McCain Tried To Enter His Wife Into A Topless Beauty Contest (I'm Not Kidding)

I swear if I made this up I'd be writing for some sort of All In The Family spin off, but no, its true, McCain offered a crowd of bikers his wife in a topless beauty contest. Forget the implications of women going up on stage to strut their stuff for thousands of drunk men, this place is a festering sewer that regularly results in several 'incidents' per event. It is so bad that there is a crisis center set up across the street. This is the type of crowd McCain feels at ease with, so comfortable in fact, that he joked about his wife entering a topless/bottomless beauty contest.

From DailyKos:

CNN has the details.

If there were any Obama supporters to be found in the vast Buffalo Chip campground, they kept quiet.

Indeed, McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

"I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain said to cheers. "I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

Say whuh?

That's right.

Let's read more about this 'beauty pageant' from ESPN.

Buffalo Chip has a reputation for that sort of thing. It holds a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night, which is essentially a topless beauty pageant. And occasionally bottomless, too. During a drenching rain Wednesday night, the contest broke up into smaller groups and one woman wound up dancing naked on a bar top. Her boyfriend/husband saw her and angrily dragged her away as she struggled to put her pants back on and muttered something about how, "It's only this one week a year."

I laughed when I heard the guys at Buffalo Chip tell the story, but then I thought about the conversation I had with Pearl Gulbranson, who was working at the Crisis Intervention Center for domestic abuse, which is located in a house across the street from the Broken Spoke. Gather 500,000 people in one spot, feed them a lot of alcohol and there are bound to be some serious problems.

"We average three or four 'contacts' a night," Gulbranson said. "And a lot of women get abandoned here. They get left behind with no way of getting home. So we're here to help."

Rape culture, objectification of women, domestic violence, and raw misogyny. This is what John McCain thinks his own wife is worth.

If that is what you call Presidential material, then our country is seriously f*cked. And if Cindy McCain just stood up there and smiled for that horrendously display of machismo, then shame on her for even thinking about trying to be some sort of role model for 51% of Americans.

Sometimes Being A Big GOP Donor Isn't Enough

The recent update on the U.S. Attorney scandal revealed that Monica Goodling did indeed break the law numerous times by using political factors to determine who would and wouldn't be good candidates for the office. Being a good loyal Republican was key to the process, but even some of those didn't make the cut.

From The Times-Union:

The IG report discusses how the Bush White House tried to get favorites appointed to lifetime posts as immigration judges, and reached out to friends in New York. One passage deals with a judge candidate from New York recommended by an unnamed congressman in June 2005.

The congressman's staff gave the candidate's qualifications to the White House as "great Republican" and "long time donor to the local GOP." The "local" Republican Party officials said they could vouch for the candidate, whose name was forwarded for an interview, according to the report.

The New York Republican nominee -- also unnamed, alas -- didn't score well.

"The candidate's conduct during his ... interview causes us to question whether he possesses the appropriate judicial temperament and demeanor to serve as an immigration judge," a Bush administration e-mail quoted in the report says. "The candidate used profanity during the interview, acted abrasively, and when asked what his greatest weakness was, responded 'blondes.' "

Perhaps Bush's minions saw what this guy said and had at least a few principles left to realize that maybe this guy wouldn't be the most impartial of judges....and godforbid a possible terrost wear a blonde wig, we might have all been in serious trouble. Now I wonder who might this judicial candidate might have been?

Chris Matthews: All Around Douchebag

Not only is Chris a woman-hating misogynist, he's a typical DC pundit who only wants to see American politics through his own thick, scratchy glasses. Last night on Hardball he listed his top six candidates from both parties and conveniently left John Edwards out of the rankings. Who, you ask, did he put in his place? None other than bottom of the barrel Rudy Giuliani, who has a make or break primary in Florida on the 29th of this month. Tweety, you truly do exhibit the worst kind of wishful thinking.

From Crooks and Liars:

Download (731) | Play (784) Download (744) | Play (371) (h/t Heather)

During the Power Ranking segment on Monday’s Hardball, Chris Matthews decided to snub Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, choosing instead to insert the floundering Rudy Giuliani into the list. Not one word about Edwards, but Tweety believes that Rudy is still in the hunt for the GOP nod, giving him the last slot in the rankings.

Surprisingly, (or not) Matthews had just shown poll numbers from Nevada showing a virtual three way tie among Democrats, but apparently that, being right on the important issues of the day and having a solid primary season thus far, wasn’t enough to propel Edwards over Rudy — who is going broke, plummeting in the polls and is throwing everything he’s got into the Florida race to try and save his joke of a campaign. There’s a real power player if I’ve ever seen one.

I know it is hard to ignore numbers that show Edwards in a three way statistical tie for Saturday's Nevada caucus when you want the race to be all about Obama and Clinton, but try and make a change. Try and look at all the facts. Ditch the narrative and report on what the voters are thinking about for their choice to be President.