Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/16/14

Iraq Law Would Allow 9-Year-Old Girls To Marry

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'19 Kids and Counting' Stars: We Won't Kiss Until Marriage

What Kind of God Do You Believe In?

Cardinal Dolan ‘Fully Supportive’ of Teaching That Homosexual Activity is Immoral

Priebus: Jolly Election Spotlights Republicans' 'Positive Vision'

Sen. Rand Paul Wins Presidential Survey

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Networks Minimize Bad News For Dems, Tout Obama Shopping at the Gap

Air Force: Christians' Religious Speech Not Legally Protected Right

Maine Hospital Facing $27 Million In Costs Due To Obamacare

Why Some Christians' Kids Blow Off God – and Why Mine Didn't

RNC Chair Reince Priebus Calls for Complete GOP Boycott of MSNBC over ‘Demeaning’ Tweet

Mediaite.com:

Republicans are fuming at MSNBC tweeting out a derogatory message last night about the right wing “hating” a cute Cheerios ad featuring a biracial family, and now RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is openly calling for a Republican boycott of the network until network head Phil Griffin apologizes.

In a memo posted on the official Republican party website, Priebus attacks the tweet as the latest example of comments from MSNBC “that belittle and demean Americans” with a conservative philosophy, and says until Griffin takes action and apologizes publicly, no Republican official or elected representative should grace the network with their presence.

This morning I left a message with MSNBC President Phil Griffin to express my displeasure. I have sent him a letter demanding that he personally, as president of the network, take responsibility and apologize for the disgusting tweet. Until he takes internal corrective action and personally apologizes—not just to the RNC but to all right-of-center Americans—I’m banning all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.

As an elected official, strategist, or surrogate, I’m asking for you to agree to the same.

Priebus takes shots at recent comments made by current and ex-MSNBC personalities from Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir to Melissa Harris-Perry and Alex Wagner, saying it all adds up to “toxic programming” coming from the liberal network.

Michael Steele, the head of the RNC before Priebus, is currently a political analyst for MSNBC.
This is the offending tweet that set off the controversy:

Several hours later, after an Internet outcry from conservative bi-racial families, MSNBC deleted that tweet and sent out two others apologizing for the “offensive line.” Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com, also tweeted out an apologetic message, saying the offending tweet was “not who we are at MSNBC.”

RELATED: MSNBC fires staffer after new controversy

Newt Gingrich, Reince Priebus Confronted by Black Republican Woman: ‘It’s Like We Don’t Exist’

The woman asks a great question and Newt punts the football:

During the question and answer session at Wednesday’s 2013 Republican National Committee Summer Meeting, an African-American woman stood up and asked RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich what the Republican Party was doing to connect with her community. “I live in a world that’s different from most of the people that’s in this RNC,” the woman said, “and it’s like we don’t exist.” 

“I mean, everybody’s talking about Hispanics,” the woman continued, “but African-Americans built this country, and continue to be ignored by everybody. And since we’re no longer the largest minority, we get pushed to the bottom.” She said she saw “America’s future” in the Egyptian and Iranian revolutions, where the young and unemployed are rising up against their leaders. 

“Are you really listening to the people who are being pushed down, who are being disenfranchised, who don’t have a pot to whatever in and a window to throw it out of?” she asked the two men. “Because I don’t hear their voices resonating, not in this party, but I don’t hear them in the Democratic Party either. I hear the Democrats saying to us, let us lead you to stay where you are. What we have to do is offer them some hope to be better than they are.”

Gingrich handled the answer himself, leaving Priebus mostly silent on the issue. “I would just suggest to you,” Gingrich told the woman, “we ought to be in the business of liberating every African-American, every Asian-American, every Latino-American small business man or woman.” 

He praised the RNC chairman for doing “the best job of any chairman I have ever seen by reaching out, and if he can drive this into the states–if those of you who are chairmen and executive directors can pick up of the rhythm of what he’s trying to do in reaching out to every American of every background, we will be in dramatically better shape by the fall of 2014.”

RELATED: What GOP must do to court Black voters

Bipartisanship: Keith Olbermann And Reince Priebus Both Agree That Eric Holder Should Resign Over Associated Press Scandal

Hey, remember when then-Senator Barack Obama and a legion of other Democrats demanded that Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for firing 8 U.S. attorneys? The liberal media sure doesn't. And yet, having miraculously survived the gross negligence and incompetency surrounding the “Fast and Furious” gun scandal, AG Eric Holder is once again making news for all the wrong reasons with the Associated Press-leak scandal and this time, even Obama stans can't defend him:

Who says there is no consensus anymore between hyper-partisan Democrats and Republicans? Well, just about everyone these days. But the usual Cassandras, often seen decrying the supposed lack of concord in Washington D.C., are unlikely to point to the developing consensus around the notion that Attorney General Eric Holder should resign as a welcome bit of political comity. Still, and in spite of the silence of the hollow, label-free political commentators who value unity for its own sake, anything that brings together former Current TV host Keith Olbermann and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has to be worth noting.


“The First Amendment doesn’t request the federal government to respect it; it demands it,” declared RNC Chairman Priebus in a written statement released on Tuesday. “Attorney General Eric Holder, in permitting the Justice Department to issue secret subpoenas to spy on Associated Press reporters, has trampled on the First Amendment and failed in his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.”

Attorney General Holder has so egregiously violated the public trust, the president should ask for his immediate resignation. If President [Barack] Obama does not, the message will be unmistakable: The President of the United States believes his administration is above the Constitution and does not respect the role of a free press.

Priebus found some unlikely allies in his call for action from the White House regarding the DoJ’s decision to unilaterally obtain two months of telephone records from the Associated Press.

Making up Priebus’ coalition of the willing in his crusade to force President Obama to jettison his friend and close political ally are Olbermann and progressive radio and television host David Schuster:

“If Mr. Holder continues to support this rogue action, he should resign,” Olbermann declared on his Twitter account Tuesday. 

Given all this unity, it is a curiosity as to where the members of the perpetually chagrined third way crowd are hiding? Shouldn’t this be celebrated? Is this not a Kumbaya moment which merits shouting from the rooftops? Granted, Holder’s potential resignation is not so much a policy achievement as it is a long-overdue correction, but it is a place to start. 

Perhaps, in coming days, we will point to bipartisanship and say that this regularly lip serviced phenomenon actually accomplished something.

RELATED: Eric Holder blasts IRS scandal, defends seizure of Associated Press phone records

Reince Priebus Calls Obama Stan Chris Matthews ‘The Biggest Jerk In The Room’

Mediaite.com:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was on the receiving end of thurough grilling from MSNBC host Chris Matthews while the two appeared on Monday’s Morning Joe. Matthews accused Priebus, his party and their presidential nominee of knowingly employing coded racism in their campaign against President Barack Obama. Priebus kept his cool during that segment, but in an interview with National Review’s Jim Geraghty, the RNC chairman responded to Matthews by calling him “the biggest jerk in the room.”

Priebus responded to criticism that he was too deferential to Matthews while his party and their presidential nominee were being defamed on cable news. Priebus replied to that charge saying that, when someone is being “the biggest jerk,” it is sometimes best to “just let them go.”

When someone wants to grab the flag and try to be the biggest jerk in the room, sometimes you just let them go…. We shook hands, but I will tell ya that someone from MSNBC, I don’t know if it’s a producer or somebody, has been trying to call us all day – I’m sure it’s to make amends, but there’s nothing to make amends [about]. When somebody wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room… I mean, he made the case for us. This is the Barack Obama surrogate of 2012. This is what they’re all about. They’re going to be about division, they’re going to be about distraction. And I’ve got to tell you, the brand of Barack Obama, hope and change and bringing us all together, it’s completely broken. When people come to realize that you’re not real anymore, you’re not who you said you were, that’s a big problem for Barack Obama.

Asked if he would go on MSNBC again, he said, “I’m happy to go on MSNBC. Joe and Mika, they weren’t too happy about it. The feeling in the room was clearly there was a lot of happiness directed at Chris. I don’t really care. If more than 10 people actually watched his show, I would actually care, but they don’t, so, whatever.

 RELATED: Chris Matthews Accuses Reince Priebus, GOP Of Playing Race Card: ‘It’s Your Garbage’

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Is An Idiot

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Following in the steps of idiots like Michael Steele and Ken Mehlman, new RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is proving that a lack of brain cells is all it takes to be the spokesman of the GOP. While everyone on the planet thinks that the longer Anthony Weiner hangs in there and refuses to resign his position as congressman is a huge plus for Republicans, Priebus is the sole yahoo begging for Weiner to exit stage left. Then too, instead of hanging back and laying low (esp. when your own party has a sitting (and married) congressman who used to dally with prostitutes), Priebus wants to make the news rounds and exploit the Democratic sex scandal for his party's gain. As Joe Scarborough points out this strategy is nothing but an utter fail:

On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough previously shared his hesitancy to cover the Anthony Weiner scandal at all until it had real political developments. Now that the Democratic leadership in the House is calling for Weiner’s resignation, Scarborough is ready to discuss the topic, but is not pleased that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is attempting to exploit the controversy for his party’s political gain.


The panel discussed a Meet the Press appearance by Priebus and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz where Priebus attacked Democrats for not showing leadership and for spending many days trying to protect Weiner’s job. Scarborough responded to the exchange suggesting Priebus should “back off,” because he is sick of seeing the leaders of one political party always attempt to exploit the scandals of their opponents:


“It’s just stupid. Seriously, just shut up. You know what, that’s what I hate about the coverage of these scandals. . . . That was a stupid exchange over the weekend, especially when you had Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all of them saying [to Weiner] ‘get out.’”


Scarborough’s co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed:


“This is for the Democratic party to deal with, it’s obviously sad, it’s obviously going downhill. Wouldn’t you, if you were a Republican leader right now, just back off and let that train keep going?”


Scarborough was impressed with how quickly and aggressively the Democratic leadership moved against Weiner and later in the segment maintained that he thought Priebus’ “cheap shot” was a “desperate plea.”