Oh yeah.  About three years ago we had a guy at work who was escorted out of his office by security officers; had the locks on his office changed and his security pass revoked; his email was cut off and his official mail sequestered for review for possible crimes; and eventually his pay was stopped.  But, he was not "fired".  Nope.  Except of course when he went to court to get his job back.  *Then* he claimed he had been fired.

So, yeah ... not fired.  Nope.

As for Red State: if your operating philosophy is demonization, when can you stop?  Why would you stop?  I'm enjoying this.

wow, the GOP is looking less like and party and more like a gang...a gang that is being pushed out of their turf...

God I hope Sarah Palin is their candidate in 2012; Obama could reach 60% and 400 electoral votes running against this hapless nitwit...

Here's the way the Republican party can complete it's self-destruction. It keeps fanning the flames of the Rabid Right, which is a small minority, but noisy enough to cause a lot of trouble. These are the people who show up at precinct meetings and conventions. They do not represent a broad appeal, but they get control of the primary processes. I've seen this work like a charm in Utah where the Republicans have such dominant power they can afford to behave in a self-destructive manner and still thrive. What happens is that any candidate with appeal to the center gets cut off by the disproportionate representation of loonies in the primary process. They seem to think they can make it work on a national level too, but they don't understand that the country, and especially the rising generation of new voters, just doesn't like their philosophical approach, i.e. xenophobia and jingoism.

These pp. report recently about McCain's un-Trump like qualities.  He was a passive-aggressive manager who never fired anyone.  So Scheunemann may never have heard "you're fired" or seen a pink slip, but was fired nonetheless, McCain style.

One summer during high school I was working at some Dunkin Donuts.  One week I wasn't called or scheduled for any shifts.  I called them, and they said they'd see when I could fit into the schedule.  They never did.  I count that as being fired.

Ha! But Palin would have remained unknown if not for Schmidt. This makes me think of some absurd science fiction where the robots go crazy and turn on their makers... the show's off to a good start.

Could someone explain the chain of command under McCain? I assume all reported to John, but what is the pecking order? I also assumed Salter's history-friendship-ghost status placed him below McCain but I didn't doubt the loyalty-trust between them.

That leaves Schmidt, Davis, Scheunemann and Wallace who did not agree on the macro strategy and tactics of McCain's campaign. The Palin choice also seemed to be a surprise to Wallace but after the choice was made it's not clear to me how those four shared or didn't share in a common plan.

Is this a case of "What did McCain (and Salter) know and when did they know it?" I'd like to think that Salter or McCain would be able to walk us through these messes but it's looking like Schmidt, Davis, Sheunemann and Wallace were operating under the "It's easier to obtain forgiveness than ask for permission.".

See, the focus is on the final week and until I see evidence the team had any unity prior to Palin I'm leaning toward "Ticking Time Bomb Waiting To Explode".

Until someone proves McCain was in charge, knew what everyone was doing and checking off on decisions, I see a recipe for disaster. The GOP or McCain can dodge what happened, who did what and why but the GOP can't set a new course based on rumors.

jaunty,

The Republican party is in fact just a gang, a criminal gang, that managed to take-over a political party in the same way the Mafia used to take over unions and wear them as a cloak for theft.  So, yes, they are behaving just like a gang pushed off its turf because the is exactly who they are and what has happened.

Let's see: someone crosses Sarah Palin and suddenly his Blackberry doesn't work. Where have I heard that story before?  Scheunemann, we'll bury you beside John Bitney....

I think the next logical step is to hunt down and banish from the Republican Party anyone else who may have known or suspected that Africa isn't a country.

I almost feel sorry for her.  Almost.  Were it not for all the race-baiting, "palling around with terrorists" nonsense and essentially saying that people who view the world similarly to me aren't "real Americans," I would feel badly for her.  But, sadly, she actually did and said that stuff, and there's a piper with his hand held out clearing his throat loudly in her vicinity.

The Frankenstein monster created by Richard Nixon 40 years ago has finally turned on its master.

Pity.

Oh WHO CARES WHO GOT FIRED!

Look at this: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.../the-odd-truths.html

Look who got HIRED, and never fired, and it's all okay because hey, she brought the poll numbers up, and that's what matters. Never mind that she would have vice president to a guy that is almost a head in a jar, just so long as the team wins. Country last, way way last.

I want to beat the sh!t out of the mummy. I won't, because I don't want to go to jail, but f him, and his "gracious" concession speech. He needs to be run out politics on a rail.

Go media, get him, doggie, go!... what's wrong with you? Are you on xanax? GO!

And I'm not one bit mad at Palin.

That would be like blaming Caligula's horse - it's really not the horse's fault that he's in the Senate, ok? She is what she obviously obviously obviously is. Blame the person who foisted her on us, and risked our country for poll numbers, and that is John McCain. Don't nitpick on his underlings, like the guy who hired THEM is just this amiable woollyheaded grandpa in the corner wearing a belt and suspenders, and blinking haplessly. Stick it to the mummy, damn you.

P Santillana, these pp. reported a few weeks ago that the media would start forgiving McCain Nov. 5.  And so they have.

In Baghdad, the reaction to Obama's election:

In the normally querulous Union of Iraqi Writers club in Baghdad, there was a rare unanimity among the secular, the religious, Shiites, Sunnis and former regime loyalists: While the election of the first black man to the highest office in the United States was admirable, Mr. Obama’s promise to start withdrawing troops from Iraq was a cause for great concern.

At the club’s restaurant and bar, which has survived the wrath of religious extremists over the past few years, Daoud al-Rahmani, a self-styled poet, writer and satirist, gathered at one table with two of his colleagues for an early lunch. They drank beer and nibbled from little bowls filled with marinated fava beans served as hors d’oeuvres

“There will be chaos if they leave,’’ Mr. Rahmani said. “We are still in disagreement. Sectarianism is ingrained in us now.”

Listen to Mr. Rahmani, Mr. President-elect.

psantillana - what struck me immediately in the Sullivan piece was this tidbit:

"The narrative is now beginning to look something like this: the McCain campaign picked her essentially out of a hat and with Bill Kristol's recommendation letter. They did no vetting."

McCain should be the least of our concerns now.  He'll go back to being a senator for the party out of power with limited influence going forward.

Kristol is a cancer on the American polity, albeit a cancer with a weekly column in the Newspaper of Record.  If Sullivan is correct, McCain's future should be the least of our concerns.

Jacobt1

why don't you tell us why your party is eating each other alive?

Here's hoping they tear themselves apart.  It couldn't happen to a better party!

Just think, just 6-10 months ago, it was supposedly the Democratic Party who was being "torn a part".  How's it feel repub?

Yes, Jacob, I'm sure the Republicans could teach Sunnis and Shiites a lot about how to avoid internecine self-destructive cannibalism.

Of course they are concerned; now they really have to give serious thought to how they can run their own country without us in less than a hundred years. They can start by figuring out how best to use their massive budget surpluses to replace what we are now dumping into their country. It's good to know we got their attention.

I'm dissappointed Obama didn't get more of the Iraqi self-styled poet vote.  But really, McCain had been campaigning there a lot more and I think the 100 years message really resonated there.  It probably would have been throwing good money after bad and in the end he didn't need it anyway.

I have been very curious to read the wretched jacobt's  post ass-whuppin's posts. If this is a representative sample of the post campaign contribution, then this humiliation has not yet resulted in changed behavior...

waynejm, I agree about Kristol, but Kristol wasn't elected to office. I don't know why the NYT hired him, since he seemed to be a candyassed tool to me at the time, and I'm fairly new to this cesspool. So who knows what their deal is. Entertainment value?

But elected officials get voted in by a population that needs to be informed. And the informing comes from the press, and part of that informing takes the form of the - I don't know - opinion spouters putting it all together or cutting it into bite sized pieces for the rest of us. I know everyone can go inform themselves with teh google, but do they? No. That's not the way it works. BO'R and KO really do serve a function, like it or not. And the rest of them, all the way down to libiddy TNR.

So, while I encourage the eggheads to all throw eggs at Bill Kristol, and peer-pressure him out of the club or something, they have a special duty regarding elected officials, and shouldn't neglect it. And while I'm not an Arizona voter, every member of congress votes on national issues, so should I care? Yes, I should.

Plus, there is something to be said for revealing corruption - I think McCain's reckless endangerment in that pick, for the sake of winning, rises to the level of corruption - and making an example of someone. Particularly a repeat offender like that craven maggot. wtf.