Mitt Romney’s Shocking Confession: I Am Unqualified To Be President

It’s not often that a candidate for president will publicly declare that he doesn’t consider himself to be qualified for the office he is seeking. But that is precisely what the putative Republican nominee Mitt Romney has just done.

In an interview with ABC News this weekend, Romney was asked about his stubborn refusal to make his tax returns public, as almost every candidate for president has done since his own father set the precedent over forty years ago. Romney’s response was a typically arrogant expression of his sense of privilege wherein members of his elitist caste are not subject to the rules that the rest of the riff raff have to live by:

Romney: “I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president,”

Once again Romney has stuck to his position that he doesn’t believe that the American people are worthy appraisers of his fitness for office or that they are entitled to ascertain whether he has had any shady dealings or conflicts of interest. And with a financial portfolio as vast as Romney’s, conflicts are difficult to avoid.

But what’s really interesting is his self-assessment about what qualifies one to be president. According to Romney the criteria includes whether or not you ever overpaid your federal income taxes. Unfortunately, Romney’s determined defiance to reveal his tax returns prevents us from applying his own criteria so that we make a judgment as to his qualifications.

However, another source has emerged that may settle the question. Ben Domenech, of the ultra-rightist web site RedState, has discovered what Romney is really hiding. The truth, according to Domenech, is that Romney did overpay his federal taxes. Domenech, citing “people who were familiar with the veep vetting process for McCain in 2008,” said…

“We know he turned over more than two decades of returns to the McCain campaign during the veepstakes vetting process. What was in them? Mitt’s taxes were complex, but clean. He overpaid his taxes.”

There you have it. The only people other than Romney’s accounting staff who have seen his tax returns have affirmed that Romney overpaid. Romney believes that such overpayment of taxes is a disqualification for the presidency. That might explain his obstinance with regards to being honest with voters about his taxes. He doesn’t want them to know that he is an unqualified hack by his own standards.

For the record, I don’t buy for minute that Romney overpaid his taxes. That’s a transparently biased polishing of his record by a far right-wing toady who opened his big mouth before Romney laid out his silly principle of overpayment. Now it has doubled back to bite him in the ass. But the controversy illustrates just how tone-deaf Romney is about the tax return issue. Voters need to know that their president is not a crook (h/t R. Nixon), but Romney will not provide the documentation necessary for us to make an informed judgment. It’s clear that Romney has made his own judgment as articulated by conservative George Will (along with eighteen other prominent conservatives):

“The costs of not releasing the returns are clear, therefore he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”

Exactly. And that’s why the American people need to know more about Romney before they can ever take his candidacy seriously.

Dumbass Of The Day: Erick Erickson

Congratulations are in order for Erick Erickson of RedState and CNN. He has run away with today’s Dumbass Award despite many deserving contestants. Here is a series of Tweets from Erickson that lowered him to the depths of depravity:

How exactly do our founding principles require the President to support a mosque at ground zero?

People citing freedom of religion as the reason Obama says our founding principles *demand* he support the mosque are not that bright.

Paging the Church of Satan: Our founding principles demand Barack Obama support your rights to human sacrifice. Carry on.

Paging random religious sects that still practice polygamy: our founding principles demand Barack Obama support group marriage.

Paging Islamofascists: Our founding principles demand Barack Obama support Jihad.

First of all, Dumbass, The mosque is NOT at ground zero. It is three blocks away. Secondly, our founding principles include the free exercise of religion. You may not think that supporting the First Amendment is bright, but that’s just your dumbassedness clouding what remains of your reason.

Finally, your comparison of constructing a legal building to human sacrifice, polygamy, and terrorism, all of which are against the law, demonstrates how worthy you are of this award.

Congratulations Dumbass.

Why Is Andrew Breitbart Against Mothers And Keeping Kids Safe?

Once again, Andrew Breitbart has dispatched his henchman, Jason Mattera, to annoy a member of congress. This time it’s Sen. Al Franken and, just as happened when he ambushed Rep. Alan Grayson with a false assertion that the health care bill provided funds for child molesters, Mattera is made to look the fool.

In this episode of Mattera’s Morons, Jason stalks Sen. Franken to ask about an alleged provision in the health care bill that allocates $7 billion for jungle gyms. The only problem for Mattera is that nothing of the sort is in the bill. Franken is acutely aware of this and engages Mattera in this exchange:

Franken: You came up to me and said “You know the part of the bill where they give $7 billion dollars to fund the jungle gyms?” And I said “Show me that.” It doesn’t say that in the bill.
Mattera: Oh, it says infrastructure for healthy living in playgrounds for schools. What is that an army of monkey bars?

Sorry Jason. The bill doesn’t say anything about playgrounds or jungle gyms or monkey bars. And when you approach someone who is much more knowledgeable than yourself about legislation, you ought not try to lie about what’s in the bill. What the bill says is that funds in this section can be used for…

(i) creating healthier school environments, including increasing healthy food options, physical activity opportunities, promotion of healthy lifestyle, emotional wellness, and prevention curricula, and activities to prevent chronic diseases;
(ii) creating the infrastructure to support active living and access to nutritious foods in a safe environment;

So now we see that Breitbart and his ward are just as opposed to safe schools and nutritious foods as they are to preventing child abuse. But I have to admire his tenacity. After making an ass of himself over the non-existent jungle gyms, Mattera plowed ahead with a complaint about language in the bill that provides new mothers with reasonable breaks for breast feeding. I thought Republicans were supposed to be the “family values” party. Not that they ever actually supported family values, but they have long sought to pretend that they did. But here the truth is revealed as Mattera berates Franken for supporting a bill that permits new mothers to care for their infant children.

I wonder… Would Mattera prefer it if the woman had an abortion so that she wouldn’t have to miss any work time? Should she quit her job and reduce her income and her family’s ability to provide for themselves? Maybe she should just leave the kid at home and let it fend for itself in a Randian adventure of survival. Mattera’s idiocy is illustrative of something we’ve known all along: Conservatives care very deeply about fetuses but once you leave the womb they don’t give a flying frak.

This hysterical video was, once again, featured on Breitbart’s BigGovernment web site as well as the Fox Nation. And it still amazes me that Mattera thinks he comes off looking good in it. He clearly has a perverse sense of pride. Also Jason, it only makes you look like more of an immature jerk when call Franken “Senator Smalley.” It just drives home how obvious it is that you are NOT good enough, NOT smart enough, and, doggone it, no one likes you.

[Update, 3/31/2010:] Had this been announced a day later, I would have been certain that it was an April fools joke, but no…..Jason Mattera has actually been named editor-in-chief of the uber-conservative Human Events Magazine. Human Events sees some potential in this 26 year old moron whose chief quality appears to be making himself look like an idiot. Now he will oversee the magazine as well as their Internet properties like RedState, home of the new CNN contributor, Erick Erickson.

Rupert Murdoch’s Organization Wants Another 9/11

The faux patriots at Fox Nation are continuing to make a habit of exploiting the image of 9/11 and contriving false and negative associations with Democrats. This time Rupert Murdoch and Co. have outdone themselves by accusing President Obama of politicizing the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and other targets.

It takes a pretty hefty portion of chutzpah for the Fox Nationalists to sell this falsehood. Particularly in light of how brazenly they themselves have been politicizing 9/11:

In this latest episode, Fox Nation links to an article at RedState, the blog of the uber-rightist magazine, Human Events. The RedState column credits the equally right-wing Heritage Foundation for discovering what they characterize as a despicable act of political exploitation.

What these stalwart detectives found was a notice on the website of Organizing for America (OFA), the Democratic National Committee’s social networking site for Democratic activists. Note: This is NOT a site that is affiliated with the White House or the President.

The offending notice was posted by a user seeking participants for a health care reform event. The notice itself could reasonably be regarded as offensive and inappropriate, but no more so than what Fox Nation has published itself.

The content of the notice said (click to enlarge):

“Sep 11, is Patriot Day, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the 9/11 attacks.

“All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.”

I can’t say that I disagree with the assessment of Fox News, but the reference to right-wing domestic terrorists was unnecessarily contentious. However, the response by Heritage/RedState/Fox Nation is ludicrous beyond imagination.

First of all, the OFA web site is a user driven site. That means that anyone can post comments, blogs and even announcements of upcoming events, as is the case here. So those responsible for the site’s administration (the DNC) cannot be blamed for inappropriate material that they did not produce or authorize. The site’s administrator did become aware of the posting and promptly removed it. Now you would think that the martinets of manners at RedState would be assuaged, even encouraged, by this behavior, but no. They quickly leaped to a new accusation that the web site had “scrubbed” the embarrassing content. How can OFA win? If they leave the posting up, they are guilty of denigrating the memory of 9/11. If they take it down, they are alleged to be hiding something.

Remember, this is the same organization that permitted Michael Scheuer to appear with Glenn Beck and openly root for another terrorist attack on America:

“…the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”

So, does Murdoch’s organization want another 9/11? That sounds much more plausible than the assertion that Obama’s organization is politicizing 9/11. This is nothing more than the routine disingenuous outrage from people who only know how to stir up mischief, even when none occurs. And for the Fox Nationalists to raise the ante by publishing gut wrenching photos of the 9/11 attack, with a completely dishonest headline, is the height of cynical and grotesque politicization. Especially after all of the examples above of obvious and intentional politicization on the part of Fox.

But don’t get comfortable yet. Fox News has been running promos today for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor that promise to blow the lid off of this fake scandal. So this nonsense is going from a bunch of ignorant think tankers and bloggers, to the number one cable news program in America.

Seriously…Is this all they’ve got?

A Boycott Of Fox News By Conservatives

Bloggers on Free Republic, AKA Freepers, are mad as Hell and they aren’t going to take it any more. The treatment of Sarah Palin by Fox reporter Carl Cameron and others has incensed them to the point where they are vowing never to watch again. I’ve compiled some of the comments from the site for their comedic value:

  • I propose that we punish the FOX Network for its hatchet job on Sarah Palin. For one week beginning at 3:00 PM today no one tunes them in. We will demonstrate the power of conservatives when their ratings plummet dramatically. Will you join me? [FYI: their boycott will have no affect whatsoever on the ratings unless a significant number of them are Nielsen families]
  • I’m done with Teevee. Let them all go to hell.
  • I am with you all the way my friend…i hope FOX goes off the air…hate em now…
  • It would be easy. Nearly every show on FNC is unwatchable these days. ….for quite a while, in fact.
  • fauxNEWS – We Distort, You Comply
  • too late………I wrote them off months ago
  • GO TO EVERY RIGHTWING BLOG AND TELL THEM TO TURN OFF FOX.
  • Tell him he’s no better than the “smear merchants” and “bombthrowers” he holds in such contempt. Allowing Carl Cameron to spew unmitigated hearsay and garbage without one shred of supporting evidence or fact makes O’Reilly just as bad as the supermarket tabloids.
  • Life without FOX is good.
  • It’s not a secret that 81% of Fox News reporters and employees donate money to the Democratic party – that’s a crazy high number for an allegedly conservative TV channel. It’s no secret to the gay community that Shepard Smith is “one” of them.
  • FOX now SUX bigtime! 🙁
  • Screw them too. I have watched very little since their recent maniacal swerve left.
  • If FOX wants me back they will bring on Glenn Beck and Rush. I have had it with weasels like Hannity and O’Reilly.[Beck is on the way]

And finally, there was this insightful thought from a a true afficianado of the arts:

This thread would do really well at Daily Koz. They think this is a great idea. They even have the artwork ready…

Yes, that’s my artwork posted by a Freeper. Thanks veritas2002. And thanks for joining the boycott everybody.

Update: The folks at RedState are weighing in as well with Operation Leper:

We’re tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others […] We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you’ll see us go to war against those candidates.