John McCain, de-hagiographied on Twitter

Now that the embalmed carcass of John McCain, the Schmuck Talk Express, is most of the way through a posthumous Roman triumph that would have made Marius, Julius Caesar and Pompey blush, with #TheResistance participating fiercely in what one non-member Twitterer called nothing more than a subtweet to Trump, let us indeed turn to Twitter to remember our Wrecker of Airplanes, Monger of Wars, Bomber of Civilians, Hater of Gays in Wedlock (despite his own lack of marital sanctity), Racist toward Middle Easterners and various other things.

First, though, let me remind that #TheResistance team of one thing — that John McCain earned indeed every one of those titles. And yet, in my friends of friends circles and observations, has been Twitter-deified more than anybody since ActualFlatticus.

And with that, off to Twitter! In no particular order, but mainly focused on the DC divinizing demagoguery, here we go, while noting I have a related poll, in case it doesn't embed:

Time for a second poll of the day!#TheResistance is as black-and-white, and as stereotypical, in its thinking about BOTH domestic politics and foreign relations as is the #TrumpTrain.

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

Second, and having Tweeted along these lines more than once, the inside-the-Beltway stenos are responsible for much of this:

Ah, Chris, that's why the Peter Principle runs more rampant in the media than in almost any other profession in America. The inside-the-Beltway stenos are ushers at the #McCainMemorial and #McCainFuneral https://t.co/r3bzPLIVH6

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

Speaking of, this is probably being eyed as a gravy train by said stenos, #TheResistance, or both:

Ed, wait til this entire #McCainMemorial comes out in book form. Somebody from #TheResistance will offer it up for, oh, about $39.95 #snark! https://t.co/1vp1QKQ5aa

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

And, let's throw a particular member of said group under the bus. I've seen her retweeted a lot. Especially after actually looking through her feed, gad she's overrated:

I had no idea until reading through her Twitter feed that that RVAWonk (subtweet) is that nutbar member of #TheResistance. Saluting BOTH John McCain and the White Helmets is Grade A cluelessness. Doing both in 12 hours is heavy shit.

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

It's disgusting enough #TheResistance is turd-polishing John Sidney McCain III. Even worse is the butt-kissing of George Shrub Bush. The necromancing of the Prince of the Living Undead, though, by #TheResistance is simply beyond the pale:

I had no idea until reading through her Twitter feed that that RVAWonk (subtweet) is that nutbar member of #TheResistance. Saluting BOTH John McCain and the White Helmets is Grade A cluelessness. Doing both in 12 hours is heavy shit.

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

Of course, some members of that team have been long-time professional Democrats:

Joe Lieberman tells John McCain mourners at the #McCainMemorial that McCain will indeed get one ardent desire of his fulfilled. He will be cremated and his ashes will be dropped on Tehran to "bomb, bomb Iran."
Mullah over that!

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

That said, shouldn't John Sidney prove, at least to his heiress widow Cindy, that he is in fact now divine, ruling with the other Caesars?

It's been at least three days, right? I am waiting for John McCain to rise from the dead and turn water into Budweiser for Hensley & Co.

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) September 1, 2018

Don't forget that the DC hagiography had a warm-up act back in Phoenix.

I didn't forget on Twitter, after all, using the chance to throw others under the bus. Like JoePa Biden:

My name's Joe Biden.

"I'm a Democrat.

"And I love John McCain."

"And I also love driving you into credit-card induced bankruptcy, then making it harder for you to get out."

"That's a big fucking deal, isn't it?" https://t.co/01nCmr0STG

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 30, 2018

And Westboro Baptist Church:

Hey, did Westboro Baptist show up at North Phoenix Baptist Church for the John McCain funeral?

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 30, 2018

And, yes, that is throwing them under the bus, for apparently being too chicken to extend their level of tasteless out here. After all, Sidney did eventually mellow enough on his anti-gay marriage stance that he should have been a target.

Even before the funeral, of course, the Schmuck Talk Express was lauded as a human rights advocate. Setting aside all the ways I listed up top that he was not a human rights advocate within the US of A, let's look elsewhere.

Like India:

John McCain, friend of Hindu fundamentalists. Human rights supporter, really? https://t.co/9Ftr0iDCvR

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 30, 2018

Famous literati needed to be reminded of this, of course:

.@StephenKing That was the same McCain who, five years after the 2008 campaign, called non-Arab Iranian President Ahmadinejad a "monkey." And, would probably have tried to declare war on Iran if elected. https://t.co/4nMC0uZiwu

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 26, 2018

And lover of the human rights of Ukrainian neo-Nazis he was pictured with:

Wow just holy shit, America.  https://t.co/HUJSLTDL1I

— Kamala Harris is a Cop (@BethLynch2020) August 28, 2018

And remembering further his valiant support for domestic human rights:

What McCain did in 2008 was ugly and wrong. In a live debate, he presented a racist conspiracy theory in which Barack Obama and ACORN were conniving to steal the election and defraud American democracy.

— Zach Carter (@zachdcarter) August 26, 2018

In which Dear Leader, #TheResistance popular vote president emeritus, ultimately joined:

Zack is right about this portion of the racially sleazy legacy of John McCain, on ACORN, on lies vs truth on subprime mortgages, more. At the same time, let us also note that Dear Leader folded his own cards on ACORN when confronted like this, just as he did on Shirley Sherrod. https://t.co/UJRl3VmOwD

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 26, 2018

And with that, let's just tack back to throwing #TheResistance further underneath the wheels of the Schmuck Talk Express:

Hmm, maybe this is WHY #TheResistance is so fond of the War Talk Express, John McCain. https://t.co/WC58n0hkp0

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 27, 2018

And here, via retweet, as I had nothing to add:

I just knew someone would fulfill my prediction of ultimate #Russiagate stupidity

You can always find real nuts on every end of the spectrum no matter what issue pic.twitter.com/fLU8gaZoxN

— Winkle the BernieBro🌹 (@the_bernie_bro) August 28, 2018

And back to the Beltway stenos for good measure:

You know one other good thing about John McCain passing? The inside the Beltway stenographers are being further exposed for their lack of credibility as they suck up to his memory with packs of lies and legends. https://t.co/4nMC0uZiwu

— @realDonaldTrump  🌻 (@SocraticGadfly) August 26, 2018

Had enough? Well, you should be sick of #TheResistance and #TheBeltwayStenos, not me. Besides, I didn't even mention Meghan McCain or Sarah Palin, among others.

If you haven't had enough, follow my blog, follow me on Twitter, or both.

Goodbye, Joementum!

Joe Lieberman is reportedly retiring after his current term ends in January 2013.

Connecticut can elect a real Democrat and Senate Dems can stop kissing his butt.

Would Ben Nelson switch parties?

And, along with that, would Lieberman switch caucuses? In his latest post at 538, Nate Silver gives the GOP about 50-50 odds of getting its Senator count up to 49, and suggests that, should that be the case, its charm offense on those two senators will start soon.

Let's take Nate one farther. What are the odds of those two events happening?

First, on Nelson. I think he might be as much as 60-40 in favor of it, UNLESS he's not going to run for re-election himself, in which case he might punt that down the road. Lieberman? Given how much a weather vane he can be, I'd put the odds anywhere from as low as 20 percent to as high as 80 percent. That said, with him on abortion, especially, will tea partier types fight back against this idea?

And, if Nelson is convertable, is there any other senator other than Lieberman that could be persuaded to switch? I really can't think of one.

So, if the scenario played out this way, would the GOP approach both at the same time? Nelson first? Lieberman first?

David Brooks, even worse than normal

Just Muslims, and only them, are ultimately to blame for Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. No mention of neocons. No mention of Huntington’s “clash of civilizations,” etc.

At the local level? Nidal Hasan was a dirty, stinking, Muslim fanatic, not a person under stress who then turned to more radical thought. So, is Joe Lieberman the same for supporting Israeli war crimes — a dirty, stinking Zionist?

Lieberman a symbol of what’s wrong with Dems

And more.

Letting him caucus with him while slavering after a cloture-proof majority they probably couldn’t get with two more Senate Democrats. Not enough party discipline. The corrosive and corrupting influences of campaign cash on a semi-undemocratic body.

Result? Joementum can kick the party in the teeth again, and now on national healthcare, not even on nutbar neocon foreign policy, and surely get away with it again.

What does a 'Senator Franken' mean in the Senate?

Now that former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota has officially conceded the 2008 election and its legal challenges, which the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected earlier today, to Al Franken, now what?

(And, not, now what, on an election certificate. Gov. Tim Pawlenty would be a Grade A liar if he did not sign one.)

No, not that.

What does any of this mean on a practical level? Not quite as much as many would crack it up to mean.

First, just because you have 58 Democrats, plus two generally supportive independents, doesn’t guarantee cloture. Cloture is something decided on a bill-by-bill, even amendment-by-amendment basis.

Let’s look at a few key issues.

National healthcare? Party-swapping Arlen Specter might vote against cloture, based on opposition to the bill by unions. (In addition to Hagen or Ben Nelson possibly doing that, of course.)

Waxman-Markey? Stabenow might vote against cloture to protect the Formerly Big Three.

EFCA, if it ever gets to the Senate? Nelson or Hagen are obvious cloture-opposition potential.

Foreign policy? Joementum is a guarantee not only to vote against cloture, but take a neocon stance, on anything in the Middle East.

Beyond that, Sen. Franken's level of influence is dependent on what sort of legislative shepherding leadership President Barack Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel display.

Nazi Joe Lieberman ups censorship play

Lieberman and fellow censorship senator Lindsey Graham are threatening to shut down the Senate unless their amendment allowing President Obama to censor all post-9/11 photos that allegedly show U.S. foreign actions in an unfriendly light by picturing abuse of “War on Terror” detainees is passed by the House.

Socialism, hell – worry about a police state

President Obama wants the legal authority to block any release of any photograph after 9/11 showing U.S. abuse of any detainee, and Congress is considering giving him that authority. That’s anything BUT “the most open and transparent (administration) in history,” contra Obama’s campaign trail promise.

Glenn Greenwald has details of the outrageousness. Lindsey Graham and Joementum are behind it.

Arlen Specter now a Dem – sort of; GOP stunned

Does Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter even know his own self?

A month AFTER saying he would vote against the Employee Free Choice Act, damn the union pressure, NOW, he says he’s changing parties and becoming a Democrat Well, sort of, perhaps.

Specter would be the 59th GOP Senator, increasing the move to seat Al Franken from Minnesota as soon as possible.

But, hold the phone. Specter says he’s not a guaranteed 60th vote for closure.

So, if he’s not a guaranteed vote, how much did Majority Leader Harry Reid, et al, “pay” him in terms of committee assignments to switch? The negotiations have been going on for some time.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a fellow moderate, didn’t seem surprised. On the national level, she says, “you haven't certainly heard warm encouraging words of how [the GOP] views moderates. Either you are with us or against us.

“Ultimately we’re heading to having the smallest political tent in history they way things are unfolding. We should have learned from the 2006 election, which I was a party of. I happened to win with 74 percent of the vote in a blue-collar state, but no one asked me, ‘How did you do it?’ Seems to me that would have been the first question that would have come from the Republican Party to find out so we could avoid further losses.”

If she wasn’t surprised, non-moderate top dogs in the GOP Senate structure were totally surprised, including Texas’ often-clueless John Cornyn, the man responsible for getting more GOP senators elected.

Maybe they should have been, especially since switch negotiations had been ongoing, and they had the Jim Jeffords example from the start of this decade.

Specter offers more insight on his switch.

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

So, why didn’t Specter do the “independent” route, like Jeffords or Joe Lieberman?

Well, for one thing, they did it not too long after being re-elected, not in the face of an election. Jeffords has retired, and Joementum? We’ll see in four years.

As for Specter and the Democratic Party? Former Constitution Center CEO Joe Torsella, the one announced Democrat in the Senate race, said that he would remain in the Democratic primary against Specter for now.

Meanwhile, will somebody besides Pat Toomey enter the GOP primary? Surely. How many somebodies, and how moderate they are, remains to be seen.

Greenwald misses the boat on Obama-Lieberman

It’s rare when Glenn is off track, but this post about Obama’s comments in the Lieberman-Democratic caucus issue are a bit off.

The problem is that Glenn accepts Obama’s comments that Lieberman’s future with the Senate Democratic caucus is solely a matter for the Senate Democratic caucus at face value.

If Obama really felt that, he didn’t have to say anything. But, by issuing a “statement,” it appears he’s also implying that, via surrogate Chris Dodd or somebody, he’d like to be “consulted.”

Empty Cabinet promise from McCain?

Schmuck Talk Express™ is promising to name Democrat(s) to his Cabinet, if elected.

Question: Since Joementum, Joe Lieberman, still caucuses with Senate Democrats, is McCain counting him as a Dem?

Let’s see McCain make a promise besides naming Joementum his Secretary of State.

Petraeus hearings – McCain becomes New Ager while Cornyn and Graham are wingnut suckups

Schmuck Talk Express™ says “We should choose to succeed.”

Just like that, eh? “Believe it and it will happen,” like some New Age mantra?

OK, Schmuck Talk, do you choose to follow Gen. Shinseki and put 500,000 troops in Iraq, although it’s too late for even that to succeed? Tell us what you’re going to do to actually create “success,” you deceitful warmonger.

Meanwhile, whether it’s a sign of old age in general, Alzheimer’s in particular, or what, McCain still can’t keep his Shia’s and Sunnis straight, calling al-Qaeda a Shi’a group.

Meanwhile, Texas quite-junior junior senator, John Cornyn, wants to almost literally run Petraeus up the flagpole and salute him with this petition:

Please know that we in Texas support you and all of the men and women serving our country with honor. We have entrusted you with a mission and respect the dignity you bring to our country and the job of leading our military in such a dangerous region of the world.

My response?

I pledge allegiance to the stupidity, wingnuttery and head-up-bunghole denialism of the junior senator from Texas, for the me for whom he does not stand, etc. etc.

Signed: Monty Python, at theholygrail@gmail.com.

Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, thinks Petraeus deserves a fifth star. For what? Being a politician?

And, where would we be without the neocomic relief of Joe Lieberman, claiming Iraq has had more political reconciliation than the U.S.

I guess he thinks that in Maliki’s Iraq, “reconciliation” flows from the barrel of a Mao-like gun.

Ned Lamont gets big blogger support; why not Jonathan Tasini?

Tasini, challenging Hillary Clinton in the New York Democratic Senate primary, is
even more deserving of support from progressive bloggers than is Lamont. Beyond Iraq, he’s got truly impressive progressive credentials on issues such as fair vs. “free” trade, gay marriage and national health care.

Meanwhile, Hillary is not, really, that much different than Joementum, above all on Iraq, but to a fair degree on other issues. Critiques of Bush on Iraq have been implicit or muted, and just about the conduct of the war, not the decision to do it.

The AP story claims otherwise, in this graf:

But unlike Lieberman, whose outspoken support for the war and perceived closeness to Bush angered many Connecticut Democrats, Clinton has been deeply critical of the administration's conduct of the war. In a televised Senate hearing earlier this month, she castigated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for conducting a "failed policy" in Iraq and later called for his resignation.

But, Joementum has also called for Rummy to step down. Joementum has also been critical of the conduct of the war but not the decision to wage it. And, even a few Republicans have made noises about Rummy.

And, Hillary is like Joementum in other ways. Since 1993, she’s been silent on national health care. She’s been silent on gay marriage. And, I’m assuming she’s just as supportive as Bill was during his presidency on “free” trade issues such as NAFTA and the WTO.

So why isn’t Tasini getting traction? I think part of it is just what he says — he doesn’t have Lamont’s personal money, and against a candidate with Clinton’s money AND name recognition, that’s a huge hole to plug with donation money

Plus, there’s this:

Tasini, who is Jewish and lived in Israel for several years, angered many activists in New York's politically influential Jewish community earlier this month when he criticized Israel's conduct during its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In any case, it’s hypocritical for blogs such as Kos to not promote his candidacy, let alone try to call donations his way.

Slick Willie campaigns in Connecticut for JoePa, conducts political revisionism

Kos gives the Slickster the kid-glove treatment for his JoePa support

Shock me that the Slickster, Democratic Leadership Council darling that he is, would campaign for Joe Lieberman in the tight Connecticut primary.

Read the Slick Dog’s obfuscation of the Iraq issue, as reported by the AP:

Democrats “don’t agree on everything. We don't agree on Iraq," Clinton said, calling the conflict the "pink elephant in the living room."

But "the real issue is, whether you were for it or against it, what are we going to do now. And let me tell you something, no Democrat is responsible for the mistakes that have been made since the fall of Saddam Hussein that have brought us to this point.”

Just what all did this ignore?
First of all, how Lieberman is failing to distance himself enough from Bush even to say what he would do differently.

Second, and much worse His Slickness ignores that Democrats, especially those like Lieberman who are almost the Democratic version of neocons, have made the war worse by giving Bush carte blanche on every detail.

Third, and perhaps even worse yet, Tricky Slicky lets people like JoePa totally off the hook for “collateral” damages … i.e. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc.

And, to borrow a phrase, about the “kewl kids” of the knee-jerk pseudo-progressive blogosphere, let’s see what Chief Kewl Kid Kos says about his Slick Dog hero schilling for the rightly-disliked JoePa.

As you might expect, it’s a mix of Clinton suck-up, Lieberman bashing, and working on other political scores (such as Barbara Boxer) with a shiv. It’s not pretty.

The cynic might say that Bill Clinton is going to Connecticut, despite being trashed by Lieberman during the impeachment saga, to protect a fellow member of the elitist establishment's insider's club. They may say that the DLC called in the biggest favor it can offer Lieberman (its patron saint) — a visit by a former popular president. They may try to find a tortured explanation of why this helps Hillary.

B. Clinton's visit may have been arranged by the DLC (didn't they have some sort of "annual conference" this past weekend? Did anyone care?), but what it tells me is that Bill is a far bigger man than Lieberman ever was or can be.

Despite being on the withering receiving end of Lieberman's sanctimonious public screeds during the impeachment saga, on the floor of the Senate AND in television studios all over the place, Clinton is willing to come to the senator's aid. He could've held a grudge and none would think less of him.
Instead, he repays Lieberman's backstabbing with kindness.

So I actually respect Bill for doing this one event for Lieberman. In a funny way it makes Lieberman look even smaller, pettier, and pathetic than he already does.

On the other hand, Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is sneaking into Connecticut today for a Lieberman fundraiser, hoping that Clinton's visit overshadows hers and no one notices she's in town, is suddenly a profile in cowardice.

First, note that Boxer is sneaking, while Clinton isn’t. Of course, Kos has also occasionally come off in the past as a misogynist; I don’t get why he doesn’t label Boxer (whom I agree is wrong-headed) as “bitchily sneaking.”

Second, she and Clinton have the exact same stance on Lieberman re Iraq: The war isn’t THAT big of an issue and the Democratic Party is a big tent. So it’s not OK for Boxer to say that, but Slick Dawg can?

Third, claiming that Connecticut Democrats won’t be swayed by Clinton. Then why doesn’t he, in the same breath, outrightly say, “Slick, you should have just stayed home?” Again, Slick gets the slick glove treatment, not the Boxer gloves. (Elsewhere, Kos shows thin skin when Mickey Kaus chides him for giving former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner the Slick treatment, not the Boxer one, when he campaigned for JoePa.

Fourth, Clinton ignores that JoePa has done a fair amount of Bush enabling on domestic issues, too, but Kos doesn’t nail him there either.

Fourth, the amount of spin, that Clinton might be getting an underhanded pound of flesh by making Lieberman looke “smaller, petter, and more pathetic.” It is “reaching” for an incumbent senator to call in a former president for primary help, I’ll agree, but “smaller, petter, and (more) pathetic”? I think not.

If anybody is that, it’s Kos, for the way he must turn everything his own point of view.