News Roundup for 5/5/10

Sen. John Thune... or any other Republican

-Headline of the day-
"Thune: Corker breaks ranks because he 'understands' issues."

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker is not toeing the GOP line on financial reform. This mostly seems to be because the GOP line on financial reform is "let's all kiss Wall Street's ass, because they're so awesome!" So Politico put up a big story about what a maverick Corker is -- except they didn't use the word "maverick," because that's taken.

Anyway, another guy at Politico noticed something crazy a Republican said and Politico reported on a Politico story -- which is what you call "Google bait."

"I think Corker's a guy who's willing to get down into the weeds," S. Dakota Sen. John Thune told the site. "Because he immerses himself in that and understands it so well -- the positions he adopts may not always be the ones that everyone else in our conference comes to."

So, to be clear, Thune's saying that Corker comes to different conclusions than the rest of his party because he bothers to learn what the hell he's talking about. He basically says that the Republican Party -- including himself and excepting Corker -- just pull shit outta their ass and, if they'd bother to hit the books, they'd come to entirely different positions.

And you know what I like best about this? It's a perfect example of what Thune's talking about. Had he given this even a moment's thought, you know he never would jammed his foot in his mouth like this. (Politico)


-Keeping America safe from 24 extras-
Dan Fanelli is a Republican who's running to replace Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, because Grayson loves terr'ists more than America. So this weekend he ran this ad in the district:

Now I'm guessing that Fanelli's point here isn't that we should be on the lookout for people who look angry, because that'd put the average GOP voter behind bars. I'm thinking his point is that we ought to be on the lookout for middle eastern-looking people. And don't blame me for the fuzzy quality of the video, it's what Dan's campaign uploaded to Youtube.

Republicans: Putting the "R" in "racism." (Plum Line)


-Bonus HotD-
"Reid: Republicans 'making love' to Wall Street."

Meanwhile, both are just fucking us... (Politico)