The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee this morning challenged Republican senatorial wannabe Dino Rossi to name two policy differences between him and former President George W. Bush, but I think the more interesting challenge might be to ask Rossi to simply explain the details of two pieces of policy. For judging from his recent statements, our state’s best known real estate speculator/perennial candidate just doesn’t come across as all that well informed.
For example, at Sunday’s conservative meet-up Rossi was asked how he could possibly overcome the combined forces of ACORN and SEIU, a stupid question to say the least. But even stupider was Rossi’s reply: “SEIU and ACORN, they, they’re mean. They’re really evil in some respects.”
The SEIU slur aside (does Rossi realize he just equated 1.2 million nurses, lab technicians and home health care workers with the likes of Hitler and, well, Satan?), both Rossi and his questioner are apparently clueless that ACORN no longer exists, and regardless, was never really a player here in Washington state. So what’s there for you to overcome Dino, no matter how evil you think ACORN is/was?
At the same meet-up, Rossi was also asked whether he supported full repeal of healthcare reform, or only parts of it. Rossi insisted that he supported full repeal. But as the purity police at The Reagan Wing point out, that’s not what Rossi says on his own website, forcing the self-appointed guardians of true conservatism to wonder aloud if Rossi even knows his own position on healthcare?
To what can we attribute Rossi’s alleged change of position? Might it be that he was speaking to a conservative audience instead of to the Evans-Gorton wing of the Washington State Republican party?
How Reichertesque. Or perhaps that’s why Rossi was so reluctant to post an issues section on his website: it would require him to actually read it.
Indeed, a better question might be to ask if Rossi actually knows what’s in the healthcare reform bill he wants to either repeal in full or in part, depending on the day and the audience. For example, in his recent, hyperbolic fundraising letter (the one in which he says that Barack Obama and Patty Murray are bigger threats than the terrorists), Rossi describes the new law as “a partisan, ill-conceived health care bill that requires 16,500 new IRS agents to administer and pay for it…”
16,500 new IRS agents? Really? That might strike some as a frightening number if it weren’t, you know, total bullshit.
This was a GOP talking point totally refuted way back in March by the nonpartisan FactCheck.org:
Q: Will the IRS hire 16,500 new agents to enforce the health care law?
A: No. The law requires the IRS mostly to hand out tax credits, not collect penalties. The claim of 16,500 new agents stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation.
In it’s full answer, FactCheck.org dismisses the claim as “wildly inaccurate,” and yet there it is as a central argument in a Rossi fundraising letter… four months later. Either Rossi gets all his facts on healthcare reform from FOX News and GOP press releases, or he’s just plain lying to supporters.
Forget about pressuring Rossi to take a clear stance on major issues; reporters need to ask him if he’s actually capable of explaining the issues. Does he know the major provisions of the health care bill, let alone what his bogus “16,500 new IRS agents” claim is based on? Or how about the Wallstreet reform legislation Rossi opposes on grounds that it leaves taxpayers on the hook for another bailout, even though Sen. Murray included a provision to specifically make sure that it doesn’t…? Can Rossi explain in context what a “derivative” is, or “exchanges” or “clearinghouses” or “aggregate position limits”…? (If not, he might want to ask Sen. Maria Cantwell.)
Is that too much to ask for? A candidate who actual has the intellectual curiosity, capacity and inclination to the study the issues on which he’ll be asked to pass judgement? Or are our media really just going to let Rossi’s ideological laziness slide by once again as mere tit for tat politics as usual?
I know it’s a rhetorical question, but umm, no.
I have been particularly disappointed in Josh’s posts over at Publicola. Just like the MSM — superficial bullshit, he said-she said, false equivalency.
BTW, in the interest of friendly continuous improvement in the incorporation of Latin into the admittedly complex English language, isn’t media plural, i.e., shouldn’t it be: “Or “are” our media…”
Rossi’s just a puppet with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s hand up his ass.
Zotz @1,
I’ve changed it to “are,” but I’m of two minds on this, as I think “the media” has come to be understood as a collective entity.
2. MarkS spews:
Better that than the Government Employees Union with it’s whole arm up Murray’s ass!
Chamber members CREATE WEALTH>
Government workers suck wealth out of the economy.
Where are you going to get your info?
Here is an article where Tucker Carlson provides documents showing the Leftist Media protecting ObaMao from scrutiny–
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ah-wright/
The Progressive Movement is gasping for breath.
It is a flim-flam cover for a Socialist Agenda that Americans overwhelmingly reject if it were called what it truly is…Socialism.
Remember. ObaMao’s hero, 6-time Socialist Party Candidate Norman Thomas spewed–
– Norman Thomas
Rossi is a complete empty shirt, a full-blown airhead. Nonetheless, he’s the best this state’s GOP has. Remarkable how shallow is the GOP bench. I wouldn’t hire Rossi to answer the phone, yet he’s running for the Senate.
Goldy @3: No biggie. It was mostly curiousity on my part.
I screw up “data” and “datum” all the time and that’s anathema to the engineering culture I came from (from which I came (lol) — See how engilsh sucks?). I sometimes have trouble keeping curricula and curriculum straight as well — and I was credentialed as a designer way back when.
I also think you’re correct about common usage, but still…
Mr C
The American people will never knowingly adopt fascism. But under the name of free market capitalism they will adopt every fragment of the fascist. state corporate agenda, until one day America will be a corporate state, without knowing how it happened.
As for “socialism” … are you all that convinced that Sweden, Canada, Norway, Denmark, France, … have the wrong idea about government?
Do you think there is more freedom in China as its corporate market grows than in Canada?
Exactly what is it that you see as “socialist” in Obama anyway?
Obama Medical Care .. PRESERVES private insurance and encourages growth of private health care systems.
…or do you prefer the sort of free market that have in Japan and China where your employer OWNS your healthcare and education systems?
Bailout … bailed out a failing PRIVATE capital market.
did you notice which ocuntries did the best in escaping the crash … Socialist Canada ans socialist Norway?
Wall street regulation … does this encourage a free market over one controlled by the top .1% of american investors?
Seems to me YOU can not tell socialism from syndicalism.
“slur”, because he called them mean. hey goldberg, why dont you travel down to compton and tell them homeboys not to be so “mean”.
Dino’s made the CREW list of crooked candidates!
Rossi has the essential qualifications to be a Republican candidate: He’s an uninformed idiot.
Why bother asking Rossi about policy issues, he’ll just “refudiate” any details.
11. Roger Rabbit spews:
Rossi has the essential qualifications to be a Republican candidate: He’s an uninformed idiot.
Yeah, but you seem to forget that Republican voters are uninformed idiots so they’ll vote for an uninformed idiot because he can talk their language — like misunderestimated, the Internets, refudiate and tax cuts for the wealthy creates jobs.
Speaking from a Conservative standpoint, I would think it would be obvious to all you nazis, communists, socialists, liberals and Godless Muslims that a Repuplican does not need to know anything about what he opposes because what he opposes is wrong to begin with — so why fill valuable brain cell space with unneeded information.
As for what we do believe in, there is no need to overly study it, as what we believe in is known to be correct because of our belief.
Filling your head with specific ‘policy’ information interferes with passionate belief and gut instincts.
May the gut instinct force be with you!!
Over and Out
Pam Roachclip
sj spews
Are you aware that as our jackboot “leaders” march headlong into Socialism, that these countries you reference are running away from it?
How many ILLEGAL Immigrants do they have?
How much do they spend on Defense?
Who cares what these folks do anyway. They have been relying on us for security. Let them pay for their own.
@6 Absolutely…and in a state that produced the likes of Dan Evans, that Rossi’s the best the state GOP currently has to offer is pretty sad.
@8
As for “socialism” … are you all that convinced that Sweden, Canada, Norway, Denmark, France, … have the wrong idea about government
sj, if i were jewish, and had always been persecuted by host countries, i too would favor socialism, figuring that since its all controlled from the top, if you have the control you can pretty much prevent a lot of citizen racism.
@15 “our jackboot “leaders””
You act like you have a jackboot up your ass, KLOWN. Look behind you, it’s probably just your self-loathing friend Puddy having a good time.
Rossi seems to be phoning it in. It’s like Gregoire whupped him one too many times. The wild cheers for Didier’s red meat at the Washington State Republican Convention probably took whatever heart he had left for a fight and stomped on it.
Zotz @ 7 said: “I also think you’re correct about common usage, but still…”
That’s the problem having a living language, like English, which shares some roots with a dead language, such as Latin. The pressure to adopt to modern usage is like water pressure building up behind a temporary dam, eventually it’s going to break through. But in the meantime the Latin rules, which CANNOT change because the language is officially dead, has people scratching their heads and trying to figure out whether the singular or the plural reference applies.
Steve @ 18 said: “The wild cheers for Didier’s red meat at the Washington State Republican Convention probably took whatever heart he had left for a fight and stomped on it.”
Agreed. I observed Rossi at a book signing prior to his last guvenatorial campaign, I saw a continuous line of wingnuts who came up to him to get his book signed, and gushed about who great he was and how the election was stolen from him. These sorts of comments really fed his ego, he pretty much glowed at the amount of fawning which was being performed in his direction.
This time around, Rossi probably got a somewhat different treatment in Washington, but it fed his ego as well, and probably fired his ambition. This time around, he had the Republican bigshots in D.C. putting their arms around him, telling him how important he was to “rescue the nation” from Obama and his cronies, and making vague promises of indefinate support if he would just declare against Murray. It was pretty heady stuff – seeing himself as being a Senator in the nation’s capital, and he probably got absolutely heady with the sweet smell of ambition.
So much so that he probably didn’t realize that the guys encouraging him to run don’t think he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning against Murray. They just hope that he can present enough of a challenge that Murray is forced to spend her money, time, and energy defending her seat, rather than using all of those assets to assist other Democrats in their fight for Republican seats.
But now that he’s back in Washington State, and his phone calls back to D.C. aren’t being returned very fast, and the Tea Bag people are giving Diddier the love they once showered upon Rossi, it’s a different story. Rossi’s already checking to make sure his parachute is okay, and trying to figure out how he can turn this campaign into some sort of financial gain in the long run. He will, of course, be the state’s most recognizable real estate salesman (except for that Perry fellow in Mukilteo who has a remarkable advertising budget for not being a chain brokerage firm).
I think rather more the former than the latter. It’s not that Dino won’t lie; he’ll lie like a rug to get what he wants. But behind his carefully-maintained “I won’t talk about the issues” facade he’s just another ignorant, delisional wingnut on the welfare program.
I don’t believe that he can win, but if he were to, he would be the Dave Reichert of the Senate — an ignorant, lazy, not-too-bright back bencher who would be a reliable vote for the weirdest of the GOP leadership’s proposals.
And it’s #15 for the win!
When all else fails elude to the Nazis. Btw, if I’m remembering correctly. when the NRA called the FBI “jackbooted thugs” Bush The First did the right thing and quit the NRA.
Getting back to the main point of this topic:
It’s been an awfully long time since the Republicans ran anyone for office on the basis that they were intellecutally smarter than their opponant. In fact, I can’t remember a Republican presidential candidate who has done so in my lifetime.
Their usual strategy is to conceed the intellectual high ground, and then argue that their candidate isn’t an “airhead”, and more like just “one of the guys”. They try to make a virtue out of being dumber than the next guy. They try to combine this with an appeal to some of the baser jealousies, arguing that “practical knowledge” is better than “book knowledge”, that the smartest guys in the class were “nerds”, and that you can’t trust them like you can your beer-drinking buddy.
So you end up with Ronald Reagan, who proclaimed that he didn’t want to see any briefs or proposals which couldn’t be narrowed down to a one-page document for him to approve or dissaprove. Or George W. Bush, who obviously didn’t get into Yale or Harvard based on his prior academic achievement.
If Homer Simpson could run for office, the Republicans would be recruiting him as a candidate.
@23
Bush the First was a pretty sharp guy, but I don’t recall him running on his smarts.
rhp @ 23
Hell, Homer Simpson would be intellectual giant compared to GOP stars like Sarah (Shakespeare) Palin, Jim DeMint, James Imhofe, Dino the Dim, and Davey Reichert.
@25
ok since we’re talking about homer simpson, lets take a look at another tv show. so, answer the question cowardlylefty. on an episode of seinfeld, elaine has a communist boyfriend. and they dont disparage him either. but, the communist killed far more people than the nazis. so how come you would never see a nazi character portrayed benevolently? answer that and i’ll ban myself.
re 26: Because the nazi agenda includes murder and pogroms and the communist agenda does not.
If a body count is what you are looking for as a definition of badness, it may well be the U.S. for all of the Indians that they killed.
The departing boyoflies @26:
Colonel Klink
Sergeant Schultz
And in real life, Luz Long
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, boyoflies.
26
I very much doubt that you would be true to your word, but the possibility of getting your vile racism off these threads makes it worth a try. Naziism is inherently, at its core, racist and violent. It preaches a master race. Communism is simply an economic theory. Certainly, huge wrongs have been committed in its name, but that reflects perversion of pure Marxism, not its inevitable end. Communism and pacifism are not incompatible by any means. Now, get the hell off these threads.
@27
re 26: Because the nazi agenda includes murder and pogroms and the communist agenda does not.
doesnt include murder and pogroms????
what?
what?
are you daft? you must have been educated in one of our socialist loving public schools.
the commies didnt murder, thats a good one.
@29
i know, murder and violence are only wrong if it is committed in the name of racism. thats why we have “hate crimes”. its only wrong if its racist. always racism, thats all that matters.
31
I knew you wouldn’t keep to your promise and ban yourself, “manoftruth.”
“Can Rossi take a firm stance on issues he doesn’t understand?”
I doubt it. He always struck me as being one of those “wide stance” type of Republicans.
@30
The “commies” did commit murders, but there’s nothing in Marks and Engles work that said, “go out and commit murders.” Killing folks was part and parcel of the Nazi’s belief system.
Now go ahead and ban yourself.
@34
The “commies” did commit murders, but there’s nothing in Marks and Engles work that said, “go out and commit murders.” Killing folks was part and parcel of the Nazi’s belief system.
wow, stalin killed 50 million and mao at least 30 million. pretty good for guys folloiwing a belief that doesnt specificaly say go out and kill.
and by the way, i love that you guys are defending commies, shows your true colors.
36
You noxious little fuck, no one is defending anyone. We are telling you what the difference is between two political/economic ideologies, but words are wasted on you. You quit learning when you switched from your mother’s tit to the bottle.
@37
i;m just using they same logic you guys do when people who are against people coming here illegaly and you call them racist. no connection but you use it as a tool. how does it feel, you “noxious” little fuck.