Turtle Whacks

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed creating an escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have put themselves in a box by threatening not to raise the national debt limit if Democrats don’t agree to trillions of dollars in cuts to popular social programs.

The plan is designed to give President Obama the power to raise the debt limit on his own through the end of his first term, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit in the months leading up to the election. This would stave off the threat of defaulting on national obligations, but keep the charged issues of debt and spending at the center of political debate for months.

The development confirms suspicions that the GOP was unwilling to truly use the looming debt ceiling as leverage to force conservative-friendly changes to popular entitlement programs, but suggests strongly that Republicans plan to continue politicking on fiscal issues through the 2012 elections.

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Where the Necks are Red and the Llamas are Nervous

From WASHINGTON WIRE at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (June 8, 2010):

The Lexington County Republican Party has scheduled a meeting Thursday evening to discuss if, or how, to respond to state Sen. Jake Knotts’s racially derogatory remarks aimed at President Barack Obama and South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley.

“We already got one raghead in the White House. We don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion,” Knotts said on an Internet political talk show last week.

…snip…

Haley is an Indian-American, and she would be the first non-white to be elected to the state’s governor’s mansion if she wins this fall.

COLUMBIA, SC (WLTX, AP) — Lexington County Senator Jake Knotts has again apologized but refused to resign for calling the Republican gubernatorial front-runner Nikki Haley and President Obama “a raghead.”

“I am not going to resign under any circumstances,” Knotts said told his fellow senators at the State House Tuesday.

Knotts said he has been called names, including redneck, in the past. He said he’s proud to be stereotyped as a redneck, and is honored by the true meaning of redneck — someone who gets sunburned from working long hours outdoors.

“If all of us rednecks left the Republican Party, the party is going to have one hell of a void,” Knott said.

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(Click on image and then click on that one for a larger version if you can stand looking at these morons.)

When does the Lifetime movie come out?

From Courthouse News Service:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CN) – South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford has filed for divorce, 7 months after her husband confessed to an affair with an Argentine mistress, and just days after a state House judiciary panel voted to censure, but not impeach, her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford.

Mrs. Sanford said in a statement, “As so many of us know, the dissolution of any marriage is a sad and painful process. Because Mark and I are public figures, we have naturally had less privacy with which to deal with our difficulties than do other couples. Indeed, I know it will soon become known, so I choose to release this brief notice that I am now filing for divorce.”

Poor Jenny, I bet she loves her privacy, especially when it comes to really personal things like this. And I bet she’ll tell us all about it in that book she’s writing about her husband’s affair.

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Looks like Sparky Marky Mark hasn’t cleaned out the fridge in quite a while.

OMG! They Killed Sanity!! You Bastards!

From The New York Times:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — When Senator Lindsey Graham joined forces last month with Senator John Kerry on a compromise to the climate change legislation known as cap and trade, it was the last straw for the Charleston County Republican Party.

The county party, which has traditionally been considered moderate, voted by a wide margin to censure Mr. Graham in harsh terms.

Their grievance list was long: it cited the senator for calling opponents of immigration law change “bigots,” holding the Republican Party “hostage” by participating in bipartisan maneuvers, voting for the Wall Street bailout and tarnishing the ideals of freedom.

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(left to right:  Joe “Kyle” Wilson, Lindseypoo “Kenny” Graham, Jim “Cartman” DeMint, Sparky Marky Mark “Stan” Sanford)

South Caro-whiner

From the Los Angeles Times:

The congressman who heckled President Obama during a televised address found that while the president accepted his apology Thursday, the furor over his outburst did not let up.

“I’m a big believer that we all make mistakes,” Obama said in acknowledging the apology from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). The lawmaker’s shout of “You lie!” during the president’s speech on healthcare was a significant break in decorum.

“I do think that, as I said last night, we have to get to the point where we can have a conversation about big important issues that matter to the American people without vitriol, without name-calling, without the assumption of the worst of other people’s motives,” Obama said.

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More Tsuris From Burris

From The Washington Post:

CHICAGO — Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.), appointed late last year to replace President Obama in the U.S. Senate, has informed Illinois lawmakers that he did not tell them the complete story about his contacts with close associates of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) before he got the job.

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