From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Molly Ivins on Newt Gingrich
Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast on Newt Gingrich's latest jump into the sleazy spotlight:
[D]umping this kind of toxic waste on our political system has been what he’s done for most of his adult lifetime... The Gingrich of the past week who takes great umbrage at the idea that anyone could object to his linking Kathy Griffin and Shakespeare in the Park to the Democrats to [baseball shooter] Hodgkinson is the same Gingrich who back in 1994 blamed a woman drowning her two sons on the Democratic Party.
First thing I thought of when Gingrich’s fat mouth started popping up all over the place recently as Trump's #1 surrogate "blocker" (fluffing the "deep state" and Seth Rich murder conspiracies while claiming Trump's obstruction of justice investigation is terrible even though the one he led against Bill Clinton was peachy), was that Molly Ivins was all over his schtick back when he [shudder] held a significant position of power as Speaker of the House. So, for your enjoyment, some vintage Molly on vintage Doughy Pantload…
The current nastiness of American politics has many fathers---political consultants and negative campaign ads among them. But Newt Gingrich is a leading force in the nastification of politics. (1996)
Nincompoopery has never been a bar to high office in our nation. Newt Gingrich's sole claim to serious consideration is that he's great copy. He has no ideas, no principles, no integrity, and by and large, he's a damn fool. (1996)
Easily the most notable contribution to our political life made by Gingrich during his congressional career has been the level of rancor and vitriol with which he practices politics. So impressive were Gingrich's thrusts at the opposition that in 1990, the GOP issued a list of them---words that Republican candidates should use to describe their opponents so they could be successful, like Newt. The words are: sick, pathetic, traitor, welfare, crisis, ideological, cheat, steal, insecure, bizarre, permissive, anti-(issue), and radical.
Such language, here in the New [Republican] Regime, will be helpful in solving problems, such as how to get health-care coverage for forty million Americans, how to get people off welfare, how to create decent-paying jobs and give the people the skills to do them. (1994)
As Gingrich led the Republicans in full hue and cry concerning the moral sleaze, the sordid tawdriness, the unbearable, brazen, shameless conduct of Bill Clinton, he was having something more than a flingette himself. We could be looking at a new world record for being two-faced.
(1999)
When Susan Smith drowned her two sons in South Carolina in 1994, [Newt] Gingrich said it "vividly reminds every American how sick society is getting and how much we have to change. I think people want to change, and the only way you get change is to vote Republican." Actually, the Democrats never recommended drowning your children either. But in reference to the above item, Susan Smith was in fact screwed by her stepfather from the age of 15 on. He was a member of the state Republican executive committee and the Christian Coalition. (1996)
From a strategic point of view, I suppose I should want House Speaker Newt Gingrich to stay where he is, considering that he is both hateful and incompetent. But I must admit to a mild case of Greater Good here: I'd really like for America to see Gingrich in its rearview mirror, because I think he's a nasty piece of work who has brought American politics even lower that it would otherwise go. It's a good-of-the-nation moment. (1998)
He can’t fly off to play shuffleboard with Benedict in the Vatican soon enough.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Note: Contrary to popular belief, there are indeed lots of atheists in foxholes. I've got a bunch in my backyard right now. Beat it, you godless lawnwreckers!!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Independence Day: 13
Days 'til LGBT pride parades in Bend OR, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Fayetteville AR, Minneapolis, and San Francisco: 3
Months since retail sales were as bad as they were in May under the Trump administration: 16
Percent chance that the FDA approved Symjepi, an EpiPen competitor that will sell for far less than the price-gougers at Mylan: 100%
Moose-vehicle collisions in Maine last year, a ten-year low: 289
Approximate drop last year in teen vaping, according to the CDC: -1/3
Date on which I created my very first blockquote in C&J: 6/21/05
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Mid-week Rapture Index:
182 (including 4 Satanisms and a handful of veddy veddy naughty exorcists). Soul Protection Factor 666 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: I got your back...
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CHEERS to the thawing season. It's HERE! It's HERE! The turnpike's aliiiiive...with the sound of Massholes!!! Forgive the irrational exuberance, but summer finally arrived at 12:24am and we get a little excited about it up here in the otherwise toe-freezing tundra. For Maine it means 60 glorious days of sun and heat heat HEAT! First item on our agenda: get inside, shut all the windows, and turn the AC up to 11.
P.S. Today is the longest day of the year…tomorrow isn't. Mother Nature: master of the headfake.
CHEERS to givin' it the old college try. Jon Ossoff campaigned his heart out in Georgia's 6th District, but it just wasn't enough to overcome the slings and arrows of fake news and dirty ads (I never knew he shot Steve Scalise all by himself---shameful!) and Trump tweets and the rantings of a garden-variety teabagger whose words ("I hate gay people just because.") were like the sweet nectar of peach blossoms on the morning breeze to her followers. So she won, and Ossoff lost.
Now it's gloating time for the GOP, and we know how that goes: Handel won by 80 gazillion points, Democrats are still lost in the wilderness, and reports of a 2018 blowout against Republicans were premature. Oh well. I just hope my $25 donation went to something useful…like pizza for the staff.
CHEERS to the bitter (as in, the unceasing bitter taste in my mouth) end. On a personal note, C&J jumped a major hurdle Monday morning: our last chemo session! Yes, the terrorist cancer cells incubating inside the peaceful villages dotting my Shire-like intestinal countryside hoisted their little white flags and laid down their arms.
So now we switch over to "survivorship" mode, which means lots of red meat, candy corn, liquor and Star Wars comic books and movies for at least five years. And this I can promise you, as Billeh’s Southern Colon Country picks up the pieces and enters a period of “reconstruction:” there will be no statues erected anywhere in my gut dedicated to the "heritage" of my cancer cells and how bravely they fought. Fuck 'em. They lost.
P.S. The side effects weren’t quite as bad as predicted. The only place I lost all my hair, for example, was the tops of my feet. My gratitude this morning goes out to the volunteer weavers at “Little Pieces for Little Piggies” covering up the baldness. They’re doing God’s work. With teeny tiny looms.
CHEERS to making it safe to eat Butterballs. 235 years ago, Congress approved the bald eagle over the turkey as the U.S. symbol. They decided it just didn't taste as good with mashed taters and cranberry sauce.
CHEERS to swishing toward Gomorrah. The 30-somethingth annual LGBT Pride Parade wound its way through the streets of Portland, Maine Saturday. The route was packed as a record 80+ groups passed by the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.
As we always do, Michael and I (and Haley the wonder dog) marched with the local chapter of PFLAG, and you can check out some media coverage of the parade with pics here. But not everything was perfect. The weather was sunny and 72 with a light breeze, but we'd specifically requested that it be 75. Clearly God hates us.
P.S. The weekend National Organization for Marriage (NOM) march against gay marriage in D.C.---yeah, they keep hoping and praying---attracted a whopping 47 people"including babies." In other words, 47 babies.
CHEERS to great moments in agriculture! On this date in 1834, Cyrus McCormick got his patent approved for the first reaping machine. Eh, sow what?
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 21, 2007
JEERS to the hands of time...spinning backward. President Bush vetoed his third bill yesterday. For those of you keeping score, that's two votes against medical research, and one vote against bringing the greatest disaster in American history to an end in Iraq. He's already set his sights on what he'll veto next: the 2007 Shooting Paintballs At Nursing Home Residents Is A Bad Idea Act.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Meetup Fevuh! This is the last call to RSVP for the annual Maine meetup at Mayim's cottage by the lake about an hour northwest of Portland. It's coming up this weekend---Saturday, June 24 from roughly noon 'til whenever. Same deal as other years, says Mayim:
I’ll cook some, as well as have beer and assorted non-alcoholic beverages. But my life has been a whirlwind recently {a good whirlwind, but a whirlwind!}, so if people want to bring a dish to share, that's more than fine. {One request: no pork or shellfish, please!} It will help with planning if you let me know the general type of dish {appetizer, side, salad, dessert} when you RSVP, as I’ll fill in the gaps.
Lake should be warm enough for fun if anyone wants. We have a canoe, a kayak, and plenty of rocks to swim to (and to scrape knees on....). Dogs (well-behaved....) more than welcome, but Hobbs, Penn, and Scout prefer to be the only felines ;-)
For more info or to RSVP, see Mayim’s diary here. To RSVP, email her via kosmail or at killearnan@gmail.com. Michael and I (and Haley the Wonder Dog) will be there along with other Kossacks from near and far, and we hope you'll be able to join us. Plus I think it's the law now.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Cheers and Cheers’s Guards Are Falling Down! Bill in Portland Maine’s Officers Faint During Straining the Kiddie Pool Ceremony
---People
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