Rewarding the Turncoat

ARGH!!! So now that Democrats will in January have the White House, the House and the Senate, Joe Lieberman (Lieberman for Lieberman Party-CT) gets to keep his Senate committee chairmanships as if he were a Democrat. This after Lieberman campaigned for Republican John McCain and several other Republicans for Senate.

Now, far be it from me to try and define regular, ordinary words for politicians, who don’t seem to understand the meaning of regular, ordinary words. Words like “Party” and “Loyalty” and “Procedure” and “Majority” and “Governance.” Politicians don’t want to know these things, preferring instead to make things up as they go along.

During these past couple of years when Democrats didn’t have an actual majority in the Senate, Lieberman has been allowed to be a Republican mole in the Democratic Caucus, reporting to his puppeteers and financial backers every move planned by members. He has been allowed to hold several committee chairs, including Homeland Security, where he has steadfastly refused to enforce subpoenas, investigate illegalities of the Bush administration, or even to investigate FEMA’s horrendously inadequate response to hurricane Katrina.

So Lieberman has been rewarded with a pass from the now-actual Democratic majority, encouraged to do more of the same obstructionism that has made him so immensely unpopular outside of Israel.

One day soon, as the public wakes up to realize the Republicans are now a fringe party of right-wing wackos and religious nuts and the Democrats are what the Republicans were before they purged everyone with any sense, there will be a new Progressive Party for the “rest of us.” And it will, within 8-12 years, be electing more than a handful of representatives and Senators, way more than the fringe Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, Communists and Nazis can ever manage.

Sigh. The more things “Change,” it seems, the more they remain the same.

Filed under Appointees, Caucuses, Coalitions, Democrats, Hypocrisy, Outrage | Comment (0)

Hillary Makes It Hard to Like Her

Hillary Clinton Claiming “Experience” She Doesn’t Own

I have a framed, surprisingly personal letter of thanks on the office wall signed – not stamped – by President Bill Clinton. It came in reply to a short email we sent one Christmas when he was being perpetually impeached for lying and obfuscating about his large “bimbo problem.” We sent holiday greetings from our family to his, along with a post script asking him please not to resign. Hillary didn’t respond or add her signature to the letter, even though the email was to them both and all four of us attached our names. Just not all that involved in White House life or her own personal life, I supposed at the time.

I personally wondered during those times what the deal was with her. Protecting the privacy of your dysfunctional marriage is one thing, but private is not something Bill’s amorous adventures were. Had she no pride? No ambitions for herself? No common sense?

This last year has informed me that she’s turned Bill’s bad behavior into a debt “owed” to her, and she’s projected that onto America in general too. News flash to Hillary Clinton: I don’t owe you a darned thing.

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Filed under Barack Obama, Campaigns, Caucuses, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Candidates, Propaganda | Comment (1)

Texas, Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island…

AAARRRRRGGGGH!!!!!

Well, John McCain locked up the Republican primary last night, and his only remaining rival Mike Huckabee good-naturedly dropped out as expected.

But alas, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton managed to lock up anything – though God knows they should probably think about locking up their most rabid supporters, who aren’t the least bit shy of ravaging the Party while lobbing nasty epithets at each other.

I’d say it’s a problem with our primary system, which does have many problems, but I don’t really think it’s that. I think people are just too emotionally involved with personalities, and not very well-versed on how politics actually work in this country. Where “Machines” generally run the show and the best any candidate can do is hope to contribute to the policy platform come convention time.

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Filed under Barack Obama, Campaigns, Caucuses, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates | Comment (0)

Hillary’s Crew Jumping Ship Again

I know, I know. We’ve heard it all before. The news of Hillary Clinton’s political death may be slightly exaggerated, so take it with a large chunk of salt. But campaign manager Patti Solis has indeed stepped down after complete Obama sweeps in last weekend’s caucuses. Where it sort of looked like Hillary wasn’t even running (for all the action on the ground coming from her camp). Can she challenge him with something better than just the same old same old DLC-type machinery? If not, Obama’s highly motivated youth movement might make her a relic.

Seems Solis was hiding the campaign’s lack of cash on hand from Mrs. Clinton, who apparently figured it out for herself clearly enough to donate $5 million of her own money to the cause. What the heck have they been buying with all the millions raised? Answer: expensive dinosaurs – campaign advisors, chairs and managers. They cost a whole heck of a lot, but they know nothing about current reality and why Obama’s eating their lunch. Check out campaign chair Terry McAuliffe on Tweety’s show last week…

Filed under Barack Obama, Campaigns, Caucuses, Hillary Clinton, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates | Comment (0)

Fun and Games in Nevada and SC

Wow. I’m beginning to think this extended primary season has wreaked some havoc on the whole system, making mincemeat of the “old wisdom” about who wins what early primary being a shoo-in to the respective convention nomination.

On the Democratic side, between Clinton’s rejected lawsuit to block culinary workers at Las Vegas and Reno casinos from caucusing (the union had endorsed Obama) and her campaign’s lengthy list of dirty tricks and voter intimidation tactics in Nevada, one might wonder how the heck she managed to ‘beat’ Obama (though Obama got one more delegate out of the deal than Clinton did).

Clinton knows she won’t win South Carolina next Saturday. She might get second, but Edwards may place strongly and beat her once again. SC’s Republicans went strongly for McCain, which has Huckabee claiming Thompson stole his margin of victory and Thompson thinking about quitting. Since it’s South Carolina that has the Reconstructionist subculture wanting to secede from the union and declare itself under Sharia… er, Biblical law, one would have guessed Huck would show much better. Looks like even serious southern Republicans have more sense than they’re given credit for. Especially since they overwhelmingly rejected – with their votes – Huckabee’s disgusting defense of the Confederate battle flag.

Can’t wait to see what SC does on the Dem side, this primary circus could get even more interesting in the next few weeks (through February 5). My own personal take is that McCain is the only reasonable candidate Republicans can run. He has enough cross-over value to independents and centrist Dems to make up for the Bush deficit going in. None of the other Republicans have that.

Widespread Cheating & Vote Supression by Clinton Campaign in Clark County, NV

Filed under Analysis, Campaigns, Caucuses, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates | Comment (0)