[h/t Media Matters]

This makes me happy in a weird, off-kilter kind of way. Boss Rush is all over comprehensive immigration reform, declaring that "it's up to [him] and Fox News" to stop immigration reform, before it's too late. It makes me happy because anything that makes Fox News look worse to people who don't pay much attention is a good thing --and plenty of Fox viewers aren't in love with Rushbo.

It also makes me happy because for once, we're on offense instead of defense. Between the president's gun control proposals, comprehensive immigration reform, climate change and tax reform, Rush is going to exhaust his audience trying to keep them outraged over it all. That means we might actually get some things out of the Congress that we wouldn't if they all had to focus on one thing, like they did with the Affordable Care Act.

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Even though Mitt Romney is generally loathed in tea party circles, he was the best they could hope for, and now that hope is dashed. Well, sort of.

Judson Phillips wrote one of his crazy posts for World Net Daily, that bastion of solid unbiased reporting, suggesting that electors should refuse to show up to the electoral college because without a quorum, the decision would move to the House of Representatives. Yes, Mr. Phillips is one of the malevolent voices of the right who just cannot deal with the fact that the nation re-elected President Obama by the highest popular vote margins any Democrat has received since Lyndon Johnson. It's out of his intellectual and emotional reach, evidently. Here's part of what he wrote:

According to the 12th Amendment, for the Electoral College to be able to select the president, it must have a quorum of two-thirds of the states voting. If enough states refuse to participate, the Electoral College will not have a quorum. If the Electoral College does not have a quorum or otherwise cannot vote or decide, then the responsibility for selecting the president and vice president devolves to the Congress.

The House of Representatives selects the president and the Senate selects the vice president.

Since the Republicans hold a majority in the House, presumably they would vote for Mitt Romney, and the Democrats in the Senate would vote for Joe Biden for vice president.

Can this work?

Sure it can.

One small problem. Phillips incorrectly reads the 12th amendment, as Jason Easley at Politicususa explains:

Actually, it can’t. Phillips misread the 12th Amendment. The quorum rule only applies to the House of Representatives, not the Electoral College. World Net Daily updated the Philips post with the correct information. People wrote it, and then everyone went about their Thanksgiving business under the assumption that this crazy, stupid, and incorrect reading of the 12 Amendment was over and done with.

This has not stopped the idea from finding a life in the viral right-wing email atmosphere, where visions of death panels and Kenyan births are regular inbox denizens. Now those email strands have inspired an Idaho lawmaker to cling to this as the solution to their devastating election loss. The Idaho Statesman reports:

A state senator from north-central Idaho is touting a scheme that’s been circulating on tea party blogs, calling for states that supported Mitt Romney to refuse to participate in the Electoral College in a move backers believe would change the election result.

Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, sent an article out on Twitter headed, “A ‘last chance’ to have Mitt Romney as President in January (it’s still not too late).”

She is debunked in a pretty blunt way by constitutional scholar David Adler, who explains that in the electoral college, one need only have 270 votes. No quorum is required. Just 270 electors voting for one candidate. You think Barack Obama is worried about this crazy challenge?

This has left Nuxoll bereft.

She said, “I think it is very, very sad that we elected our current president, because he is definitely not following (the) Constitution. He is depriving us of our freedoms by all the agencies, and so … what I’m thinking is the states are going to have to stand up for our individual rights and for our collective rights.”

Nuxoll won a second Senate term on Nov. 6 with 64 percent of the vote in Idaho’s new legislative District 7, defeating independent Jon Cantamessa.

Oh, tea party. We have to put up with your loony Congresscritters so just live with our elected President, ok?

Judson Phillips has evidently accepted reality on this, but he's been desperately casting about for someone to blame for the November 6th rejection of all he holds dear. Today, he decided to aim at young voters, which is awesome for ensuring the tea party's obsolescence. He wrote a rant and posted it on Tea Party Nation today blaming them for everything from student loans to Jimmy Carter. I'm sure he would have blamed them for climate change if he believed in climate change. Here's a taste:

If you are under thirty now, you could be in your seventies and still paying for us baby boomers.

This is what you got by reelecting Barack Obama.

There is an old saying, “you get the government you deserve.”

In this case, that saying has never been truer.

I loved the first comment.

Why don't we get into solutions instead of negativity.

Oh, brave commenter, you're so right. Of course, the problem is that the solutions are things you just cannot abide, like a government by, for, and of the people.

By the way, there's a reason Tea Party Nation is one of the few tea party groups to snag the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center. They're extreme and extremely hateful. They also seem to have a problem with reality-based living.

*edited to clarify remarks about vote margins

I've written about this lunatic before. Marcia Wood is the same person who called for businesses not to hire anyone until Barack Obama was out of office and fantasized about muzzling Michelle Obama, but as time has gone on and the Republican party implodes more and more, her harsh rhetoric has crossed the line into territory that is at the least, borderline seditious.

Her latest vomitus comes in the form of a blog post on Tea Party Nation, that fine upstanding racist enclave run by Judson Phillips. The title of the post is "Who is this man some call Obama?" That picture to your right is posted on her blog post. Thanks for that, Clint Eastwood.

Somewhere between her Michelle Obama fantasy and her current outlook, she has made up her mind that President Barack Obama is a puppet king. I'm not sure who she thinks is pulling the strings, but I'm guessing it's one of the usual bogeymen like George Soros or something. Whatever it is in her drinking water that's causing her hallucinations, they are dangerous and dark. Take, for example, this:

Do I think Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will get the nod if we make it to the 2012 Elections – definitely they’re a great team, good men and Patriots. But, and this is a big but – I don’t think the puppeteers will take a chance if they feel Obama can’t win even in a crooked environment at the polls. Obama will be instructed to take the next move whether it’s declaring war or Martial Law – they will do whatever it takes to keep him from being removed from office.

Got that, patriots? Get out yer guns because the money boys are gonna make that black guy in the White House do their bidding. WTF? Reality check, anyone?

And then there is this:

It’s sickening to hear the old Republican Establishment say, “Obama says he’s a citizen of our United States” and that’s good enough for me. Let’s get real here – everything he has done indicates that he has created treason against the greatest Nation in the World and the fact that he’s even on the Presidential ticket again this year is unbelievable. We need to see his school records, his real proof of citizenship and quit this politically correct malarkey – we have a stranger in our midst and I want to know who the “He - -“ he really is; he’s darn sure not an American.

I realize this woman is deeply disappointed that she can no longer simply claim there's no birth certificate to perpetuate the notion that the White House is in the hands of a Manchurian candidate, but the school records nonsense is just that. Utter nonsense. A last ditch effort to dig up something "not provided" in order to perpetuate the myth that he is either an affirmative action case, a Manchurian candidate, or just some damn foreigner who stole the White House from the White Boys.

But she is beyond the usual nonsensical ravings, and it's not the first time I've heard them. The suggestion that there is a "stranger in our midst" is a call to arms. The mention of treason is code for her strong belief that if you're not white, you've got no business being in that Oval Office, and are therefore committing treason. By the way, the Tea Party Nation site sends out at least 2-3 emails a week calling Democrats the "party of treason." It's a theme.

This post is the post of a seriously deranged woman who almost makes Todd Akin seem middle-of-the-road. Somewhere in Marcia Wood's tiny little primitive brain, an alarm is sounding. The alarm is telling her she must FIGHT, fire the shot, spill the hate over into the mainstream, take up arms and DEFEND.

Keep this post on a list somewhere along with that site. I'm betting we haven't heard the last of Marcia Wood, and I'm betting there will be a time where someone will actually act on the insanity she spews online, to a tragic outcome. That blood will be on her hands.

Marcia Wood, the Tea Party Nation featured writer who famously suggested small businesses refuse to hire anyone until President Obama is turned out of office, has another stink bomb that Judson Phillips just emailed out to all of their members.

In this one, Ms. Wood riffs off of Jodi Kantor's new book, The Obamas. Now that I've finished the book, I'll just say that I think Ms. Kantor should have stuck to other people's impressions and reported those instead of trying to use them to climb into the heads of the President and First Lady and invent what they might have been thinking or feeling. Ms. Wood does her best to write an impression of Kantor's style and in the process, just exposes her inner racist for the entire world to see.

In this scene, she imagines David Plouffe, David Axelrod, and Jim Messina in a huddle over some alleged misstatement on the First Lady's part.

Picture David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Jim Messina up before the crack of dawn huddled behind “Pluto’s” luxurious dog house. Axelrod is frowning and doing his usual finger pointing saying, “Plouffe either you or Messina need to have a heart to heart with Barack – Michelle is causing us problems like she did in 2008.
Remember when she spouted off and said, “The first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my Country.” We need to put a muzzle on her – maybe send her back to Hawaii on an extended vacation or send her to her room until the election is over.

Messina said, hey guys that’s not my job – I’ve got my hands full trying to find out who’s sending donations in signed “Mickey Mouse and Super Man.” Those big bundlers Obama paid off in 2009 are starting to talk about the grants and loans Barack passed under the table. The news media is picking up on this too - it’s not looking good on my end.

Plouffe said, “Boys we’ve got worse problems then Michelle’s mouth – Obama is our worst night mare; he doesn’t have an agenda – in fact his record the past three years looks like a rerun of Old Jimmy Carter recycled toilet paper.”

The purpose of this little imagined scene is to somehow promote Newt Gingrich, who Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has endorsed as his candidate. This is the same Judson Phillips who famously ranted when the debt ceiling deal was struck, and swore compromise was surrender and he wouldn't support any candidate who ever compromised.

Now if I were to confront Ms. Wood on this piece of trashy hack writing, it's likely she'd run for her escape hatch, claiming it was simply intended to be humor, or parody.

Whatever it is, suggesting that our First Lady needs to be muzzled is not humorous, nor is it something that should have been sent out in a blast to all TPN subscribers. It's inappropriate, disrespectful, and downright racist. I could go on with the hundred different ways this is offensive, but I suspect reading it is all that's necessary.

Don't let all the MSNBC love for Newt Gingrich fool you right now. He's bashing Romney, but it's the racist vote he's after, and it's the racist vote he hopes will keep his candidacy viable. If you need any further evidence of that, I suggest you go back and read the quoted passage above again.

Really ugly and classless stuff, TPN.

The right wing pundits and tea party operatives are trying to cover for all the heat they took for their outrageous behavior during the HCR debate and their ugly tea party town halls where spitting and violence took center stage so they have been trying to come up with a typical false equivalence narrative to offset it.

We liberals are all so mean to the tea party now for saying that they held the government hostage in their efforts to cut spending. Unfortunately for them, it's also only the truth. Judson Phillips, the TV face of Tea Party Nation went to Wisconsin to defend Alberta Darling, a Republican facing a tough challenge from Sandy Pasch in the recall elections this week. Phillips took his chips and went all in on the nasty:

The founder of Tea Party Nation claimed liberal ideology is responsible for "a billion" deaths over the past century during a raucous rally here Saturday in support of one of the six Republican state senators facing a recall election Tuesday.

"I will tell you ladies and gentlemen, I detest and despise everything the left stands for. How anybody can endorse and embrace an ideology that has killed a billion people in the last century is beyond me," said Tea Party Nation CEO Judson Phillips.

Phillips, who a day prior likened protesters of Gov. Scott Walker to Nazi storm troopers, urged a few hundred tea party supporters to turn out for state Sen. Alberta Darling, who is in a ferocious battle with state Rep. Sandy Pasch to hold onto her suburban Milwaukee seat.

But he wasn't the only speaker to use loaded language to gin up the crowd.

Vince Schmuki, a leader of the Ozaukee Patriot tea party group compared the recall effort to a terrorist attack.

"This is ground zero," said Schmuki. "You remember what the term ground zero means? We have been attacked."

He continued, "Tuesday is going to be the beginning of our takeover. And we're going to follow it up the following week, and then we're going to polish off the enemy in November 2012. Who's with me?"

Phillips believes that only land owners should have the right to vote. Calling the tea party caucus hostage takers is certainly a colorful way to describe their negotiation tactics since they refused to strike a deal on the debt ceiling vote that included any type of revenue being raised and needed to be done on their terms only. But it's not inaccurate. The debt ceiling was never used as an ideological tool before and for good reason. With the S&P downgrade on Friday, now we see the results of their actions. Phillips, a regular on MSNBC revealed himself to be an ideologue of the highest order who's basic goal has nothing to do with policy and all to do with his hatred of Liberals. Most of the conservative movement that got involved in black helicopter politics when Bill Clinton took office have been transmitted into the mainstream of the GOP and Judson's views typify their beliefs to the max. They've made a cottage industry out of their hatred for Liberals and Progressives. Not to mention that his Tea Party Nation group has come under a lot of fire by conservatives for their slimy accounting practices.

So, we're all murderers now on a scale of which Stalin would be jealous.

Blue America's Sandy Pasch is running so close to Scott Walker's biggest supporter, Alberta Darling that it's causing them a lot of concern. Here's why:

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Alan Caruba is featured all the time on Tea Party Nation. What distinguishes Caruba's screeds from others are two characteristics: They are always mean-spirited with racist overtones and they are always hysterical. Today's little rant (again, no link because they're behind a registration wall, but it is a direct copy/paste) has a very, very interesting declaration:

How did the United States of America go from Thomas Jefferson, the brilliant author of the Declaration of Independence to Timothy Geithner, a very upwardly mobile student of government and monetary affairs?

Suffice to say, as a public servant, he has served to the satisfaction of his mentors in numerous positions and also in liberal enclaves such as the Council on Foreign Affairs and a three-year stint at Kissinger Associates, learning from one of the most Machiavellian characters of the modern era. At the tender age of 42, he was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The liberal elite take care of its own.

Geithner is the ying to Obama’s yang. They are perfectly suited to each other because both get their jollies playing the great game of state, although it should be said that Geithner is far better prepared for that role having studied abroad, including two years, 1981-2 studying Mandarin at Peking University and Beijing Normal University. His M.A. is in international economics and Asian studies from John Hopkins University School of advanced International Studies.

Obama’s education ended with a law degree from Harvard. Nobody knows what grades he made at Occidental, Columbia University or Harvard. He is often mistakenly referred to as a former professor of constitutional law at Chicago University, but in fact he was akin to a teaching assistant or adjunct, the lowest end of the academic ladder.

Obama’s mentors included a known member of the Communist Party when he was growing up in Hawaii, various “Marxist professors” at Occidental and Columbia University, and Bill Ayers who gained fame as a domestic terrorist, a member of the Weather Underground who describes himself as a “Communist with a small c.” To bring matters full circle, Ayers is a retired University of Chicago professor.

All this is by way of background to suggest that the debt ceiling will be increased because there is no alternative.

And having surrendered, he spent the rest of the post smacking around Democrats, but it was halfhearted at best.

I call that *winning*.

Unfortunately, Charles Krauthammer is a little bit aggravated, but even he concedes they've lost the battle and the war.

The Republicans are being totally outmaneuvered. The House speaker appears disoriented. It’s time to act. Time to call Obama’s bluff.

A long-term deal or nothing? The Republican House should immediately pass a short-term debt-ceiling hike of $500 billion containing $500 billion in budget cuts. That would give us about five months to work on something larger.

Aw, Charles. What part of President Obama's "I-have-reached-my-limit" statement did you miss yesterday? Possibly, it was the part where he said he would not sign anything short-term.

Because, as Lawrence O'Donnell explained on The Last Word last night, the President can veto that short-term thing at midnight on August 2nd and Congress will still have time to give him the one line increase resolution with the right numbers filled in. He is, however, right about the Republicans being outmaneuvered. They have been.

Clearly, Tea Party Nation's Judson Phillips has his own ideas about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I didn't realize that when the teabaggers held up signs saying "We want our country back", they meant back to 1790. Explain to me why African-Americans want to be part of this group? It's not like that era worked out well for them.

But now that the tea party groups have made inroads into Congress and have the Republican Party kowtowing to them, Phillips has a new target for the Tea Party Nation. In this time when we remember the birth of Christ, Phillips is going after the Methodist Church for their "socialistic" leanings. No, I'm not kidding.

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has a dream: "No more Methodist Church."

A blog post on his Tea Party Nation page says that on Friday he walked by the United Methodist Building in Washington D.C., which had a sign that said, "Pass the DREAM Act." Phillips wrote: " I have a DREAM. That is, no more United Methodist Church."

Phillips explains that he was formerly a member of the church, but he left because it's "the first Church of Karl Marx," and "little more than the "religious" arm of socialism."

"The Methodist church is pro-illegal immigration," he continues. "They have been in the bag for socialist health care, going as far as sending out emails to their membership "debunking" the myths of Obamacare. Say, where are the liberal complaints on the separation of church and state?"

"In short, if you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist church," he says.

Lord, protect us from your idiot followers. To say that he's obviously unfamiliar with the Constitution to subvert the First Amendment in that way would be kind. But he's also very, very unfamiliar with the teachings of Christ himself to find the teachings of the Methodist Church to be religious socialism. Seriously, dude?

In one of the proofs of His divinity, Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes to feed everyone, spreading his wealth to all, without regard to their ability to pay. He healed the sick (our first universal health care plan!) and railed against the money changers and advised the wealthy that their material status in this world gave them no guaranteed access to the next.

Jesus spoke remarkably often about wealth and poverty. To the poor he said, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," (Luke's version). To the rich he said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth," and "go, sell what you have, and give to the poor." When the rich turned away from him because they couldn't follow his command he observed, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

For Jesus, helping the poor and the outcast is not optional: it is the essence of what it means to love God. In the parable of the last judgement he welcomes the righteous into heaven saying, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." When the righteous answered that they didn't recall doing any of these things, he said, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

We are to "forgive our debtors" and "give to every one who begs from you." But don't handouts contribute to moral decay? Jesus was more concerned about the moral decay in those who are so attached to their wealth that they would hoard it for themselves. In our better moments most of us recognize that giving does not corrupt. We sacrifice to give good things to our children and do our best to provide them with years of carefree existence as they grow up. We do this to give them a sense of security and a foundation for growth. People who have been devastated by misfortune, or for whatever reason are down and out, may need even more help because they may not have what it takes to recover on their own. Many of us will help a friend in hard times, even though we know we will never be repaid. It is when dealing distantly with people in the abstract that we fall back on the "moral decay" argument.

Frankly, I think the Methodist Church is probably better off with Judson Phillips out of their flock. His understanding of Christianity is sadly wanting.

Judson Phillips at the Tea Party Nation has decided Sarah Palin should run for head of the Republican National Committee. Here's the text of the letter they sent asking her to run:

Dear Governor Palin,

John Kennedy once said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Right now, your country needs you as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

We are in a fight for the survival of our country. The Democrats have walked off the socialist cliff and are driving the country headlong into the abyss. Unfortunately, there are many on the Republican side who do not seem to get it. They are the embodiment of the old political joke that says, with the Democrats you get more of the same and with Republicans you get less of the same.

We need you as Chairman of the RNC. You have shown in the past no hesitation to take on the establishment. You did it in Alaska. If we end up with establishment control of the GOP and their support for an establishment candidate in 2012, Obama and the socialists will have won. An establishment candidate will not work to repeal Obamacare and the other programs Obama, Pelosi and Reid have put in place. We need someone who will put conservatives in control of the party apparatus, not RINOs.

Michael Steele has spent Republican money with the gusto of a liberal. You showed in Alaska, you know how to put the brakes on unnecessary spending.

Finally, you are a superstar. You have an unbelievable ability to light up a crowd and to raise money. Both of which the Republican Party needs. Something is really wrong with the GOP when the RNC cannot fund a get out the vote campaign for mid-term elections. The GOP needs a conservative who can raise money and energize the troops. You are the only one out there with these unique talents.

We, the undersigned, are asking you to ask yourself what you can do for your country and to step up and become a candidate for Chairman of the RNC.

Thank you for your consideration and for what you continue to do for this great country.

Judson Phillips, Founder - Tea Party Nation

There's just so much wrong with this, I'm not sure where to start, but it may all be moot anyway. I cannot imagine Sarah Palin giving up her celebrity status as a reality TV star and snark queen to do something as mundane as run the RNC. And how would that all work out in terms of her deal with Fox News?

On the other hand, can you imagine the ridiculousness of the Sunday shows with Palin making the rounds? She'd make Michael Steele look like a genius.

The Tea Party Nation, via Judson Phillips, has laid down a set of ultimatums for the new Republican Congress, and all I can say to them is "good luck with that." In a very long screed to Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker-Elect John Boehner, Phillips lays out what they expect this Congress to accomplish in the next two years. Here's a list, in their own words:

1. "[W]e want Obamacare defunded. There is no compromise on this issue and it is not negotiable."
2. "[W]e want serious reductions in spending." (No suggestions for what should be reduced, however. Philips instead falls back on the "waste, fraud and abuse" standby)
3. "[W]e must dismantle the liberal-political complex." He goes on to name ACORN and Planned Parenthood as agencies receiving Federal funding which should immediately be defunded and left for dead, as if one of them already hasn't.
4. "[I]f the debt ceiling is to be raised, this is the last time." Interesting to me that they'd concede this. It may be the most significant "demand" on the list.
5. "[T]axes must be reduced. The Bush tax cuts must be extended for everyone, made permanent..." He goes on to blather about how "small businesses" are being penalized. Small businesses like those holding companies pouring billions into Charles and David Koch's pockets? Those small businesses?
6. "[T]here can be no amnesty." A call to oppose the DREAM act and "any other effort." They seriously want to toss every immigrant out and let them all re-apply. And I thought I was an idealist.
7. "[F]ight the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The policy has worked well for the last fifteen years. There is no reason to change." He goes on to rail against "radical leftist groups" wanting to weaken the United States military but fails to acknowledge the near-unanimous opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the DADT policy actually undermines the military far more.

And I simply must quote Mr. Phillips' closing because it is so stunningly narrow-minded and insular:

We, the members of the mainstream Tea Party movement have a lot of expectations for you in this Congress. We realize the limitations you face. But we also realize the tools you have at your disposal. America is a conservative country. We expect conservative leadership from our country.

It's going to be a very interesting 2 years. I can hardly wait to see how wingers like Phillips handle the disappointment they're sure to feel when none of this happens.

Mitch McConnell gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation this morning where he doubled down on his promise to do what he could to make President Obama a one-term president. From the transcript:

Let’s start with the big picture. Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office. But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things. We can hope the President will start listening to the electorate after Tuesday’s election. But we can’t plan on it. And it would be foolish to expect that Republicans will be able to completely reverse the damage Democrats have done as long as a Democrat holds the veto pen.

If you read through the entire transcript, it's remarkable. The strategy is simple: "Re-educate" the public about the "hard left" agenda of Democrats, recapture the White House in 2012, repeal every reform passed by the 111th Congress. But in all my years following politics, I have never seen it turn so hard and rigidly right.

As it turns out, it would seem the Tea Party has the Republican leadership by the short hairs. A ransom note to Mitch McConnell from Judson Phillips at Tea Party Nation clarifies things a bit. It opens with this: "Grow a pair." Here are some of their demands:

First, you can start by imposing party discipline. The days of reaching across the aisle are over. You have forty-six senators. (At the time of this writing, Washington State is still too close to call, but I do not believe Dino Rossi can get a fraud proof majority). Lisa Murkowski will also caucus with the GOP. They are also looking towards 2012 and they can count numbers just as well as you can. Many of them have been in the majority before and know how much better it is in the majority. Many of them are looking forward to being committee chairs. They need to understand, if they want to be chairs, they are going to follow orders.

That was mild, and expected. But what follows is typical of the thuggery I've come to expect from this group.

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