Before Stewart, there was Carlin

By Richard K. Barry

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

No money, no ideas: Ed Rollins on Michele Bachmann

By Michael J.W. Stickings

ABC News:

Michele Bachmann has "run out of money and ideas" and can no longer expect to win in Iowa, her former campaign manager told ABC News on Monday.

Ed Rollins, who left the campaign in September, said the Minnesota congresswoman had backed off earlier comments by her campaign that Iowa was a "must-win" state because she lacked the finances, campaign structure, and ideas to win the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

"She's still saying the same things she said in the first the debate. There's no substance. She says, 'I'm going to repeal Obamacare.' But she's been saying that from Day 1. I told her: That's your Tea Party speech, now you have to say what you’re going to do next."

Rollins saw the writing on the wall a long time ago and was quick to get the hell out while the gettin' was good. But didn't he see this coming all along? Did he really think Bachmann had potential, that she actually had serious ideas? Perhaps he thought he could mold her -- and perhaps all he's doing now is saying that she's nothing without him.

And yet, doesn't he sell her short? She's not just about repealing the Affordable Care Act, after all. What about converting gays? She and her husband are really into that. What about that anti-gay, anti-porn pledge? Was she not serious about that? What about her affinity for "intelligent design"? And all of her conspiracy theories, like the one about the dollar giving way to some international currency and about the U.S. giving way to the nefarious global economy? And what about her various crazy right-wing views generally? And her radical fundamentalist theocratism?

Hey, you can't say there aren't ideas there. Crazy, extreme ones, yes, if also fairly mainstream Republican ones.

It seems to me that Rollins, who obviously made an embarrassingly bad move going to work for her, is just trying to excuse himself of any and all responsibility for the pointless mess her campaign has become.

Herman Cain may be a creep, but what about government-sanctioned sexual harassment at the hands of Republicans?

Guest post by Ramona

Ed. note: This is Ramona's third guest post for us. Her first two were on cruelty in America and abuse against women. You'll be seeing more of her here at The Reaction, and I encourage you again to check out her wonderful blog. -- MJWS

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Ramona is a freelance writer based in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Her blog, "Ramona's Voices," is liberal-leaning, with such a small amount of navel-gazing you'll hardly even notice. She is also on the masthead at dagblog, a gathering place for dissidents and reprobates and other friendly people.

Herman Cain is in the news again, this time for allegedly sexually harassing a couple of his female employees sometime in the way back. From Politico:

The sources — which include the recollections of close associates and other documentation — describe episodes [with Cain] that left the women upset and offended. These incidents include conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature, taking place at hotels during conferences, at other officially sanctioned restaurant association events and at the association’s offices. There were also descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship.

While I've been waiting for the inevitable comparisons to the "lynching" of  Clarence Thomas for similar behavior against Anita Hill and other female underlings in Thomas's workplace, I've been trying to think of a way to put this whole thing into some kind of perspective without upsetting and offending my female compatriots.

Here's the best I can do:

Any woman who came of age in the middle of the 20th century (that would be me) is now scratching her head wondering when the moment of high drama is going to come in this story. So this guy Cain is a creep who doesn't have the foggiest about propriety and good manners, let alone common sense. Have you seen him in action as a so-called politician? Have you seen him leering at the end of that goofy ad where his campaign manager slowly releases a mouthful of smoke? Did it really shock you or even surprise you that he has made suggestive comments to women who work for him?

It doesn't shock me or surprise me or, frankly, even give me a moment's pause. If I had a better memory, I could name you dozens of men I've worked with over the years -- some of them my bosses -- who have done the same things, not just to me but to every person who looked the least bit female. I'll give it to you that there are men who take it as their right to go beyond innuendo and gestures, but that's a whole different ballgame. So far all I've heard about Herman Cain's actions are the typically stupid, creepy, laughable pastimes of someone who deludes himself into thinking his position has the power to somehow make him desirable. (Okay, insert mention of Mad Men here.)

Good lord, people of the press, everybody knows Cain is an idiot. Nothing new here. Move along.

So let's get to why I can't get too excited about this new revelation about Herman Cain and his nasty mouth. There are men out there in positions of power who want to take away every right women ever had to be equal citizens under the law. They are working night and day to bust Roe v. Wade wide open. There are already a number of states either in the process of, or actively promoting, bans on abortions. If they're not working on outright bans, they're sneaking around looking for ways to stall or discourage a procedure that has been declared legal in this country.

The House recently passed phony legislation that would stop most private insurance companies from paying for abortions, using the new health care law as the phony reason for the need to act. It won't get past the Senate and they know it, but it can't hurt to send the message once again that, while our children are at risk, being pro-fetus is where it's at.

Rick Perry is proud of the fact that he defunded Planned Parenthood in his state, and his isn't the only one.

Mitt Romney wants to pretend he wasn't for legal abortions before he was against legal abortions.

Most if not all of the GOP presidential candidates are prepared to take steps to flat-out outlaw abortions in America. (Including Cain, who, even as I write this, is at the American Enterprise Institute using "genocide" and "Planned Parenthood" in the same sentence.)

If Herman Cain did what they're saying he did, it's a bad thing, sure, but let's get real. While the press insists on resorting to the ridiculous in order to draw in the shallow, real government-sanctioned sexual harassment looms large and threatens never to go away.

That's the big story.