When Ideologues Write the Budget

North Carolina is in some serious stew because the budget the new Republican leadership in the NC General Assembly wrote bears little relation to reality. Among other problems that were emerging into public light by Wednesday of this week, most resulted from Raleigh lawmakers trying to impose cuts to programs like Medicaid, cuts that violated federal rules or were simply not feasible, but the Republicans nevertheless projected those cuts into the new budget as "savings." According to deputy Health and Human Services secretary Michael Watson, the state's Medicaid program is currently $139 million short on cash for the year.

Republican leaders got mad when they heard the news, Speaker of the House Thom Tillis did his now-standard "nobody informed us that there could be problems" routine, and they immediately took to blaming the governor, who for her part had vetoed the budget and warned the Clown College that they were violating several federal rules.

Laura Leslie cited "senior sources in the administration" who recalled the
"unrealistic expectations by GOP budget writers" from earlier in the year. "They say warnings from experienced executive budget staffers fell on deaf ears among new leaders" in the General Assembly.

The chickens of make-believe math are coming home to roost in that Republican forest of blind ideology.

The Blind Brunette

Ruling class shill Erin Burnett, late of CNBC and now of CNN, beheld 10,000 protesters on Wall Street holding up signs denouncing corporate greed and the manipulation of government, and she delivered herself of the opinion that the protest has no message.

"What can they possibly want?" queried the puzzled Ms. Burnett, echoing another 1,000 cable news and mainstream pundits who knoweth not. Because, evidently, they can't read and also possibly because they serve the very Mammon against which this uprising has posed itself.

The message of Occupy Everywhere could not be clearer. The protesters, from Wall Street to Boone, want accountability from the banks that took all our money. (The CEO of the Bank of America just got pissed about all this and said, in so many words, that we'd better start talking nicer about him and his institution. Or else!)

The uprising wants an end to the corporate control of government, and that goes doubly for Mr. Obama's cozying up so quickly with Wall Street, told nowhere more clearly than in his complete cave on affordable health insurance for everyone.

The uprising wants an educational system that gives all our citizens the tools and the opportunity for rewarded work, without in the meantime running up a loan debt that smothers hope and enslaves new college graduates to years of debt peonage.

Erin Burnett is paid a handsome corporate salary to be obtuse to the obvious: she cannot see what is plain to everyone else, that the filthy rich are getting far filthier in their wealth while the other 99% are struggling to eat, keep the car running, pay for their kid's braces. But if Ms. Burnett is wondrously obtuse, she's also becoming -- along with the rest of the yammering classes on cable news -- wondrously (and finally!) irrelevant to what's really happening here.

If Only It Were True!

Reading a paragraph like the one below, we can only sigh with potential relief at the prospect that the Clown College in Raleigh simply can't think of any more damage they might do, come November, having already crippled public education, singled out gay people for constitutional discrimination, attracted the interest of the Federal judiciary for denying freedom of speech to pregnant women, and attempted to disenfranchise college students and black citizens. We do not, however, believe anything much that the Republican leadership down there claims.

WRAL reported late yesterday afternoon:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican leaders at the North Carolina General Assembly don't expect they'll do much when lawmakers next gather officially in Raleigh....

Well, we can always HOPE.

Sen. Dick Burr, Out to Lunch

At West Henderson High School yesterday, Sen. Dick Burr suggested (on the one hand) that the Occupy Wall Street protesters were paid agitators but (on the other hand) that they didn't know what they were protesting.

Memo to Sen. Burr: This is what they're protesting.

Yup

Marine Corps. Sgt. Shamar Thomas vs. A Bunch of Cops

Sometimes the voice of one man can actually turn a tide.

Buh-Bye, Mr. Herman Cain

What's a political gaffe? When a candidate accidentally tells the truth.

Herman Cain, last Thursday on Piers Morgan's show on CNN

[Abortion] comes down to, it’s not the government’s role, or anybody else’s role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidence, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family, and whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.

That's actually a conservative opinion, though not the conservative dogma of the day, which wants Big Ole Daddy government intruding into every private matter that involves a fertile woman.

Q for Jordan & Soucek: Where Are the Jobs You Promised?

The North Carolina Employment Security Commission reported that state unemployment rose in September from 10.4 percent to 10.5 percent.

All those laid-off teachers, teaching assistants, justice system workers, and other public employees COULD NOT have contributed to that rising unemployment rate, or else the Republican honchos in the Raleigh Clown College were just lying to us!

It's MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to target gay citizens for official discrimination in our state's constitution, eh, boys?

McCrory: Occupy America Has No Right To Public Property!

Pat McCrory, The Man Who Would Be Governor, has decided he needs to scold the city governments of Charlotte and Raleigh for "allowing" Wall Street protestors to occupy public property in those cities.

"Throw the bums out!" McCrory cries, doing his best impression of Aunt Pittypat.

Grappling for a logical reason to back up his "OhMyGawdPeopleAreRisingUp" disdain for public protest that doesn't reflect HIS views, McCrory naturally hits on "they're dirty," which is where the unimaginative always go first, and then McCrory gets a bright idea: he's really against these protests because of the danger this will mean when the Democrats come to Charlotte in 2012 for their National Convention.

Really? BWAAAA-ha-ha-ha!

[A pause while we wipe the tears of merriment from our eyes.]

Thanks, Mr. McCrory, for your touching concern for our safety, but we'll take our chances with the Great Unwashed who actually want a say in how government at every level makes its decisions.

The Colbert Report
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It does take some quite-change ventriloquism to adequately capture the Herman Cain Philosophy! Might we call it The Herman Cain (Self) Mutiny?

Fantasy Football

Some dude named Michael Steinberg sez he's gonna "radically transform Washington" by running against Congresswoman Sue Myrick in the Republican primaries of 2012, apparently because she's waaay too establishment and not nearly Tea Party-ish enough.

Can't find any trace of Michael Steinberg yet in the form of a web, Facebook, or Twitter presence, though there are other "Michael Steinbergs" in other states who have been active in politics.

Heavenly Mountain To Be Heavenly Again

The manifest fishiness about the high bidder on the former Heavenly Mountain property has blossomed into full-scale failure to complete the sale. According to Steve Frank, the property's going to be a Vedic meditation center ... again.

The Insurance Octopus Has Watauga in Its Tentacles

At its September 19th meeting, the Watauga County Commission voted to change its health insurance benefit for over 200 county workers to a “Health Savings Account,” which carries with it a whopping $2,500 deductible for each employee, almost three times the burden that they’ve had to meet in the past. The new arrangement is set to go into effect in January 2012 and is the direct result of rising insurance premiums imposed by an insurance industry notorious for gouging profit and so obviously rushing to "beat" what small reforms were enacted last year.

At tonight’s Commission meeting, a group of county employees spoke out and pushed back against the significant impact on their lives that this change in health-care coverage will bring. One woman described the fix she’ll be in: she has a genetic heart problem requiring heart medicine prescriptions that run $470 a month. “I simply don’t make enough to afford that.” She would, she said, willingly drop the county plan to get on her husband’s health insurance, but the county won’t let her opt out. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked.

Another employee read the following statement, and from the applause that followed, she seemed to speak for every county employee in the audience:

I am speaking tonight as an employee and citizen of Watauga County in response to the recent change to the county’s health care plan. These are my views and should not reflect the department I work in. The following are questions you can’t answer in this meeting but are questions for you to think about that your employees are asking. I don’t know if it is too late to change your previous rulings or even if you care to do so. What I do know is my parents taught me if you don’t tell someone you think they are doing wrong, then how do you expect them to know there is a problem? I understand other employees will not speak for fear of losing their jobs. I do not let that fear deter me.

I found a statement in the September 22nd edition of the Watauga Democrat that stated the county began investigation in March of this year for alternatives for health insurance. Why were employees not notified then and why was a committee not organized to explore options? I realize county administration handles this situation, but other employees could have provided additional perspectives. The fact that the vast majority of employees were not told of this plan until after it was passed and had to learn via the local newspaper is just plain rude to loyal employees, especially those who have worked here for so many years! ...

Here the employee addressed the 3% cost-of-living increase that county employees received in the new county budget, following four years of no raises at all. Might you not have warned us, the employee asked, that the 3% raise was going to come with such big strings attached in the form of this huge change to health insurance? If we had known this was coming, some of us would have opted for a 2% salary increase, and we would have suggested that the other 1% be set aside to offset these new insurance costs. The employee also questioned the county’s fund balance of $25 million and why some of that couldn’t be used to lessen the hardship on employees.

The county worker continued:

Negative effects I see from your decision are as follows:

Overall morale -- employees have dealt with no raises for 4 years now, even though the cost of living has skyrocketed. We have done so because our benefits made the difference, which is no longer a true statement.

Productivity decrease -- employees will stay home when they are sick now instead of visiting a doctor, because they don’t have the money to pay for it. The extra work load will burden and further tax employees mentally and physically.

Is the cost of a life worth the savings? Many people (including myself) are looking at how to pay that $1,500-$4,000 dollars. I would venture that several employees’ spouses are out of work due to the economy, and you’re asking employees to decide something I don’t believe our current commissioners or manager have had to ask. That question is: do I take food away from my child to pay for health care that I myself can’t do without? Most parents will feed their kids, so that can leave an employee’s life very much shortened!

The employee’s conclusion:

Your choice [to change so drastically the health insurance benefits of county employees] will effect up to 15% of the voting population of Watauga County. I do not understand why more thought, team work and outside committee options weren’t given to those this hurts the worst: the employees. I hope it is not too late to change this.

I hope so too. It's as though the entire national health-care crisis suddenly detonated directly over the heads of Watauga's public workers.

Damn dirty hippies and/or literate, well informed members of the commonweal.

Hattip @bullydoc

Foxx Hearts Romney

Virginia Foxx has endorsed "a French-speaking Mormon vulture capitalist named Willard, who used to support abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and combating climate change, and who distanced himself from Reagan, attended Planned Parenthood fundraisers, and helped create the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act."

She's establishment all the way.

Small Minds and Big Movements

Hattip to Ed Cone for pointing us to this Eliot Spitzer essay, "Occupy Wall Street Has Already Won"

Beyond haha lookit the hippies:

"Suddenly, the issues of equity, fairness, justice, income distribution, and accountability for the economic cataclysm – issues all but ignored for a generation — are front and center. We have moved beyond the one-dimensional conversation about how much and where to cut the deficit. Questions more central to the social fabric of our nation have returned to the heart of the political debate. By forcing this new discussion, OWS has made most of the other participants in our politics — who either didn’t want to have this conversation or weren’t able to make it happen — look pretty small."

The smallest of those minds have fallen back on two ancient memes for expressing disdain for the Occupy Movement: (1) the protestors are "dirty," in as many senses as you can imagine; and (2) they're "Marxists" (which, come to think of it, is intended as a form of dirtiness).

To alienate oneself from a perceived enemy on the basis of cleanliness is at heart a racist instinct. And to label those seeking economic equity as "Marxist" is a throwback to the "red-baiting" of the 1950s and guilt by association. I very much doubt that you could find one in a thousand of the protestors all across this country who've ever read a single paragraph of Karl Marx (1818-1883), but who can tell a hawk from a handsaw ... in these days of concentrated wealth and concentrated political power that comes from being able to buy politicians.

Attempting to make the political enlightenment of 2011 untouchable and unholy by labeling it with primitive and crude terms from past centuries will not turn this tide.

The Man with the Power to Convert His Personal Prejudices into Law

Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House, Thom Tillis.

We're calling him "Thunderdome Tillis" for his apparent relish at pitting single mothers against the disabled in a virtual steel-cage match to grapple for the crumbs that his Clown College of Republican law-makers in Raleigh leave the poor -- once they've made life as cushy as possible for corporations.

To recap, Tillis made his "let's find a way to divide and conquer people on welfare" statement at Mars Hill College last Friday.

Backpedaling furiously since then, but mainly just repeating "humanah humanah humanah" (as Rob Scholfield characterized Tillis's sputtering this week), Tillis has now drawn a sharp editorial in The Southern Pines

Pilot, which begins this way:

It's getting downright embarrassing to have Thom Tillis occupying the exalted post of speaker of the N.C. House. There's problem enough when an everyday Joe - or even a state legislator - says some of the insensitive kinds of things Tillis has said lately. But when he is in a position that gives him the power to get some of his private prejudices converted into public law, it gets a little scary....

Maybe Tillis is embarrassed to be caught exhibiting the human fellow-feeling of Vlad the Impaler. But frankly, we're not sure that he, let alone his Republican co-conspirators in the NC General Assembly, is capable of being embarrassed.

Two Marines at Occupy Wall Street

The Way NC Republicans Treat Women

For all their high-'n'-mighty superior morality, the Republicans in the NC General Assembly obviously enjoy screwing women.

Gene Nichol, a law professor at UNC, explains some of the provisions in the state's new anti-

abortion law:

...Our new abortion statute requires that, at least four hours prior to the procedure, a "real-time ultrasound" must be performed on the pregnant woman. The "image" must be displayed "in the (patient's) line of vision." Concurrently, her doctor is compelled, under threat of sanction, to provide a detailed, legislatively prescribed narrative "of what the display depicts."

If the pregnant woman objects, the physician is required to proceed with the government-mandated instruction. Thankfully perhaps, the law doesn't demand that the patient be restrained from closing her eyes or covering her ears. But if she chooses to do so, her doctor, against his own preference and considered medical determination, must continue to show the images and repeat the state's command.

Big government run amok. The "nanny state" on steroids. A thorough-going distrust of women and paternalistic attitude toward their freedom ... written into state law.

Thom Tillis Plays Tina Turner

Video has emerged of Republican Speaker of the NC House Thom Tillis, speaking in Madison County last Friday and calling for a virtual steel-cage match between single mothers in our state and the disabled. Best way to shrink the budget, apparently, is to "divide and conquer" (Tillis' words) the poor and the infirm.

Was Tillis displaying, quite unintentionally, his Republican "brand"?

You betcha.

The sense of naked entitlement Mr. Tillis exhibited is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette. Tillis evidently regards the poor and the infirm as his pawns, to be moved about in conflict with other pawns. No, it's more like Jonathan Swift's deadpan solution for "the Irish problem." "Let's eat the poor!"

Only difference is that Tillis can't resist playing with his food.

Control of Wake School Board Hangs on 50 Votes

Although the leader of the Republicans who took control of the Wake County School Board in 2009, Ron Margiotta, was defeated last night, control of the Board hangs on another race between incumbent Democrat Kevin Hill and challenger, Republican Heather Losurdo. Hill came within 50 votes of winning the necessary 50% outright, leading three other candidates. Losurdo has apparently made noise already that she wants a run-off. Whatever. It's highly unlikely she could win it, even with the sacks of money that Art Pope might dump in on her behalf.

The brakes have been applied by the voters to the wholesale dismantling of a model desegregation plan in public education in North Carolina.

Interesting Night

First, the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire ... free-lance grading of the various performances are flying on Twitter:

RT @LarrySabato: This prof's grades: Romney A, Cain A, Gingrich A-, Santorum A-, Bachmann B+, Paul B, Huntsman C-, Perry D+

Vs. the grading done by FiveThirtyEight:

My debate grades FWIW: Romney B+, Cain B, Huntsman B-, Gingrich B-, Bachmann C+, Paul C+, Santorum C, Perry C

FWIW indeed.

Meanwhile, in Wake County, 'pears that Republican/Tea Party forces were beaten back, particularly with the loss of Ron Margiotta, chair of the Wake School Board who had been the leader for dismantling "diversity." Ouch.

We'll do a recap of municipal elections tomorrow, when we can see straight.

Panic of the Plutocrats, Indeed!

"The way to understand [Occupy Wall Street and the angry reaction to it on the Right] is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is." --Paul Krugman, in the New York Times yesterday

And poor Geraldo Rivera and Fox News (speaking of rigging the system).

What Fear Sounds Like

"It's really important for us not to give any legitimacy to these people in the streets. I remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets, and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can't allow that to happen." -- Congressman Peter King (R), on the Laura Ingraham radio show, Oct. 7, 2011

Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment a "Political Decision"

Former Republican NC Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr admits that the decision to ram through a gay marriage amendment to the NC Constitution was purely a "political decision."

Big "duh" there. Eh, Dan Soucek?

She Loves Jesus and Has a Gun Named "Bessie Mae"

She also plans to give presumptive Heir to Power Pat McCrory a Republican primary for governor of NC. At least, we think so.

Evidently, and it seems fairly undeniable, she's running for governor. Maybe as a Republican, but that's not 100%. Maybe as a complete independent, judging from some of her statements about "politicians." (To wit: "I am sick and tired of politicians who claim to support me, but who are only looking to line their own pockets." Can't for the life of me disagree with that!) She has a website (featuring "Bessie Mae") and a Facebook page.

What's somewhat curious is that her website heralds her "Plank #2. Leave Our Guns Alone." But where's Plank #1? Perhaps it's her thorough, eternal love for "Bessie Mae"?

Dunno. But we look forward to developments.

Thanks for That Clarification

"WE ARE THE 1%" reads the sign posted in the windows of the Chicago Board of Trade ... in response to Occupy Chicago, a ripple (one of hundreds of ripples across the country) emanating from Occupy Wall Street.

Well, you didn't expect the fat cats to walk humbly among the people, did you?

Meanwhile, NC Senator Kay Hagan has signed on to legislation (with John McCain) to ... wait for it ... slash corporate taxes on giant multi-nationals. We join the Progressive Pulse in being flummoxed. Baffled. Bewildered. Confounded. Discombobulated.

Really, Senator?

The Only National Commentator Who Truly "Gets" Fox News

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They Don't Get It

Occupy Wall Street prompted these prominent Republican politicians (a couple of whom no doubt hold membership cards to the 1%) to say these remarkably dumb things:

Herman Cain (currently leading in the polls in North Carolina among Republicans vying for the presidency): "I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!

Donald Trump: "Nobody knows why they’re protesting...."

Mitt Romney: “I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare....”

For the record, Romney is the current favorite among Wall Street donors.

Still pending: President Obama's apology for cosying up to That Crowd and his recanting of their influence on health insurance reform, among other things.

The 1% Feathering Their Nest in NC

What great timing!

In the midst of the general and widespread uprising against the complete corporate takeover of America, we learn that the wealthiest 1% have already twisted the Republican majority in the NC General Assembly to make it difficult to shut down "abusive corporate tax shelters," and they are apparently working "behind the scenes," where they work best, to absolve corporations of past tax shelter abuses. Some $400,000 in unpaid taxes are hanging in the balance.

Not that any of that money would do a thing to restore some jobs to the school system or to protect the public infrastructure of North Carolina or even to hire more people at DMV offices so that Pat McCrory wouldn't have to stand in line longer than His Eminence thinks necessary.

Big corporations have been saying it for well over 100 years: "We owe the public NOTHING! Not even our unethically hidden tax liability."

This anthem to Occupy Wall Street was reportedly written by Appalachian State University student Jordan Okrend. Performed by him too.

Chickens, Meet Roost

The Republican majority in the NC General Assembly cut school funding by $400,000 million. As a direct result, some 1,853 teachers and teaching assistants lost their jobs. And still, Republicans in the General Assembly deny that the job losses have anything to do with them.

Yesterday in Raleigh, at a meeting of the General Assembly's Education Oversight Committee, Gerrick Brenner, Executive Director of Progress NC, summed up the bald-facedness of the Republican spin:

"They pulled the money and they passed the buck on who's to blame for the cuts to the classroom. They clearly said they were funding K-12 education, and then they asked superintendents to make $400 million in discretionary cuts? That doesn't wash. And you can see what the results are."

And so it goes at the Clown College.

Ending the Corporate Domination of Government

Get Money Out is the newest flower blossoming in this, America's "Tahrir Square Moment."

It's a specific drive to overcome the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United decision. The following language has been put out there for debate, a possible Constitutional amendment:

No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office.

Go to the link above to sign the petition, which has already reached almost 100,000 names in one day.

The Interview That Fox News Did Not Air

Fair and balanced? Not so much, when one of the 99 is this articulate about the real motives of this particular cable news noise machine.

The Reason "Occupy Wall Street" Must Succeed

Art Pope and his ilk now own government at all levels.

Art Pope certainly owns North Carolina. The long-anticipated Jane Mayer profile of Pope, and of the 2010 theft of the NC General Assembly, is finally out in the New Yorker and makes for truly depressing reading.

Not that those of us paying attention here in-state didn't already know most of the details.

Art Pope, the Koch brothers (and there's new news about them too!), and the rest of the wealthiest 1% are shoving their version of greed onto the rest of us 99%. Only a general uprising of The People can turn the tide, and perhaps that's happening now ... in a wave that will end up making the Tea Party nothing but a curious footnote about how Pope and his Peeps managed to hoodwink a small minority of people to their program.

The People are Too Big to Fail!

Word

Seems only appropriate, for the 700 arrested yesterday at the Brooklyn Bridge and the thousands more gathering in cities across this land, demanding our government back from the big money crowd.

ASU Tops at the Solar Decathlon

The ASU "Solar Homestead" entry in the 2011 Solar Decathlon has won the People's Choice Award plus two other prizes.

That's Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu shaking Jeffrey Tiller's hand in D.C. yesterday. Tiller is chair of the Technology and Environmental Design Department at ASU.

We're so proud of Tiller and his team of creative, dedicated students.

OWS Comes to Asheville

Occupy Wall Street has spread to other American cities, including our own mountain nirvana of Asheville.

Over a hundred protestors of the corporate take-over of America first gathered in tiny Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville but was planning to move their camp to Pack Square (pending negotiations with the Asheville PD).

Renee Ellmers Will Vote Against Gay Marriage Amendment

Apparently, a few dozen jaws dropped at Campbell University School of Law last Thursday when Tea Party conservative Renee Ellmers (NC-2) said in answer to a question that she would be voting AGAINST the anti-gay marriage amendment on May 8th.

Whaaa?

"Under the Dome" confirmed that Ellmers had indeed said that she thought the Republican-written amendment was "too broadly drawn."

Maybe this means that Gov. Beverly Perdue can take a stand too? The Guv has been rather noticeably MIA on the issue.

The Tea Party, if it actually believes what it preaches, ought to be deeply, deeply opposed to the discriminatory nature of this Republican/religious attempt to rewrite the state's foundational document. But until Ellmers spoke up at Campbell University, we had not noticed any Tea Partiers taking a stand for other people's freedoms.

Greatest song Stephen Foster ever wrote. The version by Mavis Staples is hard to beat.

Sen. Forrester: "Nothing To See Here. Move Along"

Sen. James Forrester, who apparently decided to be heterosexual at an early age and decided many years ago that he needed constitutional protection from the prospect that gay people might fall in love and marry, has finally talked about his padded resume.

He sez that any errors in it are purely "inadvertent."

He inadvertently claimed that he's a member and "Fellow" of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He isn't.

He inadvertently claimed that he's an associate "fellow" of the Aerospace Medical Association. He isn't.

He inadvertently claimed that he's a member of the American Medical Association. He isn't.

That's a lot of inadvertency.

But Forrester also sez that because it's just homo-sexuals who are pointing out his lies ... it all doesn't matter at all. Not at all.

To which at least one person responded, "Since apparently this makes a difference to Senator Forrester, let me just say that I am a lifelong heterosexual, and I'm questioning his credentials."