McBush: The Greatest American Hypocrite

How is Teresa Heinz not like Cindy McCain? Well, I seriously doubt Teresa's husband ever got away with calling her a c**t in public. Or in private, for that matter.

But the only real difference between these two extremely wealthy women who inherited their money from family members and who married men who later became presidential candidates is that Cindy's husband is a republican.

Which probably explains why the wingnut haters who screamed themselves hoarse in 2004 about what a gigolo John Kerry was for marrying a wealthy widow are conspicuously silent about John McCain's whoring for Cindy's beer money.

(More after the jump.)

Somehow, the deep stupidity of our political discourse actually manages to escalate during presidential campaigns, becoming even more vapid and idiotic than normal. But, as I argued continuously when I did my book tour in April and May for Great American Hypocrites, this is the kind of campaign the GOP runs every election and in which they specialize, and there are only two options for Democrats in response: (1) purport to "rise above it" and thus ensure that they get slaughtered in a one-sided, one-way War of Personality Demonization which renders issues irrelevant (hence: the all-American Everyman War Hero versus the rich, out-of-touch, effete elitist), or (2) attack the GOP candidate using the same lowly character themes in order to neutralize the attacks and prevent the election from being decided on these grounds. It's good to see the Obama campaign, finally, engaging these issues aggressively. As I wrote in my book:

The reason why this has worked is that there are almost never any attacks on these myths, no aggressive examination of the real lives of these leaders. Critics of Republicans shy away from these themes. There is a squeamishness to use their own weapons against them. . . . It needs to be shoved into the media's faces and into our public discourse how false and deceitful and artificial are these "Republican Values" and personality attributes that they concoct for themselves. To do that, the most prominent right-wing political leaders need to be put under a microscope -- their actual lives and beliefs -- to show how lacking they really are in the virtues they claim to exude and revere.

There needs to be a lot more focus of this sort on John McCain's "character," given that, from now until November, no matter what Obama does, the Rovian disciples managing John McCain's candidacy will ensure his campaign is about little other than these sorts of slimy, personality-based, Freak Show attacks on Obama. It's what the GOP does and it's what the media is capable of disseminating.

Yes, no one nails the essential hypocrisy of both modern republicans and the village idiot "reporters" who worship them better than Glenn Greenwald.

Read his whole post on the gigolo hypocrisy, read him daily in Salon, and read his new book for the full skinny on McCain's hypocrisy.

Oh, there is one more way in which Teresa Heinz is not like Cindy McCain: unlike Cindy, Teresa was not having an illicit affair with a man cheating on his disfigured wife.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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Phil Gramm: Porn Mogul

Molly Ivins once exposed Phil Gramm as the typical sort of GOP hypocrite who (like George W. Bush) loudly denounces all government programs, even as he rakes in tax dollars from various government programs.

In 2002, Ivins wrote:

"Gramm, the great crusader against government spending, has spent his entire life on the government tit. He was born at a military hospital, raised on his father’s Army pay, went to private school at Georgia Military Academy on military insurance after his father died, paid for his college tuition with same, got a National Defense Fellowship to graduate school, taught at a state-supported school, and made generous use of his Senate expense account."

However, let it not be said that Gramm didn't at least attempt to make a living in the private sector (in fact, the most private sector of all). As The Nation pointed out, before Gramm joined the Christian Coalition's Ralph Reed to call for defunding the NEA, he was an active investor in soft-core porn movies.

In 1973, Gramm cut a check for $15,000 to invest in a budget soft-core production called Truck Stop Women. Because the film was oversold, his money was returned to him. Later, Gramm contributed at least $7,500 toward a film called White House Madness, a satire of the Nixon White House that featured a crazed president wandering around the White House in the nude.

Gramm lost his investment after the film flopped at the box office.

Clearly, like George W. Bush, Gramm was a failure in the private sector. Like Bush, Gramm then turned to the government as a career. As The Nation pointed out, Gramm went on to become "one of the most reactionary, venal, and destructive political figures in recent times."

Today, Gramm serves as economic adviser to John McCain and spends his time smugly belittling Americans, calling us a "nation of whiners." And this hypocrite, who benefited immensely from various government programs all his life, doesn't think that the government should do anything at all to help ordinary Americans who are struggling to make ends meet in the Bush recession.

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The "Family Values" Party?

(click to enlarge)

Although this is about a state political operative in Missouri, he seems to fit right in with the Group of Pedophiles hypocrites GOP. You know, the party that wants to control your sex life.

JEFFERSON CITY — Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's chief of staff Eric Wayne Feltner has been charged with furnishing pornographic materials to a minor, a class C misdemeanor.

On May 21, Cole County prosecutors filed the two charges against Feltner — for attempting and furnishing —for incidents that took place during an online sting operation on May 25, 2007 and July 6, 2007.

"I probably shouldn't comment too much on the investigation," said Anji Gandhi, assistant prosecuting attorney for Cole County.

Feltner, of Columbia, became Kinder's top aide in 2005 after serving as 9th District congressional director for U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof.

Police allege Feltner contacted an undercover police officer on Yahoo! Instant Messenger believing he was talking to a 13-year-old girl, according to a probable cause statement.

Using the screen name "thebestinmo," Feltner engaged in sexually explicit conversations, according to the statement, signed by Jefferson City police Officer Chad Stieferman.

According to his secretary, Feltner was in a meeting this morning in his Capitol office and not immediately available for comment.

A message left with Kinder's spokesman was not immediately returned.

I'm sure Feltner will be resigning soon, to spend more time with his family.

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How Hagee's Hate Speech Encourages Violence Against Gays

A lot of us have been shocked and appalled by John Hagee's hate speech against gays. But the worst aspect of this hate speech is that it is precisely the sort of provocation that encourages violence against gay people.

Last week, Hagee made comments linking Hurricane Katrina to a planned gay pride parade in New Orleans.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out the dangers in making such reckless, idiotic remarks. This is the sort of thing that encourages small-minded bigots who suffered devastation during Katrina to go out and beat up gay people for bringing God's wrath down upon the Gulf Coast.

I have no evidence of any such attacks specifically prompted by hate speech remarks (at least any more evidence than Hagee has to back up his idiotic assertion that Katrina was somehow divinely tied to a gay parade). But evidence is often lacking in hate crimes, in any case. After all, the Community United Against Violence, a San Francisco advocacy group, has noted that many gay-bashing hate crimes actually "go unreported, and many are mishandled by police."

And the fact is, anti-gay hate crimes have become a very real problem in today's America. And it's a problem that certainly isn't helped by bigots like Hagee blaming terrible natural disasters on gays.

As the Gay.com online community site has pointed out, hate crimes against gays are on the rise in America. The site quotes the FBI as reporting that "hate crimes against gays made up 16 percent of total documented hate crimes across the U.S. in 2006, up from 14 percent in 2005."

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Fox News excludes Ron Paul from the final debate

Pravda Fox News, the official propaganda machine of the GOP, is running scared from Ron Paul. They must find his adherence to Constitutional principles wholly intolerable, since they refused to let him participate in the final debate before the voting starts. (Remember, Fox also refused to run a pro-Constitution ad.)

Now, don't confuse me with a Paul supporter - I'm not - and no, I won't be converted in comments - but I am a Democracy supporter.

Now I feel bad for somewhat supporting the exclusion of Gravel from subsequent debates after his "love" rant last August, because that exclusion led to the exclusion of Kucinich, who is the one true progressive who articulates liberal positions and ideals, but isn't electable. We went down the path of letting the M$M decide who will be heard, and this is the payoff. The GOPers are excluding the only anti-war candidate in the Republican field. (I WAS WRONG. I SHOULD HAVE RAISED HELL WHEN GRAVEL WAS EXCLUDED. And so should have you, and you, and you, and you, and you. Let's learn a lesson from our mistake.)

In the case of Paul, the only reason to exclude him is to silence him on opposition to the war. And he called 'em on it:

Ron Paul said the decision to exclude him from a debate on Fox News Sunday the weekend before the New Hampshire Primary is proof that the network “is scared” of him.

“They are scared of me and don’t want my message to get out, but it will,” Paul said in an interview at a diner here. “They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative.”

When 70% of America agrees about something, that's strong consensus. Unfortunately, it runs counter to the agenda of the war-whores at Faux News, and rather than deal with it, they chose to silence the lone voice of opposition.

Chickenshit bastards.

[And that's my final word on it.]

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Larry Craig thinks we're all idiots

The saga of Larry “Wide Stance” Craig continues.

He is apparently not resigning his Senate Seat on Sunday as he originally led his colleagues and constituents to believe he would; and now he is trying to get his guilty plea thrown out.

He really thought he was home free, that he could plead guilty by mail to a misdemeanor in Minnesota and skate away, and indeed, he almost did.

But he was found out. And that’s when he started to spin. Oh how he did spin! He temporarily generated his own gravitational field, so furiously did he spin!

His latest craven ploy has been to try to withdraw his guilty plea, after six weeks after sentencing! Hennepin County District Judge Charles A. Porter treated the matter with the harsh skepticism it deserved when it came before him on Wednesday. He pointed to Craig’s admission in August that his behavior constituted a crime that "would arouse alarm or resentment of others." During the 40 minute hearing, the Judge said "That's what he did in his petition -- admit what he did."

(keep reading)

Craig's attorney, Billy Martin, argued that the senator did not consult a lawyer before making his guilty plea, which he mailed to the court. At a hearing with a lawyer representing Craig, a judge would have asked the senator questions about the incident before accepting a plea, Martin said.

But Porter cut off the attorney, saying "my speculation" is that Craig wanted to plead guilty. "If he intended to plead guilty, he would have said 'yes' " to questions about whether he knew he had committed a crime, the judge said.

For the guilty plea to be withdrawn, Craig and his attorney must manage to convince the Judge that for the plea to remain in place would constitute a “manifest injustice” for the plea to stand. (Craig skipped the proceedings).

His lawyer maintained that would be the case because his actions were “innocuous” – there was no physical or verbal contact that would rise to the level of disorderly conduct. "None of those facts, Your Honor, in and of themselves constitute a crime," he told Porter.

Porter was ready for the Senators mouthpiece.

The judge said that, if he came down off the bench running at Martin, "shaking his fist," without ever punching him or yelling at him, it would likely prompt the attorney to think the judge was trying to incite him.

“It absolutely would," Martin said.

"Well, that's disorderly conduct," Porter replied.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I am not the only person left thinking "This doesn't wash!" What kind of disconnect with reality does it take for a lawmaker to plead that level of ignorance of the judicial process???

In fact, he should resign no matter what Judge Porter decides. He is either a pervert, or he is a moron. (Although it's likely he is both.) And "moron" alone should be enough to cost him his seat.

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Can't Quite Grasp the Outrage...

Someone, please, explain to me how this disrespects military service...


And this does not?



IOKIRAR? I guess so - Republicans can demean and degrade and insult veterans, but if a Democrat asks legitimate questions the foam-flecked loonies get in a lather?

Until someone can explain this, you outraged lot can STFU, and quietly and expeditiously go right square to hell.

Make a donation to MoveOn today!

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Some thoughts on that "Betray Us" ad

I first heard his name morphed by an active duty soldier, about an hour after he took the billet and the fourth star that came with it. But that is not the point. I think the ad was stupid, and I said so. But that isn't the point, either.

I am hearing Norm Coleman make hay from it, just as that wingnut congresswoman from Florida did yesterday. I am hearing all manner of indignant outrage from the loonies of the right.

That set me to wondering about something...

How offended were these same people when Senator Kerry was swift-boated? War hero and triple-amputee Max Cleland was smeared by the smarmy Saxby Chambliss by equating him with Osama bin Laden. How offended were these foam-flecked wingnuts then? Today, they accept the rodent Chambliss as their equal.

Hell - how did they react to those of us who disagreed with them before the war? They called us unpatriotic, they called us traitors, they called us unamerican and told us to get out of the country even though people who saw it the way we did had served in greater numbers. (The right to free speech that so many on our side have served to uphold doesn't guarantee that everything said will be smart, or even true. It is up to the listener to make those judgments.)

But I digress...Anyone - and I do mean anyone - bleating about being offended now, by that ad, had better be able to point to a full-throated denunciation of scurrilous attacks that went the other way then.

If they were silent then, or even supported those attacks, they need to shut the hell up now.

Sauce for the goose being sauce for the gander, and all that.

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Sen. Craig forced to resign from committee posts, calls for resignation grow louder

Republican leadership forced beleagured Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to resign from his committee and subcommittee posts today, and calls for his resignation from the Senate grew louder within his own party. Sens. John McCain and Norm Coleman and Rep. Peter Hoekstra all publicly called for Craig to step down.

Craig, meanwhile, hysterically insisted that he was innocent of the charge he pled guilty to, claiming he only went along with it in hopes it would all just go away.

Bullshit. Not that he pled guilty hoping it would go away. Of course he pled guilty hoping it would go away. He pled guilty hoping it would go away unnoticed because he was guilty as charged. (And by the way - if he is denying his guilty plea now, and did indeed plead guilty to a charge he is in fact innocent of, is that not perjury? I'm not a lawyer, but I know what the word means.)

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad to watch and listen as Craig tries to talk his way out of this. Meanwhile, he has no support within his party - they can't distance themselves fast enough.

And by the way - I don't want to hear Republicans claiming some moral high ground here that doesn't exist. None of these people called on David Vitter to resign, and Vitter, too, committed a crime. It is illegal to buy sex from hookers, even the ones that specialize in indulging perverted fetishes. If you cut right to the heart of the matter, Louisiana has a Democratic governor and Idaho has a Republican executive, so in this instance they can pretend to stand on principle, because it won't cost them a seat. It is that damned simple, folks. But come next election day, they will be reminding you that they share your values.

Do they?

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What is it with Republican perverts and public bathrooms?

Before I launch into this creep, let me make one thing clear...I don't give a rat's ass where you put your winkie in private. So long as you wag it in private, that is none of my business. I agree with Molly Ivins there - I don't care who you are screwing in private, so long as you aren't screwing the public. That said - when you start wagging it in public, that's a crime.

And that said, lets make it perfectly clear that it isn't 'teh gay' that invokes our wrath and scorn - it is the hypocrisy.

Sen. Larry E. Craig, an Idaho Republican was arrested June 11 in a public restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where the incident report states he was “detained for approximately 45 minutes, interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted and released, and police prepared a formal complaint for interference with privacy and disorderly conduct.” The report states that a plainclothes officer was investigating complaints about sexual activity in the men's room. Per the police report, that facility has been the site of “numerous arrests regarding sexual activity in the public restroom.”

The arresting officers report detailed the behavior that led to the arrest of Craig:

My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall. From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me. […]

At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area.

This is the same Larry Craig who piously derided Bill Clinton as a "naughty boy" and who has a zero-score on gay-rights issues.

Let's just call him what he is...a self-loathing closeted queen.

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Schaddenfreude alert!

I love it when hypocrites get a few thousand calories of just desserts.

Jack Burkman is the right-wing nutjob who said this: "[T]his issue [gay marriage] and the moral fabric of the country is five times as important as the war on terror and the war in Iraq combined... I mean, if Osama bin Laden thinks he can defeat the United States by knocking over buildings, he's crazy. But where we will fall and where we are falling as a civilization is from within."


And I just found out that he is on the D.C. Madam's phone list!!!

Oh, sweet God's of hypocrisy and come-uppance, I offer you blessings!!!

So perverts with fetishes who hire hookers and exploit women - while trashing other people whose behaviors don't harm anyone else, or even the participants - are not a problem, but if my Uncle Billy were to make an honest woman of my Aunt Richard after 40 years of a monogamous, loving and committed relationship, western civilization would surely crumble.

Listen up, all you "family values" hand-wringers. I am offering an olive branch here, and if you don't take it, I'm going to use it to beat you bloody...

Here it is...

You value your family, and I will value mine, and we'll leave one another the hell alone about things that are not anyone else's damned business.

Comprende?

(h/t skippy for the picture of Burkman. Hop on over there for an overdose of snark!)

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