Battle Royale: The CNBC GOP Presidential Debate

Tonight as the GOP presidential candidates converge at the University of Colorado-Boulder to debate the nation’s economy the stage has been set for far more than just a debate.  It’s going to be a battle royale.

John Kasich is fed up.  “I’ve about had it with these people.  I’m sick and tired of listening to this nonsense and I’m going to have to call like it is in this race…I’m done being polite,” he said.

A few days ago Donald Trump insisted on taking credit for a business move made by Ford Motor Company that he had absolutely nothing to do with and was decided on nearly four years ago.  Kasich pushed back tweeting, “Together Ohio brought Ford back from Mexico.”  Ford spokeswoman Kristina Adaminski flatly refuted Trump’s claim.

Kasich and the Ohio legislature have been working hard to stop the migration of automobile manufacturers from his state to Mexico and are trying to prevent a move by General Motors.  Trump stopped tweeting and talking about Ford immediately.

Marco Rubio has raised the ire of Floridians for having missed more votes than any other senator this year.  His seat is “regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings.”  He has said in veiled words that he hates his job as senator.  One editorial in the Sun Sentinel suggested, “If you hate your job Senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign.”

And Jeb is a miserable guy citing the yuuuuuge amount of aggravation he never signed up for in this election cycle saying, “I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could be doing instead of being miserable listening to people demonize me.” I’d bet the farm that Jeb regretted saying that the moment the words left his whiny little lips.

Miss Lindsey confessed his wonderment earlier in the week:  “On our side, you’ve got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?”

Lindsey Graham was also the first celebrity bartender for CNN’s Politics On Tap pouring beers and playing the “Fuck, Marry, Kill” party game with Dana Bash who gave Graham three choices:  Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina, and Sarah Palin.

"Sarah Palin—we'll go hunting on our first date," he said. Next was "marry," an easy joke set-up. "Carly, because she's rich," said Graham.  When Bash pressed, and asked Graham if he would erase the existence of Hillary Clinton, he was ready with the punch line.

"No, but is she rich? She said she was flat broke."

The debate will be broadcast live on CNBC, CNBC.com and in the CNBC apps.  The moderators are Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood.

“This Story Shall The Good Man Teach His Son”

Everyone was talking last week about Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster.  I praised Sen. Paul for challenging a president we don’t trust on his drone policy.

In a Washington Post Op-Ed Paul wrote, “The Senate has the power to restrain the executive branch—and my filibuster was the beginning of the fight to restore a healthy balance of powers. The president still needs to definitively say that the United States will not kill American noncombatants. The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment applies to all Americans; there are no exceptions.”

This president has relentlessly whittled away at the will and spirit of Americans.  As Sen. Paul spoke in the well of the Senate he was unaware that an explosion of support was building.

Thank you to my colleagues in the House & Senate, and to all the Americans who stood w/ me tonight in support of preserving civil liberties.
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 7, 2013

I was reminded of the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Act IV, Scene III of William Shakespeare’s Henry V.  The English army, led by the young King Henry V, is hopelessly outnumbered by the French forces at Agincourt.  The battle comes near the end of the Hundred Years War.  They do not expect to survive the day.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Just a few blocks away from the White House, at the pricey Jefferson Hotel, Republicans Lindsey Graham, Tom Coburn, John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey, Bob Corker, Ron Johnson, Saxby Chambliss, John Hoeven, Dan Coats, Richard Burr and Mike Johanns joined our perfumed potentate to sup on high-dollar grub like Kalamansi Caviar, Lobster Thermidor, Maryland Blue Crab Risotto, Golden Beet Soup with Quail Egg and Filet of Prime Beef with Truffled Potato Mousseline.

McCain, who now loves power and the copious rewards which power confers upon him, once loved liberty.  McCain has been a colossal disappointment for many years and now he’s beclowned himself for criticizing Senator Paul’s filibuster.

Well, Senator McCain my friend, Paul’s filibuster got him the answer he was seeking from a stubborn regime that could have answered his question months ago.

Obama and Holder’s ultimate admission that he lacks such authority vindicates the notion that one senator can, in fact, make a difference.

The increased use of executive powers by this president is a threat to liberty.  Congress can halt this imperial presidency by exercising its constitutional powers.  Paul said his filibuster was the beginning of the fight to restore a healthy balance of powers.

John McCain is a pompous, tired, old warhorse.  I thank him for his service, but urge him to stand down.  He is part and parcel of what is wrong with a very broken Washington.  The increasingly irrelevant Lindsey Graham and young, rising Republican Kelly Ayotte are being led around by their noses by McCain. 

You don’t have to agree with Rand Paul’s wariness of American military interventionism to recognize the shift in politics his filibuster has heralded.  It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination is see that Americans ache for a restoration of checks and balances on this regime.

For the record, I am not a Paultard, but I applaud the way he set Washington on its ear.