Every now and then we like to check in on the latest antics surrounding GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt — the Ohio Republican who called Jack Murtha a coward on the House floor. And boy oh boy, her latest doesn’t disappoint.
Schmidt is now enmeshed in a bitter feud with another Ohio Republican, who’s so furious with her that he called her a “lying b—-” and a “despicable person” who would “sell her mother” — and expressly told us we could print that!
The issue? GOP State Rep. Tom Brinkman, who founded an anti-tax government watchdog group, is charging that Schmidt’s House staffers frequently work on her campaign for re-election.
“You can quote me anywhere you like. Jean Schmidt is a lying b—-,” said Brinkman, who lost his primary challenge to her this year by a 58%-40% margin, in an interview with Election Central. “She would sell her mother to promote herself. She is a despicable person. She will go any length possible to win, to get what she wants.”
C&L posted earlier this week about FOX News possibly trying to make McCain look a little younger, well now it appears that the McCain campaign is going out of their way to make John look like a new man—25 years younger or more with this campaign ad.
Check out this ad that was picked up off of this article Germany’s English paper called The Local. At the very end there is the above graphic to represent what John McCain looks like. Hmmmm, looks like a completely different man to me. One that is much younger. Is this running only in foreign markets? I emailed the McCain camp for comment.
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Four peace activists were arrested on Friday as they attempted to make a “citizens arrest” of Karl Rove, who was one of President George W. Bush’s top aides before leaving the administration last year.
“It should be Karl Rove in that van. War Criminal!” one of a dozen protestors shouted as the four were put into a police van outside a Des Moines country club where Rove spoke at a private state Republican party fundraiser.
Chet Guinn, a retired Methodist Minister, was among those led away.
“To be silent when major crimes are being committed against all humanity makes us accomplices,” Gwinn told reporters just before his prearranged arrest, which took place when protestors stepped past a gate.
On the advice of more than 50 retired generals and admirals, the House Armed Services Committee agreed this week to revisit the utility of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The discriminatory standard, which has led to the discharge of thousands of capable troops serving in the midst of two wars, has already been rejected by voters, and lawmakers are prepared to rethink the approach.
But what’s the best way to win the policy debate? Emphasize fairness? Military readiness? The fact that gay soldiers are already serving their country honorably? The fact that it costs a lot of money to undermine our own national security?
No, as it turns out, the way to make it painfully obvious that the right is wrong about this is simply to let conservatives present their argument out loud.
Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and also extended an invitation to [Elaine Donnelly], who has been working for years to protect our fighting forces from the malign influence of women.
Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of “transgenders in the military.” She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading “HIV positivity” through the ranks.
“We’re talking about real consequences for real people,” Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about “inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community,” the prospects of “forcible sodomy” and “exotic forms of sexual expression,” and the case of “a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault” a fellow soldier.
At the witness table with Donnelly, retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, a lesbian, rolled her eyes in disbelief. Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, a gay man who was wounded in Iraq, looked as if he would explode.
Ironically, the more this apparently unhinged lunatic railed against gays in her testimony, the more lawmakers realized there are no legitimate arguments in support of the DADT policy.
Oliver Willis concluded, “In the near future some kid is going to ask his dad: ‘You mean they really stopped people for serving their country, not because they couldn’t perform the job but because they were gay? That’s dumb.’”
If Obama could go to Germany and give a speech in English and be not only understood but well-received, why does he say we all need to learn another language?
A two-day prostitution sting in St. Paul netted 35 men, including a longtime Republican operator in Minnesota politics.
Peter Hong, 41, of Minneapolis, was one of 19 men picked up Wednesday afternoon after police say he responded to an ad for sex put out in newspapers and online by the St. Paul Police Department’s vice squad.
The Carleton grad was a campaign spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2002 and congressional press secretary to Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., for much of the 1990s. He also served as the Bush-Cheney Minnesota campaign spokesman in 2004. His most recent political stint was as presidential campaign spokesman for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Hong is currently self-employed and “Always Searching for the Next Big Thing!” according to his profile on the business-networking Web site LinkedIn. Read on…
Remember all that talk about Senator Obama’s “problem with Jewish voters”? Well, just like his problem with women, Latinos and blue collar whites, it doesn’t exist. And if the 34 percent who view him unfavorably does constitute a problem, then Lieberman has a lot more to worry about.
If Barack Obama has a problem among Jewish voters, then Sen. Joseph Lieberman is in monumental trouble.
Among the most high-profile Jews in Congress, Lieberman is viewed far more unfavorably than the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to a new poll. Only 37 percent of Jews view the Connecticut Independent in a favorable light compared to 48 percent who have a negative perception. As for Obama, 60 percent of Jews view him favorably while 34 percent view him unfavorably.
The findings were released as part of a recent survey of American Jews by the new progressive pro-Israel group J Street. They seem to upturn some of this year’s conventional political wisdom.
Chalk up another one in the ‘L’ column for the beltway crowd.
Hell yeah, that’s the kind of ad all Democrats should be running. Howie has more:
Blue America-endorsed candidate running against garden variety rubber stamp Republican Ric Keller in an Orlando district that has been turning blue. Early balloting started this week for Florida’s primary election and Alan has been the only candidate with a TV ad up– and what a TV ad! If every Democratic candidate had an ad this powerful to run, we wouldn’t be talking about 12-20 House seats; we’d be talking about 30-50. Of course, not every candidate has a story as compelling as Alan’s. [..]
If you’d like to see Alan keep this running, please consider donating to his campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page.
Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei have an interesting item in the Politico the other day that generated quite a bit of attention, about John McCain’s series of verbal “gaffes.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” on Monday when he apparently meant “Afghanistan”, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.
Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken “Somalia” for “Sudan,” and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise: foreign affairs.
In a sense, “gaffe” is overly forgiving. It implies that McCain means to say the right thing, but tends to misspeak. I don’t see it that way at all. “Gaffe” suggests McCain knows what he’s talking about, but is burdened by the occasional embarrassing verbal faux pas.
But that’s not the real story here. The important point is that McCain, most, seems hopelessly clueless and confused. That’s far more significant than the occasional “gaffe.”
Watching a member of my government meet with foreign leaders and speak in front of a global audience without being completely embarrassed and ashamed - priceless.
This just in from the Department of the Obvious: Scott McClellan admits to Chris Matthews that the White House made a deliberate effort to use FOX News commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly to disseminate White House talking points.
Matthews: “Did you see FOX television as a tool when you were in the White House? As a useful avenue to get your message out?”
McClellan: “I make a distinction between the journalists and the commentators. Certainly there were commentators and other, pundits at FOX News, that were useful to the White House.” […] That was something we at the White House, yes, were doing, getting them talkng points and making sure they knew where we were coming from.
Matthews: “So you were using these commentators as your spokespeople.”
McClellan: “Well, certainly.”
Straight from the source. Enough with the “fair and balanced” crap already.
Vincent Bugliosi’s opening statements during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the constitutional limits of executive power.
Heather:
He did one heck of a job of keeping it simple to explain the lies on the WMD’s, and why they didn’t even matter. What mattered is whether a country is an imminent threat, and the CIA said even with WMD’s, Saddam was not.
UPDATE: (Nicole) And it’s been successful, at least in the Cleveland market. Media Matters documents Talk Radio Network’s impressively spinsational attempt at retroactive context to explain Savage’s comments by using comments made after that misrepresented his original comments.
Remember all that talk about Senator Obama’s 
This just in from the Department of the Obvious: Scott McClellan admits to Chris Matthews that the White House made a deliberate effort to use FOX News commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly to disseminate White House talking points.