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U.S. News: Obama-Kelley Meeting
May 20, 2013 | 0 comments
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The SPLC: Big Bucks, the FRC, and Jimmy Carter
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Mark Levin Talks to the NRA
May 7, 2013 | 0 comments
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POLITICO: RUSH LIMBAUGH MAY PART WITH CUMULUS
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The Problematic Frank Luntz’s Stockholm Syndrome
April 25, 2013 | 11 comments
The Spectacle Blog
Here we go. This was inevitable.
Now the Daily Caller is reporting here that Mitt Romney’s top advisers lobbied for… yes… Freddie Mac. Which in turn raises the obvious since Romney has been firing away at Gingrich on the issue. Will Romney a) fire the aides — lobbyists Susan Molinari and Vin Weber? – or, b) demand that they return the money.
Now what does this little episode really demonstrate?
The Romney campaign has violated one of the primary laws from that rascally old strategist Sun Tzu… know the enemy and know yourself. The Romney campaign is a bit shaky on knowing Newt and, disturbingly, positively weak on knowing itself. Did no one at Romney HQ not understand that if they were to attack Newt on Freddie Mac… any Romney-Freddie ties would quickly surface? No? Really? Why not?
What Romney has done here is hire Washington Establishment Republicans. Smart people, nice people, good people… but nonetheless people whose very existence depends on keeping the status quo. This says — yet again — everything about the Romney mindset when it comes to bringing serious change to Washington. This is exactly why he is having trouble.
And he seems clueless about how to deal with the problem. Newsflash: attacking Newt for Freddie Mac ties while hiring aides who did the same thing was only going to backfire. Which it has now done!
Jack in Wi.| 1.25.12 @ 7:14PM
This food fight between Nut and Mutt is getting funnier every day. It is even better then the old Big Time Wrestling show on TV in the 60's. Romney is your classic country club Republican, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Gingrich is about the most crooked and dislikable politician I have seen in a long lifetime. The best thing about this fight it is that it is killing any chance that either of these bozo's will be President
Bob Grant| 1.25.12 @ 8:08PM
Hack,
Be honest. Your goal is an obama second term.
Clint| 1.25.12 @ 8:48PM
We Are Being Set Up By The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges For The Ruling Elites' Frontman Mittens Romney.
These Are The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges Who Gave Us The Serial Traitor To Conservatism, John McCain Of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy,McCain-Lieberman,Gang Of 14, Opposing Bush Tax Cuts Of 2001 & 2003,TARP.
Now They Are Trying To Give Us RomneyCare,TARP, Cynical Flip-Flops On Abortion, Gays, Refuses to Sign Pro-Life Pledge, Illegal Immigrants, "Little Chain Saw Al" At Bain, Crony Capitalism Campaign Money Trail.....
Mr. Neutered, The Pillsbury DoughBoy Serves As Our Useful RINO-CINO Dupe To Extend The Campaign, Deny The Ruling Elites' RINO-CINO Frontman, Mittens Romney Enough Delegates And Head To A Brokered Convention.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is In Florida.
Jack in Wi.| 1.25.12 @ 8:53PM
Nutt is the worst of 3 bad apples. Nutt=Mutt=Oblabla. I want none of these guys. If this is all they are offering,I will happily vote 3rd party. I have voted Republican in 12 straight Presidential elections. I should have done something else in the last 6.
Clint| 1.25.12 @ 9:33PM
Hang Tough Jack, Keep That Option Open.
However, Mr. Neutered Is A Temporary Useful Dupe To Keeping The Campaign Race Going And Fracturing The Delegate Count, So Mittens Romney Doesn't Get The Necessary Delegate Count.
The Longer This Goes The More Clout & Delegates Dr.Ron Paul Gathers.
Pace Yourself And Play All Four Quarters.
There Is A Rebellion Goin' On Here In America & These Israel Firsters Can't Stop It.
The Tea Party Rebellion Heads To A Brokered Convention.
Bob Grant| 1.25.12 @ 9:56PM
Hey, you two crazy kids need to get a room.
Mike Rogers | 1.26.12 @ 8:04AM
You, know, I used to think these two were in different locations, but they are so well scripted, I now wonder which of their mothers' basements they live in!
Jack in Wi.| 1.25.12 @ 11:10PM
Great Commentary Clint. I knew it but you reminded me of the facts. The mopre the countr sees of these shallow guys who have no solutions the better. The country is in dire shape and Nutt wants to move to Mars. Mutt is so rehearsed by his handlers that he looks phoney and the voters know it. Neither one of these people has a sincere bone in their bodies.
JmsA| 1.26.12 @ 10:36AM
You know it, Bob.
SpiralArchitect| 1.25.12 @ 7:36PM
A billion dollar slush fund and voter fraud master groups rasing the dead to vote will bring President Decline around to his podium of Totalitarian rule.
JazzyJeff| 1.26.12 @ 10:55PM
Huh?
SUBVET| 1.25.12 @ 7:41PM
As usual Jack the same old same old......want to know why Newt is disliked because he knows where all the bodys are buried.........right Nancy.
When Newt is elected you will see body's jumping ship remember what Regan said------and yes he will finish the job.
Jack in Wi.| 1.25.12 @ 8:59PM
Newt is disliked because he is a hopeless windbag, a terrible crook, and a sexual pig. There is no chance that this guy will ever be elected President. Few Independents, young people, disaffected Democrats and about half the Republicans will vote for him. His best chance to be elected President, is to move to Mars.
Bulbul| 1.25.12 @ 9:06PM
Newt will win in FL and seal the deal. In the general election, Newt will triumph Obama in a landslide. Remember, 1980?
Mike w| 1.25.12 @ 9:55PM
You are on drugs
Clint| 1.25.12 @ 9:38PM
Gingrich isn’t much more popular among Freedom Works than Romney. In May, when Gingrich sharply criticized Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan, FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey reminded National Review that Gingrich had been a serial offender:
Citing Gingrich’s support of Dede Scozzafava in the 2009 congressional election in New York’s 23rd district, his backing of Medicare Part D and TARP, and his commercial with Nancy Pelosi about climate change, Armey observes that “Newt entered the race with serious ground to make up with these 2 million Tea Party activists.”…
Brendan Steinhauser, director of Federal and State Campaigns for FreedomWorks, reports that the Tea Partiers he’s talked to are “irate” at Gingrich… “I never met a single Tea Party activist that supported Newt Gingrich for president,” he adds."
The Tea Party Is Headed For A Brokered Convention.
Mike 3/505| 1.25.12 @ 7:41PM
I forget which political "expert" said this, but The first target you put your Opposition Research Team on, is yourself. Saves a LOT of embarrassment.
Bulbul| 1.25.12 @ 9:05PM
Romney is the "dirty player", after Obama. So, why not?
Bulbul| 1.25.12 @ 9:07PM
Newt is the "Million Dollar Baby."
Mender| 1.25.12 @ 9:34PM
Oh, this is getting hilarious.
At this rate they'll all destroy each other and the nominee actually will be Ron Paul!
JmsA| 1.26.12 @ 10:38AM
It will not happen.
somnolence| 1.25.12 @ 11:02PM
With Johnson the country only goes UP in smoke, not down in flames with this bunch cutting themselves to death.
keating willcox| 1.25.12 @ 11:27PM
Yesterday on the Election 2012 News Blog we reported on a story that the Drudge Report and other Romney-leading Conservative media outlets wanted to ignore: former Massachusetts Governor and GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns reveal that he has five hundred thousand dollars worth of stock holdings invested in both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich was quick to capitalize on the revelation yesterday, in the wake of a withering attack from Romney during Monday night’s GOP Florida Primary debate, wherein he sought to characterize Speaker Newt Gingrich’s consulting work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as lobbying.
While the Romney campaign today has worked aggressively to justify its candidate’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investments as a benign oversight, a new report has surfaced indicating that top Romney campaign aides worked as lobbyists themselves for both Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac. Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller reports: “According to the AP, former Rep. Susan Molinari — a top Romney surrogate and adviser . . . was one of the former GOP lawmakers paid quite handsomely to help stop “any meaningful regulation in the years before the housing mortgage giant crashed.”
In addition, Romney economic adviser Vin Weber “spent years lobbying for the group. According to the AP, in 2006 alone, Webber’s lobbying firm (Clark and Weinstock) was paid $360,297 by Freddie. And according to the AP, Weber made no bones about his close ties to the failed mortgage giant.”
The Daily Caller piece goes on to explain that there is even a third adviser in the Romney campaign that has a dubious lobbyist connection to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “According to reports, two years prior to his tenure there, Freddie Mac secretly paid his firm $2 million “to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.”
The Gingrich campaign jumped on this new story early today while the Romney campaign was still dealing with the stock issue: “Reached for comment, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said: “We’d like to know when Gov. Romney is going to ask his own advisers to return their money.”
As the Thursday debate looms, it will be interesting to see how these new developments will be leveraged between Gingrich and Romney. It would appear that Gingrich will have a great deal more political fodder for pinning Mitt Romney and his campaign to the failed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than Romney, to the extent that we may see Gingrich lead with an attack. What remains to be seen is if the debate moderators will raise these questions early on in the debate, or if Gingrich will have to lead with the attack himself. Given the thin media coverage on both this story and Romney’s $500K worth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock, it isn’t impossible to imagine that it will go unparsed in the debate unless the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac issue is raised.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.26.12 @ 6:42AM
This is simply a red herring.
Mitt's staff are not running for office.
Newt still has some explaining to do.
Presumably, it only shows that the door was open for lobbyists at Fannie/Freddie and that's another issue.
aware| 1.26.12 @ 6:55AM
Lord is a disgusting little boosterboy for the State. All he proves is that they are all in on the plundering. Newt and Mitt are globalist scum who do their part in sacking the Republic for their personal benefit.
And Lord is bootlicker par excellence for the Ruling Elite. No doubt angling for another "appointment" to a tax feeding cog position in the crime syndicate we call "government".
The dog loves to return to the vomit.
martin j smith| 1.26.12 @ 7:53AM
It is time to stop the smearing of our candidates and for the candidates to stop smearing each other. It is annoying me a lot. Time to attack Obama and show who is best at it. Enough !!!!!!!!!!!