I think it's a given that most politicians are venal, unprincipled hacks who'll say and do damn near anything to keep their snouts in that sweet, sweet taxpayer-funded trough.
There are exceptions, of course: you'll always find a handful of people who enter politics for honorable reasons and remain honorable in office.
But after almost five decades of following politics closely, my respect for the vast majority of politicians has reached its nadir. So to say I was surprised by a politician doing a u-turn over Gov. Pence and his Indiana folly would be a gross exaggeration.
Funny as hell, though.
First up to attempt to out-Romney Romney in the 'yesterday I was for it, today I'm against it' stakes we have Gov. Jeb Bush, widely regarded as the GOP Klown Kar's most likely 'designated driver' (i.e. less drunk on Tea Party moonshine, less given to crazy talk)
This, by the way, is in itself baffling. I would have thought that the American public, on the whole, would react to the thought of another Bush in The White House in the same way they'd react to the prospect of anal polyps.
But, hey...the GOP knows what it's doing, right?
Anyhoo, last Monday, Jeb was doing the rounds, eager to show Gov. Mike Pence and his ugly and moronic 'legalize bigotry' mishegas some love.
Jeb told fellow RW cement-head Hugh Hewitt:
I think if you, if they actually got briefed on the law that they wouldn’t be blasting this law. I think Governor Pence has done the right thing. Florida has a law like this. Bill Clinton signed a law like this at the federal level. This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs, to have, to be able to be people of conscience. I just think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.
That was on Monday.
By Wednesday arstechnica was reporting that 'Over 40 US tech leaders urge legislators to “forbid” LGBT discrimination':
A letter posted to the Human Rights Campaign blog on Wednesday, signed by CEOs and executives representing 42 tech companies across the United States, urged legislators around the country to update their states' civil rights laws in the wake of Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The letter's co-signers included the CEOs of Twitter, eBay, Lyft, Airbnb, Square, about.me, Tumblr, and Evernote, along with high-ranking executives at Cisco, YCombinator, and Zynga. It also included the signatures of Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, both of whom had already written open letters emphatically opposing the RFRA, but it did not include a signature from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who had already written a similar call to other states' legislatures over the weekend in a Washington Post op-ed
And there's more. According to
AlterNet:
Wilco and comedians Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman cancelled plans to perform in the state. Businesses pulled sponsorships for the Indy Big Data tech conference. The National Forensic Association, The Mid-American Conference, and the AFSCME workers’ union have cancelled events. And mayors and governors from states and cities around the country – including Connecticut, Denver, New York City and state, Portland, San Francisco, Vermont and Washington, D.C. – have announced bans on government-funded travel to Indiana. Even the Christian Church aka Disciples of Christ just announced plans to relocate its 2017 General Assembly gathering.
But
what a difference a day makes, 24 little hours...especially if you're a seedy politico.
Simultaneously and purely by coincidence, Jeb's 'moral compass' suddenly pointed to 'vote loser' and he was back-paddling like a kayaker headed for Niagra Falls. CNN reported:
Two days after he unequivocally backed Indiana's controversial "religious freedom" law as not "discriminatory at all," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday at a private Silicon Valley fundraiser that Indiana could have taken a "better...more consensus-oriented approach."
"By the end of the week, Indiana will be in the right place," Bush said. Indiana lawmakers and Republican Gov. Mike Pence are working to "fix" the law following a nationwide backlash, especially from top businesses.
Remember, this is
2 days after Bush said that: '...if they actually got briefed on the law that they wouldn’t be blasting this law. I think Governor Pence has done the right thing.'
As Groucho Marx once said: 'Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.'
And this is the guy who the more sane members of the GOP (the what again?--Ed.) are hoping will save them from themselves. A vacillating, unprincipled, pusillanimous hack with a family name that makes reasonable people break out in hives.
The fact that Bush has co-opted the gang who brought you the Iraq War to advise him (including the crazed walrus/hominid-hybrid John Bolton, who's busily polluting the media with demands that Iran be bombed), is enough to make you want to find a deep cave and hide there for a long time.
Still, at least Bush got the memo, which is more than can be said for slippery derpmeister and corporate flunky Gov. Scott Walker (R-Koch), who told conservative radio host Charles Sykes:
“I just think this is people who are chronically looking for ways to be upset about things instead of really looking what it is. I believe in protecting religious freedoms..."
Another GOP-hopeful and band-wagon jumper who didn't get the memo is joke-candidate and
wrecker of Hewlett-Packard Carly
'Demon Sheep' Fiorina, who
told USA Today:
Fiorina said it was "shameful" how, in her view, liberals have fanned the furor over the Indiana law. "I honestly believe this is a set of liberal political activists who practice a game of identity politics and divisive politics to whip people into a frenzy, and I think it's very destructive to the fabric of this country," she said.
And this was shortly before the cretinous Gov. Pence did some
frantic back-paddling of his own.
Way to ride the zeitgeist, Carly.
Sadly for Carly Fiorina, even the the most slack-witted GOP goober isn't ready to let Carly do to the United States what she did to Hewlett-Packard...but thanks for playing, Carly, and I hope you blow a lot of your own money on this idiocy.
And yet another GOP hopeful who doesn't read memos is NJ Gov. Chris Christie. In truth, it's more likely that Christie will get indicted before he gets nominated. Christie responded by saying:
Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run...
OK, he didn't
really...but I
wish he had.
According to nj.com:
...Christie on Wednesday night said he believes the state's Republican Gov. Mike Pence will "fix the problem and move on."
...
"Well, we should not have a situation where people perceive that anybody will be denied service. But, I can tell you this, I know Mike Pence, and he's got nothing but love in his heart for people and I just do not believe that in any way Mike Pence would intend for anything that happen in his state on his watch to be discriminatory towards any person," Christie said in a statement.
"And so, my guess is that he'll fix the problem and move on," Christie said. "Because that's the kind of guy he is. I will tell you, amongst the governors, there is nobody that I've met amongst the governors who is more sincere in his faith and in his love for people than Mike Pence.
Wow...that is some
serious bromance going on.
One question, though, Chris: this '...nothing but love in his heart for people...' you attribute to Pence? You meant to add: 'except for LGBT people', right?
As for the other passengers in the GOP Klown Kar? As nj.com points out:
Other Republicans — including Dr. Ben Carson, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum — have also expressed their support for the controversial law.
Yessiree...should be a
real interesting GOP primary.