Disappointed over President Clinton’s dalliance with a White House intern, the Dean of the Washington Press Crop famously quipped, “He came in here and he trashed the place, and it’s not his place.” Most of us shared at least most of Mr. Broder’s disappointment, but we laughed at him nevertheless. It was a perfect illustration of the DC Village mentality, that the ultimate fate of the presidency should be decided based on a small clique of elites’ outraged sense that they were the custodians of the Republic’s reputation.
So, believe me, just because everyone in the Beltway bands together to condemn the behavior of a politician doesn’t mean I am going to be moved by it. I mean, fuck them. But that’s what Mitt Romney has accomplished with his foray into foreign policy. Condi Rice ignored his comments. Peggy Noonan said they were indiscreet. Mark Halperin called them craven. Chuck Todd and Gang called them “over the top” and “inaccurate.” John Sununu criticized them. Anonymous Republican staffers called them things like “a cheap news cycle hit” and “unbelievable” and “bad.”
There are plenty of places you can go to see assemblages of these types of responses. Meanwhile, Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, John McCain, and even Paul Ryan all refused to follow suit and echo any of Romney’s accusations or characterizations.
Let’s face it. The GOP may talk smack about the State Department, but it’s a big, respected part of our government, and it’s integral to the culture of Washington DC. When four members of the Department are killed in the line of duty by a rocket propelled grenade, the city goes into mourning. Mitt Romney was acting like the loonies from the Westboro Baptist Church who protest our soldiers’ funerals. It was offensive to everyone who lives and works in the District. I mean, it was offensive period, but it was personal with people on Capitol Hill.
Romney’s insensitive remarks were squeezed in between the remarks of Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama. Clinton and Obama then proceeded to the State Department to console the staff there. This only made Romney’s move look even more crass and unpresidential.
People do not want to defend him.
Nevertheless, the Romney campaign is passing out stupid talking points to Republicans on the Hill.
No one likes Mitt Romney. That was true yesterday. Today the feeling is just more intense.
I feel like Casey Stengal:
“Doesn’t anybody here know how to play this game?”
given that he basically is on record now agreeing with the comment from the egyptian embassy he used as the foundation for his expression of sympathy charge.
And some wonder how and why the debates are gonna be such a thorn-filled landscape that he can’t slither through unscathed.
He’ll be lucky to get out of them without being figuratively skinned alive. Being an unresponsive/non-topically responding dodgeboy is his only hope — no matter what the subject matter of the debate is.
Looks more and more like Romney has taken to heart Bill O’Reilly’s, “Just go ahead and call him a socialist” demand. Every.day just seems to bring another shovel full of dirt out of the hole in which Romney is standing. Soon, the only thing showing over the edge of that hole will be his well coiffed hair.
McCain’s former chief of staff BLASTS Romney.
There’s a broader lesson to be learned here: Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later and as president one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that,” Obama told CBS News on Wednesday. “It’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts and that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make them.”
President Obama’s reputation as the Adult in the Room alone might win him re-election now.
“It’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts and that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make them.”
Oh my. Romney actually making factual statements would be a first.
Ooooof.
Yes, Romney made a stupid comment, and yes this is what he does. But I’ll bet that if were up 10 points in the polls that the GOP would be rallying around him anyway.
I suspect that a lot of the GOP leadership and pundits are looking to get off the bandwagon right now and preserve their own reputations. Too many of them stayed on the Palin bandwagon too long and they’ve probably noticed that within the GOP those who had the courage to challenge the Palin nomination early (but who have otherwise stayed true to the GOP movement) now have better reputations than those who stayed with her to the end.
…they’ve probably noticed that within the GOP those who had the courage to challenge the Palin nomination early (but who have otherwise stayed true to the GOP movement) now have better reputations than those who stayed with her to the end.
You mean people like David Frum? Have the GOP started talking to him again yet?
Funny, I was thinking of Frum specifically when I added this bit:
(but who have otherwise stayed true to the GOP movement)
Frum was not excommunicated for Palin – he was thrown out for all the other heresies he committed, like praising Krugman and Obamacare.
That is funny, bc I was wondering if that parenthetical insertion might not exclude him, but ultimately decided that “the GOP movement” at large had no place for him. The GHWB GOP, sure. But nothing in the last 20 years.
knowing state department staff and respecting them is key. Ambassadors and Senators and other political elite tend to be in the same social circles which is why the Republicans have reacted like they have to Romney.
I understand the concept of The Village, and I know it’s more than just a concept, but sometimes it’s difficult for me to understand why one thing is over the line for them and another thing isn’t. Anyway, OK, lots of the usual DC suspects are now openly criticizing Romney or at least not coming to his defense.
But if you look under the rocks, you will find those who do defend Romney. Such as this.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/obama-accused-of-sanctioning-blasphemy-laws/
So we see that Romney’s comments are red meat for this faction, both in the U.S. and in Israel, coming at a time of considerable tension between the Obama administration and the right-wing leadership of Israel.
The group that produced and financed this film represents the same faction of bomb-throwers.
The film is a calculated provocation pure and simple, and there can be little doubt that Romney’s remarks, which he obviously couldn’t wait to deliver, were seen by this group as earned political capital for the benefit of this faction.
And it “worked”.
My point is that these psychopaths are playing from a script that used to work but is now obsolete. The effect of these provocations and manipulations will continue to isolate the right-wing crazies and strengthen President Obama. Netanyahu is trying to manipulate American politics, but he is a blundering old fool that knows nothing but a motheaten pressure scenario, neocon talking points, and a couple of venial, incompetent standard-bearers (Romney & Ryan) who do nothing but discredit themselves and everyone associated with them.
Good luck with that, Bibi. Like our own Tea Party, you’ve got nothing to campaign on.
I need to clarify something. I did not mean to imply that Bibi was behind this film or the reaction to it. But the faction I am talking about are among his admirers, and it all fits with the general atmosphere that they believe will benefit their side. Most Israelis are not that stupid.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/09/12/even-the-liberal-avigdor-lieberman/
Of course, there was this from Bibi after 9/11.
http://maxblumenthal.com/2011/05/republicans-to-welcome-netanyahu-who-called-9-11-attacks-very-good-
said-israel-benefits-from-anti-us-terror/
No Jewish connection to anti-Mohammed film
http://forward.com/articles/162727/anti-islam-films-jewish-tie-crumbles/
http://maxblumenthal.com/2012/09/meet-the-right-wing-extremist-behind-anti-muslim-film-that-sparked-
deadly-riots/
Setting the rcord straight on who is behind the film. More in my diary, some interesting character traits …
Steve Klein Behind Islamophobic Film as Consultant
Good work! Thanks for this, keep it up.
I thought this was interesting:
4:09 PM – Today
Cast And Crew Of Video At Center Of Middle East Protests: ‘We Are 100% Not Behind This Film’
CNN has obtained a statement from the cast and crew of the movie that sparked a riot in Libya Tuesday, in which those involved with the movie distance themselves from the film.
“The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose,” the statement says. “We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”
The New York Times, meanwhile, has tried to chase down the origins of the movie, only to conclude: “It is unclear whether a full movie even exists.”
The whole thing is, in short, bizarre.
— Sam Stein
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/sam-bacile-film_n_1878060.html#95_cast-and-crew-of-video-at
-center-of-middle-east-protests-we-are-100-not-behind-this-film
The cliche is that The Village is “high school, with money,” and that’s about right. It’s a self-referential clique, and it reflexively defends insiders and their institutions.
They’re torn on Romney, and one reason you’ve seen some unprecedented fact-checking of his claims is that they respect his power and especially is wealth, but he’s not a DC guy; he’s a Wall Street guy, and he’s never worked in DC.
So, in this case, you have an outsider crassly exploiting the deaths of people who worked for an insider institution (the State Department). That’s why they’re not treating this as just another policy disagreement that should be politely debated over because Romney’s position gives it ex officio legitimacy. That’s why they’re going apeshit instead.
It would be nice if they were going apeshit because Romney’s charges are offensive and morally repugnant, but they’ve fawned over far worse. (Think of how many lives Ryan’s budget would cost.) But this is high school to them. It’s not the lost lives, it’s the concept.
Well, keep a couple things in mind. First, The Village actually likes Obama. They were solidly behind him in 2008 and despite taking pot shots from time to time – which they also did for GWB – they are behind him again. They liked McCain but they liked Obama more – and it makes a lot of them feel good to support a black man.
Second, The Village, while they believe a lot of the easily-proven-as-bullshit lies from the Rich Republicans (i.e. tax cuts for the rich generate revenue, social security is broke, the unemployed aren’t working because they are living high on the hog on below-minimum-wage unemployment benefits, etc) they are, pardon the cliche, truly socially liberal. The percentage of male Republicans in The Village who are gay rivals any artist colony in the country. The social life is swinging, the drugs are readily available, and they have absolutely zero in common with the Focus/Family wing of the GOP. So one reason they rarely cover the topics that the teavangelicals swear by (birtherism, Obama as secret muslim, Obama planning to ban all guns, etc) is that they simply dismiss all that shit as a minute fringe – which in The Village it is – not realizing how prevalent it is in flyover country.
So when Romney showed up looking a lot like the kind of candidate they swooned over in the past they started by swooning over him, of course. I mean, even if they still liked Obama this guy was NEW – and they really don’t like most of the DFHs who support Obama so they were open to something different.
But when he started spouting all that teavangelical shit The Village got nervous. I mean, GWB was loved by the teavangelical crowd but he never had to say anything beyond carefully placed code words that went over the head of The Village. Romney, OTOH, was throwing RED MEAT to the wingnuts and The Village was abhored.
At this point it appears that The Village is nearly as anti-Romney as they were anti-Gore – not quite that bad, as even most of them know they overdid it in 2000 and again in the Iraq War cheerleading in 2003. They aren’t at the point yet of inventing lies supposedly told by Romney as they did Gore – but then they don’t have to with Romney.
Seriously, don’t take this incident and its reaction in isolation. The reason the whole Village is dumping on Romney is because they were ready to before it happened – they were just waiting for the event.
I can’t say I mind the current trend – as Alinsky said, people do the right things for the wrong reasons, and don’t fight that. But I despise the media system as a whole.
When you look at what we know so far about the man behind the film, it’s hard not to feel as though someone’s trying to Breitbart us into a war. Not even Breitbart, even he had the sense to distance himself from James O’Keefe eventually.
I think you’re right not to lump Netanyahu in with this effort, though. There are plenty of disparate factions itching to go to war with Iran–Adelson, Bibi, the Neocons, you name it–and this looks like an uncoordinated and extremely ham-fisted attempt to stir up hostilities near the 9-11 anniversary, or just ahead of the elections, or both.
From the info “Desert Warriors” the film director is Alan Roberts from DeVere Films Inc. in Sarasota, FL. He has also co-owned Robert Realty Inc. with his partner Laura Roberts. Besides Steve Klein, another key actor behind the scenes is Egyptian Copt Morris Sadek. The money trail still leads to the actors in Jihad Watch.
Netanyahu has Adelson and the Glick gang in Israel pushing the buttons, not in this film.
Netanyahu has Adelson and the Glick gang in Israel pushing the buttons, not in this film.
I listed them as disparate interests pushing for war with Iran, not as sponsors of this film, or for that matter even knowing that it existed.
F’n Sununu? Sununu slapped him?
Yeah, that’s a sign that Mitt hasn’t just stepped in it, he has flopped on his belly to roll around in it.
For what it’s worth, I think it was John Sununu, Jr. who criticized him, not John Sununu, Sr., the (oddly) prominent Romney surrogate.
I just read the transcript of his press conference. It makes the blood boil.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/12/mitt-romneys-full-remarks-on-libya-egypt-attacks/
and obama stock on intrade continues to go nowhere but up, up, up …
about the President applied to Romney:
“Being president didn’t change Barack, it made him become who he was.”
I think we can apply that pretty nicely to Romney just based on his campaign.
BTW, Booman, Halperin is already temporing his intial response and his now trying to say that Romney may have something to say about the initial statement, about how it came out or some B.S. It’s so convoluted it’s an obvious attempt to try to appease whoever the GOP-water carryying handlers that Halperin spoke to.
his appearance on Hardball was ridiculous
Yup, Halperin is already backtracking into mushspeak. Unbelievable.
It’s always useful to remember that the political media has a vested interest in a close campaign.
They need election night to be a huge ratings night, and that won’t happen if everyone thinks it’s a blowout.
Remember how long they pretended that Hillary might still win the nomination?
Plus they need the ad revenue a close campaign brings.
Romney has grown so accustomed to running a fact-less campaign, to living in a political spin on everything he touches. He just ran into a wall of reality at full cheap political throttle.
A snide chuckle from Putin this morning as all this was unfolding…”I can work with Romney”. Indeed Putin is grinning in hopeful anticipation of working with a sucker.
I’m sure Romney would gaze into Putin’s eyes and get a sense of his soul too…
That would be more than what Putin would see in Mitt’s eyes.
Obama Expands Lead Over Romney
FP +15…I wouldn’t be surprised if that number ain’t bigger by the end of the week if it hasn’t alreasy.
Not so sure about that. We haven’t seen the propaganda come out of the can (this feels orchestrated) and onto the airwaves yet. Depending on how that goes (commercials during ‘reality’ TV, where most people seem to get their information,) that number could change ALOT. Regular folks working two jobs and barely getting by don’t pay much attention to the ‘elitist Washington’ view on stuff like this. If the Adelson/Koch/Rove gang succeed at making Obama look like a fool, this could hurt him. But I think he’s too smart for that. We’ll see.
Which Bush adviser was it who said you don’t start a PR campaign before Labor Day? I think he was a chief of staff at the WH at the time. They’re right on schedule and they have a plan.
Watch.
Their plan is to make Obama look like a cross between Snoop Dogg and Michael Vick, but that CBS video makes him look like a cross between Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. The black guy with rock solid integrity and gravitas.
Aiming for racist archetypes is probably wise, politically, for Romney–and we’ve got hundreds of years of abusive American history hardwired into us. But there are newer archetypes–or even ‘stereotypes’–that don’t run as deep, but are still pretty powerful. Far more than the hopeful young guy who ran in 2008, this graying, Presidential Obama taps into that really powerfully, I think.
What CBS video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oE_01YOcBY&feature=player_embedded
If the Adelson/Koch/Rove gang succeed at making Obama look like a fool
Yeah, good luck with that.
Their plan is to make Obama look like a cross between Snoop Dogg and Michael Vick
OT: a Boston sports talk radio host said, I think about Robert Griffen III, “He’s like a right-handed Michael Vick! He can whip that puppy!“
D’oh!
I’m thinking the image they’re going for is Black Jimmy Carter (as they see Jimmy Carter.) It’s an alternate universe that they operate in.
I agree that they will probably fail miserably. But it does feel like they have a plan that they think could work.
This campaign will be remembered as the most inept in modern history. They’ve already passed Dukakis, and at this rate they’re going to lap him.
And, having finished his attack presser this morning, Romney strides away smirking with satisfaction:
http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o571/904dem/7002d254.jpg
And to think I believed that my contempt for this sociopath could go no deeper….
Ugh. What a self-serving piece of shit.
A rat jumping from the sinking Mitt ship:
The “rat” in this instance is Joe Scarborough writing for Politico.
Booman, you’ve predicted Romney’s demise for some time. This may have been the moment that sepsis set in.
If you look at the FiveThirtyEight numbers, Romney was just starting to see a little post-DNC bounce. This will kill it, and there won’t be another. The ripples will be strongest among the people who would be pulling for him behind the scenes (however reluctantly), the Republican establishment.
It also greatly lowers the risk of an October foreign policy surprise. Any jitters and we’ll feel safer with Obama, the Adult-in-Charge. Any foreign policy news exposes us to Romney’s team of “scary people we already know”: John Bolton, Condi Rice, Elliot Abrams, and Dick Cheney (whether he’s on Romney’s team or not). Foreign turmoil is the worst possible thing for Romney, and it cancels out any economic trauma, even a Euro collapse. The more important the crisis, the better for Obama, because Romney’s now shown several times that he’s not up to it.
It’s also bad news for the Republican SuperPAC money, and all big money in general. Obama is going to win without them, whether they were for or against him.
The “shoot first and aim later” line also suggests that Obama is ready to kick him in the nuts on a moment’s notice.
And–it’s self-inflicted.
I got a chance last night to watch C-Span and they were showing President Obama’s remarks and Romney’s press conference concerning the killings at the American embassy in Libya. It is was shameful that Romney was out to score cheap political points on the backs of dead embassy employees.