Change? McCain taps long-time lobbyist for key role

According to Time this morning, Reformed Maverick John McCain has selected a long-time lobbyist who has been working the Capitol since RICHARD FREAKING NIXON to lead his “transition” team:

A prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every Republican president since Richard Nixon has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition, should John McCain win the election, according to sources familiar with the process.

William E. Timmons, Sr. is a Washington institution, having worked in the Nixon and Ford administrations as an aide for congressional relations, and assisted the transition teams of both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000. He was also a senior adviser to both Vice President George Bush in 1988 and Senator Bob Dole in 1996.

So, let’s get this straight. McCain says he’ll bring change, and then he taps a long-time lobbyist who’s worked for every Republican since Nixon to lead his transition team?

That doesn’t sound like a transition team, it sounds like a continuation team.

Palin links Iraq to 9/11 WaPo FRONT PAGE

If you know me, you know I don’t use the “Breaking” tag lightly. But this really is unbelievable.

On the anniversary of 9/11, Sarah Palin has used a talking point that has been long discarded by the Bush administration, linking Iraq to the terrorist attacks of that day.

The Washington Post has front paged an article describing Palin’s comments to troops, including her own son, heading for Iraq:

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

How dare she.

Robbed

I’ve been struggling for several weeks to figure out how to write this diary. I think the best thing to do is to deal with the facts first:

My home was robbed.

Sometime early last month my home was broken into. Somebody (or somebodies, most likely) literally broke down my back door. They took some jewelry, and some other stuff including electronics. The jewels that they took weren’t that expensive, but they hit us where it hurt: the heart.

They took a necklace and earring set that my wife wore on our wedding day, and a necklace I bought for Mrs. Zen on her first mother’s day. A mother’s day which had come after our first daughter was born two months premature, all of 3 pounds 1 ounce, and spent a month in the NICU before coming home.

How do you put a value on that? The thought of some kid, rummaging through our stuff, taking that necklace, those memories. My blood still boils, and it’s been a month now.

SCREWED

The few remaining reality-based Republicans are waking up this morning with the same eerie feeling Democrats had four years ago.

Four years ago, the Democrats stupidly tried to “out-tough” the Bush administration. Reporting for duty?

I wanted to like it, I did. But a part of me knew then that it was the worst decision ever. Instead of challenging Bush on transparency, instead of making an argument for change, instead of running on the economy, we tried to take their issue and run with it. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

You can’t out-tough an administration that is dedicated to torture, to rendition, to pre-emptive war. Sorry.

So it was with much glee that I heard this last night, and read the headlines this morning: ‘Change Is Coming’

Change? This guy? It was as believable as the Kerry Salute. This is John McCain’s “Reporting for Duty” moment. He is now SCREWED.

LAT: vetting raises “serious questions” about McCain

The LA Times this morning is describing a vetting process for Sarah Palin that should raise serious questions about John McCain’s ability to uncover the facts about anything. This story is not about Sarah Palin’s suitability to hold the vice presidency – it’s about John McCain’s unwillingness to do his due diligence. In other words – it’s about 8 more years of the same stubborn unwillingness to confront hard truths.

And the story goes there, immediately:

The way McCain weighed and discarded vice presidential prospects over that time has come under scrutiny as the choice of Palin turns politically perilous. The question is whether McCain carefully vetted his selection and, if he did not, what that says about the judgment and decision-making the presumed Republican nominee would bring to the White House.

Exactly.

Once again, no exit strategy

John McCain, leader of the charge into Iraq, has used that same precipitous decision-making to plummet his party into a no-win conflict over someone they shouldn’t even be fighting about.

Now, once again, they don’t have an exit strategy. And, unlike Iraq for so long, there is a ticking clock for Palin. But what can they do?

There’s no doubt that having Palin on the ticket has weakened McCain with independents and raised serious doubts about his ability to make the critical decisions that a Commander in Chief will need to make. I don’t need to go over the litany of criticisms she herself has suffered – but remember, it’s about the top of the ticket. Sarah Palin reflects first and foremost on John McCain.

Lastly, reports that he wanted Lieberman on the ticket, but caved to the right on Palin emphasize that McCain is both unable to make a good selection (Lieberman would have been awful in a change election) and incapable of standing up to the radical fringe of his party.

Did Obama’s night drive the pick?

There are no doubts that Obama’s speech last night was a blockbuster. None. If the McCain campaign was well-run (it’s not) they would have anticipated a no-drama convention with a killer speech to wrap things up.

They knew they would have a chance to step on the bounce with a Veep selection. But it seems clear that the remarkably successful Democratic convention has forced McCain into a pick that he might later regret, to stir up the news.

If Obama had not done well last night, the choice was easy – someone like Romney or Pawlenty that wouldn’t have stirred up too much news – letting Obama’s bad speech “own” the news cycle.

But with the success of Obama, they felt they had to “react” with something similarly dramatic – so they’ve picked someone who wasn’t vetted, who is in the middle of an ethics investigation, who has admitted to drug use, who has little experience, and who, just so happens, to be a woman.

And, all criticism of Palin aside (and there will be much more of that to come), do you really want a President who would pick a Vice President simply as a one-news cycle gimmick? Or does John McCain really think that Palin would be ready to take over in case of emergency? Either way – this selection has to raise more questions than it answers.

VP Gaffes. Disunity. The GOP.

Did you catch the incredible gaffe by Mitt Romney yesterday in Nevada? Did you hear how a Republican crowd booed the mention of John McCain? Probably not.

So let me share:

[Romney] ended up, maybe unwittingly, criticizing the Bush administration.

“I don’t want the guys who ran the Katrina cleanup running my health care, I can tell you that,” Romney said.

A knock against universal health care turns into a reminder about the competence of the Republican party.

It got even better (or worse, if you’re a Gooper).

Silence. Unity.

Joe Biden was just nominated to a roar of approval on the floor. Did you hear the “ayes” in favor of his appointment to the ticket? Deafening.

But wait, there was one last chance for the “PUMA”s to make themselves heard. Remember what they were saying?

There were going to be disruptions.

There were going to be protests.

The floor would be a mess–

They would never accept Joe Biden.

Tonight, we have witnessed something special. When asked for nays, there was silence. When asked for ayes?

There was unity.

Much respect for the Clintons.

Much love for Obama/Biden.

Joe Lieberman is wrong to all people.

They say some people are all things to all people. The amazing thing about Joe Lieberman is that he is wrong to all people – but yet the media and a select few others seem to think he is credible for that very reason. I think if you look at the rundown, you’ll be impressed about how Joe Lieberman can be wrong about BOTH sides of an issue.

If he was in the circus, I think he’d be “Amazing Joe.” I can hear the barkers now:

The Economy Watch as he attacks Republicans while simultaneously boggling the minds of moderates and liberals!

• In a New Hampshire debate in 2003, Joe Lieberman said:
  

  We can get the economy going again. We need a Democratic president to make it happen.

• Next week, Joe Lieberman will be delivering a speech that will discuss, in part, the Republican plan to “get our economy back on track.” And, in 2005 (and often before and since), Lieberman argued that the war in Iraq was in America’s best economic interests.