Think Progress » GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics

This morning, the House began consideration of the rule for debate of the House health care bill. As the Democratic Women’s Caucus took to the microphone on the House floor to offer their arguments for how the bill would benefit women, House Republicans — led by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — repeatedly talked over, screamed, and shouted objections. “I object, I object, I object, I object, I object,” Price interjected as Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) tried to hold the floor.

In an effort to delay and derail the proceedings, the Republicans continually talked over the Democratic women for half an hour. They sought to prevent the debate by calling for unnecessary “parliamentary inquiries” and requests for “expanding the debate” by an hour.

Think Progress » GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics

Think Progress » Tom Tancredo storms off the set of MSNBC during debate with DailyKos’ Markos Moulitsas.

When the other guest on the program, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas, started laughing, Tancredo replied, “You’re laughing, but talk to the veterans. They talk to me, and that’s why they said.” Markos then informed Tancredo that he actually is a veteran, adding, “I did not get a deferment because I was too depressed to fight in a war that I supported in Vietnam. I’m a veteran, Tom.” Tancredo became incensed at Markos, calling his comment “stupid” and demanding that he apologize. When he didn’t, Tancredo stormed off the set.

As Markos noted, Tancredo was eligible to serve in Vietnam and was a supporter of the war, but received a deferment after “he went for his physical, telling doctors

he’d been treated for depression.” After Tancredo left, Markos went on to say that Republicans are “terrified of government programs that work” because it threatens the myths they have built up.

Think Progress » Tom Tancredo storms off the set of MSNBC during debate with DailyKos’ Markos Moulitsas.

While calcified Cal Thomas represents the frightened (and, consequently, most dangerous) among conservatives, Chuck Krauthammer speaks for those simply living in denial. For Krauthammer, the recent elections aren’t a sign of hope that the pendulum is swinging back his way. No, the pendulum never swung away for Krauthammer. We remain a nation of conservatives. Not merely a 50-50 split, but a majority of conservatives. 2008 was merely aberrant, according to the sage.

Charles Krauthammer – Charles Krauthammer on the realignment myth of 2008 – washingtonpost.com

Just last month Gallup found that conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1 (40 percent to 20 percent) and even outnumber moderates (at 36 percent). [mjh: Plus they’re better armed!] So on Tuesday, the "rump" rebelled. It’s the natural reaction of a center-right country to a governing party seeking to rush through a left-wing agenda using temporary majorities created by the one-shot election of 2008. The misreading of that election — and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed — is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009.

[mjh: Frankly, there still seems ample evidence of the following]

… the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.

Charles Krauthammer – Charles Krauthammer on the realignment myth of 2008 – washingtonpost.com

On Reagan, Obama and my favorite hysteric | Jay Bookman

So what does history tell us?

Well, Reagan was elected in November 1980 with 50.7 percent of the vote (Obama got 52.9). In December 1980, just a month later, the U.S. economy officially went into a deep recession. …

So, what happened in the off-year election of 1982?

Why, the Republicans under Reagan lost a net of seven governorships and 27 seats in the House. That result clearly demolished any claim that the GOP had a mandate and proved that the election of 1980 had been “one of the great flukes in American political history.”

Right, Mr. Krauthammer?

I mean, if losing two governorships while gaining one congressional seat proves that the American people have rejected Obama, surely the loss of seven governorships and 27 House seats ended Ronald Reagan as a political force.

Right?

Hello?

On Reagan, Obama and my favorite hysteric | Jay Bookman

While I have no advice for conservatives other than keep doing what you’re doing, Democrats would do well to remember that awful moment when Karl “The Architect of Victory” Rove declared after 2004 that a generation of Republican rule was beginning. Within two years, that ship was burning and two years after that the only people still clinging to the wreckage of the party were ready to kill each other. Things always change, which is a reality that ultimately repudiates Conservatism, if the actions of its worshippers don’t already. You’re up, you’re down, you’re never the same in the long run.

To those who voted in 2008 but not in 2009: You can’t just vote one time – you have to vote every goddamn time. Yeah, it’s tedious, but not nearly as much as Duhbya’s Reign of Error. Do you want to return to the good old days? No? VOTE!

New Mexico Politics: New Mexico FBIHOP:: Random quote from Massachusetts

[Massachusetts Democrat Barney] Frank, a Massachusetts liberal, told an audience: "Some of the people (at the rally) that wanted to engage me in conversation appeared to have been the losers in the ‘Are you smarter than Michele Bachmann contest?’."

New Mexico Politics: New Mexico FBIHOP:: Random quote from Massachusetts

Which brings me back to this gem from August:

mjh’s blog — Huzzah to Barney Frank! 

Frank then excoriated a woman who asked a question while holding up a picture of President Obama defaced to look like Hitler:

QUESTION: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy as Obama has expressly supported this policy? Why are you supporting it? […]

FRANK: On what planet do you spend most of your time? … You want me to answer the question? Yes. You stand there with a picture of the President defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis. My answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.

Frank concluded: “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.”

mjh’s blog — Huzzah to Barney Frank!

Since Oct. 20, the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page has had a picture of President Obama with a caption reading “Miscegenation is a crime against American values. Repeal Loving v. Virginia.”

[mjh: That’s right: repeal the ruling that allowed an interracial couple to marry. Rather reminiscent of the judge down south who recently said he wouldn’t marry an interracial couple because it’s bad for the kids. Tell it to Obama, jackass.]

As Raw Story notes, the RNC finally took the photo down today, after readers at Democratic Underground first began discussing it on Sunday. While it’s likely that the RNC “wasn’t aware the racist photo was on their page and it wasn’t produced or posted by anyone at the RNC,” the group had attacked MoveOn.org for a similar incident in 2004. As Chris Harris at Media Matters Action Network notes, when “a web user posted a self-produced web video that compared President Bush to Hitler as part of a MoveOn.org video contest, the RNC acted as if the video had been produced by MoveOn itself.” According to the National Journal:

“This [Bush as Hitler] is the worst and most vile form of political hate speech,” Republican National Committee spokesman Ed Gillespie proclaimed. “MoveOn.org should apologize.”

Boyd did just that, expressing “deep regret” that the ads made it through MoveOn’s filtering process, and promising to scrutinize such material in the future. Pariser emphasized that MoveOn had not produced the ads, not aired them, not endorsed them in the voting, and had removed them from the Web site –adding that the RNC had put them on its Web site to score points. Still, the damage had been done.

Will the RNC now issue a public apology?

Think Progress » Will the RNC apologize for racist Facebook photo?