Scarborough: "Santorum had a chance to take out the Death Star and he blew it."

[DCBob]

from the Politico..

The story of Santorum’s implosion sheds light on an important political and cultural truth: Americans are in the market for someone to expand prosperity and opportunity, not indulge in moral meddling. It’s a key lesson for Republicans who want to attract sufficient numbers of independent voters to win nationally: remember that this is the 21st century, not the 19th.

Sure, Romney may lose in Ohio, get knocked around on Super Tuesday and limp all the way to Tampa, but the fact is that Rick Santorum had a chance to take out the Death Star and he blew it.

It’s enough to make fans of the former Pennsylvania senator want to throw up all over their sweater vests.

When Santorum should have been talking about his grandfather’s working-class roots, he was talking instead about your wife’s birth control pills. When he should have been connecting with blue-collar Catholics, he was instead insulting their martyred president. And when Mr. Santorum should have been talking about how the grandson of a coal miner graduated college with two advanced degrees, he instead mocked the aspirational idea that we should send more of our kids to college.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73548.html

==========

Even though Santorum might have been the weaker candidate, it gives me some pleasure to see conservatives like Scumborough languish over Santorum's foibles.

[peace frog]

1. Suffer, Joe Blow

and likewise to all your wingnut ilk. SUFFER.

[Major Hogwash]

3. Now, now, be nice.

We don't want them to suffer too much while they are busy building each other's cross to crawl up on.

[IndyJones]

53. Freaking funny!

[pscot]

17. Attaboy, Joe Scar

I would most definitely prefer a Congress full of Scarboroughs to the Republican lunatic asylum we've got.

[benddem]

2. he blew it 10 years ago

when he was in the Senate. Remember Terry Schiavo? Remember taking home the fetus and having your children play with it?
Remember using PA's cyber school when he lived in VA...and claimed he was home schooling?

[MADem]

45. The state of PA shelled out over a hundred grand for that fiasco...

IIRC, it was a charter cyber school that provided everything, even the computers the little shits used. He had a "residence" in PA that was far too small for his family, and they were esconced in luxury in Leesburg VA...

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/rick-santorums-school-scandal

But Santorum wasn't always so opposed to government-run schools—especially one Pennsylvania cyber charter school that offered students free computers, internet service, and online classes. Between 2001 and 2004, that online school allowed the Santorum family to live in Virginia, while sticking Pennsylvania taxpayers with a $100,000 bill.

In 2004, Santorum spawned a minor scandal when news broke that he was no longer residing in the state that sent him to Congress and was living instead outside the Beltway in Leesburg, Virginia. Santorum owned, and still does, a house in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, next door to his in-laws. The Santorums bought the three-bedroom house in 1997 for $87,800. But after Santorum got elected to the Senate in 1994, he bought a much larger home in Virginia that would accommodate his ever-growing family. Some relatives moved into the Penn Hills house, but Santorum continued to use it to claim residency in Pennsylvania, where he voted by absentee ballot.

Despite moving his family to Virginia, Santorum didn't enroll his children in a local public school. Nor did the Santorums simply home-school the kids. Instead, in 2001, they enrolled five of their kids in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, based out of tiny Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The school was founded by Nick Trombetta, a former wrestling coach who set up an online charter school in a depopulated part of the state and turned it into a financial powerhouse that rakes in millions annually in public education funds. (In 2007, Trombetta, a major Republican donor in the state, was the subject of a state grand jury investigation into his use of millions in public funds to build a performing arts center near the school's headquarters, among other things. No charges have been brought.)

Considered a public school, the online charter's students are required to take state-mandated assessments and meet other formal requirements not demanded of traditional home-schoolers. But it offers home-schoolers lots of advantages, notably free computers and internet connections. When Santorum enrolled his kids there, the local school district in Penn Hills was forced to pick up the tab for the cyber school, which cost the district $38,000 a year for the Santorum children.

[emulatorloo]

4. Romney barely won his home state. This is Joe's version of Damage Control

[teknomanzer]

27. Don't forget Rmoney spent six times as much...

and still had a marginal victory.

[Phaedrus76]

30. Don't forget Rmoney....

still won.
All the Democratic voters who were sick of Obama and the Blue Dogs moderation need to wake up and smell the Santorum-fueled inquisition these fucktards have in store for the US.

[Texas-Limerick]

5. Rep primary's summary

Hey diddle diddle 
Mitt sprayed his spittle
When Newt colonized the moon
Old Ron laughed to see him snort
While Rick spoke in tongues like a loon

[Lex]

6. Excellent!

[rocktivity]

11. DUzy candidate!

...Rick spoke in tongues like a loon...




rocktivity

[sarge43]

23. A DUzy for sure. n/t

[Blue_Roses]

7. What's with all the "throw-up" analogies

Can't these idiots come up with another word that might sound more, oh, say, MATURE.

Joe Scab isn't totally stupid, but he plays one on TV. I couldn't stand to hear anything he said years ago. Now I can tolerate it in bits and pieces, especially when he's ragging on one of his own.

[DCBob]

8. I hear ya. All this gross "throw up" talk makes me wanna..

[90-percent]

13. A DU link for those that just can't get enough political vomit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002366021

-90% Jimmy

[JBoy]

15. I thought "throw up all over their sweater vests" was a brilliant turn of phrase.

If he'd said "throw up a frothy mix all over their sweater vests" it would have been perfect.

[ecstatic]

9. Newt and Rick, as much as I enjoyed seeing them throw Romney off,

just are NOT prepared for this at all. I can't believe how they both squandered their huge leads. Newt squandered his lead by ceding what was supposed to be his strength--the debates. And Rick, by not knowing when to STFU. Amazing.

[polichick]

12. I love Morning Joe...

...when blowhard Joe is missing from the set.

When he's there, it's unwatchable because he talks over all his guests in that louder-than-normal voice Republican assholes use when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

[Grammy23]

14. I agree with you...about liking the show better when he is gone.

I watch MJ frequently while I drink my coffee. I find that when he is on set the tension level is much higher, along with my blood pressure. He does exactly as you said--talking over his guests, cutting people off (especially Mika) and generally acting like someone died and left him in charge of the universe. His ego knows no bounds....as he rarely goes a day without mentioning his time in Congress. He has been pretty hard on the current field of candidates running for the presidency, but he still is a major jerk and his show is much more civil when he is on a bathroom break or visiting back here in Pensacola. Yes, I do live where that a**hole lived before he moved to NYC. Oh, the inhumanity of it all!

[polichick]

48. "His ego knows no bounds" That's for sure!

[DCBob]

16. Mika is a totally different person when hes not there.

at least she can express her opinion without that asshole cutting her off.

[polichick]

50. imo she should quit and look for a gig without a misogynistic bully as co-host.

[DeSwiss]

28. Zbigniew Brzezinski once said something to that PUTZ which I will always treasure:

On this morning's Morning Joe, former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski offered his expertise on the conflict in Gaza. It was all very insightful! But you'll want to just skip to the end of this clip, where host Joe Scarborough attempts to ask for Brzezinski's daughter Mika's hand in marriage or something by insisting that "you cannot blame what's going on in Israel on the Bush administration." This prompted Zbig to reply, "You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you."

link & video

[eyewall]

32. Thanks, that was great.

I also liked the props Zbig gave Presidents Carter and Clinton while pointing out that the Bush/Cheney regime did nothing effective to promote peace in the region.

[Beartracks]

43. "Stunningly superficial knowledge." Nice.

But that's what passes for know-how, common sense, and gravitas in the Republican universe.

============================

[polichick]

51. I saw that show! lol Thanks for the link.

[Flaxbee]

18. Sanctimonious Santorum - good riddance

The thing is, what Santorum did with a little bit of that heady power was let his true moralizing, heckling, patronizing, controlling, sexist nature through.

And while the Republicans can strategize all they want, do they really want power so badly that they'd let someone so repugnant win? (I know the answer is yes, but it's hard to believe -- we Democrats were ready to toss Edwards if he got too close to the nomination because we knew he'd be a disaster candidate).

[NCcoast]

19. Hog wash

Santorum never had a shot at anything. The only reason he has ever had a lead in the GOP primary is the incredible weakness of the field. Did Herman Cain 'blow it' as well. He got his 15 minutes. Could the godfather of pizza ever have been in a position to decide America's policies on Uz-beki-becky-beki-stan-stan? Not for a minute. Did Newt blow it? Was Michele Bachmann ever going to be the next president of the United States? The only thing any of these clowns have blown is an opportunity to be at the top of the ticket for a humiliating trouncing.

[Lex]

21. Whether he blew a small chance or big chance

he blew it.

[caseymoz]

36. Why are they weak?

Aside from that, you're right. They candidates are weak.

[Alcibiades]

47. He was the last of the loonies left standing

Santorum was an already known nut: the fairly unknown nuts all surged for a while, before their skeletons came put under the scrutiny of the campaign. He's simply the last lunatic standing between Romney and the nomination. He, Gingrich and Paul all have the advantage that their skeltons are all counted as "old news."

[ThoughtCriminal]

20. When he should have checked into the booby hatch

he ran for the GOP nomination for President of the United States.

[2ndAmForComputers]

22. You know why he didn't say all those nice, election-winning things?

Because that's not who he is. He is an extremist fanatic filled to the brim with insane rage.

Like the proverbial scorpion stinging the frog mid-river.

[NeonDog]

24. Fuck Scarborough and the Mika he rode in own!

[burning rain]

25. What's really weird is Santorum thinks his craziness will go over with the public.

More sensible wingers speak elliptically or in code, but Rick lets it all hang out. Evidently he's so divorced from reality he imagines that most Americans agree with him.

[Initech]

26. I'm so sick of the morals and values crowd I could puke.

I'm glad to see that is biting Santorum in the ass - and it is looking like it's biting Limbaugh and O'Reilly in the ass too.

[bigdarryl]

29. Sanitarium didn't blow SHIT!!! everybody knew Romney was going to be the nomineee

because it's his turn

[mikeh106]

31. Santorum

I so much enjoyed helping throw his ass out in 2006. What a nice shellacking that was! That he has the unbelievable gall to think he can become President now is simply amazing. The clown college marches on - hopefully all the way into August.

[sellitman]

33. I never watch Mourning Joe the Intern Killer

I am amazed at all the Libs that do.

[DCBob]

35. I can only tolerate it for few moments early in the AM while getting ready for work.

I think its helpful to hear the viewpoints of the opposition. Know your enemy.

[SemperEadem]

34. I hate giving points to scarborough

but he nailed it here:

"But as he has shown on the campaign trail all year, Rick Santorum has absolutely no discipline when it comes to tempering his message."

that's it: he has no discipline. You can see it when you watch (not listen; turn down the volume and just observe him) him get taken by his own hubris and nonsense. He's combative, argumentative, childish; he lashes out when he should be tightening down and holding firm; he gets snarky and snarly when he's made to defend his statements; he lies with abandon and then get mad when he's called out on it--doubling down on his lies.

as far as the rest of the article, scarborough is just engaging in fantasy talk. The gop ain't competitive, not with this knot of harebrains they're running this election cycle.

[CoreyAndrews]

37. Scarborough

This guy is nice to listen to. A moderate republican.

[kemah]

38. Scar just uses better jargon to push the same agenda

GOP establishment is on the same wavelength as the tea party, they just use politically correct Luntz tested jargon. Example instead of super rich, use job creators, abolish EPA, use government regulations are killing jobs.
The GOP has the same agenda, cut taxes on the rich, abolish all business regulations, raise taxes on the poor, through fees, sales taxes, property taxes. abolish all entitlements except for the rich.
Corporate welfare is good, social welfare bad is the GOP mantra.
It is that simple, it is all about the money. Who keeps it, and who pays for the tab.

[LiberalFighter]

39. Grandson of a coal miner? Really?

No mention about his parents? Guess he wants others to believe that his background is more basic than in reality.

[KG]

40. piss on Scarborough

[LiberalLovinLug]

41. It is all a set up

The Repukes know they don't have much of a chance winning against Obama and they don't want to tackle, or be blamed, for this recession that they fostered, so they only ran nutjobs and a two faced Mormon. That way in 2016 after FOX News and Rush Limpballs have had another 4 years of softening up the base, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie will ride into the ring saying its time the Republican party listen to people like Scarborough and that the party should be more inclusive and stop going on about abortion, and gay marriage and concentrate on fixing the terrible economy that the Democrats have saddled America with.

The MSM will fall in line with stories about how reasonable and conciliatory this new breed of Republicans are and run stories of disgruntled tea baggers in order to prove the point. If I were really cynical I would even say that the Dems will be running a slate of unelectable choices. It will be their turn to lose.

Behind the scenes of course Jeb or Chris when elected will carry on taking the country even further to the right, catering to the .01 %. Saying all the right things to appease the independents but behind the scenes making Rush and Hannity giggle.

God I hope I am wrong.

[butterfly77]

42. You're right ...

that is exactly how they plan for it to go but circumstances will not let things go the way they are planning.

Concerning Scar he is full of shit,he agrees with most of the shit the CONS say he just says it with different words.

Scar is just angry because they are losing if he thought they were winning you would hear the same hateful garbage and a lot of gloating... Lately,he has been pretending that he is reasonable and moderate but,if they put the right people on that panel every morning he couldn't take it ..

Why don't they bring on Melissa Perry any more,where is Rachel,Joe Madison those are just a few I can think of at the moment but,Joe can't handle a real conversation with facts he start nitpicking and name calling he got angry the other week because Halperin told the truth so Joe tried to mock him..

[ghjtydger]

44. Spam deleted by NRaleighLiberal (MIR Team)

[vaberella]

46. I found it weird that he bashed Kennedy when he's a Catholic as well.

You just don't go there. Scarborough is right on this account.

[CobaltBlue]

49. Well, Dear Joe, I must say that: It ...

...doesn't matter. The fix is in to get the nomination to Mitt Romney. And the faux conservatives in the Republican Party, answering pollsters on the electability argument, are full of shit. (Not one of the four remaining candidates is electable.) It's one thing to disagree on politics; it's another to be old enough to know better and, yet, be delusional with political realities. An aware GOP voter knows the score: the party won't win back the presidency in 2012; that 2016 is the more favorable.

[aaaaaa5a]

52. This is what is going to happen to Santorum.