The Weekly Rewind

Sen. McCain and his campaign must have had some grandiose idea of how this whole scheme would have played out…

McCain makes the call to suspend his campaign and the debate so he can go back to DC and help get the bailout passed, thus saving America from its economic disaster… in his mind he would seen as a hero… as a knight in shining armor riding up on his steed to save the day…

Too bad for him, but great for us, it didn’t quite work out that way.

This is… the Weekly Rewind.

Applaud: to Mike Hucka— now just wait, put down those feathers and that tar and bear with me for a moment. To Mike Huckabee for saying what most of us already knew; Sen. McCain made a “huge mistake” by even discussing canceling the presidential debate with Sen. Obama. Speaking in Mobile, Alabama this past week, Huckabee said that the people need to hear both candidates and that holding the debate is “far better than heading to Washington” to huddle with senators. While he said that he still supports McCain’s candidacy, he said the idea to suspend the campaign was wrong because, as Obama also said, a president must be prepared to “deal with the unexpected” and “You can’t just say, ‘World stop for a moment. I’m going to cancel everything.” (Pwned by a member of your own party. That’s gotta hoit!)

Heckle: to the current economic situation in this country. What more has to be said or explained? We’re gonna get screwed with our pants on, yet again, and there’s not much we can do about it. Relax, grab your ankles, and hold on tight…

Applaud: to an interview that does a good job of supporting Democratic calls that she’s nowhere near experienced enough to be VP. During the second part of an interview with Gov. Palin, Katie Couric gave her an opportunity to re-define and defend her prior claims that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience. Palin instead lamented the fact that the press had “mocked” the notion, saying; “Our next door neighbors are foreign countries — they’re in the state that I am the executive of.” (The stupid, it burns!)

Heckle: to our commander in chief. He’s supposed to be the leader of the country… a smart man who speaks eloquently. For the last eight years we’ve heard things like this; “President” Bush describing the current bailout situation; “If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down.” (Niiiiiice…)

Applaud: to former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill for telling it like it and for saying what many of us believe; “President” Bush is “in a panic” over the current financial crisis and isn’t well-equipped to deal with it. Said O’Neill; “I don’t think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows.” (well duhhhhhhhhh. Tell me something I didn’t know…)

Heckle: to problems brewing between the US and Pakistan. After warning U.S. troops to not intrude on its territory two anti-terror allies traded fire along the volatile border with Afghanistan. The firefight, in which there were no injuries, ended quickly and was the “first serious exchange with Pakistani forces acknowledged by the U.S.” Naturally, Pakistan’s president said that his troops fired only “flares” at the U.S. troops… (Yeah, this should end well…)

Applaud: to the traditional media for finally growing a pair…earlier this week the McCain-Palin campaign decided at the last minute to not allow journalists from reporting on Gov. Palin’s highly-touted U.N. meetings, instead opting to make it into a photo-op. Well, the press revolted, announced they wouldn’t cover the meetings at all, and the campaign quickly reversed it’s decision… (this campaign is so damn scared of her saying anything off script that they’re trying to keep her away from microphones as much as possible. Odds that she says something to embarrass the campaign before mid-October are high…)

Heckle: to more mixed messages from Camp Palin. Despite her supposedly making a “crackdown on gift-giving to state officials”, which was supposedly a centerpiece of her “ethics reform agenda” Gov. Palin has herself accepted 41 gifts valued at $25,367 from various interests, including “free travel, expensive artwork, and “a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200.” (But she’s a maverick reformer… so it doesn’t count)

Applaud: to the FBI for (finally) opening an investigation into Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and AIG. The agency will be investigating if fraud helped cause some of the troubles and are considered part of an effort to pursue allegations of higher-level fraud. What will they find? Who knows, but stay tuned…

Heckle: to the EPA for (once again!) bowing to pressure from the White House as ruling that the agency will NOT set a drinking-water safety standard for perchlorate, which is a component of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid problems (wow…once again putting everything else ahead of the country’s citizens… way to go Dubya!)

Applaud: that the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (r-AK) began this week. Stevens, who was indicted this past July for “failing to report gifts from an Alaska oil-services company” is the first senator in more than 27 years that to face a federal jury while sitting in the Senate. Stay tuned…

Heckle: to disappearing money. A former chief investigator fro Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity, Salam Adhoob, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee earlier in the week that “more than $13 billion” that was marked for reconstruction projects in Iraq “are now gone.” (Wow, who would have ever thought that something like this would have happened on Halliburton Bush’s watch… it’s almost like some other entity was funneling the money to themselves… hmmmmm)

Applaud: to the ever growing number of Americans waking up to smell the stench in Washington. A new Ipsos/McClatchy poll finds that 54% believe the US is NOT winning the war on terror… but 57% think the country CAN win the war on terrorism, BUT but a similar majority of … (Hmmm. Wasn’t Bush, and in turn McCain, supposed to make us safer by winning the war on terror? Seems to me the wheels fell off that cart a LONG time ago…)

Heckle: to another example of the White House putting business ahead of the people. Earlier this week the administration said that they oppose the Credit Card Bill of Rights because it would, supposedly, ‘constrain banks’ ability to price risk. Riiiight… never mind that the bill would end double-billing while also forcing companies to mail bills 25 days before payment is due instead of 14…but why should that matter to this administration? Business first, electorate second third way on down the list…

Applaud: to more examples of people realizing what this administration is peddling. A new Rasmussen poll conducted this past week shows that 44% of those polled opposed the Bush(whacked) Administration’s $700 billion bailout plan… up from 37% earlier in the week.

Heckle: to mixed messages… the head of the lobbying firm that McCain chose to run his presidential transition team, William Timmons Sr., earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies that McCain blames the nation’s financial crisis on… in fact, Timmons himself has been “registered” to lobby on Freddie Mac’s behalf from 2000 through this month… but McCain is a maverick and is against lobbyists, right? If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in Alaska (my apologies to Sen. Obama, but it’s a great line)

Applaud: to Newsweek’s Elanor Clift for writing a response to former Rep. Newt Gingrich’s rejection of Henry Paulson’s Wall Street bailout proposal: “Newt is back doing what he loves to do,: challenging a sitting president of his own party, inciting insurrection among conservatives, and in his own words, ‘having a ball.’” (Newt was, is, and will forever be, a trainwreck. When a columnist calls you on your bullshit, it should be sign to step down. Gingrich doesn’t care about anyone but himself and will say whatever he thinks will get him publicity; party be damned. Ethics be damned. Common decency be damned)

Heckle: to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for echoing, in an interview with CNBC, McCain’s “fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong” nonsense this past week. One word to describe that soundbite; fail. Okay, and stupid…

Applaud: to an alliance of seven Western states, along with four Canadian provinces, for unveiling a plan earlier this week for the “most far-reaching” attempt to curb emissions linked to climate change. Dubbed the Western Climate Initiative, the group intends to achieve a “15% cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020… (God speed guys; God speed…)

Heckle: to Congressional Democrats for kowtowing to political pressure and allowing a quarter-century ban on oil drilling near the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week. EPIC. FAIL.

Applaud: to singing like a canary. Former AG Alberto Gonzales, who has had a hard time finding employment since leaving the Bush(whacked) Administration, is changing his tune about his visit to a hospitalized and drugged John Ashcroft. Before he said he acted on his own accord, but now he’s claiming that “President” Bush personally directed him to Ashcroft's hospital room to get approval on renewing domestic wiretapping… (OOOOOO, this is gonna get good…)

This week’s tool of the week is a no-brainer. In honor of the dog and pony show he tried to pull off this past week, the award goes to Sen. McCain.

His announcement of suspending his campaign to concentrate on the economic bailout (after ignoring his senate duties since March), was sad, saying; “Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. … All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.” All fine and good… but in the five hours after McCain spoke at CGI and thusly suspended his campaign three of his surrogates appeared on TV.

Additionally, McCain’s ads were still being aired across the country.

So apparently McCain’s suspension of his campaign doesn’t apply to surrogates… or ads… or sound-bites… or TV appearances by the candidate himself.

And because of all this, McCain is our conservative Tool… of the week.