Weekend Open Thread
Helloooo weekend! I’m planning on staying inside today since it’s cold outside. What’s up with everyone else this weekend? Let’s open this thread!
The bizarre shoe thief case in Newark has been solved and a man arrested. Police think his thefts may go back 20 years.
Newark police say Walter J. Rubincan, 46, is responsible for the well-publicized series of thefts of shoes and photographs of men from university students’ houses last month, as well as dozens of other burglaries.
Rubincan has been charged with 77 counts of theft, 25 counts of second-degree burglary and 15 counts of criminal mischief in 25 separate break-ins, some as recent as Jan. 12 and as early as December 2005.
…
Police found more than 150 boxes of shoes and photographs in Rubincan’s house in the 100 block of W. Cobblefield Court, located in a neighborhood off of W. Chestnut Hill Road, about a mile south of Delaware Stadium.
The Republican purity test failed. The RNC passed a watered-down version instead. My question – will this help the Republicans or hurt them?
The Republican Party steered clear of passing a so-called “purity test” proposed by a handful of conservative members of the Republican National Committee and instead passed a toothless watered-down resolution that “urges” Republican Party leadership to consider a candidate’s record and statements and fidelity to the party platform before providing financial support or an endorsement.
In the wake of the special House race in upstate New York last November where the Republican Party candidate DeDe Scozzafava found her campaign derailed by conservatives, several RNC members proposed the idea of passing a resolution where GOP candidates would have to agree to eight out of 10 stated policy positions before being eligible for support from the RNC.
The proposal, initially drafted by Indiana national committeeman James Bopp, was met with strong resistance by state party chairs concerned about such a one-size-fits-all approach. This week, RNC Chairman Michael Steele made clear that he, too, opposed the proposed resolution.
That sent members of the RNC scrambling to come up with an alternate proposal that could win the support of the full national committee. At a time when Republicans are feeling bullish about capitalizing on their victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts at the start of this midterm election year, nobody seemed interested in putting the intra-party rift on full display.
I think some Republicans realize that the recent winning candidates: Christie in NJ, McDonnell in VA and Brown in MA didn’t run as hard right conservatives but more as moderates. Brown even announced that he may vote with Democrats sometimes (playing the Mike Castle game).
Tags: Open Thread
The purity test will not help the Republicans, but it will help the conservative movement and corporations. Here is what I mean:
When Democrats inevitably mis-play and squander their mandate (as they are already doing), and voters throw the bums out, voters will turn to Republicans as an alternative. Republicans will eventually come back into power by default, not through any merit of their own. And when they do come back into power, the purity test will assure that the Republican “accidental majority” is teabagger-pure, ready for a fresh assault on the Treasury and the Supreme Court (and on random hapless sovereign nations).
Mike Castle brazenly shows up to give away more money he voted against:
LOL, Dada-ist counter-protest of Westboro Baptist Church.
LOL – “I HAVE A SIGN” I love it.
“Ceci n’est pas un sign”
GOPer Jud Bennett of Lewes has a great takedown of Christine O’Donnell out today, detailing problems with her financial report filings and floating a tale of how she (may have?) crashed the bash at Vicmead.
Nancy posted it here: http://delawareway.blogspot.com/2010/01/jud-bennett-writes-who-is-christine.html
That’s it – at the next WBC protest I’ll do that sign in German – “Ich habe ein Zeichen” – priceless.
I always like when colleges take pledges for each minute that WBC stays to protest and then the pledges are donated to gay friendly organizations – nice way to counteract their hate as well.
For what it’s worth, a firm that has worked for Chris Coons in the past – Kennedy Communications out of D.C. – just registered chriscoonsforsenate.com on Thursday.
I’m torn. On the one hand, their client list includes Democratic thought leaders like Tom Carper and Joe Lieberman. Which makes me think that big Pharma is hedging its bets.
On the other hand they worked with Markell and Joe Lieberman, so I guess they know how to win.
chriscoons.org and chriscoons.com and chriscoonsforssenate.com all now redirect to chriscoons.com, the site used for his county exec campaigns. It’s been replaced with an odd background image and pretty text. So expect an announcement today.
The “anon newbs” have a Coons confirmation up that hits on those URLs:
http://de2010.com/us-senate/racoons-in-the-coons-camp/
Heheheh… chriscoons.com now reverts to his county exec campaign site, but chriscoons.org and chriscoonsforsenate.com both still go to the other site. someone noticed that people are noticing!