With amigos like this, who needs enemigos?

From npr:

The White House removed the core of its Ukraine policy team in the spring and replaced it with “three amigos” considered more reliable for the plan to pressure Kyiv, a senior U.S. diplomat was described as telling House investigators on Tuesday.

…snip…

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney organized the May 23 meeting at which the personnel moves were decided, according to [ Rep. Gerry] Connolly’s [D-Va] description.

That conference yielded the crew described as the new “three amigos” assigned the Ukraine portfolio: Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union; Kurt Volker, then an envoy to Ukraine for its peace negotiations; and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

 

Original DVD cover (and the other cover)

Click on image for larger version

Idiot Quotient

From THE HILL:

President Trump did not imply he was smarter than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his top spokesperson said Tuesday, claiming his offer for both to take an IQ test was a joke.

“The president certainly never implied that the secretary of State was not intelligent. He made a joke. Nothing more than that,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday.

Hahaha. Another Twitler so-called joke goes over like a lead balloon.

Original DVD cover

Toady Foster

From VANITY FAIR:

On Monday, Trump convened his first full Cabinet meeting since taking office, gathering the heads of every major government agency for a press gaggle around the elliptical mahogany table that occupies a prominent place in the West Wing. Traditionally, the media is present only at the beginning of such meetings, during which the president makes a brief statement and a few photos are snapped before a review of the administration’s progress continues behind closed doors. Trump tried something a little different.

(Click on image for larger view)

Original image

Mittsie: The Bête Noire of Governor Little Ricky Goodhair

From The New York Times:

AMES, Iowa — Mitt Romney became the target of mocking criticism on Sunday from several of his Republican presidential rivals — except Newt Gingrich, whose silence underscored his growing confidence as the party’s nominating contest enters a critical week featuring the final televised debate of the year.

A day after Mr. Romney unwittingly created a fresh punch line when he extended his hand during a debate and tried to make a $10,000 bet with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas to settle a disagreement over health care, Mr. Perry said that the exchange was the latest sign that his opponent was out of step with most voters.

Original DVD cover

Idiocy Quotient

From SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL:

The US Republican race is dominated by ignorance, lies and scandals. The current crop of candidates have shown such a basic lack of knowledge that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein. The Grand Old Party is ruining the entire country’s reputation.

Original DVD cover

The Seducers…I mean, Producers

From STEVE KORNACKI at OPENING SHOT at Salon:

We may be witnessing the political world’s answer to “The Producers,” the Mel Brooks musical about an avaricious showman who concocts a sure-to-flop production that somehow turns into the surprise hit of the season. It’s called the Newt Gingrich presidential campaign.

The former House speaker has rocketed to the top in national GOP polling, and with only weeks remaining until the Iowa caucuses he now has an opportunity to cement his status as the conservative movement’s designated alternative to Mitt Romney. In a month full of breakthroughs for him, Gingrich scored his biggest coup yet over the weekend, when the Manchester Union Leader awarded him the most coveted newspaper endorsement on the Republican side.

Original theatrical poster

Gaffe-ing It Up

From THE FIX at The Washington Post:

On Thursday night, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told Fox News that she hasn’t “had a gaffe or something that I’ve done that has caused me to fall in the polls.”

The idea that Bachmann hasn’t made any gaffes in her roller-coaster campaign for the 2012 presidential nomination is far-fetched at best. But in a sense, Bachmann is right. Her fall had (almost) everything to do with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and (almost) nothing to do with her misstatements.

Original comic book cover

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.”

Original DVD cover