Mission Accomplished was in 2003 before George W. Bush started the war in Iraq after already having launched a war into Afghanistan with pre-approval from the US Congress. (The Iraq war is the war President Obama wrapped up like…the other day).

This happened earlier this year after the Super Bowl Karl Rove freaked out over the Clint Eastwood commercial being some defacto Obama campaign ad. Smart Republicans are aware that their “Cowboy Commander in Chief” spin to the American people has worn thin and is no longer backed up by an implicit, unchallenged trust of the GOP brand. The reality of an Obama Administration, centered around the military operations to unseat Qaddafy and kill bin Laden, has changed public perception of Democratic Executive regarding foreign policy and these pop culture landmarks are things that voters remember as positively defining moments about the President.

Jon Stewart tackles the right’s hypocrisy in decrying the Obama campaign’s ad that use Romney’s vocal opposition of the very plan devised by the Obama Administration to successfully surprise and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Ric Grenell resigns because his boss is beholden to a party base that fervently embraces bigotry. Grenell served Republicans in Congress and the Bush White House’s UN delegation for years.

I’m not surprised anymore when I find out a woman, person of color or LGBT person is a Republican staffer or candidate but I am surprised when anyone is shocked when they get put in their place by their party’s base. This is the party platform. It’s what they believe. If you carry the banner of a candidate who subscribes to most or all of these beliefs, you choose to live with the consequences of those beliefs. When pundits guess that the intentionally vague Romney is a moderate or will tack to the center, they need to understand that Romney needs to energize his base to win and he can’t do that and moderate enough to be in the center of any political spectrum.

And Romney’s statement that they begged Grenell to stay is bullshit and spin. Grenell’s no newbie, he was qualified to be a neo-con foreign policy spokesperson, and he’s already worked for Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the Bush Administration as UN spokesperson in the aughts. Romney is literally to the right of the 1990’s Gingrich led Republican delegation and the George W. Bush White House.

Update: this is the surprise I was talking about

“The Romney campaign should have spoken up publicly in defense of Rick against the attacks over the past two weeks,” GOProud’s executive director Jimmy LaSalvia said in an interview with me just now.

“This was an opportunity to send an important message that Mitt Romney wants everybody to get behind him and to support his camapign,” LaSalvia continued. “They let that opportunity pass.”

How can you expect the Republican Party to support you when a plank of the party’s platform is that you are a person to be campaigned against?

Even the so called “reasonable” ones like Dick Lugar and the stars like Marco Marco Rubio (from Wonkette):

It is good to know that the War on Women is divisive and phony (and anyway Obama started it)! Then about five seconds after McCain finished talking, 31 male Republican senators voted against reauthorizing VAWA (which provides funding for domestic violence shelters and law enforcement and all sorts of other special-interest nonsense, because it might cause somebody to stop beating Messicans and gays

These 31 literally voted against a a bill to allocate resources to women who have beaten down, abused and victimized.

UPDATE: Awful Reporting Update from the New York Times

Amid partisan brawls over abortion and contraception, some Democrats saw the Violence Against Women Act as the next battle in what they framed as a Republican “war on women.” But Senate Republicans did not rise to the bait. Republican senators like John Cornyn of Texas made clear their concerns, but even before amendments to address those concerns were voted on, many of the same senators who had expressed reservations signaled that they would vote for the bill, regardless of whether it was changed. No Republicans spoke out against it before the final tally.

They didn’t rise to the bait? They absolutely did. In their unified push against Obama and the Democrats’ agenda, they voted against a law that provides funds and resources to help women who are victims of violence. Not taking the bait would have been voting for the heretofore uncontroversial bill.

This type of work from Romney’s senior campaign foreign policy aides exposes a campaign that should be take less, not more seriously:

The Obama campaign has been saying for weeks that Romney has a “Cold War mentality” when it comes to foreign policy. Instead of countering that characterization, the call only reinforced Biden’s point.

Two of Romney’s surrogates dropped Cold War references when referring to Obama’s foreign policy failures. One said the White House has abandoned Czechoslovakia (a country that hasn’t existed since 1993) and the other said Obama wasn’t strong enough to prevent “the Soviets” from “pushing into the Arctic.” The outdated references revealed Romney’s advisers on foreign policy to be largely relics of the past – thereby proving the Obama campaign’s point.

Is Romney serious about executing a platform and ideology or is he just gravely serious about becoming President?

It’s fine if you reach across the aisle, but don’t kneecap your side of the aisle. Blue Dogs in PA were rewarded for opposing the ACA by a Republican controlled legislature here in PA by being re-districted from purple into Democratic districts:

Representatives Jason Altmire and Tim Holden both lost in primaries to opponents who joined together with activist groups to pummel the veteran lawmakers over the opposition to the new health care law and climate change legislation — positions they had used to their advantage in the past to show their independence from President Obama and the Democratic Party.

“A lot of us thought of his record as his strength,” said Hugh M. Reiley, the chairman of the Schuylkill County Democratic Party, referring to Mr. Holden. “He was not falling prey to all that party bickering. He was able to reach across the aisle.”

“Last night, the Democratic Party became more liberal,” he added.

This just isn’t true. Remember that the Blue Dog coalition’s Jim Cooper (D-TN) was the vanguard of the original “reach across the aisle” that resulted in a Health Care Reform alternative to Clinton White House’s Health Care Reform push in 1993 and tempered ACA provisions for Blue Dogs in 2009. This was the basis for the Obama White House’s Affordable Care Act. The ACA was pulled even further right from the Clinton and Cooper 1993 proposals by accepting further input from insurance and pharmaceutical corporations:

One of the most significant differences between 1993-94 and 2009-10 is that employers and business groups, alarmed at the soaring cost of health care, took a seat at the negotiating table. Insurance companies, which helped defeat the Clinton plan, began 2009 by saying they accept the need for change and want a seat at the table. As the bills developed, however, they became strong opponents of some Democratic proposals, especially one to create a government-run insurance plan as an alternative to their offerings.

Supporting the ACA based on Cooper’s 1993 Blue Dog/Republican compromise didn’t make the Democratic Party “more liberal”. They were both pieces of legislation that were shifted to the right away from the party platform and the Democratic Base to garner the votes of more Blue Dogs after much more liberal versions were defeated or never saw light of day in previous sessions of congress. The simple fact of the matter is that State Republicans used redistricting to reduce the number of Democrats in the US House of Representatives by forcing two Blue Dog Democrats to compete in blue districts. The only thing that moved was their district boundaries. Blue Dogs aren’t being pushed out of the party any time soon, but you can’t tout your “independence” from your party in a closed primary state and then be surprised when primary voters take you at your word.

Mitt Romney can’t support the Ryan Budget and “fully support” Obama’s student loan low interest rate extension. I see articles titled “Romney agrees with Obama on Student Loans” and “Obama, Romney Agree on Extending Student Loan Interest Rate Cut” that allow Romney to cloud the issue by seeming reasonable.

Romney hasn’t reconciled his alleged support of the President’s student loan low interest rate extension and the Ryan Budget which would double student loan interest rates so he came make no claims of unequivocal support in either case.

One more time all together, anyone saying Social Security is broken is selling you a special kind of deficit hawk nonsense:

The most important take-away points from the 2012 Trustees Report will be that Social Security has a large and growing surplus; that without any Congressional action, Social Security will continue to pay benefits to America’s eligible working families for decades; and that with modest legislated increases in revenue, it will continue to pay those benefits for the next century and beyond.

[…]

With the issuance of the 2012 report, journalists will have an opportunity to correct the common misunderstanding that Social Security is now paying out more in benefits than it is collecting in income. Social Security is prohibited by law from doing that, and if there were less income than outgo this year, the Trustees would be announcing an immediate cut in benefits. They are not.

[…]

Journalists can clarify that Social Security has three revenue sources: Payroll contributions from employers and employees, interest earned on Social Security’s U.S. Treasury bond holdings (which have the same legal standing and status of all other Treasury bonds issued by the government), and income taxes on the Social Security benefits paid by those with higher incomes.

Social security will be around for a while and if there are major problems with revenue, the trustees have tools to automatically adjust output.

Sigh…more revisionist history about closing Gitmo…

More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn’t paying attention.

“I think what you’ll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again,” Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon’s deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. “It’s fatigue and the thought that ‘Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it’s okay.’”

[…]

“This is the only court in the United States where you can plead guilty and still be given the death penalty, and it’s just another sign that the system is not set up to give anyone a trial it’s set up to give someone what appears to be a fair trial with a predetermined result,” Broyles said.*

“It’s pretty clear to me that the public has lost interest in these issues,” Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, told TPM. “There’s certainly a lot more interest in Trayvon Martin, for example, than there is in any of the military commissions, with the exception being the arraignment for the 9/11 people. But the day-to-day stuff, which is really quite important, has drifted off peoples’ consciences.”

Look, Obama campaigned on closing Gitmo next to all the Senators and Representatives with the D next to their name, got elected, signed an executive order to close it. He more than tried to close Gitmo. But Democrats ran when it was time to approve funding:

Under pressure from Republicans and concerned about the politics of relocating terrorism suspects to U.S. soil, Senate Democrats rejected President Obama’s request for funding to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and vowed to withhold federal dollars until the president decides the fate of the facility’s 240 detainees.

[…]

As recently as last week, Senate Democrats had hoped to preserve a portion of Obama’s Guantanamo funding request. But their resolve crumbled in the face of a concerted Republican campaign warning of dire consequences if some detainees ended up in prisons or other facilities in the United States, a possibility that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has acknowledged.

He didn’t blow any deadline. His team, his party, blew him off. If they fund that order, these guys are in Super Max under U.S. jurisdiction and U.S. due process.

Tried to try KSM in NY. Bloomberg and Schumer said no. The 60 vote majority never materialized around these issues. It’s that simple.

It isn’t because “Obama said it” that people ignore it. It’s because the majority of Americans wanted it this way and their Democratic Party representation in Washington agreed. Obama didn’t and his party said: f*ck you. Remember that when they complain about Obama pushing health care. Or Obama circumventing them with Libya. Republicans obstruct because they want to see Democratic executives fail. Democrats obstruct when they are spooked by what Republicans might say about them.

The true believer bows out…

Rick Santorum ends bid for GOP nomination – Political Hotsheet – CBS News:

“We made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting,” Santorum said at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Tuesday afternoon.

Santorum did not endorse Romney in making his announcement Tuesday, though he did vow to fight to defeat President Obama and help Republicans win the Senate in the fall.

In a statement, Romney called Santorum “an able and worthy competitor” and congratulated his often-bitter rival for his campaign.

Watch the Etch-a-Sketch….

A right wing hack website decided that this was an important story: Chris Rock makes jokes about black people. Chris Rock held a fundraiser for Obama. Obama may have a problem with black support was worth a story. Except switch out “Chris Rock” for “DNC Jewish Liason” and “black” for “Jewish”. Add lazy main stream media sources and this becomes a story. (This is reminiscent of the Jon Favreau beer pong b.s.):

“Danni has excelled in her role handling Jewish issues for the Chair in her Congressional office and was brought on here part time to do outreach to the Jewish Community,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse. “Like many in the age of social media, she had things posted on her Facebook page that she now regrets and which she has apologized for. Her employment both in the Chair’s Congressional office and at the DNC is a testament to her knowledge and professionalism and nothing more – and no smear driven by the right wing noise machine is going to impact her status as a trusted member of this team.”Obama donors tied to controversial Facebook post – POLITICO.com.

DNC had better of ignore this Breitbart-esque bullsh*t non-scandal. This does and will do nothing to dissuade Jewish voters from supporting Obama. In fact, he’s got 2/3 of that demographic supporting him in 2012. This will be a story you will see instead of something important as media outlets pick it up:

**Note: the picture here is from 2006, underscoring the fact that puerile humor from the way-back can politically haunt you today.

Note, these 2012 articles underscore the fact that puerile political reporters have little ability to determine whether a story from a right wing blog is of any importance whatsoever.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/04/former-wasserman-schultz-aide-jewish-dem-outreach-leader-jokes-about-money-obsessed-jewbags-.html#storylink=cpy

Krugman:

But the continuing defense of Paul Ryan is a remarkable phenomenon. He’s still being treated by many pundits as a man deeply concerned about deficits, when the fact is that his policy proposals are all about redistributing income upward, and make no serious effort to curb debt. He’s even given credit for advocating higher taxes on the rich when he has more or less specifically rejected the things for which he’s given credit.

via On Ryan Apologists – NYTimes.com

No surprise coming from the author of The Bell Curve.

From the New York Times…

Ex-New Orleans Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina Shootings: Five former police officers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for the shooting of six unarmed civilians, two of whom died, in the days after Hurricane Katrina and for orchestrating a wide-ranging cover-up afterward.

‘I really misspoke’.

The President spoke at the AP Luncheon and laid out the choice between a 2nd Obama term and a Republican 1st term President in January 2013.

From John Cole:

“Curveball”, the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi’s lies used to justify the Iraq war.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It Was All a Lie.

How many peoples lives ruined or lost to this war.

Well, it really wasn’t for shit.