Republicans whistle Dixie as they look around for an anti-Palin
By David Neiwert Saturday Nov 15, 2008 11:00am
Well, now that the Republican governors have snubbed Sarah Palin when selecting their leadership group in Miami, it's semi-official that the bloom has slightly faded from Palin's rose -- and not a moment too soon.
Which means the GOP is going to start looking a little more seriously for leadership in the coming four years to help lift it out of the miasma in which it is now deservedly enveloped.
But look at that list:
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.
Well, as much as the South's political power was diminished in the last election, it's pretty plain that the GOP for the foreseeable future is the Party of the South.
Out of this group, Barbour's name is perhaps the one we've heard most frequently on the tips of right-wing talking-head tongues. But Barbour has quite the checkered history: He's notorious for ardently promoting the Confederate flag and consorting with the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens -- and he does so unapologetically.
So if Barbour does emerge a serious party leader, it will mean the GOP has thoroughly embraced its Cro-Magnon, neo-Confederate wing, and the dog-whistle rabble-rousing we saw from McCain and Palin in 2008 will look positively civil in comparison.
Another name not on this list, but frequently mentioned (and yet another Southern governor) is that of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Ezra Klein has a good piece at TAP about Jindal:
Chief among the prospects is Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, a former Rhodes Scholar and health policy bureaucrat who's taking a step into health care innovation today with a major proposal to reform how Louisian's Medicaid system works.
There's one problem with all this: Jindal's actual record as governor, particularly as he's tried to enact "conservative" reforms in education, health care, and housing, has been nothing short of disastrous, a classic case of the calamitous effects of conservative governance. Isaiah Poole at FDL had the rundown earlier this year, describing how Jindal's "reforms" have done nothing but deepen the misery of Katrina-struck Louisianans, particularly those in New Orleans:
The American Prospect's Mori Dinauer uncovered this note of praise of Jindal from Rush Limbaugh: "Bobby Jindal, the new governor of Louisiana, is the next Ronald Reagan." The title fits, given Reagan's disdain for the poor and for people of color. (Though it's unlikely that Reagan ever included performing exorcisms on his resume.) Add Jindal's unconditional opposition to abortion under any circumstances (15 years old and raped? Tough.), his support for teaching the doctrine of "intelligent design" in public schools and his opposition to civil rights protections for gay and lesbian people, and you have a perfect storm of ideological disaster for the New Orleans and the state.
But, like Reagan, Jindal can be smooth, charming and even disarming. As the shock of Katrina recedes from the collective memory and as the recovery effort continues to boil in a murky stew of inertia, Jindal is well equipped to be the next great facade for conservatism — as long as no one is asking questions about what's behind the front.
Sounds like the Republicans' kind of guy.
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The "big tent" party. A big circus tent full of white racists, bigots, homophobes, religious zealots, hate mongers, corporatists, incompetents and other assorted scary clowns.
anti-intellectuals. I hate to say it, but many of these problems may only recede as the older generation dies off. Sad to say, but some people I believe are beyond hope.
Is this where the "big tent" is hiding all those people who are clinging to their guns and actually buying more of them because of the scary Democratic big win?
The big tent has a big closet, too. Foley, Crist, Miss Lindsey Graham, etc....
TMZ: Grand Ole Palin Pool Party
1) After what the Republicans did to The South during the American Civil War, how can any self-respecting Southerner vote Republican?
2) Bobby Jindal, a Rhodes Scholar?
There are cracks in that idea wide enough for a herd of African Elephants to stroll through. All that we have to do is to look at the results of the past election at both the north and south ends of the "Old South": Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina to the north and Florida to the South. I expect to see more and more defections of the Southern States in the future.
will, the whites can't stand voting for a party that include racial minorities.
I can't remember what is was, but I thin it was Jindal on a cable news show and was asked what McCain's strong points were and he gaped, hard.
Jindal has one thing going for him. Ethnicity.
Yup, Jindal does remind of the Quickie Mart, and how can a Rhodes scholar be so imbecilic? I guess he must have missed something along the way
He believes in God. 'Nuff said.
These ancient superstitions cause normally rational people to
make irrational decisions and choices. And they expect us to
honor them and their propensity to believe without evidence.
It is somehow a virtue to be an imbecile.
enough of the religion bashing
the idea that if one believes in god, one cannot have a brain or have a belief in science is absurd
it is when religion trumps logical, scientific beliefs and the rights of an individual that it becomes problematic
jindal believes that everyone should think like him
well trust me, i aint gonna be naming myself after a character from the brady bunch...so you can drop that right now
The re-Thuglics -- the party of troglodytes.
*
basically got reduced to the level of a party planner...
Pity Party?----
White
tiehood andtailsrobes.The only reason Palin wasn’t included in any of the fun was because she always hogs up all of the spot light. This gathering of Narcissists will be having none of that. I say let them keep digging. Dig, baby, dig. Jindal/Palin 2012. hehehehehe
If they include Palin on the ticket, they'll screw up their "values" stand. It's obvious she doesn't believe in abstinence but rather "screw around all you want and then get married if you get pregnant". Hell, THAT principle has been around for centuries and isn't any different than what a lot of people do today.
Really, I think Palin will be trouble for the religious right, given her past and that of her current family.
Reslugs only have the uneducated, sick bigots and haters left making up their base in the south.
Had Rush Limpballs white pointy white hat hadn't fell off when he was jerking around making fun of Michael J Hox's Parkinsons Disease we might have never known he was the grand wizard himself.
Had Rush Limpballs pointy white hat not fallen off when he was jerking around making fun of Michael J Fox's Parkinsons Disease we might have never known his identity as the grand wizard himself.
Try using the new 'edit' feature. I've used it a few times. One of the improvements to the otherwise controversial new site.
Ah, didn't notice that. Thanks.
..al the tme.
I agree-- great new feature :D
Barrack Obama, in coming to terms with his racial and ethnic heritage, traveled to Kenya and met his father's family. He then went on to work among poor African Americans as a community organizer in Chicago.
Another skinny dark skinned kid with a funny name, Piyush Jindal, came to terms with his identity by renaming himself after his favorite 'Brady Bunch' kid and becoming a Republican.
So telling.
Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Do not equate this with being somehow "superior" in intellect and thought. Cecil Rhodes, the namesake of that dubious distinction was an evil, evil man. To be a Rhodes Scholar means you are to be groomed in the same mold for infliction onto the world stage, something like "Skull and Bones" produced, aided and abetted the Bushes, among many others. Rhodes is the grandfather of secret groups like the Trilateral Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, The Oxford Roundtable and all its extentions. So to exclaim Jindal is a Rhodes Scholar merely solidifies his membership in the efforts to form a New World Order, a one world government.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRHbBiHuuA
Rachel Maddow was also a Rhodes Scholar (Lincoln College, Oxford, for political science). Like the Nobel Prize, the money may have a distasteful pedigree, but it's sometimes used to good effect.
Say it ain't so, Bobby McGhee!
They have purged everyone but the bigots. Their primary hate site, Freeper heaven, purges people that do not ascribe to hate. They ban them by the hundreds daily. It's hysterical to watch.
While we must be vigilant and take nothing for granted, it's now time to grind this party into the dirt with our boot and rid this country of their ilk once and for all. No quarter.
You should check out Conservapedia. Half of the people on it are liberal trolls putting up nonsense to make conservatives look stupid, but since the real thing is at least as idiotic, it's impossible to tell them apart. Combine that with extreme paranoia and a persecution complex, and the result is that dozens of people (including True-Believer conservatives) are constantly being banned for being the slightest bit out of step with Andrew Schlafly's personal views. It's pretty hilarious.
a year ago. Truly hilarious.
My boots are on and I won't let up on the party of dictatorship.
...why I'm ashamed to admit I'm from Mississippi.
The sooner his term ends, the better off our state will be.
But Barbour has quite the checkered history: He's notorious for ardently promoting the Confederate flag and consorting with the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens -- and he does so unapologetically.
*******************************************
Haley Barbour was selected by the republicans in 1991 to 'kill off' Clinton by claiming enormous amounts of Clinton's financial support was coming from Asia. Barbour was doing a pretty decent job of smearing and began to worry the democrats. So, the democrats rounded up a few of their best 'oppositional research' teams and, voila, found Barbour up to his neck begging for money for GHW Bush in - guess where - Asia.
Barbour was ordered to conveniently drop out of sight for the remainder of the campaign. Barbour's fall-back position was always running for governor of Mississippi. Piece of cake for Barbour with the help 'hair helmet' Trent Lott. Thank God there aren't more politicians who can stomach dealing with the dumbest of the dumb - hey Mississippi, that's you I'm talking about - racist rednecks in the country. They think they have bragging rights because they are ahead of SC, GA and AL, but only slightly.
"Haley Barbour was selected by the republicans in 1991 to 'kill off' Clinton by claiming enormous amounts of Clinton's financial support was coming from Asia. Barbour was doing a pretty decent job of smearing and began to worry the democrats. So, the democrats rounded up a few of their best 'oppositional research' teams and, voila, found Barbour up to his neck begging for money for GHW Bush in - guess where - Asia."
As if I'm not depressed enough..
So. My governor, and neighbor, is the new chairman of the Southern Boys Club? Figures. Sanford will put a smooth face on the burning sack of excrement that is the Republican association of Thieves-in-Chief.
It stands to reason that they wouldn't let a girl into their tree house. Girls, even Republican girls, sometimes draw the line at the kind of recidivist, outright racist crap that Barbour still flings at the masses.
Dixie, having been relegated to the far reaches of the political realm, will retrench, hunker down, bunker up, and make for some entertaining theater. Alaska ain't part of their plans...
Fun to contemplate.
Here are two reasons why Jindal will not win the primary if he run for president:
He is a catholic:
There are many Pro Life Christian in the south and parts of the real america that would not vote of a catholic regardless of how right wing crazy they are.
Those right wing catholic who are champion right wing theology and try to excommunicate Pro Choice catholic in the senate and house is in for a real awankening, when their fellow right wing brothers turn on them after they got rid of the secularist, the jews, hindus, buddhist, et all.
He is Indian (from india):
this is two problems:
White southern and midwestern southerns, even as right wing as they are, they would never vote for a minority. the south had never voted for a catholic, jew, or racial minority as governor or senator.
Racial minorities, many of them voted for Jindal because of Katrina, and their confusion about his extreme right wing views. He protray himself as nice on race problems but than change once in office.
The only reasons why Jindal won was because he try to show the Indian community that he is one of them while trying not to scare off the whites right wingers.
I do not think the racial minority would vote for him again. Also, Lousiana had one democratic senator and a democrat was a gov. before Jindal and Vitter only won the seat after a democratic senator retire.
Look no further,he been around too long right in front of your face,he's white,hates everything democratic and is buddys with bushco's george and dick. Whom can it be you say?????
RUSH LIMBAUGH
His comfy little gig is far more satisfying to him, I'm sure.
..aside from hearing his name thrown out here and there, early in the primaries. Thanks for the Klein link, David. He sounds like a farsighted and very decent gentleman.
My question about Mr. Jindal at this point is: why isn't he a Democrat or at least a Libertarian?
I ask that similar question about Ron Paul too-- still.
any guy who thinks he performed a excorcism in college, and has such self loathing that he renamed himself after a character from the brady bunch (and as an adult, still uses the name) can stay far away from the dem party
and have you read his position papers? he is as wingnutty as they come
where can you find 'em?
..I'm just learning.
Geez, if I felt that I needed to change my name to a TV one for the sake of seeking public office, I'd pick 'Dale' Cooper over 'Bobby' Brady anyday!
I'd probably pick the name Lurch.
...i see he believes in "intelligent design."
you're right: wingnut.
yep
do mind that he wants it taught alongside evolution
he is the male counterpart of palin....except he has an education, can speak in full sentences, and should know better
..the political office should have little association with organized religion-- any of them, in my opinion.
Jindal indeed seems to come across as being your garden variety religious zealot, the more I'm reading about him.
That's the worst part of it.
I'm surprised we have seen "colorist" David Duke's name pop up in the 2012 hat. He's a republican, religious, a racist, and an idiot. He fits the bill like a pants waist size 72 on Rush Limbaugh.
Russh lost some weight?
only a 72 waste?
"Waste" is right!
That's what a Rastafarian might call an iration.
Jindal is my governor, and he showed a remarkable ability to govern after the recent hurricanes. He was a real leader in a time when we needed one. I'm a democrat, but would gladly keep Jindal as our governor. He's atypical of the traditional Louisiana type of corrupt politician. This guy is good.
..if you dont enquire too deeply into his personal belief system. he's of a stripe that is soberingly close to Palin's. Granted, he's not as innately stupid. But he's clearly as uncritical.
but he has totally effed up the state treasury
give the guy a couple of years...he wont dissapoint
sure, they talk about how they arent racist or sexist
yet when it comes to leadership...have they ever elected a woman or a person of color into national positions?
they will get one more chance, as steele will be up against newt for head of the rnc
who wants to bet that despite newt's baggage, he gets the position
...is plastic.
meanwhile, ask Jindal about exorcisms. We need that to become part of our national discourse. He is a real nutjob.
Dear Southern Republicans:
Remember that little civil war thing about 150 years ago? Where you wanted to secede from the United States? We changed our minds....it's OK! You can go !
Please go....
Let me get out of Texas first!
These good ole white men didn't spend their entire decades-long careers in politics to yield positions of authority to anyone young enough to be their child. I think it's less of a problem that the up-'n-comers are women (Palin), non-white (Jindal), or party-planners (Crist) than it is they haven't paid their dues, as the oldsters see it. Not that I don't believe in prejudice, but first and foremost, these guys think they earned the power and they'll give up the reins of the GOP when they're planted in the ground.
Plus, Crist is gay. No repig would EVER let a gay person have a position of power.
At least not knowingly.......
When Dixiecrats play football do they wear Dixie Cups?
Maybe Robert Byrd, but he is kind of old for football.
Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.
"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.
Remember, the National Socialists were also a southern regional power. They took control as the post-war economy collapsed.
The Weimer Republic was one of America's first attempts at nation-building.
See how well that works?
Although I'm sure modern Germany if of diverse religions, wasn't Northern Germany traditionally Lutheran, and Southern Germany traditionally Roman Catholic?
That is where the analogy breaks down, unless you include Father Newman of SC.
Haley Barbour was a lobbyist on K Street with Abramoff,years ago. The Gulf Coast states of Missisippi and Louisiana are BIG$$$ players, as they have Indian Casino gambling. These casinos are NOT under US gov't guidelines. They are soveriegn nations and do as they please with their money. Missippi is right next door to Alabama. The significance is the tie between gmbling,Barbour ,Abramoff and the availabilty of $$ donations from Indian Casinos.You MUST read the story done earlier this year,from Huff Po. This also involves the railroading of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman,directly related to keeping gambling OUT of Alabama,and IN Mississippi-Haley Barbour's state.---------------------McCain Withheld Controversial Abramoff email report mentioning Riley's name. And one week later, Siegelman was convicted without the Abramoff email ever ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/mccain-with...
The delusional hoopleheads that comprise the base of the Republican Party will be the driving force behind Palin as the future face of the GOP. She exemplifies the closed minds, magical thinkers and hate-filled ( whether against different ethnicities, cultures, or sexual orientation) bigots that are her loyal and fanatical fans. And for that reason alone, Jindal doesn't have a PRAYER to be anything but a token for the Republicans. Rove and company created their monster when they forced McCain to accept Palin as his running mate. Now, they can't contain her. Palin represents a kind of odd sociopathic tendency that I see in so many like her. She will invite you into her world, assessing if you are a useful ally or potential enemy. The entire time smiling, winking,and acting superficially pleasent. Palin will offer you some coffee, green Jello, and slice of apple pie. She will pretend she is your friend until you are no longer of use and dispense with you. If she decides you are her enemy, she will spread the most vicious rumors and gossip to assassinate your character. Nice gal there.
how about "res ipsa racism" ? i can remember when the repubs were about more than just wedge issues...back when the damned canterbury tales were on the nyt best seller list.
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