Login HereOne of the bigger surprises of election night were the polls which revealed that the number one issue voters were concerned with was "corruption." But as Sidney Blumenthal argues, that word may have sybolized something more broad to voters than just Hot Tub Tom and his Scottish golfing trips:
This revulsion at "corruption" was more than the sordid wheeling and dealing of the Republican congressional barons. It was disgust at the moral hypocrisy and false sanctimony of the cultural warriors and the transparent fakery of Bush's imagery. The fate of the Senate turned on many contests, including crucial ones in Missouri and Virginia. In Missouri, an initiative that would authorize embryonic stem cell research that could lead to cures of many diseases divided the candidates. Actor Michael J. Fox made a TV commercial for the Democrat, Claire McCaskill. Looking straight into the camera, with no imagery other than his constantly swaying body, racked with the effects of his medication for Parkinson's disease, Fox made a simple appeal wholly on the basis of the stem cell research issue. Fox was a promising young actor whose his career came to a halt when his disease seized control of him. Now he plays only himself. Immediately, Rush Limbaugh was thrown into the breach against the new enemy. Earlier this year, he had declared, "What's good for al-Qaida is good for the Democratic Party in this country today." Mocking Fox by spastically wriggling in his chair as he spoke on his syndicated radio show, Limbaugh told listeners that Fox's jerky movements were "purely an act" and that he'd whack him "if you'd just quit bobbing your head." In the ensuing uproar, Limbaugh steadfastly refused to apologize. He depicted his mockery and physical threats as expressions of conservative conviction: "I stand by what I said. I take back none of what I said. I wouldn't rephrase it any differently. It is what I believe. It is what I think. It is what I have found to be true." As the criticism built, he acknowledged: "So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act."
Missouri native Rush will (probably) always have his constituency -- he is so tribally tied to white rage cultural conservatives that there is literally nothing he could do that could compromise his high priesthood. But if Sidney is correct, and I believe that he very well may be, the electoral rejection of "conservatism" had much to do with the perceived corruption of its symbols and its prophets as the deportment of its political representatives. The Mighty Wurlitzer and the PR Presidency may have been powerful transmitters of message and iconography, but the steady drip, drip drip of scandal seems to have tainted the messengers to the point of public revulsion. I really don't know anyone who isn't mainlining pure kool-aid who can watch Rush's ridicule of Michael J. Fox without palpable disgust, and Claire McCaskill may very well owe her victory in Missouri to the "show me" state's recoil from his repugnant specter.
Share This 
Spotlight
OT: How to re-enable the spacebar in FireFox after a “Refresh Comments”
Press Ctrl-T (new tab)
Press Ctrl-F4 (close tab)
Double Click on the page.
The spacebar now scrolls down a whole page as expected.
Hope this helps!
Rock the world FDL!
Hi, Jane (speaking unofficially).
for german nwo jokes
http://www.geocities.com/aastingeraa10/usedcars
GO Webb!
snoopy dances all around!
I certainly heard this over and over again canvassing precincts here in CA-11.
I heard so many times, “They’re all corrupt!” from the voters I talked with. They were not even planning to vote because they really felt strongly that all politicians were corrupt.
The fact that Jerry McNerney had never been in office before really helped me convince quite a few voters to vote for him.
Ah Rush Phlegmball.
Maybe inbreeding isn’t the best approach.
‘Transparency’. That’s the ticket. That’s the key. That’s the word. It’s a new dawn.
sanitas @
1
That’s a good tip, although I like my way, too — I think it’s easier.
Since it’s just a question of re-engaging the cursor (away from the refresh button), I just hit Control-F (to bring up the “find text” windown) and shut it again.
Whatever way you choose, you just have to engage the active cursor elsewhere on the page.
angie @
5
Isn’t that what Rush is doing above?
Fat Snoopy. heh. heh.
Tester on Hardball…
Wow!
Tester for president (or is it Testor?)
Upon seeing Limbaugh’s act, didn’t Pat Spewcannon say: “He just delivered them the Senate”?
I hate that fat fuck. Glad his world got rocked.
Oh goody, more of this crap. As if I wasn’t pissed off enough at my local paper’s editorial cartoon.
BTW, I think my local paper needs more letters and phone calls about it - can anyone help me out here?
http://www.woodka.com/2006/11/.....newspaper/
Eyes must be tired. I kept reading the last three words as “this repugnant sphincter.”
You were too kind, Jane!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 8
and accountability
What happens when The Mighty Wurlitzer and the PR Presidency goes down? (As in a tech-crash.)
Mrs. K8 mentioned it and it will be much clearer soon — this economy is in real distress.
Doesn’t it sound unreasonable for goopers to continue pumping up the market with hype and hopefulness now that the results are in?
While that may become the excuse the market uses to discount the future (e.g. sell-off), the real force behind what we’ve been experiencing economically is the continuation of a deflationary trend aka the bubble.
The surface level take away is that the changes being made to the administration over the next six months will trigger a recession — ending with a new president. Beyond that, well, let’s just say that a “national unity” ticket is a fool’s errand. We know that already because we’ve been discussing it at FDL.
For investors — if we really do continue to deflate, interest rates will reflect the lack of enthusiasm and subside, long end first.
So the twenty year treasury is a good anchor while the tide goes out. Call it demand deflation. Less war, less guns. More butter? yes…for popcorn!
Could someone foward a request from a citizen to Speaker to be Madame Pelosi?
Replace this drivel (archive it for posterity’s sake):
http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html
With a “Hundred Days Plan/Goals/Agenda/Legislation.
And use it as a rolling checklist. Maybe links to bill’s progress.
I bet if a memo from her is sent to House IT, it wouldn’t take long.
Sorta like what Hoover said after Dealey Plaza.
I was just going to say: Tester rocked.
He spoke from the right place. Left me feeling very happy for him.
rwcole @ 11
Love that hair!!! Love that smile!!!
The Mighty Wurlitzer and the PR Presidency may have been powerful transmitters of message and iconography, but the steady drip, drip drip of scandal seems to have tainted the messengers to the point of public revulsion.
I so hope this is true. As I said in a previous thread, it would be useful to have a retrospective DVD showcasing the worst excesses of the Mighty Wurlitzer and the Republican-dominated government (e.g. Conyers’ humiliation) as a lesson in what Democratic government should avoid - but not forget has happened.
Whenever anyone told me “They’re all corrupt” as an excuse to throw up their hands in apathy, I would say to them –
‘Only in the sense that one patient with a hangnail on their toe and another patient with a gangrenous foot both have “medical problems.“‘
That seemed to sink in a bit.
From an email from Patty Wetterling:
Is there any way to determine how much the Reprobates spent on Bachmann? Based upon the heinous mailings that came for weeks, it must have been a lot.
Like Ned, a valiant effort that came up short but still served great purpose.
Go Patty!
windje @ 16
You got that right! :)
Mrs. K8 @ 22
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: “But what would you replace it with?”
When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?
donna @ 14
That is truly uncalled for. Is it Poway, near San Diego? I’m local, so I will definitely help out. I just don’t get north county.
Peter King on Hardball. I really dislike this man.
windje @ 25
A breath of fresh air.
So when will we see a change in tradmedia? Fox’s numbers are plummeting, KO’s are rising. Tweety and Joe Scar are looking very confused - like their scripts just exploded. Will the honchos figure out that there is revenue in our side, or will they continue to follow the wurlitzer around?
Balrog @ 28
:>)
(I will not make a ziggurat repeat 100 times)
I hope Sid’s right about the icons of the right actually tainting the political debate.
I’ve been wondering when the general public would finally have enough of this sort of empty-headed vitriol. Let’s hope they have.
The idiots on the right defend this sort of thing as simple antagonism for a PC world, but, in fact, it’s just a means of propping up the most indefensible aspects of neo-conservatism. Greed, selfishness, white supremacy, neo-colonialism, anti-environmentalism and its evil twin, laissez faire economics, militarism, faux patriotism are all effectively indefensible in modern society, but that’s what they’re pushing. Rush does his best to make all those things appear to be noble ideals, but, eventually, the public will see them for what they are.
What progressives should be doing, from now on, is to continue calling out the indefensible for what it is, and offering better alternatives to that carefully contrived defense of the powerful at the expense of the powerless.
When Limbaugh said that he didn’t have to carry water for the GOP any more, he was admitting — like Bush — that he’d been happy to lie and smear and bullshit his devoted listeners into striking poses. Of course, this is the new, honest Limbaugh, isn’t it? You can trust him now.
Or, rather: for a big man, he’s an expert contortionist. An entertainer, a comedy turn. Jester to the rump.
I’m surprised that no-one picked up on Bush from yesterday, yuk-yucking about how all those ‘Democrats want to lose in Iraq’ lines were just election politics — no hard feelings, calling people traitors is just part of the game. (I missed Countdown — did Olbermann mention it?)
Sorry, no dice. Campaign politics is rough, but it’s not filthy.
Did Tweety ask Tester about the Patriot Act?
Any details like that?
windje @ 30
Same here, but I like BOTH of your comments!
Fox’s ratings are off. FoleyGate can’t have helped. The public defrocking of “Pastor” Ted
SwaggertHaggard was one more nail in the coffin. Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney, all contributed to the cognitive dissonance many must have felt in the last year or so. I’d like to think the Mighty Wurlitzer’s days are numbered, but I’ll wait for more evidence.windje at 30:
what’s a ziggurat?
windje @ 30
Zbigniew “Zig” Brzezinski thanks you
randiego @ 36
Too many blockquote indents which screw up the margins and make the mods mad.
I LOL’d getting a Greg Walden mailer yesterday - keep spending that money Greg. Next time you’re ours!
Rush may be beginning to realize that his schtick doesn’t work as a water carrier. His golden years were as a free lance attacker of the status quo- not as a defender of it.
He’s probably thinking that the dem takeover is the best thing that ever happened to him since the big pimple on his ass popped.
randiego @ 36
With this software, if you keep quoting a quote of a quote of a quote, etc. eventually you’ll end up with a weird structure looking like a ziggurat, and it’ll “break” the page structure.
Gosh, I wonder which media/papers and journalists would find this post interesting? Missouri? “religious”? panelist? editorial?
Mrs. K8 @ 9
Whatever way you choose, you just have to engage the active cursor elsewhere on the page.
Thanks Mrs K8, you’re right it is easier!
punaise @ 37
punnin or funnin tonight?
scarecrow @ 42
All of the above?
One of the things I want to find out is what the “leadership” held over the heads of the more moderate R’s in times of serious voting. Lincoln Chafee just killed Bolton’s nomination for good. Why didn’t he and some of the other halfway decent R’s stand up to the insanity before now? Is it a cocoon-like protection being inside the Beltway or what?
Oh Hill. What to do?
thanks guys! totally makes sense.
It’s time to Flush Limbaugh.
punaise @
37
As does the Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz.
I heard Randy Rhodes say he was down by about 50% in his ratings. While he will keep that certain smelly type that get off on his foul smelling verbal bile, I think he is losing a chunk of his audience. But, hell he is so damned rich it doesn’t matter. And remember, Blue Man is cheap too. Reports are he flies to the Dominican Republic for $20 whores.
windje @ 44
I have to choose?
Iraq!
punaise @ 52
if you’re pro choice
sanitas –
Sounds like you found an answer that worked by accident, without knowing why it worked.
That was true for me too until I engaged Mr. K8 — I said, “what the @#$% is WRONG with this stupid thing”? — and he was kind enough to not only bail me out, but explain WHY it worked!
Mrs. K8—Glad to see you in top form.
Gnome de Plume — it’s going to take the corporate owners of tradmedia a while to figure out the lay of the land.
Wait until the first piece of legislation is submitted that the corporatists hate; then the gloves will come off. In the mean time, they’re going to vacillate, particularly if Rover doesn’t threaten them directly or indirectly (a la Heritage Foundation/Townhall.com and Parents Television Council). If Rover’s too absorbed with trying to salvage Dubya’s legacy and also trying to fend off what might be a potential problem with Fitzgerald’s investigation, Rover may be unable to force the tradmedia to toe the line.
Let’s assume the tradmedia has two agendas, increased profits and access to content/power. How do they gain both under a lame duck presidency and a Democratic majority in Congress? This, too, will color coverage.
I caught on Faux News earlier today on Cavuto’s segment a LOT of blathering about Dems talking anti-business, with further speculation that this caused the market to pause today. What unmitigated bullsh*t. It was pure spin. It may be absolutely true that pharma and oil are going to be under pressure (reflected in recent stock declines), but they’ve earned it and the public knows it. That’s where we need to manage the media’s messaging, not let them get co-opted by these specific segments and companies; we do it by tightly managing access to leaders in Congress.
Hello, Madame Speaker, Mr. Majority Leader?
were that we had real civility, but that is only possible where you have intelligence
but alas, american’s are a stupid lot. not ignorant, for that has a cure. as a collective hole (yes, hole) we do not learn, remember, or associate the things of even the near past with the year over the horizon. we are delivered most of the information that the collective corpse wants us to see on teevee, and we have to find the rest.
I consider this the most important point. what we have to find for ourselves. in this, perhaps we are one of the weakest nations on earth. our government hides everything from us. always has, for we are but rabble. “the common clay, people of the soil, you know, morons” (blazing saddles) and we do not deserve that lofty air between here and artificial royalty. that is only for those who have proven they are related to kings by their means and their toys.
remember it, for you will be expected to be prepared for what is next.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 53
poor Afghans and Iraqis and Lebanese and Palestinians are counting on us!
Mrs. K8 @ 45
Yep. Dorothy is being very clever here.
I stand by my recommendation on Tuesday that we should sell North County to the OC (or to whatever red state will accept it). This is the same part of the metro area that just re-elected an Abramoff bribee under current grand jury investigation, who doesn’t even LIVE in his district (and who, in his victory speech, made pretty blatently racist comments thanking the presence of Mexican immigrants in his district for scaring whites into voting for him). Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Penasquitos, Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Marcos, Vista, please go away.
Oh, and why is it that their politicians like to do all their photo-ops in the 53rd district, on the waterfront? The 53rd is quite blue, thank you. Can’t we charge them for the privilege?
kristinejoy @ 26
Gnome de Plume @ 46
The Republican party holds their Congressmen in check with a combination of bribes and threats, mostly having to do with pork and campaign funding. For example, Chaffee got a lot of RNCC money to fight the Club for Growth candidate in the primary. Since he’s not running now, he can do as he pleases.
angie @ 59
Precisely. :)))
Tester gave a rock solid answer to Matthews pitch about a newly elected Senator’s naive goal of fiscal responsibility dissolving in the back room dealings that are ‘reality’ in DC.
Tester responded that people do it every morning at the breakfast table and that transparency is necessary. Matthews jumped.
Blub–Hell no! Ya can’t SELL me!
Does anyone have a tally of which House and Senate seats we picked up due expressly to Howard Dean and his 50 state strategy? Or can anyone link me to a site which reports this? I know Tester is one, and I am really impressed by him. If he does well in the Senate, I think he’s real presidential material and would appeal to all kinds of people all across the country.
Gnome de Plume @ 46
The bloom is off the stinking (turd)blossom. I think office holders like Chafee were so afraid of Rove, Cheney, etal that they didn’t dare upset their masters. Watch the change in all but the core right-wing nutjobs. Votes (on Dem-lead legislation..it feels so good to say that!) will end up passing by much larger margins then 51-49 and the party margin in the House. I have a feeling lots of Goopers are actually breathing a sigh of relief, that they can now tend back to the center and do something for their constituents to actually keep their jobs.
Yet they’ll still have a target on their backs from this voter. I don’t forget!
RBG @ 56
It’s good to see you the same way, too, sweetie!
:-)
Actually, I’m so freakin’ exhausted that I can’t get up from the computer yet. Besides needing to do basic chores and physical therapy, I need a shower badly — I was too tired to get there this morning — so if I can manage to drag myself up 2 flights of stairs, I may disappear for a bit.
Anybody have any suggestions for what’s good for adrenal exhaustion?
Tester is GREAT.
Run him dems- you won’t find a better candidate. He’s got IT- (as my great grandmother used to say).
Oops. Claire McCaskill just stepped out on the wrong foot. She tells Tweety that John Bolton should “probably” be confirmed, and that she would tend to be deferential to the presidents’s choices.
Can’t she do better than that?
Muzzy @ 64
I’d like to see Tweety jump.
Off the long end of a short pier.
Mrs. K8 @ 22
I had a few people say “They’re (Dems & GOP) all the same.” I would immediately ask them if they thought the country would have been where it is if Gore had won in 2001. “Would we be in Iraq?” That seemed to make an impression.
McCaskill DOESN’T have “IT”.
neurophius @ 70
Recount!
Remember Limpbaugh is just a “self-discredited drug-addled gasbag”.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....ed-gasbag/
Gates lacks defense experience, views on Iraq unknown
Gates is an old Bush family flunky. Like Baker. Let’s block this Iran-Contra crime boss.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/n.....09.article
rwcole @ 73
As I asked in a prior thread — when does she get a Senate email box?
We could HELP her get “IT.”
rwcole @ 69
He just has the looks of the quintessential american
Sorry RW.. we’ll let you stay :).. just kidding..
Seriously though, there might be a way to ask the new administration to make a point to the CA-50 political elite as well as to those in Issa’s district to the north:– lobby the Dems to cut Federal funds for a ridiculous transportation boondoogle project that the Dukestir secured for them:– the ridiculous Sprinter high speed commuter train. I really think it’s time for these boondoogle earmarks to end… whether they’re in Alaska or in San Diego.
rwcole @ 65
here is a piece about Gates.
http://www.tompaine.com/articl....._cabal.php
rwcole @ 73
Perhaps she needs to be counseled? Not unlike Hill.
Gnome de Plume @
29
Media’s not going away.
see Pach’s post, Tale of Three Parties
http://www.firedoglake.com/200.....e-parties/
windje @ 78
Quite true.
And Jim Webb’s speech was very, very inspiring too. He looks like the kind of Mr. Smith going to Washington who will not only have integrity and fairness — he will kick ass and take names, too.
Webb’s insistence on “social justice” and “economic fairness” today was very bracing.
rwcole @ 40
That’s not a pimple. Turn him over, the blue pill’s workin’ ….
Jon Tester is the only politician I have ever met in person - we chatted for five minutes at a meet ‘n greet fundraiser in SF this summer. He is personable, he listens, he is genuine.
More on Gates: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3768
This was posted over at Have Your Say on the BBC website..
–
The plan for Iraq may apper to be run away… The more detailed plan is to run away as quickly and as quietly as is possible.
This may not appear much of a plan, but lets face it, it’s more of a plan than we have had so far.
Unfortunately, there is no international etiquet for pulling out of a country that you have invaded and made a complete hash of. It’s not like leaving a dinner party after throwing up over the hosts’ dog. Sending apologies and flowers the following day just does not cut it on the global stage.
Pulling out of Iraq will leave a vacuum to be filled by the insurgants and so the country will become the terrorist hot-spot that it had never been before.
Luckily for the UK the US and Iraq, the oil may just prove to be the answer. In the next ten to twenty years oil will be at a premium and China will be very happy to provide workers, expertise and a market. This alone may act to stabilise the region.
Ironically, the war will have provided the terrorists with; a base, the inspiration to fight and also the money: sort of a Bin Ladin incubator state.
It has always been said that the Americans don’t understand irony: this has been a hard way to learn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/the.....ide_1.html
Memo to Democrats: Don’t buy into Bush’s act
kristinejoy @ 84
AAARRRGGGGGHHHH! Why did you do that? I’m about to eat! ;)
oldtree @
58
I disagree here. It has long been recognized that not all people are equal in smarts, in imagination, in logical ability, or any trait or quality that a human may possess.
That is why we have *good manners*. It is not necessary that we be intelligent, or that we love or respect our fellow men, it is enough that we be polite. And that is teachable.
Do not make deals with Republicans. Give them no quarter.
PeteCO @ 89
I think he hears that a lot.
See? Newspapers are still good for something!
Mrs. K8 @ 83
My sister lives in VA. She’s hated Allen from the moment he appeared on the political scene there. Described it as an instant chemical dislike.
Felt very good about Webb. Thought he was a ‘plain speaker’ with common sense.
Bustednuckles @ 93
Do you mean for “smacking on the nose with”? Or for reading Miss Manners?
angie @ 80
Bev Harris over at Black Box says Gates was connected to a voting machine company. What an interesting CV this guy has.
Bustednuckles @ 93
I learned a lot from Miss Manners and Dear Abby…
And so it begins….
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats have begun to re-embrace Joseph Lieberman and seem ready to give the former Democrat turned independent a chairmanship in the new Congress that convenes in January, party aides said on Thursday.
Lieberman won reelection to a fourth Senate term on Tuesday, running as an independent in Connecticut following his loss in a Democratic primary to anti-war activist Ned Lamont.
http://www.rawstory.com/
********************
Boy, disregarding your party’s primary and crapping all over the rightful nominee really has consequences.
Blank Kludge @
18
I saved the whole page two months ago when i realized it was still on the .gov site.
windje @ 94
Boy, do I know what that’s like. I’ve felt that visceral sense with several folks — Nixon, Reagan, Dubya, Cheney. And Allen, of course.
Your sister has good instincts, and should trust them always!
Lisa Caputo, former Press Sec. to Hillary arguing on Hardball for a “slow, methodical withdrawal” from Iraq. Stuff it Caputo. You too, Senator Clinton.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 81
Unfortunately, this is a fairly common attitude in, particularly, the Senate today. Even Feingold has said that the President is entitled to his choices in appointments. I would put the question this way: how exactly does an inclination to deference fulfill the obligation to advise? Such appointments do not depend solely on Senate consent. If the President were, for example, to appoint Satan as his UN ambassador, would that be acceptable because of a tendency to defer? If not acceptable, then that policy is not an absolute. Bolton is rightly seen as a bull in a china shop, and is that an acceptable qualification for UN ambassadorship, simply because George Bush believes it is?
Rejecting such people forces Bush to do better for the country at large.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 101
damned right, OK.
Blub–The political climate here is pretty oppressive- but we had a good chance at a dem congresscritter- cept the candidate was Busby- the self proclaimed “soccer mom from Carlsbad”
One of the worst political candidates it’s ever been my misfortune to experience. She should have won- it was the perfect set up- she needed to be an attack dog but chose instead to be a soccer mom.
Hopefully she just misread the new speaker-elect’s cues. I’m still counting on Waxman, Conyers and others to do the subpeona’ing. Or maybe we can make ‘em a deal:– we promise not to subpeona if they just quit… we give them a list of names. Beginning with Darth Veep.
My personal take (or maybe hope) is that this ‘we won, so now we’ll just roll over” bs is going to last about a week, until Bush starts to seriously try to fast-track his surveillance legislation. Here’s to hoping.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 81
Montag–Well her not having “IT” is a separate issue from her view on Bolton (which is bullshit). She has zero charisma.
I think Claire just has been so focused on her own campaign, that she hadn’t had time to read the freakin’ papers to know that the Bolton nomination had already been KILLED earlier today by Lincoln Chafee.
Sad to say, she probably wasn’t even up on all the details of the Senate battle over him which denied him the Senate confirmation.
She had better get a good team of assistants who know what’s what and can keep her on her toes.
Ms. McCaskill, listen to and honor Michael J. Fox and me.
or lose yer seat.
My Grandma taught me manners. Newspapers were not part of the equation. *g*
rwcole @ 106
Charisma is an over-used word today. I care much less about that than a candidate’s understanding of his or her Constitutional obligations–that’s something that can be impressed upon someone, where charisma cannot.