Friday, May 17, 2013

Top GOP leaders quietly instructing their contemporaries to calm the fuck down.

"What do you mean calm down? I've got the President right where  I want him. Don't you watch Fox News?"
Courtesy of Politico:  

Republicans are worried one thing could screw up the political gift of three Obama administration controversies at once: fellow Republicans. 

Top GOP leaders are privately warning members to put a sock in it when it comes to silly calls for impeachment or over-the-top comparisons to Watergate. They want members to focus on months of fact-finding investigations — not rhetorical fury. 

Why the fuss? Well… 

—“People may be starting to use the I-word before too long,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) told a radio host, making plain impeachment was indeed the I-word in mind. 

—“You could call #Benghazi Obama’s Watergate, except no one died,” Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) wrote on Twitter. 

—“It harkens back to the days of Richard Nixon and maintaining a political enemies list and treating the federal government as a tool to exact the administration’s retribution,” Sen. Ted Cruz told the National Review. 

—“This is far worse than Watergate,” Rep. Michele Bachmann said of the IRS mess at a tea party rally. 

—“I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term,” former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on his own show before the IRS and AP flaps. 

—A PPP poll found all of this to be mainstream Republican thinking, with 41 percent calling Benghazi the BIGGEST political scandal in HISTORY. 

It is important to remember that there is no evidence any of the specific controversies directly link to President Barack Obama himself. No one knows what the various congressional probes will turn up, but until there is a direct connection to the president, the best Republicans can probably do is use the three episodes to illustrate the dangerous reach — and what they see as pervasive incompetence — of the Obama government. 

Meantime, the incentives for the incendiary are strong, as the PPP polls show: It helps Republicans raise money, get on Fox and excite conservatives. It also provides an easy way for someone like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to show skeptical conservatives that he is one of them — and therefore should not be challenged in an upcoming GOP primary. This is true for most House Republicans: Redistricting has left them far more threatened by a primary challenge from the right than by a general election challenge on the left. 

The gut check moment will come when Issa needs to decide on forcing Clinton to testify. 

A Democratic strategist, knowledgeable about administration thinking, maintains that calling Clinton back would be seen as an “extreme and unprecedented stunt” and “quite a risky proposition” for House Republicans. “Congress had her an entire day in January, and she kicked their ass,” the strategist said. “If she performed that well a second time, they could lose the issue permanently. They are better off waiting until her numbers soften with time and as she comes back down to earth — in the meantime, beating the drum as a midterm issue that she is ducking and hiding.” 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are banking on the GOP going overboard — especially with women and minorities. One top Democratic aide, getting ready for combat, emailed that Republicans are likely to come off as “a bunch of white guys hammering away.” “Wonder how they will be if Hillary or Susan Rice testifies?” the aide asked. “Republicans are fully capable of taking an issue that should have valid questions asked, and turning it into another Whitewater investigation that goes way off the cliff. They could wind up making Hillary a sympathetic figure.”

Yes by ALL means put Hillary back on the stand. In fact as a Democrat and lifelong liberal I am TOTALLY on board with that plan.

After all, what could go wrong?

Perhaps our friend Bill Maher explains it best.


30 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:39 PM

    I don't know why, but when I heard of BC as a supreme court nominee, I totally smiled. I don't know why. In many ways he's a sleezebag. But I generally liked his politics, and he's incredibly bright (most of the time).

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    1. Chella1:36 PM

      I always liked bill clinton. Didn't like him for cheating on his wife, but I understood it not to be an impeachable offense. I mean, come on, let's not act like he was the first president to stray outside of marriage...

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    2. Anonymous5:37 PM

      I agree Chella. I thnk the whole thing was a set up for Clinton to lie under oath, and then impeach him. But I think Clinton is sleazier than that. He was unkind and took advantage of Monica, and I suspect of other women too. I suspect he is a predator (in a totally legal, but sleazy way). And despite his sleaziness towards women, he did a lot to promote professional women (which doens't justify his personal behavior, just means he isn't bad for women politically) I think he was a good PResident, and would be a good Supreme Court Justice. I'm loving that idea : )

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    3. Anonymous6:59 PM

      Well. have to admit being President (unless via cheating like GWB) requires a shitload of charisma, hubris, etc. Those types of guys are sort of programmed to think "take what you want, I'm immortal, won't get caught." If you're surprised when someone like that cheats, you're a naive imbecile.e
      As long as the guy isn't a hypocrite like the TEAThugs are, meh, between them and their families.

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    4. Destiny Rose7:06 PM

      Wasn't being disbarred and losing his law license a couple of the consequences of the impeachment verdict for Bill? I guess one doesn't necessarily have to be a lawyer to be a Supreme Court Justice? That would be the greatest revenge by the Clintons and if that were to happen both of "Druggie" Limbaugh's heads would explode his little one as well as his big one!

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    5. Anonymous9:20 PM

      Read "The Hunting of the President." They were out to get Bill Clinton long before Monica came along. They even changed out their "independent counsel" for Ken Starr and announced that it was because the counsel they had might not be tough enough on Clinton.

      Incidentally, I have never thought that Clinton "used" Monica or was unkind to her. A woman who tells her friends that she's packed her "Presidential kneepads" cannot claim that she was the victim in a sexual relationship- this flat-out said she was planning on having sex with him. He was dense to agree to it- or perhaps just had a weak moment- but once she flashed her thong at him (which she said, and he never denied) and had sex, they had a relationship that consisted of 11 sexual encounters in 18 months. That just doesn't read helpless victim or torrid affair- it sounds more like a man who realizes he did something stupid and is trying to gradually end the affair without triggering repercussions on himself. He got her a job in another government agency, and she quit it to go back to the White House. To me, the whole thing came across as a relatively unimportant but potentially embarrassing relationship for him, and eagerness for the limelight on her part- with a little blackmail on the side to keep him from throwing her over.

      After all, she gave her mother the blue dress- can you imagine asking your mother to keep a dress because it's stained with evidence of a sexual encounter? My mother would have gone ballistic. There would be only one reason to fail to get that dress cleaned, if you don't want to dispose of it- and that's for blackmail purposes. And I can't imagine any decent mother agreeing to such a thing. Monica, and to judge from the blue dress, her mother, were trashy people.

      Incidentally, while Clinton apparently has approached plenty of women, there's no evidence that he wouldn't take No for an answer. One woman accused him of rape, and she changed her story several times, and did not pursue it further.

      Ivyfree

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  2. Anonymous12:48 PM

    If there's one thing we know about GOP 'leaders,' it is that they know nothing about patience. They want their scandal NOW. They want Hillary's head NOW. The want impeachment NOW. They won't wait.They won't call out the radio host who wants to 'shoot Hillary in the vagina.' No, they will quietly applaud and hope that they mislead enough morons to retain their precious seats. What a load of crap we unleashed in 2010. What an awful, sorry, stupid lot is the GOP.

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  3. Anonymous1:18 PM

    I would love to see Bill Clinton apointed tothe Supreme Court. He's bright as hell and so enjoyable to listen to!!

    The Republicans have fucked themselves through one Obama Administration tenure and now we are in the second, which they cannot admit he won in a landslide! The majority of them are old, fat white guys that are racist. Issa needs to be hung from the rafters! Yea, bring Hillary back to testify Issa - you idiot - she ate your lunch once already!

    Republicans will lose sits in the next upcoming election across the nation. No doubt about it!!!!

    Thank God, we have President Obama and VP Biden in office!!!! They are doing a hell of a job in spite of being obstructed by Congress (House/Boehner). I love and respect our President! People cannot say that about the Republicans in Congress!

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    1. Anonymous5:39 PM

      50.6% - 47.8% isn't a landslide. I know the Electoral College was much larger, but that doesn't represent how the nation feels. It's just a weird way we elect people.

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    2. Anonymous6:44 PM

      It was enough to win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    3. Anonymous8:16 PM

      It WAS enough to win. I'm eternally grateful. The above poster said Obama won in a landslide. Even if you consider the electoral college vote a landslide, it doesn't mean that the he won the hearts or minds of Americans in a landslide.

      I don't think it does us any good to exaggerate reality. He's not that popular.

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    4. Anonymous9:07 PM

      @5:39 PM, 8:16 PM:

      Well, it was an electoral college landslide, and President Obama is only the second president in decades to win a majority of the popular vote TWICE, and the first democrat to win both Florida, and Virginia since Franklin Roosevelt. So, it was no small victory. And, the election sure as hell wasn't "too close to call" as the media wanted everybody to believe.

      "He's not that popular."

      But, he's popular, unlike the dip-shits who are always tearing him down. The above poster didn't say the president won the "hearts and minds" of people in a landslide, the poster simply said he won in a landslide. Barack Obama won an easier victory than some people expected, in part because the other guy (Mitt Romney) sucked so bad.

      It also doesn't do us any good to exaggerate what the poster actually said.

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    5. Anonymous10:27 AM

      I don't disagree with most of what you said. But when the post said "he won in a landslide" it was in the context of having a lot more support than he really has. What Obama did is mighty impressive. I still don't think it's a good idea to exaggerate. One of the problems the Repubs have is living in their own bubble and believing their own press. I consider believing Obama has the kind of support a landslide suggests is similar. Perhaps not. I really don't think believing he has such strong support is going to help us. but perhaps we disagree and you think it's good to think of Obama as having the support that a landslide suggests. REasonable people can disagree.

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  4. Anita Winecooler1:23 PM

    I'm not a betting person, but I think they've already
    gone way overboard on Benghazi and the IRS. If recalling Hillary again will help them hang themselves, then by all means, Proceed, Assclowns!

    Wonder why they're so timid about the AP "scandal"?

    http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/gop-yawns-ap-story-because-you-dont-have-civil-liberties

    Insert gif of President Obama's ninja fly swatting skills

    More Popcorn?

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  5. Anonymous1:29 PM

    Issa had the same look on his face, the morning after, when Sarah told him about herpes.

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    1. Anonymous7:00 PM

      Issa is an ass-a.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous1:35 PM

    Haven't heard a GOP politician stumble through their unique theories on the variations of rape lately, so I think the GOP power people still have the capacity to rein in the crazies.... but it gets harder with each outbreak of nuttiness.

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  7. Anonymous1:36 PM

    Palin’s star has crashed and burned

    It is hard to admit that one of the most cartoonish and self-aggrandizing figures in recent political memory actually could have been a contender at one time, but I am now willing to cede that point.

    Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin actually could have been, at the very least, a respected political figure over the course of the last decade, but she has squandered any capital or potential she may have had by being a rudderless buffoon.

    The only reason this comes to light again is because Palin is polling ahead of two other candidates for a potential open Senate seat in 2014.

    Mind you this was a sample of 379 Alaska Republicans taken during the first week of this month, but the prospect of Palin being a member of the Senate for six years is enough to make one consider a move to Nova Scotia.

    At one time Palin was a somewhat savvy, fairly competent Governor of Alaska. What made her stand out and got her on the political map was facing down oil and natural gas conglomerates in her home state and beating them.

    In Alaska, beating that corporate duo is one step short of taking control of a city back from the mob. Oil taxes supply almost 90 percent of the general revenue in the state, so you know oil companies have what can conservatively be called a passing interest in how government is run.

    The governor, who would soon become more famous for being geographically challenged and for her looks, somehow passed a tax increase on oil revenue and while other states floundered, Alaska built up a $12 billion surplus.

    But 18 months before the end of her first term and only nine months after she helped torpedo John McCain’s Presidential aspirations, Palin stood in her back yard and announced she was quitting her job as governor of our nation’s 49th state.

    Claiming she did not want to be part of the “political blood sport” that is Alaska and pleading for the understanding of the constituents she was abandoning, she decided she liked the spotlight of the national stage and jumped ship.

    That moment was the quintessential branding of a candidate. She was already seen as a rank amateur in the scope of national politics, a walking hair-do posing as a serious candidate and an overall dim bulb who could not keep her own foot out of her own mouth.

    Add the fact she did not want to finish out her first term in high office under the cloud of being a “lame duck,” saying “that’s not how I am wired,” she added quitter to her already featherweight resume.

    Rebranding yourself in politics is a feat as attainable as climbing Mt. Everest with only a scarf and gloves to protect you from the elements. Changing a political image is possible but is a glacial process that most do not have the patience or the fortitude for simply based on their career of choice.

    Lay back, stay out of the headlines, pick your spots carefully, make a speech or two and work behind the scenes to change a tarnished image is just the START of what you need to do to change your brand in American politics.

    Sarah Palin was the antithesis of that.

    She continued to put her foot in her mouth, go on ego driven, useless bus tours, string her supporters along about a Presidential run, all the while eagerly taking their money and jumped on every bandwagon that rolled in front of her.

    Palin joined the ranks of punditry at Fox News, fired up a reality show and never shut her mouth.

    She went from Tea Party darling to blabbering mouthpiece. She went from possible Republican stalwart to being a joke in her own party. She went from politician to pseudo-celebrity in the span of less than five years.

    Palin squandered her chance and breezed past her window of opportunity to even make a half-hearted showing in a primary or two in the 2012 election. Now the GOP will roll out a field in 2016 that she will get trampled by if she even thought of campaigning in New Hampshire.

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    1. Anonymous6:58 PM

      Her Alaska successes were the product of the democrats in the legislature. It had nothing to do with her own action except to sign what they proposed.

      She didn't do her own work as mayor or as governor.

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  8. Anonymous1:37 PM

    She has morphed into a caricature and a rock thrower with zero credibility outside of the few “mama bear” zealots who still think she is viable in the political arena. She is a sideshow of her own creation.

    Overlooking the “we’ve obviously got to stand with our North Korean allies” and “I can see Russia from my backyard” nuggets of insight from the former governor, a serious look at her tactics and actions over the past five years show an egotist and a pretender.

    I look back on that time she was in the governor’s office and wonder how she hornswoggled oil executives and special interests into creating a surplus and is now standing in front of CPAC conventions waving a Big Gulp.

    Logic would dictate if there was one last shot for Little Miss Rogue – it would be a Senate run in her home state in 2014. She could use her home state as a pipeline to get a Senate seat and then ignore them if she gets there to run her own reality show on Capitol Hill.

    And that prospect scares me.

    It is hard to be a representative of the people when you spend 27 hours a day representing and promoting yourself and your brand. It is a brand that is not stale, just all hype and no substance. Giving that woman a six-year term would be an apocalyptic mistake, and I can only hope that 379 Republicans are not representative of how Alaska would vote in 2014.

    http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2013/05/17/opinion/doc519656fcf0136092716649.txt?viewmode=fullstory

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    1. Anonymous2:05 PM

      I hope the pee ponds' heads spontaneously combusted upon reading that.

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    2. Anonymous2:34 PM

      When she left Alaska and ran w/McCain (remember he was running for POTUS NOT Palin!), she said a new Alaska pipeline was under construction (McCain was promoting her as an energy expert which was pure bullshit!). It wasn't and still is NOT today. She proved herself to be nothing but a liar and fraud and terribly uneducated. Plus, we now know her to be a racist and a total embarrassment to McCain and the Republican party!

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    3. Anonymous2:51 PM

      MSNBC Rev. Al Sharpton skewered 1/2 Governor Sarah Palin on her 'Umbrellagate' with a 2008 photo of her getting off of a plane with someone else holding an umbrella over her Wigged Huge Head.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous1:51 PM

    Fox’s Brit Hume: ‘Stupid’ For GOP To Think Of Impeaching Obama Over Recent Scandals

    Appearing on Laura Ingraham‘s radio show this afternoon, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume suggested some Republicans were “stupid” to consider impeachment of President Obama a viable response to the ongoing scandals regarding the Benghazi attacks, the IRS targeting of conservative groups, and the Justice Department secret seizure of AP phone records.


    Likely referring to some GOP lawmakers, including Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) who has put impeachment on the table as an option for handling the Benghazi fallout, Ingraham asked Hume to comment on how some Republican leaders have “ran to the microphone” to suggest removal of Obama from office.

    His response:


    “I think it’s stupid for them to say stuff like that. These cases will be driven by the facts, which is what’s happened so far. Information drives these things and big talk about extreme measures — and most people in this country, I think, regard impeachment as extreme measure, necessary in some rare cases — is way premature and only runs the risk of having this appear to be political on their side. The administration’s defense, you hear it all the time, is that this is just a political circus. So what happens next? These guys start running out into the middle of the ring and starting proving that its a political circus.”

    Listen below, via The Laura Ingraham Show:

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/foxs-brit-hume-stupid-for-gop-to-think-of-impeaching-obama-over-recent-scandals/

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    1. Anonymous2:31 PM

      The Republican party is screwing themselves and will go down in numbers next election cycle. Can hardly wait! The assclowns!

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  10. Anonymous1:54 PM

    And this assholic behavior by Republicans has created exactly how many jobs? If they are hellbent on doing absolutely NOTHING for the American people and our economy I'd just as soon they spend all day every day voting to repeal Obamacare and stop the rest of it. They make me sick.

    A Fan From Chicago

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  11. Anonymous2:41 PM

    But if Republicans are forced to tone down the rhetoric, what will Fox News viewers have to scream in outrage about? Benghazi is such a cool word for them to repeat. They love to say it - Bengazzi, Ben Gazzi, Benghaaaaazzi.

    They think that by saying it over and over it makes them sound as if they know something about anything. If you've ever had to be around a bunch of them it sounds like this: mumble mumble mumble BENGAAAZI! mumble mumble mumble BENGAAAZI! mumble mumble mumble BENGAAAAZZIII!

    I don't think they know Benghazi is a location. They can't say for certain, but they are prri-ttt-ty sure it has something to do with Obama's plan to take away their guns and let the Muslims take over.

    Now they will be forced to go back to OBAAAAMACARE!

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  12. Anonymous3:36 PM

    Republican math: IRS > Benghazi

    Talk to any Republican political strategist about whether GOP leaders should spend their time talking about the terrorist attack in Benghazi or the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservatives and you will get a unanimous answer: IRS.

    Here’s why.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/05/14/republican-math-irs-benghazi/


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  13. Our Lad5:12 PM

    Even when she's with Bill, she's still the smartest person in the room and that's saying a lot. These dipshits are pissing up the wrong tree, she'll eat them up. They make me laugh, they really do.

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  14. Anonymous6:51 PM

    Bill on SCOTUS - oh YEAH!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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