I'm not psychic, don't even believe in psychic powers - and yet, my spider-sense is tingling. I do believe we are about to witness a bloodbath:
The Lord of the Flies climate at McCain campaign headquarters continues, with a pro-Palin faction reportedly at odds with the loyal Bushies McCain brought in to run the operation.
Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign's already-tense internal dynamics.
Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image -- even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline.
"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.
According to the piece in the Politico, Palin's people blame handlers for not letting her be herself. McCain's people blame Palin for being unprepared and unable to answer questions coherently. Palin's people don't want the governor to get the blame if the ticket loses, and McCain's people resent the lack of loyalty and discipline.
Recall that Sarah Palin has a history of biting the hands that feed her. McCain should probably be looking into prosthetics about now. Unless, of course, his advisers can cut Palin off at the knees:
Ben Smith's impressive item earlier about the infighting among McCain campaign aides has caused quite a stir, but just as importantly, it's also caused more McCain aides to start pointing fingers more aggressively.
McCain sources say Palin has gone off message several times, and they privately wonder if the incidents were deliberate. They cited that she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source tells CNN she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.
"Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."
If that diva label sticks, we might not have Sarah Palin to kick around in 2012. There's also the small matter of a variety of ethics scandals looming on the horizon:
Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.
[snip]In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:
_Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group — the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.
_Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.
_The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.
_Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.
And this is the "maverick" who will "reform" D.C.? That's fucking hysterical, that is.
It's little things like those that have driven Republicans to endorse Obama in droves, and have given her somewhat of a less-than-bright future among all but the religious frothers who just lurrves them some Caribou Barbie. Even then, she has to contend with the fact that Rev. Mike Huckabee - yes, Reverend - is vying for their affections. Buh-bye!
So, just how bad is the situation with the McCain campaign? Very:
It's a tough economy out there. Just be glad that you don't have this as the latest entry on your resume, though, if you're in the job market:One well-connected Republican in the private sector was shocked to get calls and resumes in the past few days from what he said were senior McCain aides — a breach of custom for even the worst-off campaigns.
Yeesh. If that's your best foot forward, taking responsibility for the McCain debacle, you might just want to, well, lie, and instead put down "Learned Lotus 1-2-3 in prison after conviction for buggering underage goats."
Yup. So bad they're already job-hunting when they're not busy sniping at each other. I don't ever want to call an election before it's over, but let's just say that McCain's only chance of winning is if Obama and Biden get busted buggering underage goats.
Or visiting that awful terrorist country that begins with an I. No, not Iran - Bush has actually decided that we can start playing nice with Iran, just like Obama said we should. I'm talking about Iceland:
One of the casualties of the financial crisis which has gotten little notice in the US is Icleand, and it went down in a particularly ugly fashion. Gordon Brown, the UK's fantastically unpopular Prime Minister, said that Icelandic banks had threatened to not honor obligations to British account holders, so he declared Iceland a terrorist country and seized the banks assets. This caused the banks to go under and the Icelandic economy to implode to the extent that if Russia hadn't sent them billions of dollars, they would have literally starved, since they need to import food.
Yes, they asked the US and their friends in the EU for money first, but apparently only Vladimir Putin cared enough about Iceland's impending famine to do anything about it. It's times like these when you find out who your friends are. I imagine the Icelanders are feeling a lot warmer towards Russia these days. Perhaps Putin would like a nice naval base there?
Leaving aside, for just a moment, the absurdity of labeling Iceland a terrorist country, the problem is this: Icelanders are saying "prove it" with respect to the allegation that they threatened to not honor account withdrawals, and so far Gordon Brown hasn't come up with proof.
I see Britain's managed to get their very own batshit insane psychopath who will twist the laws for his own power and political gain. And this is after kicking out Blair. They should know better than to choose anyone whose last name is a one-syllable word beginning with B. Look what happened to us.
Some people never learn. Like the Bush White House:
Looks like the White House is having trouble getting out of the habit of using the Department of Justice for political purposes.
The Washington Post reports that President Bush has asked DOJ to look into a request by House Republican leader John Boehner that would force Ohio's Secretary of State to provide local election officials with information on 200,000 newly registered voters who have mismatched registration data. That could make it possible for Republicans to issue challenges to many of these voters, perhaps forcing them to cast provisional ballots.
Well, we all know how well that worked the last time. I suppose they figure one more scandal for the road can't hurt. Or two. Or several dozen.
We should get him a wrecking ball for Christmas. It might make his destruction of his own party go a little quicker.
1 comment:
Please don't follow the crap the right wing press have been spouting. Iceland has NOT been labeled a terrorist country by the UK. The bill in question does have 'Anti-Terrorist' in the title, but covers also measures for economic security of the UK. It is under the economic section that the assets were frozen.
From the BBC
"A Treasury spokesman said the government did not consider Iceland or its banks as terror regimes.
He told BBC News: "The government froze the assets of Landsbanki in the UK as a precautionary measure to ensure UK creditors are treated fairly.
"The order was made under a power contained in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, however it was not taken on the basis of the anti-terrorism provisions in the Act.
"The Act includes a broad range of provisions and is not only about countering terrorism."
Basically when the bank collapsed the Icelandic government said they were not going to cover foriegn investors (which I understand to be a requirement), so the UK Government looked for a way to cover the exposure of UK investors. Finding the bank had assets in the UK, it reached for the nearest (and newest) piece of legislation. The sections of the bill in question have NOTHING to do with terrorism.
The press reporting is just lazy. going with whatever the Icelandic government (who are trying to cover up) are saying.
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