Tuesday Reads: “Winds of Fanaticism”
Posted: August 28, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, racism, Romney-Ryan Budget Plan, Social Security, the GOP, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: Republican National Convention, Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac 71 Comments
Good Morning!!
I’m writing this on Monday night, but I’ll update in the morning if there is breaking news about either Isaac or Mitt and the gang. The Republicans appear ready to loose the hounds of hell in the next few days. We can only hope they will decide to cancel the rest of the hatefest if the hurricane does a lot of damage. For now, liberal writers are suggesting this could be the most racist convention in history and conservative writers are pretending liberals are imagining things.
There was much talk yesterday about Chris Matthews’ outburst at RNC Chair Reince Priebus on the Morning Joe Show, with liberals cheering him on and Conservatives terribly shocked by his supposed rudeness. I don’t usually like to link to right wing blogs, but I’m going to do it just this once. The National Review reported on Priebus’ reaction:
“When someone wants to grab the flag and try to be the biggest jerk in the room, sometimes you just let them go,” the chairman said with a laugh.
“We shook hands, but I will tell ya that someone from MSNBC, I don’t know if it’s a producer or somebody, has been trying to call us all day — I’m sure it’s to make amends, but there’s nothing to make amends [about]. When somebody wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room . . . I mean, he made the case for us. This is the Barack Obama surrogate of 2012. This is what they’re all about. They’re going to be about division, they’re going to be about distraction. And I’ve got to tell you, the brand of Barack Obama, hope and change and bringing us all together, it’s completely broken. When people come to realize that you’re not real anymore, you’re not who you said you were, that’s a big problem for Barack Obama.”
Sorry, Reince. The only reason you weren’t the biggest jerk in the room is that Joe Scarborough was there.
Here are three good reads on the Republican race-baiting issue.
David Corn at Mother Jones, Mitt Romney and GOP in Tampa: How Low Will They Go? It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here’s the conclusion:
Romney, who once upon a time based his successful political career on a claim to be a no-nonsense, get-things-done businessman, this week officially takes the reins of a party that has embraced an assortment of alternative realities. (Obama is an incompetent naïf but one possessing an intricate and sophisticated plan to fool the American public and remake the United States into a Europeanized secular-socialist state with a mad-with-power government crushing individual liberty; global warming does not exist; rape cannot cause pregnancy.) As a onetime middle-of-the-road governor who had succeeded wildly in the private sector, Romney has always had a compelling case to present in this campaign: Obama has not done enough to repair the economy; I can do better. And there are enough honest policy differences between Romney and Obama—on tax rates, government spending, foreign policy, abortion, gay rights, and more—to fuel a sharp, feisty, and fundamental debate based on a contest of ideas, not a clash of charges.
Yet Romney’s party did not want such a fight. They craved a mudfest, and Romney, a patrician quarter-billionaire, has obliged. So there’s really not much mystery in Florida. The Tampa convention will be a continuation of this cavalcade of sleaze. You dance to the tune that brought you. And not even a driving storm can wash Mitt Romney and his campaign clean.
Elspeth Reeve at the Atlantic: Race Takes Over the Race. Reeve provides a very interesting analysis of Romney’s several welfare ads and how they convey a racial message.
John Judis at CBS News: How Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy could set Republicans back for a decade. Judis compares Romney’s strategy of trying to get as many white people to the polls as possible while ignoring African Americans and Hispanics with George W. Bush’s approach in 2000.
Mitt Romney could not only lose the election, but set back any attempt by the Republicans to re-position themselves as a majority party. Romney has abandoned Bush and Rove’s strategy. He has taken a hard line against illegal immigration, backing measures in Arizona and other states that would stigmatize Latinos; desperate to defeat Texas Gov. Rick Perry, he even opposed Perry’s attempt to provide tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. Little that Romney can do at the Republican convention will erase an impression of hard intolerance toward Hispanics. Romney will be lucky if he wins 30 percent of the Latino vote.
Bush and Rove understood that majority coalitions have never been built on strict consensus. Instead, successful coalitions are heterogeneouos. They include groups (such as Southern whites and Northern blacks during the New Deal) that don’t get along with each other, but still prefer the one party coalition to the other. And a successful candidate will offend one part of the coalition (with the expectation they’ll still vote for him) in order to reach out to parts of the opposing coalition. Bush could support immigration reform and pick off Hispanic votes with the expectation that he would still win white working class votes. But Romney, perhaps because he is not really a Republican conservative, has sought to be all things to all parts of the Republican base — from the Tea Party opponents of any social spending to the nativists worried about a Mexican takeover of America to religious conservatives wanting to ban all abortions. As a result, Romney has closed off opportunities to pick off parts of the Democratic coalition.
Instead of trying to appeal to minority voters, Republicans are doing their best to keep them from voting at all with voter ID laws, efforts to purge voters from the rolls, and reducing the times available for voting.
As of late Monday night, it appears that the convention will go forward tomorrow. Mitt and Ann are going down to Tampa and, according to The New York Times, the roll call vote will go ahead Tuesday night just in case the rest of the convention has to be cancelled. Meanwhile, there was apparently a lot of intra-party bickering during the Monday downtime.
With the vacuum created by the postponement, “everybody who has a reason to be upset about something has time to talk about it,” said Drew McKissick, a South Carolina delegate. And, as seen Monday, to try to do something about it.
Mr. McKissick was busy rallying support to fight Mr. Romney’s legal team over new party rules that he said would hinder the kind of insurgent challenges that Mr. Romney has faced this year — a clash that appeared to have been resolved enough to prevent it from spilling onto the convention floor Tuesday.
A day of closed-door talks between Romney aides and conservative activists ended with a compromise that one person involved said would “result in what we think is a very warm and fuzzy convention.” Some activists announced that they had succeeded in preventing what they called a power grab by the party establishment.
But supporters of Representative Ron Paul of Texas expressed frustration over what they said were efforts by Mr. Romney’s aides and supporters to silence their voices in the convention hall. They were goaded along by Mr. Paul, who has declined a speaking slot, accusing the Romney campaign of trying to control his message.
And supporters of Representative Todd Akin, the Missouri Senate candidate who lost much of the party’s support after his comments on “legitimate” rape and pregnancy, revived Tea Party-infused arguments against the “establishment” wing of the party, saying Mr. Romney and “party bosses” had abandoned him after his remarks.
I strongly suggest reading this article by Jon Ward at Huffpo: The One-Termer? Ward managed to get some really interesting information and quotes from Romney campaign insiders. The gist of the article is that Romney may be hoping to do a repeat of what he did in Massachusetts. The model for Romney’s presidency, according to campaign manager Matt Rhoades is President James Polk.
Rhoades and the rest of the members of Romney’s inner circle think a Romney presidency could look much like the White House tenure of the 11th U.S. president.
Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, presided over the expansion of the U.S. into a coast-to-coast nation, annexing Texas and winning the Mexican-American war for territories that also included New Mexico and California. He reduced trade barriers and strengthened the Treasury system.
And he was a one-term president.
Polk is an allegory for Rhoades: He did great things, and then exited the scene, and few remember him. That, Rhoades suggested, could be Romney’s legacy as well.
Basically, Romney wants to enact the Ryan budget, after which he will be wildly unpopular. But once he gets Congress to eliminate the capital gains and inheritance taxes, Romney will have achieved his goal of paying nothing in federal income taxes and made it likely that his children won’t have to pay taxes on the Romney fortune after he dies.
Multiple senior Romney advisers assured me that they had had conversations with the candidate in which he conveyed a depth of conviction about the need to try to enact something like Ryan’s controversial budget and entitlement reforms. Romney, they said, was willing to count the cost politically in order to achieve it.
“I think he is looking to get in there and fix some things and get out. I don’t think he cares,” one senior Romney adviser, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told me at the time.
I’ll end with this little tidbit, in case you didn’t hear it on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night or read it in the {gag!} New York Post. According to the Post, Ryan wasn’t Romney’s first choice for VP–Christie turned it down because he believes Romney will lose.
Romney’s top aides had demanded Christie step down as the state’s chief executive because if he didn’t, strict pay-to-play laws would have restricted the nation’s largest banks from donating to the campaign — since those banks do business with New Jersey.
But Christie adamantly refused to sacrifice his post, believing that being Romney’s running mate wasn’t worth the gamble….The tough-talking governor believed Romney severely damaged his campaign by releasing only limited tax returns and committing several gaffes during his international tour in July.
Certain Romney was doomed, Christie stuck to his guns — even as some of his own aides pushed him to run, another source said.
Bwwwaaaaahahahahahahahaha! And Christie is the keynote speaker!! Hahahahahahahahaha!!
OK, I’m going to end there. I promise to update with any breaking stories in the morning. Now what are you reading and blogging about today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
The “test” of how far this nation will go towards fanaticism will be decided come November.
When the demographic individual and contingencies are broken down for review. And much will depend upon the percentage of eligible voters actually casting ballots in a race that pits mediocrity against the radical.
Unlike 2008 when a vast majority were “swept up” in enthusiasm this time around that emotional connection has been diluted. This is exactly what Mitt Romney is counting on to reach his 50.1%
At a Sunday picnic I met two people who had no idea of who Paul Ryan is. But they were convinced that “Obama has to go” because he is “a threat” to the nation.
When I pointed out who and what Paul Ryan represents, both through his anti woman stance and the meanness of the Ryan Budget, their response was that Roe v Wade will never be overturned and that the federal budget was their priimary concern.
These are not “stupid people” I was talking to but two cultured, well educated, quite comfortable members of society who “can’t be bothered with politics” since they see the situation as being corrupt to begin with.
They have managed to keep themselves “uninformed” if not knowing who Paul Ryan is is any indication. They prefer the soundbites as a means to make a decision. As much as they hate the current political atmosphere they pretend that “nothing will change” in our democracy because we have always managed “to do the right thing” as a society.
These were Dems who voted for Hillary but “settled” for Obama and who now look to Mitt Romney as an alternative.
They do not see “over the horizon” with a political agenda that has the opportunity to reshape this nation into one that would ruin the social compact this nation has with its citizenry but plan on voting for the alternative simply because it has been offered.
This is the danger we face as it comes from within.
What gets me Pat is the folks who know Ryan and what he stands for and still feel the need to vote for Romney because Obama is a “threat to the nation.”
Pat, that is frightening. Good for you for trying to educate them, even though they wouldn’t listen.
You are right, you can change them, no matter how you present the facts to them. I’ve pretty much had to disconnect with family, they are the problem because they to continue to perpetuate “he’s a socialist, communist, and muslim born in Kenya.”
I always wonder what kind of “threat” people think Obama is to the nation. At this point that seems really an odd opinion.
It is really peculiar.
It’s all those re-education camps Obama has set up around the country! Haven’t you been paying attention, Ralph? /s
Morning, love the cartoons in this post BB. I thought you might find this interesting:
Security at the RNC: George Orwell Meets a ‘Call of Duty’ Cityscape – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlantic
Read where the protesters are regulated to protest…it is pretty far from the Forum.
Also, this update: Cheerleader must compensate school that told her to clap ‘rapist’ – Americas – World – The Independent
SCOTUS refused to hear her case…she has to pay 45,000 to the school. What a load of crap!
JJ,
That cheerleader story is from May, 2011. I wrote about it back then. I think you did too.
Unfortunately the Democrats will probably be just as bad in dealing with protesters. At least they were in 2008 in Denver and even here in Boston in 2004. The Constitution means nothing anymore.
Agree, both GOP and Dems have little to no respect in regards to Free Speech and a citizen’s right to protest the government policies they both put in place.
Yeah, I thought the date on that was May 2012…but we did write about this extensively last year. My bad…
How does a guy who admits to sexual assault get off on a misdemeanor? Was there a plea bargain? Did the victim not want to testify? Was he a minor? Unfortunately, if under the rules he was eligible for the Bball team (which boggles the mind), and she was a cheerleader for that team, she probably is obliged to cheer for him. To pointedly not clap for him is to publicly call him out for derision, which was not part of his punishment. She shouldn’t have put herself in that position. The place to disapprove of his behavior was in court. Still, charging her for the suit is over the top as well.
Oh, and y’all have to read Pat’s post today: IT’S NOT AS SIMPLE AS ALL THAT « The Widdershins well done!
Thanks, mink!
Really great post Pat!!!!!!
Indeed, it is!
Great post, Pat!
Ditto on Pat’s post
I probably could be accused of “reading too much”. However, it has been my escape, my passion, and my “hobby” since the time I could hold a book in my hands.
But I can’t help but compare the political atmosphere with the 1930s in Germany when those people were being told that their own living standard was the fault of the Jews while ours is being laid at the feet of the “have nots” through entitlements and government programs.
Fascism is not particular to any one nation. Italy experienced it as much as did Germany because it is a portable ideology and can be introduced anywhere at anytime.
This is what we currently face: a radical ideology that is based on the wants and needs of corporations, the rich, and the religious doctrine of fundamentalism.
Not everyone shares that view. Preferring to believe that we live under a Constitution that would prevent that form of facism to invade our nation, we turn a blind eye to the machinations.
But this was also true of those German citizens who refused to wake up when the opportunity was ripe in 1932 to spurn a crazy man with an agenda that was creeping into their own laws and constitution that paved the way for a form of totalitarianism they could not shake for the next 15 years.
It began with the outlaw of abortion which opened the door to even more stringent laws that led to genocide as the “final solution”. Could we go that far as well?
With enough crazies at the helm it could happen. This is what occurs when history itself is either ignored or distorted to make way for “laws” that seek to control every aspect of life.
A full Republican congress, along with a Republican president, may be just the tip of the iceberg in pushing legislation that almost mirrors the 1930s in its control over the population and should not be dismissed.
Pat, are you familiar with the quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis (“It Can’t Happen Here”, 1935 book):
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
I’ve had fears like yours that we’re tracking away from individual freedom and liberty, regardless of what Sarah Palin and the Republicans say, ad nauseam.
Up is down, war is peace, tyranny is freedom. We’re definitely trying to get there it would seem.
Chris Christie continues to undermine Romney: says he “suspects” Romney “wishes he could take back the birther joke.”
Christie is rooting hard for Romney to lose in November. Romney will probably be gnashing his teeth during Christie’s keynote speech.
Chris Christie is busily carving out his chances for 2016.
Let’s hope by then the nation will have had a bellyful (no pun intended) of a blowhard who is running his own state into the toilet by refusing to raise taxes on the rich but puts the citizenry at risk by firing police and other first responders.
Simply because he “talks down” to the press, and everyone else who may question his positions. does not make a “leader” but rather a big mouth know it all whose belly overwhelms his civility.
That being said, the GOP is as enamored of Chris Christie as they were of Rudy Giuliani who proved that his “buy date” was indeed limited.
Isaac is “on the verge of becoming a hurricane.”
I hope Texas will get some rain out of this, Ralph.
Rain for Texas would be nice but not worth the risk to the coast, especially NOLA. I caught a bit of the forecast from local TV in New Orleans last night on satellite and their weather guy didn’t seem too worried. Got my fingers crossed for Kat!
The storm was weakening last night and now it’s just going to be a category 1, if that. I don’t know what NOLA will do with all the rain. I’m just hoping Kat doesn’t lose power for a long time.
Heading that way this weekend……………Dallas football.
Even David Brooks, the most offensive suckup in media, doesn’t like Mitt Romney.
The Real Romney
I never would have thought of Brooks as having a sense of humor.
But this is really funny.
Wonder if Gail Collins wrote it while Brooks wasn’t looking? 🙂
I’m surprised too. Maybe Gail did help him with it.
I’ve never been a David Brooks fan but that was very funny.
Does anyone like Mitt?
Mitt Romney cannot fathom that people are not ready to hand him the job he’s entitled to. The creepiness of Nixon is just a legend for me but I don’t think even he came close to Romney.
Where did this sort of Chupacabra come from?
Simple: look at his challengers during the primaries.
If your choice was limited to Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, Mitt at least did not appear to be “talking to the drapes” when all was said and done.
I mean if there was a beauty contest that included Angelina Jolie and say Jan Brewer, the odds are you would have chosen Angelina even if she displayed an inability to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Nixon, although creepy was not in the same league as Rmoney for creepiness. Chupacabra is a most appropriate descriptor.
Nixon was creepy, but he wasn’t entitled like Romney. Nixon had some struggles in his life. Romney has always had everything handed to him.
Republican guide to female anatomy. Would imbed this jpg if I knew how on wordpress.
Ralph, reading this along with the comments next to the diagram I am reminded of poor Jacee Dugard who bore 2 babies from forcible rape.
Unless we are to believe that she – at the age of 11 – was not forced to accept this man’s advances but “welcomed” them.
Because this is basically what those crackpot theories suggest.
Insanity.
That Pat Robertson quote is amazing.
Amanda Marcotte says, Republicans, Save Yourselves. Stop Talking Rape.
There’s going to be a “surprise speaker” on Thursday night. I sure hope it isn’t Donald Trump.
Quiterella? Bush the 1st? Bush the 2nd? Bush the 3rd? Cheney? Condi? Orly Taitz? The Olsen Twins?
Hologram Reagan like they did with Tupac?
“Kenny Boy” Lay will be flying in from Bermuda to attest to RMoney’s trustworthiness in business.
LOL
I’m sitting here listening to Bobby Jindal bitch about how Obama only send a “limited” state of emergency and how it might not cover the state’s preparations for the hurricane. He’s been on TV about every 3 hours for the last 2 days and he’s just quickly reading announcements like school closings. Naked political ambition combined with hypocrisy is so sad at a time like this.
I was watching him on satellite. Seems like a nakedly ambitious douche nozzle.
He does nothing that isn’t political. He’d sell his parents into slavery and his wife and kids too if he thought it would further his political career.
By the way, shouldn’t a state (10th amndt!!) be able to pay for some of it’s own preparations and, if a disaster doesn’t happen, count that as the cost of doing bidness.
at this rate, with this number of endless pressers, he should charge it off to his campaign
Man I really hate to say this but he makes Rick Perry look good. At least Goodhair doesn’t just stand in front of a camera and read small bore BS to hear himself talk.
He’s got all these emergency leaders standing behind them. Do they have jobs to do?
Looks like if anything is standing in the way, it would be constant pressers. If those people don’t have anything to do, he should send them home to shelter in place. 😉
Each time I see or hear Bobby Jindahl I realize that no matter how bad things are up here in MA we at least can be thankful we don’t have Bobby Jindahl.
Or Rick Perry and Rick Scott for that matter but Bobby is in a class of his own when it comes to “clueless” and a desperate need for attention.
People need to remember that congress decided to gouge the budget for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and Romney said that is one of the first things he will do with his budget, remove funding for any maintenance or updates for satellite and climate weather coverages.
After all Romney did say today that he wasn’t running his campaign on any check facts…….
tell Bobby to check that shit out with Isaac.
christofascist/Republican Values:
NYTimes Politics @nytimespolitics
The Caucus: Strip Club Workers Can Tell, ‘You’re From the Convention, Aren’t You?’ http://nyti.ms/MXTUvL
The owner of Mons Venus owns the land where Occupy Tampa has been staying, with his approval, for some time. When the city evicted them from public land, he volunteered his own park. I like that in a strip club mogul.
It’s their “ethics” you admire most of all. I can tell.
If you are going to try and class up your strip club by naming it after a feature of the external female genitalia in Latin, you should at least get the cases right. It should be “mons veneris”, for mound of Venus, with Venus in the genitive case.
But I guess the clientele might not be able to translate it then…
Uhhhh, of course 🙂
David Brooks says his column was a parody of the media story line, not a satire of Romney’s life story.
Oh, he got pushback. Bwahahahahahaha
Poor Dave. He’s worried about his social calendar. It must suck being a suckup.
So very true, yet very funny. Access, one must have access!
You Didn’t Build That — You Destroyed It
That’s a very good ad. I wonder how John King feels about being in it?
Preview of Ann Romney’s performance tonight:
Yay!!! Captured the spirit.
That’s fantastic!
and she’s a “known equestrian”
POLITICO @politico
Protesters try to arrest Condoleezza Rice at RNC event: http://politi.co/OtSsB4