Tag Archives: George Will

November 19, 2012 · 9:38 AM

Twinkie Gate: Republicans Admit Hostess Closing was About Killing Unions

Who knew? (sarcasm)

PoliticusUSA

While the right has been blaming unions for the closing of Hostess, Newt Gingrich and George Will admitted that they expect the company to return without union workers in a right to work state.

Transcript:

RADDATZ: Can we have — can we a very quick thoughts of Twinkies in your life? Just — not you, Jon Karl. You’re too young. You’re the youngest member of this roundtable. Did you like Twinkies growing up?

WILL: I liked Hostess cupcakes, but don’t despair. Someone’s going to buy — someone’s going to — the brand has value. Someone will buy it.

RADDATZ: It’s not the…

WILL: And they will go and manufacture it in a right-to-work state, where Hostess does not have to operate under 372 collective bargaining agreements.

RADDATZ: OK. OK. Quickly, just Twinkie memories.

BRAZILE: I remember when it was 25 cent a pack, when my grandmother — it was two for five cents. It’s $1.69. I would like the original Twinkie back.

RADDATZ: Twinkies…

KARL: But I just have to say very quickly, I mean, what about Wonder Bread? Wonder Bread’s going, too.

RADDATZ: Yeah, that’s…

KARL: And this is not just about Twinkies.

RADDATZ: You brought that with you, because you like it so much.

BECERRA: I’m a chocolate fiend. Hostess has a company in Sacramento where I was born and raised, saw it every — almost every day of the week.

RADDATZ: Five seconds?

GINGRICH: I’m with George. Twinkie will survive in a new corporate framework.

All of the blame of unions by Hostess and the right wing media is a bunch of malarkey designed to further the conservative agenda of destroying organized labor. The reality is that by closing the company, the investment bankers that run Hostess can suck even more profit out of an already twice bankrupted company. The door is open for someone to buy the company, and relocate it to a right to work state.

According to Fortune, this is how Hostess emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, “Hostess was able to exit bankruptcy in 2009 for three reasons. The first was Ripplewood’s equity infusion of $130 million in return for control of the company (it currently owns about two-thirds of the equity). The second reason: substantial concessions by the two big unions. Annual labor cost savings to the company were about $110 million; thousands of union members lost their jobs. The third reason: Lenders agreed to stay in the game rather than drive Hostess into liquidation and take whatever pieces were left. The key lenders were Silver Point and Monarch. Both are hedge funds that specialize in investing in distressed companies — whether you call them saviors or vultures depends on whether you’re getting fed or getting eaten.”

Hostess was a distressed company that was taken over by Bain style management that had one eye on closing the company the whole time. Hostess had already stopped contributing to employee pensions, was swimming in debt, and demanded that workers take an additional 27%-32% pay cut.

The vulture capitalists don’t care that 18,500 people just lost their jobs. Like Mitt Romney, to the job killers running Hostess profit is king. The Hostess brand will resurface. It is likely to come back in a Southern red state with a labor force earning a bit above minimum wage and no benefits. The Twinkie will be back, but those 18,500 decently paying jobs with benefits will never return.

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October 17, 2012 · 4:03 PM

George Will: ‘This Was Immeasurably The Best Debate’ I Have Ever Seen

George Will is not an easily swayed person…

Mediaite

During ABC’s post-debate coverage, conservative columnist George Will had a glowing review of Tuesday night’s second presidential debate between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

When asked who won the debate, Will responded: “I think there was a winner in the sense that Barack Obama not only gained ground he lost but he cauterized some wounds that he inflicted on himself by seeming too diffident and disengaged.”

“It was a very good fight,” he added. “I have seen every presidential debate in American history since the floor of Nixon and Kennedy in 1960. This was immeasurably the best.”

“I think as a tactical measure tonight, the president did very well,” he concluded.

Watch… 

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May 30, 2012 · 10:31 AM

Time for Romney to fire Trump

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Las Vegas Sun - 

Donald Trump is not important; he just thinks he is.

Trump is a small man who has big thoughts about himself, a vulgar attentionophile who cares not what damage he causes or whom he might hurt so long as he is in the spotlight. His loud, full-throated (is there any other way for The Donald?) embrace of birtherism is hardly surprising considering truth or consequences have never mattered much to the man George Will accurately described last weekend as a “bloviating ignoramus.”

But, alas, Will got it wrong — or, to be precise, he captured the mere essence of Trump (he’s a buffoon) but failed to properly describe the sheer ugliness of what the reckless, solipsistic clown is wreaking by continuing to espouse his belief that President Barack Obama is not a native-born American.

It’s one thing to boast about how smart and successful and rich he is — Trump does that every day. But to try to tap into the worst instincts of some folks in the GOP base — and, I fear, too many Democrats and independents, too — with his hardly veiled racism consigns Trump to a category of unconscionable scoundrels and power-hungry demagogues who must be denounced, scorned and vilified.

Hello, darkness, my old Mitt.

Continue reading here…

H/t: Gilligan25

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May 29, 2012 · 6:19 PM

George Will Calls Trump A ‘Bloviating Ignoramus With A Low IQ,’ Trump Then Fires Back

When I saw George Will’s comments via MSNBC this morning, I laughed and said to myself, Good for George (GOPer)Will.  After all, someone in the Republican party needs to speak out against the incessant birther conspiracy nut, Donald Trump.

Addicting Info

The Republican Inane Clown Posse’s number one performer, Donald Trump, injected life into an otherwise totally bland and monotonous Mitt Romney last week when he publicly threw his weird hair into the VP ring, including throwing a lavish fundraiser in Las Vegas for the presumptive nominee. The Donald may no longer be running for President of the Unites States, but it looks like he’s vehemently running for President of the United News Cycles. Trump is still hurling around ridiculous birther claims despite Obama not only producing his long form birth certificate, but totally destroying Trump comically at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Romney, who is no stranger to openly embracing the wacko endorsement (see Ted Nugent), left himself opened to criticism from the usual critics on the Democratic side. But apparently Romney’s blithe embrace of the bombastic billionaire and his willingness to use his washed-up celebrity to raise campaign cash is so egregious that it even caught the attention of reliable conservative Republican George Will.

Will, who ordinarily can’t find a Republican he doesn’t love, completely thrashed Trump when he called him a “bloviating ignoramus.”

“I do not understand the cost-benefit here. The costs are clear. The benefits, what voter’s going to vote for him because he’s seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics,” said George Will on ABC This Week(Source: Mediaite)

Perhaps Will is overlooking the fact that two soul-less and morally bankrupt corporate shells who mimic the human form always stick together.

Trump, whose skin is about as thick as whatever the heck that thing on is head is, inevitably fired back at Will’s fairly astute observation of Trump and the Republican party’s continuous plunge into the contaminated waters of the lunatic fringe.

 “George Will may be the dumbest(and most overrated) political commentator of all time. If the Republicans listen to him, they will lose,” said Trump on his Twitteraccount. (Source: Politico)

Regardless of how you feel about George Will, his comments were one hundred percent accurate and if Romney wishes to remain palatable among independents and rank-and-file Republicans, he would immediately sever ties with the Donald. Then again, much like with the Nugent endorsement, Romney shows himself to be a totally inauthentic, power-hungry phony who’s willing to cater to the lowest common denominator if it means more campaign cash or currying more Tea Party support.

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March 4, 2012 · 4:21 PM

George Will Blasts GOP Candidates’ Meek Response To Rush: ‘They Want To Bomb Iran, But They’re Afraid Of Limbaugh’

I was never a George Will fan, but I’m learning to respect his opinions lately.  The current crop of GOP candidates and their supporters are so far right on every issue,they make Mr. Will actually seem extremely reasonable…

Think Progress

This morning on ABC, prominent conservative columnist George Will blasted the Republican leadership’s meek response to Rush Limbaugh’s sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke. Will mocked Speaker John Boehner for calling Rush’s language “inappropriate ” as comically weak, noting “using a salad fork for your entree, that’s inappropriate.”

Will also attacked the GOP presidential candidates timid response: “They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

Watch it:

Check out what all the Presidential candidates have said about Limbaugh’s sexist attacks here.

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August 1, 2011 · 2:29 AM

Wait, What? Grover Norquist Thinks Sen. Scott Brown Looks Great In A Bathing Suit?

Grover Norquist

Image via Wikipedia

Closeted gay Republicans who allegedly hate same sex relationships by publicly putting that lifestyle down, seem to be among the largest group of politicians who spew hateful, anti-gay rhetoric.  What will those same self-loathing politicians say about the most powerful man in America?

Is Grover Norquist, the “godfather of no new taxes” hiding something from the world?

Mediaite

President of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist may have just revealed another way to win his support that might be less politically painful than having to sign his taxpayer protection pledge. All you have to do is look great in a bathing suit! During his appearance on ABC’s This Week, Norquist suggested Republicans will take back control of the Senate in 2012 because all of the open seats will either be in Red states or because Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and his bathing suit will be running for re-election.

After insisting President Obama realized the only way he would have a chance of winning re-election is to stop over-spending, Norquist then turned his attention to the Senate:

“Republicans are going to take the Senate in 2012, if you look at the 23 Democrat seats, half of them in reddish states. And ten Republican Senate seats up, all in reasonably Republican states, with the possible exception of Massachusetts, and [Scott Brown has] got ten million dollars in the bank and looks great in a bathing suit.”

Given Brown’s history of posing for a magazine in his birthday suit, it seems as if Norquist may have Brown’s suits confused. Regardless, during this intellectual debate between Paul Krugmanand George Will, Norquist’s mention of how great he thinks Brown looks (without even the qualification of attributing such sentiment to “the voters”) was such a random observation that no one else on the roundtable even acknowledged his mentioning of it.

Therefore let this be a lesson to all Republicans, if you’re out of shape and don’t want Norquist harassing you about taxes, then either sign his pledge or hit the gym before the next beach season!

Watch the clip from ABC below:

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March 15, 2011 · 6:13 PM

Palin Faces Conservative Backlash

I suppose it was just a matter of time before a whining, self-indulgent, perpetual “victim” like Sarah Palin would face disdain and ridicule from the conservative members of the GOP.

I recommend this article to everyone.  Politico’s JONATHAN MARTIN & JOHN F. HARRIS have written an extensive article on Palin and her apparent fall from grace with the conservative elites.

Politico

Sarah Palin has played the sexism card, accusing critics of chauvinism against a strong woman.
She has played the class card, dismissing the Bush family as “blue bloods” and complaining that she is the target of snobbery by people who dislike her simply because she is “not so hoity-toity.”

Most famously, she has played the victim card — never more vividly than when she invoked the loaded phrase “blood libel” against liberals and media commentators in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting.

Palin’s flamboyant rhetoric always has thrilled supporters, but lately it is coming at a new cost: a backlash, not from liberals but from some of the country’s most influential conservative commentators and intellectuals. (Related: Sarah Palin charges critics with ‘blood libel’)

Palin’s politics of grievance and group identity, according to these critics, is a betrayal of conservative principles. For decades, it was a standard line of the right that liberals cynically promoted victimhood to achieve their goals and that they practiced the politics of identity — race, sex and class—over ideas. (Related: Republicans learn cost of attacking Palin)

Among those taking aim at Palin in recent interviews with POLITICO are George F. Will, the elder statesman of conservative columnists; Peter Wehner, a top strategist in George W. Bush’s White House, and Heather Mac Donald, a leading voice with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51218.html#ixzz1GhyIHg36

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January 31, 2011 · 9:04 AM

Sam Donaldson To Al-Jazeera: “Thank You For What You’re Doing”

Aljazeera has always come under fire in the United States because of it’s frank broadcasting of what was really going on in Iraq and Afghanistan during both the Bush and Obama administrations.   This was viewed as a threat to our troops as well as Aljazerra being accused of aiding and abetting the al-Qaeda.

Whatever one thinks of Aljazeera, the fact remains that it’s reporting of the events in Egypt is vital.  Sam Donaldson agrees…

Mediaite

While Christiane Amanpour was away reporting in Egypt, former This Week host Jake Tapper got to play back home with the roundtable. During an informative discussion about the situation in Egypt and the various potential consequences with ABC’s Sam Donaldson and Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera International, Donaldson expressed his gratitude for all Al Jazeera has done.

Earlier Foukara stressed that Al Jazeera helped bring about the story of the Egyptian revolts to 300 million people in the Arab world and beyond. Donaldson commented:

“Talk about propaganda for Al-Jazeera. Thank you for what you’re doing. People say Al Jazeera fanned the flames here by bringing the fact that democracy is in existence and that people are being suppressed. That’s what we need. We need more communication in the world. It’s not Al Jazeera’s fault that Mubarak is under siege now.”

ABC’s George Will expressed doubt about Al Jazeera’s influence, suggesting, “we in the media tend to think the media drives the world, and I have a feeling this would be going on across this region regardless of the media.” Yet Donaldson continued, “the world drives the world, to the extent the world knows about what’s happening everywhere else. That’s what media does.”

Given that the controversial Al Jazeera network is not widely available in the U.S. and has been criticized in the past for demonstrating an anti-American bias in its coverage, Donaldson’s praise might raise an eyebrow. However, it’s hard for anyone to argue with the simple idea that the free flow of information and an exposure to as many ideas as possible is itself a democratizing force that is beneficial to a society.

Watch the clip from ABC below:


 

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November 2, 2010 · 3:21 AM

A Pathetic Attempt at Justifying Republican Obstructionism

Mario Piperni

George Will demonstrates how far conservatives will go to justify Republican obstructionism.

Let me just say this. The Republican Party is being told to be the party of no. No more stimulus spending. No cap-and-trade. No card check. None of this other stuff. Gridlock is not an American problem. It’s an American achievement. The framers of our Constitution didn’t want an efficient government; they wanted a safe government. To which end they filled it with slowing and blocking mechanisms. Three branches of government, two branches of the legislative branch, veto, veto override, supermajority, judicial review.

… when we have gridlock, the system is working.

What are the odds Will would not be proclaiming the benefits of government gridlock in a Republican controlled Congress?  And if gridlock is a sign of “the system working”, then what exactly would a broken system look like?

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November 1, 2010 · 4:10 PM

The Election’s Big Lie

 The Daily Beast

The expected Republican victory on Tuesday will be built on an untruth: that President Obama’s stimulus didn’t work. Sir Harold Evans sets the record straight.

Millions will go to the polls tomorrow deceived by a brilliant propaganda campaign. They may have many reasons to vote against the Obama administration. Many of the criticisms may be justified, many not. Take your pick.

I am concerned only with one. I call it The Big Lie because its acceptance has had a big impact on all our lives and it will continue to have a big impact, like a malign virus that one ingests wreaks progressive damage.

The Big Lie is that the aggressive fiscal and monetary measures by which Obama defended America in the Great Recession were a waste of money, a notorious example of the Democratic appetite for throwing money at any problem.

The summary charge is that “the stimulus did not work.” It has been propagated in a blizzard of television ads, in the slogans of Tea Party rallies, in countless vehement blogs and in print. Mostly this has been argument by assertion, even from such a distinguished writer as George Will. There has been precious little analysis of what effect the money had, and barely any reporting of what serious analysis there has been.

CNN made a valiant effort early on and then seems to have gotten bored–or should we say gored by ratings–and two authoritative reports have been published (I will come to them), but they have been washed over, flotsam on the tide of ignorance. Even this bright Monday morning, the New York Post publishes a Big Lie article by Stephen M. Meister, a partner in the law firm of Meister, Seelig and Fein LLP who writes that from the stimulus “none of the jobs showed up.”

The Obama administration made a tactical error in trying to be precise. It estimated that the stimulus spending would keep unemployment to 8 percent or less. But the commonplace assertion and the widespread notion that no jobs have resulted from the program is off by an order of magnitude that if made in business would instantly bankrupt millions of going concerns.   Continue reading…

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