Saturday, January 26, 2013

Notes...

They're going after the Clintons again. The rightists pretended to be pro-Hillary in 2008, for comprehensible partisan reasons. But things have changed. Here's Larry Klayhead:
No one understands better than yours truly – except perhaps Vince Foster and scores of others (including material witnesses) who mysteriously died in and around the Clinton administration during the 1990s – the treachery of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It became well-known during the Clinton years that while the president was a “certified” sleaze ball, the most evil partner of this Bonnie-and-Clyde duo was Hillary. She came to be seen as the “consigliore” of the couple, the one who had executed (pun intended) their dastardly plans and deeds.
And so on. What follows is a rehash of all the Clintonian pseudo-scandals that Joe Conason and Gene Lyons exposed in The Hunting of the President. That book is out of print, so conservatives feel free to repeat all of the old canards. Klayhead may be the only individual on the face of the earth who still believes that Whitewater was an evil Clinton plot, rather than a plot against the President.

In a way, I'm heartened. At least this time, the "Vince Foster!" mudslinging is coming from Republicans. Not Democrats, as in 2008. The universe has returned to its natural order.

The folks I feel sorry for are the dull blades at Hillbuzz, who entered the fray as pseudo-PUMAs, only to reveal their true natures as Republican ratfuckers. What are they gonna do now?

The filibuster: Reid's willingness to cut a bad reform deal (which offered no real reform at all) was infuriating but characteristic: He can see a day when the Republicans would once again control the Senate and the White House. Oddly, the Republicans themselves never plan for the future -- at least not the future of the country, or even their party. (I'm sure that they plan for themselves.)

Republicans remind me of that old Billy Crystal routine about the way puberty hits boys: "NOW. NOW. NOW. NOW." That's all they ever think about; the future is too abstract a concept to contemplate. "NOW. NOW. NOW. NOW."

The Republicans will demand an end the filibuster ("NOW. NOW. NOW. NOW.") when doing so suits their purpose. They want to exercise power. They want control. We will get rid of this arcane filibuster nonsense only when we stand at the brink of (at least) two years of hyper-conservative misgovernance. 

Chief of Staff: Barack Obama has glommed onto his fifth one within four years (give or take a few days). I'm not sure what that says about his presidency, but it does seem remarkable.

Added note about Palin leaving Fox: When she first came on the national stage, I sympathized with Palin, if only because the Obots went after her family -- a deplorable and unforgivable tactic. But now that Fox has apparently decided that Palin isn't even savvy enough to please the kind of people who watch O'Reilly and Hannity, I have to register both regret and satisfaction at the end of this woman's career.

Sarah Palin epitomized a phenomenon characteristic of our time -- the conviction that one can bullshit one's way through anything.

In many of her appearances, she reminded me of an old Steve Martin routine in which he attempts to sing "Mack the Knife" but forgets most of the words. So there he is, repeating "When the shark bites" over and over, smiling and bobbing his head and snapping his fingers in the jackass self-assurance that he can carry this thing off through sheer brio.

That's Palin's whole act.

Let's be honest: A lot of pols are doing the same act, including, arguably, Barack Obama. But Palin presented us with a particularly obvious case. (My apologies for referencing ancient SNL routines twice in the same post.)

So. Will we ever know whether she used hearing aid radio prompters during her debate with Biden in 2008?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What always amused me [okay infuriated me] were those who insisted on comparing Sarah Palin to Hillary Clinton as if there were little difference in skill, experience and knowledge. They were both female, end of argument. Every Hillary supporter was suppose to blindly get in line for Sarah.

Hello!

Harry Reid's reversal on the filibuster reform really burns. I don't care whether he's looking long-term or not. We have mega-problems right now that need to be addressed and there's no way in hell I think the GOP has become more reasonable. They've only gotten crazier. Example: the move to change the electoral vote count in Va, Michigan, Pa, Ohio, etc. If you can't win an election? Rig it!

I have no doubt that if Hillary Clinton decides to run in 2016 [and I'm still not convinced she will], the Republican meat grinder will be rolled out. Things will be just as ugly as they were in the 90s and as we've witnessed over the last 4 years. The Hillary love affair will end as quickly as it started because it was merely an act, anything to gum up the Obama machine.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Peggysue

Andy Tyme said...

Well, if the ghost of dear departed Vince is being conjured by the hateful harpies to do some fresh Hillary-villification, could we once again be serenaded as well (by her enemies) to the tune of those dusty suspicions surrounding her lawyerly service on the board of LaFarge, a "cement" (aka CIA front) company that was so helpful in funnelling arms to Saddam in the bad old days?