Tag Archives: conservative

Where’s the Media Apology on BS IRS “Scandal”?

From “How the media outrageously blew the IRS scandal:  A full accounting,” Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon:

“While the initial reports about the IRS targeting looked pretty bad, suggesting that agents singled out tax-exempt applications for Tea Party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny, the media badly bungled the controversy when supposedly sober journalists like Bob Woodward and Chuck Todd jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst from day one. Instead of doing more reporting to discover the true nature and context of the IRS targeting, or at least waiting for their colleagues to do some, the supposedly liberal mainstream press let their eagerness to show they could be just as tough on a Democratic White House as a Republican one get ahead of the facts. We expect politicians to stretch reality to fit a narrative, but the press should be better.

“And they would have gotten away with it, too, had their narrative had the benefit of being true. But now, almost two months later, we know that in fact the IRS targeted lots of different kinds of groups, not just conservative ones; that the only organizations whose tax-exempt statuses were actually denied were progressive ones; that many of the targeted conservative groups legitimately crossed the line; that the IG’s report was limited to only Tea Party groups at congressional Republicans’ request; and that the White House was in no way involved in the targeting and didn’t even know about it until shortly before the public did.

“In short, the entire scandal narrative was a fiction. But it had real consequences, effectively derailing Obama’s agenda not long after a resounding reelection, costing several people their careers, and distracting and misinforming the public. It’s not that nothing went wrong at the IRS, but that the transgression merited nowhere near the media response it earned. But instead of acknowledging its error or correcting the record, the mainstream political press has simply moved on to the next game.”

The whole piece is worth a read, as Seitz-Wald also calls out David Gregory, Jon Stewart, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, and Robert Gibbs for taking the bait so credulously without doing their homework.

Rush Reassures

Rush Limbaugh says we don’t have to worry that President Obama will be impeached.

Not because he doesn’t deserve to be, but because “the American people are not going to tolerate the first black president being removed from office.”

Yes, Rush, we loves us those Kenyan Muslim Socialists.

Luntz Speaks the Truth, Thinking He’s Off the Record

GOP evil genius Frank Luntz spoke to a student group at the University of Pennsylvania.  He offered some fluff, making jokes about Nancy Pelosi and face lifts.  When asked about political polarization, he became more serious and replied he had something to say, but not on the record.  So the student reporter from the college newspaper turned off his recording device.  But another student started to record on his iPhone with Luntz, who I guess never heard about Mitt’s 47% video, unaware.  Luntz, feeling a little too comfortable and confident, then blithely went off on right-wing talk radio:

“And they get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it’s really problematic.  … And so that is a lot of what’s driving it.  If you take — Marco Rubio’s getting his ass kicked. … He’s getting destroyed.  By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others.  He’s trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn’t the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him.”

And now talk radio will kill Luntz.

For more, see “Secret Tape:  Top GOP Consultant Luntz Calls Limbaugh ‘Problematic,'” David Corn, Mother Jones

A Two-Party System Based on Intelligence?

From “Dinosaurs and Denial,” Charles M. Blow, NYT:

“According to a June Gallup report, most Republicans (58) percent) believed that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years.  Most Democrats and independents did not agree.

“This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian.  No Wonder a 2009 Pew Research Center report found that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and 9 percent identified as conservative.

“Furthermore, a 2005 study found that just 11 percent of college professors identified as Republican and 15 percent identified as conservative.  Some argue that this simply represents a liberal bias in academia.  But just as strong a case could be made that people who absorb facts easily don’t suffer fools gladly.”

The Ann and Tagg Intervention

From “Inside the campaign:  The Romney rebellion,” Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, Politico:

“For months, Ann Romney and her eldest son, Tagg, were dutifully supportive of the political professionals running Mitt Romney’s campaign. All the while, their private frustration was mounting.

“Shortly before the first debate, it finally boiled over.

“What followed was a family intervention. The candidate’s family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee — a “let Mitt be Mitt” approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew.

“Chief strategist Stuart Stevens — whom the family held responsible for allowing Romney’s personal side to be obscured by an anti-Obama economic message — has seen his once wide-ranging portfolio “fenced in” to mainly the debates, and the television advertising that is his primary expertise, according to campaign officials. Tagg Romney, channeling his mother’s wishes, is taking a much more active role in how the campaign is run.

“The family rebellion, long building despite Mitt Romney’s initial reluctance to change, reached a climax in September, amid mounting evidence that the status quo was doomed to failure. The course correction came after internal polls showed him losing nearly every swing state and a loud chorus of second-guessing among prominent conservatives.

“When the history of this campaign is written, the family intervention will be among the most important turning points in the Romney saga. Until the weeks before the first presidential debate, the candidate sided with Stevens over his family’s skepticism, accepting the strategist’s view that the best way to win was to point out President Barack Obama’s flaws and articulate generic promises to do better.

“Even now, many Romney officials wonder whether the change can be sustained. In essence, Romney is trying to undergo a political metamorphosis — to shed an image of personal stiffness, and to emerge loose and willing to compromise. Romney, advisers concede, is at his worst when improvising — and this shift is the biggest improvisation of the campaign. Right now, Romney is described as going with the flow, trying to quickly grow into this new public persona, most notably with his decision to tell personal stories on the stump.

“But one big reason for hope inside the Romney campaign is that conservatives were so down on the campaign before the debate — and so rapturous during it — that they will give him a lot of maneuvering room to talk in more moderate ways.”  Emphasis added.

Sure, he has all the maneuvering room he wants to talk like a moderate now.  But maneuvering room to govern like a moderate?  I don’t think so. 

That’s what voters need to understand.  The crazies still control the party, and they would control a President Romney with the hanging-sword of a primary in 2016.

 

Noonan Plays the Reagan Card, Beautifully

Peggy Noonan is considered one of the keepers of the Reagan flame, and that gives her great credibility with the GOP and conservatives.

Today, in the light of her harsh criticism of Mitt and his campaign, Fox News’ Chris Wallace questioned her conservative bona fides in an interview with Politico, telling them, “Some of the people you’ve mentioned, like Peggy Noonan, sometimes they’re New York City’s idea of conservatives.”

Asked to respond, Noonan emailed, “The column speaks for itself.  Can’t say more, on a conference call with the board of the Reagan Foundation.”

As Jon Stewart would say, “Boom!”

Quote of the Day

“Until this incarnation of the Republican party is destroyed at the polls, we live in its thrall. We have in this election an opportunity not just to re-elect a president capable of making the Grand Bargain we all need; but to punish and humiliate the most extreme, irrational, hateful version of Republicanism that now stalks the land, led by a brazen liar and fathomless cynic.

“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime: to use this election to try and destroy the fundamentalist insanity that has effectively destroyed any American conservatism worthy of the name. Former Republicans, Independents and all non-fundamentalists, Christians and Jews and Muslims, have a chance to excise this metastasizing cancer from our politics.”  Emphasis added.

Andrew Sullivan, “Akin’s Position Is the GOP’s,” The Daily Beast

The GOP’s Buyer’s Remorse

Rupert Murdoch isn’t the only one beating up on Mitt and comparing him to John Kerry.  Bill Kristol from The Weekly Standard, who helped bring us Sarah Palin, makes the same comparison and throws in Michael Dukakis for good measure.

He urges Mitt to “get off autopilot” and “actually think about the race he’s running.”  But Mitt is too cautious to do the kind of fundamental campaign overhaul he needs, and besides, there’s no such thing as a personality transplant.   Mitt is too “conservative” as a person to create and run the campaign conservatives want.

I don’t think the GOP’s comparing President Obama to Jimmy Carter is resonating, but their comparing their own hapless/hopeless guy to Kerry and Dukakis rings true.