Moe Lane

The ratings drain, that is. He went down the rhetorical, ethical, moral, and mental health drains a while back.

Yes, all at once. On a Zodiac. With the engine redlined.

Anyway:

Olbermann averaged 268,000 viewers last month in that sector. That’s just several thousand sets of those eyes more than Campbell Brown over on CNN. According to one count, Keith even finished in that time slow behind Nancy Grace. Nancy Grace!

And she’s on Headline News, Headline News, the repetitious TV channel the repetitious TV channel inflicted on all U.S. airline travelers within any boarding area around the clock so that when, at least an hour late, each person is finally crammed into plane seats between professional wrestlers, they actually feel relieved.

In case you haven’t guessed yet, Keith Olbermann isn’t precisely on Andrew Malcolm’s Christmas card list, either. and that’s not even the nastiest thing that he wrote…

Moe Lane

Now that the Illinois primary is over, we can show you the official GOP candidate for IL-11. Meet Adam Kinzinger:

(Donate to Adam Kinzinger here: he’s trying to raise 10K by 02/10/10.)

Adam’s a fiscal conservative, military veteran (Air NG, served overseas), and pro-life; his hobbies include toppling incumbents in elections, advocating smaller government, and subduing would-be knife-wielding maniacs with his bare hands. His opponent, Debbie Halvorson, is best known for folding like a cheap suit over cap-and-trade, then running and hiding over health care rationing like most of the rest of the supposedly ‘moderate’ Democrats in Red Districts. IL-11 is a R+1 district, so check Adam out.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

(H/T: @sorendayton) You know, I noticed during the run-up to the Illinois Senatorial primary that more than one Democratic activist expressed worries about a Giannoulias primary win.  And why were they worried?

Pretty much because of what you’re about to see.

Welcome to Chicago.

Moe Lane

PS: Mark Kirk for Senate.

Crossposted to RedState.

Paddy West, The Clancy Brothers;Tommy Makem

I know a slightly different version of this one.

List extrapolated from here from Reid Wilson:

…and the reason that you can tell that they’re worrying is because everyone on that list commissioned a poll in the last three months of 2009. Reid explains why this is interesting:

Some political professionals advising their clients have told them to hold off conducting polls until this 3-month period, when the health care debate calms down. Dems saw a demonstrable drop in support during the final half of the year, thanks to health care, and polling during such a turbulent time gives unnecessarily worrying, or inaccurate, results.

Which last may or may not be true; but it still begs the question why these fourteen are worrying. Aside from the fact that they’re all in competitive districts.  And that all but one of them is in a race rated as competitive.  And that more than half of them are already at serious risk of losing their jobs.  And that it’s turning out to be a bad year to be an incumbent Democrat.  Other than that, no worries, yes?

Yes, ‘worry’ is an interesting word, ‘isn’t it?  It originally meant ‘to strangle,’ you know.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s that time again.  Short version: RNC above DNC, DNC took a big cash on hand hit, NRSC over DSCC in the biggest shocker, NRCC/DCCC more or less the same, DCCC has a big CoH advantage, and blessed if I know how much any of this means, post-Citizens’ United and post-Brown.

(more…)

He’ll probably survive.  More or less.

I should go make lunch.

Megan McArdle says that this post may help those opposed to health care rationing understand what supporters of health care rationing are going through right now. I would say that this post is probably better-suited for helping you discover the proper level of Deep Hurting and existential despair of the Other Side; at least, it gives more entertainment possibilities.  I’d say at least Level V, myself.

Moe Lane

PS: Bad karma?  Sparky, I’ve had my Level II Punch in the Gut.  I’ve had two, in fact: they were called the “2006 and 2008 election cycles,” and I’ve spent four years that I could have more personally profitably spent on roleplaying game design theory helping to build political firewalls, instead.  I’m not saying that I’m an expert on karma, but trust me: I’ve gotten some exposure to it.

This unpopular:

RICHMOND, Va. — With five Democrats defecting, the Virginia Senate today passed a Republican measure that says Virginians don’t have to buy health insurance.

Voting 23-17, the Democratic-controlled Senate kicked to the House a bill by Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, that supporters say will send a message to Washington about its efforts to overhaul the health-care system.

(Via AoSHQ Headlines) The bill should pass the GOP-controlled House of Delegates with no trouble, and likewise be signed into law by the Republican Governor, and will probably be used as ammo for a lawsuit by the Commonwealth’s Republican Attorney General, should he need it…

- Hey, remember when Virginia was inevitably going to be going Blue for unto the next six generations?

…so it’s interesting that five vulnerable state Senators broke ranks on this bill to vote with the Republicans.  It’s also interesting to consider the implications that this bill – whether substanstive or cosmetic – has for, say, Democrats in the US Congress.  Like Gerald Connolly!  Hi, Jerry!  Quick: what do you think of this legislation?

More importantly, what does your district think of this legislation?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Maybe, maybe not – but when Tom Jensen feels the need to start his preview of the Senate race in Arkansas with the sentence “[w]e are going to have Blanche Lincoln-John Boozman numbers tomorrow* and they aren’t pretty for Lincoln” you can be reasonably certain that they won’t be giving out free kittens and ice cream at the Arkansas Democrat party HQ in celebration of the news.  The general impression that I’m getting, in fact, is that when it comes to November the difference between Lincoln and other potential Democratic alternatives is going to be mostly in seeing how far the rubble bounces…

Moe Lane

*This was written yesterday, so expect the news sometimes Tuesday morning.

Brilliance, I say. And it is called…

AXE COP.

Why more people don’t do this is beyond me.

Via Nodwick.

Matty Groves, Fairport Convention

This is what we call a catalog of poor life choices. On everyone’s part: that’s how you know that it’s an authentic folk song.