Political News/Open Thread

by hilzoy

Item 1: John McCain's campaign appears to be imploding. First his campaign manager and his chief strategist resigned; then his chief of staff resigned as well. [UPDATE: Maybe not.] [UPDATE: Two more staffers quit.]Ana Marie Cox tries to figure out what it all means, while Marc Ambinder reports the backstory.

Item 2: As many of you have probably already heard, Sen. David Vitter, R-LA and big proponent of family values, turns out to have been a client of Deborah Palfrey, the "D.C. Madam." Glenn Greenwald has an amazing summary of Vitter's record on social issues, as well as other related things like his record of campaigning on his supposed status as a clean-cut family man, the allegations that he had had a year-long paying relationship with a prostitute in Louisiana (right before they were going to become public, Vitter decided to drop out of the LA governor's race, "saying he needed to deal with marital problems." Indeed.) It's really worth reading. (For instance: did you know that David Vitter thinks that gay marriage is the most important issue facing our country? Who knew that _Edward, Sebastian, et al had such Awesome Destructive Powerz?)

The best quote:

"Asked by an interviewer in 2000 whether she could forgive her husband if she learned he'd had an extramarital affair, as Hillary Clinton and Bob Livingston's wife had done, Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me.""

I hope that after he found out that his number was on the DC Madam's website, Rep. Vitter took a moment to hide the nail clippers, the pinking shears, the chainsaw, the XL Bander, the Double Crush Whites Emasculator, and anything else Mrs. Vitter might use in, shall we say, an unfortunate way. If we see him limping around the Capitol clutching his groin in pain, we'll know why.

[Update: Item 3: Matt Yglesias notes that Norman Podhoretz has joined the Giuliani campaign as a foreign policy avisor, and says that we "should think about what would happen if it turned out that Ahmadenijad's senior foreign policy adviser had recently published an article called "The Case for Bombing the United States of America." People would be freaking out, no?"

Yes, we would. Worth thinking about. End update.]

Otherwise: I think that home-grown tomatoes might just prove the existence of God. Open thread!

Comments

[Bernard Yomtov]

I think there is some similarity between McCain and Frist. They were plausible candidates so long as they were seen as sensible, independent-thinking Republicans. When they lost that image things went sour.

It's interesting to ask whether they blundered, like an athlete over-thinking and losing a natural fluidity and ease, or whether it really was hopeless either way.

[cleek]

Rudy is easily the scariest of all the Republican candidates. he's trying to sell coincidence as proof of strength against terrorism - he didn't see 9/11 coming, didn't prevent it, didn't talk about terrorism before it. he didn't hunt down the 9/11 gang, didn't do anything to bring them to justice. but he did try to fiddle with the election laws to extend his tenure as mayor after 9/11. he's an authoritarian fist-pumping nightmare.

adult orthodontics. opinions ?

[Dantheman]

"I think there is some similarity between McCain and Frist. They were plausible candidates so long as they were seen as sensible, independent-thinking Republicans."

Pardon? When was Bill "I am Senate Majority Leader because the President Said So" Frist ever considered independent-thinking? And by whom?

[Fraser]

Hmm. Sebastian. Victor von Doom. Have we ever seen them together at the same time?
Makes one think.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

"For instance: did you know that David Vitter thinks that gay marriage is the most important issue facing our country? Who knew that _Edward, Sebastian, et al had such Awesome Destructive Powerz?"

Heh. Someone should tell him that I'm not right on the edge of getting married.

[hairshirthedonist]

Shocking! The Bush admin suppressed science that didn't comport with it's political agenda.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070710/hl_nm/bush_surgeongeneral_dc

[hairshirthedonist]

Sorry - "its"

(Gary might be reading.)

[rea]

[D]id you know that David Vitter thinks that gay marriage is the most important issue facing our country? Who knew that Edward, Sebastian, et al had such Awesome Destructive Powerz?

Edward and Sebastian got married? (Congratulations, guys!) Or do I mistake your meaning?

[hilzoy]

rea: sadly, yes. They're just people who might at some point enter a gay marriage, not people who married each other.

The fact that their hypothetical future gay marriages will probably be with other people, of course, makes them twice as dangerous.

[Gromit]

hilzoy: ... the XL Bander, the Double Crush Whites Emasculator, and anything else ...

Okay, those links were just plain hateful.

[dbomp]

But since there can be, at most, only half as many gay marriages as there are gay people, doesn't that make it only half as dangerous? (And therefore polygamy even less so!)

[Dantheman]

RIP Doug Marlette. One of my favorite political cartoonists.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Actually, before Frist became majority leader my impression of him was as a non-extreme, reasonably intelligent guy. I think he was seen that way by many of his constituents as well.

Becoming majority leader and getting the Presidential bug did the man no good whatsoever.

[Brian]

Homegrown tomatoes DO prove the existence of God, as we discover in Aquinas' oft-overlooked Sixth Way (available upon request free of charge; $19.98 S/H).

Seriously, I'm with you on the home-grown tomatoes. Good stuff.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

"But since there can be, at most, only half as many gay marriages as there are gay people, doesn't that make it only half as dangerous?"

Well, that depends on whether or not we 'recruit' from the straight population of course!

[Ugh]

This posthumous Halberstam article is worth reading.

Money quote:

[Bush] tends to drop off in his history lessons after World War II, especially when we get to Vietnam and things get a bit murkier. Had he made any serious study of our involvement there, he might have learned that the sheer ferocity of our firepower created enemies of people who were until then on the sidelines, thereby doing our enemies' recruiting for them. And still, today, our inability to concentrate such "shock and awe" on precisely whom we would like—causing what is now called collateral killing—creates a growing resentment among civilians, who may decide that whatever values we bring are not in the end worth it, because we have also brought too much killing and destruction to their country. The French fought in Vietnam before us, and when a French patrol went through a village, the Vietminh would on occasion kill a single French soldier, knowing that the French in a fury would retaliate by wiping out half the village—in effect, the Vietminh were baiting the trap for collateral killing.

[hilzoy]

TPMCafe has Vitter's family-themed campaign ads here.

"In life's most important moments, we're not Repulicans or Democrats, we are parents."

Heh. Indeed.

[hilzoy]

Ooh, even better: Vitter on the need to protect one's marriage.

[OCSteve]

Hilzoy: Ana Marie Cox tries to figure out what it all means

I am assuming that was snark, that you do not actually look to her for this kind of thing. AMC – the embarrassment of the blogosphere…

David Vitter - I’m assuming the hypocrisy thing here, his behavior is actually OK? (It is with me – that is between a husband and wife and not fodder for politics.)

;)

[hilzoy]

OCSteve: yeah, I should have made that clear. If a straight libertarian who thinks that the government has no business in anyone's bedroom chooses to have a colorful life, fine by me, so long as it doesn't involve, oh, violence, or children, or anything. But when someone who has gone out of his way to deny _Edward the right to marry the man he loves, because for some reason he thinks that's a threat to marriage and marriage has to be protected, turns out to have been so little concerned with protecting the marriage that I'd assume is of most concern to him, then yeah, I think a bit of sarcasm is in order.

[Cardinal Fang]

Hey, come on, a powerful married politician visiting a prostitute *is* traditional. In fact, what could be more traditional than using the professional services of someone in the oldest profession?

[hairshirthedonist]

I'm not a very good commenter because I often fail to entice. This is from the article at the URL listed above.

Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled

(...)Carmona said the administration prevented him from voicing views on stem cell research. Many scientists see it as a promising avenue for curing many diseases. But because it involves destroying human embryos, opponents call it immoral.

Carmona said he was prevented from talking publicly even about the science underpinning the research to enable the U.S. public to have a better understanding of a complicated issue. He said most of the public debate over the matter has been driven by political, ideological or theological motivations.

"I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made -- stand down, don't talk about it," he said.

Carmona testified with two predecessors, Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and Dr. David Satcher, named by Clinton but whose term ended under Bush.

Carmona said some of his predecessors told him, "We have never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive, as mean-spirited as it is today, and you clearly have worse than anyone's had."

I heard some of the quoted testimony on NPR on the way home from work. The guy was perturbed to the point of contempt toward his former bosses. It sounded way worse than it reads.

[CaseyL]

In fact, what could be more traditional than using the professional services of someone in the oldest profession?

Which begs the question of which one is the "oldest profession." Seems to me politics predates prostitution by a good bit.

[hairshirthedonist]

Farming?

[OCSteve]

Hilzoy: I think a bit of sarcasm is in order

Agreed. We may just have to better define the line we agreed on the other day.

[Gary Farber]

"(Gary might be reading.)"

You never know.

I also know what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

[gwangung]

I'm not a very good commenter because I often fail to entice.

Oh, no...I took that article and spread it far and wide.

But I'm not sure it'll do that much in the wider scheme of things. The republican base will merely be convinced that it's just another move in the political game, and that all things are political. And the middle will shrug it off as the same; the innate sense of "balance" inculcated over the past few decades forces people to assume the other side does dirty things, too, and these things ARE JUST AS BAD as what the Republicans do.

Except....

You can't be political with mother nature. There are no balanced viewpoints about 29.37 cm per second per second. It isn't a matter of politics about how natural selection works to create species and make bacteria, microbes and viruses increasingly resistant to our drugs. And sometimes....just sometimes...the Republicans really ARE much worse than the Democrats.

[hairshirthedonist]

I also know what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

My father used to love doing his impression of the famous lead-in for the radio broadcasts of "The Shadow" when I was a kid. I had no idea why he was doing it or where it came from, but it was amusing.

[Edward_]

As much as I appreciate being illustratively helpful, it's Edward_ (not _Edward). I mean, all that money I spent on a branding consultant and this is what I get in name recognition? ;-))))

did you know that David Vitter thinks that gay marriage is the most important issue facing our country

I'm glad we agree on that point. He loses me on the paying for sex issue, and the cheating on your spouse issue, but I'll agree that gay marriage is more important than many other issues out there. Oh, you mean he's against it???? Here, I'll hand his wife the hedge trimmers.

Actually, when do we get to laugh at politicians who run for office on the strength of their moral character? Doesn't the desire to join that cesspool we call Congress automatically call the chances of them having much into question?

[hairshirthedonist]

I'm by no means a partisan Democrat, or even a partisan liberal, but I have such an intense, visceral dislike for this administration that I sometimes wonder if I'm just a hateful person or something. Then I think, "No, they just suck that much." The Surgeon General thing is just another crack in the facade that seems to be crubling at an alarming rate lately, and in some sick way it makes me happy - not happy that we have such a bad administration, but happy that I wasn't crazy for seeing it before it started to become sooooo obvious. The damage these guys have done to the world is tragic.

(And the stuff the former SG was saying about the way his speeches were edited was ridiculously Orwellian. Stupid stuff, like "Mention President Bush three times per written page." That and covering up the scientific truth. He also said he was told not to support an organization helping sick children because the Kennedys lead it. After all, the Kennedys are political enemies, so the sick kids might be, too. It's disgusting.)

[Slartibartfast]

I think she was referring to the bearded-Spock version of you, Edward.

I think that home-grown tomatoes might just prove the existence of God.

Surely not. I mean, if that were all it took, everyone with a backyard garden would be a convert, whilst the cities would be packed with atheists who can obtain nothing but those gassed tomatoes whose flavor and texture is nearly as pleasant as that of a tennis ball.

Hold on, maybe there's something to that idea after all.

Hello, all! It's taking me a while to catch up on current events, given that I haven't touched a newspaper or computer since I left nearly two weeks ago.

[hilzoy]

Edward_: Sorry.

Slarti: I was wondering where you'd disappeared to, but decided it was none of my business ;)

Speaking of journeys: Andrew is in Iraq now, though still in (protracted) transit.

[Ugh]

Speaking of journeys: Andrew is in Iraq now, though still in (protracted) transit.

That reminds me...

[Slartibartfast]

I was in Nova Scotia. Which, as everyone knows, doesn't even have indoor plumbing, never mind a decent Internet connection.

[hilzoy]

Here's a great first line of a blog post:

"Okay, this is easily the single greatest song ever written about a state commissioner of labor."

[liberal japonicus]

Well, as Sen. Stevens said, it is nothing but tubes...

[Gary Farber]

"My father used to love doing his impression of the famous lead-in for the radio broadcasts of "The Shadow" when I was a kid. I had no idea why he was doing it or where it came from, but it was amusing."

Hilzoy declared "Open thread!," so: I have no idea how old your father was, or you are, but I'm 48, and my father was born circa 1926, and thus he listened to the radio show of The Shadow as a kid, although so far as I know he had no interest in or readership of the pulps.

But I fanatically researched science fiction, and the pulps, and related topics, as well as numerous other topics, as a child, and I also played my father's records of the radio show of The Shadow, among other records of his, as a kid. Since it comes up.

And, yeah, my dad, although otherwise bipolar and loony, had pleasant habits as well, including playing those records, and reciting the intro.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha....

Ooh, it's hailing again here, big time.

[Slartibartfast]

LJ, what on Earth has become of HOCB?

[liberal japonicus]

I tried to fix it over the weekend, with multiple reinstalls of Wordpress and then trying to import the mysql database, but I'm getting sql errors and there still seems to be this timeout error that has DaveC, OCSteve and me write long posts to have them disappear without a trace. So I'm looking at the other blog packages and seeing how well they would import the old wordpress blog in. But, real life is kicking my butt (I'm eating lunch in my office right now, taking a break, and I've got a presentation on Friday morning) so things are going to have to wait until Saturday for the next round of hairpulling and vocabulary expansion for my three year old (she's in the middle of toilet training, and everytime she has an accident, she walks around going 'damnit,damnit,damnit' hell if I know where she got that...)

But this weekend, I will get something set up, even if it's a brand new site, and then cut and paste the posts in one by one over the next 3 months. Sorry to all, but it has been pretty civilized here of late, so the urgency has a bit of the edge off.

[gwangung]

The Surgeon General thing is just another crack in the facade that seems to be crubling at an alarming rate lately, and in some sick way it makes me happy - not happy that we have such a bad administration, but happy that I wasn't crazy for seeing it before it started to become sooooo obvious. The damage these guys have done to the world is tragic.

Well, after George Deutch, the abstinence-only debacle, etc. and the publication of The Republican War on Science, it's just been heartbreaking to see how far this administration is going and HOW STUPID they are in doing so. And we're putting up with this crap.

[Doran Williams]

Homegrown tomatoes

"Homegrown tomatoes

"Nuthin can beat those homegrown tomatoes

"There's two things that money can't buy and

"Thats true love and homegrown tomatoes!"

I didn't say that. Guy Clark said that. Get his CD and enjoy the lyics along with the music.

And to kinda quote Ben Franklin: "Homegrown tomatoes are proof that God exists and wants us to be happy."

[BOB QUINN]

THE REPUBLICAN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BEING EXPOSED BY GOD..THEY MADE THE GAY PERSON A STRAWMAN TO RALLY SUPPORT AROUND EVERYONES BIGOTRY THE SAME WAY HITLER USED THE JEWS TO INCITE A "RALLY ROUND THE FLAG" OF NATIONALISM...THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WILL BE JUDGED BY GOD AND THEIR HOUSE WILL CRASH DOWN COMPLETELY ON THEIR HEADS...YES, THIS IS A PROPHECY.....

[Slartibartfast]

Bob, if you give me your address, I'll send you a keyboard that will enable you to unlock caps.

BECAUSE I'M A CARING KIND OF GUY!

[someotherdude]

Abu Ghraib: The Unknown Atrocities

I hope this soldier is not telling the truth.

[Ugh]

SOD - I'm loathe to watch the video at work, care to post any short excerpts?

[someotherdude]

ugh,

He talks about an Iraqi woman being used as a forced prostitute at 10 bucks-a-pop. The young capitalist made $500. The young girl commits suicide.

Spreading liberty like AIDS.

[Donald Johnson]

A tape of the world's largest H-bomb test, the 50 megaton monster the Soviets detonated in 1961.

Someone tell Slarti--I think he was interested when Gary linked to a website about this some months back.

Bomb

[Phil]

So, you know how every time the school/public prayer issue comes up, there's a certain type of Christian who, not understanding the Constitutional arguments, says that if anyone doesn't like it they can just sit quietly until it's over? Yeah, they're still a bunch of hypocrites.

[Billing]

Deborah Palfrey deserves the Pemberton Award for Good Governance.
Palfrey list is like the black book of 1918.
That trial of the century is deleted from all books.
The list there had 47000 names.
The list here is 46000 phone records.
The listed are not womenisers or machos or ordinary sinners.
They are power brokers, gay lutheran agitators of all wars.
These wretches are only one dirty cover for the real pimps deep underground.
A curse on kingpins, Justice Charles Darling then and judge Adolph Kessler now.

Noel Pemberton-Billing
Trial of the Century 1918

[Billing]

SONG OF DEBORAH
..they chose new gods then was war in the gates.. awake awake deborah utter a song.. the Lord gave you dominion over the mighty.. curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof who came not to the help of justice against the mighty.. they divided the prey, to every man a damsel or two.. let all thine enemies perish o Lord and the land rest forty years..

Deborah Palfrey deserves the Pemberton Award for Clean Governance.
Palfrey list is like the Black Book of 1918.
That trial of the Century is deleted from all books, cursed be reporters.
The list there had 47000 names.
The list here has 46000 phone bills.
The listed are not womenizers, machos or ordinary sinners.
They are power brokers gay lutheran shock and awe agitators of all wars and all panics.
These wretches are one dirty cover to the real pimps deep underground.
A curse on the kingpins, Justice Charles Darling then and Judge Adolph Kessler now.

Noel Pemberton-Billing
Trial of the Century 1918