Recently in Republican Party Category

CNN

The jury found Stevens guilty of "knowingly and willfully" scheming to conceal on Senate disclosure forms more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from an Alaska-based oil industry contractor.

Stevens faces a maximum sentence of up to to 35 years in prison -- five years for each of the seven counts.

Legal experts note the judge has the discretion to give Stevens as little as no jail time and probation when he is sentenced.

As Stevens left the defense area, he and his wife exchanged a kiss on the cheek. Stevens said: "It's not over yet." Stevens' defense team said they will move for a new trial.

CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Republicans on Monday objected to new spending measures that congressional Democrats are considering as they draft a $150 billion economic stimulus package.

Eschaton

I think at some point the wingnuts stopped having a conversation with the country and started having a conversation amongst themselves. It makes sense to them, but is gibberish to to the rest of us.

New York Times

The cheap populism is really rich coming from Karl Rove. When was the last time he kicked back with a corncob pipe to watch professional wrestling?

Rove is trying to spin his myths, as he used to do with such devastating effect, but it won't work this time. The absurd spectacle of rich white conservatives trying to paint Obama as a watercress sandwich with the crust cut off seems ugly and fake.

Obama can be aloof and dismissive at times, and he's certainly self-regarding, carrying the aura of the Ivy faculty club. But isn't that better than the aura of the country clubs that tried to keep out blacks? It's ironic, and maybe inevitable, that the first African-American nominee comes across as a prince of privilege. He is, as Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic wrote, not the seed but the flower of the civil rights movement.

Unlike W., Obama doesn't have a chip on his shoulder and he doesn't make a lot of snarky remarks. He tries to stay on a positive keel and see things from the other person's point of view.

He's not Richie Rich, saved time and again by Daddy's influence and Daddy's friends, the one who got waved into Yale and Harvard and cushy business deals, who drank too much and snickered at the intellectuals and gave them snide nicknames.

This is probably propogating a sexual stereotype, but damn, she sure did castrate Rove. Well, she would have, if he actually had any balls to begin with.

The Minnesota Independent

The Humane Society, the largest animal welfare organization in the world, slammed Rep. Michele Bachmann for her vote last week against a bill outlawing the sale of apes, monkeys and other non-human primates in the exotic pet trade. The group took Bachmann to task for the primate vote as well as votes to allow trophy hunting of endangered polar bears and to allow the slaughter of wild horses for human consumption.  The Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 2964, prohibits the sale of apes, monkeys and other primates as pets.

Politically Connected

"Some suggestions are that perhaps we would see an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline," she said during her Wednesday appearance on WCCO-Radio's "Jack Rice Show."

Bachmann noted a caribou population increase, from 2,700 to 30,000, since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System from Prudhoe Bay was built in 1977.

The pipeline has now become a meeting ground and "coffee klatch" for the caribou, she said.

The Washington Post

Whatever happens in Mississippi, Boehner has enough trouble to preoccupy him here in Washington, where House Democrats have been passing their agenda with little thought for Republican preferences. "The majority has taken, once again, their go-it-alone policy," Boehner lamented yesterday. "It's time for Democrats and Republicans to work together."

Washington Post

John McCain cupped a fist and began pumping it, up and down, along the side of his body. It was a gesture familiar to a participant in the closed-door meeting of the Senate committee who hoped that it merely signaled, as it sometimes had in the past, McCain's mounting frustration with one of his colleagues.

But when McCain leaned toward Charles E. Grassley and slowly said, "My friend . . ." it seemed clear that ugliness was looming: While the plural "my friends" was usually a warm salutation from McCain, "my friend" was often a prelude to his most caustic attacks. Grassley, an Iowa Republican with a reputation as an unwavering legislator, calmly held his ground. McCain became angrier, his fist pumping even faster.

It was early 1992, and the occasion was an informal gathering of a select committee investigating lingering issues about Vietnam War prisoners and those missing in action, most notably whether any American servicemen were still being held by the Vietnamese. It is unclear precisely what issue set off McCain that day. But at some point, he mocked Grassley to his face and used a profanity to describe him. Grassley stood and, according to two participants at the meeting, told McCain, "I don't have to take this. I think you should apologize."

McCain refused and stood to face Grassley. "There was some shouting and shoving between them, but no punches," recalls a spectator, who said that Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey helped break up the altercation.

Grassley said recently that "it was a very long period of time" before he and McCain spoke to each other again, though he declined, through a spokesman, to discuss the specifics of the incident.

I am not concerned about a man's temper. Hell, I've got a temper that rivals McCain's. However, what I am concerned about is his manner towards people when he is in his temper. Mocking another person, personally attacking them verbally, is simply an act of an insecure person lacking confidence. That is not what I want from a person sitting in the Oval Office.

A lot happens in this world. Much of that makes me angry. Yes, I accept that even the President of the United States can, and will, get angry. But I expect them to use that anger to energize them into constructive action. What I don't want is another childish, insecure reactionary in the office, making decisions based on misguided personal feelings of honor and dignity.

When the next person steps into the Oval Office, they damn well better understand it is not about them, but about the country. The current occupant never figured that out.

Bark Bark Woof Woof

In other words, the Republicans, who can't run on their record or rely on the sharp memory of their candidate (Shia? Sunni? Iran? Al-qaeda?) or his plans for revitalizing the economy (ready for more cake?), will do precisely what they're best at: attack their opponent and try to scare the crap out of the electorate without offering anything more than platitudes, nostrums, and the firm assertion that John McCain is most assuredly not George W. Bush; he just plans to do the exact same things he did but without the fake Texas drawl.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the Republicans will do exactly what Mr. Kristol predicts; that's a given, since it's worked so well the last couple of times. But Mr. Kristol's record for predicting the future is also well-known. He's one of the bunch that said that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq, that the war would last a couple of weeks or months, that it would pay for itself with the oil revenues that we'd get, and that our influence and model of democracy would turn Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia into the Iowas of the Middle East with freedom and McDonald's springing up on every street corner from Riyad to Damascus. With that kind of record, it really makes you wonder why anyone gives serious attention to anything he says other than to hold it up for mockery and derision.

Star Tribune

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - White House officials waged an extraordinary campaign during an 11-hour Air Force One flight to put a positive spin on the outcome of Sunday's summit talks between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Four times on the long flight back to Washington from Sochi, Russia, Bush aides trooped back to the press cabin to make the case that the summit had turned out well, particularly on missile defenses.

It was the heaviest lobbying campaign veteran reporters could recall ever occurring on the president's plane. Press accounts of the summit had been sent to Bush's plane and administration officials thought they were too negative. Clearly, Bush's aides were disappointed.

Oh, for crying out loud. Just how desperate are these bozos willing to act? At this point, it is becoming obvious that Bush has developed webbed feet and is quacking loudly. All the spin in the world is not going to keep that fact from reaching an already apathetic Republican electorate.

Do you think Fox will make mention of this little fact? Okay, okay. It really is rhetorical.

Roll Call

......roughly 20 percent of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s cash has been wiped out during the past two weeks.....

With attention focused on the Democrats’ infighting for the presidential nomination, Senator John McCain is pressing ahead to the general election but has yet to sign up one critical constituency: the big-money people who powered the Bush fund-raising machine.

Molnau sold farm near road she pushed

Molnau, as chairwoman of the powerful House Transportation Finance Committee, guided the bill to passage. But she did not disclose Hwy. 212's proximity to the land she owned in Chaska or that she was negotiating to sell the property to a national housing developer, state and local records show.

The transportation bill provided for rapid construction of what Molnau called "mega-projects." One that fit the bill's criteria was Hwy. 212, which would run less than a mile from her farm.

"If you're interested in highways, like Hwy. 14, Hwy. 23, 52, 53, 169, 371, Hwy. 60, Hwy. 212, or Hwy. 94 in Greater Minnesota, this is a good bill for you," she told the Minnesota House on March 21, 2000.

Eight days after the bill was signed by then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, Molnau and her husband, Steve, sold their 40 acres to the developer, Pulte Homes of Minnesota, for $3.3 million -- six times its estimated market value, records show. [highlighted by Rook]

The Daily Brew
February 21, 2008

Suppose, hypothetically, that sometime in the middle of next summer there is a major terrorist attack in the United States. Not on the scale of September 11, but somewhat larger in scale than the attacks in London and Barcelona. Suppose, for example, that on Friday, the Fourth of July, 2008, explosives simultaneously destroy ten subway trains packed with people on their way to the firework shows in New York City and Washington DC, killing 800 people, and injuring 1200 more. What would be the political fallout?

We all know what would happen. It would take perhaps three seconds before the Republican megaphone on AM radio and Fox News blamed the Democrats. The Republicans would immediately point to the Democrat's failure to renew FISA this past week as the reason the attacks were not stopped. The Democrats would then pee in their pants and form a circular firing squad, simultaneously blaming each other for not giving Bush the unfettered power to declare who should live and who should die, and debating whether the fall elections should just be delayed, or canceled entirely. Assuming that the ballot somehow went forward, John McCain would be elected president and the Republicans would re-take both houses of Congress.

The simple, undeniable truth is that the Republicans now have a tremendous amount to gain if America is attacked, and even more to lose if we are not. So put on your tinfoil hats with me and ask yourself if Cheney would let it happen.

I realize that among respectable progressives one is not allowed to even hint that the Republicans are capable of such evil. There is no more certain way to poop in the punchbowl of the comments section any of my favorite blogs than to suggest that you don't buy the official explanation of September 11. Virtually all of the self appointed consignetti of the left-wing commentariat will either ban you outright or mock you for even bringing the topic up. Despite how much we have in common on virtually every other political issue, I have to admit that I regard these people as idiots.

How much evidence do we need to see that the main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans aren't shy about using violence, including violence against Americans, as a means to an end?  What do the Republicans have to do to prove they are capable of doing damn near anything to further their power?

The head of the Klu Klux Klan has been quoted as publicly predicting that Barrack Obama will be assassinated. No one believes for a minute that if he is elected President, some racist Republican won't try. The anthrax spores that were mailed to then majority leader Tom Daschle were created in a US government facility, yet no one has ever been charged with the crime. Osama bin Laden is blamed for killing three thousand American citizens. At six foot four, he is the most recognized man in the Arab world. He is also disabled, as he is in need of periodic kidney dialysis. Despite that, he has never been caught. The Bush administration deliberately lied to the American public to start an illegal war of choice that has killed thousands of American servicemen, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. They tortured people, some to death, in detention centers in Iraq and Cuba. They paid your tax dollars to hire private corporate mercenary armies to operate outside of the jurisdiction of any sovereign power, while knowing that male employees of these mercenary armies were raping female American citizens who worked for them, with no consequences whatsoever.

Call me a conspiracy nut, but given this track record I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that the Republicans are capable of doing whatever is necessary to stay in power. Quite the contrary, I would suggest that anyone who thinks they would not is hopelessly naive.
__________________________________________________________________
The Daily Brew is an editorial/opinion column delivered to a select group of political junkies who occasionally forward them along to their colleagues.

If someone sent you this, you should consider it an invitation to join, and sign up to receive future editions by entering your email address here:

http://brew.notifylist.com/thedailybrew.html

I will never use your email for any purpose except to send more columns.

Star-Tribune

In the second surprise development in as many days in Kentucky congressional races, Rep. Ron Lewis abruptly ended his re-election campaign Tuesday.

Lewis, a Republican, withdrew from the race only moments before the campaign filing deadline, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. His chief of staff, Daniel London, filed to enter the race. Republican state Sen. Brett Guthrie also filed for the seat.

Number 23? And why? Spending more time with his family. Yeah, right.

You know, I was trying to come up with something snarky, but it just doesn't seem fair anymore. All this bad news happening to the Republicans so often, so quickly, it would be harder to shoot ducks in a barrel.