Yesterday, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Bob Corker (R-TN) returned from a brief trip to Iraq, proclaiming that they saw “clear success” on the ground. But their definitive claims of witnessing success were seriously undermined by their traveling partner, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), who admitted to reporters that the senators had only spent 10-14 hours in total in Iraq.
Is this really just a game to all these guys?
Maybe this is why he was only there for 10-14 hours. It was all he needed.
Republican Stupidity
Multiple Choice Mitt
The WaPo has a piece on Mitt Romney titled “Romney Struggles to Define Abortion Stance:”
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.
In an interview with a Nevada television station on Tuesday, Romney said Roe. v. Wade should be abolished and vowed to “let states make their own decision in this regard.” On Aug. 6, he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the Constitution that would protect the unborn.
“I do support the Republican platform, and I do support that being part of the Republican platform, and I’m pro-life,” Romney said in the ABC interview, broadcast days before his victory among conservative Iowa voters in the Ames straw poll.
The two very different statements reflect the challenge for Romney, who has reinvented himself as a champion of the antiabortion movement in recent years and is seeking to become the conservative alternative to former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
Romney’s stance on abortion is crystal clear and as unnuanced as it gets. His position is whatever will get him the most votes. I kinda almost feel sorry for the guy.
Wrong
This is, of course, outrageous:
In one of the hardest hitting – Republicans will undoubtedly say “dirtiest” – television ads aired in history, the Louisiana Democratic Party is accusing Rep. Bobby Jindal of being anti-Protestant.
The bizarre charge is delivered by an unidentified woman in a new Louisiana Democratic Party TV ad produced by Carvin/Seder Communications, a Louisiana-based consulting firm whose clients have included former Governor Edwin Edwards (D-La.), Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D).
In the TV spot, the announcer charges that Jindal wrote articles that “insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants,” and she holds up an article in which she says Jindal “doubts the morals and questions the beliefs of Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals and other Protestant religions.”
Those making this ad should be ashamed of themselves, and there really is no excuse for it. I am, however, not surprised. The Republicans have spent the past ten years (others would argue much longer) using religious litmus tests and inserting dogwhistles in their speeches- Karl Rove would find this ad completely acceptable, although he would be smart enough to not leave his fingerprints on it. Rather than being released by the Democratic Party, we would learn that the ad was produced by “Concerned Protestants for Truth.” And really- this is pretty tame stuff compared to what Kerry and others have faced.
So while it is wrong and outrageous, it is not surprising this sort of thing would take place, and you can take comfort that at least the Republicans might stop engaging in this sort of campaigning and divisiveness once they feel the sting.
We’ll just file this under “blowback.”
*** Update ***
I may have misread things. If Jindal really said the things he is alleged to have said, then screw him. He made his bed, he can lie in it.
*** Update #2 ***
Pretty clearly a “dishonest attack.”
Role Play
George W. Bush, 8/20/07:
As he sat down with opposition leaders from authoritarian societies around the world, he gave voice to his exasperation. “You’re not the only dissident,” Bush told Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a leader in the resistance to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “I too am a dissident in Washington. Bureaucracy in the United States does not help change. It seems that Mubarak succeeded in brainwashing them.”
Laura Bush, 4/25/07:
Oh, I know that very much. And believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this, and certainly the commander in chief, who has asked our military to go into harm’s way.
Rudy Giuliani, 8/10/07:
Speaking to reporters in Cincinnati, Giuliani said, “I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers … [ed. note: ha] I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.”
Mitt Romney, 8/8/07:
“The good news is that we have a volunteer Army and that’s the way we’re going to keep it,” Romney told some 200 people gathered in an abbey near the Mississippi River that had been converted into a hotel. “My sons are all adults and they’ve made decisions about their careers and they’ve chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard.”
He added: “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”
How The Bush Administration Advances Fiscal Conservatism
In Steps:
1.) Spend absolutely massive amounts of money on a number of programs, expanding spending leaps and bounds beyond your predecessor.
2.) Fund an extremely expensive and increasingly unpopular war that has, literally, no end in sight, and even if ended tomorrow, would continue to cost extraordinary amounts of money.
3.) Finally take a stand on spending, but choose to do so on an expansion of a popular Children’s Insurance Program that will be impossible to defend politically (especially since 6 of 10 Republicans on the finance committee voted for it) and do so in a way that makes sure it looks like you are trying to do something underhanded (like, for example, issue new rules).
4.) Watch as members of your own party, already terrified at their election prospects in 2008 due to the rank incompetence of your administration and sheer unpopularity of all your other decisions, race from your position, unable to explain why you chose this, of all programs, to take a stand.
5.) Enjoy yet another permanent expansion of the bloated United States budget.
The Bush Administration in a nutshell.
How The Bush Administration Advances Fiscal ConservatismPost + Comments (24)
Permission To Specter
Adios, Fred
I can write another Republican off:
Likely Republican White House hopeful Fred Thompson told CNN Friday that he would push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and would work to overturn Roe v. Wade if elected president.
“I don’t think that one state ought to be able to pass a law requiring gay marriage or allowing gay marriage and have another state be required to follow along,” Thompson told CNN’s John King in an interview Friday.
New rule- screwing with the Constitution, especially over something like gay marriage, automatically disqualifies you for the office of President. Especially when you are doing it simply to court the vote of the nutroots.
ATTN: Republicans
Small (but efficient and functioning) government, balanced budgets, a strong military, free trade, individual rights, respect for the Constitution, suspicion of executive power, and muscular but sane foreign policy (that does not mean unending military adventurism, Rudy). Really, you should try those ideas out.
*** Update ***
From the Thompson campaign:
In an interview with CNN today, former Senator Fred Thompson’s position on constitutional amendments concerning gay marriage was unclear.
Thompson believes that states should be able to adopt their own laws on marriage consistent with the views of their citizens.
He does not believe that one state should be able to impose its marriage laws on other states, or that activist judges should construe the constitution to require that.
If necessary, he would support a constitutional amendment prohibiting states from imposing their laws on marriage on other states.
Fred Thompson does not support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
I am not sure what an amendment prohibiting states from imposing their laws on marriage means, as I was under the impression that the full faith and credit aspect of Article IV was where that came from. Color me as unsupportive of amendments to overturn Articles of the Constitution, either.
At any rate, it looks like CNN was not accurate with their Thompson quote.
*** Update ***
What I thought- FF&C is what he was talking about, and it does not apply to issues like marriage. I really don’t know what the hell Thompson is talking about in this press release.