There are primaries today in Missouri, Connecticut and Michigan, while Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) faces a special election after a narrow primary upset.
Will Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-MI) prove too moderate for today’s Republican party? Have GOP activists gone purge crazy? Discuss whether today’s GOP has any room for principled moderates and any other primary-related news that comes to mind.
***update***
***update 2***
With 16.5% of hte vote in, Hotline reports that Joe Schwarz trails his primary challenger by 28 points. Moderation may be dead as the GOP moves itself further to the right of the American mainstream.
***Update 3***
MI-07: with 28% of precincts reporting Joe Schwarz has narrowed his deficit to 13 points. No word yet on whether the early-reporting districts are particularly friendly to challenger Walberg.
***Update 4***
Everybody head over to Kos for the latest! It only seems slow because your connection sucks.
***Update 5***
With 30% of precincts reporting Joe Schwarz’s deficit is back up to 16%. Let’s just call this race for Tim Walberg and the blogofascists.
***Update 6***
With 41% reporting Schwarz is still down by 15%, and Kos has reduced his site to 1992 DARPANET standards to handle the server load graphics again (must be my connection). Head on over to check it out.
***Update 7***
Schwarz, McKinney, Lieberman lose their primaries. Lieberman vows to rebound, McKinney doesn’t have to.
Paul L.
She’s a democrat.
What is the R for Race-baiter?
Tim F.
The ( R ) is because I’m a retard. Thanks for correcting me.
Mr Furious
Now, that’s funny.
Andrew
It was a short lived ride for Martin Peretz as Stupidest Fucking Columnist in the World, as the title has just been claimed by Lanny Davis. David Brooks has temporarily dropped into third place, but this is sure to change soon.
neil
“I don’t think [Ned Lamont] as said anything that a good Zionist like me would object to.”
— Martin Peretz
neil
And then, for good measure,
Yes, Mr. Peretz is clearly a Democratic partisan to the core.
SeesThroughIt
Oh, pish-posh. The GOP is far too busy caring deeply and sincerely about Lieberman vs. Lamont to pay attention to is own shrinking tent.
Andrew
All I know is that Bill Buckley, Bill Kristol, and Fox News surely have the best interests of the Democrats in mind when they support Joe Lieberman.
Steve
I was surprised to find out that the best conservative in the Michigan Senate race wasn’t even on the ballot today. I guess I’ve been out of touch, as it turns out too many signatures were disqualified on his nominating positions and he failed to make the cut. Oops!
There is an unfortunate element of racial politics in this primary as Republican leaders initially championed black megachurch pastor Keith Butler for the seat, but grew nervous when Butler lagged in early polling and ended up recruiting suburban sheriff Mike Bouchard to enter the primary as well. Butler made some choice comments about what he saw as the establishment dropping him in favor of a white candidate at the first opportunity.
The overally dynamic seems good for Dems, who have a vulnerable incumbent in this seat.
Mike
“Will Rep. Joe Schwartz (R-MI) prove too moderate for today’s Republican party? Have GOP activists gone purge crazy?”
Shh! Tim, only the crazy whacko leftwing blogger nutjobs are holding purges today… Or didn’t you get the memo?
J. King
“Discuss whether today’s GOP has any room for principled moderates…”
No, it doesn’t and hasn’t had for at least the past 8 years.
Steve
Mike Bouchard, who I mentioned above, is a moderate Republican, and he is apparently favored to win the primary.
Rusty Shackleford
Thanks – needed some humor like that.
chopper
there’s a big kerfuffle about holy joe’s website going down for bandwidth reasons, and they’re blaming it on lamont’s side.
man, i’ve seen lieberman stretch before, but this is like rubber-man stuff here. a DDOS attack? you honestly expect me to believe that?
sheesh.
Sherard
Why am I not surprised that this rat-hole would analyze today’s primaries and come to the conclusion that it was about the GOP purging moderates. With no mention at all of the only real race of merit going on.
Oh, forgot, THAT one makes the left look bad. Nothing to see here. How pathetically typical. This place is nearly a parody at this point.
The Other Steve
Ahh, the irony is lost.
What race possibly makes the left look bad?
I’m totally at a loss, really.
Oh wait, were you trying to claim the Bailey was scheduled for demolition?
Steve
Sherard wins the “making yourself look stupid” award for this thread.
The Other Steve
BTW. Lieberman’s campaign, I think, has really highlighted all the ways a Democrat can run a really bad campaign.
It’s almost like the guys at scrutator are behind it.
Perry Como
If only. There would have been thongs for sale at CafePress saying “Joementum”.
Punchy
Big fucking YAWN. Who cares who wins Conneticant? Lemmie guess…it’ll be….(dramatic pause)…..a Dem?
Lamont wins–he goes to congress green as hell, gets no committee appointments, and nobody listens to a damn thing he says. But Cindy Sheehan has multiple orgasms (picture that, Mr. Cole) every time Lamont talks about ending the Iraq thang.
Leibs wins–he goes to congress determined to prove his Democratic tendencies, and votes the crap outta anything making GW look bad. Maybe supports this Iraq disaster, but uses his committee appointments to pull some weight on other issues.
So who friggin’ cares who wins? It’s a wash no matter who gets it…
Andrew
My internet connection is slow. I blame Lamont.
Steve
Lieberman could have won this primary EASILY with even a halfway competent effort. I mean, his opponent seems like a nice guy, but he has zero experience.
It actually wasn’t until Lieberman started lashing out with some really ugly gaffes that the liberal blogs sniffed blood in this race and realized, if Lieberman is worried, then maybe it could be won after all.
And Lieberman has gone completely off the rails in the last week, calling for Rumsfeld to resign, suggesting that maybe we should withdraw from Iraq after all. If he was willing to say these things all along, he should have said them a lot sooner and he wouldn’t be in this mess. Now he rates to lose his dignity as well as the election.
Nutcutter
This was raised yesterday and it turned out that Lieberman’s people hadn’t paid their web hosting bill.
MattM
No, looks like they paid it…
Unfortunately, they only paid it to the tune of $15. The best that money can buy! Way to run a campaign of national interest, gang.
chopper
i know, hence the claim of the DDOS attack. ‘we didn’t pay for enough bandwidth’ doesn’t have the same ring as ‘our political enemies hacked our site’.
i just think it’s all so funny.
jaime
It isn’t funny because the lazy fucks in the MSM believe it, and asshole conservatives, who know it isn’t true, push it anyway.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
Send Lamont to Guantanamo! His attacks on the Internet aid and embolden our dastardly enemies, the terrorists.
True. No one has yet discussed that Ney dropped out.
No discussion of NASCAR news, either. Leave it to the moonbat scumbags to ignore the news that matters to Joe and Jane Middle America!
You can’t parody the moonbats. They already sound like a parody already. What do you expect? They’re dishonest, and they hate America.
It’s who they are, the kooks.
ThymeZone
Oh dear. Two words: Hubert Humphrey.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
For some reason, I really like this quote:
We’ll all keep our fingers crossed, won’t we?
Steve
There’s a story here that I’m not old enough to know.
HyperIon
Finally a chance to nest block quotes…
Well, I’m old enough. But I don’t think the comparison is that apt. Perhaps Mr. NameChanger can elaborate.
My take: Humphrey was the VP and IIRC he spoke against the war in Vietnam privately within the Johnson administration. He eventually spoke publicly against it; and when he did, he made it quite clear that he was not speaking as the vice president (no VP “seal” on the podium).
Now Colin Powell seems also to have disagreed privately (with our current quagmire) yet somehow has avoid ever going on record. Humphrey’s actions showed more class than that.
Lieberman is a wanna-be neo-con. He needs to switch parties.
ThymeZone
Humphrey wouldn’t go against Johnson and call for an end to bombing in the Vietnam war … until the very end of the 1968 campaign.
Nixon, with his phony promise to end the war and bring some grotesque thing called “Peace with honor,” won in a tight race made tighter by a third-party candidate who got a good chunk of votes.
Humphrey never recovered his chops after 1968, when he was clearly unable to stand up to Lyndon Johnson and be his own man.
Steve
It seems like the opposite scenario though, unless you think Lieberman’s anti-war feelings are genuine and he’s just revealing them now.
Tsulagi
Lieberman’s site going down for so long is funny. It shows, and should show him too, he’s been hanging around the Repubs way too much. Incompetence breeds incompetence. No doubt he’s standing behind his IT guys. They’ve done a heckuva job.
Oh, and with 17% of precincts reporting, Lamont is ahead 56 to 44%. Sorry, Joe, you live with Bush, you die with Bush.
Andrew
I have (seriously) written a load balancing, distributed web server system from scratch in less time than Joe’s web site has been down.
Andrew
And I suck at coding.
Steve
Tim is cracking me up. Sherard needs to show up with another righteous rant.
Ancient Purple
That will cure your insomnia right there.
Pb
Man, this is great. Daily Kos is *crawling*, what with all the traffic and reloading and whatnot. Meanwhile, The New York Times… well, what would happen if you threw a
partyblog, and no one showed up? How embarrassing!Perry Como
A slim lead? This is an absolute
Gannonmandate!Krista
I love having high speed internet…
Ancient Purple
I love it.
Lieberman lost his own precinct and he lost Hartford:
Hartford (23/23)
Lieberman 4,184 (48.40%)
Lamont 4,460 (51.60%)
Krista
Holy crap, it’s a nail-biter, isn’t it?
702 of 748 Precincts Reporting – 93.85%
Name Party Votes Pct
Lamont, Ned Dem 134,942 51.65%
Lieberman, Joe (i) Dem 126,330 48.35%
Krista
My connection’s peachy, so I can keep posting the updates if you like, Tim.
U.S. Senate – – Dem Primary
706 of 748 Precincts Reporting – 94.39%
Name Party Votes Pct
Lamont, Ned Dem 136,353 51.73%
Lieberman, Joe (i) Dem 127,249 48.27%
Ancient Purple
Krista,
Holy Joe would have to get 75% of the remaining vote in order to win. That isn’t going to happen.
Krista
Right. I kind of figured that out after I posted that it was going to be a nail-biter, but figured if I didn’t point it out by correcting it, nobody would notice.
And besides that, I’m bored.
Ancient Purple
Krista,
Well, bored or not, I will send a little Ancient Purple love your way.
However, rumor is that Lieberman won’t concede but will use his concession speech as a launch pad for his independent bid.
Final proof that he is not a Democrat.
I hope to God that they strip him of his committee seats.
Andrew
Well, Joe just guaranteed his place as most hated Democrat of the last two or three decades.
ThymeZone
Lieberman concedes.
Of course, putting himself as always above the people, he now says he will run as an independent.
I don’t have enough regard for the man to even comment on that latter piece of news.
ThymeZone
BTW, New York Times had the most complete returns all night, and a rocket-fast website that had no trouble keeping up with the traffic.
Ancient Purple
The real question is if Schumer and Dodd will support Lamont or Lieberman. If the latter, you can kiss the DLC and the DSCC goodbye forever.
Schumer would also have to defend his action when he is up for re-election. To NY voters.
Good luck, Chuck.
Perry Como
That’s because they always have a fresh supply of tubes on hand.
Ancient Purple
Lieberman concedes. Declares independent bid.
SORE LOSERMAN.
Not a dime… not a penny to any Dem who supports him.
Not. One. Dime.
ThymeZone
Works for me. Fuck ’em.
The Other Steve
Well I’m happy.
August 8th turned out to be a very good day after all.
Richard 23
Asshole Lieberman can go fuck himself.
With a 2×4.
Sideways.
What a jerk.
Support the dem ticket or run as a republican.
Ancient Purple
I want to hear Sen. Reid’s rationale for not relieving Lieberman of this committee seats immediately. He has effectively abandoned the Democratic Party for his own selfish interests.
If he isn’t a Democrat, then off the committees he goes.
Andrew
Perry, are they also using those tubes to move oil through the pipeline in Alaska? Maybe BP got the Internet tubes and oil tubes mixed up.
Richard 23
Time for Joementum to see the underside of the bus. Before today’s results polls for a three way race were a dead heat I seem to recall. With Lamont beating Lieberman today he should be getting a momentum shift. It would be great to see the “comeback kid” beaten twice this year.
I’m sure Lieberman’s got a cushy private sector job all lined up. Maybe he can still become Secretary of Defense if Rumsfeld takes his advice and resigns.
Slide
any Democrat that supports Joe Lieberman’s independent run needs to feel the pain.
Zifnab
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I am pleased. Go Ned.
Pb
Yeah, go Joe, Connecticut for Lieberman, baby!
Pooh
Au contraire – the reason Lieberman lost according to Marty? (Cue dark orchestral music)
THE CLENIS
Nothing to do, you see, with Marty’s own vile op-ed.
nyrev
I’ve been to “Ohio’s 18th.” Maybe “ruby red Republican district” is special code for “economically depressed collection of abandoned coal-mining towns.” Otherwise, I think he’s saying that District 18 is ‘a friend of Dorothy?’
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
You sure they ain’t ruby mines? That would explain why they vote Republican. I bet Osama would like nothing better than to get his mitts on their rubies, and George Bush has promised to prevent him from doing this.
Maybe. But somehow, I doubt that very much.
The Other Steve
Time to lobby Harry Reid to yank Lieberman’s committee appointments.
chopper
from cnn’s story on the lieberman loss..
mmm, that’s good reporting.
Jim Allen
I wonder if John’s head exploded when he read that on his own blog.
Punchy
Lamont’s a cable executive? Sahweet! I’ll be looking forward to free ESPN and Discovery as soon as he becomes head of the Senate Cable TV and Internet Porn Site Regulatory Committee…
Andrew
Joe’s working Senate web site:
I’m sure glad he’s the ranking member on critical cyber-infrastructure.
Slide
.I really don’t think John reads his own blog. I mean when was the last time you ever saw John respond to something that was written into the comments? He is phoning it in once every couple of days or so. Guess its been pretty hard on him being a big bush supporter and a big Iraq war supporter. I’d be hiding out too if I had been so very publically wrong.
Tim F.
Not for long.
Punchy
Question–
Do Conn. Repubs stay loyal and vote for their Repub rep in November, who has ZERO chance to win, or do they throw their vote at Liebs hoping for, at the very least, a pro-war Dem?
Hell, if all the Republicants go Liebs’ way, there’s the 2% swing he needs. Wonder if Liebs will campaign using any Repub talking points…
ThymeZone
He already did, talking about standing up for his convictions even when they aren’t popular. Code for “fuck the people, I will do what I want.”
But anyway, he says he’ll caucus with the Dems, so for most voting, he’ll be a Dem. Therefore I can’t see Republicans wanting him in there just because he will suck the dick of George Bush. If they were Utah Repubs, maybe, or Carolina Repubs.
Jim Allen
Part of me wants to think that’s the case — it would explain his silence on toxic dumpers like Darrell. On the other hand, several of us (including me) have been barred from posting here because we’ve managed to strike one or two of John’s more sensitive nerves.
Steve
I saw this quote on the front page of RedState, from a moderate Republican group:
Mirror-image stuff.