January, 2014 archive

Michael Smerconish suspects that one of his columns prompted Chris Christie to “unfriend” him. A nugget:

Now I think I’ve figured out why he wouldn’t cooperate. On June 5, 2011, a column of mine ran here under the headline “Can you imagine how Christie’s son feels?” The focus was his use of a state helicopter to attend his son’s baseball games. The column wasn’t mean-spirited. I wrote it from a dad’s point of view, reflecting on how my sons (then in fourth, seventh, and ninth grades) had complained about the vehicle in which I’d picked them up after school.

(snip)

That piece was the most negative thing I’ve ever offered about Christie, but now I think it was a deal-breaker for him, which is a shame. Time and again I’ve said that Christie is the GOP’s best hope to center itself, something I think is in the best interest of both the party and the nation.

Events have evidenced Governor Christie’s vindictiveness.

Smerconish is a decent fellow who considers himself “conservative”; he does not want to admit that the Republican Party has devolved into the irretrievably crazy, so he grasps at straws. “Christie the Centrist”* was the most recent straw.

I doubt it will be the last one.

______________________

*”Christie the Centrist.”

Yeah.

Right.

David McCumber analyzes the tactics of teabaggery and how the teabaggers, generally estimated at about a quarter of the electorate, rendered the Republican Party its servant.

A nugget:

The 22 percent of Americans who favor the tea party, as per the latest Gallup numbers, have learned how to influence policy to a degree once considered far beyond the grasp of their raw vote-getting numbers. And as a study just released by a labor-funded liberal advocacy group shows, they are increasingly running the legislative branch of government.

How? It’s called winning through intimidation.

Most moderate Republican lawmakers exist inside a dome of fear that they will draw right-wing primary opposition.

(snip)

Two truths play into this: (1) Turnout is often light in primaries, and votes are sometimes scattered among three or more candidates. And (2) Zealots vote.

As the authtor points out later in the article, this is not a spontaneous grassroots effort.

It’s Astroturf: wingnut think tanks powered by billionaire bucks fund the freak show.

I’ve been wondering, ever since Mike Hucksterbee’s latest outburst, why Republicans are so a-skeered of lady parts.

I’m guessing that Hucksterbee’s commments were a textbook example of projection.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.