Get ready, America, for The Hermanator Experience

NYT Film Critic Accidentally Writes Column About Politics
As I was reading Friday’s movie reviews in the NYT, the headline “Defy the Elite! Wait, Which Elite?” jumped out at me.  Since I’ve always been fascinated by the right’s success in appropriating that term, I clicked over to read A.O. Scott’s essay.  Looks like movie and entertainment critics are in the same boat we are: [Neal] Gabler begins with the assertion that, “as anyone who has ever wiggled in his seat at a classical music concert or stared in disb

Palin: Maximum Sarah Saturation Begets the Hillary of the Right
It is time for Sarah Palin to sit quietly for awhile,  at least a few weeks, and let others defend her.   It is time for her to let things “settle” in Tucson, because the shooting had nothing to do with her.This is not turning the other cheek that I speak of, it is to let the opposition find something else by not giving them anything more.   Every single “slight” that is published against her does not require a response from Sarah Palin FacebookCentral...

The Progressive Smear Machine Blames the Right Again
Check Michelle's post, "Blame Righty: A Condensed History": On Monday, as The Progressive smear machine worked overtime to pin the horrific Tucson massacre on Conservatives and to squelch political opposition by targeting Tea Party/limited-government Rhetoric, I published “The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010.” Today’s column provides another primer for the Amnesia-wracked blamestream media on just how widespread the Blame Righty me...

Reince Preibus New is RNC Chair Michael Steele: Now I Exit Stage Right.
In the end, it has all worked out beautifully for the Republican National Committee.   The personally-likable but Scandal-dogged Michael Steele bowed out gracefully during voting.  Replacing him will be someone who was kind and loyal to Steele, but who also served as the listening post for GOP Conservatives who were restive for regime change. Reince Preibus is from Wisconsin, which staged the most amazing blue-to-red transformation of any state this year.  ON WISCONSIN! ...

Get Ready to Meet the 'Hermanator' (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Herman Cain, aka the self-described Hermanator, has launched a presidential Exploratory Committee: a step toward challenging for the GOP nomination in 2012. Cain is a former CEO of Godfather's Pizza (which gets mixed reviews in taste testing) and may currently be heard as Talk Radio host on weeknights in Atlanta. Although he readily admits that he's up against a "strong field" of Republican contenders and clarifies that he hasn't officially thrown his hat into the ring, ...

The Wacky, Mildly Racist Godfather's Pizza Ad That Could Affect the GOP Primary
After posting this profile of Herman Cain, the Tea Party-backed, African-American former CEO of Godfather's pizza and current radio talk-show host who just launched a presidential Exploratory Committee...(pause for breath)...some of us at the magazine got to wondering how the rest of the GOP field would react to Cain's challenge. The first thing you do with an unknown opponent is see what's out there on the Internet. Curious about Cain's tenure at Godfather's Pizza, some of us started poking ar...

John Dingell (D-MI) blames Palin, GOP for rhetoric leading to AZ shooting. Flashback: linked tea party to KKK, called radio talk
By now, many have already seen this Dingell diatribe on the floor of the House via TPM: Curiously, Dingell said: "I saw the district of Gabrielle Giffords has a crosshairs put on it. As a lifetime rifleman and shooter, I know what crosshairs signify when you put them on somebody and I know what happened.Is he talking about Palin or Daily Kos? The liberal Daily Kos put a bullseye on Giffords in 2008 (via HillBuzz): More from Henry Payne at The Michigan View: Dingell just accused Palin as an acce...

Priebus steps into the spotlight
Reince Priebus, the new low-key chairman of the Republican National Committee, helped lead Michael Steele’s successful 2009 campaign for RNC chairman. He ran Steele’s transition and became General Counsel of the RNC. Then the two had a falling out. On Friday night, in a move few could have foreseen two years ago, the 38-year-old diminutive chairman of the Wisconsin Republicans vanquished Steele to himself become national chairman. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset It was the re...

Mark Levin Threatens to Sue Matthews, Olbermann, Schultz and Anyone Tying Him to Tucson Shootings
Via NewsBustersAccording to the American Spectator, Levin moments before this issued a challenge to Matthews:"I challenge Chris Matthews, I'll put $100,000 on the table, to find any example where Sarah Palin has promoted the Murder of anybody," said Levin -- specifically excluding Terrorists and the Taliban. Levin went on: "A hundred thousand on the table if Chris Matthews can find anywhere Mark Levin has urged the Murder of people who have different political viewpoints. That's the Murder of ...

Spammed by the Speaker of the House
This is outrageous, and I need to complain about it in a public venue. Those who don’t like bitching and moaning are welcome to skip this post. On the day the new Congress was sworn in, we received a mass email from the Speaker of the House, John Boehner. It was similar to a snail-mail that might be sent using a congressman’s franking privileges — the usual rah-rah boilerplate about the wonderful things we could expect from our New Improved Republican House of Representatives. ...

Top 10 Most Ridiculous Attacks on Conservatives Following the AZ Shootings
This has been a hugely shameful week for sections of the American Left, who have exploited a horrific tragedy that claimed six lives, in order to advance political attacks upon some leading conservative politicians and media commentators, as well as an entire political movement in the form of the Tea Party. The vitriolic and hate-filled attacks have marked a low point for liberal media elites in America in the 21st century, even to the extent that President Obama himself, probably the most liber...

January 14 Middle East quotes of the week
Follow the links to read the whole thing. Anyone who suggests that there is a war being waged by Muslims in their own lands and in the lands in which they have settled—these last, by the way, are the really aggressive “settlers”!—against rationalists and true liberals, traditional Conservatives and Islamic dissenters, Christians and Jews is likely to be labeled an “Islamophobe.” The heart of the problem is right here in the West: The Islamist world is determin...

Loughner Facts Chat
From the blog for the John Batchelor Show, January 12. 2011: Am putting up my YouTube from the evening of the Tucson crisis in order to document where the argument was within ten hours of the events, while the facts were still jumbled and unreliable. Am relieved to see that I spoke carefully on Saturday 8 January, and correctly though ambiguously anticipated the political brouhaha that would follow the Tucson massacre. Using 1968 and 1981 as my examples, I did lean toward the 1968 scenarios, an...

Maine governor to NAACP: Kiss my butt
Why would a man engage in such undiplomatic language? My theory: After a week of incendiary and irresponsible Rhetoric from the left over the Arizona shootings, his nerves were frayed by the “climate of hate” and he just snapped. Granted, I have zero proof, but it pleases my partisan sensibilities to believe it, and besides, it’s a fittingly idiotic note on which to end a week of pure political insanity. So congratulations, liberals — you drove him to this. Slublog has ...

Gun Sight Ad Still Part of Palins YouTube Channel
Never one to publicly back down, America’s half-governor, Sarah Palin, quietly scrubbed her web presence of images of the now infamous “gun sight” ad. The ad featured sights over targeted Democratic House districts, including AZ-8, the seat held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is still in a Tucson Hospital, recovering from last weekend’s gunshot wound to the head. Team Sarah first tried to excuse the targets as “surveyor’s symbols,” but also deleted the ad from th

Herman Cain Forms Presidential Exploratory Committee
Herman Cain announced on Neil Cavuto’s show that he is officially forming a presidential Exploratory Committee. Mr. Cain said his lack of Public Sector experience is a good thing. He was also asked about surviving stage 4 Cancer, listen to his answer. Matt Lewis has more on Cain’s background. Cain, an African-American Republican, holds a master’s degree in computer science from Purdue University and was a corporate vice president for Burger King before running Godfather’...

Late afternoon/early evening open thread
What's coming up on Sunday Kos … Laurence Lewis will explain that with the Republicans back in control of the House, this will be the year when we will find out whether the Tea Partiers are what they say they are, or what their critics say they are. brooklynbadboy will identify government economic policies that while not explicitly Racist in nature, have disproportionately negative effects on Black Americans. DarkSyde plans to introduce the sizzling science and physiology behind ... the ...

GOP rejects Steele
The republican party has finally driven chairman Michael Steele from his post. After the republican made huge gains in the mid-term Elections, many in the party, especially those endorsed by the Tea Party, questioned if the results were a slap in the face to Steele. He had been criticized by many Tea Party supporters who felt he wasn't conservative enough for them.  The party has instead turned to Reince Priebus, a former top lieutenant for Michael Steele, and current chairman of the Wiscon...

New Tea Party Caucus launches in Senate with three members
I didn’t quite understand why Bachmann felt the need for one in the House and I understand this even less. It’s good retail politics to wave the TP flag, I guess, but the point of a Caucus is to try to keep the members together to vote as a bloc as a way of maximizing ideological leverage over Legislation. There ain’t much leverage with only three members, though, particularly when all three of these guys are already mortal locks to vote the same way on every fiscal matter to...

Reince Priebus: "We Can Defeat Barack Obama in 2012"
The new elected RNC Chairman Reince Priebus holds up a gavel after winning the post, Jan. 14, 2011 in Oxon Hill, MD. (Credit: (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)) The Republican Party will face significant challenges in the 2012 election cycle: A geared-up Democratic electorate excited to see President Obama back on the ballot, a rowdy and somewhat unpredictable Tea Party base, funds flowing through multiple outside organizations. On top of all that, the Republican National Committee must dea...

GOP ousts Steele, picks Wisc. chair Priebus as leader
Reince Priebus, of the Wisconsin Republican Party, talks with members during the Republican National Committee Winter Meeting, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. The national Republican Party, coming off huge election victories but facing a $22 million Debt and an internal war over identity, ousted chairman Michael Steele Friday and chose Wisconsin party chief Reince Priebus to lead in the run-up to the 2012 presidential race. The embattled Steele dropped his re-election bid halfway through an afternoon of ...

Cornyn mocks those who inject themselves into a primary?
John Cornyn is a pretty good senator, but to many Conservatives, Cornyn represents a Republican establishment that disdains the Tea Party and cares little for principle. That's because Cornyn, as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, decided to get involved in the Florida Senate primary last cycle, backing liberal Gov. Charlie Crist over conservative Marco Rubio. It was extraordinary for the NRSC to get involved in a primary, especially siding against an electable conservativ...

Major GOP conference may be scheduled days before Iowa caucuses
Washington (CNN) - South Carolina Republicans are maneuvering to host a major party gathering in the weeks before the 2012 Iowa caucuses, a move that could force GOP presidential hopefuls to interrupt their last minute Midwest politicking to court Activists down south. Southern delegates to the Republican National Committee on Friday ratified Charleston, South Carolina as the site of the 2012 Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Rules say the conference can be held at any point betwe...

Terry Branstad names honorary Iowa colonels
Gov.-elect Terry Branstad plans to resurrect a tradition by naming honorary Iowa colonels before he takes office again today. Longtime friends, influential Activists and neighbors of Branstad in rural Boone County are on the list the Republican Governor plans to formally appoint as Iowa colonels before the inaugural ceremonies in Des Moines. ...

Branstad inauguration: Watch the 9 a.m. swearing-in here on live video
Today's inaugural event schedule The commissioning ceremony of the Iowa Colonels of the Militia will be private because of space constraints. Otherwise, the public is invited to all inaugural events. All events except the inaugural ball are free. 9 a.m.: Swearing-in ceremony, Hy-Vee Hall, 730 Third St., Des Moines. Dress: business attire. Although an RSVP was requested, anyone who wishes to attend can pick up tickets at Hy-Vee Hall. Watch the Terry Branstad swearing-in ceremony on live ...