Specter vs Rector1

It’s been a hectic couple of days for guys like Erick Erickson. Let’s see how Erick reacts to changing events this time: by creating a teetering Jenga of rationalization that makes them seem to confirm what he already believes, or there’s actually nothing to go after the ‘or,’ so this sentence ought to have ended awhile ago.

Erick Erickson, RedState:
Blackballing Toomey and Hating DeMint
In which I am forced to disagree with a whole heap of guys far smarter than myself and who I greatly admire.

That happens to us all the time, only in reverse.

In what I can only believe is coordination with the Senate GOP Leadership because everyone is on the exact same talking point, I am more than a little disappointed with the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from the Republican commentariat.

X is secretly doing Y. My rage is actually disappointment. It is in sadness that I bellow and smash my TV with a folding chair.

The other day, Senator Jim DeMint told Arlen Specter that DeMint would be backing Toomey. Somehow he is to blame for Specter jumping to his natural party. Nevermind that Specter’s staff says it is because Specter can’t win a Republican primary.

OMG some villainous conspirator smashed my TV with a folding chair. We are somehow to blame for Specter secretly being a Democrat for 43 years just because we were trying to oust him in a primary and replace him with the president of a wingnut-welfare foundation? Gaah! [smash smash] family heirlooms [smunch crash] grandparents, priceless [foosh!] flamethrower ha ha ha!

And it is not just that. Everyone from Ramesh Ponnuru to Michael Barone to the Wall Street Journal

We like both kinds, country and western.

…is collectively wringing their hands about the selfish conservatives and Club for Growth wanting to remain an ideologically pure minority party that can’t win the majority because it shuts out squishes.

I.e., seeing every victory as a mandate to become angrier and more extreme, while every defeat makes them try to ‘show it who’s boss’ by becoming angrier and more extreme. After a couple decades of this, you have guys like Erickson yelling for violent resistance against the Obammunist death squad pancake gophers, while normal Americans quite naturally think they’re insane.

And if you have to ask what a squish is, buddy, keep ringing that doorbell for all I care.

That’s garbage and they should know it.

RAMESH: Erick, look, this is the handle of the shovel, and this is the shovelly end. You hold it this way.

ERICK: [points at the shovel] That’s garbage and you should know it.

RAMESH: That’s the garbage, in that big freaking pile right there. OMG, you shovel it into this can with the shovel.

MICHAEL BARONE: It’s true.

ERICK: [sits down on pile] I’m not going to stand for this garbage.

I, for one, have no problem with a big tent.

I welcome Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. I welcome Rudy Giuliani. I’m fine with Charlie Crist as long as he stays where he is

…because a real conservative could actually win the Florida Senate seat. I’m fine with John McCain.

At least when he’s trying to get rid of Specter — an idea unique among RedState ideas in that it failed backwards, i.e. worked too well. Otherwise he totally hates him.

I think most Republicans and most conservatives realize we are never going to have a majority without tolerating a certain number of more liberal party members in areas that have decided to shut out conservatives for one reason or another.

That lesson was really brought home lately, when some bunch of jerks tried to force Arlen Specter out of office, and ended up in a world of butthurt.

Re: ‘a certain number,’ that number is roughly calculable. Erick can solve for X: About 22% + X = 51%

But here’s the thing: if you are going to wring your hands, save it for someone worthwhile. If you can get worked up about Lincoln Chaffee or Arlen Specter you’ve lost your moorings.

Whereas, if you get so angry at laundry detergent that you fantasize about shooting government employees, you’re ‘moored.’

Exactly what good does it do for the Republican Party, which has a serious credibility problem right now with voters over losing its way, to keep in positions of power those people who caused us to lose our way?

Voters think we’re insane, so why aren’t we moving farther to the right?

As much as someone like John McCain is an annoyance, Arlen Specter has actively worked to undermine not conservatives, but Republicans, on a host of issues from judges to spending. Ask any rank and file Judiciary Committee staffer just how good Arlen was at fighting for the GOP.

Here’s the other thing that gets me. All these guys having coronaries because Jim DeMint dared to be principled and all these guys who are convinced that Pat Toomey cannot win are some of the brightest guys I know. But they are being pretty lame on this.

Guys, stop looking at that so-called cause-and-effect of yours. This apeshit isn’t going to go itself, you know. This amok isn’t going to run itself. Can’t you see this is a job for stubbornness and zealotry? What are you, one of those Specter Republicans?

Last I checked the calendar, November 2010 is well over 400 days away. A hell of a lot can happen between now and then. Everyone tends to get in their academic bubble of present polling trends and states in play and then ignore one word, “events.”

That’s why you should stop thinking so much about this event.

Events can work against us and can work for us.

Open manhole covers don’t kill people; people daaaaaaaa…

Historically, events work against the party in charge, which helps us.

Ah, ‘events.’ So we meet again, but this time the advantage is mine.

The advantage is that after all those years in power, taking no responsibility for anything and blaming others for every mistake, now what things go wrong they’re not responsible and can blame others.

By November 2010, Pennsylvania may be clamoring for a Pat Toomey.

When your big argument begins like, “For all we know…” you haven’t absorbed the lesson yet.

One thing I know for sure is this: no one will be clamoring for a Republican Party in November 2010 that has not found its way back to fiscal discipline. And the GOP is incapable of finding its way back with Arlen Specter in senior leadership. The GOP lost because the public no longer trusted it. The party had decided to barter away people’s freedom to the highest bidder and no longer stood for any sort of principles other than holding on to power. A party that stands for nothing does not stand.

[sits down on pile] “I’m not going to stand for this garbage.”

Throwing Jim DeMint under the bus for not being a team player and crying that Arlen Specter left us when he was never really with us to begin with gets the Republican Party no where on the road back to the majority.

The Erickson Plan: We have no control over spending anymore, so we’re going to yell about fiscal discipline. While events work in our favor.

My friend Andy Roth has a great Reagan quote that sums up nicely the situation:

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It cannot compromise its fundamental beliefs for political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers. It is not a social club or fraternity engaged in intramural contests to accumulate trophies on the mantel over the fireplace…No one can quarrel with the idea that a political party hopes it can attract a wide following, but does it do this by forsaking its basic beliefs? By blurring its own image so as to be indistinguishable from the opposition party?

Republicans don’t win by being Republicans. They win by providing a reason to choose them over the Democrats.

Hey, why can’t there be a party that takes the policy desires of a tiny wealthy elite and dishonestly packs them into Trojan Horse legislation that appeals to the middle class?

The Party of Arlen Specter could not offer that reason when it was too busy kissing Arlen’s ass to keep him in the fold.

So he left because they were too nice to him.

I tell you, this party really needs to get meaner and head farther to the right, otherwise it will drive its moderates away. And good riddance, because fuck them. Losing just helps you win, see, which is how they’re going to get a majority again — for which they need moderates, and fuck them. Also, events. They can be bad, but see, they can can also be good.

Mr. Erickson does this for a living. As in, they pay him. As in, money.


Cf. The Fall. Erickson is a deacon at Vineville Presbyterian Chruch in Macon, GA.

 

Comments: 272

 
 
 

The other day, Senator Jim DeMint told Arlen Specter that DeMint would be backing Toomey. Somehow he is to blame for Specter jumping to his natural party.

I can hardly blame Mr. Specter.

I don’t like even being in the same state with De Minty One, much less the same party.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

The children- they eat not, they sleep not, they play not.
They clamor for a Pat Toomey.

 
 

My friend Andy Roth has a great Reagan quote

From before or after huge holes began to develop in his brain?

I know which my money is on.

 
 

Hey, now that I think of it – isn’t Toomey the evil doughy guy in The Fountainhead?

 
 

Hmmm, big tents.

 
 

Republicans don’t win by being Republicans

Brother, ain’t it the truth.

 
 

Arlen Specter has actively worked to undermine not conservatives, but Republicans

CAN NOT PARSE………ILLOGICAL……..KERPOWEEE

 
Knights in White Satin
 

I really doubt The R’s pay Erickson in “money”. I think they give him tokens which can be redeemed for great prizes!

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

I think Erickson gets “paid” in past-date bacon, and dented cans of Vienna sausages.

 
 

The schaden. It freudes itself!

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

First, this has to be the single greatest use of the words “only in reverse” ever. Evah. EVAR!!!!!

Second, and I mean this in the most heterosexual way possible, who are those big tented young boys in the box shorts? And what bath houses do they hang out in?

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I know nutjobs like Erickson quoting St. Ronnie of Alzheimers is just par for the course, but is anybody but me horrified to hear supposedly sane people say things like: “It’s a sad day when the party of Reagan embraces such….(fill in latest bullshit idea here) as if Reagan was somehow respectable? Does nobody but me remember the Reagan administration?

Even worse was, then people were starting similar sentences by referring to “the party of Goldwater” as if Barry fucking Goldwater was some kind of philosopher-king? Nobody remembers what a raving loon Goldwater was? If you read House of War by James Carroll, about the rise and fall of the Pentagon, you will learn that if we didn’t start a preemptive nuclear war with the Soviet Union it was practically over Barry Goldwater’s dead body. It’s a goddamn miracle Curtis LeMay wasn’t his running mate in 1964 instead of George Wallace’s in 1968.

The saber-rattling 80s may have been no fun, but we were never in such danger as we were when Goldwater and his ilk were closee to the levers of power, and I say that as a guy who voted for Scoop Jackson several times.

 
 

To be fair, he probably wrote this after listening to Inhofe.

 
 

I think most Republicans and most conservatives realize we are never going to have a majority without tolerating a certain number of more liberal party members in areas that have decided to shut out conservatives for one reason or another.

Yes, yes, for one reason or another.

 
 

“he” being Erick the Dimwitted.

 
 

Exactly what good does it do for the country, which has a serious credibility problem right now with the rest of the world over losing its way, to keep in positions of power those people who caused us to lose our way?

I can see Erick here stumbling over one of the main reasons the Goopers lost the election six months ago, falling into the pile of garbage, and then getting his head stuck in an old soup tureen.

 
 

That wasn’t a correction and it wasn’t an apology so fuck off.

 
 

Further proof that erections have consequences.

 
 

Is it me, or is my head spinning? I know they’re–you know–“crazy,” etc. But what’s the theme of Erickson’s post? That bad things are (or “can be”) really good, although if they were really good they wouldn’t be bad? That voters are fleeing the GOP because it’s not extreme enough, which, if enough voters came back, would make it mainstream, and thus appealing to, um, voters?

When I was 17 my mother took me to see a Chinese opera, and even that made more sense than this.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

I just hate DePeppermint. I don’t hate DeSpearmint. But my favorite is Juicy Fruit. Why are you looking at me like that? I’m totally straight!

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck [sits down on pile]
 

This post gets better on re-reading. I think I pulled something on my last ROFL.

 
 

Today’s Republicans seem to forget what it was like when Ronald Reagan created America in 7 days, and his tears at seeing the beauty of Morning in America carved the Grand Canyon.

 
 

Dragon-King Wangchuck [sits down on pile] said,

TMI!! TMI!

 
 

Historically, events work against the party in charge, which helps us.

Uh, yeah. FDR was made so unpopular by events like Depression and War he was barely elected to that 4th term. Events, you’ll get yours, i’m tellin’ ya.

 
 

Although wait. This morning I read important quotes from Inhofe (a known Neanderthal) and now De Mint (an accredited troglodyte). It’s natural selection. These two fringe loons are the spokesmen of tomorrow–today! Plus the ever-not-at-all-untrustworthy Mitch McConnell, who hangs around like the villain of a play that ended two hours ago and still seems to think he has a role in the next one in the festival.

Look for Michelle “I’m Not Taking My Thorazine And You Can’t Make Me” Bachmann to become the conscience of the party in about two weeks.

The inmates are not only running the asylum, they’re putting together a plan to franchise it.

 
 

The other day, Senator Jim DeMint told Arlen Specter that DeMint would be backing Toomey. Somehow he is to blame for Specter jumping to his natural party. Nevermind that Specter’s staff says it is because Specter can’t win a Republican primary.

Fellow Republican Senators would do whatever they could to get the other guy elected over Specter in a primary, but hey, we can’t blame those other Senators because Specter himself said he left because he couldn’t win the primary those Senators were determined to make him lose? Um, yeah.

 
rapido est mucho
 

Neuroenhance much Gavin the M? your output is outstanding and making me all jittery inside

 
Knights in White Satin
 

It reminds me of Barbara Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, following a theater manager around:

“You think beautiful girls are gonna be the fashion forever? Any day now they’re gonna be out –Finished! Then it’ll be My turn!”

 
 

Today’s Republicans seem to forget what it was like when Ronald Reagan created America in 7 days, and his tears at seeing the beauty of Morning in America carved the Grand Canyon.

I saw that movie! It was the one where the Gipper’s craggy chin, strong from eating his Ketchup Vegetables, Tore Down That Wall so that years later we could rebuild it on the Mexican border to keep the damn wetbacks from stealing our Thousand Points of Light from the Shining City on the Hill.

 
 

The floodgates have opened. Dykes and Fairies are people too.

 
 

“…from Ramesh Ponnuru to Michael Barone to the Wall Street Journal…”

To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, he ran the gamut from A to C.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

Specter vs Rector

Anybody’s mind but mine diseased enough to see “Spectral vs Rectal” at first glance?

 
 

Can’t you see this is a job for stubbornness and zealotry?

Shirley you mean “a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part”.

The inmates are not only running the asylum, they’re putting together a plan to franchise it.

They are trying to shrink Marat until he is small enough to stab in his own bathtub.

 
 

I had to look at Michelle Bachmann’s “Hoot-Smalley” for a little while before figuring out what she did to it.

She FORCES you to review history.

 
 

She’s a big old bushel of crazy. Bless her heart.

 
 

This apeshit isn’t going to go itself, you know. This amok isn’t going to run itself.

Gavin M., you are a genius.

 
 

Hoot Smalley? Isn’t that what Ross Douthat named his dick?

 
 

Ideally the Hoot-Smalley Drive would feature in a Steampunk novel as a way of moving vehicles through the Luminiferous Aether.
Please make it so.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

You’ve got to work phlogiston in there, SC.

 
 

Anybody’s mind but mine diseased enough to see “Spectral vs Rectal” at first glance?

Or “Spectrum vs. Rectum.”

 
 

I saw that movie! It was the one where the Gipper’s craggy chin, strong from eating his Ketchup Vegetables, Tore Down That Wall so that years later we could rebuild it on the Mexican border to keep the damn wetbacks from stealing our Thousand Points of Light from the Shining City on the Hill.

I always cry when the Hollywood Left crucified Him just before He ascended into the General Electric Theater.

 
 

This apeshit isn’t going to go itself, you know. This amok isn’t going to run itself.

Those were my favorite lines too.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Check out the third item.

Time for her to get the “Santorum” treatment.

 
Teh Great Gazoogle
 

Results 1 – 10 of about 125,000 for michelle bachmann bizarre.
Results 1 – 10 of about 53,700 for michelle bachmann insane.
Results 1 – 10 of about 20,600 for michelle bachmann batshit.
Results 1 – 10 of about 7,470 for michelle bachmann unhinged.

 
 

Dykes and Fairies are people too.
Therefore Dykes and Fairies are Soylent Green.

I fixed your syllogism for you.

 
 

The modern GOP: standing athwart history, yelling about the gays.

 
 

By the way, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get fired for looking at this post while at work.

 
 

Results 1 – 10 of about 221,000 for michelle bachman crazy

 
Zombie John Sladek
 

How does “The Hoot-Smalley Effect” strike you as a book title?

 
 

That Girl said,

April 30, 2009 at 2:29

By the way, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get fired for looking at this post while at work.

We now have company wide site blocking thinghies, just because of me. And my friends at S,N!

 
 

I have to admit, I’m getting a little worried about the Republican Party. It’s almost May, and they’ve only managed to drive out ONE moderate. Even supposing they pick up the pace and get rid of Snowe, Collins and Lugar by this summer, that still leaves, what, 37 more Senators still sitting there, susceptible to the dread “events?” How can they possibly rid their party of all incumbent elected officials in time to dominate in 2010?

 
 

Standing athwart stop signs, yelling “I pooped ’em! The colored nurse steals from me!”

 
 

I’m pretty sure S,N! is going to end up on our blocked list. Good thing I have a smart phone!

 
Smiling Mortician
 

Gavin’s brain is full of pure YES.

He should be given the entire internet and also perhaps a small planet just to play around with.

 
 

We’ve gone from Wire references to Fall references! No wonder I hang out here so often. Political snark meets post-punk brilliance.

Dragnet is still my favorite Fall album, 30 years later. “They’re putting me away, but I’ll be back some day!”

 
 

Time for her to get the “Santorum” treatment.

Something teabagging associated would be appropriate.

Bachmann: (v) The act of stuffing someone’s mouth with a scrotum in order to shut them up.

 
 

Isn’t there some rule, somewhere, that someone, sometime, has got to get a grip?

Is this how the Republicans are really going down?

Not with a shebang, but a simper?

 
 

The republicans are going down like a two year old throwing a temper tantrum in the store.

 
 

Is this how the Republicans are really going down?

WereBear: Just as long as they go.

 
 

Ugh. Too much Erik, flailing about.

Whatever happened to the concept of shorter? My attention span is stretched too thin.

 
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
 

The floodgates have opened. Dykes and Fairies are people too.

Everywhere is

Freaks and Hairies

Dykes and Fairies

Tell me where is

Sanity…

Hadda be said.

 
 

Don’t get me wrong, I’d be glad to see a Republican standing in the well of the House, carrying a styrofoam cross, and hitting people with a rubber chicken.

That seems to be the next step.

I guess I just can’t believe the entire party is that clueless about their power, which, besides money and freaky sex, seems to be the whole point of Republicanism.

 
 

They still got the money, WereBear.

 
 

Gads I hope no dread “events” are a sneaking up on me. KAZAPPP!!* is overwhelmed by Hoot Smalley effect and plunged into parallel universe where the Galactic Ruler Erick Erection and his monkey butlers enforce institutional stupidity on their uncaring subjects*

 
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
 

This apeshit isn’t going to go itself, you know. This amok isn’t going to run itself.

Joining the chorus to say that this may be the most brilliant thing written ever.

 
 

By the way, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get fired for looking at this post while at work.

Yes, but it’ll be so worth it.

 
 

Is this how the Republicans are really going down? Not with a shebang, but a simper?

Who cares? As long as they go down and STAY down. Like when you’ve plunged and plunged your toilet and it seems finally to be flushing properly again. Just about nearly exactly like that.

 
 

Like when you’ve plunged and plunged your toilet and it seems finally to be flushing properly again.

Or maybe like the time I knocked a ceramic mug off the shelf into the toilet and it broke hitting the rim and a piece got lodged way down there and no amount of plunging would unplug it but the landlord refused to call the plumber so in the course of removing the toilet I cracked the base and there was stinkwater everywhere and the landlord had to buy a new toilet anyway. Maybe more like that.

 
 

Why would anyone plunge a toilet? Isn’t this why the good lord gave us cherry-bombs and metallic sodium?

 
 

This is the way it will go down, libs. Bookmark it.

 
 

perhaps one of the greatest songs ever written. as a fall fan for nigh on 45 albums now, i bow to your greatness of reference, mr. gavin.

now, let’s drop a “who makes the nazis?” title in within the next 10 days, shall we?

 
 

Um…I had a long painful day at the orthopedist and the drugs still aren’t working, and I got a good laugh and all…but…

Where’s footnote 1?

 
Wyatt Watts III
 

By November 2010, Pennsylvania may be clamoring for a Pat Toomey.

Yes, but will they be able to Pat their Toomey and rub their head at the same time?

 
 

Glow in the Dark Potty Putty

Can I get an Amen?

 
 

I was more interested in the Flarp Noise Maker.

 
 

Glow in the Dark Potty Putty

Here in NZ we call that ‘Plastique’. It’s another way of unblocking the toilet.

 
 

Small Hooters?

Naw, that was the Roaring ’20s.

 
 

S.C., I have to ASSume that they were afraid of Michael Powell and could not use the more effective marketing:

FART NOISE MAKER!one!11!

 
Snarki, child of Loki
 

“Look for Michelle “I’m Not Taking My Thorazine And You Can’t Make Me” Bachmann to become the conscience of the party in about two weeks.”

She’ll have to fight Sarah Palin for that job. Maybe with a pay-per-view oil-wrestling event. That should give the GOP a “big tent”, you betcha!

 
 

May I suggest an alternate name for Red State:

The Persecution and Assassination of the Republican Party as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of Erick Erickson

 
 

The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge, mock the Party of Duh-Mint at your peril, sir.

 
 

I have to admit, I’m getting a little worried about the Republican Party. It’s almost May, and they’ve only managed to drive out ONE moderate. Even supposing they pick up the pace and get rid of Snowe, Collins and Lugar by this summer, that still leaves, what, 37 more Senators still sitting there, susceptible to the dread “events?” How can they possibly rid their party of all incumbent elected officials in time to dominate in 2010?

I keep hoping that Grassley, an astute politician if there ever was one despite his patented “Aw shucks!” act, will add two and two and come up with the correct total. He’s probably going to be a senator whichever party he’s in as long as he wants to be, but he’s got to look at the strong Democratic power structure in Iowa and Washington and see that he could be even more powerful if he’d jump ship. He’s never owed jack shit to the xtianists and I think they’re liking him less and less, and he works well with our very liberal Tom Harkin, so he really could bet on a move being good for him.

I would personally enjoy this very much. There’d be a lot of head splodey going on amongst the rethugs here if that happened.

 
 

Just the predictability factor of using a Ronald Reagan quote in an attempt to drum up a feeling of patriotism makes me cringe beyond what I ever thought possible. But isn’t there someone in charge of the Ronald Reagan estate who cares about what is left of his legacy and wants to stop these sad stupid people from constantly invoking his name?

 
 

Guys, stop looking at that so-called cause-and-effect of yours. This apeshit isn’t going to go itself, you know. This amok isn’t going to run itself. Can’t you see this is a job for stubbornness and zealotry? What are you, one of those Specter Republicans?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

 
 

But isn’t there someone in charge of the Ronald Reagan estate who cares about what is left of his legacy and wants to stop these sad stupid people from constantly invoking his name?

Nancy would probably like to. I enjoyed her strong support of stem cell research. It would be hilarious if she came right out and said, “You people are all nuts. Please stop mentioning poor Ronnie as spiritual support for your crackpot notions!”

It would be even better if she concluded her statement by loudly declaring “Penis!”

 
 

Even worse was, then people were starting similar sentences by referring to “the party of Goldwater” as if Barry fucking Goldwater was some kind of philosopher-king? Nobody remembers what a raving loon Goldwater was? If you read House of War by James Carroll, about the rise and fall of the Pentagon, you will learn that if we didn’t start a preemptive nuclear war with the Soviet Union it was practically over Barry Goldwater’s dead body. It’s a goddamn miracle Curtis LeMay wasn’t his running mate in 1964 instead of George Wallace’s in 1968.

When it was far too late to do any good, Barry Goldwater said a few correctly nasty things about Jerry Falwell and Richard Nixon. Also, he said a few good things about gay rights. For some silly people who claim to be lefties, such so-late-as-to-be-useless utterings totally mitigate Total Biocide Barry’s longstanding urge to irradiate the entire planet (which would have been totally worth it because then at least all commies would be dead, amirite?). In my experience on the internets, these same sorts of “liberals” also frequently insist that LBJ’s “Daisy” commercial was unfair and dishonest when it was actually right on the money. But then so many “liberals” are merely of the social variety and are flaming reactionaries when it comes to economics and foreign policy. (Call me the Bizarro Erickson if you must, but all the above is true nonetheless.)

 
 

From teh ebbil librul New York Times:

G.O.P. Debate: A Broader Party or a Purer One?

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: April 29, 2009

WASHINGTON — A fundamental debate broke out among Republicans on Wednesday over how to rebuild the party in the wake of Senator Arlen Specter’s departure: Should it purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?

With consensus growing among Republicans that the party is in its worst political position in recent memory, some conservatives applauded Mr. Specter’s departure. They said it cleared the way for the party to distance itself from its record of expanding government during the Bush years and to re-emphasize the calls for tax cuts and reduced federal spending that have dominated Republican thought for more than 30 years.

“We strayed from our principles of limited government, individual responsibility and economic freedom,” said Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman who is head of Club for Growth, a group that has financed primary challenges against Republicans it considers insufficiently conservative. “We have to adhere to those principles to rebuild the party. Those are the brand of the Republican Party, and people feel that we betrayed the brand.”

But Republican leaders in Washington argued that Republicans would be permanently marginalized unless they showed flexibility on social issues as well as economic ones.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he would seek to recruit candidates who he thought could win in Democratic or swing states, even if it meant supporting candidates who might disagree with his own conservative views.

Mr. Cornyn said he was taking a page from Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the last head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who led his party to big gains by embracing candidates who, for example, opposed abortion rights or gun control.

“If you think about it, Schumer has been very good at this; I complimented him this morning in the gym,” Mr. Cornyn said, adding, “Some conservatives would rather lose than be seen as compromising on what they regard as inviolable principles.”

Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said: “We are not losing blue states and shrinking as a party because we are not conservative enough. If we pursue a party that has no place for someone who agrees with me 70 percent of the time, that is based on an ideological purity test rather than a coalition test, then we are going to keep losing.”

Clearly, this means that the liberal leftist radical Islamocommunist Texas Republican Senator John Boxturtle Cornyn must be next on the list to be cleansed of thetans. And not just for his conversion to Revolutionary Kucinich-ACORNism, but because he had sex with Chuck Schumer in the gym.

However

…re-emphasize the calls for tax cuts and reduced federal spending that have dominated Republican thought for more than 30 years

So, is that what the Reagan types were being thought-dominated by as they ramped up spending without paying for it? They’re suffering from some sort of unfortunate OCD in which they are forced to think about nothing except tax cuts and reducing federal spending while they are increasing federal spending?

I guess they’re experiencing some of the same problems that a lot of gambling addicts have, in which they are dominated by thoughts of stopping gambling as they are plunging their families’ resources down the hole of ever-bigger bets.

Clearly though, no one would take this as evidence that said gamblers did not strongly take stands against gambling; it’s unfair to connect them in any way to their record of gambling, since they would say that, yes, they were gambling and shitting the bed for their children’s education savings and losing the house, but their thoughts were dominated by not-gambling, so, you know, shut up, nobody asked you no way, now get out of the way so I can see the deal.

 
 

And then there’s this.

From the NYT, also, too:

“I’m not hurt by Arlen Specter walking away,” said Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan and a conservative talk show host. “At least now the party doesn’t waste money supporting someone who does not support the party.”… “It’s interesting that people say the right has taken over the Republican Party — but no one can say what we’ve done,” Mr. Reagan said. “We’ve been closeted for the last eight years; it’s time for the right to come out of the closet.”

 
 

Fred Hiatt: You put the question well. I think the answer would be that there’s a difference between alleged personal criminal behavior (lying under oath) and public policies that have been vetted with lawyers, briefed to Congress and undertaken in good faith, in the belief they are necessary to protect the country.

We have written editorials saying we think there should be further investigation, ideally by a bipartisan commission. You can’t sweep torture under the rug. But we also see the real dangers in prosecuting policy decisions. What if the next administration decides that President Obama is committing war crimes by allowing Predator missiles to be fired into Pakistan, where civilians sometimes get killed as a result, in a country with which the United States is not at war? Once you start criminalizing policy decisions, you can end up in unfortunate places.
=========================================================

Fred hiatt just proved you t0tally wrong, Mister HTML.

And he rights for the lieberal Washington POOst!

P.S. Let’s hear from someone who’s not a dimwitted right-wing scumbag:

Scott Horton.
~

 
 

Wailing & teeth-gnashing is actually a lucid response when your party is flatlining right in front of you … I’m shocked-&-awed at how little of such lamentation I’ve heard in the last several months. Not as much fun as Teabagging & Purity-Purges – but a better prelude to rebuilding.

Yep, they’re boned.

The GOP lost because the public no longer trusted it. The party had decided to barter away people’s freedom to the highest bidder and no longer stood for any sort of principles other than holding on to power.

I dare say the man is flirting with sanity here … but methinks he ought to have had a breath-mint first – or chewed on a mothball. Sanity knows damn well it isn’t even going to get a phone-call the next morning (notice the surreal use of the past-tense, LOL).

Sweet, sweet irony: these motherfuckers worship Reagan for his highfalutin rhetoric, being typical dupes who never bother to check whether his actions matched it – yet he was the one who said, “FUCK your principles! This party is now about image, optics, ratfucking, Pentagon payola like never before, & most of all – fooling enough of the people enough of the time to win … period.” He cheerfully admitted that his policies would be disastrous for America’s future, & pointed out that that was why they were enacted – to strangle any subsequent Democratic administration in its cradle with crisis & debt, & make them look like the Hard Times Party while the GOP would appear to be the Free Lunch Party … a Real American Hero.

 
 

…public policies that have been vetted with lawyers, briefed to Congress and undertaken in good faith, in the belief they are necessary to protect the country

Hmmm. I’m trying to figure out what I could not get away with, given this high standard of lawfulness upon the Preznit.

As long as I get a few lawyers (aspiring judges) to write some bullshit memos telling me whatever I want, and then I go talk to Congressional officials who either already agree with me or who are prohibited from disclosing any information about what I say (or the people I send), and I promise honest-and-for-true that I’m acting in good faith for the good of the country, then I can…

— Send troops to rob Swiss gold?
— Construct a giant space mirror to make Paris too hot to live in or visit?
— Bulldoze a bunch of mini-mansion subdivisions in Alabama to build giant mosques?

What? What exactly would not be permitted by the Hiatt standard of lawgalrifficness?

 
 

Fred Hiatt is a Nazi.

(It’s funny because it’s true.)

 
 

I can only offer homage at this point. Your post led to keyboard-threatening laughter on my part because I simultaneously partook of adult beverages.

I offer a tip o’ the hat to the Sadly No’s as they zero in on the true meaning of Arlen’s defection from the Republican party.

 
 

Nobody remembers what a raving loon Goldwater was?

Speaking for myself, it’s not so much that I feel admiration for the likes of Reagan and Goldwater as the fact that I’m old enough to remember when Republicans had things called ideas (albeit bad ones) which they expressed in the form of language. I remember reading a National Review that was frequently insufferable and infuriating, but filled with something called writing.

So no, not nostalgia, more of an unavoidable comparison.

 
 

I’m going down to the bookmark it. This is how.

 
 

I must say, I love the bonus (boners?) juxtaposition of the tented trouser twosome and the Erickson glad tiding: “I welcome Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.”

Nice.

 
 

BwaaaaaaaHaaaaaaHaaaaaaaaMmmmphhhgggrrgggppptthhhhh…

Oh, God, don’t ever let it stop.

 
 

Standing athwart stop signs

Yeah, about that. One slip and you won’t walk right for a month.

Why would anyone plunge a toilet? Isn’t this why the good lord gave us cherry-bombs and metallic sodium?

Ah, the good old days, when you could go to a Dizzy Gillespie show in NY and he’d swing by the table on his way to the men’s room just to wink and show you the cherry bomb. How can you not love a guy that comes to a gig that prepared?

Does nobody but me remember the Reagan administration?

I remember thinking that at least when Castro emptied out his insane asylums he had the decent sense to ship them all to another country. I also remember, as buttons with pithy little slogans were tres chic at the time, wearing one that said “Shoot Bush First”, both before and after Hinckley, and pretty much for the duration.

 
 

They still got the money, WereBear.

I don’t think the freaky sex is going anywhere, either.

 
 

When it was far too late to do any good, Barry Goldwater said a few correctly nasty things about Jerry Falwell and Richard Nixon. Also, he said a few good things about gay rights. For some silly people who claim to be lefties, such so-late-as-to-be-useless utterings totally mitigate Total Biocide Barry’s longstanding urge to irradiate the entire planet (which would have been totally worth it because then at least all commies would be dead, amirite?). In my experience on the internets, these same sorts of “liberals” also frequently insist that LBJ’s “Daisy” commercial was unfair and dishonest when it was actually right on the money. But then so many “liberals” are merely of the social variety and are flaming reactionaries when it comes to economics and foreign policy. (Call me the Bizarro Erickson if you must, but all the above is true nonetheless.)

Marc Reisner’s excellent PBS series “Cadillac Desert” has an interview with Goldwater in which he expresses regret and sadness over Glen Canyon Dam. Having grown up with a father who hatehatehates Goldwater (and never misses a chance to repeat the slogan from a button he had about Goldwater: “in your guts, you know he’s nuts”) it was bizarre to see him being so introspective.

 
 

The inmates are not only running the asylum, they’re putting together a plan to franchise it.

“We LOSE money voters on every vote!!! How can we do it? VOLUME!!!”

 
thetragicsongwildfire
 

This post is just like the last post, only in reverse.

 
Cletus von Clausewitz
 

excellent post, gavin, except for one eensy technical detail. eric is going batshit, not apeshit. other than that, just fine.

 
Cletus von Clausewitz
 

pyscho eric: its not hopeless ! we haven’t pissed away political relevance for an entire generation ! People will stop watching ‘Lost’ with beautiful people making out and go back to watching ‘Our Miss Brooks” with bland people holding hands ! Foxnews will find another ‘passably fuckable’ college student to front yet another sexual absinence campaign on campuses, and this one will work ! Good thing no one ever does a retrospective of campus abstinancers “where are they now?”

 
Cletus von Clausewitz
 

no one here but me. (shoots lock off liquor cabinet.)

 
 

I like Gavin’s wordsmithing.

If he can find 80 ways to make fun of wingnuts, go to it.

I don’t care if people are dumping the R’s because of their batshit economic policies or their batshit social stances.

It’s all a big kettle of batshit.

 
 

When it was far too late to do any good, Barry Goldwater said a few correctly nasty things about Jerry Falwell and Richard Nixon. Also, he said a few good things about gay rights. For some silly people who claim to be lefties, such so-late-as-to-be-useless utterings totally mitigate Total Biocide Barry’s longstanding urge to irradiate the entire planet

I should stop reading S,N! before my morning coffee. I initially misread this and thought Barry=Barack and some wingnut was actually claiming Obama became President so he could carry out a radcial anti-human nuclear/chemical cleansing program.

No offense, HTML Mencken.

 
Michelle Malkin
 

Obama became President so he could carry out a radcial anti-human nuclear/chemical cleansing program.

Please expand on this interesting theory. I’m taking notes.

 
 

Please expand on this interesting theory. I’m taking notes.

Waiter!

A fresh serving of snotchos for my good freind Ms. Malkin, bitte! And don’t skimp on The Secret Ingredient, my good sir.

 
 

…Obama became President so he could carry out a radcial anti-human nuclear/chemical cleansing program.

Only for the crackers, my Islamofascist Gaybortion Comrade.

 
 

“Club for Growth” — am I the only one who always thinks of “Hair Club for Men” when I read that? Those “I’m not just the president — I’m a member!” thing or whatever? Buncha thinning-haired guys standing around grinning n’ shit?

 
 


“Club for Growth” — am I the only one who always thinks of “Hair Club for Men” when I read that? Those “I’m not just the president — I’m a member!” thing or whatever? Buncha thinning-haired guys standing around grinning n’ shit?

yes, but also I think of ‘Club for Growths’, in the sense of things you have to remove surgically before they kill you, and then you have to take a lot of medication that makes you really sick, to ensure the growths do not come back.

 
 

You know, one of the many things I love about S,N! is that it’s open 24/7. There’s just about always someone sitting at the bar doin’ shots in here, no matter what time, or time zone, day or night, night or day, and with these boys’ crazy cockamamie clock I never know WHAT time it is in here! Good day! or night, as the case may be.

 
 

A low profile shitbag which heralds an anti-Census tsunami of shit: Obama is now King Herod, and he is getting the ACORN Census stormtroopers to ‘mark’ Bible-owners’ houses with magic Luo-fascist GPS technology.

…the same week that Americans learned that they were “domestic terrorists”—at least according to Obama’s new DHS (Department of Homeland Security),—if they own a bible, a pocket Constitution or guns, and still believe in Life, Liberty and Freedom, – they also learned that Obama’s Census Bureau had hired thousands of new temporary employees, equipped each with a handheld GPS computer and sent them out to mark GPS coordinates for every residential front door in America… Obama’s interest in an ACORN controlled 2010 Census, for the purpose of redistricting to the advantage of Democrats before the 2010 mid-term elections, comes as NO shock from a regime known for their heavy handed Rules for Radicals political strategies. But what does this have to do with GPS marking every home in the country? The 2% of Americans, who have served military duty at some point in life, are very familiar with the most common use of GPS target painting. The other 98% of Americans might want to pick up a book on the subject, such as The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare … What I do know is this… Coincidences of this number and magnitude don’t happen. They certainly do not happen all at the same time, within hours or days of each other, out of the wild blue tin-foil hat heaven

H/T to the GOS.

Just out of curiosity, what is it they think the government shock troops are unable to do if they didn’t ‘mark’ your house with GPS?

Do they not understand that the government, and pretty much anyone else, already has their name and address, and that even without GPS, your address is on maps, and now with regular, over the counter, non-Indo-Kenyo-fascist GPS, I can punch in your address onto a GPS direction finder and drive to your house, or I can enter your address into, um, Google Earth?

All the shit that has happening over the last 8 years was unthreatening, until such time as a liberal black man gets into the White House, and now we’re living in some “Minority Report” pre-crime totalitarian hell. GPS was helping truckers get to their destinations more efficiently and with better fuel management, until 100 days ago, when it became a tool for ACORN to oppressively look at your house.

 
a different mikey
 

The one that came to my house was an obvious cyborg designed to appeal to my lecherous instincts and distract me from her dastardly doings. She looked so cute holding up that little transponder from my front porch.

Fortunately I have the secret marks on my door identifying me as one of the elect.

 
 

“Target painting”? Is he implying that Obama’s going to personally drop a daisy cutter on every house with a Palin 2012 sign out front?

 
 

Given that they’ve now cost the GOP two seats (3 if you count Lincoln Chafee, and why not?), shouldn’t we be calling them the Club for Shrinkage?

 
 

Lordy.

Made the mistake of chekcing out that aipnews link. In addition to speculating about “weaponized swine flu” (*facepalm*) we get Mr. I’m-Not-A-Crazy-Conspiracy-Nut musing on the threat to America of GPS painting:

How much is a GPS grid of every American household worth to the enemies of America , both foreign and domestic? I’d estimate, PRICELESS!

Or, they could, you know, look at Google Earth or type it into Mapquest. Daaaaaaaah!

Well, jeez, when the Islamomongol fascist hordes stop by my house on their sweep across America, I’ll just give ’em bad directions! Hah! That’ll show ’em!

 
 

shouldn’t we be calling them the Club for Shrinkage

In the words of George Costanza, “SIGNIFICANT shrinkage!”

 
 

How does ?The Hoot-Smalley Effect? strike you as a book title?

It’s about the election of Senator Franken.

 
 

How does “The Hoot-Smalley Effect” strike you as a book title?

It’s about the election of Senator Franken.

It sounds like it’ll be a sery verious, aughtful thorgument that has never been made in duch setail or with kuch sare.

 
 

Pere Ubu: And you were wondering why everyone was forcibly assigned to a ZIP code — the Zionist Imperial Porkulus code.

It was the same reason that the brave patriots stopped the Hillary Clinton Russian-UN occupation of the U.S. in the 1990’s by using bar codes on the backs of stop signs. Governments are apparently unable to locate you with simply your name and address and phone number and social security number and credit card records and GIS services and existing GPS devices and the postal service routes and local police forces accustomed to your area, they have to ‘paint’ your house with cloned blood from Bill Ayers.

 
 

they have to ‘paint’ your house with cloned blood from Bill Ayers

Ah, that would explain the reason the census chick that came to our house smeared a red substance on our door in the shape of a flaming eye and said “WEEE WILLL BE CONTACTING YOU SSSSSSSOOON” just before unhinging her lower jaw and swallowing a guinea pig.

Or not, as the case may be.

 
TortureIsUnAmerican
 

Hey, why can’t there be a party that takes the policy desires of a tiny wealthy elite and dishonestly packs them into Trojan Horse legislation that appeals to the middle class?

Thank you for this distillation of the pure essence of the right. I am in awe of it’s simple beauty.

 
 

You can’t sweep torture under the rug. But we also see the real dangers in prosecuting policy decisions.

When we hold our protests, my sign is going to have a picture of a guy with electrodes on his genitals, with the caption: “Nothing to see here; just a policy decision.”

It’s all a big kettle of batshit.

Well yes, yes it is.

What’s depressing about it though, is that the party’s overriding animating principle, about which they’ve been entirely open during the entire 30 years while they were rising to and holding power, is “we stand for the rights of a few people to own everything they can get their hands on, and this is the highest calling of freedom and democracy.” I mean, they’ve been saying that in their coded language of white male butthurt for as long as I’ve been alive, and it’s never become an issue. I mean sure, people point out that Republicans are the party of the rich and big corporations, but it’s like all the schmucks who voted for them all those years never stopped to connect the dots and figure out that it’s fucking crazy for the majority in a democracy to vote to set up an aristocracy.

And even if they manage to re-brand themselves and claw a toehold on power within the next 15 years, the animating principle will remain what it is now: government by the rich and powerful, of the rich and powerful, and for the rich and powerful. The best inoculation is for our side to undertake a public education program to connect those dots for people and make sure they never forget that it’s a really stupid idea.

Last of all, I ain’t got pig flu or any other flu. I woke up feeling fine yesterday. Maybe I fought off a cold virus and that’s why I was feeling not quite right the other day, or an allergy thing, or something. But no pig flu.

 
 

I’m fine with Charlie Crist as long as he stays where he is

SUBTEXT!

“…in the bars on South Beach, but please don’t let him near my Nordic virginal ass (since paying for it doesn’t count).”

 
 

“Club for Growth” — am I the only one who always thinks of “Hair Club for Men” when I read that? Those “I’m not just the president — I’m a member!” thing or whatever? Buncha thinning-haired guys standing around grinning n’ shit?

I see it as a very clever name for a conservative circle jerk club.

 
 

Ah, that would explain the reason the census chick that came to our house smeared a red substance on our door in the shape of a flaming eye and said “WEEE WILLL BE CONTACTING YOU SSSSSSSOOON” just before unhinging her lower jaw and swallowing a guinea pig.

Or not, as the case may be.

I dropped that same batch of acid.

 
 

I like “Club For Growths”.

 
 

some wingnut was actually claiming Obama became President so he could carry out a radcial anti-human nuclear/chemical cleansing program.

It’s funny how Obama’s pinky never bends, Mr Vincent.

(obscure TV reference)

 
 

that would explain the reason the census chick that came to our house smeared a red substance on our door in the shape of a flaming eye

That’s actually fairly artistic to be able to ‘smear’ a red substance on a door which is not just a symbolically recognizable eye, but recognizable flames too.

 
 

The other day, Senator Jim DeMint told Arlen Specter that DeMint would be backing Toomey.

Was that, for Specter, like the moment when the heretofore mildly strange brother-in-law takes you to the basement and shows you his level with a thermometer taped to it and tells you in whispers that he’s going to use it to identify the demons who walk among us?

 
 

This amok isn’t going to run itself.

By the way, Gavin?

One of your best.

 
 

I listened to few minutes of Limbaugh yesterday at random moments while running errands and noticed that the talking point of the day was “Democrats are monolithic. Democrats don’t tolerate diversity of opinion. Democrats all think and vote the same way.” This on the same day that he’s going on about how great it is that the disloyal Specter has left the Republican party and how great it would be that if McCain and his daughter left too.

Don’t these gasbags have any flexibility to adjust their talking points to the news so they don’t sound quite so much like an unmedicated person suffering from dissociated identity disorder? I guess their listeners exist only the present moment and don’t try to put two thoughts together. (Ugh. Two thoughts at once. Brain HURT!)

Being the party in exile has really re-energized Limbaugh. It’s easy to tell that he’s much more enthused about ridiculing a Democratic administration than he was about supporting a Republican administration. In his unexamined joy at focusing on attack again, he’s really overdoing the stupid “voice impressions” of the supposedly elite, or gay, or stuck-up people he’s trying to make fun of. I’m surprised his listeners can stand the constant, pointless lisping and nasal plumminess.

 
 

cowalker: UNITY IS DIVERSITY.

 
ntnlplmbigcdhndbk
 

I think those two young men in their underwear above are members of the Club for Growths. I’m pretty sure they are expressing the desires of the rich disguised as something middle American might be interested in.

 
 

“Club for Growth” — am I the only one who always thinks of “Hair Club for Men” when I read that? Those “I’m not just the president — I’m a member!” thing or whatever? Buncha thinning-haired guys standing around grinning n’ shit?”

Plus, its director is COUNT CHOCULA. Doesn’t that explain everything? Oh I think it does.

 
 

That’s actually fairly artistic to be able to ’smear’ a red substance on a door which is not just a symbolically recognizable eye, but recognizable flames too.

you just need the right brushes.

 
 

By November 2010, Pennsylvania may be clamoring for a Pat Toomey.

You know, I can’t speak for my fellow Pennsylvanians out in garden spots like Perry County, but here in Philly, uh, no. We ain’t havin’ that shit.

 
 

“Club for Shrinkage”

That was MINE, dammit!

 
 

It’s funny how Obama’s pinky never bends, Mr Vincent.

He comes on TV wearing a v-neck sweater and I’m fricking out of here.

(obscure reference gotten ;))

 
 

That’s actually fairly artistic to be able to ’smear’ a red substance on a door which is not just a symbolically recognizable eye, but recognizable flames too.

Don’t you know Satanists can do stuff? Artistic ability? Pshaw.

My artistic ability sucks, personally – I’m still looking for the secret section in the D&D books that’ll let me cast REAL MAGIC SPELLS so I can get ahold of the Art demon m’self.

 
 

Club for Growths, former president Pat Tumor, hmmm.

 
 

You’re welcome to Specter the Defector. I’d like to see how many libs are still thrilled when he starts disagreeing with the left wing. I can hear the whining now.

We’re going to beat him 2010 anyway.

 
 

We’re going to beat him 2010 anyway.

CIRCLE-JERK REFERENCE ALERT

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

John Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda is back.

Shouldn’t you be working on more of your Lou Reed wannabe tunes, Johnny Bravo?

 
Missing Republican Bookmarks
 

Uh John, isn’t there something you should be adding to your posts concerning election predictions?

I’ll give you a clue: Drop a part of the body found on the head from the word “earmark”, and add to the front the name of an item that rarely exists in Republican homes, except for Telephone _____s.

 
 

Someone please explain to me – why is checking on the Intertubes if there’s a full moon, or when it is next, have to be like HACKING INTO THE FUCKING PENTAGOON?

 
 

“Shouldn’t you be working on more of your Lou Reed wannabe tunes, Johnny Bravo?”

Shouldn’t you refrain from making fun of people’s names while posting under a dumbass nick like “Rusty”? I had a dog named Rusty once, and he probably had a higher IQ than you.

 
 

I think the Republicans need to get back to the basic values which drive their party, and they need to finish getting rid of a lot of dead weight they don’t need, such as Senator Olympia Snowe, and many others.

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Tell us more about Google’s lefty bias, Johnny. That’s class-A tinfoil hattery there.

 
 

I think my house just got lit by ACORN GPS paint. My pocket Constitution started lighting up and I had to put it under a pillow so it wouldn’t be detected.

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Lou Reed is a liberal.

There aren’t any good right-wing rockers for “Johnny Rome” to rip off.

 
 

At 16:55 El Cid said,

cowalker: UNITY IS DIVERSITY.

Oh, wait! I get it!

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

And some piglike human beings are more equal than others.

 
 

And some piglike human beings are more equal than others.

When swine flu!

 
 

“Tell us more about Google’s lefty bias, Johnny. That’s class-A tinfoil hattery there.”

What the hell are you babbling about?

 
 

I had a dog named Rusty once, and he probably had a higher IQ than you.

Hey, kid, don’t go quitting your day job, ‘kay? King Of Comedy you ain’t.

That said, what’s supposed to happen to us liberal Socialist pagans if we have a bible in the house for reference purposes? Do we get painted too? Lord knows the house could use some painting, or maybe even NWO GPS alumnium siding.

 
 

What the hell are you babbling about?

We asked you first.

 
 

There aren’t any good right-wing rockers for “Johnny Rome” to rip off.

Cat Stevens.

Hey, they don’t get anymore right wing than a fundamentalist!

 
 

That said, what’s supposed to happen to us liberal Socialist pagans if we have a bible in the house for reference purposes?

We caulk your windows, but no housepainting.

 
 

Jennifer said,

April 30, 2009 at 16:14 (kill)

But no pig flu.

Toldya I wasn’t contagious.

 
 

Smut Clyde said,

April 30, 2009 at 4:11 (kill)

Why would anyone plunge a toilet? Isn’t this why the good lord gave us cherry-bombs and metallic sodium?

It appears your formative years were strikingly similar to mine.

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

What the hell are you babbling about?

Aren’t you that loser John “Johnny Rome” Romano who posts at Big Failywood? Because you sound just like him.

If you’re a different loser I apologize.

 
 

I had a dog named Rusty once, and he probably had a higher IQ than you.

Yea, but he smelled like shit. Probably got that from you.

 
 

Aren’t you that loser John “Johnny Rome” Romano who posts at Big Failywood?

I love Italian-Americans who, when they try out a pseudonym because their name sounds a little too ethnic, pick one that’s guaranteed to remind people of Italy anyway.

 
 

We caulk your windows, but no housepainting.

Well, sheyooot.

If I have a copy of The Federalist Papers can I at least get the windows washed while you’re at it?

 
 

“Aren’t you that loser John “Johnny Rome” Romano who posts at Big Failywood?”

No. There is more than one person in this world named “John”, you know. Some of them even post on the internet! It’s true!

 
 

If I have a copy of The Federalist Papers can I at least get the windows washed while you’re at it?

Tell you what: you slip the guys a beer or two while they’re caulking, and we’ll see what we can do. But none of that furren crap: it’s Bud or we soap the windows.

 
 

Anyway I hope you’re happy with Benedict Arlen on your side. You can have him, we’ve had more than enough former Democrats come over to our side (Phil Gramm, Dick Shelby) who are 100x better than Benedict Arlen.

 
 

You can have him, we’ve had more than enough former Democrats come over to our side (Phil Gramm, Dick Shelby) who are 100x better than Benedict Arlen.

The GOP: Toxic waste dump of the Democratic Party.

 
 

(Phil Gramm, Dick Shelby)

“Phil”? “Dick”?

I think I see the veiled TEH GHEY reference here as well.

 
 

I wonder if the GOP would qualify as a Superfund clean-up site?

 
60 Democrats in the Senate
 

I’m sorry, did you hear something?

Nope. Neither did we. Now, where were we?

 
 

“it’s Bud or we soap the windows.”

If I give ’em two microbrews, will they rinse too?

 
 

The last time there was a Democrat Congress with a Democrat President and 60 Democrats in the Senate was in 1977-1978. History will likely repeat itself.

 
 

If I give ‘em two microbrews, will they rinse too?

Only when they spit the beer out.

 
 

History will likely repeat itself.

Quick, pull all the personnell out of the Iranian Embassy before it’s too late!

 
 

The last time there was a Democrat Congress with a Democrat President and 60 Democrats in the Senate was in 1977-1978. History will likely repeat itself.

US GDP in 1977 grew 6.5% or so, the second highest rate since 1976.

I can live with that in a time of economic catastrophe!

 
 

“US GDP in 1977 grew 6.5% or so, the second highest rate since 1976”.

Good God. Someone is attempting to defend Jimmy Carter’s economic record! Now I’ve seen everything. Moron.

Why don’t you check to see what inflation was like, or hell, what the economy was like by 1980? Hint: Reagan won for a reason. Moron.

 
 

“Quick, pull all the personnell out of the Iranian Embassy before it’s too late!”

Oh, I think Obama’s “hostage crisis” will be in Pakistan, when the Taliban takes over. Not to mention Iran going nuclear. He’s certainly going to get a lot of Biden’s predicted “tests” in the next few years. Our enemies can smell weakness, and Obama is weak.

 
 

Hint: Reagan. Moron.

Fized.

 
 

This Jimmy Carter shit is really all we’ve got.

 
 

Our enemies can smell weakness

Oh, that’s just the cologne Sasha gave him last Xmas.

 
 

Oh, I think Obama’s “hostage crisis” will be in Pakistan, when the Taliban takes over.

Well, thank god we defeated them so soundly in Afghanistan back in 2002 or they’d be a problem now.

Oh, wait…

 
 

Just TRY to blame an Iranian Nuke or the collapse of the Pakistani government on Bush. The American people will tell you to stick it up your ass. By 2010 they’re going to be sick of “BUSH BUSH BUSH! WAAAH BUSH’S FAULT!”

Take responsibility for what happens now that you’re in power, or get the fuck out.

 
 

Good God. Someone is attempting to defend Jimmy Carter’s economic record! Now I’ve seen everything. Moron.

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr. John?

Those numbers ARE ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, you fucking idiot! That was real growth!

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Our enemies can smell weakness…

Mohammed Atta had quite a nose for it, didn’t he?

 
 

By 2010 they’re going to be sick of “BUSH BUSH BUSH! WAAAH BUSH’S FAULT!”

Well, you should know, considering you still blamed Clinton for everything INCLUDING Katrina! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Just TRY to blame an Iranian Nuke or the collapse of the Pakistani government on Bush.

This episode of Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda brought to you by Not John Romano

 
 

Tell us again how great Carter’s economic record was, actor. I’m not even going to argue with it. I’m just happy to point out you’re so partisan that you would defend Carter’s economic record.

 
60 Democrats in Congress
 

By 2010 they’re going to be sick of BUSH BUSH BUSH!

Well, they were certainly sick enough of him by 2008.

 
 

“Our enemies can smell weakness”

That’s just leftover from the previous eight years. Or maybe it’s your upper lip.

 
 

And oh, by the way, John, before you go arguing Carter and inflation, keep in mind that the Federal Reserve itself accepts blame for the hyperinflation of the late 70s….

http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2004/2004-001.pdf

 
 

Tell us again how great Carter’s economic record was, actor.

As it turns out, it was even better than Reagan’s.

Suck it, trollboy.

 
 

what the economy was like by 1980

It was pretty bad in 1982-1983.

Of course in the bizarre Republican parallel timestream the economy in 1983 was Carter’s fault but the economy in 1977 was also Carter’s fault.

 
Whip Inflation Now! buttons
 

Like swine flu, Rep. Bachmann, we happened on Ford’s watch. Not Carter’s.

 
 

Katrina was the fault of the incompetent Democrat Party machine in NOLA and Louisiana.

Notice in Florida they didn’t seem to have the same kind of problems with their hurricanes.

 
 

Just TRY to blame an Iranian Nuke or the collapse of the Pakistani government on Bush. The American people will tell you to stick it up your ass. By 2010 they’re going to be sick of “BUSH BUSH BUSH! WAAAH BUSH’S FAULT!”

Yeah, it’s not like he ran the country for eight years or anything, after all.

Take responsibility for what happens now that you’re in power, or get the fuck out.

The mere idea of a Repug saying this not only pins the needle on the Irony Meter but feeds back into the system and blows up the Time-Warner *ahem* power station.

 
 

Just TRY to blame an Iranian Nuke or the collapse of the Pakistani government on Bush.

Gee, for that latter you have the US letting Al Qaeda cross the border and then ignoring the Afghan situation for an Iraq adventure. So yeah, 100 days in to the Obama presidency you’d have to say Bush screwed the pooch on Pakistan, no question.

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

Good God. Someone is attempting to defend Jimmy Carter’s economic record!

Any excuse to scream PENIS pull out my favorite wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms

Evil Jimmy Carter: Debt/GDP -3.2%
Glorious Reagan First Term: Debt/GDP +11.3%
And Term Number 2: Debt/GDP +9.2%

Also,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms

Evil Jimmy Carter: Average annual increase in # jobs +3.1%
Reagan? +1.5% and +2.2%

And finally,
PENIS.

 
 

“It was pretty bad in 1982-1983.”

Reagan got the fed to raise interest rates to end inflation. It was a recession by design. By late 1983 and 1984 the economy was booming without the Carter Inflation.

 
September 11, 2001
 

Carter was president during me! I know because Rush said so

 
 

By late 1983 and 1984 the economy was booming without the Carter Inflation.

Wow, so THAT’s where all that government cheese came from!

 
Rampant Inflation under Nixon/Ford
 

Will no one pay attention to MEEEEE???

 
 

Hey, wasn’t “stagflation” a word coined during the Ford administration?

 
 

Thanks for the weapons, Ronald Reagan. We couldn’t have done it without you. Saddam sends his regards as well for your assistance.

 
 

“We’re going to beat him 2010 anyway.”

No, you won’t. Here’s why:

Specter, right now, has a more or less open path to the Dem nomination. Obama and Rendell (who won reelection 65 – 35) are both going to endorse him, which is a big enough chip in its own right. Specter also has a shitload of money right now, probably way more than any potential Democratic or Republican opponent will be able to raise. Why is this important? Because it guarantees him a lot of advertising in the Philadelphia market.

In order to win Pennsylvania, you need to win the following parts of the state:
– Philadelphia and the surrounding counties (Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware)
– Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)
– Centre County (Penn State)
– Lackawanna County (Scranton)

Arlen’s base is all over the Philly suburbs, which are arguably the most important part of the state, election-wise. EFCA only hurts him within the city of Philadelphia itself (labor and all that) but the unions have limited reach outside of Philly.

Arlen Specter is a survivor. Short of something totally unpredictable, he is not going anywhere.

Thus ends my impromptu lesson on PA politics.

 
 

I know you libs just can’t stop screaming about Bush because he beat Al Bore and Kerry. You lost to a guy you painted as a moron, twice, and it completely broke your brains.

I bet you STILL get pissed when you think of Florida 2000, don’t you?

 
 

I bet you STILL get pissed when you think of Florida 2000, don’t you?

We kind of get that reaction when a bunch of assholes steal the Presidency with the cooperation of Fat Tony Scalia, yeah.

 
 

We won the White House four and a half years ago! Suck on THAT, libs!

 
The Clinton Surplus
 

Where’d I go?

 
 

Oh yeah, and November 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYJjOCYmi-A

I remember all the liberal whining. It’s going to even sweeter in 2012.

 
Johnny "Wet Start" McCain
 

I feel like a rented mule.

 
 

Notice in Florida they didn’t seem to have the same kind of problems with their hurricanes.

Right, the ones after Katrina, Bush had been embarassed already. Good thing Andrew didn’t hit under Bush and hit first.

 
 

Hey, wasn’t “stagflation” a word coined during the Ford administration?

Anyone else remember the WIN Buttons (Whip Inflation Now) from the Ford administration?

 
 

I was a great idea.

 
 

By late 1983 and 1984 the economy was booming without the Carter Inflation.

After Reagan passed the biggest single tax increase in world history, of course.

 
 

“Right, the ones after Katrina, Bush had been embarassed already. Good thing Andrew didn’t hit under Bush and hit first.”

AHAHAHA! What? They had several storms in 2004, idiot.

 
 

the Carter Inflation.

Paging Arthur Burns. Arthur Burns? Could you show John how to read a calendar?

kthxbai

 
 

Arlen’s base is all over the Philly suburbs, which are arguably the most important part of the state, election-wise. EFCA only hurts him within the city of Philadelphia itself (labor and all that) but the unions have limited reach outside of Philly.

And Pittsburgh, of course.

 
New Orleans and Florida
 

We are exactly the same except for political party.

 
The Governor of Alaska
 

It’s going to even sweeter in 2012.

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE give me another chance?

 
 

I remember all the liberal whining. It’s going to even sweeter in 2012.

Ah, yes, to live in your fantasy world where “Palin/Limbaugh” is somehow a winning ticket.

 
 

The 1980s were the best decade economically we’ve ever had. Much better than the 90s even.

 
The Army Corps of Engineers
 

Yes… keep blaming Nagin… please

 
 

I’m sure the late-70s inflation had absolutely nothing to do with LBJ and Nixon not wanting raise taxes to pay for the Vietnam war.

 
 

PS: Those counties that I mentioned? They’ve been going Democratic of late.

Arlen will complement Bob Casey Jr. so well.

 
50% Top Marginal Tax Rate
 

Remember me? Under Reagan?

 
 

From the moment Burns got into the Fed, I think politics played a great role in what happened. So far as Nixon was concerned, there is no doubt, as I know from personal experience. I had a session with Nixon sometime in 1970– I think it was 1970, might have been 1971– in which he wanted me to urge Arthur to increase the money supply more rapidly [laughter] and I said to the President, “Do you really want to do that? The only effect of that will be to leave you with a larger inflation if you do get reelected.” And he said, “Well, we’ll worry about that after we get reelected.” [page 116].

And then Watergate took his ass out, leaving Ford and Carter with the mess.

Once again, John’s politics are a function of his ignorance.

 
The Governor of Alaska
 

Pretty please? I’ll talk all folksy and stuff!

 
 

AHAHAHA! What? They had several storms in 2004, idiot.

Yes, and only Charley was even close to Katrina in intensity and it was a third the size of Katrina.

Plus, maybe I’m wrong, but Florida is at sea level, and New Orleans is not. I’m sure Jeb Bush would have been in as bad shape if not worse than Blanco.

 
The Clinton Surplus
 

I think I got spent on 50 million gallons of schoolhouse paint and also killing some brown people who were no threat to us.

 
The Clinton Surplus
 

I never really existed. I was the result of a lot of fuzzy math and optimistic projections.

 
 

The 1980s were the best decade economically we’ve ever had. Much better than the 90s even.

Sadly, no.

1980s 5.6%
1990s 5.8%

http://tinyurl.com/d8d9tv

 
The Colossal Bush Deficit, even bigger than Reagan's
 

I sure as hell exist.

 
 

Reagan’s avg. GDP growth per capita is the same as Jimmy Carter’s.

Heh.

 
 

Dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.

Seriously. I believe that. And I’m still the best the Republicans have!!!

 
 

“I remember all the liberal whining.”

I remember being told to “Get over it” and “Stop whining” several months after I actually had done so. I also remember Bush’s so called “mandate” which was way lower than Obama’s margin of victory. Somehow or another Obama doesn’t have a mandate, according to you guys.

“It’s going to even sweeter in 2012.”

Yay wishful thinking! Also, grammar!

 
The Democrat Congress
 

We just doubled your size, budget deficit.

And the debt is up to 17 trillion.

HOPE ‘N CHANGE NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY!

 
 

Anytime the economy is good it is either due to:

1. The current Republican administration.
2. The previous Republican administration if the current administration happens to be Democratic.

Anytime the economy is bad it is either due to:
1. The current Democratic administration.
2. The previous Democratic administration if the current administration happens to be Republican.

It’s always “Heads I win, tails you lose” over in right-wing world.

 
 

Reagan was a a commiepinkoislamofascist RINO who gave amnesty to illegals, cut and ran in Lebanon, appeased Saddam, helped Bin Laden, sold arms to the Iranians, and worst of all raised taxes in 1986. I say he should be kicked out of the party. Notwithstanding the fact that the fetid smell of his remains would fit in nicely with the stench of today’s G.O.P.

 
 

Ask us if we did better under Clinton or Bush.

 
 

Uh, actually, Andrew DID hit under Bush – Bush the first. And the disaster response, while not as incompetent as the response to New Orleans after Katrina, was a joke, which is one of the reasons Bush I lost in 1992.

Like father, like son, I suppose.

 
 

Abstinence only, Bristol!

 
 

I’m the Tonya Harding of American politics.

 
 

Could we have some more missiles please?

Oh – you say Reagan isn’t president anymore? Sorry.

 
Johnny "Wet Start" McCain
 

I’m the Nancy Kerrigan of American politics.

 
 

I see at least one liberal on here is fucking terrified at the thought of a Sarah Palin nomination. I think you’re protesting just a LITTLE too much!

 
Ronald Reagan's skull
 

Will you “movement conservatives” please get your dicks out of me?

 
The Word "Terrified"
 

I mean the same as “incredibly hopeful, and amused also.”

 
 

fucking terrified at the thought of a Sarah Palin nomination

Uh, yeah, the way I’m “terrified” of a Bugs Bunny marathon.

Except Palin isn’t intentionally funny, and Bugs wouldn’t get anyone killed.

 
 

Bookmark it, libs!!!!!!!

Bleahhh, tiresome troll is tiresome.

shows you his level with a thermometer taped to it

That better not be the kind of thermometer I’m thinking it is.

 
 

I can see the news story now:

OHIO (AP) NOVEMBER 2012–

President Obama conceded to Governor Sarah Palin today after it was clear that the provisional ballots would not be enough to win…

 
The Governor of Alaska
 

I’ll get that Miss California girl to be my running mate. She’s awesome AND articulate!

 
 

Iran said,

April 30, 2009 at 18:58

Could we have some more missiles please?

Sorry, we’re sending ’em all to our new buddies over in Pakistan are getting them all right now, and we’re darn sure THEY wouldn’t turn on us like you guys did! Maybe.

 
 

Calm down, son. You’ve taken a hit of Orange Sunshine, and the effects will wear off in a few hours. Just relax – that saber-toothed Pelosi isn’t real.

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

I think you’re protesting just a LITTLE too much!

Well it ain’t me, I’d have liberally added a buncha youbetchas, youbetcha.

The reason we fear for a Presidential Candidate Palin is because we’re scared of what effect it’ll have on Rich Lowry. Eeeewwwww.

 
 

Reagan was a great man who gave us 3 billion in military aid to fight the godless communists. A jihad on all those who give him disrespect and may Allah be kind to his soul.

 
 

Andrew DID hit under Bush – Bush the first.

And the hideous response gave Clinton the impetus to turn FEMA into a well run and effective agency, which it was for eight years. Until, of course, we got Bush and Brownie.

Ah, Republicans in charge. Ensuring that their basic creed of “government doesn’t work” comes true.

 
 

the hideous response gave Clinton the impetus to turn FEMA into a well run and effective agency

I thought he did that so he could establish his New World Order fascist Satanist Illuminati NAFTA dictatorship.

Remember when he did that?

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Remember when he did that?

Amazing he found the time, what with all the people he had to personally murder. I heard he only slept four hours a night though.

 
 

I heard he only slept four hours a night though.

And before Ambien(tm) was available, yet!

What a true Renaissance man.

 
 

Amazing he found the time, what with all the people he had to personally murder.

Well, he got help. I mean, besides Hillary. They were able to use trains to run down all those kids.

 
Rusty Shackleford
 

Trains!!! Ingenious!

Slick Willie indeed

 
a concerned citizen
 

Where are all the obligatory wingnuts?

 
 

I see at least one liberal on here is fucking terrified at the thought of a Sarah Palin nomination. I think you’re protesting just a LITTLE too much!

Yes, they laughed at Einstein, I know the logic.

But here’s the thing, John: they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

 
 

And I think we can pretty safely assume that Sarah Palin is not Einsteinian, gosh darn it

 
 

the heretofore mildly strange brother-in-law takes you to the basement and shows you his level with a thermometer taped to it and tells you in whispers that he’s going to use it to identify the demons who walk among us?

That wasn’t my brother-in-law, that was my dad.

 
 

we can pretty safely assume that Sarah Palin is not Einsteinian

Not even Eisensteinian.

 
 

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