On Lieberman, Likability, And (Sore) Losers

Karlo (the man who JUST can't ever get enough cat blogging) notes in Comments regarding my post about the possibility of a John McCain/Joe Lieberman ticket, This refers to Republican presidential nominee Sen. McCain's talk the other day where McCain - perhaps kidding, perhaps not - pointed to allegedly but not actually (Indy) Democrat Sen. Joseph Lieberman, there to provide support and an endorsement for his fellow hawk Republican ::cough::, and mentioned that Joementum might make a great vice president.

Specifically, Karlo asks "does anyone actually like Lieberman?" given his "new and disproved, not improved" status as the far right wing's and Bush's favorite Orthodox Jewish lackey. After all, it can be hard for the loony right to offer anyone who is not a fascist Christian the time of day much less that most minute hint of respect. Thus, when looking for a token "not me" to suggest they aren't racist, too, it helps that they can wrap a crazy war hawk together with a Jew who wants to see the Biblical rapture and armageddon occur every bit as much as they do, regardless of how many Jews and Muslims they have to consign to hell to do it.

So yes, Virginia...er... Karlo, someone likes Lieberman. His wife. The loony right just pretends to tolerate him, just as they often utter the words, "Some of my best friends are black" and "I don't hate gay people. I just feel justified in telling everyone gays are promiscuous and mentally ill while I deny them the right to marry and make their lives miserable."

However, in fairness, I have to say that there was a time when, as Lieberman's constituent, I had some respect for the man. He's always been prissy, a bit holier than almost everyone else, and likely to side with some weird issues, such as when he joined "Second Lady" (and I use the word "lady" very, very, VERY loosely here) Lynne Cheney and "morality czar" (and dominatrix-loving, millions-lost-in-casinos) William "Bill" Bennett in an effort to turn college campuses to the right while discriminating against those educators who don't think it's their job to tell students what to think, how to vote, and that their grades will be hurt if they don't believe in the same God as James Dobson and Jerry Falwell.

Quite seriously, I think a HUGE part of why Lieberman has turned so far to the right - and not simply because of 9-11 and his zealot's hatred of Muslims - lies right in the lap of the 2000 presidential election. Lieberman blames then presidential candidate Al Gore for not winning (and the American people for not choosing Joementum himself) which turned him into a sore loser and then he jumped on the ultra-hawk bandwagon, with all of his high praise for Bush and other tighty righties, SOLELY to advance his own position.

His pouting brat sore loser attitude soured him further to Dems after the capitulation to rigged voting so he had to realize Democrats would never support another candidacy for him - and they didn't; Republican money returned him to his Senate job when Dems wanted to flush the turd. Also, he saw the writing on the wall in terms of how completely the fascist right was willing to go to keep a Jew from the White House; to keep from becoming nothing more than a footnote to history, he switched sides. While the right will never like him, they might be willing to hold their nose to let him be a bridesmaid (VP) but never the bride (President).

Just Say No To Dick (And What a Dick He Is, Too!)

Dick Cheney just isn't loved (quite) as much as he once was (and then, only by very scary people, including wife, Lynne). While he still tells us that his convicted-of-lying-and-obstruction-of-justice former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby is the most honest man he's ever known, the Senate is trying to cut off his funding since Dick claims he is answerable to no one.

Senator Dick Durbin, in the move to cut off such funding, should be very careful around Darth Cheney when he's carrying a gun. As Lynne can attest, "Duck, It's Dick!" Cheney often ejects his ammunition prematurely. [Insert Marine ditty about the difference between a rifle and gun here.]

Unfair! Fat Old White Republican Men Don't Always Control Everything

As Alec points out in comments here as well as on his blog (Prose Before Hos), it's a dark and pathetic day when fat old white (almost invariably Republican, I may add) men don't get 103% of all the fatcat positions and money and favors and law-making and... well, read for yourself:

Oh no! Old rich white males are being oppressed again! Sound the alarms!

Males - As of the 2006 congress, 83.7% of the Congress is male, while the percentage of males of the voting age population (18 plus) is only 48.4. If this is further evaluated to include the over-representation of white males, the figure is even more staggering: 36.3% of the voting age population are white males, yet there are 79 White Male senators making up the Senate (79%).

A Vote For Mitt Romney Equals Funding The Mormons?

While there are some reasons to strongly admire the Mormon Church, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel allowing taxpayer dollars to fund an entity which - like too many religious organizations - sees women as chattel, people of color as potentially evil, and keeps re-electing the bitter and easily-bought Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to the Senate. But I'm also not crazy about electing yet another man who, with all his money, believes the rules simply don't apply to him.

The Far Right Bleeds Over Immigration Bill's Success

No sooner was it announced that a bill looks set to go that would toughen border security (yeah, sure, right) while at the same time offering to put 12 million immigrants on the track for citizenship status has the far right, especially, bleeding more than a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel.

Pat Buchanan tonight - and mind you, Pat used to be the face of the extreme right until they went so far out there that Pat now often seems somewhat moderate - declared this "the end" of the United States while others proclaimed that those who supported this bill, like John McCain, can kiss their presidential bids goodbye since "all law abiding Americans" will strike hard against those who want to "reward" illegal entry into America.

One of the "beauties" of the Bush years: small minds just get smaller ALLLL the time.

It's Bush's Way Or The (Hell) Highway

From Stranger at Blah3:

One step closer to Constitutional Crisis. They ain't budging.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding, in a letter today, told Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, that the White House has not budged in its refusal to allow the panels to question several White House aides, including Karl Rove, about what they know regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, moving the two sides closer to a constitutional battle over the scandal.

Fielding also appears to be trying to head off an attempt by Conyers to obtain e-mails and documents from the Republican National Committee regarding the firings. Roughly 50 White House officials, including 22 curent aides, used e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC to send messages, including some related to the prosecutor firings, and Conyers asked RNC Chairman Mike Duncan to turn over those records today.

Fielding also said that "it was and remains our intention to collect e-mails and documents from those accounts as well as the official White House e-mail and document retention systems" as part of a broader deal with the two committees on staffer testimony.

Fielding has offered to allow Rove, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and other Bush aides to be questioned by committee investigators, but only behind closed doors, and not under oath. Fielding also won't allow any transcript of those interviews to be made. Conyers and Leahy have rejected the offer as woefully inadequate, and while both committees have authorized subpoenas for Rove, Miers and the others, only Conyers has issued up until now and those were for documents only.

Presidential temper tantrum?

Perhaps Bush's Monica Has No Right To Invoke The Fifth Amendment

For the past two weeks, there has been much talk that Monica Goodling, the holier-than-thou Department of (In)Justice lawyer who thinks she sits at the right hand of God and Bush, can/cannot invoke her 5th amendment right against self-incrimination AND keep her job. But Democrats now question whether she has any right to invoke the 5th at all.

From TPM Muckraker:

But in the letter today from committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and subcommittee Chair Linda Sanchez (D-CA), they wrote that Democrats weren't convinced that Goodling was invoking the Fifth for valid reasons. Goodling's lawyer John Dowd had cited earlier comments by Democrats to show that they had "reached conclusions" about the matter under investigation.

Conyers and Sanchez aren't buying it. "The fact that a few Senators and Members of the House have expressed publicly their doubts about the credibility of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in their representations to Congress about the U.S. Attorneys' termination does not in any way excuse your client from answering questions honestly and to the best of her ability," they wrote.

I'm with the Dems. Monica gets no "get out of jail free" card by invoking protection for herself she would grant to no one else.

Let this Monica "go down", but in a less pleasant way than Lewinsky.

New Bill Cuts Off Almost All War Spending

From the excellent folks at Make Them Accountable (by way of USA Today):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will co-sponsor legislation that would cut off almost all Iraq war spending within a year, the bill’s other sponsor announced today, potentially ratcheting up Democratic pressure on President Bush to withdraw American troops from Iraq. Reid of Nevada and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said this morning in a news release that they will introduce the legislation. It comes on the heels of Senate passage last week of an emergency war spending bill that would require President Bush to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill’s enactment. Bush has threatened to veto that bill and a similar House measure.

Good for you, Dems! This is exactly how you fight bullies. The more they resist the will of the people, the more you up the ante. Bob Geiger has more.

Karl Rove And The "666" Tattooed Atop His Bald Head

Every large stone seems to have a snake hiding beneath it. And strangely, all too often, it's the same snake and its name is perpetually Karl Rove (that smell of something vile and dead is a good hint that Rove is Bush's beneath-rock-brain, too).

From Sunday's New York Times Op/ed:

Mr. Rove’s efforts to maintain one-party rule go deep into the government. Last week, we learned about a meeting set up by Mr. Rove’s staff with officials of the General Services Administration that was wildly inappropriate and perhaps illegal. The aim, as outlined by Mr. Rove’s deputy, Scott Jennings, seems to have been to take advantage of the billions of dollars in contracts put out by the agency every year to return Republicans to the majority in Congress in 2008. It included PowerPoint slides on vulnerable House and Senate seats.

This sort of behavior should not be all that surprising. It was not that long ago that the Bush
White House embraced the priorities of the Republican governor of Mississippi and virtually ignored the far greater needs of Louisiana’s Democratic governor after Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Rove retreated a bit from the public eye in the heat of the Lewis Libby trial, but after avoiding indictment, he seems to have regained his confidence. Take a look at YouTube to see his bizarre, humor-challenged gyrations as “MC Rove” at an annual media dinner in Washington the other night.

The investigation of the firings of the United States attorneys seems to be closing in on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who should have been fired weeks ago. But Congress should bring equal scrutiny to the more powerful Mr. Rove. If it does, especially by forcing him to testify in public, it will find that he has been at the vortex of many of the biggest issues they are now investigating.

Senate Passes Its Own Iraq Bill Complete With Timetable to Remove U.S. Troops

And, of course, the President (always in the mood for a tantrum) insists he will veto both this bill and the one passed by the House.

God forbid Bush pay a nanosecond's attention to the will of the people of the United States, the same people he is supposed to work for.

Couched In The Iraq "Surge" Vote Is Very Sweet Deal for American Fuel/Energy Companies

I am massively pissed that the Senate voted today to approve an additional - and whopping! - $122 Billion (we've already spent well more than half a trillion on the war that would pay for itself) for Bush's Iraq "surge" regardless of provisions for a time line for an exit strategy.

But getting too little attention is a part of this bill which HANDS mostly American energy/fuel companies a deal for Iraq oil which will give them an unheard of percentage of profits. I would think that Iraq oil belongs to Iraq and that the Bushies should NOT be able to give it away to Exxon, etc.

From Think Progress on the Iraq "redeployment":

The Senate Appropriations Committee “approved a $122 billion measure Thursday financing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also calling on President Bush to pull combat troops out of Iraq by next spring. The bill, approved by a voice vote, is similar to one the House began debating Thursday. The White House has threatened to veto the House measure and issued a veto threat against an earlier, similar version of the Senate withdrawal language.”

And once again, the bully monarch Bush demands things go HIS way, or the low way.

Videotape Proof of Attorney General Gonzalez Flat Out Lying To Congress

And the White House scoffs of Senator Patrick Leahy's insistence that the Senate Judiciary Committee will subpoena and force these Bushies to testify under oath (not that an oath and a pledge to God not to lie will ever stop the Bushies from lying):

As ThinkProgress noted earlier this week, on Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee, under oath, that the Bush administration never intended to take advantage of a Patriot Act provision that allows the President to appoint “interim” U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period of time, without Senate confirmation.

I am fully committed, as the administration’s fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.

The Washington Post published a front-page story yesterday on these remarks. ThinkProgress has located video of Gonzales apparently lying to Congress.

You can watch the video of the AG's lies under oath (caught on tape) ... er.. testimony at Think Progress.

Gee, a Bush Administration bigwig lying. That NEVER happens (more than 100 times an hour).

Lieberman Won't Leap To GOP - Or So He Says

Apparently trying to quell conjecture that Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman (and remember: you can't spell Lieberman without L-I-E) would jump from "independent Democrat" status with which he was only just elected to the Senate (after years as a Dem) to the Republican Party, Joementum says he won't go.

One issue is that - no longer so tainted by all that non-Connecticut money the Rovean Empire pushed into Joe's campaign - Connecticut voters could impeach and/or remove him if he switched.

This is called trying to have one's cake (Republican war rhetoric) and eat it, too (hope that once Iraq ends, maybe voters won't remember how much he wanted us in there, to stay there). Joe has to realize, very sadly, that today's far right ranking Repugs are never going to let someone non-Christian white extremist anywhere near a position of true power.

And that brings me to my next post.

Will Senator Joe Lieberman Leap - With Joe-Mentum - to the Republican Party?

Not that he's not there in their camp already but...

Keith Olbermann on "Countdown" on MSNBC just now raised the question of what the state of Connecticut, who elected Joe last fall for the first time as an Independent Democrat rather than as a Democrat, can do in light of strong indication Lieberman will change parties to Republican.

Now, I wasn't blogging back on May 24, 2001 (yeah, I remember the date by heart) when Vermont's own "Jumpin'" Jim Jeffords bolted from the GOP, saying the party had gone far too far to the extreme radical right nutwing for him to remain a Republican. I considered it a late birthday present. So yes, I favored his switch and spoke out loudly against those who muttered last of impeaching him or repealing his position.

With that in mind, I don't think anyone but the voters of a particular state - and not all states have laws on the books that allow this; Connecticut does not appear to have - who decide what action to take when the man or woman they send to Washington turns into a wholly different creature.

I just hope Lieberman realizes that the jump will end any possible hope EVER of getting near the oval office as elected leader in chief or VP. The extreme nutwing, sadly, will not allow a Jew to be considered which, in general, is much their loss, separate from the fact that the Lieberman of the last several years is a disgrace to Connecticut. He certainly is not the Lieberman I voted for while there.

When It's The Senate That Makes You Sick!

[Update: I count 10 senators as not voting on the 56:34 vote that stalemated this action. To see who voted and how, check here.]

Yesterday's rare weekend Senate session was sickening, to say the least.

Mind you, the House of Reprehensibles who for the last several years have performed about as bad as any assemblage possibly could, managed to have three full days of Iraq debate, got some smart and long-needed things said by Dems AND Republicans alike, and managed to vote on the purely symbolic (and doesn't that rankle?) non-binding resolution against Bush's handling of Iraq.

But once again, Repugnants like Mitch McConnell - who proves that a turd wearing a $300 shirt and a $125 tie STILL looks like a bowel movement - would not so much as allow the Senate to debate the Iraq War four years after we entered the damned country (no wonder Iraqis are reticent to adopt democracy American-style).

And, in the same breath, these Repugnants said they could not vote or discuss even a symbolic no confidence measure on Bush UNLESS it was tied to a promise that there would be an UNLIMITED amount of money flowing from taxpayers' pockets to Bush and the Pentagon to ensure we can stay to completely dessimate Iraq - and start our destruction of Iran, I suppose - unchecked.

As displeased as I am with some Senate Democrats, I could rethink my anti-capitol punishment edict when it comes to the likes of Mitch McConnell and some of the others of the most smug Republicans. The sooner we're shed of the infection of the Bushlickers, the better.

Janice Karpinski Calls Republican Senator Lindsay Graham a Coward, Donald Like Rumsfeld

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-Spineless, SC) shot off his mouth at a screening of HBO's upcoming, "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib", including dumping on former General Janice Karpinski, whom the Bush Administration used as their favorite scapegoat in the prison abuse scandal, making her pay when Rummy and Rick Sanchez and company did not.

But unknown to Edwards, now Colonel Karpinski was in the audience, and she let him have it (and good!); from Crooks & Liars:

"Sen. Graham…I consider you as cowardly as Rumsfeld, as Sanchez, and Miller and all of them," said Karpinski, who has long claimed to be a scapegoat for superiors including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller.