Sisyphus Shrugged

yick.

Sat, 17 May 2008 03:11:38 GMT

Senator McCain and some of his religious endorsers here, by me. fyi.

INOKIYAR

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:23:56 GMT

You may remember the New York Sun's Alicia Colon from her personal crusade to save New York's children from creeping islamofascism by fighting a secular charter school for arab culture named after a maronite christian (or, as she put it, a madrassa).

She's leaped into the lists now to defend her congressman

Ever since my congressman, Vito Fossella, was arrested on a DWI last Thursday, the local papers were spreading gossip about Fossella’s love child with the woman who bailed him out of jail. He was finally forced to acknowledge his daughter yesterday and it bodes ill for his re-election to Congress in November. However, the biggest obstacle to his political career is neither his arrest nor his infidelity, but the fact that he is a Republican.

Whenever a politician is arrested or becomes involved in a potential scandal, the damage to reputations depends on which political party is involved. That a double standard applies is not the question but rather how voters react to the scandal. Democrats, with rare exceptions such as the case of Governor Spitzer, do not seem to regard character flaws as impediment to the miscreant’s legislative capabilities, while Republican voters hold their representatives to a higher standard.

Who can forget how quickly the Florida congressman Mark Foley resigned after his sexually explicit instant messages to a male page were revealed? Democrat Gerry Studds, on the other hand, actually seduced a 17-year old male page, then took him to Portugal in 1983. He ignored censure by Congress, ran for re-election, and was re-elected five times by voters in his Massachusetts district.

Not all Republicans give up so easily, but they hang on without support from the party. Many Republicans were upset that Senator Craig rescinded his resignation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor when caught in an undercover sex sting in an airport men’s room.

fortunately, the front page of Google News has saved me the trouble of rounding up links (making up in timeliness what it lacks in easily-available volume)

• Panel Clears La. Senator In Call-Girl Complaint
Washington Post - 5 hours ago
By Paul Kane Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was cleared yesterday of any ethical misconduct for his association with prostitutes from the escort service run by the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called "DC Madam" who was convicted of running a call-girl ...
Committee decides against ethics probe of Louisiana senator KGAN
Senate ethics panel dismisses Vitter complaint Reuters
ABC News - The Associated Press - The Times-Picayune - NOLA.com - CBS News
all 182 news articles »

Poor bastard. Harsh.

oh, ffs.

Fri, 09 May 2008 10:06:17 GMT

Well, the morning after stories on Rep. Fossella's troubles are in, and the Times has a possible answer to the question: where did he get the money to support two families and three residences on a congressman's salary?

Mr. Fossella, a former medical malpractice lawyer who was the Republican chairman of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election campaign in 2005, was elected to Congress in 1997 in a special election.

no kidding

Since retaking the House in 1995, Republicans had been interested in imposing caps on medical malpractice claims. They felt these claims had become so large that they were driving physicians out of the profession and increasing the cost of medical care for everyone. They proposed a bill that would cap pain and suffering damages at $250,000 and punitive damages at the greater of $250,000 or double the economic damages. The bill also capped attorneys' fees and limited the circumstances when punitive damages would be allowed. Progressives--and Democrats generally--agreed that something needed to be done about malpractice awards, but they argued the current bill would restrict patient rights while doing nothing to ensure that physicians (and so the system as a whole) would see savings on their malpractice insurance bills. However, with almost all Republicans supportive of the bill, Progressives and Democrats in general had very little say in the matter. The bill passed, 229-196.

New York, District 13 : Fossella, Vito
Member Vote: Y

The bill also restricted awards in cases against insurers, pharmaceutical companies and medical devices.

You'd've thought after four years at the Wharton School the congressman would have gone into his legal career knowing all about the dire impact of lawsuits on costs.

I guess sometimes you have to think of your personal economy first.

After all, he clearly needs the money.

woops

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:16:58 GMT

fyi, I have two posts on Rep. Fossella's difficulties up over at FDL, here from last week and here with today's announcement

happy anniversary

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:40:58 GMT

via digby

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."

We have certainly paid a price, for some values of we

Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 members of the U.S. military. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.

and at that, it's not actually the most staggeringly inappropriate thing Dana Perino had to share on the subject

She said what is important now is "how the president would describe the fight today..."

On behalf of Ms. Perino, I should point out here that it's every bit as tacky to bring up what the President's press secretary says to the press at press conferences as it is to discuss the president's expensive taxpayer-funded televised photo opportunities if they aren't as successful as he might like.

Have you people no empathy at all?

no kidding

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:14:54 GMT

go see Young @ Heart

This is Fred Knittle. The odd clicking noise is his oxygen machine.

He's singing for his duet partner, whose sixth recurrence of cancer did him in.

I was about fifty/fifty laugh and cry.

Really. Go.

of course I'm not making this up.

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:37:00 GMT

shorter Richard Cohen: Obama is no Kennedy, because he didn't use his "West Virginia" speech to validate the white man's racist fear of Willie Horton

tradition!

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:59:16 GMT

Happy Easter.

um. Oy?

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:03:16 GMT

Roy's got that nice Professor Althouse on the death of Paul Scofield (she posted a YouTube of the striking down the laws scene)

ADDED: Actually, I've never seen "A Man for All Seasons." I was around in 1966 and went to a few movies in those days, but that wasn't one. It might have interested me back then. It must have played around campus in the years went I was in college (1969-1973). In those years, we went to see every movie we had any interest in, because we never knew when we'd get another chance and assumed it would only be on TV with commercials messing it up. But "A Man for All Seasons" was the exactly kind of movie we shunned and scoffed at then.

Well, apparently the professor's legendary mad ego-google skillz are going at full throttle this morning, because come morning she showed up in comments with this

[blah blah blah nobody understands the sixties but me because except for everyone else who reads political blogs I'm the only old person in the world] ...Spokane Moderate, perhaps instead of assuming you're smarter than me, you should spend some time learning the political and cultural history of the United States. You might be almost ready to read my blog, which requires spotting things like you saw -- good for you --and then thinking. You have to put in that extra step, the thinking part. Or you can be lazy and keep reading Roy and laughing at what he tells you to laugh at. The fact is "A Man for All Seasons" is an old-fashioned, stagy movie that is not an interesting piece of film art and does not become so because an old man dies.

So she, um, hasn't seen the movie because she might have been interested but she really wasn't, because, as she knows without having seen the movie, it was presented in a fashion which is archaic forty-one years after the movie was released.

She does, however, have a favorite scene.

This woman, I always feel compelled to point out, is smarter than Glenn Reynolds. Says so right on her front page.

It's one of my favorite factoids.

reaching back into the mists of history

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:48:42 GMT

I bring you Maureen Dowd's complete ouevre on the gross unfairness of Bill Clinton's treatment of Lani Guinier from her perch as the most prominent and influential female opinion journalist in the country

OP-ED COLUMNIST: Black, White & Gray

...speech about Mormonism, or market-test his own convictions, as most politicians do. Unlike what the Clintons did to Lani Guinier, responding to her radical racial ideas by throwing her under the bus, Obama went to great pains to honor the human...

March 19, 2008 - By MAUREEN DOWD (NYT) - Opinion - Op-Ed
OP-ED COLUMNIST: Gift Of Gall

...clichéd version of a women's rights advocate, she never could have so effortlessly blown off Marian Wright Edelman and Lani Guinier when Bill first got in, or played the Fury with Bill's cupcakes during the campaign. She was always kind enough...

November 4, 2007 - By MAUREEN DOWD (NYT) - Opinion - Op-Ed - 847 words
Liberties: Nixon at Hilton Head

...underwear) Hall; "Conversations With Some Challenged Women About Damage Control," with Kimba Wood, Zoe Baird and Lani Guinier, and "Protecting Your Inner Self From the Public Sphere," with Bill Clinton, Marianne Williamson and Chuck Colson...

December 17, 1995 - By MAUREEN DOWD (NYT) - Opinion - Op-Ed - 719 words

I wonder he had the nerve in the face of all that righteous outrage.

er. um.

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:36:06 GMT

noted without comment: from the haircoloring aisle of one of the many Duane Reades near my office

on so many, many levels.

Oops. That was a comment, wasn't it.

yeesh.

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:01:03 GMT

CNN goes an interesting place looking for a Spitzer quote

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Monday, Eliot Spitzer was a rising star in the Democratic Party -- his squeaky-clean image as a corruption buster led to his being mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate and possibly even a future White House contender.

Now, after federal investigators have linked the New York governor to a top-dollar prostitution ring, political advisers are split over whether Spitzer has any political future at all.

"There's no way he can survive it," said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant and adviser to former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. "All the facts aren't out there, but as they're being reported, there's no way you can survive.

"Not only is he a hypocrite, he may also end up being a charged felon."

Let's leave aside Ed's own legal issues (he barely escaped prosecution after he claimed to have bribed african american ministers to suppress the vote on behalf of Christine Todd Whitman's campaign for governor of Jersey).

Let's look at who Ed does think is suitable to represent NY. Meet his candidate for Hillary's seat, Ms. McFarland, a woman with some fairly serious family issues of her own (on whose behalf he told the press that her opponent's Vietnam service was no big deal, because anyone who didn't die got a medal and a promotion. Her opponent, the eventual nominee, also had reasonably serious family issues). Rollins came to her campaign from his previous role as Katharine Harris' campaign manager.

Nice choice, CNN, although I probably would have gone for Ms. McFarland's runner-up choice, the even more appropriate Roger Stone, a prominent Spitzer opponent with a solid understanding of the place where money and sex cross paths.

It would have worked even better with the self-righteous hypocrite angle, JMO.

fyi

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:35:16 GMT

You really ought to go see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Frances McDormand is wonderful, Amy Adams is insanely charming (and I really don't generally warm to movies where I'm expected to be charmed), and the whole thing is a deranged mashup of pre-code sex farce, self-consciously virtuous Masterpiece Theater miniseries and comedy of manners. It's not deep or life-changing, but it's fun in the way lesser Preston Sturges movies used to be fun.

Also Moaning Myrtle plays the snakelike evil fashionista and Prince Septimus plays the oily nightclub owner.

HM and I give it two thumbs up, excepting the flash of boy butt which she felt to be icky and chose not to watch.

Childe Mayor to the Dork Tower Came

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:26:34 GMT

says Thersites, who bids hail and fairwell to Mike Bloomberg's expensive vanity bid for a groundswell of grassroots support. Roy is similarly impressed.

Me, I figure the much-press-promoted shadow campaign was enough of a threat to gain him sweet words of comfort to billionaires who own large chunks of stock in their "information services" companies from the actual candidates, which was kind of the point, don't you think?

um. no.

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:03:59 GMT

Remember when nobody planning the Oscars knew who Phil Collins was and Against All Odds was performed as a Lawrence Welk-style sweeping ballroom dance number by Ann Reinking, who was married to somebody?

If she was just watching Kristen Chenoweth turning the Central Park song from Enchanted into a tribute to her own patented welterweight feist, Ann Reinking feels much, much better now.

gack.

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:27:34 GMT

Shorter MoDo: Obama beat Hillary because he's a better woman.

I'd say the honeymoon is definitely over. You didn't really think it was gonna last, did you?

Then for a good giggle, go read their public editor on the importance of scrupulously avoiding sexual innuendo about candidates.

I sorta forgot

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:14:51 GMT

but my six year blogiversary was ten days ago.

That's roughly forty two in watercooler years.

but how is it in a sprightly orange glaze?

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:17:26 GMT

I'm sort of agnostic on the question of whose evil agenda the Times (who held the story until after the primaries were pretty much sewn up after their editorial board endorsed McCain) / the New Republic (who claim they forced the Times to publish by letting it be known they had this in the works) / "everybody" (how many of the usual suspects are supposed to have been following the McCain improper influence story and not covering it)* / the "disgruntled" former McCain advisor who is supposed to be the driving force behind the story) are serving. I don't know that Matt Drudge needs a reason.

I also don't think they printed anything solid that justifies the suggestion of a sexual relationship (rumors, of course, abound that his and her lawyers have had their way with the story. McCain lawyered up with Bill Clinton's impeachment lawyer - isn't that fun?) and certainly nothing that justifies building the article around it. I already know what I need to know about McCain's character in that area from the way his first marriage ended. So does everyone else. He's the nominee because people voted for him anyway. It's a non-story.***

Me, I think they buried the lede, because McCain wouldn't be talking so much about his principled rejection of influence peddlars and K Street if he thought people would be happy to hear this, from the much more focused story in the Washington Post****

For years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has railed against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in Washington, touting on his campaign Web site his fight against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."

But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways.

Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.

McCain's relationship with lobbyists became an issue this week after it was reported that his aides asked Vicki Iseman, a telecom lobbyist, to distance herself from his 2000 presidential campaign because it would threaten McCain's reputation for independence. An angry and defiant McCain denounced the stories yesterday, declaring: "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."

Even before McCain finished his news conference, uber-lobbyist Black made the rounds of television networks to defend McCain against charges that he has been tainted by his relationship with a lobbyist. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.

Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time," recusing himself from lobbying McCain: "I not only do not lobby him [McCain], but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion."

A common career path for political operatives is a lucrative job at a Washington lobbying firm that allows them to continue campaign work, and McCain is hardly the first candidate to draw on that talent pool. The campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has been aided by lobbyists Harold Ickes and Mark Penn, who heads Burson Marsteller Worldwide. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been advised by former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who is not a registered lobbyist but advises clients about Washington.

In McCain's case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign -- most of them as volunteers -- seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. "He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he's the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists."

[more lobbyist connections - read the whole thing]

Public Citizen, a group that monitors campaign fundraising, has found that McCain has more bundlers -- people who gather checks from networks of friends and associates -- from the lobbying community than any other presidential candidate from either party.

By the group's current count, McCain has at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign, compared with 33 working for Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and 19 working for Democrat Clinton.

"The potential harm is that should Senator McCain become elected, those people will have a very close relationship with the McCain White House," Sloan said. "[That] would be very helpful for their clients, and that would give them a leg up on everybody else."

Of all the lobbyists involved in the McCain campaign, the most prominent is Black, who has made a lucrative career of shuttling back and forth between presidential politics and big-time Washington lobbying. He has worked for the campaigns of former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), former president George H.W. Bush and former senators Phil Gramm (Tex.) and Robert J. Dole (Kan.), all Republicans.

...

But even as Black provides a private voice and a public face for McCain, he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in particular, the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member.

Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus.
Mr. Black does a great deal of business predicated on our continuing as we have been in Iraq. He's also a huge fan of K Street Project kingpin and and close Abramoff ally Tom DeLay - so much so that he thinks DeLay should be back using his connections as a lobbyist
The Texas Republican had announced his resignation from Congress the day before the event. He was compelled to that decision in large part because of his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the actions of two former aides, who pleaded guilty to their own misdeeds.

In response, the watchword of the evening was "integrity." Congressman-turned-lobbyist Vic Fazio (D-Calif.) asked the audience to "rededicate" itself "to integrity." Other speakers at the Bryce Harlow Foundation dinner used the term as well.But what was happening outside the room showed how complicated living up to that word can be. While dinner participants were praising the many good deeds they do, other lobbyists around town were expressing their eagerness to hire DeLay.

As long as he isn't forced to wear an orange jumpsuit (and possibly even then), those lobbyists said, DeLay could easily become a lobbyist himself and make a lot of money.

..."He would be very valuable to any firm if the legal cloud is lifted from him," said Charles R. Black Jr., chairman of BKSH & Associates, a lobbying firm. "He could come over here and be my boss if he wanted to be."

This is the mind, and the set of ethics, that are guiding John McCain's Straight Talk campaign in its crusade against influence peddling and the revolving door, and in a business where access is money, he's literally doing business from the campaign bus of of the reformer presumptive nominee of the Republican party.

McCain is taking the position that while he's said that these things were corrupting in a jillion speeches, they're not unduly influencing him by working to put him in the White House for free because he's just not a corrupt kinda guy, as evidenced by the fact that he helped write the law he's exploiting a loophole in.

Well, it waddles and quacks and splashes merrily in puddles, and when it gets a spot on someone's private jet it flies south for the winter. I say it's a duck, Senator

Shame voters are being distracted by pointless rumors about the candidate's personal relationship with a lobbyist***** rather than his actions in public life, which I don't think bear too much scrutiny.

Unless you think the past seven years weren't enough.

*I will admit to being a little confused that I can't find any earlier stories about this on the LA Times site - after all, the candidate did discuss December's Drudge story on the subject with reporters covering his campaign** and that's supposed to be what triggers coverage of candidate scandal rumors over there, even if the National Enquirer isn't involved. Oh, wait. I'm not confused at all, really, so that's one question off the table.

**who, by the way, he "misspoke" to, both about not having spoken to Keller and about "a clear, 24-year record" of "never" having done any political favors - Senator? Does the name Keating ring a bell? The one that was going to be on your tombstone. The guy who gave you over a hundred grand and took you on vacation with him. Your wife's business partner. You remember, the ethics committee said you showed "poor judgment" but were not guilty of "gross" negligence, which is an interesting distinction, don't you find?

***Also, no more pictures of the lady in bad eveningwear, please. They're popping up like mushrooms. It adds absolutely nothing to the story. This is not a lady who lunches. This is a woman who goes to parties as part of her job, which is to leverage her access to politicians for her clients. Politicians can be found at parties. This has been the damndest political season for pictures of women in bad eveningwear (I'll spare you the Mrs. Thompson flashback. You're welcome). Also, if you know people are going to take your picture in your bias-cut dress, for crying out loud wear a slip.

****which they really did get up there remarkably quickly, don't you think?

*****he actually did use his office to intervene on behalf of her clients with regulators (while he was using their corporate plane to campaign from). He admitted as much in a deposition. I just don't see the there there. A cursory glance at his record shows he intervenes on behalf of ugly old guys too.

the wolf eats the moon.

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:56:56 GMT

we like the moon.

edit: the beleaguered husband points out that I should give you classic moon-liking to provide context.

so then I told the woman from personnel "how dare you ask me..."

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:50:15 GMT

you know what would not be useful at all?

It would not be useful at all to go into a general election where we're going to have to fight hundreds of millions of dollars and thirty years worth of training the electorate that Democrats are entitlement-crazed elitists who think we're better than everyone else flinging elbows at anyone who has concerns about your candidate.

It's a job interview, folks. If your candidate turns out to be our candidate, people are going to need their questions answered and their doubts quieted before they commit to a hire. That's what a candidate's role in a campaign is. That's what a campaign's role in an election is.

That's what Democrats are going to have to do if we want to win, and it's what we should do, because whoever gets the job is going to need solid buy-in from all those people who don't quite Get the candidate before they can fix anything.

Let's say for the sake of argument your candidate and their supporters are stainless and their opponent and their supporters are completely responsible for the ugliness. They're not going to be in the race if you win. Everything you did to get there is, and the press really wants to see our candidate lose.

We're going to have the same media in the fall, and the same opponents, and the same narrative. Let's make them work for it, shall we?

common ground

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:28:10 GMT

some things I think we can all agree on: a Mad Lib

the new voters who are pouring into the polls in record numbers to vote for [candidate] are a groundswell for change. the new voters who are pouring into the polls in record numbers to vote for [other candidate] are being sucked in by identity politics and will come to their senses before the general

supporters of [candidate] have carefully weighed the issues and the necessary compromises and gamed out the general and have decided that on balance [candidate] represents the best choice as nominee. supporters of [other candidate] just really dig bad stuff

supporters of [other candidate] had better watch their damn mouths. [candidate] and [candidate]'s supporters have taken enough shit from you people

[candidate] isn't responsible for the fact that some of [candidate]'s supporters get a little excited sometimes. it says something about [other candidate] that their campaign has that kind of person representing it in random blog comments

[candidate]'s supporters wanted to keep this on a positive level, but soon were driven unwillingly to righteous rage by the bad faith, intellectual dishonesty and stinky feet of [other candidate]'s supporters

[candidate]'s supporters have feelings too, you know. [other candidate]'s supporters don't.

[candidate] is the only one who speaks for [candidate]. [other candidate] is most clearly seen by a close reading of the words of others

[candidate]'s spouse is kinda annoying sometimes

it's important to keep in mind when assessing their public statements that [candidate] always intends good things, even if that's not quite what comes out of their mouth. [other candidate], on the other hand, is always dealing in bad faith even if they say good things

[candidate] may have voted to the right of where you might like them to be, but they were brilliantly positioning themselves to get into the White House and fix stuff. [other candidate] caves to Republicans

as a supporter of [candidate], I have to hold my nose and make cause with some of [candidate]'s other supporters, because we have to save the country from [other candidate]

[other candidate] is just as bad as a vicious ignorant bigot, which is close enough

too many people have irrational prejudices about [other candidate]. We can't afford not to vote for [candidate]

when viewed through the prism of what we know about [other candidate]'s character flaws, a lot of things which might otherwise be inoffensive look an awful lot like coded bad stuff

have you noticed that right about the time that someone decides to support [other candidate] they become bad people?

[candidate] is a ground-breaking overachiever and a centrist Senator who, despite being from a blue state, spent their first term in office voting to the right of their constituents in an effort to solidify their relationship with the silverbacks in the Senate Leadership with an eye toward running for president. [candidate] has packed their campaign with the usual suspects and will almost certainly govern to the right of where their supporters want them to

[candidate]'s left toe would be a better president than John McCain

the press is going to do their damndest to make sure John McCain beats [candidate]

Amazing, isn't it, how much our candidates have in common?

Aside from their voting records, I mean.

I heart Fred

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:15:50 GMT

Just saying.

Mr. Broder: your thoughts?

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:30:38 GMT

today's collegiality moment of zen

Congressional Republicans, specifically Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, just interrupted the memorial service of recently deceased Congressman Tom Lantos.

At 11:05 am this morning, Diaz-Balart offered a motion to adjourn, which, if passed, would have ended the House's legislative day. It appears the intent was to keep the House from debating contempt citations for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, which were on the agenda. According to the Congressional Research Service, "A motion to adjourn is of the highest privilege, takes precedence over all other motions, is not debatable, and must be put to an immediate vote." That means that the members of the House had to leave the Lantos memorial where they were paying their respects to vote on the House floor, for nothing more important than to keep the day's business open.

The memorial service began at 10:00 am in Statuary Hall, which is an old House chamber in the Capitol. Speakers included Lantos' relatives, Bono, and Elie Wiesel. Diaz-Balart's vote was called during Joe Biden's tribute to Lantos.

It was purely obstructionist move by Diaz-Balart, made all the more crass and classless because it was used to disrupt the services of a widely admired public servant who was Congress's only Holocaust survivor. Accusations are flying back and forth about the matter. Incidentally, the motion to adjourn failed and debate of the contempt citations is currently underway.

Wonder how Rep. Diaz-Balart's constituents in Miami are going to feel about that?

saved.

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:41:18 GMT

so I'm looking for something to write,* and thank goodness for that graven idol of that shadowy place where money meets access** direct mail demigod Richard Viguerie, who has become, dare I say it, Shrill in his desire to bend John McCain to his will,*** and who has gifted us on this fine Sunday morning**** with this delicious snapshot of haute political transparency

Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, today released the results of a true random poll of 1,000 conservative activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

a True random poll, mind you, because of course CPAC attendees aren't the least bit self-selected for seeing a future on the wingnut welfare gravy train McCain-Feingold is denying funds to,***** and within that group, political activists who are willing to go on record with the startling news that they'd rather lose the four seats on the Supreme Court that are likely to open up in the next four or eight years than let someone outside of their faction take power in their party are even less self-selected than that.

They'll probably get the promises they want, though, because McCain knows they mean it and he really, really wants this.

Try and remember that this is who we're dealing with, k? These people play hardball, and if they're gunning for your candidate's opponent, it's not because they're on your side. It's because if they take out your candidate's opponent they get to go into battle against your candidate with a little silhouette of a Democrat painted on their fuselage.

Reporters love that shit.

And your candidate is going to have a pretty hard time getting anyone to listen to them when they all of a sudden want the rules to count again.

And if you don't ramp it down, so are you.*******

*because most of what I've been following lately is going to lead me into way too many eleventh commandment violations

**both to friendly media saturation and fungible political loyalties

***and don't think he doesn't mean it, either. Viguerie brags on leading the effort to shank Gerald Ford, and McCain put quite a little stutter in the money flow, some of which sticks to the direct mail guy's hands on every transaction.

****OK, it's a little dank, but it's not Monday and that's what matters, isn't it?

*****which is ironic, because McCain only took on campaign finance after that thing where he got caught with dicey money and had to rehab his reputation for honesty came up again nine years later courtesy of the even-more-heavily-funded-by-sleazebags (Wyly Brothers and Ken Lay much?) Bush campaign. I suppose the amount of organized movement conservative money that went into trashing his wife and daughter didn't help either.******

******although, principled guy that he is, he appears to have decided to forgive and forget [youtube] at least some of the people who were behind that. Actually, quite a few of the people who were behind that.

*******and if you assumed I was talking about your candidate******** and their supporters, you're roughly half right. And on that eleventh commandment misdemeanor I'm taking my kid for a badly needed nice long walk.

********who, btw, sucks.

fyi

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 04:26:30 GMT

I have something up right now at Firedoglake about the presumptive nominee of the Republican party and his mixed record on torture

Sisyphus Shrugged

yick.

INOKIYAR

oh, ffs.

woops

happy anniversary

no kidding

of course I'm not making this up.

tradition!

um. Oy?

reaching back into the mists of history

OP-ED COLUMNIST: Black, White & Gray

OP-ED COLUMNIST: Gift Of Gall

Liberties: Nixon at Hilton Head

er. um.

yeesh.

fyi

Childe Mayor to the Dork Tower Came

um. no.

gack.

I sorta forgot

but how is it in a sprightly orange glaze?

the wolf eats the moon.

so then I told the woman from personnel "how dare you ask me..."

common ground

I heart Fred

Mr. Broder: your thoughts?

saved.

fyi