Tag: Tea Baggers

Florida Mayor’s Race Could Be Early Indicator of Tea Party Decline

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brownclinton
Former Pres. Bill Clinton campaigns for Jacksonville's possible next mayor, Alvin Brown
Update: After a day of counting absentee and provisional ballots produced a 1,648 vote lead for Brown, Hogan conceded. Jacksonville has its first black mayor and first Democrat in the job since 1995.

Jacksonville Republicans are reeling because the nightmare they were having when they went to bed last night didn’t slip away as they hoped at today’s dawn. No, Democrat Alvin Brown, a former Clinton administration and Al Gore advisor, African-American, and pro-education candidate (not to be confused with bizarre nobody Alvin Greene of South Carolina) was still 603 votes ahead in the mayor’s race, just like he was last night.

As we speak, absentee and provisional ballots are being counted, so anything could happen in what the elections supervisor is calling the closest mayor’s race in Jacksonville history. Anything could happen, that is, except reinstating the conventional wisdom that a Democrat can’t win in Jacksonville – or in Northeast Florida. Apparently he can.

Brown was one of six candidates in the elimination round in March that was expected to easily pick Republican Audrey Moran, who passes for moderate in these parts, and fellow Republican and incumbent Tax Collector Mike Hogan to face off in the final race. Had that played out, Duval County voters would have the familiar Republican Thing One and Republican Thing Two from which to choose, and First Baptist Church (a Jacksonville institution that pulls most of the power strings), the Chamber of Commerce, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, and a few others could resume running things for another four years.

And then something strange happened.
[…]

The Unconvincables: Gov. Rick Scott Denys Climate Change

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I’ve not been convinced that there’s any man-made climate change. Nothing’s convinced me that there is.

— Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Tea), who presides over a state where 95 percent of the population lives within 35 miles of the coast, and where, by the turn of the century, the waterline will be between 2 and 5 feet higher.

The Job Nobody Wants

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Number of applicants for Florida Education Commissioner. Eric J. Smith, a Jeb Bush ally, announced his resignation in March, after new Republican Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott failed to meet with him more than two months into office. Smith was instrumental in winning $700 million for Florida in the White House’s Race to the Top initiative. Scott has refused federal dollars for Florida, most notably turning down $2 billion to develop high-speed rail along the failing I-4 corridor.

Verbatim

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What House Republicans propose is that the government simply push the problem of rising health care costs on to seniors; that is, that we replace Medicare with vouchers that can be applied to private insurance, and that we count on seniors and insurance companies to work it out somehow.

Paul Krugman, Nobel-prize winning economist, New York Times columnist, and loyal opposition leader

Hey Paul Ryan, How’s That Ax-y Medicare-y Thing Workin’ Out for Ya?

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Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s constituents showed they are much smarter than he thinks they are. They aren’t buying the latest iteration of trickle-down, voodoo economics. And when he persisted in trying to get them to see it his way, they booed him. Let this be a warning to other tea bag Republicans who underestimate us. You need to throw out new red meat. We aren’t swallowing the old stuff.

Another Tea Party Birther Republican Exposed as Racist

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racistemail

It’s deju vu all over again during the Obama years, as yet another Republican party official has been caught sending blatantly racist emails about the president. Marilyn Davenport, a tea party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County, Calif. Republican Party, sent the image shown with the caption, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”

Davenport defended the email, as have all her predecessors that we know of, by saying it’s not really racist, it wasn’t meant to be seen by you, and it’s the fault of the press for blowing up a minor matter into something bigger.

I actually kind of agree with Davenport on that last point. The only reason these stories continue to be publicized is because so many members of the media deny that the tea party Republican movement is racist at its core. If we could all just acknowledge that and move on, there would be no need to keep proving it by showing direct evidence.

Really Republicans, That’s All You’ve Got?

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The Ryan budget is a dramatic picture of where the government would go under Republicans…but it doesn’t begin to address real problems. The only problem it addresses is the debt. It creates ten problems for every problem it solves…The fact that for Republicans, taxes are an absolute no-go issue — it’s as if Democrats were to say, “Spending is a no-go issue, we will not cut spending anywhere.” What would be the impression of the robustness and vitality of Democratic party thinking if that was the position of the party? But that is the position of the Republican party.

George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade