Scott Walker Strategist Speaks Truth About Iowa - Gets Fired

Presidential hopeful Scott Walker has fired strategist Liz Mair for being much, much too honest and outspoken about Iowa. Apparently she doesn't like the place, the politicians, or Iowa's historical role as one of the earliest primaries. She doesn't like the fact that while in Iowa groveling for the Presidency, you have to kiss the butt of Rep. Steve King.

From Huffington Post

Liz Mair, a veteran Republican strategist, announced on Tuesday her resignation from Walker's nascent campaign after a conservative furor over a series of tweets in which she criticized Iowa's caucus system -- and its ethanol politics -- for having undue influence over the nominating process. The backlash snowballed Tuesday night, when Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann called for Mair's firing over the "naive" and "juvenile" comments.

Her downfall took about 24 hours - Hired on Monday, Forced to Resign on Tuesday

On Tuesday, shortly before 5 p.m., the New York Times ran a story quoting Iowa state Republican Chairman Jeff Kauffman, who said Mair “doesn’t have a clue what Iowa’s all about” and that Walker should fire her. That same story also quoted the co-chairman of a county Republican Party and the co-chairman of the state party saying similar things.
At 12:03 a.m. Wednesday, the AP reported that Mair was no longer a member of Walker’s campaign.
“The tone of some of my tweets concerning Iowa was at odds with that which Gov. Walker has always encouraged in political discourse,” she said in a statement. “I wish Gov. Walker and his team all the best.”

Of course many of us in the rest of America totally agree with her. But in today's GOP which is based on "purity" of thought and tweet, you just can't be this honest and practical. There's no room in the Grand Old Party for new ideas or reformation. It's sad but true.

Of course, she is still a Republican, and even while ranting about her situation - caused by conservatives - she blamed the Democrats for "digging up her tweets."

One thing I forgot to mention-- credit to Democrats (DNC or Iowa Dem Party?). They're the ones that dug up my tweets & pitched story.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

Of course it's the Right Wing Nut Jobs in Iowa who are attacking her - not the Dems!

Final thought: People have mischaracterized my views as "hating" Iowans. That saddens me and is wrong and inaccurate.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

It's a sad commentary that self-described Iowa Rs are emailing me calling me things like "pig," "bitch," and "dyke."
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

For the record, I've been married to the same man for 15 years. I was with him for 2.5 years before that.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

That's a plus for the GOP, but . . .

I'm pro gay marriage because I believe marriage is a contract and contracts should be recognized by the judiciary and broader state.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

Sorry, now they have to hate you! Because God!

A few conservative pundits have come to Mair's defense - strange bedfellows, if you ask me! And why is pundit Erick Erickson of Red State telling his own party members to "DIAF" or "Die in a Fire"? I guess because he is more of a Libertarian these days - so to hell with everyone else, right?

From Erickson of Red State

UPDATE: I see from the Associated Press that Liz Mair has resigned from Governor Walker’s campaign. Given Liz’s work history, I will put it to you this way — Team Walker has botched this. There’s just no way Liz Mair resigned with it being her idea. I haven’t talked to her yet, but there’s just no way. So instead of Walker owning this, he’s passed the ball and made a staffer off herself. That’s unfortunate and plays into the “not ready for prime time” theme already developing around Team Walker. At least it is early.
But the voices who decided to stir this pot need to DIAF as far as I’m concerned.

For the record, you can't enjoin people to follow Christian ethics and then tell them to die in a fire in the update. http://t.co/9NyRjWZ0GV

— Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) March 18, 2015

But Erickson is a Sinner with a Dirty Mind:

.@EWErickson blast Walker for digital aide's departure http://t.co/ArqlfXvGKF Imagine everyone judged by tweets ... pic.twitter.com/P7Tqst1pDp

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) March 18, 2015

Jonah Goldberg on National Review

Walker talks a big game about standing up to labor unions and the left — and rightly so. His record as governor is nothing short of heroic. He even suggested that his record of standing up to the left at home suggests the kind of leadership he’d show in the fight against ISIS. He phrased it poorly, but the point he was trying to make was that he can’t be intimidated. Well, maybe. I don’t know Mair very well. But if Erickson is right, and I’d bet he is, then Mair was asked to fall on her sword. Even if she wasn’t asked but volunteered, the point remains that Walker accepted her resignation because a bunch of party apparatchiks in Iowa are terrified of any dissent over their gravy train.

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Liz Mair's Original Problem Tweets
That Drove Iowa Crazy:

In other news, I see Iowa is once again embarrassing itself, and the GOP, this morning. Thanks, guys.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) January 24, 2015

The sooner we remove Iowa's frontrunning status, the better off American politics and policy will be.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) January 24, 2015

Morons across America are astounded to learn that people from *IOWA* grow up rather government-dependent. #agsubsidies #ethanol #brainless
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) January 22, 2015

Post-Firing Tweets:

Now that I'm off payroll, there are a couple things I'd like to say.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

1. The "morons" I was referring to in that 1 tweet were Ds who were feigning surprise at an Iowa family having benefited from farm subsidies
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

I was not calling Iowans morons. And if you read the tweet, and look at the online discussion around the time it was made, that's obvious.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

2. Obviously, I know when official "ethanol subsidies" ended. But it's a sad commentary on the policy savvy of people covering Iowa...
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

The reference to #agsubsidies was very clearly a reference to farm subsidies. Context makes that obvious. #farmsubsidies wouldn't fit in 140
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

I do find some of the things Steve King says on immigration embarrassing and factually dubious.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

For example, I do not think his 1-100 ratio on DREAMER valedictorians to DREAMER drug mules is mathematically correct.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

I also think the fact that King is held out as the only real force in Iowa and representative of what Iowans think is embarassing for Iowa.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

I will just finish by saying I think the country needs to have a debate about things like the RFS and farm subsidy reform.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

...and I think maybe we should debate whether 1st 4 or 5 primary states should alternate who gets to go 1st.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

But I think it's potentially advantageous for the party and the country. Iowa doesn't have great history of picking GOP nominee...
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) March 18, 2015

#GOP Rebranding Shambles ~ Backward, Racist and Cruel

They ought to put a sign on the (Republican) National Committee doors that says ‘Closed for repairs,’ until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.
~ Retired Senator Bob Dole, R-Kansas

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Stop Hispanic Immigration ~ We Need More White Australians

From Ann Coulter, Conservative Pundit

For decades, Mexicans have been about 30 percent of all legal immigrants to the United States, while only a smidgen more than 1 percent come from Great Britain. Is that fair? Granted, their food is better, but why is it the norm is to have nearly 30 times as many Mexican as British immigrants?
We have been taking in more immigrants from Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, individually, than from England, our mother country. There are nearly twice as many immigrants from El Salvador as from Canada, and 10 times as many as from Australia.
. . . Mexicans are the largest immigrant group in America, with about 50 million Hispanics living here legally.
Marco Rubio's amnesty bill will soon make it 80 million. First, there are at least 11 million illegal immigrants, a majority from Mexico, who will be instantly legalized. Then we'll get their entire extended families under our chain migration system.
I wouldn't want that many Japanese! I wouldn't want that many Dutch (not that there are that many Dutch)! Why do we have to become a different country? Was there a vote when the country decided to turn itself into Mexico? No other country has ever just decided to turn itself into another country like this.

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Repeal Obamacare ~ Because Death is a Miracle

From ThinkProgress

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) this week said that prayers to God will ensure Obamacare’s repeal, after 37 House of Representatives attempts to do so.

I think the President will ultimately be forced to repudiate his own signature piece of legislation because the American people will demand it,” she told an evangelical radio host Tuesday. “And I think before his second term is over, we’re going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we’ll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare.”

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Force Women to Have Ultrasounds ~ But Don't Accept the Results

Via San Antonio Express-News

At least 24 abortion-related bills were filed this session (in the Texas Legislature), some of which garnered the support of Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Three marquee proposals for anti-abortion lawmakers failed to gain traction: a bill that would have banned abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, a bill that would increase regulations for abortion facilities and a bill that would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges to a hospital within 50 miles.
. . . Last session — with an early boost from Perry — Republicans pushed proposals that forced women to undergo sonograms 24 hours prior to having an abortion and that slashed millions of dollars to family planning services.

Via Salon.com

At a Thursday congressional committee hearing on a proposed ban on abortion at 20 weeks in Washington, D.C., Christy Zink, a mother of two, testified how the measure would harm women who require late-term abortion care due to fetal abnormalities and other potentially fatal complications.
. . . In response to Zink’s testimony, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, expressed “sympathy” for Zink, then accused her of “ripping apart” her fetus:

Ms. Zink, having my great sympathy and empathy both. I still come back wondering, shouldn’t we wait … and see if the child can survive before we decide to rip him apart? So, these are ethical issues, they’re moral issues, they’re difficult issues, and the parents should certainly be consulted. But it just seems like, it’s a more educated decision if the child is in front of you to make those decisions.

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Contraception is Bad ~ For All Kinds of Scary Made-Up Reasons

From ThinkProgress

Republican Party of Virginia Treasurer Bob FitzSimmonds, a former aide to and “very close friend” of gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli II (R), told Virginia blogger Ben Tribbett that he is “not a big fan of contraception, frankly.”
. . . “I think there are some issues, we’re giving morning-after pills to 12-year-olds, and pretty soon I guess we’ll hand them out to babies, I don’t know.”
. . . “I believe that we don’t recognize the causal effect between the type of sex education that we’ve been giving and the spread of STDs. We focus on things like abortion, cause it’s a big pressure thing. I go into schools 15-20 times a year, I run a non-profit that goes into schools and talks to kids about sex. They’re all abortion and HIV. HIV’s kind of hard to catch. Abortion happens if you get pregnant. But we’re on the track for 50 percent of the American people to have Herpes by the time these kids are my age. And that is a profound — not only health but sociological crisis facing this country.”

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Jesus Wept ~ The Bible Tells Me to Ignore the Poor

NBC News

During contentious debate over the Farm Bill, which funds food stamps, in the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., invoked the Book of Matthew as he noted his opposition to the cuts.
“[Jesus] says how you treat the least among us, the least of our brothers, that’s how you treat him,” Vargas, adding that Jesus specifically mentions the importance of feeding the hungry.
Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who supports cuts to the program, had his own Bible verse from the Book of Thessalonians to quote back to Vargas: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.

From Daily Kos

Now, this would not normally be worthy of mention. Hardly a day goes by without some Republican sadist expressing fury that poor people have it so good. Devising new ways to make the peasants suffer is what makes Republicans wake up in the morning. What's fascinating about this particular case, though, is Fincher's background.
The reason this is even more egregious than the usual Republican class warfare is that Fincher himself is a poster boy for government dependency. It's not just that he's benefited here and there from some government help. That sort of low-level hypocrisy is almost to be expected from these types. But Fincher has received millions - $3.2 million as of June 2010 - in federal crop subsidies.

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Danger! ~ Lowering Grocery Tax Will Lead the Poor to Buy More Food

Via Raw Story

The Kansas state Senate on Thursday voted to cut the state sales tax on food from 6.3 percent to 4.95 percent, but Sen. Jeff Melcher (R) led opposition against the measure, arguing that it would lead to people eating more.

“It seems to me we are encouraging the behavior of purchasing food and discouraging the behavior of purchasing anything else,” Melcher reportedly told his colleagues.
. . . “It seems to me it provides a complexity in the tax code that the retailers will have to deal with,”

State Rep. Barbara Bollier (R-Mission Hills) via Huffington Post

I have no words. That's just beyond comprehension to me. We each get to think what we want to think. But this is so far out there that I can't believe someone said it. It's frightening, that's what it is.

Mitt Happens on Iowa Farm

"they waded into the corn field, Field of Dreams style and emerged to find the press corps moved closer to observe. "Oh HELLO," Romney said"
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) August 8, 2012

From Opposing Views

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently toured a cornfield in Des Moines, Iowa, to see the effects of the Midwest drought.
Romney's guide was corn and soybean farmer LeMar Koethe, who wants the government to stay out of farming, except for the multimillion dollar farm bill, which includes subsidies for farmers.
Koethe told the Des Moines Register: “The people know what to do on their own. Just let them do it.”
Koethe did not say exactly how the government was preventing people from farming.
The Des Moines Register reports that Koethe owns 54 farms and EWG Farm Subsidies reports that Koethe received $133,000 in subsidies from 1995-2001.

Old Mitt-Donald Visits A Farm by Vita Brevis on Daily Kos

Farmer's full of dough.
So Mittens, in another attempt to prove his regular Joe bona-fides, decides to visit an Iowa farm. With so many farmers suffering from this year's drought ( that of course isn't caused by any global climate change) RMoney had to show that he cares. They installed a brand new empathy chip just for the occasion.
Of course, Romney being Romney couldn't visit just any old farm.
Romney Visits Iowa "Farmer" Who Is Also A Millionaire Real Estate Mogul With A Spaceship House And Personal Car Wash

Iowa Farmer's Spaceship House ~ Not Exactly American Gothic

But really, Romney? Out of the hundreds of thousands of farmers being impacted by the drought — many of them family farmers struggling to keep their heads above water — you had to meet the millionaire real estate mogul who lives in a spaceship house with an underground car wash and recreation center?
~ Think Progress

. . . to Romney, and apparently to his clueless advisers, Lemar Koethe probably rates as a typical farmer. And getting out there in his khakis between the stunted rows of corn probably convinced him he was getting the real story about just how hard some Americans have it.
~ Meteor Blades on Daily Kos

Oh come on . . . What real farmer doesn't have a jacuzzi in every room, a latte maker in each barn, and a full time horse braiding staff? /snark
~ comment by kovie on Daily Kos

Romney needs a clue-by-four upside his head
~ comment by Senor Unoball on Daily Kos

Just add his farm photo op to the myriad of other botched attempts to look normal. Just think "Hardware Store, Grocery Store, Nascar, Laundry (in Mom jeans), etc., etc. and another etc. for for future photo ops beginning tomorrow.
~ comment by pamelabrown on Daily Kos

Farm Stuff!
~ comment by Orange County Liberal on Daily Kos

Mitt Romney took what seems like a gratuitous walk through an Iowa corn field today.
~ New York Magazine

Speaking at the local Children of the Corn chapter, I presume.
~ comment by TallRobert in New York Magazine

field of schemes
~ comment by SoSoNice in New York Magazine

"Hmmm, so when plants don't receive dihydrogen monoxide they die. Just like huma...just like me...and you...like us people."
-M Romney
~ "Editor's Choice" comment by Mingusahum in New York Magazine

He owns 54 Iowa farms at an average size of 160 acres, that is 8,640 acres * $10,000/acre= $86.4 Million dollars of farmland. The guy is pretty wealthy!!!!!!!!!!!
~ comment by Richard W. in the Des Moines Register

Romney has no references to agriculture or farming on his campaign website, has no mention of the farm bill in his 59-point plan for jobs and economic growth and is opposing the wind production tax credit. During the Iowa caucuses, he refused to take a position on the farm bill, and he said himself in Council Bluffs that he doesn’t know a lot about agriculture, specifically corn.
~ Obama Spokesperson, Erin Seidler,in the Des Moines Register

#NextDemocratCampaignAdEver since Romney secured the nomination.. parts of the US have been in a drought? Conincidence? Dead corn= Romney
— Bitterly Clinging(@hoosierclinger) August 10, 2012

\

Here's a photo of Mitt Romney wading through a corn field. Caption it! huff.to/PH0h1K #RomneyPhotoCaptions
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) August 9, 2012

"Just the right height!" MT @huffpostpol: Mitt Romney wading through a corn field. Caption it! huff.to/PH0h1K #RomneyPhotoCaptions
— Brian Stewart (@brianstewart) August 9, 2012

"This is some very tall 'green stuff' you have here," says presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney (PHOTO) huff.to/RCVxk2 via @huffpostpol
— TrueBlue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) August 9, 2012

huff.to/RCVIfm #romneyphotocaptions "I know those tax returns are around here somewhere..."
— CarpeNutella (@CarpeNutella) August 9, 2012

I know about corn my friends. #RomneyPhotoCaptions
— Marcus Aurelius (@Trigga_Trey) August 9, 2012

Mitt Romney is beating Barack Obama by 1 jar of corn at the Iowa State Fair: facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…
— Joe Brooks (@joebrooks) August 9, 2012

"Friends, Mormons, countrymen, lend me your ears." #RomneyPhotoCaptions @huffpostpol huff.to/PH0h1K
— Linda (@TheLastLinda) August 9, 2012

RT @bagnewsnotes: Romney looks as if he'd never seen a corn knob in his whole life. bit.ly/N6rbpw
— Ricardo Acuna (@drakezhard) August 9, 2012