No work today. I am getting cabin fever thanks to all this damn snow outside. Thank goodness for blogging and my republican friends for the entertainment they bring me during these long dreary days of winter.

Where do I start? I think I will start with my man Newt. You remember Newt, don't you folks? He is the guy who asked his dying wife for a divorce after cheating on her, and then publicly rebuked Slick Willie for getting his whistle wet in the people's house. Newt has a way of losing touch with reality, and, like most republcians, he tends to play fast and loose with the truth. In the republican world "truthiness" (I think that's Colbert's word) is just not in vogue.

Consider the following:

"Tuesday night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart called out Newt Gingrich for Gingrich's claim that the current Administration was 'radical'. At one point, Gingrich pointed to the Administration's 'mirandizing' of the Christmas Underwear Bomber as an example of the Administration's 'radical' actions.

Stewart took exception, asking Gingrich what the difference was between the current Administration treating the underwear bomber as a criminal and the Bush Administration treating Richard Reid as a criminal. Gingrich answered: " Richard Reid was an American Citizen." http://www.thedailyshow.com/ *click on the 5th video on the right side of the viewing window; 3:06 mark*

Except, as Stewart later pointed out, that's simply not true.
Richard Reid was a British citizen.
"Reid, 29, a British citizen and convert to Islam, was arrested for allegedly trying to light a fuse to set off explosives concealed in his sneakers while on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on December 22."
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/10/04/reid.guilty.plea/
This information of course completely nullifies Gingrich's point.

As Stewart said to Gingrich later in the interview in regard to one of Gingrich's opinions, "don't let reality get in the way". [story]

And his O ness wants to meet these people in the middle? Maybe he should reconsider.

And then, of course, there is the leader of this republican tribe. My man Hip Hop Mike himself. Seems old Mike is not so pleased with some of his fellow republicans and now he too is playing the race card. (I thought black conservatives weren't supposed to play the race card? Isn't that for us progressive "racism chasers" who use racism as an excuse for our failures?) Oh well, I wonder if when a conservative black who likes to preach that racism is so yesterday in A-merry-ca cries race it has as much weight?

"RNC Chairman and designated GOP sparkplug Michael Steele finds himself the center of attention once again this week -- this time for an interview published in February's issue of Washingtonian magazine in which he charges his critics with racism.
Near the end of the story, called "Up In The Air" by Paul West, Steele implies that he and the RNC face more scrutiny because he is black:

Steele acknowledges that at times he has a tendency to take things too far. "And I get checked on that, just as when I was a young boy and I pushed the envelope too far and my Mama was there to check me."

But there's an edge to his voice when he talks about a double standard that he believes has been applied by his critics, and he posits racism as the cause: "I don't see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?"' [story]

Sorry Mike, you can't cry racism now. If some of the folks in your party do happen to be just a little racist I think you might have to suck it up. You don't get a do-over. That's why they put you there, to show the rest of us that they aren't racist. At this point you have to just play along.

"This is, of course, the same Michael Steele who had previously vowed not to play the race card. The GOP chairman said last October he didn't take part in race politics in an interview with Univision, during which he declined to condemn Glenn Beck's assertion that Obama is a "racist."'

Yeah, but that was last October. In post-racial A-merry-ca time that was soooo long ago.