First off, I’m sorry for my lack of involvement in the Boomunity, but I was incredibly busy at work making up for time I was taking off to go on job interviews, but it all paid off and I now have a wonderful new job working for an awesome local non-profit here in Philly. But even with the craziness at the old job and the first few days at the new job, I couldn’t be kept at bay from commenting on the circus which is Meet the Press with a dash of insanity and clowniness provided by Sen. Man on Dog and the son of the former governor of Pennsylvania…
Is Tim Russert even part of “The Media” anymore? I’m not sure this should be categorized as such, but what the hell.
I’ve been busy lately and I’ll be getting busier, but that didn’t prevent me from watching the Casey-Santorum debate on Meet the Press on Sunday. Being busy did prevent me from posting ahead of time and watching it during it’s initial 10.30a airing, but I caught it at 10p and didn’t forget to do so. I hope others did too. Not to have learned anything or to have seen either candidate show themselves as valiant representatives of this state of Pennsylvania. Rather, to see the shit that is left over in the political system today. Representing the two sides [and of course, there are ONLY two sides to any debate] we had on the Right, Sen. Man on Dog who is so fucking crazy I don’t know where to begin, but as our governor, the Hoagiemeister himself proclaimed, that fucker delivers for PA like a motherfucker. And on the Right-of-Center, we had PA Treasurer Junior Casey who is so boring, I was eager to have him stop yapping so that Man on Dog could say something completely batshit crazy again. Now, onto my version of a recap and yes, a whole shitload of cursing will follow, this politics shit ain’t for the feint of heart nor ear. The full transcript is available here.
First off, let me describe the scene. There was Mr. Potato Head [Russert] sitting there with so much orange-red faux-tan makeup that he looked like he was about to explode. His Peter Griffin head popping out of his shirt which was fastened with a green and blue diagonally striped tie. Junior was seated furthest from the camera with a new haircut, short all over, with a light blue, weak, tie. Man on Dog looked like he’s let his hair grow out a bit, not as put together as normal, with a blood red tie.
The forty-five minutes of slapstick comedy started off with a very simple question from Mr. Potato Head to Junior: If you had known then what you know now, would you have supported the invasion of Iraq. It took about two minutes of muffled and bumbling stammering for Junior to not come up with a simple “Yes” or “No” to the answer. Stop trying to give some convoluted response to a simple fucking question. If I had my own television show, I’d need a shitload of insurance and a disclaimer that by coming onto my show, you put yourself in physical danger if you didn’t answer a direct question with a direct and clear cut answer. I would’ve slugged Junior four seconds into his response. His answer should’ve been “Fuck no Mr. Potato Head.” After the stammering he eventually said that if he had known then what he knew now [why the unnecessary repeating the question? It was like the old trick to buy yourself time while thinking of a lie] that he would not have supported the invasion of Iraq. He also added that he thought Rumsfeld should be replaced. The full bumbling:
MR. CASEY: Tim, on the war in Iraq, if, if, if a lot of Americans knew now—if they knew then what they know now, they would, they would have thought that this war was the war that shouldn’t have been fought based upon the misleading of this administration.
Here’s what I think has to happen in Iraq today.
MR. RUSSERT: So you would not vote for it today.
MR. RUSSERT: But in ’05 you said you’d vote for it. Would you today in ’06 vote for it?
MR. CASEY: Based upon the evidence that was presented then, yes, which I think has been—was misleading, and I think it was faulty. The intelligence was faulty.
MR. RUSSERT: But today, today is no. Today you would vote no.
MR. CASEY: Today—if we knew then what we know now, sure. I think there wouldn’t have been a vote and I think people would have changed.
What a way to start off a debate on national television. For what is supposed to be the highest priority Senate race for the Dems and the Repugs. The Dems have no message. Chroist.
I think Man on Dog mentioned something about how much of a pussy Junior was. Either that or something about him once losing a tongue ring while kissing so much ass down in the Beltway.
Potato Head moved on to the increasing sectarian violence in Iraq. Man on Dog went on and on about how Iran is behind it all and that they’re the ones stoking the sectarian fire in Iraq. He said that Iran is at the heart of the problem of the entire Middle East. He said that Iran, today, has more influence in Iraq than when Saddam Hussein was in power – did he just admit that Iraq is better off with Saddam Hussein in power?!?
Potato Head turns to Junior and reads aloud all the crazy stupid things he’s said about the war. I’ll give Junior this much, he’s come a ways since the primary on Iraq, but not close to far enough. Maybe he was hardheaded before, now, he’s just plain stupid. He’s got no plan and he’s not in favor of a timeline of any sort. Man on Dog wants to drop clusterbombs of heathenish dog-fucking gay people who have been irradiated with depleted uranium on the entire Middle East.
Potato Head moved on to the crazy talk by Man on Dog recently that they had found WMD in Iraq to confuse the stupid American public further. They had found old WMD, no new ones. Man on Dog agreed that there were no new WMD in Iraq – the main [secondary, after the one about how Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks] reason for rolling into Iraq. The real reasons lie closer to BushCo running on sweet crude and that they tried to kill his daddy. Man on Dog kept on harping about how Iraq was this big threat to America and that we just had to invade while agreeing with BushCo that Iraq had “nothing to do with September 11th.”
Junior started talking about how he’d be a truly independent voice in Washington. Blech. The true independent who turns away money from Dan Savage but takes, with no hesitation, money from groups like these. Really nice. Not to say that Man on Dog is better. That idiot is just as stupidly hypocritical with his K St project involvement.
Then came the balanced budget and Social Security talk. How to balance the budget Potato Head asked. Fiscal responsibility, fiscal discipline, estate tax, repeal tax cut for top 1% and continued economic growth were Junior’s plans. Potato Head pressed for a list of programs Junior would cut to make it happen. Junior had no answer and rabid Man on Dog jumped on him for evading the question and accused him of dodging questions for the entire campaign [he has, but so has Man on Dog].
Potato Head read a quote from a paper during the Congressional campaign for Man on dog from twelve years ago about how he firmly believed that the age of eligibility for Social Security should be pushed back to at least 70 and that he’d try to push for a higher age, but didn’t think it would pass on the floor. Man on Dog noted that in the dozen years he’s served in Congress [in the House and Senate] that he had never introduced such a bill because he thinks there are better ways to solve the crisis [he still believes there’s a fucking crisis!]:
I think there’s a third option now that I have been an advocate for which my opponent opposes, and that’s personal retirement accounts. I have a three-step concrete approach to dealing with Social Security. Number one, pass the Social Security Guarantee Act, which I’m the author of, which says that if you’re born before 1950, your benefits cannot be changed and your cost of living increases are guaranteed. Number two, stop the raid introduced by Jim DeMint which says take the surplus that’s coming in right now and actually put it into individual accounts so people have ownership of this surplus instead of the money being taken and raided to pay for, for current government expenditures. So number two is to stop the raid, give people their own personal accounts that, that will actually be there to pay for them down the road. And number three, give younger workers the opportunity to have personal retirement accounts. Those personal retirement accounts will grow faster and produce more than what the government, “investment in Social Security,” thus making up the difference between the two.
So my question to Mr. Casey is, if you’re not for personal retirement accounts, which he says he’s not, how much are you going to raise their taxes? Or how much are you going to cut benefits to fix the Social Security problem?
And be specific.
Junior countered with some bumbling stuff, but he did manage to get in that there was no Social Security crisis. The only thing that just about all Dems can agree on, that there is no fucking crisis, and Junior could barely annunciate the words.
After the commercial break, Potato Head brought up the recent FDA decision to allow Plan B to be over the counter (OTC) for girls over 18. Man on Dog said that he was against it and that it could cause abortions. I’ll note here that while Asprin is supposed to relieve headaches and stuff, it can burn a hole through your liver stomach and also just plain kill you without warning. Junior said that he was in favor of the decision and said that OTC emergency contraceptives prevent unintended [he said “unwanted”] pregnancies. Now that’s good and all, but what happens if ECPs don’t work? Junior leaves the woman with no choice and wants to overturn Roe v Wade. Man on Dog would probably want to burn the woman at the stake regardless of, well, anything.
The final back and forth was about the issue of residency for Man on Dog over in Penn Hills. Man on Dog ran on the platform, back in 1990, that his opponent didn’t live in the district. He defended himself by saying that he did in fact own the house, pays taxes on the house and stays in the house spends approximately a month out of the year in the house. Yes, Man on Dog technically owns a house, but he lives in VA.
Junior had the final word and parted with his standby that Man on Dog votes 98% with Bush. Junior said very early on, or was it his smarmy Smar who said it, that this campaign wasn’t gonna be about issues [because there isn’t enough disagreement to make it so]. He wants this race to be about Man on Dog and his ass licking of BushCo. He may just pull it off. Man on Dog is that much of a fuckwad. But it’s sixty-four days before the election now and Junior is sinking like a hunk of lead. We’ll see what the pollsters say in the next couple of days after this national television appearance. Junior could’ve taken it to Man on Dog, but he’s chosen to just coast and not do anything. This is not the race to coast. But blame Ed Rendell, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Peter Buttonweiser for the predicament Democrats in PA have right now.
Who else caught the insanity on the re-airs? Judging by this post many didn’t catch [or comment] before the 10p re-air. I’m gonna be out on the job for most of Labor Day, but I’ll check in as soon as I can on the thread and the rest of the site. I miss the gang.
