Off the bus: Phil Gramm steps down from McCain camp
Just in from the McCain 2008 press office, Phil Gramm has stepped off the bus. Or been pushed off the bus. In any case, he is now thrown under the bus. Too bad it was him and not open-borders zealot Juan Hernandez.
STATEMENT BY SENATOR PHIL GRAMM
For Immediate Release
Contact: Press Office
Friday, July 18, 2008
703-650-5550
ARLINGTON, VA — Today, former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm issued the following statement:
“It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country. That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain’s ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country’s problems, it hurts the country. To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as Co-Chair of the McCain Campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters.”
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- Phil Gramm quits gracefully. Too bad. | The TIW Blog
- What voting RINO gets us | Cold Fury
- Who Is Whining Now? | Politics and Hypocrisy
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Johnny, mah boy, trust me.
Ya got rid of the wrong guy. Shoulda been Juan Hernandez thrown through the door.
If ya feel good, then open the door, first.
Hernandez is going to make McCain throw himself under the bus.
Hernandez is one reason I will not vote for McAmnesty.
Wise-Man with insults coming in 10,9,8,6…
The sad part is Phil Gramm was telling it like it is. We may be headed for a recession but we ain’t in one yet folks.
It is a mental recession and the liberal media along with the Dems have been trying for years to decry the state of the economy with a constant drum beat of gloom and doom.
Talk about a bunch of “nithering nabobs of negativity”…
McCain is distancing himself from every sector that might have supported him - the preachers and Christian evangelicals; those for tight border and immigration enforcement; aligning himself with the Dems and the tree huggers; and the list goes on.
Seen any excitement in his campaign? It’s looking more like the one Fred Thompson put together.
Why did this happen?
Gramm had a huge conflict of interest, employed by a bank up to its eyeballs in subprime.
Gramm represented the McCain campaign saying “Americans are a bunch of whiners” and “The recession is in your head.” (something like this).
My sentiments as well.
I can hear how it went down now…” My friend we are going to have to let you go … ect, ect.”
John Ansell and zorro I’m with you guys and am waiting for Wise-Man to earn his McCain bonus points telling us how we must shut-up get in line and be good little party members. Main reason we are independent conservatives in our household still planning on writing in “none of the above” in November for POTUS.
Hopefully this is window dressing to appease the MSM - they were the only ones I heard belly-aching about Sen Gramm’s comments - and he will continue in a less visible position offering sage economic advice to the campaign, surreptitiously until after the election is over and he is appointed to McCain’s first cabinet.
As usual, blaming the victims. The subprime mess was created by the Democrats during the Clinton Administration. The banks only did what the Democrats demanded, making mortgage loans available to people who couldn’t afford them. And the Dems and the MSM are still whining about how “the poor” are being shut out of the housing market. The answer is simple. If you can’t afford to pay the mortgage, you have no business getting one. If you get one fraudulently, you should be in jail.
Dumping Phil, for simply stating economic facts, is yet another reason to think McCain has no clue about the economy.
To be fair, Obama has no clue either.
In regards to the definition of a recession, Gramm is very much correct.
This isn’t a great economic time, but it’s so clearly not the worst, and not even the worst in the past 30-40 years.
McCain will throw Juan Hernandez off the bus when he finally realizes that Hernandez ain’t packing the illegals and their supporters in…I expect that around mid-September (it should have been done by mid-April).
Pay attention to what he has been saying lately to the rest of us (read Newsmax) about border security. I think he’s starting to realize he’s put himself in the middle of the ocean without an oar with his support of amnesty, and that he isn’t getting traction for his stance.
I just wish Mccain would get a really good adviser instead of the clowns he’s had so far. Obama should be slipping away right now if this election cycle were like the old days.
Stating facts and campaigning for office don’t mix. It depresses voters and causes them to either stay home or vote for the positive guy who is offering hope and change. Gramm should have known that by now. But I’m just glad another RINO’s out of the picture.
Scram Gramm: DLTDHYOTWO.
LGM is in fact partly correct with his surmission with respect to Phil Gramm and the deregulation of the commodities trade.
The problem is that the Democrats as well as the Republicans they criticize refuse to effect any real punishment for those firms taking on subprime lenders and sending their loans down the road in the form of CDOs and such.
Take a look at the people who have been on the boards of Sallie Mae and Fannie Mae and consider these people like Jamie Gorelick (remember her from the Iraq investigations of 2004?) have fought tooth and nail to keep out oversight of these two government-run loan companies (an example of economic fascism by the way). Those two firms are soiled with crooked Dems, LGM
Who is this Juan Hernandez guy? I have not heard of him. I did a google search and several Juan Hernandez guys appear. One is an exporter in Central America. Which one of these guys works for McCain?
McCain distancing himself from fundamentalist Christians is one of the reasons I’m voting for him. MM, you’re beating a dead horse.
He is an evil human being who is intent on destroying the United States along with his sidekick the senile Juan McAmnesty…may they rot in hell… but not until McAmnesty selects a VERY conservitive VP.
Hyperbole much Rob? Little hint: stick to facts and logic when making a point and you’ll be much more persuasive. Otherwise, you sound like some sort of goofy, far left loon.
OT
It was a huge opportunity for those who could just scrape it out to get into a house. But you have to be able to make the payments.
/OT
Gramm is smart enough not to let himself be a distraction. Probably a good move.
Until Juan Hernandez is gone, I will not believe a word McCain has to say about securing the border. Hernandez should never have been a part of the campaign to begin with.
Well, this was predictible anyway. Why is it every time I find something about McCain to like, he changes it?
Yeah. Gramm should have said “Liberals are a bunch of whiners” and “The idea of a recession has been beaten into your head by a parade of liberal MSM scaremongering and Bush bashing.”
Of course, the economic decline is due first and foremost to the sharp rise in fuel costs, which is due, first and foremost, to Democrats beholden to their environut supporters.
Dimsdale, if you think the energy issues in this country are due solely to the bans on drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska, you need to get yourself a bit more knowledge on the subject. We’re not going to drill our way out of our crippling dependence on foreign oil (70%). Check out http://www.thepickensplan.com. Sorry, the problem is much more complicated than you evidently care to believe. Our economy is in serious trouble.
fretless, re:”Why is it every time I find something about McCain to like, he changes it?”
Well, the way I see it, the only thing to like about McCain is that he isn’t Obama… & he can’t change that, now can he.
Ya got that right, lad!
Instead, we’re going to drill our way to independence on America’s own oil and natural resources. If the Democrats don’t stop Americans from doing it, that is.
You, of course, are welcome to pop a windmill on your car and use it to drive as far as you want.
(But if I were you I’d give some serious thought to a pair of comfortable walking shoes as a backup plan in that case.)
OH MAN, brooklyn red, get out of my head. I wanted to say that.
I wonder if McCain realizes how many voters decide never to get on his bus, every time he throws someone under it?
Nah…
Forget google, try a search here at MM.
And Chris Dodd being the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee would be?
Come on, you supposedly understand math.
2 + 2 = ?
There goes the last conservative bone in McCain’s collective body.
Gramm is smart to jump off that sinking ship.
I find nothing new or innovative in T. Boone’s plan. My power company has been offering windmill power to anyone who wants to sign up for their Blue Sky program. But it costs extra! Do you think people are anxious to pay extra for energy when “our economy is in serious trouble”?
There are 300 million people in this country. Can’t some of them drill for oil while others, like Mr. Pickens, put up windmills? It’s not an either/or situation. We’re a big country; we can do both.
If T. Boone really thought wind power was the wave of the future, he would be quietly putting up windmills as fast as he could to make a killing off his investment - unless he thinks it’s a money loser.
Oh, I see, the windbag is waiting for a new administration of “change” to come to power. He’s hoping Obama will give him our money to play with:
Until there’s a provable and affordable alternative to oil, I’m not backing this or any other plan that’s full of hot air. But if the rest of you want to do it, go ahead. Knock yourselves out. It will leave more gas for me.
Mr. Pickens is a very smart guy. He is also the one who offered a million dollars to anyone who could proove the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, wrong and he didn’t offer that to find the proof! He offered it to tell the liberals to shut up so that should tell you where his loyalties lie.
Not that very smart guys can make a mistake but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
I do often wonder if McCain wants to be President, if he is smart enough to realize what is happening out here. The Presidency is his for the taking IF he would stop and listen to the dumb folks our here in the hinterlands–the people who VOTE. But he pulls stunts such as this and chases away Gramm loyalist.
He is an idiot. This has to be the worse campaign since Gerald Ford.
YOU GOT RID OF THE WRONG GUY!
YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN RID OF JOHN McCAIN!!!
These are the worst two candidates as far as presenting a real choice I’ve seen in my lifetime. I won’t name names, but some people think that whenever two candidates are presented to us, we must always just meekly choose the lesser of two evils, baa baa baa, otherwise you are hurting the country, baa baa baa, and it’s not the right thing to vote your conscience, baa baa baa.
It never seems to occur to them that this behavior especially with two candidates like we have now, can never move us towards the conservative side but can only slow the leftward drift. And in this election, the leftward drift will not be slowed much at all by voting for McCain.
They always like to point out that we’d have McCain appointing Supreme Court justices and not Obama - but number one, McCain will not appoint judges that conservatives would appoint (McCain on Alito: “too conservative”), and number two, even if he did they’d never get approved by his “friends” across the aisle who will control both houses of the Congress.
I only hope that McCain will wise up and select Romney as VP. That might make the bitter pill of my possibly voting for McCain go down a bit better, hoping that Romney, who would have been a much better candidate, could step in after McCain’s 4 years. But by then the Mexican vote just might outnumber all the rest of us…
What was so off-base about what Mr. Gramm said? Look around…are we not a nation of whiners? Since the 2000 election, I’ve heard nothing but bleating and whining from the liberals. Sometimes the truth hurts. We are a soft, spoiled country who has turned whining into an art form. The very fact that Mr. Gramm was forced out is proof that Sen. McCain caved to the whining and mewling of the great unwashed. Sheesh…where is John Adams when you need him?
#34 AN, I think I have to agree with you on this one. At first I thought JUAN was trying to out-nice BOB DOLE, but now I believe he is trying to out-stupid JERRY FORD. This man has no ambition to be POTUS.
Is it possible that Juan McCain doesn’t really want to be president?
I mean, c’mon, he doesn’t slam Obama about his gaffes and ridiculous positions on issues when given the chance.
Then he goes and complains about that New Yorker magazine cover? He acts like he’s a memeber of Obama’s campaign.
What a dumba$$…
Oh yeah, and then there’s his position on giving America away to the illegals and not seeming to care what real US citizens have to say.
Again — what a dumba$$!!!!!!!
Re: energy…
Live in or been to Hawaii? If so, have you seen the TWO wind farms down at South Point on Hawaii (Big Island)?
One of the farms is dead with rusted out, oil splattered mills, minus propellers and real eerie.
Then up the hill, brand new ones, spinning away.
IMHO, it seems to me there had better be a true commitment to proper technology and maintenance of wind farms ($$$$$),else a big waste of land and $$.
The image of John McCain driving a “farm” bus popped into my head during this discussion…
McCain driving a small farm worker bus, with Juan Hernandez standing behind him. On board, members of his election committee. One stands up and says something without first asking permission. Hernandez leans over to McCain’s ear and says, “My friend, My friend! Are you going to stand for that? Did you tell him it was okay to say that? My friend! That will not get you elected if you let “those” kind of people do your talking. My friend! Don’t you think your campaign would be better off without the ‘loose cannons?’
McCain agrees, slows down, opens the doors of the straight talk “farm” bus, and pushes the committee member out, yelling as he pulls away, “I do the talking here, but I still need your support….oka-a-a-a-a-y-y-y?”
Juan leans out the still open door, looks behind the bus, which is still moving slowly, and motions vigorously with his hand, beconing someone to advance. That person, a Latino voter, is motioned to climb on top of the bus, and does so, crowding in with dozens of others on the now top-heavy bus.
Juan flashes a toothy smile, winks at those on top of the bus, and returns to his place behind the oblivious candidate….
The more I think about, the more I think I am going to have to vote for Bob Barr.
I know he won’t win, but if enough people say NO to all this nonsense from the RNC, maybe they’ll see we are not going to just walk in lockstep with candidates that do not meet our expectations.
When Republicans run from their principles, the loose elections. Why is it so hard for them to remember that?
Where’s Wiseman??
“MIGHT” is just a location away… coming to a city near you.
Darn it, Michelle beat me to it a day early and way before I commented on it on the Saturday blog. Shoot! My bad.
McCain is going to need as big a bus (with less a carbon footprint than Obummer’s) as Obummer.
Estupido, opportunity lost.
Mucho estupido. The McCain campaign/Presidency in a microcosm.
To hell with the truth, got pander?
This shows a character defect in McCain. Sometimes he gets really prickly, surly, nasty, way beyond what’s appropriate. One of his national co-chairs noted for his straightforward honest conservative talk and McCain adapts an intense smirk and says he might consider him to be an ambassador to Belarus, but Belarus might not take him?! We AREN’T in a recession, people DO whine at times. What about “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s not whine. If McCain is going to run his campaign like this, and govern like this, he’s going to do more than his share of throwing people under buses too.
On July 18th, 2008 at 9:06 pm, Marc said:
He is Michelle Malkin’s favorite straw man. Other then that he is a nobody.
#3 & 6
We should change his handle to pitch_man as I am sure he works in some capacity on the McCain campaign.