Still Another Herman Cain Accuser Comes Forward

Perhaps there is a God - one who enjoys exposing liars and hypocrites. Why else would we be faced with would be standard bearers of the party of "family values" who can best be described as hypocrites if not pathological liars. On the one hand we have serial adulterer Newt Gingrich blathering about his desire to "protect the sanctity of marriage" from the gay barbarians (to borrow a phrase from "Marcia" Bachmann). One the other, we have Herman Cain who has just been accused of yet another affair outside his marriage. Cain is equally anti-gay and wants to "protect marriage." That two such individuals are supported by conservative, "pro-family" Christians shows that utter moral bankruptcy is likewise the norm amongst the self-congratulatory pious set. It's mind boggling that serial infidelity and likely constant lies are perfectly fine with these "godly" folks as long as the adulterers/liars are heterosexual. Talking Points Memo looks at the latest revelation about Herman "I can't keep it in my pants" Cain. Here are some highlights:

Herman Cain is quickly dealing with the latest round of accusations of alleged sexual impropriety — this time, by letting the national media know about it before it hits big.

Cain appeared Monday afternoon on CNN, saying that a woman will soon make a public allegation against him. The news story in question is from the local Fox station in Atlanta, which is teasing an upcoming report that a woman will claim a 13-year affair with the candidate, which he denies.

Another Talking Points Memo piece goes into details of the affair and reports that reporters have confirmed that the accuser had Hermain Cain's private cell phone number. Here are some of these details:

Ginger White, the Atlanta businesswoman who is claiming that she had a 13-year affair with Herman Cain, has given details of the alleged relationship to the local Fox station in Atlanta.

White told the station that Cain would fly her out to cities where he was speaking, and that they would then stay nice hotels. She claims that their physical relationship ended about eight months ago, right before Cain launched his presidential campaign.

White said she came forward because she was worried about potential media coverage about herself — and because of Cain’s attacks on the other women who have accused him of sexual harassment. “It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of, they were treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them,” White said. “I felt bad for them.”

White also showed the station evidence of some kind of contact with Cain — cell phone records, with Cain himself responding when the station tried the number:

She showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to or from a number starting with 678. She says it is Herman Cain’s private cell phone. The calls were made during four different months— calls or texts made as early as 4:26 in the early morning, and as late as 7:52 at night. The latest were in September of this year.

With all these accusations, it's really becoming impossible to believe that with all the smoke there hasn't been a fire - or two, or three, etc.

Gingrich's Disingenous Calls to Faith

As noted before, the GOP continues to cynically and disingenuously use religion to pander for votes from the Kool-Aid drinking set and those who by their own laziness and disengagement make the choice daily to embrace ignorance. Yes, my assessment is harsh, but for democracy to work, citizens have an affirmative obligation to educate themselves on issues and matters of public debate. And that requires far more than watching Fox News and/or listening to Bible beaters in the pulpit. Yet, far to many Americans actively choose ignorance as they listen to people whose personal lives indicate that they don't mean a single word or slogan that spills from their lips. A case in point? Newt Gingrich the thrice married and frequent adulterer who is pitching faith and pretending the protect the "sanctity of marriage" - even though he's dragged his own marriage through the mud and made a mockery of the institution. Only a simpleton or moron should believe a word that Gingrich says. Here are highlights from the New York Times on Gingrich's disingenuous ploy:
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[Gingrich] will also have to grapple with aspects of his life and career that could give pause to elements of the Republican primary electorate, including a lack of a well-established association with religious conservatives and attendant questions about his two divorces.
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So as he travels the country, he is striking two related notes: that the nation faces not just a fiscal crisis but also a loss of its moral foundation, and that his conversion to Catholicism two years ago is part of an evolution that has given him a deeper appreciation for the role of faith in public life.
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On a recent winter night here, Mr. Gingrich, 67, stood on stage at a Catholic school with his wife, Callista, and introduced a film they produced about the role Pope John Paul II played in the fall of Communism in Poland. As Mr. Gingrich looked out over a crowd of 1,300 people, he warned that the United States had become too secular a society.
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To most audiences, Mr. Gingrich does not talk directly about converting to Catholicism, but his faith has become an important part of his dialogue with conservative voters.
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In an interview, Mr. Gingrich said he knew that a campaign would bring new attention on the full scope of his personal and political background. Last week, in an appearance at the University of Pennsylvania, he grew testy when he received a question from a Democratic student activist about the details of his two divorces.
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Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich sat for more than an hour signing inscriptions, with his best-selling book, “Rediscovering God in America,” a particularly popular item on this snowy night in Ohio.
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Dr. Jack Willke, an early leader in the anti-abortion movement in Ohio and across the country, was among those waiting for an autograph. Dr. Willke said he was delighted that Mr. Gingrich had increased the role of faith in his public appearances, something that he said he did not recall during Mr. Gingrich’s tenure as speaker of the House.
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As Dr. Willke and his wife, Barbara, mingled with others in the crowd, Mrs. Willke said she was delighted to read about Mr. Gingrich’s baptism as a Catholic in March 2009. When one woman asked about his conversion, Mrs. Willke replied: “His Catholicism certainly sounds legit, and even more so since Callista is in the picture now.”
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There are plenty of suckers throughout the electorate and Gingrich seems bent on playing them for fools with his bogus reinvention of himself.

GOP Base Increasingly Losing Touch With Reality

UPDATED: Related to this post from earlier today is a new Washington Post/ABC News poll which shows that those identifying as Republican has fallen to only 21% of respondents thus illustrating just how posionous the Christianists and extremists of the far right have made the GOP brand. Here are a few highlights from the Washington Post:

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The new Washington Post/ABC news poll has all sorts of intriguing numbers in it but when you are looking for clues as to where the two parties stand politically there is only one number to remember: 21. That's the percent of people in the Post/ABC survey who identified themselves as Republicans, down from 25 percent in a late March poll and at the lowest ebb in this poll since the fall of 1983(!). In that same poll, 35 percent self-identified as Democrats and 38 percent called them Independents

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The Post poll numbers show the challenge for Republicans in stark terms. The number of people who see themselves as GOPers is on the decline even as those who remain within the party grow more and more conservative. That means that the loyal base of the party has an even larger voice in terms of the direction it heads even as more and more empirical evidence piles up that the elevation of voices like former vice president Dick Cheney does little to win over wavering Republicans or recruit Independents back to the GOP cause.

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It truly is remarkable watching as the rank and file base of the GOP base become increasingly deranged and utterly out of touch with reality. Of course, leading the way are the "social values" voters who cannot or will not grasp the concept of separation of church and state. Last night while channel surfing I came across a show on MSNBC entitled "Survivors of Jonestown" which looked at the murders and mass suicide that took place years ago now in Jim Jone's cult in Guyana. The mind set of Jones' followers was all to akin to that of today's GOP Christianist activists for whom reality has become something based on the hallucinations of their own psyches as opposed to anything based on objective reality. Politico has an article that looks at the increasing derangement of today's rank and file Republicans. The Democrats can only sit back and salivate as this faction seems Hell bent on dragging the Party yo oblivion. Here are some highlights:

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A quick tour through the week’s headlines suggests the Republican Party is beginning to come to terms with the last election and that consensus is emerging among GOP elites that the party needs to move away from discordant social issues.

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But outside Washington, the reality is very different. Rank-and-file Republicans remain, by all indications, staunchly conservative, and they appear to have no desire to moderate their views. GOP activists and operatives say they hear intense anger at the White House and at the party’s own leaders on familiar issues – taxes, homosexuality, and immigration. Within the party, conservative groups have grown stronger absent the emergence of any organized moderate faction.

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There is little appetite for compromise on what many see as core issues, and the road to the presidential nomination lies – as always – through a series of states where the conservative base holds sway, and where the anger appears to be, if anything, particularly intense. . . . And it is perhaps most tangible in Iowa, where same-sex marriage will become the law this month in response to a state Supreme Court ruling. There, Republican activists and officials say the party is as resolute as ever, if not more so, on cultural issues – regardless of the soundings of some party elites.

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"I’ve never seen the grass-roots quite as motivated, concerned and angry," said Steve Scheffler, the head of the Iowa Christian Alliance and the state's RNC committeeman. The marriage issue and other traditional conservative litmus tests aren't likely to fade before the state's next presidential caucuses, either. Asked about how a presidential candidate urging the party toward the middle on cultural issues would fare, Scheffler said flatly: “They’re not gonna go anywhere.”

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The party will be shaped most clearly, however, when its presidential hopefuls begin their early state pilgrimages after the 2010 midterms. And they’re unlikely to emerge convinced that courting gay and Hispanic voters, in particular, is politically saleable within their parties.

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Personally, I believe the best thing that can happen for the country is that the Christianists destroy the GOP and in the process make themselves so radioactive that they will ultimately be shunned by anyone with a hope of winning in a general election. It will take time and no doubt be a very messy process getting to that point, but when it happens, then perhaps sanity will return to politics and the lunacy can stay confined within the church walls.

Palin Affair Story a "Vicious Lie" or Not?

While I do not typically consider the National Inquirer to be a legitimat news source, it seems that something a little strange may be going on in connection with the rumor that Sarah Palin had an affair with her husband's business partner who subsequently was a divorce from his wife. John McSenile's campaign has vigorously denied the rumor and has reprotedly threatened the National Inquirer with a lawsuit. Why then did Sarah Palin's alleged lover just file an unsuccessful emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed? One theory is that Sarah might be named in the court proceedings. Another is that the court files might show some other attempt to use political influence for personal matters. The Barracuda surely seems to have a lot of soap opera about her. Personally, after the way the wingnuts have embraced her, nothing would be more fun that to have her expolde all over them as a fraud and one who is not so good about living up to "family values.." The Court case index can be found here. Here are highlights what the Sydney Morning Herald reported about camp McSenile's threats:
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The McCain campaign has vigorously denied a report in the National Enquirer magazine that the Republican's vice-presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has had an extramarital affair with her husband's business partner.
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The story, which appeared just hours before Mrs Palin was due to address the Republican convention, was branded "scurrilous" by the chief strategist, Steve Schmidt. He said it was totally untrue.
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Here's a portion of the Case Index from the Court's records: