Best Legal Letter Ever

In typical bully fashion, the 2016 Republican Nominee for President of the United States had his lawyers write to the New York Times threatening a lawsuit for publishing claims of the Nominee's sexual assaults. The response back from the lawyers for the Times is, perhaps, the best legal letter ever written. Here it is:

Republican Field Update - End of June (well, at least the end of the newt)

Bachman officially in and it will be interesting to watch her make the play for the Sarah crowd. She's only made a few official gaffes like mixing John Wayne with John Wayne Gacy. And she in under increasing scrutiny for farm income from the family farm taking farm subsidies, her husband's counseling practice that qualified for Medicare patients, and questions about any government support of her foster-care parenting. Not that any of these things are bad. They're not. But they are part of the evil government she wants to be President of.

Sarita Palinista is not in (and won't be) but she continues her celebrity events when she feels like it. Josh Green at the Atlantic points out that her popularity could take a severe blow when she does announce that she is not running. I still think she'll be able to pull off some kind of speech from the balcony of the Casa Rosada.

Republican Debate June 13, 2011: Live Blog (attempted)

Here we are giving this a try again. John King with CNN is excited. Santorum is peppy in his intro ending abruptly with his 7 children. Bachman also lists 5 children and 23 fosters (nobody will beat that). Gingrich invoking the "Obama Depression."Romney also has kids and kids-in-law but why the self-deprecation about getting it right? Oops Paul just beat Bachman having delivered THOUSANDS of babies. Pawlenty is married and then he sort of lost me (cuz he's kinda boring). Cain- it's about his grandkids too because he's a problem solver.

NH old guy gets to ask a question about jobs. Hispanic guy apparently. Republicans don't have plans for jobs. What are those plans? Mr. Cain? get the economy "boosted" government has put all the money in the caboose. Put the right fuel in the engine which is the private sector.

Republicans Need Better Candidates (and California Dreaming)

Daniels out. Pawlenty officially in. Daniels is out apparently because he and his family simply did not want the scrutiny and constant criticism. He and his wife have had some difficulties which really shouldn't be anyone's business, but it is. And here I am on a visit to California where the recent Governator proves that point. Maybe Pawlenty is in because he is so boring there is nothing to worry about.

Christie still swears he's not going to run. Same for Jeb Bush. (If  you ever saw the movie "W," which was really pretty good and even somewhat sympathetic to ol' W, there was a theme there that the "wrong brother" became president).

Huckabee & Trump Out - I'm Two for Two!

Yep, I called it. Well, I knew Trump was in it for the exposure and he got exposed pretty bad by the President. I thought Huckabee might keep his FOX gig if he wasn't interested in going after Romney again. And I still  think Palin and Gingrich will still drop. Palin is also in for the self-promotion, and I thought the newt was too. He is in officially and will stay for a while until he fails in the primaries. I could be wrong because he just may be a little too crazy to figure out.

A friend sent me this link from Slate which is a little disconcerting. It points out that Huckabee was the only one in the potential Republican field who actually believed in government and did not buy into the unrealistic Libertarian anti-government philosophy which I think is a potential risk to our of, by, and for the people Union. I'm not sure I believed in the economic populist, socially conservative activist government Huckabee was promoting, but he did have some acceptance of the social protections for the elderly and poor. If that is "compassion," I guess the Slate article works.

Boring Republicans for 2012

I heard Chris Matthews of MSNBC say a while back, "Perhaps it's God's will that Obama not have a reasonable opponent out there." The weakness of the Republican field was demonstrated last night with the first candidates debate. While President Obama, newly perceived as cool, tough and decisive (for obvious reasons), was congratulating Special Operations Forces, five of the Republican candidates met in South Carolina for the first debate of this upcoming campaign. Did anybody watch?

Political junkie that I am, I had it on for a while, but it was so boooooring. I did hear Pawlenty's masterfully practiced line on Romneycare, "Well, Governor Romney isn't here to defend himself . . ." and went on with essentially trashing him anyway. Herman Cain was there, the right's favorite African-American, at least since Michael Steele. They were joined by Libertarian hero Ron Paul (apparently, he's not abdicating in favor of his heir this round), culture warrior Santorum, and a competing Republiterian, Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, pot-smoker, and my one-time dinner companion.

There's a Birther Born Every Minute!

Donald Trump. Come on, people! You have to know he is in this for the self-promotion. There never was a greater huckster since P.T. Barnum himself! I mean no disrespect, but it does tend to link the Birthers and the targets of Barnum's hucksterism. The donald sure knows his audience, though. What is it? Over 50% of Republicans who are Birthers or have doubts? ("If only Obama would just prove he wasn't born in Kenya, Indonesia and every other square foot of the planet, then we might believe he was actually born in Hawaii!")

The donald isn't the only one, either. It always is an odd collection of characters when a party's nomination for president is wide open. But never (that I can think of) has there been such a menagerie of craziness. And not just the donald is using the presidential field for self-boosterism.