…he may have been reimbursed for the same flights both under his official allowance as congressman, and by either non-profit groups under his control or his campaign committee.

The revelation would be ironic in part because Paul made fiscal responsibility a central tenet of his 2012 presidential campaign. The congressman celebrated a major victory in July when his bill to audit the Federal Reserve for greater transparency passed the House.

Paul’s possible double-billing has been in the public eye since Roll Call first reported it in February, but CREW says there is no evidence Paul has repaid the money since.

source

I’m sure his followers won’t mind this at all. But for the rest of us it is kinda funny. Not Ha Ha funny, though.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) announced today that he is scaling back his presidential campaign operation.

He said in a statement that he will continue to fight former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for delegates at state conventions around the country, but he will no longer spend any money on upcoming primary contests.

He actually probably can do that to some extent. His people are more than willing to break convention and disregard rules and stuff. Paul will be going into the convention with more delegates than primary winner Santorum from Minnesota becuase they did something like cheating here.

It would be funny if he won the nomination!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Here’s the Maine results as reported by Google as of this writing:

I’ll repost that if it changes.

The “Date” is the approximate mid point of the polling period, and this crosses several polls summarized at Real Clear Politics. Notice that Santorum and Paul are a) sharing the same pole position in the polls. Last. That is what we expect of Paul and it is of no importance in his case because he is utterly irrelevant. But for Santorum, this is more interesting because he is a candidate that could move into a position of relevancy, and whom I will not rule out as a factor yet in this race. Still, he is in a holding pattern.

Gingrich’s move forward prior to the South Carolina primary seems to be holding; He is giving Romney a run for his money. It is not clear who will win this primary but if the final polling numbers are roughly like those in these polls, then neither candidate can really claim a clear victory, a sense of momentum, or any sort of dominance.

But a lot can happen in just under one week (to Florida) and in the time between now and the first Tuesday in March (Super Tuesday).

It has been pointed out (summarized by Ed Brayton) that the Republican Establishment is very worried about Gingrich running for President. There are two numbers that underlie this particular fear: 100 and 60. The second is Gingrich’s unfavorability number. It is a high number and it is solid. Unless he rescues a baby from a burning building and then stops himself from ruining it by talking about it, that number will not go down, though it could possibly go up. The first number is his name recognition. This is a huge problem. If his name recognition was lower he could try to shore up his dislikable-ness among those who have not learned to despise him yet (good luck with that, Newt!) but since everybody already knows him, and a strong majority of people dislike him, there is no chance of that happening. It is important to note at this time that Obama’s likability rating is much better than Gingrich’s.

If Newt Gingrich runs for the Republican Party, they will surely lose. If anyone else runs, they will probably lose as well, but if Gingrich Runs, they will defiantly, really, for sure lose.

For this reason, we can expect sabotage.

Ironically (and I chose that word because it is New’s favorite word … have you noticed that?) Romney is very likely to falter as the race continues for the very reason that Gingrich is the better candidate. Gingrich represents the Republican Party better than Romney does because Gingrich is a stupid hateful hypocrite who is as mean spirited as a rabid dog, and a racist shit. Romney, on the other hand, is merely stupid and hypocritical. More importantly, Gingrich has spent a lot less time acting like a Democrat than Romney has. When people around the country get to compare what is bad (from the point of view of a Teabagger or other Republican) about each candidate, they will be forced to admit that Gingrich is more like them, and represents their views, better than Romney.

Over time, Gingrich could actually turn his temporary lunge forward into a regular lead and defeat Romney.

Here’s the thing: Gingrich is likely to falter because he opens his mouth. Romney is likely to falter because he wont. Gingrich will say things that will get him in trouble, while Romney will refuse to address his changes in positions or his tax and income problems or Bain. Romney is especially bad at the demagoguery. When he tries it he smarm-overloads even the most cynical Right Winger.

So, there are two open questions before us, aside from that of the question of when it will all happen: 1) Which of the two current front runners will stumble clumsily into the mud on this track first and most and worst, and 2) will the Santorum, running a steady third place, be able to prance by the two of them in time to get some delegates.

There is no front runner. Santorum could become a contender. And, I’m not ruling out a brokered convention.

And we take that to mean the pistol, not the malt liquor. And god gave her an eating disorder ad she really likes Ron Paul. Oh, why am I telling you this, you can read it all in her own words:

They told me if I lost 20 pounds that they’d sign me. And I was like, wow….And I had, like, an eating disorder in high school for a bit, so it’s like, I think God kind of put me through that to, you know, make me stronger for when situations like that kind of come up and still come up, obviously.

On her early days in LA:

Oh, my God. I lived, like, on a mattress, like, with this crazy girl. We lived in, like, a room with, like, these people’s house and, like, they didn’t allow us to use their kitchen. So we had, like, a little refrigerator. Like, it was really funny. But I mean, at the time…Oh, I had, like, four jobs. I worked for like, coffee shops, waitressing. I did extra jobs.

… on Ron Paul (she tweeted a comment of support) …

Oh, Ron Paul. Yeah….in Iowa. Ron Paul…I was, like, sitting at home with my brother watching Leno. And, you know, he was on Leno, and I was like, man, I was like, I like this dude. I liked him the last time around. I like a lot, you know, he believes in states having their rights, and I think that that’s very important.

And I’ve always been about less government, and so I like him. And that’s – it’s as simple as that, man. That’s all I said. I was like, oh, man, I like Ron Paul. Too bad he’s probably not going to get the nomination, but I, you know, I like him. And then the whole freakin’ world, like, it went into a frenzy.

On guns:

RAZ: OK, fine. You own nine guns, I read.

CLARKSON: I do, nine.

RAZ: And you sleep with a Colt 45.

CLARKSON: Yes.

RAZ: That’s true?

CLARKSON: Yes. Well, I live alone.

RAZ: I got it. Fair enough, OK.

CLARKSON: So, yeah, I live alone, so I’m not going out like that. I got no chance if some man breaks into my house.

CLARKSON: So, yeah, I have a gun.

Like, cool.

Amazingly, Mitt Romney is in the lead according to a recent poll by the Des Moines Register, going into Tuesday’s caucuses, but the lead is slim. And the configuration of the field seems at least a little stable. The CNN poll of December 28th shows this pattern:

Mitt Romney 25
Ron Paul 22
Rick Santorum 16
Newt Gingrich 14
Rick Perry 11
Michele Bachmann 9
Jon Huntsman 1

… and the Des Moine Register poll shows this pattern:

Mitt Romney 24
Ron Paul 22
Rick Santorum 15
Newt Gingrich 12
Rick Perry 11
Michele Bachmann 7
Jon Huntsman 2
Not Sure 7

Interestingly, according to the Des Moines Register poll, Santorum and Perry share a 15 point lead for “second choice” and have relatively low numbers for the “Like Least” category. They are followed by Not Sure (14) with Romney coming in at 13 for the Second Choice category. The most “lease liked” is Rick Perry (15) with Romney (13) and Bachmann (12) close behind.

In some ways, this is the most interesting part of the poll:

Gingrich is the most knowledgeable by far. I guess that is because he is a professor. Bachmann is the least knowledgeable but not by as much. I guess that’s because she’s a moron. Paul wins for reducing debt and having the smallest ego.

Romney leads the back by a large margin in being the “most electable” and Bachmann and Paul are almost tied for “lease electable.”

Interestingly, Huntsman is very ver ylow on “the most consistent” rating while Romney is fifth from the bottom. That surprises me. Otherwise, most of this makes sense except the part about Ron Paul’s ego.

What do you think?

OK, that’s all funny and everything, but I’m very disappointed in both the producers of this piece and in some of the attitudes associated with it.

First, where the hell is Michele Bachmann? Michele produces a “Greatest Moment” every time she opens her mouth! Has Bachmann’s ever flowing river of crazy become the new normal, so that it isn’t even noticed by political satirists anymore? That, my friends, is exactly what I warned about when she first started running. Well, I said that mainly in my own head, but I’m sure you figured it out too. Bedtime for Bonzo isn’t just a think you say when it is bed time. Its a movie starring the man considered by the majority of Americans to be the greatest president who ever existed in the United States of America.

The second thing that is somewhat disappointing is, of course, the polarization. The woman commenting on Gingrich’s child labor remark expressed my feelings exactly. Gingrich’s suggestion to enslave the poor children of the inner cities to clean toilets is a bad idea, but one that can be transformed into a good one. A youth jobs program is a great idea. They used to be more common, and have often been part economic stimulus. But not like Gingrich says. More like the lady in the video says.

And finally, since Michele Bachmann was left out of this video, here’s a makeup video, with Sarah Palin:

I love the Boston Accent on Paul.