Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

In my day, never was longer.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s a doggy dog world.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

T R E 4 5 O N

You are here: Home / Revenge of the DFH

Revenge of the DFH

by | 208 Comments

This post is in: 

This, if true, is hysterical:

Olbermann says a source in the Bayh camp cited “left bloggers” as a reason for his leaving. “People said mean things to me!” What a fucking loser.

In addition to patchouli, it appears the DFH has another weapon in his arsenal to defeat centrists- the sternly worded blog post. I think every centrist, right now, should be required to answer whether they could ever be driven from a race by “left bloggers.” Because if they can, then I think these Senators should, at the very least, be forbidden from voting on matters of war and national security.

And could someone deploy the Mother of All Blog Posts against Ben Nelson?

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    A reason, not the reason, and it was a short-hand reference, one assumes, to vocal progressive commentary and activism from Krugman to Olberman to MoveOn to ActBlue. Atrios says Bayh was particularly upset about his efforts to create a formal Blue Dog coalition in the Senate, with himself at its head (Yglesias’ post looks prescient–not that it was hard to see coming, but I have to admit I’m a bit surprised at how hard the ConservaDem wankers have been wanking).

  5. 5.

    DougJ

    I hate to be a wet blanket, but you know what this means, right?

    Lots of chest-thumping at FDL and OpenLeft.

  6. 6.

    CalD

    Was Bayh one of the senators that the Firebaggers were running ads attacking? (Fucking retards.) I mean you gotta admit, that kind of crossed a line. Perhaps Bayh’s thinking was not so much “Boo-hoo. They said mean things about me,” but rather, something more along the lines of:

    “Fucking ingrates, let’s see one of those assholes try being a Democratic senator from Indiana. I could sure as hell make more than a buck-sixty-five a year and take a lot less shit for it if I just said fuck them and the pony they rode in on and got a real job.”

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    Un. Flipping. Believable.

    Someone should just go ahead and castrate this guy. Why carry around a set of balls when you have no intention of ever using them?

  10. 10.

    John Cole

    @CalD: No. If anything, no one cared about Bayh other than to occasionally call him an asshole.

    What bothered Bayh was that he had a blue-vein hard-on to form a centrist group to assrape every bit of entitlement spending, with a big bulls eye on social security, and no one, not even Joe Lieberman, was mendacious or stupid enough to join him.

    What has his panties in a wad is that his colleagues rebuffed him, and bloggers are just an excuse. Plus, now he can go earn bank as a lobbyist.

  11. 11.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Lots of chest-thumping hamsters climbing into asses at FDL and OpenLeft.

    Fix’t.

    All I can say about Bayh leaving, in the David Spade way of saying it, is: Buh-Bayh!  Followed by a polite shove off of the plane, of course.

  12. 12.

    jcricket

    Little known fact, but anonymous commenters, such as myself, have also caused the failure of the Iraq War and the housing crash due to our negative attitudes combined with our psychic powers.

    Mwahahahahaha!

    This makes me feel a lot better after another day chafing under an idiot boss who assumes the best way to motivate good employees is treat them all like bad employees just in case we might ever do something less-than-perfect.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    After five minutes of Rachel Maddow talking about Evan Bayh “sucker punching the party he joined but never much liked”, Rachel has the head of the IN Dem Party on. And the guy does in fact look like he just got socked in the gut.

  14. 14.

    demkat620

    Wow, really? Srsly? He’s gonna try that old chestnut? The DFHs were mean to me?

    Unbelievable. And he thinks he’s going to run for Prez?

    Hoosier, please.

  15. 15.

    Fwiffo

    “Waaah, people are mean to me and Washington DC is all hard and stuff. I quit!” Though to be fair, he’s at least got the dignity to finish his term unlike, e.g. Sarah Palin. Yet he’s enough of a machine pol to deprive voters of Indiana the right to select a replacement candidate in a primary. A crybaby and a tool.

  16. 16.

    CalD

    And could someone deploy the Mother of All Blog Posts against Ben Nelson?

    Well sure, as long as you don’t mind trading him for an actual Republican. In general, Nelson’s ACU voting score (47.26%) is within a couple of points of Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, who are by far the most liberal members of their party now that Chafee’s gone. And did either of them vote for the senate health care bill? Let me think about that. No.

    But that’s a moot point anyway because if Nelson goes, the Republican who replaces him will be no Olympia Snow. Think Chuck Hagel (83.7%).

    Even the Republican party was smart enough to put the kebosh on the swearing of oaths to ideological purity.

  17. 17.

    demkat620

    @John Cole: Okay so let me get this straight. He wanted to start a group of Senators, kind of like a Gang of Asshats to undermine Senate leadership, run all legislation past the DLC and make it palatable to conservatives, a group designed solely to make Evan Bayh look good and got upset when nobody wanted to help a brotha out.

    Fuck you, you quitter.

    I think a Bayh-Palin or Palin-Bayh ticket could work out.

  18. 18.

    Citizen_X

    I don’t believe it. If DFH-Fu is so powerful, then why is Joe Lieberman able to withstand even the strongest bongwater? CURSE YOU, LIEBERMAN!

  19. 19.

    mr. whipple

    In addition to patchouli, it appears the DFH has another weapon in his arsenal to defeat centrists- the sternly worded blog post.

    This is nothing.

    I’m going to completely destroy Ben Nelson by sending him all of my brother’s Grateful Dead cassette tapes.

    I take no prisoners.

  20. 20.

    Anne Laurie

    @Citizen_X:

    If DFH-Fu is so powerful, then why is Joe Lieberman able to withstand even the strongest bongwater?

    Now Marty Peretz thinks you’re an anti-semite.

  24. 24.

    mr. whipple

    Good news:

    “Top Taliban Commander in Custody”

    Breaking News Alert
    The New York Times
    Mon, February 15, 2010 — 9:15 PM ET
    —–

    Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander

    The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several
    days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by
    Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to
    American government officials.

    The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan
    described by American officials as the most significant
    Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in
    Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks
    second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the
    Taliban’s founder, and was a close associate of Osama bin
    Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

    more at link.

  26. 26.

    28 Percent

    John Cole if that is your real name you DUM-ocrats do not understand Evan Bayh got it he was not there in Washington to play politics as usual and go with the flow like a dead fish there were real philosophical differences and the Obamessiah will not listen to anyone else not even in his own party that is how arrogant he is. It was to much for Senator Bayh Obama thinks he can go one on one with Republicans but Senator Bayh knows that the only way to go is with a zone defense.

  27. 27.

    AnotherBruce

    @DougJ:

    Well, fuck all then: Thump Thump, I am an all powerful dirty fucking hippie. Fear me, fear my sarcasm, fear my triple chamber bong.

  29. 29.

    VladCat

    Evan, I sure as hell was not going to mail you road salt.

    @Mr Whipple How many “Number Two men” is that now? I lost count quite a few years ago.

  30. 30.

    JasonF

    Call me a cynic, but you don’t quit a Senate race abruptly, and on the eve of the deadline to get on the ballot, unless there’s a scandal lurking somewhere. Watch for the metaphorical live boy or dead girl to pop up in Senator Bayh’s closet.

  32. 32.

    Mike Kay

    It’s a silly diversion for the Village hate’n pundits.

    Given that he was so far ahead in the polls and had such an advantage in money, it make me wonder if there is some scandal (like a John Edwards love child) waiting to surface.

    I mean, why would any one take himself out of the game when the ball is on the two yard line, unless they had a bad injury.

    So which is affair/love child or payoffs $ kickbacks?

  43. 43.

    Mike Kay

    @DougJ:

    Lots of chest-thumping at FDL and OpenLeft.

    Your kidding. They’d only hurt themselves thumping there girly boobs. Nah, there’s a lot of latte chugging and hemp-saddle shopping going on.

  45. 45.

    El Cid

    It’s a convenient and easy foil to use by Bayh, but I think it’s probably lacking any serious empirically-based justification that Bayh retired from the Senate because his widdle heart was broke by the dirty hippie bloggers.

    Either that or the all-powerful extreme left marches on from victory to victory, defeating the so-called powerful interests with their high ranking positions and their elected offices and their hundreds of millions and billions of dollars with the collective power of electronic ire.

  46. 46.

    Brian J

    Boy, I am away all day and then it seems like the world is ending. What is going on? Why the sudden decision to quit? There’s got to be something larger at work here. Some scandal coming out, perhaps?

  47. 47.

    freelancer

    OT – Okay, so NBC is showing figure skating. And on my NBC affiliate’s other digital station, they are showing highlights of…figure skating.

    Fuck. Ass.

    At least curling starts tomorrow.

  49. 49.

    PeakVT

    $10 says Obama appoints him to his fiscal responsibility commission.

    Why would Obama want to appoint Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to a fiscal responsibility commission?

  53. 53.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @mr. whipple: What’s wrong with figure skating?

    I can see why people might not like it, but I dig it, what with the incredible grace and precision and all. At least the athletes doing it get some very pretty moves out of spending 23 hours a day training.

  55. 55.

    Mary aka Comrade Mary

    I got to watch speed skating earlier tonight. Mmmmm. Quads.

    Rachel had the best running header on Bayh: KTHXBAYH.

  58. 58.

    Toni

    Somewhat related, CNN had this article titled “It’s tough being a centrist” and it is true when the party has the majority and the WH. Centrists work best in the minority where they can “reach across the aisle” and vote for more conservative legislation or when the other party controls the WH and their party is in the majority, they can vote with the party but most times the WH will veto the bill.

    These centrists are all pushing the WH to go small, pare down HCR, energy, financial reform, jobs, etc to get something that can get republican support even if its effectiveness is in question.

    Progressives are pushing the WH to go big or go home on all those issues. Basically get as much as possible with 50 votes + Biden.

    The WH has so far been reluctant to choose, they have been trying to go big and try to pickup some republican support which has not worked.

  59. 59.

    CalD

    @John Cole: For the record I’ve never really cared much for Evan Bayh. I tend to cut him a little slack just because I admired his father and also because I grew up in southern Indiana, so I’m somewhat sympathetic to what Democrats from that are part of the country are up against.

    I also don’t really buy into the notion that elected representatives of either party are necessarily under any higher obligation to their party or anyone’s ideology than they are to the electorate they’re supposed to be representing. So I tend not to rush to judgment on elected officials for doing what they need to do to get reelected. Seems to me that’s kinda the main reason why we bother having elections in the first place.

    But leaving all that aside, I’d be surprised if Bayh’s departure doesn’t put his seat in the Leans Republican column. And the fact is that these days, any Democrat is more useful than any Republican, even Evan Bayh. If he truly is every bit as bad as you think he is, we could still end up trading down on him.

  61. 61.

    mai naem

    @mr. whipple: Okay, but Dick Cheeney they did it because he,Dick Cheeney ordered it. Also too, Susan Collins wants to know why they Mirandized him within 55 minutes of capturing him.

  62. 62.

    Xenos

    One thing the lefty blogs were going on about, which the respectable MSM would not touch, was the huge conflict of interest from his wife’s multimillion dollar income in the Insurance Board Member business. That may have touched a nerve.

  63. 63.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Charlie says chill out libtards.

    BTW watching a great Danish flick on netflix instant called Flame and Citron. About the Danish resistance during WW2 Nazi occupation. Kind of like Munich as two friends hunt and assassinate Germans and Dane collaborators. And just as good as Munich and better at showing the moral conflict of war and killing.

    Some brutal scenes but not gratuitous.

  64. 64.

    J. Michael Neal

    @mr. whipple: I explained that already. The judging is ridiculous. Any event in which there is subjective judgment as to who wins any given night has a problem being a sport, and it needs to make sure that it does it damned well. Figure skating fails woefully at it. It’s determination of who is the winner lacks all credibility. Hence, it’s not a sport.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Sweet Jesus. I know this is probably old news, but this is the WaPo teaser-link for that Lane article

    Lane: The Indiana senator tells Obama to take this job and shove it.

  66. 66.

    mai naem

    Wow, Susan Bayh does look like Rielle Hunter. Have those two ever been seen together? Are they the same person. OT, Howard Dean used to use Susan Bayh as a “host” replacement for his wife when he was head of the Dem Governors’ Association. Wonder how many contacts Susan Bayh made doing that which she used down the road for her lobbying efforts.

  67. 67.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @J. Michael Neal: The judging is ridiculous.

    No argument, and I see where you’re coming from. I never really thought about it like that, because I’m never all that interested in who wins, just what they do.

  70. 70.

    Balconesfault

    Will anyone report that the problem for guys like Bayh is that they pissed in their own pool when they decided it was cool to support Republican filibusters?

    At that stage, they’ve just given a kick in the nuts to party discipline, and by deciding they have the right to override the wishes of about 53 or 54 other Democratic senators, they’ve also given 53 or 54 other Democratic senators a damn good reason to make life hell for them.

    I would think at this point any legislative agenda Bayh himself had was deader than Dick Cheney’s soul thanks to his own self-serving but ultimately self-defeating decision that the (D) behind his name meant nothing but a nicer office.

    And that probably started to dawn on him.

    Will an (R) in that seat be worse? Only if it were to mean the difference between there being more than 62 Dems in the next Senate (unlikely), or less than 50 Dems in the next Senate (unlikely). Otherwise it’s one less wanker to fill the Democratic Senator seat on Meet the Press and agree with the Republican Senator and House member as they gang up on some poor Democratic House member.

  71. 71.

    Balconesfault

    The most annoying thing about figure skating is that if you’re not expected to have a chance to win, you have no chance to win.

    I don’t care how freaking well the 14th best figure skating pair in the world might skate … they’re not going to be on the podium this Olympiad. Maybe if 4 years, if they impress here, and do well in a few Worlds between now and 2014, they’ll be one of the 5 or 6 pairs who get taken seriously that year.

  72. 72.

    Spork

    Goddamn, I gotta say you fuckers crack me up. Everytime I wake up out of an alcoholic haze, you’re there nominating Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as a recess appointment replacement for Evan Buh-Bayh. Dammit, I feel surly, I’m gonna go find a hippie to punch.

  73. 73.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @mr. whipple:

    This is one of those … questions. To quote Bill Maher, golf is not a sport, because anything you do while smoking and drinking beer is not a sport. It’s just a game. Like Parcheesi.

    Which brings us to Figure Skating. It’s not a sport, but it is a competition, and one requiring artistic and athletic skill.

    Why one would think that only a true “sport” should be in the Olympics is beyond me. Besides, then we have to argue over what a sport really is or is not. Who cares? The fact is that the ice skating stuff is fun for many people to watch, so let them watch it. Personally, I find ice hockey to be the most boring thing ever put on television after the test pattern. No, the test pattern is more interesting. But anyway, there you go, it’s a matter of taste. Now, I think hockey would be more fun to play and do than ice skating, but since I can’t ice skate, who the hell knows? Not me.

  75. 75.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @Balconesfault:

    if you’re not expected to have a chance to win, you have no chance to win.

    The competitors don’t tend to suddenly go from class B to class A in a performance. That kind of change requires a lot of time and exposure to competition. A second rate team is not likely to win unless the first rate people all screw up.

    It would be like expecting the Detroit Lions to suddenly show up in the Super Bowl with the same players they had when they won 2 games all year. It’s theoretically possible, but ….

  76. 76.

    J. Michael Neal

    @mr. whipple:

    Basketball?

    I will definitely agree that basketball is ridiculous, although not for this reason. It’s a sport, just a dumb one.

    Gymnastics?

    True. I vacillate on gymnastics as a sport. It has the same inherent problem that figure skating does, but my impression has always been that it does a much better job of walking that fine line than figure skating does. I’ve always felt like they do a better job of using objective criteria to do the judging than figure skating does. I don’t follow it closely enough to be all that confident of my judgment, though.

    My big problem with gymnastics is the way it chews up young girls. If they changed the judging criteria to weigh strength more heavily relative to flexibility, thus shifting the age of top women gymnasts to their early twenties, as with the men, I’d be a lot happier about it.

    Boxing?

    I’m going to do even less to defend boxing than I did basketball. Boxing isn’t dumb; it’s loathsome. I don’t get any enjoyment from watching people try to give each other brain damage. That said, you are absolutely correct: unless there is a knockout, the outcome has zero credibility.

    All have subjective judging.

    No, they don’t. All sports have some officiating element that is either subjective or, as in baseball’s strike zone or tennis, involving speeds that the human eye can’t always capture. That’s not the same thing as subjective judging. In hockey, the ref has some effect on the game, but the vast majority of goals clearly went in the net, and if you get more of those, you win.

    In gymnastics and figure skating, the subjective judging is everything. That’s all there is. While the officiating in hockey can be so bad that it calls the result into question, it’s much less likely. If subjective judging is ALL that you have, you had better do a damned good job of making sure that it’s right. Figure skating has not done that.

  78. 78.

    AnotherBruce

    And the fact is that these days, any Democrat is more useful than any Republican

    Not true, if a Democrat strings his party along and votes against cloture, he is in fact worse than a Republican. These Democrats waste time and resources. At least with a Republican, you know where he stands. I would say that any Democrat that filibusters, or threatens to filibuster legislation should lose their committee seats. It’s impossible perhaps to kick them out of the party, but at least they should be shut down as much as possible.

    But that would take party discipline, something that the Democratic party hasn’t had since the 60s.

  79. 79.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    that would take party discipline, something that the Democratic party hasn’t had since the 60s.

    Bingo. Long term success for any party depends on discipline and care of the coalitions. Things those goddam stupid crazy Republicans have mastered in the past, so no matter how feckless you think they are, there they are, yanking us around with their minority position because we can’t get our act together.

    They’re dumb, but we’re selfish and pigheaded.

  80. 80.

    Cassidy

    unless there is a knockout, the outcome has zero credibility.

    You should watch MMA instead. More skill and better fights. And way more knockouts.

  81. 81.

    J. Michael Neal

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    Why one would think that only a true “sport” should be in the Olympics is beyond me. Besides, then we have to argue over what a sport really is or is not. Who cares? The fact is that the ice skating stuff is fun for many people to watch, so let them watch it. Personally, I find ice hockey to be the most boring thing ever put on television after the test pattern. No, the test pattern is more interesting. But anyway, there you go, it’s a matter of taste. Now, I think hockey would be more fun to play and do than ice skating, but since I can’t ice skate, who the hell knows? Not me.

    What, then, is the criteria for being in the Olympics? Should we ditch everything that lots of people don’t enjoy, and add Riverdance? A lot of people would watch that at the Olympics, but that doesn’t mean it belongs.

  83. 83.

    mr. whipple

    @J. Michael Neal:

    Thanks for such a thorough response. I was just interested in how you were defining things.

    To me, they are all sports.

    In basketball, stars get calls. Home teams get calls. The officiating in these regards is BS and frequently ridiculous to the point of being laughable, but despite this it’s still accepted and considered a sport.

    Gymnastics and boxing do have the negative aspects of ruining bodies and minds, but I don’t feel that disqualifies them from being considered sports.

  84. 84.

    Dennis G.

    @Fwiffo:

    Yep, he is finishing his term, so he didn’t pull a full-Palin. He only was able to pull of a half-Palin. I’m sure he’ll be well rewarded with a lobbying contract, speaking gigs and teevee. Most likely it will be all of the above.

    Still, it was Ezra Klein who had the best line about Bahy all day:

    Evan Bayh has decided to retire. He said he wants to spend more time scolding his family for moving too far to the left.

  85. 85.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    What, then, is the criteria for being in the Olympics? Should we ditch everything that lots of people don’t enjoy, and add Riverdance? A lot of people would watch that at the Olympics, but that doesn’t mean it belongs.

    I don’t know, why don’t you write a letter to the editor, or to the Olympic Committee? Surprisingly, I have no power to decide what’s in the Olympics. I shit you not, sir.

    Oh sure, I used to, but then I discovered rose cultivation, and ba-da-bing, new hobby. It’s all in the health of the roots, I found out. I’m tellin ya, that’s the secret.

  86. 86.

    Cassidy

    @J. Michael Neal: No. Was just being funny.

    Personally, I enjoy boxing, but a lot of people don’t appreciate the “sweet science” anymore. Anybody can slug it out, but it takes a real technician to box. And a lot of times, that aspect is forgotten in the mix. A good fight should go to a decision, as that means both fighters were able to effectively counter one another and not when by brute force.

  88. 88.

    Nick

    @DougJ:

    Lots of chest-thumping at FDL and OpenLeft.

    Let’s see if they’re still thumping their chest when Senator Ellsworth was to insert parental notification into an appropriations bill.

    Or worse, when Senator Hostettler has ACORN subpoenaed.

  90. 90.

    J. Michael Neal

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    The competitors don’t tend to suddenly go from class B to class A in a performance. That kind of change requires a lot of time and exposure to competition. A second rate team is not likely to win unless the first rate people all screw up.

    But how would you know if it happened? The 28th ranked female biathlete won the 7.5km sprint a couple of days ago. We know that, because she skied faster, and shot better, than anyone else in the race. So, it does happen, but not in figure skating, because the judges have strong preconceived notions of what they are going to see, and the 28th ranked skater is expected to turn in a performance a lot lower than the top five or six, and those are the scores they’re going to end up with. The lack of big upsets, and athletes coming out of nowhere to win, is a huge indication that figure skating has a serious problem.

  93. 93.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: Compared to downhill ski, that sport looks like something you would see at a McDonald’s playground.

    Heh. I have to admit that something very like this crossed my mind, watching that. Though having tried snowboarding and failing so thorougly that I couldn’t even keep my goddam boots stuck to the board – seriously, I gave up after one run down the bunny slope and I was completely fucking exhausted by the time I got to the bottom – I know it can’t be all that easy.

    But the thing that really distracted me is that blue junk they use to mark the lanes in the snow. It looked like they poked a hole in the bottom of a Porta-John and dragged it along the snow.

  94. 94.

    Balconesfault

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    Long term success for any party depends on discipline and care of the coalitions. Things those goddam stupid crazy Republicans have mastered in the past

    Repubs do have the advantage of a fairly centralized control on how corporate money flows to party members, since the purpose of the party is to serve corporate interests.

    Since the Dems nominally aren’t in the service of corporate America, their members are cutting their own deals.

    If Mitch McConnell decides to turn off the spigot for someone, I’ll bet the well runs dry pretty damn fast. If Harry Reid turns off the spigot … well, hell, can Reid really do much of anything these days besides decide what legislation looks like when (if) it makes the floor?

  95. 95.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @J. Michael Neal: I’ve heard of it. I just do my best to ignore it.

    I thought that SNL skit with “Hey, you, Hey, you, I know you! I know you!” said everything that needed to be said about it.

  96. 96.

    mr. whipple

    @Dennis G.:

    I liked this one from JC’s Twitter page:

    “After talking about it for years, Bayh finally eliminated some government waste today.”

  97. 97.

    J. Michael Neal

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    I don’t know, why don’t you write a letter to the editor, or to the Olympic Committee? Surprisingly, I have no power to decide what’s in the Olympics. I shit you not, sir.

    That’s a nifty dodge. You state that figure skating belongs in, and then, when asked to supply your criteria for making that declaration, you say that what you think has no relevance.

  99. 99.

    El Cid

    Just out of curiosity, which of the FDL posts on Bayh count as “chest thumping”? I’d like a metric to use.

    There are a few that, post facto are saying “fuck you, asshole,” and “good riddance”, and no matter how much I dread the likely replacements, how is it that such a sentiment now is causal for Bayh’s leaving — post facto?

  101. 101.

    Balconesfault

    @freelancer:

    Someone hasn’t heard of synchronized swimming.

    Among the sports that didn’t exist when I was a kid.

    Synchronized swimming.

    Ice dancing.

    Rhythmic gymnastics.

    All added, I am firmly convinced, with the sole purpose of bumping TV ratings among the XX chromosome demographic.

  102. 102.

    John Cole

    And the fact is that these days, any Democrat is more useful than any Republican, even Evan Bayh. If he truly is every bit as bad as you think he is, we could still end up trading down on him.

    Not really, now that we are below 60. As long as we have 50+1 now, to hell with Bayh. Now the WH has no choice but to ram things through.

    As it was, the Republicans have tarred this admin as radical leftists, when they are actually milquetoast centrists (and right-wingers any where else in the world), and failure of their policies would mean the next Republican takeover would be a move to the right.

    With centrists like Lincoln and Bayh gone, the center of power in the Democratic caucus shifts left. At least now, if progressive policies are going to get blamed, they might be a touch progressive.

    After Brown won, all the centrists became irrelevant, and Bayh knows it.

  103. 103.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    So, it does happen, but not in figure skating, because the judges have strong preconceived notions

    That’s your opinion. Mine is that you can’t take a second class figure skater and expect that on some miraculous night he or she will become, all at once, a first class competitor. Of course I have only been watching for fifty years, and I have never seen that happen, but that’s just anecdotal.

    If I am not mistaken, figure skating has been in the Olympics since 1908, which means that whatever is right or wrong with the thing has been there for a hundred years. So, I must say, you are right on top of this.

    Next, you’ll dissect what has always been wrong with the daguerreotype, I expect. Awfully grainy, what?

  104. 104.

    Dan Robinson

    Bayh is a narcissistic fuck who inherited his seat in the Senate and thought that he was somehow worthy of it.

    Maybe he was, considering the worthless fucks who inhabit the Senate now. Except for a few guys like Russ F. and Senator Al.

  105. 105.

    John Cole

    We might get lucky, and for once this might trigger the “fight” aspect of the Democratic BIS/BAS/FFS.

    Although they will most likely cower in a corner and beg for the beatings to stop.

  107. 107.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    That’s a nifty dodge. You state that figure skating belongs in

    ]

    No I didn’t. I said some people like it, so let them have it. Who cares? Not everybody likes everything. And not anybody likes some things. Like you, for instance. See what I mean? And it’s just an opinion about something that is about as important to me as what color outfit you are wearing right now. Don’t forget, I finished my post with “who the hell knows? Not me.” So you see, I really don’t see how having somethings that one person likes and some another person likes is really end of the fucking world. Eh?

    Don’t put words in my mouth unless you use the same words I do, okay son?

  108. 108.

    J. Michael Neal

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: Sorry. I figured that, when you brought up whether or not something belongs in the Olympics, that what followed that related to it in some way. I apologize for not realizing that you were only interested in making a complete non-sequitor, not actually having a point that related to what you were saying.

  109. 109.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @J. Michael Neal:

    Yes, and it’s a shame that this is keeping Monster Truck Races out of the Olympics. It’s great, but just not enough people want to watch it. Well, they do here in Arizona, but that’s just here.

  110. 110.

    freelancer

    OMG, we’re flaming each other over Olympic threads events.
    @John Cole:

    With centrists like Lincoln and Bayh gone, the center of power in the Democratic caucus shifts left. At least now, if progressive policies are going to get blamed, they might be a touch progressive.

    You say that like Reid is going to see the math and the Dem leadership is going to get all Bruno Gianelli suddenly.

    Can we have a happy-time, no flaming, unicorns thread with a ball pit plz? Today has been more exhausting than amusing.

  112. 112.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    I figured that, when you brought up whether or not something belongs in the Olympics

    I never said that anything did or did not belong in the Olympics, despite your repeated and rather odd attempts to say that I did. I said, some people like the fucking competition, so why not let them have it? Some people like snowboard cross, I suppose. Not me, but so what? Not everything in the games has to please everybody, does it? I personally think that basketball with pro players is a damned joke, but the Olympic committee ain’t calling me and asking my opinion like they used to when I had hair.

  114. 114.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    I never claimed that how many people want to watch it is a relevant criterion for a sport to be in the Olympics.

    Neither did I. I said, who cares? Besides you, I mean. 100 years of figure skating later, and you are on a crusade to get rid of it? I admire your spunk, Don Quixote. Excelsior!

  115. 115.

    Balconesfault

    One question I have on the Olys, since we’re dealing with it.

    Why do short-track racers have 3 individual events to medal in?

    Is there any reason to expect that the winner of the 1500 will be any different than the winner of the 500?

    In 2006 3 skaters accounted for 7 of the 9 medals on the men’s side (on the woman’s side it 2 skaters netting 5 of 9 medals).

    It seems like the only surprises come when multiple competitors take themselves out of competition (as when Ohno got the silver the other night thanks to 2 Koreans tangling up … or more infamously the 2002 1000 final when Steven Bradbury went from 5th to 1st as the top 4 wiped out en masse).

  116. 116.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @Cassidy:

    you claim to not like boxing

    Not me. I enjoy it. But then I also enjoy women’s basketball, and also the sausage races at the ballpark.

  118. 118.

    JGabriel

    @Gwangung:

    The thing is….every time we capture a #2 #3, there’s a new one we have to go and hunt down.

    Minor correction. Al Zawahiri is number 2, and we never get that fucker either.

    .

  119. 119.

    mr. whipple

    I think the judging on this last couple reflected their performance. And they broke through with it.

    No worse than silver.

  120. 120.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    I apologize for thinking that you had some purpose in writing it.

    You’re a funny little shit, aren’t ya? When you get done arguing with yourself, be sure to tell us who won.

  122. 122.

    mr. whipple

    Is there any reason to expect that the winner of the 1500 will be any different than the winner of the 500?

    Why not? I wouldn’t necessarily expect that a track runner would win all 3 of those.

  123. 123.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    I think Obama’s only hope is for the Republicans to take back one or both houses of Congress; that’s the only way he’s going to be freed from going along with the bs Pelosi/Reid agenda average American voters have clearly rejected.

  124. 124.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    If Republicans take back Congress, Obama can move to the center-right and focus on the social issues that Americans really care about in tough times, like beefing up our antiquated law-enforcement protocols that coddle criminals through the justice system and insuring religious/moral support systems can expand through schools to give kids and parents the moral strength they need to get through tough economic conditions.

  126. 126.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @J. Michael Neal:

    you didn’t intend for it to have any informational content.

    You are without a doubt the best straight man I ever saw here.

    Yeah, the information is right there, genius. I said “it’s beyond me.” That’s it, the whole info package, all wrapped up and formed into the shape of a nice phallus so that you can grab onto it and make it your own.

  128. 128.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    No, really, why did you write that,

    Oh my god, I can’t believe you actually asked that.

    I thought I had seen everything.

    Good night, I have lint to pick out of my navel.

  129. 129.

    J. Michael Neal

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: That would make sense as an argument if you had written, “Why anyone argues what should or should not be in the Olympics is beyond me.” That’s not what you wrote. You took a position on a particular kind of event, thus implying that you thought it belongs in the Olympics.

  131. 131.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @J. Michael Neal:

    That’s not what you wrote.

    This is just a stepping stone to having my posts collected and then written up in the New York Review of Books.

  132. 132.

    AnotherBruce

    and insuring religious/moral support systems can expand through schools to give kids and parents the moral strength they need to get through tough economic conditions.

    Or, alternately we could give those kids jobs dipshit. Try paying the rent with moral strength sometime, see how far it gets you.

  133. 133.

    jl

    Ok, Cole’s wish is my command.

    Ben Nelson is a poo-poo head.

    There ya go.

    Wonder if Dems can hold Nebraska now?

  134. 134.

    Desert Rat

    @VladCat:

    By my count, 216. This, of course, was dwarfed by the number of #3 Al Qaeda men who were killed and captured, which was about a daily occurrence from 2003-2006, until it was so openly ridiculed that the Shrub White House stopped bragging about it.

    Al Qaeda #3 Men are known informally within the group as the Terrorist men in the Red Uniforms.

  135. 135.

    mr. whipple

    “That’s because, in track, you almost never see the same person win at both of those distances.”

    Maybe so, but the difference may just be that a lot fewer people participate in speed skaing vs track, and the best tend to win more races, and there’s less specialization.

    It would be interesting to look back at it historically, and see if there’s always been more dominance in speed skating.

  136. 136.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    Really, JMN, I gotta go, but thanks. I haven’t laughed like this since they canceled Mr. Ed.

    To quote the inimitable equine: “This thing is bigger than both of us.”

    Later, and good luck on getting Ice Skating out of the Olympics. Next, can you work on getting the mosquitos out of Florida? I’m behind you all the way.

  139. 139.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    @Church Lady:

    (Just for future reference to anyone who reads my comments on here; anything that sounds remotely right wing is probably a spoof.)

  140. 140.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    There should be an Olympic Bongathon competition. Judging could be on lung capacity, post-bong hit facial expressions, endurance/Last Man/Woman Standing, Pepsi, Doritos & Oreo consumption and the number of good and bad jokes told. Competitors are provided with one pound for competition, winner takes all.

    I’ve been in training for over 35 years now so I am fit and ready to compete. I regret that I only have one pair of lungs to give for my country but nonetheless I am ready to sacrifice.

    USA! USA! USA!

  141. 141.

    KCinDC

    @John Cole, I wouldn’t be so sure we’re still going to have a safe majority in the Senate next year. Replacing Bayh with a Republican could make a big difference. And even if we do have 50 or 51, every added senator does help. With 50, we’re in a position similar to what we had with 60, where every Democratic senator (or at the least the more obnoxious ones) has an incentive to make outrageous demands in return for cooperation. The situation isn’t much better with 51.

    But I grant that at certain points between 51 and 60, having one senator more or less may not make a huge difference, and it might even be worth replacing a Democrat with a Republican if the Democrat in question is sufficiently damaging to progressive goals. I’m just not confident that we’re going to be within that range after the election.

  143. 143.

    slag

    @John Cole: I once called Bayh a wanker in these very comment sections. I’m pretty sure that was the one that pushed him over the edge.

    Personally, I still think Bayh is bitter for not getting VP. There was no substantive reason for his overt and persistent wankery after the election. Even being from a conservative state didn’t require it as his wankery was clearly intended for national–rather than local–consumption. Nope. He’s just a wanker. And a bitter one at that.

  144. 144.

    Annie

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    I love it. Let the teabaggers get what they claim they want — small government. When they win, the first thing to cut will be Medicare. The second thing will be to get rid of Social Security. Then, we will see that the majority of teabaggers cannot even afford the $600 to attend a teabagger convention. They will be consumed with trying to get health insurance — but denied because of pre-existing conditions — and, they will loose some of their retirement funds. And, somehow, this will all be blamed on the Democratic party.

  146. 146.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    Let the teabaggers get what they claim they want—small government. When they win, the first thing to cut will be Medicare. The second thing will be to get rid of Social Security.

    That was Bush’s master plan after the 2004 election. It was the CATO Institute’s wet dream. Epic fail, every time he talked about it, public support went down until it was something less than zero.

  147. 147.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    No fucking way would a bongathon result in that clusterfuck though it would provide endless amusement for the participants in one.

    Of course it would be judged under the “Bad Joke” category.

  148. 148.

    SIA

    OT but just read a good article by Jonathan Chait on Obama, healthcare, and the GOP:
    http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/the-obama-method-and-the-health-care-summit

    That’s not the point. Obama knows perfectly well that the Republicans have no serious proposals to address the main problems of the health care system and have no interest (or political room, given their crazy base) in handing him a victory of any substance. Obama is bringing them in to discuss health care so he can expose this reality.
    ___
    I’m not saying this is some kind of genius maneuver. I’m not even saying it will work. (I wouldn’t bet against it, though.) I’m just saying that this — not starting over, and not pleading for bipartisan cover — is what Obama is trying to accomplish.

  149. 149.

    Chuck Butcher

    @J. Michael Neal:
    There are rules in sports, enforcing them in the refereed type is subjective. There are rules for judging, the fact that you don’t have them in front of you or the experience to know what the hell is going on is immaterial.

    I can’t figure skate worth a damn, but I played hockey at college level and yes a goal is pretty much a goal, but fouls are not always called the same. It is a very fast violent game and it is not easy to to make calls.

  153. 153.

    Mike Kay

    @mr. whipple:

    Lautenberg was doing well at the hospital but was to stay there overnight for routine observation, Gray said.

    “The senator is in great spirits and joking with the doctors,” said Gray, who didn’t know if the senator had fallen inside or outside the apartment or whether he had suffered any injuries.

  157. 157.

    Balconesfault

    @mr. whipple:

    Is there any reason to expect that the winner of the 1500 will be any different than the winner of the 500?

    Why not? I wouldn’t necessarily expect that a track runner would win all 3 of those.

    Because functionally, the track 500, 1000, and 1500 (well, actually, 400, 800, and 1500) are very different events.

    Here’s the tip-off on skating. If you add the winning times for the 500 and 1000 in 2006 … they’re slower than the winning time for the 1500.

    If the outdoor Olympics had a 500, it would go in about 57 seconds. 1000 would go in about 2:12. The world record in the 1500 is 3:26. Notice how the pace gets significantly slower with each event?

  158. 158.

    Joseph Nobles

    Why would Obama want to appoint Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to a fiscal responsibility commission?

    Because they’re both Islamofascists, duh. :D

  159. 159.

    hamletta

    @Desert Rat: Al Qaeda #3 Men are known informally within the group as the Terrorist men in the Red Uniforms.

    I always preferred to think of them as Spinal Tap drummers. I kept waiting for them to announce the death of Stumpy Joe Mohammed.

  164. 164.

    burnspbesq

    @Yutsano:

    Aww, just don’t. You’re not fooling anyone. You probably have a picture of John Amaechi as the wallpaper on your computer.

  165. 165.

    Yutsano

    @burnspbesq: To be honest, basketball players aren’t my style. Now take someone like Gabe Kapler or Niko Koutovides and now we’re talking.

    EDIT: And take this for what it’s worth, but my wallpaper is a ladybug on a rosemary stalk.

  166. 166.

    balconesfault

    @burnspbesq:

    P.S. She can dunk. Can you?

    I’ve long wondered how a team from the “white Jewish guy” era (tip of the hat to Joe Paterno) would fare in NCAA women’s play today. Take, say, the 1950 NCAA/NIT champ CCNY, and drop them in against today’s UConn women’s squad, and see how they match up?

    Maya Moore vs Irwin Dambrot, anyone?

  167. 167.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yutsano:

    my wallpaper is a ladybug on a rosemary stalk

    I believe our gracious bloghost would like to discuss candle fragrances with you, sir.

  168. 168.

    Yutsano

    @Anne Laurie: I am partial to any evergreen scent, including rosemary. In fact I would kill for a rosemary bush, if it weren’t for the fact that I can kill anything up to and including bamboo. I suppose mentioning that there are great lavender farms on San Juan Island won’t score me any points here?

    Oh and the pic should be on my Twitter feed, I just don’t think I’ve linked to it.

  170. 170.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: :: tap dances ::

    Never mind, that’s more in the horror category.

    @asiangrrlMN: I’m a wee bit grumpy too. Didn’t get the promotion but my boss is trying to string me along and keep me from leaving.

  172. 172.

    Tattoosydney

    @Yutsano:

    Howdy. I was going to chip in when our host was being pilloried for his lavender candles to mention that when we were in Lisbon (yes, I know, I will shut up about my six week holiday eventually, probably in 2014) I stocked up on “Folhas do Tomate” candles, scented like tomato leaves, which is the single best candle smell EVER.

  173. 173.

    John

    @DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:

    That’s your opinion. Mine is that you can’t take a second class figure skater and expect that on some miraculous night he or she will become, all at once, a first class competitor.

    This happens all the time in sports where the measurements are more objective. The whole argument seems circular. Judges assume this, so the people they don’t take seriously don’t get high scores, which allows them to justify themselves that nobody they didn’t take seriously going in could possibly win. It’s begging the question.

  175. 175.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Here is what I decided, especially after our conversation today: either something opens up for me to advance in my division or I will look in another division in the same company. The timeline is the wedding I’m going to in April. After that, if it looks like I’m not going to get anywhere either in my office or in my company, I’m gonna start looking elsewhere. And I don’t mean empty promises here. Either something tangible comes down the pipeline or I’m gone.

    @Tattoosydney: That scent sounds absolutely enchanting. I highly doubt I could find that here however. But maybe I’ll do some scouring around the Web.

    I’m grateful for your presence. She’s a hard woman to entertain solo.

  180. 180.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: You wanna know what really gets me? You wanna know what cost me the position? I WAS HONEST!! I wish I was kidding. I told them in the interview that I really cannot handle overnight shifts, and in the follow-up today they informed me that was the poison pill. I thought personally that was a bit ridiculous, especially since I have pretty much worked when they’ve wanted me to up until now. But meh, whatever. The decision is made and either something else comes up or I’ll be out the door. I am fully aware that this could be the best thing that ever happened to me, it just kinda smarts that THAT was the reason.

    @Tattoosydney: You’re cute when you’re coy. Now spill it.

  181. 181.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Tattoosydney: Yes. I went with the most family-friendly comment that entered my mind. Somewhere, the phrase two wetsuits and a dildo is hovering ovenhead.

    @Yutsano: Seriously? That’s the reason they said no? Fuckers. You’re always at work, and they want you to do the graveyard shift as well? I mean, come on! You’re not ME, for heaven’s sake.

  182. 182.

    Tattoosydney

    @Yutsano:

    It’s a pain in the arse, but some would say that if they didn’t want you as you are, then you don’t want to be their friend…. (no, wait, that was my mother when I was six and Carolyn Tanner wouldn’t be my friend because she wanted to be Michael Long’s friend because he didn’t wear underwear)… well, anyway, sometimes it’s time to move on to the next big thing.

    You’re cute when you’re coy. Now spill it.

    No. *shuffles feet and blushes* Hee hee hee “titmouse”

  183. 183.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:

    two wetsuits and a dildo

    I flashed briefly on a Dan Savage column where he was asked whether the fact that some woman’s boyfriend wanted to have a threesome so he could feel another man’s penis rubbing against his with the comforting safety of a girl’s insides in between them made the boyfriend gay.

  184. 184.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:
    @Tattoosydney:

    Bugger. Used a forbidden word.

    two wetsuits and a dildo

    I flashed briefly on a Dan Savage column where he was asked whether the fact that some woman’s boyfriend wanted to have a threesome so he could feel another man’s p3n1s rubbing against his with the comforting safety of a girl’s insides in between them made the boyfriend gay…

  186. 186.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yutsano: Yeah, I love rosemary too, but it’s not cold-hardy enough to survive a New England winter and I’ve never managed to keep one alive indoors. Mostly because we have exactly two sunny south-facing windows and three cats. But at least I can buy a new seedling or two every spring and pot them up near the front door, where I can enjoy the scent, even if they never flower.

  187. 187.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: We all know the real lesson here. Always go commando. Oh wait, that’s not it. Your mentioning of small songbirds has me cornfuzzled.

    In all seriousness, it’s still pretty fresh, so I’m going to sleep on it a few nights, do the task my boss assigned me (already started on it but don’t have anywhere near enough information to complete it), and just take it one day at a time.

    @Tattoosydney: Heh. I hope he said fuck yeah and asked for a phone number. Actually he’s very happily partnered. Ggrr aargh.

    @Anne Laurie: My record on basil is hit or miss, it’s not hard to grow and totally worth it but it’s one step from catnip so the kittehs love it. It grew famously on my porch though.

  188. 188.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tattoosydney:

    I stocked up on “Folhas do Tomate” candles, scented like tomato leaves, which is the single best candle smell EVER.

    Tomato leaves? Raw nicotine? Ugh! Maybe it’s because I’ve never been a smoker, but trying to scrub the smell of the leaves off my hands is the thing I enjoy least about growing tomatoes…

  190. 190.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yutsano:

    We all know the real lesson here. Always go commando.

    But then what will become of all those Tunch OBEY thongs?

    Srlsy, I’m sorry that your bosses chose to be idiots, but it sounds like you have a good plan to improve your position mapped out. (It’s always been my experience that when a hiring committee picks out something like “Will you do overnight shifts?” as a make-or-break, what they’re actually asking is “How badly can we screw with your life before you’ll tell us to shove it?” You have to really, really, REALLY want the job if you’re willing to give a random collection of pointy-haired idiots that much power over you.)

  192. 192.

    Yutsano

    @Anne Laurie: The exact question (again, it heightens my annoyance factor) was “We know we’re hiring for 7am-4pm, but if we were to move it to a graveyard shift would you object to that?” Of course I knew it was a trap. I had turned down applying for a promotion earlier for that exact reason, so yeah, it was a push to test my limits I’m sure. It really put me in a tenuous position, but maybe this will be the kick in the ass I need to move to where I really want to be. I dunno, right now I’m just going to feel things out as they come and let the future take care of itself.

  194. 194.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Wow. I had no idea the power of my words. I have been faxing Evan Bayh regularly for YEARS, blasting him with my leftie meanness. If I had known it was this effective, I would have done so even more often. With more added meanness!

    Why just the other day, after denouncing my Blue Dog Rep Baron Hill from IN-09, I concluded my fax with this bon mot aimed at the retiring Sen. Bayh:

    The same goes for Sen. Bayh, Mr. Republican-Lite, one of the turncoat members who repeatedly have failed the Democratic party of which he is supposedly a member. One wonders with each passing day how much more out of touch with reality he can get. He certainly has lost our votes forever.

    And earlier, in a fax lambasting Congress for failure to achieve health care reform:

    On a personal note as a voter and citizen, it is just embarrassing to watch the performance of Senator Evan Bayh, (D-Indiana, at least in theory). This is a Senator who I generally refer to as “Senator Republican Lite”, because he can usually be counted on to lean more towards the insanity of the Republicans than to supporting his own party and President. In a just world, Bayh would have a hard time explaining his votes on health care issues. If he were a judge in a trial, he would have to recuse himself. Why?

    According [to] an Indianapolis Star article from June, Evan Bayh’s wife, Susan, “owns from $500,001 to $1 million in employee stock in WellPoint, the Indianapolis-based insurance giant on whose board she sits.” That would mean that the value of her personal holdings in that one health insurance company alone, in the last six weeks alone (since [Senator Joseph] Lieberman and her husband began menacing the public option), would have increased by a value of between $125,000 and $250,000. As part of the bonanza of health care industry board positions she magically received since her husband became a Senator, Susan Bayh is given a quarter-million dollars each year in stocks and stock options from Wellpoint. That’s just a microcosm for considering how well Obama’s so-called “special interests” have done as a result of this health care bill.


    Evan Bayh’s Wife Reaping The Benefits Of Health Care Reform

  195. 195.

    Veritas78

    I have been saying everywhere and always that Ben Nelson has the cheapest toupee in Congress. If that doesn’t drive him out, nothing will.

  196. 196.

    ppcli's daughter

    Ben Nelson is a poopyhead.

    (Ppcli adds: I tried to get her to stop, but you know how savage little kids can be.)

  197. 197.

    Admiral_Komack

    @JasonF

    “Call me a cynic, but you don’t quit a Senate race abruptly, and on the eve of the deadline to get on the ballot, unless there’s a scandal lurking somewhere. Watch for the metaphorical live boy or dead girl to pop up in Senator Bayh’s closet.”

    -If it’s a dead girl in his office, he can be the new sock-puppet for Joe Scarborough.

  200. 200.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @John:

    This happens all the time in sports where the measurements are more objective.

    Maybe. But the comparison is not apt. My analogy to the horrible football team showing up in the Super Bowl is much more apt.

    In figure skating and ice dancing, just to name two events with subjective judging, it takes more than one good performance to go from being basically in the second tier of competitors, to the first tier. And even if the competitor does achieve that breakthrough performance, he is still competing with others who are already and consistently at that higher level. That breakthrough has to be over multiple events and it has to be good enough to top the people who are already at that higher level of performance. It’s not like they are going to do a great triple axel and win the gold. It is next to impossible, and I can’t see how it could be otherwise without an entirely new model of judging and award standards. Maybe JMN, with his great intellectual powers, can come up with one? Heh. I’ll hold my breath until just before I turn blue.

    It takes time and excellence to convince judging panels that a competitor has arrived at the higher level of expectation. That’s the nature of the contest and the judging system. It isn’t perfect, but again …. who cares? It’s not like we are talking about preventing nuclear profileration or stamping out polio. It’s really just entertainment. That’s my take on it. It’s also fodder for blogheads to bitch about something that sounds bitchable …. until you really look at it, and then you kind of realize that there’s a reason why 100 years of the thing have evolved into what it is. Like most things, the goodness of it depends at this point on the integrity and ethics shown by the judges. That’s something that is true of all subjectively judged contests, not peculiar to ice skating. Diving, snowboard events, dog shows. Eh?

    Again, just watch women’s basketball, and all these concerns just go away.

  201. 201.

    DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio

    @John:

    This happens all the time in sports where the measurements are more objective.

    Another shot at this. There are first tier competitors in skating, and second tier, and maybe third.

    A single great performance does not turn a second tier competitor into a first tier competitor. Those things are the flashes of potential that signal that the skater is capable of moving up, but because he’s skating against people who are at that higher level every day, almost every time out, the chances of his personal best moment turning into a medal against the efforts of frankly better skaters are so low as to be nonexistent for all intents and purposes. I don’t see that this is a flaw in the judging model. It’s just a characteristic. And it does happen, you’ll hear the talking heads say that so and so had a breaktrough performance and now is going to raise the level of expectation for his or her competitions. And as that continues to happen, the judges expect more of him, and the skater gets consistently better. Pretty soon he may become a consistent contender for medals.

    But one event can’t do it, barring a double whammy, where he outdoes himself, and all the better competitors do poorly or less than their best.

    Every once in a long while you have the Nadia Comeneci phenomenon, somebody just comes in and busts up the ranks. But that’s rare, because people at that level of talent are rare. Most of the people in the ranks just have to work their way up a step on the ladder at a time. One good show doesn’t mean they’re another Nadia. That’s the nature of the subjective judging model being used.

    And it is different from objective measurment, times and distances being the only criteria. So …… that’s what makes it entertaining, and why people watch it in droves. Why the networks showcase it. It’s popular. A crowd pleaser. My grandmother got teary eyed over Sonja Henie. Would we deny that good woman from rural Nebraska her night of heart-rending tv every four years?

  204. 204.

    Little Dreamer

    @J. Michael Neal:

    I’m really late to this party, but when you pair a group of skaters like the infamous Gordeeva & Grinkov (who basically matched movement for movement for almost the entire lifetime of their career) and they actually nailed the technical points, you have a perfect performance – but I’m sure you’ve never heard of them, or seen them.

    You have no clue what you’re talking about. You have a preference, and I’m sorry but you don’t create the schedule of events. Want to change it? Go work for the IOC and try to convince them.

    I can assure you that figure skaters earn more airtime than any curling or luge event. That’s what the IOC understands, the coverage, the opportunity to bring their entertainment to the world. Figure skating was a godsend to the IOC’s financial dreams, moreso than almost any other event (besides perhaps the downhill, and I might even argue that point).

    Not exciting enough for you? Too practiced and creative rather than just pure raw power? Too f’n bad.

  205. 205.

    Little Dreamer

    @John:

    This happens all the time in sports where the measurements are more objective. The whole argument seems circular. Judges assume this, so the people they don’t take seriously don’t get high scores, which allows them to justify themselves that nobody they didn’t take seriously going in could possibly win. It’s begging the question.

    Actually, that’s not true.

    In an event like speed-skating where you basically need a great start, great speed and to stay on your feet, a miracle is much likelier to occur (Apollo Ohno, for example). In figure skating, it’s not about just one or two elements, it’s about technical points, it’s about creativity, it’s about style, it’s about synchronicity – and it’s much harder for an up and coming skater to nail all those points and turn in a medal on one single performance (especially when the events require two programs).

    Every single possible reduction that can be taken is, and it’s shaved off in many different areas. Judges know what to look for in perfect programs, and perfection comes along very rarely.

  206. 206.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Little Dreamer: Thank you for your eloquence on this subject. G&G were amazing together. And, watching the Chinese pair execute their short program…sublime. I also like speed skating and the muscle events, but I enjoy the beauty of figure skating. In fact, I started to like it less and less when they decided to focus more on the jumps and not as much on the artistry.

    @Yutsano: Damn. I was doing it by memory. Thanks, hubby!

  207. 207.

    Little Dreamer

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I didn’t get to see it. Apparently TZ thought it was pretty good, judging by the way he was hyping it, but then I found out he’d never heard of or seen G&G.

    I don’t think G&G will ever be surpassed for their synchronicity. I tried to watch the shorts from the other night online, but unfortunately, the NBC/IOC website doesn’t like me enough to allow me to – so, I’ve spent the better part of the last two days reading up on what has happened to Ekaterina since Sergei died (I was never a fan of Ilya Kulik, and thought she chose poorly there, but that was just my opinion – it seems she may have finally found another partner who can help her fly and match her passion in Beroev).

  208. 208.

    Little Dreamer

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Actually, what I’m trying to say is that watching Gordeeva and Beroev, she looks happy, and she’s more creative (she’s branching out a bit more, some Ice Dance steps added, more fun moves – but I didn’t see the magic in the Kulik match). It’s too bad that she’ll never compete at that level again with this new partner, I think they’d make an interesting challenge, while still not achieving the G&G level.

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