Month: May 2010

KY Sen: Rand Paul Favorables at 53% – Vote: Paul 44%, Conway 41%

Jon Ponder

In the wake of the Kentucky primary May 18, a few Republican talking heads mentioned they’d seen a private poll that had GOP/tea bagger candidate Rand Paul with a 20 point advantage over his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Jack Conway.

Only 3 percent of African-American Kentuckians plan to vote for Rand Paul.

If that was true — a scour of the Google produced zilch — Paul’s lead has evaporated in the wake of his statements opposing anti-discrimination provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and his subsequent voicing of support for BP, the oil company responsible for the massive oil-spill disaster that killed 11 workers in the Gulf of Mexico and that is poised to destroy the economy in the region.

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Verbatim

Buck Banks

I don’t care who you are, it’s a difficult, unpleasant experience for the nominee. It’s just something you have to go through.

— Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, quoted by ABC News, on what Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is about to face.

Memorial Day 2009: After Laying Wreath, Pres. Obama Did What Bush Never Did – Visited Graves of Iraq, Afghanistan Heroes

Jon Ponder

Tea baggers are criticizing the president for missing the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery this Memorial Day — even though pres. Reagan, Bush and Bush also missed ceremonies — but they have conveniently forgotten that last year he did something George W. Bush never did. He visited the graves of soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan, as well as those whose lives were wasted in George Bush’s unnecessary and immoral invasion of Iraq.

Obama Not the Only Recent President to Miss Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Ceremony

Trish

The great thing about having Facebook friends who watch Glenn Beck is that you don’t have to. It’s like having Jon Stewart in your news feed, only not nearly as funny.

Three presidents in recent history missed the Arlington ceremony: Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

That’s how I know that the big tea bagging deal at the moment is the idea that Pres. Obama is betraying the troops by spending Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, and therefore will miss laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, Vice Pres. Biden will perform the ritual while Obama and the First Lady participate in a service at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.

One immediately wonders if any past president has committed a similar omission without being called a commie, and David Corn, writing for Politics Daily did the research. Turns out three presidents in recent history missed the Arlington ceremony: Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

In 1983, President Reagan was at a summit meeting, and the deputy secretary of defense — not even the veep! — placed the wreath. Nine years later, President George H.W. Bush passed off the wreath to Vice President Dan Quayle (who had used family connections to get a slot in the National Guard during the days of the Vietnam War draft). And in 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney took on the wreath mission, while President George W. Bush was in Texas, perhaps clearing brush.

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Poll: Latinos Abandoning GOP in Droves – After Short-Term Gain This Fall, Loss of Hispanics Could Kill the Republican Party

Jon Ponder

photo-siprgn-imprmigrant-faprmily

The American public favors the new Arizona anti-immigrant law by 61 percent, according to a new NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo poll, but the law is already starting to do for the national GOP what Proposition 187, a 1994 anti-immigrant ballot initiative, did for the California Republican Party: Kill it.

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CN Sen: Despite Gaffe on Vietnam Serivce, Blumenthal Leads GOP Rival by 25 Points

Jon Ponder

Boston Globe:

About a week after acknowledging he “misspoke” about his military service during the Vietnam era, a new poll released Thursday shows Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal remains popular among Connecticut voters and maintains a double-digit lead in the race.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, conducted May 24-25, shows Blumenthal leading the endorsed Republican Senate candidate, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, by a 56 percent to 31 percent margin in the race to fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Chris Dodd.

Blumenthal had led McMahon 61 percent to 28 percent in a March 17 survey.

“It looks like Connecticut voters forgive Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, or feel that there is nothing to forgive in the Vietnam service flap,” said poll director Douglas Schwartz. “While he has taken a hit with voters, his poll numbers were so high to begin with that he still maintains a commanding lead over Linda McMahon.”

Verbatim

Buck Banks

When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge. William Rehnquist came to the Bench from the Office of Legal Counsel. Byron White was Deputy Attorney General. And Lewis Powell who was a private lawyer in Richmond and had been president of the American Bar Association. Currently, there is nobody on the Court who has not served as a judge — indeed, as a federal judge — all nine of us … I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge — and not a judge at all.

— Justice Antonin Scalia, on ABC News, commenting that he likes the fact that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is not currently a judge.

Palin’s Note in Support of Haley is All About…Palin

Trish
Left, former Haley speechwriter and alleged lover Will Folks, right, the aggrieved candidate
Left, former Haley speechwriter and alleged lover Will Folks, right, the aggrieved candidate

Only Sarah Palin could take what should have been a note of encouragement and make it all about her. And how she’s been mistreated. And attacked. And lied about. And on and on and on.

Gosh, poor Sarah. I mean, poor Nikki. Whichever.

If you missed it, Rep. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) is running for governor of her state, which is looking for one, what with the term-limited Gov. Mark Sanford off in Argentina pursuing affairs. So the last thing South Carolina needs is a governor who has affairs, right? Well, one Will Folks, a former Haley speech writer and now a conservative blogger, says he had “an inappropriate physical relationship” with his boss in 2007.

Haley is the tea bagger favorite in the race, and as such, has drawn the endorsement of former partial term Gov. Sarah Palin, who came to South Carolina to campaign for her. Now whoever writes Palin’s Facebook notes has posted an aggrieved statement ostensibly in support of Haley but basically all about Sarah.

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Idaho Primary Results Confirm Palin’s Poor Judgment, Tea Party Disarray

Jon Ponder

Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho)
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho)
A week after the tea party favorite lost the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district to a Democrat — and six days after Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, a tea party favorite, imploded his campaign by coming out against the Civil Rights Act, results from Idaho’s primary yesterday produced yet another tea bagger snafu.

In the Republican race, Raul Labrador defeated the establishment favorite, Vaughn Ward, by 10 points, 48 percent to 38 percent. Ward, a Republican National Committee “Young Guns” top recruit, had been endorsed by Sarah Palin, who even did a drive-by campaign stop on his behalf.

Labrador was endorsed by a tea party group in Boise but couldn’t get the nod from Tea Party Express, the national astroturf organizer operated by the Republican consulting group, Russo Marsh + Rogers. In a truly remarkable move, TPE — the organization that staged the recent corporate-funded tea-party bus rallies — endorsed Rep. Walt Minnick, the incumbent Democrat, who ran unopposed. Minnick was the only Democrat to receive an endorsement from the collective tea party hive this year.

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