Year: 2010

Plumline: Palin’s spokeperson says Palin “believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.’

Public Policy Polling: A national survey finds that 32 percent of voters are rooting for the New Orleans Saints, compared to 22 percent who prefer the Indianapolis Colts. Democrats prefer the Saints by a 36-21 margin, but Republicans are narrowly for the Colts, 26-25. Independents lean toward the Saints as well, 33-20. But 46 percent of voters don’t care who wins.

There is less division along racial lines with whites, blacks, and Hispanics all pulling for the team from New Orleans. African Americans are strongest in their support, 38-23, with whites and Hispanics putting up almost identical numbers at 31-22 and 31-23, respectively.

Reddit: Let’s remind him: The Sean Hannity Show – 800-941-7326 – Mon-Fri 3-6pm EST.

Two weeks ago, when Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat held for four decades by Teddy Kennedy, it was the top story all over cable news and in newspapers across the country. The surprising upset fit the narrative that the “liberal” media is developing about the 2010 elections. They see Brown, who held fundraiser sponsored by a Boston tea bagger group, as a harbinger of the rise of the right-wing fringe and the collapse of the liberal ascendancy.

Contrast that with news this week from the Illinois primary in which liberal Republican Rep. Mark Kirk trounced four tea bagger candidates, including Andy Martin, a leading birther conspiracist. The combined vote for the four tea bagger candidates was 36 percent. Kirk kicked their collective asses with 57 percent.

Martin — who created a controversy in December by releasing ad in which he asserted that there was a “rumor that Kirk is a homosexual” — got 5 percent of the vote.

Despite Martin’s bona fides as a racist and anti-semite, and his 2008 lawsuit against the state of Hawaii over its policy of not releasing birth certificates, including Pres. Obama’s, he was not the favorite candidate among what might be called mainstream tea baggers. Their guy was real-estate developer Patrick Hughes, who received the personal (not party) endorsements of 18 county pro-tea bagger GOP chairpersons and of radio host Mark Levin, a Rush Limbaugh wannabe. Hughes received about 19 percent of the vote.

Former judge Don Lowery and a local politician named John Arrington each had tea bagger support. They rt took 9 percent and 3 percent of the vote, respectively.

Another candidate, Kathleen Thomas, who was apparently not affiliated with the tea bagger movement, received 7 percent of the vote.

While the corporate media has ignored the drubbing taken by these tea baggers from Mark Kirk, whom they campaigned against as a recently divorced, gay, liberal RINO, the tea-bagger propaganda-sphere tried to excuse the losses by saying that tea baggers lost because voters split their support (although the combined votes for the four tea baggers was 21 points less than Kirk’s) and by suggesting that Illinois is too liberal to be tea bagger country — but is it really more liberal than Massachusetts?

Right wingers were also embarrassed in the Illinois governor’s race Republican primary. Adam Andrzejewski, who was endorsed by top Republican propagandists Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh came in fifth, with just 14.5 percent of the vote.

Rep. Kirk will face off against Democrat Alex Giannoulias, the state treasurer, in the general. The governor’s race is still too close to call. In the Democratic primary, Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes have 50.4 percent and 49.6 percent of the vote, respectively. In the Republican race, three of the seven candidates each have roughly 20 percent of the vote.

Since winning the Massachusetts senate seat, Scott Brown has tried to distance himself from the tea bagger movement — despite having held a fundraiser on Jan. 2 that was sponsored by the Greater Boston Tea Party. In an interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters on Jan. 31, he said he disagreed that the tea party movement had been influential in his victory.

Politico: A politically diverse group of bloggers, commentators, techies and politicos Wednesday, Feb. 3, will launch an online campaign, Demand Question Time, urging President Obama and GOP congressional leaders to hold regular, televised conversations. Supporters include Grover Norquist, Joe Trippi, Mark McKinnon, Ed Morrissey, Ari Melber, Katrina vanden Heuvel and David Corn.

Not really, but still mostly, according to a new poll by Daily Kos/Research 2000 that asked some pretty pointed questions of a couple thousand Republicans.

For instance, when queried about who they would vote for in a presidential primary held today, 16 percent said Sarah Palin, 11 percent went for Mitt Romney, an alarming 10 percent said Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich brought a distant fourth at 7 percent.

To the question of whether Barack Obama should be impeached (no reason given) 39 percent were in favor, 32 percent were against, and almost as many — 29 percent were not sure.

Demonstrating that there is still a birther current streaming around in the Repugs’ Big Tent, with 36 percent saying Obama wasn’t born here, 42 percent saying he was and 22 percent having no clue.

By 63 to 21 percent, Republicans think Obama is a socialist. When asked whether they think Obama wants the terrorists to win, 24 percent said yes, 43 percent said no and a disquieting 33 percent said they didn’t know.

Asked whether ACORN stole the 2008 election, 21 percent said yes, 24 percent said no and more than half were not sure. But 53 percent believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama, and only 33 percent are not sure.

Fortunately, 58 percent said they didn’t think their state should secede from the union, but that leaves 42 percent who either favor secession or are not sure.

Homophobia still reigns supreme in Mr. Lincoln’s party, with 55 percent saying openly gay people should not be allowed to serve in the military, 77 percent coming out against gay marriage, 68 percent saying gays should not have any state or federal benefits (no Social Security or Medicaid for you, queers!), and 73 percent avowing that openly gay people should not be allowed to be teachers.

The rest of the poll is pretty predictable on abortion rights, the death penalty, creationism and whether the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ (it is).

On whether the Republican Party can be rightly described as the “Party of No,” my research (I counted which questions had a plurality of yes or no votes, regardless of the question posed) and found that indeed they do deserve that moniker with 13 no votes to eight yes votes.