Political Quick Hits

God, I love the First Lady. The epitome in class.

Newt Gingrich, the only real intellectual giant on the right, lied last night about Richard Reid being an American citizen to explain away why Bush had Reid read his Miranda rights during the Shoebomber Incident in 2001, in order to attack President Obama for doing the same to the Fire Crotch terrorist, who is not an American citizen. (The truth is that Reid is not an American, but a Brit). And today he actually admitted he was wrong (pick your jaw off the floor, I am not finished)…. but he lied again in doing so.

Another Republican and Democrat in Congress have announced their retirements. In case you are counting, that is now 12 Democrats and 17 Republicans. If the GOP hopes to regain Congress this year, they need more Democrats to retire, in fact, they need at least a 2 to 1 ratio like they had in 1994.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Americans by a 57% to 36% margin think homosexuals should be able to openly serve in the U.S. military. Voters also say by a 66% to 31% margin that the current policy of not allowing openly gay men and women to serve is discrimination. You know what I love about that result. It means 9% of Americans think the DADT policy is discriminatory and want to keep it in place because they are evil bigots.

In what Josh Marshall calls a key tell on where the repeal of DADT is going, Lt. Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate and New York National Guardsman, who was recommended for discharge after publicly coming out of the closet and becoming a very public advocate for the repeal of DADT is back on duty with his National Guard unit.

Speaking of polls, the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll has the President’s approval and disapproval numbers at 51% and 41%, respectively.

You want to know how fake and dishonorable and disgustingly vile Sarah Palin is? Well, she wore a black bracelet on her wrist during the Teabaggin Convention over the weekend with her son Track’s name on it. What is wrong with that?

“The name on her black memorial bracelet — one, like the gold star, a demonstration of a friend or associate who was killed in action — is that of her oldest son, Track. Track served honorably in Iraq, and both he and his parents should be thanked for his selfless service to his country. He is also alive.

“Commemorating Track’s service by wearing a black memorial bracelet which is reserved for those dead or even a red bracelet for those missing in action, demonstrates a horrifying contempt for those who gave their last full measure of devotion or an almost unbelievable ignorance of the importance of symbols in American history…”

“Sarah Palin, please take off the bracelet. Be thankful you have no reason to wear it.”

A comment from commenter Eli: “Actually, Eric Robinson, the man who posted the article about Palin’s bracelet, has issued a retraction and apology. Scroll down to the bottom of his article. the bracelet was bronze, not black. The makers of the bracelet commented his article to set the record straight. Joe Biden has the same type of bracelet for his son as well.”

Speaking of that lying know nothing fascist, Chris Matthews finds her frightening. No shit, Chris. You are just now coming to that conclusion? Someone on Twitter or Facebook made a funny re Palin, saying that our collective “home arrests” during these back to back Blizzards this week is but merely practice for when Sarah Palin’s shock troops take power.

Matt Yglesias puts a poll earlier this week which showed 33% of Iowans support the “tea party” movement into context, noting that “38% of Americans have a favorable view of Cuba and 36% are favorably disposed toward socialism, but I don’t see anyone writing newspaper articles about how a populist wave of socialism is sweeping the country […] The number of Iowans who like the tea party movement is smaller than the number of Americans who want marijuana legalized or the number of Americans who believe the government has had secret contact with extra-terrestrials.”

UI touched on this earlier, but a new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that nearly six in 10 Americans say the Republicans aren’t doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues; more than four in 10 see Obama as doing too little to get GOP support. In addition, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.