Here’s your morning buffoonery:
“Republicans have chosen extremists to be their nominees, and this has changed the political map of the cycle,” said Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “In a year where Republicans want these races to be all about Democrats, Republican nominees who have extreme positions help us make the contrasts we need to make.”
The first part of the quote is fine. The second part of it is wholly superfluous. I don’t want to hear about how the Republicans running extremists helps anything, let alone Bob Menendez to do his job. This is as serious as a heart attack and Menendez reduces it to a strategic error.
Meh. I wouldn’t get my panties too bunched up about it. I think the bottom line is that there has always, always been a far-right extremist element in this country. The major development – as far as I can see it – is that the GOP became so weakened and so thoroughly lost the center of the country (mainly due to the Democratic Party’s having steadily moved rightward itself) that the tea baggers have had some success in taking it over. If in fact these extremist candidates get their asses handed to them in the general elections – as I suspect they will – this simply provides a stronger motivation for those economic interests who ultimately care about and have the wherewithall to influence the GOP to rethink their strategy. The bottom line here is whether the percentage of Americans holding truly extreme views has in fact increased significantly – controlling for surrounding circumstances (in particular, a lengthy and serious recession). I’m not convinced that it has. I do think that these people have become energized by having a national platform in Faux Noise, the Palin Show, etc. But I’m not at all sure they are winning hearts and minds. They may in fact be driving more people into the arms of more moderate forces.
I don’t know. I just think it is not entirely fair to fault Menendez for seeing the situation the way he does. The rise of the Tea Party is not necessarily sympomatic of a rise in right-wing sympathies overall. And consider the age and ethnicity of the Tea Party and the demographic trends in the nation as a whole. I think. Or maybe I just hope . . . .
Menendez and Van Hollen have been worthless running this campaign cycle. They did not pursue a 535-seat strategy (yes I know only 1/3 of the Senate is up) in recruiting candidates. They left some key crazies unopposed – Louis Goehmert is most egregious case. Are there no Wright Patman Democrats left in East Texas?
They did not provide resources to the right people to avoid calamity (ex. they flushed a lot of money down the toilet supporting Blanche Lincoln and Arlen Spector, even if it was vote buying Lincoln has repaid it with the back of her hand). They did not ensure that their chosen candidate won the primary in South Carolina, for example. And the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts is a major failure caused by their inability to get the Boston machine on board.
The have lucked out in Kentucky, Alaska, and possibly Delaware by the Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party, but they don’t seem to be able to exploit this through their actions in Congress.
And worst of all both seem to be conciliatory to the idea of cutting Social Security.
The don’t realize that acting like winners can be the key to winning.
Both are buffoons. Which is why it will take that much more work at the grassroots to turn out the vote and defeat Republicans in spite of Menendez and Van Hollen.
And nothing will improve in the House because Debbie Wasserman Schultz will take over the DCCC next.
My point is that although the DSCC and DCCC can muck up the works, that local involvement in primaries and in ensuring general election victories can affect the composition of both the House and the Senate. The bottom line is fewer Republicans. We are fighting for that bottom line in this election.
Cases in point. In Illinois, Delaware, New York, and West Virginia, there are special elections to fill the seats once held by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Robert Byrd. If you live in any of those states, it is important that Republicans not be able to win these seats as they did in Massachusetts–regardless of Menendez’s incompetence. Because all four of the winners of the special elections will be seated after the election in the lame duck session instead of waiting to January. The most vulnerable of this bunch is Alexi Giannoulias. Whether Christine O’Donnell or Mike Castle win in Delaware, Chris Coons must win this seat to keep it a Democratic seat. In addition, with Mike Castle running for Senate, it is possible for Democrats to get a pickup of the Delaware at-large House seat. The same is true of Mark Kirk’s seat in Illinois. Illinois is complicated by the fact that the seat will be on the ballot twice; once for the two months left in Burris’s term and once for the next six-year term. GOTV campaigns for Giannoulias will have to alert Democratic voters to this; this is not something that Menendez is expected to do.
Menendez is awful. Howie has been talking about this for a while. The New Jersey Democratic Party is one of the last vestiges of the old political machines. It can’t die fast enough.
Who is the farm team in New Jersey? Menendez is awful and Lautenberg is old. The same goes for the New Jersey House members. Where is the farm team that can defend Democratic seats and pick up Republican seats in 2012?
Rush Holt.
Who backfills his seat if he runs for Senate?
Paul Krugman lives in the district. So do all Princeton professors. Plenty of talent.
But he’s the only one .. Rob Andrews is only in the House because of a corrupt “machine” .. what about the others? .. and is Cory Booker going to challenge Christie in 3 years?
Tarheel…
I spend a fair amount of working time in NJ…all over, from Newark and Union City right on through the Englewood-type upper middle class ghettos, the sprawling middle class commuter suburbs and the more rural areas as well. I eat in the diners and local delis. I get gas in the gas stations. I somtimes take local busses from NYC and back. Rail, too. I walk from pubic transportation to my gigs sometimes. I look and I listen. 8, 10 blocks can tell a whole novel of a story to the right observer.
Dem farm team?
Ain’t none.
Not really.
Why?
Bottom line? Not enough committed Dems. Less and less every year, as the recent election of that fat, transparently crooked fuck Christie testifies.
The class stratification in NJ basically goes like this:
White working class/middle class/”ethnic” working class (read working class Italian, mostly): Scared shitless these days. Going Republican faster than anyone can possibly imagine because they have bought into the pounding national anti-Obama (read anti-minority) hype.
Like dat.
White upper middle class/very wealthy: Always Republican except for the Jewish sectors of that group. Bet on it.
Hispanic working class/growing middle class: Includes many illegals. Also includes many people who are not voting because their English is very limited. Actually the most upwardly mobile group in the entire Northeast corridor. Their neighborhoods are working and they working. Low wages? Yup. But the hustle is on. Eyes on the prize. Bet on that as well. But vote? Not so much.
A truly horrific situation in the urban black population: There is a strong black middle class as well…solidly Dem…but numbers? Not enough. And the scuffling urban neighborhoods mostly look like war zones. Been there. On foot sometimes. In Newark. In Paterson. In Camden and Trenton. The victims of the last 20-30 years of gentrification in the bigger cities. Generations two, three, and even four. A nasty, nasty situation.Too busy trying to survive to be counted upon as a large voting bloc. That’s the way it rolls…
There are other groups…a sort of rural, farming/make-money-offa-the-tourists-on-the-shore white old-line townie sector. Straight Republican. And of course the Atlantic City bunch. Ewwwwww!!! And a very prosperous Asian (Mostly Korean near NYC) population as well. But no real numbers. Not enough to make a voting difference, anyway.
Unless a miracle happens, you can write off NJ over the next several years. The old Dem Party is a melange of crooks interspersed with a few honest urban reformers and there simply is no “new” Dem group unless you count Corey Booker in NJ and some few other successful honest minority pols…all of whom are in political trouble because of the economic situation.
NJ?
Dems?
Ain’t workin’.
Fuggedaboudit.
Sorry…
AG
Exactly why I raised the question.
I don’t think that Princeton can swing the whole state. So you’re stuck with one good representative if you’re lucky.