Romney/GOP Economics explained by Tony Soprano

With a tip of the cap to Bob Newman and the Huffington post...

Well, Mr. Jackson, we have a small problem here...

Otis Jackson, currently on suspension from his job as General Sessions Court Clerk due to the fact that he was indicted back in July, has apparently decided that it would be an admission of guilt NOT to run for re-election to his position.  Toward that end, he has pulled and FILED a petition for re-election.

My question to Mr. Jackson would be this: Why are you not focusing on preparing for your defense in your trial?  In putting up a fight for re-election, are you not placing your liberty and the security of your family in jeopardy?  What on earth are you thinking?

Sir, you are entitled to the presumption of innocence until and unless you are proven guilty in a court of law. However, the perception that occurs when ANY office-holder is indicted renders moot their ability to perform their duties.  I am rooting for your acquittal, Mr. Jackson; if and when that day comes, you would then be welcomed back as a candidate.

Until that day comes, you should NOT be involved in any elective campaign; you need to think of your family, your workers in that office, and your obligation to the County of Shelby to remove that cloud which now hangs over you.  Then, and only then, should you consider seeking office again.

Toward that end, if you do not withdraw your petition prior to the end of the withdrawal deadline of December 15 at noon, I will then petition the Shelby County Democratic Party to decertify you as a candidate in the Democratic primary.  The potential that you could take the entire Democratic ticket down with you, should you be renominated in March, is too great.  You may not be thinking of your party, sir, but I am.

I do not take this action lightly; however, as a Shelby Countian, I am tired of the endless problems with office-holders, especially those who run under the Democratic banner.

Enough is enough, Mr. Jackson.  Put your liberty first, and withdraw your candidacy.

Here's something for the Mayoral candidates to answer:

Are you willing to stop the craziness of the Retired Directors Club, er, the Riverfront Development Corporation? Memphis Cobblestones is all over this one, go check it out!

Ok, I know, where have I been, yada yada

I'm OK, working an earlier schedule this week, so we have a lot to go through.

First, five words I am delighted to put on this page:

Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois.

Now that idiot Blagojevich can wait to see what Fitz has in store for him, which I hope is 20 years in the joint.

Now to more local corruption, and no, not the Herenton investigation, which has seemingly gone longer than the Hundred Years War with no indictment of the Big Fella in sight. This is about something else, something almost as distasteful.

As you are aware, it appears that the new Speaker of the House, Kent Williams, apparently made an ass of himself while drunk and told Rep. Susan Lynn something to the effect that he would pay to see her naked. OK, folks, drunk or not, that's harassment.

Lynn chose not to make a fuss, but asked for a meeting with House leadership to request that the then freshman Rep be told not to let something like this happen again. At that time, the matter appeared to have been settled. (my note: Williams' behavior was inexcusable, and yes, I believe Lynn. As there is no evidence that this has continued, I am willing to forgive as long as SHE is.)

Now, we know that Williams made a deal a couple of weeks ago with the House Democratic Caucus to get their 49 votes, which added to his own, gave Tennessee a more moderate Republican speaker than Jason Mumpower, the House Republican Leader. Williams then split the committee leadership, as befitting a divided House.

However, Rep. Brian Kelsey, who earned the nickname Stuntbaby of Germantown for his antics in Nashville from the venerable AC Kleinheider, decided to file an ethics complaint against the new Speaker. However, he apparently sought "conciliation" with Speaker Williams first, with one caveat; he wanted a full committee chairmanship. Kelsey admits to texting the Speaker's assistant with this bombshell:

“Tell Kent I’m willing to talk about reconciliation if he’s willing to talk about chairman of the full committee.”

Sure as hell makes you wonder what he meant by "reconciliation", doesn't it? Then, Kelsey claims he was so upset by Williams' denial of Lynn's charge (which should only have been brought up by HER, not Kelsey, because SHE, not Kelsey, was the aggrieved party) that he decided to bring up the Ethics charge.

The counsel for the Ethics Committee decided that theirs was not the proper venue for the complaint, so it was dismissed, as it should have been.

If Rep. Lynn wants to bring this back up and make a full complaint, I'm all for it; it's her call. But she DIDN'T, and she apparently wants to let this go, so I'm with whatever she wants.

Kelsey, with this flagrant act, has made himself look like an idiot, and also has injured the reputation of the House Republicans in general, which is not of the good, as Newscoma would say.

Look, I have never denied that I am a Democratic hack, but I also understand that the local House Republicans, Jim Coley, Steve McManus, Ron Lollar, Curry Todd, they're all good guys who I don't often agree with, but who will work with their Democratic counterparts. Same goes for Mark Norris, the Senate Republican Caucus Chair. They get hurt when Kelsey pulls one of these moronic acts, and it makes them look incapable of governance, when they work hard for their districts and generally do what their constituencies want.

As for Kelsey, quit bitching; you wound up as chair of the Civil Practice subcommitee of Judiciary. Don't you think it's time you started practicing some civility? You may not be as safe as you think, pal, so straighten up and act like a leader.

Unless you want to end up like Blagojevich.

UPDATE: The CA has a word for Kelsey's act: EXTORTION.

Well, my mood just lightened!

They finally nailed that crook Rod Blagojevich in Illinois!  Woo-Hoo!

More here from the Trib and the Sun-Times.

Here's the full complaint, via CBS2.

Now, for those of you are saying, uh, Cracker, he's a Democrat, why are you happy, let me say that first, he's an idiot who has been mismanaging the state and been engaged in a moronic feud with House Speaker Mike Madigan for the duration of his time as Governor.  Second, he refused to move to Springfield, where the Governor's Mansion is located, third, he shows the petulance of a Democratic version of Bush, and fourth, we KNEW he was a crook, we were hoping that something would bring him down.

On top of all that, his replacement, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, is a reformer's reformer and a progressive's progressive.  Pat Quinn is OUR kind of Democrat, folks, so this will be a win-win for my old home state.

I hope they throw Blagojevich UNDER the jail, the punk!  WOO-HOO!

ED FORD WALKS!

NOT GUILTY on all counts, reports the CA. Are they saying Joe Cooper may not have been a credible witness here?

:-)

Want to boo W with your friends? Look at this!

Bumped as a reminder..

TONIGHT, Drinking Liberally is throwing a State of the Union Watch Party at Sleep Out Louie's downtown from 7 PM until ?

Click on the SOTU Watch Party link for an invite, and more info; click on Sleep Out Louie's for a Yahoo! Map of the place. It will be a blast, so come join the fun!

On the passing of Gerald Ford.

While everyone lionizes the 38th (and only UNELECTED) President, I am going to be slightly less praising of him.

To be sure, he was a nice guy, and, like the Rude Pundit says, Gerald Ford WASN'T bugfuck insane, something we haven't been able to say about a Republican President in a LONG time. He seemed average and unassuming, which are good qualities to have in a President, especially when you're succeeding the Worst President in History (remember, neither Reagan nor the Bushes had come along yet).

Yet, Gerald Ford (the man who would rather have been House Speaker) will always be judged for the fact that he pardoned Nixon. Most of the Beltway Blatherers laud Ford for "putting this behind us so the country could move forward."

BULLSHIT.

The fact that Nixon never had to face an American jury is what allowed the Iran-Contra traitors to be pardoned by 41, and may allow 43, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld to avoid the war-crimes trials they so richly deserve. It set a horrible precedent, and deserves condemnation over 30 years after the fact. Would it have torn the country apart? Well, the response to that is this: how much more COULD it have been torn apart?

Steve Gilliard says this today about that:

1975 was a difficult year. The US military was dysfunctional, American society was shattered, there was a real question if the US could have survived the trial of Richard Nixon for his various crimes.

Once he had slunk off, to everyone's relief, there was no great appetite for punishment among Congress.

But, by pardoning Nixon, he helped save the GOP, by not exposing the criminal nature of that enterprise. It was allowed to reform as a right wing party, catering to small business and backwoods rednecks. The Dems never really pressed the advantage they could have had by exposing Nixon and his crimes.

Read the rest of it, it's terrific.

Also, think how much we could have avoided if Nixon had been tried and convicted:

No Reagan or EITHER Bush.

Perhaps the implosion of the Southern Strategy before it went any further than it did.

Folks, if there IS a God, Gerald Ford is doing a LOT of explaining right now.

UPDATE: Jeff has EVEN MORE that I had forgotten about at the Pesky Fly!

Tom, I'm posting this because it's terrific.

,I got to know Tom Guleff during his campaign for the GOP nomination for the 9th Congressional District. While I knew we didn't agree on policies, I immediately thought that he was the type of person who NEEDS to be in politics, because he struck me as a straight-shooter who you could count on in the clutch. I even endorsed him for the GOP nomination, knowing full well that I would stick with Steve Cohen in the general.

Now, Tom maintains www.joecitizens.com It serves as a watchdog over local issues, and I am blatantly stealing this post, because it needs to be seen:

Political Corruption is Evil

Political corruption kills the legitimacy of our government. Democracies are fragile institutions that require the trust of the governed. Those who hold these governing offices must act and live far from any hint of impropriety. There is a natural tendency to question authority, predicated on the belief that those who govern will act only in their best interests. As cynical as human nature may be, the truth is that there’s a lot of good people trying to make a difference.

The battle to keep institutions legitimate is tough and ongoing. Trust earned over a life time can be lost in an instant. Without the trust of the system, people resort to a state of warring factions, a mentality that leads to minimizing values and principles. Sometimes these become the disconnects in politics allowing us to tolerate corrupt behavior, especially when a politician's personal interests are in-line and associated with our own. In these circumstances, those who are governed will overlook the articles of corruption. However, corruption still remains and seeds of distrust are sown, whether short term or for the future. This is why corruption is lethal.

Our citizens deserve a system free from the cancer of political corruption. Corruption destroys any sense of fair play and merit. To win at any cost is really a loss for nothing. Many times, those corrupt office holders who have fought so hard against the injustices of the system, damage and destroy the effectiveness of the very institutions that can impact change. To be rid of political corruption is a moral imperative for our society. Candidates and the elected must be held to the highest of ethical behavior. We must instill the principles of selfless service in those who seek public office.

Today, our elected officials are not bad or evil people. Some have made bad decisions, and it quickly became a slippery slope in betraying the trust of all of us. Our failed politicians did not start out corrupt; they just got used to the system of perks and entitlements, and lost their way. The real problem is that there is a new generation of politicians with no shame or guilt who have decided to start where the corruption left off. This we must stop.

In the final analysis, we want a community that fosters the best in all of us. However, there must be a presumption that the system is fair and that it works under a set of rules. Adherence to these rules is our social contract. Holding to principles and learning from failures allows us to travel further than we ever thought possible. These are the conditions required to foster growth and fulfillment toward our dreams. Our dreams that we hold so dear. Dreams free from corruption. These are our American dreams.