Max Blumenthal

The Straight Talk Express Keeps on Chooglin 

John McCain on abortion, 2/18/07:

 ”I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”

McCain on abortion, 8/20/99:
“But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.”

“I will screw him in the ass!”

Legendary Israeli reporter Uri Dan’s posthumous biography of Ariel Sharon, “Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait,” also contains a revealing portrait of The Decider. According to Ha’aretz, Dan reports:

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon’s delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: “I will screw him in the ass!”

The Federalist Society is lining up behind Rudy, beginning with Ted Olson. Just another reason why a Giuliani presidency would be every bit as authoritarian as his mayoralty:

“I admire his character, his capacity for leadership, his instincts, and his principles,” Olson said over the phone this afternoon. He said he will help Giuliani raise money as well as offer advice on legal issues and domestic policy matters that involve constitutional questions…

“I’ve known him for 26 years and we’ve talked about this many times,” Olson said. “He feels very strongly that people like Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Roberts, Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, are the type of people that he would put on the court…I’m quite convinced that this is a genuine viewpoint that he has.”

That’s Audacity

Obama states his view of Israel’s war on Lebanon last summer:

“I don’t think there is any nation that would not have reacted the way Israel did after two soldiers had been snatched. I support Israel’s response to take some action in protecting themselves.”

Hear Me 

I’ll be on Air America tonight, on Laura Flanders’ media roundtable between 8-9 PM ET. I’ll be discussing the campaign, Iran, the House resolution, but mostly the campaign.

Also, it looks like the New York Times has finally picked up on the Republican revolt against John McCain in Arizona.

Land of Lieberman 

I remember watching Richard Land speak at Princeton Prof. Robby George’s symposium on the conservative movement nearly a year ago. Land recalled how as a youngster in Texas he organized for Barry Goldwater’s ‘64 campaign, then went on to describe Francis Schaeffer as his greatest influence. For the unindoctrinated, Schaeffer is the intellectual godfather of Dominionism, an extreme strain of right-wing evangelical thought that advocates replacing Constitutional democracy with biblical law.

I spoke to Land briefly after his speech. He fervently denied subscribing to Dominionist theology, describing himself as “a centrist” among fellow evangelicals because, for one, he doesn’t favor the “complete elimination of welfare.” How maverick. Land has gained prominence as the “ethics and public policy director” of the Southern Baptist Convention, the anti-gay, anti-abortion denomination that is leaning towards urging its members to yank their kids out of public schools.

Why all this background on Land? Because it illustrates the never-ending nuttiness of Joe Lieberman. Lieberman has penned the foreword to Land’s new book, The Divided States of America? What Liberals and Conservatives are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match. Usually the forewords of political books are written by prominent public figures as a way of lending their name and influence to the views of the author. Are we to assume that Lieberman’s authorship of Land’s foreword is something different?

I haven’t read the book but it may be time to reexamine Lieberman’s image as a hawk who is socially liberal — a “Scoop Jackson Democrat.” Lieberman may have a pro-choice voting record, but he is what I would call operationally conservative.

Priorities, priorities…

The death of Anna Nicole Smith topped news from Iraq on America’s cable news channels last week.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s news coverage index, a weekly look at what is at the top of America’s news agenda, has revealed that of all programming on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel monitored by the project, 21% of it across the week was dedicated to Smith, pushing the Iraq war into second place with 15% of monitored minutes.

Across February 8 and 9, when the news broke, 50% of airtime on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel was occupied by Anna Nicole Smith’s death.

Abba Eban Rolls in his Grave

Israel’s former UN Ambassador Dore Gold is promoting his new book, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, The West, and the Future of the Holy City, through Tim Lahaye’s Left Behind Prophecy site.

My Latest: John McCain Defeated By Arizona’s GOP

“[John] McCain is mentally unstable and vindictive and out of control.”
–Arizona Republican state commiteeman Rob Haney

While the national press corps fawned over John McCain for the past two years, they ignored the conservative backlash brewing against him in his home state. In the latest issue of the Nation, I report on the crushing losses McCain and his allies have suffered at the hands of the restive Republican grassroots in Arizona.

In 2005 in Arizona’s Maricopa County, encompassing Phoenix and Scottsdale (where Barry Goldwater once lived), a gathering of state GOP committee members introduced and overwhelmingly approved resolutions censuring McCain for “dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a representative of the citizens of Arizona.” They did so despite the personal pleas of the chiefs of staff of McCain and Arizona junior Sen. John Kyl.

Notorious for his mercurial personality, McCain responded harshly. Last fall, he organized a slate of candidates to oust his conservative critics from their state committee posts. McCain’s slate was formidable and well funded. It included former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, an old friend he coaxed out of retirement to fulfill his revenge plot. So worried was McCain about being rebuked by his own party that he threw his own hat into the race, announcing that he himself would run for state committeeman.

When the votes were counted, McCain and his entire slate were resoundingly defeated. Despite endorsements from virtually every Republican member of Arizona’s Congressional delegation, Symington, who had never lost a race in his life, was crushed–as was McCain. Adding insult to injury, in January another key McCain ally, Republican political consultant Lisa James, was defeated for state GOP committee chair by Randy Pullen, a prominent McCain critic and anti-immigrant activist.

The architect of the Arizona GOP’s mutiny against McCain, a former IBM middle manager and state committeeman named Rob Haney, was bemused by McCain’s ham-handed response to his censure resolutions. “This just shows that McCain is mentally unstable and out of control and vindictive,” Haney told me. “If he is determined to go through that much trouble to attack a district committee chairman, what does that say about his ability to handle real political problems?”

Indeed, McCain’s penchant for vindictive plots and angry reprisals casts doubt on his ability to negotiate the complex crises that inevitably confront any American president. In the near term, his rejection by the right-wing in his home state undermines his efforts to make himself acceptable to socially conservative Republican primary voters.

McCain’s image makeover continues on February 23, when he will speak at the Discovery Institute, the right-wing think tank that has attempted to introduce into public school biology classes the teaching of Intelligent Design. But back in Arizona, the Republican grassroots aren’t buying his ploys. “The guy has no core, his only principle is winning the presidency,” Haney said of McCain. “He likes to call his campaign the ’straight talk express.’ Well, down here we call it the ‘forked tongue express.’”

Ha’aretz’s Bradley Burston on Romney’s kick-off address at the Henry Ford Museum: “old-time Jew hate.”