GOP presidential hopeful Willard "Mitt" Romney
-Headline of the day-
"Reporter Calls Romney on Lie in Mid-Sentence."
Mittens was in S.C., campaigning to hold his almost certain third or fourth place finish in that primary, when he got around to criticizing his opponents in a press conference. "I don't have lobbyists that are running my campaign," he said. "I don't have lobbyists that are tied to my..."
At this point, AP reporter Glen Johnson pointed out the one Mitt's campaign staffers, Ron Kaufman, is a lobbyist. In fact, when Johnson published his article, he pointed out two other lobbyists on Team Mittens -- Former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri and former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. While Mitt argued that Kaufman doesn't exactly "run" his campaign, Weber's the chairman of Romney's policy committee -- so, to a certain extent, he does.
Besides, where was that "tied to my..." comment going, Mittens? You've got three Washington lobbyists tied to your campaign. Were you going to say that you don't have lobbyists that are tied to your tree... your bumper... your whipping post in your secret sex dungeon? Your what?
If you could clear that up for us, Willard, that'd be great... (MoJo Blog, which has video)
-It's a start...-
MSNBC's Chris Matthews has apologized for saying, "The reason [Hillary Clinton's] a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win there on her merit."
His apology is too lengthy to reprint here, but Media Matters has it in full, with video. I can pretty much boil it down to the major points, though -- "I'm a great guy and a wonderful pundit, but I'm hyperactive and spazzy when I talk about politics, so I said something about Hillary I shouldn't have. Sorry about that."
But Chris has a larger problem than his offhand comment about Hillary -- he's hyperactive and spazzy about women in general. According to MM's David Brock, "Matthews has referred to Clinton as a 'She Devil,' compared her to a 'strip-teaser' and referred to her as 'witchy.' He has referred to men who support her as 'castratos in the eunuch chorus.' He has suggested Clinton is not 'a convincing mom,' and said 'modern women' like Clinton are unacceptable to 'Midwest guys.'" Speaking for "Midwest guys," I can tell you Matthews is full of crap on that one. Emily's List President Ellen Malcolm calls Matthew's Hardball "sexual harassment brought to you by MSNBC."
Given how weird Chris is about women, I thought I'd revisit an earlier roundup, where I wrote about Chris sitting in as a judge in the Miss America Pageant:
MSNBC's Chris Matthews' 'Hardball' questions of contestants as he sat in as a judge for the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas:
-"Why did Mississippi seem to do a better job than [Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina]?"
-"If you had a long plane ride, who would you rather sit next to, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush?"
-"Why can't [Oprah] find a guy?"
-"[Novelist William] Faulkner never used commas when he wrote. Why is that?"
Matthews also asked Miss D.C. where Osama bin Laden was. OK, so they aren't sexist questions, they're just insane... Or stupid... I can't choose, go ahead and pick the description you like. Seriously, get Matthews around a woman and he loses at least twenty IQ points. (Media Matters)
-Monetizing zero-
Fifth Pillar India, an Indian NGO, has come up with a way to deal with the constant demands for bribes by government officials -- the Zero Rupee Note. More of a protest than a solution, you're supposed to hand the ZRN -- which looks like genuine currency -- to anyone demanding a bribe. That'll show 'em!
The danger that these will be used to scam shopkeepers with poor eyesight obviously exists, but isn't mentioned in the report. The possibility that the ZRN may cause more problems than it solves doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone. Well, anyone except me.
And I'm all cynical and stuff... (The Great Indian Mutiny, via reddit)
