rachel maddow

“Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.” (Christopher Hitchens)
 

Politicians are widely seen as legitimate-- even healthy-- targets of skepticism, derision and raucous humor. Rachel Maddow's opening piece on one of her MSNBC shows this week-- a look at Jeb Bush's tech campaign-- was nothing short of hilarious. I have two broken ribs and I was in pain from laughing so hard while I watched it.

Leave it to Politico to try to make something out of nothing. Nothing? Rick Perry is the governor of Texas, a big deal-- especially in Republican politics. But still... nothing; just watch the drug-addled closet case on the video above. In 2012, Perry came in fifth in the Republican Iowa caucuses-- between Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann.

Boehner, McConnell and, with them, the Republican-dominated Congress, slinked out of town Friday for another epic paid vacation... instead of dealing with raising the minimum wage, crumbling U.S. infrastructure, student-loan reform and other matters the American public-- overwhelmingly-- wants dealt with (or even what Fox and Hate Talk Radio consumers want them to deal with).

Yesterday we talked a little about the battles for position inside the two House conferences. It's all been sorted out and these tare the new Committee Chairs that the Republican Steering Committee will submit to the full GOP conference for a rubber stamp.

Watch the video of Rachel above talking about what she called "a parallel universe in our politics." Towards the end she says that "Conservatives have built themselves a very popular, very successful media landscape that doesn't just tell conservatives things that they want to hear in terms of opinion; they just make stuff up. They make up news stories that aren't true. And when they are corrected in other places, they never disappear from the conservative media. And this is, increasingly, what American conservatives consume as their news diet. This is what they think news is.

This morning I saw a tweet by Noam Scheiber that got my attention: "The worst Republican in America may be about to lose office." The worst? Forget for a minute that whoever it is may lose, how does anyone sort out the racists, fascists, corporate whores and psychopaths who are the core of GOP officialdom to come up with just one "worst Republican?" Ted Cruz isn't up for reelection. That rapist doctor is Tennessee, Scott DesJarlais already won his seat.

As I've mentioned before, Steve Israel protects his own vulnerable seat by never allowing the DCCC to challenge any Republican leaders or committee chairs, not even the ones in blue-leaning districts like Fred Upton (R-MI), John Kline (R-MN) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

Yes, normal people hate Republicans-- but not enough to prevent them from taking over? This morning at the Washington Post, Aaron Blake didn't mince words: "People freaking hate the Republican Party. Poll after poll shows President Obama is unpopular and the Democratic Party is a little more unpopular.

Will Bob McDonnell start a song and dance group in prison?Yesterday, when I first heard-- well, read-- on twitter the jury in Virginia declare Bob McDonnell guilty on one corruption charge after another, 11 in all, I just couldn't wait to watch Rachel Maddow's show.