UPDATED: Professional Courtesy Among Crass Opportunists (Christie’s Choice)

Ann Coulter, Barack Obama, Politics, Republicans

In “The Rise of The Cr-ppy Chris Christie,” I ventured that, “Chris Christie’s problem is not his weight, but his character. New Jersey’s popular Republican governor is the consummate backstabbing, slimy, opportunistic politician, who, for good measure, also preaches and practices the dirigiste economics of an Obama (and a ‘W’).”

Too true. Just as the link between President Obama and the corrupt policies pursued by his minions was becoming patent, in stepped The Incredible Hulk, late in May, with another show of love for his new BFF (Best Friend Forever), Barack Obama.

After the President touched down in Jersey, the governor won Obama a teddy bear at Point Pleasant, according to the White House pool report. They high-fived. Last month, Christie explained their alliance, saying, “Listen, the president has kept every promise that he made… What I was saying at the time was, I was asked how the president was doing, I said, he’s doing a good job, he’s kept his word.”

I guess if you were Ann Coulter nursing a crush—and a bruised ego for being wrong, yet again—over the Incredible Hulk you might excuse his characteristic opportunism with allusions to his mandate as a governor; Chris Christie’s concerned for the welfare of his state.

UPDATE: CHRISTIE’S CHOICE. “Chris Christie is at a Crossroads”

Via National Journal:

Facing a weak gubernatorial opponent and sporting enviable approval ratings, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looked like he was heading into his election year on cruise control. He’s been seeking to blunt his hard-edged reputation with carefully crafted appearances with President Obama on hurricane recovery, and occasional jibes at conservative Republicans in Congress.
But with Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s death on Monday, Christie now faces a difficult decision that could shape his future political trajectory. Does he solidify his bipartisan credentials by picking a caretaker Republican to fill the seat, probably giving Newark Mayor Cory Booker a glide path to the Senate? Or does he pick a major fight with Democrats, which could bolster any 2016 presidential aspirations but complicate his own reelection prospects?

Politicians And Their Aides Are ‘Paid Liars’? You Don’t Say!

Barack Obama, Democrats, Ethics, Politics, Propaganda, Republicans

Of course White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is a “paid liar.” So was Robert Gibbs, Carney’s predecessor at the White House. As was ditzy Dana Perino, who continues to shill for “The Shrub” on Fox News.

Politicians are “paid liars” by definition. Witness how Republicans are calibrating the Obama scandals for maximum political effect, not wishing to sound too alarmist, but sounding the alarm just enough to alarm.

Recoiling from so much as a hint of the truth (such as that Carney is a liar and that he is lying for Obama), the worst among the Republicans—you guessed it: John McCain—has even turned on Rep. Darrell Issa for aptly describing Carney as a liar.

Truth is immaterial to the Republicans—to the quislings from both parties. The game here is to retain political power or grab some more, as you safeguard your privileges as leech for life.

The latest kerfuffle Via HiffPo:

The Internal Revenue Service agents who inappropriately targeted conservative groups had been following orders from the Obama administration, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on Sunday. And he called the administration’s top spokesman a liar.

‘Barack Obama Is The President That Nixon Always Wanted To Be’

Barack Obama, Bush, Conservatism, Constitution, Individual Rights, Law, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, libertarianism

As was observed in this week’s column, “Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater,’” Professor Jonathan Turley has been doing the job most liberals and conservatives refuse to do: Argue that, as I put it, “Barack Hussein Obama’s philosophical fingerprints are all over his administration” and its scandals.

Turley has been magnificent, and must be losing many of his liberal pals for refusing to worship at the alter of Obama.

In March this year, Turley made the case, in a USA Today column, that “Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be,” and that, “In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments.”

Turley traverses the ugly terrains of Obama’s expansion of the “warrantless surveillance” over his subjects. There is little you can do to oppose such surveillance, thanks to BHO.

As has Obama asserted “his sole authority” “to decide what is a ‘war,’” so that even the cockroaches in congress can no longer control the imperial presidency in the matter of war powers.

Then there are the “attacks on whistle-blowers and Journalists.” This is quite remarkable, but under the Espionage Act of 1917, “Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined.

Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half.

This Turley interview with film maker John Cusack is particularly good because so specific.

TURLEY: “That’s exactly right. In fact, President Obama has not only maintained the position of George W. Bush in the area of national securities and in civil liberties, he’s actually expanded on those positions. He is actually worse than George Bush in some areas. …”

MORE.

What a shame that in the universe of a civil libertarian like Turley, individual rights do not extend to the sphere of economics and property rights. That would mean becoming a libertarian. How about that? (See also “Obama And Bush: Partners In Government Giganticism.)

UPDATED: Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater’ (Media in Mutiny)

Barack Obama, Bush, Democrats, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Republicans

“Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater'” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

“BIG media have been willing, even eager, to pass the buck for Barack for the past five years. But the Fourth Estate rose as one on its proverbial hind legs when the president made the mistake of going after their own: members of the media.

For doing their jobs, Associated Press journalists were spied on and had their telephone records and other personal information seized by the head of Barack Obama’s Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder. For doing his job, Fox News Channel’s James Rosen was framed by the same department for the crime of conspiracy to leak classified materials.

IRS bloodhounds Douglas Shulman and Steven Miller, likely in charge of hounding conservative organizations unsympathetic to Obama, had practically taken up residence at the Big Dog’s House. Yet, curiously, conservatives have largely avoided linking Barack Hussein Obama to this and to the other scandals reverberating throughout his administration.

Republicans have eddied around the issue, merely describing the president’s stance with respect to the Rosen, AP, Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service affairs as “disconnected,” “lacking focus.” An “absentee presidency,” surmised the conservative bloggers at Powrline. “The Spectator President,” pronounced Patrick Buchanan. Judge Andrew Napolitano’s brief was equally narrow. He avoided so much as hinting that Holder had likely been carrying out the wishes of his bosom buddy.

Although it’s hard to know what to make of it here, Republican rigor mortis is par for the course. Fortunately, for every mealymouthed Eric Cantor—the House majority leader is responsible for the “disconnected” description—there are progressives like Salon’s Joan Walsh [and professor Jonathan Turley], who, spittle flying, are tying the president to the infractions liberals consider unforgivable. …”

The complete column is “Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater.'” Read it on WND.

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UPDATE: Let’s be clear, the media schmooze Eric Holder has attempted to hold, only to be rebuffed by most news outlets, originated with our original sinner, Obama. Via HuffPo:

President Obama announced last week that Holder would meet with media executives to discuss guidelines concerning journalists caught up in leak investigations. There has been growing concern among journalists and lawmakers about the DOJ’s tactics following the seizure of Associated Press phone records in one investigation and the accusation in court documents that a Fox News reporter may have committed a crime in the course of reporting in another.

The “meeting this week between Attorney General Eric Holder and the Washington bureau chiefs of several media outlets [was ostensibly] to discuss guidelines for journalists in leak investigations.”

Please. Obama wishes to restore the privileges he enjoyed before the media mutinied. A little access, a wink and a nudge; why doesn’t the magic work any more? He also wants surreptitiously to “set conditions” on how reporting is to be done in The Great leader’s America.

And he wants this meeting (ostensibly) about the freedom of the press to take place off the record!

Following Abramson’s announcement, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse tweeted that President Obama had asked the attorney general “to review how leak investigations are done but some in the media refuse to meet with him. Kind of forfeits your right gripe.”
Journalists would argue that the issue is not about simply refusing to meet with Holder, but that the government shouldn’t set conditions that would prevent news organizations from reporting on what takes place