When You Lose Politico, You've Lost... The Morning?

The co-founders of Politico (a.k.a., "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" - bless you Charles Pierce!),  dynamic duo Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei,  penned an atypically critical piece , "Eve of Destruction" (paging Barry McGuire!), on the current state of their the Republican Party.  The establishment-Republican-wired duo had this to say about the problems besetting the Republicans as the party has attempted to "re-brand" itself, while the crackpots run the asylum:

 It is almost impossible to find an establishment Republican in town who's not downright morose about the 2013 that has been and is about to be.  Most dance around it in public, but they see this year as a disaster in the making, even if most elected Republicans don't know it or admit it.

Welcome to the (Stupid) party, fellas!  As prime bookmakers of Republican-wired Beltway odds, it's no surprise the dynamic duo is sounding the alarm bell.  While they and others have been busy uncritically "reporting" on every faux scandal, non-issue, and RNC fabrication, the party they treasure has been incorporated lock, stock and barrel by the racists, talibangelists, homophobes, know-nothings and charlatans of the right.  It's been the political story of the last 40 years, and the dynamic duo and their "win the morning" competition in the Beltway and beyond have been sleepwalking right through it, up to the point where it darkens the prospects of a Republican restoration.

(Image:  Half of the dynamic duo.)

Politicrap from Politico

From Politico editors Jim VandeHei and John Harris, the continuing Rethuglican narrative trying to de-legitimatize Barack Obama is taking shape:

"If President Barack Obama wins, he will be the popular choice of Hispanics, African-Americans, single women and highly educated urban whites. That's what the polling has consistently shown in the final days of the campaign. It looks more likely than not that he will lose independents, and it's possible he will get a lower percentage of white voters than George W. Bush got of Hispanic voters in 2000.

"A broad mandate this is not."

Hmmm. In other words, ballots come in demographically-coded colors. If you don't have enough of the white-male coded ones, you're not legit! Nice!

But it shouldn't surprise anyone that the "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" boyz are among the first to try to discredit a probable Obama victory tomorrow. VandeHei is married to a former staffer for Rethuglican hit-man ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (Felon-TX) -- although he worked at one time in Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl's office -- and Harris is an occasional collaborator with Hackwhackers' Wanker Emeritus Mark Halperin (son of Rethug sinecure Morton Halperin). Presumably the boyz hadn't been getting their calls returned from Democratic spinners quickly enough, so Politico has developed into a reliable source of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom wired heavily Rethuglican.

On a related note: in the pudnitz' arsenal of upcoming excuses for noted white boy Willard "I Like To Fire People" Romney's expected loss: Hurricane Sandy! Also: Massive voter fraud! Also: Nerds! But a broad mandate? Nah!

Rethug Hoaxes and Our Broken Media

In a last ditch effort to stop health insurance reform legislation, the Rethugs are throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. After more than a year of spreading lies and misinformation about reform ("death panels," "Government takeover," etc.), the Rethugs are resorting to hoaxes to try to derail the bill. A fake memo from Dem leadership made available to sympathetic "media" purports to claim the Dems plan to make big changes in Medicare next year. Of course, the stenographers at Politico.com picked up the memo and ran with it without checking with Dems to determine its authenticity.

This has become a classic Rethug route for getting bogus information into the mainstream media: hand it to Politico or Drudge (not much difference), who peddle it to the cable TV nitwits, who flog it day and night until the Village media takes note. It's just what President Obama was referring to when he said yesterday at George Mason University that watching the media was like watching ESPN's Sports Center. Except on Sports Center, they don't make up the scores.