Drowning in Disgust

From NEWSWEEK:

President Trump’s former ethics chief said the president’s decision to show off a $40 Trump campaign merchandise baseball cap on a visit to storm-struck Texas raises ethics concerns.

The president was pictured wearing the Official USA 45th Presidential Hats in two pictures released by the White House over the weekend, and in TV footage of an official visit to the state Tuesday. Both hats, described as “Proudly Made in the USA,” are sold as merchandise via the Trump campaign website.

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Bottled B.S.

From Slate Magazine:

When Sen. Marco Rubio took that awkward break from his State of the Union response to take a sip of water, some questioned whether it would mean the end of his political career. Instead, Rubio has shown how to capitalize on a viral sensation—even one that made him look bad—to raise some cash. The Florida senator has now raised more than $100,000 for his Reclaim America political action committee by offering a branded water bottle to anyone who donates $25 or more.

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I have questions, kids.  For example:

Polish Spring?  What’s wrong with American Spring or, at the very least, Freedom Spring?

Is Marco Rubio a Rethuglican because he has the same ears as Dumbo?  Seriously, I wouldn’t want to stand next to him in a strong windstorm.

Does he have any other credentials other than being Cuban?

Why does Dumbo Rubio love PACs so much?  Keep reading, kids…

Hello?

From The State:

Gov. Nikki Haley wants state workers to answer their phones, saying, “It’s a great day in South Carolina. How can I help you?”

Tuesday, Haley instructed the directors of Cabinet agencies, which report to her, to change the way their employees answer the phones.

Haley said the change will boost the morale of state workers, remind them they work for the callers on the other end of the line and help her sell the state to employers.

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O-High-O Family Values

From Plunderbund:

Back in late 2009, Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine put together a 10 point plan that he hoped would help restore the “conservative credibility” of the Republican party in Ohio.

“The Republican Party has lost its credibility,” wrote DeWine. “We were the party of ethics and morality until our elected officials became symbolic of scandal and corruption,” he said. And “voters did not reject our conservative ideology… they rejected our hypocrisy.”

The final step of his plan was to “Enforce a zero-tolerance policy for misconduct” […]

…snip…

Jump ahead to this Spring.

In April, Robert Mecklenborg was arrested while driving in Indiana with a stripper in his car. A few days later he lied on his Ohio driver license application – claiming he didn’t have any outstanding, out-of-state violations. Kevin DeWine and John Kasich refused to call for Mecklenborg’s resignation.

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Supreme Chutzpah

From The New York Times:

[Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Dallas real estate magnate and a major contributor to conservative causes, Harlan Crow] met in the mid-1990s, a few years after Justice Thomas joined the court. Since then, Mr. Crow has done many favors for the justice and his wife, Virginia, helping finance a Savannah library project dedicated to Justice Thomas, presenting him with a Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass and reportedly providing $500,000 for Ms. Thomas to start a Tea Party-related group. They have also spent time together at gatherings of prominent Republicans and businesspeople at Mr. Crow’s Adirondacks estate and his camp in East Texas. In several instances, news reports of Mr. Crow’s largess provoked controversy and questions, adding fuel to a rising debate about Supreme Court ethics.

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Take 2 Tablets, but Don’t Call Me in the Morning

(Reuters) – A former Alabama judge who gained attention for defying orders to take down a “Ten Commandments” monument from his courthouse said on Monday he was seriously considering running for president.

Roy Moore, a Republican who was removed from Alabama’s Supreme Court by a judicial ethics panel, said he was ready to join the 2012 race.

Because there aren’t enough clowns in the Rethuglican mix now.  By the way, Ol’ Roy may be a religious fanatic, but his campaign posters are rather unorthodox…

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Working Hard

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.“-Newt Gingrich

From POLITICAL HOTSHEET at CBS NEWS:

Former House speaker and likely GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times and has acknowledged an extramarital affair, said in an interview this week that his past indiscretions were driven in part by “how passionately I felt about this country.”

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and that things happened in my life that were not appropriate,” Gingrich told CBN News Chief Political Correspondent David Brody. “And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing it. I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness.”

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Bronzo is Blue!

Poor Bronzo the Clown! No wonder he’s always sobbing. First, there was this: from TALKING POINTS MEMO:

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Wednesday morning that he did not watch Michele Bachmann’s Tuesday night response response to the State of the Union.

“No I did not,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference. “I had other obligations.”

Burn!

House GOP leadership was not pleased when Bachmann decided to freelance, and in the days before the speech, Bachmann herself sought to recast the rebuttal, apparently hoping to reverse the impression that it was a Tea Party alternative to the official Republican response.

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