I don’t consider it any better (really) when Michael Bloomberg spends his money on something I support than when Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers spend money on things I don’t support. So, reading Kos’s crowing about Robin Kelly’s magnificent victory in today’s special election made me feel somewhat ambivalent. Kos has a right to take credit. His community was a real difference maker in that primary, at one point making up 85% of Kelly’s donors. But when he says “I can’t wait to see what we, our progressive allies, and Bloomberg’s Super PAC can accomplish next year,” it makes me cringe.
This special election was held to fill the seat vacated by the disgraced Jesse Jackson Jr., and it turned on the candidates’ records on gun violence. I support stronger restrictions on gun ownership and ammunition, so I am 100% behind Robin Kelly and am excited about her victory. I am very happy that the NRA got smoked tonight. As far as I am concerned, that organization has transformed itself into some kind of Hale-Bopp death cult. In fact, I am considering sending Wayne LaPierre (at my own expense) one five-dollar bill with three 25 cent pieces, a black shirt and sweat pants, and one pair of vintage black-and-white Nike athletic shoes. He can secure his own arsenic and cyanide.
But I don’t like making common cause with Bloomberg even if he is right on this issue. There are a lot of things that Bloomberg is wrong about, and there is an important principle involved here. Billionaires shouldn’t be able to throw their money around our political system and decide who wins and loses elections. So, fuck Bloomberg’s Super PAC. I hope Kos understands what I am saying here. You want to fight on the same side with Bloomberg on this issue? Fine. But please don’t forget to point out that what Bloomberg is doing should be highly illegal and carry a long prison term.
Were you against the POTUS rejection of public financing in 2008?
And I don’t consider Kos an ally anyway. He’s a party hack. Which is fine, but it’s not someone I’m going to keep company with.
When did Kos get added to the DNC payroll? Did I miss where he’s getting a check from Soros?
He’s not on the payroll.
I know, that was the point.
If you need to see what I’m talking about, just look at his bullshit petition on Sec. Defense. He is willing to forgo ideology in favor of the Democratic candidate. Maybe it was in this one instance in this specific context, but Kos is dedicated to party over ideology. Which is fine…he’s not like Paul Begala at least…but it’s still someone I’d like to keep my distance.
Rusty isn’t on the GOP payroll and frequently goes against the Establishment. It doesn’t mean he’s not a GOP hack.
Okay, I’m in my forties now so I am certainly not as hip as I used to be, but who’s Rusty?
I am assuming he means Rush Limbaugh.
He is willing to forgo ideology in favor of the Democratic candidate.
What ideology? What ideological principle has Kos abandoned by supporting Hegal?
I think you’re being the partisan here: no matter what Hegal believes, you’re against him because he’s a Republican.
Erm, Kos opposed Hagel, and had a petition against him.
As I recall, that was mainly based on the “Don’t appoint a Republican Daddy” argument, which, despite its merits, doesn’t really have anything to do with ideology, and is explicitly partisan.
Again, what ideological principles does Hagel violate?
It’s like you have what I said completely backwards. Exactly, it has nothing to do with ideology, and was explicitly partisan. That’s the point I made…
Yep, you’re right. I got all turned around by the fact that a Democratic President was the one making the nomination.
He’s a party hack? Is there a third party out there? I’m not his biggest fan anymore but it seems to me he goes against the main powers of the Democratic Party a lot.
Honestly, I have only a vague recollection of what I wrote (or thought) about Obama foregoing public financing in 2008.
But what you have to understand about that is that Obama was attempting something that progressives had been saying was possible for years. He was building an army of small donors and training up an army of community organizers. He didn’t forego public financing because he wanted to take more corporate money. He raised plenty of corporate money, but the game-changer-the thing that distinguished him from Kerry, Gore, or either Clinton, was that he was busting the limits because he had so many committed supporters. Obama didn’t need money from the government because he was getting it from ordinary people directly.
McCain was not.
So, I would have been happy to cap donations any way you want to look at it.
well Bloomberg advocates for gun control probably because he doesn’t want the global .1% to be afraid to spend time in NY. still he’s the entitled who “rammed lifting of term limits down nyers throats (to use the teapublicans’ favorite phrase) “
And Christine Quinn went along with him on extending the term limits…
Just today, I’m seeing where Chris Christie has been rejected by C-PAC and “Transvaginal” Bob McDonnell is getting ex-communicated by Erick “Son of Erick” Erickson for accepting the Medicare extension in exchange for McDonnell’s transportation bill.
God forbid a Republican governor.. govern.
I’m not interested in anything else Bloomberg is selling, but I agree with him on gun safety, so where we can work together, fine. I think Bloomberg is sincere on the issue. Doesn’t mean I’ll support his independent 2016 Presidential bid.
Republicans are so wedded to strict ideology, they can’t maneuver policy-wise. And we’ll see how well their party can hold together in the sequester/budget battle coming next month. Big Tent party should be able to work with someone with mutual interest on the issue.
As a VA resident it’s interesting to watch this go down. That tea party stuff doesn’t really fly in NOVA or Hampton given all the government jobs. So it’s always a fight between “real virginia” and us “commie pinkos” up north.
If politics is a game you play by the rules even if you disapprove of them and are trying to get them changed. It isn’t hypocritical to play by rules you publicly oppose; you do what you can to win, and then you change the rules as you said you would once you get the chance.
Dems probably have to play the superpac game to win back congress and then they can legislate to restrict their activities – although you have to doubt that any legislator will vote to restrict his funding options…
The bigger issue is whether Obama gets to make any more SCOTUS appointments.
Bloomberg, Joel Klein, and Michelle Rhee are trying to buy a seat on the LA school board.
I’d be more worried about the damage Obama is doing.
Obama is screwing up the school boards? That rascal!
His education policy during his term was quite bad for a Democrat.
Maybe in 2024 the Democrats can do better.
Decently progressive taxation would take care of this problem. Nobody would have all that extra money sitting around, waiting for something to do. Like buy an election.
Is that they will throw behind the most plutocratic, fuck the poor, pro Wall Street, Randian billionaire assholes in a second provided they check the right boxes on social issues and throw money at them. That’s one of the reasons I really don’t think of Democrats, or even progressives, as the party of the poor or even the working class. It’s a party of the upper class, that just happens not to be full of bigots.
Notice how they will boycott in a second of gay rights issues, worker abuse, not a chance (see Chick-fi-la vs Amazon)! Goldman Sachs, why they are the corporate face of the HRC and one of the most progressive places to work.
This sort of nonsense happens time and time again. And it’s one of the reasons right wing populists can point out that when it boils down to it, Democrats are kinda full of shit about giving a crap about the working class. We do, up till there are social issues to champion and then we sell them out in a second and side with the worst of the plutocrats to get things done, and it always comes at a price… right out of the hides of the poor.
It wouldn’t shock me if in a few years other people wake up and realize part of the reason the Democratic party is so damn neoliberal and nothing can be done about it is because we sided with these assholes time and time again for social issues while selling off the New Deal, with Kos and others cheering along the way.
This isn’t the way, neither was billionaires pushing gay marriage through NYC and then right after the minimum wage didn’t go up, taxes on the rich didn’t go up, and paid time off wasn’t put in… there is a reason it worked out like that.
I’m thoroughly disgusted that a New York billionaire gets to decide who Represents Illinois. He could have just as easily chosen Debbie Halvorsen or Mel Reynolds to be his Charlie McCarthy. He can create and he can destroy. Robin Kelly represents only Michael Bloomberg.
This is not about issues or ideology or partisan politics. It’s about democracy.
Debbie Halvorsen was nothing more than a pseudo-Republican.
Mel Reynolds is a convicted sex offender.
Robin Kelly was more than qualified and had over a decade of proven experience for that district.
SERIOUSLY, you think if the NRA had done 2 million of ads for Halvorsen, it would have paid dividends in that district?
SERIOUSLY?
BooMan back on the beam.
I was glad Robin Kelly won.
But, why do people act like Bloomberg’s ads were so swaying.
It’s a majority Black district.
Black folk, even those who support the Second Amendment like me, have little to no respect for the NRA.