Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

What Republicons say in public:

Yesterday, during Politico’s breakfast panel at the Republican National Convention on “Women and the Republican Party,” Matthew Yglesias asked why the panelists were ignoring substantive discussion of Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) record. Yglesias noted that Palin lied about her support for the Bridge to Nowhere and led Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R-AK) 527.

Conservative strategist Mike Murphy argued that Palin’s record was nothing to be concerned about. He dismissed Palin’s record of supporting large earmark spending, said he didn’t “buy” that Palin was closely linked to the indicted Stevens and joked that her association with the fringe Alaska Independence Party makes him “like her more.”

VS. what they say when they think the microphone's off:

Murphy, at that point, said, "They're all bummed out."

Todd added, "I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they can obtain?" Noonan answered, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, 'political bullshit' about narratives."

Todd, incredulous, said, "Yeah, but what's the narrative?" To which Murphy added, "I totally agree."

Noonan added, "Every time Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it."

Murphy concluded, "You know what's the worst thing about it, the greatest of McCain is no cynicism, and..."

Todd finished his sentence: "This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky."

Keep that in mind while the Cons tell you what a brilliant decision Palin as Veep was and how happy they all are.

At least one evangelical big gun is having an uncomfortable moment of sanity as well. Difference is, he's not keeping his opinion to himself:

The outpouring of support for Sarah Palin in evangelical circles has been overwhelming, but it's not entirely unanimous.

Mark DeMoss' name may not be familiar in secular circles, but BeliefNet recently described him as arguably "the most prominent public relations executive in the evangelical world." He's perhaps best known for years of work alongside Jerry Falwell at the Moral Majority.

This week, DeMoss is watching the hullabaloo surrounding Palin, and he's worried.

Mark DeMoss, former chief of staff to Jerry Falwell and now a leading Christian public relations executive, is hoping that Palin turns out well but has been shocked and worried by the reflexive Christian embrace of her.

"Too many evangelicals and religious conservative are too preoccupied with values and faith and pay no attention to competence. We don't apply this approach to anything else in life, including choosing a pastor." Imagine, he said, if a church was searching for a pastor and the leadership was brought a candidate with great values but little experience. "They've been a pastor for two years at a church with 150 people but he shares our values, so we hired him to be pastor of our 5,000 person church? It wouldn't happen! We don't say, 'He shares our values, so let's hire him.' That's absurd. Yet we apply that to choosing presidents. It blows my mind."

Seems like a man who still retains the ability to think. I never thought I'd see that from a current member of the frothing religious right.

But no one else on the right seems to be jumping on the sanity train. They're all happy where they're at, off in Unreality Land, celebrating the fact that Palin's teenaged daughter's going to keep her baby (making a choice they want to deny to everyone else). They want more teens to choose life, they say. Sarah Palin has a funny way of supporting that choice:

The Washington Post's Paul Kane reports that Sarah Palin, as governor, used a line-item veto to "slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live."

As it turns out, Alaskan lawmakers passed the state's budget, but Palin started taking out funding she found objectionable. In this case, she cut funding for Covenant House Alaska from $5 million to $3.9 million. The practical result, of course, is that fewer teen moms in Alaska would be eligible for shelters and educational programs.

If their abstinence-only programs fail you (which they will), and you can't marry the daddy and count on the support of your ultra-conservative parents, tough. You're supposed to keep the kid, but no one's going to be there to ensure you have the basic necessities for raising that child. Fucking brilliant, Sarah. Way to show your support for life.

When you wonder how they can be such enormous fucking hypocrites, remember that this is the party that specializes in cognitive dissonance and redefining reality:

Last night, CBS News reviewed President Bush’s legacy and noted that it will largely be defined by his misguided invasion of Iraq. During its report, Iraq war apologist Michael O’Hanlon recalled that Bush went to war in a “deliberately cavalier way,” but added that Americans should “be fair” and give Bush credit for their being no WMD in Iraq:

O’HANLON: But let’s also be fair. Iraq now seems to be a quasi-functioning democracy, without weapons of mass destruction, without genocides against its own citizens or attacks against its neighbors. So, to some extent, we’ve got to give the president his due.

I hate to mention it, Mikey, but the whooole reason we went to war was because you fucking assclowns said there were weapons of mass destruction already in Iraq OMG!!1!!! And that turned out to be pure fucking bullshit. So this we have to give Monkey Boy George credit for there not being WMDs in Iraq now... excuse me for repeating myself, but it's pure fucking bullshit.

Also, this "quasi-functioning democracy" is of no comfort. It was supposed to be a functional fucking democracy, period. That's what all of you shitheads said when you asked American troops to die for this farce of a war. You fucked up. Epic fucking fail. That's the reality, and no amount of bullshitting is going to change that. Thousands of people have died because you fuckers wanted to play war hero.

Bush gets credit for being the biggest fucking disaster this country has ever had sitting in the Oval Office, and that's it.

I can't believe there are people who are eager for four more years of this travesty.