All posts tagged Dick Morris

An Inspired Idea For Putting “A Human Face” On Mittens

A regular commenter, John McNight, recently offered Republicans a brilliant idea:

The upcoming Republican National Convention plans to reintroduce Mitt Romney to America; an effort will be made to put a human face on the nominee. I hope this staged endeavor features Mitt, Hank Williams Jr. and Donald Trump lounging around a cracker barrel, cracking ‘birther’ jokes with Sheriff Arpaio. After the laughter has died down they can then display genuine sadness that America has an illegal alien in the Oval Office. Even though drinking whiskey is against Mitt’s religious beliefs — as are releasing income tax documents — maybe he’ll send the Tennessee delegation into a flag waving frenzy when accepting Hank’s offer to take a pull. It’s too bad Sarah Palin won’t be in attendance. Having her jump over the old country store stage set on a red, white and blue motorcycle would undoubtedly set off a thunderous chorus of USA! USA!

My response:

John,

Now that I think about it, what better way to “put a human face” on Mittens than, “A Relaxing Evening With Three Rednecks,” featuring a conspiracy-drunk fake billionaire from New York City, a washed-up country singer from Nashville nicknamed after a ventriloquist dummy, and a fascistic xenophobe-with-a-badge from Phoenix? That undoubtedly classy presentation of a real cross-section of Republican America would be one that Democratic convention planners could only hope to top.

As for Sarah Palin, there is a good reason she won’t be part of the act in Tampa and thus will not be jumping over “the old country store stage set“ on a patriotically dressed hog, her Arctic-warming cleavage presented with all the on-air tastefulness of a Fox “News” “info-babe.”

The resulting erotic commotion among the Viagra-needy “sock monkey-waving social conservatives” (nice phrase you came up with, by the way; have you ever thought of blogging?) in attendance would be too much for local security to contain, what with SKIN Tampa—the city’s “only upscale Full Nude Ultra Lounge” and “home of the $10 lap dance“—a mere five minutes from the convention center. A thunderous herd of hopped-up, manly Palinistas seeking less wholesome titillating entertainment is not part of the contingency plans of Tampa’s finest, I’m sure.

And speaking of SKIN Tampa, the laissez-faire entrepreneurial spirit, so much celebrated by the Republican Party, is alive and well in Florida. Not letting an obvious profit opportunity pass it by, SKIN Tampa has an unassailable bidness strategy. It is offering:

FREE transportation and complimentary VIP for RNC Attendees and Press

How many times, do you suppose, that Bible-totin’, social conservative good ol’ boys get a chance to play VIP for a night, uh, for a night or three, in the presence of butt-nekkid small bidness gals as they freely advertise their best God-given assets?

From SKIN Tampa‘s website, you can see how much thought went into attracting patriotic teavangelicals:

My guess is that the jacked-up SUV in the picture above will spend a lot of time shuttling male folks hanging around the Elect Peter Kinder tent, or, when it is up and running, “curious” guys trolling near Dick Morris’ Free Pedicure booth.

Duane

7 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on August 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on August 26, 2012

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/an-inspired-idea-for-putting-a-human-face-on-mittens/

How Obama Will Sell Out The Country

I suggested yesterday (Obama’s Planning On Selling Out the Country…) that someone on Fox’s evening lineup would question the “intelligence and patriotism” of Obama and that someone might wonder “what else is Barack Obama not telling us he’ll do after he’s elected.”

Sean Hannity did not disappoint last night. He played Obama’s “private” conversation with Dmitry Medvedev:

OBAMA: This is my last election, and after my election I’ll have more flexibility.

MEDVEDEV: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir [Putin].

Now, everyone knows that the term “more flexibility” means “more flexibility to screw the American people who just elected me,” right? And if you didn’t know that, then you did after Sean’s guest, Newt Gingrich, explained it all:

Well, it raises two questions. The first is, what other countries has he had this conversation with and who else has he said—to the Iranians to the North Koreans, to a variety of places—you know, give me a little time, give me some space, let me get reelected and then I’ll sell out.

And the second is, my interpretation of an American president telling a Russian president about our missile defense clearly indicates he’s going to sell out our defense system as soon as he gets reelected, which would fit his whole policy of weakness and appeasement…

He’s a hard-line left-winger…none of this is a surprise. The question is does the United States want to reelect a president with the worst economic record since the Great Depression, the highest deficits in American history, the rising cost of gasoline, a weak foreign policy, and he really wants to destroy the American defense system. That’s essentially what Obama-ism is.

Those aren’t the words of some obscure know-nothing in the bowels of movement conservatism. Those are the words of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who once was considered by many to be a viable contender in the GOP presidential primary.

And if that wasn’t enough entertainment for one night, the opening act for Gingrich was the toesucker himself, Dick Morris.

Hannity had played a Santorum ad the theme of which was: If we reelect Obama, the world will grow dark and the birds and Mitt Romney will stop singing. Asked to comment on the ad, the toesucker said it “understated” how bad things will be, should voters put Obama back in the White’s House.

He then outlined Obama’s second term for the lucky viewers, which I will quote at length because one has to plumb the depths of this Mariana Trench delusion to fully appreciate it:

First of all, I believe he’ll proceed to a single-payer system on health care.  I think Obamacare was just an intermediate step in his mind.  And if he’s reelected, particularly if he has a Democratic Congress, he will eliminate the private health insurance industry and all insurance will be from the government and it will all be according to one plan.

Secondly, I think that he will completely reverse the initiatives of the Bush 43 administration in opening vast new forms of oil drilling in the U.S., and will eliminate this incredible opportunity we have to dominate the global oil markets and put the terrorists out of business.

But thirdly, I think that his big focus will be to make the United States a vassal state to a globalist entity. I think that the G20 and the IMF will acquire sovereignty over our economy. I think that he will sign the international criminal treaty—Criminal Court treaty—that would oblige the United States to get U.N. approval, which is to say Russian and Chinese approval, before going to war.

I think he’ll sign—I write about all this in my book coming up in two months called “Screwed”—I think he’ll sign the Rights of the Child treaty, which would create a legal basis for suing to increase foreign aid to poor countries.

I think that he’ll sign the Gun Control treaty…I think that he’ll sign the global ban on small arms—back door arms control in the United States. I think he’ll sign away our royalties for offshore oil drilling by going along with the law of the sea treaty. I think that he’ll ban U.S. weapons in outer space, which will eliminate an anti-missile capability fiasco…

But the most important thing I didn’t get to: He’s gonna transform America into two countries. A small number of people who pay taxes and a large number of people don’t work and are dependent upon the government to create a permanent leftist, socialist base in the United States.

As you can see, Mr. Obama will have his hands full in his second term, as selling out America is no easy task.

And by the way, don’t forget to pick up a copy of Dick Morris’ book in a couple of months.

6 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on March 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on March 27, 2012

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/how-obama-will-sell-out-the-country/

Ozark Billy Snubs The Erstwhile Conservative

On Saturday, I continued my tradition of attending the annual Joplin Tea Party rally.

Unfortunately for organizers, though, there weren’t that many teapartiers who were willing to continue their tradition of attending.  This year’s contingent was much smaller than last year’s, which was much smaller than the year before. 

But the sparse crowd—maybe 150 folks—was nevertheless thrown lots of blood-red meat from the speakers, which besides the usual locals, included would-be senator Rep. Todd Akin, who has never met a Democrat who wasn’t also a socialist, and, of course, Colonel Ozark Billy Long.

Now, I happened to be standing in the back of the crowd, when I spotted Colonel Billy trying to slip away from the area where the speakers were huddled:

Sensing a chance to talk to the Colonel one-on-one, I hurried over to where I thought he was heading, camera in tow.  I was prepared to make and post a newsworthy video for my faithful readers.  As I was walking, I looked up and saw Ozark Billy staring at me as I approached, with an unwelcoming look on his face. Nevertheless,  I pressed on, again, with camera in tow.

As I walked up to my congressman, my representative, I introduced myself and told him I was from Joplin, clearly identifying myself as one of his constituents.  I asked him if he minded if I interviewed him with my camera on.  No, he said.  Really? I asked.  No, he said, I don’t want you to do that.  Well, I protested, why can’t I use it?  He anxiously looked around as if he were waiting on someone, then responded again that he didn’t want me to use the camera. He said, what is it you want to ask me?

Okay, I thought. No camera, thus, no record of our conversation, but I must soldier on.

I told him I wanted to talk about his vote on the Ryan budget plan the previous day, which essentially does away with Medicare while giving tax cuts to the wealthy.  I asked him how he justified that vote.  We have to do something, he said. He told me that what the plan does is merely give people a “cafeteria” plan like he gets as a government employee.  Since Ozark Billy didn’t know I had been a government employee, I suppose he thought that his response would suffice to shut me up.  But, of course, it didn’t.

I hurriedly explained to him—he was getting fidgety waiting— that the Ryan Medicare plan would end Medicare as we know it, and the so-called voucher proposal for those under 55 would not be sufficient to purchase insurance and people would have to pay much more out of their pockets.  I added that those under 55, even while receiving reduced benefits themselves, would be forced to pay for the current Medicare system, the beneficiaries of which will continue to receive the current generous benefits for many, many years.

He didn’t dispute that but merely reiterated that something needed to be done because the system was designed when people only lived to be “48 years old.”  Aghast at that, I responded with a “that’s simply not true,” and was poised to explain why.  Except that a vehicle—the one Ozark Billy had been so anxiously awaiting—pulled up beside us. And without even saying goodbye, in went the Colonel and off went the car. 

I, one of Congressman Long’s constituents, was left standing on the sidewalk, camera in tow.

Long returned a short time later and gave a speech that was mostly a repeat of an interview he gave to local right-wing radio station, KZRG.  He even gave us another rendition of his now-famous “auction chant.”  The small crowd cheered.  I turned red with embarrassment.

But toward the end of his speech, Ozark Billy said the following to the crowd, and to me, the camera-toting constituent he had earlier snubbed:

We’re just having a lot of good success helping people. But it is the House of Representatives. Never forget that. It is the House of Representatives.

I’ve got a Bozo on the front of my truck—a lot of people say how come you got Bozo on the dash?—that’s to remind me—and I’ve had it on there for years—that’s to remind me not to take myself too seriously. I’m doing your work in D.C., and I was standing right down there last year with ya and I’ll be back down there in a minute…

Good! I thought to myself. He’s doing “our” work. And he’s coming down “here” among “us,” the folks. That would give me a chance to continue my conversation with him. What a man of the people!  Colonel Ozark Billy Long, man of the people!

Except that after he finished his speech,  I watched him leave the podium, walk over to his Bozo-guided truck, and get in the passenger side. Then I watched someone drive him away. 

Still holding my camera, all I could think to say was, Bye-bye, Colonel Billy! Thanks for stopping by and chatting with your constituents!

32 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on April 17, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on April 17, 2011

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/ozark-billy-snubs-the-erstwhile-conservative/

Egypt: The View From The Paranoid Right

Since nearly every sensible thing that can be said has been said this weekend regarding the upheaval in Egypt, I thought I would look in on what the right-wing is saying.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are so far playing it safe, essentially approving of the Obama administration’s cautious response to the crisis. But it’s only Monday.

Unfortunately, Egypt is not observable from Wasilla, so Sarah Palin hasn’t yet tweeted her foreign policy advice to the world.  But it’s only Monday. I’m sure after she catches up on her weekend reading, she will offer up some profound analysis.

Bill Kristol, a Fox “News” neocon who agitated for war against Iraq as early as 1998 and who has urged the U.S. to launch a military strike against Iran, has not yet called for invading Egypt and ousting Mubarak.  That’s always a good thing, but it’s only Monday.  

Kristol, who always knows what we should do in every tricky situation, did say the Administration was “a little slow in reacting to events and said a couple foolish things.”  Apparently, patience and deliberation is not a virtue in the Kristol family.

Speaking of a lack of patience and deliberation: The Glenn Beck News Service, The Blaze, featured this headline:

The story, written by Jonathon Seidl and complete with a Goldline ad, is one of those “connecting the dots” specials, which are the forte of the paranoid Right. It seems that the American Left, some of whom rallied this weekend in support of the Egyptian people, is encouraging the uprising because,

the power vacuum that would result from a government collapse would make the country a prime target for a socialist takeover.

Even though the protests in Egypt have been decidedly unrelated to Western politics, that’s not the way it is seen through the eyes of fearful right-wingers, at least when it comes to the motives of those Americans who support Egyptian freedom:

Is it really about democracy, then, as some of the signs suggest?

Not really. The reality seems to be closer to something like this: when a revolution opposes a leftist dictator, leftists and socialists ignore it. When a revolution opposes an American ally (particularly an ally as pivotal to U.S. security as the Egyptian alliance is) leftists and socialists support it. Succinctly put, the groups have a vested interest in the current American system being defeated (a goal shared by leftist dictators). That’s why they can support Chavez, Ahmadinejad, and even Hussein, but rally against someone such as Mubarak.

In the same vein, Red State, a popular right-wing site operated by Erick Erickson, now a CNN commentator, featured this headline:

The story takes the Beckian view one step further and involves the Obama administration in the plot to make Egypt and the Middle East a socialist paradise:

For all the lack of clarity on where the Obama administration stands, one thing is becoming more and more clear: Signs are beginning to point more toward the likelihood that President Obama’s State Department, unions, as well as Left-leaning media corporations are more directly involved in helping to ignite the Mid-East turmoil than they are publicly admitting.

Meanwhile, Dick Morris, another Foxinating right-winger who sees an Islamic terrorist hiding behind every crisis tree, is urging the U.S. to “send a signal to the military that it will be supportive of its efforts to keep Egypt out of the hands of the Islamic fundamentalists.” He wrote:

The Obama Administration, in failing to throw its weight against an Islamic takeover, is guilty of the same mistake that led President Carter to fail to support the Shah, opening the door for the Ayatollah Khomeini to take over Iran…

Now is the time for Republicans and conservatives to start asking the question: Who is losing Egypt? We need to debunk the starry eyed idealistic yearning for reform and the fantasy that a liberal democracy will come from these demonstrations. It won’t. Iranian domination will.

It appears that some on the Right, who night and day lie and stoke fear about Obama’s imaginary disregard for the freedoms of Americans, don’t mind if he helps squash the yearnings of Egyptians who want liberty—and jobs—in their own land.

“We really run the risk of some Iranian style regime emerging in the end here,” foreign policy expert Sean Hannity said on Friday.

And even though the real experts discount that possibility (the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly represents around 20% of the population), it doesn’t matter. What matters is that however the situation in Egypt ends, Obama will have either done too much or too little.  He will either have sided with the Egyptian dictator or sided with the Muslim Brotherhood or engineered a socialist revolution.  

And to think it’s only Monday.

 

45 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on January 31, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on January 31, 2011

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/egypt-the-view-from-the-paranoid-right/

Earmarks, Schmearmarks

This morning, I heard the toe sucker, Dick Morris, deplore the presence of a paltry $8 billion worth of earmarks in the 1900-page, $1.3 trillion omnibus federal budget bill coming to the floor of the Senate this week. 

Members of both parties have plenty of earmarks in the bill, but it is particularly hypocritical for Republicans to use the issue as a wedge during last month’s campaign and then rush to get earmarks in the budget before all tea party hell breaks loose next month in the House.  

But such hypocrisy is not unusual on the right.  Just consider Dick Morris’ protest about earmarks this morning on the Republican “News” Channel.  He condemned the inclusion of earmarks in the budget bill because, he says, they represent corruption in the process.  He calls the game “legalized bribery,” and he claims there is a correlation between the earmarks and donations to political campaigns.  And in that he’s not far from wrong.    

It works this way: Say a university is given a $500,000 grant—via an earmark inserted by Senator X—to research just why it is that some men are attracted to toe sucking.  The university’s lobbyist then turns around and donates $50,000 to Senator X’s campaign.  Voilà. 

Dick the phalangephile has a point, of course.  It is beyond unseemly what happens not only at the federal level, but at the state level, including right here in Missouri.  Politicians are on the take all over the place, because they need money to survive the next election.

And that’s where the hypocrisy on the right comes in.  People like Dick Morris—a political consultant, as well as a foxy regular on the Republican “News” “Channel—rage against a machine that they refuse to reform. 

The right-wing furiously opposes any meaningful change in the system, unless the change makes it worse—see the Citizens United decision.* If we revamped the campaign finance system by providing public money, we would save a lot of dough in the long run.  Senator X would be less tempted to insert the toe sucker research earmark in an appropriations bill just to get fifty grand from a university, although that would mean we may never know what makes Dick tick.

As for Morris, Media Matters exposes his and Fox’s part in the game, and here is just a sample:

In 2008, Morris repeatedly touted the National Republican Trust PAC’s website, GOPTrust.com, and asked viewers to “give funds to GOPTrust.com.” Between October 27, 2008, and November 17, 2008, Morris mentioned GOPTrust.com during at least 13 Fox News appearances without disclosing that the organization paid $24,000 to Morris’ consulting firm Triangulation Strategies from the beginning of October 2008 to November 24, 2008.

And:

Morris has served as the chief strategist and ad crafter for the conservative group League of American Voters (LAV), which opposed the Democrats’ health care reform proposals. On Fox News, Morris implored viewers to donate for ads opposing health care reform at least 10 times just in February and March, often directing viewers to his website, which contained contribution links for the LAV. Morris also regularly solicited funds on Fox for 2009 LAV ad campaigns.

Republicans get away with this blatant hypocrisy all the time on Fox, of course.  No matter the issue, whether it’s earmarks in particular or government spending in general, they get credit for publicly agitating against obvious deficiencies in the system, while secretly undermining those who are trying to fix them. 

__________________________________

* In an article on Clearly New Mexico, we find out that the toe sucker was the front man in a “campaign phone blitz” in that state, which aimed to “take back America” from those noted socialists, “Reid, Pelosi and Obama.”  The message began:

“Please stay on the line for an important message from Dick Morris of Citizens United.”

10 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on December 15, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on December 15, 2010

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/earmarks-schmearmarks/

Dick Keeps You On Your Toes

I just received my regular e-mail from toesucker* Dick Morris.  He thinks Republicans can win 100 seats this fall!  How about that?  100 seats!

It seems that while he’s not busy spewing Obama-hate on the Republican “News” Channel, or writing tomes on how Obama is about to destroy all that is good and decent, or composing  ”some of the most illuminating columns on politics available anywhere” (that quote is from his own website), Dick has had time to do a little cipherin’ on behalf of Republicans:

An analysis of the published polling data on eighty House races indicates that there are 54 districts now represented by Democrats in which Republicans are now ahead and another 19 where they are within five points and where the Democratic incumbent is under 50% of the vote.  That’s 73 likely wins. (The undecided vote always goes against the incumbent, so if a Congressman is significantly under 50%, even though he may have a lead, he is likely to lose).

Now Dick wouldn’t be Dick if he didn’t push the envelope.  You don’t get to be called the toesucker by merely contenting yourself with lips and nips:

Why aren’t there more than 73?  Because we haven’t tried.  Only about 160 of the Democrats’ 239 Congressional Districts are even remotely considered to be in play.  But that playbook is badly out of date.  The Republican message has raced far ahead of the GOP campaign and put a lot of new seats in play.  We just have to work these districts to win them.

Now, that’s some toesuckin’ right there!  He says that because nobody considered the 160 “in play enough to poll them,” that God (a GOP consultant) only knows “how vulnerable” they are.  So, if you know Dick, you know that he has a plan.  And if you know Dick, you know that his plan involves you giving him some cash:

So we are launching a new effort: Project 100, in conjunction with ReaganPac, Michael Reagan’s organization, to raise our sights and do independent expenditures in an additional twenty or so districts to give the Republicans in these newly marginal seats a big boost.  We hope to raise $2 million so as to be able to put $100,000, on average, into each of these districts.

Yep! Dick wants you to send him some dough so he can spend it in districts that have a one in a gazillion chance of turning Republican.  That is really goin’ for the toes!

But his motives are pure:

…a win of 100 seats, or anything on that order of magnitude, would be such a total repudiation of the Democratic Party that it would send shock waves through the liberal establishment.  And it would amount to the eradication of an entire generation of liberal Democratic Congressmen.

Having never developed a taste for toes myself, I don’t quite understand Dick’s enthusiasm, but after thinking about it a bit, I urge all my Republican friends to send their Bush-tax-cut dollars to Dick right away.  Because as Dick says:

Pessimism is the only limit on the potential of Republican gains this year.  If we go for one hundred, we can win one hundred!

That’s my boy!

_______________________________

*As far as I know, Rush Limbaugh was the first one to start calling Dick Morris the toesucker, for his regular dalliance in a Washington hotel with a prostitute who claimed that, well, according to Time:

She reported that Morris liked to suck her toes, has a thing for women’s feet generally and one night got down “like a dog” on all fours. At that point, she said, he asked, “Can you imagine someone walking in and seeing this?”

Here’s a typical Rush paean to Dick, from September of 2009:

Now, I have a funny story to tell you.  Kathryn and I went up to Washington for the weekend, the Redskins and Rams yesterday at FedEx Field, and we flew up Saturday afternoon because we were going to have dinner with Kathryn’s brother who lives there and we stayed at the Hay-Adams which is the toe sucker hotel.  I mean, that’s where Dick Morris is on the phone getting toe sucked while talking to Clinton while he was getting a Lewinsky at the same time.

3 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on September 28, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on September 28, 2010

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/dick-keeps-you-on-your-toes/

Prominent Conservative Commentator Says Roy Blunt’s Relationship With His Wife “Was Hatched In Lobbying”

From FiredUp!Missouri I discovered that Robin Carnahan released a new TV ad claiming, among other things, that Roy Blunt “got caught trying to insert a secret deal for tobacco giant Philip Morris into a bill just days after company executives gave him over $30,000.”

Even though it is well known among Blunt watchers that he did in fact try to insert a provision into the Homeland Security bill back in 2003 beneficial to the tobacco giant, nevertheless Fox4KC did a “Truthwatch” segment on the ad, featuring two political consultants, Jason Klindt, a Republican, and Steve Glorioso, a Democrat.

Naturally, Klindt defended Blunt’s actions, claiming it “wasn’t exactly a secret,” which Sean at FiredUp! pointed out wasn’t true by citing a 2003 article from the Washington Post, which began:

Only hours after Rep. Roy Blunt was named to the House’s third-highest leadership job in November, he surprised his fellow top Republicans by trying to quietly insert a provision benefiting Philip Morris USA into the 475-page bill creating a Department of Homeland Security, according to several people familiar with the effort.

Okay, so Roy Blunt did insert the questionable provision at the last minute—”within hours of a final House vote“—and it did come as a surprise to his House colleagues, who unceremoniously yanked it out. 

Among those who opposed Blunt’s subterfuge was the ethically-challenged Tom DeLay, and when you do something so brazen that DeLay has a problem with it, you know you may have crossed a line.

But I like how Democratic consultant Steve Glorioso reminded everyone of something they might otherwise have forgotten about the Blunt-Philip Morris issue:

He divorced his wife and remarried a tobacco lobbyist, the very lobbyist that urged him to put in the special favor…

Oh, yeah. That lobbyist and the object of Baptist Blunt’s either extra- or post-marital affection is Abigail Perlman.

The following is something written about the Blunt-Philip Morris issue, after Blunt’s party lost control of the House of Representatives in November of 2006.  At the time, Republicans were beginning to wrestle with just who their party leaders would be, including whether Roy Blunt deserved to be the House Minority Whip over John Shadegg:

By the same token, Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) also stands for principled politics and deserves the support of those who understand what hit them on Nov. 7.  Not so of his opponent. Majority Whip Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) wife, Abigail Perlman, and his son, Andrew, both lobby for Altria, which is the newly sanitized name for Philip Morris. If Blunt is limited to the standard congressional salary of $165,500, there is no reason why he shouldn’t take care of his family finances by letting lobbying firms that represent this death-dealing industry hire his son.

Blunt…deserve(s) to be thrown out of leadership.

And here is something written about Mr. Blunt the following summer:

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) wife, Abigail Perlman, is director of federal government affairs for Altria — the former Philip Morris corporation. Their relationship is one that was hatched in lobbying. While Blunt was dating Abigail, he quietly drafted language to benefit Altria/Philip Morris and tried to sneak it in the bill that established the Department of Homeland Security — without alerting the Republican leadership. Blunt’s mission was to minimize the sale of cigarettes on the Internet, a thorn in the side of Altria/Philip Morris. Fortunately, Hastert killed the amendment.

Now, those two selections weren’t written by a wild-eyed liberal blogger or a Carnahan operative, but none other than the toesucker himself, Dick Morris, a popular conservative commentator and regulator contributor to the Republican News Network Featuring Glenn Beck, as Fox “News” is now affectionately known around the expansive offices of The Erstwhile Conservative.

Like the situation with Tom DeLay, when the toesucker—whose ethical net has so many holes in it a whopper like Bill Clinton could squeeze through—questions your ethics, you probably have crossed the line.

Here is the Carnahan ad and the Fox4KC segment:

 

1 Comment
by R. Duane Graham on September 7, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on September 7, 2010

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/prominent-conservative-commentator-says-blunts-relationship-with-his-wife-was-hatched-in-lobbying/

Carnahan Triangulates On Bush Tax Cuts

Now that it’s been confirmed that Robin Carnahan, the Democratic candidate to replace Kit Bond in the U.S. Senate, supports extending the Bush tax cuts—including those for the wealthiest Americans—I suppose the onus is on those of us who call ourselves liberals or progressives to determine just how hard we will fight to elect Ms. Carnahan.

Beyond question, she would be far superior to Roy Blunt, who just this morning had to pull down an offensive web video that attempted to exploit Carnahan’s support for New Yorker’s right to choose on the issue of the quasi-mosque near Ground Zero.  Blunt, the ultimate insider who is trying to sell himself as some kind of reformer, would always vote in lockstep with obstructionist Republicans, so there is no doubt that those of us on my side of the political divide have little choice but to continue supporting Carnahan.

Which, of course, is why she thinks she can afford to piss off those of us who are her natural allies. Dick Morris, the repulsive conservative advisor to Bill Clinton, used to call this stuff “triangulation.”  And I suppose there is a certain logic to it here in the politically schizophrenic land of Missouri.

But there is something unseemly about supporting a continuation of tax cuts for wealthy Americans who will not contribute much of it to the economy—since they don’t need it to live on—and at the same time asking working folks for their votes.

As I said, no doubt I and other liberals will vote for Ms. Carnahan in November.  But much of the enthusiasm for her campaign—supplied in large part by people like me—is waning.  Already, the damage is apparent.  On DailyKos today, posted by TomP:

I’ve been pushing Robin Carnahan as a fighting Democrat, but she just lost my support and contributions.  I’ll vote for her in Missouri as better than Blunt, but my pocketbook is closed.  There is a real progressive across the river and I’ll donate to him instead.

It’s sad and sobering that from Scott Eckersley to Robin Carnahan, local liberals have to go to the polls holding their collective noses, just to keep right-wing extremists from really waging a Waterloo-like war against President Obama and his agenda to restore the strength of middle class America.

Here is the web ad posted, and then removed, by the Blunt campaign:

4 Comments
by R. Duane Graham on August 19, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on August 19, 2010

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/carnahan-triangulates-on-bush-tax-cuts/

Dick In The Dock

The Toesucker is at it again.

Dick Morris sent me a video declaring that the Declaration of Independence has been “repealed.” Enthralled by Opening Day, I missed the official announcement, but Dick assured me anew that the joint communiqué issued at the G-20 summit last week and the creation of the Financial Stability Board spells doom for our liberty. Of course, Dick has been saying such things ever since Obama saddled a campaign horse, and, to boot, he has made a handsome profit peddling such prattle to the prairie people.

And Dick, like Larry Dablemont on a creatine binge, has been reeling them in wildly from everywhere. The video that I thought was my own personal communiqué from Dick has mysteriously appeared on right wing sites all over the net. A small sampling of comments from a site called ButAsForMe demonstrates the “effectivene$$” the video is having:

Is this legal? Can the president unilaterally make this decision without a congressional vote and approval? What can the citizens of the United States do? Do we can an recourse?–hetrack

I’ve never been one to call for an impeachment of a president. I even defended Clinton. However, this is obscene. I just got done reading the reports from the G20 (after I watched the video) and now I’m officially angered by this administration. He has no national pride. My grandfather who lost friends in Normandy would consider this President a traitor.– Seth

Can someone who knows something about these tea-parties on tax day please post a link here in comments to the ‘official website.’ This made me want to join the movement. I’m pissed off and not going to take it anymore. Cede sovereignty? Only a traitor.– Faith

omg. where is this country going? i just about died after i read the reports dick morris talks about. if i did die, i’d be rolling over in my grave now. how is this happening in america? how?– sam

All I can say is OH MY GOD. Those who died for this country to maintain independence and the special thing we had going must be weeping. They gave their life. He is a traitor. This is treason.– MARINE

He is absolutely bonkers. This came out of no where. I do not want to call my president a traitor, but I cannot reconcile this statement, Obama’s support of it, and the interests of our nation. Not to mention the fact our troops have fought and have died for the exact opposite of what this document proposes. I am sickened and I strongly feel our nation was violated.– Susan the Nurse, Seattle, Washington

Strong global instituations that have the power to do whatever necessary to build an inclusive (aka socialism), green (aka global warming) and sustainable (aka KING OBAMA). We cannot sit in silence. We must fight. We must connect with each other and stop this in the interest of our families, country and liberty.– Simone

OMG! I had to read the document three time. OMG. Wow. I feel like I failed my children —> How could we let this happen in FREE AMERICA!– Jaime

HOLY CRAP. HOLY HELL. Can we stop this? WTF? How can this be?–Firefighter in Jersey

The sad fact about all of this is that Dick is exploiting a highly exploitable tendency in some fringe conservatives. These gloomy folks, with paranoid fantasies like, “King Obama Wants to Rule a New Socialist World,” would believe any tale told by the Toesucker, or any other schizophrenia-feeding venom vender, so long as it sufficiently indicts the honor of Barack Hussein Obama.

But worse than trading on people’s undiagnosed disorders, these conservative carnies should be staggering under a burden of shame for doing what they have done to presumably normal citizens, like the ones who saw Dick’s video and posted the following on ButAsForMe:

This is major. This is huge. I just told my husband. He stopped working on his car to read the document and watch the video. Nothing, and I mean nothing can get him to stop working on his car Sunday morning. Except this. We are both in disbelief. We are having a hard time paying bills like other people. But we know however hard it may be, we have had soldiers die for our independence and freedom in this great nation. It is not worth it. This is treason. We have given Obama the benefit of the doubt… until now.–Fur Elise

Whether in this case “Fur Elise” is fictional or real, the sentiment expressed is quite authentic. Those of us campaigning for Obama last fall confronted it again and again, having to assure people, who otherwise had nothing against him, that the latest “rumor” about Obama was false.

And for those who are worried that this time Dick is onto something that nobody else in the whole world–including God–knows, here is some help:

But a European push for sweeping global regulation of the financial markets was blunted, to a large degree, by the United States. While the leaders agreed to create a new Financial Stability Board to monitor the financial system for signs of risks, they stopped well short of giving regulators cross-border authority, something France has long advocated.

Instead, the leaders agreed to more closely coordinate their regulation of “systemically important” financial institutions. –New York Times

Obama stood firm against a determined push from Sarkozy and German President Angela Merkel for creation of a global regulator to attack what the Europeans see as a U.S. brand of unfettered capitalism that brought the global economy to its knees.

In the end the U.S. argument prevailed. Instead of the more powerful global regulator, the summit called for better coordination among individual country regulators and increased transparency to provide more oversight of the so-called shadow banking system of hedge funds and other lightly regulated financial entities.–Washington Post

And for a nice explanation on how the Financial Stability Board will really work, go here.

Leave a Comment
by R. Duane Graham on April 7, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on April 7, 2009

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/dick-in-the-dock/

Foot in the Mouth Fetish

Last night on Greta Van Susteren’s show, Dick Morris, formerly Bill Clinton’s chief strategist and famously the “toesucker ” (as Rush Limbaugh called him), had this to say in response to a question from the refurbished host about Obama’s “performance” at the G-20 summit:

DICK MORRIS: Well, it depends on what you want to achieve. I think it was a disaster, but it’s probably a disaster he likes. Literally from April 2nd of this year — that is, today — it’s a whole new world of financial regulation in which, essentially, all of the U.S. regulatory bodies and all U.S. companies are put under international regulation, international supervision. It really amounts to a global economic government….

Just when Obama is accused of socialism, he’s essentially creating world economic governance. This means that the FSB, this newly created board, Financial Stability Board, patterned on the Financial Stability Forum that now exists, headed by an Italian banker, populated largely by the European bank executives, will make the decisions on what standards our own SEC and Federal Reserve board should apply to all firms in the United States of any significant size about executive compensation, market activities, and a whole range of issues that used to be under free enterprise reserved for private decision making.

This is an unbelievably radical document! This trivializes everything Obama’s done until now!

A quick check of Dick’s website today, revealed that Dick apparently had nothing new to say about the New World Order he claimed Obama created. You would think that such a “radical” move would at least deserve a mention on his own website.

I also checked out the Mother of Conservative Christian Journalism, worldnutdaily, and didn’t find a thing about the new “global economic government,” although there was an article tagged as “Breaking News” about Obama’s “full bow” yesterday as he greeted the king of Saudi Arabia. Now that is something I know I’m worried about.

Anyway, hopefully Dick has found out by now that he was horribly mistaken in his extemporaneous analysis about the NWO. But even if the freshness of morning has brought clarity, I don’t think the next time Dick is on Fox News, which could be any minute now, he will apologize to Obama.

That’s just not what Dick’s do.

_________________________________________________________
COMMENTS:

Anson writes:
Sunday, April 5, 2009, 03:14 PM
In spite of Dick Morris and Fox, I am not ready to move to Montana and stock up on assualt weapons. I did however see, I think it was O’Reilly, a letter printed in NYT by the former leader of Denmark praising European “safety nets” and in essence European Socialism (pick a different word if you like) and implying that the US needed to “catch up” with Europe in that regard.

Obama certainly listened. Good. He asked for a 2% GDF “stimulus” for all European countries which was flat out rejected. He got chewed out by Germany and France. OK. Now we have to see what happens when he returns home. Nothing much, in my view. He has his budget and aggenda on the table and I doubt that he will change it, regardless of Europe, et al.

The biggest thing to come out of the G-20, in my view, was where we might go with Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President wrote an Op-Ed in Wash Post on Mar 31. Now that bears watching.

________________________________________________________

 

Duane writes:
Monday, April 6, 2009, 08:24 AM
Anson,

I agree with your claim that the Russian/US possibility is important, but I think the most important part of the European trip was the restoration of American prestige in the world.

Whether that renewed perception of American exceptionalism translates into real cooperation remains to be seen. It is an ongoing process.

RDG

Leave a Comment
by R. Duane Graham on April 3, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by R. Duane Graham on April 3, 2009

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/foot-in-the-mouth-fetish/

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 319 other followers

%d bloggers like this: