insight

A new CNN poll shows the favorability rating of the Tea Party in decline:

The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it’s been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010

That’s compared to a 46% approval for Democrats and 44% approval for Republicans. Perhaps this gives us more insight to the recent decline:

The biggest drop in the tea party movement’s favorability came among people who make less than $50,000 a year. In October, 30 percent in that income group said they had unfavorable views of the tea party. Now, 45 percent say the same.

While many try and pull the wool over our eyes, people are realizing that the Tea Party is anything but a grassroots movement. It’s a corporate backed social experiment to lure people into supporting big earner tax giveaways.

The real shame is that we desperately need a 3rd party in this country, not an offshoot of the Republican Party. A movement like the Tea Party could have the potential to take off, if it is truly about the people. Get something like that going, something that will refuse the influence of big business and money, and you will have a movement that people can really get behind.

And check out who it is:

This week, John's exclusive guests are Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) LIVE from Jerusalem. We'll get their insight on the foiled airline terror plot and President Obama's strategy on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Benen points out:

Hmm, McCain and Lieberman, talking together about foreign policy and national security. Now that's a balanced pairing.

CNN – The worst rated name in news! Keep this crap up and before long CNN will lose the ratings game to public access.

There's problems in paradise according to Ben Smith:

Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign's already-tense internal dynamics.

Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline.

"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.

"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.

Read the whole thing. It gives great insight into the circle firing squad now forming within the GOP. I hate to be overly optimistic, but I think this would be the deal closer for Obama. Let Palin go rogue, which appears to mean super negative, and we will have a very early night on Election Day, thanks to Sarah Palin.

Tomorrow's Washington Post gives us the insight to the meltdown happening within the GOP over Foley:

Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.

A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.

"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," the aide said.

That's right - the House Republican leadership has screwed themselves, and they know it. They are looking for a fall guy, but the first one they picked won't go down. Now the infighting is coming into the public light and it will only get worse. This is the news of October and will have an affect on the ballots in November.

Aravosis has coverage of tomorrow's NYTimes, including Shays calling for leadership's resignation if they knew about this.

Tom Tomorrow can use the help
of everyone out there. He is trying to compile a list of every time Bush has
claimed executive privilege. Head on over
there and lend him a hand. This
list could provide a good insight into the abuse of power this administration
likes to involve itself in.

An interesting story from Germany which gives us some insight into how they
view our leaders and their use of rendition:

German police in 2003 shielded a German national suspected of terrorism
by the United States from questioning by the CIA, according to a newspaper
report to be published on Thursday.

Die Zeit weekly said German police accompanied Reda Seyam, who is of
Egyptian origin, back to Germany from Indonesia after he was interrogated by
the US Central Intelligence Agency in Jakarta, to prevent further
questioning by the US intelligence services.

"Berlin asked us to take special care to avoid that Seyam is not
apprehended in the transit zone of Singapore airport," a German police
source is quoted as telling Die Zeit, according to an advance extract of the
report published on Tuesday. "It does not matter to the Americans that
somebody is German or whether sovereignty is violated. They are like rabid
dogs," the source added.

Article continues
here.

It is nice to see a country care enough about its citizens to go out of their
way to protect them like that. Rendition is just another reason why the world's
view of us has changed so drastically since the aftermath of 9/11.

The Republicans are good at shouting out one line. “Support
Our Troops”. They make it sound as though that is a Republican only stance, when
in reality it is something a large majority of Americans do regardless of party
affiliation.

So why is it then that the Republicans are so supportive of
our troops yet they won’t support a troop who happens to be a Democrat? Paul
Hackett served his country with the utmost honor and respect. He risked his life
to go to Iraq and help train Iraqi soldiers. A Major in the Marines, he made the
call to duty in order to try and get the job done.

Paul Hackett went there and did his job and came home. When
he came home we started hearing stories of how the training wasn’t going as good
as reported. He decided to try and make a difference and run for the vacant seat
in Ohio’s second congressional district.

Now that Paul Hackett is out there explaining why he
doesn’t feel we are doing the job to the best of our potential, the Republicans
feel he no longer deserves support. In fact, the insight that Paul brings back
from Iraq is not what the Republicans would consider hands on experience. They
consider it liberal views.

Yesterday, Hackett’s opponent Jean Schmidt was asked about
her past associations with rare coin dealer Tom Noe.   As soon as she heard
that, she went into the Cheney defense more of “I don’t know Tom Noe, I have
never met Tom Noe, I wouldn’t know Tom Noe if he was here right now”. Well with
Jean having an opponent who is not only a Marine but also a lawyer, he saw that
as a challenge and took it on.