Author: Patrick

Short Bio: I started blogging about politics in 2006, as a populist, skeptical left of center type, with a blog called simply, "The Populist."I suspect, but cannot prove; that my blog might have been hacked by some evil neoconservatives. I cannot prove that at all and also too, around the same time. Hackers from China where attacking wordpress blogs. I believe either the Neocons or the Chinese got my site. I don't know honestly know which.Either way, by 2007, I began to see that I really did not fit within the Democrat Party and liberal circles and after my blog was hacked; I created a blog called "Political Byline" and I kept writing; first as a Centrist and then as a Conservative PopulistFor my long bio, see the "About Me" section on this blog.

BREAKING MICHIGAN NEWS: Two Michigan State Republican Senators, Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat exposed in adultery scandal, used offices to cover affair

Todd Courser, R-Lapeer, and Cindy Gamrat, R-Plainwell - Busted for adultery using their office to cover it up. What morons!
Todd Courser, R-Lapeer, and Cindy Gamrat, R-Plainwell – Busted for adultery using their office to cover it up. What morons!

This is a big scandal in Michigan and it was exposed by the Detroit News, which is a right-leaning newspaper here in the Detroit area.

Via the Detroit News, where you can hear the recordings made:

Lansing — State Rep. Todd Courser planned the distribution of a fictional email alleging he had sex with a male prostitute in a bid to conceal his relationship with Rep. Cindy Gamrat, according to audio recordings obtained by The Detroit News.

Courser, a Lapeer Republican, said on one recording the email was designed to create “a complete smear campaign” of exaggerated, false claims about him and Gamrat so a public revelation about the legislators’ relationship would seem “mild by comparison.”

Interviews with former House employees and the recordings show freshman lawmakers Courser and Gamrat, R-Plainwell, used their taxpayer-funded offices to maintain and cover up their relationship. Courser, 43, and Gamrat, 42, rose from the ranks of tea party activism, battled establishment Republicans to win seats in the House last year and formed their own legislative coalition.

The real kicker is this:

The pair are socially conservative legislators who often invoke their Christian faith in pursuit of new legislation governing gun rights, abortion and marriage. Their political alliance dates back to Courser’s unsuccessful 2013 race for Michigan Republican Party chairman when Gamrat ran as his vice chairwoman.

But since being sworn into office in January,the self-described tea party “gladiators” have fought with Republican leaders. In an unusual move, Courser and Gamrat wrote a “liberty response” to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s State of the State address in January — the kind of retort that typically comes from Democrats.

In April, House Speaker Kevin Cotter kicked Gamrat out of Republican caucus meetings after she was caught leaking confidential discussions among GOP members. In one of his lengthy emails to people involved in Michigan politics, Courser called the House speaker a “bully” who was waging a “witch hunt” and who was “dead set against (Gamrat’s) efforts to advance liberty and freedom.”

The sad part:

“It will make anything else that comes out after that — that isn’t a video — mundane, tame by comparison,” Courser, a married father of four, told Graham.

[…]

During two meetings recorded by Graham, Courser and Gamrat, who is also married and has three children, did not dispute the aide’s characterization of their relationship as an extramarital affair. They acknowledged the aide’s discomfort but neither directly confirmed nor denied having a sexual relationship.

Here’s the deal, if these accusations are true and seeing that it was reported by the Detroit News; they most likely are. These two birds need to resign and I mean right away. This is not only a blemish on the conservative movement, the tea party; but also on the Republican Party in Michigan and the Republican Party and the Christian right as well.

Others via Memeorandum: Yahoo Politics, Guardian, Daily Mail, NPR, Slantpoint, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Political Wire, KFOR-TV, Fox News, Associated Press, Washington Post, Jezebel, Fusion, Raw Story, Right Wing Watch, Talking Points Memo and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Update: No sooner than I hit publish, I go back to the Detroit News website and I see that Michigan Rep. Candace Miller is calling for their resignation as well:

Lansing — U.S. Rep. Candice Miller on Friday called for the immediate resignation of state Rep. Todd Courser following a Detroit News report that the lawmaker tried to get a House aide to cover up his relationship with Rep. Cindy Gamrat.

“Based on these revelations, under no circumstance can Todd Courser continue to represent the residents of Lapeer County, who are good, hard working community and faith-based folks,” said Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, in a statement. “This behavior is a slap in their face, especially from someone who presents himself as a moralist.”

Miller’s resignation call came hours after House Speaker Kevin Cotter announced an “open ended” investigation in the conduct of Courser and Gamrat, who are freshman Republican lawmakers with deep ties to Michigan’s tea party movement.

Even the Tea Party people are saying that these two need to go as well:

One prominent southwest Michigan tea party leader also said Friday Courser and Gamrat should step down.

“I think probably the best thing for them to do is resign and get their own personal lives straightened out,” said Gene Clem, president of VanKal Patriots, a Van Buren and Kalamazoo county tea party group.

They’ll be gone by Monday, because this now is a major national story. They screwed themselves; and now they have to pay the piper. Sin does that, it only destroys, why it does not pay to do stuff like this, at all.

My thoughts on the Fox debate

Here are my thoughts on the Fox News debate tonight.

Please keep in mind that I am dictating this using voice to speech on my telephone. So, if the punctuation is bad or the wording sounds a little odd that is why.

Number 1: Donald Trump bombed, horribly. He came off as an arrogant a-hole. He attacked Meghan Kelly; he came off as a misogynist, aggressive  a-hole, who respected no one else on that stage except for himself.

That might play well with his hardcore supporters and it might play well with his business friends in New York City and around the world, but it will not play well with middle America and it will not play well with women voters at all.

Number 2: Jeb Bush look like a freaking nerd. He looked like the smart intelligent geeky kid at debate club. He supports common core although he claims he doesn’t, he just wants higher standards. But, he did not look presidential he looked like he was nervous and a bit out of his element on the debate stage. I predict that he will not fare well in the primary.

Number 3: The rest of them did rather well. I think the sparring of Chris Christie and Rand Paul paints a drastic difference between the libertarian wing and the national security/antiterrorism wing of the Republican Party. The voters in the primaries, will have to choose which side of that divide that they want to vote for. It should be interesting.

Number 4: Mike Huckabee looks like a Southern Baptist preacher talking about politics. Although I did admire his defense of Social Security. I did not however, appreciate Chris Christie’s comments about Social Security. It sounds to me like he wants to gut it and possibly stop it. He needs to be a bit more clear about that.

Number 5: The only candidate that really stood out to me during the 5 o’clock debate was Carly Florina. I very much appreciated her smart answers to the questions that she was presented especially the ones about Iran. She very much held her own, being a woman and I think that was admirable. She would really make a good vice president and probably a president after the second term of whoever wins but she runs with.

So there you have it,my impressions of the first debate of the Republicans in 2015. I’m hoping that after the first primary this field gets narrowed down. Right now there is much too many people and much of their messages are interchangeable, except for some finite details. hopefully the ones who vote in the primaries will select the best candidate.

One thing I will say as an independent conservative who’s not beholden to any particular party as a rule. I keep hearing these candidates saying that America is going down, America is in terrible shape, America is not a good place now; and all that I feel that is bad messaging myself personally.

I feel that what they should be saying is America still the greatest nation on earth. It just has poor leadership at the moment and we need to change that.

Yes, America has problems. Yes, America has leaders now we were out of touch with the rest of the world and with the people of America obviously. But to say that America is going down to me strikes me as being anti- American.

America now is still the greatest place on earth to live. just ask all the Mexican immigrants who are coming across the border illegally. Obviously, we’re doing something right or they wouldn’t be pouring into this country.

I think that needs to be addressed in the upcoming debates. It’s bad messaging and it gives swing voters like my mom,  the impression that the Republicans believe because we have a black president who is a Democrat that that makes America a bad place and that’s not a good message to be putting out to the rest of America are not necessarily Republicans.

Just my opinion and I will come yours here.

UPDATE: As I figured he would, Donald Trump is whining like a little bitch that he was picked on by Meghan Kelly.

If he can’t handle Meghan Kelly, how the hell is he going to handle the problems that he is going to meet in the White House?

The man is not entitled to be treated any differently than anybody else. I don’t give a darn how much money he has!

So, as far as I’m concerned; Donald Trump is no longer a serious candidate in my eyes and I am sure I’m not the only person that feels that way.

Update #2: Now a big story on Memeorandum.

Is the DNC trying to stifle the Democratic debates?

It sure seems that way.

The neocon Weekly Standard writes:

Bill Hyers, a senior strategist in the Martin O’Malley presidential campaign, is calling the new Democratic debate schedule “less democratic.”

“By inserting themselves into the debate process, the DNC has ironically made it less democratic. The schedule they have proposed does not give voters—nationally, and especially in early states—ample opportunity to hear from the Democratic candidates for President. If anything, it seems geared toward limiting debate and facilitating a coronation, not promoting a robust debate and primary process,” Hyers writes.

“Rather than giving the appearance of rigging the process and cutting off debate, the DNC should take themselves out of the process. They should let individual and truly independent news, political, and community organizations create their own debates and allow the Democratic candidates for President to participate. There is a long, proud tradition of voters in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire getting to hear early and often from candidates for President—the DNC schedule kills that tradition, and we shouldn’t stand for it.”

The Democrats have only six debates scheduled.

There is a reason for this; and I have to explain this one a bit. There are two factions in the Democratic Party, as in the Republican Party. There is the grassroots left, which is made of the normal people, who actually vote and are involved with progressive politics on the ground and the other faction —- the establishment or corporate left.

Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate, she is seen as the electable one for the Democratic Party. She has money, funding and name recognition. Needless to say, the Party will be totally behind her.  For the record, Barack Obama was seen as a grassroots candidate, when he was running. However, as time went on, it was very clear to many on the left; that he was just another establishment type.

Bernie Sanders however, is a grassroots progressive, he is not a part of the corporate left or establishment left.  Bernie Sanders has tapped into the grassroots left, who feel that the Democratic Party establishment has sold them out. Donald Trump is doing the same very thing in the Republican Party with the conservative grassroots.

Martin O’Malley has a point and a very good one. However, if you think that the Democratic Party is going to stand by and risk loosing an election to some no-name candidate or some grassroots candidate, you are very highly mistaken. The Democrats have much to lose in the election. They already know that they are going to take hits in some red states; so, they are going to do everything they can to put forward the best candidate for the general election. The Democrats learned their lessons from 1968 and they are not about to implode again like they did then.

Bernie Sanders will not make it to the general election, I can assure you of that. The gatekeepers in that party will see to that; you watch and see. Neither will Donald Trump, as the GOP has too much to lose; they screwed it up last time, they will not do it again.

 

George W. Bush does his civic duty

This is awesome.

The Video:

youtube placeholder image

Being summoned for jury duty at the George L Allen Sr Courts Building in downtown Dallas was anything but dull for Sheri Coleman.In fact, Coleman and other jurors were in for quite the surprise Wednesday morning when former President George W. Bush also showed up for jury duty at Judge Eric Moye’s court on the 14th civil district.“They made it seem like it was an anonymous juror that never showed up and then they brought him in,” she said.Coleman, of Dallas, said Bush spent time talking to the other jurors and took photos and spoke with everyone. She said the president’s visit was “awesome” and “surprising.”“He was very personable, very friendly, just ‘hey I’m here to serve,’ he asked questions and was very nice,” she said. “I loved it.”Bush’s spokesman Freddy Ford confirmed the president was summoned for jury duty and said Bush was at the courthouse in the 600 block of Commerce Street from about 8:50 a.m. until just before noon.

Source: George W. Bush causes a stir at George Allen courthouse when called for jury duty | | Dallas Morning News

I have honestly wonder, would President Barack Obama serve jury duty? I highly doubt it.

I was his greatest critic back in 2006. I still disagree with some of his stances, especially on foreign policy. However, it is refreshing to see a President act like a human being and not some high and mighty ruler.

Open Message to Todd Starnes: You’re wrong about Harry Vincent

First off this is what I am referring to here:

Video:

The Story via Starnes site:

All it took was 140 characters for Texas Christian University to suspend a conservative student who posted a series of social networking posts that insulted the Islamic State, the Baltimore rioters and Mexicans.

TCU banned Harry Vincent from most campus activities, ordered him to perform 60 hours of community service and attend a diversity training class.

The 19-year-old, who is a member of the College Republicans and the Young Americans for Freedom, said he was told by the university that his conservative views were “inappropriate.”

It sounds to me like Harry Vincent is guilty of being a Christian Conservative white guy – and on a university campus that’s a crime worthy of death penalty.

“They’re trying to make me out to be the classic bigoted hateful white male,” Harry told me in a telephone interview from his home in Maryland. “That’s the complete opposite of what I am.”

The university’s only public comment came in a prepared statement noting “When student’s conduct violates the university’s behavioral standards, they are subject to a disciplinary process, and will be held accountable for their actions.”

On April 29 TCU sent Harry a letter accusing him of violating the university’s code of student conduct – specifically he was accused of “infliction of bodily or emotional arm” and “disorderly conduct.”

The charges stemmed from a half dozen tweets he had posted online referencing radical Islam along with a Facebook message about the Baltimore riots.

“These hoodrat criminals in Baltimore need to be shipped off and exiled to the sahara desert,” he wrote. “Maybe then they’ll realize how much we provide for them (welfare, college tuition, Obama phone’s, medicare, etc.”

In regards to Islam he wrote, “This is clearly not a religion of peace.”

He also used the word “beaner” a derogatory term to describe Mexicans.

A former middle school classmate took great offense at Harry’s tweets and launched what became a Twitter lynch mob. The unnamed woman, who has no ties to TCU, urged her followers to contact the university and complain.

“This a**hole has been posting racist and disgusting comments on Twitter/Facebook,” she wrote on Tumblr. “When I confronted him about it, he referred to me as an ‘Islamic s**thead.”

The university took swift action. Associate Dean of Students Glory Robinson ordered Harry to apologize for what he had written on his private social networking pages.

“Dean Robinson said I was going to need to write an apology letter and a letter stating what sort of punishment I thought I deserved,” Harry told me. “She told me not to use Freedom of Speech as a defense – or else I would be more severely punished.”

To make a long story short – Harry hired a lawyer and appealed.

“My appeal board consisted of one very flamboyant male teacher and the head of the inclusiveness and diversity department,” he said. “It wasn’t a very unbiased board at all that heard my case.”

As expected – the university rejected his appeal and sent Harry a certified letter.

“The choices you made caused harm to other individuals,” the university wrote. “These types of comments are not acceptable at TCU and directly contradict our mission of being ‘ethical leaders and responsible citizens in a global community.’”

Harry said he was told that he had to say he was guilty before the university actually found him guilty.

“Dean Robinson believes I am somehow damaged – she thinks there’s something wrong with me because of what I put out there on social media,” he said. “She told me how my conservatives views were inappropriate.”

While he stands by his beliefs about Islamic radicals and the Baltimore rioters, Harry told me he regrets the foul language he used – as well as the unintentional Mexican slur “beaner.”

“I did not know that word was such a hurtful word,” he said. “I do regret that one because I do realize that could have caused harm to some people.”

Harry said he called his online attacker a “s***head” after she bashed the Armed Forces and wrote that America deserved what happened on 9/11.

“Any red-blooded American’s blood would have boiled at the sight of what she wrote,” he said. “I let my anger get the best of me.”

It sounds to me like Harry Vincent is guilty of being a Christian Conservative white guy – and on a university campus that’s a crime worthy of death penalty.

Harry isn’t sure if he’s going back to TCU. Should he agree to their demands – the 19-year-old would be on disciplinary probation until 2018 – the year he graduates.

“I’m thinking about enlisting in the Marines,” he said.

But one thing is certainly – Harry is not backing down.

“I’m not going to stand down and watch an institution throw away the Constitution and throw away basic God-given rights,” he said.

TCU is a private school and as such they are not bound by the First Amendment. However, as a Christian school they ought to be bound by the Good Book.

Harry Vincent spoke his mind – but instead of honoring his free speech – TCU chose to silence this young man and capitulated to the fury of a Twitter lynch mob.

The irony is that Harry received a stiffer punishment than a lot of the street thugs who terrorized Baltimore.

My reply to Mr. Starnes is here:

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PLEASE NOTE: At the 10:40 mark, I said “white people”, I meant “black people” Oopsie. 🙄

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake calls it a day

This is a surprise.

Via FireDogLake:

As many of you know, Firedoglake has been on hiatus for eight months while I recovered from hip replacement surgery. During that time I’ve been contemplating what the next chapter should be for the website. After some personal reflection, I have decided to pass the torch on to Kevin Gosztola and Brian Sonenstein, who will launch their own media organization called Shadowproof that will build on the success of FDL.

[…….]

The dogs and I have really loved being a part of the FDL community for over a decade, and are so very thankful for all of the great friends we’ve made and the experiences we have had. But we feel it’s time to hand over the helm to new, young energetic voices like Kevin, Brian, Dan and Kit. Moreover, it’s the right time in their careers when they should be stepping into leadership positions. I am so proud of all of the work they’ve done, and look forward to watching their growth as they lead their own organization.

I want to thank everyone over the years who has helped to make FDL a huge success. I urge those who have supported FDL to support Shadowproof, because it’s going to be amazing.

When I first started blogging back in 2006, when I was writing at “The Populist“, Jane’s blog was one of my regular reads. I wish her the best with her hip recovery and in her future endeavors.

Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo remembers as well. Skippy is an old timer blogger like me. 🙂

UPDATE: I just wanted to share a few more thoughts here on this blog posting that I didn’t get to share earlier.

For better or for worse; Jane Hamsher has been a critic of Barack Obama. she was a critic of Obamacare, she was a critic of many of the things that went on during his administration. For that she lost a lot of friends on the liberal left and because of that she lost her status in the blogosphere as one of the great ones.

That in itself, is a demonstration of how just how partisan politics can be corrosive to the political process and also to political writing. I mean Jan Hamsher has been around since 2004 and she started blogging on Blogspot which was a long time ago in blog years and human years too and I think it’s sad that Jane basically became of pariah in the liberal blogosphere, because she dared not to go along with the group think when it came to Barack Obama.

Anyhow, I wish Jane the best and I hope she finds something good to do after blogging.

Yeeeessh………..again?

This is starting to become a regular thing. 😡

Another “lone wolf” has howled and his name was John Russell Houser.

The stories:

Medium:Lafayette Theater Shooter Fan of Hitler, Neo-Nazis, and Antigovernment Conspiracies

Associated Press: The Latest: TV host says theater gunman advocated violence

David Weigel / Washington Post: TV hosts remember alleged Lafayette gunman as anti-tax, anti-feminist ‘gadfly’

Saeed Ahmed / CNN: Gunman kills 2, then himself in Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater

*sigh* I just do not understand it, I really do not. 🙁

Look, I am as ardent of a gun supporter as they come. However, people with issues like this guy’s, the mental stuff, I mean —- who will not take their meds, should not be allowed to own guns, period, end of freakin’ discussion.

The rest of it is pointless, until we do that.

Others: Salon, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, The Mahablog, Towleroad,Addicting Info, Mediaite, American Everyman, Refinery29, Joe. My. God.,ThinkProgress and Hit & Run, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Mediaite and The Week, NBC News, Raw Story, Right Wing Watch, The Gateway Pundit,Hullabaloo, Mediaite, The Week and Boing Boing, Slantpoint, The Frisky and Guardian, NewsBusters, CNNMoney, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Talking Points Memo, Salon, American Everyman, WKRG-TV, The Daily Banter,American Spectator, KTLA, Addicting Info, RedState, FOX2now.com, WHNT-TV, KFOR-TV, PoliticusUSA, The Advertiser, WTVR-TV, Refinery29 and Business Insider,  WJBF-TV, Raw Story, NBC News, The Daily Freeman, No More Mister Nice Blog, Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller and American Everyman

Former Attorney General Eric Holder lands well

Well, who says being a progressive or should I say in this man’s case; a corporatist, Internationalist Democrat does not pay well?

I will let a well-known populist explain, take it away Jim Hightower:

[podcast]

A snippet of Hightower on the subject, But please, go read the rest:

Novelist Thomas Wolfe famously wrote: “You can’t go home again.” But Eric Holder has proven him wrong.

Holder, who was President Obama’s Attorney General until stepping down earlier this year, recently returned to his old home place – Covington & Burling. Where’s that? Well, it’s not actually a place, but a powerhouse Washington lobbying-and-corporate-lawyering outfit. It runs interference in Washington for such Wall Street clients as Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo – and it’s a place where Holder definitely feels at home.

After serving as a deputy attorney general in the 1990s (where he demonstrated a kind and gentle approach to prosecuting corporate crime), Holder was invited in 2001 to leave his government job and join the corporate covey of Covington & Burling lawyers. There, he happily hauled water for big name corporations until tapped to re-enter the government in 2009 as AG.

The most striking thing about his six-year run as America’s top lawyer was his ever-so-delicate treatment of the Wall Street banksters who crashed our economy in 2008. Despite blatant cases of massive fraud and finagling, Holder failed to prosecute even one of the top Wall Streeters involved. Indeed, he kindly de-prioritized criminal prosecution of mortgage fraud and even publicly embraced the soft-on-corporate-crime notion that Wall Street banks are “Too big to fail” and “Too big to jail.

Lee Fang at the Intercept has more:

The Covington & Burling client list has included four of the largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Lobbying records show that Wells Fargo is still a client of Covington. Covington recently represented Citigroup over a civil lawsuit relating to the bank’s role in Libor manipulation.

Covington was also deeply involved with a company known as MERS, which was later responsible for falsifying mortgage documents on an industrial scale. “Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and several other large banks,” according to an investigation by Reuters.

The Department of Justice under Holder not only failed to pursue criminal prosecutions of the banks responsible for the mortgage meltdown, but in fact de-prioritized investigations of mortgage fraud, making it the “lowest-ranked criminal threat,” according to an inspector general report.

For insiders, the Holder decision to return to Covington was never a mystery. Timothy Hester, the chairman of Covington, told the National Law Journal that Holder’s return to the firm had been “a project” of his ever since Holder left to the join the administration in 2009. When the firm moved to a new building last year, it kept an 11th-story corner office reserved for Holder.

I guess being a corporatist Democrat; all the while kicking dirt in the faces of the working class, the UAW and other labor unions pays well, very well.

I might be a conservative today. But, I have not forgotten my UAW family upbringing and my middle class roots. I also know how the Democratic Party and UAW’s relationship has been frosty since Clinton’s selling of the autoworkers up the river with NAFTA.

It just saddens me, that the UAW does not break from the AFL-CIO’s grip and decides to embrace, at least some sort of conservative populism. Because, quite frankly, the Democratic Party does not give a darn about them anymore. They see the organized labor movement as more of an annoyance than anything else. One that they must give lip service to, in order to get elected. Now, there are conservatives who hate unions; I get that. but they are not the whole of the Conservative movement.

This post and the quote above, is a perfect example of what I have written about in the past; about how the Democrats, when they are running for President, will say, “I am looking out for you!” and all the while they are filling their pockets with money. It is called limousine liberalism. It is basically what the Democratic Party is today.

This is why, that in 2008, I decided that it was time to vote differently and I did. 🙂

 

Mixed feelings about Donald Trump’s comments about John McCain

First what “The Don” said: (via Youtube)

https://youtu.be/Jz0Vgpr8sWg

Now, the reactions:

Montel Williams:

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Jazz Shaw at HotAir:

I will not pretend to know what’s been up with Donald Trump from the beginning of this road show he’s currently on. Perhaps he truly wanted to be President. Perhaps it was all part of his ongoing circus. Only the man himself can know which when he looks in the mirror each day. But this is one gigantic bridge too far. Whether he said that out of ignorance, a desire to cause a stir or – and I pray this isn’t true – because he really feels that way, I am done with him. Completely and absolutely done. Anyone who can allow those words to pass their lips is not fit to command our armed forces and is either too stupid, too oblivious or just too unamerican to serve as President of these United States.

Speaking only as one veteran who survived absolutely nothing compared to Senator McCain, I will close with a simple message. Goodbye, Mr. Trump. Your little show has been entertaining to say the least and, in your own way, you spurred some aspects of the national debate which needed a boost. But the sooner you exit the stage the better. You shall have no vote from me in any election, primary or general.

Now Trump is trying to save face, Via Fox News insider:

Okay, here is how I feel about all of that. As smart of a man as Donald Trump is; he should know, that in politics, the third rail is to insult members and former members of United States Military. It simply does not fly, especially in the Republican Party and in Conservative circles.

Now, as for John McCain? I happen to agree with Donald Trump’s comments about his performance in the Senate and as a Republican and a Conservative. It is true, he did lose the 2008 election, because of his picking of Sarah Palin. My own Mother was willing to vote for him; but because he picked that stupid Alaskan hick Fem-Nazi; she decided against it.

The problem here is this; Donald Trump in his attempt to poke John McCain on his senate record and his record on his handling of veteran affairs, Donald Trump ended up besmirching John McCain’s military honor and service. In Conservative and especially in Republican politics; that is a fatal move and I think Donald Trump either needs to really make a serious apology or leave the race or run as an independent.

Update: Even Joe Cannon at Cannonfire, who I have had issues with in the past; he even says that Trump was out of line. Joe Cannon is also a vet as well.

Update #2: Rupert Murdoch chimes in: (via NewsMax)