crossposted from Driftglass at the request of Crooks and Liars editors

Once upon a time, there was a President named Bill Clinton, who was, by most historical standards, a typical Centrist Republican, although by a fluke of geography and circumstances he ran for public office with a "(D)" after his name.

Under his Administration, many Conservative ideas which had long gathered dust on the shelf -- ideas such as welfare reform, a balanced budget, debt reduction, a strict “Pay as You Go” fiscal regime, a boom in technology jobs, budget surpluses, NAFTA, GATT, official bans on gay marriage, etc. -- were finally realized.

And for all of his good work on behalf of their ideology, Conservatives spent eight, long years treating Bill Clinton -- a Southern, White, Christian man -- as if he were a case of flesh eating nuclear syphilis.

Because he did not run for office with an "(R)" after his name.

And because he did not run for office with an "(R)" after his name, according to the leading voices in the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement, Bill Clinton was, in no particular order, Hitler, a Socialist, a rapist, a warmonger, a serial murderer, and a drug dealer, whose Presidency was somehow vaguely illegitimate.

And counterpointing the 24/7 slime campaign, there were those endless, endless hearings. Whitewater. Travel office. Christmas Card lists. Lincoln bedroom. Etc ad nauseum.

Or don’t you remember?

Continue reading »

John McCain attacked Barack Obama recently saying Obama would "slow" FCS, the future combat system which has been a procurement nightmare with corruption and overruns all around. McCain had previously spoken out about how bad that nightmare has been.

Indeed, it's been so bad that, back in July, the McCain's campaign's senior economic adviser submitted a "plan to balance the federal budget by 2013 to The Washington Post editorial board" that specifically set out what McCain would do about it as president.

Noah Shachtman at Danger Room found the relevant passage:

Balance the budget requires slowing outlay growth to 2.4 percent. The roughly $470 billion dollars (by 2013) in slower spending growth come from reduced deployments abroad ($150 billion; consistent with success in Iraq/Afghanistan that permits deployments to be cut by half -- hopefully more), slower discretionary spending in non-defense and Pentagon procurements ($160 billion; there are lots of procurements -- airborne laser, Globemaster, Future Combat System -- that should be ended and the entire Pentagon budget should be scrubbed).

Oops.

Noah continues:

McCain aides are privately furious about the contradiction, I'm hearing. But there's been no official comment, so far, about the mix-up.

I bet McCain's infamous anger is showing right now - and his campaign staff are on the receiving end.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

From the same spoiled brats who brought you Billionaires for Bush and crossposted by our friends at Brave New Film and their new project, Less Jobs, More Wars. **

**Corrected to properly attribute video.