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one small step for a man, one giant leap for Ginger-kind!
William Jefferson Gingrich – The New York Sun
Jan 25th
William Jefferson Gingrich
By R. EMMETT TYRRELL, Jr., Special to the Sun | January 25, 2012
How long have I been saying it? At least for 15 years, but in private I have been aware of it longer. Newt Gingrich is conservatism’s Bill Clinton, but without the charm. He has acquired wit but he has all the charm of barbed wire.
Newt and Bill are 1960s generation narcissists, and they share the same problems: waywardness and deviancy. Newt, like Bill, has a proclivity for girl hopping. It is not as egregious as Bill’s, but then Newt is not as drop-dead beautiful. His public record is already besmeared with tawdry divorces, and there are private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out.
If I have heard of some, you can be sure the Democrats have heard of more. Nancy Pelosi’s intimations are timely. Newt up against the Prophet Obama would be a painful thing to watch. He might be deft with one-liners but it would be futile. There are independent and other uncommitted voters to be cultivated in 2012 — all would be unmoved by Newt’s juggling of conservative shibboleths.
Newt and Bill, as 1960s generation self-promoters, share the same duplicity, ostentatious braininess, a propensity for endless scrapes with propriety and the law. They are tireless hustlers. Now Newt is hustling my fellow conservatives in this election. The last time around he successfully hustled conservatives in the House of Representatives and then the conservatives on the House impeachment committee.
He blew the impeachment and in fact his role as Speaker. He backed out in disgrace. He now says Republicans in the House were exhausted with his great projects. Nonsense, I knew many of them, and they were exhausted with his atrocious leadership. He is not a leader. He is a huckster. Today Mitt Romney has 72 Congressional endorsements. Newt has 11. Possibly the 11 have yet to meet him.
Now he has found his key for hustling conservative electorate. He is playing the liberal media card and saying he embodies conservative values. Like Bill with his credulous fans, Newt is hoping conservatives suffer amnesia. Possibly some do. Perhaps they cannot recall mere months ago when this insufferable whiz kid was lambasting the great Congressman Paul Ryan for “right-wing social engineering” — more evidence of Newt’s not-so-hidden longing for the approval of the liberal media.
After his Ryan moment Newt’s campaign was a death wagon, and it will be so again — hopefully before he gets the nomination. Conservatives should not climb onto his death wagon. He is a huckster, and I for one will not be rendered a contortionist trying to defend him. I did so in his earliest days and learned my lesson.
After Newt’s and Bill’s disastrous experiences in government both went on to create empires, Bill in philanthropy and cheap thought, Newt in public policy and cheap thought. As an ex-president Bill has wrung up an unprecedented $75.6 million since absconding from the White House with White House loot and shameless pardons. I do not know how much Newt has amassed, but he got between $1.6 million to $1.8 million from Freddie Mac, and he lobbied for Medicare Part B while receiving, according to the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney, “Big Bucks Pushing Corporate Welfare.” Now after a lifetime in Washington he is promoting himself as an outsider.
Contending with Newt for the Republican nomination are Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney. All three are truer conservatives than Newt. I like them all. But John Bolton, former ambassador the United Nations, and John Lehman, President Reagan’s secretary of the navy, are for Mitt, and they are solid conservatives. Governor Christie and the economic pundit Larry Kudlow laud Mitt on taxes, on spending, and on attacking crony capitalism. Mr. Kudlow calls Mr. Romney “Reaganesque.” Ann Coulter seems to loathe Newt. That is good enough for me.
Back in 1992 I appeared with Chris Matthews on some gasbag’s television show. Was it Donohue? At any rate, I said candidate Clinton had more skeletons in his closet than a body snatcher. It was a prescient line then, and I always got a laugh. I can apply the same line today to Newt, though he has skeletons both inside and outside his closet.
Conservatives should not be surprised by the scandals that lie ahead, if they stick with him. Those of us, who raised the question of character in 1992, were confronted by an indignant Bill Clinton, treating the topic as a low blow. To listen to him, character was the “c” word of American politics. It was reprehensible to mention it. By now we know. Character matters. Paul, Santorum, and Romney have it. Newt has Clinton’s character.
Mr. Tyrrell, Jr. is founder and editor in chief of the American Spectator.
via William Jefferson Gingrich – The New York Sun.
RIP: Nicol Williamson 1936 – 2011
Jan 25th
Nicol Williamson 1936 – 2011
Published at: Jan 25, 2012 3:20:05 PM CST
Beaks here…
The son of Nicol Williamson announced today that the legendary Scottish actor passed away on December 16, 2011 after a two-year battle with esophageal cancer. He had been living in Amsterdam, and was working on a CD compilation of standards – which, according to his son, will be released posthumously. His official biography lists his last stage performance as JACK: A NIGHT ON THE TOWN WITH JOHN BARRYMORE in 1996; he had not appeared in a film since 1997′s SPAWN.
My earliest memory of Williamson is also the most indelible: his Merlin in John Boorman’s EXCALIBUR was my introduction to the backwards-living wizard of Arthurian lore, and I’ve never been able to shake his intense, occasionally flamboyant portrayal. It’s a bold, non-traditional interpretation (matched by Helen Mirren’s wicked, hot-as-blazes Morgana), which I later learned was Williamson’s m.o. Whether reinterpreting Hamlet as a neurotic cynic in Tony Richardson’s celebrated 1969 production or boldly tackling Nicolas Meyer’s cocaine-addled Sherlock Holmes in THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION, Williams was renowned for never playing it safe.
This was an extension of his mercurial personality, which often made him a handful to deal with; he was notorious for walking off the stage mid-performance, going off-book or worse. During the 1965 Philadelphia tryout of John Osborne’s INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE (in which Williamson originated the role of Maitland), he socked the powerful theatrical producer David Merrick. Fortunately, Williamson was too talented to be fired; a year later, he’d win his first Tony Award in this critically-acclaimed production. There were other outbursts over the years, the most memorable being his erratic behavior during the Broadway run of Paul Rudnick’s I HATE HAMLET. Perhaps going a bit method as the ghost of John Barrymore, Williamson criticized the writing of the play, improvised when he felt his fellow actors weren’t performing with enough zest, and, during a bit of stage combat, struck the show’s lead, Evan Handler, in the back with the flat part of his sword. This was perhaps accidental, but Handler didn’t care; he promptly quit the show, leaving his understudy to finish the performance and the rest of the run.
Though ever unpredictable, casting Williamson was always worth the risk. When fully engaged, his performances are the stuff of constant discovery; moment to moment, you feel his restlessness, his desire to seek out emotionally precarious territory. This fervid approach occasionally invited accusations of camp, but there was nothing cheap or sensational about Williamson’s choices; he could’ve been as ruthlessly precise as Olivier, but this would’ve bored him senseless. Williamson wanted to have fun; he wanted to locate the madness in his characters, and get a little crazy himself. It’s a daredevil trait he shared with Brando (to whom Osborne once compared him).
Like Brando, Williamson ultimately tired of acting. Over the last fifteen years, he indulged his love for music and poetry, some of which you can sample on his official website. Williamson was evidently living in poverty, but his son says he “never gave up, never complained [and] maintained his wicked sense of humor to the end.” I am glad that he found peace, but I am also grateful that it was the last thing he was looking for as an actor. He was a delightfully unsettling talent. We should all live and create with such abandon.
via Ain’t It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news..
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Reads Gabrielle Giffords’ Resignation Letter On The Floor Of The House
Jan 25th
Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns: Here’s What Really Matters – Derek Thompson – Business – The Atlantic
Jan 25th
Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns: Here’s What Really Matters
By Derek Thompson
Jan 24 2012, 11:10 AM ET 210
His taxes don’t show that he’s done anything wrong. They show that the tax code is wrong.
Here’s what we know about Mitt Romney’s money in 2010 and 2011, based on 500 pages of tax returns he released late last night.* He made $43 million in income over those two years. Almost all that money came from investments such as capital gains on investments and compensation from Bain Capital. None of it came from wages.
Here’s what we know about Mitt Romney’s taxes. Romney has donated more money to charity — $7 million, including $4.1 million to the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — than he owed to the IRS over the last two years. In 2010, Romney’s effective tax rate was 13.9%. In 2011, his estimated effective tax rate will be 15.4%. Romney’s average effective tax rate is considerably lower than most people in the top 10 percent — or even the top 0.1% — because his income comes almost entirely from capital gains, dividends and interest, which are taxed at a lower rate than earned income from wages. Romney’s effective tax rate is also lower than that of many middle-class families, who owe payroll taxes, unlike the former Massachusetts governor.
And here’s why Mitt’s taxes matter. Politically, they matter, quite simply because the people who matter — those would be the voters — think they matter. That sounds circuitous. But it’s true. Since Romney’s wealth and tax rate became an issue, the frontrunner has lost a 10-point lead in South Carolina, watched a 20-point lead reverse itself in Florida, and seen a 19-point lead collapse nationwide. It’s impossible to say that Romney’s wealth and IRS filings don’t matter to voters. They obviously matter.
But substantively, Mitt Romney’s wealth doesn’t really matter. It’s the tax code that matters.
“Governor Romney has paid 100% of what he owes,” a Romney spokesperson said on a conference call this morning. I believe him. Mitt Romney is a remarkably successful businessman, and his wealthy reflects a legally gained fortune which is being taxed according to the law.
But the law doesn’t make any sense! Consider that over the last two years, Romney has earned $13 million from profits shared by Bain Capital. You might have heard this money referred to as “carried interest.” It is earned income. It represents the work of Bain Capital managers. But Romney’s share is taxed at 15%, as capital gains, as though Romney’s capital were stake at Bain, which it isn’t. This freak tax windfall saves Romney, or deprives Treasury, of more than $2 million.
It’s not that Romney tax return proves he’s done something wrong. It’s that his tax returns prove that the tax code is wrong. Households worth $200 million earning $20 million in investment income a year shouldn’t be paying a lower tax rate than some middle class families, especially at a time when we’re thinking about cutting spending that disproportionately benefits the lower and lower-middle class.
Romney’s tax return could serve as an inflection point in the tax discussion. You might say it already has. Consider last night’s TV debate, when Mitt Romney told Newt Gingrich that the former speaker’s tax plan goes too far, since it would lower Romney’s own tax rate to zero. This was a remarkable moment. The GOP frontrunner, who’s won the endorsement of almost every serious conservative mainstay, stood athwart tax-cut-mania conservatism and said, “Stop.” Or at least, he said: “Too far.”
In an election that will be about inequality and taxes, Mitt Romney tax returns are a glowing artifact of inequality in the tax code. And by proposing to make capital gains entirely tax-free, Gingrich has proposed a tax plan that would make our law even more unequal. That’s why, even without the polls, you can fairly say that Mitt Romney’s tax returns matter.
____
*We will be updating this post as we correspond over the course of the day with our friends at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, who are currently reviewing the documents.
via Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns: Here’s What Really Matters – Derek Thompson – Business – The Atlantic.
NewtBillboard.jpg (JPEG Image, 1600 × 533 pixels) – Scaled (80%)Overhead Bin – TSA critic Sen. Rand Paul has run-in with … TSA
Jan 23rd
TSA critic Sen. Rand Paul has run-in with … TSA
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Kentucky senator was detained by TSA officials at the Nashville airport after setting off the alarm on a full body metal detector, then refusing to be patted down. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports.
By NBC News and msnbc.com news services
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has reportedly clashed with the Transportation Security Administration at a Nashville airport, according to tweets from his press aide and father, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
At about 10 a.m. ET, Paul’s press aide, Moira Bagley wrote: Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.
Soon after, Ron Paul wrote: My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming.
NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reports that aides to Sen. Paul say he set off a full-body scanning machine while going through airport security Monday morning.
Paul reportedly raised his right pant leg, which may have set off the scanner. Paul, according to aides, said it was “clearly a glitch” and asked to proceed through the machine a second time. The TSA demanded a full-body pat-down, which Paul refused.
NBC News’ Tom Costello reports that, according to sources at the TSA, Paul was not detained, but was escorted by police out of the checkpoint.
In a statement to NBC News, TSA spokesman Greg Soule said, “When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport. Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.”
Paul has been a vocal critic of the TSA. At a Congressional hearing on TSA practices and policies last summer, Paul criticized the agency for its controversial searches of children.
“You’ve gone overboard and you’re missing the boat on terrorism because you’re doing these invasive searches on six-year-old girls,” he said. “I think you oughta get rid of the random pat-downs. The American public is unhappy with them. They’re unhappy with the invasiveness of them.”
via Overhead Bin – TSA critic Sen. Rand Paul has run-in with … TSA.
Carville to GOP: You have a disaster on your hands – CNN.com
Jan 23rd
By James Carville, CNN Contributor
updated 2:41 PM EST, Sat January 21, 2012
Editor’s note: James Carville is a Democratic strategist who serves as a political contributor for CNN, appearing frequently on CNN’s “The Situation Room” as well as other programs on all CNN networks. Carville remains active in Democratic politics and is a party fundraiser.
(CNN) — Memo to Republican Establishment:
I would send this memo to each of you individually, but I’m not sure exactly who you are. I’ve been told that you exist and that people like my colleagues Bill Bennett, Karl Rove, and Bill Kristol are charter members of it.
I am assuming you are out there and I assume there are more than three of you. At any rate, I thought I’d take a moment to catch up with you and make some observations on how things are going for your party.
Let me break it to you gently — you’ve got a first-class disaster on your hands. I know you boys thought this thing would work out and you would be able to whip the Republicans in line to fall in behind Mitt (I assume you are all males but if there is a female in the establishment, I apologize.) Not going too good, is it fellows?
It’s been a terrible time to be a Republican. There have been many moments during this process that have caused me great joy. Certainly the events of Thursday, ending with the CNN debate, and even the Fox debate Monday night, have helped ease the pain of my beloved Tigers’ and Saints’ recent defeats.
I mean, most people thought it was kind of a watermark when your Tea Party gang booed the golden rule. You know, I’ve spent some time in Philly and they have always thought they were pretty radical because they actually booed Santa Claus and Willie Mays. Philly, I’ve got news for you — you ain’t got nothing on South Carolina Republicans. They just aren’t buying any of that do-unto-others garbage.
I actually thought my favorite moment of this delightful process was when one of your eight front-runners, Herm Cain, (as Sarah Palin calls him) actually ran an ad with his campaign manager endorsing him. (Rove, why didn’t you think of that in 2000? Imagine the headline: “Rove endorses Bush.”)
The climax of that delicious ad is when he actually takes a drag on a cigarette. But my favorite thing about Herm’s campaign manager is that he is the only person in the history of the world that was actually barred from political consulting. Let me tell you, I’ve been in this business for quite a while and I’ve never known of anyone other than Mark Block to be suspended from practicing this profession.
At any rate, let’s talk a minute about Mitt. He was your guy — he was methodical, meticulous, married once. He has completely blown himself up over an issue that everyone knew was coming. Have you had a chance to look at John McCain’s research operation on Mitt? Wow. And let me assure you, that thing has been supplemented, expanded, and annotated. God only knows about the Obama people — they’ve got a billion dollars! And how about my friends over at American Bridge (the Democrat-leaning political action committee)? Clearly Mitt is merely in the beginning of this tax-return, financial-disclosure, Cayman Island (and God only knows what else) fiasco.
Your new front-runner is one of your old front runners, Newt Gingrich. I would like to take a moment to revel: I cannot personally tell you how pleased I am to see old Newt rise to the top after listening to all of your nauseating, sickening lectures on the evils of government and the importance of family values.
Now, you guys have to deal with a $1.6 million Freddie Mac consultant (who says he wasn’t a lobbyist) who has been married three times. Hope you, at least, enjoy the Super Bowl. It could be your last hurrah for a while.
PS — As my former boss once said, I feel your pain. That’s why I didn’t mention Rick Perry.
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via Carville to GOP: You have a disaster on your hands – CNN.com.