-
Liz Cheney Dances the Birther Two-Step
Tweet Share on Facebook July 22, 2009 Comment (19)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There's a new dance craze sweeping the GOP--the "Birther" two-step. (OK, "sweeping the GOP" is a bit of hyperbole, but it does seem to be ... hazardously infectious.) "Birthers," of course, are fringe-nuts who insist that Barack Obama was really born in another country and so does not qualify constitutionally to be president. Vocal, nutty parts of the GOP base have embraced the theories enough that elected GOP officials are starting to nod, wink and play footsy with them. So Liz Cheney goes on Larry King Live and defended the movement. And some GOP members of Congress introduce a bill demanding that presidential candidates affirmatively prove that they're U.S. citizens.
Of course these are at least ostensibly serious pols, so having put one foot in to conspiracy land, they have to take that one foot out, back-pedaling just enough to acknowledge that no, they don't really believe the crazy nonsense they're abetting. So after dodging the question to the best of his ability, Rep. John Campbell, a birther bill co-sponsor, finally concedes that yes, Barack Obama is actually a U.S. citizen. And the morning after defending the conspiracy crowd, Liz Cheney tells Politico's Ben Smith:
-
Liz Cheney Tries to Defend the Birthers
Tweet Share on Facebook July 21, 2009 Comment (38)Salon.com's Joan Walsh writes that Liz Cheney, appearing on Larry King's TV show, defended the "birther" movement, which insists that Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. and thus should not be president. King apparently showed the video I wrote about yesterday, of GOP moderate Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware getting yelled at and booed by wingnuts. Then, Walsh writes,
and after Carville denounced them as a "poor, pathetic" fringe group, King gave Cheney a chance to distance herself from them. But Cheney demurred, telling King the Birther movement exists because "People are uncomfortable with a president who is reluctant to defend the nation overseas."
Seriously? Might someone point out to her that the birther movement predates the Obama presidency?
-
Republicans Become Party of Slow (Rhymes With No) on Healthcare
Tweet Share on Facebook July 21, 2009 Comment (7)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Is Alex Castellanos this healthcare reform debate's version of Bill Kristol? As I noted yesterday, Kristol dusted off his greatest hits by advising Republicans to unrepentantly move to kill Obama's healthcare reform plan. While that's not surprising his frothing-at-the-mouth tone was arresting: He warned GOPers against trying to appear "constructive, or at least responsible." (I love that--he's not warning against being constructive and/or responsible, but against even trying to look it.) Republicans should, Kristol wrote, kill healthcare reform without being tempted to present an alternate vision.
Castellanos, the veteran GOP operative who doubles as a CNN analyst, wrote a memo to fellow Republican strategists regarding how to approach the healthcare debate, The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reports today. Castellanos' involves the GOP trying to appear ... constructive, or at least responsible.
-
The Republican "Birther" Fringe Gets Scary in Delaware
Tweet Share on Facebook July 20, 2009 Comment (38)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog
If you haven't seen it, I commend this video to you. It's from a town hall meeting led by Rep. Mike Castle, Delaware's moderate Republican House member. He calls on one audience member who stands, starts waving her birth certificate and ranting about President Obama being a citizen of Kenya, and saying, "I want my country back!" The rant and anger fueling it are scary enough. But what's more disturbing is the vehemence with which the crowd cheers her on and then boos Castle when he points out that the president is, in fact, a citizen of the United States. This is very blue state Delaware we're talking about here--not what you would think of as a hotbed of fringe wingnuttery. But as the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel points out, the "birther" movement (people who think that Obama is not a U.S. citizen) is gaining traction on the right. (H/t to Politico's Ben Smith.)
-
Apollo 11 Moon Landing Trivia: JFK's Ad Lib
Tweet Share on Facebook July 20, 2009 Comment (28)A trivia footnote to the anniversary of the moon landing: As president, JFK ad-libbed only once when speaking before Congress. Delivering a special "second" State of the Union address in May 1961, Kennedy made his famous call for a man on the moon by decade's end. As I recount in White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters, Kennedy did not think the Congress reacted with particular enthusiasm to the challenge. So he made it more bluntly:
I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.
(While he was not inclined to do it front of Congress, JFK was a skilled ad-libber -- most of his famous Berlin Wall speech was off the cuff.)
-
Kristol Tells Republicans to Go for the Kill on Obama Healthcare Reform Plan
Tweet Share on Facebook July 20, 2009 Comment (31)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Apparently trying to relive his glory days, Bill Kristol this morning exhorted Republicans to try to finish off the Obama healthcare reform plan:
With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible. There will be a tendency to want to let the Democrats' plans sink of their own weight, to emphasize that the critics have been pushing sound reform ideas all along and suggest it's not too late for a bipartisan compromise over the next couple of weeks or months.
My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation. This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.Who can disagree? Surely the last thing the GOP should try to do now is "appear constructive, or at least responsible." Of course Kristol is singing off of his greatest hits list here--his signature moment came in 1994 when he delivered a similar message regarding the Clinton healthcare plan--but what he doesn't seem to get is that circumstances change.
-
Palin Promises Twitter Fun
Tweet Share on Facebook July 17, 2009 Comment (8)Ready for Sarah Palin unleashed? This from her Twitter feed (h/t Ben Smith):
AKGovSarahPalin: elected is replaceable;Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site
Less politically correct flying twitters? We await with baited breath. (And if like me you wondered if the guv wouldn't have to get a new Twitter handle once she leaves office, she subsequently tweeted that her new personal Twitter site would go live July 26.) Any nominations as to what her new Twitter name should be?
-
MoveOn.org Uses Palin Op-Ed as Fundraising Tool
Tweet Share on Facebook July 14, 2009 Comment (27)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
First Sarah Palin writes an op-ed in the Washington Post. Then the fundraising machines get cranked up. That noise you hear? It's the cha-ching and cha-ching on both sides of the aisle, starting with liberal activist group MoveOn.org, which is asking for money to run an anti-Palin ad.
-
It's Michael Jackson Funeral Day--How Would You Get the Media's Attention?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 7, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The most important story in the world today is that Michael Jackson remains dead. That's pretty much what I can glean from flipping between the 24-hour
newsMJ networks this morning (I think one of them has officially changed its name to MJNBC). It makes me wonder what a politician would have to do to punch through the Jacksonalia and get noticed for more than a brief oh yeah, other things are going on in the world today moment. A member of Congress streaking the House floor? Barack Obama ceding Alaska back to the Russians (Sarah Palin really could see Russia from her porch then)? Click on the comments section below and weigh in with your idea of how a pol could get on the news today (without using Michael Jackson).This much I know: If I were a pol hiding a scandal, I'd get it out today when no one is paying attention. Yes, it's true that I have on several occasions hunted the most dangerous game in Central Park, but...
-
Sarah Palin's Lame Duck Resignation Logic Eliminates a 2012 Run for President
Tweet Share on Facebook July 6, 2009 Comment (30)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
While it's probably too much to hope that Sarah Palin (or, really, most politicians) be governed by rules of logic and/or intellectual honesty, the lame duck Alaska governor's resignation reasoning (such as it was) all but eliminated a future presidential run for herself.
