I know that some people around here don't like Alan Grayson, but I think he's funny and a breath of fresh air from the usual Democratic politician afraid of attacking Republicans. Today, he asks this question about Dick Cheney's forthcoming book:
"I'm wondering, though, who's doing the introduction to his book? Is it Mephistopheles? I don't know -- maybe it's Satan."
Republican Senator George LeMieux's oh-so-brave, principled stand against Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Brazil, is having a negative effect on more than just our diplomatic relations:
Boeing Co. may lose a $7.5 billion jet fighter sale to Brazil unless the U.S. Senate lifts a four- month delay in confirming President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Latin America’s biggest country, a former top U.S. diplomat to the region said. [...]That's right - because of LeMieux's pigheaded and completely unnecessary stubbornness, the U.S. may lose thousands of jobs when we desperately need some good news in the employment front. Not only that, we would lose those jobs to France, who just a few years back Republicans excoriated because France wouldn't support the Iraq war. Such moments as these often lead to hyperbole, but I'm not so certain that, at this point, calling LeMieux an economic traitor is too far off the mark.“This will cost thousands of U.S. jobs,” said Aronson, who served as top envoy to the region from 1989 to 1993 for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “It’s an insult to Brazil to tell them they’re not important enough to have an ambassador like so-called advanced countries but that we want them to buy our planes over the French.”
Boeing is working to prevent Dassault from winning a contract that analysts estimate could be valued at as much as 5 billion euros ($7.5 billion). The Chicago-based company delivered its final offer for the F/A-18 Super Hornets in October, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to Brazil and won a promise from his counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to open exclusive talks to buy Dassault’s Rafale jet.
A few weeks back, I wondered if the U.S. was about to finally get its ambassador for Brazil, as Jim DeMint had decided to stop his grandstanding and obstruction on one of the most increasingly important ambassador positions for the U.S. It seemed that things would finally get resolved.
Well, meet Senator George LeMieux, the new Jim Demint:
Shortly after Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) agreed to drop his opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominee for Ambassador to Brazil, interim Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) decided to pick up where DeMint left off. DeMint had been blocking Thomas Shannon’s nomination over the Obama’s policy on the coup in Honduras; LeMieux, on the other hand, is accusing the former Bush nominee of being soft on Cuba. According to an anonymous Republican aide, LeMieux is delaying Shannon’s confirmation over the role he played in initiating talks with Cuba on migration and direct mail service when he was Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under the Obama administration.DeMint's excuses were absolutely risible, but LeMieux's complaints about Shannon make DeMint look like a seasoned veteran of international affairs. Obstruction because of an individual's role in talks over direct mail service to Cuba? Clearly, Shannon is a massive communist threat who cannot take office!!!!!
I have a real hard time not loving Alan Grayson. I know the left is supposed to be into civil discourse and all that, but we've been hurt for a long time by not being willing to punch back at Republican filth. Florida congressman Alan Grayson has no such problem.
On Hardball, Grayson had this to say about Dick Cheney:
"Well, my response is -- and by the way, I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes, because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he's talking," said Grayson. "But my response is this: He's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?"
I'm paraphrasing Kos with that title in his quest to get Michigan Democrats to vote for Mitt Romney in Michigan's open primary. Michigan stupidly moved its Democratic primary up so far that the party stripped the state of all its delegates. Obama and Edwards aren't even contesting the election. So with Michigan having an open primary, why not go vote for the easiest Republican to beat in the general election. It sounds like a good idea to me.
But the real reason for writing about this is that the phrase refers to the idea that this is dirty tricks. I'll quote Kos here.
There are some concerned that this is "dirty tricks" and that we shouldn't "stoop to their level". This is perhaps the key difference between traditional liberals and movement progressives. The former believe that politics is a high-minded debate about ideas, the latter have seen movement conservatives use every tool at their disposal to steal power and cling to it. The problem is, politics matter, and so does the winner of elections. You can't bring a spork to a gun fight, because like Florida 2000, we lose every time. And while some may feel proud their personal ethics weren't compromised and that we "took the high road" through the recount battle, how many thousands of soldiers and Iraqis wish that Democrats had fought a little harder for Gore's victory?
Exactly. What I find remarkable is how many progressives still see themselves outside of the party structure. They hate Bush and complain about how terrible things are and yet don't engage in the easiest way to fix the problem. I was talking to a friend in the summer, someone with a very respectable activist history. He was talking about how he hoped that young people were less partisan than they used to be. I was shocked. Partisanship is what is needed. We need to crush Republicans. Just beat the living hell out of them. If not, they will fuck us, just like they did in Florida, just like Tom DeLay did to the Texas congressional delegation in 2003, just like Republicans try to do all the time all over the nation.
How to stop this? Fight back. Punch them in the mouth. Voting for Romney in Michigan is a great idea. It will both help and embarrass Romney at the same time while also helping Democrats. What could be better than that?
On another note, one thing that irks me about Obama is his attempt to rise above partisanship. If he is just saying this while actually planning to screw over Republicans, then awesome. I would probably vote for him on that alone. But if he is actually wanting to not engage in partisanship, I would be worried whether he could get anything useful done. But that's for another post.
