Good for them. Free Market Capitalism at work. Baseball Harley Davidson and Mom's apple Pie (not necessarily in that order). If I could keep a straight face I'd find a way to scam the suckers too.

And Yo! It's Teabagger. Tea. Bag. Ger. And yes, it does have something to do with that last sentence.

So let's see. Frank Rich hates good old-fashioned American entrepreneurialism, thinks conservatives are stupid, and is racist and misogynist. That should take care of that.

The irony here, of course, is that what Steele and Palin are making is chump-change compared to what real insiders make through partnerships, directorships, and consultancies, all without causing the slightest ripple. These clowns are just a distraction.

I really hope Obama's Saturday speech, and his rumored speech Monday in Mass, are a sign that the White House has wised up and is going to pillory the country-clubbers for a while, rather than focusing on the crazies and the clowns.

Steele and Palin are indeed chump-changers. The next step up from them is the Becks and Limbaughs making tens and hundreds of millions. From there one could go to Murdoch making billions. But the real money driving the Republican party lies in the oil industry and the military industrial complex. Those two are the heart and soul of the Republican beast.

The scolding scribblers queue has been delayed before the mighty concerns that perhaps it is all to common pointing out the blindingly obvious . Right wing Extremism in the pursuit of cash is no vice . Let me remind you also that moderation in right wing pursuit of cash is no virtue .

"quite a bit of money for themselves"

Well honestly - isn't that what "conservatism" is all about?

Yes, Steele and Palin are small-timers. But that can be useful if it helps make people further aware of the giant scam that is modern American conservatism.

Well in some cases further aware.

To expand on my comments on Robertson below, which relate here as well, don't think the current Republican Party is being driven by 'corporate interests.' They are merely hanging on to the tail of the vicious beast they have unleashed -- and many of the 'new Radical Religious Right' hate them as well.

But stories like these are, in fact encouraging. Todays RRR reminds me of the Second Klan, not the one many of us think of from the 50s and 60s which was 'merely' anti-black and anti-integration and limited to the South. The second Klan was Nationwide, Protestant, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-evolution, and pro-'morality' of the classic Bible Belt type. It has chapters in every State -- portraying itself as another 'social group' like the Elks and Masons. It had elected Senators and Governors -- not just in the South but in the Midwest. And those of you who know of the famous 104-ballot 'deadlocked convention' of 1924 which could not decide between McAdoo and Al Smith may not realize that the 'point of dispute' was whether the Democrats would denounce the Klan -- when many delagates were supported by it or were actual members.

What destroyed it, and what may destroy the new RRR, were just this sort of financial scandals -- there were sexual scandals as well, but they haven't worked so far because the 'new Klan' is not one organization but a coalition of many, and the fall of a Haggard, an Ensign, etc. simply moves the next and worse group of leaders to the fore.

The aforementioned right wing profiteers represent the incarnation of the Barnum Bros. here in the early 21st century!

Cynicism is the gruel of the Republican party these days! -Kevo

The fact that fundamentally ignorant people like Sarah Palin and Michael Steele can exploit their positions to make millions of dollars for themselves should not distract us from the danger they would pose if they achieved positions of real, national responsibility.

I can't decide whether America is a great country because it affords tremendous opportunity to people with modest intellectual accomplishments or whether this is our national Achilles heel. When ignorance reigns our leaders make decisions based on emotion, fear, bigotry -- our lowest common denominator. Rule of law goes out the window and is replaced by expediency. Public service is supplanted by self-service.

The result of all this is administrations like the one led by George W. Bush. We can't afford anything remotely like him again.

Here, what you see is Conservative INC. in action, emptying the "base" of its increasingly empty wallets.

Tea partiers hate the G.O.P. establishment and its Wall Street allies,
No, only the dumbest pwn tools, the marching morons, hate Wall Street Allies - and only some of them. The controllers are very much supportive, even derivative, of Wall Street and the financial manipulators who so easily take advantage of roping rubes into Faux-populist movements. But there is a genuine anti-WS streak out there that we should make some careful common cause with.

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Mark McCulloch