Needlenose

Gingrich has been gradually creeping out from the shadows into the limelight since his fall from grace when leading the impeachment crusade against the very popular Bill Clinton.  But the Gingrich of the 90s seems relatively tame compared to the teabaggers and birthers of today – and even compared to Gingrich 2010!

In a recent speech to the reactionary American Enterprise Institute, Gingrich seems to have planted one foot firmly amidst the teabagger camp with his calls to forbid the so-called Ground Zero Mosque (which is neither a Mosque nor at Ground Zero), and the other solidly planted in the Wolfowitz/NeoConArtist era of never-ending war on Radical Islam:

“I believe [Bush] was right but in fact could not operationalize what he said. That is, there was an Axis of Evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Well we’re one out of three. And people ought to think about that. If Bush was right in January of 2002 — and by the way virtually the entire Congress gave him a standing ovation when he said it — then why is it that the other two parts of the Axis of Evil are still visibly, cheerfully making nuclear weapons? And it’s because we’ve stood at brink, looked over and thought, “Too big a problem.”

“If Franklin Roosevelt had done that in ‘41, either the Japanese or the Germans would have won,” Gingrich said. The U.S. has to “over-match the problem,” he said, adding, “That’s what Americans are all about.”

I wonder if he got the memo that various Repug leaders were starting to bail on Shrubya’s Afghanistan Folly?  Palin/Gringrich in 2012 – the worst of 3 eras of Repug misleadership!  It would be kinda luck the Germans in WWII – invading a bunch of weak countries (Iran, N. Korea), then going crazy and attacking Russia from Palin’s house…I don’t even want to think about the hell they’d create.

PRC ‘take’ on Sarah Palin:

Wish they would make this into a video game!

Wurzelbacher and Borkin…kinda rolls off your tongue, huh?  And when they don’t win, they can parley their collective 30 minutes of fame into their own Faux News political talking heads show.

Good thing for Borky that he didn’t mouth off to “Dick” Cheney – he would have ended up with buckshot instead of sprinkles on the old snowcone.

There they go again, the Greedy Old Pigs fighting for the right to protect their Sugar Daddies with back room deals.  Reid should accept their conditions, then secretly tape the proceedings and release the results via a leak during the election cycle.  Can you imagine what juicy nuggets these evil dimwits would let slip?  Could keep the Dems from losing some seats.

A couple of weeks ago, a trashy movie was released that hypothesized the year 2012 would see all sorts with unspeakable catastrophes unleashed, in keeping with a supposed ancient Mayan prophecy.

Kind of a ridiculous premise.  But then again (via CNN):

A new group wants former Vice President Dick Cheney back in the White House.

The organization – “Draft Dick Cheney 2012″ – launched on Friday, and unveiled their new Web site. Their aim: To convince the former vice president to seek the Republican presidential nomination in the next race for the White House….

“The 2012 race for the Republican nomination for President will be about much more then who will be the party’s standard bearer against Barack Obama, the race is about the heart and soul of the GOP,” said Christopher Barron, one of the organizers of the Draft Cheney movement. “There is only one person in our party with the experience, political courage and unwavering commitment to the values that made our party strong – and that person is Dick Cheney.”

Few people take this seriously, of course.  As I noted back in September, this draft-Dick chatter is just a facade to justify the continuing media presence of his daughter, Liz (lest anyone ask, “Why, exactly, are you relevant?”) as she unsubtly positions herself for a future electoral career.

But as long as they’re going to play this game, it seems reasonable that we should call their bluff.  If Liz Cheney’s going to keep getting invited onto the cable talk shows and the public-speaking circuit based on the excuse that her dad might run for the White House, some noisy folks should start insisting on equal time for the questions Dick Cheney would have to answer if he weren’t too cowardly to show his own face in an open forum.

You know, the implausible amnesia, the sleeping on the job (literally and figuratively), the evidence hidden in safes intended for classified information, etc… anyone want to start compiling the list?

If he wants to haunt our nightmares, there’s no reason we shouldn’t try to haunt his.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

I tried to explain to you all where the ubiquity of Liz Cheney was headed…

Apparently bored already with the current occupant, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen of Politico cast a wistful eye this morning at “some surprising names” among Republicans who might try to take back the White House in 2012:

Some major donors and GOP strategists have approached Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” about a national run, according to party sources.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, the Republican nominee in 1996, told POLITICO that he would like to see Army four-star Gen. David Petraeus — the head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan — run for president as a latter-day Ike

I can see the slogan now: “Petraeus 2012 — The General Who Won That War We Didn’t Really Win and Everyone’s Stopped Thinking About.”

The other names floated in this “expansive search for more options” are even less inspiring, and it’s no surprise. The Republican party has been so obviously uninterested in solving people’s problems for so long that it can’t create any compelling spokespeople. All the GOP knows is short-term distractions and hissy fits, and it’s hard to build a career on that substantial enough to launch a presidential bid.

As a result, Republicans have only succeeded by finding a telegenic, faux-folksy frontperson to distract the public from the party’s true agenda. Hence the Reaganite mantle was inherited not by an experienced conservative politician, but by George W. Bush, who was a clean slate in terms of substance but came with built-in name recognition and could fake an ordinary-guy persona. From there it’s just a short step to smiling nonentities like Sarah Palin being convinced that they’re the party’s future.

Which, ironically, makes this my favorite part of the Politico puff piece:

Liz Cheney, a State Department official in the Bush administration, said it is “absolutely” possible for a Republican to win the presidency in 2012.

“The independents who were so critical will come back to the Republican Party when they realize, as they’re coming to realize, that we’re the ones that can be trusted both on the economy and on national security,” she said. “So the substance is a lot more important than: Is it this person? Is it that person?”

One such person floated in a column in The Wall Street Journal is none other than her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. That’s not happening, though it’s sometimes hard to tell with his frequent appearances and sharp political rhetoric.

When asked if it’s even plausible, she replied: “I think no. I mean, I’d love for it to. But no.”

No, I’m not intrigued by the possibility of the Dark Lord summoning himself from his lair to campaign. What’s amusing and coy about this is that the Cheney who might run — in 2016 if not 2012 — is Liz herself.

Seriously. Think Sarah Palin, with a stronger foreign policy background. (Not a plausible foreign policy background, of course — but like I said, for the Republicans, there’s only so much to choose from.) Or a blonde, female Dubya.

Mark my words, it could happen.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

You know, Huckleberry really had me fooled on the campaign trail.  I thought he was a decent, if misguide fellow.  This pronouncement shows that he is just as evil and self-serving as any Repug – just a better actor:

“The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show on Friday that, under President Obama’s health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to “go home to take pain pills and die” during his last year of life.”

via Huckabee: Kennedy Would Have Been Urged To Die Earlier Under ObamaCare.

It’s too soon to tell whether the theme song for Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation as governor of Alaska is “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm?” or “Before They Make Me Run.”

On the one hand, as bmaz @ Emptywheel has noted, “Her term was up in 2010; [leaving Palin] plenty of time to honor her duties and still run for national office in 2012.”And Josh Marshall adds that “this clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn’t even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation.” There’s even vague speculation about a possible indictment forthcoming.

I wouldn’t rule that out. In the Age of Sanford, who knows if we’re about to find she’s hiked an Appalachian Trail or two in her time (either morally, or in terms of more mundane political/financial corruption)?

But then again, it could easily be the other way around — perhaps Palin realized that as long as she’s stuck doing a job she couldn’t care less about, the only possible developments would be unwanted controversies (issue-related, scandals, or otherwise). In that sense, not having an official position is the best possible preventive measure.

And remember, we’re dealing with someone who’s infamous for narcissism and having a short attention span. I was struck by this bit of pre-resignation spin reported stenographed by CNN: “She thinks she has accomplished goals she has set forward.” In other words, she’s nationally famous now — even in a “famous for being famous” way, a post-millenium equivalent of Charo or Kato Kaelin — so why waste a moment more in a remote backwater state, and being expected to work on top of it?

And to those who count her out as a presidential contender in 2012, or even hint that she’s “out of politics for good,” all I can say is that six years after Richard Nixon made a similar statement that the press wouldn’t have him to kick around any more, he was elected President. And if there’s one thing we know about Sarah Palin, it’s that she’s a runner.

Who cares if even conservatives like Charles Krauthammer suggest that Palin ““is not a serious candidate for the presidency…. You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you’re running for the presidency.” Just goes to show that Krauthammer is always wrong — George Bush got away with it for eight years even after he got the job!

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)