Category: The Dish

Which means a bigger kitchen sink heading his way as Clintonites try to take advantage of the Wright stuff.

A toilet that does your laundry. Not as gross as it sounds.

That’s Clinton’s latest way of not being able to admit an error of memory or a lie. Was she also sleep-deprived in February when she made exactly the same claim? This this:

Occasionally, I am a human being like everybody else… For the first time in 12 or so years I misspoke.

Occasionally, I am a human being like everybody else. This is close to clinical delusions of grandeur. Does she really think that most of the time she is above being human? Do you know any human being who hasn’t misspoken in the last twelve years once? Or would ever claim such a thing? I sure couldn’t. And this from a candidate whose most famous campaign ad rests on her ability to make national security judgments at 3 am!

Bill Safire was right: she is and has for a long time been a congenital liar. I don’t mean by that that she deliberately and pre-meditatedly decides to deceive people. I mean she has long since forgotten the difference between truth and untruth (enabling addicts can do that to people). I mean that by seeking power and self-advancement for so many years, at the expense of any other human values, she has lost all sense of what the difference between truth and falsehood is, who she is, what really matters or any fundamental sense of perspective.

Once, I believe, she was motivated by good intentions and even now, I don’t think she believes she is advancing anything but the common good. But she can never believe that her interests and the common good could ever be in conflict, which is to say, she has lost a moral compass beyond narcissism. That is sad in a human being and we are all prey to it. But in a potential president, it is very dangerous. And she has so long excused all her moral transgressions by the fact that her foes must always be worse (yes, for Wolfson, who has long internalized the socipathy of the Clintons, even Obama is Ken Starr to her), she has long lost the ability to ask herself, deep down, who she really is any more. She is a lost and dangerous soul, as her husband still is. She is, in my view, unfit to be president. Truly, deeply unfit. And at some point, someone in the Democratic party has to take her aside and tell her the damage she is doing to herself, her party and her country is enough.

Look at this Primary Colors clip again. The very last few moments tell you everything.

Yesterday, Ella. Today: Bruce.

Count your blessings, however small: a slightly shorter primary season.

She has often said that candidates should be based entirely on their merits regardless of race and gender. But she also routinely deploys the gender card all the time, today in Pennsylvania. It is worth pointing out that Obama simply doesn’t make this kind of argument that black people should vote for him because he’s black. In this, in my view, he is simply more conservative or old-style than Clinton, as well as more principled.

The Clintons have used the race card, the patriotism card, the drugs card, the fear card, the gender card and the national security card against Obama. At least Obama is learning how to deal with Rove Republicans.

As the campaign goes on, the more you see who she is. The polling has not damaged Obama as she hoped, so she will now make Rove’s and Hannity’s strategy hers:

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

I’m not a Democrat and I know how vile the Clintons are. But this really is a new low. I think it is becoming a national imperative to defeat the Clintons.

"You know, no other person is responsible for what a person says except that person. And so, if they have a problem with what Ann Coulter says, blame Ann  Coulter. You can’t blame somebody else for what she said," – Sean Hannity, responding to Ann Coulter’s public use of the term "faggot" at CPAC’s conference last year.

Rasmussen has the gap at only 10 points – the narrowest yet. It’s just one poll and the average is 16. But the cratering that Mickey and Hewitt and Kristol want and that Clinton needs has not yet shown up in the polls.

Obama warned of the impending mortgage crisis a year ago. Here’s the relevant letter on March 22, 2007. On this and on Iraq nd on Pakistan, his actual judgment simply put him on a level far beyond Clinton and McCain, let alone the current president. Judge for yourself:

Dear Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson, There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.

We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes.

And while neither the government nor the private sector acting alone is capable of quickly balancing the important interests in widespread access to credit and responsible lending, both must act and act quickly.

Working together, the relevant private sector entities and regulators may be best positioned for quick and targeted responses to mitigate the danger. Rampant foreclosures are in nobody’s interest, and I believe this is a case where all responsible industry players can share the objective of eliminating deceptive or abusive practices, preserving homeownership, and stabilizing housing markets.

The summit should consider best practice loan marketing, underwriting, and origination practices consistent with the recent (and overdue) regulators’ Proposed Statement on Subprime Mortgage Lending. The summit participants should also evaluate options for independent loan counseling, voluntary loan restructuring, limited forbearance, and other possible workout strategies. I would also urge you to facilitate a serious conversation about the following:

* What standards investors should require of lenders, particularly with regard to verification of income and assets and the underwriting of borrowers based on fully indexed and fully amortized rates.

* How to facilitate and encourage appropriate intervention by loan servicing companies at the earliest signs of borrower difficulty.

* How to support independent community-based-organizations to provide counseling and work-out services to prevent foreclosure and preserve homeownership where practical.

* How to provide more effective information disclosure and financial education to ensure that borrowers are treated fairly and that deception is never a source of competitive advantage.

* How to adopt principles of fair competition that promote affordability, transparency, non-discrimination, genuine consumer value, and competitive returns.

* How to ensure adequate liquidity across all mortgage markets without exacerbating consumer and housing market vulnerability.

Of course, the adoption of voluntary industry reforms will not preempt government action to crack down on predatory lending practices, or to style new restrictions on subprime lending or short- term post-purchase interventions in certain cases. My colleagues on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs have held important hearings on mortgage market turmoil and I expect the Committee will develop legislation.

Nevertheless, a consortium of industry-related service providers and public interest advocates may be able to bring quick and efficient relief to millions of at-risk homeowners and neighborhoods, even before Congress has had an opportunity to act. There is an opportunity here to bring different interests together in the best interests of American homeowners and the American economy. Please don’t let this opportunity pass us by.