Good Mourning, Twitler!

(CNN) Republican strategist Jennifer Horn was up at 1 o’clock Tuesday morning writing an op-ed when she saw it: An angry tweet mentioning her by name from the President of the United States.
Donald Trump had name-checked Horn, alongside other advisers to the anti-Trump Republican group the Lincoln Project, in a late-night rant against the organization’s latest ad criticizing the President for his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Among Trump’s targets on Twitter were George Conway, the outspoken husband of White House aide Kellyanne Conway, and several veterans of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

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Let the GOP Civil War begin!

From Roll Call:

Rep. Mo Brooks said if he was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he would resign in the wake of the latest failure of the GOP health bill.

Brooks, R-Ala. said McConnell was “responsible” for the bill’s failure and that he was putting the GOP’s policy plans in jeopardy.

“If Mitch McConnell cannot get the job done on this, how is he going to get the job done on the rest of President Trump’s agenda over the next 3½ years?” Brooks asked in an interview with CNN.

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‘Tis the Season for Such Folly

(CNN) – The avalanche of negative campaign ads from Mitt Romney is wearing on rival Newt Gingrich, but he said Thursday he won’t break his pledge to stay positive.

Speaking to Iowa Public Television, the former House speaker said the onslaught of vitriol coming from Romney headquarters jarred with the spirit of the holidays.

“I think it’s counterintuitive,” Gingrich said. “We have an ad that will come up next week where Callista and I are wishing people a Merry Christmas, and we’re talking in a totally positive way. I think if these guys keep up this kind of negative junk, it’s so discordant with the spirit of Christmas.”

Yeah, let’s keep with the spirit of Christmas by saying that poor kids should have to clean toilets for their richer classmates.

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Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Politics

From Peter Funt at The Moderate Voice:

First, President Obama accused Americans of being “soft.” Then, he said we’re “lazy.” How dare he!

If you’re a undisciplined campaigner who’s willing to take unrelated quotes out of context and combine them in one thoroughly bastardized attack, you come up with: President Obama thinks we’re all soft and lazy!

On the GOP campaign circuit, “lazy” and “soft” have quickly become the go-to words for 2012.

It’s the latest example of how unprincipled political behavior in an age of instant communications is wrecking government as well as the process of electing people to run it.

Here’s exactly what President Obama said in Honolulu the other day during a conference on international business:

“I think it’s important to remember that The United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity — our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture. But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted, well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.”

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Herman Cain’s Blockhead

From POWERWALL at MSNBC:

Although he’s suddenly the most talked-about man in politics — at least for a day — Mark Block was quick to return a reporter’s request for comment.

“I’m standing outside smoking a cigarette. What else was I supposed to do?” he quips between puffs.

…snip…

Block is Herman Cain’s chief operating officer and chief of staff — equivalent to campaign manager on other campaigns — and in a web video released Monday night, addressed Cain’s supporters. “Tomorrow is one day closer to the White House … We’ve run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen, but then America’s never seen a candidate like Herman Cain,” Block said, looking straight into the camera. “We need you to get involved.” And then, without breaking his gaze, he takes a drag off a cigarette, transforming an ordinary video into a viral sensation.

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Scrumbags

From THE IOWA INDEPENDENT:

Thursday, Dallas Morning News editor Bruce Tomaso asked, in a rhetorical sort of way, just what to make of the photos of Gov. Rick Perry getting in U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s face at this week’s GOP presidential debate.

The photo, taken during a commercial break and circulated by Reuters, shows Perry with one hand clutched on Paul’s wrist, and the other up in a reprimanding wag.

…snip…

The Guardian ran a three-part series of photos from the moment, including a Godfather-like hand gesture and glare that Perry followed with after former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman stepped in to, possibly, break up the scrum.

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Let the Mudslinging Begin!

From The Caucus at The New York Times:

When Representative Michele Bachmann hits the campaign trail, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Mrs. Bachmann never mentions her rival Mr. Perry, who in a matter of weeks since he entered the Republican race for the 2012 nomination has captured a fair share of her Tea Party base.

But a political action committee that supports Mrs. Bachmann is not nearly so discrete. An advertisement it has created attacks Mr. Perry for raising spending in Texas and borrowing to cover deficits. “There is an honest conservative,’’ the ad concludes, “and she’s not Rick Perry.’’

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Who says there are no manufacturing jobs left in America?

From Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America’s Unfair and Imbalanced Network

The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman [Roger] Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him.”

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