Thursday’s Mini-Report

November 9, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* In Virginia this afternoon, Sen. George Allen (R) officially conceded his race to Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D).

* A couple of hours prior, in Montana, Sen. Conrad Burns (R) conceded his race to Sen.-elect Jon Tester (D). Taken together, the Dems went +6 for the cycle and officially claimed the Senate majority.

* Ken Mehlman appears to be on his way out at the RNC. It’s hard to imagine finding someone worse, though Michael Steele would fit the bill.

* The AP has uncovered some “startling findings” in its investigation of Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan. Read this; it’s stunning.

* Bob Perry wasted $9 million. I couldn’t be happier about it and it’s perhaps my favorite story of the day.

* I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about Robert Gates, the man nominated to replace Donald Rumsfeld, but Digby raises a few, shall we say, red flags about his background. (Oddly enough, Tom DeLay doesn’t like him either.)

* Honestly, the line between parody and actual GOP rhetoric is so blurry, it’s almost non-existent.

* Unfortunately, Bill O’Reilly’s bold plan for Iraq is about as creative as John McCain’s.

* It looks like the Center for Reproductive Rights will get its hands on Plan B-related communications between the White House’s domestic-policy office and the FDA. This may not sound exciting, but if there’s evidence that the Bush gang interfered with Barr Pharmaceuticals’ request to have Plan B sold over the counter, and I bet there is, it could become an even more interesting story.

* Some people really should stay retired. (thanks to G.D. for the tip)

* I think it’s interesting to measure stock-market performance against political parties over the course of years. Measuring over one day is just silly.

* There’s something deeply amusing to me about the idea of Charlie Rangel taking Dick Cheney’s office on the Hill.

* Big hint to Halliburton: You’ve had a good six-year run, but you’re not going to enjoy 2007 at all.

* I know Bush still has his heart set on John Bolton at the U.N., but the nomination still isn’t going anywhere.

* I’m going to get into this in more detail in the coming days, but I can almost guarantee the new fights over congressional leadership posts are going to get ugly.

* And on a sad note, 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley died today of leukemia. He was a classy, first-rate journalist, who not only broke color barriers in broadcast journalism, but who earned the respect of his colleagues and his audience. The media needs more people like him. Bradley was 65.

If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

new fights over [GOP] congressional leadership posts

Just remember to pronounce Boehner correctly: b-o-n-e-r.

  • My respects to Ed Bradley.

    The Wyoming Republican senator has leukemia too. He’s 73. Anyone know how he would be replaced if necessary?

    Anyone know how the offices are assigned when a party loses its majority.

    I understand that the majority party in the House gets twice as many Pages as the minority one.

    I hope George Allen’s cowboy boots slip in his own spit.

    Ken Mehlman is leaving because he didn’t try hard enough in the elections. He tried to just Mehl it in. While all the other Republicans were phoneying it in. Ba-da-bing.

    Don’t forget that it is the last few days of free Times Select.

  • William Safliar really should stay retired. He sez:

    …The loyal SecDef’s resignation after the poll results was Bush’s act of contrition…

    So Bush was lying when he said he decided before the election to boot Rummy. Safliar also says the lameducks should pass an “inheritance tax reduction”. How nice.

    He thinks McCain, Giuliani, and Romney will be popular Republican front runners for 2008, even though Giuliani and Romney are pro-choice and McCain opposed a federal gay-marriage ban in 2005.

  • I don’t ever want to hear Shiia and Sunni again.

    YFine Mr. O’Lielly, just stick your head a bit further up your arsehole to muffle out sounds that are displeasing to your ear. Christ, I guess we can call this the Mr. Hanky Solution. Just shout “Everybody stop fightin’!” Et Voila! Only O’Lielly isn’t nearly as cute, funny or pleasant smelling as the Christmas Poo.

    We need a new law. When a talking head makes an assinine comment about the war, they get sent to Iraq with half a canteen of water, a Powerbar and a 9 mm with two bullets.

  • Wow, so that bipartisanship thing lasted almost long enough for Speaker Pelosi to digest her lunch before The Deciderer tried to ram Bolton through again.

    Since Chafee has already said he’ll oppose, hopefully this goes nowhere. But I’m hoping Reid has already placed a call to the Connecticut for Lieberman party headquartes and said “Hey Joe. Nice chairmanship you’re preparing for there…. it’d be a shame if anything happened to it….”

  • We need a new law. When a talking head makes an assinine comment about the war, they get sent to Iraq with half a canteen of water, a Powerbar and a 9 mm with two bullets.

    Comment by someone Orange

    But why should they get all that extra stuff that our soldiers don’t get. Two? TWO bullets. Sheesh.

    🙂 I think you’re onto something with the Mr Hanky Solution. For this admin it would have the Mr. Hanky Doctrine, the Mr. Hanky Treaty, the Mr Hanky Mandate and the Mr Hanky breath freshener.

    What’s that big flushing sound?

  • Just remember to pronounce Boehner correctly: b-o-n-e-r.

    Until a few weeks ago, I honestly thought that was the correct pronounciation. Needless to say, I was a tad disappointed.

  • End-of-day open topic thread? Good.

    Did anyone else find Santorum’s kids incredibly disturbing? Apparantly he used them as props for his whole campaign, and his teenage son cried for a full ten minutes on national television during Santorum’s concession speech.

    I found a YTMND that captured part of it beautifully, though not the part about the son crying. But he does look bizarre. http://crymoregop.ytmnd.com

  • This is the third time I’ve tried to post this, so Im’ getting annoyed, and now I have to shorten it.

    Maybe Paul Hackett should have sucked it up when Schumer went with Brown in the Senate, and instead run against Mean Jean again? He lost 52-48 in the 05 spec. vote, and probably could have won this time out.

  • Rangle getting Cheney’s office would be like the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board getting the old Arthur Andersen office spreet on K Street right next to Farragut Square.

  • No wonder the right thought George Allen was a viable candidate for 2008. He’s perfect. He started his concession speech by thanking god, kissing his wife twice (not on the mouth, but once on each cheek), then stumbles into some cornball story about wind and trees and branches and seasons reminiscent of Ronnie’s drive up the coast highway. Oh yeah, and something about the bible and not failing to mention that a recount would be taxpayer funded (not that it had any bearing on his decision, just thought he’d mention it and let you make the association). Such shameless pandering. To think that almost half of VA fell for this cornball, obviously transparent act is disturbing.

  • Gotta agree about Hackett, who I don’t think would have beaten DeWine.

    As to The Onion post, it’s really freaky how realistic that sounds when I think of the thought processes and statements of the wingnut whackjobs I know.

    With regard to Pat Tillman – damn, it just keeps getting worse. A perfect example of what happens with an Army stretched so thin and having such a hard time getting people to join that all officers are getting promoted, rather than the 70% pass rate it used to be, which means there are a lot of incompetent morons in positions they would never have been in but for this @#$##@@!! war.

    As to leadership – I think I’d rather have Jack Murtha as Majority Leader than Steny Hoyer, whose claim to fame is wanting to set up a K Street Project for Democrats (which we gotta stay well clear of). We’re going to have a helluva fight over the war for the next two years, and no matter how hard the Thugs slime a guy like Murtha, it’s not gonna work – which can’t be said about Hoyer (who isn’t an ally or friend of Speaker Pelosi anyway). Nobody is ever going to be able to besmirch Murtha’s ethics.

    And with Webb in, I will close with this from a member of my Democratic Club that made it into the LA Daily News today:

    “Yes, Virginia, there is a Sanity Clause. Christmas came early for the Democrats and the entire nation. The GOP better be good, better not pout, better not shout, better watch out, better not shred or frown, because checks and balances are coming back to town.”

  • #11 Speaking of Rangel…not a classy move here. As a Southerner, I can vouch that there is this perception that the Northeast still looks down on us, and has probably since the Civil War. This kind of comment doesn’t help. Talk about kicking a state while it’s still down from Katrina (and gets about 1% of the attention that New Orleans gets)

    On a visit to NY, I once heard a political talk radio personality (circa 1998) describe Georgians as “fat, stupid hicks with dogs under their porches and statues of black people in their front yards.”

    #10 Oh, and Dave G., a tip…I’ve had problems with comments before too…so before submitting a post, I always hit Control-A (select all), Control-C, and my text is now on the clipboard ready to be pasted if my first submission goes awry.

  • Forgive the lithp; all that hard math is confuthing

    Regarding Safire: he’s actually quite good when he writes on language. His assesment of the political situation, however… “in your dreams, Mr Sour Grapes”

  • The outgoing 109th needs to be watched and pressured. All sorts of bad bills Bush could not pass will now try to be rushed through. After the new 110th comes in the thing to watch out for will be the belligerent use of the Veto by Bush while the reich wing noise machine lies about an ineffective and unwilling to compromise, gridlocking Congress, and picked up by a compliant MSM. Plan and organize ahead of time. When Bush and his supporters do this keep showing the evidence and keep telling the truth that it is Bush using his Veto who is not compromising, ineffective and causing gridlock. This will be important to the independents and any on the left thinking about thrid parties.

  • Addison – I am from NOLA and went to college in Tuscaloosa so I definitly know that the feeling for many southerners is that they are looked down on. I agree, comments like Rangle’s (even if I personally agree – and since my father is from MS and lived there before he died – I have experience) don’t help.

  • How Ironic that the last two senators to concede were Burns and Allen. If ever there was a comedy team……
    Bada Bing!

  • Regarding Rangel, I have to say I found his remark funny, and I’ll add to it that SOME state simply has to be a Mississippi. Still, I’ve heard the South self-righteously and hypocritically trashed for decades, so what the hell. When I was in the army at Fort Benning in 1966, I remember being embarrassed to be a Georgian in that time of Civil Rights struggle. I thought the South had a monopoly on bigotry. That was before I got to know the guys from Ohio and Michigan. Their brand of racism wasn’t the stereotypical “Bull Conner” bombast. Theirs was quiet and sneaky and really creepy.

    On another topic, however…

    Did you notice how many times the right-wing talking heads discussed the reasons for the Democratic landslide, and named Iraq as only one reason — not even the top reason?
    To me, this confirms we are not really at war with terror or anything else. For all the Republican sturm and drang about “a time of war” (the reason Bush couldn’t tell us about Rumsfeld last week), I’ve tried to imagine Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt and LBJ dismissing an ongoing war as less important than, say, tax cuts. Mind you, the Rethugs have compared Iraq with WW 2 and other major wars.

    I’m really tired of this “war on terror” being used as an excuse to do anything but fight terrorists.

  • I haven’t come to an opinion yet about Gates either. Fred Kaplan in Slate has a pro-Gates piece while Ray McGovern at TomPaine.com has an anti-Gates piece. Those two article at least give us a place to start in sorting this out.

  • Robert Gates may have at least one genuinely loopy idea (via Wired News)

    Cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction yet and could cripple the U.S. economy, former CIA Director Robert Gates said at a terrorism conference Saturday.

    Perhaps the reason we didn’t find the WMD in Iraq was that they were virtual.

  • #19 – you beat me to it. I mentioned to my hubby that Sens. Burns and Allen conceeded today, and he jokingly says “George Burns and Gracie Allen?” Too funny that Allen is a George.

  • Want to hear a lot of Southern jokes? Turn on the radio before big rivalry game in the Southeastern Conference.

    You’ll hear about the poor kid from Alabama who stabbed himself in the face 100 times. Punchline – he was learning to eat with a fork.

    Or you can learn about the number of shoe stores there are in the next southern state over. Answer a lot less than the number of stores in the state where DJ is broadcasting from.

    You can learn what an Arkansas divorce and a tornado have in common. And if you are playing Georgia instead of Arkansas this week, just switch names.

    And of course when lists ranking adult literacy rates, education funding or the like you can take solace that while your state is not high on the list you still whipped Mississippi.

    Someone does have to be Mississippi. And everyone makes fun of Mississippi, not just people from New York.

    The answer to the tornado question – someone is sure to lose a mobile home.

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