10 people who should go away in 2010

This is part one of a series of year-end lists wrapping up what was 2009 in politics. More will be coming before the New Year as I want to wrap up 2009 in style.

1) Carrie “Miss Homophobe” Prejan—Carrie anyone who is doing any sort of performing or public appearances should know rule #1—know your audience. You’re a beauty queen, and a good part of the pageant audience includes gay men. Besides being the audience, chances are gay men were involved in designing your dress, and doing your hair and/or makeup. So to insult your audience by denying them a fundamental right is stupid on its own. But you used this moment to become a right-wing “celebrity” who is not worthy of a reality TV show. You complain about the media criticizing you and say they violated your freedom of speech. Carrie please study the Constitution and know that it applies to governmental agencies, not TV personalities. Unfortunately I don’t see her going away in 2010 as she probably has a job offer from Faux News.

2) Joe “You Lie” Wilson—Us liberals had to suffer through eight years of George W. Bush. Democrats in Congress sat through his speeches as he brought the country to war and ran up the deficit like a drunken sailor in a whorehouse. We were told to shut up and respect the office of the President of the United States. Not once did one of us use a nationally televised address to Congress to heckle the President like you did. We expect the same kind of respect. What’s good for the gander. Fortunately there’s a way to hand Joe Wilson an early retirement in 2010. His opponent, Rob Miller, has already raised over a million dollars because of the outburst. If you’d like to support Rob Miller, make a donation through ActBlue.

3) Mark “Hiking the Appalachian trail” Sanford--- So as Governor of South Carolina, before this summer he was best known for being a vocal opponent to President Obama’s stimulus package. Well all along when he was speaking out against the stimulus package, he was heading off to Argentina so his mistress could stimulate his package, all while telling his family and constituents that he was hiking the Appalachian trail. And you were a man who was one of the most vocal supporters of impeaching President Clinton because of his sex life. Your hypocrisy is showing there Mark, and it came at a great price for you--- it cost your wife, and almost your job. So much for that 2012 Presidential nomination. Stay classy Mark.

4) “Traitor” Joe Lieberman--- I can’t believe I voted for this man for VP back in 2000. Since 2006, when the Democrats in Connecticut voted him out in their primary, Traitor Joe shows his true loyalty—to himself, ran as an independent, and counted on Connecticut Republicans to keep his Senate seat. In 2008 he turned on his party even more by speaking at the RNC and campaigning for John McCain and Sarah Palin. He begged Harry Reid to let him keep his Homeland Security Committee chair, even though he turned on his party. We Democrats were told we could count on his vote for key domestic issues, such as health care reform. We’re suckers here. Joe Lieberman again flip-flops on his prior promises to reform the health care system. What the mainstream media (except for Rachel Maddow) failed to mention is his wife’s ties to the health care industry—Hadassah Lieberman’s an insurance/pharma lobbyist and her direct interests conflict with those of the American people (not the corporations she represents.) In any other occupation, this would be considered a conflict of interest, and it’s time to extend conflict of interest laws to elected officials.

5) Sarah “Quitter” Palin—Sarah Sarah Sarah where do I start. You start off the year quiet, which is the way a losing VP candidate should be. Then in May you make David Letterman your enemy because he made a joke about your daughter, who you forced into becoming an abstinence-only spokeswoman after she had a baby. A teen mom as an abstinence-only spokeswoman is like asking Mark Sanford to become a spokesman for how to stay faithful to his wife. Then in July she announces that she’s quitting her job as governor of Alaska after half a term to pursue other career opportunities--- like making up lies about President Obama’s health care plan, writing a book, and spending the day on Facebook. She decided to title her book “Going Rogue” which has other meanings (if she had only learned from the “teabagger” debacle and consulted Urban Dictionary first). Now I have not read her book (and I don’t plan on doing so), but apparently it’s spent trashing many staffers that worked with her so closely on the campaign trail with John McCain. Sarah, if you want to run in 2012, chances are a lot of the same staffers will also be working on the GOP campaign, so why trash them now? If you wanted to air dirty laundry--- why write a book when there’s already a venue for doing so that your followers could much more closely relate to. It’s called the Jerry Springer Show, and I bet your fans watch it a lot more than they read. Or you just a 7th grade mean girl who never grew up. Either way your credibility in 2012 will be slim, as nobody wants to elect a President who will only serve half a term.

6) Orly “Birth Certificate” Taitz —Orly you’ve gone off the deep end. President Obama released his birth certificate when he was a candidate, and the state of Hawaii confirms it’s real. I’ve seen President Obama’s birth certificate online, and you make up all this bullshit about the “long form.” Well I got news for your Orly—I was born 19 years after President Obama in a much more urban state (that by those standards should have more detailed birth certificates) and my New York birth certificate only has very few details--- just my date and place of birth, and the birth names of my parents. And when I moved here to New Jersey, the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission accepted it as full proof of my citizenship when I went to transfer my driver’s license. Now guess what Orly—I don’t have a “long form” birth certificate and could not produce one on demand, but I will give you the one issued by the hospital where I was born. I would expect you to treat President Obama the same way you would treat me.

7) Dick “Torture Defender” Cheney—Dick Dick Dick you were incredibly silent and under the radar as VP, yet now that you’re out of office you haven’t met a Faux News camera that you don’t like. You had one of the lowest approval ratings as Vice President ever. The public knew you were a war monger who saw oil dollar signs in your eyes at the thought of invading Iraq. Your and George Bush’s policies were unpopular, and in 2008 the American people spoke. Now that President Obama is trying to restore our image around the world that you destroyed, you’re bitching and moaning about it. Would you please go back into your bunker, and take your daughter with you.

8) Rush “Boss” Limbaugh—Not too many people will wish failure on a very popular elected official before he even takes office. I wish I could say that this was the worst of El Rushbo’s offenses, but it’s just the icing on the cake. Along with most of the other right-wing talkers on the radio and Faux News, Obama’s presidency exposed the real reason for Limbaugh’s hatred. It has nothing to do with President Obama’s politics, but instead his race. El Rushbo does not want someone who is not white anywhere near the White House. While 2009 was known as the year of the outrageous Limbaugh remark, when he mentioned that in “Obama’s America black kids beat up white kids on the school bus" and cited a single incident. Then he goes on about how we should go back to segregated buses. This rant (which was posted about early this year) sums up who Rush Limbaugh really is.

9) Glenn “Race Baiting” Beck -- Here’s another that I don’t know where to start for. Here is a man who in 2009 called for the assassination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (previously his hit target was brilliant filmmaker Michael Moore), spread lies about President Obama (he’s a Marxist, Communist, Socialist, Fascist, etc), gave airtime to every radical conspiracy theory, organized the 9/12 teabag march on Washington, and had a famous “get off my phone” rant to a caller who dare disagreed with his radical theories. In the world according to Mr. Beck, President Obama has a deep seated hatred of white people (I guess Glen did not get the memo that the President’s mother and grandparents who raised him were white). The public was fed up with Glenn Beck’s antics and actually put their money where their mouths are, and his show lost over 80 advertisers. The American people do not want to turn on the TV or radio to see someone spreading lies, fear, and hate. However Faux did not get the memo.

10) Rahm “The Left Does Not Matter” Emanuel---President Obama’s chief of staff is the only official Democrat on my list. However in my opinion, Rahm is not a Democrat but a DINO. He represents the corporatist DLC wing of the Democratic Party, which the party’s base tries to distance themselves from. What Rahm fails to understand is recent election results when the Democratic party’s candidate did NOT play to their base. I’ve used this term ad nauseum on this blog, but you have to preach to the choir. President Obama’s approval numbers have been going down lately, and it’s not the center that he is losing. His caving in on healthcare reform is starting to cost him his base. Many of the people who spent countless (unpaid) hours knocking on doors, making phone calls, etc to make sure Obama is elected are the very people who he is starting to lose. And I blame Rahm Emanuel for this, as he’s famously said that the left does not matter (and had a public feud with Howard Dean in 2006). Personally I think the guy should be fired, and I will go into more detail about this in a future post. No president can afford to lose his base, and the chief of staff needs to understand that.

After writing this list, I realized that I want way more than ten people to go away in 2010. I do have a list of honorable mentions, but instead of mentioning them here, I am opening up the comments section for it. Who would YOU like to see go away in 2010? Please keep it politically related.