This is why they look idiotic when they reach for their fainting couches when the media occasionally reports bad news about cons.
A Republican operative in Alabama says Karl Rove asked her to try to prove the state’s Democratic governor was unfaithful to his wife in an effort to thwart the highly successful politician’s re-election.
Rove’s attempt to smear Don Siegelman was part of a Republican campaign to ruin him that finally succeeded in imprisoning him, says the operative, Jill Simpson.
…
Simpson spoke to Pelley because, she says, Siegelman’s seven-year sentence for bribery bothers her. She recalls what Rove, then President Bush’s senior political adviser, asked her to do at a 2001 meeting in this exchange from Sunday’s report.
“Karl Rove asked you to take pictures of Siegelman?” asks Pelley.
“Yes,” replies Simpson.
“In a compromising, sexual position with one of his aides,” clarifies Pelley.
“Yes, if I could,” says Simpson.
Stupid Rove. He needs to learn from the New York Times — make the charge anyway, with absolutely no evidence! Proof is so 20th century!
J.
Jay Tea,
Do you recall at all what happened to McCain after he trounced Bush in the New Hampshire primary in 2000? Do remember that soon there after the press was filled with stories of McCain’s temper and possible hints that his POW experience had left him mentally unfit to be president? Do you remember reading about mysterious direct mail campaigns suggesting that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter?
Who do you think was behind those attacks? Or can you not remember past your last post?
jay tea is an idiot. one of the 19%ers, ignore him.
“jay tea is an idiot. one of the 19%ers, ignore him.”
No, Jay Tea is not an idiot, he is sub-human and should be treated as such.
On a side note, this thing needs to be investigated thoroughly and if it turns out Rove interfered with the investigation, he should be imprisoned. If he was doing it under orders from Bush, then Bush should be imprisoned.
Also, if it does turn out high ranking Republicans interfered with the investigation, Siegelman should sue the Republican party. I’m sure he could get, one, two, four hundred million dollars out of it.
Bankrupt the Republican party and make sure they never come back. That would be a fitting legacy for Bush and his band.
To be judged “subhuman” by Complete Shithead Strowbridge is kind of a badge of honor. Thanks, CS!
And I was just comparing this report on Rove to the New York Times’ reporting on John McCain, and Oliver’s breathless taking that as absolute truth that McCain was boinking a lobbyist. I’m sorry if the contrast was too subtle for some of you folks…
J.
“To be judged “subhuman” by Complete Shithead Strowbridge is kind of a badge of honor. Thanks, CS!”
I really hope you don’t think making an insult based on my name is witty, or effective.
“And I was just comparing this report on Rove to the New York Times’ reporting on John McCain…”
I understood that. I’m not stupid like you are.
If you think the NY Times doesn’t have evidence backing this up, you are fucking naive.
You have proven again and again that you are too stupid to be treated as a human being. You are a lump of meat with internet access.
Oh, then JayT, CS is right. The NYT has a record of reporting baseless rumors started by right wing hitmen. In the McCain case about his sketchy non-affair, they had a ton of evidence. Most of which is public record. The problem for McCain is not any whiff of sexual improprieties, it’s the complete collapse of his anti-lobbyist reformer image. ANd the evidence destroying that image is legion and a matter of public record.
Also since McCain hit the ground lying, look for his credibility to be questioned. Seriously, McCain had a little to say about a possible affair, but a lot of lies to say about the official favors he did for her.
So far, the one named source in the NYT article says that they utterly mischaracterized his answers and denies the substance of their charges.
Also, the Times quoted the letters McCain wrote to the FCC. They mention that he pushed them to vote on a matter related to the lobbyist’s client. Apparently, parts of the letters that they did not quote mention that the FCC had taken considerably longer than normal to vote on the matter, and McCain explicitly stated that he was not asking them to vote one way or another, but simply vote and settle the matter.
Also, Oliver’s having a field day with the “McCain affair” bit, but the actual story says some low-level disgruntled former McCain staffers (or, possibly, some rival lobbyists) say that some people were worried that there might be an appearance of impropriety — NO ONE (short of Oliver) is saying that there was an affair.
Contrast this with the allegation that Karl Rove asked for actual proof of improprieties before running with it, and it’s fairly clear that our host (and his lickspittles like Strowbridge) allow their prejudices to govern their judgment.
Nothing new, but nice to have it confirmed.
J.
Do remember that soon there after the press was filled with stories of McCain’s temper and possible hints that his POW experience had left him mentally unfit to be president?
Oh you mean the temper articles the press is happy to bring up now and that Oliver is happy to pimp? Those stories?
Do you remember reading about mysterious direct mail campaigns suggesting that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter?
I also distinctly remember Democrats going ballistic over that issue. They also got on their high horse about McCain’s affair, and his wife’s drug problems, but now it seems those stories are starting to be regurgitated. Considering that McCain pretty much has the nomination sewed up, it wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to determine who it is bringing this stuff back into the fold now. Hint: It rhymes with “lemocrats.”
If you think the NY Times doesn’t have evidence backing this up, you are fucking naive.
Wait a minute. Yesterday, August Pollack was saying the NY Times was not accusing McCain of having an affair. They were merely reporting what aides had said and that is was merely part of the larger overall story. Now you’re saying that they were reporting he had an affair and that they have the evidence to back it up.
Interesting that there’s two different points of view. That being said, if the NY Times had evidence of this affair, they had an ethical obligation to provide said evidence to their readers if they were indeed making an accusation. However, August is right in that they didn’t actually accuse McCain of having an affair. What they did was actually sneakier because it allows them to cover their asses. “Oh well, we didn’t accuse McCain of having an affairs. We just reported what we were told!”
If the NY Times had left out that part about the affair, more people would have focused on the fact that he’s just as likely to be influenced by lobbyists as another politician.
I think McCain has an explosive temper. The AP story reported that. Didn’t say anything about his Vietnam experience. You just made up that slight. One fainting couch for Jay! One more for Jaytea!
“Contrast this with the allegation that Karl Rove asked for actual proof of improprieties before running with it, and it’s fairly clear that our host (and his lickspittles like Strowbridge) allow their prejudices to govern their judgment.”
Wizwank Jay must power his home in Crackerville, N.H. via all the r.p.m.’s irony generates from its grave.
No, that stateside-deferred gimp would never, ever let his prejudices govern his judgement.
Oliver you can make cracks all you want about fainting couches. It doesn’t change the fact that for the last 5-6 years, guys like you were happy to wag your fingers about mean Bush supporters were to McCain in 2000. Doing the whole “tsk tsk” thing and bemoaning just how awful it was.
But now……now that McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee, you guys are going to use that same crap. It means that all the posturing was a bunch of nonsense.
Yea, because race baiting through push polling on the eve of the election by a campaign isn’t nearly as bad as a newspaper pointing out corruption and influence peddling by the “maverick” 8 months before the election.
I estimate Jay/JayTea will be calling Obama a Communist and a secret Muslim terrorist in about 6 weeks. Who wants to take the over/under on that one?
Race baiting? The Clinton campaign knows all about that.
Oh but wait! Democrats don’t do stuff like that.
Guffaws…
Handjob, actually I’ve already pledged to vote for Obama should he get the nomination, so if there are suckers out there that want to take the over, be my guest.
I take it back and apologize, then.
Poor McCain just keeps lying about the favors he did for Iseman’s clients.
Mrs. McCain should have not tried to attack Michelle Obama. WHen she did so, she became fair game. Drug addiction, horrible, too bad, we can sympathize; stealing the drugs from your own charity organization, well drug addiction is horrible, I feel bad for her. Going after the whistleblower who reported her thefts and drug abuse, however, shows a distinct lack of remorse. Avoiding all charges and facing no consequences other than a short stint in a rehab center smacks of elitism.
And Jay, McCain’s entire reputation is based on his reform the system image which we are seeing is completely fake. It isn’t the maybe/maybe not affair, it’s the special interests and favors John McCain is hypocritically willing to do for them.
And Jay, McCain’s entire reputation is based on his reform the system image which we are seeing is completely fake.
Really? No!
Let me let you in on a little secret Midderpidge: People who have been paying attention have known that for years.
Working in the transportation industry, I know people that rail industry (both passenger and freight) that cannot stand McCain because he is so anti-rail. If you know the industry at all, you know that more freight rail means more passenger rail. McCain just happened to be the recipient of lots of donations from large trucking firms who don’t want to lose more business to rail companies who can ship freight via ‘intermodal’ – basically, a container is thrown on a train and moves from point a to point b and is then picked up by a local trucking company. It saves shippers a lot of money (for instance, a shipment that might cost $2000 from Jersey to California via truck would cost half that going intermodal).
That goes back to the 2000 election. There’s plenty more where that came from. People like you were suckered in by his ‘maverick’ nonsense. Not me.
Now, I am not voting for McCain in the same vein that guys like Rush and other conservatives are? No. I’m not voting for McCain (unless Hillary does get the nomination) because he represents the same old crap we’ve seen for the last 30-40 years. I don’t agree with Obama on virtually ANYTHING. But, I do see him, not so much as an agent of change, but rather a defining symbol of change that will be a wake up call to America’s political elite, which includes Democrats and Republicans.
I think Hillary’s campaign severely underestimated Obama. I think they saw him as a Howard Dean type of candidate. While Dean got the Kos types ready to go, he didn’t inspire any feelings amongst independents and that’s why his campaign fell flat the first time people actually had to cast votes. I suspect that Hillary thought Obama was just another Dean, more hype than anything else.
Jay, you’re much less interesting when you say things that are reasonable. Is there any chance you go back to the old Jay, you know, the one that said John Kerry scammed the Navy out of three purple hearts? The one that said JFK and MLK were liberals? That’s the Jay I fell in love with.
Jay, you’re much less interesting when you say things that are reasonable. Is there any chance you go back to the old Jay, you know, the one that said John Kerry scammed the Navy out of three purple hearts? The one that said JFK and MLK were liberals? That’s the Jay I fell in love with.
Jay, you’re much less interesting when you say things that are reasonable. Is there any chance you go back to the old Jay, you know, the one that said John Kerry scammed the Navy out of three purple hearts? The one that said JFK and MLK were liberals? That’s the Jay I fell in love with.
Yeah yeah yeah. The point is that pointing out how dirty the Bush campaign was against McCain isn’t necessarily supporting McCain but pointing out what a complete asshole Bush is. There has been heaps of criticism of McCain over the past 7 years as he has systematically sold out nearly every position in preperation for his presidential run. ANd yet the media still loves him and has essentially given him a pass. He still enjoys the Maverick reformer image.
A newspaper finally publishes a negative story about McCain and you think we’ve been bamboozled for the last 7 years and only now that he is the republican candidate are we willing to scream about it? Be real.
Granted he didn’t get a lot of scrutiny by the left when he wasn’t in the headlines, true of any politician, but there has been plenty of talk about how sucky he is since he decided to be the champion of Iraq.
The point is that pointing out how dirty the Bush campaign was against McCain isn’t necessarily supporting McCain but pointing out what a complete asshole Bush is.
And Karl Rove, specifically.
“But now……now that McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee, you guys are going to use that same crap. It means that all the posturing was a bunch of nonsense.”
If that’s your rebuttal, I think you have to step a little further back. I do tune into conservative talk radio from time to time and for the last several months, until McCain became the presumptive nominee, it was wall to wall with the same accusations that Rove initiated in 2000. Hosts and callers were questioning McCain’s military record, they questioned his sanity, they questioned his ethics, his character, his relationship with lobbyists. Nothing was out of bounds. Nothing was beyond the pale.
if you read that AP story carefully you would have seen that ever single person quoted in the story about McCain’s anger is a republican. If you want to suggest that the AP was secretly working in cahoots with the Dems to smear McCain, you might ask yourself why only Republicans are quoted in the story. Is this evidence of just how devious the media/Dem conspiracy machine really is?
If you want to condemn Oliver for taking pleasure in watching Republicans eat their own, well, whatever. The conservative attempt to derail McCain was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in politics. Watching them all now scream about how McCain is getting smeared by the NY Times is just the punchline.
For Jay Tea to suggest that Rove is some kind of ethical smear merchant because he won’t run with a smear unless it’s been verified, is not only laughable on its face, it’s indicative of the kind of pretzel logic and deliberate myopia that afflicts all ideological hacks. Conservatives have been using smears manufactured by Rove in 2000 to bash McCain since the primaries started. I haven’t heard anything even remotely as corrosive from the left, especially the dem candidates themselves.
“But, I do see him, not so much as an agent of change, but rather a defining symbol of change that will be a wake up call to America’s political elite, which includes Democrats and Republicans.”
You know, of course, that in the eyes of many conservative pundits this means you’ve fallen victim of Obama’s fascist-style cult of personality, right?
Fafaroo the ‘cult of personality’ stuff about Obama is coming from the left as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
it isn’t pretty when some liberals take up right wing talking points.