Tag: Elections
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Rove’s Super PAC Sets $52 Million Goal
$52 million
The fundraising goal of American Crossroads, the “Super PAC” led by Karl Rove whose major donors will not be revealed, thanks to disclosure filing deadlines, until after the midterm election. American Crossroads is one of at least a dozen such rightwing groups, which solicit donations from multinational corporations under the terms of the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision.
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.
Confusing Tea Baggers with the Facts Again: Like Murkowski, O’Donnell Ran Write-In Campaign in 2006
Tea baggers hurling the “sore loser” insult at Sen. Lisa Murkowski for announcing she will be a write-in candidate this fall should remember 2006, according to NPR’s “Political Junkie” Ken Rudin. That was the year Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell did the same thing.
An e-mail from the Tea Party Express on Sunday said that by waging her write-in effort, Murkowski “showed utter contempt for the people of Alaska who rejected her candidacy in the Republican primary.”
O’Donnell was the “sore loser” in 2006Levi Russell, the communications director of the TPE, added, “Senator Murkowski is a sore loser. Not all the hanging chads in the world can undo the fact that she lost…
Chuck DeVore, the conservative California assemblyman who lost the GOP Senate primary this year, had this to say on Friday: “Blatantly disrespecting voters in Alaska, Murkowski decided that primary results didn’t matter.”
Amy Kremer, the chairman of the Tea Party Express, said this… “She was fired by the people of Alaska. They said it was time for her to go…”
And Sarah Palin, a Murkowski foe whose backing for the ultimate primary winner, Joe Miller, was seen as crucial, Tweeted this: “Primary voters spoke. Listen to the people, respect their will; w/a 40-pt incumbent lead & $2.8 million war chest, voters chose Joe instead.”
Verbatim
Poor Republicans. They are beginning to resemble the bar scene from Star Wars. They are purging the conservative voices in their party who have any sort of pragmatic perspective and substituting true kooks.
Peter Fenn, Democratic media consultant
Verbatim
When you make an important decision in your life when you’re angry, there’s an 80 percent chance you’ll make a mistake. To have an election based on anger, apathy and amnesia is nuts. That’s exactly what’s going on all over America today.
Former Pres. Bill Clinton, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Atlanta.
GOP Candidate Goes All Batsh*t Beck-Crazy, Right in Front of Onlookers
Kudos to those in the crowd for not bursting into peals of laughter — or waves of tears. This folks, is where the GOP/Tea Party is taking us. Truly scary.
Funny New Toll-Free Number to Find Charlie Crist
For once, a genuinely witty campaign initiative — and it’s from Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has put up a toll-free number for those hoping to locate Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently marginally occupied by Sen. Mel Martinez. Both are Republicans.
Call 1-800-403-2195 to find Charlie now
When you dial 1-800-403-2195 (and you should), the typical phone lady voice thanks you for calling Gov. Crist’s scheduling office and says she’ll try to locate the governor, who has been missing from his office for 62 weekdays. You’re then offered the options of pressing 1 to continue holding, 2 to schedule a private yacht cruise with Charlie (but he only likes big yachts, you’re reminded), or 3 to meet him at a Miami Heat game (but only seated courtside and with celebrities). Jaunty music plays when you’re on hold, until the mystified phone lady returns again, still unable to find Charlie.
We’ve seen unfunny web sites and loads of unfunny T.V. and radio spots, but this idea is well-executed and effectively gets the idea across that Charlie Crist is all about being loved and having fun (with Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Aniston?) rather than doing the boring, grown-up, governing thing. Good job!
Breaking: Franken Case Being Heard Now
Today’s the day in Minnesota: we might have a new Democratic Senator in Al Franken. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Arjun Jaikumar is live blogging and twittering from inside the courtroom where Sen. Norm Coleman’s challenge of a ruling favorable to Franken is being heard. Tune in for what appears to be some good stuff for our side:
10:04: Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg: We’re making due-process and equal-protection claims. Admits the due-process claim came only recently. “You changed the rules after the game was played”. Ha ha ha.
10:08: Justice Anderson: “Why is this offer of proof not inadequate?” Ouch.
10:14: Not an auspicious start for Friedberg. The justices seem very impatient and unimpressed…
10:24: Justice Anderson: “As loud as you speak on this issue, there’s language here you just can’t overcome”.
10:25: Marc Elias is on for Team Franken. He is one handsome devil.
10:32: Team Franken lays down numbers, coldly and efficiently. There are fewer disputed ballots where voter wasn’t registered than the margin between the two candidates.
See what I mean? Riveting!
Glass Booth Helps You Choose Your Perfect Presidential Candidate
Somebody was bound to come up with a mechanism of choosing a presidential candidate for people who are too stoopid to understand the issues or too disengaged to learn about the candidates but who still, for some reason, feel compelled to vote. Oh, and to make it really simple for those MySpace fools, it’s Web-based, too, as a social media tool should be.
It’s called Glass Booth, and it’s really simple. Place your finger on the screen and follow the words closely. Glass Booth provides a series of issues. It gives you 20 points. You assign points to the issues depending on how important you think they are, keeping in mind you only have 20 points to spread over 14 issues. Then you take a little quiz on your orientation on a number of issues from gay rights to abortion to funding the war in Iraq, complete with links to (of course) Wikipedia, in case you forget what the Second Amendment is about.
I suspected who would be the candidate whose views most closely matched mine, and I was right. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and I share 89 percent of the same positions on the issues. If only he hadn’t seen that UFO …. It was close, though. I share 83 percent with Mike Gravel and 75 percent with John Edwards. What a relief — Obama and Hillary were nowhere in sight.
Check it out for yourself and let the Internets decide who you should vote for. It’s easy, it takes just a couple of minutes and it’s painless. Best of all, it takes almost zero cogitation. Really.
