In La-La Land
It might violate the constraints of etiquette
To say the Republicans are full of it,
But when they offer their plans
And their pledges and programs,
It’s clear they’re running a reality deficit.
Month: September 2010
Verbatim
They say it is easier to get people to dislike a politician than to like him or her, but I wonder if automobile makers spent all their time accusing each other of making lousy and dangerous cars, whether anybody would buy one at all. Which maybe is one reason more people don’t vote.
–St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler, commenting on advertising for the midterm election.
LA Sen: Ad from Democrat Charlie Melancon Revisits David Vitter’s Prostitute Scandal
This summer, Louisiana Dems hinted that their fall strategy to defeat Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) would be to vividly remind voters of Vitter’s prostitute-laden scandal sheet. They unveiled a five-minute web ad that included a reenactment and a recreation of the “crime scene” where Vitter and a prostitute liaised.
Now, his challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), has turned that web ad into a two-minute long TV spot, which will run on Louisiana cable statewide starting tonight or tomorrow.
CA Gov: Meg Whitman’s Housekeeper Said to Have ‘Explosive’ Allegations, Has Hired Attorney Gloria Allred
Here’s some news breaking in the California governor’s race that is doubly intriguing because it is not coming from the political press — it’s from the Sunset Strip-based gossip-on-steroids outfit, TMZ:
The former housekeeper for Meg Whitman — the Republican candidate for Governor of California — is about to make “controversial and explosive allegations about her former employer,” TMZ has learned.
We’re told the housekeeper has lawyered up with none other than Gloria Allred. The housekeeper and Allred will hold a news conference today in Gloria’s office at 11 AM PT, “to tell how she suffered as a long-time, Latina household employee in Meg Whitman’s home.
We’re told the housekeeper will be filing a legal claim against Ms. Whitman.
From what we’re hearing, the disclosures could have a significant impact on the campaign and possibly the election.
If the allegations involved anger issues at Casa Whitman, they would not be the first.
Update 2:24 p.m.: The issue turned out to the fact that the maid was an undocumented alien when she worked for the Whitman-Harsh household for nine years. This comes one day after Whitman’s debate with Democrat Jerry Brown, during which she called for tough sanctions against employers of undocumented workers:
News Flash: Americans Don’t Trust the News
57 percent
Share of Americans who say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.
Bill Clinton Finally Supports Same-Sex Marriage
Good news gay people! Former Pres. Bill Clinton is finally feelin’ your pain. And while we love the former president, and totally respect the longevity of his marriage, and fully realize that the only ones who know what’s really going on in a relationship are the two people in it…Well, still, as far as him making any statements on marriage…Just saying.
NV Sen: Angle Confirms That She and Her Husband Receive Socialist Health Care
Despite tea baggers’ misuse of the term, “socialism” applies to any system in which citizens pool resources to provide a service for the community — in other words, any service that is not private and provided on a fee basis. Public education, as well as public police, fire and emergency services, public hospitals and, of course, government-run pensions, like Social Security, and health-care, like Medicare, are all bona fide socialist services.
So it is a surprise — although, on second thought, it shouldn’t be — to learn that tea bagger queen Sharron Angle, who rails against the evils of socialism on the campaign trail, is actually a dyed-in-the-wool socialist herself:
Angle’s campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: “Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired — much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify [for] — nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government.”
If government-provided health care is so abhorrent to Sharron Angle, then she and her husband should reject it and buy insurance on the open market. I’m sure they could find a plan with similar coverage that would cost them less than $1,500 a month somewhere. Otherwise, she reveals herself to be just another rage-aholic tea bagger railing about socialism while apparently unaware that she is, in fact, soaking in it.
Glenn Beck Creator Now Running CNN
Like some TV Frankenstein, Ken Jautz gave us Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck and created the Joy Behar Show. Now he holds the reins of CNN, and it doesn’t look good for the beleaguered news network. Ken Stein was ousted after six years at CNN where he fought to maintain the network’s news integrity, according to The Wrap.
Jautz plucked Beck from obscurity on talk radio and plunked him down as the lead-in to Grace’s show. The rest is evil-creator history. Sounds a lot like CNN has in store what Joutz did for, er, to HLN:
According to a network insider, Jautz has repeatedly told people in the newsroom that he isn’t into long-form reporting or in-depth investigations. “I do not believe that ‘facts-only’ programming will work [in primetime],” Jautz told TheWrap in an interview on Friday. “Viewers, if they’re looking for just the news, they can get that anywhere now. The news that happened that day, they probably know already. They want context, perspective and opinion.”
Scott Safon, CNN’s chief marketing officer, who is taking over for Jautz at HLN, kind of let the cat out of the bag regarding plans for CNN:
According to one person at the meeting, Safon said Friday that CNN has a seven-month plan in place to explore what viewers want to see. He said he does not think their answer will be “more opinion,” he said. Instead, he thinks they’ll want “authenticity.” Safon and Robin Garfield, SVP of CNN research, have charted a course of “getting inside viewers heads.”
“They don’t want us to be Fox or MSNBC,” Safon said. The answer won’t be right or left, he told the staff. “It will be more authenticity, and more passion.”
I’m sorry, the only kind of passion I want mixed in with my news is when Walter Cronkite tears up when announcing the assassination of John F. Kennedy. While CNN is far from perfect, it is currently the closest thing we have to an all-news all-the-time network that can deal with breaking stories and wars, and still do some long-form journalism without a lot of opinion or “passion” mixed in. We need that.
Chart Shows Task Facing Dems to Keep House – Good News Is Two-Thirds of Voters Still Hate GOP
In case you’re in a great mood — bluebirds chirping on your shoulder, etc. — and were looking for something to completely bum you out, this chart from Nate Silver’s
FiveThirtyEight.com showing the sheer volume of seats that the GOP appears set to pick up on Nov. 2 ought to do the trick.
All those blue squares represent vulnerable Dem House seats that will flip to red if the GOP wins in those districts. The GOP has about 179 seats now. They need at least 218 to take the House, which means they must take at least 39 of the 76 blue squares (or fewer if they retain a couple of the red squares) to get the majority.
Is a turnaround for the Democrats possible? Yes, and here’s why: As unpopular as the Democrats are right now, voters still revile their Republican counterparts in Congress.
For example the CBS poll last week is representative. It found that while approval/disapproval of the Dems was a weak 30 percent /50 percent, the approval/disapproval of Republicans was in the toilet — 20/68.
