For these Republicans, the only way to make progress is by taking one step forward, then two steps back. After president Obama brought an end to the 17-year-old discriminatory policy against gays in the military, Rick Santorum – one of the front-runners in the Republican primary race – is vowing to return the nation to a time when being gay and serving in the military were grounds for discharge… maybe I shouldn’t be using the words “Santorum” and “discharge” in the same sentence.
This could be for a number of reasons. Maybe Newt is really sincere about being faithful to his third wife after cheating on the first two, or maybe Newt’s just being Newt – pandering to the masses, telling a specific group exactly what they want to hear at that specific moment.
With the Republican nomination elections set to begin in just a few weeks in Iowa, Newt Gingrich signed his version of a pledge to the Christian Conservative Evangelists of that state, promising to “uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.”
Gingrich made the pledge to The Family Leader, a socially conservative group based in Iowa. The organization has its own Marriage Pledge that other 2012 White House hopefuls have signed, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
Gingrich did not sign The Family Leader’s pledge himself, but did provide a lengthy written response to the organization. The former House speaker said he was fully committed to defending traditional marriage, including enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act and supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman.
And apparently, the Conservative group bought it. The issued this statement;
“We are pleased that Speaker Gingrich has affirmed our pledge and are thankful we have on record his statements regarding DOMA, support of a federal marriage amendment, defending the unborn, pledging fidelity to his spouse, defending religious liberty and freedom, supporting sound pro-family economic issues, and defending the right of the people to rule themselves.”
Maybe this group is just a glutton for punishment, or maybe they’re just willing to believe anything Gingrich says because they just cannot support Romney, or maybe Gingrich really has changed and is willing to do the right thing. Who knows, only time will tell if Newt can really uphold his pledge.
But this we do know. Using ‘Gingrich’ and ‘do the right thing’ in the same sentence should never be done. EVER!
You hear it all the time, Ronald Reagan would have done this and Ronald Reagan would have done that. And as you listen to today’s Republicans, you can’t help but wonder if they remember the same Reagan the rest of us do, the guy who actually raised taxes on the American people 11 times during his presidency.
Like the video below, where Ronald Reagan had the audacity to suggest that the rich should pay more in taxes. Statements like this would have been enough to cause today’s Republicans to round up the ‘posse,’ track down the ex president with hound dogs and nail him to a cross with a copy of Grover Norquist’s pledge glued to his forhead.
The New York Times is reporting a new measure by President Barack Obama called The Buffett Rule. According to the news report, President Obama will announce on Monday plans to tax millionaires at the same tax rate middle class Americans pay today.
According to the Times Report, administration officials said the plan would require those making “more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers.”
Mr. Obama, in a bit of political salesmanship, will call his proposal the “Buffett Rule,” in a reference to Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained repeatedly that the richest Americans generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.
Mr. Obama will not specify a rate or other details, and it is unclear how much revenue his plan would raise. But his idea of a millionaires’ minimum tax will be prominent in the broad plan for long-term deficit reduction that he will outline at the White House on Monday.
Although this is a great idea, suggested by many millionaires including Warren Buffett among others, there is one minor obstacle. It’s a small pledge signed by Congressional Republicans called the Grover Norquist Pledge. Republicans have promised Mr. Norquist that no matter what the situation is, no matter how much revenue the American economy needs, raising taxes would not happen.
So yes, Mr. Obama’s Buffett Plan will be a fair plan, but Grover Norquist and the Republicans will not have it.
We all remember Bachmann’s recent signing of a pledge which claimed that children born under slavery were better off than those born after President Obama became President! Well, Steven Colbert picked up on another very interesting piece of info about her and Rick Santorum – the other Republican Presidential candidate who immediately signed the document.
For Santorum, Colbert explains that he signed the pledge, even after being “taken aback” by the strong language it contained. Colbert’s re-enactment of Santorum reading the pledge is right on the mark.
And for Bachmann, Colbert picks on the many instances where she saw the need to equate something to slavery, you know, where her expertise lies…
Call her crazy, call her insane, call her deranged. But no matter what you call her, just don’t call Michele Bachmann a woman of intelligence. Michele Bachmann has stepped up to the plate, and signed a pledge claiming that children born under slavery, were better off than children born under President Obama’s Administration.
Yes, “dumb” and “stupid” also accurately describe this Republican contender for the 2012 Presidential election.
The pledge that caught Mrs. Bachmann’s attention was written by Bob Vander Plaats of Ohio and is called, “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY.” In it, the signee agrees to some very outlandish positions. All Republican candidates for President in 2012 are expected to sign the pledge – a pledge that calls for, among other things;
“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”
Given that families were broken up regularly for sales during slavery and that rape by masters was pretty common, this could not be more offensive. I mean, putting aside the statistics on this, which are likely off-base, I could not be more angry.
When will Republicans inquire with actual Black people whether or not we’re ok with invoking slavery to score cheap political points? It has to stop. It is the opposite of persuasive and is another reason Republicans repel us. It’s hard to believe that Michele Bachmann would be foolish enough to sign this pledge.
