Round up the Usual Republican Idiots

Man gets 10 years for
“massaging” $80 worth
of beef under his shirt.

I wanted to say “Round up the Usual Republican Hypocrites,” but they have by now made hypocrisy look almost respectable, compared to the rest of their behavior. There are apparently some revelations in a new book out today that are provoking a great deal of controversy, a book that might make its way here sometime in the next decade. I have not read this book, which is said to be “gossip,” but I gather it reveals some interesting things about the last election. For example, the one thing that seems to have everyone the most excited about has to do with what Harry Reid said about President Obama while he was running for President. This absolutely shocking revelation is that Reid apparently said Obama had a chance to win the election because he was “light-skinned” and did not speak with a “Negro dialect.” Wow! What a terrible thing to say, when you are supporting someone for President who is light-skinned and does not speak with a Negro dialect (I don’t know precisely what that is but I have a pretty good idea what Reid meant by it). This absolutely terrible racist remark is considered so bad Republicans are calling for his resignation. Reid has apologized and President Obama has accepted his apology. I have no idea what this is supposed to be about. Reid has a fine record of supporting Black causes and equality. At the risk of being accused of racism myself, I cannot see this as a racist remark. It appears to me to be a perfectly rational description of what was involved. Does anyone seriously believe that a truly black man who spoke with some kind of Black jargon would have been elected President? Do I believe there are truly black-skinned persons who are qualified to be President of the United States? Of course I do. Do I believe such a person would have been elected at the time. Of course I don’t, and I don’t believe any honest person would believe otherwise. For Republicans to try to compare this to the Lott claim that we would be better off had Strom Thurmond been elected President is Republican idiocy carried to an extreme.

Then there is the claim that Bill Clinton called Teddy Kennedy and asked him to endorse Hillary for President. He reportedly said, “just a few years ago he (Obama) would have been serving us coffee.” As no one wants to believe that Clinton is a racist, they interpret this has a reference to Obama’s being a junior Senator and lacking experience. Either way this was a stupid thing to say and Kennedy was rightly outraged about it. Clinton then made it worse by apparently saying to Kennedy that he was only backing Obama because he was Black, a truly stupid thing to say. I do not believe this is what made Kennedy decide to back Obama but it certainly didn’t help Hillary. I suppose in a kind of perverse way you have to give Bill Clinton some credit for desperately trying to get Hillary elected President.

Someone in the McCain campaign apparently said Sarah Palin was ignorant. I don’t know if this was said in this way or if this is just a general description stemming from the fact that she didn’t know much of anything about history, the various wars we have been engaged in, that there were two Koreas, and so on. I don’t know how many people may have been offended by this, but, again, it’s true. She was (and is) ignorant. You can’t say she is stupid, as she has certainly been smart enough to parley her brief moment in the sun into a personal fortune, but she certainly is ignorant of anything and everything that someone running for an important office should know. That John McCain picked her as someone within a heartbeat of the Presidency just demonstrates his contempt for our country and the pathology of his ambition.

I don’t know the details, but apparently John Edwards and his wife are not portrayed in a very flattering manner in this book. But you don’t have to think about it very long to understand that what Edwards did was every bit as bad and probably worse that what McCain did. If Edwards had become the candidate, or even candidate for Vice-President, at the same time he was having an adulterous affair, the Democratic ticket would have imploded had it been made public. What he was doing was basically insane, suicidal, absurd, unconscionable, even ridiculous, and can only be explained by his own pathological ambition and selfishness. It seems we dodged the bullet in both cases, but the implications for American politics are profound. If this is the quality of our Presidential candidates (along with Geroge W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Giuliani, Jindal, Thompson, Huckabee, Pawlenty, and others of that ilk) we are surely doomed.

The one person who seems to know precisely what he is doing is Dick the Slimy. He knows that the best defense is a good offense. As long as he stays on the offensive vis-à-vis Obama he has a chance to escape the consequences for his war crimes. If Obama or Holder were to suddenly decide to investigate him (apparently completely unlikely) he will be able to accuse them of political motives rather than purely legal ones. The potential charges against Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/et al, would be criminal, having nothing to do with politics, but that’s not the way these filthy thugs would try to present themselves. As Obama and Holder seem to be on the same side with them, we can’t expect them to be held accountable even for their admitted war crimes. Such is life in the corridors of power.

LKBIQ:
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams

TILT:
There is no such thing as a gentleman cat.