Shocking News: No One Liked Ted Cruz at Prnceton & Harvard
Blogger Josh Marshall went to Princeton at the same time as Ted Cruz. Marshall has no memory of Cruz. Marshall asked friends that went to Harvard at that time what they thought of Cruz. Apparently, the words "asshole" and "jerk come up when describing Cruz.
My friend [redacted] went to Harvard Law with Ted. [He] says that Ted shocked people when during the first week, he announced that he was creating a study group and only people with high GPAs from the Big Three Ivies could apply for admission. In short, Ted managed to come off as a pompous asshole at Harvard Law.
Cruz's social skills haven't improved since he became a Senator. It is bad when Chris Wallace and Karl Rove go on Fox News and say Congressional Republicans are pissed at Cruz.
First, the IRS Commissioner in place during this entire drama was a Bush administration holdover. That’s a fairly big strike against the credibility of any high level conspiracy to crackdown on Republican leaning groups. Marco Rubio demanded that the Commissioner resign this morning. But that guy already resigned last November. The position is currently vacant, with an acting Commissioner currently in place. More pointedly, the main takeaway from the as-yet-unreleased but widely leaked IRS IG report is that the woman in charge of the division overseeing nonprofits told the people in Cincinnati to stop when she was first informed of it in 2011. That seems pretty telling on the question of whether the people in Cincinnati were doing this at the direction of people in Washington.
Here is the Rubio statement.
"I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public."
Rubio spokesman Alex Conant had to do some spinning and say that Rubio was referring to acting IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller. Miller is only serving in the role because a permanent commissioner hasn't been confirmed. The targeting of Tea Party groups occurred when Bush appointee Douglas H. Shulman was IRS commissioner. Rubio's statement makes no sense. Rubio just wanted to play to partisan politics without bothering to get his facts straight. This is the sign of a lightweight politician.
The AP is reporting that the Senate Dems have come to a tentative deal, which drops the Public Option from the senate health care bill. What is in its place, if anything, is not clear.
The Associated Press lacks details about why the public option was dropped. What is clear is Majority Leader Harry Reid ruled ruled cloture to pass the public option with less than 60 votes. This is a tactical mistake. I understand the Senate health care bill would be debated and voted on in piece meal. I actually think that is a great idea.
The good news is Sen. Ben Nelson's anti-abortion amendment failed on a 54 to 45 vote. Nelson said the amendment's failure "makes it harder to be supportive." Like Nelson was actually going to vote for the public option. Nelson just wanted to get his amendment in.
What is clear is President Barack Obama's lack of leadership on the public option. Mainly, the President and Rahm Emanuel have been trying to kill the public option. As much as people such as Kenneth Quinnell, want to have you believe the fantasy that Obama supported the public option. Obama told Senate Democrats he prefers a trigger. Obama spoke to Senate Democrats this weekend and didn't once mention the public option or Nelson's anti-abortion amendment. Obama is not conserned with protecting women reproductive rights or creating a competitive health care market. Obama wants a political victory and to increase business of the health insurance industry. The lobbying money from insurance companies will help Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
Cenk Uygur blasts Obama for not lobbying for the public option. Is this the change Democratic voters were expecting?
This afternoon, Jay Rockefeller said that the new proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for those who are 133% to 150% above the federal poverty line was dropped during a meeting of key legislators this morning. “I was sad this morning,” Rockefeller told me and a few other reporters. “We walked in, and it was 133[%] to 140[%], then it’s staying at 133... So we didn’t get anything.”
Kent Conrad said Governors did not want to pay funding into Medicaid. Considering the current economic situation that is understandable.
Update: the opt-out public option is gone. Medicare will be expanded for people 55 to 64 for people 133 percent above the poverty line. The idea is to reduce cost. We just added people to the Medicare rolls that can't afford health insurance. There are good arguments to add these people for medical and humanitarian reasons. The Senate is not addressing rising health care cost. That was the whole point of the debate. This is a victory for the health industry lobbyists.
I am not even going to waste my time discussing the trigger.
Josh Marshall suspects the national conservative base of the Republican Party will hurt Charlie Crist's Senate campaign.
If Democrats have a bad night tomorrow night it will be a real headache for the White House. But I don't think there's any question that the big loser as of this moment is Charlie Crist and, potentially, a string of other moderate Republicans angling for 2010 nominations. Already yesterday, folks on the right who were most vocal in pushing Hoffman's candidacy were explicitly pointing to Crist as their next target and seeming genuinely confident they could deny him the Florida GOP senate nomination and hand it to Marco Rubio.
Another winner is Kendrick Meek. The Obama wave has produced more registered Democratic voters than Republicans. A Quinnipiac University poll has Meek beating Rubio in a 36 percent to 33 percent. The same poll shows Crist beating Meek. Crist has the ability to pull Democratic voters. Rubio's harshly rightwing candidacy and mudslinging tactics are a sign of a candidate unconfident with his message. Rubio falsely accused Crist and Obama of supporting homeless sex offenders. Voters are wise to Swiftboating tactics.
Short answer: Rubio is the candidate Meek wants. Alex Sink's gubernatorial will help Democratic turnout. Bill McCollum's lackluster fundraising has opened talk about State Sen. Paula Dockery running in the Republican primary. An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows only 20 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. Rubio believes America is a right of center country. Someone should remind him Democrats won the popular vote in 4 of the last 5 presidential elections.
Talking Points Memo has audio of the Mark Sanford Associated Press interview. It is painfully obvious Sanford is still in love with Maria Chapur. Sanford said his relationship with Chapur is more important than becoming president. It would be shocking if he and Jenny Sanford are able to reconcile their marriage.
Of course, when you're a middle-aged man facing the collapse of your life's work and abandoning hope of being with the woman you call your 'soul mate' rational decision making or a clearly considered plan may be too much to expect. But it does seem like there are two guys here. One saying he wants to serve out his responsibility to his state and reconcile with his wife and another using the press to broadcast a free form love poem to the girlfriend in Argentina.
Sanford has been more eloquent talking about his love sick feelings than the stimulus package. The latter version of Sanford was another boring anti-government conservative drone. Sanford 2.0 is a politically damaged and flawed human. Too many in politics behave like bad dinner theatre performers. Sanford is a horrible governor but he did do a service with his fall from grace.
Update: Cenk Uygur offers his take on the Sanford interview. Uyger has a theory the women Sanford was dancing with were prostitutes.
Ben Smith discovers Sanford was suppose to be in Argentina for 10 days.
12 Republican State Senator have signed a letter urging Sanford to resign.
"If, as Dick Cheney's daughter says, Cheney's torture crusade is like Al Gore global warming activism, can't he hurry up and form his pro-torture organization and shoot his movie?"
John Marshall interviews Nobel prize-winning economist John Stiglitz explains Barack Obama's bailout plan. Stiglitz wants greater oversight and punishment to the bankers for not playing by the rules.
Stiglitz calls the government owners of bailout banks with "no control." It is a foolish policy to give billions to banks and then not have a say on how that money is spent. A perfect example is lending institutions using bailout money to lobby for more bailout money. I would laugh if the economic situation wasn't so dire.
Sec of Treasury Tim Geithner unveiled the Financial Stability Plan.
The core program elements include:
A new Capital Assistance Program to help ensure that our banking institutions have sufficient capital to withstand the challenges ahead, paired with a supervisory process to produce a more consistent and forward-looking assessment of the risks on banks' balance sheets and their potential capital needs. A new Public-Private Investment Fund on an initial scale of up to $500 billion, with the potential to expand up to $1 trillion, to catalyze the removal of legacy assets from the balance sheets of financial institutions. This fund will combine public and private capital with government financing to help free up capital to support new lending. A new Treasury and Federal Reserve initiative to dramatically expand – up to $1 trillion – the existing Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility (TALF) in order to reduce credit spreads and restart the securitized credit markets that in recent years supported a substantial portion of lending to households, students, small businesses, and others. An extension of the FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program to October 31, 2009. A new framework of governance and oversight to help ensure that banks receiving funds are held responsible for appropriate use of those funds through stronger conditions on lending, dividends and executive compensation along with enhanced reporting to the public.
"Legacy assets" translates into garbage assets. I am curious how the Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility will jump start lending. Banks do not want to lend and the White House needs to get credit moving. Immovable object meets the unstoppable force. The White House and banks are in for a fight.
Private capital could later replace federal government capital. What Geithner is addressing is stocks. The idea of the Treasury Department on the hook for an Enron-like company is frightening.
Our expectation is that the capital provided under the CAP will be in the form of a preferred security that is convertible into common equity, with a dividend rate to be specified and a conversion price set at a modest discount from the prevailing level of the institution's stock price up to February 9th, 2009. This security would serve as a source of "contingent" common equity, convertible solely at the issuer's option for an extended period of time.
The instrument will be designed to give banks the incentive to replace USG-provided capital with private capital or to redeem the USG capital when conditions permit. In addition, with supervisory approval, banks will be allowed to apply to exchange the existing CPP preferred stock for the new CAP instrument.
The Public-Private Investment Fund will aqquire garbage real estate assets. This is allow companies to reduce bad assets. The federal government may end up buy many forclosed homes. There could be a return when the real estate market rebounds.
The Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility will provide loans for small businesses and college students. I am rather uneasy about TALF getting into credit cards. We want credit moving. Not more people in debt.
The Financial Stability Plan will have inspector general and Congressional oversight.
Going forward, the Financial Stability Plan will call for a new level of transparency, accountability and conditionality with tougher standards for firms receiving exceptional assistance. These stronger conditions were informed by recommendations made by formal oversight groups – the Congressional Oversight Panel, the Special Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office -- as well as Congressional banking oversight leaders.
Use of government-provided capital and impact on lending
Recipients of capital provided under the CAP will be required to submit a plan for how they intend to use this capital to preserve and strengthen their lending capacity – specifically, they will commit to increase lending activities above levels relative to what would have been possible without government support. This plan will be submitted during the application process, and the Treasury Department will make these plans public upon distribution of the capital investment to the firm.
These firms must submit to Treasury monthly or quarterly reports on their lending by category. This report will also include a comparison to estimates of what their lending would have been in the absence of government support. For public companies, similar reports will be filed on an 8K simultaneous with the filing of their 10Q and 10K reports. All these reports will be put on the Treasury website.
The oversight is good. The risk is great. I'm trying to figure this out and economics is my beat. Paul Krugman doesn't know what to think. Wow.
Josh Marshall details how John McCain promises to balanced the budget and victory in Iraq in his first term. McCain doesn't provide details on how he plans to do this. McCain's rhetoric reminds me of Richard Nixon's secret plan to get America out of Vietnam. We now know that Nixon didn't have a plan. That didn't stop Tricky Dick from pandering to voters.
The federal deficit is at $443 billion and McCain wants to continue the Bush tax cuts and most likely push for new cuts. Consumers are spending and making less. All indications point to McCain continuing troop presence in Iraq and increasing military spending. The deficit can not be brought down with an economic downturn, war and tax cuts. The Bush administration tried and it didn't work.
Senator McCain has been dishonest about Barack Obama's tax plan. Obama's website states, "THE FACTS: BARACK OBAMA IS ACTUALLY PROPOSING A MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT." Obama will roll back the Bush tax cuts on people making $250,000 or more a-year. If Obama is serious about cutting the deficit than he, like the Clinton administration's first term, will have to renege on the middle class tax cut. Obama hasn't revealed a serious deficit reduction plan. My sense is Obama is willing to do as much economic pandering as McCain. Obama's flip flop on Social Security is a perfect example.
This election will decide if Robert Rubin or Phil Gramn becomes the next Sec. of Treasury. The former is one of the best economic minds in America's history. The latter is a crackpot.
"“The reality is (Clinton's) so-called tax cut is basically giving money to people who largely don't pay taxes, so that it's really spending rather than a tax cut..."
"Has anyone ever noticed that we live in the only country in the world where all the poor people are fat?"
Gramn is also a strong proponent of the flat tax. The Church of Scientology came up with the idea. This tells you what kind of economic thinking of Gramn.
Robert Rubin is one of the major architects behind Bill Clinton's deficit reduction plan. Rubin also served as Sec. of the Treasury and on the National Economic Council. No on-the-job training would be needed for Rubin. McCain's and Obama's choices for Sec. of Treasury candidates says much about their judgement.
A prize that will be less sought than the Razzies.
Josh Marshall announced the first nominees of the Golden Dukes. The award was named after Duke Cunningham. The nominees are picked from different categories of corruption. Alberto Gonzales and Larry Craig received several nominations. Pushing Rope sends a healtfelt congratulations to all the nominees because we feel the candidates are getting the attention they deserve. Good job!
Jim Webb gives a powerful speech against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment. The legislation
We haven’t had one hearing on this. I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee, I’m on the Armed Services Committee. We are about to vote on something that may fundamentally change the way the United States views the Iranian military and we haven’t had one hearing. This is not the way to make foreign policy. It’s not the way to declare war.
Lieberman, on the Senate floor, beats the war drums. The man sees violence as a solution to all foreign policy problems.
First, it will send a clear message—both to the regime in Teheran, and to our allies in the region—that the United States will not stand idly by and allow Iranian-backed terrorists to kill hundreds and hundreds of American soldiers, and dominate Iraq. It acknowledges what our military commanders and top diplomats are telling us, which is that, regardless of what we might desire here in Washington, the government in Tehran has made a decision to wage a proxy war against us—and we must respond.
Our amendment states that it should be the policy of the United States to stop the violent activities and the destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as its foreign facilitators like Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies.
Our amendment also recognizes that thwarting Iran’s campaign of terror must be among the crucial considerations for any plan for the transition and draw-down of our forces in Iraq. As General Petraeus warned us in his testimony, the threat of Iran may in the long run prove an even greater danger to the stability of Iraq than al Qaeda. We cannot ignore it.
For that reason, the amendment also calls on the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization and place the IRGC on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. This is the organization that is responsible for the murder of our soldiers. They are launching terrorist attacks against our troops—and so we should treat them as terrorists.
Democrats should not vote for this garbage just so they look tough on national security. Any foreign policy legislation with Lieberman's name isn't worth wiping your ass with. Money qoute:
(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.
Lieberman wants war. Nevermind that are troops are bogged down in Iraq and the United States would be waging a three front war on countries that border each other. Joementem want to get his war on and he will let nothing stop him.
Josh Marshall does a good job taking apart Mitt Romney's attack on Barack Obama. Romney was interviewed by Sean Hannity about Obama's statement on too many civilian casualities from air raids in Afghanistan. Obama contends more troops are needed on the ground in Afghanistan. NATO forces have become too reliant on air raids because of the lack of ground forces.
Hannity called Obama's statement false. Romney made claim that the Senator's statements are undermining troops. Marshall shows a clip of President Bush and Hamid Karzai agreeing that civilian casualties need to be lowered. Spencer Ackerman interviewed Afghanistan's Ambassador to the United States. Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad stressed the need for more ground forces and less bombing raids.
Romney's statement didn't surprise me. Much like Rudy Giuliani, his foreign policy is about looking tough and attacking Democrats. There is nothing serious about Romney's foreign policy agenda. It's the sandbox mentality of a kindergartener. One needs to look no further than Romney's statement that his sons are patriotically serving America by working on their father's presidential campaign.
"The good news is, we have a volunteer Army and that's the way we're going to keep it. My sons are adults. They've chosen not to serve in the military in active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. ... And one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."
Josh Marshall strikes on a comment made by John McCain at yesterday's Iowa debate. The Maverick looked into his magic 8 ball and predicted:
"I also firmly believe that the challenge of the 21st century is the struggle against radical Islamic extremism. It is a transcendent issue. It is hydra-headed. It will be with us for the rest of the century."
Think long and hard about that statement John McCain firmly states that America will be fighting Al-Qaeda and like-minded Islamic terrorist groups for another 93 years. Marshall makes a valid point how it is difficult for people to predict a year into the future. Let alone decades. McCain has no expertise in Middle Eastern culture or as a futurist. That doesn't stop him from stating that America will be in be in a state of perpetual war. The longest war in history was fought between Britain and France 1337 to 1453. No war has been near that length.
Marshall writes about about the length of political movements hostile to America.
Consider too that fascism, which was no walk in the park, was around for roughly a quarter century (I'm a 'small fascism' man: the copycats in South America in the latter 20th century don't count and I don't think even Franco's regime in Spain does out past the 1950s). And communism, which also had a pretty good run, was around for about three-quarters of a century.
Will Al-Qaeda have an endless supply of suicide attackers for another 93 years? It's doubtful. There are other unanswered questions about how the Middle East will change socially or economically over the course of the century. It is imperative that Muslims have free speech, human right rights are not educated in ideologically-driven mosques and have the opportunity to make a decent wage. Making the quality of like better for Muslims is a good starting point to halt to next generation of terrorists.
I'm curious as how McCain can think the streets of Baghdad are safe, but we will never see the end of warfare in the Middle East in our lifetime. McCain actual believes the silliness he utters. The Middle East is a physics problem that goes over McCain's head. He still hasn't figured out that that Al-Qaeda wasn't in Iraq before the war he voted to give President Bush the authorization to wage.
"His fanbase is entirely netroots... they're not frequent voters if ever. A lot of the people I spoke to never voted for a candidate, but this guy turned me on."
Garcia makes the mistake of thinking Ron Paul's Myspace friends are netroots. They are not. The Republican Party, and it's current presidential candidates, have yet to provide anything resembling on organization. Gene Smith is also known as Gatordem. He has worked on Democratic campaigns in the Tampa area for years. Boy wonder Ray Seaman is highly active in the Florida Democratic Party. These are people that hardly can be accused of rarely voting.
Garcia and Jim Johnson have no idea what the netroots is about because they aren't apart of it. Progressive bloggers don't give a shit about Myspace polls. It is about making the media cover issues, raising awareness and money for candidates.
Getting Trent Lott to step down as Senate Majority Leader was a result of action taken by progressive bloggers. The Note was the only news site to mention Lott's racist comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party. No network broadcasts covered the story. Josh Marshall and Duncan Black read The Note and wrote about the Lott story. Both correctly guessed that John Kerry's expensive haircut would get more media exposure. Other bloggers then covered Lott. The attention was so great that Lott then because a story. The rest is history.
Howard Dean's netroots campaign made him the frontrunner because of exposure and online fundraising. Dean proved that the internet can't stop a candidate from embarrassing himself on television. It did give him the potential tools to win. Democracy for America was created from the Dean campaign. The site encourages Democrats and activist to meetup with other likeminded individuals to raise money and GOTV. Not vote in online polls. Ron Paul has nothing resembling the netroots. For Garcia to call it that is a mistake.
What the netroots does is even the playing field for Democrats. For too long the Donkeys had nothing to compete with corporate fundraising and the right-wing echo chamber of talk radio and Fox News.
How do I know all this? I am part of the netroots. I used netroots organization to draw attention to certain stories. The police-handling of the University of Tampa rape and Rachel Moran's offensive post against the homeless are examples. I also was in contact with the Kathy Castor campaign last election and work with the 527 group Florida Progressive Coalition.
Short answer: we could play six degrees of separation with all my netroots connections.
George W. Bush has commutted Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence. This is not a pardon. Libby will not serve his jail term. He still has a criminal record and will have to pay a $250,000 fine. Personally, I was starting to think that Bush would let Libby rot.
This case has generated significant commentary and debate. Critics of the investigation have argued that a special counsel should not have been appointed, nor should the investigation have been pursued after the Justice Department learned who leaked Ms. Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak. Furthermore, the critics point out that neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation. Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.
Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place.
Both critics and defenders of this investigation have made important points. I have made my own evaluation. In preparing for the decision I am announcing today, I have carefully weighed these arguments and the circumstances surrounding this case. Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
Yes, Bush's plan to go to the Moon was something no previous POTUS ever thought of. Very visionary stuff.
This is being treated in the press as splitting the difference, an elegant compromise. But it is the least justifiable approach. The President has decided that the sentencing guidelines and the opinion of the judge don't cut it.
The only basis for this decision is that Libby is the vice president's friend, the vice president rules the president and this was the minimum necessary to keep the man silent.
Perjury in defense of wartime deception is now okay, as far as the president is concerned. I'm surprised by Bush's chutzpah. I retained some minimal respect. No longer. We now know full well what his beliefs are: the law is for other people, not himself, his friends or his apparatchiks.
Isn't this the 874 time that Sullivan has finally lost all respect for Bush?
The saddest thing is we are bound to hear, in the next few weeks, Bush say he will punish anyone who broke the law in the attorney purge scandal. The President has poor approval ratings because he never does what he promises he will do. Be it Iraq or how he would maintain the surplus. He is like a ball player that talks a good game in the locker room, but plays like shit come game time.
So Bush is aiming for a 1% approval rating, right?
A 1 percent approval rating is impossible. No matter what inexcusable deed Bush does; there will always be people who will support him because he keeps them safe from gay-loving Mexican terrorists.
Jerry Falwell died today. There is no way to talk about the man without mentioning the horrible things he did to polarize the country. Falwell was a Christian conservative of double standards. He said Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky was far worse than the Mark Foley scandal.
Falwell: But this president -- it's like this Mark Foley thing -- that's not going to discourage any evangelicals I know from voting. We lived through Bill Clinton, and this situation with Foley is minuscule in comparison.
Falwell and Pat Robertson blamed 9-11 on the ACLU, homosexuals and the pro-choice movement. Falwell praised people who were advocating the lynching of the ACLU.
PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.
JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes.
JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.
JERRY FALWELL: Amen. Pat, did you notice yesterday? The ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, the People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang 'God Bless America' and said 'let the ACLU be hanged'. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time- calling upon God.
The most damning example of Falwell's callousness at Ground Zero after the 9-11 attacks.
After those comments, Kuo asked whether Karl Rove still wanted to let Falwell attend the National Service.
Even while Ground Zero was still burning, politics still mattered.
Rove let Falwell attend, as long as he stayed off-camera. While others wept, Kuo says, Falwell laughed about something with another conservative leader. Spotting Barbara Bush, Falwell remarked on how "frumpy" she looked.
I hope God's passes kinder judgement than Falwell did to others.
Update: Josh Marshall catches MSNBC getting punked out by the running a bogus Falwell piece from the parody site Whitehouse.org.
Update: A gay man writes about growing up in Falwell's church.
