Thursday, January 31, 2008

Something to remember about John McCain going foward...

He really is a tempermental SOB.

This passage is particularly interesting:

McCain is fully capable of freezing out someone who has disappointed him. After the Arizona Republic, for instance, published a harsh editorial cartoon making light of a scandal involving painkillers his wife stole from a charity she founded, McCain refused to talk to the newspaper for more than a year. He regularly yells at or ignores fellow senators when he thinks they've done him wrong.

Okay to Chris Matthews and Tim Russert and Maureen Dowd for that matter, the guy is a hero, but who the hell wants to work for someone who POUTS like this? In the real world, this is the sort of behavior that seriously degrades one's performance review and leads to a leveling off of income at a relatively early age.
But if you are Chris Matthews' Dream Man on Horseback, Senator John McCain, it is a martial virtue in extremis.

In the 23rd Middlesex special election for state representative....

The Chimes at Midnight proudly endorses the candidacy of Jeff Thielman.

Arlington has just passed thru what amounts to a golden age in terms of representation in the Great-n-Gen'rl Court, Bob Havern and Jim Marzilli in their own way lived up to very high expectations on the part of the electorate.
Now with Marzilli ascension into the state senate the Town of Arlington needs to find a rep with guts, brains and stamina...someone who brings real life experience and a proven record to the sinecure.
Someone in short, who will make their mark and do right by the Town...and that person is Jeff Thielman. He has been a active member of the school committee, an attorney, vice chair of the local democratic committee and the executive director of the Cassin Education Initiative Foundation. Jeff's hard work helped save North Cambridge Catholic as well as other imperiled working-class parochial schools from closure.
He is a serious man with a real record of energy and accomplishment, he will do honor to the district.

The other two democratic candidates are good people, Sean Garballey is also a member of the school committee, but at age twenty two he is nowhere near as seasoned as Jeff Thielman, ditto Andrew O'Brien who seems well informed and is otherwise something of an obscurity in the race.

To Humble Elias, Jeff seems born to the job, but that is just his opinion, the democrats of the 23rd house district get their say on Tuesday, don't forget to vote!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Two Sturdy Pundit-Pathologies...

Confront us in this presidential contest, the first asserts that John McCain is either a godly man or a manly god, the likes of Chris Matthews are undecided on this point, the second asserts that Hillary Clinton is a false wicked woman whose downfall cannot come soon enough for the cackling magpies at the kewl kids table.
The inability for the Senator from New York to get even the illusion of fair coverage from the press is evidenced by the current "Newsweek" which tries to gin up another impending crack-up of the Clinton campaign complete with swipes at the former President and nasty quotes from Maureen "Bush is just SO comfortable in his own skin" Dowd.
Well I dunno, the last time all these a-holes were this worked up and dead certain it was curtains for Hillary she went on to win the New Hampshire Primary.
All this has direct implications for us all if the fall race becomes a John versus Hillary contest (and it may not, but yuh never know), it will be a given under those circumstances that the kewl kids table will reach new and dangerous heights of bias and distortion.
The Senator from New York should consider herself duly warned and ought to consider framing a strong argument against press bias going forward.

Hell, it worked for Nixon.

My question is...why the hell do they all hate her so? Most of her most zealous press adversaries are themselves aging boomers who apparently have decided to project onto Hillary Clinton all of their own generational fear, guilt and paranoia.
It is like they are afraid of her or something.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Former Secretary of Educations "Dollar" Bill Bennett,

in an appearance on CNN not two hours ago, gaseously reassured the fretful legions of conservatism that even if Mitt Romney changed his mind about gays, abortion, women and Darwin's theory of evolution, that he has been "consistent" on the subject of taxes.
What the bloated virtue Pimp is trying to spin here, is that Romney didn't raise taxes as Governor of Massachusetts, however what Bennett DECLINES to note is that Mitt and his shitheel crew raised every single fee they could find sans recourse to the State Legislature.
THAT is the sort of feckless manipulation that passes for learned commentary on CNN.

Oh and By the Way, the Former Viceroy spent millions and millions of dollars to LOSE Florida tonight, beaten by a penniless, tempermental and slightly senile gasbag from out the US Senate.
Sad end for Brian McGrory's fabled Man on Horseback...still for the purposes of sheer schaedenfreude, I do hope Romney battles on thru Super Tuesday and beyond. I'm beginning to enjoy these weekly humiliations that are inflicted on Willard by a frantic and vengeful electorate.

The Last State of the Union Speech....

unless of course La Famiglia Arbusto declares martial law and proclaims GWB "Top Swank for Life".
Ah but what self respected corrupt malevolent inhabitant of the White House can resist the urge to anesthetize congress and the nation one last time with one's turgid lies and delusions?
Bush Jr. goes out the way he came in, a craven punk who needs bullies and criminals around him to accomplish the simplest tasks.
He he still pretending to be a shrewd shitkicker who is putting something over on the city-slickers...and he still enunciates simple three syllable words like "potential" as if it was the first time he ever saw them on the teleprompter.
Not much has really changed since those halycon days back in 2001 when Bush gave his "groundbreaking" speech on stem cell research complete with bats flapping around behind him at his Crawford Texas ranch.
Nope it is like the whole country is in suspended animation...

Monday, January 28, 2008

Edward Maximus....

is endorsing Barack Obama later today.
With Senator Kerry (AKA "Th' Tall Guy") and the Governor all signed off on Barack, the Massachusetts Presidential Primary long a laggard sort of show at best is suddenly becoming more interesting.
The last poll done here called it for Senator Clinton, but that was before South Carolina...the numbers might be in flux now.

Just sayin'...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Joanie hearts Sal?

So when did Globe columnist Joan Vennochi become seemingly so palsie-walsie with House Speaker DiMasi?
Because every time she writes about state politics lately, it's all Sal, all the time.
They really are a match made in heaven they both view Governor Patrick with some ill disguised loathing and since no one in the Admin will talk to Joanie, she has perhaps cultivated the House leadership by way of compensation.

Now of course, Vennochi is prattling on about how Deval Must Deliver Massachusetts to Obama Or Risk Becoming Irrelevant!
Last year she said the same thing about the Anti Gay Marriage ballot measure, next year who knows where she will set the bar and how high?

Which leads me to a simple axiom of politics, don't let your enemies define what constitutes success.

Of course, I'd be on firmer ground if I knew WHY Joanie loathes Patrick so? After years and years of reading her column I'm no closer to understanding Joanie's politics, the best I can come up with is that she didn't think Patrick would win, and when he did that made her look bad and Joanie Doesn't Like That One Bit.
The rest of them are a transparent as glass, Jacoby, Lehigh etc...but Vennochi nothing a complete mystery.

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Romentum in Florida

Rasmussen gives The Former Viceroy a sketchy sort of a lead in the upcoming Florida Primary.

Can't imagine what he is promising the Florida citizenry to keep out ahead, probably eternal youth, vigor and free hookers at this point.

Is it possible that the conservative politicians put up by the country get more craven and stupid every four years? And is that a good thing for the cause of civilization?

Meanwhile, the Late Hubert H. Humphrey had Nixon's number in 1968, and by extension Mitt Romney's number in 2008.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

John Kerry in Arlington (again)

If Senators Kerry, Kennedy and the Massachusetts Democratic Party have an "Imperial Guard", then it is seemingly encamped in the hills, hollows and plains of Arlington Massachusetts.Therein is a hardly battle-tested volunteer base that once swarmed north and turned Red New Hampshire a bright shade of blue in 2004 and then went to sweep the field for Deval Patrick a mere two years later.
So it is entirely fitting that Senator Kerry should drop by before the caucus and state his case for renomination, these are his Spartans, his "300" so to speak.
HE spoke for about twenty minutes, supposedly just long enough to throw off his challenger Ed O'Reilly's schedule for the rest of the night, ahh but that is a low and crude accusation, John Kerry would never play sharp elbows with an opponent...would he?
One thing last night really struck me, John Kerry is pretty much the same reformer he was in 1972, from energy to the enviroment he wants to change institutions either make them inherently more democratic or to make them more responsive to the citizenry.
There are few issues before the Republic for which Senator Kerry does not have a sane and sensible proposal born of long thought and longer experience.
One or two of these ideas have strong political implications for the upcoming presidential election, "The Duke Cunningham Act" (which mandates that convicted congressional felons should lose their lucrative pensions) is just the sort of measure our nominee needs to be talking about this fall.
John Kerry is in short, a man with an entirely reasonable agenda, one that is to the benefit of all americans.

Ed O'Reilly (his primary challenger) is a man with an inexplicable grievance....

Take your pick.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Ed O'Reilly crashes Arlington

John Kerry's alleged rival for the democratic senatorial nomination appeared before the Arlington Town Democratic Comittee this evening.
He is to say the least very definite on one point, he is not and never shall be, John Forbes Kerry.
Other than that, and a few further-to-the-left-than-John Kerry brickbats there does not seem to be much to the guy by way of a program.
Citizen O'Reilly claimed, seemingly in one might exhalation that while he supported John Kerry in '02 and '04 he was simultaneously so repelled by the man's vote authorizing the Iraq war as to consider challenging JK in the 08' senatorial primary.
This did not prevent Ed O'Reilly from voting for John Kerry twice within a subsequent two year period.

Ralph Nader was right there in ought-four, Ed...why did you pass on him?

What really had Humble Elias scratching his head though was O'Reilly's rant against Kerry's thousand dollar a plate fundraisers events that allegedly give unwarranted access to the Senator to wealthy and powerful contributors.
Whereupon this barefoot attorney from the beaches of Gloucester airily admits he gave two-thousand dollars to John Kerry in '04, or roughly TEN TIMES the amount humble Elias was able to whomp together to the great cause.
Clearly neither he nor I gave that money in the hopes of future access to a US President, so it if our intentions were good, maybe just maybe, John Kerry's intentions are of a similarly high caliber.
O'Reilly jokes lamely about wanting his money back, Humble Elias wants his country back and will happily forgo any money back guarantees to get it.
Frankly having seen O'Reilly up close, I'm not impressed, like a certain number of angry progressives, he tends to take out his frustrations in the aftermath of an electoral defeat on the nearest elected liberal.
It is a species of self destructive behavior that I've seen go down on many occasions.
Liberals tend to anthropomorphize political defeat as a form of emasculation, they compensate for this sometimes thru a form of unhealthy reaction formation, ergo by beating on other liberals.
Which is where Citizen O'Reilly seems to be coming from.
I don't think the upcoming State Convention should vote to put him on the ballot, he is unserious and driven by a futile purge-our-way-to-glory mentality.
More than that I will not say, indeed I cannot, I've already forgotten most of O'Reilly's remarks save his snide insinuating tone.

Thompson goes Crashes and goes Boom

quietly, via e-mail, but boom nevertheless.
He exits the GOP presidential contest in the same state of suspended animation by which he entered. Amicable, listless, no one can recall a single sensible or even memorable thing citizen Thompson uttered from Iowa thru South Carolina. He got in late and got out comparatively early, forced out with the rest of the cheap acts by the relentless hammer of loss after loss.
Back in the fall poor Fred was touted as the Man on Horseback, a leathery mumbling savior sent to deliver the "Reagan Coalition" from electoral defeat and dismemberment.
Now, a scat four months later we can see what a hollow retrograde desire that really was.
Alas, people in politics are a forgetful breed, mostly they've forgotten that Reagan was elected president twenty-eight years ago and his political DNA has proven nigh impossible to clone since then.
The best they can do is a groaning old hack like Fred Thompson or an apple-polishing jerk like Mitt Romney, neither of them any sort of fitting successor to Saint Ronald of Malibu.
Then again the GOP has screwed the country up so completely that looking to the past for salvation seems a given, after all the future sure doesn't look so bright now does it?

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Political Almanac

Ed O'Reilly, John Kerry's alleged challenger in the upcoming senatorial primary speaks to the Arlington Town Democratic Committee on Wednesday, January 23
7:30 p.m. Second-floor Meeting Room Community Safety Building 112 Mystic St, in the teeming heart of Romantic Arlington.
Free to all interested democrats, polecats and whipsnades steer clear.

And then on Wednesday...The League of Women Voters of Arlington and Vision 2020 are co-sponsoring a forum for the candidates for the 23rd Middlesex State Representative seat on Thursday, January 24 at Town Hall. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the forum will begin at 8 p.m.
This one is free to the whole public, and marks the first face to face between the Messr's Garballey, O'Brien and Thielman the democratic aspirants to the 23rd Middlesex house seat.

Monday, January 21, 2008

MLK Blogs:

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

Martin Luther King Jr.

Ain't that the truth.....

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Steve Stark takes "Internet Pundits" to taste in his latest Boston Phoenix column

Apparently it is the bloggers damn fault that the media missed completely Senator Clinton's last minute surge to victory in the New Hampshire Primary.
If The Chimes at Midnight and Blue Mass Group and the Daily Kos had just piped down and let the sober experienced paper based reporters work in peace, the story would have been accurately reported.
Or so Steve's argument seems to run...
To quote th' olde misanthrope "What Rubbish!"
The mainstream media got it wrong because they hate Senator Clinton and her husband almost to a man...anyone else recall Chris Matthew's patently sexist assertion that Senator Clinton won because her husband cheated on her?
It is that kind of smug patronizing reportage that put a good fifty thousand New Hamsphire women into the voting booths for Hillary. It isnt' that her husband cheated, it is because Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert and all their ilk treat her with such palpable disrespect and derision.
New Hampshire saw a chance to rub their noses in it and who can blame them?
We can certainly put Steve Stark within the Hillary hater ranks sans too much trouble. Back in his Boston Globe days hardly a week passed when he didn't predict, defeat, destruction and lengthy jail-terms for everyone in the Clinton Family save perhaps Miss Chelsea.
Like a lot of these guys, he was DESPERATE to write a nice lugubrious patronizing obituary for Senator Clinton, so of course being bitterly biased as well as disappointed it is somehow now Humble Elias' fault that the story slipped right past them.

I freely admit I called it wrong, but any predictions you read here are mere entertainment and nothing more.

I read the same nigh useless polls as everyone else, so if I'm right that is great, if I'm wrong the diversion value is still there.

Can't say as I'm inclined to vote for Senator Clinton in the upcoming primary, but my thoughts are entirely unsettled on that point. But watching Tim Russert, Steve Stark and Chris Matthews et al all go down in a heap like that on primary night was a precious and lovely thing to behold.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

BTW

It would seem that all the contenders for the democratic nomination for state representative in the 23rd Middlesex special election, are against casino gambling to a man. Sean Garballey derided the notion at his formal campaign announcement at the Sons of Italy, Jeff Thielman has spoken against class III gaming in the Commowealth during his personal appearances and Andrew O'Brien, the darkest of dark horses in the race has denounced the practice in a flyer.
It is also interesting to note that Jim Marzill won last year's special election to the fourth Middlesex state senate seat being the only anti-casino gambling candidate in four way democratic nomination fight.
This district just doesn't like slot machines and roulette wheels, there is no getting around that.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Two short weeks ago...

Candidate Mitt Romney adopted democrat Barack Obama's change mantra in a desperate doomed bid to turn around the New Hampshire Primary.

Humiliated by the subsequent loss to Senator John McCain who is the closest thing in politics to Kenny Delmar's old "Senator Claghorn" routine, Romney then slid off to Michigan and stole a page from John Edwards' campaign promising to reopen closed auto factories.
And what the hell the damn fool won, so as a result we can look forward to more of Romney's Huey Long act in which he promises "Jobs fer all yew slobs" by fair means or foul.
Of course, nowhere does he mention how he is gonna recover those manufacturing jobs, what statutes he will propose to congress, what monies he will allocate and who will pay the price for this bid to prevent the exodus of factory jobs?
No Mitt seems to think his wondrous managerial record will be enough to fix things without inconveniencing his well heeled donors.
Honestly with this sudden shift to economic populism, Romney has surged past mere cynicism to outright political depravity.
Meanwhile he is being pimped hard by none other than notorious dope fiend Rush Limbaugh, which just demonstrates that the GOP has hit absolute rock bottom in that the best movement conservatism can hope for in this presidential year is a boring, groveling political tranvestite who talks too fast and says too little.
If Willard Mitt Romney is the GOP's last hope for a Man on Horseback who will save the day, then Humble Elias truly fears for the survival of the two party system in the USA.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sighted at McCain's concession speech Tuesday night

Senator Joseph Lieberman was seen standing right behind McCain with a wan little smile on his face, like he was trying to figure out how he could quietly escape the hall and jet across town to Romney's victory speech in time for the ten o'clock news in Hartford.

Backing McCain seems a natural move for the party-hopping Lieberman, The Arizona Senator was "in play" to switch parties back in 2001 prior to 9-11 and he dickered fruitlessly with John Kerry for the democratic vice presidential nomination in '04.

Ah but the Liebermenschen will always be with us, inconstant, fluid, willing to deny their best friends all in the name of their phantom integrity.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

"Scheme" Romney finally wins on...

in Michigan no less where Romney terrified at the thought of another loss went from town like a demented Soviet Commissar promising to re-open the long lost automobile factories.
We can add this patently insane promise to his oft repeated pledge to over-ride the decrees of various courts and coroners to ensure every American family had a mommy and daddy.
Otherwise, Mitt was in full rant mode last night at his victory party, he looks ridiculous without his coat by the way, Romney is way too congenitally uptight to look casual or jaunty in any circumstance, it is nothing but another indicator of how packaged and insincere he is.
By the way, the snivelling bastard actually smiled when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were boo'd in his victory speech. You don't throw those names into the mix unless you want those boos and catcalls to register loud and clear on TV.
As Fat Albert would say "Noooo Class".

Still His "Washington is broken" bluster will no doubt impress the naive slobs in the pundit class for a week or two, Joanie Vennochi might even get a "Beware you dumb-ass liberals, MITT ROMNEY is gonna emasculate you!" column out of it.

Me I dunno, Mitt had to practically promise the recession wracked voters of Michigan free hookers to win, what will be promise the Texans? More oil from out the ground?
Romney has vaulted to the GOP A-List where he shares billing with a dolorous pack of mystics and whiners none of whom as yet have demonstrated any sustained electoral strength anywhere....nothing more.
That is what forty five million dollars buys you, a chance to politically masturbate for a few more weeks.
The good news is, as of today, the GOP is in complete disarray unseen since the decline and fall of Richard Milhous Nixon, they may get their act together, but time is against them and if they do unite behind a candidate the process will look equally shady and ugly to the rest of the country.
Meanwhile Mit gets bask for a while, at least until Huckabee wins South Carolina and Giuliani wins Florida and then the mishaugas starts all over again like it is the night before the Iowa caucuses.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Conflicted...

Logic dictates, that I wanna see Romney win tonight in Michigan, the Rombot will claim a "comeback" (Having scored "silver" in prior contests...so yes I am predicting another "Mitt flop")and the GOP's presidential pot will start to boil even more unhealthily.
However I do so love pre-presidential melt-downs, especially in the other partei, and with his passive aggressive uptight demeanor, Romney seems deliciously primed for a low yield nuclear detonation between his ears.

Awww hell I don't know, if Romney wins tonight, he will no doubt keep spending and spending if he buys enough negative ads it'll bring the roof down on the whole GOP race...so that is an important consideration as well.

Whatever happens I do think he dumb enough and inexperienced enough to slog thru til Super Tuesday...unless his wife breaks out the rolling pin and shuts off the money spigot. Nevertheless you've got to reach far back into presidential lore to find a candidate who turned off so many so quickly, literally the more you see of Mitt Romney the less you like him.
And he has nowhere to go either, he comes from a state that the GOP couldn't carry at the point of a gun so he can't crash-land into the Vice Presidency.
Just think, a mere four years ago, the man who is thrashing Romney, Senator John McCain was conjuring with switching parties and running for Veep with Democrat John Kerry!
THAT has to hurt!

Monday, January 14, 2008

The 23rd Middlesex special election

It never ends in Arlington, no sooner does Jim Marzilli make the jump to the state senate than another special election must be called to fill his now vacatn seat in the state house of representatives.
The democrats in the race are an interesting and diverse lot.

School committee member Jeff Thielman announced early and is perceived as the favored candidate of Jim Marzilli's fabled organization. Jeff has done yeoman work on the school committee, he is passionate, articulate and energetic. In a normal election cycle he'd be a shoo-in, however thanks to his involvement in a regrettable but unavoidable controversy attending the dismissal of the middle school principal Thielman's chances are about fifty-fifty when all is said and done.
All politics is local, sayeth O'Neill the Great, "Ah but alot of local politics is personal" adds Humble Elias.
A lot of serious local liberals and progressives are backing his candidacy is a district know for it's liberalism, but Jeff may not be able to count on the same degree of unity that Marzilli had last fall. Be that as it may, he is a very serious man with a wide experience of public life, he will run hard on primary day.
His main opponent is Sean Garballey, also a school committee member, he too is articulate and friendly, he is also exactly twenty two years old. Despite his extreme youth, Sean is the clear darling of the "townies" and town hall based organization headed by selectperson Diane Mahon. This is somewhat ironic given that he clearly sounded like a "townie friendly" version of Jim Marzilli at his campaign opener a week ago.
Sean has many friends around town including some serious liberal wattage and can be counted on to be a formidable competitor on primary day. Sean's major problem is that he renowned for his ingratiating ways, some of his supporters may be mistaking that for other virtues that as yet have not manifested themselves. Moreover at twenty two it is easy to argue he is just too young and inexperienced to swim the serious sharks in the state legislature. What is worse for Garballey is that he looks a lot younger than he is, some of this wouldn't work to his advantage in a normal election cycle but with the primary itself barely three and a half weeks away he may well win the nomination on positive name recognition alone.

The third candidate is one Andrew O'Brien whom no one in Town seems to know from a cord of wood. He is an unknown quantity, never glimpsed on the town democratic committee nor seen around in any other political capacity. Neither camp has much to say about him otherwise. Presumably we will see more of him in debate, but at the moment the man is a question mark.

Friday, January 11, 2008

MR on NPR

During the segment on the upcoming Michigan Primary, Mitt Romney promised to "Take Washington apart and put it back together so it is smaller, simpler and more efficient".
A month ago this sort of rubbish would have sounded ominous and dangerously utopian, indeed we all suffer when conservatives feel the need to imbibe of reform...and Romney is suddenly a sot for the stuff.
These days though it is all bit tedious and silly, Romney has suffered thru twin Waterloos he decamps to Michigan to take in the air in what amounts to his last ditch.
If he is going out, he is going out the way he came in a smug insufferable amateur who couldn't be told a thing about the great game.
How else to account for these bewildering changes in tone, a few days ago the simple populist reformer from Wall Street, now he babbles like what he thinks an auto executive sounds like.
This on the other hand seems like a very interesting idea...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Kerry endorses Obama

The details can be found here:

Well what else was JK to do? Edwards dissed him after the 2004 election and Hillary dissed him during the 2006 election, a process of elimination this leads him to Obama.
There are some stylistic similarities between them, Kerry talked a lot about change back in '04, generation change, stylistic change and the imposition of different values in the White House...all very much Obama-before-Obama-hit-it-big if you asked me.

The value of said endorsement could come in quite high, if Massachusetts actually becomes a seriously contested primary for the first time in thirty years.
Hillary has a lot of supporters in Massachusetts, part of that is the glee at the prospect of a woman president, part of it as also the fact that like the Kennedy's, the Clintons are a de-facto party within the party.
This could become a state by state slugfest between Obama & Clinton and John Kerry does have battle tested spartans & sundry grenadiers to throw into the fray.

So far as I know, Ted Kennedy hasn't made an endorsement yet...I wonder if this will move up his timetable any?

For that fact who is Ed O'Reilly backing?

:D

Amidst the wreckage of the New Hampshire Primary...

Trust Joanie Vennochi to extract one last asinine column from the whole mishaugas.
In her wrap up for the above primary Joanie indulges this howler in respect of Barack Obama's candidacy:
He dazzled a packed field house with a beautifully delivered speech, bursting with inspirational riffs. At the end, hands reached out to touch him, as if he were Bobby Kennedy. Obama's rhetoric, too, has a 1960s feel that many aging flower children could groove to.

"Aging flower children"...shit Joanie you can do better than that...If Obama was John Kerry you'd a been happily questioning his manhood long before this.

Well I think I've finally figured out Joanie problem, she really can't play defense...reduced to defending Hillary Clinton in today's column she wanders like rhetorical landscape like an abashed agnostic in a Cathedral before belittling John Edwards' debate performance...but then Edwards was Kerry Vice Presidential candidate so that helps generating the necessary venom.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Well Humble Elias called it...

all WRONG mind you, but he called it nonetheless.

:D

McCain trounced Romney and Clinton edged past Obama by three points...that is what I get for taking the polls seriously.
But what happened to Senator Clinton, isn't hard to understand, older women broke for her in droves and with the weather being balmy for New Hampshire some sort of upset was in the air.
She did well because tens of thousands of New Hampshire women marched to the polls and knifed their husbands in the back...figuratively speaking.
They've been quietly putting dinner on the table for years now while their bloated sagging husbands ranted and raved with the latest of Rush Limbaugh's taking points. At some point, voting for Hillary seemed the most sublime payback.
I observed this phenomenon at close range in New Hampshire going door to door for various candidates back in the day, the loud mouthed slob of a husband snarls and barks about "taxes" and "feminazis" meanwhile out in the kitchen you could see the wife throwing dagger eyes at hubbie.
This is the sort of thing that could well crop up again and again in other states, plenty of women are sick and tired of their husband's bluster and the INEVITABILITY of blundering egomaniacal choice for president.

Can't say I'm a big fan of the former first lady, she has her virtues though, what was nice to see was the sheer consternation and embarrassment on the faces of those smug & biased bastards in the media who had scheduled a square dance on Hillary Clinton's political grave.
The republic almost always benefits when they are proven wrong.

***

How about that Mitt Romney?
He spent forty five million big ones to date, seventeen of it his own money, and all he has to show for it is winning the semi-outlaw Wyoming Primary.
And honestly he really really did look like his head was gonna explode last night.
Precious and lovely indeed.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

GOPocalypse Now...

Hold it....just a moment, let me savor....yesss!!!
ROMNEY IS DEFEATED!!!!
***

Oh watching Willard grin humorlessly and grind his jaw like an orangutang tonight was precious and lovely to behold. Those beady little eyes of his were sodden with repressed rage and hatred...you could tell he was totalling up in his mind ever dollar he'd flung at New Hampshire only to lose to an aging senate blowhard who was billed below the trained birds and the cheap acts not ninety days ago.
Ah but Willard never fails us, his "concession speech" tonight was naught but his chintzy standard stump oration with a different closer.
I actually felt bad for the battered die-hards in the hall tonight who were chanting "WE LOVE MITT!" before the cameras, it wasn't quite a rousing chorus of "Nearer My God to Thee" on the boat deck of the Titanic...but it was the best they could do.
Nothing so illustrates Romney's amateurism, than this sad tawdry end to what amounts to a long running inexplicable political delusion.
It has been a long bleak journey since election night 2006 when Mitt practically shoved Kerry Healey aside to test out his presidential stump speech on TV even as his faithful Lieutenant Governor was buried in an electoral landslide...but the end nonetheless is upon us. How much longer are Tagg and his brothers gonna let Daddy spend their children into pauperism with this cockammmamie presidential mishaugas?

it is OVER Mitt, give it up, they got too good a look at you and went with the old Golem with the bleached blonde trophy wife!
Forget it, that two minute commercial last night all but killed you in the polls, smarmy insincere, you lost a half a percentage point per ten secounds on that one.
FACE IT!
The more they see of you, the less they like you!
It is nothing personal guy, but you have (In the words of the late Lenny Bruce) a talent for making people vicious!
Just give it up, show some self respect for once in your life.

Thought for the day...

If Mitt Romney loses the New Hampshire Primary tonight, and that still is a big if, he'll be only the second modern Massachusetts pol so rejected by the Granite State's famously fidgety electorate.
The other being Teddy Kennedy in 1980 who lost to Carter.
The irony will not be lost on either man if it happens.
:D

Today and Tonight...

The weather is clear and warm for January in New Hampshire, that could bring more seniors out to vote as the day wears on. That might be good news for John McCain who despite his optimistic tone is locked in a tight race with Willard Mitt Romney. What McCain needs a nice early exit poll say around 5 or 6pm at the latest noting that Obama is way out ahead with the democrats, news like that might tempt independent voters who are commuting home from Boston to throw their votes to the Arizona Senator.
He is aided somewhat by the somewhat bizarre turn Romney has taken in his advertising, full on head shots of Mitt talking away...with each moment he becomes smarmier and more insincere.
On th' other side
Senator Clinton looks nervous, she has gone populist way late in the process, the tilt might have worked two or three months ago, but the current truncated schedule reduces the real New Hampshire primary to a bare five days. This in some ways advantages the winner of the Iowa Caucuses who has some useful short lived momentum going into the New Hampshire primary.
In some ways, Obama's strategy mirrors John Kerry's approach in 2004, use Iowa to leverage New Hampshire, worked for JK and Jimmy Carter and it may work for Senator Obama tonight.
John Edwards is hoping for a miracle, which for him means once again edging Clinton for the second spot which in turn might give him a toe hold however small in South Carolina.

Therefore Humble Elias predictions run this way (Hey if Steve Stark can do em' so can I)
The democrats:
Senator Obama by eight points
Senator Clinton second
FOrmer Senator Edwards a very close third.
Richardson a distant fourth.

Gravel, Kucinich and Richardson have about fourteen days left before the curtain rings down.

The GOP:
McCain by three to five points in a late night nail biter.
Romney in a close run loss, the final issue gets exported to South Carolina for resolution.
Huckabee a distant but happy third. his will be the happiest most rousing concession speech tonight. All he needs to do today is to look competitive, his campaign is already looking to other contests in states with big evangelical voting cohorts.
Guiliani will run fourth clueless to his own impending disolution. However Rudy will hang on til Super Tuesday at least on the sheer forward thrust provided by raw ego.

Thompson, Hunter and Paul are toast along with anyone else I'm forgetting....Keyes was toast four years ago.

Let the games begin, see if Humble Elias can get anything Right!
:D

Monday, January 07, 2008

Hey the Chimes at Midnight scooped the Globe...

who noted in their campaign wrap up this morning, that most of Romney's questioners from yesterday's event in Nashua came from out of state.
In fact three out of the five questions tossed to him, came from persons who presumably could not vote in the New Hampshire Primary.
I don't presume to infer much from that factoid, there is a certain amount of spectacle of a kind that attends on the New Hampshire Primary that attracts a sporting sort of crowd, certainly it is no indicator of Romney's potential vote tomorrow.
The Globe also claims there were four hundred people in the room, how they arrived at that number I do not know since it was an unticketed, open to the public event.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen sez that the GOP race is tight and a lot depends on what increment of the independent vote McCain can drag into the GOP Primary tomorrow. If McCain wins even if he edges Romney it's the end of Willard's presidential hopes, he promised an old fashioned blitzkreig and got whipped by a giddy baptist shaman and the senate's most ill tempered blowhard.
A hard position to move up from to be sure.
Even if Romney wins, it might not be good news, McCain has but to close within five percentage points to seriously impede Romney's momentum.
Under this scenario the decision will be essentially exported to South Carolina, which is volatile ground for a candidate with no serious victories under his belt.
But honestly, I do hope he loses tomorrow night, you just know he won't take it well, Willard might even blow over the edge live on camera in a really interesting way.
The more I reflect on it, I wished I could've asked Romney his views on Darwin's theory of natural selection yesterday...I think his head would've exploded.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Twilight of the Fraud...(?)



There is no beating around the Bush, Mitt Romney is a colossal bore. He may be unthreateningly handsome, well groomed with a morbidly perfect family, but that clacking machine gun monotone of his is a reliable and cost effective substitute for surgical anesthesia.
Yes indeed, late in the game, Humble Elias made the trek into New Hampshire to see Mitt's stump speech in it's natural setting, a GOP rally evenly divided between news media and actual attendees. The setting is built around a huge "To Do" List composed of poll-tested over-marketed GOP effluvia...I can't recall a single point out of the twelve or so listed, certainly whatever was up there was uncontaminated by any originality. Anyway, the list itself is unimportant, Mitt can't implement any of it even if he really wanted to...it"s a campaign gimmick and a cheesy one, whoever dreamt it up was paid too much for the work as furnished.
By the way, if you are interested in what Barbara Anderson is doing these days, she is pimping hard for Romney, introducing him at events all over New Hampshire. Babs tends to rattle on and on about Prop 2.5 and other oddments of no interest to the locals during her warm-up.
A thought just struck me? Is Babs still pro-choice? Or has she flipped on that out of love for the Former Viceroy?
Well whatever her stance on abortion, she is resolute in her immoderate praise for Citizen Romney, which only begs the question "If Mitt was such a great governor why'd he abandon Massachusetts after only one term?"
And then Mitt comes out in a gleaming white button down shirt and tie belching a whole bunch of promises he will never condescend to keep including a solemn pledge to end partisan strife in DC, which is hilarious given the gruesome and nasty tenor of his current round of attack ads.
He also made the usual demogogic noises about illegal immigration which got him the expected animal roar of approval - indeed this was his strongest applause during the whole appearance. Then there is his plan for universal health care by imposing universal thrall-dom to the insurance companies, his pledge to make strong families a national security issue and his solemn promise to over-ride death and divorce courts to ensure every household has a mommy and daddy.
It'd be scary stuff if Romney believed any of it, but his tone is so rushed and robotic, you just know he thinks very little of his own promises.
His voice never rises about a hurried monotone, eyes glaze over all around the room when he started spouting detailese which are the short of trivial factums that have to be piled up high to make a fundamental cliche' seem formidable.
Ironically, this is where Mitt is at his dullest, it is also when he almost makes his peace with the Commonwealth, citing all sorts of "progress" made by him under his enlightened Viceroyalty.
All of which AGAIN raises the question "If he was such a superhumanly effective Governor why did he leave after one term and turn the corner office over to a liberal democrat as well?"
Good thing everyone was so enervated by the tedium otherwise all sorts of ackward questions might have cropped up.
The event was billed as "Ask Mitt Romney Anything", it shoudl have been called "I'll answer FIVE and then I'm out of here!"
Of those five questions, tellingly, only two were asked by actual residents of New Hampshire...clearly there were a lot of out of state well wishers in that room as evidenced by the many Massachusetts license plates in the parking lot.
Then Mitt tells an inspiring story, rings down the curtain and is done with yet another uninspired performance. Cliches are enunciated and then duly defended by even more cliches. Mind you, Mitt is earnest after a fashion, the way a telephone answering machine sounds earnest and helpful.
If by some miracle Romney is elected President, I predict the USA will have serious buyers remorse within six months of his inauguration. "I'll SAY anything you want as long as you vote for me" is always a bad presidential bargain that the nation lives to regret.
That my friends is all Mitt Romney has on offer.

Hmmm....

From the looks of things, all the other GOP candidates for President brought their tire irons to the debate last night and devoted a solid ninety minutes of air time to beating on Mitt Romney like he was the proverbial red-headed stepchild.
I mean it was painful, like they wuz laying for him or something.
Which gives me to think that maybe just maybe Messr's McCain, Huckabee, Giuliani and all the other cheap acts just might be readers of the Chimes at Midnight.
:D

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Chasing Romney...



An attempt by Humble Elias to see Citizen Romney "In the Flesh" at Caesario's Pizza in Manchester New Hampshire ended in abject failure this morning.
Apparently the campaign called the pizzeria that very morning and cancelled the event...the staff was put out to say the least by the slight.
Two more votes lost right there.
Romney's jittery acting staff in his Manchester Headquarters told Humble Elias that the appearance had been dumped in order to squeeze in more debate preparation.
The GOP presidential slat foes mano a mano in the Thunderdome (Okay I KID the Dana Center for Performing Arts) at Saint Anselm College tonight at 7:30pm EST.
One might infer that so much "debate prep" comes from a need to put the kibosh on McCain "by any means necessary".
Thus Humble Elias is speculating that tonight's debate will quickly degenerate into a harsh slugfest with Mitt Romney desperately trying to whang John McCain in the noodle with a rhetorical shovel without compromising his sunny optimist bona fides.
Good luck with that plan Mitt...

Friday, January 04, 2008

When the dust settles, the smoke clears and the true extent of the wreckage

from Mitt Romney's pricey defeat in Iowa is seen...then what is Scot Lehigh to do but proclaim his predictable man-love for...Senator John McCain.

This passage fawningly depicting McCain's sudden rise in the NH polls is particularly hilarous:
But in a larger sense, what's really happening is this: The state's finely honed authenticity meter has kicked in. Increasing numbers are concluding that McCain's character and candor stand out. That's what I heard at several McCain events on Wednesday, sometimes from voters who only recently had been leaning toward someone else.
Every time I read the word "authenticity" I reach for my trusty cannister of double strength pepper spray. Inevitably, gushing columnists use the word "authentic" because they dare not describe their candidate as "honest".
In McCain's case the use of the word "authentic" duly obscures his many lapses in judgement and famously short fuse.
Well what of it? All in all, we are getting some nice reverb out of Romney's fabled "Disaster in the Snows".
Poor poor Mitt, he can't even hope for a crash landing in the Vice Presidency, he comes from a state he can't deliver in November and anyway he has called everyone else in the race every vile epithet in the book from coward all the out of pimp...shoulda re-thought those negative adverts there Willard.

Ahem... I need a moment here....

Romney is Defeated!!!!

Well in Iowa at least, and things look pretty damn tight in New Hampshire as well...if McCain wins up there on Tuesday, Willard Mitt Romney will be one of the few A-List Massachusetts politicians to NOT win the New Hampshire Primary...

Tis' a consummation devoutly to be wished....

Yeah Mitt got whipped by a shitkicker preacher with no voting lists, money or volunteers to speak of, ninety shotrt days ago Mike Huckabee was considered the giddiest of the cheap acts, whose routine ran over the closing credits if at all.
How much money did Mitt waste on Iowa? Has Willard thrown away some serious Steve Forbes' style cash yet? How long before young Tagg and his brothers start wondering about their inheritances? I mean, Mitt has loaned his campaign some serious cash...how much longer can he draw on those reserves before his kinder form a quiet junta and start plotting to seize the power of attorney?

:D

So many precious and lovely things to look forward to...

Thursday, January 03, 2008

A few minutes of idle television viewing in the Boston market

is enough to expose Mitt Romney's insolent moral relativism. On the one hand, he has a nice good-old folks type ad in which Willard manfully tries to pretend he is a sunny optimist with a patently phony "aw shucks" demeanor.
In his other ads he all but accuses John McCain and Mike Huckabee of baby-eating and pagan idolatry.
These adverts run one after the other on Fox 25 giving viewers a priceless window on Romney's particular type of cynical dementia.
But then he has been doing this for months, when Giuliani came up in the polls, Mitt began ranting and raving about illegal immigrants...in fact anyone who gets within five percentage points of Romney gets the same Rovian treatment time and again.
Whoever organizes the fall campaign for the democrats, ought to pay attention to this aspect of Mitt's M.O. should the former viceroy actually get nominated for President.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

New Year Old Ideas Restated....

Modern U.S. conservatism is a dying political phenomenon.
It has "promised" itself to death.
Given that, modern conservatism either reneges on it's solemn pledges, or else it simply contradicts itself in some unpleasant fashion, but it never ever delivers on much of anything.
That is because if it ever did, the country would probably go up in chunks.
George Bush Jr. is the most flexively conservative US President in some forty years, and the country has never been more divided, indebted, hag-ridden and miserable.
As such, conservatism abides for the moment chiefly because it is not so much a doctrine or cohesive ideology but rather an interlocking and mutually reinforcing collection of cherished myths.

1.) The myth of grievance: Conservatives are the only oppressed class in the USA, Jeff Jacoby and sundry radio windbags send their kinder to toney private schools on the strength of this one alone.

2.) The myth of christian politics: Christ Jesus Universal and Triumphant has been exiled from public life by a tiny conspiratorial cabal of globalized secular humanists. GOP politicians will bring Jesus back and give him a high cabinet post or their 2008 Vice Presidential nomination if need be.

3.) The Myth of Rugged Individualism: The unstated goal of U.S. conservatism is to sire a sort of "Homo Conservatus-Americanus", a great strappinjg brute who will wax still stronger in a country free of personal entitlements like health insurance and voting.

4.) The Myth of Small Government: How small is "GOP small"?
Small enough to bungle Hurricane Katrina, screw up the Middle East, run up a huger national debt and openly distribute new boons and perks to your most fervent supporters. Of all the myths that compose modern conservatism, "small government" is the most malevolent.

Debased and corrupt, this dying theology is kep alive and relevant by a nasty and brutish class of native enforcers. Persons like Karl Rove and Grover Norquist are very very necessary given the decline in conservatism's approval rating these last eight years.
They know what they want and are happily willing to do anything to get it.
Therefore the task of liberals, democrats and independent progressives whether we win or not this year is to prepare for the arrival of "post conservative civilization".
That means less worrying about civility and the restoration of bipartisanship and more concern with refuting by deed the malevolent consequences of a discredited ideology.
Making nicey-nice with the GOP hasn't don't American any good for eight years now...no point in continuing something with no pay off.
Maybe someday U.S. conservatism will evolve into something more public spirited with a real willingness to negotiate in good faith, but til then we must be prepared for more bitterness and division, no best is so vicious save when it is cornered.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Start the New Year with a correction...

Apparently, according to Yourarlington.com, Suzanne Gordon has made it clear she is NOT running for state representative in next month's special election primary.
(Whew! This one is even faster moving than the damn state senate special election!)

News like this is to Thielman's advantage, if he cannot divide his opposition (as did Marzilli in the senate special election) then at least he has a chance to keep his progressive and independent base united going into next month's primary.