Beck, Brewer, and Bachmann, Ryan Getting a Taste

EJ Dionne Jr

Doyle McManus
Reid Wilson

"Michele Bachmann said Planned Parenthood is the Lenscrafters of Big Abortion.' Which is a realy double-whammy because the conservatives hate Planned Parenthood and they hate Lenscrafters, because Lenscrafters makes glasses, and that could lead to reading." – Bill Maher

"In an interview yesterday, Donald Trump said he has a good relationship with 'the blacks.' Well, not anymore." – Jimmy Kimmel

"President Obama released his 2010 tax return. It turns out that he made $1.7 million and spent $14 trillion." – Conan O'Brien

As expected, the Republican presidential playing field is casting a wide net, drawing in candidates that don't have a chance and don't have a clue. Who, outside of an occasional coffeeshop in Albuquerque, has ever heard of Gary johnson? Or cares? For our amusement and entertainment, the GOP candidates are beginning to rip into each other like a circling pack of rabid hyenas. Donald Trump is proving how uninformed on the issues he really is, and Glen Beck is sniping at Mike Huckabee, shame on him. They are feuding over Michelle Obama's crusade against fat kids, with Mike being all for it, and Glen calling him a "progressive" for supporting it. We all know what happens when Glen attacks, but rarely get to see the other person's argument, so here's Mike Huckabee's reaction, taken from his weblog:

"This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a progressive, which he has said is the same as a ‘cancer’ and a ‘Nazi. What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews?


"I had the audacity — not of hope — but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity. I’m no fan of her husband’s policies for sure, but I have appreciated her efforts that Beck misrepresented — either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another ‘boogey man’ hiding in the closet that he and only he can see. The first lady’s approach is about personal responsibility — not the government literally taking candy from a baby’s mouth. He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything.” Mike's problems with weight loss are well documented, and Glen, who is a pudgy person himself, obviously has the need to get out and start moving around, seems to be in some kind of death throes, flailing around at what he perceives to be easy targets. Notice he didn't attack Michelle Obama herself, she could crush him like a bug...

I think that Sarah Palin may not throw her hat into the ring, thinking that it would be best to wait to run against someone other than Barack Obama. If he gets re-elected, the political drift of the public will probably swing again towards the Republicans, and she would do better to be seen as a strong candidate in 2016, while all of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates end up looking like the worst bunch of losers...

And the public can be fickle and cruel, just ask yesterday's darling, Paul Ryan. Paul thought that by offering an actual budget plan this year, the Republicans would be taken more seriously. He may not have counted on people actually reading it, or he is so blinded by either ideology or narcissism, take your pick, to think that he would be applauded. At a townhall meeting last night Paul Ryan was booed by the audience whenever he referred to his plan, something nobody expected, and he had to retreat. The pressure is ON in Wisconsin... all politicians need a healthy dose of reality and should be booed on occasion. They can't all be blissfully unaware like Ken Buck still is, even to this day...

If the current audacity continues with more laws passed by the states that give their Republican governors dictatorial powers, there will be outright rebellion. What Grover Nordquist and his minions don't perceive is that folks may or may not strike against pay and holidays, but mess around with their self-respect and dignity, and you have lost, a lesson sorely being learned in the Middle East right now. For every human right that's restored in Egypt and Tunisia, one is taken away in Wisconsin and Florida... Or, as is so eloquently put in the Asia Times by Tom Engelhardt : "As foreign and domestic crises collide, it's clear the US empire is walking into the night. At home, faith in the political system is lost, while the strange dance in Libya shows Washington has no conviction in the power it yields. The network of subservient semi-client states will rebel and this time, there will be no Rambo to save the day...."

In fact, the women of the GOP are looking the most level headed, maybe they are beginning to fight like girls.. What with Jan Brewer vetoing the recent two tea party bills in Arizona, that would allow carrying guns at schools and requiring any candidate running for federal office to provide proof to the Arizona Secretary of State. Jan used to be the Secretary of State, so she knows the limitations of the job, and verifying someone for Federal office is one of them.

Also, Michele Bachmann has come out as saying that if the president says he was born in the US, that's fine with her. When shown a copy of the president's actual birth certificate, allowed out of Hawaii by recent Hawaiian law, she said that the issue was settled by her. She may actually be serious about running as a candidate, if it has gotten her to think before she speaks... Are they angling for a Bachmann - Brewer ticket? Or is there a different Sharron Angle to
all of this, waiting in the wings?..