DISGRACE


Just a short word on the revelations this week that both the Pat Tillman death and the Jessica Lynch POW ‘tale’ were fabricated by the military - with perhaps civilian higher-ups involved.

To lie about the death of a soldier - and to institute an immediate cover-up - all for the purpose of hiding a friendly fire incident - is obviously wrong. It is a disgrace.

Pat Tillman was a hero - and how he died takes nothing away from his heroism. But to fabricate the details of his death to ‘glorify’ an image has inadvertently muddied Pat Tillman’s entire career - and that is a shame.

Jessica Lynch is another side of the same coin: a loyal soldier who did her job - and then discovered her superiors had completely fabricated an incident that had not occurred - all to help ‘sell’ the Iraq War.

In other words, it was a “Wag the Dog” type fake incident - just like Woody Harrelson’s Old Shoe character in the movie. Made up out of whole cloth!

Just imagine if all this had happened just the same way - only a Democrat was in the White House? Can you imagine how we conservatives would squawk?

Yet this week there has been total silence on the Right about the disgrace of the Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch incidents.

Where is the sense of honor about our soldiers?

Where is the sense of shame and outrage about such fabricated baloney by a clearly corrupt military leadership?

And, if the Bush White House had nothing to do with these outrages, why no word of condemnation from them? Why no firings? Why no demotions or courts martial for officers who were ‘in’ on these lies and fabrications?

As Americans, we have to realize a few things:

1) Our soldiers are our most valuable citizens. Without them, we cannot survive.

2) To dishonor them by lying about them - and using them as PR props is unacceptable.

3) To provide third-rate out-patient care and insufficient VA benefits dishonors our soldiers - and therefore our country.


Overall, everything about the Bush Administration treatment of the military - from no body armor and no vehicle armor - to Walter Reed and other medical outrages - smacks of a lack of caring about our warriors and their families.

Next month will come a block-buster new book which will show an even more deep-seeded - and evil - attitude toward our soldiers by past and present White Houses.

Buckle your seatbelts as some nasty revelations will make the Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch stories seem tame in comparison.

REPUBLICAN FLIP-FLOPPING



Have you noticed the blatant flip-flopping and pandering by the leading Republican 2008 presidential candidates?

Rudy Giuliani is the latest example: in the course of just the last week he has switched his positions on gun control, abortion and illegal immigration!

A) As Mayor of New York, he always argued for strict hand-gun control. But - now that he is running for the GOP nomination for president - last week - and even after last week’s Virginia Tech mass-murder with a handgun obtained despite a court-ruled mental illness - Rudy says the law is just fine the way it is;

B) In 2000, Rudy defended the ‘partial birth abortion’ procedure which the Congress then outlawed. In a 2000 Tim Russert CNBC interview, Giuliani specifically said that he would not advocate interfering in this medical procedure. But - last week after the Supreme Court upheld the federal ban - Rudy praised the court’s decision!

C) On illegal immigration, Giuliani was the worst offender when he was Mayor. He blasted opponents of illegal immigration - and used tax-payer dollars to protect illegals from the feds. He repeatedly praised illegal immigrants - and lumped them in with legal immigrants - apparently seeing no distinction between those who obey the law and wait their turn and those who ‘cut the line.’


Now, out on the campaign trail where the “rubber meets the road,” and he actually has to hear from GOP voters, he is hearing their white-hot anger over the open sieve our Southern border has become and how 12-20 million illegals have soured so many Americans on their own quality of life.

John McCain - the front-runner for the last three years - is also on the verge of becoming a major flip-flopper on immigration. After years of leading the way toward giving amnesty to illegals - and opposing the Fence - McCain went to Iowa four weeks ago and got an earful from caucus-goers.

Shell-shocked, he retreated and said, “I am re-considering my position on illegal immigration.”

That very same weekend, Senator Sam Brownback - another pro-amnesty GOP presidential candidate - was also visiting Iowa and had a similar experience: caucus goers blasted him at every stop for his immigration stance. By Sunday night he, too, said he was “reconsidering” his position.

And then there is Mitt Romney: the world’s biggest political prostitute. He has been pro-gun control, then anti. Pro-abortion rights, then anti. Pro illegal immigration, then anti. He was a registered Independent in 1992 and voted for Paul Tsongas for President but now say he did it to help the first President Bush. Then he tells the Log Cabin Republicans that he is pro-gay rights and wants to be “even more so than Teddy Kennedy” (while he was running against Kennedy) but now he is against gay rights. His pattern is clear: mimick and even exceed your opponent. No wonder he has tried to re-make himself into a conservative Republican: that is what you have to be to win the GOP nomination.


The problem with Rudy, McCain, Brownback and Romney is that they are all untrustworthy chamaeleons without a principle in their spineless bodies. They are so desperate to obtain power that they will say and do anything to win.

Is this the kind of man we want to lead our party after the problems Bush has caused the party and the country?

Do we need another Republican president who will say one thing to get nominated and then do something else?

Or would we be better off finding a true-blue traditional conservative who believes in fiscal prudence, a foreign policy built not on bluster and loud public dares but on ‘peace through strength,’ who knows excessive federal power is not a good thing, and who knew from the get-go right from wrong? Who could possibly defend 20 million illegals swarming across our borders as a “good thing”? How could that thinking be good for our country?


Make no mistake about it: GW Bush has greatly damaged both the Republican Party and conservatism itself.

To right the ship, the party needs to find a candidate who will reverse these disastrous mistakes made by Bush with the concurrence of the GOP Congressional and party leadership.

As of today, the GOP - under Bush - has lost the House and Senate and most big state governorships and we are in trouble for 2008.

Bill Clinton - for all his own personal electoral and financial success (and Hillary’s) - basically destroyed the Democratic Party during his eight years in the Oval Office. When he won in 1992, the Democrats controlled the House, senate and all the Big States (except California).

By the time he left office, the GOP had become the dominant national party. Why? Because Clinton became the Face of the Democrats - and after Monica-Gate - he killed his party’s chances in 2000.

Now, eight years later, GW Bush has done the same thing to ‘his’ party.

So much for the two ‘political Royal Families’ - the Bushes and the Clintons.

We need new blood in both parties - and soon.

MCCAIN BOMBS AS A CANDIDATE


John McCain is ‘bombing’ as a presidential candidate.

He is finally being seen to be as inept, incompetent, thin-skinned and short-tempered as those of us who know him privately have always known him to be; it just took the scrutiny of this campaign to show it to the vast public. His pals in the mainstream media - Tim Russert, Chris Mathews etc. - have shielded the ‘real’ McCain from the harsh light other candidates normally have to withstand. But they ‘liked’ him so he skirted that scrutiny - until he supported the Iraq war. Then, all bets were off.

His ‘bombshell’ screw-up yesterday in South Carolina - where he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ mega-hit “Barbara Anne,” is yet another signpost that John McCain’s days in the limelight of national politics are drawing to a close.

He looks awful: rumpled, old, messy, itchy with wrinkled clothes, no neck ties anymore. A simple rule, John: if you want to be President of the United States, look like a President - and not like the President of Iran, either, with the suit and no-tie look that Obama now features. Put the suit and tie back on and pull yourself together.

The real problem, however, isn’t just what he looks like. It is himself. John McCain is - and always has been - a horrid little spoiled punk with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. He has treated people like lint on his trousers. You want to know why so many conservatives loathe him? It is because they have - somewhere along the way - been on the receiving end of his sarcastic, demeaning, condescending attitude.

Knowing that he is staring political death in the eye, McCain is at a loss over what to do about it. His PR fiasco in Baghdad really rattled him - because his previous political ‘base’ - the so-called Mainstream Media - called him on it and exposed yet another McCain fraud.

Then he tried to correct that problem by claiming - incredibly - that he “mis-spoke” when he claimed things were so safe and peaceful in Baghdad that you could walk or drive around with no armor or protection.

And then came South Carolina before a veterans group: when asked about what to do about Iran and their nascent nuclear program, McCain sang his little song in hopes of moving to the ‘right’ and getting some traction in the race.

Ain’t gonna happen, Johnny-Boy.

You have dissed too many people for too long.

Your campaign is as dead as a doornail.

You even look like you know it.

And, ticked off over that, you are certain to pop your lid one of these days and show the world that side of you that you try so hard to keep hidden: the meanness, the vicious temper, the anger, the spoiled brat who was always given everything by Daddy and who always had his indiscretions covered-up by Admiral Daddy.

John, it is coming unglued - and it couldn’t happen at a better time. You have hurt the GOP for years - and you have stomped on so many people that you are now about to experience true ‘payback.’

By the by, the greatest of all your sins has occurred regularly since you came back from Hanoi in 1973: you have systematically treated the families of POWs who didn’t come back with you as criminals. You have dumped on them; lied to them; laughed at them; mocked them.

You have also helped cover up the truth about the POW issue - more to come on that in May - and you will rot in Hell for your complicity in this heinous crime.

John McCain, the bell tolls for thee.

And you are going down - for good.

And it is Good Riddance to you.

MIRROR OPPOSITES


Back in the 1976 presidential race - Jimmy Carter’s team anticipated a simple political phenomenon: after Vietnam and in the midst of the Watergate Scandal, the American voter wanted the ‘opposite’ of President Nixon.

Whereas Nixon was seen as a liar, dour, an insider and ‘part of the problem,’ Team Carter created the Mirror Opposite: Jimmy Carter was made into a smiling outsider who “will never lie to the American people.”

That simple strategy worked - and Carter pulled off the greatest upset in primary history when he won the Democratic nomination in the spring of 1976. Carter was a former one-term Governor of Georgia - and an almost complete unknown outside his home state.

But he worked Iowa house by house, farm by farm and when he won the caucuses he got the Big Mo and off he went.

His message - that he was the ‘opposite of Nixon’ - propelled him to the White House.

2008 is a similar situation: the nation is sick and tired of the Iraq War and over 60% believe President Bush is “not honest and trustworthy.” And - since Katrina and Iraq - they no longer think he is even competent to run the federal government.

The GOP scandals - from Mark Foley to Attorney General Gonzalez to Valerie Plame to Jack Abramoff to missing emails to Haliburton and on and on - have stripped the GOP of any ethical or moral advantage we used to have over the Clinton-dominated Democratic Party.

No wonder so many more people now declare themselves to be Democrats: in the latest Pew Survey, 50% say they are Democrats, and only 29% as Republicans. Back in 2002, it was 43-43.

So there has been huge erosion for the Republicans - and that saddles the GOP with Big Trouble going into 2008.

The Democrat with the best chance is - using the 1976 model as an example - the Mirror Opposite of Bush: an outsider, a new political person, who is seen as honest and trustworthy and competent.

Hillary - contrary to Rush Limbaugh’s wild prediction that it is 80% likely she will be the next president - does not fill the bill as the Mirror Opposite. In fact, she is having trouble in the Democratic primary states precisely because she is so like Bush: Can’t be trusted, comes from an ‘insider political family’ and was for the Iraq War.

Barack Obama is - so far - the most ‘opposite of Bush’ candidate.

But will this country elect an African American man president in 2008? Doubtful.

So we still have yet to find the Mirror Opposite candidate who can win in 2008.

It is possible that candidate could be an Independent Third Candidate - a true outsider who runs against both parties; we have to consider the possibility that in a year, when the two nominees have been picked, the nation will be sick of them and still facing eight months more of campaigning. Perhaps a fresh face could invigorate an electorate still thirsting for change.

Or perhaps another GOP candidate this year will step forward. So far, it is clear that none of the Republican candidates are catching on: McCain is fading (thank goodness!), Giuliani is not as ‘hot’ as he was a month ago and seems headed down a bit (don’t trust him - there is more dirt to come), Romney can raise money but his flip-flopping has really crippled him. Fred Thompson is about to enter the race and will zoom upwards right away - more out of a thirst for a new candidate than anything he brings to the table. His problems: tied-to-the-hip with John McCain for a decade on all of McCain’s issues, including McCain/Feingold; already too close to the neo-cons; lazy during his time in the Senate and not hungry to change the country. Yes, he does have the TV/Hollywood angle going for him - and, the minute he announces, he will have tons of attention. But can he sustain and hold that attention? Will he want to play the Mirror Opposite of Bush? Doubtful.

We still have a long way to go.

Keep looking for the Mirror Opposite - as that might be the next President.

CAN YOU BELIEVE?



Can you believe that the CBS News with Katie Couric chose to lead off last night’s newscast with the Imus Controversy? We are in the middle of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - and she chooses to lead off with Imus’ suspension?

Can you believe how John McCain has gotten away for 20 years with lie after lie after lie - and the so-called Mainstream Media (MSM) has always protected him, apologized for him and covered for him? Now, after his disastrous trip to the market in Baghdad - and as he tries to weasel out of yet another typical McCain screw-up - his media pals aren’t cutting him quite as much slack. He is toast - and they know it. He is a horrid little man who has abused people left and right - and it is high time he suffers for his dreadful, condescending, arrogant, chip-on-the-shoulder behavior. And the MSM ought to pay, too, for having coddled and covered for him; they enabled this nasty little jerk to rise way above where he ought to be. Now it is all coming home to roost for him - and it is good to see him suffer repeated humiliation because he has treated so many people so badly.

Can you believe the ‘cred’ given to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Why is it these two always get national news media coverage when they are unhappy over something? Why does the MSM pay so much attention to them?

Can you believe how wimpy those English Marines and sailors were? And how the Iranians always get away with taking hostages? They did it to us in 1979 - and were never punished for it.

Can you believe how Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has gotten away with his role in that 1979 seizure of our Tehran Embassy? Many of those 53 hostages are certain he was one of the ring-leaders of that movement - the so-called ‘students’ - and they claim to have seen him in the embassy urging torture of the Americans. Yet the Bush Administration didn’t want to ‘rock the boat’ by re-visiting that ugliness. Hell, he is a War Criminal for his role in 1979 - he claims, by the way, that he wasn’t involved and instead was urging the seizure in 1979 of the Soviet embassy in Tehran.

Can you believe how Mitt Romney could ruin his good ‘fund-raising’ headlines last week with yet another trying-too-hard-to-prove-he’s-really-a-true-conservative pander when he claimed he was a “life-long hunter” and then - ala John Kerry - had to admit he had only been hunting twice in his life? This guy is a laugh-a-minute! He is on every side of every issue! Gays, abortion, guns, voting for a Democrat in 1992 for president...it is truly breath-taking to see a bright, successful, rich man who is so desperate to win the GOP nomination that he ends up looking like a total fool.

Can you believe that the GOP’s leading presidential candidates - McCain, Rudy, Romney - have all been pro-amnesty for illegals? All have been against the fence in the past - until now when they suddenly realize that the voters really care about this issue! Well, no wonder 60% of GOP voters are not too happy with the present field and want another option.

Can you believe the rush to get Fred Thompson into the race? How many of those doing the ‘rushing’ actually know that Fred was pro-McCain in 2000, was and is a big fan of McCain-Feingold campaign ‘finance-reform,’ and is not really a devoted conservative? In fact, he is a Howard Baker moderate. Yet - desperate to find a new candidate - they are falling all over themselves to ‘draft’ Fred. Careful what you wish for...

Can you believe how ill-prepared Rudy Giuliani is to be a major national candidate? Allowing himself to be seen as defending public financing for abortions can only hurt him inside the GOP. He says he is against abortion but the law allows it. OK, fine. Why not add one more sentence: “if elected, I will fight to change the law.” The fact that he doesn’t say this shows he is happy with the status quo - and that has to hurt him down the road.

And, while discussing Rudy, can you believe he only now reveals that his wife also had a third marriage - yet they refuse to say how they met? Why the mystery? What are they hiding? Why all the odd and sleazy things in Rudy’s background?

Can you believe that CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel are all carrying - live - the press conference of the Rutgers women’s basketball team as part of this Imus story? Is this really national news? What about the pain of the families of our dead and wounded soldiers? Do they get press conferences to talk about how ‘hurt’ they are?

Can you believe this emailed news bulletin just received here: Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com: RUTGERS PLAYERS ARE 'ANGERED' AND 'INSULTED' BY DON IMUS' COMMENTS BUT AGREE TO MEET WITH THE RADIO HOST


Maybe it is all a distraction form the disaster that is Iraq - and the general feeling that the country is on the wrong track.

And indeed we are on the wrong track - as proven by much of the items listed above.

MONEY POLITICS



With the first quarter filing deadline now passed - and the staggering amounts of money raised now public knowledge - let us examine what this means for the 2008 race for the White House:


1) The ability to raise money has absolutely nothing to do with being a good President; however, that ability does help you become a better candidate for president and to run a better campaign.

2) Money can not buy you the two most important things you need to win:

A) A unique message that ‘connects’ with the voters;

B) That hunger - or ‘fine-in-the-belly’ - that is needed to inspire voters to join in an effort to change the county;

3) Mitt Romney’s $20 million is impressive - but not at all surprising. Governor Romney was a huge success in the business world at Bain Capital - and his years in the venture capital business put him touch with many well-to-do businessmen. Plus, the Mormon network is powerful and proud to help a fellow believer. Plus, Romney is worth over $500 million - so he ‘knows’ money and how to raise it. His time as head of the Salt Lake Winter Olympics also helps him a great deal.

4) Rudy Giuliani’s $15 million is a good indicator of his New York/ Wall Street strength. That is after all his ‘base’ - and he is known there and trusted.

5) John McCain’s $12.5 million is yet another indicator that his campaign is heading south; everything he does is out-of-sync. His message - more troops for Iraq and ‘I’m more pro-Bush than anyone else’ - is the wrong message at the wrong time.

6) A note here which none of the so-called ‘experts’ on TV ever make: the early money - or the first money a candidate raises - is the easiest money for them to accumulate. Why? Because they’re getting it from previous supporters in their home bases.

So these recently released numbers mean much less than the money raised later this year when donors are tapped out and a candidate needs to sell himself or herself to new donors.

7) The value of money in this race is very over-rated:

Why?

Because of the primary/caucus schedule next January and February. With the Iowa Caucuses scheduled for Monday, January 14th and New Hampshire eight days later on January 22 (with Nevada caucuses and the South Caroilina primary in between), the person who comes out of those two events with the most momentum will receive huge free publicity heading into Mega Tuesday on February 5th, where over 50% of each party’s delegates will be chosen.

No matter how much money a campaign has, they’d never be able to advertise in the 30 or so states which are participating on Mega Tuesday; it would be impossible to flood all the necessary media markets. So no candidate will have enough money for paid advertising.

The key is to harness the incredible power of free publicity.

And you get that from doing well in Iowa and then zooming into New Hampshire and doing even better there.

History is replete with candidates who have done this - i.e. Gary Hart, Pat Buchanan - but have then lost because the primaries stretched out for four more months.

Now, the whole shebang happens on February 5th. Period. Whoever wins big that day is the nominee. Period.

So why does anyone need $100 million?

Instead, you need enough to do very well in Iowa and New Hampshire and then off you go.

So, instead of all that money, you need a message and you need to ‘connect.’

So far none of the candidates have either.

Yes, Romney has raised the most money, but the more GOP voters see him, the less they like him. There is something calculating and slick and a bit insincere there...and it holds him back.

Rudy - the Golden Boy up until two weeks ago - is now really getting hammered over his third wife’s third marriage and his stupid statement that he’d be happy to have her attending cabinet meetings (does it remind anyone of Hillary?). Plus the sleaze surrounding Bernard Kerik is infecting Rudy’s once luminescent image.

And McCain is on life-support. His performance in Baghdad over the weekend was disgraceful: claiming a market was safe for all merchants when it took three helicopters and over 100 US Army troops to protect him and his lapdog congressional delegation. The comments from the locals afterwards tell us all we need to know about how ‘safe’ Baghdad really is.

McCain is politically tone-deaf, arrogant, condescending and an awful little man. So to see him wallowing in third or fourth place is a wonderful sight to behold!

Fred Thompson - not yet running - has more excitement going for him than any of the announced candidates. What does that tell us? It says more about those candidates than it does about Law & Order Fred, who may lack that hunger and ‘fire-in-the-belly’ that is a must for winning the White House.


Conclusion: The 2008 GOP race has yet to gel. In other words, it is still wide open. Whoever is ‘up’ one week is ‘down’ the next. There is still plenty of time for a new - and a better - candidate to get into this race and re-take the Republican Party and make it a winning party again.