Sunday Sermon: Rabbi Tells Fundamentalists "You're Being Had"

For decades, the Republican Party has used conservative Christian evangelicals as their political ground troops, hoping that they won't notice that the party elite's priorities don't mesh with the religious right's.  In promising year after year to force cultural change through politics, the Rethugs haven't delivered in nearly the way they've delivered for their wealthy patrons.  Rabbi Jay Michaelson notes that as the wealth of the top one percent has grown to levels not seen since before the Great Depression, cultural change has moved in the direction of progressivism, as the Rethugs well know:

"They stir you up about social issues in order to get you to the polls, and then they don’t really do anything about them. Because, in fact, they can’t. These are cultural questions, not political ones, and they have to be solved in the cultural arena."

He also points out that the harsh, "greed is good" rhetoric of those on the political far-right should disturb actual Christians:

"What happened to the Christian concern to 'love the least of these,' the most vulnerable, the most destitute? In my opinion, supply-side Republicans have convinced many Christians not merely that the welfare state is a bad idea, but that generosity itself is a vice, that public assistance equals dependence, and that giving the wealthy even more breaks is the way for benefits to 'trickle down' to the rest of us."

In short, if evangelicals think the Republican / New Confederate / Stupid Party is looking out for them, as Rabbi Michaelson would say, they're being had.

BONUS:  A good example of how the one-percenters try to argue their "up is down, black is white" position is this stinkeroo in (where else?) today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle by one-percenters and paid Koch brothers shills John and Carol Saeman, who try to convince us that centralized gummint baaad and that the Koch brothers share the same anti-poverty worldview as (wait for it) Pope Francis I!  (And we're sure Pope Francis shares the Koch's "We pollute the world" laissez-faire capitalism, too!) Their looking glass gets even more risibly myopic when they point to special interests controlling the gummint just a month after their patrons, the Koch brothers, helped buy a Republican Senate, while underwriting Republican attempts to disenfranchise young and minority voters.

BONUS II:  Here's a meticulous take-down of the Saeman's tongue bath of the Kochs and of their attempt to lash them to Pope Francis.

"The Empire Strikes Back"

One of the missed opportunities that's looming for the Dems in this whole "U.S." Chamber of Commerce scandal over receiving foreign contributions is explaining the connection between big business, Rethuglican politics, and outsourcing jobs. The Chamber has long been an unofficial arm of the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party going back decades, and corporate opposition to Obama's initiatives is what the National Journal's Ron Brownstein called "the empire strikes back."

So, it's no surprise that they, and their corporate members, want the Government to return to the laissez faire, corporate tax cutting environment that the Rethugs love. What is surprising is that the Dems haven't made the clear connection between the Rethug / Chamber axis and foreign businesses that are contributing to Rethug campaigns -- and who directly benefit from outsourcing U.S. jobs. Think Progress' article on this topic should be mandatory reading for every Dem up for election/reelection and for the White House.

And while the mainstream media tut-tuts the foreign money issue, make the issue about the Chamber's support for policies that encourage outsourcing, and link that support to their support for Rethug candidates. It's simple, right? Sadly, the Dems fumble with their message and waste valuable time.

Time to Dog the Rethuglicans

Yesterday, Think Progress published an investigative piece that exposed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's funneling of foreign corporate contributions into campaign ads supporting Rethuglicans here in the U.S. Remember that the "U.S." Chamber fought hard against a Dem proposal to repeal tax incentives for businesses shipping jobs overseas; now we see the fuller picture.

The Rethugs, thanks to outfits like the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce, are rolling in contributions from corporate tycoons and the wealthy, who like things the way they were. Going into the final weeks of the election campaign, the Rethugs are outspending Dems by a margin of 6 to 1. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushed back, saying that the Rethuglican love for big donors will end up boomeranging, once the public gets the message:

"If Democrats can't match them in spending, said Pelosi, the party would tar Republicans by connecting them to corporate cash. 'Of course, they all have euphemistic terms, 'For Seniors' or 'For Prosperity,' or whatever it is, but really it's just cover,' she said.

'Whenever you get hit with an overwhelming weight, you have to jujitsu it. So we want to turn it against them... I want to tattoo them right on to the Republican candidate,' she said, smacking her hand for emphasis. 'Big oil, big banks, big health insurance: We're going to tattoo you with that, so it's like doggy-doo stuck on your shoe. Wherever you go, people will know.'"

Yes, and recognize the odor.

(photo: No one can say the Rethugs haven't been hard at work at something -- click on picture to enlarge if you dare)

"Disdainful Asshole"

Following up on our post yesterday, we notice some interesting facts about Texas Rethug Rep. Joe "Not A Smart 'Un" Barton:

-- he's collected some $1.4 million in contributions from the oil and gas industry during his career
-- he's the #1 recipient of oil and gas money in the House
-- before his election to Congress, he was an executive at ARCO, a company that was later bought out by (drum roll, please) BP.

Jon Stewart did a segment on Barton last night that's a classic. Let's not forget, however, that Barton was only echoing the sentiments of other wingnuts like hate radio's Limpballs, and his House colleague crazy Michele "The Commie Hunter" Bachmann had expressed just a day earlier. It's also worth noting Rethug John "Boner" Boehner's gaffe earlier in the week where he suggested that the government should share cleanup costs with BP. See the pattern? When the Rethugs speak candidly, they defend big oil, Wall Street financiers, and the health insurance industry. In fact, that's whose interests they represent, and it's only when their game is exposed are they forced to issue false "apologies."

UPDATE: The DNC is out with its "Stop Apologizing" ad (hee-hee):


(photo: The disdainful asshole himself)

The Party of No. . .Shame

If it wasn't obvious that the Rethuglican Party has always been in the tank for large corporate and financial interests -- health insurance, energy, banking, you name it -- you need only look at the vote in the House on a bill to curb the out-of-control financial derivatives industry. With only one Rethug joining the 42 Dems on the House Financial Services Committee, the bill passed 43 to 26, with every Rethug saying "no" to regulation of the industry that nearly brought America's economy to its knees.

As John Cole asks, "the financial crash of 2008 was not enough?" Then there's their efforts to torpedo health insurance reform. . .nice bunch.

"Financial Meltdown"

The news over the weekend and this morning about the financial meltdown going on on Wall Street is more than disconcerting. Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Bank of America buying (bailing out) Merrill Lynch means big trouble for many who have invested in those firms and certainly for their employees (people with brokerage accounts are protected by something called the SIPC - comparable to the FDIC).

Meanwhile, St. John McMaverick is vowing to clean up Wall Street after he's elected. [Pause for uncontrollable laughter.] Really?! Where has Sen. McMaverick been for the last 26 years? Oh, right. In Congress and the Senate. We don't recall him pushing for reforms during that quarter century. This is the man who claims not to know much about the economy (he'll have to leave those questions to his expert on all things, Gov. Who?). Remember also McMaverick's role in the Keating Five scandal of the 1970's involving the savings and loan meltdown - yeah, he's got experience with meltdowns!

(In a bit of unfortunate timing, one of McMaverick's financial advisers, Donald Luskin, had a piece in the WaPo over the weekend. Message: economically, this could be the best of times! With advisers like that, how can McMaverick go wrong?!)

Not a small reason for the current state of affairs is the deregulation so religiously pursued by the Rethuglicans since St. Ronnie the Government is the Problem was in office. E-coli conservatives. Bridge collapse conservatives. Katrina conservatives. Now financial meltdown conservatives. Quite a series of accomplishments!

"Perception Problem"?

Another lobbyist has left the McBush campaign. National finance committee co-chair Tom Loeffler resigned yesterday in what McBush aides tried to dismiss as a "perception problem," i.e., having the Straight Talk Express piloted by the usual gang of Washington corporate lobbyists. Loeffler is the fifth McBush campaign aide/lobbyist to have to resign because they were still connected with lobbying groups while serving in an official campaign capacity. Umm, no -- and this one doesn't depend on what the meaning of "is" is -- when you have active corporate lobbyists working for your campaign, it's not "perception," it's "reality."

In related news, there's this from The Onion.

The Rethugs' "Moral" Dilemma

While we'd never vote for any of the Rethuglican candidates for President, we can't help but smile at the contortions that some establishment Rethugs are going through over Mike "Hucksterbee" as he rises in the polls. It exposes the patchwork alliance that started with the "Southern Strategy" of Richard Nixon, where establishment, corporate and economic elite Rethugs welcomed Dixiecrat rednecks that were leaving the Democratic Party over its support of civil rights. During the Raygun years, southern evangelicals unhappy with the country's "morals" were courted to cement what the Rethugs thought would be an unbeatable coalition of corporate and economic elites and southern Yahoos. Well, now that a Yahoo is surging in the Rethug race, the elites aren't happy. After all, the bargain was for the Yahoos to vote for an elite Rethug, and then take a back seat as long as elite Rethug presidents pushed "social" or "family values" issues, and paid lip service to the evangelicals.

Now Hucksterbee is spoiling their nomination picnic, by asserting his place at the elite Rethug table. The chickens have come home to roost. For once, we can say "amen."