In a Washington Times post about Republicans’ “deep bench” for 2016 Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, named off “some 26 potential candidates” for the GOP nomination. Now we at ATD have pointed out before how Conservatives exist in an alternate universe, detached from reality; and Mr. Kristol’s list is a perfect example of that disconnect:
While Kristol was diplomatic enough to alphabetize his names but for a few afterthoughts, I’m going to count backwards from crazy. In this first post, I’ll highlight a few of his most ludicrous suggestions (all emphases are mine):
John Bolton, Various government positions in Reagan, and both Bush administrations; State Department’s chief “diplomat” on arms control under George W. Bush
A writer at Fire Dog Lake referred to Bolton as:
… so nutty, hateful, and stupid that even the Republican-controlled Senate Bush enjoyed from 2003 to 2007 refused, twice, to confirm him as our United Nations ambassador (and the second time came after he’d had the gig for over a year due to a recess appointment).
21st Century Wire offers some “highlights” from Bolton’s career:
… refused to provide information, including his personal notes regarding the Iran-Contra scandal, and aided congressional Republicans who attempted to stop investigations of Contra drug smuggling.
…submitted pro-Taiwan testimony to Congress in the 1990s without revealing he was a paid consultant to Taiwan.
…one of the original signatories to the pro-war lobbyist ‘think tank’ founded in 1997, known as Project for a New American Century (PNAC) … PNAC stated in its mission statement that it would seek out wars in order to prove that US could fight and win on multiple fronts simultaneously, “To fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars…
According to Right Web,
…in 2009, Bolton suggested … that Israel should consider a nuclear strike against Iran, and in 2014, Bolton called the Syrian civil war a “strategic sideshow” and wrote that the United States should instead be preparing for war with Iran.
Not surprisingly, if you check out John Bolton On the Issues, you’ll find just two areas where his policy ideas are detailed: Foreign Policy and Homeland Security. The biggest albatross around Bolton’s neck besides his own personality, is his close ties to Bush and Cheney… that, and he LOVES war.
Carly Fiorina Former HP executive, unsuccessful candidate in 2010 against California Sen. Barbara Boxer
Fiorina’s leadership at HP was summed up in a 2008 Entrepreneur article this way:
Her record at the company was, according to Michael S. Malone, the biographer of H.P.’s founders, “a catastrophe.” The stock price dropped about 50 percent during her tenure. In 2005, the board unceremoniously dumped her… H.P.’s stock soared the day she left.
Also in 2008, Business Pundit wrote:
… she sullied her image by exalting herself without regard to her employees’ reactions.
Buying a personal jet in front of a distrustful and alienated workforce is one example. Freezing employee salaries while giving herself and her executive ilk bonuses is another. Doing these things in light of nearly 18,000 employee dismissals (2003) is just plain callous.
Perhaps more important than her lackluster tenure at HP is the fact that she stiffed her campaign staff and others she did business with after her unsuccessful attempt to win a California Senate seat in 2010. From American Spectator:
Fiorina is running for the White House when, according to federal election reports, her 2010 campaign still owes $486,418 to creditors.
… Fiorina skipped California owing buckets of cash to her onetime pals. She owes $60,000 to former campaign manager Marty Wilson… and another $20,000 to his former communications firm.
She shorted campaign counsel Ben Ginsberg, formerly of Patton Boggs, to the tune of $44,000. She owes $3,750 to a former press secretary, $5,000 to another communications aide, and $7,500 to her erstwhile political director. She stiffed political consultant Joe Shumate, who died in 2010, to the tune of $30,000…
… according to her campaign report, Fiorina paid back to herself $1 million of the $6.8 million she had lent her campaign on the day before the election. (After the election, win or lose, a candidate cannot get back most loan money.) If Fiorina had not repaid herself that $1 mil, her campaign coffers would have had enough money to discharge all of the campaign’s debts.
In other words pay the people who worked for her. David Corn at Mother Jones writes:
Workers and shareholders did not prosper during her reign, but Fiorina made millions, got a book deal, and now is a top PowerPointer for a presidential candidate. She’s a real American success story—for corporate Republicans.
Speaking in defense of off-shoring jobs in 2004, Fiorina declared (my emphasis):
“there is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore”
That includes 1% grifters running for President, Ms. Fiorina; just ask Mitt Romney
Dick Cheney
I’m not sure there are words to describe the absurdity of this guy’s name making the list. In 2011, when Cheney’s memoir was released, of the Atlantic wrote a pointed article on the former Vice President’s true legacy titled: “Remembering Why Americans Loathe Dick Cheney” For those who do, as well as those who don’t know much about Cheney, it’s worth revisiting the career of the man many now refer to as a “war criminal”.