Can Mitt Romney connect with conservatives? That's the big question that's dogged his campaign since it started. And it's a question The New York Times asks today. We'll start to get some answers when Romney speaks at the C-PAC convention this afternoon.
The big star of the C-PAC show is Rick Santorum. He's got all the momentum now -- and he's getting rock-star treatment. He's also relegating Newt Gingrich to yesterday's news.
David Brooks writes about how Romney tried to please everybody but ended up pleasing few.
The Times also reports that Roman Catholic leaders mobilized months ago, bracing for a fight with the Obama administration over the rule requiring religious institutions to pay for birth control for their employees. And Politico writes that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has the president in checkmate. Meanwhile, the administration may have a face-saving compromise in the works, and it could come as early as today. But will it go far enough to please the bishops? Not likely. This is a huge political fight the administration should have seen coming, and if they can't find a way out of it soon, it could cost them.
Also tonight on Hardball, a terrific interview with actor James Cromwell of The Artist about how that mostly silent movie mirrors the time and era we're living in today.













Chris the more you MSNBC folks beat on Romney the more I want to know about him. And I am a Dem. Last night you said "don't listen to us (MSM talking heads)" You can bet on that. While I watch and listen to your program to see what you MSM folks do and do not cover. Guest that you choose to deliver messages. How you spin things. Clearly you have an agenda and it is not always the highest order. Former President Clinton is right MSNBC is almost as biased as Fox but out the other end.
Romney is intriguing. He is a father knows best kind of character, I believe a real compassionate conservative. Is that what you MSNBC folks are afraid of. We know he has to dodge a weave to get through the right wing radicals. That is what you have to do just like OBama rolling over the banksters for way too long and just now starting to stand up to them because he knew it was going to be his achiles heel in the upcoming elections.
Last night you mentioned Obama's "circle of influence" with the guest who wrote about him in the Atlantic I believe. One of the reasons many of us are deeply disappointed in OBama is the "circle of influence" that Obama decided to load up his administration with like Dennis Ross on Iran and the I/P conflict. Change...really?
Sadly, nothing Obama will do will satisfy the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. They are the 1% Oligarchs of the Catholic Church whose patrons are the wealthiest and most wayward of the Republican Ruling class, to whom they attempt to sway the presidency EVERY election.
So..... If a church employee wants to get the Morning after pill ( Effectively an abortion ) The Church will be required to Carry the Insurance coverage, to supply the abortion.
Sounds Like abortion by proxy.
Also, isn't this the " land of the free home of the brave? - Doesn't it bother you at all that the government is getting ever so more more intrusive into people's lives MAKING us all do what THEY believe is right? ? ( by the way, religious institutions ARE people ).
So..... If a church employee wants to get the Morning after pill ( Effectively an abortion ) The Church will be required to Carry the Insurance coverage, to supply the abortion.
Sounds Like abortion by proxy.
Also, isn't this the " land of the free home of the brave? - Doesn't it bother you at all that the government is getting ever so more more intrusive into people's lives MAKING us all do what THEY believe is right? ? ( by the way, religious institutions ARE people ).
Places to go and widen your scope.
Websites
Mitt Cozying Up to Foreclosure Mill that Got McCain in ... - Emptywheel
www.emptywheel.net/.../mitt-cozying-up-to-foreclosure-mill-that-got...Cached
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Feb 3, 2012 – Back in 2008, John McCain's campaign shacked up with one of MI's two notorious foreclosure mills, Trott & Trott. That housing situation became ...
foreclosure fraud | emptywheel
www.emptywheel.net/tag/foreclosure-fraud/Cached
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By: emptywheel Thursday October 20, 2011 8:53 am .... Ibanez decision that purports to offer a solution to the foreclosure problem. ..... increased use of computers and the Internet in furtherance of financial crimes, as well as the international ...
IAEA Reports « The Race for Iran
www.raceforiran.com/key-documents/iaea-reportsCached - Similar
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IAEA Reports. IAEA Board Report on the Islamic Republic of Iran, May 31, 2010. IAEA Board Report on the Islamic Republic of Iran, February 18, 2010.
Hi Chris. Just wondering what you think about JFK's rubber duckies.
Of course the right wing bishops planned this attack on Obamacare months ago. If a Republican had passed this legislation it would had been fine. However, the right wing are planning a hundred little attacks as each little step of the plan is implemented and the media is frothing at the mouth to cover it all. They are anti-majority, anti-jobs, anti-decent wage, anti-truth, anti-civil rights, anti-women rights, anti-gun rights etc., They really are sad, little men.
Sed, HOPE AND CHANGE !!!! LOL !!!!
I watched David Axlerod at NBC Chicago, (chicago is code word for corruption) And He constantly swollowed like He was choking to death while lying to America. His company works only to sway public opinion, and repeat propaganda at any cost. For a man who's in the busness of lying, He acted like a junior high student in principal's office. Anyway, The Catholic church made a deal with the devil. You (Obama) go easy on our pedophiles, We vote for communist healthcare. Be careful who You're making deals with !!! This ObamAcorn group is Chicago's corrupt, deal making underbelly, Acorn and the worst parts of the AFLCIO rolled up into one. Obama and Axlerod think they can play the American people like Al Capone's banjo, But We know ObamAcorn now, and We're not choking on Our words. ;)
When you say pedophiles are you referring to Mark Foley the Republican Congressman who had all those inappropriate homosexual contacts with congressional pages and is now he reason the page program no longer exists? When you refer to the "communist healthcare system" are you referring to the program written, and developed over the course of years in fact decades by Republican politicians, operatives and think tank members and them passed by Obama? Of curse you are.
What I wonder about is why the Catholic bishops have never said anything about the coverage of vasectomies? I also wonder why they have never said anything about the coverage of Viagra and other ED drugs after all don't they lead to promiscuity?
Perhaps the Church leaders are what they have always been accused of and that is just plain old male chauvinists. Frankly to qualify as a real conservative these days you have to be a card carrying woman hater.
I flat out disagree with what has happened with the birth control issue. I understand that Chris Matthews is a Catholic but he doesnt represent all women's views and I think he should back down just a tad on siding so much with the Church on his show. The Church dictates that no Catholic women should take birth control however 98% of them do. The Church is not listening to its women members and they strong-armed the President on this issue. Its shameful and total disregard for all womens rights. Boo hiss Chris, I normally love your show but cant help but be a little ashamed at you and the rest of the Dems who sided with the Church on this issue. You should be ashamed.
Now the GOP leadership has gone beyond Idiocracy!!. When I heard Newt say the the POTUS wants to wage war against the Catholic Church I realized the old fart is crazy. No one is against the freedom of religion. If it was the law would actually be against all religions. The GOP now is Grand Idiocratic Party. The GIP.
I wonder if that guy, Freiss is a member of the Bohemian Grove Club. If someone can find out and reply to this comment. The Bohemian Grove Club is the club the wealthy meet at in July and they do a Burning of Care Ritual. They do not want to care about anything but family and friends. And that is what they are doing. This club is a continuation of the Skull and Bones membership.
Yes, Romney is a conservative with conservative views, like the view that you must distribute the wealth to the few by firing and creating poverty, and by low wages and high prices. Yes, those are conservative views. And of course the ones the view that you should not have any benevolent concern for others.
Chris, you're well on your way to proving that you are a very good Catholic, a loyal supporter of the President and an utterly myopic commentator.
In this compromise you're so thrilled with, the President has abandoned a position that was clearly constitutional for one that any first-year constitutional law student could see is an utterly egregious violation of the First Amendment. Initially, the policy required that all businesses be treated equally. He now proposes to require private insurance companies to offer specific concessions, at their own expense, but only to Catholic-owned businesses, for no other reason than the fact that they are Catholic-owned! On the day this regulation goes into effect, I believe every health insurance company in America should file suit, based on the entirely valid claim that they are being materially harmed by a policy based purely on religious favoritism. (Remember, the law will require the insurance companies to absorb the cost of the family planning coverage.) I'd be interested in hearing your views on how the administration would defend itself.
Lost in all the noise about this specific issue is an important truth. The concept of religious freedom, as applied in modern American society, has nothing to do with the First Amendment. In virtually every discussion on the subject of religious freedom, the actual subject of discussion is the preservation of the perks, privileges and continued dominance of the CHRISTIAN religion in America, and sometimes, Chris, you're part of the problem.
Where was your simmering outrage over the denial of the permit for a Mosque near Ground Zero? Oh, that's right, we that was about protecting the rights of Muslims. I don't recall you ever taking on the Defense of Marriage Act, which clearly discriminates against Islam and the Fundamentalist Mormon faiths, even though polygamy poses absolutely no threat to society at large. But, of course, polygamy isn't an issue for mainstream Christians. If the First Amendment guarantees religious equality, these examples are clearly unconstitutional, but as long as they don't seem to impinge of the prerogatives of traditional Christianity, no one seems to care.
I realize you are a political commentator rather than a reporter, but you can't maintain your credibility if you can't maintain at least some semblance of objectivity. Continuously flogging the fact that you went to Holy Cross is not germane to the issue. If you want to present Rick Santorum's views on religious freedom, invite him to your show and let him do it himself. A serious discussion of the First Amendment simply isn't possible when "Christian" is the only acceptable synonym for "religion."
Amen, our eroding liberties are becoming extinct. We now have a federal government forcing us to pay for something we deem immoral. No more religious liberties! Our biggest threat is not terrorism, it is our president.
Make no mistake about it: this fight is not about contraception or abortion or a compromised Catholic Church. This is about the power of the Federal government to define what is or is not the mission of your Church, synagogue, mosque or any voluntary institution because if this government won’t respect religious liberty, our first liberty, it will not respect the subordinate rights of free speech or free association. If the Federal government is willing to set aside religious liberty in pursuit of a speculative social agenda, we are living in dangerous times. Al Kresta
This is an attempt of our President to ram is abortion agenda down the throats of all Americans, religious organizations, businesses and insurance companies. Why is contraception, sterilization and abortion inducing drugs considered preventative? What does it prevent? A child, with our nations birth rate declining, why would our president ram sterilization down our throats? If a woman would like to get OPTIONAL birth control then let her get it where ever she desires. Free birth control pills? Please Mr. President enough is enough, I already subsidize abortions with my tax dollars, why make us pay for birth control as well. With the wide spread use of birth control pills comes wide spread disease, STD's, who will pay for disease care? Look at the stats of the increased STD's including HIV. I will without of doubt vote Republican this November!
I couldn't agree more Chris. Obama succeeded in balancing politics and policy, and he left those Republican braggadocios in the dust, talking to themselves. He took the lightening out of their thunder, and all that is left for them to do is crack, ckap and rumble. :-))
BTW: Check out my blog on Super Pacs..www.pdq22.blogspot.com Of Demons and Dragons!