Jaime Fuller takes a look at the results of last night’s primaries and concludes that the Tea Party is losing, and losing badly.
Meanwhile, our nation’s most famous witch, comes to a different conclusion:
I have to side with Christine O’Donnell here. The best you can say for the Republicans is that last night could have certainly been worse.
In Kentucky, almost a hundred thousand more people turned out to vote for Alison Lundergan Grimes than turned out to vote for embattled Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. About 50,000 more Democrats turned out than Republicans, despite the fact that the Republican race was the only one that was seriously contested. That’s partly a reflection of the Democratic Party’s registration edge in the Bluegrass State, but it’s still a surprisingly weak performance for the GOP.
And, while it might be true that the Democrats were hoping to see a closer result in McConnell’s race, that hardly matters. Grimes will have to deal with McConnell’s brutal slash-and-burn campaign tactics, but she’d rather run against him and all his money than against a fresh face. Let’s remember that thirty-eight percent of Kentucky Republicans agree that McConnell has been in Congress for too long, and that he has an overall 34%-56% approval rating that is scarcely better than the president’s numbers.
In Georgia, the Republicans probably nominated to two least-objectionable candidates, but they still have their problems. Both Jack Kingston and David Perdue ran far to the right to ward off their crazier opponents. Perdue is inexperienced and gaffe-prone. And Kingston has been in Congress for two decades. Plus, they will now begin savaging each other for the next nine weeks while Michelle Nunn has the field to herself.
Out in Oregon, the Republicans nominated a pro-choice woman to take on Jeff Merkley, but apparently she’s a stalker who has freaked out both an ex-husband and an old boyfriend. It’s not clear to me how badly these revelations will hurt her, but this is not what the Republicans were envisioning when they recruited her.
In Pennsylvania, the Republicans cannot be encouraged by the performance of Tom Wolf, who won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in a walk. Governor Tom Corbett appears to be among the walking dead.
I’d also note that the latest poll out of Mississippi shows Tea Party challenge Chris McDaniel leading longtime incumbent Thad Cochran.
It’s not all good new for the Democrats, but their Senate candidates are tied or leading in every race outside of South Dakota and West Virginia. Regardless of how the Tea Party fared last night, things don’t look quite rosy for the GOP.
This race was never seriously contested. Bevin never had a chance. He won Pendleton and Scott counties out of 120. He lost by 25 points. But it sure allowed Mitch to spend 8 months fundraising by pretending it was.
Having said that, party affiliation doesn’t matter jack shit here when it comes to federal races. There will be hundreds of thousands of registered, lifelong Democrats who will vote for Mitch then “that Grimes woman”. Count on it. He wins by double digits because the assholes out in coal country all blame Obama for everything shit in their lives, and they will take it out against Democrats in DC for decades.
The one national Democrat these cracker assholes will vote for? Hillary. Grimes? Not going to happen.
That Grimes Woman isn’t federal, she’s state – she’s running for a federal position, but her background is all in-state. I believe she wins in the end – barring a Willie Horton incident – but either way the margin will be way less than double-digits. I’ll put a bottle of Double-Oaked Woodford Reserve on that – I’ll be at the Democrats victory party in Louisville on election night if you want to meet and drink up.
KY may have elected McConnell and Paul to the Senate, but their current governor is a Democrat that got KY to accept expanded Medicaid and the KYNect enrollment program was ready for real people to use on day one.
Linking Mitch McConnell and Ron Paul is like linking…ohhh, say the Joe Lieberman of yore and Bernie Sanders. They are both nominally in the same party but they are at opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Which political spectrum? The one that starts with the PermaGov and ends with a real democracy.
AG
LOL.
Despite his occasionally heretical vote, Rand Paul is that 79th least progressive member of the Senate. McConnell rates 92nd, which is largely because he’s been covering his right flank for two years.
You’re either delusional or you only care about the few areas where Paul and McConnell disagree.
So delusional that he never sees the “R” behind the Pauls names.
So delusional that he ignores the permanently available slot in the GOP line-up for the Pat Buchanan wing of the party.
So delusional that his definition of “hero” includes men too chicken-shit to form their own “Old White Guys’ liberation Party.”
I am not “delusional,” Marie2.
Check out my sig.
Malcolm meant that. I do too.
I don’t care what letter appears behind a candidate’s name.
You do, apparently.
More collectivism.
RatPubs are always wrong.
Ron Paul pinned this game on the floor House of Representatives 7 years ago.
You…and all of the kneejerk leftinesses who are not already looking very hard at what the Paulists are saying today…are as “racist” as is the meanest Deep South peckerwood who ever drew breath. You have simply substituted political affiliation…and to some degree, class and geographic location… for race. Same with kneejerk conservatives like Boehner and McConnell. You are all responsible for the immovable grudgeocracy under which we now live.
There is a new coalition gathering steam here, Marie2…left, right and center. Some of the wisest progressives are beginning to speak up.
Why…here’s one now!!!
Nat Hentoff
Once again, for good measure:
Y’oughta listen, Marie2. Ignore this gathering movement at your own peril, and at the peril of the country as well.
Bet on it.
AG
So if Ron Paul isn’t a racist, why does he want to whitewash the Confederacy?
Those that worship Ron/Rand Paul don’t even concede that the Pauls are Republicans and that they agree with their party on most matters.
You want Ron Paul to “want to whitewash the Confederacy.”
Big difference.
Watch.
His son is going to make some waves before he is through. At worst, his candidacy will force the RatPubs to move towards his stated goals. At best? The sky’s the limit. Then all you leftinesses will be able to take a page from the rightiness birthers, etc. and try to smear him using total bullshit for paint.
Just like them.
Ah cain’t wait!!!
AG
Dude, this was something you posted yourself the other day. Ron Paul was being interviewed by Tim Russert, and he was spouting some neoconfederate garbage about how the Civil War was unnecessary and Lincoln should have just bought the slaves. Don’t you remember?
What does “whitewash the Confederacy” mean to you? Given the racial under and overtones of the very word “Confederacy” it means to me “Return the southern states to their white supremacist roots.”
Ye Gods, man!!! Ron Paul was advocating an economically prosecuted end to slavery rather than a war that killed hundreds of thousands and left bad feelings in the defeated states that linger to this day.
An end to slavery!!! Not a return to or continuation of white supremacy.
“Neoconfederate garbage?”
More leftiness dog whistle words.
It worked elsewhere.
It wasn’t tried here.
So it goes.
AG
Wow, so you’re even willing to defend that. You really are dense.
Seriously, though, you missed the point of my link. It was tried. You know who else besides Ron Paul thought an economically prosecuted end to slavery was a good idea? Abraham Lincoln. That’s why he proposed compensated emancipation. The answer was No.
So Ron Paul’s comments are garbage, first of all, because they bear no relationship to the historical record–compensated emancipation was not a real possibility, Lincoln did not start the war, his initial intention in prosecuting the war was not to end slavery but to preserve the Union, etc. etc. etc. (Seriously, read a fucking book. I would recommend Battle Cry of Freedom.) And they’re neoconfederate garbage because they exonerate the slavedrivers by painting Lincoln as the aggressor.
Oh, why am I bothering? Now you’ll just say he’s right anyway because waka waka PermaGov WTFU.
Bet on it.
Rand Paul’s support of voter ID laws is one of his many pernicious policy positions which would “Return the southern states to their white supremacist roots.” The Pauls want to completely gut the Great Society and New Deal programs. Those programs vastly reduced severe poverty in the U.S. and created much more proportional representation in our elected officials. The Reagan Revolution, proudly supported by Ron Paul, has been reversing those positive trends for the last 35 years.
As we can see, AG is fooling literally no one with his evasive claptrap.
I am so sick of this kneejerk gibberish.
Read the news.
NY Times:
AG
Arthur, this was fakery on Rand’s part. Rand SUPPORTS voter ID laws. He and the leader of his PAC admitted it within 48 hours.
“In terms of the specifics of voter ID laws, Sen. Paul believes it’s up to each state to decide that type of issue,” (Paul’s PAC leader) Stafford said.”
http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/rand-pauls-voter-id-flap-bogus/#pEw1BWQhWgt0imXx.99
“Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said he was saying that Republicans shouldn’t make voter ID a primary issue in this year’s elections. The GOP should take note that many black voters fear that voter ID is actually an attempt to suppress minority voting, he said.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Rand-Paul-voter-ID-suppression/2014/05/13/id/571162#ixzz32bE85EHT
In that notorious Howard University appearance, he even chastised African-Americans for complaining about voter ID.
Here’s a question for you, Arthur: do you believe that the voter ID laws that have been proposed and passed in several States will have the effect of disproportionately suppressing the votes of minorities and other voters who lean Democrat?
You quote:
This is consistent with Rand Paul’s stance on everything related to the federal government primacy/state government primacy question. Advocating state’s rights is not the same as advocating white supremacy, centerfielddj.
You also write:
“Notorious.”
“Chastised.”
The leftiness dogwhistles are clearly being sounded here.
I watched that entire appearance and I saw no hint of chastisement in his words or in his bearing. I also do not see that appearance as having become “notorious” as far as the general run of Americans is concerned.
You do.
So it goes.
I give Sen. Paul a narrow but rapidly expanding chance to win the RatPublican nomination despite massive opposition from the PermaGov right. If he does win all bets are off, because no matter how many dogwhistles are sounded by the corporate-owned government media complex…the undeniably anti-Paul positions of which over the last 20 years or so is proof to me that Paulism is in no way palatable to our corporate overlords, by the way…no matter how many anti-Paulist dogwhistles are sounded the American people have become thoroughly disenchanted with both political parties as they stand today. If business as usual is offered by either party and its opposite number offers the chance of real change, the change party is going to win. If both parties offer only business as usual…rightiness, centrist and leftiness versions thereof…the Big Fix will have once again worked its Blinky Palermo-like magic here and the U.S. will continue its seemingly inexorable slide into disintegration and decay.
So that goes as well.
I personally see the whole flap about “voter IDs” as a massive insult to the intelligence of poverty-level/working class-level voters of all races. We are all often asked to produce our driver’s license or some other form of state or federal picture ID to transact the most prosaic forms of business….bank withdrawals, plane trips, proof of age for certain purchases, etc. Assuming that many minority or economically-challenged voters will not possess proof of their identity in the U.S. and thus be robbed of their right to vote is asinine on the face of it. Sure, the bigots want to use that a a lever to minimize minority votes. They’re bigots, so that means they are stupid right out front. They imagine that they are living in a past where minorities were so ostracized from society that something like that would actually work. Them days are gone forever, centerfielddj. Forever.
I believe that Big Government has reached…overreached, actually…critical mass and is now beginning to implode as a result. So does Rand Paul. I also believe that in the long run, states’ rights would result in an end to racial prejudice through the application of natural economic sanctions. States that legislated against the rights of given races would suffer catastrophic economic consequences because those against whom the laws were aimed would eventually pack up and go where they were free to be productive citizens. So would many people who disagree with apartheid of any sort. A brain, labor, and consumer drain would come into operation and those states would either adjust to the truth of the matter or fall into total disrepair.
You do not believe this.
Once again…so it goes.
We shall see, soon enough.
I think that the U.S. is headed for a real sea change over the next decade or so.
Which sea change?
There’s the real question.
Down into a technologically enforced fascism or up into real freedom from corporate control?
Like I said…we shall see.
Four years ago Ron Paul was dissed nationwide as a “flake.”
Now?
His son and ideological successor in many respects?
From the leftiness Huffington Post:
Hmmmmm…
And the change continues.
AG
“I personally see the whole flap about “voter IDs” as a massive insult to the intelligence of poverty-level/working class-level voters of all races.”
Has nothing to do with intelligence, and has everything to do with Republican State Legislatures and Governors making it more difficult for voter blocs which typically vote against Republicans from voting, and NOT making it more difficult for voter blocs which typically vote for Republicans to vote. For example, in Texas the most recent law prevented people from using a student ID to vote, but allows the use of a gun license to vote. See what we’re identifying here?
“We are all often asked to produce our driver’s license or some other form of state or federal picture ID to transact the most prosaic forms of business….bank withdrawals, plane trips, proof of age for certain purchases, etc.”
There are tons of poor neighborhoods which are redlined by banking institutions. One of the things which created the cancerous growth of payday lending institutions in low-income neighborhoods is that there are millions of Americans who cannot realistically obtain a bank account; they need to cash their check elsewhere. Also, you do NOT need photo ID to board a plane.
“Assuming that many minority or economically-challenged voters will not possess proof of their identity in the U.S. and thus be robbed of their right to vote is asinine on the face of it.”
It’s not an assumption: it’s a clearly identifiable fact. Approximately 10% of eligible voters in the U.S. (around 20 million eligible voters) do not currently have photo ID. Some work multiple jobs to eke out a living, but the vast majority conduct lives which are limited in scope. They don’t drive because they or are unable to drive or can’t afford a car. They don’t have a bank account because they don’t have money and/or a bank willing to set up in their neighborhood. Many people are severely handicapped or infirm, which makes it difficult for them to get out of the house very much at all. These people should not have obstacles to vote manufactured and thrown in their way.
Arthur, Voter ID laws and other voter restrictions are ENTIRELY partisan exercises. Doesn’t that bother you? Don’t you remember this from Pennsylvania in 2012?
…”House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, made the remark Saturday at a meeting of the Republican State Committee in Hershey.
“…Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor [Mitt] Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2012/06/26/Turzai-s-voter-ID-remark-draws-criticism/stories/2
01206260143#ixzz32gStoJpb
And what about this, from last week?
“Spokesman Christian Olson told The Associated Press that (Arkansas GOP candidate for Governor) Asa Hutchinson forgot his ID when he attempted to vote at the polls in Bentonville on Monday. Olson says a staffer was able to retrieve the ID and bring it to Hutchinson so he could vote.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_05/just_send_a_staffer_for_that_v050446.php
Finally, I can’t let this one go:
“I also believe that in the long run, states’ rights would result in an end to racial prejudice through the application of natural economic sanctions.”
You do realize this was the essential argument of the Confederacy, right? Slavery should be allowed to stand in the Southern States as an alternative economic model which God himself sanctions. (Oh, yeah, they leaned really hard on that last part.)
Also, you casually toss aside this part: WHAT ABOUT IN THE SHORT RUN? Allowing States to re-establish Jim Crow is fine, because those States will eventually fall “through the application of natural economic sanctions”???
My God, that is awful. Morally monstrous.
In fact, Rand’s fakery is right there in the Times story.
“The senator has had his own struggles with civil rights issues, hedging at times on his support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And, notably, he did not on Friday denounce voter ID laws as bad policy or take back previous statements in which he had said it was not unreasonable for voters to be required to show identification at the polls. He says these laws should be left to the states.”
I think it is fascinating that you consciously chose to
—snip—
that paragraph.
Don’t you?
Lest we forget.
This Civil War Revisionism crap is easily refuted – the record shows that the motives for secession were not economic, but clearly racial. Old Ron Paul can spout off about bailouts for slaveowners all he wants – but it was never going to happen, except in some fantasy worlds. Nor was “capitalism at its finest” going to wave its invisible hand and make slavery go away.
Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman were never in the same party; a good example of your fact-free approach
AG never lets facts stand in the way of his spewing Paulista talking points …. sort of like the USSR commissars of old, the truth isn’t relevant to the talking points he pushes.
Wikipedia:
Close enough for me. He’s a Dem in Independent’s clothing. Probably good for winning in VT politics. He’s no dummy.
The point still stands.
If he runs…do you really think that he means to win? I don’t. He might do it in order to be able to debate HRC, and the only way that will happen is if he runs as a DemRat.
AG
Yes, an independent socialist caucuses with the Democratic Party. What else would he do, within the context of the current system. Maybe it would be different if we had a parliamentary setup. But we don’t. So, yeah, if you are a socialist (card-carrying or otherwise), get elected to a public office, and actually want to get something accomplished for your constituents, you will caucus with one of the two major parties. There is not a snowball’s chance in the Sahara of Sanders caucusing with the GOP. At least he has some overlap in interests with the DP, and he does make an impact.
yes, and Sanders is not a democrat. if “all intents and purposes” and democrat were equivalent Sanders would register as a democrat. and “independent” is not a party. Seems to me Arthur Gilroy extrapolates on the basis of his experience without assessing the limitations of his experience. the fact that he won’t listen to criticism or correction and takes all differences of opinion as a sign his interlocutor is asleep doesn’t help. At least, thanks to someone’s comment – Seabe’s? centerfield? I finally learned what the stupid rooster is about
and he’s not a democrat. but that’s how your fact-free approach works “for you they are in all intents and purposes the same” means you ignore the facts of actual differences that don’t fit your idea. To be fair, I think you extrapolate on the basis of your own experience, but without actually looking for facts you go way off base
Kentucky is weird like that, though – it keeps a Democratic governor and a couple Republican senators. That’s not absolute but it is a significant trend that aligns with the kinda/sorta nature of Kentucky, the state that couldn’t make up its mind on the Civil War, where you can get grits or sweet tea, but often not both.
I’d like nothing more than to take you up on that offer, Oscar.
Boone County Nobama country has me awfully pessimistic tho.
I dunno, Zandar, have you watched her speech from last night? Skip to the 11 minute mark and watch her talks issues.
Yup. She’s a fighter. McConnell will have his hands full.
‘Bout time.
AG
P.S. I dunno who’s funding her campaign, but it sounds like she’s ready to take on Obama, too.
‘Bout time squared.
She’s a fighter?
Bullshit, Arthur. Complete and utter bullshit. She’s ducking on Obamacare and now calling on VA Secretary Shinseki to resign even though Mitch McConnell made himself an easy target by filibustering a Senate bill in February to fix the VA along with 40 other Republican hypocrite assholes.
She can’t even get the low-hanging fruit at this point. I know I shouldn’t expect anything better than Joe Manchin from a Democrat in this state, but it pisses me off to see her confirm it.
I didn’t say that she is the new standard bearer for liberalism, Zandar. I said that she’s a fighter, and I also said that McConnell will have his hands full. Like any aspiring pol in this cesspool of a system…including Ron Paul…it appears to me that she is choosing her battles. I hope she sends McConnell to the tarpits of political history, myself.
You?
Yes, she’s ducking the ObamaCare mess. It’s a deadly candidate anchor in many states. Why? Justifiably? It depends on your political understanding, I suppose. Its runout was abominably handled and it gave the RatPubs yet another tool w/which to attack their frenemies, the DemRats. With the recent addition of the Phoenix (and elsewhere) VA scandals…those are just the tip of yet another melting imperial iceberg is my own guess…and the legs that the whole Benghazi thing has shown to possess they now have a three-pronged attack plan in action. Those three points ought to be enough to use well into the primaries and beyond if they play their cards right. They are not strong attack points because of any implicit truth they may contain, they are strong attack points because Obama and his staff handled all three of them very, very badly from the get-go. As a result he has been put in the position of being seen as a totally inept manager whose underlings were hired on the basis of anything other than competency and/or an equally totally inept manager who didn’t stay abreast of what was happening in his own company. All he has to do is screw up one or two times more and the Senate will be RatPublican-controlled in 2016. If that happens, then the shit is really going to hit the fan.
Watch.
AG
He wins by double digits because the assholes out in coal country all blame Obama for everything shit in their lives, and they will take it out against Democrats in DC for decades.
LOL!! You did hear Grimes “speech” last night, right? Grimes was angry about “Obama’s war on coal.” Which is down right insane. Obama was a friend of coal when he was a Senator of Illinois. The only war on coal is being waged by the free market, of all things.
So, apparently taking advantage of an infirm woman suffering from dementia is a way to boost your credibility with the GOP. Glad to know it.
.
“I’d also note that the latest poll out of Mississippi shows Tea Party challenge Chris McDaniel leading longtime incumbent Thad Cochran.”
Which poll BooMan?
Poll listed is funded by Citizens United Political Vistory Fund. Highly contentious, looking at the polling data. The poll also indicates McDaniel was still unknown to many participants, up to 30%.
the polling company, inc./WomanTrend on behalf of CUPVF
Survey of 505 GOP Primary LVs in Mississippi – TOPLINE DATA – Released May 19, 2014
Conservative Honors List:
Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway is Founder and President of the polling company, inc./WomanTrend a privately-held, woman-owned corporation founded in 1995.
Any reports on how the boiled rabbit turned out?
Ms. Wehby has these crazy eyes that were apparent in her commercials. Because Oregon has mail-in ballots most people voted for Wehby before the stories on her several stalking events came out this last weekend. She still hasn’t talked to the press about her romantic problems. Some men find crazy eyes and passion are a good thing in a candidate.
Yep and some men think using a portion of their anatomy other than the brain – see also Palin, Sarah.
Any third person in the race who might get 2-4% and force those two assholes to keep campaigning against each other in a run-off?
Woohoo GA GOP senate contest means that two of the dumbest and nastiest members of Congress, Reps Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, are history. (Charles P. Pierce may miss them; the rest of us not so much.) Not that either district that elected such crazies are likely to vote in anyone sane, but possibly the craziest (teabagger, what else?) in the 10th District primary, Slowinski, came in dead last among the six running.
Cochran may lose his primary just because he’s been in office a long time and is old. Or …