AP on Care2.com AP’s Tweets ~ @pastINprintOne of my favorite Tweeps, @pourmecoffee, put it well:
Stimulus turns 1 today. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. GOP was against you, but takes credit for you, too.
via The GOP has a Palin Problem, cross-posted from Care2.com ~ Originally published, 10 January 2010
The National Journal conducted a poll of 109 Republican Party leaders, asking them to “rank 5 candidates in the order of likeliness to capture the GOP nod.” That former MA Governor Mitt Romney topped the lists of those polled with 81 points, 62 per-cent of which were first place votes, is unsurprising. Were it not for half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s poor showing (25 points) it probably wouldn’t be worth talking about.
Not one of the party leaders or pundits polled selected Palin to top their list. Taking into account the ideological nature of her supporters — distrustful of government, adherents to the myth of a liberal media, and, most importantly, a profound disdain for the GOP elite — this was the best outcome Palin could have hoped for.
Talented FiveThirtyEight.com political prognosticator, Nate Silver, likes Palin’s chances to win 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Silver posted “10 reasons that Palin Could Win,” last Nov. 18. In his Jan. 7 reaction to the Insider’s Poll, Silver reiterated his number eight reason from last year:
…If the Establishment, owing to electability concerns or whatever else, tries to put hurdles in her way by re-structuring the primary or delegate allocation process, it may only play into the victimization complex of Palin and her supporters.
Silver’s commentary is apt, and though the poll doesn’t represent any direct effort to “neuter” Palin’s potential candidacy, that doesn’t mean they wont (see video, below). “Although the Establishment’s concerns about Palin’s viability as a general election candidate are well grounded,” Silver notes, “mostly they’re just terrified of her because she doesn’t need them. “
It might be wiser for establishment Republicans to remain hands-off, and wait for Palin to self destruct. Her supporters have proven themselves willing to keep their blinders on, content to cling to the dazzling façade rolled out at the 2008 Republican National Convention. However, Palin’s high visibility — albeit, NEVER in a critical forum — increases the probability of a politically fatal mistake.
Indeed, she may have already made it. I’m not referring to Palin’s recent doubling down on her “death panel” analysis of health care reform efforts in Washington – a turn of phrase awarded “Lie of the Year” for 2009 byPolitifact.com, Pulitzer winner in that same year. Palin’s deceit in this matter will go unnoticed by her supporters.
However, Palin’s snubbing of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has got much attention. Much more interesting is her commitment to speak at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Feb. 4-6.
Muriel Kane posted an excellent summary about how different factions are reacting to Palin’s curious positioning at RawStory.com, Jan. 8.
Missed opportunity, simple greed, or shrewd calculation? Only time will tell the real meaning of Sarah Palin’s Tea Party gambit.
Another aspect that has, thus far, received little attention from the media pertains to whom Palin will share the stage with at the Tea Party Convention. Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, Eric Boehlert, posed the question in a Jan. 9 post: “Will the press question the ‘Palin – Farah’ ticket?”
The Beltway press still refuses to raise questions about Palin’s decision to attend the first annual Tea Party convention in Nashville next month and share the stage with a fringe radical like Joseph Farah, who is an avowed gay and Muslim-hating extremist, and whose wingnut publication, [World Net Daily], remains obsessed with the loony, and thoroughly debunked, conspiracy claim that Obama was not born in America.
Of course, Kane was correct – only time will tell how this will play out. There is a long way to go, but the potential for Palin to become the 2012 GOP nominee still exists. So, too, does another outcome which I suggested the day Palin announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska:
If Palin does still have national aspirations, her only hope of success (in her mind, mind you) would be to position herself at the head of some third-party, the radical right-wing of the GOP finally throwing off its remaining moderate faction.
See Also:
Palin Inaccurate says McCain Strategist
Related on Care2:
As you may have seen reported, in a perfect exclamation point to the obstruction we’ve seen all year, when the Senate adjourned last week, the Republicans objected to what is ordinarily a routine request to waive Senate rules and permit pending nominations to remain in the Senate confirmation pipeline. Without what’s called “unanimous consent,” under Senate rules, pending nominations must be returned to the President, who then has to re-nominate in the next session. In what has become a far too typical exercise by the “Just Say No” party, Republicans objected to three DOJ nominees who have been on the Senate’s calendar awaiting consideration for months: Dawn Johnsen, for the Office of Legal Counsel; Chris Schroeder for the Office of Legal Policy; and Mary Smith, for the Tax Division. They also objected to two pending federal District Court nominees (Edward Chen, for a seat on the Northern District of California and Louis B. Butler for a seat on the Western District of Wisconsin) and to Craig Becker for reappointment as a member of the National Labor Relations Board…
Follow the link below to read more:
via Dawn Johnsen and the GOP Obstruction Game | People For the American Way Blog.
Related on PiP:
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Again, Stephen Colbert displays why satire is the perfect lens through which to analyze the Republican Party. Playing on comparisons of the RNC’s 10 requirements — of which potential candidates must adhere to eight to receive funding — to the Biblical Ten Commandments, Colbert listed some of its strict conservative prescriptions and noted, “They’re just like the 10 Commandments, if one of the tablets said ‘F’ and the other said ‘U.’”
(more below the clip)
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more about “‘Grand Old Purity’ – The Word from St…“, posted with vodpodThere is one bit of irony I wish Colbert would have touched on. As I noted recently on Care2, the RNC’s decission to name their test after Ronald Reagan seems curious considering he — nor any other modern president — could have passed.
From the Care2 post:
What struck me most about Bopp’s memo was not its requirements, but its invocation of Reagan. Employing his name becomes more significant when paired with first item on the purity list:
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
That they have chosen to emphasize this economic platform along with its patron saint is certainly no coincidence. Reagan’s conservative economic prescriptions have been touted as the height of Republican fiscal discipline so frequently that they’ve achieved commandment status within the party. That this commonly held notion is demonstrably false speaks volumes about what this “purity test” represents… (Read More)
Cross posted at Care2.com’s Political Causes Blog
Dawn Johnsen, Barack Obama’s nominee to head his administration’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), is potentially the most qualified candidate ever selected for the position. Nominated February 11 and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee March 19, the Indiana University law professor has yet to be considered by the full Senate. What’s the hold up, you may ask? It appears that Johnsen is but another among many who has fallen victim to Republican obstructionism and the minority party’s ongoing misuse of the filibuster.
The Republican filibuster threat is only the most immediate cause for delay; forcing Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) to scramble for the 60 votes necessary for cloture, followed by an up or down vote which would undoubtedly result in Johnsen’s confirmation. The underlying causes behind GOP opposition to Johnsen stem from two ideological issues; one of which has been blown out of proportion by right-wing activists. The other, more significant reason for fighting Obama’s OLC nominee is grounded in GOP fear that she, unlike her Bush administration OLC predecessors, may actually follow the law.
Right-wing activist opposition to Johnsen pertains to her past work for NARAL, a pro-choice advocacy organization. More specifically, 
their objection pertains to a 1989 brief in which Johnsen’s organization — along with 76 others — argued against states having the right to prohibit abortions at public health institutions.
Johnsen’s critics have zeroed in on two sentences within a footnote, which they employ claiming the OLC nominee equated motherhood with “involuntary servitude.” It’s an assertion which Politifact declared, March 24, to be “false.”
Of course, right-wing pundits further afield have taken Johnsen’s words and maliciously converted them, as AmericanConservative.org did September 19, placing the Obama nominee as number 41 among 650 unpalatable administration officials as, “Dawn ‘Compared Pregnancy with Slavery’ Johnsen.” No matter how it’s stated, however, Johnsen’s pro-choice stance is and has always been remarkably mainstream.
“The real reason” for the GOP stance in opposition to Dawn Johnsen was imparted by Scott Horton, March 26, at The Daily Beast:
…Johnsen is committed to overturning the Bush administration’s policies on torture and warrantless surveillance, which would clip the wings of the imperial presidency. Even more menacingly (from their perspective), she is committed to shining a light on some of the darkest skeletons of the Bush years.
If this is correct, then Horton’s assessment lends credence to that of Glenn Greenwald, whose aptly titled post, “Dawn Johnsen’s belief in the rule of law disqualifies her from Senate consideration,” was published May 13 at Salon.com. Within his post, Greenwald emphasized the fact that the Senate’s scrutiny of Johnsen was tragically absent in its confirmation of some previous, ultimately dubious, past nominees:
The Senate that is refusing to confirm Dawn Johnsen is the same Senate that confirmed Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA Director — with overwhelming Democratic support — even after it was revealed that he oversaw Bush’s illegal NSA spying program. It’s the same Senate that confirmed Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General — with substantial Democratic support — even once everyone knew that he had played a key role in Bush’s torture program. It’s the same Senate that — thanks to Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer — confirmed Michael Mukasey as Attorney General even after he refused to say whether waterboarding was torture and endorsed some of the most extremist presidential powers ever asserted in the U.S.
In other words, their covering their collective butts, and their doing so at the expense of a nation in desperate need of objective legal guidance.
Fortunately, there are those willing to tell their senators to quit stalling. A good example of this was a September 22 letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, written behalf of several organizations, directing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to drop the stall tactics on Obama nominations.
The LCCR letter refers to Johnsen, specifically:
…Professor Johnsen has already served with distinction in the OLC, and is undoubtedly well-qualified for the position. Her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. The OLC plays a highly important role within the Administration, and the failure to confirm the President’s nominee to lead the office prevents the OLC from providing crucial legal advice on a wide range of issues currently confronting our nation.
I’ll include some additional links below, but if you agree with the sentiment of the above letter, contact your senators and tell them so. Additionally, consider signing THIS PETITION from NARAL-Pro-Choice America, calling on GOP senators to refrain from filibustering on the basis of any candidate’s pro-choice disposition.
See Also:
“A Legal Advisor Worthy of the Job,” New York Times Editorial Board, 26 March 2009.
Greg Sargent, “Key Dem Senator Likely to Vote Against Top Obama Legal Nominee,” ThePlumLine, 24 April 2009.
Scott Horton, “Are Republicans Blackmailing Obama?” TheDailyBeast, 5 April 2009.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8IywX1Arw]
Some fascinating data based on more than 120,000 interviews completed over the past four months, on the way that partisan identification breaks down by age.
From FiveThirtyEight.com, 9 May 2009 post, by Nate Silver:
Partisan ID Gap, Based on Identity of President When Voter Turned 18
...It’s become common knowledge that the younger generation is highly predisposed toward Democrats. (Actually, that’s not quite right — they’re more predisposed against Republicans than they are toward Democrats — but the net effects on their voting behavior are probably about the same.) What’s more remarkable, though, is how sharp the increase in the partisan ID gap becomes at about age 25. People aged 26-34 are pretty Democratic, put people aged 18-25 are really Democratic…
Weber Writes Obituary for the Republican Party
Posted 11 April 2009 @ The Huffington Post:
…The Republican Party is like a dying tyrant, mad with syphilis, ironically like that very Stalin they would accuse their enemies of associating with. How else to account for their desperation to resurrect the wraith of Joseph McCarthy; the hammy and baffling utterances from high level party officials like Boehner and McConnell; the blatant desire on their part to let the country fail out of sheer resentment; the wanton sedition of Conservative shit-stirrers ranging from the quasi Madame Defarge Michele Bachmann to the porcine, pill-popping porcine propagandist Rush Limbaugh?
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