Month: October 2010

#rsrh I did not vote for Barack Obama.

I note this to distinguish myself from Ann Althouse and Joe Sudbay, as both of them did.  I regretfully point this out with regards to the former, if not necessarily the latter; I’m as exasperated as she is that the President is being hypocritical when it comes to DADT, same-sex marriage, and pretty much everything else that falls under the category of ‘gay rights.’  And I suppose that I have a certain detached sympathy for the way that the questions that Sudbay asked on this topic were generally answered by the rhetorical equivalent of the metal end of a belt to the face.

Very detached.  As I’ve already noted, I didn’t vote for the man, and Sudbay belongs to a site that likes to reflexively blame Republicans for everything from the eventual heat death of the universe to the general lack of the McRib sandwich.  I’m not about to pretend that I’m a Buddha or anything.

Moe Lane

Via Cynthia Yockey, who I believe also didn’t vote for Obama.

#rsrh My OTR statement re Brian Baird.

I don’t give a tinker’s dam what a man who voted for the stimulus, cap-and-trade, & Obamacare does or does not think about good governance, and neither should you.  And neither should the incoming bumper crop of freshman Republican Members of Congress, particularly since many of them are getting into office in large part because of the moral cowardice of people like Brian Baird.

Go home, Baird: raise your kids, have a good life, stay out of politics from now on.  Can you do that for the Republic?  Great, thanks, don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.

Moe Lane

PS: Jaime Herrera for WA-03.  Grown-up.

#rsrh PJTV dresses down Comedy Central.

To quickly set the scenario: Comedy Central seems to be under the strange delusion that it can control media access on public lands with regard to their infotainment special today, despite the fact that the rules pretty explicitly says that they can’t. J.P. Freire of Pajamas Media seems almost eager to have somebody try to stop his team from filming today:

It does seem a bit incredulous that a rally for “reasonableness” should exclude freely based camera crews exercising their First Amendment rights to cover your attendees walking on public property. Unless this is Prague in 1968. And unless Comedy Central own tanks. Or unless it deploys a Comedy Police with enforcement powers.

On the other hand maybe I got this all wrong…I thought you were merely trying to be clever when you said it was a rally for fear. If is that, then I certainly understand your attitudes and rules.

If the network is dumb, it will try to stop people from filming today. If they do, it will not end well for the network: there’s going to be plenty of groups out there who will be willing to fund the court challenges. In other words, I offer this as sincere advice: fighting this isn’t worth the hassle, Comedy Central, especially since you’re wrong. Let it go.

Moe Lane

DO YOU WANT THIS AD ON THE AIR?

A 30-second version of it, at least?

The race is MN-04, Betty McCollum versus Teresa Collett, and Hot Air reports that the national committees have already pushed all of their chips into the center on other bets. No reserves left, because they were too starved of cash to have reserves in the first place. All of you know my opinion about that, but we’ll save that conversation for the next election cycle.  For right now, all ye “I directly support the candidates” types: it’s pedal to the metal time.  Go here and give.  Now: this is a last-minute situation, to take advantage of a last-minute gaffe and maybe crack open a race assumed to be out of reach.

And before you ask: yes, I contributed.  So you have no excuse.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Wow. We* broke Keith Olbermann.

He’s been reduced to making fart jokes about Andrew Breitbart’s name.

No, really:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lHUwa7SIZDA

No snark added. I mean, seriously: Olbermann’s making fart jokes. On the air. In prime time.

:pause:

I got nothing, sorry.

Moe Lane

*And by ‘we’ I mean the Right.

#rsrh Meek: Crist tried to bribe me with Jesus.

I’m paraphrasing.

Florida independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist personally lobbied Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek to exit the race this week, offering him a cross that had been a gift from his sister, Mr. Meek said Friday.

Slightly.

(Via Hot Air)

Moe Lane

PS: And at an AIPAC meeting, too. Bet that raised a few eyebrows.

PPS: Crist apparently likes to call people at 4 AM and ask them to drop out of federal-level races. Just in case you were wondering if this guy could get any creepier.

PPPS: And yet the Democratic party wants him over Meek.  What the heck is the next self-destructive behavior pattern for that party’s leadership?  Cutting?

PPPPS: RUBIO.

Phil Hare (D, IL-17) lies about corn growers’ endorsement.

You know, in some ways I’m going to miss this miserable ignoramus, once he’s gone: Phil Hare’s such a marvelous chew toy, and the ones that I had expected to be savaging this season were unexpectedly unsatisfying.  Alan Grayson?  Too slimy; I wanted to take a shower every time I saw him in the news.  Carol Shea-Porter?  The room-temperature IQ problem made it kind of unsporting.  Okinawa Jack Murtha?  Died on me.  But Hare (and Russ Carnahan, who I will also kind of miss smacking around) has been reliably bad since he first hove into view.

His latest goof-up?  Claiming the endorsement of the Illinois Corn Grower’s Association, only to have the ICGA explicitly contradict him in public. Needless to say, the Bobby Schilling campaign – which will not miss Hare in any way, shape or form – was happy to point this out… and to point out that people don’t like career politicians for a reason.

The Schilling campaign also has a van, of which they are very pleased:

I mention this because, again, they are very pleased with the van.  And with their last campaign ad, which can be seen under the fold.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Phil Hare (D, IL-17) lies about corn growers’ endorsement.

#rsrh Will the GOP take the Senate?

…I don’t know, ladies and gentlemen.  To more or less quote Wellington: it will be a close-run thing; a damned close-run thing.

Here’s the situation right now (and I’m not bothering with links):

  • There are not going to be any Democratic pickups.  New Hampshire, Missouri, Ohio, & North Carolina have faded; Kentucky was never as endangered at it looked, and after Conway panicked last week and threw that ridiculous attack ad, the election was effectively over; and Florida is even now melting down for the Democratic candidate.  Let’s not even bring up Alvin Greene.  Net change: 0.
  • Arkansas, Indiana, and North Dakota have been conceded to the Republican party.  Net change: +3 GOP.
  • Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are approaching that status.  Sestak has been reduced to using dog feces as a campaign prop and Feingold is practicing his narrative for the 2012 primaries.  Net change: +2 GOP.
  • Colorado, Illinois, and Nevada are all going to be tight races: but neither Giannoulias nor the two Democratic incumbents have been able to knock down their challengers.  We’re going to hear about the ‘margin of cheating’ at least two of these races, but I’m saying that the trend goes our way.  Net change: +3 GOP.
  • That’s +8 GOP, or 49 Republican seats.  We need two more for the majority; for that matter, merely having one more will make the Obama administration personally responsible for every unpopular piece of legislation that comes out of the 112th Congress.

California. Connecticut.  Washington.  West Virginia.  I’d argue any one of those, for admittedly different reasons in each case; can we get two of them?   …Maybe.   And if we do only get two, one of them will pretty much have to be Washington state.  It’s the one closest in terms of vote percentages, and the other three are too disimilar to each other to really be part of any kind of common trend, unless the common trend is DOUBLE-DOOM.  Because we’re already in DOOM territory here, honestly.

Moe Lane

Cook’s DOOMList: 10/28/2010 edition.

This may be the penultimate DOOMList from Cook with regard to the House: it’s the Friday before the election and there’s just not much time left for tracking the ongoing Democratic party’s synchronized mass career implosion.  Which is not to say that more extinction events won’t occur, but there’s a limit to how fast Cook can write them down.

Candidate District Ranking Challenger
Costa CA-20 Toss-Up Andy Vidak
Boyd FL-02 Lean R Steve Southerland
Marshall GA-08 Lean R Austin Scott
Minnick ID-01 Toss-Up Raul Labrador
Frank MA-04 Lean D Sean Bielat
Pingree ME-01 Lean D Dean Scontras
Heinrich NM-01 Toss-Up Jon Barela
Bishop NY-01 Toss-Up Randy Altschuler
Open TN-08 Likely R Stephen Fincher
Ortiz TX-27 Lean D Blake Farenthold
Connolly VA-11 Toss-Up Keith Fimian
Larsen WA-02 Toss-Up John Koster

I mildly regret to say that the latest readjustments included three that favored the Democratic party – two of which were to the benefit of Democratic incumbents.  It is regrettable to see any Democrat slip from our fingers, of course… but looking  at the list above, I think that we’ll all bear up under the crushing disappointment, somehow.  Particularly if Barney Frank continues to spiral inward…

Moe Lane (crosspost)