Oops Is In

From Politico:

“Gov. Rick Perry is inviting hundreds of prominent Republican donors and policy experts to a series of gatherings next month that are intended to rebuild his damaged national brand and lay the foundation for a potential 2016 presidential campaign….

The small-group sessions kick off Tuesday and Wednesday in Austin with a pair of lunches and dinners held in the governor’s mansion wedged between policy briefings at the nearby office of Perry senior adviser Jeff Miller. In all, Perry’s team expects he will meet in person with more than 500 major donors and bundlers from around the country in December as well as a slew of operatives, Republican National Committee members and policy experts.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/rick-perry-2016-campaign-113210.html#ixzz3KU9lYWbo

So can he remember a list of three things this time around?  Will he write them on his hand like Sarah Palin?  He’s already stolen her idea of using glasses to try to look smart.

Bad Analogy of the Day

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says that President Obama’s action on immigration is just like when FDR sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during WWII.

Now we know the theme song for Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign — “If I Only Had a Brain” from the Wizard of Oz.

Laugh of the Day

From Timothy Noah’s NYT review of a new biography of Nelson Rockefeller*:

“Impressed by a Thomas Aquinas quote he came across in a newspaper editorial, Rockefeller asked a staff aide to arrange a meeting with this astute theologian.  Rockefeller’s grasp of science didn’t inspire much confidence either.  After being briefed on the harm aerosol products were doing to the ozone layer, he asked: ‘How do all those spray cans get up there?'”

And you thought Dan Quayle was our dumbest Veep.

* On His Own Terms:  A Life of Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Norton Smith

It’s Not So Bad

The results in the Senate are not, as many are proclaiming, a victory for the GOP establishment, but a big win for the Tea Party.  Yes, Karl Rove and Reince Preibus got them to don sheep’s clothing for the campaign, but they will govern as the wolves they are.  Take the issue of Personhood — that a fertilized egg has the same constitutional rights you and I do.  Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, Tom Cotton, Steve Daines, and Joni Ernst all believe that.

On the one hand, you might see it as bad news to have more crazies in Congress.  And a Tea Party senator like Joni Ernst can do a lot more damage than a Tea Party congressman like retiring Michele Bachmann, since one of 100 is far more influential than one of 435.  But the good news is that these new senators aren’t going to shut up for the next six years (or even two) and will hurt the GOP with their extremist views.  They will be baggage for the 2016 presidential nominee.

Having Republican control — especially batshit Republican control — of both houses of Congress hurts their White House prospects.  Voters will pause before turning the entire government over to this GOP, you need someone who can at least veto the wingnut stuff.

So a GOP-controlled Congress helps the Dem presidential nominee.  The Dems also have a good chance of taking back the Senate in 2016.  They’ll have the young/minority voters who don’t bother to show up for mid-terms, and they’ll have seven states up that went GOP in 2010, but for Obama in 2008 and 2012 — New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

If the Dems win the White House in 2016 and take back the Senate, what then?  Not much.  Even a President Elizabeth Warren would have to face a GOP House, so a progressive agenda would be DOA.

Our best shot at actually getting stuff done?  That would be a Republican president with a Dem Congress.  The Dems will work with a Republican prez, the GOP won’t work with a Dem.

 

Best Advice of the Day

“Fire Valerie Jarrett,” Carol Felsenthal, Politico

The Morons Are Coming, The Morons Are Coming!

So Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) made the rather obvious and understated comment that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African Americans.”  Yeah, you could say slavery and lynchings and discrimination in every aspect of life are kind of “unfriendly.”  Or you could be the GOP and go absolutely batshit.  It’s always a safe bet that the higher the reading on their outrage meter, the less there really is to be upset about.

Truth?  They can’t handle the truth, whether it’s history, economics, biology, climate science, or physics.  We already have a Congress and state houses filled with morons and on Tuesday we’re going to get even more.