VIDEO- Will on Iraq: "A bit of dithering might have been in order "; Podesta: BushCo only spent 1 hour on Afghanistan report

By GottaLaff



Via Think Progress, Who neglected what again?

Recently, Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) — a former top aide to Biden and co-chair of the Vice President’s transition team — said that the Bush administration basically just “threw” the report “to the transition team as they were going out the door”:

KAUFMAN: So for him [Cheney] to come in at the end and say, “Well, we did it wrong for eight years. But then, in the end, we gave them a plan which really is what they should have used.” Let me tell you something: This administration came in. Rahm Emanuel was there. I was on the transition team on this. They started from scratch on Afghanistan. They took a blank piece of paper out and said, “What are we going to do to get this thing done?” … It was absolutely the perfect time to take a hard look at what we’re doing.

New Rightie meme: Democrats = Ego

By GottaLaff

There seems to be a meme emerging from the right:

Periodically, conservatives latch onto a new line of attack against President Obama. Apparently, the new one is "narcissism." Marty Peretz talked it up yesterday in a bizarre piece, and George Will endorsed the argument in his column today.

There you have it. Cheap shots are the new red.

When I broke the "Should Obama be killed?" Facebook poll and reported it to the Secret Service, I got this comment:

Anonymous said...

why do all poltical bloggers and talk show hosts have such inflated egos?

Generalize much?

Yesterday I posted about how proud Paddy and I were to have been included in such great company, re: Wikio's Top 100 Political Poll. Here's what another Anonymous said...

congrads on the traffic spike but you should be a little more humble about it since the reason your traffic spiked was due to an assassination threat against the president. that's serious business and breaking out the proverbial party hats and bubbly is unseemly behavior.

You can read my reply, just follow the link. Funny how the most critical commenters won't identify themselves, even with a pseudonym.

Anyway, after putting up the Facebook poll post, I got an e-mail from the developer of the app for the poll. In it, he defended himself and then he added a jab that was puzzling to me.

Note: He claimed he was an Obama voter. But his first instinct after having been put on the spot was to attack with the ol' E word synonyms:

As it stands now, Facebook has disabled the entire application (not
just that one poll), which is frustrating for me and will be taking up
most of my time for the next few days. I'm sure I'll also get a call
from the Secret Service which will be awesome.

I understand you're enjoying your 15 minutes of blogging fame and are feeling pretty righteous right now, but keep in mind this could have been resolved in a much less public and destructive way if you had taken the time to reach out to me first.

Then, some wingnut who got a kick out of calling me "Buttercup" wrote up an entire post on his site about my apparent narcissism:

The blogger that started this — “GottaLaff,” at the The Political Carnival — is luxuriating in the reflected glow of petty fame from having reported an asshole on Facebook to the Secret Service.

Do I sense a trend here? And I'm just some "nobody" blogger, not the president.

I find it amusing that they can't tell the difference between being a good citizen and craving fame. These people also really need to learn to differentiate between feelings of accomplishment, or of having done the right thing, as opposed to arrogance or cockiness.

I kid. They know the difference, we all know that.

Just a guess, but if a Washington Times reporter or someone from Fox had reported the same thing, I bet they wouldn't be accused of being a glory hound.

Angie Coiro, who interviewed me on the Radio Machine, made this a main topic of our conversation, so it seems many of us are raising our eyebrows at this pathetic and rather laughable lashing out.

By shaking the shiny keys of groundless and nonsensical insults, these whiners can try to distract from the real issues of the day, but it just makes them look weak, petty, and desperate.

If this is all the right has left in their arsenal, they're in bigger trouble than we thought.

H/t: Gr8RDH

SUNDAY LOON WATCH: Repubs love Dick, hate empathy

Jed L corals the Sunday Crazy in case you missed it.

George Will on the Differences Between the Parties

Compassionate Conservative George Will.

Obama dines with George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, Bill Kristol

By GottaLaff

Wowzers, President-elect Obama is even braver than Batman, Superman, and Spidey all rolled into one!

He's dining at the Chevy Chase home of Washington Post columnist George Will with the Post's Charles Krauthammer and the New York Times's David Brooks and William Kristol. All three wrote, at times, both kind and scathing things about Obama, though Kristol in particular pushed sharp attack lines against him in the waning days of the race.

I hope he got his rabies shots first.

And here the righties thought he'd be a weak leader... At the very least, this proves he has a strong stomach.

This Week: Panel Discussion on New Deal/Auto Bailout

Dedicated to The Cesca, since we both were happy to see some strong Progressive voices representin'.

George Will goes after McCain's "temperament"

Oooh doggies. McCain obviously tee'd off Will by threatening his bud Cox, and Will isn't letting bygones be bygones. Go read the whole thing, but here's a couple of tasty graphs. I love the comparison to the Queen of Hearts, someone needs to get photoshopping...

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential"

(snip)

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed? "

VIDEO: ABC Roundtable, Will and Brazile edition

By GottaLaff

Donna Brazile and George Will agree that we're being railroaded? Really? Will and Brazile: Rhyme and reason?

Sam Donaldson re: Gramm-pa:

"He's showing too much anger."

Welcome to our world, Sam.

H/t: Eve

George Will lashes out against big government, McCain's claims

Interesting things you hear when you listen to Cliff on C-Span.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Conservative columnist George Will practically boiled out of his trademark bow tie Thursday night, lashing out at Republican presidential nominee John McCain's call for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox's resignation.

Will's keynote appearance at the downtown JW Marriott capped the first day of a West Michigan Regional Policy Conference, which organizers said was trying to avoid being "West Michigan polite."

Will took a call from Cox shortly before taking the stage Thursday and was visibly perturbed when he hung up his phone.

"This is why some thoughtful conservatives have grave doubts about his ability to be president," Will said.

During a speech in Iowa Thursday, McCain said Cox, a close friend of Will's, "has betrayed the public trust" by allowing the nation's financial markets to deteriorate.

In his speech, Will said McCain worries conservatives because he is someone who "can so polarize every argument into a kind of moral melodrama. You can't have honest difference of opinion with John McCain. This is very difficult because to disagree with he who is honor personified is inherently dishonorable."