gop

Remember last month how the GOP constantly said cameras should be rolling during health care negotiations? Now that there’s a chance for that, well look at what’s happening:

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) today echoed Rep. John Boehner's (R-OH) supposed concern that televising President Obama's bipartisan health care reform summit would turn it into a "media show" -- even after both called for him to make the process more transparent.

Much like Boehner, Enzi was one of the Republicans who earlier called for Obama to televise the health care debate on C-SPAN, in the name of "increased transparency."

What are these Republicans afraid of? There must be something there. I mean if they had such a great position then you would think they would want the cameras rolling. I guess their position isn’t that great after all….

Talk about being busted. Last night while giving her little speech to the tea bagger convention, Sarah Palin is caught reading answers from her palm. Not only that, but in the same speech she also gets on Obama as a “guy with a teleprompter”.

Obama went to the House GOP and answered questions for a couple of hours, all without a teleprompter. Palin walks into her fan club and can’t answer softball questions without writing the answers on her hand? Welcome to the world of incompetence.

This is the kind of news that should be plastered on every network tonight:

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to confirm Martha N. Johnson as head of the General Services Administration, nearly 10 months after she was first nominated to head the federal agency.

Upon assuming office, Johnson "will become the first permanent Administrator of the General Services Administration in nearly two years."

Earlier in 2009, Johnson was unanimously approved by members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. But a single senator, Republican Kit Bond from Missouri, has used his symbolic 'privilege' to hold up consideration of Johnson's nomination since last summer. The delay was meant to pressure GSA administrators to approve a $175 million federal building project in Kansas City.

A nomination held up for 10 months because a damn Republican wanted his pork. Why isn’t the tea baggers or Republicans calling out this crap? Because they are damn hypocrites – every single one of them.

This tweet from Luke Russert seems to indicate so:

GOP aides telling me it was a mistake to allow cameras into Obama's QA with GOP members. Allowed BO to refute GOP for 1.5 hours on TV

It might have been a mistake politically for the GOP, but it was a big win for America. It’s time to stop hiding behind factually wrong talking points and start hearing some truth come out. The GOP got owned today and they know it.

Adding…Maybe the GOP thought Obama would fail without a teleprompter. They believe their own bullshit so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what happened.

Rob Diamond, a Navy veteran and Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, noticed something interesting with the Republican response to the State of the Union address:

Notice who is sitting directly behind McDonnell on his right side? You have an Army Staff Sergeant in full dress uniform. As Rob points out:

Slight problem, you see. That is probably against the law.

Look it up for yourself right here in the Department of Defense (DoD) Directive entitled "Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces." The purpose of this DoD Directive is to mirror the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from engaging in partisan political activity in an official capacity. Since a DoD Directive is considered to be in the same category as an order or regulation, and military personnel violating its provisions can be considered in violation of Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, our Republican friends may have just caused this brave young soldier to break the law. Thank you for that, Governor McDonnell.

A new mailer has surfaced in the Massachusetts Senate race:

This is absolutely brutal: Massachusetts Dems have dropped a mail piece accusing GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown of wanting hospitals to turn away “all” rape victims.

The mail piece — sent over by the Brown campaign — shows pictures of women who are supposed to have been raped, one of them in a wheelchair bent over with her head in her hands. It says: “1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.”

Greg Sargent has all the details and explains why this is nothing but a false attack ad. I really don’t want to see Brown win on Tuesday, but if he does then the Democrats have only themselves to blame. The American people have rejected these kinds of tactics and it appears the Massachusetts Democrats didn’t learn a damn thing in 2008.

Things are getting pretty tense in GOP land:

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Rick Klein report: RNC Chairman Michael Steele is lashing out his critics, with a series of blunt messages for prominent Republicans who have blasted him over his leadership for the Republican Party.

“I tell them to get a life. That’s old Washington, that’s old ways, and I don’t represent that, and that kills them,” Steele told ABC News Radio in an interview today.

“I’m telling them and I’m looking them in the eye and say I’ve had enough of it. If you don’t want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.”

What is really funny is how Steele takes on the public nature of these disagreements:

“All I’m saying is cut it out. If we have party differences that are inside the party, let’s deal with them inside the party. You don’t see the Democrats running around trying to beat up their national chairman or embarrass him.”

So you tell them to keep it in the party, while you are publicly blasting back at them? That makes perfect sense.

Very public problems like this could spell trouble for the GOP in a year they are poised to make a come back. A big story this week has been the fundraising trouble the Republicans are facing. If people see a party that can’t work together, especially at this high of a level, then chances are wallets will become harder to open.

With the riff in the blogosphere over health care, it is nice for us to see that our problems really aren’t as serious as the problems facing the GOP. Our disagreements seem to be limited to the online community, while the GOP disagreements appear to be at the highest levels of the GOP’s rank and file.