The GOP Implodes

Throughout the year, it has been obvious that the GOP has obstructed almost anything the Obama Administration has proposed to stimulate the economy. But the extension of unemployment insurance and the payroll tax break for the Middle class seemed a no-brainer. The Senate Republicans extracted a concession on the XL Pipeline from the Democrats and the Senate bill passed 89-10 for the extension. And we could all go home for Christmas.

But strange things happened and they were disasterous for the Republicans. The Senate bill negotiated by Mitch McConnell was done with the active collaboration of John Boehner, who approved of all the Senate moves in advance. So naturally, the table was set for both sides to proclaim a great bipartisan victory and adjourn. Remember the extension is only for two months and both sides had agreed to recovene in January to negotiate a full year at that time. But the tea bag caucus in the House balked and Boehner was left trying to defend the indefensible.

In one swift moment, all the past year's obstructionism finally became obvious to the whole public and over 130 million Americans faced a tax increase of between $1,500 and $2,200. The great tax-cutting party now looked like they were OK with raising taxes on the middle-class, when they refused the millionaire tax to pay for the middle-class tax cut. Finally, the Obama Administration could zero in on the hypocrisy of the GOP and the very direct negative consequences their actions have on the average American. This has been clear all year to the broader public.

Throughout the week, Republicans began to eat themselves alive. Karl Rove denounced the House Republicans for losing the tax debate. John McCain said that House Republicans were damaging the GOP brand. Even Mitch McConnell had to weigh in calling on the House Republicans to fold. By week's end, the Tan Man looked pale and rumors from House GOP aides suggested Boehner's day as Speaker were limited. It was as if the polling of Congress as the worst ever came to focus on the House. Senate Republicans said that their own chances of taking the Senate back were fading.

Rachel Maddow returned to her thesis that John Boehner was incompetent and there was alot of evidence to support her view. Boehner didn't have the vote count accurate in his own Caucus and then was forced through a surrogate not to allow the Senate Bill to be voted on in the House because it would have passed with total support of the Democrats and a sufficient number of the House Republicans so that the GOP would looked divided.

Yes, the battle begins anew in January and one person commented in the Washington Post that this was all inside baseball and would soon be forgotten. I don't think so because all the Republican columnists waged war over this and the Wall Street Journal, the business side of the GOP,blasted House Republicans. It became very plain and the Democrats are exploiting this that the Republicans now really have come down on the side of the 1% against the 99%. With the change of the debate caused by the Occupy movement,the wind is now at the Democrats' back, partocularly President Obama.

One of the winners of this fracas was Willard "Mitt" Romney. The reason is that the news over the Boehner failure took away from Romney's astonishing weeks of lying. Romney claimed that President Obama has not created a single job and that Romney as head of Bain Capital created 100,000 jobs and he would pit that against Obama. Romney's campaign has systematically lied about when the great Recession began. His graphics blame all job loss on the Obama Administration and seems to imply that Obama was responsible for all events in 2007 and 2008. The problem with this is that we have Mitt on tape praising the President's stimulus plan.

The other problem with this is that we have had 21 straight months of private job growth. From 2010 through 2011, the private sector created 2.9 million jobs, or roughly three times the amount created during 8 years of President George W. Bush. Job creation this year has been the best since 2006 and the fragile green roots of the economy seem to suggest more job creation in 2012, if Europe doesn't collapse. That Mitt Romney, who was 47th of 50th governor in job creation, managing to eek out Louisiana who was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina,would like to criticize this is rather appalling.

But Mitt didn't stop there. In a sitdown interview, he said that it was great that President Obama got bin Laden but added that any President would make the same decision. The democrats immediately went aerial with an ad attacking Romney,splicing comments by Gates, Colin Powell and Rudy Guiliani suggesting Obama's decision took courage. And, by the way, Presidents Clinton and George W. didn't make the same decision, when they had the chance.

Mitt has spent the week trying to build moment by locking down Iowa after spending millions on attacks ads against Newt. With Ron Paul emerging as the Iowa front-runner, the news media is giving Paul the front-runner treatment and exacavating all his racist newsletters from the 1990s when he predicted a race war. Mitt is predicting a second-place finish, which would stem the tide of the anti-Mitt vote.

Romney picked up an incredibly lukewarm endorsement from President George H.W. Bush, who said he had favored Rick Perry but Mitt was the best the GOP could do for now. Also, old Iowa Senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole weighed in on Mitt's behalf.

Iowa is seeing the slight rise in the fortunes of Frothy Mix Santorum, who nailed the endorsement of Van der Plaats, the evangelical leader who supported Mike Huckabee. Rick Perry is on a bust tour of the state and has dropped his homophobic ads for one with his wife.

It's all pretty unsavory. The Congressional Republicans acted and sounded like a bunch of chumps this week and the erstwhile Presidential candidates continued to embarrass.

It has not been a good week for conservatives. Brent Bozell of the right-wing Media Research group,tastefully referred to President Obama as "a skinny, ghetto crackhead". And that about sums up the current position on the right--Obama is the enemy and we have no new ideas and could care less about the public good.

President Obama continued his war against Christmas by sending people like me a Christmas card showing Bo lying in front of a fireplace, with a Poinsetta on the table surrounded by presents. I didn't know this was anti-Christmas until Fox News and Sarah Palin opined that Americans expected references to Christ. Although it seems that past Presidents, especially Republicans, neglected to mention Christ either. But we have to remember Obama is "the Other".

For his part, President Obama stayed home from his anticipated vacation in Hawaii, but he got criticized for planning on going to Hawaii anyway. A few polls showed him hitting 49% and roughly his average is around 46%, a nice range to begin the re-election year.

At least Jon Huntsman seemed to have a good week. He played Johnny B.Goode on the Letterman show and said he always wanted to be Paul Schaeffer when he grew up. And the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire endorsed him for that state's primary because he is relatively sane.

Gary Johnson decided to run on the libertarian ticket because no one would allow him to debate in the Republican contest. Interestingly enough, Johnson was the greatest job-creator in the field but his libertarian social views made him a paraiah.

Stephen Colbert of the Colbert report hit the right note when he offered $500,000 for the naming rights to the South Carolina Republican primary. And it looks like South Carolina might take him up on it.

Take A Walk on the Far Side

We left Sarah Palin trying to trademark her name in line with the Roberts Court, Limited's desire that all Americans become corporations. It seems her problem is she forgot to sign the paperwork drawn up by her lawyer so there may be a wait. The former Mayor of Wasilla bowed out of an event to honor wounded veterans because she complained about threats against her. Police authorities reported no threats against her but it doesn't really matter since the veterans event coincided with the night of the first presidential debate for the Republicans. She wanted to keep her calender clean just in case there is a groundswell of support. Sister Sarah seemed to adopt the new anti-Reagan mood of Republicans by saying that the country is going down in ruins. This is the sunny, optimistic face we've come to appreciate in the new conservatives.

Bristol Palin says she may run for office now that she has the experience of giving birth. That one event has made her a darling for the abstinence crowd where she gets $12-15,000 per speech. Now she is to become an Arizona talk show host. On top of that she has penned a 302-page memoir probably titled "In Search of My Mother". She probably will be interviewed by Greta Von Cistern once it's been released.

Sarah Palin's Mormon sidekick Glenn Beck has accelerated his apocalyptic vision of the end of civilization as we know it. This has finally caused conservatives to yelp that he is "marginalizing himself" like he wasn't before. Little Bill Kristol dumped on Beck's hallucinations in his Weekly Standard claiming he wasn't any better than the John Birch Society. The National Review reported that Republican bigshots have met with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes to get them to reign in Beck now that he is wrecking the Egyptian freedom mantra that former Bushies are reviving. They argue that all GOPers will be tarred with the same brush. Chris Matthews did a superb job reporting on the John Birch roots of Glenn Beck's recent barkings on the caliphate and Red Chinese and Russian Communist involvement in Cairo. Matthews broadcast a clip from the new John Birch CEO--isn't it great how everything is marketized?--who basically laid out the John Birch line which is almost identical to Beck's recent rants.

The criticism of Beck by Kristol and the National Review hasn't dampened Rush Limbaugh and Drudge from picking up the mantra of the global threats posed by the downfall of Hosni Mubarak and a change in Cairo. While this split is interesting on the right, virtually no Americans are paying any attention to Cairo according to the latest polling data.

Middle East expert, Huckabee of Judea opined in Jersulem that the Palestinians shouldn't be allowed to have any land on the territory of ancient Israel and should ask for only land from other Arabs. Since Jordan is on the land of ancient Israel, this makes the nearest place for a Palestinian state-- Iraq.

More right-wing organizations are boycotting CPAC because of their invitation to GOProud, the gay organization. Now the fat is really in the fire because Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico, who is for gay rights, the legalization of medical marijuana and is pro-choice, has been invited to address the group. This has ignited further attacks on CPAC from the religious Right. Strangely, the attacks are all aimed at Grover Norquist, who they blame for all the hippie-loving, pot-smoking behavior. It is said that Grover, who is married to an Arab woman, favors creeping Sharia law, which normally doesn't favor pot-smoking.

Former Minnesota Governor Palenta snarked that Sister Sarah bowed out of CPAC because the speaking fee was too low. The Governor, himself a would-be presidential candidate,vowed to reinstate DADT and refused to answer the question whether gays should serve in the military at all. Burnishing his presidential credentials, he came out last year against evolution and tried in his last days of Governor to outlaw abortion. Palenta is seen as trying to outflank Rick Santorum,whose name became synonymous with the excretions from anal sex, for the social conservatives. Santorum's presidential bid got a boost from George Will, who claimed Santorum had a credible shot at the nomination.

The authors of a new Montana Nullification Law sent me their vision. Montana will be voting on a constitutional amendment where the state can ignore any federal law it doesn't like. The authors are oblivious to the Civil War but it doesn't matter. The state also wants to create an unregulated state militia. The idea is floating around conservative circles. Virginia's own Attorney General wants to create a militia so that the state doesn't have to implement the repeal of DADT for the National Guard.

In five states where Republicans seized the governorships,the first order of business during the economic crisis was to try and outlaw abortion. Some efforts are old throwbacks like Ohio's heartbeat law, which would outlaw the procedure if a heartbeat could be heard or seen by a sonogram.