Hillary's E-Mails and the Clown Car's Hilarious PR Campaign

Waiting to see the "Whites" of Hillary's Eyes

FOX promised them that there was no reason to worry.

It's just Hillary's advance team looking for office space.

The GOP's "clown car" is already packed to the breaking point with unscrupulous, sold out characters running for President. There is already at least half a billion dollars jammed into cardboard boxes in the trunk, and some of the richest, greediest oligarchs haven't even "contributed," yet.

Relax. It's just her advance team [image]
looking for a spot to rent.

What's "missing" is a single pollster saying that she can still be beaten. Not even the high stakes Las Vegas "non-political" odds makers are "putting any cash" on a political long shot that long. 

Worse, even the type on the think tank's copy of the Citizens United decision is beginning to wear away because so many think tank fingers have repeatedly scoured through it desperately searching for a previously overlooked loop hole big enough to accommodate the mass of week old dog food waiting in the wings for the Republican debates.

The oligarchs gave the order months ago: "Hillary Clinton must be destroyed before the November, 2016, election."

MeanMesa is certain that a "very tasty, very tempting" reward is on the table for the think tank tactician who finally comes up with some scheme to accomplish this mission. Whatever that solution might turn out to be, it will have to reach considerably more of the electorate than the usual drivel aimed at just the American Legion beer hall and traditional GOP trailer park base.

There simply aren't enough hill billies and bigots in the country to elect a President.

The "B5" Assault
 Bouncing Back From the

 Billionaires' Benghazi Bungles

Not even the mighty Ted Cruz seems able to land a punch.

It's always a good idea to begin with a "big picture," and the "Hillary e-mails" Republican public opinion disaster is no exception. In order to see the thing in "all its beauty," we must set aside our own view of the chaos and imagine what we would see if we were to look at this latest GOP train wreck through the eyes of one of the billionaire owners of the Republican Party. 

To start with, as one of these power crazed billionaires, you are paying for this thing. The whole thing. That means that you are bankrolling everyone and everything. If you want the Republicans to do things for you, there are only two choice: black mail them or pay off their lobbyists. So, what would your world look like if you were one of these billionaires with your check book at the ready, dreaming about how much more you could loot from the country if you were in control of the White House?

To begin you already know that it will be your extremely large bank account that is "signing the pay checks" to the now desperate "psych experts" in your dirty trick bunker. The think tank managers saw you coming. It was clear from the outset that you were consumed with an "addict-like" obsession to rough up Mrs. Clinton even before she announced, and they promised you that -- for the right price -- their team could handle it.

Three Think Tank Attempts to Derail Hillary,
and One Complete Fizzle

Very few things are more entertaining than watching 

hopeless, terrified billionaires grasping at straws.

Because the selected "hit men" have brought such disparate approaches to the task of manufacturing this first scandal, we have to list it twice, individually defining each attempt by the "creative school" responsible for its theme.

First Attempt: Benghazi One -- Issa-esque

Months ago they suckered you into financing the House Benghazi catastrophe. It took some serious "campaign contributions" to weasel even a sold out loser like Darrel Issa to host the hearings extravaganza, but then you watched it fall apart like a mortally wounded chipmunk as the story repeatedly met one ignominious demise after another from lack of interest. Finally, there was that last check to convince Issa to hurl himself on his own sword.

Second Attempt: Benghazi Two -- Gowdy-esque

Not being a "billionaire quitter," you tried again. This time it was necessary to replace Issa's lackluster attempts with another try, this time -- after greasing Boehner's hands with even more of your money -- the House leadership decided that the attempt would be piloted by South Carolina's Trey Gowdy ["Howdy Doody"].

This second try hit the rocks almost immediately. Although the FOX base voters were dutifully interested for a day or two, your big show turned out to be something akin to hiring a band for a baptism in a mausoleum, but behind the scenes, the effort was still gobbling down your money just like there was "no tomorrow." No matter how much cash you injected in the "search for truth," hardly any one beyond the GOP's trailer park base was even bothering to listen.

[Read more HuffingtonPost, TheHill, House Intelligence.gov]

The Complete Fizzle Attempt -- Clinton Foundation Donor Countries

Whichever one of the ambitious think tankers who placed this one on the table at the "dirty tricks" meeting definitely didn't get the "big prize." Although it was clear right away that "the word had gone out" to the Republican's media mouth junk team to start "talking it up" about the fact that the Saudis had contributed to the philanthropic Clinton Foundation, the scheme had officially hit the rocks within hours.

Within the GOP's base the plan simply had gained no traction. The hill billies couldn't understand why it was a problem, and the billionaires weren't infatuated with criticizing other billionaires shoveling out the dough as they tried to rehabilitate their public image. In the first instance the ball had simply careened out of the park, and in the second case the ball had hit too close to home.

The Third Attempt -- the e-mails

Although initiating the re-branded "Gowdy" version for another repeat of Issa's Benghazi disaster may appear to be an unusual tactical decision for the think tankers, we must realize that by this time the "cabinet where the dirty tricks were stored" had grown disturbingly empty. Not even your offer of the "big reward" seemed to be having any beneficial effect.

In fact after cashing out the final invoices of both of the Benghazi bungles, you were left with only the smoldering cinders of the great bon fire you had dreamed of igniting under the Juggernaut of Mrs. Clinton's political future. The search for the "next attack" was not pretty. The bourbon stained PostIt note bearing only the single, cryptic word, "e-mails," was the solitary suggestion your tactical squad of "dirty tricksters" had left on the conference table before sheepishly exiting your strategy session.

For lack of anything more promising, you resigned yourself to the fact that it was going to have to be the emails. Giving forth a sigh that only a billionaire can know, you once again pulled out your check book.

The New Confederacy
"Yew cain't jest fool them 
folks agin, kin ya?" [image]

We could discuss the possibility of all sorts of "possible nightmares" which might be hidden in the otherwise rather banal content of Mrs. Clinton's extensive e-mail records, but what's the use? There can be little doubt that communications records from the office of a New York Senator or US Secretary of State are "full to the gunwales" with a sensitive and discrete collection of messages both received and sent, but what hidden, embarrassing secret does an American voter expect to be revealed?

The vetting of this massive body of content will, assuredly, leave the "juiciest" tid bits locked away in a secure electronic State Department warehouse somewhere in Virginia, while the massive category of the "rest" will become an unread dead weight on Washington Post hard drives. The aging "trailer park" PC's of the Republican Party base, although routinely taxed with the work of preparing poorly annotated. misspelled FaceBook photos of Obama as a cannibal or pictures of talking cats, will never be burdened by a need to support any exhaustive analysis of Clinton's correspondence.

The Delicious Clinton "Nothing Burger"

Irresistibly mouth watering and totally calorie free!

Or, upgrade to our new, deluxe
 "no there" there fat free, grilled cheese delight! Tomato is extra.

The think tank "fact twisters" immediately launched into a frenzied session of remarkable "multi-tasking." There was clearly an urgent need for the preparation of a credible "nothing burger" to meet the hungry clamor from the Party's base. Once the flaming "e-mail scam" had been officially spewed from the  mouths of hundreds of obedient media reactionaries, it became obvious that if the story were ever going to be embellished sufficiently to gain much traction, it was going to be another right wing "fixer upper."

There were suddenly all sorts of "fact problems" littering the think tanks' marketing scheme. For starters there was no law on the books requiring Mrs. Clinton to do anything besides what she had actually done with her e-mails. Further, there was no precedent. Since there was no law, none of the previous Secretaries of State had done anything particularly different from what she had done.

Worse, the records show that there was not ever so much as even any kind of unspoken "policy" floating around in the State Department concerning the matter. It began to look very much like no one had ever really cared that much about what had been done with the correspondence aside from blotting out the seriously sensitive stuff.

The job of servicing the story's "fixer upper" status quickly expanded to encompass the sometimes tricky extra duty of "re-writing history." The fact that there not really any "history" to re-write only complicated matters further.

The Clinton machine blinked a bit at this point. Someone very reasonably presented the "countering evidence" that all this correspondence had been hosted on a server in Bill's office. Normally, such a revelation would have enjoyed a certain "persuasive inertia," but in this case it only revealed that most of the voters who were "being convinced" by the think tanks' gambit had absolutely no idea what a "server" actually was. The fact that Bill's office -- where this secure server was located -- was under the protection of the Secret Service may as well have been "dried leaves blowing in an autumn wind."

As we casually scan the horizon for the faint scent of any "scandalous revelation" headed this way, we come up bare handed. Sure, there may be one out there, but if we see no evidence, at least presently, of some nefarious deception or other duplicity, why are we so willingly obsessed by such pessimistic certainty? Scandals are not made of the fine drawn white clouds of morning. They come in the company of evidene, motives, mechanisms and effects.

MeanMesa did not "arrive on this morning's turnip truck." Happily, all these years of experience have led to a serious reluctance for using the term or concept: "perfect." There is no glassy eyed, naive expectation that Hillary Clinton is a reincarnate Joan of Arc. A president with those sterile, crippling, imaginary qualities would be even more terrifying than the bumbling George W.

There remains one final clown car "hilarity" as we move on from this discussion. Last week MeanMesa watched a television interview with one of America's famous "men on the street." One of the many softball questions being bandied forth was whether or not the interviewee could "trust" Hillary Clinton as President.

The man being interviewed took up the most curious, affected expression. It seemed as though he were mimicking some maudlin character in an old 1940's black and white film. His eyes rolled back to create the impression of a wise, "knowing" countenance, and after a far too inauthentic dramatic pause, he answered, relying confidently on the viewing audience's ready memory of memorable Ronald Reagan quotes, with "Trust but verify."

Trust but Verify

Mindless paranoia only grows sweeter with age.

The phrase first surfaced as a "public appliance" from some Republican think tank's "political strategy" laboratory during Ronald Reagan's nuclear arms negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the old Soviet Union. The phrase was scripted by a Reagan Administration "Russia expert," and it was intended to buffer the domestic US electorate's distrustful opinion of the USSR.

Reagan, the notably fluid, charming, yet already rather addled Democrat turned Republican, actor turned President was the perfect "mouth piece" to convincingly present the idea to his constituents.

Suzanne Massie, a writer on Russia, met with President Ronald Reagan many times between 1984 and 1987. She taught him the Russian proverb, доверяй, но проверяй ["doveryai no proveryai" -- trust, but verify] advising him that "The Russians like to talk in proverbs. It would be nice of you to know a few. You are an actor – you can learn them very quickly." The proverb was adopted as a signature phrase by Reagan, who subsequently used it frequently when discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. [Content emphasis added, MeanMesa]

After Reagan used the phrase to emphasize "the extensive verification procedures that would enable both sides to monitor compliance with the treaty", at the signing of the INF [Intermediate Range Nuclear Force] Treaty, on 8 December 1987, his counterpart General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev responded: "You repeat that at every meeting," to which Reagan answered "I like it." While Reagan quoted Russian proverbs, Mr. Gorbachev quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Following the 2013 Ghouta [Syrian chemical warfare used on civilians -- read more  here - BBC] attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry told a news conference in Geneva on September 14, 2013 that the United States and Russia had agreed on a framework to dispose of Syria's chemical weapons. He said "President Reagan's old adage about 'trust but verify' ... is in need of an update. And we have committed here to a standard that says 'verify and verify'."

[Excerpted. Read the entire article here -- WIKI]

Although the precise details of Reagan's "foreign policy gambit" may have faded into the admittedly undependable, foggy recesses of the American cultural memory, the "verify" part of the admittedly suspicious agreement represented the extensive effort the US would expend to be certain that the Kremlin was actually doing what it had promised. The "unspoken proposition" in the talks was that the USSR could not be trusted, and that the agreement's promise was intended as a strategic deception.

So, returning to this case what exactly has Mrs. Clinton promised which must be so closely "verified?" What has she said that must be "trusted?" These questions becomes even more difficult when one realizes that Hillary Clinton isn't even campaigning yet! We can comfortably presume that the"promises" -- if there are any -- will begin only after the campaign begins.

In the meantime, we can glance once again at the denizens inhabiting the Republican Party's clown car, and...well...be relieved. 2016 promises a great ballot for the 30% to 40% of American voters inclined to actually vote.

Fresh and Alarming -- Revisiting the "IRS Scandal"

Credit Where Credit's Due

MeanMesa first heard this take on the "IRS Scandal" from Hall Sparks on the Stephanie Miller Show, June 19, 2013. [The Stephanie Miller Show, AM 1350, KABQ Albuquerque, 7 AM to 10 AM daily on weekdays]  MeanMesa has posted before on the cheap, puzzling elements of the artificial "scandal blitz" the GOPCons cooked up in their desperate hopes of future election victories. (Links to the MeanMesa "scandal posts:" Flaming, Red Hot Crisis at the GOP Scandal Factory Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)

Naturally, any such tale stuck in the sleazy, synthetic PR world of Darrell Issa's Oversight Committee "hearings" must be told from the parts which are missing rather than from the parts that are present, but when just a few of those "missing parts" are laid out in the light, this one is fascinating.

What if -- instead of the Obama White House -- the evil doers behind the IRS's suspicious targeting of  tea bag 501C-4's were actually GOP Party operatives?

Immediately embracing the total validity of the old saying: "some old, something blue, something borrowed and something new," MeanMesa will quite happily "turn over the wheel" to an article by Mark Segal from Philly.com.  (Visit the site and read the whole thing here. All links in the original article are left enabled in this post.)

Are Karl Rove & GOP behind IRS scandal?

No, it's not from the "10 Most Wanted" poster (image source)

Mark Segal

Last updated: Monday, June 3, 2013, 11:40 AM
Posted: Tue Jun 18 00:01:00 PDT 2013

We know the Republican Congress is in a tizzy about the IRS looking into requests for IRS Tax exemptions for organizations named "Tea Party" and other conservative labels. They even had some hearings on them, attempting to tie the White House and President Obama to the scene. But as hard as they try, they simply cannot, since the White House had no knowledge of the incidents until told by the Inspector General. But wait. If President Obama, the White House and Democrats had nothing to do with something that seems so political, what about the Republicans?

Rather than the guessing game that the Republican Congress wants to play,let's take a look at the facts, firstly from the hearings themselves. Democrats were not allowed to have any information gathered by the committee's staff or the list of witnesses in advance. That is highly unusual in a Congressional hearing. Why all the Republican control? To further the point, last week an eye opening report revealed that Congressman Darrell Issa, the House Oversight Committee chairman who made all the charges against the White House, actually knew about the Inspector General's report before them, the people he was accusing. Remember that this is the same committee that falsified White House emails during the hearings on Benghazi.

Second, let's take a look at the questions asked during those hearings, specifically the questions that were not asked. While they searched for a White House link, the committee never asked about any connections to Republican operatives. Not one question. Why?

The man in charge of the IRS when this took place was a Bush appointee, Douglas Shulman, at the same time that Karl Rove worked in the White House and Dick Cheney was Vice President. These guys know a thing or two about appointments. And take note that several Liberal organizations and churches were targeted during those Bush days. Most famously All Saints Episcopal, in Pasadena, California. Their crime? A sermon about the ills of the Iraq war. A subject so close to the Bush administration's hearts that they sent an American hero, Colin Powell, to lie before the United Nations. So rather than the Obama administration contacting the IRS, it is more likely that a Republican like Rove would give orders to the man that he helped appoint. But still, why would they target their allies the Tea Party?

The formal Republican party was frustrated with the Tea Party, who won primaries with candidates like one who believed in "legitimate rape," but lost general elections along the way. Rove and his gang realized that as long as the right wing elements of the Tea party were around, they would not win the Senate, much less the White House. And it was Rove who was the most outspoken about the Tea Party at that time. Heck, that Tea Party made Romney, the candidate of choice for Rove, go so far right in order to win the primaries, he never really had a shot. On the flipside, Democrats loved the Tea Party, who campaigned against women, gays, and immigration. The Tea Party was helping the Democrats win elections, why would they want to stop them?

Step in Rove, a man who would step on your grandmother's grave to win an election. He knows all the IRS players, he helped appoint some of them in his days in Bush's White House. In fact, many in formal Republican circles did, too. Isn't it time to summon those phone and email logs from those Bush-era IRS appointees? Unless, of course, they have something to hide.

Mark Segal is one of Philadelphia's most awarded opinion writers and has been recognized by the National Newspaper Association, Pennsylvania News-media Association, Suburban Newspapers of America and the Society of Professional Journalists, among others. He can be reached on facebook or on twitter. 

Now, all these typically myopic, high level [Karl "Death to the Tea Bags!" Rove] Republican political machinations left poor, incompetent, House Oversight Committee Chairman, Darrel Issa, in way over his head.  Darrel must have been having wet dreams of the good old days when he was just a simple, hard working car thief.  Inundated by the necessity of building a case from all the chaotic, contradicting details, his soiled career as a professional GOP fact bender was already rapidly showing its age.

Good, Old Fashioned GOP "Up is Down"

And, of course, war is peace -- if you're a private contractor.

The notable thread which runs through this story is the amazingly arrogant willingness of the Republican-tea bag Party to stridently accuse their political opposition of precisely what they, themselves, have just been convicted. Granted, the owners of the Republican Party have long ago realized that their base of illiterate hill billies is totally unable to comprehend such obvious contradictions, but their eagerness to trot out the same insults for consumption by the larger base of voters is evidence of a "Hail Mary" panic.

Not even the permanently confused denizens of their savagely gerrymandered districts could be expected to find this stuff all that palatable.  While the Republican base is famous for its unusually stubborn invulnerability to nuance, the masses of more rational voters is not. 

Rove is no dummy.  The carefully crafted IRS scandal was a progeny of the think tanks simply performing as ordered by their check writing bosses.  After the scheme had flopped during the Romney catastrophe, Rove probably assuaged his wounds with a presumption that it was just too complicated to possibly cost the GOP any actual votes among its base.  His expected cover did, in fact, materialize, but only in a temporary way.

Someone else in the Party renown for its zombie-like unanimity in all things ideological must have picked up the possibility that Issa could embarrass the President with a half-baked, "patchwork investigation" and, from that realization, simply run with it.  The structural failure of the GOP to consolidate lies before going public is not particularly news worthy, but these gaffs generally occur between the classic old school oligarchs and the rambunctious, policy-free tea bags.

In this case, MeanMesa sees an unusual and refreshing departure from this GOP norm -- one creating an even more hysterical anomaly than usual.  For this "shoot out" both sides were comprised of servants to the constantly scheming oligarchs -- this time just servants from different GOP think tanks and perhaps different oligarchs.

MeanMesa has mentioned this in previous posts.  The Republicans are allergic to leadership because they think that everyone else in their Party is just like they are -- and they are generally right.  Naturally, in such a fear driven political culture this shattering lack of trust is predictable, but now it has obliterated every potential leader in the entire gang.  Not even their old favorite, mistake plagued Rush Limbaugh, has emerged with his "character" -- or his ratings -- in tact.

Historically, even after losing an election the rejected Republican candidate would have continued to be the face of the Party until someone with a brighter visage slaughtered his way to the top to replace him. However, after his drumming Mitt Romney has been officially vaporized from the political scene leaving in his absence the "empty chair" which made such a hit at the Convention.

The talk shows are not yet ready to resurrect George W. Bush, so they have settled for a thousand remakes of John McCain, the loser from just before the last loser and the loser after the last loser. This Rovian flummox was supposed to help, but the odor drifted into the nest before the egg hatched.

Upside Down, Inside Out, Over and Over

Cartoon: Pat Bagley (image source)

Fast and Furious Visits Aurora

No matter how politically "meat handed" the Romney Campaign seems to be, when we compare it to the pro's at the NRA, we have to conclude that the handicap hardly runs in the blood of oligarch class politicos.  Two impressive efforts have recently surfaced to sway voter opinion on gun control, and both reveal the long term goals of the gun business and exactly how valuable achieving those goals are to them.

In fact, quite notably, two of these "gun psyche" opportunities have slithered into the temporary limelight astride the recent publicity of current events.  Both have been exploited to the max in an effort to dissuade voters from even so much as a momentary dalliance, much less a full throated embrace, of any aspect of gun control -- and especially gun control which might negatively impact the roaring US export business for assault rifles.

Don't be confused.  The NRA is the heavily soiled hand maid of the domestic gun manufacturers who provide almost all the money to run the burping, beer drinking thing.  The "shock troops" for the NRA all travel in well lubricated circles among the prepaid ALEC legislative anti-democracy festivals and the back rooms of the oligarchs' palatial country clubs.

You know.  "Back rooms" where oligarchs sit, bathed in luxury beyond imagining, and issue what pass for "representational democracy orders" via  their cell phones.  Where to the "orders" go?  Why directly to Congress, of course.  The marching orders NRA gives to ALEC filter down to the "lesser gun loving souls" at the state level.

The "re-imaging" effort is sophisticated, thorough and cravenly pragmatic.  Where even the smallest opportunity exists for the anti-gun control message to be inserted, a massive, well financed, centrally directed organization stands immediately ready and eager.

Making Gun Scandals and Tragedies

 Promote Anti-Gun Control Sentiment

The point of this post has everything to do with the NRA's penchant for "re-framing," "re-imaging," "re-emphasizing," "over simplifying," "over sanitizing" and "selected editing" of news stories which could, should they be given "free rein," possibly undercut the near sacred claims of some legitimate connection between the out of control gun makers and the 2nd Amendment's protection.

The "treatment" is so exhaustively applied that a casual "news consumer," already prey to such grotesquely tilted monstrosities as FOX and PBS, has basically not a chance of making sense beyond the NRA's relentless comic book version of the gaseous dichotomies.  At least, this is clearly the ambition of the gun boys' "trigger finger" think tanks. The gun makers' PR experts sleep on satin sheets with the "Pry it out of my cold, dead hands" maxim embroidered in red silk and black powder on the pillows.

The two scandals which can serve as examples here are, of course, "Fast and Furious" and the massacre in Aurora.  Those who "take the bait" find themselves careening instantly back into the very worst, tediously worn parts of the old hackneyed, "fly by" debates we heard first in the seventh grade.  This has certainly been the treatment for both instances on the country's news and opinion cycles.

One has to wonder if anyone could still possibly need to hear the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" claptrap one more agonizing time before finally creating a single thoughtful spark of individual opinion.  Well, MeanMesa has "stepped up to the plate" with an attempt to untangle the word salad, you know, the suspiciously crafted, media blitz word salad with the testosterone vinaigrette dressing -- a long time, red meat flavored, "menu favorite" for the GOP base.

To begin, let's take a look at the what came down the pike as House tea bag, Darrell Issa, bravely led the House Oversight Committee to places where no man, at least, where no contempt charge, had ever been before.

Now, MeanMesa has always been a fan of the House investigating expensive federal policies which have not particularly produced results and which have cost millions or billions of tax payer dollars.  In this sense, Issa's investigation of the Bush era "Fast and Furious" debacle is perfectly reasonable.  The program cost a lot of money, failed to accomplish its presumed goal and, finally, resulted in placing one of the weapons in the hands of a criminal which led to the shooting death of a US Border Patrol agent.

Predictably, after reviewing the terrible original design of the program and its resulting failure to produce cases which could be prosecuted, the Obama Administration's DOJ quietly ended the wasteful disaster.  In case anyone is wondering how such a "pre-packaged disaster" could have been birthed in the first place, visitors here are reminded that during the Bush autocracy hundreds of "biblical law school graduates" from televangelist Pat Robert's Regent University were permanently embedded in the Justice Department.

Permanently embedded, of course, means that these "divinely inspired missionary lawyers" were hired as civil servants who could never be dislodged during any attempt to rehabilitate the Department.  We must assume that this incredibly conflicted bunch busily continues to create such fatally flawed programs even to this day.

If you think such a complaint is exaggerated because MeanMesa "doth protest too much," consider how you would feel if you were going to trial with a "conflicted lawyer."  These "lawyers" work for you.  These are, for instance, the DOJ "lawyers" which Attorney General Holder must use to turn back the voter suppression crimes for the 2012 election.

One could reasonably anticipate that the House Oversight Committee's work would seem, in the usual lackluster manner we associate with Republicans in general, to be somewhat wasteful, pointless and vindictive.  However, in this case, even that characterization of what actually happened in those Committee hearings would be painfully over generous.

Roughly half of the "players" who designed the program and implemented the thing during the Bush years were not "invited" to testify for the Committee hearing.  The ATF agents who brought the failed charges against the illegal gun exporters were also nowhere to be seen.  And the DOJ prosecutors who ran into a rock wall of state law protecting the arms dealers were not to add even so much as a single word of testimony at the hearing.

Instead, Issa's "dog and pony" show played out as if it had been written by one of the illiterate hill billies it was intended to inflame.  Even Congressman Issa himself stated that the Committee very frankly lacked corroborating evidence to bring  a contempt charge.

Not a problem.  The orders from the NRA lobbyists were clear.  Issa and the rest of the tea bag faithful in what used to be the House of Representatives marched lock step to the tune of trigger housing assemblies clicking.  The goofy "contempt indictment" was proposed and passed in minutes.

This embarrassment becomes an egregious affront to democracy rather easily.  Simply imagine any possibly constructive work Issa's Oversight Committee could have done which might have been, well, consistent with their Constitutional duties.

The Committee could have examined the incredibly wretched, Bush-style decision making process which created "Fast and Furious."  The Committee could have taken a long hard look at the suitability those who initially designed the program.  The Committee could have investigated the cost of the program -- every one of those rifles which wound up in cartel hands had probably already cost us half a million dollars before it was ever even sold.

Instead, the House Committee very predictably dumped everything for even a fleeting chance to discredit the President.

The design and implementation of the "Fast and Furious" program amounted to no more than a cheap, adolescent mouse trap in the first place.  Convicted car thief, Issa, could simply not squeeze out any credible tears of "oversight" outrage sincere enough to carry the day.

Boehner frantically buried the thing under the Supremes' health care ruling news cycle in an attempt to preclude any more embarrassment.  And when Republicans scramble to act like this, it says it all.

If "Fast and Furious" Created This Much Havoc,

Where Will the NRA Go With Aurora?

The fast tactics of a practised tai chi fighter anticipate an opponent's over reach.  When blessed with such an opportunity, he will exact the price which must be paid for an attempt to strike while out of balance.



The NRA and its minions had to take a moment to strategize their best response to what happened in Aurora.  Even before the blood and cartridge shells had been cleaned in the aftermath, it was clear that none of the NRA's standard, road weary, adrenaline eliciting, hill billy baiting rhetoric was really going to work that well this time.

This bunch quickly lurched toward the "over extended, out of balance" idea.  The best place for the gun manufacturers and their admittedly awkward PR campaign, at least for the moment, would be to lie low and just let anti-gun sentiment reach the completely anticipated, frenzied "high point" before striking back.

Happily for the gun lobby and the NRA, there is an additional advantage in the current field.  When the gun control proponents have reached their loudest crescendo, the weapons lobbyists will patiently begin not only their routine 2nd Amendment chorus but also include every possible racial innuendo about the President.  When all this is carefully coupled with a well crafted horror scenario about invasion by wrong colored people and the rape, pillaging and general deflowering of an unarmed public, the NRA presumes that it will be on its way to yet another "glorious 2nd Amendment victory."

Mitt Romney certainly hopes so.  However what Mitt is really after is a solid hit on President Obama.  The NRA strategy continues.

The NRA crowd wants more than anything that the gun control tsunami, which is almost certainly en route as we speak, will become married to the President.  Obama has officially spoken already about the violence -- gun and otherwise -- which is gradually saturating the country, and the "gun boys" hope that just the slightest little nudge will re-frame that message into something that at least looks like a wildly reckless total fire arm ban.

It will be a message without substance, but one which can still recruit highly visible support on both sides.  The President cannot divorce himself from that image, and MeanMesa isn't particularly convinced that he even wants such a separation.  Yet, to the NRA's credit, neither of the respective demographics is enough to decide an election.  Although the President will not be particularly interested in using an "army" of gun control fanatics, he will most likely be saddled with one anyway.