Trouble in Tea Party Land?
Is St. Louis big enough for two tea party divas? There was an extremely interesting comment the other day that read as follows: There sure was a big distance between Dana and Gina Loudon that day. Later Gina had on her Facebook wall:
Loesch bills herself as the "conservative alternative to old white dudes." Gina Loudon says she's the, "the freshest conservative, Christian voice in the St. Louis area." Hmmm, sounds kinda similar to me. Is Dana peeved that Loudon is copying her schtick? Knowing Loesch, she's probably threatened to sue for copyright infringement about 10 times by now.
Dana trying to play her "Liberals are using Obama = Hitler imagery" Card again: It's the LaRouchists and Teabaggers doing it.
More crap from @DLoesch on Twitter:The Tea Party Guide to Thoughtful Political Discussion
Dana Loesch had a post up yesterday bragging about how the tea party "polices" their rallies because they asked a guy to remove a Hitler picture from his sign:
It's pretty funny that Loesch would brag about that, considering that she defended a billboard comparing Obama to Hitler back in July, on Red Eye:
It's actually not the first time she forgot her previous ridiculous comments, claiming in August that all Hitler comparisons were from left wing plants.
Will @debbiehalvorson condemn the behavior of her campaigners after they protested with Palin, et al. Nazi signs? http://bit.ly/9d3dOl #tcot
Dana Loesch on Good Morning America against James Carville (Carville pwns Loesch):
Loesch is playing the "Liberals = Trolls/Stalkers" Card again (which she has referred to me, Adam Shriver, and a lot of Liberals):
Guy is threatening to come to the station. This is what progressives do. This is how they act. And they will never repudiate.Eric Boehler of MMfA calls her on it:
Just had a hatemailer threaten my children and am contacting authorities NOW. WTF pricks?
Where are the feminists when yet another conservative female is threatened? Oh, right, heads up asses. Great job, gals.
Okay, nobody should threaten @dloesch's children, even though she habitually threatens people's jobs (which threatens THEIR children). , theboneblog
Why is RW nut @DLoesch stalking me? http://su.pr/1fjfbl
Dana Loesch on Fixed and Fools:
Dana Loesch also is blaming Liberals for an assassination attempt on Jay Nixon (D).
Who's the ones doing all (or most of it) the violence? The Teabaggers.Wow. Our prayers are with the college dean as he recovers and his family.
What’s that? Another case of leftist violence?
Can we get some folks on the left to calm down their rhetoric and CHILL OUT?
The rebuttal from Chad Garrison over at Daily RFT.
Casey Brezik: Paranoid Schizophrenic Intended to Kill Gov. Jay Nixon
,
The man who allegedly stabbed a community college official on Tuesday just before a scheduled appearance of Governor Jay Nixon had intended to kill the governor.
The Kansas City Star reports that 22-year-old Casey Brezik, a student at Metropolitan Community College -- Penn Vally, thought he had stabbed the governor and was disappointed when learning that the victim was actually the school's dean of instruction, Al Dimmit Jr., who survived the attack.
The paper reports that Brezik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years ago and had only recently enrolled at the community college. His family says Brezik has a habit of writing anti-government rants on his Facebook page. In 2007 he was committed to mental hospitals at least four times and convicted of drug possession. He wears an anarchist symbol tattoo on his arm.
She falsely claims that Karl Rove is a RINO, when in fact Rove is nothing but a dirty huckster who belongs in jail.
The 09.15.2010 edition of Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN transcript with Loesch, Castellanos, and Spitzer segment
COOPER: Well, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine is -- says he's loving the GOP turmoil.
He told The New York Times -- and I quote -- "Republicans thought they were embracing the Tea Party, and, at times, it turns into the Donner Party."
Despite Democratic hopes of Republican cannibalism, however, the enthusiasm and energy of Tea Party supporters should worry Democrats in November.
Joining me now is Eliot Spitzer, former New York governor and co- host of CNN's new program Parker Spitzer.
Also tonight, Republican consultant and political contributor Alex Castellanos and blogger and radio host Dana Loesch, who is also the co-organizer of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition.
Appreciate all of you being with being us.
Eliot, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said -- and I quote -- "that shows there's a very vociferous debate going on inside the Republican Party for the hearts and minds of Republican voters." Is he right?
ELIOT SPITZER (D), FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Well, of course he's right, but he's also the victim of that debate, because that debate has created enthusiasm, energy.
The Tea Party is taking over the Republican Party in many states -- in Delaware, not so clear. But, right now, the Democrats are saying, we're no longer setting the agenda. And the fear the Democrats have is that this enthusiasm, even for candidates who Karl Rove admits are not credible, from many other perspectives, may continue through November, and this could be a tsunami that nobody could possibly have predicted.
COOPER: Dana, do you think O'Donnell is credible? Do you think she can win?
DANA LOESCH, ORGANIZER, ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY COALITION: I do think she can win. I think she can win as soon as Karl -- people like Karl Rove stop going on television and trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
We haven't even begun to try yet. I liked Michael Steele's approach. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Karl Rove could possibly take some notes from how Michael Steele approached this.
But that doesn't help, going on camera saying that a candidate isn't credible and just -- and talking about how, well, it took her two decades to pay off her college loans. Well, forgive her for not being rich, like you, Karl Rove, but it doesn't really -- you want to talk about winning moderates and independents, that's not the way you go about it.
It's really bizarre.
SPITZER: That's not the only measure of credibility. I don't think Karl Rove is focusing -- is focusing exclusively on, can she win?
I think there's a reputational harm that he is worried about, when the Republican Party that has a Mike Castle, who has been a serious, thoughtful public servant, is defeated by somebody whose views on issues seem to be so completely disparate and far afield from normal ideas that are tethered to fact and reason.
I think that is what Karl Rove is scared about. There's a reputational hit the Republican Party will really suffer from if they embrace candidates like this.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Alex, are you concerned about this?
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: No, I think it's -- I think it demonstrates a lot of energy in the Republican Party. Look, this is an anti-establishment year, anti-Washington year. People look at all these -- these qualified people we have in Washington and working together in a bipartisan way.
And in a bipartisan way they've spent the country into bankruptcy. They've put us in debt for -- that will take forever to pay. So they want it to stop.
And that's what you're seeing, I think, this year is a -- is a populist, a revolt against the establishment of both parties. And they've just eaten the Republican establishment for a snack. Now dinnertime is November, and only Democrats are going to be on the menu.
SPITZER: Well, you know, that's a great metaphor and I applaud you for it. The problem is that the closest metaphor I think many people can see historically is to the Know Nothing Party, the Know Nothing Party of the 1840s and '50s, which was a populist uprising of anger and venom against the establishment. It burned out pretty quickly when economic times returned to normal. In that case it was anti-immigrant fervor.
CASTELLANOS: I think there's another historical precedent, Governor Spitzer. I think there's a much larger -- excuse me. I think there's a much larger historical precedent, and that's a country that was founded -- founded by a group of people that didn't want to be told what to do by an elite royalty that thought it had the answer to everything.
And right now Washington is doing that. It's bankrupted the country. And people are really concerned about it. I think the Republican Party just got a wake-up call that said, "Look, we don't want to send a message out that says we're more concerned about keeping our power in Washington than to listen to Republicans."
COOPER: Dana -- Dana, do you think it's going to burn out in any way?
LOESCH: I don't think it's going to burn out. And I want to -- Mr. Spitzer said something that was very interesting, that this isn't tethered in fact or reality.
I have to point out that Mike Castle is a very incredibly -- he's a very established beltway candidate for sure, but he's also a candidate whose record differed from where the majority of Americans polled, where they fall.
The majority of people are more identifying with the grassroots movement than they are with people like Mike Castle. I mean, there was a Rasmussen poll that was taken just -- I believe it was in August, where something like 75 percent of -- or thought of the American people thought that the congressional Democrat agenda was too extreme.
And then you look at all of the tracking that has been taking place. Gallup released a poll also in August showing that the majority of independents, they are favoring the Republican Party, meaning they're favoring the grassroots conservative candidates that are really actually providing a difference in parties.
SPITZER: You're talking...
LOESCH: Mike Castle is Democrat light.
SPITZER: You're talking -- you're talking very persuasively about poll numbers. I'm not talking now about poll numbers or what might happen in a moment in one election at one moment in time.
What I'm talking about is the seriousness of confronting deficits with policies that will really do something about it. A Bill Clinton who gave us a surplus versus George Bush, whose tax cuts created this. And so I think the difference is certain objective facts that, at the end of the day, will emerge that will shed light -- I think Ron Paul is a fascinating guy, but when he says Keynesianism is dead, he just is simply fundamentally wrong. What is dead is...
LOESCH: Castle...
SPITZER: ... the procession of libertarianism that he was a proponent of that took us over the cliff in terms of an economic crisis as close to a depression as we've had in 80 years.
LOESCH: And TARP Has been supporting policies which tripled our deficits.
CASTELLANOS: I'm sorry. Excuse me, but look, there's something out there happening that's much bigger than the Tea Party. The Tea Party is certainly a part of it, but when you look around the country, there's a new generation of Republican candidates out there.
You have independent business women outsiders in California, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire. You have Bob McDonnell in Virginia; Chris Christi in New Jersey; Scott, Massachusetts.
All these new candidates have one thing in common. They're outsiders. They're fresh faces. And they don't want to grow Washington's economy; they want to grow America's economy. They want to stop taking money out of the American people's economy and sending it to Washington.
SPITZER: Let me make something very clear.
CASTELLANOS: The Tea Party is the easiest part to focus on, because it's got the brightest feathers and is the most colorful, but it's much bigger than that. That's why Republicans are probably going to gain something like 52, 53 seats.
SPITZER: Alex, I could not agree with you more.
CASTELLANOS: Ask Americans about Keynesianism being dead. They're voting on it this election. SPITZER: Well, I could not agree with you more about growing the private sector and private sector job creation versus government. And in fact, that is what smart politics is all about.
What I'm saying is the policies coming out of the Tea Party are simply so disassociated from reality in terms of what it takes to do it. And if you sit down with a Meg Whitman; you sit down with business leaders who have grown business, who have run businesses, they will tell you that what the Tea Party is talking about and what Ron Paul is talking about is simply contrary to good economics.
And I would suggest to you the nations right now whose growth is outstripping us by huge margins, whether it's India, Vietnam, Japan, even France and Germany, you look at what they're doing, in fact I think you would find out that your perspective is being proven dead wrong by what economics is working.
COOPER: I want to give Dana the last thought.
CASTELLANOS: The Democrats...
LOESCH: Excuse me, with all due respect, though, you can't -- you can't say that economic policy which talks about spending billions of dollars for yet another stimulus after we spent 11 frillion [SIC] dollars for yet another stimulus that contributed to the deficit, that contributed to high unemployment. You can't say that that's good economic policy. And those are all things which the grassroots movement is vehemently against.
SPITZER: The underlying -- if I could just...
LOESCH: That's not good economics, that's irresponsible and that's fact.
SPITZER: I know Anderson -- The reason that was necessary, unfortunately, was because of the deregulatory policies, libertarian policies that were put in place by Tea Party-like false regulators like Alan Greenspan and Larry...
LOESCH: You mean like Chris Dodd? Because he was...
SPITZER: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.
LOESCH: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and things like that.
SPITZER: I agree with that. That was not genuine government smart policy. I agree with that critique.
CASTELLANOS: Spitzer, advice to Democrats, spend more. I love it.
SPITZER: It's not spending. It took years to do it. What you're saying simply doesn't work.
LOESCH: ... to keep going.
COOPER: Good to have you on. Alex Castellanos, Eliot Spitzer, thanks very much.
A quick reminder. Don't miss Parker Spitzer right here on CNN, 8 Eastern Time October 4, every weekday thereafter until the competition cries uncle, I guess.
Still ahead on 360, a revelation that has Pennsylvania's governor fuming. It's one thing to keep an eye on potential terrorists but another to conduct surveillance on ordinary Americans. We're going to tell you what this is all about and the fallout that's followed.
Plus BP back on the hot seat. Tony Hayward grilled in London, insisting that short cuts were not taken to save money. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
No comments :
Post a Comment