David Bernstein

The Phoenix's political correspondent was kind enough to share his thinking about Romney's Vice Presidential process during an "Ask Me Anything" blogday.
His thinking came down to Ohio Senator Portman and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Both safe sane uninspired choices who might or might not put their state's into play and can be relied upon to accomplish nothing else.
No gender sycophant, no ethnic change up, no Antonin Scalia & no ravers from out the House of Representatives...Hmmmph, I guess Romney must be a lot more secure with the GOP's right wing than I thought.
IF these two mooks are the front runners that is....

Y'know IF

the Boston Globe is gonna grant Scott Brown a platform (as they did in today's paper) from which to rail against the very HCR he voted for as State Senator, against as US Senator and currently uses to cover his ne'er do well daughter Ayla, then at the very least a simultaneous partisan response ought to be printed.
I have not link to offer, for some reason said screed is not available on line, but 2012 is an election year and the Globe ought not to be granting candidates for re-election free publicity on the op-ed page.

Obamacare dodges a bullet...

And Judge Roberts even manages to vote with the 6 to 3 majority.
Given Roberts conservative bona fides it sort of pushes Judge Scalia out into Royalist ideological territory...

Given all that, Associate Justice Scalia must be nigh incandescent with rage and perhaps willing to climb up on the stump and let loose.
I say the whole thing sharpens Antonin's GOP Vice Presidential prospects (a boomlet that reverbs nowhere but Here at the Little Blog That Cried)...A nice ethnic tea partyish Judicial Dissenter?
Romney could do worse and will undoubtedly do so given time.
***
Meanwhile this is a pretty solid victory for the President, of a type guaranteed to enrage his political opponents in Congress, given that I see no way AG Holder can avoid censure in the House as that lot is just desperate to get it's grubby chubby fingers around the President's collar.

Youki Bear Hits the Stump...

(A Soft News Interlude)...that damn bear that cruised Cape Cod and then ambled off to Brookline hit this state like a Mysteriously Ambitious Incumbent Congressman on a fundraising Bender!
Shee-it if dat Bruin shows up at the Ritz Carleton talking about the "Republican War on the Poor", I'd start counting the silverware, 2014 is right around the corner and a target rich environment may be in the offing!

Is it me or

does Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wanna be Mitt Romney's Vice President or something.
It seems like in the last two weeks he has suddenly opted to ideologically colonize his every opinion and public utterance.
Now he is virtually denouncing the admin from the Rostrum of the Supreme Court like a radio talk show tyrant. Normally Supreme Court Justices are a bit more circumspect.
It is no secret Scalia hates the President with all the arrogant fleshy piety of a Parish Council President, maybe he wants to take a flyer in National Politics?
He has already been vetted after all, and his opinions are sufficiently demented to sooth even the battiest Tea Partei Activist.
His only drawback?
 Scalia is much smarter than Romney and Mitt can't abide that sort of competition. That and the prospect of losing the rhetorical protection of his judicial robes will probably be enough to keep Scalia off the hustings...though he will likely run his mouth right thru election night and beyond.

The President is in town today

to do some politicking and fundraising. He is remarkably calm and unruffled for a man whose signature health care reform may have about seventy two hours to live if the Supreme Court votes the wrong way.
Well, and this may sound like unwarranted optimism on my part, I suspect that whatever the SC's decision it is a win-win for Obama.
If HCR survives the SC decision then Romney is still left to nuance his way out of a situation where he denounces on a Federal Level what he championed in Massachusetts.
So far none of his arguments have been either succinct or coherent.
Meanwhile Obama has a powerful issue with which to pummel Romney's almighty flip floppery.
If the SC strikes HCR down as "unconstitutional" they read a major democratic meme back into the presidential campaign, one that Mitt Romney has already compromised himself to the point of distraction.
If the SC votes HCR down, it may well put single payer back into the debate, I mean I can see Romney getting backed into a corner very easily on this one.
Just image Romney having to have to respond to  & reconcile  all the competing plans and pronouncements issued by the GOP's contingent in Congress...that alone will reduce Mitt to babbling madness.
Meanwhile the President still barnstorms the nation with a great deal of freedom of action and an issue dear to the hearts of his base and a good slice of independents as well.
Humble Elias could be wrong, but it all sounds like advantage Obama.
Of course the Punditariat will scream that it is the end of Barack Obama, but we've all heard that one before...

So let me get this straight...

For Shits and Grins at Stanford, Mitt Romney used to get tarted up in Police Officer Drag and pull people over for speeding in his own ersatz cruiser?
Y'know I could make a crude joke about the dangers of spending your college years in a degraded state of sobriety.
But then again, think of mayhem Mitt might have perpetrated if he'd a been drinking, the blood runs cold at the thought.
This does raise an important question though: "Has Mitt Romney ever been on the Side of the UnderDog? Ever? Ever? Ever????"
I think not, from youth to today Mitt has been constantly toadying up to power or else trying to set off a rightical chic counter revolution, one that will preserve and or expand his own almighty sense of entitlement.
Where else does the desire to dress up as a cop and hassle people come from anyway???

Romney'$ Immigration Policy as Bullet Points

(Too tired to provides links tonight gonna keep it short and simple)

1.) REPEAL whatever policy Obama has implemented.

2.) Impose a policy that mimic's Obama's now repealed policy down to the last detail couched however in  slightly different language.

3.) Claim you've been the best friend of illegal immigrants since you were a young fag basher in High School, regardless of what you've been saying since 2010.

Howard Stern...that well heeled refugee on Satellite Radio

Loves Bill Clinton.
Groans with pleasure at the mention of the former President's name, kvells at the thought of the prosperity this nation enjoyed back when Clinton was in the White House.
And yet I can recall with the simplest nostalgia that Howard used to routinely call for Clinton's resignation during the Monica Lewinsky Affair.
"That guy needs to resign!"
I heard Howard say it on terrestrial radio on several occasions, backed up by the usual lewd chuckling and grotesque innuendo.

And I note this simply as a means of observing that blatant hypocrisy is still the very essence of talk radio.

Y'know it is pretty sad when

A Boston Globe Columnist cannot rouse himself protect an individual's right to free speech.
In this case Scott Lehigh thinks Scott Brown's debate "conditions" for the EMK Institute represent a "victory" over Vickie Kennedy. No mention anywheres of Brown's crass and casual attempt to restrict the Widow Kennedy's First Amendment Rights.
Nope no mention anywhere...
Where were these conditions when Brown debated Coakley at the EMK Institute in 2010??

Whoops

Florida's Junior Senator Marco Rubio and his notional candidacy for Vice President is subject to nigh daily Flip Flops from Team Romney. Yesterday he was not being vetted, today the Former Viceroy insists Rubio is being vetted.
This is akin to Romney's five or so positions on abortion down thru the years, largely dictated by geography, immediate need, short term gain etc etc etc.
Does it mean that the fix is in for Rubio?
Probably not.
But Romney does like to make these gestures to the effect that frequently changing his mind does not make him a flip-flopper!
In fact, Romney will say just about anything to disprove that dastardly flip flopper canard.

Scott Brown's terms with respect to the

EMK Institute's proposed senatorial debate are...childish to the say the least.

1.) Victoria Kennedy has to remain "neutral" in the general campaign...
She has a first amendment right to free speech Scott.
Your wife Gail Huff is a journalist and no one is demanding she remain neutral in this campaign..."whassup wif dat?" to quote Shane Helms.
You are within your rights to want a "fair and balanced" approach to the debate by the host institution, but this condition is perfectly churlish.
And anyway where were all these conditions back in 2010 when you debated Coakley at the same institute under the auspices of the same Ms. Kennedy?
2.) No coverage by MSNBC.
Again churlish...Yer within yer rights to ask for Fox News to counterbalance the alleged liberal bias of MSNBC, but banning press outlets is more than a little bossy in a sandbox-y sort of a way.

Oh and the whole proposed shebang is gonna be moderated by that King of Collie Dogs, Tom Brokaw.  Well at least he isn't a power worshipper like the late Tim Russert, but I can't really see Brokaw bringing much to the table otherwise.

Otherwise the campaign is off to a rousing start...

Rubio is outski

as a Romney veep prospect, funny how this item crops up in the newsfeed some seventy two hours after the President hurls his thunderbolt on immigration and the dream act.
This indicates to me that Romney still hasn't sealed the deal with the Tea Partei and cannot possibly countenance a Veep that defies their roiling xenophobia.
Me...I'd cram it down their throats if I was Mitt, toadying and wheedling avails Romney nothing...but then again it is what he does best.

Classic Romney

Blustery, Indecisive and Craven, all at the same time.

He doesn't like the President's executive order putting the children of illegal immigrants out of bounds for deportation, but the Former Viceroy remains silent when asked if he'd repeal said policy.
If he comes out for repeal he alienates Latinos and likely puts some distance between himself and potential veep Marc Rubio.
If he embraces said executive order the Tea Partei will erupt like Krakatoa.
So look for Mitt to try and nuance his way out of difficulties, he'll quote the constitution (a document Romney neither respects nor understands), James Whitcomb Riley really anyone and anything to get out from under.
***
Hell if I was Citizen Warren I'd a spent the weekend chatting in Spanish down in Fall River and New Bedford with all and sundry, and if I didn't know any Spanish I'd fake it and hope for the best.
President Obama and Citizen Warren's line ought to be one and the same "I am against sending away people willing to work hard, pay their taxes and build up the American Dream again...it is in no one's best interest to do this!"

Winston Churchill in the Granite State...

the truth exposed over at Channel Zero....

Y'know, I think Scott Brown

may have just stumbled yesterday when he came out against the DREAM Act and the President's executive order clarifying the legal status of the illegal immigrant's offspring.
Why?
Because there is a bigger Hispanic Vote in Massachusetts than there is a demonstrable Tea Partei Vote, and banging the pots about vast hordes of illegal hedge clippers and house cleaners isn't gonna gat much heat for Brown with independents either.
“I opposed this policy in legislative form, and I oppose it today as an executive order,” 
Scott Brown, Doubles Down....
***
Meanwhile I wonder what straddle Romney will seat thru when he gets questioned about this on Sunday's Face the Nation? (Or is it "Meet the Press" ah fergit).
Whatever it is, it'll be classic Romney, blusterly and inconclusive...

Reuters....

is pimping out the possibility that ex GOP Governor and current Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson might "hurt Mitt Romney in the west".
I don't see it, Johnson lacks both money and charisma and he doesn't have an issue, or at least an issue that Mitt Romney won't clumsily co-opt if push comes to shove.
And it just doesn't seem like a big year for Third Partei insurgencies no matter how many wishful editorials are indulged by the punditariat.
Johnson is the highest profile Libertarian nominee to come along in quite some time which is  normally a party given to nominating jobbers or twitchy mystics like Ron Paul.
He might do some business if he can somehow get into one of the presidential debates this fall, but that is a tall order, I'm not sure a Libertarian has ever polled sufficient strength to warrant inclusion.
The reason for that is simple, the vast majority of the American Electorate may not like Big Government but they have even less faith in the Mystic Properties of the Sacred Free Market. Their day to day lives have too much contact with duplicitous marketing, shoddy workmanship and price gouging all courtesy the private sector, to believe otherwise.
So unless there is some "unrest in the far west" that I am not privy to, Gary Johnson is headed to the bottom of the bill with the dog acts and the Living Mermaid Routine.

Agreed...

Professor Peter Ubertaccio (who posts over at the "MassPoliticsProfs" blog) has an interesting article on the Huffington Post that more or less projects a close fought senatorial campaign this Fall.
This more or less jibes with my own thinking, Brown and Warren have classically asymetrical strengths with core appeal to differing and somewhat competitive electoral cohorts.
Trust me we are gonna have a very late night on the First Tuesday in November, at least insofar as the Massachusetts senatorial campaign is concerned.
I would only point out that relying on his innate charisma (that works as long has he doesn't have to read a prepared speech), interminable TV ads,shamelessly playing to independents and gaming all the rest is The Classic Weld-era election strategy for GOP Gubernatorial Aspirants.
And whatever else I may think of the stagnant lot of GOP Governors that ruled this state like a plantation for sixteen years, I am not so fevered a partisan to deny it is a strategy that works.
So health to our cause is all I can say at this point.

This doesn't surprise me

But per the link, "belief in God" is waa-ay among American Youth.

It is to be expected, the various Protestant Evangelical Sects despite a lot of feckless smiles on TV preach a gospel equal parts of money worship and crude locker room homophobia.
And the moral debacle that the Catholic Church has wandered into, well that has been well covered elsewhere.
Hell it's a wonder those numbers aren't worse, Revealed Religion in the USA has never had less to offer than it does right here, right now.
Bill Maher (who is a bit of feckless windbag I admit) asserts that thirty million citizens of the USA have either no religious affiliation or no belief in God at all. He dreams of an atheist/agnostic voting block that might just throwing it's weight around in US Elections.
Well...its an intriguing possibility, but coalitions are built on candidates and platforms and right now just asserting a lack of organized belief is still a huge risk in US Politics.
But then politicians always lag behind social developments...

Thought for the day...

First Mitt Romney gave a fellow high school student whose sexuality he resented a violent and nonconsensual haircut.
Then he got elected Governor and fired Arditha Weiworka because he didn't approve of the way she wanted to express her love for her same sex partner.
Then he stalled about releasing anti-bullying guidelines that addressed GLT issues...
And when faced with book worshipper outrages over the hiring of a gay national security spokesman, Mitt Romney swallowed manfully and fired Richard Grenell without batting an eye.
So taken in sum, Candidate Mitt Romney is clearly in the grip of what Gustav Le Bon calls an "Imperious Atavism" insofar as gays are concerned.
Y'know, if President Obama played his cards right, he could turn all this to his own advantage this fall.
I mean, the RNC hates the man with a scary intensity right?
They'd write anything into the GOP platform as long as it violently contradicted the President right?
Imagine what would happen if right before the republican national convention the President sent a comprehensive anti-bully measure to the Congress?
The GOP would erupt in paroxyms of anti Obama loathing and immediately insert a pro-bully plank into their platform that fall.
Thus Mitt Romney would be forced to explain in public debate why he wants fewer teachers and more fagbashers and how all that somehow benefits the republic's children.
It'll be something to see at any rate.

In retrospect...

the Wisconsin recall election might've swung in favor of the democrats if they had nominated an Arnold Schwarzenegger type, someone who could self finance with high name recognition and no real political record.

Someone who could have as a consequence gone after Scott Walker from a different angle, perhaps someone from out the ranks of professional sports, who can say?

I know that sounds awfully mercenary, and I hate to promote a culture of disposable politicians, but sometimes renominating the same candidate and expecting a different outcome is the height of folly.

One of the malign results of the failure

to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, is that there will likely be a year long orgy of anti public sector union law-making in the State Legislations of the USA.
Look for it the coss of collective bargaining rights, conversion to dicy privately administered pension plans etc, today's Globe is full of ominous signs and portents.
My question is, given the black cloud that hangs over public sector pension plans, when is Junior Senator Scott Brown gonna read the chicken entrails and formally renounce his tax player funded golden parachute courtesy of the Pentagon's military retirement pension plan?
The man was angling for a bird colonel's hat and benefits in the Maryland National Guard after all...Let us not forget that.
Waaal ah swan but as slippery as Scott Brown is, NO US Senator has ever ever ever given up a public pension or defined taxpayer paid benefit in the entire history of that institution (drop me a line ifn' Humble Elias is wrong about this kids)....So by taking that money, Scott Brown is in fact upholding the honor of the US Senate.
Cuz it is for damn sure no one is gonna interfere with their right to collectively bargain with themselves to keep their own snouts deep in the trough whilst pushing away cops, firemen and the much derided social worker.
But honestly please, as a favor to Humble Elias, that bedraggled veteran of the local blogging scene, can someone out the please ask Scott Brown for his opinion on Public Sector Union Benefits in the light of his own National Guard Pension Plan?

Noted hardcore midwestern conservative...

Ray Bradbury has died.

Channel Zero gives him his due....

What I would give to write a novel even one quarter as good as "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

On Wisconsin...

Well what can I tell you?

Three Million Bucks rarely prevails over Twenty Eight Million Bucks.

Thanks to Citizen's United, the Supreme Court has literally given money the right to vote, and money turned out in droves for Scott Walker.
Hopefully, Barack Obama will read these ballots as closely as Deval Patrick read the results of the 2010 US Senate Special Election.
We will have to endure a few days of GOP triumphalism and perhaps a wee nip of eliminationalist rhetoric before the regression to the mean sets in.
Win or lose though, this was a fight the labor and the democrats had to make, it was forced on them and they did the best they could with the resources at hand a'la the Patriots at Breed's Hill.
Of the distillant of despair, I advise my readers not to imbibe, the election isn't over by any means.

Kultur Note....

The hats, tunics and shoulder braid of the House of Windsor...

You know...

It comes as no surprise to me that Scott Brown, having voted FOR the President's banking reform package, inundated the Treasury Department with requests to water down the resulting regulations to the advantage of his many many backers among the speculator classes of Wall Street.
Keep in mind this is the same Scott Brown who voted against Health Care Reform and then blithely enrolled his own Hollywood Celebrity Daughter in the extended insurance program without a second thought.
The man is nothing if not a chiseler and a bit of a hypocrite.
Well Dick Nixon was pretty slippery too in his time, but let me remind my readers that the US Senate Is Full of slippery characters whose base hypocrisy is no bar to higher office and public acclaim. Merely exposing Scott's lack of character isn't gonna be enough to deny him another term...Even if the Globe and Herald could ever get enough to the Cherokee Snarkage, which they cannot.
Franky at this point we are all Cherokees, All waiting for the Great White Fathers on Wall Street to figure out what is to be done with us all.

And yet at the end of the day

Citizen Warren stomps the remnants of her opposition, makes a rousing speech to the state democratic convention and commences the fall campaign in fine populist style.
And she is still dead even in the polls with Former State Senator Scott Brown despite weeks of snippage at her ethnic heritage from news outlets and pundits who ought to know better.
Psychologically though,  now is the time to strike, make a big populist play for the independent vote "You may not be for me, but I am still for you and eager to look out for your interests", that sort of a thing.
***
Y'know Humble Elias wanted a big primary, with all cohorts within and without the democrat primary duly given their say and consulted. But that is not the way it played out in senate campaign 2012, so be it. If anyone out there is wishing for a do-over, please recall that Massachusetts has a very aggressive congressional delegation, all democrats and full of fight.
Except none of them wanted to fight with Scott Brown.
So here stands Citizen Warren maybe she isn't perfect but she proposes to make a fight of it. I suggest all and sundry suck it up, go home and get your assegais and shields.

Brian McGrory makes the Front Page of

The Boston Globe with an interview of Citizen Warren, of course in the weary wicked end, he strokes his chin and sorta implies she is evasive and maybe untruthful.
Well what more can we expect from Brian? He carried coals for Romney and now proposes to do the same for Scott Brown.
My question is simple and stark though: If I’m not supposed to care about Mitt Romney’s weird apocalypic religion, then why does anyone give a hoot about Citizen Warren’s exact tribal status?
Am I missing something here?
Am I the only one who drives past the Mormon Tabernacle on Belmont nigh every day and sees only a vast monument to One Former Governor's bloated religious ego?


Just sayin' folks, if the Cherokee thing is stayin' on the table, then some other things naturally come under discussion.
***
BTW in case any of my readers (all seven of you) don't read the Metro Section of the Boston Globe, Citizen Warren just collected the coveted endorsement of Governor Deval Patrick yesterday. The Guv abandoned his neutral corner and the story landed on page B-Three for his efforts.
But this Cherokee thing, that is Front Page Below the Fold.
You'd think you were reading "The Manchester Union Leader" they way they are carrying on down Morrissey Blvd way.