Rethug Values, cont'd.

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee embezzled $500,000 from the committee, according to court papers reported in this morning's WaPo (no link). Christopher "Sticky Fingers" Ward authorized numerous diversions of committee funds to pay mortgage costs and a six-figure remodeling of his suburban D.C. home.

Actually, we have some sympathy for Sticky Fingers. We feel that the money was better spent on his home than on Rethuglican campaign activities.

Senate Rethugs Block Climate Change Bill

Senate Democratic leaders fell a dozen votes short of stopping a threatened Rethuglican filibuster on a bill that would have set limits on greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming. Trotting out a familiar - - and untruthful - - claim, Rethug leader Sen. Mitch "Rhymes with B___" McConnell said that the bill would be equivalent to a tax increase. Democrats disputed McConnell's claims. The bill would have required power plants, refineries and factories to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 71 percent by mid-century.

Remember that when you look at your children and grandchildren and wonder what kind of a world we're going to give them.

Technical Difficulties

The severe thunderstorms and high winds in our area Wednesday resulted in one-half of the Hackwhacker team losing his internet tubes connection.

Here's hoping COMCAST gets my internet tubes cleared out soon. If not, I may have to call internet expert Sen. Ted Stevens for assistance.

ZZZTT. We return you now to your regularly scheduled blog.

Shocking!

What?! You mean Dumbya misled us about Saddam Hussein and the then-Rethug Congress helped him cover it up, and some Rethug Senators are still trying to cover up!? Why this comes as a complete surprise!! Lead me to the fainting couch, please!!

From Conservative to Rethug: A Lexicon

Every so often we think it's useful to define some of the terms we use when referring to our fellow Americans of a rightward tilt. As we have said in the past, the Hackwhackers have friends and family who count themselves as Republicans. We still love them and we think that's fine, although misguided. After all, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and many other fine Americans past and present have the same party identification.

But over the course of the last 40 or so years, American politics has been degraded by a relentless march downward to the lowest common denominator; it has witnessed a growing "us" vs. "them" dynamic, where both "us" and "them" are Americans. Many on all sides have contributed to this phenomenon, but we believe that a strong case can be made that, beginning in the '60s, there's been such a concerted effort to demonize one side -- liberalism -- to the extent that the word has almost become pejorative. Nixon, Agnew, George Wallace, and the rise of the right under Ronald Reagan and the Bushes were fueled in large measure by caricaturing Democrats/ liberals as soft, elitist, race-mixing, out-of-control tax-and-spenders. In short, when ever they could, they played on peoples' fears rather than their hopes.

During the Dumbya Era, liberals (or progressives, as we prefer) have admittedly taken a great deal of pleasure out of the reversal of fortunes of the "conservative" movement. But we would have to lay on the ridicule non-stop for 30 years in order to match the vitriol that's been, and continues to be, heaped on Democrats/ liberals in the GOP playbook. So with that as a bit of a rationalization, we would like to make some distinctions in the terms we often use here, moving from the sublime to the ridiculous:

Conservatism: A political philosophy based on a belief in limited government and the primacy of the individual. Its ideological forebears are Edmund Burke and Adam Smith. Its modern exemplars are Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. George "Born 200 Years Too Late" Will is a notable flame-keeper.

Republican: One of two great American political parties, representing (in the past 80 years) the conservative viewpoint.

Rebunglecans: Republicans who have demonstrated incompetence or ineptitude (see Dumbya, "Brownie," George Allen, and neocons Dead Eye Dick, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Kristol, and Feith -- we could go on, but our fingers would fall off). This is often the result of favoring "style" (eg., Dumbya as a "compassionate conservative") vs. "substance," or of a mindset that refuses to be confused by the facts or reality (eg., the neocons).

Rethugs: A growth sector within the Republican Party over the past 20 years, Rethugs are the win-at-all-costs, hypocritical, authoritarian, hyper partisan, divide and conquer cynics that have been in control of the GOP since the mid-80s. Think Karl Rove, the GOP House and Senate leadership ("Man Tan" Boehner, Missy McConnell, etc.), the entire Rupert Murdoch/ Fox News/ NY Post empire, hate talk radio (Michael "Wiener" Savage, for example), and the wingnut blogosphere (the Townhall crazies, Michelle Malkin, Doughy Pantload, etc., etc.). A not-insignificant part of this is the so-called Christian Right, which is neither Christian nor right: Tony Perkins, "Rev." Dobson, "Rev." Hagee, Diamond Pat Robertson, etc.

Well, we've gone on for quite enough. But hopefully this explains the shorthand terms we use and the distinctions we make.

"What Does Hillary Want?"

That's the question Sen. Clinton posed to her faithful in her New York speech last night after the final primaries.

Many Democrats were hoping that she would give a magnanimous, graceful speech, conceding that Sen. Obama had garnered enough delegates to win the nomination and that it was time to pull the party back together behind him. It would be an important first step to unifying the party, and to removing some suspicion about her own motives. Did she? No, she wants her supporters to flood her website with e-mails telling her what she should do. Riiiight.

Most of the reviews of her speech saw it as an arrogant denial of Obama's win: "terrific, but utterly ungracious," according to Time. Dana Lithwick wrote, "I guess we should give her credit for the fact that her supporters now look sufficiently angry to set small brushfires." Dana Milbank hit the nail on the head with his article in the Washington Post: "In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win." CNN commentator Jeff Toobin spoke of "the deranged narcisism of the Clintons" who don't know when to leave the stage.

So what does Hillary want? She doesn't appear to want to give Sen. Obama any help, and has put him in a box with her leaked willingness to be his running mate. There's open talk of her placing her career - - and her hubby's rehabilitation - - ahead of the interests of the Democratic Party, and it's harder to argue against that with each passing day.

Quote of the Day

"If we do everything right, and we can and we will, I will win in January." - - Rethug Presidential nominee-to-be Sen. John McBrainfart, speaking to supporters. One of the things he might want to get "right" is that the elections are in November, although we're hoping that his supporters wait until January to vote for him. Then they can help set up the chairs at Obama's inauguration.

(photo: "Check me out. . .I'm ready to be sworn in today")

Bushies Distorted Climate Data

The Inspector General for NASA has confirmed allegations that Bush political appointees at NASA systematically distorted and downplayed evidence collected by scientists at that agency of climate change. NASA's IG reports that over at least a two year period, political appointees in the agency's public affairs office "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public."

Every day that we fail to take action to mitigate the damage done to our environment by greenhouse gases and other human factors, we hand an increasingly difficult task to our children and grandchildren. Another Bushit legacy for future generations.

Cheney Makes Funny at West Virginia Expense

"Dead Eye" Dick Cheney, multimillionaire Rethug plutocrat, was at the National Press Club earlier today when he made a comment about there being Cheneys on both his mother's and father's side of the family. Being the smug turdsqueezer that he is, he couldn't resist making an incest joke involving West Virginia. Let's see how that resonates with the good voters of West Virginia come November.

Bo Diddley Dies

Sad news that rock and roll legend Bo Diddley has died at the age of 79. His distinctive beat and styling of rock and blues laid the groundwork for future artists like the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Bruce Springsteen, and many more. Among the classics Diddley wrote were "I'm A Man," covered by the Yardbirds, and "Who Do You Love." He was a 1987 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Company You Keep

Via Max Blumenthal in the Huffington Post, we learn that the extremist Rev. John Hagee, in a March 2003 sermon, said that the anti-Christ would be gay and "at least partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler. . ."

Normally, you'd note this as the continued ravings of a fringe lunatic, but Hagee's endorsement was sought by McSame (who later rejected it), and his upcoming conference will feature Sen. Joe Lieberliar (Party of One - CT) as a speaker. One would think that Lieberliar would shy away from someone who has done such things as call the Catholic Church "the great whore" and who has stated that Hitler was sent by God to drive Jews to Israel. When Lieberliar addresses the Rethug convention (and you know he will), just remember this particular baggage the good senator brings.

Personas Non Grata

We said it yesterday, but it bears repeating and repeating: For our two cents, the following die-hard, Clinton- over- party- over- country hacks should not be allowed anywhere near the Obama campaign once the Magical Inevitable Hillary Machine evaporates: Harold "Icky" Ickes (a man the Rude Pundit says is "desperately in need of a punch in the nuts"), Terry "Even Ickier" McAuliffe, Lanny "Fanny" Davis, and Howard Wolfson (to whom no opprobrium can adequately do justice). Nothing this group of high-profile Clinton enablers could bring to the table would be worth the price to be paid in honor and truth-telling. For these Four Horses Asses of the Apocalypse are fabricators and weasels of the lowest category, and to bring them into the Obama campaign would just as surely tarnish it as would the addition of Hillary herself on the ticket (not gonna happen).

Meanwhile, more rational Clinton backers, like national co-chair and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack are saying she should call it quits after tomorrow's primaries.

Quote of the Weekend

"I don't think my ears would fit. There's only so much rock up there." Sen. Obama responding to a reporter's question in South Dakota about whether he would like to be portrayed on Mt. Rushmore.

Bob Dole Goes Postal

It looks like Scott McClellan is former Sen. Bob Dole's new Viagra. McClellan's tell-all book "What Happened" sure got a "rise" out of the famously irascible Dole. We can almost hear wife Elizabeth saying "Viva McClellan!"

Separated At Birth?

The physical similarities between evil mogul Montgomery Burns and political hatchet man Harold "Icky" Ickes are striking. Anyone catching Icky's performances yesterday at the Democrats' Rules and Bylaws Committee weenie roast and the talking heads shows this morning knows that the physical similarities are only the beginning. You get the notion that these angry kamikazes for Clinton - - Icky, Lanny Davis, Howard Wolfson and Terry McAuliffe - - had their West Wing offices picked out earlier this year, and realize now that their dreams of glory are toast.

Sadly,it's not hard to imagine that the Clintons' unstated goal now is to conduct procedural fights up to and during the Democratic convention, and, while outwardly giving support to Obama, working behind the scenes with their kamikazes to make sure that Obama loses in November. Then the Clintons would say "we told you so", and position themselves (yes, themselves) for another run at the Presidency in 2012.

UPDATE: The Atlantic's James Fallows has a similar take here.