Congressman Peter King: “I’m Willing to be Called a Cocksuckin’ Retarded Inbred”

OOPS, I must have mis-read that quote. The word was “Bigot.” My bad.

Rep. Peter King (R—Dildo) continues to defend his ongoing bigotry and hatred toward Muslims. He said:

“I hate those fuckin’ ragheads! Every last one of them!” OK, that wasn’t his exact wording. But you know that’s what he was thinking. In your heart you know he’s a KKK wannabe.

There’s one tiny silver lining to Peter King’s existence: He’s a constant reminder that racial prejudice isn’t confined to the south or any other specific region. His New York congressional district must have more rednecks than all the southern states put together.

In other news: Mitch McConnell takes one on the chin (all forty-seven of them). John Kerry lashed out at Senate Republicans in general — McConnell in particular — for their ongoing delay of the New START agreement.

The main rightwing talking points against New START are: “this treaty is being rushed,” and “why are we doing this NOW???”

First of all, the Senate has already spent more time debating New START than they spent on the first START treaty, START II and the Moscow Treaty. Secondly, the reason the Senate is taking up the New START agreement “NOW?!?!?!?!” is because Senate Republicans have spent the last few months stalling and delaying the New START treaty.

There's a certain cause and effect sequence there. (Republicans, don't worry; don't strain yourselves trying to put two and two together.)

We can all look back to sometime in high school or junior high, when we kept putting off a term paper until the night before it was due. And then we were up all night, moaning and groaning about “ooohhh, why do I have to do this NOW?”

Did these Republican senators ever graduate from high school?

Swift Boat Veterans for Wall Street

If you liked Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — who transformed John Kerry from a Vietnam war hero into a flagburning deserter — you’ll love their newest stepchild.

If Linda Richman (Mike Myers) was still on Saturday Night Live, s/he would probably say “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth contains neither veterans nor truth. Discuss.”

Mentzer Media is the ad agency that manufactured a few “veterans” out of thin air so they could slander John Kerry in 2004. Mentzer Media’s newest sleaze venture is a “grass roots” organization called Stop Too Big To Fail.

You guessed it. What they really want to stop is the proposed financial reform that would PREVENT another meltdown requiring a billion dollar Wall Street bailout. Stop Too Big To Fail is spending $1.6 million (so far) on TV ads. The ads will warn viewers that the proposed financial reform is a “bailout fund” and they’re telling Congress to “vote against this phony financial reform.”

Now this probably has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but the Stop Too Big To Fail ads are only running in three states: Nevada, Missouri and Virginia. And these three states just happen to have a Democratic senator who's being targeted by the Right. (Harry Reid, Claire McCaskill and Mark Warner, respectively.)

The co-founder of Stop Too Big To Fail is also the leader of another Astroturf group, “Consumers for Competitive Choice.”

Get ready for the next round of spontaneous demonstrations. Soon your town will have throngs of Wall Street lobbyists and their gullible sycophants, yelling and carrying signs saying “Keep the government out of my bank account!” and “Your money, your problem.”

Here’s another link with more information on Stop Too Big To Fail and other rightwing stealth groups.

Why Democrats Keep Losing the White House

This excellent article by Drew Westen doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said a million times. Everything he says has already been covered in countless psychology and political science classes. And yet these basic lessons just don’t seem to sink in.

In order to win an election, you MUST reach out and connect with the voters EMOTIONALLY. All Democratic candidates — write that sentence on the blackboard five hundred times.

Republican candidates and consultants know this basic fact inside out, backwards and forwards. Bill Clinton is the only Democrat of the past 45 years who knows it. Why do you think Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush got elected to the White House? Because of a 72-point plan for security and prosperity? Most voters liked them — or at least they liked the images that their campaign managers crafted for them.

In 2004, John Kerry gave a list of logical dispassionate reasons that his policies were better than George W. Bush’s. Then Karl Rove yelled out “Gay Marriage!!!” and guess who won the election. Michael Dukakis gave crystal clear explanations of his plans and ideas. George H.W. Bush yelled “Willie Horton!” and won the election. Four years later Bush himself got driven out of the White House by the more folksy and likeable Bill Clinton. And so on…

Molly Ivins had a column several years ago saying that all political candidates should have a little “Elvis.” She said Bill Bradley’s problem was that he was “all substance and no Elvis.”

As Drew Westen puts it: “Think Michael Dukakis. Think Al Gore. Think John Kerry. They all ran on laundry lists. They never told coherent stories about themselves or their opponents. I can't for the life of me remember the narratives any of them laid out about why we should vote for them instead of their opponent. But I remember clearly the stories their GOP rivals told…Armed with nothing but laundry lists, all three Democrats got taken to the cleaners. It didn't matter that the public agreed with them on most of the issues.”

And forget all that drivel about “taking the high road” and “not dignifying an attack by responding to it.” If the Rightwing Noise Machine launches a smear campaign, Fight Back Goddamnit! Westen says:

“Consider the case of George W. Bush, whose life story telegraphed everything voters needed to know to make an informed decision about him: He had dodged the Vietnam-era draft while avidly supporting the war; he had drunk his way through much of his adulthood, even while he had young children at home; he had shown extraordinary incompetence in the business world; his campaign had smeared Sen. John McCain with stories about mental instability and an allegedly illegitimate baby to get Bush through the South Carolina primary in 2000; and he had mocked a fellow born-again Christian whom he put to death as governor of Texas. It was quite a story. The problem was that the Democrats wouldn't tell it…When you hear a pollster or strategist say, ‘We've got 'em beat on the issues,’ you know you're on the dispassionate river, and you know you're going under…voters disagreed with Ronald Reagan on about 75 percent of the issues. But they liked him.”

Westen describes a hypothetical successful Democratic contender for 2008: “They drink from the wellsprings of partisan sentiments, which account for more than 80 percent of votes. They tell emotionally compelling stories about who they are and what they believe in. They don't say, ‘Karl Rove needs to testify under oath about the CIA leak case because we must have a transcript.’ Rather, when the president invokes executive privilege, they ask, with righteous indignation: ‘Mr. Bush, just what is it about ‘So help me God’ that you find so offensive?’”

So how does our current crop of White House contenders look? Is there anybody out there who reaches out and grabs you?