Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Power comes from lying ... Lying big and getting the whole damn world to play along with you ... Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you get them by the balls

Senator Roark, from “Sin City - That Yellow Bastard”

Well, the Oxymoronpalooza ended this weekend, otherwise referred to by the MSM as the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and, not to anyone's surprise, there was more red meat tossed about then at a month full of Texas barbecues.

That would the Texas that hasn't - yet - seceded from the Union.

They forgathered in New Orleans, and true to the PartyofNoican coda, they managed to completely avoid making any mention, not just something compassionate, or heartfelt, none-zero-zilch, comments about the city The Bush Grindhouse let drown.

No doubt, the Café du Monde must have been off-limits, lest any of the slimebags be caught being "French" by some tourist Teabagger, surely creating a litmus test, and, likely, a career-killer.



You had the volcano-denier, the only open-publically-elected exorcist, Governor Bobby Jindal, whining about the PartyofNoicans feelings being hurt, because people call them names.

And, there was Diaper-Boy, Senator David Vitter, pumping up Mommy Moose, and the Teabaggers, urging the PartyofNoicans to walk hand-in-hand with, that they're getting a bad rap too, while whipping up a little smear against the President.



Of course, a red-meat-mashing wouldn't be complete without the Village-of-the-Damned Cheney daughter, Liz, doing her part to "Keep America Safe", much in the manner of her father, delivering, essentially, an off-the-shelf NeoNitWit speech;

Below the fold, more excerpts from Cheney's speech.

When it comes to foreign policy, it looks increasingly like there are three pillars to the “Obama Doctrine” – (1)Apologize for America, (2)Abandon our allies, and (3)Appease our enemies.

I think she stopped short of advocating the building of those 1950's "Fallout Shelters".

Mommy Moose was there, fresh off her Bachmann-Palin Overdrive (and her little joust with the President), perhaps, using the event as an early dry run at her candidacy in 2012.

Or not;

There was nothing about the speech that necessarily indicated one way or another whether Palin would run for president in 2012. She's not doing anything that looks like preparing a national organization, but she's so well-known that she wouldn't have to. Her political outfit, SarahPAC, did hand out little packets of Alaska-made caribou and reindeer jerky to every delegate ("An Alaskan Snack from SarahPAC!" the label read, along with invitations to follow her on Twitter and Facebook). And there were a few Palin buttons around the room.

But it's not entirely clear she'd have the whole thing sewn up. As the delegates filtered out of the hall afterwards, I stopped one woman randomly, figuring her own Palin button meant she was a big fan. True enough, she was. "It was awesome," she said, identifying herself only as Loretta from east Tennessee. "She's wonderful. She thinks the way America thinks, she knows what we want, and she's not afraid to voice it... We need change, but we can't afford Obama's change -- he's killing us." Palin, she told me, would bring the right kind of changes -- jobs, prosperity, God back in our country. "This is a Christian country, it's not a Muslim country," she said. "We have Muslims here, and they are welcome here. But we as Christians have rights, too." Obama, she insisted, is a Muslim (which is why she wouldn't tell me her last name or exactly where she lives). So surely, Loretta would be voting for Palin if she ran in two years? "I don't think she's ready," she said. "I love her. I don't think we're ready for her as president yet... I think she still needs to educate herself a little more on foreign policy."

Well, she got to do a lot of bad jokes, bash the President, and it doesn't matter if she just took the stage and started reading the Louisiana phone book, the Teabaggers love her - emphatic period.

Last, but not, least, we saved the best for last.

This was, truly, almost, breathtaking.

The former Speaker of the House, the man who put out a "Contract On America", Newt Gingrich actually used the gathering to display that Einstein's theory on insanity, was accurate.



Steve Benen was in awe, describing it as "PARTY LIKE IT'S 1995", while Al Giordano billed it as "Supervillain Newt Reveals His Plan for World Domination!".

See, Newt wants to bend the river, turn around this nonsense of being "the Party of No", to becoming the the "Party of Yes".

Yes, that is, to shutting down the government (again);

But the plan that Gingrich got the most applause from, as he tried to rally a few thousand GOP activists to say "yes," involved... just saying no in a different way. "When we win control of the House and Senate this fall, stage one of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund any more," he said. "The Congress doesn't have to pass the money. If EPA gets no money, it can't enforce cap and trade."

[snip]

In other words, shut down the government. Which, of course, worked out very well for Gingrich the last time he tried it.

[snip]

If that sounds familiar, it's probably because that was the agenda Gingrich carried into power after the 1994 election. It turns out the "party of yes" concept isn't actually about working with the White House to get anything done; it's about finding new ways to sell the same old GOP policies without looking stubborn in the process.

While the crowd lapped it up like happy soup, Jed Lewison, over on the Daily Kos, stuck a pin in Newt's balloon;

Teabaggers of the world: Newt is lying to you

Moreover, if Gingrich were serious, the GOP would be shutting down the Federal government now. Whether or not we like it, the fact remains that Republicans in the Senate could filibuster appropriations bills today. They don't need to win the fall elections to stop appropriations bills. Yet they are not following Gingrich's strategy because they know -- as Gingrich proved in 1995 -- that it is political suicide.

[snip]

I suppose if the GOP were to essentially dismantle the Federal government, stopping the Social Security Administration from sending out checks and blocking Medicare from paying claims that they could also stop the subsidies. But if you believe the GOP will actually go that far, I've got a state in Bob McDonnell's Confederacy to sell you.

Newt's pledge may sound good to the teabagging Republicans. But they should also know this: They. Will. Never. Do. It. Didn't do it in 1995. Won't do it in 2011.

To add some more spice, Make-Up Mitt Romney won the Straw Pole (by one vote, over Ron Paul), and he wasn't even in attendance.

With this level of idiocracy being bandied about, the Midterms are sure gonna be fun.

Newt, Romney, The Wasilla Whiz Kid...

It's going to be like the blogosphere having an intravenous feed of shit you just can't make up.

Somewhere over the rainbow
skies are blue
and the dreams...that you dare to dream
really do come true

Take it away, Eva Cassidy!

Eva Cassidy - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Newt's New Contract - Buying An Ignorant Dolt Title!

You think they would learn.

Even when we are away from the desk, buried up to our eyeballs with the situation on the Homefront, they can't, no matter how hard they try, sneak past the Ignorant Dolt detector.

It's on, 24/7/365 and no one (deserving), escapes it, as it starts chirping way, like a Geiger Counter at Los Alamos, the second one of them pops up.

This weekend, we need to FedEx the Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre to the former Speaker of the House, the man that put out a Contract On America, Newt Gingrich.



Gingrich’s New Contract With America: ‘Our Commitment Should Be Simple…We’re Repealing’ Health Care

Gingrich reiterated his call for all Republicans to commit to repealing any form of a health care bill that Democrats might pass before the 2010 elections:

GINGRICH: If the left manages to drive through a bill which is opposed by 65 percent of the country on health care, our commitment should be simple — when we get a majority, we’re repealing the whole thing. (applause)

And I want every Democrat who is about to sacrifice their seat for socialized medicine to understand: after you lose your seat, you’re going to lose the socialized medicine too.

I mean, with the job the Democrats are doing at gutting any meaningful Healthcare Reform, it be Newt's workin' up a sweat over nothin', just throwing some chum in the water, for the Flying Monkeys and Teabaggers.

As to "when we get a majority" thing, I wouldn't be holding your breath there, Newt (Heaven Forbid, you pass out, and have to undergo some of that "Socialist" medical treatment, something Bob Cesca was wondering).

And, help us out there, will ya, Newt?

When you go parading on the Faux News programs, wear the Ignorant Dolt Crown, give us a plug.

Instant Ignorant Dolt: Newt Gingrich

Now, one could argue, that this is redundant.

That former Congressman, and Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, would already be an Ignorant Dolt , grandfathered in, for his years of lying, hypocracy, and, if no other reason, his "Contract On America".



But today, on Mini-Me-Clintonite, George Stephanopoulos's 'This Week', Gingrich choose to stick his head up Sarah Palin's butt, a surely awkward manner in which to kiss her ass, but, nonetheless, he did.

Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean went at it on health care this morning on This Week. Especially over Sarah Palin's claim that Obama's health care plan will create "death panels" that would encourage euthanasia.

“Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept,” Gingrich told me.

“You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in American who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.”

(Click the ABC Link for the video, and watch Newt raise his hand, signaling he wants the Ignorant Dolt title)

We posted about this last evening, on Palin, and the Republican's meme that Obamacare means "death to the elderly", so, perhaps, Gingrich saw it, and is lobbying for a position in Trig Palin's administration.

Steve Benen places, nicely, the IID Crown on Gingrich;

There are two relevant questions here. First, why was Newt Gingrich, the disgraced former House Speaker who was driven from office by his own party 11 years ago, invited to appear as some kind of credible policy expert on "This Week"?

Second, what is Gingrich talking about? We're talking about a provision in the House bill that would allow Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions on advance care planning. The idea came from a Republican senator, Maine's Susan Collins, who's argued that the measure would improve Medicare's "care for patients at the end of their lives."

Either Gingrich knows this, in which case he was lying, or he doesn't, in which case he shouldn't be spouting nonsense on national television.

Bet on that he knows he is lying ... Old habits die hard.

Also, from the same segment, watch Howard Dead bitch-slap Gingrich;

Dean vs. Gingrich On Health Care Reform



Next time you're in Boston Newt Gingrich, come around to The Garlic, and pick up your Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.


Bonus Newt Gingrich Ignorant Dolt Riffs

Zandar vs. The Stupid: Follow The Leader

Ron Beasley: About those "Death Panels"

Amanda Terkel: GOP Rep. Kingston Separates Himself From Palin: There Are ‘No Death Panels’

President Palin! ... Good Bob Franken Spoof

Oh Man, when we espied this post last evening, it was like "Yikes", did we just wake up from a coma?

Veteran newsman, and former CNN Political Reporter, Bob Franken projects out, tongue firmly in cheek, of Ms. Ya'Bet'cha actually winning the Presidency in 2012, and it is a major hoot.

By far the largest voting bloc in the United States turned against Obama -- those who had no health insurance, which was everyone but government workers. The rich paid for their medical care at hospitals within their barricaded communities.

As to The Wasilla Whiz Kid's cabinet, it includes;

Vice President Newt Gingrich
Attorney General Greta Van Susteren
Press Secretary Sean Hannity

You gotta figure that Pinhead Faux Plumber Joe would wind up with some plum post, as would The Cheeseburger That Sweats (aka Rush Limbaugh - H/T Barry Crimmins).

Go read Bob Franken's "Sarah Palin 2013: A Look Ahead", it is extremely humorous, and with a killer punchline to end it.

Is This What Jim DeMint Thinks Will Break Obama?

If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Man, if Jim DeMint, and the PartyofNoicans, have to turn to Abba, they have surely gone beyond being irrelevant.

Abba - Waterloo



A 35+ year-old song?

Yeah, Abba was good, probably the best of danceable, bubble gum music

Oh ... Wait a minute ...

This is about all that Healthcare fussin' ... You know, what the PartyofNoicans are saying, let's slow down, talk about it more, as if about 50-years of talking about it hasn’t been enough.

Newt Gingrich is singing the song also?

And, Little Billy Kristol wants to apply his debunked PNAC plan to healthcare?

Well, if Gingrich and Kristol are leading the opposition (DeMint is just a understudy lunatic), as Victor Laszlo said in 'Casablanca';

"This time I know our side will win"...

More Links

Steve Benen: WHOSE WATERLOO?....

David Weigel: GOP Health Care Plan: Stall - 'If They Don't Get it Done by October, It's Not Going to Get Done.'

Ezra Klein: A Reality Check on Health-Care Reform

John Amato: President Obama's Conference Call with Liberal Bloggers: John Amato asks Congress to work through the August recess

Robert Reich: Tax the wealthy to keep everyone healthy ...It's what the House of Representatives wants to do to pay for healthcare. It's a good idea, and a great slogan

Paul Krugman: Not Enough Audacity

Tweety, The Head of the Democrats?

Please ...

It's enough to have him getting thrills up his legs, and fawning all over dubious guests.

Nora WD has a post up over on Open Salon, on Newt "Contract On America" Gingrich speaking at Fordham University last evening.

At Fordham, Gingrich compares Limbaugh to Chris Matthews

Among many gems, was this;

When asked if a more hospitable America is safer, he replied yes but quickly added that "you don’t gain respect by letting people walk all over you." The Obama administration, Gingrich said, reminds him of Jimmy Carter's administration (which Republicans would love given that Carter lost to Reagan in 1980). Gingrich, who's been divorced twice but just converted to Catholicism, told us that "to drive God out of public life is fundamentally destructive to America." One of my favorite moments of Gingrich’s speech had to be when he compared Rush Limbaugh to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, after being asked how he felt about conservative media stars such as Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. He proceeded to say that they are not politicians and are not running for office and given this we should not consider them to be representative or leaders of the Republican Party, just as no one considers Chris Matthews to be representative or a leader of the Democratic Party (he also referenced Al Franken here).

If Tweety were the head of the Democrats, hopefully that would finally drive it into his thick skull, to lose the phone number of The Rat Catcher.

Why on earth does he continue to bring on his program, the disgraced former Congressman from Texas, Tom DeLay?

Anyway, Nora WD also had a good Newt zinger in there, as well;

The other notable guest may only have been notable to me, given that we had a small run in at the end of the Speech. As I was leaving the auditorium with friends, we were discussing the beginning of Gingrich's speech in which he talked about traveling to Poland with his wife. We then proceeded to innocently (and privately) joke about how we should have asked him to clarify which wife he was referring to: the one he divorced while she had cancer, or the one he cheated on with his current wife, or his current wife. As we were joking about this, a man grabbed me by the arm and said “I know what you’re talking about.” Not really knowing where he was going with this and being a little angry that he thought it would be ok for him to grab a 19 year old girl by the arm, I gave him a confused and slightly dirty look. He then proceeded to ask me if I had heard of Monica Lewinsky, and if I would have still voted for Bill Clinton. I politely said yes and walked away.

Go check out At Fordham, Gingrich compares Limbaugh to Chris Matthews

Bonus Links

Bob Cesca: Step Away From The Constitution, Mr. Gingrich, And Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Leading To Newt Gingrich Deciding Not To Run For President

Clooney: Wouldn’t Cast Matthews In A Daydream ...When Pressed, Matthews Admits Miffed Not Cast in Clooney Film ...“Forget This Zelig Mishmash, I Could Have Played McCarthy … And Played Him Damn Good”

Cue The Pinhead ... Operation Proposition Penquin About To Launch

No doubt, Mr. Ultimate Pinhead, along with, most likely, a bevy of other dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds, Freak Show Flying Monkeys, and maybe even the Mormons, will be up-in-arms, convinced society is going down the drain, and the End of Days are approaching at warp speed.

Gay penguins expelled from zoo colony for stealing eggs are given their own to look after following animal rights protest

A pair of gay penguins thrown out of their zoo colony for repeatedly stealing eggs have been given some of their own to look after following a protest by animal rights groups.

Last month the birds were segregated after they were caught placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs.

But angry visitors to Polar Land in Harbin, northern China, complained it wasn't fair to stop the couple from becoming surrogate fathers and urged zoo bosses to give them a chance.

[Snip ...]

In response, zookeepers gave the pair two eggs laid by an inexperienced first-time mother.

'We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they've turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,' said one of the keepers.

[Snip ...]

Wildlife experts at the park explain that despite being gay the three-year-old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers.

'One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite the fact that they can't have eggs naturally, it does not take away their biological drive to be a parent,' said one.

Of course, Lou Dobbs will go absolutely crazy, wailing at this, shaking his fist, clamoring over these "Communist China Penguins", encouraging some nitwit congressman or senator to immediately draft a bill, banning any such actions at zoos here in this country.

No necessarily, because they are "gay" penguins, but rather, they are "Communist China penguins".

Gay Pet Adoption in the next, 2012, Republican plank?

You can almost here the printer spitting it out right now (Don Surber is already strengthening his manhood over it)

And Newt Gingrich can run straight to Faux News, and commiserate with the Ultimate Pinhead, expanding his previous fiat, that is it now grown to be an "International gay and secular fascism that wants to impose its will on the rest of us."

You know Bill, if they can kowtow to gay penguins in Communist China, what's to stop them from taking our babies here, and giving them over to homosexual couples? ... You'll see that here, soon enough ... Some homosexual couple will go to court, and the liberal judges will just hand over the babies ...

(Ultimate Pinhead shakes his head, throws his hands up in the air)

You're right! ... You're right! ... And you can trace it back to their War on Christmas... Communists don't celebrate Christmas ... Here ... Take the babies ... Give'em to the gays ... Happy Holiday, pal ..."

Moral of the story?

Birds of a feather ...


Bonus Flightless Bird Riffs

Elyas Bakhtiari: March of the Gay Penguins

Andy in China: Gay Penguins 'Best Parents in the Zoo' According to Keepers

"Prop 8 - The Musical"

What Would Joseph Smith Do?

Yes, what would he do, especially if his younger sister published an open letter that, essentially, called him an asshole?

That is condundrum facing the would-be savior of the Dying Elephant Party, Newt Gingrich, after his sister, Candice, called him out over Prop. 8.

A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protesters of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O'Reilly on FOX News. I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, "There you go, again."

You see, last week, the guy that put a Contract On America, figures, he can't concede the race for 2012 this early, to Mommy Moose, so he threw a big, meat-laden bone out to the dregs of base (where else, on Faux News, with The Loofah Man);

Gingrich: "[T]here is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us"

Summary: Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8, Newt Gingrich stated: "I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion."

Back to Candice;

The truth is that you're living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as -- and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past.

Welcome to the 21st century, big bro. I can understand why you're so afraid of the energy that has been unleashed after gay and lesbian couples had their rights stripped away from them by a hateful campaign. I can see why you're sounding the alarm against the activists who use all the latest tech tools to build these rallies from the ground up in cities across the country.

Oh, you can almost hear the 2012 DEP right now, speaker-after-speaker banging the podium, red-in-the-face, tossing off "Family Values" and "God's will" every other sentence.

Especially, now, with the California Supreme Court is slated to rehear the case, after voters in the state narrowly won the ballot initiative earlier this month.

The state Supreme Court plunged back into the same-sex marriage wars Wednesday, agreeing to decide the legality of a ballot measure that repealed the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed in California.

Six months after its momentous ruling that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, the court granted requests by both sponsors and opponents of Proposition 8 to review lawsuits challenging the Nov. 4 initiative.

The vote was 6-1, Justice Joyce Kennard dissenting.

However, the court refused, 6-1, to let same-sex marriages resume while it considers Prop. 8's constitutionality. Justice Carlos Moreno cast the dissenting vote.

Approved by 52 percent of voters, Prop. 8 restored the definition of marriage - a union of a man and a woman - that the court had overturned May 15. Kennard and Moreno voted with the majority in that 4-3 ruling.

And, do you know what was a major factor behind the pro-Prop. 8 neanderthals?

Ironically, old Joe Smith's Mormons!

How the Mormons Overcame Voter Apathy on Prop 8

The New York Times, in an article the Mormon Church leadership won't like one single bit, describes the final furious weeks of fundraising and volunteer activism, almost all of it coordinated through the Church itself.

The campaign issued an urgent appeal, and in a matter of days, it raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church. The money allowed the drive to intensify a sharp-elbowed advertising campaign, and support for the measure was catapulted ahead; it ultimately won with 52 percent of the vote.
[snip]
The California measure, Proposition 8, was to many Mormons a kind of firewall to be held at all costs.

“California is a huge state, often seen as a bellwether — this was seen as a very, very important test,” Mr. Otterson said.

San Francisco Roman Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer has a featured role in The Times' story as well, although the article neglects to mention his previous role as Archbishop of Salt Lake City for eleven years

I guess, being persecuted for being different doesn't carry the same cache these days, as it did when ol' Joe Smith was getting chased away, half way across the country.

What's also interesting, the pro-Prop. 8 crowd doesn't like it that the LGBT community is continuing the fight for their basic civil rights, publishing the names of donors that supported suppressing them, and organizing boycotts, to which Tbogg sums it up, rather nicely;

The kind of person who contributes money to deny their fellow citizens their civil rights are not someday magically going to be part of the solution: they're the problem. These are not people to be reasoned with; they're ignorant, they're haters and they're bigots and the only thing people like that understand is power.

Hmmm ... I don't think Ol' Joe Smith would be hip to giving away millions of his money ... I mean, how was he going to fund, and support that convenient revelation of "The more wives, the merrier!"?

Ahh, but the noise volume, is, in all likelihood, going to go way beyond a deafening crescendo.

If the California Supreme Court strikes down Prop. 8, you can expect that to go to the Nine-In-Black, and couple that with the pressure on the Obama Administration, to work with the Dem-Majority Congress to sweep out the 'Defense of Marriage Act', there's the Dying Elephants 2012 platform right there.

Perkins and Dobson, as well as the deadwood, but powerless, Republicans in Congress will go full-bore Elmer Gantry in stoking the base that the End of Days is coming.

Obama can stand on the South Lawn, over a bonfire of burning dollar bills and that won't register a hoot with these people.

They will become rabid and tunnel-visioned, continuing the Bush Grindhouse legacy of Us vs.Them.

So, we'll go with the final word here, used by Candice to her big Bro, to sum things up;

What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions. That's really so '90s, Newt. In this day and age, it's embarrassing to watch you talk like that. You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.

In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.

Me thinks that Newt The Savior, for his 2012 run, will have taken his clue from Robert Mitchum, in 'Night of the Hunter', excepting, he'll have "Hate" tattooed on both hands.




Bonus Nothing Proper About Prop. 8 Riffs

Pam Spaulding: How the well-oiled Mormon machine helped pass Prop 8

Prairie Weather: It's not about "gay"

Dan Morain: James Dobson's Focus on the Family praises Prop. 8 and passes the collection plate

Mike Tidmus: God smites the gays with wildfires

Balloon Juice: You Should Love Ashton Kutcher

AntiGayBlacklist.com

The Rightwing Smear Machine, Running As Strong and Smooth as the Edsel!

Grover Norquist?

They trot out Grover Norquist to start throwing smear bombs at Barack Obama, and the Democrats?

The same Grover Norquist that compared the Estate Tax to the Holocaust?

The Grover Norquist that helped that other sterling patriot, Newt Gingrich, write the Contract On America?

Jack Abramoff's buddy, that Grover Norquist?

Here's some "hard-hitting" Norquist mud;

"Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “Barack Obama has been able to create his own image and introduce himself to voters, but the swing voters in a general election are not paying attention yet. He is open to being defined as a leftwing, corrupt Chicago politician.”

“It will be easy to portray him as even harder-left than Hillary,” said Norquist. “Hillary could lose the election, but Obama could collapse. People already know Hillary and she is not popular, but the disadvantage for Obama is that Republicans can teach people who don’t know him who he is.”

And this from Gingrich, who last year advocated curtailing our 1st Amendment, our Freedom of Speech;

"Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and Republican guru, recently described Obama as the “most leftwing candidate to run since George McGovern” – a reference to the anti-Vietnam-war Democrat who lost 49 states out of 50 to Richard Nixon in the 1972 election ..."

Blue Texan, over on Firedoglake had the right reaction;

"OMG, Obama's leftwing! He's a socialist!!!!!

McGOVERN!!!11!!!!

So pathetic.

The days when the GOP brand was strong enough that all a wingnut had to do is scream "McGovern!" are over. Now the game-changing name is "Bush."

I know it's a bit early, the Democratic nomination is far from being settled, but this is the first, sputtering output from the famed Rightwing Smear Machine?

Why would they come out, albeit early, with trying to diss him on McGovern? That’s documentable history ... That's so out-of-character for the Freakshow... Far easier, and much nastier when they go with their usual Modus Operandi, you know, just making shit up, and then putting it through the echo chamber of Matt Sludge, Faux News, Coltergeist, et all.

Are they rattled this early?

This from the party of The Commander Guy, and about to adopt as their nominee, Dead McCain Walking.

Jeesh ... I know we shouldn't let our guard down, but it's not a good sign when they trot out Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich as the early line of mudslingers.

I guess we'll have to wait for the varsity smearmongers.


Bonus Riffs

Source Watch - Grover Norquist

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Ralph Reed Losing His Election

Top Ten Cloves: Testimonials Of Support That Didn’t Work For Jack Abramoff


With McCain as his party's nominee, why is this smearing con artist smiling?

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Leading To Newt Gingrich Deciding Not To Run For President

News Item: No Newt

10. There was a special, pre-nuptial clause in Gingrich's Contract for America that prevents him for running for President

9. Told an aid, that with Hillary in the Senate, "You can bet-your-ass she'll try to impeach me"

8. Doesn't have any spiffy nicknames for himself, like The Decider/Commander/Shakespeare Guy President Bush

7. Claims he said only if the New York Mets made the playoffs, would he run for President

6. Doesn't feel like dealing with - if she gets the Democratic Nomination - Hillary Clinton and her laugh

5. Doesn't want to chance having Ann Coulter call him a "Fag"

4. Tough campaigning, since he already adopted his own policy of restricting Free Speech

3. Deathly afraid Rush Limbaugh will start calling him a "Phony Politician"

2. His own group, American Solutions, issued a white paper indicating how bad a Gingrich presidency would be for the country

1. Might have to go to dinner at Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem with Al Sharpton and doesn't want to show-up Bill O'Reilly by not coming out with racist comments

Bonus Newt Riffs

Michael Scherer - Newt: I'm shocked, shocked by Abramoff scandal! - From his lofty perch on the sidelines, the ethically challenged former speaker denounces corruption in politics.

David Sirota: Newt's New Con

Crooks and Liars: Newt Blames The Victims of Katrina

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things Newt Gingrich Would Like To Reexamine

News Item: Step Away From The Constitution, Mr. Gingrich, And Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them

10. Make note to call Santorum, offer to coach him ... It’s too bad he burned out there

9. Why did Junior pick that gadfly Baker to run the Iraq Study Group, when I, with my superior mind, could have done it?

8. Probably should have titled my book “Owning The Future”, instead of “Winning The Future” ... Owning it has a better ring to it

7. Maybe I should return Cheney’s call, see what he’s up to with his Iran Study Group... If Baker’s not running that one, I’ll take it

6. I should have come out with the “appeasers” and “Hitler” stuff... I had been thinking that for months

5. Hmmm... I’ve had massages before, but not while doing crystal meth, with a gay male escort... Might have to look into that

4. I probably should have been more supportive of Rummy... It’s going to come back and bite me in the ass when I run for President

3. Make a note to talk to someone ... For all I did, they should rename K Street, to Newt Street

2. I sold that Contract For American bullshit, why isn’t anyone listening to me when I say were fighting World War III now?

1. What’s wrong with the Speaker of the House having an extra-marital affair with a congressional employee?

All Points Bulletin: Don't let this man get his hands on the First Amendment