The GOP crashing down.

New words!

So apparently the wordsmiths of the delusional knowledgesystem of GOP are starting to have some trouble with normal folks starting to ask some very basic questions – about the last thirty years for example.

From one of the top crap-generators in Florida this week:

“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation’s foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”

Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about “income inequality” and “paying your fair share.”

About time. Now let’s go through some of the points he made.

Have GOP lost on both Security and Taxes?

Losing street.

First the Democrats win big on Security with Bin Laden, Gaddafi and Libya – now it seems they are gaining ground on the tax issue too, just carving out the 1% who are paying the lowest rates in 60 yrs.

From the House:

House Republican leaders warned their caucus the GOP risks losing its image as the party opposed to tax hikes if it allows the one-year payroll tax break to expire at the end of the year.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told his rank and file in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that “taxes are a Republican issue and you aren’t a Republican if you want to raise taxes on struggling families to fund bigger government,” according to a source in the room.

They never cared about the struggling families for the last 30 yrs, other than a segment to plunder and suppress, but times are changing. The pendulum has stopped, and will strike back.

Full story.

Der Spiegel: GOP candidates liers, demagogues and ignorants

Spiegel: Freak Show.

The German Weekly writes about the current field of GOP candidates running for the Presidency of the United States.

Some snippets:

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.

It’s true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it’s just not that funny anymore. In fact, it’s utterly horrifying.

They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They’ve shown such stark lack of knowledge — political, economic, geographic, historical — that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe.

“When did the GOP lose touch with reality?” wonders Bush’s former speechwriter David Frum in New York Magazine. In the New York Times, Kenneth Duberstein, Ronald Reagan’s former chief-of-staff, called this campaign season a “reality show,” while Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan confidante Peggy Noonan even spoke of a “freakshow.”

That may be the most appropriate description.

Full story.

NYers can take a joke.

Sen. Schumer.

A brief exchange about humor and geography in the Senate yesterday.

From WaPo:

Republican Sen. John McCain was trying to make a point during debate on a defense bill Wednesday when he said Long Island “sometimes regrettably” was part of the United States. That drew a swift rebuke from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who took to Twitter to demand an apology.

“All of America saw how heroic Long Islanders were on 9/11. Long Island deserves an apology,” Schumer said.

“I’m sorry there’s at least one of my colleagues that can’t take a joke and so I apologize if I offended him and hope that someday he will have a sense of humor,” McCain said.

That got Schumer tweeting more.

“NYers can take a joke. But if Sen. John McCain wants to mock parts of America, stick to Arizona.”

Full story.

GOP backs down on Payroll Taxes.

Another defeat.

Even if it’s somewhat below the “top story” league of the GOP candidate circus – this was yet another political defeat for the GOP in Congress, and it was yet another small piece of the Obama Jobs Act being passed, with lots of loud symbolics and campaigning value for the Democrats along the way. Things have shifted a lot in Congress this fall, and Minority Leader McConnell seems to be losing some grip on the game.

Good for the 99%, and good for the 1%, too.

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Republicans in Congress on Tuesday threw their support behind a payroll tax cut extension, trying to blunt charges ahead of 2012 elections of favoring wealthy Americans over middle-class workers.

[..] The move by Republicans could help avert an end-of-year battle with Democrats after months of bitter budget battles that brought the country to the edge of default in August and cost it its coveted AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s.

Some analysts estimate the payroll tax cut is estimated to boost economic growth by as much as 1.5 percentage points.

Full story.

So: 2012 could be the Election between the 99% and the 1% party.

Main Narrative for 2012.

The NH editor that endorsed the not-Romney GOP candidate this week had the following reasoning:

“I think — and this is crazy, but so are we — that Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney,” publisher Joe McQuaid told FOX News. “I think it’s going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%.”

If this really sticks as the framing for the 2012 General Elections – then kudos to Occupy Wall Street.

Full story.

No Tax Cuts for Middle Class.

1% Party says No.

Always a bit refreshing with Michael Tomasky:

Every blessed once in a great while, all artifice is stripped away, rhetoric collapses under the weight of its own absurdity, and we get to see things as they really are. Such will be the case later this week when the Senate tries to vote on extending the payroll-tax holiday. The Republicans will oppose it—that is to say, the Republicans will support a tax increase on working Americans. And why? Because the Democrats want to pay for it with a small surtax on the very top earners. So the choice couldn’t be more direct: which is more important, giving the middle class a tax cut or protecting those who make more than $1 million a year? Republicans are making it clear. This vote alone should destroy them.

Full story.

Part of Romney’s Platform – skip Defense Cuts.

Expensive toys.

Romney hits Obama:

Mitt Romney on Sunday called for President Obama to halt the $600 billion in automatic cuts aimed at the Defense department as a consequence of the failed debt supercommittee.

Now let’s see if Obama keeps his line: sure, if we have some more revenue.

Full story.