HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

erm, excuse me. That was impolite.

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAH!

Oh, for all the horrid slings and arrows poor Irony has had to suffer in these last few years, this just might make up for it.

Brilliant.

And I gotta say, the best thing about this particular circular firing squad, is that the rural voters have actually used guns before, so they’d have not a bit of trouble perforating Voddie.

I know it’s been said before, but I absolutely *love* watching the Huck-induced Republican panic.

It’ll be short-lived. Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan (Pats Robertson and Buchanan?) both had early successes before getting crushed by the establishment candidates. Huck is about to get steamrollered.

It’ll be fun while it lasts, though.

What Jillian said.

Wait.

32 years ago, your Democratic brethren took one look at Jimmy Carter — the worst 20th Century President bar Nixon

What was that?

32 years ago, your Democratic brethren took one look at Jimmy Carter — the worst 20th Century President bar Nixon

Say that again now?

32 years ago, your Democratic brethren took one look at Jimmy Carter — the worst 20th Century President bar Nixon

Did Mr. Green somehow forget that Nixon was our GREATEST PRESIDENT EVERS after Dubya, Reagan and Harding? And he dares, dares compare Nixon to America’s Greatest Monster, Jimmy “the Iceman” Carter? Well, I for one am shocked, appaled, disgusted and mortified that this man is allowed to speak for America and Jesus.

And also, “Deomcratic brethren”? Shouldn’t he of all people know that all Democrats are hatched from Soviet creches and are completely unrelated to right-thinking Republicans?

Speaking as someone who likes to (if I’m not in public) suck out the sweet juices from a nicely steamed cob of corn, I take offense at “Mr. Emaciated in a Suit”‘s remarks. I am not stupid.

Then again, I neither live in IA nor (plan to) vote for Huckabee.

The very foppish, toe-tapping Mr. Green had best hope that he doesn’t run into this former corn-s(h)ucker or he just might have a ear of corn shoved in a place its not supposed to be. That is truly central to my point.

Carter is history’s greatest monster, after all.

Did Mr. Green somehow forget that Nixon was our GREATEST PRESIDENT EVERS after Dubya, Reagan and Harding?

Isn’t Coolidge supposed to totally rawkk too? I swear I read some wingnut post somewhere to this effect.

this is awesome. it really goes to show how little influence the internet wingnuts have–even in their own damn party! It’s great that both their candidates lost last night too (they secretly wanted Hitlery to win so their 2 minute hates could go on for a few more months).

I think it just goes to show that they really are living up to internet wingnut stereotypes. Social outcasts, mothers’ basement, out of touch with reality or any large segment of humanity.

Did Mr. Green somehow forget that Nixon was our GREATEST PRESIDENT EVERS after Dubya, Reagan and Harding?

To a certain segment of the GOP base, Nixon is the slimy liberal who created the EPA and the welfare state. He also went to talk to the RED CHINESE when we should have been hunkering down behind our borders and pointing all our nukes in their direction.

Watergate, by contrast, was his finest hour.

Oh, PLUS, don’t forget that Churchill has posthumously been made a Republican US President because he once supported a war.

The fact that he wouldn’t have won it without the help of a nanny state LIEberal and a communist with a dumb mustache is immaterial.

is he not the geekiest vampire?

how does it work that his widow’s peak is thicker than his neck? and what a “hepburn” he’s got above that windsor, too. jeezus, i bet he can reach the berries on the higher limbs.

and evrybody knows that “des moines” means “the thighs” — just a little lower than “des loins.” sheesh…

How DARE those Republican voters rely entirely on their faith to elect a President!

I’ve noticed that Republicans are divided into camps based on elements of W’s insane personality. VodkaPundit apparently thinks Iowans were voting based on the wrong element of the insane right-wing worldview.

I can’t get enough of that picture of Vodka-ie trying to look like money in that crap suit.

Trilateral Chairman:

I was under the impression that him personally shooting the hippies at Kent State was his finest hour. Am I wrong?

feel the huckenfreude!

Patkin: You are, of course, quite right. I stand corrected.

What Jillian said only deeper.

Plus a slight shudder at that revenant who has clearly spied a sleeping virgin and wants to refill his glass. There’s a man who needs a sammich.

Teh Huckster poking the GOP establishment in the eye like this just brings tears of joy to my eyes. Screw this damn flu, I feel like dancing (I won’t, ’cause really, no one wants to see that).

Is it ok to make fun of VodkaPutz for the way he looks? No? Ok, then. Dood should get a tailor. No, a competent tailor. And what’s with the Mr. Mackey head?

stephen defiles our family name every time he writes. and he defiles a nice chilled glass of stoli as well.

now as for the substance of the thing–let’s see who self-selects as hardcore republican in a state like iowa.

well, there are some angry older upper middle class white men for sure. and they voted for mccain or giuliani or thompson. but apparently many of them are a little less angry and voted for obama.

then you have crazy people. they voted for ron paul then went home to their houses where they keep their cash under the bed so that the mexicans don’t get it.

your garden variety regular aspirational lower middle or middle class folk voted for romney.

and then we come to those who fill church pews every sunday. they like listening to snake oil salesmen tell them what to do, what with the sibilant voices and the dulcet-toned phraseology.

and they voted for huckabee.

turns out there are a lot of them.

christ, if VodkaPundit isn’t a poster boy for elitism… then I don’t know what is.

Clearly, the GOP wants their votes, their money, their foot soldiers… but heaven forbid one of the rabble actually gets the nomination.

Is it too much to hope for the GOP convention to be a figurative bloodbath between economic conservatives and social conservatives????

Y’know, I hadn’t really considered the “vengeance” aspect of a Huckabee campaign before this post. Thank you, Brad, for I have now been infused with Huckamania.

Whatcha gonna do, brutha, when the world’s largest tax hike comes after yooooooooooooooou!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was struck by the wonderful petulance of “worst ex-president ever.” Pure 15-year-old “nyah nyah – whatever everyone thinks, I’m going to say the opposite – someone get outraged! Um, please? Notice me? PLEASE?”

I thought you couldnt photograph vampires- how did you get this?

How Whitmanesque:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

He knew Jonah, apparently.

“…same gullibility on foreign affairs,”

Carter was a former Submarine captain.

That empty suit is an asshat.

Shouldn’t this guy be grateful to get a yokel instead of, say, The Ultimate Warrior?

This vodka pudnit is obviously some sort of East Coast liberal agent-provocateur. “Vodka”, indeed. Not bourbon? Not corn whisky? And look! He’s drinking commie RED wine, not a good ol’ American brew. He probably has a wedgie of brie in his pocket, too.

Probably thinks Grey Goose tastes better than Smirnoff, too.

To a certain segment of the GOP base, Nixon is the slimy liberal who created the EPA and the welfare state. He also went to talk to the RED CHINESE when we should have been hunkering down behind our borders and pointing all our nukes in their direction. – Trilateral Chairman

That was Nixon’s undoing (c.f. the problems Mary Todd Lincoln — OT, but how come nowadays people drop the “Todd”? did she ever do that? — had in the Civil War ’cause she was simultaniously too close to abolitionists and her Southern family). The moderates in the party never trusted him, so he cast his political lot (the Southern Strategy) with the wingnuts … but he was never one of them, so they didn’t go to bat for him either.

And to elaborate on what Pankin said — they like him for Kent State. They dislike him for Watergate, ’cause he got caught!

don’t forget that Churchill has posthumously been made a Republican US President – Jake H.

Seriously, Giuliani is Churchill without the wit. As my dad always points out, the Brits wanted Churchill’s inspiring “leadership” during the war, but they couldn’t even wait until the war was over (just until it was pretty much in the bag) to get rid of him!

He probably has a wedgie of brie in his pocket, too. – dm

Is that a brie in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me. (argh … now I need brain bleach, considering the subject of the post).

I contain multitudes

“My giant goes with me wherever I go”

Greatest Hulk Hogan quote ever (in an interview with Jack Arute about how he was supporting a cause for blind kids):

“What are you going to do, Jack Arute, when Hulkamania and the visually-impaired Hulkamaniacs run wild over you???!!!????”

Highest of High comedy. wish I could find video of it somewhere. Funny the things that stick in your head…

He either has a really big head or a little turkey neck with flapping wattle.

who the hell is stephen green (aka vodkapundit), and who the hell cares what he says?

tb said: “I can’t get enough of that picture of Vodka-ie trying to look like money in that crap suit.”

Agreed. He epitomizes the phrase “all over you like a cheap suit.”

Lilnemo – you could say that about 99.999% of the internet speechifying that goes on (most of us too I am afraid).

[…] No! has some fun with the meltdown: Remember those heady days after the 2004 presidential elections when liberals were chided for […]

That’s the kind of jawbone I want in my bad motherfucking hands if I ever have to slay a 1,000 Philistines.

Is it too much to hope for the GOP convention to be a figurative bloodbath between economic conservatives and social conservatives????

Why stop there? I want to see great weeping mobs of godbotherers calling down the smite on the border-pluggers, who are squinting with steely resolve at the tax-cutters, who are slipping metaphorical knives between the ribs of the ethnic cleansers, who are whacking the godbotherers on the head with their “War: Now More than Ever!” signs.

Who did I miss?

so he cast his political lot (the Southern Strategy) with the wingnuts

Funny you should mention. The Christianists and bigots dipped their toes in with Nixon, plunged in with Reagan, wallowed around with W…and guess what? After 40 years or so, abortion is still legal, gays still exist, white kids still have to go to school with negroes, and they still have to learn science while they’re there.

This mess is a long time coming. If Republican elites didn’t see it coming I have no sympathy for them.

I’m afraid you’re wrong about one thing, which is that Huckleberry doesn’t support tax cuts — his platform calls for eliminating the income tax entirely and replacing it with a national sales tax. That makes the Bush tax cuts for the plutocracy pale in comparison. You really need to pay attention to where this guy is coming from, he’s more radical than Grover Norquist.

[…] Sadly, No! has a hilarious post about the establishment Republican freak-out over Huckabee (scroll down to the […]

This guy makes me think that Edwards losing wasn’t the worst thing,,,

He’s got Huckabee!

WooHoo!

The Iowa caucus is so yesterday. let’s talk about Britney and this:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/04/people.amyfisher.ap/index.html

I’m afraid you’re wrong about one thing, which is that Huckleberry doesn’t support tax cuts — his platform calls for eliminating the income tax entirely and replacing it with a national sales tax. That makes the Bush tax cuts for the plutocracy pale in comparison. You really need to pay attention to where this guy is coming from, he’s more radical than Grover Norquist.

Right, but he uses the words “fair trade” which is what I think the money wing of the party is actually worried about. This dovetails with his nativism on immigration, which is also a problem for that part of the coalition.

Man, I wish I worked in an industry where being a souse was a selling point. What a fucking idiot.

A tax on merlot AND purple handkerchiefs? I’m moving to New Freedonia with the other Randroids!

Republicans “like” Obama because they want to run against him.
For them, what could be better than running against,

“an unqualified, untested black Muslim named Hussein?”

BTW, what changes is Obama going to make, anyone know?

Okay, so one of you Obamites wanna tell us his electoral strategy? not that it’s over or anything, but just exactly which swing states can he win? I don’t care much about poll numbers to this point, but if it’s Obama against whatever Republican talking point hood ornament they select, how does he win any state that isn’t a dem given?

What Douchey McWineGlass is missing is this…

Huckabee is the freaking least of their problems come November. Is anyone at RedState on suicide watch yet?

[…] of the day: Huckenfreude. It’s the enjoyment one feels watching the Republican establishment squirm as the theocons assert themselves. It would be a little more enjoyable if Huckabee wasn’t as […]

GO HUCK GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe. Maybe not.

I enjoy seeing the moneyed swine that control the Republican Party having to contend with the religious right Frankenstein that they created. But I’ll enjoy it a lot less if the religious right manages to start getting hold of real power.

[…] Green speaks for most wingnut bloggers who are actually contemptible of “regular people,” calling Iowans “corn-sucking […]

Green is the Vidal Sasoon version of Glenn Reynolds. You know the dood’s got that old Farrah Fawcett poster up in one the back bedrooms.

Okay, so one of you Obamites wanna tell us his electoral strategy? not that it’s over or anything, but just exactly which swing states can he win? I don’t care much about poll numbers to this point, but if it’s Obama against whatever Republican talking point hood ornament they select, how does he win any state that isn’t a dem given?

Well, I’m not an “Obamite,” but I think the story goes that he’s supposedly more electable than Hillary because his negatives aren’t as high. I don’t necessarily agree, but whatever. The GOP is getting slaughtered in November. Book it.

Apparently you don’t know Stephen Green too well; I wouldn’t exactly put him down as a “Christianist.” Meanwhile, Sadly, No! appears to be supporting a Creationist. Good to know!

WWB- yes, you get a major F for reading and irony comprehension.

Yep. Obama can win Ohio and Florida. That’s all it takes.

Brownback had the dead-guy-nailed-to-boards cred and the tax-cuts-for-rich-people religion. Plus, he looks like Romney if you took the broomstick out of Romney’s ass.

Somewhere in Kansas, Sam Brownback is kicking himself right now. I only wish I could help.

Shouldn’t this guy be grateful to get a yokel instead of, say, The Ultimate Warrior?

I clicked on the link and… he’s threatening promising video blogging is coming to his site. Oh dear Jeebus!

Still it can’t be any worse than Pam Atlas, right?

I take it back.

I like how some GOPers are trying to call GWB a liberal for his liberal spending. GWB is a true conservative, catering to conservatism’s core principles:

1) Lower taxes on the rich and spend the government into bankruptcy.
2) Deregulate all industries, except Hollywood.

Yes, Mike George W. Bush Huckabee will be running with GWB on his back, as will John George W. Bush McCain, Mitt George W. Bush Romney, and Ron George W. Bush Paul.

Does somene want to explain to me how Rudy Georrge W. Bush Giuliani is not like George W. Bush?

Doesn’t the whole first paragraph rant about coastal elites pretty much read like, “We’re a bunch on simpering, easily-mislead, slack-jawed knuckle draggers, and we are legion”? And feels like the writer is PROUD of this fact?

The editorial staffs and advisors to The Weekly Standard, the National Review, Wall Street Journal and Fox News live in New York and Washington. With technology, of course, they don’t have to. They could have moved to the “heartland” if they wanted to…But none of them have.

And that is how you know their complaints about coastal elites are full of shiite.

–

So he was drunk when he wrote this, right?

Not to hijack a thread, but has anyone seen Jonah’s attack on Joe Kennedy and his heating-oil program? The best part is when he insinuates that all the poor watch on television are game shows and soaps.

BTW, what changes is Obama going to make, anyone know?

First, he’s going to change his name to Christian Reed, then he’s going to talk about his upbringing in Kansas, refer constantly to his mother as “the white woman who raised me” and continually smile.

That or he’ll keep his name and just keep winning elections. There will always be a small part of Americans who won’t accept a black man as president. However, there’s an increasingly large number of Americans who just don’t care.

Obama’s the best Democratic candidate (not necessarily the one with the best positions or anything) since Robert Kennedy in what he represents to a huge number of people.

Jake H.

I protest your reactionary and kulak-inspired provocation! The moustache of Iosif Vissarionich was not stoopid! The moustache of the enemy of all peoples Adolf Hitler was stoopid and ridiculous! And small!

The moustache of Iosif Vissarionich was a shining example to all peace-loving peoples everywhere and for all time!

Gubernator Huckabee should only wish he could grow a moustache like the moustache of Iosif Vissarionich.

Why does he hate Americans?

Yep. Obama can win Ohio and Florida. That’s all it takes. – cervantes

Ohio depends on whether Obama doesn’t get discounted as too smooth and smug and full of himself (which is the GOP talking point about him the media will start repeating ad naseum if they get over the crush they have on him). FL is interesting. I think that if Giuliani does end up with the GOP nomination, he’ll win FL (unless Bloomberg wins). Remember, FL has (basically) two parts: the Northern part of FL is the South — outside of maybe Tally, Jacksonville and maybe Gainesville, it’s gonna go GOP; and the Southern part of FL is hopelessly segregated (in every way*, not just racially or by class), which doesn’t bode well for Obama — especially if Rudy “I kept ‘Them'(TM) away from ‘You'(TM)” Giuliani is the GOP nominee.

I think Obama is doing many things right (he understands what I call “details”(TM) although he still needs work on “substance”(TM) … too many Democrats will either avoid talking details, which makes them look like they have no substance, or they’ll start giving actual details and substance which bores people and opens them up to attack on said details … the trick is not to tell people all that you will do — ’cause you won’t be able to do it anyway, which contra some discussion elsewhere in left blogostan, is not a bug but a feature of our system — but to give them enough information that they know that you will steer the ship of state competently and in the correct direction no matter what might come up), but he’s still not a slam dunk in the election. None of the Dems. would be — as much as people dislike the GOP now, they still don’t have any reason to vote for the Dems. and have absorbed enough of a “pox on both your houses” high Broderism to be suckered into it.

[* it’s freaky … if you find out someone lives in So.Cal. and you ask them “do you live in the LA area”, they’ll either say something along the lines of “no, I live more in the San Diego area, kinda, sorta” or along the lines of “well, actually, I live in the OC about an hour+ commute away from LA, but I guess it’s in the general area”. Similarly, if you ask someone who lives in NJ “do you live in the NYC area?”, they’ll say say something along the lines of “well, actually I live in South Jersey, which is nearer Philly” or along the lines of “well, it’s quite a commute into NYC, but I guess I live closer to there than Philly and I’m in their media market”. Also, mention to even a NYCer that you have a friend who lives in North Jerz, and they’ll say at their most dismissive and NYCcentric “you know, we call those people ‘bridge and tunnel’ people”.

But you ask someone who (it turns out) lives in Palm Beach or even Broward county if they live in the Miami area, and rather than saying “well, actually …” and describing how long and tiresome the drive into the city is, they’ll say “no! I live in Boca” or something like that, depending on where they live. And tell a Miami person that you have a friend who lives in Boynton Beach and they’ll not merely react with quasi-faux disdain about suburbanites but they’ll genuinely be puzzled and confused that you would think of Boynton Beach as being in the same geographical area as Miami. South FL may not be an island per se, but there has been a lot of research on this, AFAIK — South FL is very insular. Certain people don’t even venture out of their little communities because they are so afraid of “the other”. It’s Giuliani country there … very much so.]

Ohio depends on whether Obama doesn’t get discounted as too smooth and smug and full of himself (which is the GOP talking point about him the media will start repeating ad nauseum if they get over the crush they have on him).

Uppity is the word I think.

DAS:

Out of curiosity, where’s central Florida fall in this theory?

And one particularly interesting problem is the number of Northern retirees. On one hand, they’re old, decrepit and ultra-conservative jag-offs. On the other hand, a lot of people hated Giuliani, and I think at least some of them had to retire and move to Florida, still hating Giuliani.

Hell, my grandmother still wants to punch Al D’Amato in the face, and she hasn’t lived in New York for nearly a decade and a half.

JohnG said:
“Yes, Mike George W. Bush Huckabee will be running with GWB on his back, as will John George W. Bush McCain, Mitt George W. Bush Romney, and Ron George W. Bush Paul.”

Isn’t there a Ringo in there somewhere?

Uppity is the word I think. – Righteous Bubba

Indeed. I do mention the racial double standard on my blog.

Of course, actually the person who suffered most from the uppity issue was Bill Clinton. ‘Cause (and we too often forget this term) Bill Clinton’s a textbook scalawag.

So I guess Obama might jujitsu this and use the inevitable attacks against him to compare himself to Clinton and remind people how good they had it under Clinton?

Obama might be smart enough to do that, but I never bet on the accuity of Dem. politicians in terms of smart campaigning.

if it’s Obama against whatever Republican talking point hood ornament they select, how does he win any state that isn’t a dem given?

By being sane.

Jen Jen:

Is anyone at RedState on suicide watch yet?

One of their founders just left in a fit of pique. I can’t remember which asshat it was, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but he was the one who proudly proclaimed a while back that the entire “Left” was not even human and that he’d be happy to see that chunk of the American citizenry drop over dead tomorrow.

Reading RedState is never quite as entertaining as I keep hoping it to be, but the last few weeks have come close. They’re in full-on meltdown mode over there, and it’s not clear which jibbering yahoo they actually want to win the GOP nomination. It’s certainly not Huckabee, or Paul.

Out of curiosity, where’s central Florida fall in this theory? – Patkin

You have identified the flaw in my theory: I simply do not know enough about Central FL to know how it works. My impression is that is half-way between Southern FL insularity (but Northern-accent-having-ness … d’oh? is that a word? it’s times like this I wish Jews really did control the US and instituted Yiddish as our official language. A good, properly Germanic language, would have a single word, no doubt, to indicate the concept of “having an accent more characteristic of northners”) and Northern FL’s Southern hospitality but general actual Southern-ness.

*

I get the impression (maybe based on a limited sample) that the kinds of people retiring to FL are generally the kinds of people who liked Giuliani rather than hated him. Al D’Amato is tied enough to the old Republican guard that many who distrust the fundie wing of the GOP would distrust him. But Rudy “the drag Queen” Giuliani not only has his curmudgeon-friendly mayoral track-record of “keeping those damned kids off my lawn” (or the urban equivalent) but also is, well likely enough to actually admit to dressing in drag (rather than blaming Satan for tempting him with a male prostitute and meth) to not be seen as too tied to the more “extreme” elements of the GOP that he would be distrusted for that reason.

What does your grandfather think of St. Rudy?

Hell, my grandmother still wants to punch Al D’Amato in the face

Who doesn’t?!
I do, and I’ve never even lived in NY.

It’s my theory that people who live in(or move to) Florida need to cling to their geographical identities because otherwise, they’d get lost in the absolute fucking sameness of the entire state, where the highest point of land in a 50 mile radius is a highway overpass.

DAS:

Tough to say. My grandparents were mostly fans of Dinkins, as far as I’ve been told, and they moved out of state not long after Giuliani became mayor of NYC. I’d have to get back to you on it.

Who doesn’t?!
I do, and I’ve never even lived in NY.

She used to go to SCHOOL with him. That’s just a whole different level of distaste.

Yeah, well. I’d still like to punch him in the face.

I think his site died of shame.

They’re not friends anymore but does anyone else remember Giuliani and Damato playing dress up together back in ’86? That was a way more embarrassing incident than Giuliani’s later experimentations with cross dressing.

I wonder how the corporatists in the Republican party are going to win anything if all of their footsoldiers have defected to a candidate form-fitted to their predilictions. Who will sell the Social Security fix? Who will represent that vaunted (yet rarely seen) “middle” America, the home of all “sensibility”? The thing is, while the Christian base has been hammering away for the Republican leadership all of these years, they never bought much into about half of the Republican platform. So while Lou Dobbs is spouting off about the “real” America, it turns out that Republicans have no idea what the “real” America is. They thought the’d sold their whole bill of goods to those folks. All they sold was a chance for them to become armed and dangerous.

Funniest Huckabee family potrait ever- nyuk nyuk!

You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll send it to all your friends!

http://gawker.com/5001994/the-huckabees

“[Y]ou’re outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don’t read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times.”

The city with the highest per capita readership of the NY Times? Iowa City, IA.

Eat it, Bushies.

He calls himself Vodka, but he’s holding a glass of RED WINE. Or maybe it’s blood.

One interesting thing about Florida and Obama – I have conservative kinfolk in Fla. Nicest people ever, they’ve just been hornswoggled by the GOP for decades…but in any case, they like Obama, and they don’t think too much of Giuliani at all.

I personally think Giuliani is toast, and if Huckabee isn’t steamrolled by the vampires in charge he might get the GOP nomination. Either him, Romney or McCain, in that order…

Can I say how glad I was to see Obama get 1st, and Edwards get 2nd?? That’s a ticket I would love. Heard a bit of Edwards’ post-Iowa-vote speech, and that guy has almost everything right in domestic policy, IMHO.

If the big-money boys can’t stop Huckabee, they’ll throw in with a corporate, authoritarian ‘liberal’ like Sen. Clinton, or decide that Obama is not so bad. If the Democrats go in those directions, the big-money boys might just sit this one out.

The big-money boys have got their looted goodies; they can take some higher taxes now, for paying down some of the debt we’ve incurred. Their Bible-banging shock troops have gotten nothing for decades of hard labor. The Christianists need the big-money backing more than the big-money boys need impoverished yahoo voters, and the big-money boys know it. There’s gonna be a lot of armed and angry ‘heartlanders’ learning this hard lesson soon.

DAS, your take on South FL is different than mine.

The north is your typical yustabee Democrats who went over to the GOP when the Dems pushed through the Civil Rights Act. Huckabee plays well up there. Romney maybe. Rudy, not so much.

I think the general political consensus is that central FL (from Tampa across to Daytona) is the swing vote region of the state. I’ve lived here off-and-on for the last 8 years. It’s suburban, kinda centrist Republican, with a generous helping of Puerto Ricans and rednecks who still dress like Richard Petty. Despite the fact that the late Dale Earnhardt is apparently our patron saint, you don’t hear serious southern accents here. Purple trending blue.

South FL, where I spent most of the 80’s in a drunken stupor, has always been more liberal than the rest of the state. You’re right that it’s very insular. But Palm Beach and Boca are very liberal … one of the few places someone as decent as Wexler could keep his job. I just don’t see it as Giuliani country. Overall, Dade, Broward, and PB counties have consistently voted Democratic.

The Cubans have been a GOP block down there … and they’ve been running Miami for decades now, but other than wanting to hang Castro from a meathook, they’re not any more socially conservative than any other recent immigrant group, and the anti-immigrant Tancredo Repubs have driven a lot of them away. Even Mel Martinez – the liver-fluke of state GOP politics – has had to distance himself from the current GOP freakshow.

[…] Huckabee’s win is good news for McCain, because everybody knows that the establishment GOP can’t allow a nutjob evangelical who favors progressive tax policy to claim any legitimate […]

The big-money boys have got their looted goodies; they can take some higher taxes now, for paying down some of the debt we’ve incurred.

Are they really capable of this? They strike me as the sort who have absolutely no concept of “enough” when it comes to filling their own troughs. Are there some among them who can make moves that don’t benefit them immediately – using “benefit” in the sense of “make shitloads of money for them right goddam now“?

My experience with South FL is mainly from people who lived there way back when (early 1980s and before) only some of whom still occassionally visit and also from the alter-kockers I know there.

The people I know associated with South FL are “independents” in the sense that they subscribe to a certain amount of high Broderism but liberal in the sense that they “try so hard” not to be prejudiced, will vote for a candidate “even if s/he’s a gay hippy or something, as long as s/he’s a nice person”. That the people I know in Palm Beach or Boca would elect someone like Wexler (especially with “a nice name like that”) doesn’t surprise me in the least. In a way, these near the coast dwellers are (like some denizens of feminist left-blogostan who would be insulted if this were pointed out, c.f. Michael Lind on coastal liberals) very much like the coastal dwelling liberal Republicans of the late 19th century (and Giuliani has had success running as a throwback, coastal-style liberal Republican).

Also, Giuliani plays well to insularity. He plays well to people who are afraid of crime (the people I know in South FL are extremely paranoid about crime). And, unlike in North FL (btw, FWIW, urban North FL can be quite blue, albeit somewhat Blue-Dog blue, but they wouldn’t vote for any other color dog), Giuliani’s social liberalism will help him, not hurt him. And not just in South FL. I know many people who support(ed) Giuliani along the lines of “see, he’s a social liberal … he’s not prejudiced like people say he is [and that means I get to assure myself that by voting for a guy known to dress in drag, I’m not prejudiced either], he’s just concerned about the criminal element … like I am”.

At least among the South FLers I know, Giuliani would play very well. Come to think of it, the one or two Central FL types I know also would go for Giuliani.

Well, speaking as an Ohioan, the thing that Obama has going for him is that right now, Ohio is in a blue-state mood. Gov. Ted Strickland and Sen. Sherrod Brown were elected with huge majorities statewide in the ’06 midterms that surprised even me after the depressing debacle of ’04.

I think Obama wouldn’t really have any difficulty winning Ohio. And with Ohio, you don’t even need Florida.

jim,

The conservatives (also very nice people, btw) I know dislike Obama. The picture of Obama “basking in glory” on Matt Yglesias’ site is exactly the image they have of him and why they don’t like him: they fundamentally hate the democratic political process and distrust anyone who likes it so much.

They’d be high Broderists, except they dislike the socially-liberal, patronizing to religion (albeit with the attitude that politicians must be “religious” to play to the common man) attitudes of the Broderists.

Interestingly, ’round my part of North FL, the main GOP candidate seems to be Paul (with a few Romney stickers here and there). And Obama is the candidate most people in my (almost 100% Democratic) shul seem to be behind (judging by bumper stickers).

*

Zsa, it occured to me to ask vis-a-vis our different perceptions of South FL (although maybe I’m missing something being an outsider): are you a member of my tribe? It occured to me that my perceptions of South FL are perhaps colored by the fact that the people I know from their are either Hispanic (not just Cuban) or Jewish alter-cockers (and their families).

f the big-money boys can’t stop Huckabee, they’ll throw in with a corporate, authoritarian ‘liberal’ like Sen. Clinton, or decide that Obama is not so bad. If the Democrats go in those directions, the big-money boys might just sit this one out.

Think about it, though. They may be starting to believe that if Huckabee gets the nom and then loses in a big anti-theocratic landslide, they will be able to rid themselves of the Christianists’ demands in 2012, when they can oust Obama or Clinton for a TRUE big-money Pub, on a platform cleansed of evangelical silliness, and from there springboard the Republican party to bigger and better things, instead of all the godbothering gnattery that none of their candidates really care about anyway (except Huck in this cycle, of course).

Kinda like it will be when Iowa is no longer the first contest in the Dem primary, and the Dem candidates can declare farm subsidies and ethanol policy on the merits.

If Huck loses big enough, Republicans will no longer have to pretend they don’t believe in evolution and that abortion and gays are the most important issues on their agenda. How…liberating.

Like everyone else, the more Floridians see of Rudy, the less they like him. But the way he’s been tanking, we may never get a chance to find out.

My prediction is that Huckabee cleans everyone’s clock in South Carolina and does well enough is the Southern states after that to deny the nomination to anyone else. We’ll have our first brokered convention in I don’t know how long.

And then the freak show starts. You think the youTube debate was revealing … wait until they converge on the convention, bibles and guns in hand … they’ll nominate Pinky and the Brain before it’s all over.

My ancestors being more enthusiastic than selective, I am neither Hispanic nor Jewish.

… err, that I know of.

If it’s not just Cuban, then it must be Puerto Rican, huh? I’m very curious to see exactly how far away the GOP is driving the Hispanic constituency. Cubans are kind of tied to romantic notion of hoisting Fidel on a meathook and they’ll vote accordingly, but Fidel is almost dead and Raoul is a poor substitute. If the GOP loses the Cubans and the Borinquenos, they’ll be in deep shit here.

Rudy would do well here in the general. I don’t see how he gets through the primaries, however.

Go, Huck, Go! And take McCain with you.

[…] There’s some circular firing squad action going on after the Iowa caucus right now, and for once, I’m glad. It’s not […]

VodkaPundit can shuck my cob.
That is all.

Rudy would do well here in the general. I don’t see how he gets through the primaries, however. – Zsa

On this we agree. The people that I can think of falling head over heels and voting for St. Rudy are not regestered Republicans. My point regarding support for Giuliani was about the generals — in which generally Democratic leaning (but susceptable to Giuliani’s message) but nominally independent alter-kockers and politically similar groups will show up (100%) to vote — not the primaries (sorry if I wasn’t more clear).

As to the non-Cuban Hispanics I know from South FL: Columbians. And again, the ones I know are not GOP supporters but might be convinced to go with some who will “keep us safe”, etc., etc.

I think you go a little far with Jimmy Carter. He was certainly an ineffective president at a time that we needed a decisive leader. But calling him the “worst ex-president ever” is positively anti-christian. The man has done good work, whatever his political history.

Um.

We actually like Jimmy Carter. He was a righteous dude, as the kids say. It’s Mr. Scarecrow who thinks he was History’s Greatest Monster.

As the I-4 corridor goes, so goes Florida. Republicans win the north, Democrats win the south, and both parties spend the days before election wooing the middle. zsa notes above this area has been moving toward D. An additional factor contributing to this trend: the recent migration of large numbers of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans from the Northeast to Central Florida.

Vodka Pundit,

Carlo Gambino’s estate called. They want his suit back.

Carlo Gambino’s estate called. They want his suit back.

Don’t you mean Joseph LaGuardia Gambini?

Carter is history’s greatest monster, after all.

Thank you. We feel very relieved now.

— A. Hitler, J.Stalin, P.Pot, G.Khan, J.T.Ripper

What?? Hey, we want that medal and certificate back. Pronto

— Nobel Committee, Stockholm

Kathleen: Just as long as it isn’t Vincent LaGuardia Gambini.

[…] 4, 2008 While some folks are enjoying the victory of Mike Huckabee over the forces of more educated evil, there are a few on […]

What?? Hey, we want that medal and certificate back. Pronto

— Nobel Committee, Stockholm

No backsies after Kissinger.

From my live blogging last night:

GOP Speech I Really Wanted to Hear (Giuliani Memorial Edition)

“Jeez, can you believe I wasted the last two years of my goddam life eatin’ your freakin’ corn pone? I’m blowin’ this fucking cow pasture. See you rubes later.”

Mr.Murder said,

That empty suit is an asshat.

That’s what really gets me about these cretins. Carter – military man, Annapolis grad, worked on the nuclear navy. Kerry – volunteered for the fuckhole that was Vietnam, got himself shot up. But because they joined the wrong fucking party, and don’t advocate locking up the poor and illegal in concentration camps, they get zero fucking respect from Republican Assclown Nation. Fucking scumbags, the lot of them.

That Ultimate Warrior site is awesome. After talking about how he’s still alive and wonderful, he says:

To find those who truly have self-destructed, keep your eye on the obituaries and visit the gravesides of other WWF/E talent who’ve died of various forms of self-indulgence, beginning with their refusal to mature as real men and grow up and act their age. When you are done there, go look into the hollow-souled eyes of those Sports Entertainment figures you once thought defiant, strong, proud, and independent who’ve crawled back into the cave to have their minds, lives and characters controlled because they were afraid of being real men, afraid of the real world and real challenges, and felt safer, as Plato showed us, viewing the shadows from the inside.

Wow. He’s my new hero…er, Sports Entertainment Figure Of Note.

Is it too much to hope for the GOP convention to be a figurative bloodbath between economic conservatives and social conservatives????

No.

Here’s my fantasy scenario: Huckabee comes into Minneapolis with a razor-thin majority of delegates, but gets screwed out of the nomination due to some Rovian dirty tricks. Outraged Huckabee supporters riot. Huck bolts the GOP for the Constitution Party and takes all the “values voters” with him. Permanent breakup of conservative coalition.

Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

No backsies after Kissinger.

Huh??? DAMN !!

— Nobel Committee, Stockholm

Patkin said,
January 4, 2008 at 23:37
Kathleen: Just as long as it isn’t Vincent LaGuardia Gambini.

Oh BURN! ACK. I can never show my face around here again.

[…] damer og herrer, takket være Sadly No!s utrættelige indsats på den yderste amerikanske venstrefløj (*), kan jeg bringe denne perle – An […]

Kathleen: Just as long as it isn’t Vincent LaGuardia Gambini.

Just watched that again the other night.

“Eggs and grits. I like grits, too. How do you cook your grits? Do you like them regular, creamy or al dente? “

Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

There’s really no telling what could happen. What if the GOP dukes it out all the way to the convention while the Dems settle on Obama early on?

The Dems are already outraising the GOP. If the Goopers piss away their energies on a fractious, drawn-out primary, not even Kerry nor Gore could lose the general.

If the Goopers piss away their energies on a fractious, drawn-out primary, not even Kerry nor Gore could lose the general.

Now that’s just crazy talk.

piss away their energies on a fractious, drawn-out primary,
A fractious, drawn-out primary, packed with mud-throwing and rat-fucking and what is known in Australian political circles as ‘white-anting’, merely demonstrates the worthiness of the eventual survivor. He is battle-hardened, made stronger by adversity; he has shrugged off the worst that life can fling at him, and absorbed the strength of his rivals.
That’s in the case of Republicans, anyway. It’s only fractious Democratic primaries that leave the eventual survivor exhausted and stained by the turmoil.

Or have I misunderstood some convention of US political journalism?

…merely demonstrates the worthiness of the eventual survivor. He is battle-hardened, made stronger by adversity; he has shrugged off the worst that life can fling at him, and absorbed the strength of his rivals.

Um, isn’t that Plank 3 of the Hillary Clinton “Why I should be president” platform?

mikey

They may be starting to believe that if Huckabee gets the nom and then loses in a big anti-theocratic landslide, they will be able to rid themselves of the Christianist’ demands in 2012, when they can oust Obama or Clinton for a TRUE big-money Pub, on a platform cleansed of evangelical silliness, and from there springboard the Republican party to bigger and better things, instead of all the godbothering gnattery that none of their candidates really care about anyway (except Huck in this cycle, of course).

One other thing to consider: the Huckster can be bought, and in all likelyhood would stay bought. Look at the record as governor: never met a bribe he didn’t like. Keep an eye on the media: if we start seeing a lot less of the god-bothering, no mentions of his wingnuttier ideas or his record from Arkansas, then we’ll know the deal was done. In that case, they just might back him for the win, and the Evangelical™ agenda goes nowhere fast. Just like four more years of GWB.

Either way, they rid themselves of all the Bible-thumpers.

Or have I misunderstood some convention of US political journalism?

Sounds to this U.S. native like you have it down pat.

…and I’ve just got to know what ‘white-anting’ means. Does it have something to do with termites?

“…every other single stupid, un-winnable candidate you’ve ever picked — which is most of them…”

Funny, I thought Carter won.

Man, that is one ill-fitting suit. Surely working for Pyjamas Media does not obligate you to wear them. See a tailor as soon as possible.

If he’d addressed the insults to himself it would have been honest.

Funny, I thought Carter won.

Yes, but if facts could stop winger tantrums the chap pictured above might have to get a life.

And a new suit.

I hope to gucking fod that pic was taken as a costume party.

Carter was the worst ex-president ever? I mean I know he wants peace or whatever, but he didn’t actually commit outright treason.

I hope to gucking fod that pic was taken as a costume party.

Close – it was a Gordon Gekko look-alike contest and guess who won?

Does it have something to do with termites?

That’s the one. When you set about eroding some other politician’s credibility, but you want to do it in a covert and deniable way because that other politician is the leader of your own party, it’s white-anting.
This must happen a lot in Australian politics, if they needed a special term for it.

…but you want to do it in a covert and deniable way because that other politician is the leader of your own party…

Wow, that is a pretty specialized sort of activity to need a term for.

I don’t think American politics have any mechanisms that subtle. Certainly not since Gingrich’s heyday.

[…] do not like. That’s Mike Huckabee. You can get a taste of what’s in store for Huckabee here. The job for GOP insiders now is to find their anti-Huckabee (it’s probably Romney) and […]

One reason the Aussies were stuck for so long with a sociopathic little toad like John Howard as their Prime Minister, is that his opponent (i.e. leader of the Labor Party) was a career rat-fucker called Kim Beazley. Beazley had no particular qualification for being Prime Minister except an enormous sense of entitlement, so he kept losing elections. From time to time the Labor Party would replace him with some other leader, but Beazley would white-ant his replacement’s electoral prospects with a campaign of leaks and quiet disloyalty, to give himself another crack at the top job. He was Howard’s best asset.

Next time Qetesh the Abyssinian shows up here (she must be on holiday at the moment), ask her for a run-down on factionalism within the Australian Labor Party… if nothing else, it will make Democratic politics look positively unified and idealistic by comparison.

Gavin-

* Gavin adds: Green, a double-barreled ass, is wealthy by inheritance.

Wow…

That’s all you have?

Is Gavin jealous because daddy drank his inheritance- or was his daddy such an inbred freak that he makes “trailer-trash” Josh (a.k.a. “HTML Mencken”) look rather cosmopolitan?

When the Republicans’ Christianist sect decided that it was sick and tired of being played for fools by its own party, its adherents decided to throw their support behind one of their own. And because this particular candidate doesn’t show the same enthusiasm for tax-cutting and war-mongering that Mitt Romney and Rudy Guliani do, the GOP establishment is freaking the hell out.

When the Democrat nutroots decided that it was sick and tired of being played for fools by its own party, its adherents decided to throw their support behind one of their own. (Lamont?)

Was it good for you?

I’m sure Green thinks Jimmy Carter is the “worst ex-president ever” because building houses for poor people is such a self-evidently evil thing to do … if you’re a friggin’ greedhead.

Tehanu – bingo. I think a lot of foaming-at-the-mouth Xtians really hate the whole Habitat for Humanity thing because it’s so sickeningly poor-friendly. I, on the other hand, find it to be probably the best thing ever done by born-agains. Sort of like how the Quakers et al are so infuriating for not supporting a good Jesusy war.

Props to Arky for using “revenant”. The last time I read that word, I think it was in Fiend Folio.

Well, you know what they say about guys with hairy manboobs and sweaty backfat and Nobel prizes. Same as with guys who have big noses and big feet and hands.

Yeah, that’s right.

It’s my theory that people who live in(or move to) Florida need to cling to their geographical identities because otherwise, they’d get lost in the absolute fucking sameness of the entire state, where the highest point of land in a 50 mile radius is a highway overpass.

Your superficial theory is wrong (but, sadly, not uncommon). There are many subtle cultural differences between the various regions in Florida; you just have to spend a lot of time here before you can see and understand them.

It’s true that a lot of people do cling to their original geographical identities for what seems like a long while; however, the “sameness” of the state is not the reason for it. Nor is it a universal phenomenon. I’ve lived here for a large part of my life, but it wasn’t all that long before I stopped thinking of myself as a Michigander.

I’m pretty sure Stephen Green had his suit tailored at Supercuts.

Tipper

Well, you know what they say about guys with hairy manboobs and sweaty backfat and Nobel prizes.

Yup.

They marry cupid stunts who want the Gov’t to regulate that evil “rock n roll music”…

[…] Via Sadly No, here’s the cocktail lounge drunk named Vodka Pundit on Huck’s win in Iowa… […]

zypjbuv awrxlyho cfbjnpq fyopu bjcry chslykxp qfbg

via sadly no,
They marry cupid stunts who want the Gov’t to regulate that evil “rock n roll music”…

Hey I am so thrilled I found your blog page, I really found you by
mistake, while I was searching on Askjeeve for
something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say kudos
for a tremendous post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I
don’t have time to browse it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the superb work.