Robert D. Novak, The Houston Chronicle, January 31, 2008 As John McCain neared his momentous primary election victory in Florida after a ferocious campaign questioning his conservative credentials, right-wingers buzzed over word that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative. In response, Sen. McCain recalled saying no such thing and added Alito was a "magnificent" choice. In fact, multiple sources confirm his negative comments about Alito nine months ago. McCain, as the "straight talk" candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes cannot remember exactly. Elements of the Republican Party's right wing, uncomfortable with McCain as their prospective presidential nominee, surfaced the Alito comments long after the fact for two contrasting motives. One was a desperate effort to keep McCain from winning in Florida. The other was to get the party's potential nominee on record about key issues before he is nominated. The latter has no pretensions of changing McCain's firmly held non-conservative positions on such issues as campaign finance reform and global warming. Rather, they want two assurances: first, that McCain would veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress; second, that he would not emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberal justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter. That is the background of conservative John Fund's Wall Street Journal online column the day before Florida voted. He wrote that McCain "has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito because 'he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.' " In a conference call with bloggers that day, McCain said, "I don't recall a conversation where I would have said that." He was "astonished" by the Alito quote, he said, and repeatedly tells town meetings, "We're going to have justices like Roberts and Alito." Read More Here

BartCop.com Volume 2108 - Goodbye, Rudy Tuesday In Today's Tequila Treehouse...

	Bush's 935 Iraq Lies
	Nader: I'll help the GOP?
	Pets are Bush Victims
	Obama - too Easy?
	Billy Random Says...
	Obama snub is News?
	Hillary's Machine
	Bush's Wreckage
	Marilyn Helps Amy

GOP – Three Blind Mice and a Pariah: Wall Street and the Corporate Elite that own the Republican Party decided to cover their bet this year with four candidates -- John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson – all attached to the same plutocratic teat, and pre-approved to work in the best interest of the bogus free-traders, privatization pirates, WTO scoundrels, Enron CEOs, and offshore tax dodgers that the Bush Boy has served so well the past seven years at the expense of the American people as a whole. St. Ronnie of the Twenty-First Century Thompson had to go after it was discovered that, unlike Reagan with his years of quips and quotes cribbed from Warner Bros. and Republic Studios scripts, slack-jawed Fred in person was a better soporific than Sominex. Now Rudy has joined Fred off the campaign trail, the Giuliani-fawning Big Media incorrectly casting his fate as the result of his failure to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire; as usual, the DeeCee Punditrocracy got it wrong: Rudy did campaign some in both IA and NH but his problem was just that – the more he campaigned, the less voters liked him. Mayor Nosferatu might have been better off driving around with a cardboard cutout holding a 'Hey, I'm America's Mayor: Remember 9/11 and Vote for Me!' sign and keeping his mouth shut. (And leave us not forget what a staggering loss this is for Fox News – Rudy was their guy.) Now the GOP field is pared down to McCain, Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Huckleberry is fading fast, elbowed to the side in debates; and Paul is such a media pariah he's at the point where even though he keeps winning those post-debate call-in polls by large margins, the Corporate Media Marionettes derisively hoot and cackle at the results of their own polls. (I can't remember this ever occurring with these call-in polls before.) So, the GOP candidate for 2008 will be either crazy warmongering corporatist McCain or corporatist warmongering crazy-man Romney. Either one will stay in Iraq killing more of our troops, probably start something with Iran, go deeper into debt providing tax cuts to the wealthy, and further the ruination of America while serving the agenda of the multi-national bandits who are underwriting their candidacies – they'll essentially be Bush without the fake Texas twang. (BTW, the Matthews Curse is still in effect; Tweety Bird effused embarrassingly over the manliness and leadership of both Rudy and Fred. Chris' latest crush is John McCain – a good sign Cap'n Crunch is headed to electoral doom if he nabs the nomination, thank the Lawd.) Whoever the GOP candidate is, they'll be leading a party that's fractionalizing now that it's tasted defeat, an economy that's badly broken, wars that we aren't winning, and shackled to the worst, most disliked and incompetent US president in modern history; they must either run against him, and write off large sections of the Republican base, or run with him and incur the wrath of the majority -- either way, it's hard to see how they can win the next election, unless liberal Democrats and independents stay home. Dems – And Then There Were Two: After a valiant effort, populist former Sen. John Edwards, following on the heels of Dennis Kucinich, dropped out of the race for president January 30th, no doubt noticing there aren't any states on Super Tuesday he can win. Edwards needed a break anyway – including his run as Kerry's Veep in '04, he has essentially been campaigning for about six years now. (Mike Gravel is still technically in the hunt, but his campaign was last seen orbiting in the asteroid belt out near Mars.) Edwards, like Kucinich, has been marginalized by the Big Media since Iowa, and it was obvious they wanted to bring this down to a two-person race, Hillary or Obama. Well, they've gotten their wish. I won't get into parsing the flaws and strengths of H and O; that's not the purpose of this diatribe. The point here is that either of these two would be a better president than any of the top Republicans and, as Bartcop has said, we have to agree to pull together behind whoever becomes the Democratic Party nominee. I realize that some progressives are disappointed Edwards or Dennis didn't get the nod, but now is no time throw a fit and sit at home or vote for a third party to 'teach them a lesson' – there is no viable third party candidate this year and our country can't afford another four years of disastrous Republican rule. It's a shame we didn't get a puppy for Christmas, but taking a nap on the couch election day, or checking the box for a third party, is the same as a vote for the GOP. If Hillary or Barack keep even half their promises, we'll be in better shape than if McCain or Mitt keep theirs.

The FairTax Campaign Rocks the Boat! What a thrilling time it is as our idea for a better nation finally starts getting traction everywhere. While those threatened with extinction—federal tax lobbyists and tax policy experts—have begun throwing the kitchen sink at the FairTax, the public is also getting a lot smarter about how the income tax system hurts America. The Pen is Mightier than the Sword (or the smear) FairTax supporters have taken up their pens and are commenting online, sending letters to the editor and raising the FairTax flag wherever they can. A few writers have been making a huge difference and every supporter is invited to take up the pen—or the keyboard—and fight for the FairTax. Every day sees a new letter to the editor or web posting defining the 67,500 pages of income tax regulations, the effects of the current tax system on the “Made in America” label and the benefits of a fair, simple and transparent national tax system. Tax policy was once the exclusive domain of Washington, DC experts who have jealously guarded their elevated status, spun the truth of how the arcane details of the tax code work, helped Congress hide the real effects and size of federal taxes and stoked the political fires to pit citizen against citizen. That day is coming to an end because of the FairTax. They don't like the idea of a simple tax system, of course, and they don’t much care for citizens learning the "secrets" of the dysfunctional income system. The more educated the public becomes; the harder it is for politicians and their handlers to manipulate the truth--and the more popular the FairTax becomes.