Some of This Week’s Questionable Right-Wing Statements and Decisions

David Streeter — September 3, 2010 – 11:48 am | Civil Rights | Domestic Policy | Election 2010 | Election 2012 | Republicans | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

Below is a sampling of this week’s questionable right-wing statements and actions:

• Think Progress reported that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has invited “hate” radio host Bill Cunningham to broadcast from his office, should Boehner become Speaker of the House after November’s election.
• Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS), the current head of the Republican Governor’s Association, the former head of the Republican Party, and a rumored 2012 Presidential candidate, advanced an alternative history of segregation. Barbour was passionately rebuked by The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson. Click here to watch his response.
• Vanity Fair published a revealing article on former Alaska Governor and rumored 2012 Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In response, Palin verbally lashed out at reporters who write stories with critical content, calling them “impotent,” “limp,” and “gutless.” 
• Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) issued an executive order that directs state agencies to decline millions of dollars in federal money that will come to cash-strapped Minnesota as a result of the health care reform package passed in March. It has been noted that Pawlenty’s decision may be more about his rumored 2012 Presidential campaign than standing up to “federal intrusions of individual liberty.”
• Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) labeled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s report on America’s actions to secure human rights domestically as “internationalism run amok.”
• Brewer also tripped up while trying to deliver her opening statement during a debate.
• Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) grossly overestimated the number of people who attended last weekend’s Glenn Beck rally in Washington, DC. Bachman claimed 1.6 million people were present for the rally, despite independent analysts estimating that less than 100,000 people attended.
• Colorado Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes (R-CO) retracted his claims of having worked undercover for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
• Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller (R-AK) declared that President Barack Obama is “bad for America” and trying to move the country towards “socialism.”
• Miller also declared again that he would like to see a future without Social Security.
• Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) was rebuked by a Virginia judge in his efforts to challenge the science behind climate change. More about Cuccinelli’s record of questionable decisions can be read here.
• Wisconsin Gubernatorial candidate Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R-WI) released a new ad in which he is wearing boxing gloves and declaring that he is “ready to the go the distance” if elected governor. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett (D-WI), Walker’s potential Democratic opponent, was severely beaten physically in 2009 while trying to protect a grandmother and a child from a drunk and violent father.
• Former Republican Representative and Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo (R-CO) repeated the myth that Obama is waging a war against Christmas in the White House. Tancredo also criticized Obama for hosting a Ramadan iftar at the White House (Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren attended last year’s), even though Obama has hosted events commemorating other religious and ethnic communities in the United States, including Passover seders and the first-ever Jewish-American heritage celebration.
• Strategist Dick Morris stated that if the Republicans gain control of either the House of Representatives or the Senate following November’s election, they would cause a government shutdown similar to the one in 1995 and 1996. In response to Morris and other conservatives trumpeting a shutdown, TPM compiled a report on the devastating effects that a government shut down would have.
• Fox News received a formal legal complaint from the Democratic Governors Association for allegedly making illegal in-kind donations to Ohio Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich’s (R-OH) campaign.
• Conservative advocacy organization FreedomWorks, which is headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, was caught exaggerating their reason for moving office buildings. Initially they claimed that it was because of threats and intimidation from those who oppose them. However, TPM reports that the real reason is that their current lease is simply expiring.

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