Tag Archives: Watergate

The GOP Will Save the Prez

From “Why the GOP thinks it could blow it,” Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, Politico:

“Republicans are worried one thing could screw up the political gift of three Obama administration controversies at once:  fellow Republicans.

“Top GOP leaders are privately warning members to put a sock in it when it comes to silly calls for impeachment or over-the-top comparisons to Watergate.  They want members to focus on months of fact-finding investigations — not rhetorical fury.”

Asking this group to put a sock in it?  Fuhgeddaboudit.  They don’t know from fact finding, they only know rhetorical fury. 

Quote of the Day

“I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi. We’re going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks.  We’re going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We’re going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton.  The bond that has been broken between those who serve us in harm’s way and the government they serve is huge — and to me every bit as damaging as Watergate.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC)

Is Mitch McConnell Anti-Catholic?

Lots of attention this morning on Mother Jones‘ release of a taped confidential Mitch McConnell strategy session where they discuss oppo research on Ashley Judd, who has since decided not to run against McConnell in Kentucky next year.

McConnell’s camp is comparing the tape’s release to Watergate and has gotten the FBI involved.  Mother Jones has explained they didn’t get the tape through a Watergate-type bugging, which leads one to believe there was someone in that room who isn’t exactly loyal to McConnell.

Anyway, during the meeting a McConnell aide played a tape of Judd on religion saying, “I’d like to think I’m like St. Francis in that way.  Brother Donkey, Sister Bird.”

This reference resulted in uproarious laughter, with the aide saying, “That’s my favorite line so far.  Absolute favorite one so far.”

The group seems ignorant that St. Francis, in dealing with his many infirmities, referred to his own body as “Brother Donkey” and that he was known for preaching sermons to flocks of birds.  His famous poem,”Canticle of the Sun” refers to various manifestations of nature as “Brother” and “Sister.”  Since God created everything, we are all brothers and sisters.

Now imagine that an Obama campaign group had been caught on tape laughing about Brother Donkey and Sister Bird.  Wouldn’t they have been chastised for their ignorance about St. Francis and Catholicism and for laughing at the Church’s most beloved saint?  Wouldn’t Sean Hannity have hit the roof about this lack of respect for Catholics, about this war on Catholics?

Mitch McConnell is a Southern Baptist.  Recently Southern Baptists and Catholics have made common cause over issues like abortion and marriage, but the history between the two groups is a pretty nasty and contentious one, with a long-standing hatred for “Papists” among the Baptists.

Our new Pope took the name Francis for a reason.  Mitch McConnell has some ‘splaining to do.

They’re Just Showboating on Benghazi

John McCain has been waaaaay out in front of the 9/11 Benghazi murders, denouncing Obama both on the Senate floor and in the media and demanding Watergate-style hearings.

But if he’s so interested in getting to the bottom of what happened, why did he fail to attend yesterday’s classified Senate briefing by administration officials?  Wouldn’t that be a good place to start?

The older Johnny Mac gets, the more pathetic and Palin-like he becomes.

He has no interest in getting to the truth, just in getting publicity and getting back at the guy who defeated him.

 

 

Why 2012 Is Not 1980

Some in the GOP are comparing President Obama to Jimmy Carter in 1980 and predicting that Mitt will win just as Reagan did.

But I believe there’s a fatal flaw in that thinking.

Carter won in 1976 because it was the first presidential election since Nixon had resigned in disgrace, and voters wanted to tell the GOP what they thought of Watergate.  They also viewed Gerald Ford as somewhat illegitimate because he had been appointed vice president, not elected.   To add insult to that injury, Ford, this guy nobody had voted for, took it upon himself to pardon Nixon.

When the economy blew up under Carter, with the prime rate at 20% and gas lines stretching to the horizon, voters recognized that Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with Watergate or Nixon or Ford.  By voting for him, they weren’t in any way condoning or returning to the way things had been under the last Republican Administration.

That’s why voting for Mitt now is different from voting for Reagan in 1980.  While the economy is not exactly going gangbusters under Obama, Mitt would take us back to the Bush policies, to the complete lack of interest in regulating Wall Street, that led to the Great Recession. He would support the kind of drastic austerity that would pull us right back into recession.

We may not like where we are, but we hate where we’ve been, and we’ll be damned if we’re going back there.  Forward!

 

 

Newt Gingrich — A Threat to the Republic

While Newt flits from one idea to another, one grand theory to another, one thing remains consistent — he doesn’t believe that the rules apply to him.  He has shown that time and again in both his personal and professional lives.  He rejects established values and ethics when they stand in the way of whatever Newtie wants at the moment.

His peers in the House (no saints themselves) saw that and rejected him as beyond the pale even by their low standards.

It would be a disaster to have such a man as president.  We’re just setting ourselves up for another Watergate or Iran-Contra.  Power has been steadily accruing to the president and the executive branch anyway, and Newt would just grab more.

Newt is a major abuse-of-power scandal waiting to happen.  If we elect him, we knowingly and willfully asked for it.

Benjamin Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention and announced that we had a republic, if we could keep it.  I don’t think Franklin would feel all warm and fuzzy about Newt.