Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Who's connected to terrorists, again?

It is thus particularly ironic that William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who heads McCain’s presidential transition team, was involved in a lobbying effort on behalf of Saddam Hussein around the same time as Clinton launched strikes against Iraq “to ease international sanctions against his regime,” as Murray Waas reports today on The Huffington Post:

Talking points that Timmons produced for the lobbyists to help ease the sanctions, for example, were reviewed ahead of time by [Saddam aide Tariq] Aziz, [lobbyist Samir] Vincent testified in court. Proposals that Timmons himself circulated to U.S. officials as part of the effort were written with the assistance of the Iraqi officials, and were also sent ahead of time with Timmons’ approval to Aziz, other records show.

Beginning in 1992, Waas adds, Timmons “worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.”

I'd dearly love to see McCain have to explain this one. Not that he will. Republicons can associate with terrorists and states sponsoring terrorism all they like, and they're "patriots." Dems so much as pass a "terrorist" on the street, and they're traitors to the country. That's one of the many disgusting double-standards we need to work on changing.

Obama might want to consider mentioning the above gem if McCain puts his money where his mouth is tomorrow night:

Last week, it seemed as if the Obama campaign went out of its way to bait John McCain on the Bill Ayers "issue." Obama, Biden, and surrogates said they were surprised McCain talked all about Ayers leading up to the debate, but not at the debate itself.

"Well, I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days that he wasn't willing to say it to my face," Obama told ABC's Charlie Gibson. "But I guess we've got one last debate."

Obama, in this sense, was almost daring McCain to make these attacks directly.

The taunting apparently worked. This morning, McCain told a St. Louis radio station that he feels compelled to make the attack now, and it's Obama's fault.

"Oh, yeah. Y'know, I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised for me to have the guts to do that, because the fact is that the question didn't come up in that fashion. So, y'know, and I think he's probably ensured that it will come up this time. And, look Mark, it's not that I give a damn about some old washed-up terrorist..."

He doesn't care about Ayers, but he feels compelled to keep talking about Ayers, and has now effectively promised to bring up Ayers
at a debate. Not that he cares, though. Not at all. Perish the
thought.

Isn't it precious how nothing's ever McCain's fault? His campaign had to go negative because that meanie Obama wouldn't agree to a billion town hall meetings instead of three debates. Sarah Palin contradicted him on Pakistan policy because of "gotcha" journalism. And there are six thousand and eighty-nine different things McCain's not responsible for because he was a POW. For fuck's sake. This man is the very definition of "pathetic whiny bitch."

For a man who doesn't "give a damn about some old washed-up terrorist," he certainly has a campaign and a party that seems to give an awful lot of damns. And for a man who's trying to dial back the frenzy at his campaign events, he's doing a piss-poor job:

The Scranton Times-Tribune notes that yet another McCain supporter at a rally today with Gov. Sarah Palin yelled “kill him!” in reference to Sen. Barack Obama:

Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin. Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly. One man screamed “kill him!”

Last Monday, a supporter also yelled “kill him” at a rally. In the past weeks, McCain supporters have called Obama “an Arab,” “Little Hussein,” and a “terrorist.” (HT: TPM)

I'm starting to think McCain prefers to keep the base angry and paranoid. How else is he going to win?

And there are plenty of angry and paranoid people infesting the Republicon ranks. Look at what happened to Christopher Buckley:

Christopher Buckley, the author and son of the late conservative mainstay William F. Buckley, said in a telephone interview that he has resigned from the National Review, the political journal his father founded in 1955.

Mr. Buckley said he had “been effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement” after endorsing Barack Obama in a blog posting on theDailyBeast.com; since then, he said he has been blanketed with hate mail at the blog and at the National Review, where he has written a column.

Some here may decide to indulge in the game of false equivalencies and say that the Dems wouldn't behave any differently if one of our own embraced McCain. If you decide to play, you had better fucking bring me proof, and it had better be just as insane and nasty as what Buckley has been forced to endure.

I've never seen Dems do anything as nasty as the right does. Ever. And that alone, even if I didn't agree with their politics or policies, would cause me to vote straight D. The Republicons need a time-out until they can behave themselves again.