I’ve been quietly concerned that the Republican Primary Entertainment Franchise could peter-out shortly after the 3 Jan. Iowa caucus. I’m just not ready for it to be over yet.

Sarah Palin to the rescue?

In a pre-taped interview set to air tonight on Fox Business Network’s “Follow The Money,” Eric Bolling mentioned to Sarah Palin that people constantly tell him they wish she was running for President.
[…]

“You know, it’s not too late for folks to jump in,” Palin replied. “And I don’t know, you know, it — who knows what will happen in the future?”

So… good news for all those people who bought “Palin 2012″ t-shirts as a joke four years ago; they may soon be wear-able outside of Halloween parties or in ironic neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

Please, oh please, oh please, oh please!

Ask, and ye shall receive! Last Thursday, I gleefully wished out loud for Ron Paul to get his moment in the GOP spotlight:

And how ’bout that Ron Paul at 18%!?! Most of the other nutberger candidates have had their fling with the pole position…Ron Paul should get his shot, too. And to top the whole thing off like a layer of creamy chocolate frosting, we should get Rick Santorum [the] next week.

And looky here:

Newt Gingrich’s campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He’s at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich….
[…]

Paul’s ascendancy is a sign that perhaps campaigns do matter at least a little, in a year where there has been a lot of discussion about whether they still do in Iowa. 22% of voters think he’s run the best campaign in the state compared to only 8% for Gingrich and 5% for Romney.

Romney is so unlikable that GOP voters can’t give him credit for running a persistent, reasonably professional, and not overly negative campaign in Iowa?!? Huh.

I’ll sure miss Newt as the front-runner. His reckless quirkiness, monster ego, and his deliciously rich past make him a dream opponent for Obama. Ron Paul makes a dream opponent, as well, but he has zero chance of becoming the Republican nominee. Seriously…if Newt crashes and burns, Mitt Romney is the only plausible alternative, and a lot of Republicans will be holding their noses supporting him.

(Seeing all the nose-holding, Mitt will, no doubt, assume they soiled themselves, throw ’em on the roof of the car, hose them down, and drive boldly onward to the general election.)

Yeah, I’ll miss Newt, for sure. But a Ron Paul win in Iowa has an acute payoff: GOP Mayhem! Don’t believe me? Let’s ask the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, who recalls Pat Buchanan’s 1996 victory in the New Hampshire primary:

“It was awful,” Buchanan told me this week when I asked him about his few days as the nominal GOP front-runner. “They come down on you with both feet.”

The GOP establishment that week rallied to squash Buchanan. Just after New Hampshire, Gingrich’s hand-picked group of GOP leaders, known as the Speaker’s Advisory Group, met with one thing on their minds, according to a contemporaneous Newsweek report: “How to deal with Buchanan.”

No doubt, Ron Paul will be pummeled by his own party. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past them to start first thing Monday morning to head off any threat of a Ron Paul win in Iowa.

The most intriguing possibility out of all this is that Rick Santorum might get a brief stint as the next not-Mitt Romney. That would be awesome for a couple of reasons. First, every time the Republicans rally around a new not-Mitt Romney only to experience an abrupt case of buyer’s remorse, it diminishes the Republican primary process and, in particular, the Romney campaign’s credibility. That’s right…Republicans are engaging in an internal battle that can be described as (if I’m allowed to engage in a bit of hyperbole) mutual assured destruction.

A Santorum rally could also be awesome because of the timing of the Iowa caucuses. If the Republicans take out Paul before the Iowa caucuses, and Santorum hits the wave just right, he could actually take Iowa. And that would be an exquisite New Year’s gift.

I don’t know about you, but I’m just about out…so it’s off to the store tomorrow to stock up on more popcorn.

Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Ed and Pap: Corporate courts will aid GOP’s efforts at voter suppression.

Young Turks: Christopher Hitchens is dead.

Roy Zimmerman Christmas Special:

• I Won’t Be Home For Christmas.
• Christmas in Crawford, 2004.
• PeaceNick.
• Oh Amazon:
• Hula Yule.

Young Turks: Glenn Beck calls the teabaggers racist! Nutbagger Breitbart responds.

White House: West Wing Week.

Ann Telnaes: CEO pay bounces back.

Seattle police release videos they claim show Occupy protesters were violent & organized!.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Young Turks: Tim Tebow’s War on Christmas.

Sheriff Arpaio: IS illegal.

The Republican Circus Show:

• Last night’s debate in 3 minutes. (via HuffPo.
• FAUX News screws up debate candidates:
• The SNL Trump debate.
• Sam Seder: Trump fires self.
• Stephen on Donald Trump pulling out of the debate.
• The Colbert Nat Geo Wild debate.
• Another Rick Perry-ish Strong ad (via Slog).
• Ann Telnaes: Perry’s anti-gay ad.
• Rick Perry: F***-hole Strong ad.
• Actual Audio: Rick Perry’s ad.
• Young Turks: Rick Perry on work hours, Monroe Doctrine.
• Ed, Pap and Lizz: Rick Perry is the GOP’s favorite stooge.
• Daily show: Newt and poor people:
• Thom: GOP’s love affair with Dr. Strange-Newt.
• Sam Seder: Newt’s “Invented People”.
• Ann Telnaes: Newt promises to uphold the sanctity of marriage.
• Newt: Fights for traditional marriage.
• Thom: You’re a mean on, Newt Gingrich.
• Lip Reading Newt:
• Sam Seder: Newt gets mic-checked.
• Liberal Viewer: Is Newt Gingrich a felon?
• Jon tries to rason with GOP voters over this whole Newt Gingrich thing.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Newt signs fidelity pledge!?!
• Young Turks: Ron Paul crushes Gingrich.
• Mitt’s austerity (oh…the humanity!).
• Guilianiskewers Mitt.
• Sam Seder: Mitt’s $10,000 bet.
• Mitt’s $10,000 problem.
• Christine “Not-a-Witch” O’Donnell endorses Mitt
• Jon on Mitt’s $100,000 bet.
• Wall Street Veterans for Truth: Mitt’s greed is good.
• Sam Seder: Some witch endorses Mitt.
• Young Turks: The Progressive Mitt.
• Mitt’s $100 bill problem.
• Romney vs. Gingrich & Christmas: Review of the GOP Iowa showdown.

Thom: Wisconsin recall (or don’t mess with working people).

Young Turks: Bill-O is shocked to learn that military run by government.

Newsy: No buyers for the newest Palin family reality show.

Stephen with Wag of the finger, tip of the hat.

Thom with even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Alyona: Manning’s first day in court.

Real people speak out for Darcy Burner:

The Nine-year War Ends:

• Newsy: The end of the Iraq war.
• Michelle and Barack speak to the troops at Fort Bragg.
• Mark Fiore: Mission Accomplished-ish.
• Young Turks: The Iraq war is over…the real costs.
• Alyona: Back from Iraq—what we left behind.

Young Turks: Women have a Constitutional right to abortion and it’s being denied.

Alyona’s Tool Time: Congress doesn’t understand the internet.

Obama on ensuring fair pay for in-home care workers.

Thom: Who is winning the “corporate personhood” battle?

Newsy: Teabaggers defend calling Obama a skunk.

How Lowe’s Can You Go?

• Alyona: Lowe’s pulls ads.
• Lowe’s responds to All American Muslim controversy.
• Olbermann: Lowe’s versus the House of Representatives.
• Sam Seder: Muslum hating porn addict brings Lowe’s to their knees.
• Robert A. Niblock, chairman of the board and CEO of Lowe’s, is Worst Person in the World.
• Young Turks: wingdings extremists support Lowe’s.
• Alyona: Calls for a Lowe’s boycott.

Alyona: TIME’s person of the year.

Young Turks: The New York Times defective coverage of Eric Holder’s speech about voter fraud.

Thom: Even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Alyona: Voters are being silenced.

Joseph Farah, the proprietor of WND.com conspires his way to Worst Person in the World.

Stop detaining immigrants for profit.

Jon on the balls on Herman, Mitt, and Barack.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Yeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaawwwwww! It’s Crazy Train time. We have ourselves another episode of Candidate Roller Derby tonight in Iowa.

Yesterday everyone said The Newt was leading. Today Romney has a slight lead—they are tied statistically at Romney 23%, Gingrich 20%.

And how ’bout that Ron Paul at 18%!?! Most of the other nutberger candidates have had their fling with the pole position…Ron Paul should get his shot, too. And to top the whole thing off like a layer of creamy chocolate frosting, we should get Rick Santorum next week.

Unless The Donald comes back from the dead to do a 27 December debate, this one is the last of the year, and the last before the Iowa caucus. It’s gong to be fun.

I’ll leave some updates if anything fun happens.

The debate is sponsored by FAUX news, so you can be sure this will be the bestest, craziest debate ever…in the history of debates. You can find a link to the stream at FAUX News.

6:04: I’ve saved a bag of Cheetos for this debate. Mmmm, Cheetos. Before the debate is through, my fingers will resemble John Boehner’s.

6:05: The Newt argues his electability by giving the audience a history lesson.

6:07: Megyn Kelly tries suckering Ron Paul into making a commitment to support the ultimate Republican nominee. Will he fall for it? No! And he gets a pass!

6:09: Rick Santorum takes the first shot at Newt’s “personal issues”.

6:12: Come on, Michele…just say it. “I will win the independents by hypnotizing them.”

6:13: Rick Perry is asked about his debating skills and launches into a “things I did while not debating” speech.

6:14: Jon Huntsman, “we’re getting screwed as Americans!” Umm…Santorum? Any comment?

6:16: Note to Rick Perry: The Supercommittee was created by and for Congress, not Obama.

6:18: Mitt just admitted that “there are Democrats who love America.” He’s toast now.

6:19: “Leadership is important,” says Newt, the ousted former House leader.

6:21: The moderators are taking questions by Twitter. Fine print: No more than 140 characters and minimize polysyllabic words.

6:25: The intermission pundits are bored by the civility. They want some blood! Yeah…me, too.

6:27: Mitt defends his business failures by saying Obama doesn’t realize that not every business succeeds. I take it Mitt is okay with the Solyndrra thing then.

6:29: Newt worked with Habitat for Humanity. No doubt served as their official Speaker of the House.

6:31: Paul corners Newt who is forced to admit that there are many government-sponsored organizations that do good! Heresy!

6:33: Bachmann goes into histrionics over Newt’s Fannie/Freddy contracts. Newt says Bachmann doesn’t have her fact right. Bachmann goes to Politifact for fact checking! Remarkable.

6:36: My video feed locked up with the following image stuck on my screen. I think this is worthy of a Caption Contest. Leave ’em in the comment thread.

6:45: Okay…missed some stuff trying to get the video feed back and waiting through the fucking ads. We’re back now.

6:46: Did Rick Santorum just say he will repeal every single EPA regulation?!?

6:47: Mitt Romney Flip Flops! He criticizes Obama over Solyndrra, just 20 minutes after pointing out that some of his businesses failed, and that was okay.

6:48: “The courts have become grotesquely dictatorial.” and “Misreading the American people.” I thought they were supposed to read the Constitution rather than the people.

6:51: Bachmann: “We are now at the point that we think the final arbiter of the law is the courts.”

6:53: Even Ron Paul isn’t crazy enough to do a witch-hunt on the courts (subpoena judges, eliminate courts).

6:54: Mitt: “The only people that have less credibility than Judges is Congress.”

6:56: Santorum’s certifies his extremism by picking Thomas as his single favorite Justice.

7:05: Ron Paul suggests using diplomats a little more, bombs a little less. Totally sensible.

7:07: Santorum suggests that Iranian’s “principle ideology”, “mission” is martyrdom. What a fucking ignorant bigot.

7:09: Michele says Ron Paul has given the most dangerous answer she has ever heard.

7:15: Ron Paul schools some naive warmongers!

7:17: Newt suggests the UN is a terrorist training organization.

7:19: Rick Perry has the most muddled comment ever…something about “the most muddled foreign policy ever.”

7:22: Newt gets in a super anti-Obama speech. He has some factual errors in the answer, but maybe this is what we need for him to take the primary. GO NEWT!

7:26: I am totally lost by Neil Cavuto’s rambling question to Rick Perry. Rick Perry spews an incoherent, rambling answer back. Nice play, Mr. Perry!

7:40: Wallace ask Mitt if he is a flip-flopper.

7:41: Mitt admits he flip-flopped on gay rights and choice. Ohhh…and maybe guns.

7:43: Santorum: “Mitt Romney, personally, as Governor, issued gay marriage licenses!!!” You could just hear Santorum’s anal sphincter clamping shut as he said that.

7:47: Bachmann: “Newt offered to campaign for Republicans who support…partial birth abortion!”

7:49: Michele Bachmann doesn’t have her facts right. And she misspells her first name.

7:50: The Occupy FAUX movement has arrived!

7:51: Rick Perry corrected a fact of a moderator!

7:54: Ron Paul twists his face into a little pretzel and says, “I don’t like the demagoguery…the distortions.”

7:55: That’s it!

Not to make too big of deal about it, but the Iraq war ended today.

Thank God the world is finally safe from Saddam Hussein’s nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction!

I mean, except for the nearly 5,000 U.S. soldiers and contractors killed in the conflict. And the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died as a result of the U.S. invasion.

It isn’t official news yet, but the big announcement is likely coming on Thursday:

One month to the day after the start of the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office, organizers have scheduled a Thursday press conference to provide a “special update” on how the effort is going.

And several liberal blogs and pro-recall Facebook pages said Wednesday that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin, the two groups spearheading the recall, already have collected more than enough signatures to force an election.

The effort to recall the Republican governor kicked off on Nov. 15, and organizers have until Jan. 17 to collect more than 540,000 valid signatures to force a spring recall election.

The blog New Dog Democrat reported Wednesday that more than 550,000 signatures have been collected and that organizers want to hit the 1 million mark before the deadline.

A million signatures?!? Just two weeks ago they were aiming for 750,000.

A million signatures would be, symbolically, a thermonuclear maelstrom. Even 540,000 valid signatures will be fucking huge!

Aside from likely derailing Walker’s harmful “stewardship”, and, you know…maximizing the possibility I can visit my family this summer, this is huge for Washington and other states.

The Walker episode sends a big shot across the bow of, what is almost certainly, a coordinated Republican Governor’s agenda.

For us here in Washington, what does this mean? It means Rob McKenna is put on notice. Walker made campaign promises that seemed quite moderate. Once elected, he turned to a radical Republican agenda. He cut education funding and betrayed public employees while giving out tax breaks to businesses, he did his damnedest to disenfranchise voters at the margins of society. And, in general, he steadfastly disregard the will of the people.

Would Rob McKenna really try pulling the ol’ switcheroo on Washingtonians the way Walker did to Wisconsinites? Well…if his decision to join the Republican AG lawsuit against the Health Care Reform law of 2009 is any indication…two years ago, I would have said, “absofuckinglutely!.” Now, with the events in Wisconsin, I think McKenna is forced to scale back on his agenda.

Should McKenna win next year, Washingtonians will owe Wisconsinites a huge debt of gratitude.

Update: They aren’t quite there, yet. The number of signatures gathered so far is 507,000, leaving a mere 33,000 more to gather. Practically, they will need something over 100,000 additional signatures to account for challenges and duplicates. Organizers have another month left to do that.

It’s Tuesday, and ’round here that means Drinking Liberally. So please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

News from the Republican reality show:

Can’t make it to Seattle? There are also meetings tonight of the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Thursday, Drinking Liberally Tacoma meets. And next Monday there are meetings of the Woodinville the Olympia, the Yakima, and the Shelton chapters.

With 232 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

Thom with the Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Young Turks: Right-wing elementary school cuisine bizarre freak-out.

The War on Christmas:

• Jon and Bill-O in a War on Christmas.
• Jon launches another salvo in the War on Christmas (via HuffPo).

Alyona: Mind blowing inequality figures.

Jon on the new go-to-jail-with-no-trial bill.

Corporate Personhood, Corporate Speech:

• Thom: Corporate personhood for dummies.
• Thom with Rep. Ellison: Amendment that corporations aren’t people
• Alyona: LA votes against personhood.
• Thom: Corporate personhood and talking money?
• Thom with Rep. Ted Deutch on the outlawing corporate cash amendment

Young Turks: Blackwater asks for Sharia law?!?

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: It isn’t about the “hockey stick”:

Thom with some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Obama speaks on the economy.

Rockbottomcookie: The gay homophobes.

The Republican Primary Asylum:

• Ed and Pap: Donald Trump and The Republican Freak Show.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: GOP wants to rip apart families.
• Young Turks with Al Gore on the GOP primary.
• Ed and Pap: The dimwit Republican circus freaks march again.
• Thom: Crazy alert for the New Hampshire ballot.
• Suzie Sampson sits down with Pastor Jim Miller and talks candidates.
• Stephen on The Trump debate.
• Ann Telnaes: Herman Cain drops out.
• Young Turks: Rick Perry’s “Hot Gas” moment.
• The Rick Perry ad that is universally disliked.
• Jesus responds to Perry’s disliked ad.
• A response to Rick Perry’s ad:
• Another response to Rick Perry’s disliked ad.
• Sam Seder: Rick Perry’s Strong Save the Christians Ad.
• Young Turks: Newt’s “food stamp credit card used for Hawaii vacation” bullshit.
• Actual Audio: Newt on child labor.
• Sam Seder: Newt is running for Asshole-in-chief.
• Romney’s $100,000 taxpayer funded destruction of records.
• Mark Fiore: Suzie Newsykins, the Antimitter.
• Romney: A career politician.
• What’s younger than Mitt’s political career?
• Romney’s accidentally released anti-Gingrich ad. (via Slog).
• What was Mitt Romney hiding?
• Maddow: Newt’s gay half-sister supports Obama.
• Mitt Romney through the ages.
• Ed and Pap: Gingrich tries his hand at race bating.
• Newt Gingrich credits Mitt Romney’s wealth to…Newt Gingrich (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Flashback: Politically Incorrect (ca. 1999) Newt and The Godfather.
• The 3 minute hip-hopish evangelical attack on Newt Gingrich (via Slog):
• Ann Telnaes: Newt Gingrich as frontrunner.
• You’re a mean one Newt Gingrich:
• Aloyna’s tool time: Rick Santorum suggests people die because of “bad decisions”.
• Alyona’s tool time: Rick Santorum war on food stamps.

Sam Seder: Republicans to the unemployed, “Go pee in a cup”.

Thom with The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very ugly.

“Behind the scenes” at Moveon.org.

Sam Seder: George W. Bush cancels trip to Switzerland over fears of being arrested for torture charges.

Sharpton: Rep. Dennis Baxley, sponsor of strict FL voting law, admits no widespread fraud (via HuffPo).

Bill-O’s umbrella attack (via Slog).
Obama speaks on the economy.

America Occupied:

• Young Turks: Tea Party meets Occupy.
• Alyona: Occupy San Francisco evicted.
• Garfunkel and Oats with Weird Al Yankovic: Save the Rich:
• Thom: 99 percenters occupy jail
• Olbermann: Occupy protester assaulted by Bill-O’s umbrella.
• Young Turks: Bill-O’s umbrella attack.
• Olbermann: Occupy a Newt fundraiser.

Hanukkah at the White House.

Thom with some Good, Bad, and some Very, Very Ugly.

Stephen on corporate personhood and the S.C. referendum.

Rick Santorum oozes his way to West Wing Week.
ref=’http://youtu.be/Vy5GTQNZeew’>Worst Person in the World.

Young Turks: No abortions for raped military women.

Roy Zimmerman’s buy war toys for Christmas:

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Throughout the Republican debate season, former front-runner Mitt Romney has been long on platitudes, but less specific on his positions within the Republican weltanschauung. Romney has tended to verbalize adopted positions with near universal acceptance within the G.O.P. and then contrast himself with President Obama.

Now with Newt Gingrich surging in multiple G.O.P. primary polls, the Mitt Romney campaign is being forced to take concrete stances—offer some ideological nuance—in order to differentiate himself from Newt. Will Mitt tack to the left? Will he cut back to the right?

Apparently, it is that latter. Today, during the daily Romney for President press conference call, Mitt went right-wing extreme. Sen. Jim Talent and Gov. John Sununu took up the case for Mitt, spinning his previously wishy-washy stance on the Ryan plan for Medicare into something concrete.

The Ryan plan would eliminate Medicare as it exists now and replace it with a voucher system. The plan would, more or less, privatize Medicare.

Gov. Sununu starts out criticizing Newt:

For Newt Gingrich, in an effort of self-aggrandizement, to come out and throw a clever phrase that has no other purpose than to make him sound a little smarter than the conservative Republican leadership, to undercut Paul Ryan, is the most self-serving, anti-conservative thing one can imagine happening. He gave the liberals and the Democrats the ammunition they needed to moot, if you will, at least for the time being, Paul Ryan’s presentation.

He then asserts Mitt’s support for the plan:

Mitt Romney supports what Paul Ryan did. He endorsed what Paul Ryan did. Mitt Romney had his own package of entitlement reform, which Paul Ryan has praised. They both meshed together. They are both based on really understanding entitlement reform.

and later on:

Paul Ryan’s plan which Mitt Romney supported is the solid basis for moving forward on entitlement reform. And Newt Gingrich not only rejected it then, but he rejected repeatedly by saying I was right what I said that it was wrong and the fact is that Newt Gingrich to this day still continues to undermine Paul Ryan.

Okay…Mitt Romney, 8 Dec 2011, is pro-Ryan plan. That is, Mitt supports eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a voucher system.

Remember this, folks, because if Mitt wins the nomination, he’s got some major Mitt-flopping to do. The public overwhelmingly rejects this radical plan. Mitt owns it now.

I believe you can envision the simple modifications needed for this ad:

HA was down for a little over an hour this morning.

I called Goldy and caught him in front of the U.S. Capitol, on his way to John Boehner’s office. He was pretty sure he’d been paying the ISP bills.

There was no evidence of a denial-of-service attack. A few minutes after submitting a trouble ticket to the ISP, the site returned.

In absence of any other obvious cause, I blame Carl Ballard.

Update: Oops. I was going to post something this morning before the server issue distracted me. As SJ points out in the comment thread, there is an extraordinary opportunity tomorrow evening when Sen. Maria Cantwell and Elizabeth Warren headline a reception titled, Fighting for Main Street. Admission is $40 at the Paramount Theater.

Goldy engages in some gonzo-journalism in D.C., but finds…

…the police just stood by and watched. No riot gear. No pepper spray. No tear gas.

At least Goldy was able to stir up people’s anxieties by obsessively asking protesters about their prior arrest histories:

Fucking troublemaker!

There are only 19 days left in this year’s War on Christmas. So please join the fray by wielding a pint this evening at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

Bye, bye, Herb Herm…we are soooo going to miss you:

Can’t make it to Seattle? The Tri-Cities chapter of Drinking liberally meets every Tuesday night at 7:00pm, and Thursday night, Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets at 5:00pm.

With 231 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and five more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

…and says things like:

“The guy’s got stamina.”

and

“Say what you like about Reichert (and I do), but at least he’s not a coward like Ryan.”

and

“And no, Reichert did not appear to be particularly brain-damaged…”

Obviously, Goldy is just there to parrot points from the other side.