The New Race to the Bottom

It's an election year.  You can see it on tv, hear it on the radio, read it in the newspapers.  Obscene amounts of money are being spent to make sure we're focused on Mitt Romney's dog, that Obama ate dog as a child, literary pamphlets from 21 years ago again reviving the zombie birther myth.

It's gonna be a doozy folks.  Our first post Citizens United presidential election.  The parties and the super PAC's look to spend more money than The Avengers will gross.  More than any election in history.

What's lamentable is how little that money will promote discussion about actual issues.  Instead we'll see Karl Rove hit jobs with amazing production values.  We'll hear sound bites cribbed and edited so flawlessly most won't realize what's being said is complete bullshit.

It wouldn't be as maddening if there weren't so many serious issues facing us: a limping economy, stubbornly high unemployment, a Congress that will not act to reign in spending or raise revenue.  No, we're debating for the 87 millionth time whether Obama is a Kenyan, passages from Obama's books are presented as revelations.  Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers brought out AGAIN.

I could care less if Romney did cut that kid's hair.  He was a teenager.  Teenagers do stupid things.  In other breaking news, the sun rose today.  Why don't we put this pablum aside and discuss how awful his policies are?  Why not look past Seamus' trip on the car roof and look at how Romney had to struggle to establish his conservative bona fides e.g. joining the NRA only after getting slammed by the second Amendment crowd.

It's worse on Obama's side.  The conservative blogosphere has been on a partisan acid trip for 4 years, cooking up one insane conspiracy after another.  Obama's failure to address their lunatic musings has only fueled the chants of 'Cover up!'  Who cares what a 1991 literary pamphlet said?  Why not talk about Obama's foreign policy being uncomfortably similar to his predecessor's?  Instead of enabling Orly Taitz, why not discuss Barack's milquetoast support for gay marriage which only solidified after Biden held his feet to the fire?

We're a better country than this.  We're adults and should be having a grown up conservation.  Instead we've turned our elections into a reality show.  With the amount of information literally at our fingertips, it's almost criminal how poorly informed people are.  And how little they seem to care.

But alas, it's an election year.  Serious discourse can't help but give way to juicy attack ads and salacious gossip.  Maybe a 5 year old Romney let a goldfish die because he forgot to feed it?  Maybe a 3rd grade Obama gave a female classmate cooties?

It's been 392 years...

...since the Puritans landed at Plymouth.

Nearly four centuries.  And we're still grappling with their angst over sex.

Is it more complicated than that?  Of course.  There are issues with STD's, teen pregnancy, gay rights, reproduction, marriage and others.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to religion based shame.

I won't even get into the absurdity of having a debate about contraception while we're slogging our way out of a historic economic crisis.

Reagan cynically saw poor Christians as an untapped electoral resource and made outlawing abortion a republican issue. Sadly churches played along. They facilitated pigeonholing their congregations into one issue voters.  Who cared if republicans disagreed with Christian faith on virtually everything else?  "Don't you dare vote for a baby killer" to quote a preacher whose church I once sat in.

Thirty two years later, Rick Santorum is winning a presidential primary by pounding the lectern about abortion and making a contraception a states' rights issue. 

Apparently job creation is a stale message when people are screwing.

Did it ever occur to Rick that perhaps sex is one of the few pleasures Americans can still afford?  I get that like most republicans, he wants to strip away labor and civil rights protections progressives spent the last hundred years achieving.  But he even wants to take away sex?

The best argument the Christian right can muster is that sex is morally reprehensible and should have consequences.  It seems to grate on them that contraception has so effectively worked against pregnancy.  And it really seems to bother them that birth control has other medical uses.

Way to lead the charge straight back to the thirteenth century.  Santorum has twisted the First Amendment into a club to pound religious beliefs into employees of church run institutions.

The Puritans would be proud.  Keep the faith Rick.

Christmas Coming Early for Democrats?

When Rick Santorum announced his candidacy, like a lot of progressives, I was stunned.

In 2006, I watched his spectacular flame-out, losing to Bob Casey by 19 points.  His bigoted comments conflating homosexuality with bestiality fresh in the public's ears.  Santorum's downfall was emblematic of voter disgust with a republican party run amok.

A mere six years later, Santorum is not only running for the GOP presidential nomination, he's winning.  Moreover he's doing it running on a platform of toxic social issues.

Understandably, the establishment is doing everything it can to submarine Santorum.  Romney has the biggest war chest fueled by mountains of super PAC cash.  As Chris Matthews recently said, Romney will "carpet bomb" Santorum with negative advertising leading up to the Michigan primary.  So far his efforts have been for naught as Santorum continues to the lead in the polls.

As for democrats? We've been watching the show and laughing our asses off.

Last week on Hannity's carnival sideshow, Dick Morris called DHHS's new contraception rule a "hit job." If one works this through in their head, it begs the conclusion that Morris blames Obama for the right wing's working itself into a religious froth.

If it isn't true (and there is no evidence it is) then republicans have no one to blame but themselves for losing their minds and showing the country how virulently they still oppose women's reproductive rights.

If it is true, then Obama and the democrats deserve credit for playing republicans like a fiddle. Tossing this innocuous regulation out and letting the right go insane.  More brilliantly, it served to not only show how little republicans care about the economy, but also replaced their only viable candidate with someone epically unelectable.

Democratic strategists would LOVE to take credit for it.

The republicans toss aside jobs, the economy, and everything else voters care about in favor of the most poisonous fringe issue they could find.

Anyone know what the over/under is for an Obama/Santorum race?  Obama by 20 points? Put me down for the over.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I might leave cookies out for Santa this year. 

The GOP's Deafening Silence on the Economy

The last several weeks have been interesting, and quite entertaining.

Obama's DHHS announced that religious owned institutions, who employ and serve people regardless of their faith, will be required to provide contraception to employees via their health insurance plans for zero co-pay.

And the right wing goes berserk.

Not just a little nuts.  Full on, frothing at the mouth, end-of-times looney tunes.

Rick Santorum is propelled to victory in three consecutive primaries.  Santorum, Mittens, Newt, Fox News and AM hate radio all trumpet this ridiculous (and non existent) "War on Christianity."

I don't really blame them.  They have to do this to placate their base. Their tired narrative demands that Obama be portrayed as a  liberal ubermensch, an  arch secularist who deflowers virgins and dines on the unborn.  Big government, tax and spend and weak on defense are also required.

Obama has proven this laughably false with a 2013 budget that reduces the deficit by $400 billion in one year. He's pushed to extend payroll tax cuts.  He's made superlative use of the military in Libya and in taking out bin Laden and al Awlaki.

It leaves the right in a pickle.  It doesn't make a difference to Limbaugh, Hannity or their ilk, they'll lie right to your face.  Hannity said this week that if Obama had had his way, bin Laden would still be alive. This flies in the face of logic, reason, and sanity.

But anyway, Santorum, Romney and Gingrich have been hurling contraception red meat to the right wing base.  It's particularly funny that this brouhaha is being fueled not by Catholics themselves (58% support Obama's measure), but by their self appointed mouthpieces.  While the GOP has been busy demonizing the President over this IMO trivial matter, it's left a huge gap in the candidates' running narrative.

What about the economy?  What about jobs?  What about the housing market?  What about the debt and deficit republicans claimed were their real issues?

This is spookily reminiscent of Rachel Maddow's exposure of the Tea Party as the social conservative fanatics they are.  In 2010, they got elected on a platform of smaller government and lower taxes.  What voters got were 80+ anti abortion bills and open war against unions.

It's even more telling that this week Obama unveiled a $25 billion settlement with mortgage lenders to help ease the housing crisis.  Admittedly his jobs bill went nowhere but again, where were the republicans?

The GOP's contraception freak out combined with their utter silence on the economy paints a picture of a party woefully out of touch with the country.

But oh the steak tartar.

Why Newt Should Thank Occupy Wall Street

 "You got it. It’s time to be patriotic, Kate. It’s time to jump in, it’s time to be part of the deal, it’s time to help get America out of the rut." - Joe Biden on raising taxes on the wealthy, 2008

Biden was excoriated for this remark by the McCain campaign while the notion of taxes as patriotic was scoffed at and vilified by the usual gang of talk radio idiots.

Fast forward to now. 

Romney is under heavy fire for his status as a super rich guy.  Much of it is his own fault for condescending and patronizing attempts to find common ground with the little guy.

• Wearing jeans and flannel shirts (but don't you dare touch his coif). 
• Telling people he's unemployed, while sitting on over a quarter of a billion dollars.  
• The unintentionally sarcastic remark he created 100,000 jobs while at Bain Capital, despite their track record of laying off workers and shuttering factories.  
• More recently, his ludicrous waving away of $373,000 in speaking fees as "not very much money." 
• Let's also not forget the shocker that he invested in offshore funds in the Cayman Islands, which according to his camp isn't really a tax haven.

The latest charge is the revelation that Mittens' actual tax rate for 2010 was 15%.

No one is suggesting he did anything illegal (though the ethics of private equity firms has gotten a lot of attention).  Likewise no one is suggesting he doesn't deserve his income, that he should give his money away, or that he's at fault for availing himself of current tax law.

But it blows a HUGE hole in the already sinking ship that Romney is an every man, someone not of the super wealthy elite.

The Grinch (good nickname for Newt?), who's been viciously attacking Mittens, now proudly pats himself on the back that in 2010 he paid an actual federal income tax rate of 31%.  Take that Richie Rich!

I love it. One rich guy attacking another rich guy for being more rich (Newt's personal worth is estimated at over $100 million).

Paying more in taxes in order to score points with voters?  Egads.  Joe was right.

Newt should thank the Occupiers.

One inarguable success the protest movement had is shifting the national dialogue towards issues like income and wealth disparity and tax laws that favor the rich. Those phrases are appearing in the media more now than in a quite a while.

The issues obviously resonate with GOP voters (even if they still hate the Occupiers) otherwise Romney wouldn't be on his heels defending his image while his poll numbers dip.

Of course Newt doesn't have the guts to point this out.  Solidarity with a bunch of hippies whom Sean Hannity accused of rape and murder?  Oh no no no.  The Grinch doesn't want to raise Romney's taxes, he wants to lower everyone else's to 15%.  Shrewd way to push another awful flat tax policy (9-9-9!!).

The GOP distraction of deficits and debt have been pushed aside in favor of appealing to the middle class and the fact they pay taxes at a higher rate than their bosses do.  If the GOP adopts this platform, they'll be doing the Occupiers' and the left's job for them.

While Obama has been consistent with his message that jobs and the economy come first, he's been content to let the GOP figure it out on their own.  All it took was a lot of brave men and women, some tents, and several tons of granola.

Maybe Newt's next attack ad will call out Mittens as the 1%? 

The Tea Party's Christmas Miracle: More "Shared Sacrifice"

Last Christmas, the Bush tax cuts were set to expire.  This was the result of a rule that prevented legislation that runs up the deficit from lasting more than 10 years.  Meaning that, at the time, Congress KNEW the cuts wouldn't "pay for themself".  This also gives lie to Stephen Moore's recent revelation that the federal government took in "more revenue" than at any time in history for several consecutive years.

At any rate, they were supposed to expire.  People like me would have breathed easy, but for the certainty that the GOP would never let that happen.  Democrats and republicans then got into a game of chicken over tax rates for the middle class.  Dems threatened the middle in an effort to get the top rate moved back to 39%.  Reps threatened the middle in an effort to preserve the top rate at 35%.  Dems predictably caved and the top rate didn't budge.

Fast forward to now, another Christmas, another tax war.  This time it's over whether to preserve a payroll tax cut that largely affects the middle class (the people who actually spend money).  Dems wanted to fund it by levying a 1.9% excise tax on millionaire incomes.  Reps wanted to cut safety net spending.  Reaching an impasse, the Senate wisely agreed to a 60 day extension to give them breathing room to work out a compromise.

The 60 day extension was supported by 89 Senators.

In the House, rife with freshmen teabaggers? DEAD ON ARRIVAL.

Boehner actually said if they couldn't extend the cuts for a year, they wouldn't by 60 days.  Why?  Because we'd be in exactly the same position in 60 days (begging the inference that no progress would be made).  This drew immediate fire from the usual sources.  And some not so usual: Senate republicans such as John McCain.

"The Republicans are losing this fight. We need to get back on track," McCain said. "A thousand dollars a year is a big amount of money to most Americans, and I think it's very important. ... I worry about the fact that we are continuing to increase the debt and the deficit, but now it's become very symbolic, and I think it has to be done."

Mitch McConnell:

 "House Republicans sensibly want greater certainty about the duration of these provisions, while Senate Democrats want more time to negotiate the terms," McConnell said in a written statement. "These goals are not mutually exclusive. We can and should do both."

The teabagger controlled House wants to kill the patient because they don't like the ER bill.  They want to pull $128 billion out of the economy (average of $800 x 160 million).  Money they know, or should know will be spent, helping to push the sluggish economy along.

Unfortunately pragmatism, and apparently human decency, are dirty words to the tea party. Nothing matters more than blind, partisan ideology.

I'd ask them to do the right thing, come up with a compromise or at least back-burner the issue so that a deal can be struck. But given the teabaggers' gleeful willingness to engage in brinkmanship, don't bet on it.

Their way of doing business is to burn the house down because they don't like the drapes. 

The Unlikeable vs. The Unelectable

The "Inevitable" Nominee

Be my date to the prom. Please?

GOP voters are in a pickle. At the heart of it is a clown car full of candidates so awful Paul Krugman and James Carville are scratching their heads. It would be easier to dismiss if the republican primary actually were an episode of Punk'd, if Michele Bachmann really were doing an Andy Kaufman riff. 

The field is what it is: a bad joke.

The only "inevitable" thing about Newt Gingrich's candidacy is that he would get a chance to ride the Anybody-But-Romney train and lead in the polls.  What is odd is that his lead outlived the others and has yet to collapse under the weight of Newt's own verbal blunders.

I will say, given the weakness of his competitors, Newt does stand out. Next to Bachmann's blank stare, Gingrich is a mental colossus.  Next to Perry's rabid religiosity, Newt's shameless philandering is refreshing. Next to Cain's ignorance of...damn near everything, Newt's ideas (no matter how laughable) lend him gravitas.  Next to Ron Paul's libertarian fetishism, Gingrich looks sane. Next to Huntsman, Gingrich looks inferior in every way, but Huntsman has done such a wonderful job fading into the woodwork it's hard to tell he's even still running.

And then there's Mitt. The presumptive nominee. The only candidate who poses a credible threat to Obama's reelection. So of course primary voters hate his guts. The smooth, well groomed appearance, the New England pedigree, the Obamacare pilot program. And of course the Mormon thing.  Can't have that.

They love Newt but c'mon, the guy couldn't even hold his seat in Congress. His brash rudeness, boundless egotism and lunatic ideas are guaranteed to turn voters off.  This is without even getting to his awful run in Congress notable for two government shutdowns, resigning in disgrace as Speaker, and being a royal pain in the ass to GOP leadership.

Still he's leading in the polls with Iowa right around the corner.

Even evangelicals are coming out for him.  Really? What the fuck?  He spits on the institution of marriage (opposite marriage no less), has no discernible moral grounding, and he's Catholic!  Huntsman and Romney take it on the chin for wearing special underwear, but Newt gets a pass for impeaching Clinton over a blow job while banging a staffer?  They want the guy who advocates putting poor children to work?

Have fun selling this slimy lizard to the independents.  

So there's the pickle: the guy they hate, or the one who can't win.  Republicans, enjoy.  I'll be watching the show.