Tag Archives: Elections

June 16, 2011 · 10:02 am

Anthony Weiner Tells Friends He Will Resign

WienerGate is about to end…

I have very mixed feelings about this tacky little episode.

First of all, Congressman Weiner broke no laws.  Unlike Republicans David Vitter and John Ensign who continued to serve in the Senate with their colleagues support.

Weiner did initially lie to the press and his constituents.  But polls show the people he represents forgave him and wanted him to remain in office.

It’s his Democratic colleagues, who unlike the GOP, did not stand by him and pushed him to resign.  They basically forced him out.

Maybe it’s for the best.  This just keeps going on and on as a distraction.

Maybe now Congress can focus on something besides penises.

Still, Weiner was a strong, Progressive voice in Congress.  Maybe too strong.  That’s why his colleagues were so fast to turn on him.  He made waves.  He kicked ass and took names.  I’ll miss him.

When this whole thing began, I still say he should have said it was no one’s business but his and his wife’s and left it at that.  He should just have refused to discuss this as it is/was a personal matter.

But the tabloid press loves a good penis story…

On with the show….

From the NY Times:

Representative Anthony D. Weiner has told friends that he plans to resign his seat after coming under growing pressure from his Democratic colleagues to leave the House, said a person told of Mr. Weiner’s plans.

His decision follows of revelations of his lewd online exchanges with women, said a person told of Mr. Weiner’s plans.

The news comes as Democratic leaders prepared to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss whether to strip the 46-year-old Congressman of his committee assignments, a blow which would severely damage his effectiveness.

Mr. Weiner, a Democrat, came to the conclusion that he could no longer serve after having long discussions with his wife,  Huma Abedin, when she returned home on Tuesday after traveling abroad with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

via Anthony D. Weiner Tells Friends He Will Resign – NYTimes.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Politics

Tagged as , , , , ,

June 15, 2011 · 10:18 pm

Michele Bachmann’s Irrational Fears: Lesbians, Her Constituents, Former Nuns and, Perhaps, Her Sister…

I really hope people realize this woman is a nut case….

But I don’t take anything for granted anymore.

I seriously have to question her mental stability if she behaves like this with her constituents…

Can you imagine if, horror of horrors, she actually was President and had to deal with difficult or complex matters on the World Stage?

In comparison, she almost makes Sarah Palin look sane.

Almost….

Sarah Palin may be a tacky, money-mad, egomaniacal opportunist, but she’s merely ignorant and power crazy, not certifiably crazy…

What is the world coming to when I have to consider the faint possibility that either of these two might be the nominee of a major political party for the job of President of the United States?

Or,  god forbid, President…

I’m glad I started drinking again….

From Michelle Goldberg at TheDailyBeast.com:

In April 2005, Pamela Arnold wanted to talk to her state senator, Michele Bachmann, who was then running for Congress. A 46-year-old who worked at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Arnold lived with her partner, the famed Arctic explorer Ann Bancroft, on a farm in Scandia, Minnesota. Bachmann was then leading the fight against gay marriage in the state. She’d recently been in the news for hiding in the bushes to observe a gay-rights rally at the Capitol. So when members of the Scandia gay community decided to attend one of Bachmann’s constituent forums, Arnold, wanting to make herself visible to her representative, joined them.

A few dozen people showed up at the town hall for the April 9 event, and Bachmann greeted them warmly. But when, during the question and answer session, the topic turned to same-sex marriage, Bachmann ended the meeting 20 minutes early and rushed to the bathroom. Hoping to speak to her, Arnold and another middle-aged woman, a former nun, followed her. As Bachmann washed her hands and Arnold looked on, the ex-nun tried to talk to her about theology. Suddenly, after less than a minute, Bachmann let out a shriek. “Help!” she screamed. “Help! I’m being held against my will!”

Arnold, who is just over 5 feet tall, was stunned, and hurried to open the door. Bachmann bolted out and fled, crying, to an SUV outside. Then she called the police, saying, according to the police report, that she was “absolutely terrified and has never been that terrorized before as she had no idea what those two women were going to do to her.” The Washington County attorney, however, declined to press charges, writing in a memo, “It seems clear from the statements given by both women that they simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms. Bachmann.”

Lots of politicians talk about a sinister homosexual agenda. Bachmann, who has made opposition to gay rights a cornerstone of her career, seems genuinely to believe in one. Her conviction trumps even her once close relationship with her lesbian stepsister. “What an amazing imagination,” marvels Arnold. “Her ideology is so powerful that she can construct a reality just on a moment’s notice.”

via Michele Bachmann’s Unrivaled Extremism: Gay Rights to Religion – The Daily Beast.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

June 15, 2011 · 10:43 am

The G.O.P. Presidential Debate

Every time I look at the current field of Republican Presidential Candidates, all I can think about is the old Cher song “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.”

No one is really paying much attention right now, but this really is a pathetic group of candidates.

But then, the GOP has become a pretty sorry excuse for a Political Party with its focus on bigotry, ignorance and lies….

From the New York Times Editorial Page:

 

Monday’s Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire — full of historical error, economic obfuscation, avoidance of hard truths and even outright bigotry — was a feast for connoisseurs of political dysfunction. Desperate to avoid being outflanked on the right, the seven candidates tried so hard to outdo each other in finding fault with President Obama that they seemed to forget that they are competing for the same party nomination. By evening’s end, they had melted into an indistinguishable mass of privatizing, tax-cutting opponents of Shariah law.

For the moment, the candidates are appealing to a Republican Party whose core is so contorted in fury at Mr. Obama that it barely resembles the one that nominated George W. Bush in 2000. Mr. Bush may have prosecuted the war on terror to excess, but he always reminded the country that it was not at war with Islam. This batch of Republicans has dispensed with such niceties. Herman Cain repeated his earlier statement that he would not be comfortable with a Muslim in his cabinet. Some, he explained, “are trying to kill us.”

None of the other candidates took him to task for this. Mitt Romney, a Mormon who has himself been the subject of religious slurs, at least mentioned the nation’s founding principle of religious tolerance and respect but missed an opportunity to include Muslims. Newt Gingrich tumbled over the historical cliff with the idea, announcing some kind of loyalty oath to serve in his administration, similar to that used in dealing with Nazis and Communists. At least no one brandished a list of known Muslims serving in Mr. Obama’s State Department.

via The G.O.P. Presidential Debate – NYTimes.com.

1 Comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 14, 2011 · 11:03 pm

Key Dem Senator: Obama ‘snookered’ by GOP into Talking Deficit Over Jobs

I could not agree more….

This says everything I’ve been thinking….

It’s always a pleasant surprise to see some DC Democrats talking a little sense…

God knows, the GOP never will….

From RawStory.com:

Urging the administration to enact new measures to lower the unemployment rate, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) said President Barack Obama got “snookered” by Republicans into prioritizing deficits over jobs.

“I am concerned about the Obama administration’s approach on this,” Harkin, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told The Hill in an interview published Friday. “It always has been about jobs. I think the administration kind of got snookered talking about the deficit and the debt after the last election.”

Amidst growing economic anxieties, Harkin joined Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) in calling for additional stimulus spending in the form of a major infrastructure package.

“The last election was about jobs and the economy, and now we’re in a position where we really do need some economic pump-priming by the federal government,” Harkin told the paper.

Job creation in May was the lowest since last September as the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent. The Obama administration has — under intense pressure from Republicans — shifted its focus from job creation to deficit reduction this year, against the vocal objections of progressive economics and polls that say the public is far more concerned about jobs than the debt.

via Key Dem Senator: Obama ‘snookered’ by GOP into talking deficit over jobs | The Raw Story.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 12, 2011 · 6:05 pm

Daily Kos: The Politics of Personal Destruction: Anthony Weiner and Us

The best article I’ve seen yet about the Weiner Scandal…

I am thoroughly tired of all the noise about this….Let’s move on.

From DailyKos:

Anthony Weiner’s personal life is not our business. Those now feeling betrayed because “he lied to us” need ask themselves why they felt justified in wanting to know about his personal life in the first place. Certainly, Weiner handled the story as poorly as can be imagined, but there too what matters is not the facts of his personal behavior but that his personal behavior became a story. As the story continues to play out it becomes even more clear that Weiner’s best response to the initial reports would have been to tell reporters that his personal life is personal, and that other than his wife nobody has any right to ask or know anything about it. Even had the allegations been false, his best response would have been to tell reporters that his personal life is personal, and that other than his wife nobody has any right to ask or know anything about it. More than a decade after the national disgrace that was the impeachment of a president for lying about his personal behavior, the politics of personal destruction continues to thrive on both sides of the aisle, by supporters of both sides of the aisle. Indeed, even as Weiner’s stereotypical public confession was still echoing around the shrill mass media, some progressives already were excitedly promoting allegations about the personal behavior of a leading Republican, as if two wallows in the mire make one clean.

We cannot change the behavior of public officials. We cannot make any immediate impact on the behavior of the corporatist media. We cannot stop right-wing assholes from being assholes. We can change our own behavior. The mud must stop here. It seems easy to feel happy when right-wing demagogues are hoist on their own political petards, but it shouldn’t be. Every time it happens, innocent people get hurt. Relatives. Friends. Spouses. Children. Some claim that it’s the hypocrisy that matters, but it isn’t. Right-wing attempts to suppress and repress the personal behavior of all manner of innocents are not wrong because they are hypocritical, they are wrong because they are about suppression and repression, and often also about bigotry. The hypocrisy argument is a distraction. Right-wing bigots and scolds are no worse for being proved hypocrites. Right-wing bigots and scolds who are not hypocrites are no better than their hypocritical brethren. Revelations about the personal behavior of various right-wing hypocrites have had no impact on the repressive, suppressive and bigoted right-wing political agenda. Revelations about the personal behavior of various right-wing hypocrites have in no way advanced the causes of equality and justice and individual freedom. It’s better to face and take the bigotry and repression and suppression head on, for what it is, and not get side-tracked by the personal behavior of individual bigots or agents of repression and suppression. When no laws are being broken, the privacy of the personal behavior of consenting adults should be sacrosanct. Even for Republicans. Even for assholes. Even for bigots.

via Daily Kos: The politics of personal destruction: Anthony Weiner and us.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , ,

June 11, 2011 · 3:00 pm

The GOP’s CIA Playbook: Destabilize Country to Sweep Back Into Power

For a Party that talks incessantly about Patriotism, this is a pretty sick political philosophy.  But, most of us know by now, “Hypocrisy, they name is Republicans.”

I can’t agree with AlterNet.com more on this article:

Modern Republicans have a simple approach to politics when they are not in the White House: Make America as ungovernable as possible by using almost any means available, from challenging the legitimacy of opponents to spreading lies and disinformation to sabotaging the economy.

Over the past four decades or so, the Republicans have simply not played by the old give-and-take rules of politics. Indeed, if one were to step back and assess this Republican approach, what you would see is something akin to how the CIA has destabilized target countries, especially those that seek to organize themselves in defiance of capitalist orthodoxy.

via .AlterNet.com

1 Comment

Filed under Elections, Politics, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

June 9, 2011 · 8:50 pm

Anthony Weiner Scandal: In Congressman’s District, A Chorus Of Support

I kind of thought this would roll off his back in New York….New Yorkers aren’t easily shocked by sexual affairs without sex.

And remember, Anthony Weiner wasn’t a  Republican”Family Values”  hypocrite having an affair like Republican Senators David Vitter and John Ensign were…

Weiner just might survive this if he listens to his Constituents and not to the press and the DC insiders.

The question is:  Does he really want to?  Especially  now that his fast-track political career will be stalled for the foreseeable future.

What he really wanted was to be mayor of New York and the Democratic Establishment has lined up against him- even if his constituents haven’t.  Is he content to stay a Congressman for several terms? Or does he resign and try to change careers to the Media, like Eliot Spitzer.

Time will tell….

Thursday (and for anyone not keeping track, it’s exactly two weeks into the saga known as Weinergate), a 64-year-old woman named Ann Oniszko stood in the lobby of one of the buildings of the Queens Community House and expressed undiminished admiration for her congressman. Wearing a specially-made gold pendant, her first name molded into a Star of David, she said, “I hope this doesn’t kill his political career. People just have little bad habits.”

“They just have to use technology better,” said Steve Pullano, the director of the teen program at the center.

“I just hope he salvages and builds himself up again,” said Onizsko.

Even as Weiner’s fellow Congressional Democrats have called for his resignation, the residents of New York’s Ninth District appear to stand behind their congressman in solid formation.

According to a recent poll by Marist and NY1, 56 percent of those interviewed said that Weiner shouldn’t resign, while only 33 percent said he should (12 percent said they hadn’t made up their minds).

In the Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods that make up Weiner’s jigsaw-puzzle district, the congressman has long enjoyed the kind of poll numbers generally reserved for authoritarian rulers. He won 60 percent of votes in the last election, actually a significant drop-off from the previous election, in which his constituents chose him by a ratio of 93 votes to six.

Even now, he doesn’t seem much in danger of losing local support, and nowhere is that support more evident than at the Queens Community House, a sprawling network of project buildings and community-service centers based in the Queens neighborhood Kew Gardens.

via Anthony Weiner Scandal: In Congressman’s District, A Chorus Of Cheers.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, New York, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 9, 2011 · 6:26 pm

Democratic Party Affiliation Grows

See what happens when the GOP declares War on Medicare?

If the Dems will only hold fast in defending Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while the Republicans continue to try to destroy them, they will become the majority Party for the foreseeable future…..

As long as the economy doesn’t crash…

From Taegen Goddard’s Political Wire:

A new Gallup poll finds 45% of Americans identified as Democrats last month as compared to 39% who identified as Republicans.

The six-point Democratic edge is the largest measured since October 2009, when the gap was seven points.

via Democratic Party Affiliation Grows.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 8, 2011 · 9:54 pm

Dynasty 2012: The Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin Cat Fight

Sounds like they are going to try to play this like a dumber version of “Dynasty” with Palin and Bachmann trying to be dime store versions of Crystal and Alexis….

Linda Evans and Joan Collins, they ain’t…

And smart they ain’t either….

Still, “Dynasty’s” been gone for many years.  I guess it’s time for a pale imitation to emerge as the TV Remake:  “Dynasty 2012”.

Everything else is starting to look like the 1980’s (See Wall Street -the Movie), so why not redo this too?

Isn’t that how the entertainment world works?  Wait a few years then remake good, original ideas into a second rate remake?  Or is that GOP Politics I’m thinking of?

Since Reagan, it’s so hard to separate the two worlds.  But, god knows these two women are entertainers and not real politicians….

From Salon.com:

Poor Michele Bachmann! She’d been working the divisive culture warrior routine for years, to great success, when suddenly John McCain transforms a low-profile Alaska governor into the Queen of the Tea Parties. It’s enough to make anyone resentful. So it’s not too surprising that the Bachmann presidential campaign has begun its war with the Sarah Palin pseudo-campaign.

We live in a society that expects and sometimes demands that ambitious women battle each other for the limited number of slots available to them at the top of power structures, so the story of Bachmann “taking on” Palin would’ve been inevitable even if Bachmann strategist Ed Rollins hadn’t begun directly drawing contrasts between the two. (Yes, we also live in a society where Ed Rollins is working to get Michele Bachmann elected president and we just have to deal with that.)

The problem is, as Steve Kornacki explained, Bachmann’s campaign began gearing up when it looked like there was no chance of Palin entering the race. But Palin’s riding a bus across the country now for some reason, so Bachmann’s people need to make sure she remains a pseudo-candidate.

First, Rollins accused Palin of being unserious on talk radio yesterday, and he pointed out that Palin quit her job, while Bachmann is still an elected official. In an interview with Politico’s Ben Smith, Rollins laid out the Bachmann campaign’s official anti-Palin message: Bachmann is smarter than Palin but just as adorable:

Bachmann will “be so much more substantive,” Rollins said. “People are going to say, ‘I gotta make a choice and go with the intelligent woman who’s every bit as attractive.'” (See also: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann size each other up)

“I’m not afraid of Palin,” he said, adding the strategy would have been the same for Mike Huckabee. (See also: Ed Rollins hops on Michele Bachmann bandwagon)

via Oh no, Bachmann and Palin are fighting – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

1 Comment

Filed under Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , ,

June 7, 2011 · 11:30 pm

Heartless Hypocrite Eric Cantor Calls On Weiner To Resign

There are a lot of despicable politicians, but right now I can’t think of one worse than Eric Cantor, Republican Congressman of Virginia…

First he wants to destroy Medicaid and Medicare.

Then he only wants to help tornado victims in Missouri if he can cut money somewhere else in the budget.

Now, he’s jumping into the Anthony Weiner story and saying he should resign.

Funny, he didn’t say that about David Vitter or John Ensign.  But then, they were Republicans…

I don’t know how this man sleeps at night. Or how anyone sleeps with him….

He really should be left alone under a bridge like the troll he is…

From TalkingPointsMemo.com:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is now calling on Democratic New York Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign, in the wake of Weiner’s admission on Monday that he has engaged in online sexual exchanges with younger women, and that he had lied about the matter for the past week after accidentally posting a public Tweet, intended to have been a direct message to a college student, of a photo of his underwear-clad crotch.

“I don’t condone his activity. And I think he should resign,” Cantor said after a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Louisa, Virginia, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reports.

“We’ve got a lot of serious challenges in this country and a lot of work for Congress to do,” Cantor also added. “The last thing we need to do is get enmeshed in a discussion about Congressman Weiner and his Twitter activities.”

via Cantor Calls On Weiner To Resign | TPMDC.

Leave a comment

Filed under Congress, Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,