McCain I expect this stuff from, but Newt? I seem to remember a young(er) Newt throwing rhetorical bombs on the floor of the House at some point and even having some success with that strategy but not now.

I was saddened to learn that at a time of national trial, when a president-elect is preparing to take office in the midst of the worst financial crisis in over seventy years, that the Republican National Committee is engaged in the sort of negative, attack politics that the voters rejected in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles.

The recent web advertisement, “Questions Remain,” is a destructive distraction. Clearly, we should insist that all taped communications regarding the Senate seat should be made public. However, that should be a matter of public policy, not an excuse for political attack.

In a time when America is facing real challenges, Republicans should be working to help the incoming President succeed in meeting them, regardless of his Party.

From now until the inaugural, Republicans should be offering to help the President-elect prepare to take office.

Furthermore, once President Obama takes office, Republicans should be eager to work with him when he is right, and, when he is wrong, offer a better solution, instead of just opposing him.

This is the only way the Republican Party will become known as the “better solutions” party, not just an opposition party. And this is the only way Republicans will ever regain the trust of the voters to return to the majority.

This ad is a terrible signal to be sending about both the goals of the Republican Party in the midst of the nationÂ’s troubled economic times and about whether we have actually learned anything from the defeats of 2006 and 2008.

The RNC should pull the ad down immediately.

Well Newt, I'm not sure what 'better solution' the GOP can offer beyond, you know, if someone offers you a pay to play scheme for a Senate seat, call the cops.

Now, we don't know yet for sure that that happened. Though we did just spent the last 8 years hearing about the patriotic nature of dissent and the importance of asking questions. All of that was during a time of war, which surely is no less important than the economic challenges we face, and yet suddenly everyone has to play nice?

This doesn't strike me as some minor thing either. In these days of government 'investment' in private companies, isn't of some import to know whether or not the President-elect or much more likely someone on his staff was approached with a bribery scheme and may not have gotten around to reporting that to the authorities?

I'm on record a bunch around here about the need for Republicans and conservatives not to go all nutroots for the next 4 years but that doesn't mean hardball politics goes out the window. I am not a fan of unilateral disarmament.

And while I think being the party and movement of ideas is right and necessary, the Democrats have shown over the last few years have shown that playing politics can produce results ("culture of corruption" ring any bells?). There's nothing wrong with Republicans doing both.

Below is the RNC video that Newt and McCain find so unhelpful. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 09:04 AM | Comments (11)
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For comments on the items in the Top Headlines sidebar. A link to these comments is stickied at the top of the Top Headline column.

Some Follow-up:

The driver of the shot-up Bentley has died. Police have not announced any new information about who shot him and why.

NANSEN sent Anthony Watts a comment regarding their unannounced retroactive adjustment of arctic sea ice data. In its entirety:

The ice area calculation has been too high since about 22 October, causing too steep slope of the 2008 curve. We corrected for this yesterday and recalculated the ice area for 2008. The slope of the 2008 curve should now be correct and can be compared with 2007 and the previous mean monthly ice area.

No explanation as to why the change appears retroactive to September 11, rather than October 22. Nor did they explain why the ice area calculation has been too high for almost two months now.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:45 AM | Add Comment
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Hmmmm. Depends on what "involved with," I guess. Obviously he was somehow involved, albeit in an innocent way. Was he corruptly involved? 45% of the public (about John McCain's vote share, by the way) think so.

I can by "involved with" meaning involved with the greater millieu of Chicago corruption, but directly involved in this particular corrupt deal? I don't know. I can certainly envision Rahm Emanuel making counteroffers regarding the seat, offering indirect ways to pay off Blago.

One fun point: Okay, so we're out of power. So now the liberals get what we've had to deal with: polls. And of course falling poll numbers.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 06:28 PM | Comments (1)
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This is from the German paper Der Bild, which I think is a tabloid sort of thing, but not like a BatBoy sort of tabloid.

Still... Skepticism is warranted.

Thanks to Maetenloch.

Posted by: Ace at 04:02 PM | Comments (18)
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Remember when I argued that the bailout could be contained and would not necessarily lead to socialism or corporatism?

Yeah. Not so much.

“A lot of people in the industry are very concerned about climate change and something will actually be done about it in this Congress,” Link said. “That’s the big one.”

Economic relief ranks up there too. Already the signs of tough economic times are hitting the ski industry, with declining early bookings. Severe drops in retail spending could translate into dips in vacations. And the ski industry needs vacationers.

“I see the No. 1 benefit of this election as one-party control,” said Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz. “We can take actions that get people feeling more confident and stable in the economy.”

Awesome.

Posted by: Ace at 03:54 PM | Comments (12)
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Obama claims that his new statement, "no inappropriate contacts," is a reaffirmation of his previous statement, "no contacts."

The press doesn't bother hassling him about the point.

Reporting is hard, man. Certainly reporters can't be expected to keep up with the news.

Posted by: Ace at 01:37 PM | Comments (49)
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This really isn't funny. But it is ironic.

An American security consultant who is an expert on kidnapping and has helped negotiate the release of scores of kidnap victims in Latin America over the years was himself kidnapped last week in northern Mexico after delivering a seminar there on how to avoid that fate, according to officials and published reports.

New Lesson Plan for Avoiding Kidnappings When Doing Business in Mexico:

Step One: Teleconference.

Thanks to Maetenloch.

Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (14)
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It's not exactly like the Blago situation, but it's close enough to be worth noting:

The elder Kennedy (D-Mass.), who's battling brain cancer, has sent word to Gov. Paterson's office that Caroline Kennedy, 51, has contacts and family connections that would mean legislation affecting New York would receive prompt attention, family sources said.

It's not illegal to offer this sort of I'll-take-care-of-your-priorities-if-you-take-care-of-mine type deal, of course. Pretty much that's what politics is.

On the other hand, Teddy Kennedy seems to have missed out on a teachable moment. What is the implication here? If New York puts his niece into the Senate, New York state will get "prompt attention" (money, of course).

Ted Kennedy is trying to get his niece a job by offering taxpayer money as a bribe.

Thanks to Anti-Harkonen Freedom Fighter Geoff.

Bill Richardson Too: How the sausages get made:

A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill RichardsonÂ’s political action committees.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products, Inc. which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to RichardsonÂ’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked current and former officials from the state agency if any staff members in the governorÂ’s office influenced CDRÂ’s hiring, said the people, who declined to be identified because the proceedings are secret. Richardson, who is President-elect Barack Obama's designate for Commerce Secretary, has a staff of at least 30 people....

More: Sarah Palin wasn't qualified to be VP after two years as governor, but Caroline Kennedy is qualified to be Senator after 50 years as a fairy-tale princess.

Bonus: She founded and gives out the "Profiles in Courage Award."

2006's winner? John Murtha.

Posted by: Ace at 01:08 PM | Comments (49)
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Slublog just tipped me to the statement, reported on MSNBC.

Suffice to say his former claim was not just a lie but an absurd one, and an unnecessary one (why wouldn't he advise the governor on his replacement?).

And also, an arrogant one. It's the sort of lie you tell when you think, mostly accurately, the press will let you get away with claiming anything.

One good thing for Republicans: Obama is a moronic liar. Clinton was a good liar (much to our annoyance). This cat is a retarded one. That will be helpful.

So why did he tell such a ridiculous lie? I have to imagine it was to head off the next round of questions. Like what exactly did Rahm Emanuel propose as a counter-offer for Blago's pay-for-play requests? How much did he entertain the idea of playing ball one more time? At what point, if any, did Emanuel say "This is illegal and improper and these discussions are now ended?"

Or did he continue trying to "work with" Blago?

I assume Emanuel wasn't offering money for the seat. (Ass-ume.) But did he offer to have Obama campaign for Blago? Fundraise for him?

I always wondered not just about what Barack Obama saw in the terrorist Bill Ayers that attracted him, but what the terrorist Bill Ayers saw in Obama. A similar question applies here: Why was it that Blago thought that Emanuel and Obama might be up for a little bit of Chicago Way dealmaking?

I Can Haz Whitewater? Maybe his wife Patti, who had worked on and off with Tony Rezko on real estate deals, reminded him of a rather shifty land deal involving Rezko and Obama.

Incidentally, a commenter here, think, stated that Patti Blagojevich worked on the Rezko-Obama land deal. A search didn't find anything indicating that, though I'm open to a tip on the point, of course. But it looks as if she worked with Rezko on other deals, not on the Obama one.

The Patti Blagojevich/Rezko relationship may yet raise new questions by the media pretty much the very first questions by the media about Obama's sketchy land deal.

Even before her voice was heard on covert recordings made by federal investigators, First Lady Patricia Blagojevich was neck-deep in the federal probe of her husband and his administration.

Once a residential real estate broker on the North Side, Patricia Blagojevich left that career this year amid scrutiny from the Tribune and federal agents who have for a year been examining whether clients hired her to win favor from her husband's administration.

...

Before that, though, federal agents—following years of news coverage—were probing hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions Patricia Blagojevich earned in previous years as a real estate broker for political supporters, fundraisers and state contractors.

A year ago, one real estate agent told the Tribune that FBI agents contacted her with questions about her involvement with Patricia Blagojevich in the 2004 sale of a $3.2 million Gold Coast home. The seller was an investment banker and contributor to the governor's campaign fund who hired the first lady as his second agent on the deal.

That was only the most recent example. Patricia Blagojevich had an eight-year working relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a onetime powerful developer and Blagojevich fundraiser who was found guilty this summer on influence-peddling charges.

A Tribune analysis this year found that Blagojevich's real estate company, River Realty, made more than $700,000 in commissions after her husband began raising money in 2000 for his first run for governor. Of those commissions, more than three-quarters came from clients with connections, the newspaper found.

The Pattern: Heh:

You can just see the Obama pattern unfolding with the Senate seat fixing scandal.

1. I don't know him
2. I know him a little
3. I know him but I thought he'd gone to rehab
4. I'm giving a major speech condemning everything he stands for

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (64)
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Jessica from Feministing is in rare form as she howls about an email in which an Evil Patriarch asks a female worker to cover up her cleavage.

When a commenter asks her if she's on crack, she informs him Why no, I'm not on crack at all, why do you ask?

Really, you donÂ’t understand how this is bad?

Ok, looking at this from a feminist perspective, first off, enforcing a dress code is only OK if it is enforced uniformly for all employees of any gender. Whatever men can/can’t reveal, the standards for women must be the same, and they must be clearly defined, like for example, “no one should wear any garment that exposes more than 2 inches of skin below the bottom edge of the collar bone.” Otherwise, you get cases like this of random enforcement delivered in passive-aggressive emails that say “you’re showing a little too much cleavage.”

That implies that some amount of cleavage is OK, but that there is a limit. So what is the amount? How do you measure that amount? ItÂ’s been arbitrarily defined by a supervisor, yet that standard has not been shared in this offensive email.

So what has happened is that this woman has been singled out and told that she is being held to a certain nebulous standard, one of being able to show some cleavage, but not “too much” cleavage. Thus, the reality of living in a perpetual state catch-22 (one of the patriarchy’s strongest tools) which is inherent to having a vagina is perpetuated on an individual, personal and physical level.

And that is why this is bad.

Another commenter agrees:

Personally, I would retort that, “These are a part of MY BODY. They should not be found offensive or out of place. They are attached to me, therefore, they have to be in the workplace too!”

That's what my balls used to say, but my last boss just didn't like my idea for Testicle Tuesdays.

R.S. McCain channels the pain of the patriarchy.

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 AM | Comments (52)
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