Koch’s Spoon: Just Another Revolting Rove-Wannabee

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

[I]t’s [Michael] Brodkorb taking the fall. He was ousted last week from his powerful role as communications director of the Senate majority and then quit as adviser to a congressional campaign, all in the immediate aftermath of Sen. Amy Koch’s resignation as majority leader amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an unnamed staffer.

It’s not entirely clear if he is the staffer in question, or what the nature of the relationship was. No one is talking. But it is clear that Brodkorb, who made his name as a Democrat-slaying muckraker and became a Republican leader feared by foes as well as some friends, has had a sudden crash.

His enemies see a karmic comeuppance. But even they admit there is no one in state politics quite like Brodkorb — fiercely driven and committed, gifted at both sifting through an opponent’s garbage

…

Brodkorb blogged anonymously at first, then was “outed” during an unsuccessful lawsuit against him. His stream of scooplets brought praise from the New York Times and other publications. Colleagues and rivals say he has a natural gift for what is known variously “opposition research” or “digging up dirt.”

…

In 2009, Brodkorb was elected deputy chairman of the state Republican Party, and combined that role with a communications job at the Senate Republican caucus. Working closely with Koch last year, he helped engineer the first Republican takeover of the Senate in nearly four decades. He remained at her side during the tumultuous shutdown session this year as the caucus’ $90,070-per-year communications director.

Standing near Koch and Senate leaders, in a dark suit and a buzz cut, Brodkorb’s thumbs were often moving across his handheld device. He smoothly segued from blogging to Twitter, and he and other staffers were known to tweet real-time takes on friends and foes as meetings, hearings and floor sessions were unfolding.

…

This dual role was unique in the Legislature, where there is supposed to be a line between outright politicking and paid government work. “He was clearly up there to raise the partisan temperature,” said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis.

Mr. Brodkorb!

Where are the jobs?

Are they hiding behind the anti-same-sex marriage constitutional amendment that your Republicans made sure was a priority in 2011?

No One Needs to Watch ‘Work It’ in Order to Have Standing to Judge it

You know…

Work It?

Lee Standish is a quick-witted and likable family man. His best friend, Angel Ortiz, is a hotheaded ladies’ man with no filter. The two of them worked at Pontiac — Lee as a top salesman and Angel as head mechanic — until the company went out of business. Out of work for a year, their job prospects don’t look too bright. They’ve learned the hard way that the current recession is more of a “man-cession” and their skills aren’t in high demand. Then the almost-broke Lee finds out that Coreco Pharmaceuticals is looking to hire sales reps — female sales reps. He takes a chance and goes into the interview dressed in heels, a skirt and make-up. The transformed Lee gets hired — as a woman.

Lee wants to stay true to his agreement with Angel that, if one of them is working, then the other will be too, so he tells Angel what he has to do if he wants a job at Coreco. Angel, who is miserable working at a fast-food dump, is desperate to make a change; he decides to swallow his pride and go for it. Unfortunately he tanks his interview, but when he fixes the boss’s car, he too is hired – also as a woman.

To stay employed, Lee and Angel must put aside their alpha male selves and learn to navigate their all-female workplace. Their presence at Coreco with their new female coworkers initially raises a few eyebrows, but the company’s two newest sales reps find ways to put almost everyone at ease: Enthusiastic and sometimes naïve Kristin is excited when the female Lee tells her that she, too, is a single mom. Kelly, the office party girl, is thrilled to have two more friends to hit the town with. Only Grace, the somewhat icy regional sales leader, keeps a suspicious eye on Lee and Angel, convinced that there’s something seriously wrong with them. To complicate matters, when Angel meets their new boss, Vanessa, he is immediately smitten with her. But there are some serious obstacles in the way of their romance: She’s his boss, and — no small detail — she thinks he’s a woman.

For his part, Lee can’t disclose his feminine secret to his wife, Connie, or to their 14-year-old daughter, Kat, so he tells them he got a job at a drug company – as himself. Connie notices that, since Lee has begun working at Coreco, he seems to be more understanding and sensitive to her needs. The opposite is true of Connie’s unemployed brother, Brian, who is also Lee and Angel’s drinking buddy. Sensitive and understanding he is not, so they definitely can’t reveal their secret to him.
 
Lee and Angel quickly realize how much they have to learn to get by in their new environment. It’s not just how to walk in heels and tighten up with Spanx. For the first time, they’re really listening to the women in their lives and opening themselves up to a whole new realm of experiences. In the process, they’re learning that to be a better man may mean having to be a better woman.

 

No one – certainly no trans woman attempting to survive in the workplace during the Boehner-McConnell Depression – needs to watch this piece of viper shit in order to have standing to judge it.

And most certainly no one who saw it the first time it was on…

Fourteen years ago when it was called Ask Harriet. 

What? 

You say you don’t remember this piece of Murdoch shit?

Here’s what FOX had to say about it in the run-up to its premiere in early 1998:

ASK HARRIET is a brash new half-hour comedy in the tradition of “Some Like It Hot,” “Tootsie” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” New York’s most popular advice column, “Ask Harriet,” has always been written by a woman, until now! Super macho Jack Cody (Anthony Tyler Quinn), a notorious womanizer and hothead who wrote the tough, opinionated column “A Man’s World,” has been fired from most of the dailies in town and when a multi-million dollar harassment suit catches up with him, he’s sent packing from the last respectable paper. He applies for the “Ask Harriet” job to take revenge on his editor and former flame, Melissa Peters (Lisa Waltz). And he is desperate for a job to keep his alimony up to date and his 10-year-old daughter Blair (Jamie Renee) in ballet lessons. With best buddy Ron (Willie Garson), a restaurant critic, in tow, Jack secretly applies for the position of writing the advice column on the death of the current “Harriet,” confident that there’s nobody better to tell women what they should do when faced with jerks like him. He thinks he can write the column from home, until Melissa insists on meeting the new “Harriet,” so Jack goes to work transforming himself into one helluva good-looking woman. Billy Riback (“Home Improvement”) and Jonathan Prince are executive producers for Columbia TriStar Television in association with Bris Entertainment.

I along with everyone else who made educated guesses based on that and the commercials that were running at the time were right.

Just like everyone who made educated guesses about J. Michael Bailey’s piece of as-yet-unprosecuted fraud, The Man Who Would be Queen, based solely on its cover…

…were right.

And I – along with anyone else who knows what corporate media is capable of – are right about Work It.

All of you know it…

Now start admitting it.

Aristrocratic Beneficiary of Inherited Wealth Endorses Aristocratic Beneficiary of Inherited Wealth for Presidency

The 0.01 percent…

…they do stick together, eh?

…Though, to be Fair, Probably Not as Much as HRC Has

But why quibble, eh?

Why bother mentioning that the ad shows a higher number of trans people than have, in the organization’s history, ever been allowed to receive a paycheck as an HRC employee (and five times more trans women than have ever been allowed to do so)?

Transgender Americans – who can be legally fired in 34 states today simply for being who they are…

…and barred from restaurants in 35.

But why quibble, eh?

Why Won’t the Corporatist Media Get to the Heart of the Matter: That Newt and the Party He Represents Don’t Believe That the Country Is – Or Even Should be – Free

From TPM:

When a man in a camouflage coat grabs your hand in an Iowa grocery store and calls you ‘a fucking asshole’ to your face, it might be time to take stock of your position in the state.

A human being would.

However, even though Candace Gingrich counts Newt as a half-brother, I want to see DNA tests – not on Candace, but on Newt.  We know that Shitty Mitty is just a piece of plastic and that Calista Gingrich could give Condoleeza Rice lessons in reptilianism, but the actual proof on Noot is lacking.

Or maybe it isn’t.

Details on the grocery store heckler from CNN’s Shawna Shepherd:

Just inside the grocery store next to Christmas displays, Tom Sorensen of Iowa City confronted the White House hopeful.“We shook hands, I looked him in the eye and told him what I thought,” said Sorensen, who called Gingrich an obscene name.

Sorensen, who is not sure who he’s going to vote for, said he thinks Gingrich “represents everything that’s bad about politics.”

Gingrich, calmly said to him, “Well, luckily it’s a free country” and moved onto the next handshake and plea for another vote.

Here’s the problem: He doesn’t believe that – and he doesn’t believe that it even should be.

Oh…

That would make Noot not only a fucking asshole but a liar, wouldn’t it?

Case closed.

Harpies of a Feather….

…searching for Mr. Srivistav.

Of course, only one of them may need a good defense lawyer:

Turns out [right-wing Republican State Senator Amy] Koch could be in more trouble than just losing her job. Did you know the act of adultery is still a crime in Minnesota? Statute 609.36 reads:

Adultery.

Subdivision 1. Acts constituting. When a married woman has sexual intercourse with a man other than her husband, whether married or not, both are guilty of adultery and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.

Democratic Senator Ellen Anderson thought policing the private sex lives of citizens was perhaps not in the state’s best interest and made an effort to repeal the law in 2010.

But the usual staunch defenders of marriage objected. Tom Pritchard and his organization, the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), have long been out front and center trying to protect marriage from the gays. (Pritchard also famously suggested that kids bullied to death were asking for it.)

In 2010 USA Today reported Pritchard as not only opposing repeal of the adultery law but calling for it to be strengthened: “Tom Prichard, MFC’s president, said these laws are essential because ‘they send a message. … When you are dealing with a marriage, it’s not just a private activity or a private institution. It’s a very public institution. It has enormous consequences for the rest of society.'”

I have full confidence we can now expect Tom Pritchard to call upon the state to conduct a thorough investigation if the law of Minnesota has been violated. Enforcing the adultery statute vigorously will send an important message, after all. The “consequences” of letting scofflaws go unpunished are “enormous” to “the rest of society,” I am told. The fate of marriage and society hangs in the balance.

I’m sure Pritchard the well-professed heterosexual…

…and ever-so-masculine example of manhood (the beard isn’t really fooling anyone; maybe you should borrow Joseph Farah’s mustache, Tom)…

…will be the using every tax-free resource at his disposal to attempt to influence Minnesota’s prosecutorial authorities into sparing no taxpayer-funded expense in bringing Koch to justice for commiting an ever-so-substantive crime against ‘the family’ (or, at the very least, the same amount of money that is used to prosecute prostitution on any given weekend in the Twin Cities.)

Why Doesn’t the Today Show Invite Keith Olbermann in to Chat About Politics?

I’m just askin’….

He Was Bought and Paid for as a College Football Player and He’ll Be Bought and Paid for as a U.S. Senator

Honestly, I think any of the Kardashians would be more legitimate as officeholders.  Yes, they can help being psyche-sucking reality TV stars but, in all fairness, they can’t help the fact that they were born to a filthy rich lawyer any more than any of the Kennedys or Bushes could help whose birth canal they happened to have emerged from and whose sperm precipitated said emergences. 

Being born to a filthy-rich lawyer or a bootlegger or a Nazi-sympathizer isn’t a crime.

But what of Craig James’s college football career?

ESPN college football analyst Craig James, who starred as a tailback at Southern Methodist University and with the New England Patriots in the 1980s, announced Monday he was running for the U.S. Senateas a Republican from Texas, a GOP fundraiser said.

James, who appears on the cable network’s weekly game broadcasts, has been flirting with entering politics for more than year. Republican fundraiser and close friend Roy Bailey told The Associated Press on Monday that James informed him he was running for the 2012 Senate seat and was in the process of dropping off his official candidate papers in Austin.

…

 James also has had a close relationship with Dallas real estate developer Sherwood Blount, one of the key boosters involved in the pay-for-play scandal [that led to the death penalty for SMU in 1987]. Blount, who reportedly insisted SMU had a “payroll to meet” even after the school promised the payments would stop, was James’ agent when he played in the NFL.

In his book “Gameday,” James wrote: “I’m not going to sit here and tell you I never received a nickel during my playing days. But I can say with certainty that no benefits were ever extended to me from anyone associated with the SMU administration.”

Translated: He was bought and paid for by people outside the university structure – which, when last I checked, was a no-no then as well as now.

How many of those “nickels” did Craig James report to the IRS as income?

Anyone who is asked to vote for the fairhaired 50-year-old con boy has a right to know.

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead

Now…

so is Kim Jong Il.

I’m Sure He Just Needs the Extra $7,699 Per Month to Maintain His Hair

And maybe even a really creepy looking painting as well.

Rick the Prick: Grifter Extraordinaire.

Unbeknownst to most Texans, Gov. Rick Perry officially retired in January so he could draw early pension benefits worth $7,699 a month, in addition to his annual governor’s salary of $150,000.

Perry’s January retirement — on paper, at least — was revealed Friday when the Federal Elections Commission released the financial disclosure statement the governor was required to file as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. The annuity brings Perry’s total state government-related income to $242,388 a year

Oh, but it gets better:

Perry, 61, and his staff brushed off the criticism, with the governor telling ABC News, “I think it’d be rather foolish to not access what you’ve earned.”

Campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan said the governor decided to take his state employee retirement annuity “as part of his standard financial planning.” He began drawing the annuity on Jan. 31, and the package, Sullivan said, is consistent with Texas state law and Employee Retirement System rules. Perry continues to pay into the Employees Retirement System with a 6.5% withholding from his state salary.

The combination of Perry’s U.S. military service, state service and age exceeded the state-required 80 years and qualified him for the annuity, Sullivan explained.

Perry has been on Texas’ public payroll since 1985, including stints as a state representative, agriculture commissioner and lieutenant governor before ascending to the governor’s office in 2001.

His U.S. military service?

Why exactly should something lacking direct connection to state government aid the increasingly-lysergic hairball in his quest to double-fuck Texas taxpayers?

Well…

Can we now presume that Mr. I’m-so-fucking-family-values-cocky-that-I-can-telegraph-hots-for-Tim-Tebow-while-a-book-is-being-released-about-my-closeted-sexuality is going to claim that the only reason he is a professional politician is that Mitt Romney’s job-destroying company wouldn’t hire him out of prejudice against hollow eggs lain by Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets?

Stay tuned.