Here's the top-rated comment over there:
William Kristol has no shame. Remember this:ADDED: Let me add a line so you can see where the left margin is. At least one commenter seems to think I wrote that "Why anybody gives this loser any credibility" business.
"The other journalists who met Palin offered similarly effusive praise: Michael Gerson called her “a mix between Annie Oakley and Joan of Arc.” The most ardent promoter, however, was Kristol, and his enthusiasm became the talk of Alaska’s political circles. According to Simpson, Senator Stevens told her that “Kristol was really pushing Palin” in Washington before McCain picked her. Indeed, as early as June 29th, two months before McCain chose her, Kristol predicted on “Fox News Sunday” that “McCain’s going to put Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, on the ticket.” He described her as “fantastic,” saying that she could go one-on-one against Obama in basketball, and possibly siphon off Hillary Clinton’s supporters. He pointed out that she was a “mother of five” and a reformer. “Go for the gold here with Sarah Palin,” he said. The moderator, Chris Wallace, finally had to ask Kristol, “Can we please get off Sarah Palin?”Why anybody gives this loser any credibility is an absolute mystery to me. If I were Kristol, I'd be ashamed to show my face in public much less offer political commentary. Loser.
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Short term, they are just deciding the scenario in which Clinton is elected. (Ignoring the possibility of her defeat in the Comey Primary.) Long term, at least in political terms, they are setting the stage for a new political party.
Krystol depends on no one remembering what he said last time. And he seems to be smirking at the audience for listening to his latest line of crap.
If this was the worst of Kristol's sins he would just be a buffoon, but he was one of the most ardent cheer-leaders on Iraq. If we lived in medieval times his head would now be on a stake in the courtyard as a reminder to the other advisors to the king.
Mitt Romney needs to shut his pie hole too.
Kristol's behavior shows how the GOP is splitting.
I saw Trump yesterday in Omaha before a crowd of 3,500. Lots of blue collar types; some straight from the construction site. Trump could win. And he could get blasted too.
I generally agree with the commenter, but what's with the scare quotes around "mother of five"?
ARM
But we won in Iraq before Obama gave it away.
The best intelligence showed Iraq had WMD. We pinned AQ and the Islamists down over there.
Reasonable persons can disagree on the Iraq war.
Palin was a spectacular choice for VP and gave McCain a shot. Without her, it would've been a bigger debacle in 2008.
"Long term, at least in political terms, they are setting the stage for a new political party."
It's about time US politics had a viable 2nd party.
Now, now. Ease up a little. It is hard on an old man to have it made evident he has no following and in fact have been parading around naked.
" Why anybody gives this loser any credibility is an absolute mystery to me. If I were Kristol, I'd be ashamed to show my face in public much less offer political commentary. Loser."
Embracing your inner Trump?
Bill Kristol is exposing an ugly side to American conservatism, the unseemly sense of entitlement and exclusivity that the #neverTrumpers are revealing. They would rather give the oval office to a Democrat than give up what they view as their exalted position in the GOP, rather than admit they have been wrong all along about the Trump movement’s significance. Their defense of their so-called “conservative principles” have less to do with their betrayal than the desire to keep membership in the GOP as a privilege that is theirs alone to bestow.
Kristol has nothing to lose; he’s merely a pundit who is trying to be a gatekeeper. He doesn’t depend on the will of the voters for his well-being and risks nothing by opposing the GOP voters’ choice for POTUS.
But the GOP politicians in Congress better remember what happened to Eric Cantor when he decided not to listen to the voters in his home district. It was quick, unexpected and ugly – a political beheading by GOP voters who became tired of being ignored.
http://tinyurl.com/gucxjjd
David Begley said...
Reasonable persons can disagree on the Iraq war.
No they can't. We invested lives and treasure on a war that weakened our strategic position by turning a Sunni led country into a Shia dominated one, even if you believe that we had 'won' at some point. It made us look like idiots. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan looks like the work of Clausewitz compared to our work in Iraq. The Bush's completely failed to understand that a war in the middle east is a multi-generational undertaking. What possible reason would we have to start such a war?
"Embracing your inner Trump?"
See the addition to the post.
"But we won in Iraq before Obama gave it away.
"The best intelligence showed Iraq had WMD. We pinned AQ and the Islamists down over there."
None of this is true.
So I guess a vote for Hillary is off the table for you ARM?
We won nothing in Iraq. We wold have ha d to stay forever. Once we left, the same things would happen. Because Begley and his neocon, build the world while ignoring America buddies actually thought democracy was a magic spell that civilized barbarians. We should have left Saddam in place. He knew how to keep those animals in line.
Hey Begley, why did Bush hide the Saudi's involvement in 9/11? Why did he fly them out after? Where are the 28 pages?
I guess Bush hid the culprits because he was such a patriot. It's hilarious how tone deaf the old guard neocons are.
Oh, well. We were hoping The Professor had gone all Ronda Rousey on Kristol.
We invested lives and treasure on a war that weakened our strategic position by turning a Sunni led country into a Shia dominated one, even if you believe that we had 'won' at some point. It made us look like idiots.
Yet our strategic position has been harmed exponentially worse in the last 7 years when we did none of that. Obama came into office with the ME in decent condition. He ran in 2012 on how peaceful Iraq was.
Now, it's a shithole worse than it's ever been before. And Obama's people BRAG about how they life to the American people and the press doesn't seem interested in seeing what press members acted as Obama's ventriloquist dummies.
You need a Republican in office for the press to begin to do its job.
None of this is true.
All of it is true.
Sorry I brought up Iraq.
We are split. Hopelessly.
The thing that is so, so crazy about it is that Islamist idiots are so insane that they don't know they are beat and that they can never win. How is it that their main military tactic is suicide? I've always wondered how does one recruit suicide bombers.
Aside: If we developed our own energy resources the way we could we could completely disassociate ourselves from those idiots. We wouldn't need Saudi oil. And then the Sunni and Shia could cut off each other's heads and it wouldn't matter.
....where the left margin is...
I like that.
========================
Hey, let's re-litigate Vietnam too.
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David, one of the things that Trump has plugged into is that most Americans are sick of the whole "we won in Iraq" thing. This country is a mess in many ways, so let's make America great again. Oh.
We can all probably agree that the ME is a hopeless morass and always will be. Muslim v Jew. Sunni v Shia. But if we have our own oil and gas, screw'em. (But we would support Israel.)
The whole world would be changed if we exported the LNG that we could.
I blame the American Greens and the CAGW nuts for failed American energy policy.
jake said...
So I guess a vote for Hillary is off the table for you ARM?
Yes, unless Trump suddenly decides that Sheldon Adelson will be his advisor on foreign engagements.
Trump has performed an enormous service to the union by ripping the illusion of competence off the Bush's faces. The first Iraq war was a strategic disaster that led directly to 9//11 and the equally stupid second war. There are 1.3 billion muslims. They have apparently limitless grievances against one another. What possible reason would we have to intercede in those grievances?
The truth is that Hillary Clinton is a lot more neocon than Trump.
Kristol had heard Trump cheerfully remind voters of his opposition to the Iraq invasion many times . And he's seen his own Party's voters choose Trump over all the many neocon options that were presented !
Now , Trump's rejection of neocon adventurism is of course not the main reason he's getting the nomination. But he also hasn't kept those views secret .
So, to channel Trump: Kristol might have to vote for Clinton.
#Sad!
UGH...Kristol and Romney, your day is done.
The train has left the station...
"The times they are a-changin'..."
What diff?
Either way we get the un-indicted private server money grubber.
Kristol fell in love with them open, open borders. Open, open borders. There's no going back.
And yet Kristol's smug smile never once even flinches . Frozen in time and space , it is , and unbound by the laws of reason or decency .
Come to think of it , he belongs in the 2016 presidential contest !
ARM said...
The first Iraq war was a strategic disaster that led directly to 9//11 and the equally stupid second war.
Is ARM saying Saddam's territorial ambitions would have ceased and he wouldn't have further developed his WMD program had he been left to his own devices upon taking Kuwait?
I've contacted Lar "America First" Daly to give it another try. Thank God I still have my “Ouija, the Wonderful Talking Board.”
Whole thing is stupid. Romney wouldn't carry a single state, but likely would siphon off enough votes to guarantee that Hillary was the next President (unless Sanders also runs as a third (or fourth) party candidate). He might get 1/3 or less of the Republicans. Surely not over half, since a lot of us would look at him and the people pushing him as sore losers. You play by the rules, and live with the results - which at this point means voting for Trump, if he indeed ends up with the Republican nomination.
What would be the purpose? To guarantee that the 2nd Amdt. is repealed by Hillary's Supreme Court nominees (and, yes, the "moderate" Garland has an anti-2nd Amdt. record - anyone Hillary nominates will be much worse)? Probably the 1st Amdt. would go next, with the left trying to stop what they call "hate speech" (remember - Citizens United revolved around an anti-Hillary movie).
And, how would Romney run? He would have to find some existing party willing to run him as their candidate, since some important state deadlines have apparently already been passed. Which party would take him? Libertarian? Likely not. Maybe the Green party.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
" Trump could win. And he could get blasted too."
I agree. This is unknown territory. This is the revolution that someone last summer accused me of wanting. I'm only surprised that it is (relatively)peaceful so far.
"The first Iraq war was a strategic disaster that led directly to 9//11 and the equally stupid second war."
It's reassuring to see ARM and Cookie back in their places so quickly.
The first Iraq War was a consequence of some foolish foreign policy work by Jim Baker and a few others who misled Saddam, who was very easy to mislead as he was crazy.
Some of it came from Reagan who was too concerned about underlings he had gotten into danger, like the CIA station chief in Beirut, Bill Buckley. Hillary and Obama would never make that mistake as they care nothing for "little people" in their careers.
Nixon got taken down by similar concern for the goofs who went into Watergate without his knowledge.
9/11, by the way, was a direct result of Clinton's fecklessness beginning with Somalia. He taught Osama the wrong lessons because Osama did not understand the difference between US political parties after Vietnam.
Hey, this is their playbook. They did it to Ken Cucchinelli sp in VA and to the guy in Alaska who beat Lisa M in the primary. The Republican party is ending because the RINGS refuse to accept the conservatives and to abide by any conservative victories. So they begat Trump.
RINOS.
In the neocons' hearts they know Hillary’s right.
"Mitt Romney needs to shut his pie hole too"
Why does free speech scare people so?
After reading these comments I'm wondering if Charlie Johnson is the example of what happens to all Internet warriors.
Everyone and everything ultimately disappoints.
How is it that their main military tactic is suicide? I've always wondered how does one recruit suicide bombers.
By promising true believers that they will be rewarded by their God in Heaven with 72 virgins.
What possible reason would we have to intercede in those grievances?
At the time? Preventing Saddam from seizing Kuwait's oil, and threatening Saudi Arabia's. People forget that Saddam had the world's fourth or fifth largest army at the time, and had just proved he was willing to use it.
Today, thanks to fracking, we would have had much more flexibility.
Next to the definition of Republican Washington Insider there is a picture of Kristol.
We are in a very unique situation. If Republicans think they can finesse this by pretending not to endorse Trump while going along to save the party, etc., they are fools. The Republican Party has been pushed to the edge of extinction. Trump will also be a disaster for the nation should he somehow win. It is the absolute MINIMUM of practical and pragmatic political sense to find a third, independent candidate that can be credible. Any Republican who does not see this is a fool. The last time this happened, the party had Taft to run against TR. Unfortunately, the TR figure in this case IS the party's candidate. The Tafts will have to be found elsewhere.
I think there is much more to it than the GOP trying to maintain its power base. Initially, yes. They can see the writing on the wall just as well as the rest of us.
We kept electing Tea Party types to reform the Party, and they accused us of trying to tear the Party apart. How did they respond? By ostracizing them. How did we respond? Ask Eric Cantor.
No, the GOP has lost it's voter base. They know it. They are not worried about their self-preservation. Every Party loyalist gets a Golden Parachute as part of it's membership package.
No, this is about one thing-
revenge
At the time? Preventing Saddam from seizing Kuwait's oil, and threatening Saudi Arabia's. People forget that Saddam had the world's fourth or fifth largest army at the time, and had just proved he was willing to use it.
Kuwait was Hussein's Sudetenland, and the world saw what happened when the League of Nations allowed that to go unpunished.
"It is the absolute MINIMUM of practical and pragmatic political sense to find a third, independent candidate that can be credible. Any Republican who does not see this is a fool."
It's interesting to see the GOPe mind at work.
Hillary appreciates your efforts and will promise to do what she can to save your rice bowl.
For thirty years, the GOP Establishment has been Lucy, and Republican voters have been Charlie Brown...we kept trying to kick that football, and they kept pulling it away....
We finally stop trying to kick the football, and now they want to take the football and go home, instead of allowing us to actually kick the ball.
There is a reason why Lucy is the most unpopular character........
The GOPe in this instance is not pulling the football away ala Lucy, but instead they're trying to take the ball and go home with it because they think it belongs to them. It's understandable. Trump eradicated these people, and they don't like being eradicated.
"See the addition to the post."
Ah, I had missed that. Reading too fast in the morning will do that.
I had meant it in humor and should perhaps have added a winking emoji to carry that across. I still kinda wish it had been you who said it. Adopting a bit of Trump style for the hell of it on this particular subject would have been ... ironic? sardonic? at least I would have found it funny.
Mitt Romney didn't have nearly enough fire in the belly last time. That Kristol thought he might make a decent candidate despite having even less fire in the belly this time makes me wonder about Kristol's grasp of working politics.
These die-hard anti-Trump Republicans would rather see Hillary get elected than Trump. A third party ticket might accomplish that.
To corroborate my statement, I just heard a 'conservative' pundit on Fox News say that Trump is 'more dangerous' than Hillary Clinton and was forced to admit he will vote for Hillary over Trump.
I have come around to the notion that the first gulf war opened up the pandora's box, yes we saved the kingdom and kuwait, among prominent natives of both were ubl and ksm, who went off to wage war in bosnia, after the finishing camps in afghanistan on the dime of the current saudi king, the aftermath taught the shia to rely on iran, the kurds were more understanding,
Saddam took the lesson from that engagement to give the Salafi more free reign, of course we became the airforce for the former cohort, while we should have settled afghanistan,
re the huntress, the tag roger kimball who is now #nevertrump, a transliteration from the Russian, okhanitsa. She spoke truth to power, about Obama when it wasn't in fashion. It still really isn't, otherwise the trained seals at the press club would have actually grilled obama.
As a consequences, she was subjected to lawfare, coordinated through the journolist, some of whom are involved the rhodes iran scam, had to give up the governorship or face bankruptcy,
Kristol is an ugly little RINO traitor. He's been wrong on almost everything, but it makes sense that he and Mitt would try to sabotage Trump and see Hillary appoint 3 more Kagan's to the SCOTUS and thereby get rid of gun rights.
After all, what do Kristol and Mitt stand for except for Amnesty, "invade the world, invite the world", and tax cuts for the rich?
Hillary can do that as well as any RINO.
"Mitt Romney didn't have nearly enough fire in the belly last time."
That's because Mitt can't get it up when he goes against Democrats. If he runs Independent, he'll be doing what he loves best, trashing a Republican.
Just to state the obvious. An Independent run would have zero chance of getting elected. Anyone running as a Right of Center Independent would take votes away from Trump - not Hillary.
About 45% of the country is left of center and/or Yellow dog democrats. They aren't going to leave Hillary to vote for Fucking Mitt Romney or anyone like him.
So, and independent run will accomplish only one thing, elect Hillary. Trump will probably lose with such a run, but an independent run will guarantee he loses.
At least Kristol was right once (8 years ago).
Romney's not going to liquidate his assets and run for president. With the $2,500 campaign contribution limit, there aren't enough rich people to donate to his campaign and no one else is giving him money. The Brothers K can form a superpac and spend to their hearts desire but since they are just anti Trump, they can just do that anyway. Maybe they will pay for Mitt to go around and whine and he can be the spokesman for low taxes and jobs in China and endless wars in Muslimland or whatever other bullshit the voters have rejected.
The term RINO has exceeded its shelf life. Hell even lifelong Republicans don't know what the Party stands for anymore.
Republican Party does not equal "Not Democrat"
Kristol is "uncomfortable."
The horror .
Let Mittens run third party and the Bern run fourth party. No one will win enough electoral college votes. What a glorious mess! And entertaining as hell. Then the House Of Representatives will have to pick a president. It will make for great television.
I don't know who they think they're going to run. Everybody they like already lost and lost badly at that. Among Republicans. Where are the votes gonna come from? The ones they want to reach out to are conservative purists who cannot abide the nonideologue Trump. But these people, or many of them, don't like Romney either. To be effective, the 3rd party candidate has to have some conservative bona fides to reach these voters. Other than Cruz, who could that be?
Which establishment Republican with the gravitas to seriously pull votes away from Trump wants to go down in history as the gadfly spoiler responsible for throwing the election to Hillary, and wrenching the Supreme Court to the left for a generation or longer?
Nobody wants Romney, they didn't want him in 08, he wasn't wanted in 12 and trying to run him as a 3rd party candidate will just be an embarrassment for everyone involved. It's too bad since he seems like a smart honorable man who could do a lot of good as president, but he has an amazing ability to not connect with people on a mass basis and really never seems to act like he wants the job.
A message for Bill Kristol and Mitt Romney: PLEASE START A THIRD PARTY. DO IT.
What do they represent in the party? What wing of the party? Open borders, Obamacare, medicaid part D, larger government, omnibus bills, lots of wars that don't serve our interests.
Mitt Romney would take more votes from Hillary Clinton than he would take from Trump. A republican party that runs against stupid wars, against open borders, against obamacare, against endless deficits, against TPP and FOR Americans and America First will destroy Hillary and Mitt at the same time.
This would perfectly solidify the new political alignment that will result from this election.
I remember at the 1960 Democratic Convention here in Los Angeles, a Stop Kennedy movement. Kennedy would be a disaster, his father was a nogoodnik (to borrow from Boris Badenov), the Pope was lucking in the Shadows, but the problem was that the arguments against Kennedy were irrelevant. He had the delegates and who among the Kennedy stoppers would stand back for the others. Since then every time there is a stop somebody movement it fails. You can't stop something with nothing. Romney=desperation. He brings nothing to the table. Nobody in their right mind will return Kristol's phone calls after the crazy antics he's been involved with this Spring.
At the risk of being called an idiot by large numbers of people, I think Sarah Palin could have been a good President. Should the Republicans, by some happy chance, take the White House this fall, I would suggest that she be considered for Secretary of Energy.
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