Tag Archives: George H. W. Bush

April 25, 2013 · 8:01 AM

Obama: Washington Is ‘Not As Functional As It Could Be’

Obama Bush

No S**t Sherlock!

The Huffington Post

* Former presidents also due to attend dedication

* Memorial service for Texas explosion victims on the agenda

* Fundraiser will aim to help Democrats in midterm elections

U.S. President Barack Obama is in Texas to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former President George W. Bush in what could serve as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle against terrorism, from the Sept. 11 attacks to the Boston Marathon bombings.

Obama is due to attend the dedication on Thursday of Bush’s presidential library at Southern Methodist University, along with former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and hundreds of Bush administration alumni.

While Democrat Obama and Republican Bush have deep political differences, they share a common belief that the United States must defend itself against violent extremism.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks defined Bush’s eight years in the White House and last week’s Boston Marathon bombing handed Obama another challenge to homeland security.

Obama, at a Democratic fundraiser soon after he arrived in Dallas on Wednesday night, said he was looking forward to attending the Bush library dedication and that he would project a bipartisan spirit.

“One thing I will insist upon is whatever our political differences, President Bush loves his country and loves its people and…was concerned about all people in America, not just those who voted Republican. I think that’s true about him and I think that’s true about most of us,” Obama said.

Bush told ABC News that the Boston attacks reminded him of his time in the presidency.

“I was deeply concerned that there might’ve been an organized plot,” Bush told ABC News. “I don’t know all the facts… But I was deeply concerned that this could’ve been, you know, another highly organized attack on the country. And it still may be. Again, I don’t know all the facts.”

Certain issues require a common response regardless of political party, said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Center at the University of Southern Illinois.

“They may get to the office as a conservative or a liberal but there are real forces that move them to the pragmatic center on a variety of issues and national security is one of them,” Simon said.

But Obama was also looking to a time when more Democrats could be elected to Congress. His first stop in Dallas was at a fundraiser that brought in $600,000 for the Democratic National Committee at the home of major Democratic donor Naomi Aberly.

It is his third fundraiser this year for his party in the hope that Democrats can wrestle control of the House of Representatives from Republicans and add to the Democrats’ Senate majority in 2014 midterm elections.

Without adding Democratic seats, Obama may find it difficult to overcome Republican opposition to many of the priorities of his second term, such as closing tax loopholes enjoyed mostly by the wealthy and stricter gun control.

“Washington is not, how should I put this charitably, it’s not as functional as it could be,” Obama said.

Still, he told the Democratic donors, he plans to keep talking to Republicans as he has in recent weeks to try to find common ground, even though “some of you may think I’m a sap” for doing so.

Thursday’s dedication of Bush’s library and museum has put Bush, the 43rd U.S. president, back in the limelight he has largely avoided since leaving office in January 2009.

At the time, the United States was laboring under the burden of two wars and a collapsed economy. Bush’s approval rating at the time was 33 percent. A Washington Post-ABC poll this week put his approval rating at 47 percent, basically equal to Obama’s.

The museum exhibits cover major points of Bush’s presidency and offer visitors an opportunity to decide how they would have responded to those challenges.

A central feature of the museum concerns the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Obama has found himself pursuing some of the same policies that Bush began, such using drones on military targets and trying to overhaul U.S. immigration laws.

Obama is expected to speak at the dedication along with the former presidents.

“Regardless of the times when they served and their political and policy differences, there is a commonality of experience that the president believes binds them together,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

After visiting Bush in Dallas on Thursday, Obama is scheduled to attend a memorial service at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for the 14 people killed when a fertilizer plant exploded last week in West, Texas. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Toni Reinhold and Lisa Shumaker)

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March 25, 2013 · 12:01 AM

Rachel Maddow Blasts Fox News For Skipping President Obama Medal Ceremony In Israel

Mediaite

On Thursday night in the Jerusalem residence of Israeli President Shimon Peres, American President Barack Obama received the Medal of Distinction, the highest honor that Israel’s government can award a civilian (and also a hunk of hardware that looks like it could be murder on the ole sciatica). As Rachel Maddow noted on Thursday night’s The Rachel Maddow Show, however, only some cable news viewers got to see that ceremony live: all of the cable news viewers who weren’t watching Fox News.

One of the most important functions that a news program can perform, and perhaps the most basic, is to inform the viewer. While technically a so-called “opinion” program, this short segment of The Rachel Maddow show was packed with information. For example, I already knew that Republican deity and former President Ronald Reagan never visited Israel, nor did George H.W. Bush, and that George W. Bush didn’t make the trip until late in his second term. However, I did not know that the Medal of Distinction/Dothraki Battle Shield was the highest honor the Israeli government can give to a civilian, or that President Obama is the only U.S. President ever to receive it. Information.

Viewers of the Maddow show who had missed news of the President’s trip would also have been informed of several events of the day, such as the heckler who interrupted President Obama’s speech to a group of students, or the weird robot snake he checked out, or clips from the speeches he gave that day.

One of the other ways that news programs inform viewers is by bringing them live video of newsworthy events, such as the first American president to be awarded the Medal of Distinction. It was the middle of the afternoon in the U.S., and both CNN and MSNBC carried the event live. As Rachel noted, though, Fox News had other business to attend:

Fox was running a commercial about how Sean Hannity thinks President Obama is strengthening Israel’s enemies. When I saw the Maddow segment, I sus[ected there might be more to the commercial (sorry, Rachel), that there might be some part at the end that sort of redeemed it, like “But they gave him a medal!!” But I checked, that was the whole thing.

I also checked the President’s schedule for Thursday, and as expected, the dinner and the award ceremony were covered by the White House traveling press pool. That means that whether or not Fox News aired the video of the first ever American president receiving Israel’s highest civilian honor, they paid for it.

Much has been made, recently, of a Pew study that compared the ratio of “opinion” to “straight news” among the three major cable networks, but it didn’t really take into account the quality of the programming. Rachel Maddow’s show, while containing heavy doses of commentary, also fulfills journalism’s duty to inform.

The study also made the assumption that “opinion” can’t also be news, an assumption belied by recent events (Robert Gibbs made news on several MSNBC opinion shows with a revelation about the drone program), and by one of the more pivotal moments in the 2012 presidential campaign. Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom made his now-infamous “Etch-a-Sketch” remark during an interview segment that Pew would have counted as “opinion.” The question was asked by comedianJohn Fugelsang.

On the flip-side, your straight news is only as good as the news you’re reporting. If you can’t get your facts straight, or you select which stories not to air based on something other than established news practices, then it doesn’t really matter how straight it is.

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January 23, 2013 · 1:29 AM

Colin Powell to GOP – Stop This ‘Birther Nonsense’ And Voter Suppression (VIDEO)

Colin spoke truth to power on Monday…

Addicting Info

Yikes. I wonder what’s going through GOP minds as they continue to be slammed by the overall well respected former Secretary of State Colin Powell? Last week, Powell, who served in high-profile roles during the Reagan administration and both Bush administrations, told Meet the Press:

“There is also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party….They look down on minorities…When I see a former governor say that the president is shucking and jiving. That is a racial era slave term. When I see another former governor – says that the president was lazy. It may not mean anything to most Americans. But to those of us who are African-Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there is a third word that goes along with it.” (Source)

He then proceeded to defend Hillary Clinton against right-wing smears:

“Well, you can’t keep everything from happening. Benghazi was a very, very difficult one and a difficult situation and maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. And I think that we have had a good review of that by Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen and I don’t know whether the Congress in their examination of Mrs. Clinton will find something that they find distasteful. But I don’t think it’s a blot on her record.” (Source)

Powell even went as far as to imply that Clinton would make a good president:

”I think she’d be good at whatever she does, whether she is interested in it or not, I will let her opine on that.”

And well, of course, he endorsed President Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the GOP is still (and will always be) sore about that.

So what is he up to this week? He’s chastising the GOP for not speaking out about the lunatics in their party and he’s advising them to loudly denounce the “birther nonsense” and “other things that demonize the president.” In an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, the four star general said:

“Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president. I mean, why aren’t Republican leaders shouting out about all this birther nonsense and all these other things? They should speak out. This is the kind of intolerance that I’ve been talking about where these idiot presentations continue to be made and you don’t see the senior leadership of the party say, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ In fact, sometimes by not speaking out, they’re encouraging it. And the base keeps buying the stuff.

And it’s killing the base of the party. I mean, 26 percent favorability rating for the party right now. It ought to be telling them something. So, instead of attacking me or whoever speaks like I do, look in the mirror and realize, ‘How are we going to win the next election?”

Oh and one more thing. He accused them of voter suppression. Yes, he did.

“The Republican Party ought to be out there not restricting voting by voter ID, but saying we want everybody to vote,” he said. “It’s a party that has to stop saying, ‘We are going to appeal to you with new messages.’ You need policies — the country is becoming more minority.”

And he said the same thing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show:

“Should we really have gone after reducing the turnout of voters in those places where we thought it would make a difference?” he asked. “The Republican Party should be a party that says, ‘We want everybody to vote,’ and make it easier for people to vote and give them a reason to vote for the party, and not to find ways to keep them from voting at all.” (Source)

Many conservatives are calling Powell a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), but he maintains that he’s still a Republican. Why?

“I grew up under Ronald Reagan and Cap Weinberger and George Schultz and George Herbert Walker Bush — that’s the Republican party I know — the Howard Bakers of the world, and I think we’ve drifted from that. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to drift a little bit back. Not because it’s just good to be moderate, but because that’s where the American people are. They lost an election — two.”

Will someone please tell the GOP that this man is trying to send them a message? He’s doing everything but parachuting into their little retreats and pulling them up by their shirt collars and saying “LISTEN”.

No, he’s not a RINO. He has no reason whatsoever to lie about being a Republican.

No, he didn’t endorse President Obama because he’s Black. He endorsed President Obama because the GOP keeps tossing up idiots as candidates. I’d bet a paycheck that if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016, he’ll be endorsing her as well.

He’s offering the GOP, free of charge, his opinion that if they don’t get their act together and move with the rest of the country, they’re definitely going to be DINOs (dinosaurs).

“The country is moving more toward the center. There are social changes taking place in this country that are irreversible and there is demographic change … you can’t just say, ‘Well, we’ll fix our message,’” he said. “It’s not the message. You have to appeal with policies and programs to these people who are going to be the leaders of our country in a generation.” (Source)

I suppose General Powell is attempting to soldier on in his attempts to penetrate the thick skulls of the Republican party leaders. I don’t have a military-like acumen, but I’ll say this: You, sir, are wasting your time. It ain’t gonna happen.

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December 30, 2012 · 2:20 PM

10 things you need to know today: December 30, 2012

A pedestrian walks down Main Street in Greenfield, Mass., on Dec. 27 when an earlier storm hit the region before this weekend's snowfall.

The Week

1. OBAMA ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF BLOCKING TAX COMPROMISE
In taped remarks for NBC’s Meet the Press, President Obama said that Republicans “have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers” to avoid raising taxes on the middle class, adding that “now the pressure is on Congress to produce.” Unless lawmakers act by midnight on Monday, a set of tax increases and spending cuts will automatically be imposed on Jan. 1, which would affect virtually every taxpayer and government program. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said “hats off to the president,” because “he is going to get his tax rate increases” on wealthy Americans. Obama’s last offer to Republicans included keeping tax cuts for all Americans except those making more than $400,000. But Republicans were seeking more cuts to programs like Medicare and unemployment benefits, which has remained a point of contention in negotiations. [New York Times, BuzzFeed]
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2. INDIAN RAPE VICTIM’S BODY CREMATED IN NEW DELHI
A young Indian woman who died Saturday from the injuries she sustained from being gang-raped and battered on a New Delhi bus on Dec. 16 has been cremated. Her body had just been flown back to India from Singapore, where she had been transferred for treatment. The woman’s body was met at the airport by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, as officials have seen an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence. Six suspects who were arrested for allegedly perpetrating the attack were charged with murder on Saturday. The men face the death penalty if convicted. [Associated Press]
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3. FOOT OF SNOW HITS PARTS OF NEW ENGLAND
A winter storm that began Saturday afternoon and ended early Sunday blanketed parts of New England with up to a foot of snow. Six to 12 inches of snow fell in Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and eastern Massachusetts. The storm spread over the Northeast and parts of Ohio just days after the regions was hit by another storm that moved in from the nation’s midsection. [Associated Press]
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4. SYRIAN ENVOY WARNS OF SURGE IN DEATHS
Lakdhar Brahimi, the international envoy to Syria, warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 Syrians could die in the next year if a solution to the country’s civil war is not found. Activists say that more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began in March 2011. Over the past week Brahimi went to Damascus where he met President Bashar al-Assad then flew to Moscow, one of Syria’s closest international allies, where he discussed ways of ending the country’s crisis. “The situation in Syria is bad. Very, very bad,” Brahimi said after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. “The situation is deteriorating.” [Associated Press]
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5. NYC SUBWAY SHOVER CHARGED WITH MURDER
New York City woman Erika Menendez, 31, was charged with murder as a hate crime for allegedly pushing Sunando Sen in front of a 7 train in Queens on Thursday. Sen was crushed to death by the oncoming train. Menendez told police that she has hated Hindus and Muslims since Sept. 11 and pushed Sen because she thought he was Muslim. Sen, 46, was from India but it is unclear whether he was either Hindu or Muslim. Menendez could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. This was the second subway-pushing death this month, though such incidents are generally rare. [CBS News]
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6. FLU SEASON IN U.S. GETS EARLY START, COULD BE SEVERE
The flu season in the United States has made its earliest debut in a decade, say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which could make this flu season severe. In early December, the CDC said it was noticing an uptick in flu activity about a month before authorities normally see it. But officials said the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far and urged those who have not been vaccinated to get a flu shot. [Washington Post]
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7. GEORGE H.W. BUSH LEAVES INTENSIVE CARE
Former President George H.W. Bush was moved out of intensive care at The Methodist Hospital in Houston on Saturday. Bush was hospitalized Nov. 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough. He was moved to intensive care on Dec. 23 after he developed a fever. Bush, 88, is the country’s oldest living former president. [Associated Press]
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8. 21 PAKISTANI TRIBAL POLICE FOUND SHOT TO DEATH
Officials have found the bodies of 21 Pakistani tribal policemen in the Jabai area of Peshawar. The men, who were believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban, were found shot to death. The policemen disappeared on Thursday when militants attacked two posts in the region. Meanwhile, in southwest Pakistan, a suicide bomber driving a bus packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims, killing 19 people. Pakistan has experienced a spike in killings over the last year by radical Sunni Muslims targeting Shiites who they consider heretics. [Associated Press (2)]
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9. VIDEO CAPTURES DEADLY RUSSIAN PLANE CRASH
Amateur video of a Russian plane crash shows part of the passenger aircraft crashing into a highway, debris flying onto the road, before five people aboard were killed. The video shows a car swerving after the impact then straightening and continuing down the highway. Behind that car is the vehicle which had the camera, capturing the scene for just over 30 seconds. That driver dodged most of the debris and managed to pull over and stop. The plane, which is owned by the Russian airline Red Wings was carrying eight people, all of them crew members, when it careered off the runway Saturday while landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. The plane was traveling from the Czech Republic. [CBC News]
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10. BEYONCÉ TO BRING 100 FANS ONSTAGE DURING SUPER BOWL SHOW
As part of her new multimillion dollar partnership with Pepsi, singer Beyoncé has asked her fans to submit photos of themselves to be featured in a TV ad promoting her Super Bowl halftime show performance on Feb. 3. Of those who submit pictures by Jan. 19, 50 will be given a pair of tickets to join the singer onstage at the Superdome in New Orleans. [MTV]

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November 29, 2012 · 1:05 AM

The Top 4 Whoppers Norquist Tells To Keep Republicans From Defecting

For over 30 years, Grover Norquist has ruled Republicans in both Houses of Congress with an iron-clad anti-tax pledge.   It appears his time on the lobbyist throne of influence is coming to a close…

Think Progress

Grover Norquist has launched a wide-ranging media campaign to combat the perception that Republicans are abandoning his pledge to never raise taxes as they work on a plan to avert the fiscal cliff.

The anti-tax zealot uses his ubiquitous presence on cable TV, radio, and in print to publicly pressure Republicans from compromising on a balanced measure that includes increased revenue and spending cuts, using various scare tactics to keep the GOP in line. But his claims — which he dutifully reiterates in every media appearance — are often divorced from reality. Here are Norquist’s top 4 whoppers:

1) “[F]or four years President Obama has not reined in spending. Done nothing useful on entitlement reform.” Federal spending is actually lower now than it was when President Obama took office. In January 2009, before President Obama had even taken the oath of office, annual spending was set to total 24.9 percent of gross domestic product. Total spending this year, fiscal year 2012, is expected to top out at 23.4 percent of GDP. By 2017, spending will come down to 22 percent of the GDP. In actual dollars, government spending dropped from 2009 to 2010. In fact, Obama has the lowest spending record of any recent president. He has also significantly reformed Medicare — and extended its solvency — through the Affordable Care Act.

2) “That’s where we were with Reagan tax rates and that’s where we were with lower marginal tax rates and with — with reasonable economic growth. We’ve got revenues of 18.5 percent of GDP…. If we had grown at Reagan rates of growth instead of Obama rates of growth, 11 million Americans would be at work today.” Reagan’s tax cuts did little for economic growth. As Reagan administration economist Bruce Bartlett has noted: “Real gross domestic product growth was about the same after the 1986 act took effect in 1987 as it was before…By the mid-1990s, it was the consensus view of economists that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 had little, if any, impact on growth.” Other studiescame to the same conclusion.

3) “When [Bush] cut marginal tax rates on capital gains and dividends from 2002, there was four years of strong economic growth from ’03 to ’07.”Numerous studies have found that cutting tax rates for the wealthiest Americans did not spur economic growth or job creation. In fact, since Republicans began instituting supply-side policies under President Reagan,growth has lagged and income inequality has surged, as the wealthiest Americans make more money while paying less in taxes. Under Bush, the nation experienced the worst economic growth of the post-war period.

4) “George Herbert Walker Bush managed the collapse of the Soviet Union, kicked Iraq out of Kuwait, had a 90% approval rating, however he agreed to a tax-increase deal [consisting of] two dollars of spending cuts for every one dollar of taxes. And he lost the presidency.” As the Washington Post points out, Bush lost re-election because of voter discontent about the economy. His flip flop on taxes ranked low on the list of voter concerns.

A growing number of Republican senators are at least rhetorically backing away from Norquist’s pledge, a sign of his weakened influence in the aftermath of the 2012 elections. Some 16 incumbent Republicans and one incumbent Senator who signed the document lost on election night. In total, 56 Republican House incumbents or candidates who endorsed the pledge and 24 Republican Senators or hopefuls lost.

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November 26, 2012 · 11:26 PM

Grover Norquist Makes ‘Tony Soprano-Like’ Threats to Republicans Who Dare to Break His Pledge

I was looking for this particular video to embed on TFC and found a pretty good  political You Tube© channel in the process.

Grover Norquist appears to be panicking a bit since several Senators have said they would not honor the Norquist Pledge which most of them signed upon entering office.

NewsPoliticsNow

After defending his anti-tax pledge to Soledad O’Brien on CNN this morning, Grover Norquist turned to Fox News this afternoon to continue the damage control.

Pressed by Neil Cavuto to explain why Republican leadership seems to be indicating they are open to some tax increases to reach a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff, Norquist returned to his line that GOP legislators have a had some “impure thoughts” over the last few days but have not actually voted to raise taxes yet.

Over the course of the interview, Cavuto described Norquist as both a “unique, powerful Wizard of Oz figure who has been able to keep Republicans in lock step with your way of thinking” and as a “Tony Soprano-like” mob boss who will “remember these guys who turn on you.”

As he tends to do, Norquist adopted a modest posture, saying that the pledge is not about him but it is about the American people. But that did not stop him from issuing veiled threats to Republicans who have begun to turn away from him.

Norquist recalled President George H.W. Bush, who failed to secure a second term after breaking his “no new taxes” promise. He also chalked up Tennessee Senator Bob Corker’s election to his embrace of the pledge and questioned how Corker’s constituents will react if he breaks the pledge now.

As the country approaches the fiscal cliff deadline at the end of this year, it appears that a compromise can only be achieved if Republican leaders effectively cast off Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge. Whether they ultimately dismiss Norquist and his pledge or stick by it in an attempt to save their seats remains to be seen.

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September 25, 2012 · 12:05 AM

Mitt Wants To Know Why Airplane Windows Don’t Open

So you’re saying it’s SUPPOSED to stay closed?

You can’t make this up, TFC readers…he actually said that!  Now let’s be clear here, I believe a good majority of Americans know why windows don’t open in planes.

Note to Mr. Romney: Opening a window or door in an airborne plane affects the aerodynamics of the aircraft.

Addicting Info

Last week, Ann Romney’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to an electrical fire that filled the cabin with smoke. On Saturday, Mitt was quoted saying the following:

When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver.

OK, I don’t expect a presidential candidate to know a great deal about airplanes. It’s not exactly in their job description. However, I would expect a well educated person that travels extensively by plane to know something as basic as air pressure. Honestly, did he never wonder why his ears pop? Did he never ask why oxygen masks drop in an emergency? Has he never heard the safety warnings about securing your own mask before helping anyone else secure theirs?

I knew this when I was 7 and took my first plane ride. Where’s Mitt been this whole time? How many movies use this as a plot device? Dozens? Hundreds? This is pop culture fodder and he’s never come across it?

This is George H.W. Bush’s “price of milk” moment all over again. It’s worse, actually, because it’s not that hard to understand how a millionaire doesn’t go grocery shopping. It’s very hard to understand how such a basic fact of something Romney does almost daily could escape him. It’s like not knowing what turbulence is. Let’s hope he’s not feeling particularly heroic the next time the plane fills with smoke.

It’s going to be fun watching the personalities on Fox act like this is no big deal and how only elitist snobby liberals would even pay attention to trivial stuff like air pressure and airplane safety.

And people wonder why the right is the laughing stock of the world…

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July 16, 2012 · 9:11 AM

Daddy Bush Mocks Current Republican Degenerates – Hypocrisy Is A (GOP) Virtue

Addicting Info

In a recent preview of Parade’s interview with Barbara and George H. W. Bush, there was this glorious gem:

“The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like,” Bush said of the ‘no-tax’ pedges. “The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s — who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?”

It’s not every day you see liberals sharing a Bush quote without ridiculing it and/or gagging in disgust, but that’s exactly what’s happening on Facebook right now. Nobody should be thatsurprised, though, as we’ve all witnessed the absolute nightmare that the GOP has morphed into; any sign of reason or logic – even from a Bush – is bound to seem downright extraordinary in contrast. Did anyone ever think we would actually see the day when Newt My-Own-Party-Kicked-Me-Out-Of-The-Clubhouse Gingrich was a serious Republican candidate for President? The party of “family values” actually welcomed this scumbag fraud who cheated on his cancer-survivor wife with open arms! Of course, once you remember that “family values” is actually just a dog-whistle to the ‘Gawd Hates Fags’ constituency, it makes a tad more sense…

So, this quote is my gift to you, reasonable readers! Enjoy it, relish it; try not to feel too let down when you find out that GHWB actually once signed the same damned pledge in question.

Oh, one more thing, just for a laugh:

BB: He may have talked to you about things, but you never advised.
GB: Oh, yeah, we’d talk about things. He never said the “Dad, what do I do now?” kind of thing.

…of course he didn’t! We all know Cheney ‘wore the pants‘ in that administration.

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July 14, 2012 · 4:10 AM

Politico’s: Week in one liners: Mitt, Palin, Reid

Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Harry Reid are shown. | AP Photos

Politico

The top quotes in politics …

“If I did, I would have to come after you with my ‘Men In Black’ flashlight and erase your memory.” — GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney on the consequences of revealing his veep pick.

“The Commerce Committee, I’m telling you, is like being a mosquito in a nudist colony.” — Sen.John McCain on the power he wielded as chairman.

“Those walls were awful thin.” — Vice President Joe Biden cracking a joke about his childhood home.

“It’s—who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?” — Former President George H.W. Bush talking about taxes.

“To expand this program is not unlike adding a thousand people to the Titanic.” — Texas Gov.Rick Perry on Medicaid expansion.

“He has said before that he doesn’t want to have to light his hair on fire.” —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talking about Romney.

“Burn them.” — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on what we should do to the U.S. Olympic uniforms made in China.

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June 16, 2012 · 8:26 AM

Politico’s: Week in one-liners: Mitt, Meghan, Huckabee

Mitt Romney, Meghan McCain and Mike Huckabee are shown. | AP Photos

Politico

The top quotes in politics ...

“This is what qualifies as date night in the Obama household.” — President Barack Obama on bringing his wife to New York for fundraisers.

“The president bungled the line.” — Economist Paul Krugman criticizing Obama’s “doing fine” remark.

“You all ought to do your jobs.” — White House press secretary Jay Carney chiding reporters.

“Would you see that one of those chocolate, um, uh, chocolate goodies finds its way to our ride?” — GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney struggling to identify a doughnut.

“I think there’s a greater likelihood that I’ll be asked by Madonna to go on tour as her bass player.” — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the odds he’ll be picked as Romney’s running mate.

“I think he cost me the election, and I don’t like him.” — Former President George H. W. Bush talking about Ross Perot.

“I’m actually not a cannabis user … frequently.” — Meghan McCain chatting about marijuana.

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