We Are In Agreement

Pointing and Laughing - but also a total bummer - We're Doomed to Many More Gingrich Candidates

Ann Laurie over at Balloon Juice enjoys pointing out the irony that Citizen's United effectively created the Gingrich "situation" in the GOP primary.

Jonathan Chait, at NYMag’s Daily Intel, on “How Citizens United Created Newt“:

...Money is the primary mechanism that parties use to herd voters toward the choices the elites would prefer them to make. The nomination of George W. Bush offers a classic example. Bush and his network had organized so many Republicans to donate so much money that the contest was essentially over well before a vote had been cast. The Bush fund-raising network didn’t involve a handful of billionaires in a room. It required thousands of fairly affluent people working together.
 
In 2000, the Bush network froze challenger John McCain out of party fund-raising networks. Now, the GOP is trying to do this again on behalf of Romney:

    If Gingrich does win, veteran GOP strategists tell CNN to expect pressure on Senate     Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and other     Republican leaders to call key GOP donors and ask them not to contribute to     Gingrich’s campaign.

Ten years ago, this sort of edict would have suffocated Gingrich. But under the present system, Gingrich can simply have a single extremely wealthy supporter, Sheldon Adelson, write a series of $5 million checks. “Winning Our Future” is Gingrich’s “independent” PAC, and it’s an entire shadow campaign, complete with a ground operation in addition to advertising. Adelson’s money isn’t enough for Gingrich to attain parity with Romney – he’s probably being outspent at least two to one – but it is keeping him alive…

This is indeed delicious, except that it's going to keep happening. As wealth becomes increasingly concentrated, each election cycle will bring with it another (or 2 or 3) Shelden Adelson(s) who can bankroll a single candidate.

In 2012 we saw Herman Cain and Rick Santorum, fake candidates running to increase their street cred and speakers fees. In 2016 and 2020 we'll see candidates funded by the oil lobby, or big pharma, or foreign interests (how would we know) advancing specific agendas on the national stage.

Not good, all this money. Repeal Citizen's United.

Newt Thinks Pelosi has nothing but gay on her mind

Saying that Nancy Pelosi “lives in a San Francisco environment of strange fantasies,” Newt Gingrich on Wednesday dismissed the House Democratic leader’s odd claim that she knows something that will prevent him from becoming president.

“She lives in a San Francisco environment of strange fantasies and strange understandings of reality. I have no idea what’s in Nancy Pelosi’s head. If she knows something, spit it out. Tell us what it is. I have no idea what she’s talking about,” Gingrich said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Politico

Going to Fresno This Weekend

Might come back with a meth dependancy. Updates as they develop.

Romney Brings Hair-Pulling to a Gun Fight

Today Romney denounced the Cordray appointment as “Chicago style politics at its worst.”

The Obama campaign responds: “Mitt Romney today stood with predatory lenders and Republicans in Congress over the middle class. He doubled down on his promise to eliminate the Wall Street watchdog and allow Wall Street to write its own rules again, leaving consumers vulnerable to hidden fees, financial traps and excessive risk taking that will hit their pocketbooks. Governor Romney has made clear he has not learned the lessons of the economic crisis, instead, he’s giving the most irresponsible financial actors a bright green light to pursue profit at any cost to communities across America.”

WaPo

In fairness, his name is associated with the by-product of a sex act, not an actual sex-act

Apart from that, this is some killer ad-copy:

The big winner at the Iowa caucus this year was not Mitt Romney - although he did win by a mere 8 votes - it was Rick Santorum. Santorum has spent much of the 2012 Presidential campaign residing in the lower popularity tier of the nominees but saw a big showing in Iowa today with a strong 2nd place finish. Santorum still has many obstacles in his path to victory; low campaign funds, Paulbots (Ron Paul's crazed supporters) and militant homosexual activists . The homosexual activists have attempted to re-define his last name as a filthy homosexual sex act and relentlessly bully him for not supporting the perversion of Marriage. A rather childish thing to do but not surprising coming from the radical Gaystapo.

Christians for A Moral America

 

Next for Santorum: pinch a loaf on the Capital Mall and then finger-bang the Statue of Liberty

BRENTWOOD, N.H. — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum committed one of the gravest sins in Republican politics on Wednesday evening by knocking the revered former President Ronald Reagan at a packed town hall meeting.

Daily Caller

GOP Primary up to South Carolina will be a bloody mess

Gingrich is all bent out of shape

Gingrich, known for his feisty nature during his time in the House of Representatives, had vowed not to have a negative campaign in Iowa. But he lashed out at Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, blaming SuperPAC fundraising groups linked to Romney and libertarian Ron Paul for the negative TV ads that knocked him from atop the Iowa polls.

"Together I think we survived the biggest onslaught in the history of the Iowa primary," Gingrich said.

Reuters

A touching sentiment from the guy who said this:

"I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around a campfire but are lousy in politics."

Perry, Santorum, Newt, and, of course, Mitt, have vowed to stay in until January 21 (SC Primary) which means a raw-sewage-flume of negative ads in the interim.

Unfortunately the negativity will highlight non-issue differences (Mitt is a phony conservative, Newt is a scummy lobbyist, Santorum is an emotional necrophiliac, etc) rather that substantive foreign or domestic policy concerns.

At least it makes for good television.

Every four years

I get roped into the horse-race in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and I think "I need to get involved in local politics, where my interest can affect actual results. Not this faux struggle between 2 parties [that agree on most substantive issues]"

And then I proceed to ignore local politics. 

Who knows, maybe this will be my year.

Gooo horse-race!!!

Chris Christie, speaking from a kitchen, announces that drug war has failed

Charles M. Pierce is funny

They are sinkholes of cheap corruption, state governments. They are more closely attuned not to the concerns of their people, but to their worst transient prejudices and enthusiasms. What you see in Alabama is what is produced when big jobs like immigration reform are left to the states, where policy is driven by radio morons who aren't even talented enough to get a national syndication deal, 

Esquire