Ashley Judd is a little too liberal for my tastes, and that isn’t easy to do. But saying things like it is “unconscionable to breed” will make me turn away from you. Nonetheless, I think a 2014 senate race between Ms. Judd and Mitch McConnell would be absolutely fascinating. Yes, she’s mother-skeptical and practices yoga and speaks fluent French. But she’s also married to a famous race-car driver, frequently attends Kentucky Wildcat basketball games, and comes from one of country music’s royal families. Since she lives in Tennessee, she’ll have to establish some residence in the Bluegrass State, but she wouldn’t be relocating from Malibu. She grew up in Kentucky and went to college there.
Before McConnell gets the pleasure of running against an anti-poverty activist who spends half her time in Scotland, he’ll have to fend off any primary challenges from his right. That won’t be easy. Consider what happened with Rand Paul just two years ago. It’s telling that McConnell has hired Rand Paul’s campaign manager. That’s part of his strategy. He also plans on playing the bad cop to John Boehner’s good cop.
What does that mean?
Apparently, it means that McConnell will let John Boehner fashion any compromises over tax and budget issues, and he’ll take a back seat on immigration, too. His theory is that the base won’t rebel against him if he shows absolutely no leadership on or authorship of any negotiated settlements in Congress.
This is going to be problematic in practice, and it is probably hopelessly optimistic. John Boehner has to pass legislation while McConnell only needs to consent to allow legislation to be passed. But Boehner also presides over a more conservative caucus than McConnell. It is much easier for McConnell to give five votes to the Democrats than it is for Boehner to get most of his caucus to vote for something that the Senate Democrats like and that the president will sign.
If the Senate Republicans are going to eschew any leadership and just sit around waiting for Boehner to spit up something that the base pretty much hates, it’s going to be a long two years. McConnell’s strategy just contributes to the gridlock and dysfunction in Congress. And he’ll try to get off the hook by saying, “I didn’t negotiate that deal and I didn’t vote for it.” But if he didn’t filibuster it, he allowed it to happen. The Republican base is going to be miserable as they watch Boehner try to force his caucus to keep the government’s doors open. And they’ll look to McConnell to kill any deals they don’t like.
Does the Republican base like any deals? With this president?
Sitting back and taking no leadership is going to whipsaw McConnell. He is going to get primaried and he is going to get chewed up to the point that he might actually lose to a Hollywood starlet so liberal that even I would have second thoughts about voting for her.
I wonder about some of the other Republicans up for re-election in 2014: could Susan Collins be wing-nut primaried out of office? could Texas become blue enough to make things difficult for John Cornyn?
OTOH, the Democrats will have to defend seats in Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Dakota.
I suppose anything is possible, but the tea party didn’t do well at all here in this last election.
Nor here in Northern Illinois. But that may have more to do with reapportionment. As I watched the election returns, Joe Walsh was doing well until Elgin’s votes cane in and he was slaughtered. Elgin is new to the district and as Blue as Chicago.
Both doubtful, I would think. Texas has another 8-12 years before it reaches (demographically speaking) a tipping point from red to blue.
Maine is a small state, which means a higher percentage of citizens know their senators (know, as in face-to-face, have shaken hands with, have a public connection with). That in turn makes it harder for newcomers/party insurgents to knock them off in primaries. (E.g., Snowe was never in danger of losing her primary this year, had she run for re-election.)
Telling will be how Rep leadership recognizes a progressive trending in the Country in the months to come and factor that into policies.
If the progressive trends see some success and the trend gathers momentum, Rand Paul’s campaign manager will just give Judd power. By the time that campaign rolls into town, the country could just be starting a love affair (sorry too much Petraeus) with Blue.
Just what qualifies Ms. Judd for this office, besides coming from a family of entertainers?
She is qualified according to the requirements outlined in the Constitution.
Whoops, I should amend point 3) with the caveat that BooMan offered in his original post.
Seems to me to be the bare minimum in terms of qualifications. I guess I just have a bias against celebritites with no experience beyond being celebritites running for higher offices.
But everyone’s made good points, so I’ll ponder this while at work today.
That was kind of my point though – personally I would love to see more people who don’t have traditional law or business backgrounds running for public office. I especially think it would be great to have more people who have traveled to poor countries and worked on the behalf of humanitarian efforts in our national government. It provides needed perspective.
I think anyone who meets those stated minimums and is able to run a campaign competent enough to take out an incumbent has a chance at being an effective Senator. Remember that Senators, like Presidents, have to surround themselves with people who can take care of the minutiae of the job. So it’s not like she would be taking care of specific language in the bill, she just has to provide the general direction and goals.
Hell, she’s at least as qualified as Rand Paul, just by virtue of being a sentient being.
True enough. I guess I don’t have high regard for celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger running for office with no experience in legislating on any level.
So what do you think of Sen. Al Franken?
And what exactly were Addison M. McConnell Jr’s qualifications when he ran for senate in 1984?
He was a young deputy AG under Ford and was the goddam Jefferson county “executive” for 5 years. Worked as an intern/staffer in DC for a few years. Never served in any legislature.
So, basically nothing more than the constitutional requirements. But he was a white male, so by definition highly “qualified” haha.
And all Addison has done in his 30 years squatting in the senate is set ever higher filibuster records. That’s his historical significance. A turd that is beyond ripe.
1 She IS not Mitch
2 She is NOT Mitch
3 She is NOT Mitch
4 She is NOT Mitch
5 She is NOT Mitch
6 She is NOT Mitch
what qualifies ANYONE to be a Senator or Representative?
She earned a Mid-Career Master in Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010. Read the link Boo provided.
She has years of work as an activist and humanitarian, in a number of valuable causes. I’m particularly supportive of her efforts at preventing AIDS among youth and controlling conflict minerals. It looks to me that she drills down to underlying causes of humanitarian problems rather than just pushing for palliation. Senators need to know how to write laws, and I expect she’d have good ideas for laws to address those kinds of problems, and the desire to push for them (which is sadly lacking in the current Congress.) If she could get into the Senate she’d be a real asset.
That said, I agree with everybody else that she’d have a very slim chance of being elected in Kentucky. But I expect, as an entertainer and activist, she’d be very good at moving the Overton window. Plus, sometimes lightning strikes – maybe McConnell will get Tea Partied out, or maybe he’ll get caught with a live boy. Wouldn’t you love seeing the “this is a center-right nation” pundits trying to spin Kentucky electing Senator Ashley Judd?
I’ll tell you that when you tell me wht qualifies McConnell.
Given how many Senators there are that are far too conservative for my taste, I hardly see it as a problem were one to be elected that is a little too liberal. It’s not like electing Ashley Judd to the Senate is going to result in PETA membership mandates for all.
Well someone who bothered to publicly support Harold Ford Jr for senate can’t be that much of a bomb thrower.
Only thing I saw that’s a little edgy is the breeding is unconscionable comment. No, more than one breeding event might be, in this era of staggering overpopulation and climate change. I think one is still morally defensible.
Other than that, I’m on board. And it goes without saying she’s a whole lot purdier that the turtle guy.
Well I think what the Duggars and people like them are doing is actually unconscionable and I wish it could be stopped without fucking things up for everyone else. The single greatest contribution to carbon is reproducing. Now granted we need workers for the economy, but 1) we can’t employ the people we already have 2) as time goes on more people will be replaced by robots making the problem worse.
On to McConnell’s actions. It is more important than ever to do filibuster reform. We need to organize NOW to put pressure on senators to change the rules, and support those who are willing to do so.
Rec’d only the second paragraph
Fair enough. Don’t expect my views to be all that popular.
I don’t think she’d win.
But damn, I would love to see the debates.
she’s totally Southern, and I would love to see Turtle Lips try and dismiss her.
McConnell will be very difficult to beat. But he is beatable. Can she beat him with the name “Judd”? It’s gonna take a major misstep for him to lose.
McConnell isn’t what you think. After all, Rand Paul pounded McConnell’s hand-picked candidate into the KY bluegrass in the ’10 primary.
As far as the quote “unconscionable to breed,” I’d just say that I also have no children partially because over population is a huge problem facing humanity. YMMV and by itself has nothing to do with being liberal.
In America, we are replacing ourselves but just barely. Almost all population growth is from aging and immigration. Most of the rest of the world is just aging. Population is about to start shrinking in a massive way in most of the developed world. My brother wrote a book about it.
I don’t know why she thinks breeding is bad. But for a lot of people, it has to do with finances. We can’t f-cking afford it!!!!!!! How are you supposed to raise 2 kids and leave them with minimal debt when they get out of college? Not all of us are trust-fund kids like Matt Yglesias, or otherwise well off like Ezra Klein.
Does everyone have to go to college? I think this is a myth promoted by the colleges. We would do better to have craftsman apprentice programs like Germany. I don’t like how in Germany, the government makes the choice of college or craft for you, but people should have/see the choice. I’d rather see one of my grandkid’s as a skilled IBEW electrician than as an unemployed debtor with a Fine Arts degree. And not everyone has the skills to be a Teacher or Lawyer. At least not a good Teacher or Lawyer.
I totally agree. I also think that this is an economic issue where there is room for a debate between the sides, assuming that good faith debate is even possible at this point.
The idea that everyone needs to go to college is pushed both by colleges and employers, but it’s fueled by the easy availability of credit for student loans. That in turn is fueling soaring increases in college costs and turning a lot of young people into debt slaves.
I think it’s an area where there is a lot of room for reform, and we should start discussing this before the student loan bubble bursts.
How could one forget — you’re back on your nonsense about how we have to keep populating until the planet quits twitching. I had the good fortune to have forgotten about that.
That’s your choice, just like having or not having an abortion is some people’s choice. Are you saying that those who have children are bad, or morally reprehensible? THAT’s the problem, not the choice itself. ]
If one tells the majority of female voters that they are unconsionable for having children, one has ventured into Akins/Mourdock territory.
I think she was answering a personal question, not preaching to everybody else. Not politically profitable, but at this point I find that kind of refreshing.
Refreshing but not smart politics. The opposition will have a field day, fueled by Koch brothers cash.
Personally, I don’t give a damn what she thinks, just how she votes and there isn’t going to be any vote banning conception and birth.
My, My. Somebody got their cheerios pissed in again?
Get off it, Voice. She isn’t going to run and if she did she wouldn’t get past the primary. This is KENTUCKY … not someplace with a sane, logical,liberal contingent in the population.
Get off it, Voice. She isn’t going to run and if she did she wouldn’t get past the primary. This is KENTUCKY … not someplace with a sane, logical,liberal contingent in the population.
What are you trying to say? Who, exactly, would primary her if she did run? Have you not learned how the DSCC and DCCC operate? Besides, she’d be able to raise plenty of money for a run, if she did indeed challenge The Turtle.
No, I have no emotions involved. Just an observation. That’s what I was trying to say.
I hope she can run and scare the Hell out of McConnell. The Judd name could counter a lot. Look what Arnold’s name did for him.
How is she too liberal to vote for? Looking at her Wiki, the only thing I could imagine is the “unconscionable to breed” comment. But that’s clearly a personal decision – she’s obviously not an advocate of forced sterilization or anything like that. I’m sure the educational and pro-contraceptive access measures that opinion would lead her to take would be ones virtually all of us would be inclined to support.
No, but attacking motherhood is a bad tactic for a politician.
Watch the president’s press conference right now, he’s killing it!
Yeah, he kicked Cranky McSame and Mini-me’s ass all over the place.
What’s with this recurrent push for Obama to take Romney into his cabinet? Did Bush offer a Cabinet post to Gore? Has any President in the last 150 years offered a job to his opponent?
Yeah. That was a downer. Now he says Romney is smart and has good ideas. Bullshit. He’s as useless as he ever was. I hope Obama’s just doing the “gracious” dance, but you won. He lost. Get over it. Get over him. If we wanted him farting around in government we would have elected him.
Maybe I’m just cranky because I’m home sick with chills and body aches, but I think the term “Hollywood starlet” is pretty dismissive. Surely gender shouldn’t have anything to do with her qualifications, and she’s got some acting chops, so you could at least call her a Hollywood actor.
you know, I have nothing against yoga or living in Scotland or speaking French or fighting HIV and poverty. I’ve got nothing against Hollywood. But add all that up and it doesn’t exactly spell K-E-N-T-U-C-K-Y.