The perfect depiction of what we’ve heard from Rick Santorum and the rest of the Republican field so far. They preach “small government,” but are on a constant crusade to tell you what to do in your bedroom.
Category: Politics
Last week I wrote that the conservative movement would crash this year because of internal disagreements and the inability of one candidate to unify the Republican Party’s fractious components.
Then I waited to see what the next few days would bring. They were uglier than I could have imagined.
Mitt Romney came out against the rescue of GM, even though the auto giant reported record profits and a sustained increase in hiring. Not to be outdone, Rick Santorum expressed the same sentiments, which makes Romney’s stance even more vexing because Mitt’s supposed to be the business savvy candidate with a keen eye for profits and efficiency. That they both agree with each other shows just how out of touch the GOP is. What sense does it make to oppose a policy that saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, revived the tax base of scores of towns, and forestalled what might have been an even worse mortgage and foreclosure crisis in Michigan and Ohio, among other states? Being anti-Obama is one thing. Being pro-ignorant of consequences is quite another.
On the contraception front, both men made sure that they offended a wide swath of the electorate, starting with Santorum backer Foster Friess’s comments about gals using aspirin between their knees as a reliable form of birth control. We also found out that Santorum views contraception as harmful to women. The uproar was so great over this issue that Mitt Romney was forced to veer away from his economic message and attack President Obama as waging a war on religion. As it turns out, the Republicans are waging a war on reason as poll after poll showed that most Americans and most Catholics supported the president’s policy.
I understand the religious objection and think that the Obama administration could have managed the issue more delicately than they did, but in catering to the most base of their base with appeals to hatred, war, and sexism, Romney and Santorum showed that the far right demands absolute fealty to their cause. Discussion and debate is not an option.
Marriage equality was also in the news this week and the GOP was on the wrong end of that debate as well. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie vetoed a legislature-backed bill to grant equality under the law to all citizens and called for a referendum on a constitutional right. His veto will be overturned by the deadline in 2014. Bank on it.
In Maryland, the marriage equality bill will be signed by the Governor, but will probably be on the ballot this November. Opposition by African-American churches make passage difficult to gauge. Washington State also saw a bill pass, but opponents have vowed to delay or stop it.
The short-term prospects for these bills might be cloudy, but the sun will shine on marriage equality simply because it’s the right thing to do and the demographics support eventual passage of these laws in a number of states. Younger people support marriage equality (even Republicans) in far greater numbers than their older counterparts, a trend that began last year. Since death of the older generation is inevitable, so is marriage equality.
And there’s more. Santorum also questioned the President’s religious beliefs and Romney has had to protect his right flank against accusations that he’s not conservative enough. With the economy beginning to grow the GOP has to bank on things getting worse. Their new line of attack is high gas prices. Wasn’t that George Bush’s fault in 2008? No? Then how can it be Obama’s in 2012? Anybody hear of supply and demand? Anybody?
It seems as though the Republican candidates we have this year will be the ones remembered for the “Fall of Rome” for their party. They are too extreme, too conservative and on the wrong side of the generational issues. They talk about progress while making sure that we regress into a less tolerant past that they’ve convinced themselves was rosy. It’s one that blamed women who were sexually active and slammed the closet door on gays and lesbians. It was intolerant of those who decided they didn’t want to be religious. We’re not going back to that time.
We’re moving forward!
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The President’s weekly address focused on American manufacturing jobs. Mr. Obama spoke from the Boeing Plant in Everett, Washington and commended the job being done by Boeing to bring manufacturing jobs all across the nation.
“Boeing has been in this community for half a century,” the President said, “but it’s what they’re doing here today that has folks really excited; because at this plant they’re building the plane of the future – the Dreamliner. It’s an impressive sight. And, to be honest, part of why I came was to see it up close. But I also came because this is a great example of how we can bring jobs and manufacturing back to America.”
Mr. Obama also explained that because of new technology certain jobs have become obsolete, “but that doesn’t mean we have to settle for a lesser future,” he said, “I don’t accept that idea. In America, there’s always something we can do to create new jobs and new manufacturing and new security for the middle-class. In America, we don’t give up, we get up.”
We have a big opportunity right now to build not only an economy that will help us succeed today, but an economy that will help our kids and their kids succeed tomorrow. We know what we need to do. We need to strengthen American manufacturing…
We can do this…!
Joan Walsh states: I’ve decided Rush Limbaugh must be a closeted Democrat. I can’t think of any other reason he would be leading the Republican Party over a political cliff by advising that they double down on the culture wars.
With new poll data showing that President Obama is quickly gaining ground among women voters, at least partly due to Republican extremism on contraception, Limbaugh told his listeners Thursday that the GOP would win the election if it’s decided on culture-war terms.
“Something tells me, that if the upcoming election could be decided on social issues, the Republicans could win that in a landslide, because we are on the right side of the culture war,” he said. “The problem is, we’re scared to death of it. The Republican establishment wants no part of it.”
Brent Budowsky Writes: The Republicans have become so consumed and blinded by the intensity of their obsession against the president and their pure lust for power that they stand for nothing, and offer nothing to voters, except the intensity of their obsessions, ideologies, hatreds and dislikes.
GOP leaders have forgotten the lesson of Richard Nixon’s farewell address. Nixon warned that those consumed with animosity for their enemies will ultimately destroy themselves.
Republicans today have no George Romneys, Ronald Reagans, Jack Kemps or William Buckleys who promote conservative ideas with a politics of good will. They have few ideas. They offer no good will. Their champion’s own father would be appalled by his pandering to extremism and his Gatsby-like reinventions without any core of lasting values. He is opposed by second-rate pretenders who are neither true conservatives nor qualified for the presidency.
Robert Grundfest writes: The far right wing of the Republican Party is driving the party’s agenda and there’s not one candidate who’s shown they can corral the competing factions. Conservative reaction to Mitt Romney ranges from suspect to hostile and none of the other candidates can claim the right’s support. Yet. That might change as Rick Santorum showed in winning three non-binding primaries last week.
If anything, the nomination battle has proven that the movement has splintered along economic, social and religious lines. Many of the proposals we’ve heard are meant to appeal to the far fringe Tea Party wing of the party (Ron Paul) or to the religious conservatives (Santorum and Gingrich). Romney’s attempts to appeal to the center while throwing the right some scraps on abortion and taxes have so far fallen short of gaining wide acceptance.
The economy is improving and President Obama’s foreign policy is almost flawless. So what are Republicans to do? They have all decided that social issues – more specifically, women’s health – will be their ticket to the White House.
Over the last few weeks, Republicans thought they saw an opening in new ways to attack the President when Mr. Obama’s administration began requiring all employers to provide contraception without a co-pay for their employees. The Catholic Church jumped on this issue saying that the president is forcing the Church to go against its teachings in providing contraception to workers. Republicans smell blood, and began attacking the President, calling his requirement an “attack on Religion.”
The President and the Church came to an understanding and an agreement was reached – Churches would be exempt from the requirement, but contraception will still be provided and paid for by the insurance companies. But don’t tell that to the Republicans as they have decided that this would be the decisive issue in the 2012 presidential election, and they have decided to continue this fight.
And listening to their holier than thou attitudes, you will think that no other Republican president or governor has attempted what President Obama tried a few weeks ago. Yea, you will think that, but you will be wrong as even Mitt Romney, the present leading Republican candidate also signed the very same bill into law in Massachusetts.
Rachel Maddow explains…
Mitt Romney bet against America and American ingenuity when he suggested that Detroit and the auto industry should go bankrupt. Today, two years after President Obama believed in the auto industry and did what was necessary to keep the industry alive, General Motors posted their biggest profit in the company’s history of $7.6 billion.
Armed with this information, the DNC produced this video to remind all that if Romney had his way, GM would now be a faint memory.
That is a quote from Bill Maher as he shared some of his feelings about Rick Santorum and the other Republican presidential candidates on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Maher’s comment is based on some of the most extreme and controversial statements on social issues made by Santorum to date.
For all you right winged nuts running around the jungles of the south and midwest in camouflage, training to one day invade DC and remove the democratically elected president, take notice: there is a secret army with bigger guns than yours and their only job is waiting for your dumb arrival.
Buzzfeed reports:
The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which includes the classified units that killed Osama Bin Laden, has another secret mission according to a new book by Marc Ambinder and D. B. Grady — protecting the continuity of civilian government in the event of a coup.
“JSOC is also a key part of the classified contingency plans to preserve the U.S. civilian government in the event of a coup from the military or anyone else.”
JSOC, which includes SEAL Team Six, and the Combat Applications Group, known colloquially as Delta Force, as well as other units of greater size and even more secrecy, is “the President’s secret army,” the authors contend.
“When the president travels overseas, a JSOC team usually shadows him. Its members are trained to take charge should the mammoth security structure of the U.S. Secret Service break down.”
The Secret Service did not immediately return a request for comment on the book’s revelations.
A new CBS poll shows:
“President Obama holds a significant lead over each of his potential Republican opponents in the general election, according to a poll released Tuesday by CBS News and the New York Times. That includes Mitt Romney, who was even with Mr. Obama last month.
The new survey shows the president leading Romney by six points, 48 percent to 42 percent, among registered voters. Last month, the two men were tied at 45 percent each.
Mr. Obama’s lead over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has surged to a lead in national polls, is eight points: 49 percent to 41 percent.”
997 interviews were conducted with registered voters. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones
Republicans must be ecstatic to have this guy represent them in the 2012 Presidential elections. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Mitt Romney actually said this;
“This week, President Obama will release a budget that won’t take any meaningful steps toward solving our entitlement crisis. The president has failed to offer a single serious idea to save Social Security and is the only president in modern history to cut Medicare benefits for seniors.”
In that one statement, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of not doing anything to solve the entitlement crisis, then proclaims that Mr. Obama is the only president in modern history to cut Medicare benefits.
Wow. So the president is not doing anything about the entitlement crisis, but he’s the only president to cut Medicare?
Could it be that Mitt Romney — a member of the top richest 1% who only pays around 14% in taxes and already said he’s not concerned about the very poor — has no idea that Medicare benefits is considered an “entitlement program?”
Now Romney has said a lot of dumb things in the past – from his “corporations are people to my friends,” his “I like firing prople,” his “I’ll tell you what, ten-thousand bucks? $10,000 bet?” to Rick Perry at a time when the economy is in a recession, his “I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed” statement to unemployed Americans when he’s worth a quarter of a billion dollars – but this one has to be one of the dumbest thus far.
Lets see what tomorrow brings…
America prides itself in the quality of automobiles it produces and Detroit – known as the motor city – is where that pride originates. But under the strain of the present recession, Detroit and America saw the automobile industry crumble, laying off thousands of people to stay in business and creating inferior products in the process.
The choice was simple – let Detroit go bankrupt, thus eliminating millions of jobs throughout the industry and watching other countries continue to pass us by in the quality and quantity of cars they produce, which by the way, was what Mitt Romney said should have happened when he wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times; or do whatever was reasonably necessary to save millions of jobs and save the industry, and bringing that pride back to America as first in the world for quality car production.
President Obama chose the second option and Detroit, the auto industry and America are seeing the rewards of his action. America once again produces the best automobiles in the world.
Everyone shares in this pride, except Republicans… and Mitt Romney. Today, Romney wrote another piece, reiterating his feeling that Detroit should have went bankrupt.
My view at the time — and I set it out plainly in an op-ed in the New York Times — was that “the American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing.” Instead of a bailout, I favored “managed bankruptcy” as the way forward.
Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell. But in fact, it is a way for a troubled company to restructure itself rapidly, entering and leaving the courtroom sometimes in weeks or months instead of years, and then returning to profitable operation.
In the case of Chrysler and GM, that was precisely what the companies needed.