Top Ten Greatest Moments of the South Carolina Primaries

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Originally posted on The Nation

1. The biggest shock of the night is that it’s a Saturday night and MSNBC isn’t screening Lockdown.

2. #DontBother is trending on Twitter. I’m pretty sure that was Twitter talking to Mitt Romney.

3. The Romney rally does the wave, demonstrating just how in touch the Romney campaign is with the American people… circa 1997. The empty Mitt Romney podium visible as we wait for the Governor to arrive serves as the perfect Mittaphor: it’s there, and it says Mitt Romney, but there’s nothing actually behind it.

4. Ron Paul shows up in an outfit that suggests he’s trying to steal some of Rick Santorum’s sweater vest thunder and says: “[crazy, crazy, crazy, something smart on foreign policy, crazy, crazy, crazy, something smart on special interests, gold is good, end the fed, crazy, crazy, crazy].”

5. Rick Santorum comes out (sans sweater vest, which may be the reason he lost). He proclaims that he and his grandfather are among the people who hold on tightly to their guns and Bibles. But in the case of his grandfather, I’m pretty sure he means he holds on tightly to his hammer and sickle.

6. Chris Matthews delivers absolutely terrible news to Florida when he says that Gingrich “is gonna hit all the erogenous zones down there.”

7. Newt surprises world by not coming out on a litter carried by poor children.

8. Newt calls out the elites. Because nothing screams salt of the earth more than a man with a Tiffany’s habit.

9. Newt also demonstrates how in touch he is with the American—and specifically South Carolinian—people, by dropping an always-resonant Saul Alinsky reference.

10. Obama supporters worldwide pray that Florida is just as racist as South Carolina, that they find a moderator of color and that the moderator brings up Gingrich’s affairs.

What Marianne Gingrich and Al Green Teach Us About the Man Who Could Be President

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Originally posted on The Nation

Last night’s 179th GOP debate of the season taught us so much, again, about the GOP candidates: socialism for the military, no government at all for anyone else, protect zygotes, execute humans, “I swear I never once provided a single person with healthcare”/ “Yes you did!”/ “Did not!”/ “Did too!,” etc. But the biggest revelations of last night did not occur at the debates.

Thursday, I blogged about Marianne Gingrich, one of Newt’s several exes, and her tell-a-little interview (and how inconceivable sex with Newt Gingrich was to me). That was based on a mere preview of Marianne’s interview that ABC had released. But after the debate, ABC ran the entire at-least-a-couple-of-minutes-long interview. Here’s what stood out:

• Gingrich left his first wife after she got cancer and left Marianne after she got MS. The take-away is that at least Newt is consistent and that Callista better take her multi-vitamins, though she does have her age on her side.

• It was while he was cheating on his wife that Newt crucified Clinton for his infidelity and stated that there was “no administration with less moral authority than the Clinton-Gore administration.”

• Marianne Gingrich knows about only “some of” the skeletons Newt keeps in his closet since, presumably, he has more skeletons than could fit in one closet or one person’s mind. And, of course, Newt has continued collecting skeletons since leaving his wife, so she’s in the dark on those.

So, last night, we learned, or relearned, that Newt Gingrich is seriously one of the most disgusting, cheating, hurtful, wife-hopping people in the world. We also learned something about President Obama that puts him on the other end of the disgusting/adorable spectrum. And that is that he can sing! Which he did, at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Perhaps Newt’s unfaithfulness (and the fact that Al Green was at the fundraiser) was what made Obama sing a few (too few) bars from Green’s classic, “Let’s Stay Together” and, specifically, the words “I’m so in love with you.” I pity the wives of Gingrich, but I envy Michelle Obama. See the video and look out for the president’s Kermit the Frog moves. It should convince the “there’s no difference between a Republican and a Democrat” crowd that, when it comes to Gingrich and Obama, there’s a huge difference, at least on a personal level. And, of course, as we all know, the personal is political.

How Fox News would have covered MLK

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I was on The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur on Current TV. Fellow, Cheryl Contee, and Tricia Rose.

(For a better quality clip, go here!)

Rick Perry’s Greatest Hits: He’s Gone But Not Forgotten

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Originally posted on The Nation

Rick Perry may have quit the race—at a Wendy’s, appropriately—but his words will always be with us. Here are some of the gems he said during the campaign. We’ll always have the memories! And the video! Perry has endorsed Gingrich, in his latest gaffe, and Newt has officially asked Perry to head a Tenth Amendment enforcement project for him. I would have gone with the Second:

Shocking Revelation: It Was Newt, Not His Wife, Who Wanted to Have an Open Relationship!

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originally posted on The Nation

Personally, I would hate to be married to Newt Gingrich. If I were, I imagine I’d consider seeking refuge from the smug, odious, racist, classist, Garbage Pail Kid/Michelin Man hybrid in the arms of another. I wouldn’t be nervous about Gingrich cheating on me not because of his character, but because I would find it inconceivable that any other woman would find him attractive. One is just a fluke.  But, shockingly enough, it was Newt who wanted to have an open marriage. Well, that’s not fair, he wanted to have a mistress and cheat on his wife, but when he finally admitted to cheating on his wife, he asked for an open marriage to accommodate what was then a six-year-long affair.

See the video here.

The GOP Debate and the Worst Segue Ever From Martin Luther King Day

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originally posted on The Nation

One of the best, and most telling, parts of last night’s debate took place before the debate even started. In all fairness, it’s already really awkward to hold a debate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the last state to acknowledge the day as a federal holiday (in 2000). On top of that, there’s the whole ideological antithesis between King on the one hand and Fox News and the GOP candidates on the other. And then, add to that killer combo a candidate who doesn’t want to help “blah” people, a candidate who actually voted against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday and would have (his words not mine) voted against the civil rights bill and… I could go on, but I’d literally be here all day. Perhaps nothing captured the awkwardness and inappropriateness of the when-and-where of the GOP debate more than the painfully awkward and inappropriate segue from acknowledging Martin Luther King Jr. Day to starting the debate, when moderator and Fox News host Bret Baier said,

“Today, as you know, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As we look live at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, its first year on the mall, we’re reminded of one of the many notable quotes from the late Dr. King. ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in a moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.’ This campaign has been filled with challenge and controversy. The challenges are large. Here in South Carolina, the unemployment rate is near 10 percent, well above the national average. And on this MLK Day, unemployment in African-American communities is near 16 percent. But the controversy on the campaign trail in recent days has been about Governor Romney’s record. We are going to talk extensively about jobs, federal debt, world hotspots and social issues, but, first, let’s clear the air.”

Check out the video. The awkwardness starts at 2:25.

Top Three Right-Wingers of the Week: ‘Information’ on Newt Gingrich’s Black Father and Other Goodies

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originally posted on The Nation

The right wing is filled with hate and insanity, but every now and then someone does something that manages to shock even the most jaded observer. This week brings us three particularly over-the-top right-wing nuts. First, there’s James David Manning, a New York City pastor and birther—did I mention he’s black?—who has “inside information” about Newt Gingrich’s black father. The inside information is actually an inference based on his deductive reasoning and Gingrich’s middle name: “Newt’s real name is Newton Leroy McPherson. Nobody on the planet names their children Leroy except black people, just like nobody on the planet names their sons Hector except Hispanic people.” Newt Gingrich being “miscegenated,” as Manning puts it, by a white mother and “a liberal but educated black man” explains why Gingrich is so “erratic.” “But that ain’t all,” says the pastor, who goes on:

“Mitt Romney? His name is Willard! WILLAAAAARD! I think that he’s probably the son of a pyscho and that’s why he acts the way he acts. And I believe that Willard has some black blood in his too…. Somewhere down the line.”

Manning even hypothesizes about the circumstances under which Newt and Mitt were conceived. Demonstrating a fetish for hot rich-white-women-on-black-sleeping-car-porters romance, the man of the cloth fantasizes that

“these politicians’ and rich people’s wives used to take these long train rides and these sleeping car porters didn’t have anything to do, the women were bored…and the black sleeping car porter Leroy and Willard, they were there serving coffee and tea with their white jackets and black pants on. And Mrs. Romney and Mrs. McPherson took ’em in the sleeping car. These black men in the sleeping car.”

New Video: Mitt Romney Debates Martin Luther King

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The NRA Video on Sasha and Malia the NRA Doesn’t Want You to See

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The NRA’s callous insensitivity is truly impressive. They remain unwavering in their fanaticism, despite gun massacres that have ravaged the nation. Earlier this week, a month after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, they released an adorable app, for ages four and up, which allows you to practice shooting at coffin-shaped targets with bulls eyes over the head and chest. Yay! But yesterday, with their latest move, the NRA has really outdone itself. And that’s saying a lot.

Yesterday’s video calls Obama an elitist hypocrite because of his stance on guns in schools. Remember, after the Newtown shooting, the NRA insisted that the solution to gun violence was more guns and an armed guard in every school. Obama, however, has said that he is “skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools.” So that is the “logical” “premise” behind the video in which the omniscient (just like the NRA!) narrator asks the viewer:

Are the president’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. Protection for their kids, and gun-free zones for ours.

Read more and see the video at Jezebel

Personhood Starts With Paul Ryan’s Jizz

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Wisconsin Congressman, Romney running mate, and widow’s peak cultivator Paul Ryan has again cosponsored the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which would grant “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood” to a “one-celled human embryo,” even before implantation. The only problem is that a one-celled human embryo doesn’t exist. Looks like this bill needs a solid edit — no problem, that’s what we’re here for.

As Robin Marty at RH Reality Check puts it:

Let’s just be clear that there is no such thing as a “one-celled” embryo, because the embryonic stage follows first on the zygote or fertilized egg, which develops into a blastocyst, which then develops into an embryo… and is not “one-celled.”

Read more at Jezebel