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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Tag Archives | right-wing radio

And Republicans Wonder Why Turnout is Down

By on 06 February 2012

This cannot end well for him, particularly doing this claiming to be a Christian. And it might not end well for the rest of us either. Barack Obama has gone to war with Christians’ consciences and he is perverting God’s word in the process to get his way on public policy. – The Perversion of the Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the Sinner Barack H. Obama, by Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson reveals one of the fundamental problems with Republicanism today. It’s not conservative at all anymore.

In a rambling, self-importantly arrogant post, Erickson pontificates on what he thinks he knows about being a Christian through a literal analysis of the Bible. Then he stands in judgment over Pres. Obama.

The self-righteous never see irony coming.

There is nothing Christian in Erickson’s harangue against Pres. Obama. There is also nothing conservative about it.

Conservatism has a measure of grounding when you listen to analysis of it from people who don’t wrap their religion through their conservative ideology.

A religious conservative can be against abortion. But an ideological conservative, while being against abortion and not wanting to fund it, cannot simultaneously take a person’s liberty away by forcing pregnancy on a woman when natural law protects her right to personal autonomy.

The very notion of conservatism is rooted in personal liberty. Whether religious conservatives like it or not, to be true to conservatism, they must honor that liberty. Today, they do not.

Any conservative with intellectual or political integrity would understand that conservatism of any depth must be rooted in the fundamental idea that interrupting the freedoms of any person through the intrusion of government, whether federal or state, is abridging a person’s autonomy in a manner that is the anti-thesis of conservatism.

Religious conservatism or fundamentalist-based Republicanism is actually a self-righteous marketing attempt to make people like Erickson and his ilk think they are on higher ground and have the ultimate interpretation of right and wrong. You hear it through Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the rest of the self-righteous radio crowd.

It’s the blatant hypocrisy to claim to be a conservative, but think religious dogma should hold more sway than an individual who’s privacy and personal freedoms are innate to being a person in the first place.

Conservatism without religion can make sense.

Add religion, however, and conservatism becomes authoritarian in nature, relegating women to non-persons, second class citizens and slaves, because the state or federal government, through religious dictates, is now in charge.

Conservatism’s very nature is about doing less, leaving the individual alone to prosper and live without interference, which certainly should include women.

However, since Ronald Reagan invited the “Moral Majority,” which was neither moral or a majority then or now as it exists in other forms, conservatism was bastardized into something that now includes a campaign to take over the domain of a woman’s very body through means of the state or federal government.

Erick Erickson sees no problem with this, because he’s a religious conservative, not a conservative.

You can be religious and you can be a conservative, but once you put the two together in an ideological philosophy you lose the moorings of anything that has integral grounding in what conservatism actually means.

Not even Ron Paul passes this test as a Libertarian. He’s said before that he’s against abortion, because it’s violent, which is perfectly acceptable, but that he’d allow the states to decide the law governing abortions. This fails the basic autonomy test and the very notion of liberty that’s in Libertarianism, which he proved in an interview with Piers Morgan.

The biggest impediment to curtailing abortions is the refusal of religious conservatives and fundamentalist Republicans to accept the primary component to being a person, which is the body that houses the soul, assuming it exists, is something over which no other, certainly no politician, clergy or the state, has control.

This is about personal autonomy and living freely without any dependencies, the first component of personhood. It’s not abortion, but includes it, because religious fundamentalists are using political means to wage a war against the very notion of women’s individual freedom.

If people believing in true liberty don’t start taking religious conservatives on, whatever party they are in, over their fundamentalism, women’s autonomy won’t be sacrosanct one day.

This includes taking on people like Pres. Obama when he decides that a safe pharmaceutical like Plan B can be used as a stick to the contraceptive carrot that came afterward, because women’s individual freedoms remain a bargaining chip for politicians and their supporters.

The ultimate example of this was seen through the Susan G. Komen fiasco this past week, when Komen decided to make ideology more important than the health of women, especially poor women, who have been a political football since the Hyde Amendment. Yes, Pres. Obama used poor women as a football too, and he did it through the religious conservative playbook that created Hyde in the first place.

This column has been updated.

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Election Year January Snapshot: Romney Up in Florida, Advantage Pres. Obama

By on 29 January 2012

Gingrich is badly trailing Romney by 11 percentage points, garnering just 31 percent of likely Republican voters heading into Tuesday’s presidential primary, according to a Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll released late Saturday night. – Poll: Romney holds big lead over Gingrich in Florida, via the Miami Herald

On ABC’s “This Week” with Jake Tapper today, Newt Gingrich trumpeted the endorsements of Herman Cain and Rick Perry, while parroting Rush Limbaugh and basking in the words of Sarah Palin. His harangue against Mitt Romney, who’s clearly gotten in his head, sounded desperate.

Jake Tapper even did Mitt Romney the favor of playing Romney’s Tom Brokaw ad on national TV. It’s the kind of free media you just can’t buy.

To Newt Gingrich and the right wing Republicans behind him, Pres. Obama and his reelection team simply want to say, thank you and keep it coming.

Things haven’t looked this good for the Democrats in a long time.

From the latest NBC/WSJ poll released on Friday, as we end the first month of 2012:

And for the first time in six months, more people approve of the job the president is doing (48 percent) than disapprove (46 percent).

“The psychology about the economic conditions has switched,” Hart said. “The old saying is a rising tide lifts all boats then clearly, this economic optimism has clearly lifted Obama’s ratings.”

As I’ve written for a very long time, including in my new book, Pres. Obama is beatable. However, it won’t be easy and can’t be done without a Republican Party unified behind one candidate.

Right now, there’s enough animosity being stoked by the Tea Party hard right that this may not be possible.

As I’ve written before, I’m not supporting any candidate for president. However, there are worse things than Pres. Obama being reelected and at the top of that list is Newt Gingrich.

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Newt Gingrich Lied – John King Vindicated

By on 26 January 2012

**Update below – Rush “rocked”**

Newt Gingrich’s campaign admitted Wednesday night the former House speaker was inaccurate when he claimed his team offered several witnesses to ABC News to refute statements made by Gingrich’s second wife in a controversial interview aired last week. [...] On Wednesday, however, the campaign conceded the candidate was wrong, both in his debate answer and in his interview with CNN on Tuesday. – TRENDING: Gingrich campaign admits error

I’ve been waiting for Newt Gingrich to step in it and it’s happened.


It’s reminiscent of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Bosnia disaster, which came at a critical time, even though David Plouffe’s caucus strategy would easily outplay Mark Penn’s political malpractice and lack of preparation, credit and blame given fully and without flinching in my new book.

Will it be enough to blow Gingrich out in Florida? It should, because it’s representative of everything about him. But who knows, it’s a wacky year and Republican primary voters haven’t cared so far about anything but satisfying their emotions. It also depends if Mitt Romney or his Super PAC jumps on this, but I’d bet they will, because if I were running his strategy, I’d cranked up the ad machine and get one out post haste.

The revelation that Gingrich lied and tried to disgrace a good reporter, John King, with many in the media playing along, should be instructive to people. It didn’t seem to matter that King is a veteran reporter who had never been challenged before, though I wasn’t one of them, standing up for King’s clear decision to ask Gingrich about the hottest story of the day. Anyone looking at trends across the web, even places like Memeorandum, would have seen the proof. I believed he should have challenged Gingrich when he attacked him, and you can argue about starting with the question on Marianne Gingrich, but it’s King’s call and there’s nothing in his history that even hints he’s unethical, biased to one party or another, or isn’t good at his job.

Oh, if only there was a thought bubble above Pres. Reagan's head...

This latest embarrassment comes after a reader pointed me to Elliott Abrams’ piece yesterday and though I hold Mr. Abrams in particular contempt (see Iran-contra, for which Ronald Reagan deserved to be impeached), when it comes to the Reagan era he’s a source with deep knowledge.

“Measured against the scale and momentum of the Soviet empire’s challenge, the Reagan administration has failed, is failing, and without a dramatic change in strategy will continue to fail. . . . President Reagan is clearly failing.” – Newt Gingrich

Newt is getting carpet-bombed by the conservative chattering class and no one deserves it more. Who would know better about unethical gasbags than Tom Delay? From Politico:

“He’s not really a conservative. I mean, he’ll tell you what you want to hear. He has an uncanny ability, sort of like Clinton, to feel your pain and know his audience and speak to his audience and fire them up. But when he was speaker, he was erratic, undisciplined.” – Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich

But have you seen BuzzFeed’s contribution on Newt, complete with art?

Ann Coulter, a Romney gal, delivers the best anti-Newt case there is: Reelect Obama Vote Newt! Mitt Romney’s got humongous general election challenges against Pres. Obama, but there is little doubt that Newt as the nominee would result in a Goldwater type landslide and for good reasons.

Newt Gingrich in the White House would be more dangerous than Sarah Palin.

UPDATE: Listening to Rush Limbaugh’s first hour, a regular habit during election season, this one has been stunning. “It’s happening…” Rush began today, talking about Newt being taken out in Florida; with Gingrich slamming Reagan something he said he didn’t know, being very defensive about it. “We can’t keep up with them starting in March,” Rush Limbaugh said before last break, talking about if the GOP nominee is picked early. This came after he said he was “stunned” at the revelations about Newt on Ronald Reagan. “World rocked about now…” then went to commercial break. … “Snerdly’s chin is on the floor,” Rush continues, after playing a clip of Newt Gingrich saying he was a Rockefeller Republican.

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Gingrich Soars on Wings of Obama Fluffing Media*

By on 20 January 2012

*See note below

“The liberal media,” she added, “and some of that GOP holier-than-thou machine overplayed their hand this time. … I call them ‘dumb arses,’” she said. … “Their target in this case, Newt,” Palin added, “is now going to soar even more because we know the game now and we just won’t put up with it. – Daily Caller

The headline I offer above won’t be used by the insider press, because they’re not that honest or blunt. However, the Obama fluffing media is the foundation for what may manifest on Saturday, which is a Newt Gingrich win in South Carolina. Politico represents the kinder, gentler argument:

By twice castigating one of the right’s perennial boogeymen — the press — Gingrich made a gut-level connection with conservatives who think they get a raw deal from the news media. – Politico

Sarah Palin whipping up anti-establishment conservatives is a perfect play when the American media is woven into the narrative. It comes at a time in an election year that is already shaping up to be advantage Pres. Obama in the media, though not for the same reasons as it was in 2008, which is proven in my book The Hillary Effect.

But Palin calling Brian Ross part of the liberal media reveals she’s just not all that astute as an analyst, nor is her audience; though details and facts aren’t the point. Ross was part of the ABC crew who trumpeted Monica Lewinsky and the blue dress, complete with composite picture that included candidate Hillary, when Clinton’s campaign released the documents of when she was first lady. All Ross and ABC wanted was coverage, which they got, as they did yesterday with Marianne Gingrich.

John King had to ask the question, though you can disagree it had to come at the top of the debate, however, making King the subject is a distraction. It’s not for the right and conservatives. So Gingrich teeing off on King, who did not flinch, with a bank shot to the entire media, is not only what Newt does, but taps into the foundation of anger that’s been festering among the Republican based since 2008. As you saw in the hall, it’s a winner, but for a good reason.

That’s because in 2008 conservatives and Republicans watched candidate Obama get glowing press and very little of the scrutiny, with their anticipation it will happen again justified. On Morning Joe, Ms. Brzezinski plays the role of spokeswoman for the White House, though that’s nothing compared to what we’ll see on Fox News Channel once a nominee is selected by the GOP. However, if past is prologue, Fox’s partisanship will not be repeated elsewhere.

Even Joe Scarborough talked about conservatives being sick of being “marginalized.” It’s not a ludicrous statement when you consider Fox News Channel’s prowess, but also Scarborough’s own network, which rarely offers criticism of Pres. Obama, even when earned.

You can see that policy best represented by Chris Matthews calling Andrew Sullivan a “genius” for writing his Newsweek piece this week, calling Obama’s critics “dumb.” It’s echoed by Ed Schultz and all the way through primetime. It doesn’t bother Matthews or his bosses that Sullivan has been disgraced through his harangues against Sarah Palin, his ridiculous intelligence and race ramblings, both of which have the virtue of being totally fact free.

In a year when Republicans are serving up no one who can beat Pres. Obama, conservatives are standing up to say they at least want someone to state their case and communicate to America that they’re mad as hell at the media playing defense for Pres. Obama. The target of that ire is not only Barack Obama, but a media who fell in love with this brilliant political athlete who naively believed he alone could change the American world of politics and suckered the entire American media, minus yours truly and a few others, that he could make it happen.

It’s not entirely Pres. Obama’s fault to believe this nonsense since he came into Washington with the American press at his feet.

TM NOTE: The title of this piece was chosen to make a point. That the media choosing sides ends up impacting our politics in a way that benefits no one, especially when it elevates the likes of Newt Gingrich. As we begin another election cycle, it’s important to stress what happened previously, because as we saw last night, the pro Obama media bias from 2008 is very fresh in the minds of conservatives.

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Romney is the Republican Party’s Own Creation

By on 11 January 2012

Many conservative activists, while not especially enthusiastic about Romney or his establishment backers, are appalled by the odd turn of campaign rhetoric in the closing days of New Hampshire, with Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman taking aim at Romney’s record running the private equity firm Bain Capital. These people, who include radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, are apoplectic that anti-Romney Republicans are making common cause with anti-business Democrats. – Mitt Romney vs. the dead-enders


Watching Sean Hannity last night when Rick Perry stated that venture capitalism was good, but “vulture capitalism” was something else entirely, was a moment I will never forget.

It was followed up Frank Luntz saying they all will remember this moment, this week nine months from now, because this was when it all went wrong.

There are other possibilities.

Perhaps the over $7 million dollars, Karl Rove’s figures, of ads ready to air in South Carolina, will help one of the other candidates wrestle the nomination from Mitt Romney’s grip. Maybe the notion that no Republican has won both Iowa and New Hampshire then gone on to win the nomination will sustain them as an omen that Romney can’t possibly be the first.

Perhaps the faith leaders meeting before South Carolina will come up with a consensus candidate, with the news it’s not Newt inspiring him to get behind Rick Santorum.

Movement conservatives are flailing. Michelle Malkin had this to say about Romney sitting next to John McCain: “When they’re together, they look like they’re holding each other (and the rest of us) hostage.”

Erick Erickson isn’t quite sure what to do, with Dana Loesch sounding similarly confused.

All Sean Hannity could do was sputter when Rick Perry started channeling Democratic talking points against Romney. It doesn’t help that Perry and even Gingrich’s message on Romney where Bain is concerned is running head on into the House Republicans’ dogma.

However, there is another possibility, however outlandish to posit. Perhaps all this gnashing of conservative principles in the open and ugly hashing out between the candidates and conservative activists will end up inoculating Mitt Romney, because his story will be reeled out and talked to death so that by the time Democrats rev it up to full ugliness in the fall everyone will not only be numb to it, but turned off because they’ve heard it all before.

Looking at Mitt Romney last night and hearing his perfectly canned and immaculately intoned speech, I don’t get the sense he is someone who is going to be defeated, certainly not by the current crowd of lackluster conservative performers.

As much as I disagree with their entire philosophy, there is also something that seems very healthy about what we’re watching. No one is holding back, as the most robotic candidate and perfectly cast person for the role of Republican nominee just keeps on winning and attracting begrudging supporters, which has stopped no one from escalating the rhetoric. In fact, the more Romney looks like the nominee the more shrill conservatives get.

We have never witnessed from Republicans such an open airing of discontent, though the Tea Party rise before 2010 foreshadowed something was coming when the GOP establishment was fully engaged in picking a presidential nominee.

There is an element of dynamic creative destruction going on, the political edition, as right wing conservatives start attacking venture capitalism and trumpeting some middle way with workers in mind, a weirdly born notion of conservative populism, while the fat cats take their comeuppance and are forced to digest that the days of how they rose won’t cut it with conservative activists and it’s time to shift, though no one is sure where this is all leading.

Republicans are going through their own Occupy moment and it’s from within.

Ron Paul is a part of all this too, but at the center of the combustion is Willard Mitt Romney, the man who is the epitome of everything representing Republicanism and the embodiment of what Rush Limbaugh has been telling his listeners for over 20 years they could have and be too if only they vote Republican.

Republicans have created this vulture capitalist monster, Mitt Romney, a part of the sickness deep within our economy, and they either make peace with him in order to win or churn this conflict through to a conclusion that just might bring about a transformative moment. A moment that began percolating when Ron Paul and the Tea Party started to gain traction during the Bush-Cheney administration and ended up turning state houses over to the right in record numbers in 2010.

Now that money as speech has been unleashed against Newt through the Citizens United decision, the possibility of a new Republican 21st century reformer against “crony capitalism” and hidden money has the possibility of rising, though it’s unlikely to be today.

Ron Paul certainly sees that, which is why he likely won’t choose to leave the Republican Party and will bequeath what he’s begun to his son, now in the Senate, because not even he is convinced the revolution he wants to lead can succeed now. Or maybe not?

It’s been a crazy circus, with mediocre candidates and acting out on all levels for Republicans for months, a year before it has begun to wind down and resolve. However, the audiences for the debates have been large, while the country watches politics as a modern soap opera, the most addictive form of entertainment to ever come out of Hollywood.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side there is lethargy, deep discontent and uncertainty about what the party even stands for anymore. There is none of the open, honest and potentially renovating energy we’re seeing on the Republican side.

I’m not sure crazy and mediocre equals vibrant, so there’s a long way to go for Republicans, but it has been an open process, the polar opposite of what we’ve seen from Democrats who are obviously afraid to challenge what’s been put in place, revealing an undeserved reverence for power that seems quaint.

The status quo, which is seen in Barack Obama as Romney’s bookend, is not going to cut it it for much longer. At least conservatives are attacking their establishment, while Democrats continue to be largely satisfied with the corporate and Wall Street status quo machine. This might hold them together long enough to reelect Barack Obama, which could finally bring about what needs to happen on the left. A come to Jesus moment about the fights that need to be made so that the party that F.D.R. and L.B.J. helped build in the hearts and minds of Americans doesn’t go up in a puff of personality.

Unlike on the Democratic side, where the same old canned political rah-rah will rise up, just like the establishment is doing on the Republican side for Romney, there is something strangely alive and even exciting happening inside the conservative movement. Even with the mixture of amateurs, crackpots and committed “dead-enders,” the transparency of the fight for ideas is laudable, even if you disagree with what they’re saying and proposing for this country, which I do, while on the Democratic side it looks dry and dead and resigned.

The best thing that could happen to conservatism is Romney winning the nomination but losing to Obama.

If Pres. Obama does win reelection, still likely, I’m not sure the Democratic Party will survive as it has been conceived, because no one will be able to say what it actually means to be a Democrat because Barack Obama doesn’t seem to know himself. The best thing for progressivism could be for Obama to lose, the bookend to Romney not prevailing. Then perhaps Democratic activists can say he lost because the establishment lost their way on policy by allowing someone to rise up and lead them who didn’t make the case or the fight for Democratic ideas, preferring conservatism and compromise as the guide, which is why so many people are leaving the Democratic Party.

I guess what I’m ultimately saying is that the winner of the November elections could really end up being the long-term loser on principle, because the activists in whatever party that wins will have to start all over again, mounting a challenge to the establishment of their party in order to represent anything worth following in an era where Americans don’t trust Republicans or Democrats anymore.

A political renaissance is at hand and November won’t bring the end of anything or a final win for either lumbering, aging and stifling political party. They’ve both lost the privilege of having our loyalty and nothing can change that fact right now.

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Romney ‘Acceptable’ to Republican Conservatives, and Remainders from Iowa

By on 10 January 2012

**Book winner update below**

“I think there are at least 3 tickets out of New Hampshire.” – Jon Huntsman on CNN

…and Mr. Huntsman got that ticket by coming in third.

Romney Wins New Hampshire

Ron Paul Second

–original post below–

Mitt Romney is the now the only candidate that a majority of conservative and moderate/liberal Republicans nationwide see as an “acceptable” GOP nominee for president. Conservative Republicans are more likely to say Romney would be an acceptable nominee than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum. – Gallup

In honor of the Gallup poll above, I bring you the Democratic response to Mitt Romney’s possible nomination below.

An assist goes to Newt Gingrich, who is likely to be held accountable for lengthening the assault and drilling down to the organic Romney candidacy challenges in the age of Occupy. Rush Limbaugh has already started on him.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is unleashing an offensive “pro-abortion” Mitt Romney ad in South Carolina, where the gutter is high water territory.

There is also more bad news for Mitt Romney and his job creating bragging rights. Glenn Kessler gives him 3 Pinocchios on his claim of creating 100,000 jobs, calling it “untenable.”

What’s interesting is Newt’s Bain Capital attack seems to also be registering with Republicans who are developing a political patter and marketing strategy to preemptively prepare for a Romney nomination.

This from Bill Kristol:

Post 2008, capitalism needs its strong defenders—but its defenders need also to be its constructive critics. The Tea Party was right. What’s needed is a critique of Big Government above all, but also of Big Business and Big Finance and Big Labor (and Big Education and Big Media and all the rest)—and especially a critique of all those occasions when one or more of these institutions conspire against the common good. What’s needed is a willingness to put Main Street (at least slightly) ahead of Wall Street, and a reform agenda for capitalism that strengthens it, alongside an even more dramatic reform agenda for government that limits it.

Now for the fun stuff. Before the Iowa caucuses I ran a Call Iowa contest. It’s time to announce the winner. The person who came closest to calling Iowa is “newdealdem1.” Looks like your niece is going to get the book.

BUT… BUT… BUT… [update] “newdealdem1″ has decided to pass her win to the next closest person, who is… “guyski”! Congratulations! Her niece will still get the book, but she’s going to buy it for her. Here’s what she wrote to me:

I am truly stunned and so happy! First, I haven’t won anything since I was a kid and won a picnic basket in one of those Italian-American feasts in NY. LOL

Thank you, Taylor.

Now on to the win. I would like to “donate” my win to the next person who came closest to calling Iowa. I so love your book that I want more people to read it. I am going to purchase your book for my niece as I feel so strongly that young women like my niece need to be cognizant of the things you say in it.

So, Taylor, let the next closest person be the lucky recipient of your book. The more people read your book (even if that person is a guy – and this is crucial for men to read as well), the better.

I have the greatest readers around. Thanks so much “newdealdem1.”

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Independents at Record Levels for Good Reason

By on 09 January 2012

The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27%. – Gallup

It’s important to remember that Independents feel forced to vote Democratic or Republican, too.

It’s rather impressive to see the fall of big two party support. The good news for Democrats is that more Independents Americans [update: mistakenly typed "Independents" - apologies] identify as Democratic, 31% to 27%.

That fact upset Rush Limbaugh out of the gate today on his radio show, who doesn’t believe it’s so.

The good news for Republicans is today the big two political parties are more competitive.

I’ve gotten a few emails about the Justice Party, so here’s a link for those of you who are curious. You can fine their platform, as well as their efforts to be relevant, which begin with being on the ballot and that’s just for starters.

Considering neither Mr. Cool or Mr. Ice, who is now down to 33% in the latest Suffolk poll in New Hampshire (35% in PPP), inspire much enthusiasm, we just might be on the runway for a low turnout year in November if something doesn’t dramatically change.

I’m hoping things change, because people’s votes matter, especially when they decide they want to change a system that isn’t working for the middle class any longer, which begins with our two corporate, Wall Street political parties whose purpose revolves around servicing the elite and keeping them and their supporting groups employed.

As an aside, if Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Republican conservative primary voters end up defeating the juggernaut that is Mitt Romney, something I still don’t believe is possible. While I don’t agree with a single Republican policy, I will have a lot more respect for the right-wing, whose Tea Party faction was also able to hand Obama and the Democrats a historic defeat in the 2010 midterms. The result of which was unprecedented power turned back to the right in state legislatures across the country, which manifested an all out assault on unions, women’s freedoms and the middle class, as well as a hand in redistricting, which is no small matter.

The ire with which the right still remembers John McCain’s 2008 win is palpable when you listen to the right-wing and their barkers, led by Rush Limbaugh. Many have said they’d rather lose with a conservative than with Mitt Romney. Erick Erickson is as good a barometer as there is out there this year. He’s saying no to big government conservative Rick Santorum, pushing for Rick Perry first, then Newt, though he will back Romney if he must. That he’s backing Perry first reveals all you need to know about the right wing.

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Squealing Partisans

By on 06 January 2012

It’s as if Democratic and Republican partisans think our country is made of feathers.

What’s most important has been left largely unexamined: if one of these candidates actually becomes president and advances his or her policies, what would be the consequences for the nation? – What If Obama Loses?

Every election season we hear about the dire consequences if one side or the other isn’t elected, but yet, we seem to muddle through. The problem is we never learn and keep voting for the same two parties, without a hint of irony that doing the same thing every election and expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.

The Democratic and Republican parties are bought and paid for and squealing partisans are their bankers.

For the first time, looking at all this as a recovering partisan, I finally know a bit about how and what independents must see and feel when looking at partisan squealers. So now when I read or hear the hair on fire protestations about the consequences of one side or the other getting “power,” I understand the disdain people feel for both political parties.

See Rick Santorum’s comment today about good economic news, when he said that it’s all about “optimism that Republicans will take the White House.” At least Mitt Romney acknowledged reality, which is that the economy is weak, but trends are in the right direction.

I was doing interviews all day yesterday, including for the UK Guardian, publicizing my book, but also because I was a go-to gal on Michele Bachmann getting out of the race. The Hillary Effect, got lots of attention and a nice mention on Al Jazeera today.

One interview reminded me again of the state of our political culture when a right wing amateur and wannabe radio host called me a liar several times after our interview had concluded. It was like the old days when I used to do radio “shoot outs” back during Pres. Bill Clinton’s 2nd term and into the Gore v. Bush contest. It’s also one reason I quit doing radio interviews.

It’s what happens on Twitter regularly, vitriol unleashed whenever anything revealing is written about Pres. Obama, but also in the comments around here. When squealing partisans don’t approve of what I write, their reactions are so extreme they target the messenger, moi, when I even dare to post a news item. It happened yet again last night on a post I did about Michael Hastings new book, because I found the interchange with the author on “Morning Joe” interesting. Obama supporters took aim at me, as usual, even invoking Hillary Clinton in the mother of all non sequitar burps, instead of taking issue with Hastings.

People can’t get their heads around the fact that this site is not about Democratic or progressive cheerleading anymore. Today’s economy and jobs report was written about fairly, as is the criticism aimed in Pres. Obama’s direction, but also at Republicans. Obama Fan Boyz and Girlz can’t seem to digest the concept of a liberal, that would be me, declaring my sympathies, while also being capable of delivering fair political analysis, including credit when Republicans or conservatives earn it. That’s the editorial policy around here, folks, which will send partisans scattering, but I’ve never written what’s popular so I don’t know why anyone is surprised.

I am still waiting for Obama Fan Man “solo,” who I mention because he is representative of a lot of the incoming I receive, to prove his (false) charge that I write “almost daily Obama is going to lose articles.” Tick, tock, Obama fan. The problem is I’ve never written an “Obama is going to lose article,” because there is absolutely no proof that he is. Like I wrote in my book, Pres. Obama is indeed beatable, but the current second tier class of Republican and conservative candidates, with their extreme positions on everything from war to civil liberties to immigration, aren’t going to be able to do it.

On their side, it’s just politicians squealing.

“And so I’m prepared if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps,” Gingrich said earlier today in Plymouth, N.H. – ABC News

“Are we saying everyone should have the right to marry? So anyone can marry anyone else?” Santorum asked, according to a video by NBC News. “So anybody can marry several people?” – LA Times

Rush Limbaugh sounded like a stuffed wart hog yesterday over an article from the American Enterprise attempting to make gullible Republicans start building bunkers for economic war. It all revolves around the smart move by Pres. Obama to make a recess appointment of Richard Cordray, and quit thinking Republicans intend to let him be president.

The explosion started with James Pethokoukis at AEI:

January Surprise: Is Obama preparing a trillion-dollar, mass refinancing of mortgages?

This could be just the beginning. If President Barack Obama’s legally dodgy appointment of Richard Cordray to head the consumer finance agency should stick, it may open the door to more such actions. Here’s Jaret Seiberg of the Washington Research Group:

To us, the most important takeaway from a recess appointment of Cordray is that the President could use this same maneuver to put a housing advocate in charge of FHFA.

And why is that important? The Federal Housing Finance Agency is the regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And the FHFA currently has an acting director, Edward DeMarco. If Obama replaces him with a “housing advocate” via the same recess appointment process, here’s what might happen next, according to Seiberg:

That could lead to a mass refinancing program for agency-backed mortgages that would go well beyond the existing HARP program. That could hurt agency MBS pricing and result in higher financing costs going forward. Yet it also could be a big boost for the economy and housing going into the election.

Indeed, my sources tell me the Obama administration has been eager to implement just such a plan, but needs to have its own man heading the FHFA to make it happen. The plan would be modeled after one originally devised by Columbia University economists Glenn Hubbard (a campaign adviser to Mitt Romney and AEI visiting scholar) …

Reading the article and listening to Rush in between interviews, I couldn’t tell if they were freaked at Pres. Obama winning, telegraphing that Romney = Obama, or have just run out of things to catch people’s attention.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are simply sick of watching and playing our part in the United States two party soap opera that is getting us absolutely nowhere.

Last time I looked, the big banks were doing just fine and Wall Street is humming along.

The cause worth joining isn’t fighting over two corporate party heads who are a lot more worried about their own futures than ours. It’s refusing to play the rigged game or argue whether there’s much difference between them at all.

It all begins with getting money out of politics or at the very least, making the process transparent.

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Politifact’s ‘Lie of the Year’ Goes to Democrats

By on 20 December 2011

Oh boy, this is going to make heads explode.

As a renegade liberal who never agrees with anyone, I characterized Paul Ryan’s plan like this:

There’s a reason Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have been pushing the Heritage Foundation mercilessly on their show for months and it was to pave the way for Paul Ryan and his Heritage Foundation hallucinations.

This partisan ideological shop is the driving engine for Rep. Ryan’s math , who in using the Heritage Center for Data Analysis as his cover conjured up the stamp of right-wing approval for his “Path to Prosperity.”

It’s going to solve all of our debt problems and even make parents able to stand their teenagers.

I also said it would “end Medicare in ten years.” Is that a lie? It’s partisan language, for certain, fueled by emotion, because I believe Ryan’s plan would end Medicare as we know it. If I’m being honest, now writig as a recovering partisan (though not quite cured), that is what I would write today.

The push back has started, which you can see at Memeorandum.

Steve Benen begins:

This is simply indefensible. Claims that are factually true shouldn’t be eligible for a Lie of the Year designation.

It’s unnerving that we have to explain this again, but since PolitiFact appears to be struggling with the relevant details, let’s set the record straight.

Medicare is a single-payer health care system offering guaranteed benefits to seniors. The House Republican budget plan intended to privatize the existing system and replace it with something very different — a voucher scheme. It would still be called “Medicare,” but it wouldn’t be Medicare.

It seems foolish to have to parse the meaning of the word “end,” but if there’s a program, and it’s replaced with a different program, proponents brought an end to the original program. That’s what the verb means.

Paul Krugman joins in:

The new scheme would still be called “Medicare”, but it would bear little resemblance to the current system, which guarantees essential care to all seniors.

How is this not an end to Medicare? And given all the actual, indisputable lies out there, how on earth could saying that it is be the “Lie of the year”?

The answer is, of course, obvious: the people at Politifact are terrified of being considered partisan if they acknowledge the clear fact that there’s a lot more lying on one side of the political divide than on the other. So they’ve bent over backwards to appear “balanced” — and in the process made themselves useless and irrelevant.

What do you think? Did Democrats and progressives deserve Politifacts “lie of the year”?

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Tea Party Man, Newt Gingrich

By on 13 December 2011


The DNC hit Newt with a new video after the Iowa debate on Saturday.

Matt Taylor over at Joe Conason’s National Memo explains why Tea Partiers love Newt, just in case the DNC ad above doesn’t do the job.

“Republicans have found the best anti-Romney,” said Sidney Blumenthal, whose tenure as a senior advisor to Bill Clinton overlapped with some of Gingrich’s time as Speaker of the House. “Boiled down to its essence, it’s resentment. For Gingrich, his great talent is to voice and reflect resentment.”

And now he is now doing what Romney never could: reminding Republicans of the heyday of the modern conservative movement in the mid 1990s, when the right was winning the culture war and Bill Clinton was signing reactionary legislation like the Defense of Marriage Act, denying federal recognition to same-sex relationships.

“He pulled off this historic coup,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton and an expert on Congress. “He made conservatives a force in the Republican Party, and in some ways conservatives are forever grateful and appreciate that he delivered for them.”

It’s the resurgence of dog whistle politics at a time when the Tea Party is not nearly as powerful with the majority of Americans as it was in 2010. This is why so many Republican establishment types are worried about a Gingrich nomination.

And just when you thought this couldn’t get any weirder, Michael Savage is offering Newt $1 million to quit the race. We’ve never seen anything like this before.

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Desperation Inside the 99%

By on 07 December 2011

A woman in the border city of Laredo, Texas who was angry because she had been denied food stamps killed herself and shot and critically wounded her two children late on Monday, authorities said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Yesterday on Sean Hannity’s radio show, he made a startling statement about the poor that revealed the right wing’s economic philosophy today: Even the poor live well in America. Hannity went on from there to talk about the poor having microwaves, air conditioning and on and on. Few people are more clueless.

It’s why I offer Newt Gingrich’s rip off of Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign ad, which is the perfect example of the right’s disconnect with the 99%.

It is a rare day when Al Sharpton emerges as the voice of sagacity, but when Newt Gingrich has the microphone, all things are possible. – Kathleen Parker

I sure did call Pres. Obama’s speech yesterday, but at least he gives great lip service to what’s going on with the 99%.

If Pres. Obama’s leadership resembled his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas in any way at all he wouldn’t be at 41% approval in the polls.

The anger and desperation some people inside the 99% feel today has been witnessed in Occupy Wall Street in many cities. People not in this position often do not understand or even empathize with people’s deep frustration today, which can lead to desperate acts.

It’s part of the divide in this country and why many Americans looking at Democrats and Republicans don’t feel compelled to support either, but also are not enthused about 2012. People are asking, Does it really matter to Americans who is elected from the big two parties?

Both big parties have proven they don’t understand what’s going on outside their own entitled, corporate and Wall Street backed bubbles. It makes people even more desperate in the current economic times.

This post has been updated.

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Pelosi’s People Scramble on Gingrich ‘early Christmas gift’

By on 06 December 2011

“I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard an early Christmas gift,” Gingrich told reporters. “If she is suggesting that she is going to use material that she developed while she was on the ethics committee, then that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.” – ABC News

Checking in on Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday, which I do only when absolutely necessary, because he’s no Rush Limbaugh, the glee over Pelosi’s “thousand pages of the stuff” comments was palpable.

Brian Beutler had reported a story quoting Rep. Nancy Pelosi who was teasing that she was holding the goods on Newt Gingrich until “the time is right.” It went like this:

Pelosi didn’t go into detail about Gingrich’s past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi said. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”

Pressed for more detail she wouldn’t go further.

“Not right here,” Pelosi joked. “When the time’s right.”

Which is to say that if Gingrich somehow clinches the nomination, there’s one hell of an oppo dump coming.

Mrs. Pelosi is smart enough to know that if she talks about serving on the investigative committee that looked into Newt Gingrich that she was teasing of dropping a dime on him.

Now ABC News has clarifying comments from Pelosi’s people, which attempt to blame the messenger.

But this afternoon, Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, suggested that her comments have been misconstrued beyond the leader’s intent.

“Leader Pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware,” Hammill wrote in a statement.

Katrina Newton gave the same statement to TPM:

“Leader Pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware,” Pelosi spokesperson Karina Newton said.

There is no “clearly” or “misconstrue” about it. If Pelosi was going to share items in the public record she could easily have made that clear. It’s not like she couldn’t have covered herself by saying something deliciously pointed like, Newt Gingrich’s career stumbles and opportunism is a gold mine that Democrats will excavate when ready. However, she just couldn’t help herself.

Mrs. Pelosi walked too far out on a political limb allowing Mr. Gingrich, of all people, to saw it off.

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BARNES & NOBLE Chooses THE HILLARY EFFECT in ‘NOOK First’ Featured Authors Campaign

By on 14 November 2011

It’s incredibly exciting to announce that The Hillary Effect has been selected as one of two non-fiction e-books in the Barnes and Noble “NOOK First” featured authors campaign, just launched.

Being selected as part of this “NOOK First” Barnes and Noble project was an incredible honor and opportunity. Now you know why we waited until this week to publish.

This is a tremendously exciting moment for the entire team that made this happen, beginning with Thomas Ellison and Hutch Morton of Premier Digital Publishing.

What a stunning send off they’ve given my e-book.

So, Barnes and Noble is the only place you can buy The Hillary Effect until December 15th.

Pop the champagne! …just don’t spill it on your NOOK.

NOTE: Aps for your pc, MAC and iPad are available for free at Barnes and Noble.

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Two Out of Three Top GOP Presidential Candidates are Womanizers

By on 11 November 2011

The American people will not elect an alleged serial sexual harasser, Herman Cain, or a man, Newt Gingrich, who asked one of his serial wives for a divorce in the hospital as she was recovering from cancer. They simply will not.

But at least we all have even more perspective on why most Republicans remain against the Lily Ledbetter Act. They simply don’t feel women deserve equanimity of respect. Many also believe sexual harassment is whining, as their gasbag leader Rush Limbaugh would say.

The bad news for these neanderthals is that some Republicans do get it, you know, like many conservative women.

In the Republican race for the presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich’s support continues to slowly grow, and he is now tied with Mitt Romney for second place, while Herman Cain just edges both of them out for the top spot. Both Cain and Romney have lost support since late October.

In a new CBS News Poll, 61 percent of Republican primary voters say the sexual harassment accusations against Cain won’t make any difference in their vote, but 30 percent say the charges make them less likely to back him, and that rises to 38 percent among women. Cain has lost support among women since last month – from 28 percent in October to 15 percent now. He has lost ground with conservatives and Tea Party supporters as well.

What a gift these womanizers are to Pres. Obama. In his entire first term, he’s never looked so good.

For that matter, Mitt Romney does too, who takes the Republican lead in the latest McClatchy-Marist poll.

The Republican presidential race is being shaken up again, with Mitt Romney retaking the lead, Newt Gingrich surging into second place, and Herman Cain dropping to third place, according to a new McClatchy-Marist nationwide poll released Friday.


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Update on the The Hillary Effect

By on 08 November 2011

Today’s not going to be the day we publish, but I promise we’ll have a big send off for the publication next week! It will be worth the wait.

Some book PR to give you a little more on what it’s all about.


Spanning nearly two decades of American politics, The Hillary Effect is the provocative and insightful story of the first viable female presidential candidate in history to win a primary and do so in spite of her campaign team’s mistakes. And the galvanizing impact that her loss represented for both women and men, in and out of Washington. It revolves around media coverage that treated her differently as first lady, senator and then presidential candidate – not only because she was a woman, but because she was Hillary Clinton.

Candidly written by veteran political analyst, Taylor Marsh, it is the view from a recovering partisan, someone who the Washington Post called a “die hard Clintonite” in their profile of her in 2008.

The Hillary Effect began when Hillary, as first lady, dared to challenge China’s treatment of women. A countless number of women have and will benefit from her presidential loss, the most famous being Sarah Palin (the Tea Party queen of 2010 and first female on a national Republican presidential ticket), who weaves throughout this story as the anti-Hillary. The Hillary Effect also sees Michele Bachman as a player, as the first Republican female to win a straw poll, primary or caucus.

The male leads in this stunning tale are Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama (someone who turned out to be very different from candidate Obama), with David Plouffe and Mark Penn making appearances. The story includes a host of media personalities and their outlets, but also new media and progressive voices, and famous names like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Sally Quinn, the late Tim Russert, Richard Wolffe, Laura Ingraham, Liz Cheney, Peggy Noonan, Maureen Dowd, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and even Bill O’Reilly, who offered Hillary the best interview she would do during the 2008 season.

All of this is seen through the economic and political crises of today, health care, women’s individual freedoms being challenged by the right, Afghanistan, women’s rise around the world, the debt ceiling debate, tax cuts for the wealthy, Occupy Wall Street and an American public disenchanted with Republicans and Democrats, just as the race for 2012 revs up.


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Popcorn for Breakfast: The Herman Cain Blame Game Brawl

By on 03 November 2011

**UPDATED**

The Cain campaign seems stuck on stupid, should never have engaged in the blame game when everyone was defending him, and now is not only going to further harm his own credibility, but will potentially hurt the credibility of a lot of other good people when the women start speaking. And they will start speaking. – The Herman Cain Campaign Is Stuck on Stupid, by Erick Erickson

In the throes of a meltdown, Herman Cain decided he had to blame someone. What’s classic about this is that Republicans like Cain and his supporters don’t get that who leaked the story isn’t the primary concern of a sexual harassment charge. It’s whether the man is guilty of harassing women, something only someone on the right could miss.

So, Rick Perry, come on down.

Cain Says Perry Camp Behind Sex Harassment Leak

Curt Anderson phoned me to say “I never heard about this story until I read about it in Politico. I have nothing but good things to say about Herman Cain. I’m not going to bad-mouth Herman Cain to anyone, on or off the record. I think he is a guy of great leadership and integrity.”

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said it was “patently untrue” that the Perry campaign had any role in placing the sexual harassment story with Politico.

But just in case Perry didn’t leak the story, Cain’s team has a back-up:

PICKET: Source – Rahm Emanuel involved in Cain sexual harassment accuser attacks

According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a National Restaurant Association (NRA) employee out of the Chicago office leaked the story to the Perry campaign via information and influence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office.

Sean Hannity played the tape, which came from WTOK, of a consultant who says he saw one of the offending incidents.

Oklahoma Consultant Claims He Witnessed Cain Harassment

Wilson said for legal reasons, he can not discuss details of the incident. “But if she comes out and talks about it, like I said, it’ll probably be the end of his campaign.” The consultant said Cain is digging himself a deeper hole by challenging the woman. He also believes it has put the Restaurant Association in a position where it will have to release the woman from her confidentialilty agreement. “If she talks about it, I think it’ll be the end of his campaign.”

Then there is a third woman who the AP is reporting has come forward to allege she was also harassed by Herman Cain. No news yet on whether Herman Cain is going to blame Rick Perry for her story.

…and then something weird allegedly happened in Iowa with Herman Cain. You figure that one out and tell me if a new name will surface in the Herman Cain blame game, Mike Huckabee.

Meanwhile, very few right-wing or Tea Party types seem to care if Herman Cain is a dog. Someone who rarely travels with his wife, who has enjoyed anonymity until recently, is charming and handsome, but who is being accused of preying on women for his own personal amusement.

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Herman Cain is ‘Bad-mouthing the Two Complainants’

By on 01 November 2011

“It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement,” Bennett said. “The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond.” – Lawyer: Cain accuser wants to tell her side of story

Herman Cain’s troubles just got worse.

One of the women wants to come forward, but while her attorney reviews the file, she can’t, because of the confidentiality agreement.

If she is released from the confidentiality ban, “then it is whole new ballgame,” Bennett said.

It certainly would be, because then Herman Cain wouldn’t be able to go on every cable and national news network to proclaim there wasn’t sexual harassment.

“If there hadn’t been [sexual harassment] claims, there wouldn’t have been a settlement,” Bennett said.

Why aren’t conservative women demanding more answers?

Why is Laura Ingraham, who used to clerk for Clarence Thomas, standing in front of Herman Cain?

What’s more important, Herman Cain or hearing what the woman who accused him has to say?

If the woman’s lawyer cannot find a way through the confidentiality agreement, Herman Cain should ask the Restaurant Assoc. to release her from it.

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Why Would Anyone Vote Republican Today?

By on 01 November 2011


The above graphic is compliments of Virginia Republicans, though it really could have come from any GOP office today.

When you look at the anti-democratic actions of Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich, or Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, not to mention the war on women being waged by right-wing zealots across our country, it’s amazing that Democrats aren’t flying high.

For president, you’ve got an alleged sexual harasser, Herman Cain, leading the GOP presidential pack, with his bookend, a death penalty crazed, intellectually challenged Rick Perry, trying to claw his way back up the ranks.

It’s too bad today’s Democratic Party has chosen to capitulate and compromise with Republicans, which we’ll see further when the “super committee” comes in with its recommendations, instead of taking their advantage and pushing it to aid the people. Democrats today no longer have the courage of their convictions or the principles on which the Party has stood for decades.

The email pictured at the top came from the Virginia Loudoun County’s Republican committee.

Gov. McDonnell had the good sense to blast these despicable efforts. Unfortunately, he didn’t say what needed to be said, which is that Pres. Obama is our president and any such dangerous images are un-American and should be investigated by the Secret Service. McDonnell should also fire the entire staff in Loudon Cty.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) called the e-mail “shameful and offensive,’’ his spokesman Tucker Martin said. “He calls on those involved to apologize for their actions, and to immediately ensure that such imagery is never used again. The governor has long stressed the need for more civility and respect in our politics. An e-mail like this one undermines those goals, offends all Virginians and discredits our entire political process. It will not be tolerated.”

The e-mail, first reported on the blog Too Conservative, has “Halloween 2011” in the subject lines and has several other images, including one of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whose face has been made to look deformed with one eye bulging out of its socket.

The e-mail invites supporters to a Halloween parade. “LCRC members and Republican candidates: We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy…It’s fun and a great way to represent our candidates to a ton of voters (and their kids) just before the election.”

Rush Limbaugh translation: It was a joke.

This is who the Republican Party is today, because they’re being run by a bunch of ignorant, some would say crazy, cretins who have no impulse control.

In Gov. McDonald’s Virginia, where I live, George “macaca” Allen, is actually running for Senate again. That he’s being challenged by Tim I-blew-the-2010-midterms-because-I-didn’t-have-the-guts-to-make-an-economic-message Kaine seems fitting. Allen and Kaine representing the perfect examples of everything that’s wrong with both parties.

The same actually goes for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, both men having a weak ideological core, but no problem saying one thing on the campaign trail and another to the Wall Street jackals who fund their campaigns. Two politicians who are the epitome of the type of men who rise to the top in both parties, toting craven allegiances that leave we the people out in the cold, because it’s all about the best politician money can buy.

So, until Republicans get a handle on the people inside their party who trade in such dangerously racist, violently misogynistic, and anti-American rhetoric and campaign tactics, they don’t deserve a single vote.

But considering what Democrats, as well as progressives in Congress, are letting Republicans get away with, their cowardice doesn’t exactly deserve praise or a vote either.

This, in a nutshell, is American politics as it stands today.

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Herman Cain Ensnares Rush Limbaugh

By on 31 October 2011

The bigger the ego the harder they fall and Rush Limbaugh fell all the way today.

This was a very bad day for Herman Cain who made a classic mistake. He thought he could best good reporters given money and time, with a fine editor on their side, something that proves how arrogant Mr. Cain is, without cause. That Herman Cain dragged Rush Limbaugh down with him was clear during the wingnut’s show today. Watching Cain’s story unravel as the day wore on, El Rushbo was the other casualty, revealing him for the ignorant gas bag he is.

RUSH: Let’s do this Herman Cain story. I started out by talking about Clinton, and Bill Clinton must be laughing himself sick over this hit job from The Politico on Cain. And Cain now has denied it, without question. He has categorically denied any of this. But a story like this involving Bill Clinton, why, Clinton would be getting high fives, millions of dollars of campaign contributions from the NAGs. – Rush Limbaugh

Unfortunately for Limbaugh, Mr. Cain has been dialing back his denials all day.

Now NBC News has verified payment to one woman, too.

NBC News has confirmed that one woman received a settlement from the National Restaurant Association after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by Herman Cain. – NBC confirms one Cain accuser received cash settlement

John F. Harris, editor in chief of Politico and the man who shepherded this blockbuster, has not just vaulted Politico into a new sphere. Mr. Harris has helped change new media’s prowess. The online newspaper double sourced their story on Herman Cain, with Harris refusing tonight, in an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell, to say a word other than they got a tip, which led to three weeks of good, solid reporting.

When one of Limbaugh’s callers suggested it might have been a Republican who tipped the story to Politico Rush sounded genuinely surprised. He conceded it might be possible, but he was clearly flabbergasted.

The story has been circulating for a while way under the radar in Washington, D.C., according to reports on cable.

I know people are thinking of Mitt Romney’s team, which is entirely possible, because he’s got a deep bench of people who are out to win, but also who specialize in unearthing dirt on opponents.

It’s all guesswork, but whoever it is that tipped off Politico, I’d bet it was a Republican. Karl Rove? Who knows? But it’s not only possible, it’s the smart play for Republicans to get Cain out of the nomination fight, because he couldn’t survive this, not to mention his campaign finance problems also coming to the surface, in a general election fight.

David Axelrod could take these amateurs out without a plan.

Limbaugh’s unhinged, rambling, off the wall rant over Herman Cain gives you an idea of just how out on a limb he was today.

As the day unfolded, Herman Cain sawed it off.

Rush doesn’t think there is anything you can do to a woman that would possibly be called sexual harassment, something he calls whining.

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Romney Does Damage Control Over Kasich Flap

By on 26 October 2011

When right wing talker Bill Cunningham opposes something from John Kasich, it’s a moment to sit up and take notice. Cunningham is not only a good friend of Kasich, but a die hard supporter. Last night on Schultz’s show, Cunningham and the working class hero, Schultz, found common cause. It was a beautiful thing. But then, even Cunningham knows when you strip collective bargaining out you’re hurting cops and firefighters. As the right wing talker said last night, in Ohio, these heroes won’t be voting Republican anytime soon.

Now to Romney, from The Hill:

Romney, during a visit to a GOP phone bank in Ohio Tuesday, earned the ire of conservatives when he indicated he would not take a stand on Ohio ballot Issue 2, which seeks to overturn Kasich’s legislation limiting the collective bargaining power of government union workers.

“I fully support Gov. Kasich’s Question 2 in Ohio,” Romney said at a campaign stop in Virginia Wednesday. “I’m sorry if I created any confusion there.”

I’ll give Mr. Romney credit for one thing. He went the full distance to day he was sorry for whiffing the moment. Mitt’s wrong, of course, but he’s sorry.

However, it was stupid. But Mitt making the case for collective bargaining rights for cops and firefighters, to name just two groups, is just not in Mr. Wall Street’s soul.

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