Daily Kos: Profiles in Punditry

I'm still laughing at this:

I love coming across great punditry like this, from Peggy Noonan in February 2006:

Conservatives are always writing about the strains and stresses within the Republican Party, and they are real. But the Democratic Party seems to be near imploding, and for that most humiliating of reasons: its meaninglessness. Republicans are at least arguing over their meaning.

The venom is bubbling on websites like Kos, where Tuesday afternoon, after the Alito vote, various leftists wrote in such comments as "F--- our democratic leaders," "Vichy Democrats" and "F--- Mary Landrieu, I hope she drowns." The old union lunch-pail Democrats are dead, the intellects of the Kennedy and Johnson era retired or gone, and this--I hope she drowns--seems, increasingly, to be the authentic voice of the Democratic base.

How will a sane, stable, serious Democrat get the nomination in 2008 when these are the activists to whom the appeal must be made?

Republicans have crazies. All parties do. But in the case of the Democrats--the leader of their party, after all, is the unhinged Howard Dean--the lunatics seem increasingly to be taking over the long-term health-care facility. Great parties die this way, or show that they are dying.

Ha!

Lieberman must go, part 2

It was worse than we thought:

Having ridden the wave of support for President-elect Barack Obama, Udall and Merkley spoke out in favor of the spirit of reconciliation and moving on from the campaign, in which Lieberman was one of the highest profile supporters of the Republican presidential ticket.

But no one in the room knew, as Merkley spoke, that Lieberman had supported Merkley's opponent, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). Lieberman, through his Reuniting Our Country PAC, gave Smith's reelection bid $5,000 on Oct. 10, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Lieberman's support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for the presidency was well known, punctuated by his nationally televised speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul criticizing Obama as not prepared to be president. His endorsement of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has served as the top Republican beside him at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also was well known in Democratic circles.

But not even Merkley knew of Lieberman's backing of Smith in their critical Senate race, until Capitol Briefing alerted his staff today.

All I can say, "Democrats" in Congress who supported "reconciliation" with Lieberman, is that you should not be surprised when he spikes investigations of the many Bush debacles, Democratic nominations to executive and judicial posts, and Democratic efforts to effect an exit from Iraq. You should not be surprised when he starts baseless investigations of the Obama administration and does everything possible to hamper Obama's agenda. He has no loyalty to anyone but himself. He's an opportunist. He will screw you.

I've been concentrating on work

And the next level of my military education. New posts to to resume shortly.

Lieberman must go

From My DD:

"Sen. Lieberman prefers to remain in the Democratic caucus," the aide said. "However, he believes he should remain as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. ... He thinks that political retribution should not go ahead of homeland security."

Kick Lieberman out of the caucus and take his chairmanship. Do it NOW.

Lieberman commits treachery on a routine basis -- he did it to Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky investigation in 1998 and 1999, he did it to Al Gore when he tanked the Cheney debate and by giving away the 2000 recount, and he did it to Barack Obama by campaigning for McCain in 2007 and 2008. Worse, he as much as called Obama a traitor and a terrorist after BEGGING Obama to campaign for him in his 2006 Senate reelection, something Obama was happy to do, even though Lieberman was not the Democratic nominee.

Why is Lieberman a treacherous prick? Because there are never any negative consequences, and there are sometimes positive ones.

Reid says Lieberman is loyal on all issues but one, so we should be nice to him. If Lieberman is REALLY in step with Reid on all issues except the Iraq war, well then, it shouldn't matter where Lieberman caucuses, or if he belongs to a caucus at all.

Lieberman needs to lose his committee chairmanships and he needs to be kicked out of the caucus, partly as punishment for his many past acts of disloyalty, and partly as a deterrent to any other Democratic Senator who considers similar treachery.

Lieberman must go.

Brent Bozell, liar

From Media Matters:

On America's Newsroom, Media Research Center president L. Brent Bozell III claimed that President-elect Barack Obama "ran as a Reaganite" and "won over ... the public as a fiscal conservative." But less than two weeks earlier, Bozell accused Obama of espousing "socialism" throughout the "entirety of the campaign."

Oh, come on! You cannot call Obama a terrorist and a socialist on one day, and then pretend he embraced your "conservative" principles on the next.

Republicans don't even try to be consistent. America is NOT a "center-right" country. Obama did NOT run as a conservative. Bozell and others like him are intellectually corrupt, bankrupt and hypocritical. In short, they deserved to lose.

Batman vs. McCain -- the debate

I know it's been a couple of weeks since other bloggers started posting this video clip, but I'm still watching it every day and laughing every time I see it.

Cheney endorses McCain

Dick Cheney emerged from his secure bunker to endorse John McCain.





Obama responds:

Senator Biden Is Now My Homeboy

Compare Joe Biden's description of the vice presidency to dictator wannabe Sarah Palin's:

Governor Sarah Palin shows again why she's not qualified to be vice president. Listen to this call. The pranksters are so blatantly faking that I can't believe she can't tell.

Funniest SNL sketch in years

I like Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and I still enjoyed Ben Affleck's impersonation. The funniest part is that in a couple of spots Affleck can hardly keep a straight face himself.