Didn't he want to be president?

Now it turns out he's unfit to sit in the cabinet. Gov. Bill Richardson, the most-qualified Democrat running for president the last two years is withdrawing his name as the nominee for Commerce Secretary.

The grand jury has been investigating “pay-to-play” allegations concerning a New Mexico state contract awarded to a California firm that has contributed to three political committees formed by Richardson, The Associated Press reported last month.

A source close to Richardson told Politico, "There are too many unanswered questions and while he thinks the results of the grand jury will turn out in his favor, he doesn't want to distract attention from the administration."

A Senate aide told Politico there had been "nervousness" within the Senate and more specifically the Senate Commerce Committee about the grand jury probe in recent weeks.

The announcement prompted immediate finger-pointing about the vetting process, with Democrats wondering what Obama screeners asked Richardson and what he told them, and whether he was really involved or was just being tarred by the actions of others.

Remember the questions about McCain's vetting process in picking a running mate? Maybe a president with a little more experience would have had a better vetting process for his cabinet.

I do have a suggestion for the neophyte chief executive. Since we're going to be without a Commerce Secretary for awhile, why not just abolish the cabinet department?

John F Parker of Big Bend is a jerk

This was in today's Sound Off in the Waukesha Freeman:

Thoughts on McCain

I recently wrote John McCain a letter congratulating him on his effort to win the presidency. I told him even though we have opposing views, and Obama won. I told him don’t despair over the election loss. I suggested to him that if he became bored with his Senate job, he could always become a greeter at Walmart, where he can build better relations with people, so he’ll be more in touch. I never heard from him. I guess my letter to him was like beating a dead horse.

What a jerk. Can you imagine writing someone like that? And if he did it or not, to claim that he wrote a letter like that in the newspaper? Who does this jerk think he is, a congressman?


(ht: Spring City Chronicle)

Post-Obamalyptic thoughts

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!
God damn you all to hell!
- Planet of the Apes, 1968

One, let's start by acknowledging the voters were wrong on Tuesday. We live in a republic with regular elections. These things will happen from time to time.

Of course, if I was, say, a right-wing version of Wisconsin State Journal, I'd call for an end to elections. But silly me, I actually like elections, even when they pick the wrong people. It's the Neo-Conservative in me.

Let's start at the top. Barry O'Bama is the most Irish a President has been since freakin' JFK. With a name like that and the luck he had during the election, he's more Irish than a Leprechaun. C'mon. Who would'a thunk that entire financial markets would conspire to go into the dumpster just when Senator McCain was building momentum? And that McCain would actually take the bait, ride his White Horse to Washington, and get tagged for bailing out corporate fat cats and doing it incompetently?

It takes the Right Stuff to be so wrong.

But it's not like McCain was exactly cruising to victory when the markets crashed. As Byron York pointed out in National Review, the odds of electing any Republican as president this year were pretty poor. And of course, no mere mortal Republican has ever faced an Irish pagan deity before like Barry O'Bama. When they're sacrificing goats to the guy in far away Kenya, what chance does a guy like McCain have?

Was McCain the best choice for Republicans? Hardly. Former Senator Fred Thompson could have at least articulated a conservative message. Former Governor Romney could have made an economic case for conservativism. Former Governor Huckabee could have made an interesting populist candidate, although I think the party would just as soon evolve without him. Giuliani would have made a great Attorney General for somebody... as long as judicial selections were handled by the White House Counsel office.

But McCain won the primary campaign by default and shortly afterwards his national constituency, the press corps, joined the Kenyan goat-sacrificers in O'Bama worship.

So now we plot for 2012 and a second chance at Barry O'Bama. Fortunately the bench is starting to show some surprising strength. In addition to Governor Palin we have the return of former Governor Romney, and current Louisiana Governor Jindal. Notice something? Conservatives could back any of them. What a change four years will make.

This election was a tough choice

ht: Professor John McAdams

Live blogging the election

Will the Republicans hold the Assembly? Will your favorite politician be in line for food stamps next week? Who will win, McCain or Obama? What will it mean in 2012?

Join Rep. Leah Vukmir, Todd Lohenry, Owen Robinson, and me at 8:00 PM as we watch the results unfold. I'll be live from Pewaukee at the Republican gathering at the Country Springs Hotel.

Obama's internship pays off

Obama Undertakes Presidential Internship To Ease Concerns About His Lack Of Experience - The Onion

Despite Obama's Spock-like ears, McCain claims Roswell alien endorsement

From where else? The Weekly World News:

BREAKING NEWS: McCain has proudly accepted the Alien’s endorsement!

ROSWELL, NM - At a political rally in the infamous Roswell area, Senator John McCain acknowledged and accepted the Alien’s endorsement for his presidential run.

The Arizona senator explained, “By the way, I have been here to Roswell before and I know about the alien landing. And I am pleased to announce that I have received the alien endorsement…and I am proud!”

While the Alien has not released an official response, insiders believe he is elated at McCain’s warm acceptance.

But will the Alien’s endorsement be enough to push McCain into victory? Stay tuned!

The impact of this alliance might be enough to put McCain over the top:

Swing state voters, who will decide this election, have the highest rate of alien abductions and UFO sightings and are known to vote in accordance with supernatural forces.

No long night waiting for results - it's a machine world

Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

Come back-back-back-back

Ht: Sean Hackbarth

Election day message

Good morning. This is where I am supposed to make a last-minute appeal for you to vote, or tell you for whom to vote. I won’t. It’s likely if you’re reading this, your mind is already made up. It’s even possible you will have voted already.

I don’t make endorsements. Having done it in the past, it just seemed silly each time. Besides, it’s not like I hide my biases.

I’d like to thank my readers and commenters for at least trying to keep it civil during this election season, and for putting up with me when I have been less than. It’s been a fun, rollicking, and even informative atmosphere around here.

As readers of this blog are aware, the choices today are not the choices I would have put on the menu.

The Democrats have nominated a left-wing neophyte with a gift for oratory and a cult of personality that is disturbing in a republic. His politics, his personal associations, his lack of experience, all render him to be unfit for the office he is seeking.

The Republican alternative is someone who has dedicated his life to his country, but often sees that mission embodied in him. His calls for politics above party are really calls for his aggrandizement above party, and the spotlight has always shown his way whenever principle could be sacrificed for his political career.

Neither are defenders of free speech. I doubt either of them could articulate the principles on which this country was founded. I’m sympathetic to those who will vote for the Democrat on the grounds that if we are to have modern liberalism, let’s have the liberal party in office to hold them accountable. I’m also sympathetic to those who, as much as they want to have a historic racial healing moment in our body politic, are unwilling to entrust the guidance of this nation to someone so ill-prepared to sit in the Oval Office.

But let it be said I do not question either candidate in their love of this country. For better or for worse, whoever is elected will try to act in the best interests of this nation as he sees it. We can only pray that on those areas where we are in agreement the next president achieves success, and in those areas where we disagree we hope the perspective and responsibilities of the office changes his mind.

Regardless of who wins, there will be the inevitable, intellectually empty calls for bipartisanship. I have long defended partisanship as the necessary result of competing values over the large stakes under the power of government. If the government had less authority, the need for partisanship would be much less. Of course, if the government had less authority, then today would not matter nearly as much, and I would not miss it’s importance being diminished.

Tomorrow we’ll turn our attention to the matters of how the state and the country will be run in the aftermath of today’s results. I’m looking forward to those debates. Let us start those debates by recognizing that a little less than 50% will be disappointed by today’s outcomes. Let us also recognize that government is limited in its scope and its ability to move quickly because the Founders were clever enough to recognize that sometimes the People choose incorrectly. To today’s victors and losers I urge one word, “patience.”

Finally, there have been far too many people calling this, “the most important election in history.” I would argue for the election of Julius Caesar as Consul of Rome, but others with an eye on history may have other elections in mind. But certainly this election pales in comparison to 1860 or 1864 in importance. Or even 1796, the first post-Washington election. In 1980, the country was in dire straits economically and was seemingly unable to continue the Cold War. In 1940, the world was faced with an endless night of National Socialism, Communism, and Japanese imperialism.

So if the voters get this election wrong, I think we’ll survive.

Palin cleared by panel in so-called "Trooper-gate"

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was cleared today of any wrongdoing in the so-called "trooper-gate" scandal.

Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was cleared on Monday of wrongdoing in an abuse-of-power investigation into the firing of the state's public safety commissioner.

The Alaska Personnel Board report, issued on the eve of the U.S. presidential election, ran contrary to findings from a legislative inquiry that concluded in October that Palin had abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family.

Palin, who is Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, brought the issue to the personnel board herself after complaining the legislative probe was a partisan effort led by Democrats.

The board, a three-member panel under Palin's authority, was responsible for determining if she had broken any laws.

The investigation concluded there was no "probable cause" that Palin violated the state's executive ethics act in dismissing Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

The name "Trooper-gate" is now back where it belongs, among the many scandals of Bill Clinton.

I'm reminded of Richard Allen, national security advisor under President Reagan, who was investigated and ultimately cleared in an ethics investigation. He wondered to which government agency he could go to get his reputation back.

A last minute inspirational speech for John McCain supporters

Dan Bice will know if you've been naughty or nice

Don't you dare speak out in support of McCain or ask him to be tougher with The Obama. If you do, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice will get you.

The outburst brought Weisflog a ton of national publicity, including prominent play on the evening and cable TV news, the Rush Limbaugh radio show and a number of blogs and Web sites.

What those media outlets didn't say, however, was that Weisflog may have had good reason for being a little on edge.

And it had nothing to do with politics.

In the past year, Weisflog and his former business, Weisflog's Showroom Gallery, lost two state Supreme Court cases in a lengthy dispute with some customers.

I wonder which Democratic operative spent the time digging into the background of a private citizen and then passed the info onto Bice? I'm sure Weisflog's public flogging by the newspaper will set a fine example to any other would-be outspoken McCain supporter.

Disgusting, really. Apparently lost in the recent cuts at the newspaper was any sense of decency.

Or maybe you want someone to steal your yardsign

An alternative newspaper in Seattle, The Stranger, decided to post the addresses of local homes that have Republican yard signs. Obviously this is not an attempt at intimidation, and I'm sure those homes will not receive any threats or vandalism between now and the election from nice, tolerant political lefties.

Of course, the joke about firing a shotgun at a local Republican politician might be a bit unsettling for the occupants of those homes. Then there's this bit about one of the homes:

Like an oversized cousin of John McCain's aged, brown iguana teeth, this foreboding fence is busy keeping immigrants out and Jesus's love within. How like the wily immigrant is the frightening foliage, as it insidiously creeps and scratches at Real America's doorstep! How mighty the speculum of Dino Rossi—an army of dead-baby ghosts at his back—aborting civil rights before civil rights can abort him first! Who knows what liberal bogeymen lurk outside this fence's cherished sanctum? The nightmare has just begun for you, Republican fence.

Cheerful, eh?

Update!The Stranger apparently redirected the traffic back to Drudge and has hidden the story. However, here's their blog post about their story. Notice the editor objects to having his address released. (Warning, language.)

Yes, there was some ambivalence in the office about printing the addresses. We had a debate. The pro-address-printers won.

Yes, I would print my address online in a spirit of fairness and shut-the-fuck-up-edness. But I live with other people who shouldn’t be subjected to the rage of our readers—who, judging by the comments thread, would be far more likely to come egg my house than egg those McCain supporters’ houses.

No, we don’t hate these people. But we are afraid of what they believe in.

No, The Stranger is not against free speech.

And for anyone who thinks we secretly want somebody to go vandalize those houses—seriously, don’t. It was just a joke.

Did someone tell the RPW McCain is no longer campaigning in Wisconsin?

Jay Bullock reports on the extraordinary number of mailings he's received from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

In the past two days, I have received four mailers from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Mailers are not cheap, which means the WISGOP is investing a pretty significant amount of money to get me and my generally Democratic neighbors in this zip code to vote against Barack Obama. Whether this is the best use of their money now, instead of, say, heavily targeting a few of the closest State Assembly races where they are liable to lose seats and control of that body, is not for me to say.

It is for me to say that a series of mailings on behalf of a candidate that is no longer competing is just plain stupid. What do they gain by these mail bombardments that they couldn't gain better by other means? McCain's campaign is gone, but the Assembly is still up for grabs and there are still incumbents in the Senate to protect.

I received an 8 1/2 x 11 full-color two-sided mailer about Obama, too. Where are the Kramer RPW mailers and calls? Or for that matter, where are the mailers detailing the tax-and-spend history of Ruth Page Jones?

It doesn't matter if McCain loses by five points or ten. It does matter if the Republicans lose two Assembly seats or three.

Who over there is making these dumb decisions, and whom do they hope to impress?

Rogue VP Candidate

And it's not Governor Palin.

Anyone who has watched Joe Biden over 35 years in the Senate might have a little bit of trouble recognizing the guy who is running to be Barack Obama's Vice President. Oh, yes, he looks like the same fellow. But traveling with Biden during this campaign has sometimes been like reporting on a politician packaged in shrink-wrap. While his windy, off-point pontification was the stuff of legend among his Senate colleagues, Biden is now leashed to a teleprompter even when he is talking in a high school gym that is three-quarters empty. The exposure hound who in recent years appeared more often than any other guest on the Sunday talk shows is a virtual stranger to the small band of reporters on his plane — less accessible than even Sarah Palin is to her traveling pack of bloodhounds. And Biden keeps to a schedule that provides a minimum of off-the-cuff encounters with voters, except across a rope line.

Gee, why would they have to hide a US Senator with over 35 years of experience?

Sticking to a script has never been one of Biden's stronger suits, as he demonstrated recently at a Seattle fund raiser. "Mark my words: it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," Biden told the $1,000-a-ticket Democratic donors, who no doubt were startled to discover that the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse had ridden into the downtown Sheraton. "Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch — we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Oh yeah. Wonder what kind of Vice President the Biden babbler might be?

It would have been nice to ask that question of Biden himself, but a campaign spokesman told me the Senator was suffering from a cold that made it a strain to give interviews. (I didn't glean evidence of any symptoms during the four speeches that I watched him give over two days.) The spokesman also said Biden would consider it "presumptuous" to talk about how he would perform the job for which he is running. Or maybe it simply wasn't in the script.

You can have my yard sign when they pry it...

Geez, people. It's just a stupid yard sign. It's not worth killing anyone over.

Angered that two neighborhood teenagers knocked over a John McCain sign on his lawn, an Ohio man allegedly grabbed a rifle and fired three times at the duo as they sought to drive away from his Warren Township home. Kenneth Rowles, 50, was charged with felonious assault in connection with the Saturday afternoon incident, which resulted in one boy suffering a minor bullet wound. According to a Warren Township Police Department report, Patrick Wise, 16, yelled, "This is for Obama" as he knocked over the McCain sign. Wise's cousin, Kyree Flowers, 17, was waiting in the passenger seat of the SUV, which was struck by three bullets fired by Rowles. One bullet hit Flowers in the arm, while another shattered the passenger's and driver's side windows. Rowles, pictured in the above mug shot, claimed in a police interview that he "shot three times attempting to scare the subjects." Shortly after the October 25 confrontation, Rowles called police to complain about two instances in which his McCain signs had been vandalized, but never bothered to mention that he had, minutes earlier, fired at a vehicle carrying Wise and Flowers.

Next time, just use a bat and smash their headlights.

Fred Thompson on the coming election

Update on the woman in Pennsylvania claiming she was attacked by an Obama supporter

The police now believe Ashley Todd made up the story.

I don't begin to understand these hoaxes. West Bend just went through this with a young girl who made up a story about racism in the schools. I can't even begin to understand the motivation except to wonder at the attention-seeking hunger of these would-be martyrs. Is it because we celebrate fame and hype so much that everyone clamors, and will do almost anything, to be a part of the media noise? Is celebrity, even notoriety, that important?

Or is it because they feel their cause is so important, and they just want to do something, anything, that would be the spark for some terrific event?

Is it some combination?

But what really saddens me is how quickly, despite all of the examples now, many of us are ready to leap at a story because it fits whatever template we have. And despite a few voices saying wait until the facts are known, these fake martyrs are quickly made into banners for news organizations and partisans to wave at "the enemy" because the false report fits what we (all of us) want to believe.

The smashed up trailer park at the end of the rainbow

No wonder I can't get rid of this migraine today (and it's really, really bad). The Asian Badger points to this post by Jim Geraghty at National Review Online and it's enough to drive men mad.