Month: October 2009

So, basically, if you’re a Democrat in debt…

…from your last campaign, relax: the Online Left is a soft touch for that sort of thing. Happened with Bob Miller (remember him?); and now it’s happening for Rep. Alan Grayson.  I heartily agree with my colleague Brian Faughnan on this one:

I heartily endorse the idea of Democratic donors giving generously to Grayson’s Congressional campaign. It might enable Grayson to repay some of the $2.6 million he loaned his campaign last cycle. And as Grayson’s personal net worth is somewhere north of $31 million, it’s not likely to make a dime’s worth of difference in how much Grayson spends next year, nor on whether he wins or loses. It will however, sop up some donations that might have made a difference in other targeted races.

Tells you something when a candidate doesn’t need an opponent* to get an opposition website, complete with donation page. Tells you something more when Cook upgrades your seat from “Leans Dem” to “Toss-up.”

Moe Lane

PS:

*Keep watching the skies on that one, by the way.

Crossposted to RedState.

Tweet of the day, lgf edition.

From Jim Treacher, via Tim Blair, via AoSHQ.  This is either going to be the funniest darn thing you will read all day, or you are going to scratch your head, befuddled; there is no middle ground.

Personally, I am more or less indifferent to the Charles Johnson saga: his demolishing of Dan Rather’s professional career aside (a rather big aside, admittedly), Little Green Footballs never really seemed part of the GOP/conservative ‘sphere,’ except by default.  Plus, he was always just a touch too shrill about Islam for my liking – and, honestly, I had him privately pegged as being motivated by fear after 9/11, instead of anger.

But he’s melting down entertainingly.  Although I do feel sorry for his readers, a lot of whom are trying to figure out what the heck is happening over there.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Cops = Thugs to Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D, NH).

Oh, Carol.  Why does she keep making us point out her lies?

Portsmouth PD: Shea-Porter was removed from Bush town hall by two police officers

Two officers of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department removed Carol Shea-Porter and Susan Mayer from a February 2005 town hall event hosted by then-President George W. Bush at the request of the owner of the property, a spokesman for the Police Department tells NowHampshire.com.

The revelation contradicts statements made by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter as recently as this week that she was not removed from the event.

“[T]here were no disruptions and no rudeness and I wasn’t removed. If it happened, don’t you think there would have been photos or video or news stories from that day? There aren’t because it didn’t happen,” Shea-Porter told the Portsmouth Herald this weekend.

Or because they went quietly enough, and weren’t notable enough then, to justify either.  The ‘thugs’ comment mentioned later in the article is more of a problem; it’s just not credible to imagine that Rep. Shea-Porter would not have recognized police officers as being police officers, given that this statement is an official one from the Portsmouth PD.  So: either Shea-Porter was lying (being also unaware that the police keep records of this sort of thing), or she thinks that cops are thugs.  Given her affiliation with the antiwar movement, I’m going to assume the latter.

Now, it’s not just affecting Rep. Shea-Porter, or her crony Mayer (who, as the article notes, is now taking in about 70 grand a year on the taxpayers’ dime*), or even the people who are stuck with trying to explain away every contradiction and evasion that Shea-Porter makes.  It’s affecting the people of New Hampshire’s First District, who honestly don’t deserve this kind of amateurism from their Member of Congress.

So: Frank Guinta for Congress.

Moe Lane

*This antiwar thing worked out great for those two, didn’t it? Personally, that is.

Crossposted to RedState.

Add Garrison Keillor to the ‘Kill Off Republicans’ List.

(Via AoSHQ) I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to get a little tired of this.

…one starts to wonder if the country wouldn’t be better off without them and if Republicans should be cut out of the health-care system entirely and simply provided with aspirin and hand sanitizer. Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order.

You’ll notice that this doesn’t come with a corresponding tax forgiveness. I hadn’t realized that Keillor had a hankering to bring back slavery; well, live and learn.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

DNC preparing to cut Creigh Deeds loose?

(Via The Campaign Spot) Not that they would ever, ever come out and say so – but when the one truly hopeful poll that one’s had in months for a particular campaign reverses itself the next time it’s taken again, well.  Let’s just say that a handy excuse would be… handy.

The bad poll news comes on the heels of a story circulating in Democratic circles today that the Democratic National Committee is reportedly holding on to its $5 million financial commitment to the Deeds campaign out of concern that the Deeds campaign has focused too much of its attention on the controversial Bob McDonnell 1989 grad-school thesis setting out a hardline social-conservative political agenda for his budding political career and not enough on putting down a framework for what a Deeds administration would do for Virginia.

That’s so clever it’s almost diabolical. Remember: Deeds is the guy that the national party had the least preexisting ties with, so there’s less people to offend here.  And telling him to come up with a new campaign narrative may sound reasonable – until you remember that we’re down to one month before the election. Also, five million dollars is suddenly looking like a lot more money, in this era of anemic Democratic fundraising; obviously, spending it on an election is what it’s there for… but throwing it away on an election is usually not considered smart.

Again, there’s no possible way that the DNC will ever admit that they’re going to cut Deeds loose.  They’ll in fact angrily deny it.  But ask yourself: in their shoes, would you be throwing good money after Creigh?

Moe Lane

PS: Bob McDonnell for Governor.  It’s the only way to be sure.

Crossposted to RedState.