Newt, maybe you should join Mitch.

Can someone explain to me how someone running for President on a fiscally conservative platform can manage to owe a jewelry company over a half a million dollars? I need someone to explain it to me because Newt didn't do a very good job of it on Face The Nation, today.

"For the first time, Newt Gingrich addressed reports regarding his wife’s financial disclosure forms, which revealed a debt ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 to premier jewelry company Tiffany & Co.

He did not disclose what he and his wife purchased at the jewelry store, arguing that he is 'very frugal' and lives debt-free.

'We're private citizens,' Gingrich said today on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” 'I work very hard. We have a reasonably good income. I currently owe nothing except I owe one mortgage on a house that's a rental property in Wisconsin. Everything else is totally paid for. My home is paid for, my cars are paid for. We don't have a separate house. We don't do elaborate things.'

“You’re running for president, you’re going to be the guy in charge of the Treasury Department and it just sticks out like a sore thumb,” host Bob Schieffer said.

But Gingrich said that in fact, his financial situation would be a good example for the government to follow.

'I’m the guy running for president who pays for all of his bills and after tax income and at no cost to the taxpayer, and who currently owes nothing except one rental property in Wisconsin,' he said. 'I am debt free. If the U.S government was debt free as I am, everybody in America would be celebrating.'

Earlier in the week, Gingrich refused to answer questions regarding the account, saying Tuesday on Fox News that he would not engage in 'trivial pursuit.”' [Article]

"I currently owe nothing". Splitting hairs as usual, Newt? What about the thousands of dollars you owe in taxes on a bunch of your companies in at least four states? Yeah I know I know, "trivial pursuit."

Finally, I see that yet another republiclown candidate decided not to take on O. I swear this field is getting thinner than Vanna White's arms. Vanna, it's called food! You should try it sometime. But I digress.

The republiclowns are bumming, he was the last great hope of the true believers who had a shot at winning in the general election. Now they have to depend on Mitt, Newt, Tim, Michelle, and the rest of the gang that can't shoot straight.

Personally, I didn't see the big deal with Mitch Daniels. He is just another flip- flopping poli-trickster who will do whatever it takes to get elected. I am glad he listened to his wife and decided not to run. (Something about an embarrassing incident back in the early nineties.) I am guessing that he would have regretted it.

"Evildoers"

I see that the evil ones are still up to their old tricks in Washington:

"WASHINGTON – House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday thwarted Democratic efforts to award $250 checks to Social Security recipients facing a second consecutive year without a cost-of-living increase.

President Barack Obama and Democrats have urged approval of the one-time payment, saying seniors barely getting by on their Social Security checks face undue hardships without the COLA increase.

But most Republicans contended that the nation couldn't afford the estimated $14 billion cost of the payment, and that the COLA freezes in 2010 and 2011 come after seniors received a significant boost in 2009.

The measure was brought up under a fast-track procedure in the House that required a two-thirds majority for passage. The 254-153 vote in favor of the bill fell short of that." [Source]

Damn! You mean to tell me that you republi-clowns can't afford $250 for grandma? That's the cost of a tie and a shoe shine for you boyz. But I am not surprised, republi-clowns tend to roll like that:

"An Indiana baby needs life-saving surgery, but the state health care agency -- whose budget was slashed this year -- won't pay for it.

Six-month-old Seth Petreikis suffers from complete DiGeorge syndrome, which keeps him from developing a thymus, an infection-fighting glandular organ. He needs a transplant that's been pioneered by a specialist at Duke University in North Carolina. But the procedure costs $500,000, and the state's Family Social Services Administration won't pay for it under the state's Medicaid, reports the Northwest Indiana Times. It claims that the treatment is "experimental" -- even though 58 of 60 children to receive it have survived.

We last wrote about Indiana's FSSA after some of its staffers told parents to drop off their developmentally disabled children at homeless shelters. The parents had failed to receive schedule Medicare waivers to pay for care, after Gov. Mitch Daniels -- who is now weighing a possible 2012 GOP presidential run -- cut the agency's funding to deal with a budget shortfall." [Source]

At least we know that they don't discriminate; they f&^% over young and old.

But wait, there is more:

"The Senate Republicans did what they said they'd do today -- they blocked a bill aimed at providing over $7 billion in federal money for 9/11 responders and their families because it came before a vote on taxes. But despite the almost scripted outcome, Democratic Senators behind the bill seemed shocked at the outcome.

"We are gravely disappointed," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a key sponsor of the bill, told reporters following the failed cloture vote. "When every Senator on the Republican side signed a letter saying no business can be done until they had a vote a vote on a tax issue, I find [it] to be morally reprehensible."

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democratic Senator from Delaware for all of three weeks, said the bill was the first one he chose to co-sponsor. The fact that the GOP stopped it in its tracks (for now, at least) was a surprise, he said." [Source]

Oh my! The young; the old; and first responders.

Still, if you are the GOP, it must be nice to know that you have a major news network in your pocket to work on your image for you:

"It's no secret that Fox News' political coverage isn't always quite "fair and balanced." But emails obtained by Media Matters show that Fox News' Washington managing editor Bill Sammon urged his staff to actually echo Republican talking points on the health care debate.

According to the emails, Sammon directed his staff to use specific wording when describing the health care debate, preferring the term "government option" over "public option."

Here's an email that Sammon allegedly wrote, outlining his instructions:

1) Please use the term "government-run health insurance" or, when brevity is a concern, "government option," whenever possible.
2) When it is necessary to use the term "public option" (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation's lexicon), use the qualifier "so-called," as in "the so-called public option."

3) Here's another way to phrase it: "The public option, which is the government-run plan."

4) When newsmakers and sources use the term "public option" in our stories, there's not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.

Apparently Sammon's instructions made an impact. Media Matters reports that Republican pollster Frank Lutz in August told Fox News' Sean Hannity that referring to health care reform as a "government option" creates more public disapproval than calling the reform a "public option." Media Matters also reports that the memo affected Fox News anchor Bret Baier's wording from one night to another." [Source]

You can't make this stuff up. And yet, there are folks in A-merry-ca who still believe that the folks over at Radio Rwanda are real journalist. Unbelievable.