Political Ruminations

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney

“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the ‘Bridge to Nowhere.”

- Mitt Romney attacks the record of Rick Santorum during the Mesa, Arizona debate last night.

Morning Quote: Rick Santorum

“Satan has his sights on the United States of America! ”

“Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.”

- Rick Santorum in 2008 talking about how Satan is attacking America. Seriously.

Adding........a padded cell would really make a much more effective cage than the White House.

Via Bob Cesca

Morning Quote: Rick Santorum

“ We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christan ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is a shambles, it s gone from the world of Christianity as I see it. ”

- Rick Santorum bashing Protestants in 2008.

Source: ‘Up With Chris Hayes’

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

“The Republican Party is extremely pro-woman.”

- During an interview on CNN, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) dismissed the concerns of Democratic lawmakers regarding the all male ‘conversation’ House Republicans had over contraception.

Pathetic.

Morning Quote: Rick Santorum

“Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I’ve always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.”

- The GOP’s far right Evangelical dope, Rick Santorum, calls a pregnancy which occurs because of a rape, “a gift in a very broken way”.

Morning Quote: David Frum

“Whether it is the Ryan plan or the debt ceiling showdown or—now—contraception, Republicans have spent three years talking to themselves. It has been a narcissistic self-indulgence—and may soon prove a very costly one as well.”

- Former George W. Bush speechwriter, David Frum, commenting on the potential consequences of the “hard right turn” taken by Republicans since the 2008 election.

Morning Quote: President Obama on Insourcing Jobs

“First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you have that right, but you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home. Give them the tax break.

Second of all, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. So we've said, from now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay and hire here in the United States of America. Give them a bigger tax break.

Third, if you’re an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you’re a high-tech manufacturer, creating new products, new services, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here in America. If you want to relocate in a community like this one that’s been hard hit when factories left town, you should get help financing a new plant, financing new equipment, training new workers.”

- President Obama talks about tax reform and  insourcing jobs at Master Lock in Wisconsin yesterday.

Watch:

Morning Quote: Rick Santorum

“It’s [contraception] not okay because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be within marriage, they are supposed to be for purposes that are, yes, conjugal, but also [inaudible], but also procreative.”

- The GOP’s uber-religious presidential wannabe, Rick Santorum, on who should and should not be able to access contraception, which he views as only for those who are married.

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney on Social Security & Medicare

Repeating much of what he told a Koch Brothers audience in November, Mitt Romney told Conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that he would cut Social Security and Medicare:

“We're going to have to recognize that Social Security and Medicare are unsustainable, not for the current group of retirees, but for coming generations. And we can't afford to avoid these entitlement challenges any longer.

We are going to slowly and gradually raise the retirement age for Social Security from the current 66 for full benefits. And we'll slow the growth rate in benefits for higher-income retirees.

Tomorrow's seniors should have the freedom to choose between Medicare and a range of private plans [think the Ryan Plan]. And if these future seniors want a more expensive plan, then they will have to pay the additional cost.”

Morning Quote: Rick Santorum

“[I]nterestingly enough, here is what they are forcing them to do — in an insurance policy, they or [sic] forcing them to pay for something that costs just a few dollars. Is that what insurance is for? The foundational idea that we have the [sic] government tells you that you have to pay for everything as a business. Things that are not really things you need insurance for, and still forcing on something [sic] that is not a critical economic need, when you have an economic distress, where you would need insurance. But forcing them even more to do it for minor expenses.”

- Rick Santorum, buffoonish leader of the GOP, says birth control is cheap. You don’t need no damn insurance to pay for it! And this candidate for the presidency of the United States, says it with numerous grammatical errors in his delivery.

(Maybe you see this as nitpicky, but honestly, I am very disinclined to once again call a man who can’t manage to speak the English language properly, the leader of the most powerful country on Earth. Not to mention the fact that we’re also the largest English-speaking nation on Earth.)

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney in 2008

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and frankly I’d be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

- Mitt Romney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2008, as he discontinued his presidential campaign, and suggested that a vote for a Democrat is a “surrender to terror”.

Via Bob Cesca

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney

“When Republicans act like Democrats, they lose. And in Newt Gingrich's case he had to resign. In Rick Santorum's case, he lost by the biggest margin of any Senate incumbent since 1980.”

- Mitt Romney joins Santorum and Gingrich together as Washington insiders in an interview with NBC News yesterday.

Morning Quote: President Obama on Iran

“My goal is to try to resolve this diplomatically.”

- President Obama responds to a question from Matt Lauer (Feb. 5 interview) on whether the President would use force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Morning Quote: Chris Rock

“I’ll pay higher taxes. I look at it this way. I can pay higher taxes and people can have jobs, or I can pay lower taxes and I have my kid’s teacher asking me for a loan, which is true.”

- Chris Rock, quoted by the AP at the Sundance Film Festival.

Via JM Ashby

Morning Quote: Shep Smith

“I've just gotten word that in the next hour, Shakira and Big Bird will also be issuing endorsements, and we'll be having live, Team Fox coverage of that! Shakira, Big Bird and Donald Trump.”

- Fox News host, Shep Smith, as he  unrelentingly mocked Donald Trump, and Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney, on air yesterday.