Day: July 12, 2012

The Huffington Post Commemorates POLITICAL ANIMALS Series By Having Readers Vote On Leading “Political Animals”!

Ariana Huffington, the owner of the Huffington Post website, has decided to commemorate the POLITICAL ANIMALS limited cable series on USA Network, starring Sigourney Weaver, as a Hillary Clinton type character, by having a contest among readers as to the top “Political Animals” in American history.

A total of 50 figures of the past and present are included in this “Political Animals” listing.

Let’s look at the list in detail:

The Presidents of the United States listed include: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton–a total of 10 out of the 50.

African Americans are represented by Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr;, Harriet Tubman, Shirley Chisholm, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Huey Newton, and Dorothy Height–a total of 9 out of 50.

Women mentioned, other than those listed above include: Hillary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Harris (Mother Jones), Sandra Day O’Connor, Susan B.Anthony, Dolores Huerta, Frances Perkins, Nancy Pelosi, Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, and Gloria Steinem–a total of 11 out of 50.

From the Supreme Court comes Earl Warren and John Roberts, along with Sandra Day O’Connor.

We also have, from the business world, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan, and Charles and David Koch (the infamous Koch Brothers).

From the labor world, we have Jimmy Hoffa and Cesar Chavez.

Political operatives include Mark Hanna (connected to William McKinley), James Carville (connected to Bill Clinton), and Karl Rove (connected to George W. Bush).

We also have Presidential candidates or possibilities as follows: Barry Goldwater, Huey Long, Robert La Follette Sr,, William Jennings Bryan, and Eugene Debs.

The final five are gay activist Harvey Milk, Vice President Dick Cheney, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK), and newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst.

This is a very varied list, with plenty of controversy, as to who is on the list, and who has been left off.

There are many ways to rate or rank who are the greatest “Political Animals’, but certainly Presidents would have to be seen as having the edge in a broad sense. although not monopolizing completely.

The author, if pushed to pick the top ten from this list, and not adding others, would conclude as follows in order from Number One to Number Ten, and welcomes debate and discussion by readers:

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Lyndon B. Johnson
Earl Warren
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Robert La Follette Sr.
Thomas Jefferson
Hillary Clinton

As an aside, if the author could add people to the list created by the Huffington Post, he would add the following:

Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
John Marshall
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
John C. Calhoun
John Quincy Adams
Carl Schurz
George Norris
Woodrow Wilson
Louis Brandeis
Sam Rayburn
Harry Truman
William Brennan
Nelson Rockefeller
Hubert H. Humphrey
Bob Dole
Ted Kennedy
Thomas “Tip” O’Neill

Again, debate and discussion is welcome!

George And Lenore Romney: Would They Be Proud Of Son Mitt Romney, And How He Has Evolved?

George Romney was the Chief Executive of American Motors Corporation in the 1950s and early 1960s, and then ran for and won the Governorship of Michigan for six years, and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for four years under President Richard Nixon. He was a candidate for the GOP nomination for President in 1964 and 1968, and at one point, was ahead in public opinion polls for the Presidential nomination in 1968.

George Romney lived in poverty as a young man, but became a self made millionaire, and devoted his political career to moderation in the Republican Party, bitterly fighting Senator Barry Goldwater’s nomination and campaign for President in 1964, saying it was undermining Republican values.

George Romney had a good relationship with the African American community, as HUD Secretary, and was always an activist on civil rights.

George Romney was a very decent man, who, when he ran for President, revealed 12 years of his income tax returns, making it clear that a candidate for the highest office in the land needed to be transparent about his financial matters, and that one year revelations could be very misleading.

Lenore Romney, George’s wife and First Lady of Michigan when her husband was Governor, ran for the US Senate in Michigan in 1970, losing in a landslide to distinguished Senator Philip Hart. But she ran a campaign supporting abortion rights, advocated a national health care plan, spoke up for environmental regulations of industry, and opposed continuation of the war in Vietnam.

This wonderful political couple contributed to their nation not only their political careers, but four children, with the youngest, born in 1947, being Willard Mitt Romney, now the GOP Presidential nominee.

But the problem was that they made life too easy and comfortable for their youngest child, who basically turned out to be a “spoiled brat”, who could bully a fellow student while in high school, as the leader of what could be called a “gang”, and go on to feel that he was “entitled” to what he wanted, and could avoid service in Vietnam by using his Mormon religion as an excuse, which is perfectly legitimate, but showed he had no desire to put his life on the line, since he was a privileged young man, and could evade it, and would do so!

That has been the reality of Mitt Romney’s life: to evade responsibility, to take advantage of others, to abuse workers in companies he owned, to have no conscience about what he was doing to others, while claiming to be “religious”, and demonstrating willingness to change his mind as often as possible on every issue imaginable, and therefore having no convictions or principles he would not sacrifice for his obsessive ambition to be President!

It is hard to imagine that George and Lenore Romney would be totally proud of how their son has turned out. Of course, they would love him, but it is quite likely they would be embarrassed and distressed about his moving from the center of American politics to the extreme right, something George and Lenore fought against all of their lives, They would also be distressed that he has endorsed stands against women’s rights to their control of their own bodies on the issue of contraception, all for their son to gain the backing of conservative and evangelical voters!

Face the facts: Mitt Romney is NOT George Romney, and his wife, Anne is NOT Lenore Romney, a woman of true convictions, unlike Anne, who gave up her faith to marry a very wealthy guy, agreed that her parents would not be allowed in the Salt Lake Mormon Temple for their marriage, and allowed her dad, an atheist, to be converted to Mormonism after death by baptism without his approval or knowledge!

The children are not the match of the parents in the case of Mitt and Anne Romney, sorry to say!

Is Mitt Romney A Pathological Liar?

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican Presidential nominee, is looking worse every day he is on the campaign trail.

Romney is demonstrating to millions of Americans that he has, sadly, what seems like a pathological liar syndrome!

He has “flip flopped” on every issue he has ever taken a stand on, since he first ran for public office in 1994 against Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, when he said he would be to the left of Kennedy on abortion and gay rights!

He told us “RomneyCare” was good for Massachusetts, but now wishes to obliterate “ObamaCare”, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has upheld it, and it has brought great benefits to millions of Americans, who would now lose those benefits!

Romney has refused to release any tax returns except for 2010, and has delayed submitting his 2011 taxes, even though his father, George Romney, had released 12 years of tax returns back in the 1960s, and EVERY other candidate for the Presidency, including recent GOP nominees John McCain and George W. Bush did so, and even potential running mate Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota Governor, did a complete vetting when considered for Vice President with John McCain in 2008!

Romney has sent a large portion of his massive fortune to accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda (rather than the mistake of the author, who had previously said the Bahamas), and Switzerland, and refuses to release any information about those accounts

Romney refuses also to give more details about his years at Bain Capital, about his governorship in Massachusetts, and even denies remembering the bullying of a schoolmate in high school that others remember vividly! And he also thinks that putting a dog on the roof of an automobile for many hours while on a vacation trip is something that a dog, or any pet, would automatically love!

Romney’s body language reveals so much about him, and his failure to look people or the camera directly in the eye, also reveals that he is constantly lying!

Now there are reports, not yet proven, that he and his son Tagg MIGHT have been involved in a Ponzi scheme, which, even if not proved true, cannot surprise anyone who has watched him dart back and forth when answering questions, or making daily changes in his stand on issues!

One has to say: Is this what the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike wants as the inheritor of their traditions and beliefs, which made the party a great institution historically?

Is this what the American people deserve–a conniving, open faced liar, who seems not even to know he is lying and covering up, since it seems pathological in nature?

One would have to worry about high level corruption under a Romney Presidency, since the top one percent would have a “field day”, with secretiveness, paranoia, and personal insecurity returning to the White House!

If this sounds like Richard Nixon returning, in many ways it would be, EXCEPT that Nixon, believe it or not, also had real PRINCIPLES mixed in with his faults and shortcomings,while Romney is just a very wealthy guy who wants power for power’s sake and to enrich his friends and his own pockets!

Now some might say, come on, ALL politicians are crooks, are self servers, are liars!

To which the answer is YES, MANY are, although not all! But there are levels of lying, and being self serving, and Mitt Romney is the true champion on the top of the heap in that regard!

America deserves better and can do better than Mitt Romney!

POLITICAL ANIMALS Series Starting Sunday On USA Network: Worth Seeing!

A new limited six part series is premiering on Sunday, July 15, on the USA Network, entitled POLITICAL ANIMALS, starring Sigourney Weaver as a former First Lady who is Secretary of State in the administration of the rival who defeated her for the Presidency.

If someone was to wonder: is this closely following Hillary Clinton, the answer would be, of course YES!

It should be a fascinating series, produced by Greg Berlanti, one of the best writers, producers and directors in television today, and with Weaver in the lead role, how can it be anything else than superlative?

Will Chief Justice John Roberts Be In The Tradition Of John Marshall, Charles Evans Hughes, And Earl Warren? The Question For The Long Term Future

Chief Justice John Roberts made history in a way that he had to realize would happen, when he broke with the conservative wing of the Court, shocking conservatives and cheering liberals and progressives on the Affordable Care Act, known to its critics as “ObamaCare”.

The question is whether this is a one time aberration, or a beginning of a reconsideration of the philosophy that will govern the future decisions of Chief Justice Roberts.

Has Roberts had an “epiphany”, or did he do this for his own reputation and that of the Court as an institution?

Is Roberts ready to continue to antagonize Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, two of whom will be likely staying on the Supreme Court for a long period of years, maybe as long as he will?

Does Roberts have a sense of history, and wants to be leagued with other great Chief Justices?

Certainly, seeing the harsh, bitter reaction of many conservative talk show hosts, Republicans and others of the right wing in our politics, might give Roberts pause, and possibly make him reluctant to go against the tide again.

A sign that he will not give in to the attacks would be to push another Citizens United case to be considered by the Court, and this time, to take the proper side for the people of America against the corporations and their power, but who can say that will happen?

In any case, Roberts at least has the potential, if he has the courage and principles to do so, to go down in history as in the tradition of Chief Justices John Marshall (1801-1835), Charles Evans Hughes (1930-1941), and Earl Warren (1953-1969)!

He also has the potential to go down as an “also ran’! It is all up to him, and him alone!