Now that he’s beat Hayworth by 25 points, I wonder if Walnuts regrets spending more than $20 milllion and throwing away the last tatters of his reputation:
“I do not buy the storyline that I have changed,” McCain said. “I will be the same guy that I have always been.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
It looks like Lisa Murkowski is going to lose a squeaker to the Tea Party/Palin candidate in Alaska. Her opponent, Joe Miller, appears to have won because he’s pro-life (Murkowski was a baby killer) and the Tea Party spent a bunch of money from California. It will be fun to watch him walk back his pledge to cut federal spending, or at least to carve out an exception for Alaska.
Keith G
Huh?
mistermix
@Keith G: Sorry, accidentally hit “post” in the middle of writing the thing.
4tehlulz
Palin/Miller 2012!!!!!
Hal
What the hell does anyone in Alaska have to complain about? For Christ’s sake, you get paid to fucking live there! It’s the state equivalent of “keep the Government out of my Medicare.”
Alwhite
I read that some of the baggers in AZ are pretty angry because “He fought harder against Hayworth than he did Obama”.
That may just be election night anger but some of the morans might stay home in Nov or vote for some other nutbag. Probably not enough to tip the election but a guy can hope, can’t he?
El Cid
Duh. Fedrul spendin’ in red states is going to Real Amurkans and is no more than justice for everything else the fedrul gubmit has done to ’em.
Allison W.
Who is Dem candidate in AZ that will face McCain?
I want McCain to lose his senate seat. If nothing else, I want his seat. Followed by boehner and bachmann. basically I want all the top republican incumbents to lose. It would make my year, but to have McCain lose to Obama twice? (’cause you know that’s how it will play)
stuckinred
@Allison W.: To what address should we send the pony?
Bulworth
So Teabaggers are getting their Christianism back on I see. I guess they’re for less gubmit except when they’re for more.
demo woman
Ben Quayle won his race in AZ in a safe Republican district. Since he contributed to a porn site, it’s time that the Repubs stop talking about family values.
arguingwithsignposts
Can I just say I wish all of Alaska would STFU and go back to hunting their moose? We were all much better off when it was just Sen. Intertubes in the picture.
jwb
@Allison W.: Even, if McCain was to lose, which he won’t, our fine media would still figure out a way to turn it into good news for John McCain. Because that’s what our media do.
Bulworth
@demo woman: I expect baby Quayle to be next GOPteabagger VP nominee
Breezeblock
This is Orff Topic, but courtesy of G&T, and DWT, we see this:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/08/modoc-county-lesson-in-republican.html
From which I derive much … schadenfreude is the most appropriate word.
aimai
Yes, Weigel says that Miller was helped by a “Parental Notification” (for abortions) amendment on the ballot. Nothing says independent, rugged, autonomous, individuals like parental notification laws to prevent Bristol Palin and her ilk from sneaking out and having a quickie abortion.
aimai
Frank
@Bulworth:
It would be their own version of “Christianism”. They are no more Christians than my dog with all their hate etc.
beltane
@aimai: It’s only men who get to be independent, rugged, autonomous individuals. Part of being such an individual is having the right to own a woman. Even in the Palin family it appears to be Todd who calls the shots in the background; he’s the power behind the drone.
Napoleon
Do the Dems have a credible candidate in Alaska for the Senate seat?
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Frank: If these assholes were half as Christian as dogs, this country would be 500% better.
WereBear
@beltane: And yet, it seems like only yesterday that the Republican message was “Stay barefoot & in the kitchen!”
It probably was yesterday.
Bulworth
@aimai: Freedom! Don’t Tread On Me!
Violet
The Miller thing is amazing. Sarah Palin is going to be crowing about “her” candidate winning. Ugh. It isn’t going to help Alaska to have two very, very junior Senators. I wonder if Alaskans know that? They’ve been used to the bacon that Uncle Ted could bring home, and at least Murkowksi had been there for a little bit and was there to learn the ropes from Uncle Ted.
Bella Q
As for Alaska, I’m holding out some hope for the 16,000 uncounted ballots. But, in some ways, it would serve those who want an anti-establishment right to lose all the federal pork they are so used to raking in.
Sly
Either will be necessary.
Alaska’s statewide expenditures, in 2005, totaled 8 billion dollars. If you subtract intergovernmental expenditures (money given by the Feds for the state government to spend) you get 7 billion dollars. Which is about the same as the money it receives, directly or indirectly, from the Federal government. 7 billion is also nearly double what Alaskans pay in Federal taxes.
Making Alaska “live within its means” would probably kill the entire state.
Sly
@Violet:
It’s already a “problem”. When Stevens was in the Senate, Alaska was number one in Federal earmarks. He helped get the state $346 million in earmarks in 2008 alone. It has subsequently dropped to $227 million in 2009, and $81 million in 2010.
cmorenc
@mistermix:
NO.
McCain will only have regrets if the MSM quits giving him invites to the Sunday talking head shows, and those will only be because he could no longer successfully fluff both the media folks and the tea partiers.
someguy
Hey, quit pickin’ on Old Man McCain and his $21 million primary expenditure!
He had to destroy the integrity of the electoral system, in order to save it.
Steve
@Napoleon: The Democratic candidate is the mayor of Sitka, a town of 9,000 people. While you might think that sounds like a small-time candidate, I hasten to point out that it’s actually the 4th-largest city in Alaska!
Tom Q
Some CNN analyst was up this morning pushing “it’s a horrible year for incumbents” in regard to the AK race. But, as Rachel pointed out the other night, there have been relatively few incumbents defeated this year, and most have been have either been corruption-related (Mollohan, Kirkpatrick), which has often led to defeat in standard years; oddball (Specter switching parties) or far-right crazies in GOP primaries.
It seems to me the real “anti” story of the year is Republican primary voters rejecting their establishment to an alarming degree, and putting up candidates who will either lose (from being too far out of the mainstream) or expand the size of the the cuckoo-caucus (something you wouldn’t have thought possible).
Along those lines: I wonder if the reason Hayworth lost so easily to McCain is Hayworth had too much establishment taint. A complete unknown spouting the same stuff Hayworth’s been selling — an AZ Angle — might have taken this race.
Chris G.
Why is Alaska a state? Seriously. Shouldn’t it be some quasi-territorial protectorate? Hawaii, I get. You want to lock that down. But why Alaska?
Sentient Puddle
@Chris G.: Funnily enough, you can actually blame that on Ted Stevens.
SMR
Alaska has a Dem candidate for the seat that has a better chance of winning against Miller than against Murkowski.
Mayor of Sitka, I think. Virtually no name recognition (Walker?). However, there are plenty of republicans in AK that will vote for him before they will vote for Miller.
There is a silly little game that you can play in the primaries in AK — if you are a registered Repub/Dem you get a ballot that has only your party on it, so, if you are a registered Repub you get to vote Murkowski or Miller. However, if you are Undeclared you can vote for Repubs/Dems/whatever. That being the case, many people switch parties or choose to remain Undeclared so that they can vote for the candidate that they want their preferred Dem candidate to run against in the general elections. I.e., lots of stupid people voting for Joe Miller because that gives their preferred candidate, the Dem, a better shot at the seat.
I changed from Republican to Undeclared in AK after McCain picked Palin. It was our first election living in the US after many years, and clearly the GOP had lost its mind while we were gone. Now I’m in TX and am registered as Independent, and I have no clue how the system works, because we’ve not been here long.
Things might get pretty ugly for Miller if he beats Murkowski — he has some questionable credentials and a pretty sketchy history. Murkowski was coasting and didn’t think she needed to take him seriously, so she’ll reap what she sowed. The Dems will dig & dig to find out all they can if he’ll be the R candidate in Nov.
As for absentee ballots. Well, there are many from rural areas, and those areas rely quite heavily on federal funding, so it’s safe to say that many those will not be for Miller. Murkowski has been a champ w/regard to the native issues. There are also lots of military absentee ballots, though, and I don’t really have a read on how those would end up. One hopes that they aren’t tea partiers, given that they’re federal money beneficiaries for life.
Lisa Murkowski has actually done a lot of great things while serving in the Senate. She’s also owned by the oil companies, so that negates a lot of the good she’s done. She became complacent, like her dad who lost to that idiot Palin.
My parents and lots of family still live in AK, so I can’t say to hell with it and AK deserves whatever it gets for electing clowns like Palin & Miller, because there are many reasonable people. But they are the most fucking unmotivated dem voters on the planet and totally piss me off. Whine whine whine about all of the evil republicans, and when I ask them to write a letter or contact their rep/senator/whoever, they just can’t be bothered. So, maybe they do deserve what they get…
The good news is the hummingbirds are finally feeding at my feeders, and I am watching two of them as I write this, it’s the coolest thing in TX as far as I can tell.
Sentient Puddle
Here’s the TPM profile of the Democratic nominee, Scott McAdams. Sounds like he could potentially win against Joe Miller, but he’s got some catching up to do.