Month: June 2014
Tea Party Professor Who Defeated Cantor Flubs Interview on First Day
Note to Prof. Dave Brat, the newly nominated tea party candidate for the Virginia district currently held by Majority Leader Eric Cantor: College professors get to choose topics for discussion in class, but candidates — just like elected officials — must be able to answer whatever questions the media throws their way.
Brat made a poor showing today in one of his first national interviews:
Why Virginia Democrats Need to Get Out the Vote This Fall in District 7
If you thought U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor’s views on the budget and other matters were bad, take a look at the guy Virginia Republicans in House District 7 chose instead. Mother Jones provides these nuggets about Randolph-Macon College (student population: 1,300) economics professor and tea party candidate David Brat.
It’s hard to imagine Brat denouncing white celebrities as he has Jay-Z and Beyonce, except everyone knows tea partiers are NOT racist
- His negative ads criticized Cantor for entertaining the idea of immigration reform and acting to end the debt ceiling crisis
- He wants to cut Medicare and Social Security assistance to seniors by two-thirds
- Climate change is not an issue because “rich countries solve their problems”
The Cat Video That Sums Up the Cantor Upset
If you don’t follow Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski on Twitter, then you probably missed this.
Andrew Kaczynski @BuzzFeedAndrew The Cantor campaign:
To my conservative friends tempted to find outrageous things liberals have said in order to argue that both sides are equally to blame, I’d respond this way: Find me all the examples of people who shot up a church after reading books by Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman, and then you’ll have a case.
— Greg Sargent, Washington Post columnist, in a splendid piece titled, “How Much Does Right-Wing Rhetoric Contribute to Right-Wing Terrorism?“
Tea Party Topples House Majority Leader, Former ‘Young Gun’ Eric Cantor
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, once one of the self-proclaimed GOP “Young Guns,” lost his seat today representing Virginia’s 7th District to a tea bagger professor, Dave Brat. Hard to believe, but even Fox News confirms it:
In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.
The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.
Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.
Cantor’s loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.
The Political Memoir Title Generator
To mark the publication of Hillary Clinton’s political ad, er, memoir, TIME magazine has created a Political Memoir Generator that operates off of several time-honored memoir-naming schemes. Now you too can have an aptly — and automatically — named memoir with inspiring cover art.
I tried several different designs and finally chose “Buck Banks: Earnest Grit,” as being most representative of my political career. Share yours in the comments section.
It’s Only Natural that Ex-Pols Become Lobbyists
You see former quarterbacks and all-star baseball players just moving seamlessly into the media and they’re treated with reverence because they know the game. Why wouldn’t the same be true for people who know the political game?
— Former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-CT), quoted by Roll Call, defending ex-lawmakers who become lobbyists.
Tea Party Spawns Terror Attack
Let’s call Jerad and Amanda Miller, the Indiana couple who fatally shot two police officers as well as an armed citizen in Las Vegas on Sunday, what they were: right-wing domestic terrorists. To be specific, they were tea party-inspired terrorists.
The national media won’t go there, of course, because they fear offending the Republican Party and of being labeled with the dread word, “liberal.” But facts are facts. The Millers were unlike other recent mass shooters in that they weren’t simply off their meds. It is clear now that they were inspired by tea party racism and anti-government libertarianism, which has been fostered, not just by the GOP, but in the bosom of the media establishment itself, which is to say Fox News.
Couple That Shot Las Vegas Cops Couldn’t Have Made Their Intentions Any Plainer
Besides being a cold-blooded act of cowardice, Jerad and Amanda Miller’s unprovoked shooting of two Las Vegas policemen and a Wal-Mart shopper prompts a bigger question: How much rope must a free country give antisocial, violent malcontents with which to hang themselves? Do we wait for the body count? If not, how do we decide it’s time to act to protect potential targets?
The Millers couldn’t have been more forthright in their intentions. Yet their next-door neighbor and self-proclaimed “best friend,” who was “holding documents for the couple that included detailed plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials” said she didn’t realize they were “that crazy.” Really?
Is that how we want it to work in this country? I’m really asking
Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were in their seats at CiCi’s Pizza, 309 N. Nellis Blvd., at about 11:20 a.m. Sunday when suspects, identified by sources as Jerad Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda, age unknown, entered the rear of the restaurant…
The police official said neither officer had a chance to return fire…
Jerad Miller then covered the officers with the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me,” and placed a manifesto with a swastika symbol on one officer’s body.
