democrat

Could you imagine a Democrat making this claim, instead of a Republican presidential contender?

Now comes presidential candidate and "enhanced interrogation" supporter Rick Santorum arguing on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that McCain simply "doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works." Yes, he's talking about the same John McCain who, in his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, was interrogated during a program of beatings and torture.

Here's the full context of what Santorum said (via Salon):

HH: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think he’s got an argument?

RS: I don’t, everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

Can you pick out the true Libertarian?

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is out with a strong new statement going after conservative critics of the Islamic community center near ground zero that implicitly criticizes his own son, Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul.

The background here is that Rand Paul has been on the record several times saying that, while he doesn't support any federal intervention, he does not think the so-called "ground zero mosque" should be built. "I think reconciliation is best promoted by -- instead of having a multi-million dollar mosque -- maybe having a multi-million dollar donation to the memorial site, would be better for all," he told the Daily Caller. (His opponent, Democrat Jack Conway, has said much the same.)

If you picked Ron Paul then you are correct. This also proves that Rand Paul is nothing but a sellout, who will say or do anything to become a Senator. In other words, Rand Paul is the worst kind of candidate out there. Here’s hoping his time in the spot light is very short lived.

Last night John Boehner won his primary with 85% of the vote. A win for Boehner was all but guaranteed, but what makes it interesting is that the two challengers Boehner faced gained a cumulated total of 15% of the votes. These were two people who essentially did no campaigning at all and in a closed primary. So that means there are 15% of Republicans in OH-08 that wanted someone rather than Boehner.

This now sets the stage for November, where Boehner will have to defend his seat against Democrat Justin Coussoule. Coussoule is the first opponent Boehner has faced who is actively running and even embracing social media as a campaign tool. Boehner won in 2006 by about 30% against a Democratic candidate who basically didn’t campaign and only raised $5,000.

Now we got Boehner facing an actual challenger and that could make for a close race here in OH-08. Justin does have an uphill battle in this usually redder than red district, but given the low approval ratings of Boehner, we could maybe see a November miracle happen.

I was just reading this article in Politico talking about how Eric Massa is now a conservative media hero. Yeah – it seems like red meat to them. A Democrat claiming that he is being pushed out of Congress by his own party for not supporting their agenda. But hey – Massa lasted 6 years in the Democratic Party! Remember – he was a Republican until 2004. But that isn’t what has got me going.

Politico did a recap of what Massa said occurred on the night that lead to the sexual harassment charge:

“I danced with the bride, and I danced with the bridesmaid. Absolutely nothing occurred,” Massa recounted. “I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. I sat down at the table where my whole staff was — all of them, by the way, bachelors. One of them looked at me and — as they would do after, I don’t know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne — a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid. His points were clear, and his words were far more colorful than that.

“And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me, and I said, ‘What I really ought to be doing is fracking you,’ and then tousled the guy’s hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn’t be there.”

First thing that really sticks out at me if 15 gin and tonics, plus an unknown amount of champagne. I used to be a bartender and if someone had 15 gin and tonics they would be beyond that point of being cut off, and that’s without the added little boost of the bubbly.

Yesterday Sarah Palin finally addressed Limbaugh’s use of the word “retard” and as expected, she approves!

PALIN: I agree with Rush Limbaugh. He was using satire to politically correct —

WALLACE: He used the “r” word.

PALIN: He used satire. Name-calling by anyone, I teach this to my children and you teach it to your children and grandchildren, too. Name calling by anyone is just unnecessary. It just wastes time. Let’s speak to the issues and — [...]

PALIN: I didn’t hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with ‘f-ing retards’ and we did know that Rahm Emanuel has been reported, did say that. there is a big difference there. Again, name-calling, using language that is insensitive, by anyone, male, female, Republican, Democrat, is unnecessary. It’s inappropriate. Let’s all just grow up.

As Think Progress points out, Rush used the phrase over 40 times saying, even saying there was going to be a “retard summit at the White House”.

But it doesn’t stop there. Sarah seems upset with name-calling, yet look at what she says immediately after that:

They are kooks. I agree with Rush Limbaugh.

Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL-5) is expected to announce today that he is switching from Democrat to Republican:

According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in his home district in northern Alabama.

Griffith’s party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.

The switch represents a coup for House Republican leadership, which had been courting Griffith since he publicly criticized Democratic leadership in the wake of raucous town halls over the summer.

Griffith did vote no on the original House health care bill, so this decision won’t really have any affect on that.

Another great quote and something a lot of us on the left have been saying all along:

“It’s time for the president to get his hands dirty,” Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, said in a statement this week. “Some of us have compromised our compromised compromise. We need the president to stand up for the values our party shares.”

I remember way back to the Bush years. I’m talking like a whopping 2-3 years ago. When President Bush wanted something done he pushed for it. He would hold press conferences urging Congress to stand with his position, and that was a man with much less political capital and popularity than President Obama.

Obama has proved one thing that scared me and a bunch of other progressives during the campaign – he is too much a pacifist. When you’re dealing with a bunch of self-fulfilling Senators you need a real fighter out there, and sadly we are lacking that.

That would be Charlie Crist:

Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio are now tied in the 2010 race for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Jonathon Singer reminds us:

A month and a half ago, when the Club for Growth began setting its sights on Charlie Crist, I asked how long it would take Charlie Crist to pull a half or full Specter -- that is, pull out of the GOP primary and run either as an Independent or a Democrat. With numbers showing it decreasingly likely that the somewhat moderate Crist can make it out of a GOP primary, decision time might be nearer than we previously thought.

Singer could be onto something here. Watch as more moderate Republicans do the quick party switch and become Democrats, helping to pull the Democratic Party even further to the right. This will really leave Liberals feeling like they have no home, and that will be a very bad thing. I hate to put on my conspiracy hat, but perhaps this is a little known motive to the tea party movement.