Day: November 6, 2006

Florida GOP Governor Candidate Ditches Appearance with Bush

Jon Ponder

Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate for governor, bailed on President Bush at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, and Karl Rove is pissed:

“All I know is that yesterday morning they apparently made a decision that, rather than being with the governor and the president and 10,000 people in Pensacola, they made it a last-minute decision to go to Palm Beach,” Rove told reporters.

“Let’s see how many people show up in Palm Beach on 24 hours notice versus eight or nine thousand people in Pensacola,” Rove said.

Schadenfreude — you’re soaking in it!

Haggard Told Gay Hooker He Used Meth With His Wife

Pensito Editors

Holy shit:

[Michelangelo Signorile]: Tell me about this: You’re having sexual encounters with [Pastor Ted Haggard] once a month. After about a year he just asks you about crystal meth?

[Mike Jones]: He just goes, “Hey Mike, I have a question. What do you know about crystal meth?” I was a little bit surprised. I said, “I don’t care for it. I’ve tried it but I don’t care for it. But I have friends who do it and they think it enhances their sexual pleasure.” He goes, “Do you think you can get me some?” I told him I’ll see what I can do.

MS: And you hooked him up with somebody who could get him this drug. Then what? He would do it in your presence when he had sex with you?

MJ: Yes, he agreed it enhanced his pleasure and said that he used it when he had sex with his wife too.

Poll: Dems Lead by 13 Points in Final Fox News Poll

Jon Ponder

There have been three polls in a row since yesterday showing the Democrats’ lead over the GOP shrinking. The final Fox News poll has better news — and you know it’s right because they are fair and balanced:

Nearly half of likely voters — 49 percent — favor the Democratic candidate in their House district and 36 percent the Republican, with 15 percent still undecided in a FOX News poll conducted the final weekend before the midterm elections.

More Democrats (37 percent) than Republicans (26 percent) say they are extremely interested in tomorrow’s elections, and more Democrats (89 percent) than Republicans (81 percent) say they plan to vote for their party’s candidate in their district.

Notice that if the entire 15 percent of undecideds were to break for the GOP, it would give them their magic number: 51 percent.

Is Voting a Cure for Outrage Fatigue?

Jon Ponder

My friend Judy has a post up on her site titled, “The New Pandemic: Outrage Fatigue,” in which she expresses the feelings of millions of Americans who have grown exhausted by the daily outrages produced by the Bush Administration and their cronies in the 109th Congress over the past two years:

I am so tired of Bush and his gang ignoring evidence and feeding the American public only partial truths. I am tired of photos of our angry president on the front page, tired of his hollow swagger on the public stage, tired of 51 percent of Americans believing what he says.

I am exhausted by the damage he and his cronies have done to America in the eyes of the world. Even our allies are worn out from the the Bush team’s pretense that America is on the right track in our war against terrorism.

Tomorrow, we shall see if voting can cure outrage fatigue — or at least ameliorate it. As Judy says:

However, I am never too tired to vote. I will have the strength to vote against lies and half truths.

Amen to that.

Rick Perry Says Born-Once are Doomed

Trish

They just never get tired of this crap, do they?

True Believer Texas Gov. Rick Perry got all fired up during a service with the Right Rev. John Hagee in San Antonio Sunday. So fired up, he threw all non-Christians under the bus, ala Katherine Harris.

“He doesn’t think very differently from the Taliban, does he?” independent Kinky Friedman said.

Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell…

“If you live your life and don’t confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I’m going to say this very plainly, you’re going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket,” Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with religious and patriotic videos…

[Perry] said that he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who don’t accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell…

He added: “Before we get into Buddha and all the others, I get a little confused there. But the fact is that we live in a pluralistic world but our faith is real personal. And my Christian faith teaches that the way is through Jesus Christ.”

Perry challenger Kinky Friedman had another take on it.

“He doesn’t think very differently from the Taliban, does he?” independent Kinky Friedman said.

Mr. Friedman, a Jew, said Mr. Perry’s comment “hits pretty close to home.”

“Being obsessed with who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell is kind of a pathetic waste of time,” he said.

Amen, Kinky. Can I get a witness?

Contract Expired

Trish

The Class of ’94 might be only a memory after tomorrow, if some remaining Newt Gingrich Contractors with America get the boot. They are:

John Hostettler in Indiana, a leading voice for social conservatives who was among six House Republicans to vote against authorizing force in Iraq in 2002. He is all but certain to lose to Democrat Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff, in the district dubbed the “bloody eighth” for it’s razor-thin election victories.

Steve Chabot in Ohio, a lawyer from Cincinnati who is considered somewhat of a maverick in the party despite his conservative voting record. He faces a spirited challenge from John Cranley, a Cincinnati city councilman who failed to unseat Chabot in a challenge six years ago.

Barbara Cubin in Wyoming, a fifth-generation resident of the state and a conservative who champions its mining and agriculture industries. Wyoming hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress since 1976, and Cubin’s race against Democrat Gary Trauner, a businessman, only recently became competitive.

Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota, who has an occasional independent streak. In the late 1990s, he concluded that Gingrich as speaker had been “a disappointment to everybody” and that the GOP revolution had been exaggerated. Democrat Tim Walz, a high school teacher, is challenging him.

Charles Bass in New Hampshire, a moderate who has focused on the environment and opposed the Bush administration’s proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He is in a rematch with Democrat Paul Hodes, a lawyer who ran against Bass in 2004.

J.D. Hayworth in Arizona, a fierce critic of illegal immigration who advocates strong U.S. borders. He opposed the president’s proposal for an expanded guest-worker program until border controls are improved. Former state Sen. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat, is trying to unseat him.

Two of Newt’s disciplines are already gone — Bob Ney from Ohio and our own Mark Foley from Florida. Thank God and Greyhound.