Last summer, we met the Democrats who hated the unemployed — the 16 House votes from the majority party against an emergency extension of unemployment benefits. They were:
John Adler, D-N.J.
Brian Baird, D-Wash.
Melissa Bean, D-Ill.
Marion Berry, Blue Dog-Ark.
Bobby Bright, Blue Dog-Ala.
Travis Childers, Blue Dog-Miss.
Jim Cooper, Blue Dog-Tenn.
Joe Donnelly, Blue Dog-Ind.
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Blue Dog-S.D.
Baron Hill, Blue Dog-Ind.
Frank Kratovil, Blue Dog-Md.
Betsy Markey, Blue Dog-Colo.
Jim Marshall, Blue Dog-Ga.
Walt Minnick, Blue Dog-Idaho
Glenn Nye, Blue Dog-Va.
Heath Shuler, Blue Dog-N.C.These brave politicians bucked their free-spending, ultra-liberal party, and cast votes in favor of fiscal responsibility. And for their willingness to oppose Barack Obama’s liberal agenda, nearly all of them were rewarded with early (and ironic) retirement from public service.
I’m particularly happy to see Herseth Sandlin retired, and for the sheer number of spam emails, Betsy Markey can just drop dead for all I care.
rob!
And to think I voted for Adler on Tuesday. Ugh.
J. Michael Neal
Pity Shuler wasn’t one of them.
arguingwithsignposts
@J. Michael Neal:
I was just about to say the same. Dickhead former quarterback is trying to push Pelosi out of majority leader spot.
beltane
This merits an “assholes” tag, because assholes was the first word that came to mind reading this.
stuckinred
@arguingwithsignposts: Former shitty Vols qb!
Funkhauser
And this is not circullar firing squad, how?
Andrew M
Now that there are all these openings for new Democratic candidates, will the people screaming blue murder at Daily Kos about the Democratic leadership screwing up use the opportunity to find the “better Democrats” they keep asking for? Or have they been so burned by the numerous candidates they’ve raised money for that have either lost or turned their back on them that they will sit on their hands and engage in more Monday-morning quarterbacking?
MattR
@Funkhauser: And this is circular firing squad, how?
JGabriel
@Funkhauser:
They’re no longer in office, which means they are safely outside the circle — where we can fire at will.
Also, they voted against unemployment insurance. That’s like kicking hungry puppies and starving babies.
.
John Cole
@Funkhauser: This is straight up, pure, distilled schadenfreude.
4tehlulz
@Funkhauser: In all fairness, if Heath Shuler is shooting at you, you don’t have to worry about getting hit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Funkhauser: It is ovoid.
Zifnab
@Funkhauser: Well, they’ve already been fired. This is more ritual kicking of the dead horse, because the horse was a little bitch.
Dexter
They may have lost the election but they won’t be quiet. They will be either become lobbyist or TV pundit and will keep on screwing the democratic agenda.
General Stuck
@Funkhauser:
I don’t think you can have a firing squad on ghosts. Circular or otherwise.
Mako
Hey john, does that negro woman you hired have an email address?I’m curious how a young angry internet black person feels about Soul Train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87snXgV7Pg
jeffreyw
And here is another dog with the blues.
NobodySpecial
The Esteemed Congresswoman herself. Evidently she didn’t realize the wind at her back would push her off the plank.
Gravenstone
I can’t tell. is that supposed to be snark on the part of the author, or do they really mean to slather on the right wing hyperbole while lamenting the fate of those poor, poor “principled” souls?
Comrade Javamanphil
@4tehlulz: LOL! That was so much win.
Cat Lady
I’m still gobsmacked that Deval Patrick weathered the teabagger epidemic in MA that elected Scott Brown, to win convincingly. I think this analysis is very instructive for Dems, and this particular piece of wisdom really struck me:
Sincerity and integrity. It shines through.
stuckinred
Hokies tie it up!
Phoenix Woman
Heath Shuler still thinks he can challenge Pelosi. Put a sock in it, Heath. What’s left of your caucus can’t do shit.
JWL
How will Obama react to not having blue dog ass to kiss? That’s the question. Was his sucking up to that contingent merely miscalculation, or has he lost strategic allies within the party?
Maude
@Mako:
Hello!
That’s the new BJ greeting.
beltane
@Cat Lady: The Democrats swept Massachusetts decisively on Tuesday. The teabagger epidemic there turned out to be more like one of those 24 hour stomach bugs. Scott Brown will soon be nothing more than a trivia question on Jeopardy.
danimal
I want a balanced budget, which probably means I’m not a true progressive to some. However, the way to a balanced budget is to, um, balance revenues and expenditures. These assholes were always willing to be mini-Republicans in their rhetoric and never seemed to have the same passion for raising revenues as they had for cutting taxes. I hate GOP fiscal irresponsibility with the fire of a thousand suns, and they were useful idiots for the GOP. It’s too bad they weren’t primaried out.
Jay in Oregon
Brian Baird voted against unemployment extension? Really? He’s not my rep but I’ve heard him on KPOJ (Portland’s progressive talk radio) a lot and he seemed like a stand-up guy.
I was also under the impression that he wasn’t running for a second term, anyway. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.
kindness
If I had known Heath Schuler would come out and say the stupid stuff he’s said about Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, I’d have donated money to his Republican opponent.
Mako
@Mako:
Sunday morning. Kick the tv alive, Ernest Angely. Bruno San Martino maybe. And then Soul Train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AytWOmJtQ8I
Why is Soul Train not on my tv now? An Ernest Angely clone exists. Wrassingly? Still there. Where is my Soul Train? Black people are seriously letting me down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AytWOmJtQ8I
Steve
@Jay in Oregon: Brian Baird didn’t run for reelection. I don’t know what to say about his vote on unemployment benefits, but he voted against the Iraq War…
Bill Murray
well sadly for you John, the woman South Dakota elected to replace Herseth Sandlin is essentially her political doppelganger. The big negative ads were a vote for Herseth-Sandlin was a vote for Pelosi, while Noem liked to drive really fast.
Ailuridae
@danimal:
Balancing a budget on an annual basis is nothing short of a horrible idea. Now balancing a budget on 10 or 20 year cycles is a really, really good idea and one most economists agree with.
Gozer
@Mako:
I prefer my Soul Train with a modern touch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG5ZYnv4TFo
And us dusky hued folk are too busy socializin’ ur death panels.
stuckinred
Hokies take the lead!!!!
Gian
Blue Dogs. The best mental puzzle, when they pick a stupid hill to die on, do they really believe in the principle, or are they just cravenly trying to pander to people who are not likely to vote for them…
I get that being the stick in the mud gives them disproportionate power within the party, by always extorting something for a vote, and with being a blue dog they get corporate money, but if your policy positions are based on how much money and power they get you personally, what does that make you besides a blue dog?
and if you won a tradational R seat in a wave year like ’06 or ’08 why the heck do you ever think it’s going to be a long term seat and you should pander to the right wing to try and keep it? you’re not going to, and at least if you hold to the democratic party’s values, you can do something with the time you have the seat. (and if you’re loyal, and the dems do redistricting, maybe you get rewarded…)
Mako
@Maude:
Hi. How you doin’? Big fan. The whole anal thing is outacontrol.
Cat Lady
@beltane:
I’m not sure about that. My fear is that he’ll be plucked to be VP for 2012 by the GOP establishment. He’s a male Palin with more work ethic and better language and campaigning skills. Unencumbered by his need to pander to the Mass. voters, he could out Romney Romney. He’s very, very ambitious, and like Palin, doesn’t really know what he doesn’t know, and doesn’t think it matters. And he’s right.
danimal
@Ailuridae: Agreed, I’m basically a Keynesian, save during the good times, spend during the bad.
Liberty60
Pardon a rant, but after spending so many hours working to elect a local Democrat, only to hear people like bayh talk about how we must join the
BorgGOP in order to defeat them- I am posting this everywhere I can-A word to anyone who believes that liberals must “move to the center” in order to regain popularity-
WE ARE THE CENTER!
We believe in Social Security and Medicare, in a society that respects and cares for our elders instead of consigning them to poverty.
We believe that the respect for basic human dignity commands us to provide healing to the sick, instead of treating health care as a frivolous luxury only available to a privileged few.
We believe that a civil and well-ordered society needs both a robust private sector and an equally robust public sphere; that the business economy depends on well-maintained roads, infrastructure and institutions.
We believe that a prosperous economy depends as much on the labor and energy of those who work, as much as the finances of those who invest. That labor itself is to be respected and valued, and those who provide it should be provided a fair and level playing field.
All these ideas are basic centrist American ideals; these are the building blocks that created the American middle class, these are the ideals of men as different as Roosevelt and Eisenhower, Republicans and Democrats both.
We have not moved away from the center; the loud angry voices we hear today are the fringe, the extremists and those who have lost faith in the American ideal of an egalitarian society of fairness and justice for all.
We are the American center- and we are not for moving.
Rant off. I think we need to make a steady drumbeat of this, that we are the American center, that the things we believe in are things even most Republican voters like.
The GOP won by pounding home a single message for 20 years- “government is bad and incompetent”; we need to pound the other message- that government is good and necessary and can do good things for people.
El Cid
@danimal: I’m sorry. It is simply not permitted in this country to think seriously and openly about how increased revenues balance budgets since they are one side of the said balancing.
In our political culture, the only way to deal with a budget with deficits larger than desired is to cut spending, that is, cut spending on programs relating to social welfare or employment for the population, and then of course to reduce the amount of revenue coming in by eliminating taxes on those most able to pay them, particularly by favoring investment and inheritance related income over income from work.
I don’t know what confuses you about this. Repeat: the revenue side is unimportant except for when you’re wanting to say something vague about how revenues will go up if you cut taxes & regulations.
Mako
@Gozer:
As long as we’re dancing, we’re cool.
KG
@Cat Lady: well, if Romney wins (and it’s probably his turn, and that’s just the way the GOP operates), it can’t be Brown for Veep, unless Romney changes his residence to another state (a la Cheney in 2000).
And if Romney is the nominee, I would expect some sort of token minority as the Veep.
erlking
I’ve had the good fortune to vote for two of these assholes–Donnelly and Schuler.
I feel dirty even admitting that.
Marked Hoosier
@erlking: ah, i remember voting for Donnelly. I now vote against Burton. How great it is to vote, and have the election called minutes after the polls close…
NobodySpecial
@Liberty60: You haven’t heard? This is a center-right nation that has no time or use for liberals or their ideals. So don’t get any ideas about voting for liberals, since a conservative is the best we can do, and don’t bitch about legislation not getting done, since you should be happy with anything they give you here in our center-right nation.
Now repeat our motto: Nothing Can Be Done.
There. Don’t you feel better? Me too.
El Cid
Another way of talking about the loss of conservative Democrats.
I’m sure, though, that our lauded media analysts, pundits, headline writers, and editorialists will make sure not to dwell on the impact to our political system and who it represents so clearly though briefly outlined in the AP article above.
It’s just one of those, you know, quirky little details of American politics, like how they have that Iowa steak fry every year. Like how you have different turnouts in midterms which just happen to reinforce a multi-generational transformation of the Republican party into the party of right wing white grievance Lost Causers and their McKinley-era-fan funders.
Probably this just means that America is a center-right nation and the Democrats need to learn how to nominate ever more conservative politicians so that at least when they lose to Republicans, the pundit and party class respects their efforts as the sensible way to go.
Mike G
@NobodySpecial:
PurpleGirl
@Liberty60: Nicely put. Very nice, indeed.
Kristine
Bean’s my rep. They’re still counting votes.
Bean was always irritating. Socially progressive, but worked to defang financial reforms–I wish I could find the article that named her the US Chamber of Commerce’s go-to person on the New Dems.
But the guy who’s beating her, at least for the moment, is a Tea Party candidate. Who’s better, someone who will vote as I would like at least part of the time, or a total loss? The 8th Congressional is a very conservative district. If Bean had been more progressive, I don’t believe she would have lasted as long as she has.
What irks me about so many of these “fiscally responsible” TP’ers is that so many of them can’t keep their own financial houses in order. But they’re going to manage the country’s just fine. Yeah, OK. Pull the other one, love, it’s got bells on.
arguingwithsignposts
@El Cid:
I remember that article from a couple years ago, except it was the NE Republicans that were almost extinct.
Cat Lady
@KG:
Romney won’t get the Palindrones to vote for him. Na ga happen. They don’t trust him, and nor should they. The Kochs are trying to find someone else as we speak. Keep your eyes on who Fox starts to trot out regularly.
El Cid
On the plus side, if there are pretty much no conservative white Southern Democrats, maybe it will be a bit harder for non-existent Southern white Democratic reps to attempt to hold legislation hostage and water it down because they don’t think it will be accepted by their conservative white Southern non-constituency.
gene108
Being in John Adler’s district he had a tough job to try and maintain his seat. This was a solidly Republican district, with Jim Saxton holding the seat continuously for a couple of decades. Adler squeaked by in 2008, against a mediocre opponent.
Reflecting on Adler’s voting (I was very made at the time about some of his votes, especially on HCR), I think he did a decent attempt at trying to strike whatever balance between the Democratic agenda and the conservative independents in the district he’d need to win over to get re-elected.
I think he had a pretty good re-election campaign starting up. Runyan is clueless. He didn’t raise money. Self-financed a large portion of his campaign. Ran very few ads.
Adler’s early ads seemed effective to me. Unfortunately for Adler, every Republican group threw money into this race. They kept repeating how he voted with Pelosi 90% of the time and voted to pass HCR, which I know he didn’t vote for.
He did make the race interesting and a lot more competitive than I thought his re-election chances would’ve been in 2008. I had him pegged as a one term Congressman, simply because this has been a solidly Republican district for a long time and he won with under 55% of the vote in a huge Democratic wave election. I was surprised he made his re-election bid so competitive.
I may not have always liked his voting record, but I he voted with the Democrats more times than he voted against them. He was, if nothing else, a competent and knowledgeable legislator, who was trying to strike a balance between the Democratic agenda and the Republican tilt of his district. In a normal election year, I think he could’ve pulled it off.
Hell, he nearly pulled it off this year, in one of the worst possible wave elections for House Dems.
danimal
@Cat Lady: Thune. Looks presidential. No real enemies. Empty suit. Perfect GOP candidate.
marcopolo
Back in 2004 when the Democrats were in the minority and Daily Kos wasn’t the overwrought place it is now, as a regular there I gave money to several conservative Dem candidates just to, you know, elect more Democrats. One of those was Stephanie Herseth (still single at the time). She won that first election and held the seat for 6 years. Since I figure just about anyone (or at least 80% of them excepting Bernie Sanders :)) we elect to Congress is going to get captured by either the beltway cohort, lobbyists, and/or the moneyed interests and start forgetting they ever lived in their home district in around 4 years (yep, that is the way I see it call me cynical), I can’t say I regret that one time donation and it was probably past her time to have pretty much any “Democratic” party principles in common with me anyway. But then I tend to be to the left of the average Democrat.
Since I would prefer a Dem to a Rep majority, I can’t get too excited about indulging in schadenfreude, even though I agree the Blue-dogs brought their loss on themselves and that they occasionally caused pain for Pelosi, who I really admire and hope retains her status as what will be Minority Leader. But in general, politicians do not get elected to Congress (except for a few folks like Perillo (sp?) in VA because they are terribly earnest and have only the best interests of their voting (as opposed to financial) constituency at heart. Mind you I think the world of Perillo and if I were in Congress I would most likely be like him. Hmm wonder if he would have started turning/have turned to the dark side if he had held his seat for more than one term?
Boy am I jaded.
Suck It Up!
@Cat Lady:
that is not a fool proof plan.
Southern Beale
Wait, Heath Shuler lost? HuffPost is reporting he wants to challenge Pelosi for minority leader.
El Cid
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m not as familiar with New England history — has this been a fairly uniform trend there for the past 40 years?
(Note that this trend doesn’t apply as much to statewide races, since in that case the votes of urban residents & communities with higher percentages of non-whites count equally.)
Anne Laurie
@Cat Lady:
__
Well, that would be a good thing, because I’m still fairly confident that Obama will beat the Repubs like they were misbehaving stepchildren. But to argue the other side, the actual R candidate is gonna be some boring straight (or closeted) white guy, so they’ll be looking for a woman, an ‘acceptable’ minority (like Rubio), or some other novelty act to add a little fake excitement to the ticket. Being from New England is not going to be the right kind of novelty for the Heartlanders(tm), either.
Cosmo Boy’s best bet is to keep his head low & gradually slide towards the Maine Twins’ spot on the Republican bench — maybe keeping an eye out for the chance to dramatically switch teams after a particularly untelegenic explosion of teatardary. Right now he’s just, as you say, Romney-lite… and Willard will go full-Terminator on anyone who might be stealing Willard’s spotlight.
El Cid
@Mike G: If you make sure and keep large expenditures out of the actual budget, then it makes the deficit smaller.
Perhaps Obama and Democrats should follow their example and simply stop listing expensive programs in the budget and then they could probably balance the budget pretty easily.
gene108
@Phoenix Woman: Why are people mad at Shuler? Have you guys been to anywhere in his district?
There’s no way in hell anyone more liberal than Shuler gets elected.
*************************
People stopped trusting the government after Watergate and the Vietnam war and the fact Federal government swept aside a century of Jim Crow laws. One Party played on that mistrust and affirmed that mistrust by flat out saying “government is the problem”.
If you want to push through a liberal utopia, where the government has a more active roll in things, you first need to get people to start trusting the government again.
Right now, there are very few people making the calm, reasoned, argument that government does a lot of good shit for its citizens. Government, often, is not the problem and provides services, without which we cannot live, which is one reason we have chosen to have this form of government.
The right-wingers didn’t shift people to being resentful of politicians and thus government overnight. They’ve been working at it for decades, eroding the basic faith in the U.S. government for decades.
Without restoring people’s faith that government can be effective, you really aren’t going to push the country to the left, because so much of the liberal agenda revolves around the government being more involved.
On a side note, the right in this country holds the military as sacrosanct; the one branch of government it truly admires. The left, on the other hand, is highly mistrustful of the military, but is far more enamored of the civilian parts of the government.
KG
@Cat Lady: they were saying the same thing about McCain in re: Social Conservatives circa 2007. The GOP always goes for the guy whose turn it is. It’s why Reagan couldn’t win in ’76 but won in ’80, it’s why GHW Bush won in ’88, despite the Reaganites not trusting him. The only reason GWB won in 2000 is because there was no one who could be adequately described as being “next in line.”
Mako
@marcopolo:
I once saw a dog eat its own vomit.
Cat Lady
@Anne Laurie:
Don’t misunderestimate looks. Princess Sparkle Boobies/Cosmo McTrucknuts 2012 could win. We’re all in a Fox production now. Alumnus Ayla Brown could sing at the inauguration for her VP father to open the new season of American Idol. It would be a Villager wet dream.
marcopolo
@Mako: Nice editing job there but you weren’t quite fast enough. And you are no dog-owner either. When the dog eats its vomit you don’t have to clean it up. Here’s to pith.
theturtlemoves
I voted for Herseth-Sandlin back when she was just Herseth and I didn’t realize what a tool she was. I don’t necessarily regret it, as the Republican was probably a worse tool like Pressler or something, but man, what a disappoint she was.
Cat Lady
@KG:
McCain wanted Lieberman as VP, but he wouldn’t have made it out of the convention. The establishment made him take Palin. It’s all about the base, n/k/a Tea Party. They may do next in line, but they need to add someone for the crazies.
gene108
The more I try to digest what happened, I’ve tried to come up with some way to evaluate what happened and I’ve come to the following conclusions:
(1) The rich and powerful – hedgefund managers, energy companies, insurance companies, etc. – were always dangerous to piss off because of the money they could raise against a politician, but with the Citizens United decision, they can bury any candidate in a competitive race, whose party pisses them off;
(2) This is possible because people in America have never regained their trust in government, since whatever psychological trauma Watergate, the loss in Vietnam, etc. caused;
(3) Carter couldn’t recapture it, Reagan used it to drive his agenda, Clinton may have started shifting people’s views but Republicans succeeded in the politics of personal destruction to make sure people mistrusted Clinton (his infidelity just compounded / gave proof that he couldn’t be trusted), and Bush, Jr.’s sheer incompetence just reinforced and galvanized people’s mistrust with government;
(4) Given the 35 years of frustration American voters have had with government, attempting to be a transformative President, like FDR, and have the government take a more aggressive role in changing how things are done does have the potential for backlash, especially from the business interests effected by these changes, who can stir up American mistrust against the government to “vote the bums out”, since “vote the bums out” seems to be the default setting for the American electorate;
(5) The liberal agenda will never succeed, until people’s faith the government is effective and does make their lives better is restored;
(6) Liberals need to understand not everybody is going to give a damn about the down and out. That’s just the way most people are wired. If a problem isn’t directly relevant to them, they won’t lose sleep over it, so trying to achieve universal health coverage isn’t a BFD to most people, since most people have coverage through their employer;
(7) Given the general mistrust of the government, maybe a bold agenda to remake the way Americans obtain health care, how banks do business and attempting to change how energy is taxed in this country, may not have been the best way to go;
(8) Any attempt to push a liberal agenda won’t work, until people start realizing how much better off they are because of roads, schools, state supported colleges, etc.
(9) Given the right-wing domination of the media, this will be a hard challenge and can’t be achieved by (a) being shrill, (b) attacking people for not being as liberal as you, i.e. they agree with you on 3/4 of your views, so make sure you don’t lose them because you don’t like the fact they don’t agree on the other 25%, and (c) there needs to be a simple message to counter the right-wing narrative, such as “government is not the problem, government is the solution” or “Like highways? Thank the government”, etc.
Matthew
@Cat Lady:
Unprincipled cowards are at best a marginal improvement over corrupt lunatics, especially if they caucus together.
RalfW
IN the “that didn’t take long” department, the Minnesota GOP, riding an economic wave election has come less than 36 hours after victory in full swing for…a gay marriage and civil union ban.
Because that will fix the $6 billion state deficit and get this Bachmann-infested corner of America working again.
John Bird
Herseth Sandlin Goes to War as New Blue Dog Voice (July 1, 2010)
sherparick
You can be financially conservative without becoming a pet to the big banks. Melissa Bean made herself the go to person for the banks who wanted to gut financial reform.
I read a comment a year ago by a tea bagger foot soldier who essentially stated that she knew the system was crooked and did not trust the elites. Yet she votes conservative because her one big social institution that gives her a sense of community is her evangelical church and she is white and figures the Democrats are just about helping minorities and sodomites (Nixon’s prime song, as refined by Lee Atwater and Karl Rove).
Palin appeals to this base, as does Huckerabee. The establishment does not trust Huckerabee (he may in fact raise their taxes to help average people while thrashing the sodomites!) but Palin they trust to be their stooge.
I know this upsets John, but Obama does deserve a fair amount of criticism. As Paul Kthug note, Obama was always a economically “cautious” candidate, who accepted the Democratic Neo-liberalism of Robert Rubin, that Americans would grow rich being the financial engineers of the world. He picked Tim Geithner and Larry Summers because he was comfortable with their views. My biggest disappointment is that he failed to adjust, and failed to learn how captured and compromised these views are by the Financial interest. By June of 2009, he should have gone back to Congress and asked for a supplementary stimulus package including a revived CCC type jobs program (the CCC by the way is still authorized, it just has not been funded since 1941) to directly hire unemployed people whose unemployment benefits had expired and who were dropping out of the labor force. He might not have gotten it passed, but at least he would have been trying and forcing people to talk about something other than health care in the summer of 2009. His refusal to learn an reconsider his policies in the light of events is a kind of stupidity that very intelligent and bright people in power are prone too (I think of Daniel Ellsberg briefing Henry Kissinger and warning him of this effect).
John - A Motley Moose
I was a Travis Childers supporter in 2008. I moved to Michigan in August so I didn’t vote for him that year. I was glad to see a Dem get elected to a district in northern MS. It was rather amazing even if he was farther to the right than half the GOP. He turned out to be as bad as I expected, but that was still better than the alternative. We all get mad and complain about the blue dogs, but what do you expect? Do you think a GOP replacement in those districts is going to be more liberal? I’ve got an idea. Let’s kick them out and replace them with Goopers. Oh, wait… That’s what just happened. Why isn’t everyone that’s complained about the blue dogs for the last two years rejoicing? We got just what progressives have been clamoring for – less blue dogs.
John Bird
I would apologize for Heath Shuler except my vote goes to David Price, 35th most liberal Congressman according to the National Journal’s Flash plugin video game. Thank God.
Cacti
One of the most annoying things about Heath Shuler is that very liberal Asheville, NC is the only thing that keeps him as Congressman in an otherwise very red district.
Anne Laurie
@KG:
__
Willard sold his MA house right after Obama trumped McCain. He’s still got property in Utah, California, and New Hampshire (that I remember) and the political chatter was that he would declare himself a proud NHampsterite just before the 2012 primaries kicked into high gear.
Apart from the Talibangelical aversion to his magical-underwear “cult”, Willard is the kind of smiling sociopath that becomes less appealing to normal humans the more they’re exposed to them. On the other hand, as you say, it’s his tuuuuuuurn and the Republicans worship precendence second only after IGMFY. Maybe the banksters who run the party will try pairing him up with some more charismatic figure who can put an approximately-human face on the ticket? It’s not like Willard has the self-respect to reject a running mate, no matter how antithetical to what passes for his principles — but anyone sufficiently entertaining to disguise Romney’s deficits is probably also crazy/enterprising enough to resist playing second banana. So we could end up with “McCain/Palin II: Electric Boogaloo”… oh joy…
Anne Laurie
@Cat Lady:
__
Yeah, but I don’t see Willard stepping meekly away from the podium “for the sake of the party”. As we both have reason to know, behind that Robber Baron smile, he’s meaner than a copperhead with a fungal infection and absolutely convinced that his Mormon God has anointed him to become the Best President Ever. He can’t damage the Kochs personally, but I wouldn’t bet money on the survival of any hapless figurehead they might find to challenge our Willard for his predetermined-through-all-eternity American throne.
PaulW
@J. Michael Neal:
Shuler still lost. Every Blue Dog lost (39 of them, correct?). It didn’t help they were in +Republican gerrymandered districts.
While the Blue Dogs go into the unemployment line, anyone else ON the unemployment line right now want to join me in running for office? It’s the only payable full-time employment I can find right now… and the ways things are with a Republican-controlled agenda that abhors jobs programs (Tax cuts DON’T CREATE JOBS: all that money goes into savings and non-capital investments, you liars!), I’ll most likely still be unemployed by 2012.
MTiffany
My response to Markey’s frequent requests for campaign contributions: “I wish I could donate to you, but my unemployment benefits ran out…”
I’m not unemployed, but it felt to give her a good dose of her own medicine.
MTiffany
@Anne Laurie:
I smell an Oscar(tm)!
Mnemosyne
It would be nice if I could believe that the lesson learned here was that running against a popular president who won your district two years ago is a bad idea, but I realize it’s going to be more like, “Democrats just didn’t bash Obama hard enough!”
ricky
Can’t we trade Shuler for a couple of much lower draft choices?
Malron
My God, the comments to Aravosis’ post are just hilarious.
AB
@sherparick: you know what really irritates me? Stuff like how you said about the CCC isn’t ever reported or considered in news media. We’d benefit a lot if people actually knew that that stuff was available. How’d you find out about it?
Also, what I’d like to know is what powers does the executive branch have to alleviate the foreclosure crisis, and what are the advantages and disadvantages in using each of them?
Palindrome
Yaay MTiffany! Wish I’d thought of that. I held my nose and voted for Markey but gave a big earful to the volunteer that came to my door.
r norton
Adler, or Jon Runyan — pick you poison. Is it a bad thing to have the dirtiest football player representing me?
brendancalling
i called up Herseth and taunted her office. Same with Jim Cooper.
“remember how you wouldn’t extend unemployment to people who needed it? isn’t it funny how your boss and you no longer have jobs?? Have you looked at craigslist today, greenpeace is hiring political activists for $10/hour.”
redoubt
@El Cid: John Barrow was the only white Democrat to buck the trend. His district includes Savannah.
Here in Georgia? Even worse than you realize. Every single statewide office is now held by a white male Republican.
Edit: when I moved here 20 years ago Newt was the only Republican office holder.
Bulworth
Yeah. Trying to remember if I sent her money somewhere along the line.
Bulworth
@J. Michael Neal: Good grief. We lost all those seats and we still have to deal with Shuler? Has he been a Democratic vote on anything?
brantl
@gene108: Then maybe he could just STFU, and stop shooting his party in the foot, couldn’t he?
Puff Matty
John,
Don’t be too hard on Betsy Markey. Don’t forget, she knocked off Marilyn Musgrave in 2008. For helping push Ms. Musgrave into involuntary retirement, she deserves enduring admiration.
With respect to her votes in the 111th Congress, also bear in mind that she was ultimately a “yes” vote in favor of the President’s health care bill. That was the defining vote of her term, and she stood strong when it mattered.
brantl
@gene108:
“If a problem isn’t directly relevant to them, they won’t lose sleep over it, so trying to achieve universal health coverage isn’t a BFD to most people, since most people have coverage through their employer;”
This is exceptionally poorly thought-out, or you’ve been asleep at the wheel for a while, bub, because health insurance is getting shittier and shittier, and the “most people have coverage through their employer” health coverage is costing them more than they can afford and “covers” them like shit. Wake up and smell the coffee.
“(9) Given the right-wing domination of the media, this will be a hard challenge and can’t be achieved by (a) being shrill, (b) attacking people for not being as liberal as you, i.e. they agree with you on 3/4 of your views, so make sure you don’t lose them because you don’t like the fact they don’t agree on the other 25%, and© there needs to be a simple message to counter the right-wing narrative, such as “government is not the problem, government is the solution” or “Like highways? Thank the government”, etc”
This is a pretty crappy way to think of people not being sorry that they lost people that shot their whole party in the foot. And you’ve missed the point. If it’s a choice between Heath Schuler and a Republican, we’ll vote for Schuler, but we’d also primary him, and maybe not even because of his milquetoast stand on the issues (although those sucked, A LOT), but because of his grand-standing, to shoot his party in the foot.
Bill Murray
@theturtlemoves: her father and grandfather weep because of her voting record
sherparick
The CCC authorization law had been at Title 16, Chapter3A, Section 584 et. seq., of the U.S. Code, but when I looked to confirm it, the Cornell Law Institute now lists this as omitted. Not quite sure what that means.