In Faithless Execution, McCarthy weighs the political dynamics as he builds a case, assembling a litany of abuses that add up to one overarching offense: the president’s willful violation of his solemn oath to execute the laws faithfully. The “fundamental transformation” he promised involves concentrating power into his own hands by flouting law—statutes, judicial rulings, the Constitution itself—and essentially daring the other branches of government to stop him. McCarthy contends that our elected representative are duty-bound to take up the dare.Oooh, impeachment goosebumps! You promote your book at your home base with articles like "It’s Not Crazy to Talk about Impeachment" (August 2013), in which you tell people that Obama "has usurped the lawmaking power of Congress by unilaterally amending some statutes and expressly refusing to enforce others... His Justice Department openly and notoriously flouts the Constitution by enforcing the civil-rights laws in a racially discriminatory manner. His administration has knowingly transferred firearms to murderous Mexican criminal enterprises," etc. and including a whole paragraph on #Benghazi, and then insist that the only reason this master criminal has not been brought before the bar of justice is because "the votes are not there."
But the clear hope you're living on is that there will be votes enough if we keep electing Republicans and telling readers what a high-crime-and-misdemeanory bastard Obama is. Throughout the year you keep the drumbeat up: Just last month you said the Bergdahl trade, guess what, "surely is an impeachable offense... it involves the commander-in-chief’s dereliction of duty..."
Well, times change, and this week the racket is "Impeachment? Who, us? Obama's making it up to make us look bad." And there's you, Andrew C. McCarthy, with a fat impeachment book hanging around your neck. So what do you tell the world?
To be clear, neither Bill, I, nor most Obama critics, nor any elected Republicans that I know of, are calling for the president’s impeachment at this point...For word games like "at this point" to work, though, you're supposed to plant them before anyone notices you're full of shit, and when the time is right pull them out like trump cards. Now you look like Franz Liebkind in the trial scene of The Producers, singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" through a full body cast. You're the guy with the impeachment book, and you have to make it look like the "(no) impeachment (at this point)" book or go into hiding for several months.
Oh, you have help: Your pals at National Review and Fox News back you up with items like "McCarthy: Dems Wrongly Claiming My Book Argues for Obama’s Impeachment," in which Megan Fox or whatever her name is interviews you and sets you up as a Wronged Party as best she can:
The Democrats are already trying to fundraise off of the "I" word, right? And they use books like yours --(Which, I remind readers, is called Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment.)
-- to say, "Look at the lunatic right wing fringe'" -- which you are not! But they would have them believe -- "They want to impeach President Obama." But, here's a little fact check for you, that's not what your book argues, and they continue to use it to say, "You see?" Explain!And you do, but to people who aren't watching your performance with special Fox glasses and earplugs, it just looks like more bullshit:
The reason impeachment is crazy is because his guys will protect him. It's not that he hasn't done anything lawless... The more there's talk about impeachment, the more the focus is gonna be that this isn't a manufactured claim -- impeachment is in the air because the President does a lot of high crimes and misdemeanors.I've made it sound more pathetic than it is -- McCarthy knows what he's being paid for, and I doubt he feels any more than a slight discomfort at these trimming duties. But until Satan gets him, this is amusement enough.
I suppose next you'll tell me that Jonah Goldberg denied that his book Liberal Fascism was about how liberals are fascists.
ReplyDeleteMcCarthy is like the guy in the Old West who's killed about twenty people with his snake oil, has been chased out of town by angry widows and widowers, and finds just enough time to repaint the wagon and go on to the next town, where he pulls out the exact same death in a bottle, and tells the assembled rubes, "and, yes, my friends, it's new, and it's improved."
ReplyDeleteI doubt that Der Pantload will ever have to make that claim, as long as he has McCarthy around to tell everyone what a liberal fascist Obama is.
ReplyDeleteto be fair, i would buy the audio book if it were read by gilbert gottfried.
ReplyDeleteI guess when your audience is not very well educated, downright illiterate and/or senile, you can get away with saying "just because my book is titled 'Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment' doesn't mean I'm building a political case for Obama's impeachment. It's really about Ayn Rand. Yeah, that's the ticket. Hey, who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes? Here, have some more cheetos."
ReplyDelete"The reason impeachment is crazy is because his guys will protect him"
Is he talking about the black panthers?
At this late a date, I'm not sure that there's much to say about McCarthy's...let's say "flexible" ethics. Yeah, you could point out that there's something twisted and backwards about claiming that drawing up new amendments for a bill amounts to "outrageous lawlessness" but that torture and detention without charge are just acceptable tools. Or that his book seems to make the South American strongman-esque argument that democracy is too important to leave to the will of the people. His bizarrely brazen lie that his book isn't a case for impeachment when half the book consists of his own articles of impeachment (sort of the pundit equivalent of nudging the book under the couch while whistling) is amazing as well. Really, every time I read anything about this man, a phrase coined by the late KU professor Wallace Johnson floats through my head - "moral horror."
ReplyDeleteBut as I said, there's no point in discussing such things. They've been discussed at length. So in lieu of a long, drawn out comment, I'll just leave this quote from the FNC interview in case anyone wants a giggle:
"[Sarah] Palin's done a great job of cataloging Obama's lawlessness going back to 2009..."
his guys will protect him
ReplyDeleteThat's central to his lack of a point.
ReplyDelete"The reason impeachment is crazy is because his guys will protect him."
ReplyDeleteJust as the commodity has a dual nature--use value; exchange value--so the flack's political assertions have a dual nature. "This is what SHOULD be the case." "This what's reasonable." Here's McCarthy switcharooing the latter for the former. The win-win, to him, is the implication that both have a moral subtext that he can flog. "X SHOULD happen, right?" "It won't, because they're corrupt, RIGHT?" What the two have in common is the demagogue goal to rile the audience. As long as you keep people mad, what diff. does it make what's "true"?
But, here's a little fact check for you, that's not what your book argues, and they continue to use it to say, "You see?" Explain!
ReplyDeleteUm... you first, please. What the fuck is wrong with this person?
Macca should make the book out of tin and have words like magnetic poetry on it so that people can make it be about whatever they like. Yes, "I Saved Sarah Palin from Obama Guys and Now She is My Love Slave" will dilute the impeachment argument a bit, but that's show biz.
ReplyDelete"The reason impeachment is crazy is because his guys will protect him"
ReplyDeleteIs he talking about the black panthers?
No, he talking about Scooter Libby, who graciously hurled himself onto an exploding treasonable act. His counterpart in the Obama administration would seem to missing, though. Either that or the Obama administration hasn't committed any treasonable acts. Hard to believe, but it's got to be one or the other.
Kool-aid poisoning, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteI think Goldberg just pissed his pants.
ReplyDeleteOne gets the feeling that McCarthy would call it Not a Book About Impeaching Obama.
ReplyDeleteI've never really thought of him as all that imaginative a liar.
Just for the record he doesn't respond to tweets asking why he works for the Obama adminsitration
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of flaunting my shallowness of character, I hafta say it: the message discipline on display here is breathtaking. I knew Shame was dead. I'm not sentimental enough mourn Integrity. I confess I had some delusions of Shared Reality, now painfully kilt. These people have destroyed all those childish illusions, and they have my gratitude. Always been a huge fan of Sun Tzu; it warms my heart to see his work is not unappreciated. If my side could stick to a script this way, the Singularity would have come and gone...
ReplyDeleteWell, there's sticking to the script, and then there's sounding like Alfalfa trying to deny he's smitten by some girl.
ReplyDeleteHow to beat a polygraph:
ReplyDelete1. Control your breathing.
2. Keep your heart rate steady.
3. Don't let the questions rattle you.
4. Have Fox News, the entire wingnut media and the beltway villager pundit class back up your bullshit with a blatant last-minute about-face blaming everything on Obama and the Democrats.
Don't forget the one about squeezing your anus tight.
ReplyDeleteReally big assholes tend to be unable to do that and answer questions, too.
Agreed, but while Alfalfa was spouting that obvious crap, all his friends were trying to get into Darla's pants! They didn't all show up at the clubhouse one day and decide to swear off girls...Oh, wait, yeah they did. I think this metaphor has gotten away from me. The GOP is as disciplined as the Little Rascals. Fuck 'em anyways, the Little Rascals put on a better show.
ReplyDeleteExcept he doesn't even go to a different town.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think of it, they do it all the time:
ReplyDeleteThere was the Saddam was and wasn't part of 9/11 bullshit
There was the "I'm not saying Obama wasn't born in this country, but I certainly think that birth notice and that birth certificate are fake because come on, black people are from Kenya."
Liberal Fascism?! Party of Death?! We're not saying the Democrats are like a Nazi Death Cult, just that you embrace Nazi ideology and Obama is just Hitler. But at the same time, it's outrageous someone at a MoveOn rally had a Bush=Hitler poster when it's obvious you are the CommunistNazis and the Feminazis.
Liberals are trying to stamp out dissent everywhere on college campuses, which is why we are going to have our own schools and not let their books or lecturers in.
And of course, everything Jonah Goldberg has ever written, said or thought.
Pretty sure McCarthy's default state is an anus that can make diamonds.
ReplyDeleteCeci n'est pas un livre sur "impeachment".
ReplyDeleteDoughy? Thought?
ReplyDeleteThat would be something very, very new and quite disturbing for him.
Yeah, true. He just repainted the wagon and went right back to bullshitting the easily duped.
ReplyDeleteDon't where the divide is. He's a really big asshole and he's phenomenally anal-retentive, but, I have to come down on the big asshole side--we know from this little exercise of his that he doesn't lie very well.
ReplyDeleteHis guys...are UN! FUCKIN! BELIEVABLE!
ReplyDeleteThat's not piss.
ReplyDeleteGiven their "memory" spans, the symbol of the GOP should be a mayfly, not an elephant.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't even repaint the wagon.
ReplyDeleteWhen does calling for impeachment of any Democratic president become part of the GOP platform?
ReplyDeleteWhere is Texas when you need them?
An elephant is soft and mushy.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to redo School House Rock's "Interjection!" but replace it with "It's projection!"
ReplyDeleteBut assuming this isn't unconscious behavior (hard to say, really), it gross to see adults lying like a 6-year-old caught with cookies stuffed in his maw.
"Andy why did you take those cookies?"
[Shakes head, hastily swallows]
"Nooo! The Cookie Monster took them!"
"Andrew! Don't you lie to me! I saw you eating those cookies."
"I am NOT a liar! You're a liar! The Cookie Monster MADE me eat them. I TOLD him not to do iiiiiiiiiiiiit!"
But a kid does it, you keep an eye on him and hope he grows out of it.
An adult does it and you keep an eye on him (from a safe distance), with one hand on your wallet and another near a weapon of some sort, because that shit is fucking unhealthy.
And the widows and widowers have forgotten what just happened.
ReplyDeleteIt's appropriate if the elephant is in must. Horny, excessively violent and liable to trample anyone who doesn't flee for their lives.
ReplyDeleteAlso, large piles of shit everywhere.
I think we're all unfairly jumping to conclusions here. What if a "political case" is just a fancy kind of attaché and McCarthy's book is a DIY guide for leatherworkers who want a trendy bag to keep their Sarah Palin fanfic in?
ReplyDeleteThe tongue eating louse, perhaps?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua
The reason impeachment is crazy is because his guys will protect him.
ReplyDelete"His guys" apparently being the Republican caucus.
This could be setting the stage for some epic pretzel logic. Republicans must impeach, but they can't because impeaching the lawless tyrant will just make him more popular. So they have to let him keep breaking the law, which will make him more popular yet. What's a partisan hack to do?
Julia Child wrote a cookbook and it wasn't about food. You're a jerk if you think otherwise.
ReplyDeleteIf McCarthy truly believes obummer has committed high crimes and misdemeanors, doesn't he have a moral obligation to talk impeachment?
ReplyDeleteSo why is impeachment suddenly a bad thing, Andy? Could it be…
ReplyDeletePRESIDENT B*I*D*E*N?
Bwwahahhahahahahhahah
See? Now I really DO need to subscribe to the Sarah Palin Channel so I can watch what's going on through all those cameras she installed in her house!
ReplyDeleteThis word "impeachment" that I used, it does not mean what you think it means
ReplyDeleteDo they care? Seems more like they enjoy the sound of his voice and don't care what he's saying or selling. It's the sound of hate that they love.
ReplyDeleteThey don't need to state this explicitly in the platform: It's now implicit in the party ethos. Simply being a Republican means you believe no Democrat can ever legitimately be president.
ReplyDeleteFans of the classics will recall that "kids these days don't respect their elders" and "nobody follows tradition any more" are whines that we've seen in recorded history as far back as we've got records. So it's fair to say that it's probably an innate human weakness; a propensity to use the state of the world as an excuse for self-pity. And it appears to be an extremely useful hack for the extraction of dollars from rubes in the modern media economy.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is strong enough to support a political party, however.
And they had a pit bull.
ReplyDeleteYou've made my day.
ReplyDeleteIt's not strong enough to build a party, but it is strong enough to sustain one. This is especially true with the deployment of a huge mal-information infrastructure to make sure the corralled oldsters aren't just riled up, but fed a steady stream of completely wrong information.
ReplyDeleteThus do you now have armies of the elderly convinced that Medicare is not a government program, and that somehow, the Social Security checks they receive won't get smaller when the cuts in Social Security they advocate come to pass.
I think the GOP sticks with the elephant because the large piles of shit are the party's primary input to our system of government. Also, too, the trunk symbolizes the Republican penchant for sticking its nose into people's bedrooms.
ReplyDeleteThey have no shame.
ReplyDeleteShorter Andy McCarthy: Megyn, we have always been at war with Eurasia.
ReplyDeleteIt was a printer's error- the real title was supposed to be: Obama's Favorite M-Fin' Iced Tea Flavor: Building a Case for Peach-Mint.
ReplyDeleteSeems like you've been getting overripe elephants, old chum.
ReplyDeleteAnd a surfeit of them is deadly.
ReplyDeleteHey, give the boy credit. "Liberal" fascism is a special kind of fascism, just like Bush v. Gore was a special kind of decision. You know: detached from any aspect of historical reality whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI.e., "Don't confuse me with facts."
ReplyDeleteOr that those checks might stop coming at all if Wall Street is able to take control of the system.
ReplyDeleteNo, they've simply caught on to the fact that talking about impeachment takes them from "less popular than a dose of the clap" down to "less than mutant radioactive leeches that burrow into your ass and out of your chest."
ReplyDeleteBut since they only care about entertaining the sort of people who just want to hear THE DEMOCRAT PARTY SUCKS! over and over, they can't say they changed their minds or just shut the fuck up.
Dang it, I just posted practically the exact same thing over at NRO. (At least they'll probably delete it.)
ReplyDeleteNixonland: now 100% Nixon-free!
ReplyDeleteIf my side could stick to a script this way, the Singularity would have come and gone...
ReplyDeleteWe're still working on a filter to keep Glenn Reynolds from uploading himself and the Mrs. to the hive-mind, so it's all good.
Twenty bucks says she'll make sure viewers see her reading newspapers so she can show that nosy bitch Katie Couric who the fuck is boss around here.
ReplyDeleteLiver flukes. Blood drinking parasites that attach themselves to an organ you can't live without, yet they depend on the host organism for everything,
ReplyDeleteI posted the same at the War Criminal Post yesterday. (On Krauthammer's blog, I think. Although maybe Jenghazi's.)
ReplyDeletehttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RB2EBocHk_I/TUWvW52BcRI/AAAAAAAACjk/QujRc-g74vI/s400/The%2BWashington%2BPost%2Blogo%2Bpaint%2B2.jpeg
~
Yes, if you're worried you might choose one that has passed its sell-by date, give it a solid thump to be sure.
ReplyDeleteI can hear him now: "Half-black!"
ReplyDeleteIt's a cookbook!
ReplyDeleteAlso a cookbook!
ReplyDeleteThe intern stuffing things down the Memory Hole is going to get a repetitive stress injury.
ReplyDeleteI suspect most Palin fans ponying up $9.95 are praying for JenniCam format.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Impeachment will be back in fashion next week, after some heavily-slanted poll shows 50.1% support for it among Ted Cruz enthusiasts.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, McCarthy is saying he's not calling for impeachment because there wouldn't be a conviction. Apparently, his book is as bad at making a case as McCarthy was when he was a practicing shyster.
ReplyDeleteI think the right-wing message is this:
ReplyDeleteIt's supposed to be a dog whistle, damnitall. No matter how loud we bray it, lieberals aren't allowed to hear.
It's NO FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~
Jonathan Chait, after he debated McArdle:
ReplyDeleteMy favorite moment from the debate, and I’m obviously biased, occurred when McArdle denied that she philosophically opposes national health insurance, prompting me to quote the headline of this 2009 McArdle column, “Why I Oppose National Health Care.”
"I never said liberals *were* fascists. I just said they should be reviled as such."
ReplyDelete"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
ReplyDelete"JenniCam"
ReplyDeleteHoly time capsule!
The intern stuffing things down the Memory Hole is going to get a repetitive stress injury.
ReplyDeleteUnless, of course, you think it's a cookbook. In which case, it's not at all about cooking. It's about, um, igneous rocks. Yeah. Igneous rocks.
ReplyDeleteI can think of about a thousand things I'd rather do than let an eel bite me on the wrist. Who does shit like that? And why?
ReplyDeleteI saw the video of that debate moment. She was so artificially offended at being accused of opposing national healthcare. Then Chait reminded her. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteNo, that parasite actually takes over the job of the host's tongue, Republicans have shown no signs of wanting to perform any job that might benefit the public.
ReplyDeleteThat's our princess!
ReplyDelete50% of Republicans talk of impeachment
ReplyDelete50% of Republicans say no Republican is talking of impeachment
___________
!00% of Republicans are lying, delusional or both
Try a morality filter.
ReplyDeleteAt least one poll has indicated that majority of Republican voters supports it already, which is unsurprising, given the nonstop rhetoric about what a lawless traitorous dictator the Kenyan usurper is. That's what makes the lawsuit gambit even more hilariously pathetic. Oooh, that's it, sue Stokely Muhummed Stalin. That'll stop him.
ReplyDelete"less than mutant radioactive leeches that burrow into your ass and out of your chest."
ReplyDelete... and give you a dose of the clap while they're at it.
As far as I can tell, McCarthy is saying he's not calling for impeachment because there wouldn't be a conviction.No wonder most prosecutors sit around twiddling their thumbs all day. One only brings charges when the chance of conviction is 100%, no matter how heinous the crime.
ReplyDelete"Ceci n'est pas une impeachment."
ReplyDeleteHe probably put on a fake mustache, so that he wouldn't be recognized -- or I guess a pair of glasses, Stuperman style
ReplyDeleteI'd like to share a shady porch on a hot afternoon with this comment.
ReplyDeleteWhile he does wear what comes out of his ass around his neck, on his fingers, and in his ears, those aren't diamonds.
ReplyDeleteWhat gets me about the title of his book is the claim to lay out a *political* case for impeachment. I think that would be, "He's a Democrat." Not really needing a book to make that argument.
ReplyDeleteNow, if he wanted to make a, you know, *legal* case for impeachment, that would be something. But he can't because there isn't one, he knows it so he wrote up his bullshit "political case" instead.
Obama should push for Congressional tort reform.
ReplyDeleteDisappointingly, that Whackyweedia entry does not acknowledge the use of Cymothoa exigua in a 'Laundry' novel.
ReplyDeletePersonally I rate for pentastomid throat-worm parasites as even more disturbing.
They delete all of mine. They deputized particularly mindless sponges with the power to erase dissent. Place used to be a fun place to go just to abuse nutballs. Then, the nutballs heard what epistemic closure was and they enthusiastically embraced the idea
ReplyDeleteYou'd think, especially being that McCarthy's a columnist, not an elected official; he doesn't have to worry about moderating his moral views to get elected.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Republican party literally just voted to sue Obama for not following the law.
So apparently, Republicans believe the President has broken the law and should be sanctioned by the judicial branch, but it would be totally crazy to use impeachment to do it.
Caminess!
ReplyDeleteLampreys don't bite on account of having no jaws. What they do have is a circular sucker disk covered in teeth with which to drill their way into their prey.
ReplyDeleteI just went and gave his book a 1 star review on Amazon, saying the book was so terrible Andrew McCarthy himself was busily disavowing its premise on National Review. We'll see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteI made a comment over there pointing out the title of his book, and that maybe he should ask Amazon to do something about the blurb which pretty much says he's calling for impeachment.
ReplyDeleteI will laugh and laugh if the court throws that suit out, telling the legislature that they have a mechanism they can use if they feel a president has broken the law, and it ain't a lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteIf you have overripe elephants, you can grind them up and make elephant bread.
ReplyDeleteTell ya what's even more unhealthy. A press corpse that sees Republicans frothing over impeaching the President one week, and cookie-facedly blaming the very existence of the word on the very same President the next, and basically just watching it all flow by, deathly afraid of calling out any non-Democrats for their childish bullshit. There are times I just want to fucking give up...
ReplyDeleteA shiny memory of Web-that-was...
ReplyDeleteOh, well, that's different then.
ReplyDeleteMan, I'm glad I wasn't there when ,em>that thing blew. You probably had people fifty miles away looking at each other, like, "Hey, it wasn't me."
ReplyDeleteA ravishing comment!
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy, isn't it? You try and impeach someone, and "his guys will protect him", rather than hand him over along with a dossier of all the most incriminating evidence they have on him! I tell you, Obama really isn't playing fair here.
ReplyDeleteWell, you and the press have both seen what happens when the press calls out this kind of crap. Simply playing or quoting what some Republican said last week is overwhelming proof and ultra-extreme leftwing bias on the part of the reporter. It set off all kinds of skree-ing that the reporter be fired--and all too often, it does result in the reporter being fired because no editor wants to have his or her publication called "biased."
ReplyDeleteSo, everyone has learned that, if Republican Senator X says "We need to impeach Obama!" the Honorable Sen. needs to be taken seriously. And when the Honorable Sen. says this week that he never, ever said anything about impeaching Obama, well, he just needs to be quoted again as though he'd never said anything on the subject prior to this latest statement.
Thus do reporters fill their column inches and keep their jobs.
"Campbell's Cream of Elephant Soup"...
ReplyDeleteWhatever the Earth sucks in in Florida has to come out somewhere...
ReplyDeleteThe person in charge of deleting liberal comments appears to be off this weekend. My comments are still up.
ReplyDelete"Corralled oldsters"? I see you've met my parents. the soft cotton wadding of a Fox-imbued world view, with the daily hate and alt-reality injection provides a closed system they have no desire to exit from. Getting constant reinforcement that your hate is right and justified will do that for you.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmass. Looky here...
ReplyDeletePrecisely why I had our ‘philanthropic + epiphany’ (=so much to give + vision): wanna see a perfectly cognizant, fully-spectacular, Son-ripened-Heaven?? … yet, I’m not sure if we're on the same page if you saw what I saw. Greetings, earthling. Because I was an actual NDE on the outskirts of the Great Beyond at 15 yet wasn’t allowed in, lemme share with you what I actually know Seventh-Heaven’s Big-Bang’s gonna be like: meet this advanced, bombastic, ex-mortal Upstairs for the most juvenile-lip-service, ultra-groovy, picturesque-paradox, pleasure-beyond-measure, Ultra-Yummy-Reality-Addiction in the Great Beyond for a BIG-ol, kick-some-ass, party-hardy, robust-N-risqué-passion you DO NOT wanna miss the sink-your-teeth-in-the-smmmokin’-hot-deal enveloping, engulfing our catch-22-excitotoxins. Cya soon, girl
PS "I Am the One who runs the world. You're here to prepare for Heaven. You cannot make it to the Great Beyond on your own." -Jesus ...and I, as a sinfull mortal, help in this symbiotic relationship: take part in this glorious, Christmas gift; this wonderFULL, Heavenly Kingdom that we may live forever. God bless you with discernment.
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