Tag: senate

#rsrh The hint of Senate DOOM.

For one brief – very brief – moment this morning the RCP forecast for the Senate (based on the rolling polling average, no Toss-ups) was at +10 GOP.  It then dropped down to +8 and then stabilized at +9.  Which is where it’s been for the last couple of days.

In and of itself?  Meaningless.  The polling average mechanism is merely a data point, and one whose meaning is often argued – particularly now, three weeks before the election.  But it is three weeks before the election, and it is possible to argue with a straight face that the GOP has a chance at flipping the Senate.  There were damn few people out there even six months ago who thought that such a thing was possible, and even fewer that were even willing to admit to the possibility in public.

Twenty-one days.

Moe Lane

#rsrh Moonbeam Brown: cops can’t read!

Legal Insurrection noted this little detail from Brown’s Whore Incident, and it’s well worth noting: Brown doesn’t like him the police departments very much.

Beginning at 3:10 of the audio, Brown and his aides begin a discussion of Whitman’s proposed budget cuts.  A female voice says “Yeah, Jerry, we’ve got to focus on the police chiefs, we got to get them [inaudible].”  Another female voice in the background says “[Inaudible] I just want to make sure we talk about this.”  Brown then says (at 3:20):

“I’m going to hit that out of the park, not that they read.”

Charming guy, huh?  And by ‘charming’ I mean ‘sneering elitist who probably looks down on any person who voluntarily agrees to risk taking a bullet in the pursuit of protecting society.’  Hey, I like to pack a lot of meaning into my words…

Moe Lane

PS: Whitman for Governor.

Coons vs. Coons in ‘Biden seat’ rhetoric!

Compare and contrast:

“It’s often said that this is Joe Biden’s seat. It’s not. It’s Delaware’s seat.”

This would have been a fine statement by Chris Coons (D-CAND, DE-SEN) in last Thursday’s debate*… if only he believed it. You see, one of the people that have often said that the seat in question was “Joe Biden’s seat” is… Chris Coons (D CAND, DE-SEN).

We cannot let Joe Biden’s seat fall into ultraconservative hands…

Olliander (H/T) aptly sums up the entire thing with the title “Chris Coons is a liar who obviously reads my blog:” Continue reading Coons vs. Coons in ‘Biden seat’ rhetoric!

Buck *invited* by Romanoff.

Acts of civility all around, really: Andrew Romanoff (former Democratic candidate for CO-SEN) decently invited Ken Buck (R CAND, CO-SEN) to his birthday party, and Ken graciously accepted that invite.  The birthday party was also a debt retirement party – the Colorado (and national, of course) Democratic establishment of course has no intention of encouraging future challengers to their anointed picks – so Ken’s present was along those lines.  Nothing objectionable about that at all, if you’re reasonable enough to recognize that there comes a time to put down the partisan rhetoric, particularly when the other side is holding out a legitimately conciliatory hand. Nothing objectionable, and perfectly reasonable.

Unless you’re a hyper-partisan Lefty, of course.  In that case, there’s nothing left for you but to mutter dark comments about “party crashers” and mock the losers of your primary.  And if you’re the guy who has to depend on these hyper-partisan Lefties to win, you encourage them by starting a negative ad campaign against the guy who got an invite to a birthday party and had the effrontery to bring a present.

No wonder Bennett’s now losing in the polls, apparently.  Too much time around the Democrat establishment, I wager.

Marco Rubio (R CAND, FL-SEN) brings it.

I’ve got a request for Kendrick Meek (D CAND, FL-SEN). Rep. Meek, please watch this week’s Republican response video by Marco Rubio:

…then show me what you’ve got to match that. Go right ahead and try to impress me. Because I heard that you’re just a legacy Congressman who got his job because your mommy didn’t want her seat anymore – and that you’ve never had to actually fight to keep that seat in a general election – which means that you’re so far in above your head right now that you’re touching the bottom of the pool. But, hey: I invite you to prove me wrong. So wow me, and more importantly, wow the Florida electorate.

If you can.

Moe Lane

PS: Charlie, we already worked out that you had nothing when it comes to facing down Marco Rubio. Now hush: grownups talking.

Crossposted to RedState.

Moonbeam Brown protested at Code Pink shindig.

This report of a lie-in by pro-victory in Iraq protesters at a fundraiser held for Jerry Brown by notorious terrorist sympathizer Jodie Evans highlights a very, very serious set of questions involving not only Brown’s associations, but also his own motivations. The fact that Brown is attempting to get Code Pink’s money like this leads to various questions:

  • Jodie Evans once reportedly told a Gold Star Mother that her son deserved to die in Iraq. Does Jerry Brown agree with her?
  • Evans was a long-time supporter of genocidal mass murderer Saddam Hussein; as recently as the summer of 2008 she was nostalgic for a regime that routinely murdered, raped, and ethnically cleansed its internal enemies.  Is Jerry Brown likewise nostalgic for the days of pogroms and acts of ecocide against the Marsh Arabs?
  • Evans sat on the advisory board of International Occupation Watch, a group that conspired to convince US soldiers to desert.  Jerry Brown: pro- or anti-desertion? Excuse me: “conscientious objection.”
  • Jodie Evans’ Code Pink planned and brought off “protests” designed to attack critically wounded, recovering soldiers and their families.  What method does Jerry Brown use to keep from throwing his drink in Jodie Evans’ face?  Does he need one?
  • In 2009, Evans  helped provide material aid to Hamas in Gaza.  Are some of Jerry Brown’s best friends Jews?
  • As is exhaustively noted here, Jodie Evans and Jerry Brown have had a long, long shared political history.  Where does Jerry Brown differ from her?  Specific examples, please: we already know that he likes her money.

Continue reading Moonbeam Brown protested at Code Pink shindig.

Rubber meeting the road: the 2010 Senate situation.

Charlie Cook is bearish on the thought of the GOP retaking the Senate this year – which, I should note, is a large step up from, say January 2009: back then they were talking about how the Democrats might increase their existing majority in 2010.  Charlie sets up the current situation as follows:

Three open seats currently in the hands of Democrats seem pretty likely to end up in the Republican column this year. Sen. Byron Dorgan’s seat in North Dakota is a goner. Democrats have strong candidates in Delaware (Chris Coons) and Indiana (Rep. Brad Ellsworth), but the strength of the opposition in the former and the toughness of the state in the latter means these Democrats, who might have won under other circumstances, are likely to come up short this time. Watch for both to resurface.

To score a net gain of 10 seats, Republicans would also have to sweep the seven Democratic seats that the Cook Political Report rates as Toss-Ups, taking open seats in Illinois and Pennsylvania and defeating incumbent Sens. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, Barbara Boxer in California, Michael Bennet in Colorado, Harry Reid in Nevada and Patty Murray in Washington. If the GOP came up short in one of those, they would have to make it up by carrying one of the two additional vulnerable Democratic races, claiming the open seat in Connecticut or beating Wisconsin incumbent Russell Feingold. Both of those races are competitive as well.

Here’s the basic problem.  Pick any one of those races listed above, and you can see how the Republican can win.  The trick is winning all of them, or at least ten of them* – statistically speaking, that’s a bit of a stretch.  Said stretch is modified by the fact that the results are not really dictated by random chance, but even so we’ll still have to count on everything breaking our way. Continue reading Rubber meeting the road: the 2010 Senate situation.

Rasmussen: road to 51 no longer runs through CA/CT.

People are paying a lot of attention to the House right now, but there’s something interesting going on in the Senate. And in some ways it should worry the Democrats more.

Let’s start by taking a look at Rasmussen’s state of the Senate races right now:

U.S. Senate Snapshot:
Held/Solid Democratic 48
Leans Democratic 1
Toss-Up 9
Leans Republican 3
Held/Solid Republican 39

Continue reading Rasmussen: road to 51 no longer runs through CA/CT.

Fisher without Bait: tales of the 2Q in Ohio.

The Democrat’s not exactly running rampant, there.

The 2nd quarter results are in for Rob Portman (R) and Lee Fisher (d), and it’s not… actually, it’s quite pretty.  Portman brought in almost three times as much cash (2.65 million vs. 1 million) and has an almost nine-to-one advantage in cash-on-hand right now (8.8 million to 1 million).  I originally got the latter’s details via email: for some reason, Fisher isn’t bragging about his inadequate performance on his own site.  As to whether his campaign’s enervated financial state will translate to a loss this November, well, Fisher’s own pleas from earlier say it all:

“Potential supporters will look at our next contribution report to measure our campaign’s readiness and decide whether they want to step onto the field or sit on the sidelines this fall,” he wrote in email June 29, one day before his second quarter fund-raising report closed.

So true, so true.

Moe Lane Continue reading Fisher without Bait: tales of the 2Q in Ohio.

Alexi Giannoulias (D), call your office.

I understand that the man is desperate to escape to Washington, DC – but the bills are piling up.  And I am not being figurative in the slightest:

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.

“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university – and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.

Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”

Continue reading Alexi Giannoulias (D), call your office.