Now that Governor Mitt Romney has given his speech on his much maligned (by the generic Republican voter) fault - Mormonism, might I suggest some topics for the other Republican candidates?

Rudy Giuliani: Fidelity

Fred Thompson: Narcolepsy

Tom Tancredo: Xenophobia

John McCain: Anger Managment

Duncan Hunter: Obscurity

Ron Paul: Over Simplicity

Mike Huckabee: Rapture Ministry

What a great field of candidates they have!

It’s all out in the open, now, isn’t it? No more Atwater-style coded language. No more dog whistles. WaPo:

Such were the scheduling conflicts that left the lecterns for the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination empty at what was billed as the first GOP debate tailored to the concerns of black voters, held last night at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Forced pregnancy loon Brownback showed up, as did the much more dangerous Huckabee (they’ll never nominate him, fortunately).

But Tooliani? Willard? Poor old John McCain? Much too busy doing something that is far more important them than black voters:  Read more 

It really is a disturbing trend.

I mean, strap your dog on top of your car? Sure, the dog’s in a carrier, but Jeebus, even so. Whoever heard of such a thing?

But did I call my shot about Romney being “hinky”, or what?  Read more 

Good to know. WaPo:

Beth Myers: The first among equals, Myers is Romney’s campaign manager and closest aide. She was Romney’s chief of staff during much of his term as governor, after having served a stint as a top adviser to Massachusetts Treasurer Joe Malone. Myers — like many top GOP operatives in the ’08 campaigns — is an acolyte of Karl Rove, having served under him in the 1986 campaign of former Texas Gov. Bill Clements (R).

Not that Romney’s automatically dirty, just because he hired a Rovian life form. I mean, Rove hasn’t actually been convicted of anything, and I’m sure he’ll say he loves his family, like they all do. Plus he gives the press chocolates.  Read more 

The Right-wing pundits sure know how to pour gas onto their own funeral pyre:

Of course, the big difference is that the Democrats don’t have a Ronald Reagan to take advantage of the situation. Nobody will ever confuse Hilliary’s (sic) shrill denunciations with the twinkle in the Gipper’s eye when he zinged an opponent. Nor will anyone fail to see the difference between the inspirational yet empty platitudes of Obama with Reagan’s soaring rhetoric that touched something so American in people’s souls.  Read more 

One of the reasons my online nym is “dyke” is because by using that word proudly and publically, I take away the power of homophobes to use it against me. Coulter has once again accomplished her mission, and has everyone talking about her use of the term “faggot” to slur Edwards. People on the left are decrying her, again, for being an eliminationist extremist, and unrepentent fascist, and rightly suggesting that the way to use this outburst of hers is to chain it to those Republicans who praise her. Mitt “I hate faggots too!” Romney introduced Coulter at this event, and said that he “liked her.” She has also endorsed him. So from now on, never refer to Romney without also attaching some term relating to his homophobic friends, OK?

Quiddity has a great post up with the conservative response. Oh, look at the pearl clutching. “Ann was a bad, bad girl. We’re so upset.” No, they’re not. I know it, you know it. Because if they were at all interested in stopping homophobia, they wouldn’t be supporting the party that has introduced bill after bill for the express purpose of denying me my civil rights. They wouldn’t endorse politicians who whip up theocratic bases with the boogeyman of the homosexual. They would speak out about incidents of gay-bashing and inequality in the work place, in our laws, in our culture. Winger pundits never bother to “defend” queers until one of their own has gone a tad too far, and threatened to upset favorable political conditions. Their supposed concern is little more than calculation, mixed with a the need to keep a hand in the pockets of rich, closeted Republican donors.

Speaking of the closet, let’s take a closer look at Bareback Andy, and his supposed awakening at the CPAC hate-fest:  Read more 

Yes, Denny the Hutt is still in action, and apparently believes he’s a draw for Republican candidates. No doubt he is.

[Hastert] recently endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, signaling that he may play a public role in the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign, at least in helping court Chicago-area donors.

This activity comes after a brief hibernation. After news of ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s [R-Neverland] inappropriate contact [“Don’t forget to measure for me”] with House pages [and waiters? Busboys?] emerged last fall, Hastert canceled dozens of fundraising events for Republican candidates as he dealt with a public-relations uproar [Very nice touch. No ethical, moral, or legal issues at all!] over how his office handled the page scandal. (The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct later concluded that Hastert’s top staff showed an “inexplicable lack of interest in the e-mails” from Foley to pages.)

“Inexplicable,” eh?  Read more 

Here is what to expect from plans like these and other plans in which insurance companies are kept in the overall equation. Higher costs, the poor getting really screwed, and people still being forced to make impossible choices. Unlike some, I’m happy to be in the front of the line “pushing insurance companies into the sea.” I worked for one, and the physicians in my family deal with them daily. They Are Evil. So long as we continue to worry about all those poor, sad little insurance company execs not making enough money by denying children with rare cancers life saving treatment because it’s “experiemental,” we won’t have a solution.  Read more