere. The PACs he funds don’t have to disclose that he’s their sugar daddy, but he puts himself out there. I’m sure he likes the limelight, but he personifies everything the GOP would rather keep hidden in quiet rooms.
@Linda Featheringill: For me the applause were the most encouraging part of all.
Culture of Truth
@scav: As far as I can tell, the abortion rights are supported by Democrats, and the GOP is pro-life, and we are “at a crossroads” between America’s rise and decline, so women have a duty to save America and vote GOP even at the expense of their rights.
No word on if the GOP have a duty to change its zygote stance to save America.
scav
@Culture of Truth: Course not. See Republican definition of “bipartisanship” and “compromise”. The plank on You People need to work for what we damn well feel like paying you and for as many hours as and in the conditions we decide is next up.
bemused
At the end of the vid when Priebus was left sputtering “garbage”, did Chris say to him, “you’re garbage”? I hope so because Priebus is a piece of garbage more media should say so even if a tad more politely. Chris was genuinely outraged and has been expressing that clearly on his own show for some time now.
Mr Stagger Lee
@mdblanche: He is no different than Al Capone or Pablo Escobar, who if they only stayed out of the limelight, their careers might have ended differently, but went out and wanted the world to KNOW who the HELL THEY WERE. Hey Shelly baby!! It is the whale that spouts, who gets harpooned!
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@EconWatcher:
This.
Between the ability of UNLIMITED CASH! to tune low-info voters’ opinions to whatever is desired, and Nate Silver’s (all too accurate) models that point out that elections are really just another stochastic measurement that can be analyzed and predicted, I’m getting this scary feeling that Democracy as we know it will soon seem quaint and pointless.
Then what? It’s not like our current crop of oligarchs are noble, wise, forward-thinking geniuses.
bemused
@mainmati:
It would be obvious that Priebus is a bad debater with pathetic accusations and arguments if msm would challenge his lies and spin instead of letting him get away with it. Wusses.
Waynski
@General Stuck:
This, General. I think back to the Willie Horton ads in 88. Sure it was a race baiting dog-whistling unfair attack when you dug into the details. If I remember correctly, Dukakis didn’t start the furlough program and he was either in the process of ending it or ended it after Horton happened, but the Rs could always point to the fact that Willie Horton was out on a prison furlough and raped somebody while out on furlough while Dukakis was governor. That Dukakis didn’t support the program didn’t matter. The veneer that it happened under his watch was a fact the media could hang their hats on.
No such facts exist in Romney’s attacks and it was good to see Tweety lambaste Priebus on it, but you’re right, we’ll see how the rest of the Village responds. I’m not optimistic.
wrb
I learned some about our Sheldon from this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/opinion/in-thrall-to-sheldon-adelson.html
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Waynski:
Judging from my Twitter feed, the rightwingers and some of the Libertarians are outraged, outraged at how ‘obnoxious’ Matthews was.
Poor little feefees. Suck it up, losers.
maya
Did someone mention little Tommy Brokaw, who learned his journalist trade at the teat of Ronald Reagan? ( He claimed as much during the week long Reagan Funeral Lollipalooza.)
And, his finest jounalistism statement; interviewing Commander Codpiece on board the USS Mission Accomplished, “Now that we own Iraq..”
Wow! Just Wow! So tell us Tommy, how much did we get for Iraq when we sold it?
Brachiator
@mdblanche:
Letting Adelson trot out like a performing horse at the Olympics lets Romney do a much larger piece of dishonesty.
America is being sold to the highest bidder, the auction is rigged, and the buyers can all remain anonymous.
Along with his refusal to open up about his tax returns, Romney is about three steps away from declaring himself to be the next Sun King: “Des Etats-Unis, c’est moi.”
fuzed
From the Reddit site, ”
On Tuesday night, small business owner Sher Valenzuela will address the nation at the RNC on how she “built it herself”. Unfortunately, she forgot to build http://www.firststatemanufacturing.com. So, I built it for her!
”
AWWWWW nice
orig reddit comment link http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/yw749/on_tuesday_night_small_business_owner_sher/
karen marie
I continue to be surprised at how little David Koch’s attendance at the convention as a named Romney delegate has gotten.