Monday Open Thread [4.09.12]
National Republicans “have begun to intervene in a handful of key Senate and House battlegrounds where state parties are in disarray, seeking to head off the possibility that local mismanagement could cost the party control of Congress,” Politico reports. “These ‘orphan states,’ most notably behemoths with traditionally weak parties like California, Illinois and New York, are increasingly the focus of top GOP officials in the nation’s capital this spring.”
In the national GOP’s eyes, Delaware is most definitely an ophan state, as the state GOP here is in disarray, if not in outright war with itself. But then again, save Tom Kovach and the U.S. House race, since the state GOP has utterly failed at recruiting any credible candidates to challenge Sen. Carper, Gov. Markell and Lt. Gov. Denn, I wonder if the RNC will even bother with Delaware. Since the GOP has the House majority without Carney’s seat, they are unlikely to spend money in a state that will guaranteed to go Democratic in the fall, and which has a favorite son on the Presidential ticket.
U.S. SENATE–MAINE–GENERAL ELECTION (Maine’s People Resource Center): Fmr. Governor Angus King (I) 56, Secretary of State Charlie Summers (R) 22, Matt Dunlap (D) at 12%.
Does anyone want to be Romney’s VP?
“Remember, in the modern era, it’s rare for a losing Republican vice presidential nominee to become the nominee in a later election. Dan Quayle, for example, is a punchline, not a presidential candidate, and the same goes for the most recent member of the club, Sarah Palin. Which is to say that, in a world where Republicans don’t see a future for Romney, we should expect the vice presidential ‘race’ to become a microcosm of the nomination contest, ambitious Republicans keep themselves out of the running, and leave the field to second and third string politicians who have nothing to lose from a defeat in November.”
He’s right. Dan Quayle’s 1996 campaign went no where. Did Jack Kemp even run in 2000? Sarah Palin did not run this year. Anyone remember President Miller (Goldwater’s running mate in 1964) or President Lodge (Nixon’s in 1960)? Bob Dole is probably the exception to this rule, as he did run for President eventually, twenty years after his failed VP nomination in 1976.
U.S. SENATE–INDIANA–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY (Garin-Hart-Yang (D)/Bellwether Research (R) for Howey Politics Indiana/DePauw University): Sen. Richard Lugar (R) 42, Richard Mourdock (R): 35
U.S. SENATE–INDIANA–GENERAL ELECTION (Garin-Hart-Yang (D)/Bellwether Research (R) for Howey Politics Indiana/DePauw University): Lugar (R): 50, Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) 29; Donnelly (D) 35, Mourdock (R) 35
Another Congressional birther:
“Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) said she “doubts” that the birth certificate produced by President Obama is legitimate.”
from the inbox ~
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) spearheaded union-busting laws in states like Wisconsin, voter-disenfranchisement laws in states like Maine, and Florida’s “Shoot First” law that let Trayvon Martin’s killer go free.
Last week, progressive activists scored a major victory by pressuring Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Kraft to stop funding ALEC!
Can you continue the momentum by signing our petition telling ALEC’s other funders — including AT&T and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — to stop funding this right-wing group?
http://act.boldprogressives.org/survey/survey_ALEC/?akid=7365.185326.AA6IlM&rd=1&source=e1-3mo-fin&t=3
After Coke’s announcement, civil rights group ColorOfChange said, “The clear and simple message was that you can’t come for black folks’ money by day and try to take away our vote by night.” Amen.
Our friends at ColorOfChange led last week’s activism and were assisted by Credo, a progressive phone company which engages in progressive campaigns.
If we can get other dominoes to fall, we can dramatically reduce ALEC’s ability to do evil.
Sign our petition telling ALEC’s funders to stop supporting this right-wing group. Thanks for being a bold progressive.
— James Ploeser, PCCC State Organizing Director
And if you haven’t signed yet, consider this petition too:
Continued Support of Petition for Delaware’s HB 126 –
As we have followed the statements from Rep. Schwartzkopf, it has become apparent that he is delaying any hearing on the bill while the University of Delaware is having secret meetings with union leaders and/or construction companies.
This is another attempt by the University of Delaware to exploit the weakness of the current FOIA law by claiming that successful secret meetings will make the bill unnecessary and therefore allow them to continue to evade openness.
I would like to send our petition by the end of this week to see if it will help create momentum toward a hearing.
If you know of anyone else who might sign the petition, please contact them and share the link with them.
http://signon.org/sign/please-support-delawares?source=s.em.cr&r_by=1559950&mailing_id=3255
Thanks,
Carl Shields
As John Kowalko has pointed out, the bill wasn’t solely about UD – Union and the incredible FOIA fees asked and now recinded. It is about land use plan details, the x-country track team dismantling and more decisions made in secret by the UD Trustees.
Carl sent this correction:
There was some confusion about the meetings between UD and the unions, at least in my mind.
I was told by a reliable source that these were not meetings. These were when the unions looked at documents made available for viewing by UD that they had requested in their FOIAs.
This was after UD changed their FOIA policy and is no longer charging $1.00/page, but instead 10 cents/page.
I’ve been assured that the Delaware unions are still pushing for HB 126 to have a hearing.
And we get the GOP Clown car stopping in Delaware:
RMoney campaigning in Wilmington on Tuesday, plus he’ll be at some event at RC Fabricators on 824 N. Locust St. at 5:55 p.m.
Santorum holds a rally at 2:30pm on Wednesday at the Camden-Wyoming fire hall.
Gingrich and his wife were here last week, trailblazing apparently, so that the rest of the clowns can find their way.
Which proves that Ron Paul is the smartest R of them all — He realizes there aren’t enough R’s in Delaware to justify spending any money here.
I just drove by some homemade Ron Paul road signs. Ya gotta admire his followers’ zeal, if not their intelligence.
@auntie dem–
I saw some on Kirkwood Hwy. yesterday & a lone sign in Rehoboth this weekend. I can’t decide if they’re quaint or pathetic.
NYT is reporting that Rush Limbaugh is being booted from WPHT in Philly and off to some FM Christian station that is probably his audience anyway.
That’s a hell of a spin you’ve put on it.
Rush’s syndicator told the station they were leaving. He wasn’t “booted,” he left an AM station to go to FM.
From the story:
The owner of WPHT, CBS Radio, said in a statement on Monday afternoon, “Premiere recently notified WPHT they will be syndicating Rush Limbaugh on a new station in Philadelphia. As a result, we are pleased to be able to now showcase Michael, who is a well-known and acclaimed broadcaster in the market, in this new time period.”
dKos commenter ipsos works or has some expertise in the radio business and does a detailed analysis of this — and finds that while Rush survives in the Philly market, you can see plenty of signs that his star is fading in the talk business.