Blogging Blue

Just a few random political tidbits that caught my eye today…

• Fox News announced today Hannity and Colmes are splitting up. After 12 years, Alan Colmes is leaving “Hannity & Colmes” at the end of the year, leaving Sean Hannity to go it alone. Something tells me we won’t see the addition of another “liberal” to take Colmes’ place on the show, leaving us with just “Hannity.”
• The speculation as to who would succeed Vice President-elect Joe Biden in the United States Senate is over, with Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner appointing Ted Kaufman as Biden’s replacement until 2010. Kaufman is Joe Biden’s longtime senior adviser, currently serving as the co-chair of Biden’s transition team in addition to having spent roughly 20 years as Biden’s Senate chief of staff. Obviously the appointment of Kaufman to fill Biden’s seat means we’ll likely see Senator Beau Biden in 2010.
• I’m encouraged by news president-elect Obama has named Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Geithner’s gotten good marks for his performance as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, and investors have already responded positively to news of Geithner’s appointment, with Wall Street finishing up for two consecutive days.
• And finally, it looks like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has been tapped as president-elect Obama’s Commerce Secretary. Considering Richardson served as Energy Secretary under President Clinton and was once considered a possible running mate and Secretary of State for Obama, Commerce Secretary seems like a step down. Then again, Richardson can’t run for a third term as governor of New Mexico due to term limits, so I suppose he’s just trying to guarantee he’s got a job past 2010.

Earlier today, Jay Weber, local right-wing squawker, posted a list over at Right View Wisconsin of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s associations and gaffes that Weber feels have been overlooked by the mainstream media. Curiously enough, Weber didn’t a post a similar list for Republican presidential nominee John McCain, so I’ve done Jay Weber’s work for him.

Jay, if you happen to read this, feel free to post it over at RVW. I’ve even used your same style, so your readers won’t even know you didn’t write it!

While prepping for work this morning, I started to make a list of the types of things that would have knocked any other candidate for office out of the running. I included associations of Senator John McCain’s, as well as gaffes and mistakes he’s made.

I had to stop after 25 minutes because I just had to move on to actually going to work, but I could have continued on much longer. Folks, it’s amazing how many passes Sen. McCain has received. I know it’s an overused charge by talk show hosts, but any other candidate really would have been disqualified immediately, or mocked until their candidacy was a joke, if they had even a single one of these associations or mistakes.

I didn’t want this post to be gargantuan, so I give just the essentials. But these are all easily researched.

Associations:

Anthony T. Bouscaren. Sen. McCain served on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom (USCWF) with Bouscaren, who’s a known white supremacist. What other politician wouldn’t even have to answer questions about his association with a known white supremacist?

Related to the USCWF: The USCWF was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in November 1981 as an offshoot of the World Anti-Communist League. The group was, from the onset, saddled with the disreputable reputation of its parent group. The WACL had ties to ultra-right figures and Latin American death squads. Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi organization.

Rev. John Hagee. During the Republican presidential primaries, Sen. McCain said he was “proud” to receive the endorsement of Rev. Hagee, who’s noted for his strong anti-Catholicism.

Pastor Rod Parsely: Noted for his belief that Islam should be destroyed, Sen. McCain called Parsley a “spiritual guide” before ultimately rejecting Parsley’s endorsement.

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In 1998, convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy’s home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Liddy, who served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, also referred to McCain as an “old friend” when McCain appeared on Liddy’s radio show in 2007. Interestingly enough, Liddy has a rather “curious” fascination with Adolph Hitler:

When he listened to Hitler on the radio, it “made me feel a strength inside I had never known before,” he explains. “Hitler’s sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body.”

Sen. McCain’s running mate (and her hubby) have ties to the Alaska Independence Party, which has a stated goal of seceding from the United States.

Sen. Mccain’s got close ties to Freddie Mac through campaign manager Rick Davis, who until August was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac until last month through the firm owned by Davis. It’s being said Davis & Manafort, the firm owned by Rick Davis, had been kept on the payroll of Freddie Mac because of Rick Davis’s close ties to Sen. McCain, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

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Gaffes: Some call Sen. Joe Biden a walking gaffe machine. Sen. McCain’s actually much worse.

In 2000, Sen. McCain is quoted as saying, “if all you run is negative attack ads, you don’t have much of a vision for the future…or, you’re not ready to articulate it.”

At a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Sen. McCain inadvertently addressed the crowd as “My fellow prisoners.”

At a campaign event in Pittsburgh back in July, Sen. McCain said when he was first interrogated after being taken prisoner in Vietnam, he named the starters on the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as his squadron-mates, despite writing in his book Faith of My Fathers that when pressed for more useful information, he gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of his squadron.

Sen. McCain has cited on numerous occasions… including a TV commercial (that is no longer online)… one particularly egregious example of “wasteful government spending” involving the study of grizzly bear DNA: “Three million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Unbelievable. I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he joked, “but it was a waste of money.” The only problem? Sen. McCain voted for the study he was so fond of attacking as wasteful.

Back in 2005, McCain is quoted as saying, “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

At a campaign event in New Hampshire, Sen. McCain joked about attacking Iran, singing, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.”

During a town hall in Scranton, PA in September, Sen. McCain declared that “there’s only one ethnic joke that can be told in American politics and that’s Irish jokes.” McCain then preceded to tell a joke about drunk Irish twins. Politico’s Ben Smith reported that Seamus Boyle, the president of the Ancient Order of Hibernian’s (an Irish-Catholic organization), said the joke “was really an insult to a whole nationality to be stereotyped as drunks.”

On September 24th, Senator McCain announced that he would be flying back to Washington “immediately” to concentrate on the current financial crisis on Wall Street. Though scheduled to appear on CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman” later that day, the McCain campaign called host David Letterman to cancel at the last minute, informing him that the Senator was “getting on a plane immediately to race back to Washington.” Stuck without a guest, the visibly annoyed Letterman chided McCain throughout his monologue, saying that McCain could simply of sent Governor Palin in his place, and questioned the “real” reason for Senator McCain’s sudden attention to his duties in Washington.

Flash forward 15 minutes later when someone informs Letterman that… not only was McCain NOT currently rushing back to Washington, but was in fact 5 blocks away (from 52nd street to 57th street) preparing for an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

In an interview in 1998, Sen. McCain asked, “Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that’s depicted?”

On September 18. 2008 Sen. McCain said that if he were president, he would fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox for his “betrayal of trust” leading up to this week’s financial market crisis. The only problem? The president can’t fire the SEC Chairman.

During a rally in Jacksonville, FL on September 15th, Sen. McCain adamantly reasserted that, despite the failure of yet another major financial institution, Lehman Brothers, precipitating a 500+ point plunge in the DOW, that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

And this is where I had to stop…

• Tonight’s vice presidential debate is going to be a train wreck; it just remains to be seen which candidate will be the victim of the wreck. I’m betting my money on Gov. Sarah Palin coming out of the debate as the clear loser, no matter how low the McCain campaign tries to lower the bar for her.
• Good for Sen. Russ Feingold for standing up and voting against the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan. I’m glad at least one of my Senators voting against coming to the rescue of big businesses that made bad decisions.
• There’s news Sen. John McCain is pulling out of Michigan in the face of sagging poll numbers. Obviously that’s not a good sign for the McCain campaign, and I’m willing to bet we’ll see more of these stories as McCain’s numbers continue to slide.
• Looks like there might be frost coming in the next few nights.
• Republican Congressman (and former presidential candidate) Ron Paul is scheduled to speak at a John Birch Society event in Appleton on Saturday. That’s a curious speaking engagement for a man who’s denied he’s a racist.
• I know I’ve pretty harsh towards Sarah Palin, but at least we liberals aren’t alone in thinking Gov. Palin is not qualified to assume the presidency if required.

• I’d like to add another contributor to Blogging Blue. Anyone got any suggestions?

Honestly…why is the McCain campaign expecting “kid gloves” treatment for Sarah Palin? What, she can’t handle herself at a debate without putting rules in place to protect her?

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

I mean, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the lengths the McCain campaign is willing to go to in order to protect Palin, considering her complete and utter lack of experience on a number of issues, foreign policy, because I don’t consider being able to see Russia from your house as foreign policy experience.

I hope Sen. Joe Biden hands Palin her ass in their debate.

Now you’ll have to pardon my language, but I’m glad to see the Democratic Party has finally gotten a set of balls. My biggest complaint during the 2004 election was Sen. John Kerry’s unwillingness (or inability) to fight back against the attacks he came under from the Republican ticket and their associated 527 groups. Sure, he fought back a little after the Swiftboat ads starting airing, but by that time it was too little too late, and in my opinion, the Kerry campaign’s inability to do a little attacking of their own is what cost them the election.

Having said that, I’m glad to see the Obama/Biden ticket punching back against the Republicans, and this video clip is a perfect example of why I think Senator Joe Biden was the perfect choice as Barack Obama’s running mate:

It’s good to see Sen. Biden showing some fire and going on the offensive against the Republican ticket, and it gives me hope that we Democrats won’t simply roll over and play dead any time we’re attacked.

Looks like they’re having a grand old time, too!

Unfortunately, there’s no audio, which would undoubtedly make a funny clip even funnier.

Credit: witz.org.