talking about the book

... rather than pollute our Party with his right-wing policies.

you just can't give it a rest.

No, I for one am glad Crist didn't stay and steer the GOP away from the cliff. I want them over the cliff! In their death throes and destroyed.

You keep fighting for a purist party. You will never see that, our party is made up of the people. All the people. None of us, thank Gawd think exactly the same. Diversity to reach a common cause is not a bad thing.

make up 51% of the presidential voting population. They don't all agree with the further left Democrats, nor do they have to. On the Issues rates him a Moderate Liberal Populist.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Charlie_Crist.htm

At least Crist has a history of supporting some Democratic ideas like climate change. Life time member of NAACP. Has supported civil rights issues in the past.

Instituted state cap-and-trade by Executive Order. (Jun 2012)
Open to cap-and-trade plan for carbon emissions. (Jan 2010)
$200M package for solar, wind, & biofuel from citrus. (Mar 2008)
Propose almost $70 million on alternative energy development. (Mar 2007)
Supports renewable energy tax credits. (Aug 2010)

He seems to have a good stance on making sure people have access to healthcare and insurance. He does not sound very right-wing. He sounds like a sensible person.

What do people find objectionable about him?

He is pro-life, but not fanatical. He respects a woman's right to choose.

Is there something to criticize?

His environmental views are commendable. Why don't people like him??????

... and suddenly he's for everything he was against and against everything he was for. Perhaps his desire to be Governor is based on something other than wanting to govern for the benefit of the People.

Just came back here, I didn't think that you meant me~

... the Democratic party further and further to the right.

The "purist" smear is pathetic. If the "common cause" of which you speak is to be 1984 Republicans, it is indeed a bad thing.

The purist "smear" isn't the one that comes out of my mouth on a daily basis.You know that and know where it it coming from. There seems to be some here that believe "Progressive" is the way to fly, all other ideas are a moot point. My point is they are the "purists".

This is a party of the people. All the people Scuba. It can not be my way or the highway. It most certainly not be about people refusing to vote because in their eyes the candidate is not a "True Progressive" by their narrow standards.

If they refuse to vote, then what we get will indeed have a catastrophic effect on all our lives.

I have never once supported them, any of them. Yet you stand and accuse me.

Thanks Scuba, but that's it. I have tried to talk to you, obviously you are far to full of hate to have a discussion. That in itself is very sad.

... anyone who complains by calling them a "purist".

When we look at the results of the polls on the issues you cited we find that your position is anything but PURIST. Your position, like mine, is dead center with the American people. But some would characterize that position as far left. They must be called out each and every time they make that ridiculous assertion.

Medicare is a "pony" and Social Security is a "rainbow" and I am a hate-filled purist.

Just read scuba's post and think about it. You want scuba to listen to you and see how sound your reasoning is. How about listening to what scuba is saying.

You said scuba put words in your mouth - that you never supported those things. Now that is you putting words in scuba's mouth. Read the post. It said that if we (Democrats) did it your way, those things passing would be the result.

Don't accuse someone else of not being reasonable if you don't want to be. Scuba is absolutely right. If the party continues to drift more and more rightward, we will end up passing legislation that would have shocked nixon.

Just where do you think we should draw the line? Rather than ducking out, give us your line in the sand.

bunch to the point that many in their numbe are fleeing in droves. Good news for us. Bad news for the dumb fucks still voting straight party ticket for Repukes in their state and getting drive-by robbed, beaten and killed by their corporate overlords.

I know we have to be firm without losing our tempers, but is there any chance to educate or change views?

They have hampered Obama and Democrats at every turn.

Kick!

And in the early 80's with Pat Robertson.

Anybody relating any other narrative does not understand the religious political movement for what it is.

I support Crist here. But, for once, I'd like for somebody to get it right.

R& for Crist.

Or link to someone else's explanation of this narrative. Because I have always seen religious Republicans as useful idiots/pawns of the corporate kind: expendable, and not true leaders, though they may like to think so.

So, for me, the argument that it began with Falwell and Robertson would be a fascinating one to hear.

It was Movement Conservatives who courted the evangelicals, and brought them into the Republican fold in order to get the numbers they needed at he voting booth to push through their conservative agenda.

But what Falwell and Robertson did with the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition is ran fundementalist and evangelical Christians for precinct delegates all over the country. The movement conservatives and the mainline Republicans had no choice but to accept the religious into the fold. They basically held a vast sum of delegates. They still do.

I saw that happening before my very eyes in Kansas when I lived in Wichita. It was absolutely stunning how quickly it all happened. When I moved back to MI in the mid 90's the Sedgwick County Republican newsletter read more like a religious tract than a political one. It was Jesus this and Christ that throughout.

So I will stand by my claim with the caveat that you're also correct that the Republicans were more than willing to court them. But the churches did a lot of the work, IRS rules be damned.

I'd trace it to Richard Viguerie and Howard Phillips, who were at the nexus of Movement Conservatism and the Christian Right and convinced Falwell to form the Moral Majority. With Viguerie's direct marketing expertise they converted church-related mailing lists toward political ends. James Dobson and hos Focus on the Family did likewise, and though lower profile was probably more influential than Falwell or Robertson. Robertson's mailing lists wound up in the hands of the Christian Coalition, etc.

Once they realized that Reagan told them what they wanted to hear but wouldn't actually follow through on what they wanted, they set about getting control of the Republican party from the school board level on up.

teabaggers showed up. Total BS.

wait to read it

Costco should have it someday..

As I said up thread, we are a party of the people. All people.

Damned if I will let the people that call themselves "True Progressives" tell me what to think. They are refusing to vote unless their is a true "Progressive" running. WTF is that! I am and have always been a liberal, very liberal. Why do I need another label attached to that?

If I wanted to walk lock step, I would join the brain dead baggers! It is Our party, Our people, all of us together.

Thanks to Charlie Crist, he has heart and a working brain. Kudos to him.

You would rather be damned than listen to someone else, but you want to tell others how to think.

Not very liberal.

It sounds like he had an escape plan from hell and he made it happen.

Evolution if you will

"I’ve taken a lot of grief from these guys and others in my party for having been with you a couple of weeks ago in Fort Myers. I went there because I was raised by my mother and father and taught how to behave. Taught to be decent to other people. Taught to treat them respectfully—especially if that person happens to be the president of the United States of America.” I noticed a few people shifting uncomfortably in their seats, though no one interrupted me."

This is a big freaking NO NO!



Look how much trouble CC got into.. he lost to Marco Rubio.. that fine teabagger asshole..

be the party of hate, lies, and smears!

A to Charlie Crist who had the bravery to hug our President~ Lol

Obama and Charlie hug AGAIN..



"Florida’s former GOP governor, chased from the party during the 2010 Senate primary by photos of him embracing the president during Obama’s 2009 stimulus tour, is now an independent and spoke for Obama Thursday at the Democratic National Convention"

More..
http://www.1776coalition.com/other-news-1/obama-and-charlie-crist-hug-again

Thank you Charlie Crist!

Cha!

I was hoping that was you, she!

What a story, eh? Wow! The comeback kid all because of an Obama Hug What a story he's had.. and now .. Sweet Desserts, if he beats greedmonger Rick Scott! Oh please please

sheshe




DU

Bury him Charlie!

Despite some (lol) of the negativity here. This is good news. The House of cards is falling down, falling down, falling down. The jokers took over the pack...Christie, Issa, Walker, to highlight a few. The mighty are falling. Though you may not hear a tree fall in the forest, the Dino Party is going to make a hell of a lot of noise in their collective death throes!

LOL, thanks for the snow covered bench, I plan to grab that rose when I dig out to the bottom of the stairs!

Cha!

I hadn't read any other comments but they're predictable from other phases of Charlie's metamorphosis.. No one is ever capable of changing except greenwald and TYT, etc etc.

I saw it and thought of you, she~

Now that analysis is spot on Cha!

Thanks for the pics. LOL, my shovel is no where near as full as hers. I do it in baby steps!

I saw the snow laden bench with the rose and thought of you.

You are so sweet!

Greenwald is allowed to shit all over Democrats and still have a sycophantic fan club here but Crist is the devil. Pathetically predictable.

walks on water?

It warms my heart that at a dinner party this past weekend, out of 20 people, 1 knew who greenwald was, 1 guessed an actor and the rest had no clue. About what I expected.

For that (and his finding of common ground with Obama), the teakooks went to war with Charlie.

Normally I try to keep off the DU front page because it's far too enticing, and then I find I've spent way too much time when I should be darning socks. Or something.

But today my eyes wandered, and I'm so glad. Thank you.

Early morning on the 12th, when my credit card billing period cycles, I'll renew my membership early so I can send out a few myself before the 14th and hopefully share a little of that joy with others. Wish I didn't have to wait so long, but after already buying the dishwasher in December and the stove in January, I do have to wait.

going on all weekend after V-Day, too.. just so you know.

And, I know what you mean about the necessary purchases.

but it just feels more civilized cooking on a real stove, even if you still just use one burner and it's electric too. Go figure. Also the amount of work running this place is starting to take its toll, and I felt that a good dishwasher would be the best labor saver I could buy. It's turned out well, too, since I bought a 12-place capacity instead of 8. I only run the thing once a week! because I use the same coffee cup all day, etc. And I'm the proud possessor of almost 25 long teaspoons, which MUST be new for each cup. So the dishwasher and the stove will doubtless last the rest of my expected natural life at that rate. I cook more often of course, but I love that stove so much I want to kiss it every time I look at it.

way I look at my relatively new fridge. I had a mini frigde in here before that. Yuck.

I do get by on my Waring hotplate though.. bought it special 'cause the hotplate that went with the place was another sucky small appliance.

I'm tempted but after This Town, I'm off books about politics for awhile.

(In This town, the first couple of chapters are about how great Tim Russert was then he launched into how great Politico is and Mike I'll-say-whatever-you-pay-me-to-say Allen is a great reporter who will be famous someday. That's as far as I could go.)

I did read the Kindle sample first. It is mostly autobiography, though, not politics. The very firsts section of the sample does refer to his DNC speech.

Once I get deep into the political stuff, I will report on whether it really is interesting or just shallow rehashing of wht we already know.

I heard so many good reviews of This Town from friends. There are a lot of good Democrats out there who don't pay as much attention as we do. Ie, they get a funny look on their face when I say Russert was awful

Quickie review:

The style is shallow and rather simplistic. I am a writing teacher, and the book read like fingernails on a blackboard to me sometimes.
In fact, his writing style reminds me of the way some of my college undergraduates write. You can see what I mean if you read the free sample that Amazon offers.

The first part of the book is his family story and the story of his own personal rise in politics. (BTW, I didn't realize that his family name was originally Cristoboulos. His grandparents were Greek Cypriot immigrants.) I found his style self-aggrandizing in a "That's just the kind of guy I am" sort of way. (In fact, he actually says that a few different times in the book--in those words!) He also follows each announcement of one of his triumphs with a statement that it was "really cool," or something equally weak. Much of the autobiographical material at the beginning of the book was boring and annoying. Who cares if he was elected class president in junior high and in high school?

Still, it was interesting to read of some of his efforts as AG and as governor to stand up for the people of his state, even against corporations, and even when his Republican colleagues were annoyed with him for doing so. They were enraged when he used an executive order to extend early voting hours and days after they had gone to so much trouble to restrict the hours in order to suppress the vote among Democratic demographics.

He strongly favors immigration reform.

Of course, Rick Scott reversed all of his policies that favored the environment, teachers and students, and the voters themselves--and made voting even more of a nightmare than it had been when Crist had had to step in with that executive order.

Chapters 7-9 are about the choice of Palin and the 2008 campaign. He admits that he said positive things about her in order to help his good friend McCain's campaign, but he takes those comments back and tells what he really thinks about her: that she is not someone who would be prepared to be president and that she embodies everything nasty that he thinks has taken over the Republican party.

He also discusses his horror of the Terri Schiavo circus and the bizarre behavior of Republican politicians during that mess. He was Florida AG at the time, but he ruffled Republican feathers when he refused to step in on Jeb's side to keep Michael Schiavo from letting his wife go. That also soured his relationship with Jeb to some degree.

He hates touch-sxcreen voting and insists that we need a verifiable paper trail (which he pushed through for Florida after the 2000 election). He considers it a stupid leap of faith to accept the counts of electronic machines that are so obviously hackable.

He still (stupidly, I believe) thinks Reagan, McCain, and and others are decent, honorable, and moderate Republicans. He even says Lindsay Graham is a decent and moderate Republican, and except for the Schiavo nonsense and some complaints about the 2000 voting fiasco, he has mostly positive, and some neutral, things to say about Jeb, whom I consider a dangerous person who needs to be revealed for what he really is.

Crist also foolishly favors charter schools and seems wholly on board with NCLB. At least, he praises the NCLB act in the book as one of G. W. Bush's most admirable achievements.

He is a great fan of Obama's, and praises him unreservedly throughout the book. He approved of the stimulus and was glad to get stimulus money for Florida. When Obama hugged him at the event where they appeared on stage together as he accepted the money, it destroyed his political career as a Republican.

He says he is "pro-life"--but personally. He doesn't believe the government has any business getting between a woman and her doctor or interfering with her right to make her own choices about whether to carry a pregnancy to term. He is pro gun rights, but with reasonable regulation, especially in terms of background checks.

As governor he restored voting rights in Florida to nonviolent felons, even knowing that they would be largely Democratic voters, simply because it was the right thing to do. I did not know that he had done that.

He decided to run against Scott for governor because he wants to undo as much as possible the damage Scott has done to Florida. He considers Scott a shady guy who enriches his cronies, and he thinks he has been a disaster for Florida.

I didn't get much new from the book, though he does come across as a decent and honest guy who is concerned with serving the people rather than the wealthy. (He deplores the influence of what he calls a "knot of super rich guys" on our politics.)

I don't think it was worth the price, since it wasn't an appealingly written book and it didn't give me much new information. But if you want to get a sense of the man himself, who he is, how he thinks, then the book might seem more interesting and informative to you. The chapters about the 2008 election were the ones that I found most interesting (7-9 about the campaign; 10 about the election of Obama).

I think Crist is a decent guy and I'm very much looking forward to the ouster of Icky Ricky

Now I don't need to read it

Although I would love to read the bits about Palin. I swear, I have watched Game Change 10 times. Can't get enough of how stupid that movie makes her look.

I was born in Alaska and when she was first announced, Mom called her friends who still lived there and they loved her. It ended a 50 year relationship. Wonder how they see her now.

When she campaigned in Florida, she wouldn't talk to him or anyone else on the bus. When he offered to help, to do whatever the campaign needed while she was there, she just shut him down with an icy "Thank you," but never asked for any help or initiated any conversation. Her responses to his friendly attempts to converse were always short and clearly meant to discourage further chat. Soon she retreated to isolate herself in the back of the bus.

What was interesting was his interpretation. He thought that maybe she was afraid to talk much with the people on the campaign trail there for fear of exposing how little she knew about anything. He was also astonished that anyone so ungregarious would have chosen to enter politics in the first place.

I think he mistakenly assumes that everyone who goes into politics does so because of pleasure in the people mingling aspect of it. But some really are just after power or money or both. Some, like Obama, I think, are personable when mingling, but are really rather introverted and do the people stuff just because it is essential to getting elected and doing the job. I think Obama went into politics because he wanted to serve, but that he has been surprised, as Jimmy Carter says he was, at how hobbled a president is and how little power he actually has.

I think Obama does as much for us as he thinks he can get away with. He might be wrong. He could probably do at least a little more, if only with the bully pulpit. But he *has* gotten a lot done, and I suspect that keeping those with wealth and real power relatively happy with what they are getting from his administration has been cover, keeping him alive and keeping them distracted enough to not catch him sometimes before he manages to slip another good or fairly good change past their guard.

Crist was a Republican, as he openly admits, because he was born into a Republican family, and party loyalty was (as it is for most people) like staying with one's natal religion. Since the Repub party in Florida smoothed his political path and didn't really try to block his populist moves or his willingness to work with Dems to achieve benefits for the people--until the last 10 years or so, when it got dicey, but not all at once, and not extreme enough for him to truly get it for a while--he saw no reason to change.

His misunderstanding of Reagan is based, from what I can gather, on his delight in Reagan's "sunny," cheerful personality, which he lauds more than once. He also praises Reagan, again somewhat simplistically, for being able to wotk with Democrats to benefit the people. I think he completely misunderstands what Reagan did as governor and as president. Like many people, he was deceived by superficial charm. One critic once said that Reagan got away with so much stuff simply because of his benign presence. The critic said, "Reagan doesn't seem to *mean* the mean things he says."

Crist is, as he says himself, a "happy warrior." He genuinely seems to love people, to love glad-handing, and to want to help people. Thus he is easily hoodwinked by friendly, cheerful pols, and it takes him a while to realize that just because a peson is friendly and charming, especially toward Crist himself, that doesn't mean that person is really good or nice, honorable or trustworthy. His friendship with McCain and Lindsay Graham clearly blinds him to the ugliness of their current
political behavior.

I think Palin's coldness and unresponsiveness to his friendly, helpful overtures is the reason why he can see her as the ugly face of a party that has become truly nasty. I also think he was genuinely horrified when Repub governors were mean and disrespectful to Obama, because he *liked* Obama and found him personally charming and nice.

Also, like many whose recent forebears immigrated to this country and became successful, he has a starry-eyed reverence for the US's political system, at least in terms of its ideals. One reason the Repub efforts to suppress the vote and to use hackable voting machines so disgusts him is that he absolutely *reveres* the citizen's right to participate in choosing and influencing the government. Frankly, I suspect that the deliberate efforts of Repubs all across the country to use their power to deprive citizens of what he considers a sacred right to vote is the single most important factor that finally drove him out of the party.

Sure, he deplored the nastiness, the bigotry, the intolerance, etc. And, sure, after acceptng stimulus funds, thanking Obama publicly for them, and hugging him right in front of God and everybody, his future as a Repub politician was over, and he knew it.

But he might have stayed in the party, still voting R out of long habit, or he might have stayed as an Independent. But their eagerness to suppress votes and, when that wasn't possible, to turn to hackable machines that could steal votes seems to me to be something that he could never tolerate.

BTW, though he is wrong to support NCLB and charter schools, he obviously CAN be reasoned with and influenced to change his mind if he is given better information. He also believes teachers should have better pay, better working conditions, more respect. He increased school funding as governor and did a lot for teachers and schools. He had over 60% approval when he left the governor's office, and he was in many ways more popular with Dems and Independents than with Repubs--at least than with the most intransigent RW types.

Usually the DU software prevents duplicate posts, but my "post" button seemed not to work--but actually did, every time I tried to click it again.

I'm liking this guy, but I am still on alert. I believe souls can be saved and his probably has been, HOWEVER, I don't go so far in embracing former republi-CONS who turn around and join the Democrats - as to dropping my guard. They still need to be watched. No way would I stand for them coming aboard and then trying to pull us all farther "right" (their definition, not mine, since those fuckers have almost literally hijacked the very word "right&quot . I welcome him, but with eyes wide open.

NEVER forget what Mad-Eye Moody always reminded Harry Potter: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!!!"

When Crist didn't attend a last-minute rally with President Bush because he had a prescheduled appearance with McCain at the same time, Karl Rove called Crist afterward and yelled at him at length. He cussed Crist out and repeatedly called him a little chicken sh*t. He was so loud in his rage that Crist had to hold the phone away from his ear.

Crist says in the book that the call showed him that Rove is a total jerk.

It's hard to forget that he endorsed Palin and said she was more ready to be President than Obama or Biden and that he stood with her doing that 'drill here, drill now' chant they were into. Charlie helped to steep the tea that made the tea party.

was the one who was propped up as a friendly figurehead to get so many Americans to buy into the RW crap.

I am very much bothered by his failure to recognize or admit how awful Reagan was for America.

it was the men behind him that were awful, but that's just nitpicking.

However, if you look at Reagan and today's Republican party, you can see where people who don't know the history of the Reagan presidency would liken themselves Reagan republicans. If Reagan were alive today and ran on his record from back then, he'd never be elected because he wasn't extreme enough. I find it ironic that all these Tealiban politicians and supporters uphold Reagan as this great bastion of Republican values but if you bring up his actual record, they'll deny it tooth and nail.

I dunno....
From where I was sitting, it started in earnest with Carter!

But of course it started slipping a bit with Clinton so they had to really go ballistic then.

but I might have to read his book.

I am wondering if his statement at the NGA meeting are true, or if he is embellishing them. Ought to be easy to find out.

since they bankroll the baggers, you can draw a direct line from them to everything Crist mentioned. These people are beneath contempt, and the S Court who approved their actions are even worse.

and look forward to him replacing Gov. Voldemort

Does anyone have a video clip or independent confirmation of what Christ claims?

Crist has flip-flopped all over the place: he's "pro-life" while supporting a woman's right to an abortion. He signed a bill so that employees can bring guns to work as long as they have a permit (what could go wrong?). He was against gay marriage before he was for it. He was all for the environment and against offshore drilling - until the price of gas went up. The list is incomplete, but you get the picture.

He seems like the sort of politician who will say anything the audience wants to hear. Nothing sets off the alarms in my head quite like the words I want to hear out of somebody like him. If he's sincere and going to be consistent from now on, then good on him. Let's wait and see.

I'll get a towel for all the cold water I just threw all over the place.

I heard our Atty General and next candidate for Gov talking about why he switched earlier tonight. He described a meeting about the opposition to stem cell research where he became aware of the fact that republicans truly did not care about helping people via medicine.

I'm happy to have him in MO because he is talking about the idiocy of not expanding Medicaid in the starkest possible terms- After raving about returns on investments from Boeing, republicans turned down a 1900% return on investment- or $8 billion.

It might make the wealthy "libs" feel all warm and fuzzy as they enjoy their retirement in Hawaii but I will not vote for anymore 'publicons in Dem clothing.

I'm going to have to go with Crist instead of not voting.

It will be very easy for me to skip that race altogether.

it's a guarantee we'll have Scott again. So as one living here in Florida, I don't think much of you for it. Check your pride at the voter poll's door, please.

Will more than likely be enababled by the same ones who fragmented the vote in 2000 so that the election would be close enough to steal. The "perfect" progressive candidate may or may not always be available come election time. More importantly, whenever the worst possible candidates surface -- Rick Scott for example -- they will need to be shown the door at the earliest opportunity.

That's a shame. We need every vote to get rid of Gov. Voldemort

Charlie is a decent guy. Fortunately, everyone in my family will be voting for him

I think politicians that have a record of proving they are for the people and not big interests, no matter the party, are electable. If I could vote out the tealiban by voting for moderate republicans, who'd actually work to get things done, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Not voting for Crist because he's a moderate republican, who know carries the "d" behind his name is just as bad as voting for a tea party asshat. It's the extremes in politics, both ways, that hurt the general public. It bothers me when I see people complaining about blue-dog dems. A blue dog dem is better than a tealiban republican any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Not all democrats think alike, just as not all republicans think alike. If a politician is actually doing their best to represent their constituents (and I don't mean big money donors), and if that makes them electable blue dogs, then I applaud them for actually doing their job by representing their constituency.

That said, I wish we had a government filled with the like of Bernie Sanders but it's never, ever going to happen.

those of us who have been paying attention since before reagan and gingrich have seen this as a very, very slow-moving decent into hatred and madness. reagan couldn't get away with being particularly uncivil toward democrats, and though he pulled the country to the right, he at least maintained a cooperative relationship with democrats. by the clinton's second term, republicans were obstructing everything and impeaching him for nonsense, purely to distract from his agenda.

the shrub administration may have seemed less acrimonious, but only because he nearly completely ignored democrats and democrats had little voice with which to complain.

as soon as obama came in, the honeymoon was over and republicans started using the same Clinton's-second-term obstructionist tactics. but trying to maintain that level of obstruction continuously for so long meant they had to occasionally throw in some hatred, and amp it up. hence some borderline and even over the border racism, nevermind the loony tunes socialist/nazi/muslim/etc. crap.


the only thing that happened quickly here is crist's eyes opening. better late than never.

I voted for him before and will again. There will have to be an extremely progressive Democrat to make me change my mind. Also one who is electable

are members of a radioactive death cult. Unfortunately they want to take everyone else down the crapper with them.

It started way before the 2009 meeting between President Obama and the National Governors Association, and way before climate change was an issue.

Max Blumenthal in his book, Republican Gomorrah, has it going back to the 60's. The book Big Oil has it going back to the 30's. Both are great reads.

For years the Republicans more or less ignored what are now ''Teabaggers'' because they didn't vote anyway. Not unless paid to do so. When the civil rights movement could not be stymied as efforts had been in the past, the Moral Majority came on the scene. They told these proto-Teabaggettes that it was okay to start voting now.

They told them they were wrong to tell them that God would strike them dead in the voting booths if they rendered unto Caesar. They said it was NOW okay to vote-sin ''just a little bit'' if they do it right. So they told them how to do it right. Then all hell breaks loose -- and next thing we know Reagan is in the White House.

So with this ''Moral Act'' they laid down a new Teabagger-hybrid graft (Koch-controlled Christianist groups and fringe racist organizations). A few years later that hybrid-graft would spawn another mutation: the a DLC hybrid graft (Neo-Dixecrats and liberal Northern/Mid-Western Republicans).

- And everything's been fucked up ever since. Just like Barry foresaw......

K&R

...say "Bill Clinton was a polarizing figure, Bill Clinton caused his own problems...", and mentally erase eight years of constant bullshit attacks, wildly ridiculous conspiracy theories, and a vendetta impeachment, doomed to fail but they went ahead with it anyway just for the spectacle (and fundraising grifting)?

Clinton's true political genius was taking conservative ideas and initiatives and then making a few minor changes and then making them his own. It was the pinnacle of the third way strategy to defeat Republicans. At first the GOP was completely flummoxed by Clinton's tactics. They instinctively moved to the right in a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from Clinton in the '96 elections. GW Bush gave the GOp a brief respite, but when Obama was elected and began running with the Clinton third way playbook, they lost their collective minds and thus, the Tea Party was born. Make no mistake! Obama's corporate friendly, third way politics is his attempt at duplicating the Clinton strategy. Obama is not now and never was a progressive liberal.

This insanity we see in the GOP at the moment has been caused by third way Democrats and their strategy of appropriating conservative ideas and making them their own.