#rsrh Pretty good week for Bobby Schilling (R CAND, IL-17).

This would be the guy running against two-termer Phil Hare – who, I have just recently found out, had pretty much just inherited his seat from the previous incumbent (Hare’s former boss), and who was coasting on that for 2006 and 2008.  Good luck for Hare then, bad luck for Hare now, huh? In other words; don’t assume that this guy will have to be pulled out of his district like a rotting tooth.

Anyway, Bobby Schilling‘s Good Week:

Continue reading #rsrh Pretty good week for Bobby Schilling (R CAND, IL-17).

Chris Matthews brings DOOM unto Jack Conway.

Yes. That Chris Matthews. Matthews apparently did not personally approve of the way that Jack Conway smeared Rand Paul with a recent scurrilous ad, and so took the opportunity to smack Conway around for over seven minutes of pretty much relentless, aggressive interviewing.

Yes, again: that Chris Matthews. As I remarked just now on Twitter, watching this was like watching Jack Conway get mauled by a Teletubbie.

H/T: Erick Erickson, on Twitter.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Rand Paul for Senate.

PPS: I believe that the DSCC may now start transferring money out of that race with a clear conscience.

Why the GWOT is not an issue in the midterms.

Via Hot Air Headlines, Tom Brokaw does not understand why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not looming issues in this year’s election; or, indeed, really issues at all.  He doesn’t bother to even try to answer the question, himself – apparently, Brokaw decided that his wordcount was better suited towards the production of ponderous melancholia – but fortunately I’m here to explain things to him.

In order: Continue reading Why the GWOT is not an issue in the midterms.

#rsrh QotD, King of Kings Edition.

Mickey Kaus looks upon the works of Obamandias, and despairs:

Now I’m scared! What yesterday’s comments suggest isn’t just that Obama will get clobbered in the midterms. It suggests that after he gets clobbered he won’t be able to adjust and turn the setback into a longterm victory the way Bill Clinton did. Clinton reacted to his 1994 midterm loss by acknowledging his opponents’ strongest arguments and pursuing a balanced budget and welfare reform. Obama seems more inclined to just tough it out until the economy recovers and the scared, confused voters become unscared and see the light. Meanwhile, he’ll spend his time in a protective cocoon.

The context here is that the President is blaming the upcoming shellacking at the polls on the American people being too scared to think straight.

(pause)

Yup.  That’s what he said… Continue reading #rsrh QotD, King of Kings Edition.

Democratic Death Panel Watch: October 18, 2010.

  • Looks like Harry Teague (NM-02) has outlived his usefulness: the DCCC is pulling funds out of his race and throwing them at Martin Heinrich’s in NM-01.  This is probably due to Teague’s recent fading in the polls against challenger Steve Pearce, which is apparently being helped along by revelations about Teague’s canceling of his own private employees’ health care plans.  It’s also interesting that the DCCC thinks that Heinrich needs the help; apparently Jon Barela is worrying them more than they let on.  Cook rates this race as [Toss-Up, and NM-01 as Leans Democratic.]

The DCCC has also picked four new races to try to build its latest firewall:

Continue reading Democratic Death Panel Watch: October 18, 2010.

#rsrh Harry Reid has a problem.

His problem is that passages like this:

Someone got up and announced that Sharron Angle would speak next, because she had a plane to catch. Angle is a small woman, a sixty-one-year-old grandmother with a broad, open face, a toothy smile, and red hair worn in a pageboy. She has a friendly manner and a firm handshake, along with a set of basic political skills that Harry Reid lacks. These include the ability to chat pleasantly for a minute or two and then tactfully extract herself, and to say what she stands for quickly, with real passion but usually without seeming odd or threatening.

…and this…

Although [Harry Reid] first ran for office at the age of twenty-eight and he is now seventy, he is still strikingly bad at the public part of his job. His voice is soft, with little resonance. When he’s talking to someone, he has a habit of looking down instead of into the person’s eyes. His gestures on a podium are awkward hand chops.

…and this:

Two years ago, Reid published an autobiography, “The Good Fight,” written with the assistance of Mark Warren, of Esquire. Like the autobiographies of Reid’s Republican colleague John McCain, it was meant to “humanize” (as they say in politics) a top-ranking official who had a reputation for being hard to love. But what shines through is Reid’s lack of the natural gregariousness and geniality that most people associate with the political personality.

…are showing up in what are supposed to be puff pieces about him. Continue reading #rsrh Harry Reid has a problem.

‘I will not be shaking his hand tonight…’

That will probably be the most quoted line from the Rand Paul / Jack Conway debate last night, and for good reason: it represents a rather drastic line in the sand drawn against the scurrilous and vituperative wave of attacks made by progressive Democrats desperate to keep their tottering Congressional majorities.  The video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz53WkDY8H4&feature=player_embedded

What Dr. Paul is referring to is this exceptionally offensive and cynical attempt by the Conway campaign to provoke religious bigotry in Kentucky voters.  As Ed Morrissey noted at the link, one of the things that made said ad so… pettily nasty… was that Conway not only attacked Paul’s personal religious beliefs; he went after Paul’s opposition to funding faith-based initiatives.  Given the way that progressives in the last decade had gone after such things hammer and tongs themselves – at least, when there was a Republican in office – I think that we can safely assume then that their opposition was a flat-out lie. Continue reading ‘I will not be shaking his hand tonight…’

Book of the Week: The Silence of the Lambs.

Yes, the series got wonky, fast – but The Silence of the Lambs was itself a darn good book. Better than the one that it was a sequel to, frankly.  And it spawned a rarity: a movie that was pretty much as good as the book, without having to throw out everything except the title and the character names.  That’s not that common, really.

And so… hopefully I’ll see you soon, The New Annotated Dracula.

Moe Lane