When Will George Bush (and Karl Rove) Apologize to McCain?

I hate to find myself defending Donald Trump, but what George W. Bush did to John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary was far, far worse than anything Trump has said.

Devastated by his loss in the New Hampshire primary, Bush had to win SC.  So he did “push polls” leading voters to believe that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child, when he and Cindy had of course adopted their daughter Bridget.  Bush also implied that McCain’s time as a POW had left him too mentally ill to serve as president.  Bush won SC, but he sure as hell didn’t win fair.

Ya Think?

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now thinks maybe that whole Bush v. Gore thing (in which she voted to end the Florida recount and make Bush president) maybe wasn’t such a good idea after all:

“Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’  Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision.  It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”

McCain Didn’t Get the Memo

Bush 41 screwed up his re-election chances by looking at his watch during a debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.  Politicians learned not to do that when they were on stage.

But John McCain, who probably has forgotten a lot of stuff, seemed to forget that yesterday at his town hall in Manchester with Mitt Romney.  Johnny Mac got impatient while Mitt was speaking and was observed ostentatiously looking at his watch, waiting for Mitt to shut up and let him speak.

As if things aren’t awkward enough in the Romney campaign.

Vote Red, Vote Blue — Green Always Wins

Liberal elites chide the “yokels” in the red heartland who vote Republican, against their economic interests, over issues like abortion and gay marriage.

But don’t be so smug, middle class Americans on the blue coasts, who think you’re smarter than the folks in flyover country.  The truth is you’re voting against your economic interests too.  When you vote Democrat, you’re just buying into the flip side of the culture wars, you’re responding to those who say they’ll protect and fight for your right to choose or to marry someone of the same sex.

Because if you’re middle class, whether you vote Democrat or Republican, you’re voting against your economic interests.  Both parties seek the contributions of Wall Street, both parties are bought and paid for by them, and both parties protect the interests of the rich.  The Dems do more for the poor, that’s true, but I’m talking about the middle class.

In the last thirty years, we’ve had both Democrat and Republican presidents, Democrat and Republican Congresses.  And the middle class has suffered and declined.  Much of the responsibility for the economic meltdown that happened under Bush 43 goes back to Bill Clinton, with such dumb moves as the repeal of Glass Steagall.  Dodd-Frank is a joke that doesn’t begin to address what caused the economic collapse or to prevent the next one.  Dodd-Frank passed because Wall Street signed off on it in an attempt to throw us a few crumbs.

It infuriates me that Mitt Romney, like other venture capital and hedge fund and equity guys, pays income tax at the rate of 15% because of the indefensable loophole of “carried interest,” while I pay 35%.  But you know who one of the top defenders of “carried interest” has been and continues to be?  New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat.  He gets tons of money from Wall Street (he’s their senator) and he watches out for them, not the middle class of New York and the rest of America.  Basically, Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer are the same guy.

The Wall Street folks don’t care about abortion or gay rights or guns or the “war on Christmas” or any of the emotional issues that get people to vote red or blue.  They just care about the money and the stuff — the triplexes on Fifth Avenue, the oceanfront places at the Hamptons, the Ferraris and the Gulf Streams.

The Wall Street folks know it doesn’t matter if the Democrats or Republicans win because they can’t lose.  They own both sides.  Real power doesn’t shift between red and blue, it always stays with Wall Street green.

Blue people may laugh at red people, but the green people are laughing at all of us.

The Iowa Caucuses are a couple of hours away.  The rich will win tonight, they’ll win the rest of the primary contests, and they’ll win the general.

You Reap What You Sow, Mr. Rove

Karl Rove is in a tizzy over Donald Trump’s moderating a Republican debate, believing that this demeans the process and asking the Republican National Committee to intervene.

But it’s Karl Rove who’s brought us to this cycle of silliness.  His career-long shenanigans and dirty tricks, his cynical manipulation of both the process and the discourse have led inexorably to a megalomaniacal moron like Trump taking the stage.

If you put up a tent, and hire clowns and lions and elephants, a tightrope walker and a trapeze artist and a fire-eater, you can’t exactly complain that the circus has come to town.

Bush 43 calls Rove “turd blossom.”  He is half right.