Tag: Tea Party

GOP Pollster: Tea Party Popularity Has Evaporated – Half of Voters View It Unfavorably

Jon Ponder

The only good news for tea baggers is that this poll comes from the Republican outfit Rasmussen, and they are always wrong. The bad news for tea baggery is that Rasmussen skews its results to the right:

Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress. Only eight percent (8 percent) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24 percent in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30 percent of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21 percent) are undecided.

And we all know what comes next: Tea baggers will blame their collapsing poll numbers on the media and/or liberals.

#TeaPartyComebackMovies: Is Hollywood Listening?

Trish

We love a great hashtag on Twitter and #TeaPartyComebackMovies is pure gold, especially following the pathetic re-election of John “Never a Dry Eye White Guy” Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Here are some of the best titles for movies we’d all like to miss:

  • @jerrywey: Coultergiest
  • @markm1962: 12 Angry White Men
  • @markm1962: Uninformed Basterds
  • @anglescott: Bachmann to the Future
  • @kzone8: Birther A Nation
  • @Heknowsmynam: Forgetting Sarah Palin
  • @linc0lnpark: Men Who Stare At Chairs
  • @lovroflaughs: Room With A View Of Russia
  • @71LesPaul: Annie Get Your Assault Rifle with a Scope and Grenade Launcher
  • @ianyourhead: The Nightmare Before the War on Christmas
  • @RobbieSherwood: Gone With the Windbags
  • @timmthelen: Heaven Can Wait & So Can the Sandy Hurricane Victims
  • @timmthelen: The Muppets Take Congress & Do A Much Better Job
  • @StrongChestwell: Harry Potter and the Invasive Trans Vaginal Ultrasound
  • @benjowns: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels for Every Teacher
  • @linc0lnpark: Kill Another Bill
  • @richardhine: The Five-Year Enragement

Grover’s Story, and He’s Sticking to It

Trish

The Bush tax cuts lapsed at midnight last night. Every R voting for Senate bill is cutting taxes and keeping his/her pledge.

— Grover Norquist, tweeting the line he and every other Republican will be quoting in the coming days. Obama strategist David Axelrod responds: “Halfway through a vote he was going to lose, @GroverNorquist sprints out in front to keep from being trampled by the parade.”

Republicans Still Can’t Figure Out How to Say Yes

Trish

We harmed ourselves by undercutting our leader on Plan B

— Lame duck U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), ruing the action by House Republicans that defeated Majority Leader John Boehner’s offer to accept tax increases on income of more than $1 million. The bill passed recently by the Senate would increase taxes on household income of $450,000 or more.

Marco Rubio Votes No on Senate Fiscal Cliff Bill

Trish
Looking presidential? Rubio with buddies Lindsey Graham and John McCain in Libya

It’s hard to explain why Florida’s junior senator would vote against the economic bill extending the Bush tax cuts on household income under $450,000. Or maybe it’s painfully easy to explain: Rubio is indeed planning to run for president in 2016.

Rubio stood with the handful of his peers who voted against the package, including Rand Paul (R/Tea-Ken.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), and Thomas Carper (D-Del.).

Those looking for a less cynical explanation of Rubio’s vote won’t find any help from the senator’s office, which issued this statement.

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Could Rick Scott Be the Best Thing to Happen to Florida Democrats in the Next Election?

Trish
Whoa! Don't let this governor sneak up on you at Halloween.

The path to power for Florida Democrats might run through Gov. Rick Scott’s office, if recent polls accurately reflect opinion.

The “let’s run government like a business” Medicare cheat won Florida’s highest office in the 2010 tea party wave that crested that year and ebbed a bit in 2012, sweeping some of those, like Rep. Allan West, back out as swiftly as they rolled in.

Scott, despite spending $75 million of his own money on his campaign, won by only 1 percent over Democrat Alex Sink. After taking office, his approval ratings plunged lower than anyone thought an elected official could go and not simply announce an early retirement, ala former Sen. Mel Martinez (R). Even the infamous former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) didn’t poll this badly.

71% of Floridians hate Scott’s idea of setting different education goals based on race and ethnicity

The new numbers show that not only might Scott lose in 2014, he could take lots of other Republicans down with him.

A stunning 43 percent of Florida voters view Scott unfavorably in new polling and just 31 percent viewed him favorably. Scott is in a rare position political operatives call “upside down” because his unfavorable percentage is much greater than his favorable — an ominous state for any political candidate.

Maybe more damaging for Scott is that a majority of his own party — 53 percent of Republicans — said they want someone else to run in 2014 instead of Scott…

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Dim Bulbs Light the Way in Secession Movement

Trish

I’m not deriding these people because it’s so easy to point out their cluelessness

Great leaders are skilled in strategy and compromise that achieves underlying goals, according to “Lincoln” screenwriter Tony Kushner. Which explains why there will never be any great tea party politicians, whose only strategy is to storm off in a huff if they don’t get their way.

But the secession petition Florida rightwingers recently sent to the White House points up another problem for the tea party: many of these folks are not bright.

Was there really no one on the petition writing squad who made an A in English?

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Murphy Defeats West Again as Board Misses Deadline

Trish
Current but soon to be former Rep. Allen West

Despite a judge’s refusal to grant a recount to Rep. Allen West (GOP/Tea-Fla.), a partial recount of the early votes only is under way, as of Saturday morning, Nov. 17.

The colorful (read: “nut case“) tea party congressman lost to Democrat Patrick Murphy by about 0.6 percent. Florida law requires that a candidate lose by 0.5 percent or less to trigger a full ballot recount. But when the governor of the state is Rick Scott, himself a tea party champion, anything can happen.

Updates available after the jump

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