Hoffmania!

The Payoff to This Got a Longer Ovation Than Palin Got

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Dick Morris on Palin: FABulous!

Yeah. Someone of presidential timbre is "FABulous"! We do indeed look for fabulousness in our leaders. Simply fabulous!

MORRIS: You know, I think Sarah Palin was fabulous during the campaign. I'm not one of those that think she hurt the ticket. I think she gave McCain a lead for three weeks, and that was terrific. And I think the stuff she's doing now with the tea parties and everything is fabulous.

Stemwinder

I missed the beginning of the speech. Here it is.

REMARKS BY FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN (R) AT THE NATIONAL TEA PARTY CONVENTION

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
9:00 P.M. EST, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010

MS. PALIN: Thank you, guys! Thank you! (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much! God bless you! (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much!

I'm so proud to be an American! Thank you so much for being here tonight!

Do you love your freedom? (Cheers, applause.)

If you love your freedom, think of that. Any of you here serving in uniform, past or present, raise your hand. We're going to thank you for our freedom. God bless you guys. We salute you, we honor you. Thank you. (Applause.)

Inspiring, you guys.

A Mashed-Up Sack of Snotty

Wow. I had to watch the Tea party keynoter to remove all doubt. For once I can finally say that Ronald Reagan would still be vomiting eleven minutes after it ended.

And that ovation at the end! It had to be what - 14, 15 seconds? YIPES!

The GOP is still looking for their 2012 candidate. It ain't gonna be her.

From Those Socialist Liberal Tree Huggers at the Department of Labor

Here's a pesky little fact they're not going to show at the Tea Party.

 

Mocking Vietnam Veterans: The Tea Party Faithful Shows Its Colors

Disgusting.

There was another who dressed in a leather veteran’s vest with medals festooned on it. He also wore a Vietnam Veteran hat.

“I just dressed this way to get attention,” the man said, halfway through a scotch at an “Irish pub” 200 feet from the ballroom where Palin will be speaking, down a casino-style carpeted hotel hallway. “I’m really a retired millionaire.”

He admitted to just wanting to get on TV or at least get his message out. And there were cameras from all over interviewing him all day. It was certainly believable that he wasn’t wanting for money. He threw a $20 bill down for his scotch, but when the bartender told him it was $22, he put down another $20 and said, “Makes no difference to me.”

Taking out the $20, it was impossible not to notice the roll of $100s. He talked in detail of the Mercedes he drove here; the Rolls Royce he bought in Florida that he won’t drive on rainy days like today, and that he’s a major donor to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Just sold my last business for $3.3 million,” he said, laughing, seemingly taking great delight in his get up and the gag he was pulling.

Any gathering that attracts this sort of assbag just cannot be taken seriously - even by the most hardcore Republicans.

Whoa. Wait a Minute...

Less than 600 people are attending this tea party thing? 600!?!

The Super Bowl party I'm going to will have more people than this. But Fox News ain't covering it.

Tea Party Convention: Seeking the Right to be Douchebags

And we're off!

Really? This is what the tea (Taxed Enough Already) partiers are all about? I mean, we knew it all along, but Tom Tancredo pulled it out of the closet and into the spotlight. Let the racism begin!

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."

"Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration.

Thank God. Praise the Lord. Good use of the Almighty, Tommy.

Furthermore, to galvanize their desire for douchebaggery, the organizers lashed out at the critics from within the movement - and threw them into the Obama camp without batting an eye.

"When somebody steps up and says their purpose in putting on a convention like this is to make a profit, that's really the antithesis of a grass roots movement," said Mark Meckler, of the Tea Party Patriots faction.

In a mid-January post on his blog, "Riehl World View," Riehl questioned whether Phillips "wants to be a tea party millionaire."

"[Tea party activists] generally are not the type of people who would gravitate to some very expensive hotel to dine on lobster and steak and listen to someone speak," Riehl said in an interview Wednesday.

Convention spokesman Mark Skoda acknowledged Wednesday that Phillips and his wife, Sherry Phillips, founders of the for-profit Tea Party Nation Inc., will "make a few bucks" on the event. But Skoda questioned why that should be anyone's concern.

"Have we gone so far in the Obama-socialist view of the nation that 'profit' is a bad word -- in particular, if we're using it to advance the conservative cause?" Skoda asked.

Um...please don't tell him the it's conservatives who are doing the criticizing here.

Holy crap. Looks like this whole movement if flying off the rails, off the cliff and into the sea. And Skoda will wonder if America has reached such a level of Obama socialism where a trainwreck is a bad thing.

Permission to be douchebags? Granted. You guys stay classy and stay on whatever that thing is you call a message.

A Drinking Game You Can Play Watching Stewart on O'Reilly

Every time there's an edit in the middle of a Jon Stewart point, take a drink. You'll be on the floor before you even see the second clip.

They're Just Not Even Trying Any More

Fox News' marketing at least used to give off the impression of being non-aligned with any party. All bets (if there ever were any) are now off. Moreover, the GOP is seeking knowledge and enlightenment from this guy with a radio show. Yipes.

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will deliver the keynote address at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner next month. Officials said the television star would offer them insight into their quest to win back the House of Representatives this fall.

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) hailed Hannity as fighting for conservative values when announcing his speaking slot for the March 23 dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington.

"As a best-selling author who reaches millions of viewers and listeners on a daily basis, Sean Hannity fights for conservative values and serves as an important voice for our party," Sessions said in a statement.

"Well there you have it, a rather long answer to a question about health care from a recovering cancer patient."

Holy schnike, Fox did it again. They broke away from an Obama town hall on health care to get back to the narrative. Or as Jon Stewart would say, "CUT THE FEED! CUT THE FEED!"

The White House Has Heard Enough BS

After hearing the screams of "failure" from the wingnuts and the rest of the GOP base for an entire year, the Obama administration is fed up and is now trying to school these nimrods. Good luck with that. Seriously.

By the way, as predicted, the GOP isn't handling last Friday very well. Now they're obstructing against their own ideas that the Dems are offering to try. Is America paying attention?

You Have To Watch This

President Obama walked into the lions' den today and looked for a fight. He was a guest at the GOP retreat in Baltimore where he addressed the GOP leadership (sharing the stage with John Boehner and Eric Cantor), then asked them to give him their best shots to his face. He responded as a real president. No snarkiness. No anger. No stupid giggling. No nicknames.

And no, Sean Hannity...no teleprompters.

He gave them nothing but straight answers and, most of all, respect.

If that respect doesn't get returned, America will know, and America must demand he proceed without their obstruction or their infantile threats. We'll know by the Sunday morning yapfests. Here he is - the President Obama we were waiting for.

Example: 38 minutes in, he confronts their fear of working with him because of their fear that their base will turn against them. Kind of a Pandora's Box moment. How he handles the following question about the GOP's health care proposal is also a clinic on skillfully turning their own words into reality, and effectively throwing it back into their laps. And after that, he goes after their abosolutism.

He made the first step to turning around the all-or-nothing mindset in the GOP. We'll see if they get the message.

UPDATE: Chris Hayes from The Nation: "This Q&A really should be a regular thing. I'd like to see him have to answer tough questions from progressive caucus members as well." Amen.

The Crowd in Virginia for the GOP Response

Though they were trying to show it was just the typical crowd you'll find every day in the Virginia House of Delegates, the hall was packed with friends and family of Robert McDonnell along with a nice pile o'donors. Some of them might have been actual Virginians.

So they did indeed stack the crowd to be 100% pro-party...a luxury President Obama didn't have in the House chamber.

In fact, if you watched the very beginning of the GOP response, the applause guy was standing just to the left of the front-and-center camera from the camera's POV. You can see him waving on the crowd before he was told to get out of the way.

Just so ya know.

Alito's Feelings Got Hurt

Poor baby. When you see this, you'll notice the entire SCOTUS took the standing ovation of shame, but Alito shakes his head and mouths "Not true!" when truer words were never spoken. Ah, delicious absolutism.

Oh, The Stagecraft of It All

So after the Bobby Jindal disaster last year, how would the GOP respond to a State of the Union address (in which the GOP half of the chamber sat on their hands for just about everything President Obama said)?

Of course. Fill a Virginia chamber with wall-to-wall GOP partisans who were cue-carded to cheer every GOP talking point the governor uttered - while sitting on their hands when he agreed with Obama.

A canned laugh track would've been more appropriate. And more honest.

A "libertarian" friend of mine pointed out that Ted Kennedy didn't applaud Bush during his SOTUs. As I pointed out to him, number one, Kennedy at least CONTRIBUTED constructive legislation during his tenure. John Boehner (who was quarterbacking the GOP side of the hall) has done squat if you don't count shooting down everything that walked in front of his eyes. Second, Kennedy frickin' earned it. And finally, name three things Bush said that earned applause from anyone (besides the jingo).

Bottom line: Respect the president unless he's a Democrat. And hire an audience to make you look popular. Bush did it for years.

The Big Break-In Question

Why Mary Landrieu?

I mean she's on shaky ground anyway...but why someone who's been voting the cons' way anyway? Of course I'm asking for sense from the guy who dressed like Huggy Bear to go after ACORN.

Oh well. Fox News is now minus one amateur cameraman and folk hero. NOW they're looking for the one thing they refused to seek in the ACORN "sting" - context.

Sometimes, Great Minds DO Think Alike

Frank Rich:

Obama might look at another pivotal moment in the Kennedy presidency — and this time heed the example.

The incident unfolded in April 1962 — some 15 months into the new president’s term — when J.F.K. was infuriated by the U.S. Steel chairman’s decision to break a White House-brokered labor-management contract agreement and raise the price of steel (but not wages). Kennedy was no radical. He hailed from the American elite — like Obama, a product of Harvard, but, unlike Obama, the patrician scion of a wealthy family. And yet he, like that other Harvard patrician, F.D.R., had no hang-ups about battling his own class.

Kennedy didn’t settle for the generic populist rhetoric of Obama’s latest threats to “fight” unspecified bankers some indeterminate day. He instead took the strong action of dressing down U.S. Steel by name. As Richard Reeves writes in his book “President Kennedy,” reporters were left “literally gasping.” The young president called out big steel for threatening “economic recovery and stability” while Americans risked their lives in Southeast Asia. J.F.K. threatened to sic his brother’s Justice Department on corporate records and then held firm as his opponents likened his flex of muscle to the power grabs of Hitler and Mussolini. (Sound familiar?) U.S. Steel capitulated in two days. The Times soon reported on its front page that Kennedy was at “a high point in popular support.”

Can anyone picture Obama exerting such take-no-prisoners leadership to challenge those who threaten our own economic recovery and stability at a time of deep recession and war? That we can’t is a powerful indicator of why what happened in Massachusetts will not stay in Massachusetts if this White House fails to reboot.

Well, Frank...looks like they're finally hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del. Hopefully, that will include naming names and not fearing the tiny but vocal opposition.

Pointing Out the Dysfunction

On occasion, Al Giordano will write something that makes me fume - not because he criticizes, but because he does so with an intelligence and discipline that I wish I could put in writing myself.

Please read this. Take it in and don't get pissed off - a visceral reaction which he addresses in this piece.

No one likes being called names (he uses one of his favorites in this, "The Poutrage Club") - but in our ear-splitting volume, we really have to learn to take it as much as we dish it out. To see exactly what Giordano means by that, the piece was linked at Kos. Predictably, the Kossacks went after him hammer and tong, sadly proving his point. Compare the comments that appear on Giordano's page to those at Kos.

I'll allow that Kos commenters by and large love the idea of throwing fast hand grenades into the mix because they'll be seen by potential millions. And again...that's Giordano's point. We need more thinkers and less grenade tossers.

To use another cartoon metaphor, we should be the Road Runner to the GOP's Wile E. Coyote. Instead, we're another Wile E. Coyote, and the two sides keep blowing themselves up in the eyes of the independents. No wonder they're confused.

UPDATE: Jer sends the link to Giordano's actual cross-post at Kos. The response there is even more interesting...and Al even responds to it.

Hope for Haiti: True Nation Building

Call 1-877-994-2484 or to make an instant $10 donation, text GIVE to 50555.

GOP Pundit: Corporations Now Have "Free Speech"

John Feehery, Republican "strategist" just now on MSNBC: This ruling is a big victory for free speech for corporations.

Corporations are now citizens in the GOP's bizarro world. Next, they'll be given their choice of religion and the right to vote. We're so fucked.

The fact that this came down from the five conservative SCOTUS justices as the 2010 campaign season starts underscores the suspicion of this. Moreover, it's what the wingnuts, conservatives, Republicans and neocons always cried about: Legislating from the bench. Anyone of them who are now hailing this decision should be permanently barred from being allowed to speak on national TV.

McCain Happy to Sell Out McCain-Feingold

Just now on CNN, John McCain happily pointed out that UNIONS can now finance political campaigns as well as corporations under the new Supreme Court decision (which decimates McCain's own co-sponsored campaign reform bill).

Of course, unions - few and far between as they are these days - have the same monetary clout as corporations, don't they, Johnny?

Look out, Cindy. He'll sell you out next if it means scoring points with his base. (And today, he just might do that, after what she did.)

Air America Closes Its Doors

It was fun up until about three or so years ago. The Maddow/Franken/Rhodes era long gone, the well-intentioned but poorly executed radio network finally puts itself out of its misery. Radio Online:

Air America Media to Shut Down, Files Chapter 7

Liberal radio network Air America Media, which launched in April, 2004, is ceasing its live programming operations as of Thursday afternoon and will file Chapter 7 bankruptcy to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business. Chairman Charlie Kireker said in a memo that this past year has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally.

"National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times," said Kireker.

He continued, "Those companies that remain are facing audience fragmentation as a result of new media technologies, are often saddled with crushing debt, and have generally found it difficult to obtain operating or investment capital from traditional sources of funding. In this climate, our painstaking search for new investors has come close several times right up into this week, but ultimately fell short of success.

Air America, which currently has some 100 radio outlets nationwide, will begin a "rapid, orderly closure over the next few days." All current employees will be paid through January 21. A severance package will be offered Friday to full-time current employees with more than six months of tenure.

Kireker also said that Air America "will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition." Starting at 6pm Thursday, the network will begin airing encore programming.

Just as well. Most of their talent went on to greener pastures. Maddow, of course, was on Air America in name only since her MSNBC gig - Rhodes is now part of the massive Premiere/Clear Channel family - and Franken made a career change of some sort from what I hear.

Their affiliates took very little Air America programming over the last few years anyway. Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press and Thom Hartmann all work for Dial Global. Mike Malloy syndicates himself. About the only thing that got clearance was Ron Reagan, and as always, he'll land on his feet.

Publicity Hog Interviews Bigger Publicity Hog: Vacations Are Sooo Not Fun

They've been spending most of their adult lives trying to get noticed, then they bitch about it when they are.

Hollywood elitists? Prima donna celebs? Close. O'Reilly and Palin.

Headline of the Decade (Yes, Already)

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

-The Village Voice