Clean up the mess: re: Grover Norquist/John McCain

[realFedUp]

read this....

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/11/27/a_lobbyist_aims_at_mccain?mode=PF

A lobbyist aims at McCain...
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | November 27, 2005

The knives are falling all around him, but Grover Norquist -- antitax crusader, Republican lobbyist, and Weston native -- insists they won't fall on him.

A Norquist friend and former colleague, Jack Abramoff, is under criminal investigation for his lobbying activities, some of which involved the same Native American tribe on Norquist's client roster. The noose on Abramoff appeared to have tightened Monday when his former business partner, Michael Scanlon, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to bribe public officials and to defraud Indian tribes.

Last year, a Senate committee investigating allegations that Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes obtained e-mail traffic from ATR, but Norquist says he had not been contacted by government prosecutors in the Abramoff case. Now the conservative activist is on the warpath against Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who is leading the Senate investigation.

After ATR turned over its e-mails, Norquist charged, McCain tried to ''steal our donor list."

continued

then this on McCain from Digby:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

snip

I do not want John McCain to be the next president. But I think that he might be if he keeps this up. His greatest appeal to crossover Dems and independents is that he isn't afraid of these assholes like Grover Norquist and Tom DeLay. When you hear George Will sniffing about the "criminalization of politics" over bribery scandals and leaking of classified information, when you see a guy like John Warner embarrasingly attempt to dance on the head of a pin as he did this morning on Press The Meat, defending the indefensible, McCain looks damned good. Even to regular Democrats whose fondest wish is to see these arrogant scumbags have to eat their words.

These scandals are dealing a major blow to the corrupt GOP political machine, which is an unalloyed good thing. But it would be a shame if John McCain were the one who benefitted from it. He's long cast himself as a crusading reformer and the time is ripe for one of those. The Dems ought not let themselves be left in the lurch on that message. Instead of the smarmy "together, we can do better," we ought to be shouting "once again, the Democratic party is called on to do the patriotic thing and clean up the mess the corrupt Republican party has made with its free lunch policies and taxpayer rip-offs."

If we don't say it, McCain will win on personality alone.

continued

[acmejack]

1. I'd really like to see Grover get his comeuppance

McCain might have been an alternative before 2000. That was a very qualified might by the way!

He kissed *'s rear so hard in 04 that I lost my remaining respect for him.

[realFedUp]

14. considering Grover's so tied at the hip to Rove

he has/had so much non-elected influence in
this administration....and not in a good way
for Americans, I'm looking forward to
Wampumgate unfolding.

[kstewart33]

2. We could do far worse than McCain as prez

He's a hawk, but he has courage and common sense.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Right, we could have Bush again.

[MADem]

7. Sorry, Huggy Bear has way too many character flaws to suit me

He defines the 'flip flopper' moniker they tried to pin on Kerry. Plus, he was not a nice guy when he was younger. He may have mellowed since then, but those asshole tendencies tend to pop back out when a person is under great stress--and the Presidency, if done right, IS a stressful job.

Finally, he is getting old, has medical problems...SECDEF, maybe, if the Dem wants a crossover in the cabinet (added advantage: removes a GOP sitting senator from the Senate!) but beyond that, NO. He wouldn't get my vote, he has not earned it.

[calimary]

8. Me, too. The wife, mother, and adopted daughter parts of me will NEVER

forgive him. MY dad would NEVER have allowed me, or my mom, to be besmirched as collateral damage in any attack meant for him. But McCain went around hugging and kissing and smooching with the bastard for whose sake those smears hit his own wife and adopted daughter. FUCK HIM. IN THE HEART. Any lips that kiss bush shall NEVER kiss mine.

[MADem]

9. To say nothing of Wife #1--a classy lady, he dumped her when she was so

ill...really, no class. Carol fought like a sonofabitch to get him home from Vietnam, going on TV, doing PR, everything she could, and did not tell him in the few letters she was able to get to him about her illness (and twenty surgeries), which resulted from a horrible car accident that took four or five inches off her height (she was a model in her youth, and was banged up BAD when he got home). He married his present wife a scant month after the divorce.

And then there's the Keating Five scandal -- he was in that up to his eyeballs.

I do not fault him for the torture business in Vietnam, like some do. It's the day-to-day management of his life, the selfishness, that bothers me.

[calimary]

10. Whoa! He did a newt gingrich on her? Wow - what a moral giant.

A true paragon. :puke:

I did not know that about his first wife. Pretty shitty!!! Was she not suitably a presidential accessory to have on his arm anymore? Might be an interesting reminder to bring out in conversation with people - if his candidacy does gain viability. Because our friend newty isn't going to be able to get out from under that, either, once he makes his White House hopes official (he's already all over Iowa like a cheap suit). Nobody's gonna care about his so-called Contract On America when they're reminded of the divorce papers he thoughtfully served his wife while she was hospitalized with cancer. Because he considered her not the optimum accessory on the arm of a future president. Nice guy, 'eh? And now john mccain is revealed to have been cut from the same cloth... :grr:

It's my understanding at the moment that his health is not the greatest. It may well short-circuit any higher ambitions he has left. I'd quit while I was ahead, if it was mine to do.

[MADem]

11. She was a KNOCKOUT when she was young--a model

She did magazine covers, fashion photos, the whole bit--she was actually taller than he was. But she ended up having to have chunks of bone taken out of her legs and whatnot due to the accident, and he had NO PATIENCE, and just wanted to party all the time when he got back...after all she did to get his ass home (his daddy didn't do anything, for fear it would seem nepotistic). She won't say a word against him, though--didn't want her kids to be alienated, plus, he gave her a (for the time) OK divorce settlement, and she was so sick she could not work.

It's easy to be generous, though, when you marry a wealthy, wealthy liquor heiress who is young enough to be your daughter....

He was a real shit, too, when he worked at OLA, before he ran for Congress. Rude to the staff, a screamer.

Rumors abound that he has some serious problems yet again with skin cancer, and he is not out of the woods. Who knows, though, rumors are just that--rumors.

[realFedUp]

13. you're the kind of voter we need to give the facts about McCain to.

Hard to find Republicans with courage AND common sense,
but McCain is a conservative, through and through.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Hopefully his steadfast support of the war will cost him votes.

as well as his willingness to sacrifice his self-respect and his family for political expediency. :puke:
He is NOT such a honorable person.

[electricray]

5. Am I allowed to say...

that I'd like Norquist to meet the fate that he wishes for the federal government? Or is that incitement?

[realFedUp]

12. that might just be compassionate euthanasia

like what they do to abandoned animals not adopted
or rabid dogs that attack to kill.

[gumby]

6. I just put a Norquist indictment and conviction

(with a long sentence) at the top of my Christmas List.

Maybe it could come wrapped in a Big Red (Christmas not Commie) Bow???

[mrgorth]

15. Bottom line

We do not have anyone who can beat McCain and I could see myself voting for him over Hillary and about a dozen other DLCers. It's our own damned fault for ruining our party.

[realFedUp]

16. you are another example of why McCain's record has to be scrutinized...

nt

[mrgorth]

17. of course it should

I'm not saying McStain is my dream candidate but I actually believe half if what he says. I see Hillary as a DINO opportunist.