In their campaign against Sestak, Kristol and his ilk may get a bit of help from some milbloggers, like this ex-Navy dude – his Sestak-tagged posts are here.

FWIW, Sestak apparently didn’t leave Navy as a favorite of his superiors – although he made it to Vice-Admiral (3-star), he retired as a 2-star (Rear-Admiral). Such a reduction-in-rank upon retirement is something one doesn’t see that often in those rarefied higher ranks.

The optimum personality requirements for a Flag Officer and a Senator differ somewhat – e.g., even senior Admirals are answerable to someone, while it’s been said that the Senate is comprised of approximately 100 people who think THEY should be President – so the manner of Sestak’s departure from Navy ain’t necessarily a big thing, and in fact may have been appropriate, if his head became too large for military work.

However, doesn’t mean Camp Wingnut won’t try to blow it up into something they can market as being significant. The manner by which Faux Nooz covers Sestak later in the campaign will be a significant tell, methinks, if they decide to throw this bit of history into the hopper.

Also, too, glad to see you’re introducing animated .gif’s. I eagerly await stop-action bassett .gif’s!

In honor(?) of Mr. Kristol, here’s a bit of history already known to long time intertube readers, but always worth repeating. It’s an account of how William Kristol made his preparations and entrance into Washington’s Halls of Power – with father Irving’s frequent assistance – as told back in the late 90s (excerpt is from a 28Jan2009 op-ed by Paul Campos in Rocky Mountain News – whole thing is worth a read IMO):

…Ira Katznelson, an eminent political scientist at Columbia, came to deliver a guest lecture. Prof. Katznelson described a lunch he had with Irving Kristol during the first Bush administration.

“The talk turned to William Kristol, then Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, and how he got his start in politics. Irving recalled how he talked to his friend Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, who secured William a place there as both an undergrad and graduate student; how he talked to Pat Moynihan, then Nixon’s domestic policy adviser, and got William an internship at the White House; how he talked to friends at the RNC [Republican National Committee] and secured a job for William after he got his Harvard Ph.D.; and how he arranged with still more friends for William to teach at Penn and the Kennedy School of Government.

“With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. ‘I oppose it,’ Irving replied. ‘It subverts meritocracy.’ ”

In the other site where I recently posted this, another commenter told me the Katznelson was the author of a book, When Affirmative Action Was White, in case you’re like me, and wondered why the topic would have even come up. [Hmm, wonder if Katznelson worked the Kristols into his book; they would certainly seem to represent a good case study for such a tome.]

HTF did Kristol get a PhD from anywhere? That said, the net dif among Sestak, Specter and the third republiKKKan could be covered by a dime, probably AIPAC’s. Pennsylvania getting the shitty end of the stick AGAIN, but we keep electing these jerkoffs, so it’s on us in the first instance.

“We’re the pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community,” said Kristol.

Who did they assign the anti-Israel wing? Or is this not a script for a good cop/bad cop flick?

The “third repubilKKKan” in the PA senate race is Pat Toomey. And he’s a total right-wing whackjob. Think “Glen Beck, minus 20 IQ points”.

Sestak isn’t perfect, but you can do far, far worse.

Lotsa wingnut GOP officeholders owe their jobs to the Club for Growth (not a male enhancement project) which Pat Toomey headed up after he was retired as a PA Congresscritter, so they’ll likely come out of the woodwork for him. This AIPAC salvo is likely only the beginning.

…and conservative Evangelical Christians who have become increasingly outspoken in their support for Israel.

Yeah, because these a-holes are trying to provoke the end times so they can meet their maker. Unfortunately, He will be slightly annoyed that they misconstrued His message.

The founder of the Club for Growth was Stephen Moore, who also headed up the thing from its 1999 inception until 2004, when Pat Toomey took over. Moore is now on the WSJ editorial board.

Yesterday David Dayen linked to a Think Progress Wonkroom post which noted the following:

Last night on CNBC, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Stephen Moore took this one step further, saying that he can’t “see the sense” of allowing cuts for the rich to expire, and then advocating that taxes be raised on the poorest Americans in order to finance tax cuts for the rich and corporations:

“I just don’t see the sense of this. In fact, if I could have my ‘druthers, I’d raise the ten percent tax rate to fifteen percent and lower the [top] rates…Let’s bring the [corporate] rate down.”

If Sestak doesn’t fashion this into a club and beat Toomey to death with it, Sestak doesn’t deserve to win. Outside of the gated communities of the wealthy in Pennsylvania, along with a handful of profoundly headstrong Tea Party zombies, ain’t no way this viewpoint would go over well with most voters there. Too many of them are in financial crisis themselves to appreciate having their taxes jacked up to comfort the comfortable.

Let Toomey be faced with deciding between repudiating his ol’ buddy, or tap dancing his way out of this minefield.

Actually, the “reduction in rank” upon retirement is normal if you don’t have the time-in-grade at the rank to which you were promoted. Obama let McChrystal retire as a three-star as a special incentive to get him out. But yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if the highly-politicized ultra-conservative Pentagon posse doesn’t like Sestak one bit.

Yeah. We should trust Ledeen Doctrine Likudniks who got hornswoggled by Ahmad Chalabi why?

Oh, and I notice we don’t have the usual suspects running over here to scream “anti-Semite!” at TBogg because he doesn’t back the Ledeen Doctrine. Guess they know who they shouldn’t even bother with trying to bully.

Speaking of clubs to beat Toomey with, why not just have Sestak come out and ask Toomey if he knows that the evangelical support comes from people who want Israel to get their Armageddon on?

Ur talking about a guy who liked FISA and telecom immunity who also doesn’t like unions. Same same.

Sestak probably won’t advance the armagedonists’ cause; Toomy is guaranteed to. That’s a difference that will certainly impact my need to buy SPF 1,000 sunblock at some point in the future.

Let’s see

Sestak has six letters in his last name and you know who else had six letters in his last name?

Hitler that’s who.

So Joe likes Israel, he just doesn’t love Israel because he doesn’t understand the dynamic that makes Israel America’s BFF. That is; America gives money to Israel and Israel, in turn, gladly takes it.

Almost perfect metaphor, but said dead beat relative would also need to drive his car through your neighbor’s living room after taking your money. Now the neighbor lets his dog shit on your lawn, and calls the cops everytime you turn the music up over “2″. So not only are you out 100 gazillion dollars, buy everybody hates you.

mmmmmm Scrapple

Also, loved this tidbit from the Politico link:

Meantime, our colleague Ken Vogel reported yesterday that Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC has paid Kristol’s Weekly Standard colleague Michael Goldfarb and former McCain campaign foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann of Orion Strategies $90,000 since July 2009 to advise her on foreign policy

Michael Goldfarb? What, Ronnie or the Situation from Jersey Shore weren’t available?

So did Gandhi…

I rest my case.

Sooo, the choice is between a union-hatin’, Fourth Amendment hatin’, staff abusin’ sociopath, and a Sugar Daddy-supported psychopath with ‘roid rage runnin’ around the countryside with a chainsaw terrorizing the poor folk. Um, ok:

Go Sociopath, yay.

{does a couple dispirited waves with pom-poms, shuffled off to find a drink}

Man, I’m glad your back T.
I was about to google your home and bring the Goldbergs over for dinner.
I was snark-starved.
I am sick of this Israel is the only way. They murder at will and play every US President as a jerk-off with those fucking settlements.

Can’t we start a T-Party over there?
And where is my Palin-Johnston snark? Don’t tease me, Bro!