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22 Apr 2011 11:37

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Politics: John Ensign’s resignation a blessing in disguise for Republicans

  • negative Departing Nevada Sen. John Ensign has the stink of scandal on him, after he had an affair with his staffer’s wife, and then tried to bribe the staffer with another job in an effort to cover the mess up.
  • positive This is a good thing for the Republican Party, however, because it means they can appoint someone new to Ensign’s job — making it easier for that person to stay put in 2012. source
  • » A suggestion: Not Sharron Angle. Anybody but her, Nevada. Not Sharron Angle.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2011 21:14

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Politics: Paul Ryan not running for president, and other town hall fun

  • We don’t have the presidential candidates right now. The field hasn’t materialized yet, so we’re out there doing it ourselves.
  • Rep. Paul Ryan • Speaking yesterday at a town hall meeting in Clinton, Wis., where he noted that he had no plans to run for president. (We’ve said our peace, bro. You’re making a mistake.) Earlier in the week, Ryan was at the tail end of a chorus of boos, at a town hall in Milton, Wis., for his stance on tax cuts for the wealthy. But as Dave Weigel notes, other members of Congress who voted for Ryan’s budget plan didn’t face anything even resembling the rage-filled summer of 2009, where Barney Frank compared a woman to a “dining room table.” Guess those angry people have to start trying harder. (thanks handlebarr) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2011 13:53

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Politics: Former NM Governor Gary Johnson will run for President

  • Gary Johnson saddles up: The former New Mexico governor made it official today — he’ll be running for the GOP nomination in 2012. Johnson’s cut from a libertarian cloth, but has the sort of ideological tether to that philosophy that may make some traditional, establishment Republicans antsy; Johnson is in favor of legalizing marijuana, for example, and contradicts the party’s usual hard-line stance on Mexican border security and fence-building (a pitch which prompted CPAC to awkwardly “play him off” the stage). Given his stance on legalizin’ it, though, we wish he’d gone full-bore and announced his candidacy yesterday. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2011 11:12

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Politics: This just in: Allen West causes orificial secretions

  • The idea of an Allen West/Herman Cain all-black conservative ticket would titillate me to the point of secretions coming out of every orifice.
  • Andrew Breitbart • On who he’d like to see on the GOP ticket in 2012. Lovely imagery aside, this sort of reasoning is a reflection of the belief, common amongst some conservatives, that all the GOP needs to do to win over certain demographics is nominate members of those demographics to high-profile tickets. This isn’t the case, as McCain’s VP pick in 2008 proved all too well. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2011 10:12

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Politics: Whoa! Obama calls Paul Ryan’s GOP budget plan “radical”

Because, COME ON! Why should all the Republicans have the fun using phrases like “radical”? Obama wants in, too! Next, he needs to call something a “birther” somehow. William Ayers! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 23:30

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Politics: Cut off the head, and another will grow

  • This year, GOP voters’ hunger for radicalism is so great that it can be filled by essentially anybody. Kill off Trump’s candidacy and the demand will remain, leaving an opening for yet another demagogic charlatan to take his place.
  • Ed Kilgore at The New Republic • Assessing the forces behind Donald Trump’s improbable candidacy for President. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 16:39

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Politics: Dilbert’s Scott Adams: Bush, Obama chimp jokes are the same

  • …if I add the context that Googling ‘George Bush monkey’ gives you over 3 million hits, and most of them are jokes where President Bush’s face is transposed on a monkey, you see what’s really going on. Democrats and advocates of civil rights are using the media to further an agenda at the expense of a woman who was probably so non-racist that the photo in question didn’t set off her alarms…
  • “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams • On the topic of Orange County Republican official Marilyn Davenport, who emailed a photo of an Obama “family portrait,” showing two grinning adult chimpanzees with a chimp-ish baby Barack. First of all — the Dilbert guy? What? Why!? But second of all, we agree wholeheartedly with the folks at Mediaite on this one. To compare Bush monkey/chimp jokes to ones directed at Obama is at best silly and at worst willfully evasive and/or ignorant. You don’t have to be a scholarly social critic to understand why a joke aimed at two different people could be construed as racist against one, and at worst stupid or unfunny against the other. To deny this seems like digging your head in the sand about what are and aren’t racial stereotypes in our society. Wanting to excise racism doesn’t necessitate pretending not to recognize it. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Apr 2011 09:53

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Politics: Obama’s new deficit-reduction group an ultra-partisan mess

  • I remain skeptical that the administration will take this effort seriously, especially after it all but ignored its previous debt commission and President Obama had to be dragged kicking and screaming to consider minimal spending cuts for the rest of this fiscal year.
  • House Minority Whip Eric Cantor • Offering a soft touch to the news of the president’s new deficit reduction group, which was supposed to include 16 members, eight from each party. Instead, it includes six — two Republicans and four Democrats. (The “gang of six,” by the way, was left out in the cold.) Cantor’s on the list, along with a bunch of other folks known for their partisanship. If you ask us, it sounds like he’s just pissed that he had to do something he didn’t really want to do. We know, Eric, we hate meetings too! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2011 21:06

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Politics: Offshore online gambling sites do lots of lobbying work

Fun fact about that Barney Frank thing we posted yesterday — Barney Frank gets a lot of money from online gambling sites, thanks to the help of this lobbyist. It’s not working so well. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2011 16:53

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Politics: Iowa GOP voters wouldn’t mind seeing that birth certificate

  • When the fringe becomes the norm: The past couple years, the birther issue has been a touchy one in Republican politics; it’s a dangerous internal wedge issue for them. Say he was born in Kenya (or merely imply your doubts), and you look like a kook of the highest order. Say he was born in Hawaii, and you’ve alienated a non-negligible amount of your traditionally ravenous base. If the GOP Presidential field had managed to stay in the middling, “I take his word for it” zone, averting the problem — no Republican would have disdained their party’s strongest looking candidate because he didn’t think Obama was foreign. But with Donald Trump diving into the deep end of the birther pool, this constituency becomes volatile and impossible to predict. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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