Rethugs Pick Steele

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael "Tin Man" Steele was elected by the Rethuglican National Committee to be its butler, er that is, chairman. Tin Man, one of 17 African American Rethugs, will undoubtedly attempt to sell Rethuglicanism to minorities, while proposing policies that would do them great harm. He was recently quoted as saying, "this notion that I'm a moderate is slightly overblown, and quite frankly a lie."

Tin Man also happens to be the ex-brother-in-law of Mike Tyson (pictured), who was seen biting the ears of several RNC members before the vote.

"Irrelevant to the Debate"

The unanimous Rethug vote against the economic recovery package has spawned a spate (!) of articles reflecting on their clueless ignorance about how the debate has shifted away from where it was 30 years ago. House Minority Leader John "Man Tan" Boehner underscored their lack of engagement by cajoling fellow Rethugs to vote against the House bill even before Obama came to meet with them on Tuesday.

Why are the Rethugs, led by Man Tan, irrelevant to the economic recovery debate? Check out these pieces: BarbinMD writes in the Daily Kos; Gene Robinson in the WaPo; and Michael Hirsch in Newsweek.

The common thread? Hirsch best sums it up by saying the Rethugs are only concerned about being true to their ancient bromides: cut taxes, cut government, every man for himself! As Hirsch says, Rethugs are "rooting around in their closets for their Barry [Goldwater] pins."

(Photo: Man of the people "Man Tan" Boehner hooks it far right)

Missy McConnell's Song Of Woe

Senate Minority Leader Mitch "Missy" McConnell addressed the Rethuglican National Committee yesterday, saying that the party is in danger of becoming marginalized as a "regional party." In danger of? Missy, you're already there. Your party represents the Old Confederacy and some states stretching from Idaho to Nebraska, sparsely populated with paranoid militia members. The demographics over the last 6 years are shifting the Democrats' way: youth vote, Latino vote, college-educated vote, suburban vote, all trending Democratic.

When the Rethugs want to dictate how you conduct your most personal activities, while letting corporate pirates run amok and plunder your retirement funds, when they want to write the prayers for your kids to say in public school, while their leaders spew hate against minorities and immigrants over "talk" radio. . . .well, you've got more than image problems. And you need to be marginalized.

Buh Bye, Blago

It's been real. Even if you haven't been. As Blago might say, the Governorship of Illinois is a f---ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing.

The Illinois State Senate votes 59 - 0 to remove Gov. Let's Make A Deal from office, effective immediately.

Picture Of The Week

A statue honoring the shoe-thrower at Dumbya's Baghdad press conference last month was unveiled in Tikrit, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein's home city. They love them some Dumbya in Iraq, don't they? And how about the "thumbs up" gesture of the person in the picture.

Bwahahahahaha!

UPDATE: The sculpture is apparently at an orphanage. Wow. Gives it a whole different perspective.

(photo: Saleh/Getty; story in the NY Daily News)

An Armey Of None

We saw former Rethug Congressman Dick "What A Dick" Armey on Tweety's "Hardball" show last night, and were only mildly surprised to see What A Dick toss a few insulting words to co-panelist Joan Walsh of Salon.

"I'm so glad that you could never be my wife because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day," What A Dick said after Walsh blasted his Rethug colleagues for wrecking the economy with their policies. Walsh shot back, "Well, wow, that makes two of us sir." Indeed. What A Dick couldn't get an inflatable doll to date him.

What A Dick was called out in the next segment by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who said What A Dick should apologize to Walsh. Tweety, who's clueless about appropriate behavior toward women, belatedly agreed that What A Dick's comments were "overboard," which is where What A Dick should be tossed.

(photo: What A Dick searching for the right phrase)

Driving a Wedge

Democrats have been given an opening the size of Rush "Pills" Limbaugh's mouth, which is wide indeed. The blogs are full of commentary today (sorry my link capacity is down) about Congressional Rethugs trying to distance themselves from Pills' various pronouncements that he wants the President to fail - without, of course, offending the Fat One. Dems should keep driving that wedge... but we have our doubts. If you're looking for any Rethug to ever put Fat One in his place, you have a looooong wait ahead. He's "Mr. Conservative" to this crowd.

Meanwhile, the Democrats would be well advised to point out at every opportunity that the only difference between the Congressional Rethugs and loyal Rethug water-carrier Limpballs is that they both want the President to fail, only Limpballs is the only one coming right out with it. How un-American!

(Photo: Limpballs: still suckin')

Rethugs Abandon A Sunken Ship

Displaying great timing, the Rethuglican National Committee is just now getting around to distancing itself from the former Preznit. The RNC's current chairman, Mike "Donut" Duncan was a loyal Bushie when it was still OK in Rethug circles. Now, many Rethug party bigwigs want him out, along with the Bushie scent. However, showing their impeccable political sense, these Rethugs want to steer their wounded party even further to the far right. They didn't think Dumbya was "conservative" enough. Yeah, that's the ticket to your future success.

They're floating a resolution that calls upon the RNC to oppose any further "bailouts" of the economy (take that, you middle class whiners!), and want to oppose what they call "President-elect Obama's public works program." You read that right: they're referring to the President as "President-elect." What, he wasn't sworn in enough times for you clowns?


photo: "To the [glub glub] lifeboats [glub] men! [glub glub glub]"

Our Broken Media, Cont'd.

With so much at stake for the economy in the upcoming stimulus package, one would think that the mainstream media would want to get their facts right. One would think. Instead, we're seeing them revert to their usual lazy form, taking pieces out of context and following the talking points provided to them by Drudge, Fux News, and the rest of the Rethug media apparatus. A case in point: the recent chatter about how it would take years for President Obama's stimulus package's infrastructure funding to be spent, ostensibly based on a "report" by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The problem is, there was no such "report," according to the CBO. What the mainstream media ran with was a computer run of a portion of an earlier version of the package, and isn't representative of the Administration's current proposal. OMB Director Peter Orszag says 75% of the stimulus funding will be spent over the next 18 months.

Quote of the Day

"I had a whole bunch of thoughts -- of course, my children and my wife. And then I thought about Mandela, Dr. King, Gandhi and tried to put some perspective in all of this." Impeached Illinois Governor Rod "Let's Make A Deal" Blagojevich, who must be running out of dramatic parallels for his case. Last week, it was Pearl Harbor. Then, it was the movie roles of Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper, and then a cowboy about to be strung up without a fair trial. LMAD, incidentally, skipped the first day of his trial in the Illinois State Senate, choosing the public relations route instead.

LMAD also dropped the hint that he was considering Oprah for Obama's vacant Senate seat, before appointing perpetual office-seeker Roland Burris. You think he's playing for the jury in his criminal trial? Not Mahatma Rod!

The Tedious Norm Coleman

With the swearing-in of Kirsten Gillibrand as the new Senator from New York, Minnesota will be the only state represented by one Senator. That's because former Sen. Norm "Sore Loser" Coleman is dragging the process out for as long as possible, despite a recount that he lost by 225 votes to former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken. His lawyer predicts a "very, very tedious proceeding" beginning with today's lawsuit by Sore Loser. Not surprisingly, he's also enlisted the infamous Rethug lawyer Ben "Screw Democracy" Ginsberg, who was one of the malefactors in the Bush v. Gore Florida recount farce; if you can't win fairly, cheat and steal.

(photo: Norm in better times)

Quote of the Week - Hoosier Mama Edition

"It is very ironic...We've never really mattered before when it comes to politics and the election. And this year we did...What a wonderful year for Indiana. Go, Hoosiers!"

New Miss America Katie Stam, asked by Newsweek blogger Tammy Haddad to comment on any connection between Indiana's first Miss America and Obama carrying the normally Republican swing state. (h/t to WaPo's The Reliable Source)

"Cheap Shots" and "Bad Faith Economics"

As usual, our favorite Nobel laureate Paul Krugman hits the Rethug nail on its head. In this morning's column, Krugman shows us how the Rethugs are trying desperately to discredit the recovery plan through "cheap shots" and "bad faith economics," and why (hint: think 21st century FDR).

Also on the NT Times op/ed front this morning, Wee Willie Kristol acknowledges the "end of a conservative era" while we acknowledge that in italic script under his last sentence is written "This is William Kristol's last column." So let's cheer the end of a Kristol era as well (Yaaaay!), although it will mean the Times will have to lay off all the fact-checkers they had to employ to clean up after Wee Willie's columns every Monday.

The Nuts Weren't Just In The Salad

Think Progress has an interesting recap of the "benefits" accruing to President Obama from dining and schmoozing with a gaggle of wingnut pundits a while back. As we reported and speculated earlier, having a "dialog" with hard-core reactionaries like Wee Willie Kristol and Kraphammer wasn't likely to gain Obama more slack, only flack. Well, no time has been wasted by these malefactors in savaging Obama's economic recovery package, to no serious observer's surprise.

It's hard to be "post-partisan" when the other side is hammering you, isn't it?

Rethug Donors Taken To The Dry Cleaners

The Rethuglican National Committee is acknowledging that Alaska Gov. Winky You Betcha's $180,000 designer wardrobe is still sitting in trash bags at the RNC, allegedly waiting to be inventoried and donated to "charity." Donors are furious that their money was spent on expensive duds for the Governor and her snowbilly brood, instead of on lying, Swift Boat-style campaign ads.

Suck it up, Rethugs, there are better days ahead. Repeat after us: Palin/Wurzelbacher 2012!