Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann sowed the wind, and now seems to be reaping a firestorm:

Dems Preparing For Major Offensive Against BachmannThe DCCC now plans to spend $1 million against Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in the wake of her McCarthyite rant on Hardball, sensing that voters back home might end up turning against her extremism. A TV ad should be coming in the next few days. Meanwhile, the Cook Political Report has changed its rating on Bachmann, downgrading her by two whole
positions from "Likely Republican" to "Tossup."

This is in addition to all of that lovely money that's poured into El Tinklenberg's coffers. Last count: $640,000.

Daamn.

In other stupid Republicon news, the McCain campaign seems to feeling a mite desperate these days. So desperate they may turn to the Rev. Wright in an attempt to inflame voter passions even more:

Now, all of a sudden, Wright might be on the table
again.

John McCain's campaign manager says he is reconsidering using Barack Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue during the election's closing weeks.

In an appearance on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio program, Davis said that circumstances had changed since John McCain initially and unilaterally took Obama's former pastor off the table. The Arizona Republican, Davis argued, had been jilted by the remarks of Rep. John Lewis, who
compared recent GOP crowds to segregationist George Wallace's rallies. And, as such, the campaign was going to "rethink" what was in and out of political bounds.

"Look, John McCain has told us a long time ago before this campaign ever got started, back in May, I think, that from his perspective, he was not going to have his campaign actively involved in using Jeremiah Wright as a wedge in this campaign," he said late last week. "Now since then, I must say, when Congressman Lewis calls John McCain and Sarah Palin and his entire group of supporters, 50 million people strong around this country, that we're all racists and we should be compared to George Wallace and the kind of horrible segregation and evil and horrible politics that was played at that time, you know, that you've got to rethink all these things. And so I think we're in the process of looking at how we're going to close this campaign. We've got 19 days, and we're taking serious all these issues."

Rick Davis has said a lot of blisteringly stupid things over the course of the campaign, but this might top them all. Davis wants to put Wright on the table because McCain's losing, but he doesn't have the courage to say so. He has to rationalize his craven decisions by blaming John Lewis, which is just pathetic, even by Rick Davis' standards.

This seems to be the McCain modus operandi: they don't want to do these horrible things, but you know, Obama's a big meanie who won't agree to ten gajillion town hall meetings and John Lewis called us out for our blatant racism, so we have to go negative.

What the fuck ever. Just grow the fuck up, John.

And how inflamed are the voters? The words "Angry Mob" come to mind:

I've seen comedians get heckled at comedy clubs. I've seen athletes get heckled at sporting events. I've never even heard of voters getting heckled. And yet, McCain/Palin supporters keep finding new and creative ways to undermine democratic norms.

The Washington Times, a self-described conservative paper, reported today on a polling site in North Carolina where "a group of loud and angry protesters ... shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in." The voters were mostly black, and the "angry protesters" were "nearly all were white."

Stop and think about that for a second. In the United States, in the 21st century, we have Republican activists protesting a presidential election. McCain/Palin supporters have taken to heckling, mocking, and shouting at people who want to participate in the democratic process. Literally.

Methinks they don't quite grasp this "democracy" thing. Probably because they're so busy clinging to the terrorist-Muslim-angry black man meme. They're getting just a mite unhinged:

Still more ugliness and hostility on the campaign trail, courtesy of North Carolina's Fayetville Observer:

Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.

Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office...

Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to
move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

"This is an embarrassment to this city and to me as a citizen," Revis said. "I've seen women out here crying and men cussing. This is a crying shame."

It would require a pretty extensive effort to slash the tires of more than 30 vehicles.

Why yes, yes it would. It would take, oh, say, the hateful energy unleashed by the sleaziest campaign in 35 years.

We have John McCain to thank for setting this country's poltical discourse back by decades.