Tuesday Open Thread
Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your semi-daily open thread. I had a bit of excitement this morning – my power went out. Luckily it came back on an hour later. It’s always great when your power goes out on the hottest day of the year.
Sharron Angle is perhaps my favorite wingnut candidate this year. She is following the Rand Paul guidelines for nutty candidates – don’t talk. She’s taken it even farther, though. She’s now suing Harry Reid’s campaign to keep him from publishing the materials that was on her own campaign website.
There was no real mystery here — in the wake of Angle winning the nomination, it was time to scrub the site, removing content that made the GOP Senate hopeful look nutty. The campaign team did exactly that, taking three weeks to meticulously remove all references to Angle’s stated plans to scrap Social Security, abolish the Department of Education, crack down on immigration, expand offshore oil drilling, etc. Sam Stein and Elyse Siegel noted that a review of the old and new Angle campaign sites shows “dramatic, fundamental shifts in her policy platform.”
Not surprisingly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) campaign believes the public might find Angle’s stated, published agenda educational, so it re-published the Republican candidate’s original issue positions online for voters to see.
In response, Angle’s lawyers threatened a lawsuit, demanding that Reid’s campaign not show voters what Angle has said she believes.
Sharron Angle has resorted to an unusual maneuver to counter Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attacks on her past quotes and positions, the Reid campaign has announced: A cease-and-desist letter, demanding that Reid no longer republish Angle’s previous campaign website.
As Angle’s lawyers argued in their cease-and-desist letter, Reid’s campaign team was misusing copyrighted materials by re-publishing Angle’s own website.
Angle and Paul are striving to be the first candidates in history to avoid press coverage. Good luck with that winning formula!
Until last year, the Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky, had no African American members. Now lifetime member and 6th Congressional District Republican nominee Andy Barr is finding himself in the awkward position of explaining his connection to what was until very recently an all-white club — in the middle of a hotly contested election campaign against incumbent Rep. Ben Chandler (D).
Politico‘s Alex Isenstadt reports the Republican’s campaign has confirmed that Barr — a top-tier NRCC “Young Gun” — and his family are “active in the club.” As the Lexington Herald-Leader reported last year when former Kentucky college star and NBA player Sam Bowie was accepted as the club’s first black member, Idle Hour has “remained a symbol of exclusivity and old divisions based on race and class in Lexington” even as the state has become more accepting of diversity in the workplace and private life.
Oops. This may be a bigger problem than just the country club membership. Andy Barr also has a “Rand Paul” problem.
Beyond the clearly negative implication that Barr was an active member of a discriminatory country club, the flap also sheds a new and potentially damaging light on Barr’s refusal to discuss Kentucky GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul’s views on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Back in May, a progressive blogger in Kentucky caught up with Barr and asked him to weigh in on Paul’s controversial statements that the Act may have gone too far when it required private businesses to cater to minorities. (It should be noted that in the same interview, Paul mentioned his disdain for remnants of segregation, highlighting in particular the fact that all-white country clubs still existed.)
I’m feeling sorry for my home state. It hasn’t reached South Carolina levels of politics yet, however.
Tags: Open Thread
Republicans are the party of unemployment
“… there are five unemployed workers for every job opening.”
“They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs,”
“…most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits.”
“The result of the Republicans’ actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms.”
If it ever made it that far, the idiotically partisan Roberts Court would uphold Angle’s copyright claims in a 5/4 decision.
delcrat, i thought Obomba was the reason nothing was getting done. not the innocent republicans. Hasnt that been the lefteabag battle cry? Didnt obomba lie to you (and a1) personally just to get elected and draw that hugh (pay cut for him) presidential salary?
a.price, disdain for democrats does not imply any lack thereof for republicans. review the fallacy of the complex question before you post.
Cathcart is retiring. Helloooo Speaker Danny Short.
He’s endorsing Marino as his successor. Anyone know this guy?
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100706/NEWS/100706035/Cathcart-won-t-seek-re-election
Wow. That is big news.
John Marino is either a Real Estate Agent for Patterson-Schwartz or a Family Court case processor.
…with a very small google footprint
Doesn’t Marino fill in for Dick Jenson sometimes?
Speaker Danny Short? That’s a good one. As if the House would go GOP with the assortment of clowns they’ve got running.
Hey, they just need four seats to flip to get a one-vote majority. It’s clear they’re targeting Schwartzkopf, Kowalko and Bennett. Who’s the fourth?
Once they have that edge, of course, they can lure Atkins away, to Pete’s dismay.
It would help if the Democrats bothered to put up challengers to some of their incumbents, forcing the party to dilute its cash. But by the looks of it, Hocker, Danny Short and Lee are going to go unopposed. Utterly pathetic.
Seeing the spectacle of an Atkins re-flip might just be worth it.
That would be hilarious. Pete would finally realized what a conscienceless monster he hopped in bed with for the sake of a majority.
Where the fuck is everybody today? Still on vacation? C’mon, people, rumors and shit is exciting stuff.
Lots of people are still are vacation. Do you have some good rumors to share?
If the Republicans are counting on defeating Kowalko to get back their majority, then they don’t know John Kowalko. Seriously, the guy is awesome at constituent services and has a great ground game and got almost 75% of the vote.
Better find a more likely pickup than an unknown Republican that has no public resume outside of a maintenance corp.
I think Kowalko is pretty safe. His constituents love him.
They’re not targeting Kowalko. They’ve basically got a name on the ballot, not a credible candidate there. They really don’t like him, so they’ve got a nuisance candidate.
They have, theoretically, enough quality challengers to take back the House, if it’s a Republican wave year. But, everything has to go right, including successfully defending all seats w/Republican retirees. When you look at some of those names, and adding Cathcart’s today, it’s a real tall order.
Plus, with Cathcart gone, who’s running the political show for the House Minority Caucus?
Schwartzkopf won’t lose, either. Just like national Republicans, the Delaware GOP is counting on disgust with the party in power to do their work for them. Nobody’s memory is that short, especially not in a state where the GOP has no leader, no ideas and counts as its Tea Party favorite a pathetic nutcase like O’Donnell. Other than that, no worries, mate!
The fourth, I suppose, is Barbieri. They’re so deluded they think people will re-elect one of the dimmest, least effective lawmakers of his time, Terry “What did you say your name was?” Spence.
Obomba continues to mismanage and fail to manage the oil leak or the clean-up.
Bush’s Katrina 2005 = Obomba’s Gulf Oil Leak 2010 -Both exposed sheer incompetence and failure to lead.
THE REVEAL is drowning in crude.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-oil-spill-scientists_n_636981.html
Levi Johnston isn’t just getting past his differences with Bristol Palin – he’s also hoping to make amends with her famous mom.
“Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry. Unfortunately, against my better judgment, I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I have already privately apologized to Todd and Sarah. Since my statements were public, I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologize.”
“Not completely true.”
Sort of like everything Sarah says.
don’t worry, the media is still on your side:
Appearing on Morning Joe, the Hardball host predicted that Sarah Palin would seek the Republican presidential nomination, and painted a path to victory for her. In a moment of candor, Matthews admitted that “the media will try to destroy her, of course.”
God forbid that the media should check to see if St. Sarah is lying.
Your , Ish, is that you don’t know a con artist when you see one. S
By 2012 Sarah will be playing second fiddle to Nikki Haley, who actually has accomplished things in her life.
That should read “your problem.” Though of course that’s just my interpretation. Since conservatives looooove to get their victim on, the martyrdom of St. Sarah serves a better purpose than actually electing her would.
St. Sarah will be “destroyed” by the media, by actually filming the things she says and by perhaps asking her questions. St. Sarah doesn’t need an assist from the media. She only has to open her mouth.
Best case for the Dems (and the country really) is that Palin takes over that the RNC when Steele departs in three months. It would be “GOP Gets Fuster-Clucky Part II”
And to expand on Ish’s comment, Matthews thinking on Palin getting the nomination goes like this:
Sarah gets the evangelical vote in Iowa and wins.
She places 3rd in New Hampshire.
She leverages her Nikki Haley relationship to win North Carolina.
She leverages her book tour groundwork to win Michigan.
It seems plausible. But the point is, where is Palin’s support beyond that? Sure, she’ll get the insane clown posse that is the tea partiers in each state, but where else? The majority of America sees her for the fool that she is.
Unfortunately, it would allow Obama a reelection that wouldn’t force him to appeal to the base. We could use some more applied effort in the next 2 years to improve healthcare (public option), wind down Afghanistan, decision EVERYONE out of Gitmo and crank up the regulation of the hidden financial markets. Facing a tomato can like Palin isn’t going to push any of that.
As soon as Bristol stops polishing his knob, he’ll be singing again.
I definitely think there’s a path for Palin to get the nomination (Haley is in South Carolina, BTW). If she can leverage early victories to eliminate people who would be competitive later, for example. I think Republicans will have to walk a fine line with Palin supporters. She has diehard supporters that the eventual nominee will want to get. They can’t go after her too hard and risk making them angry.
Right. Sorry, that’s the primary, not North Carolina. I’ve apparently gone to Carolina in my mind.
The other part of Matthews description was that she would have to get in late, and not give her opponents much time to tear her down.
LOL anonone. I contacted BP about a few ideas on how to clean up the spill and they have yet to return my calls. Damn, Obama.