Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Bark louder, little dog.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

No one could have predicted…

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

This blog will pay for itself.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Monday Evening Open Thread

Monday Evening Open Thread

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(Ted Rall’s blog)
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Things are tough all over:

527 group waned after Gingrich campaign imploded in June
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The Newt Gingrich money machine that raised $52 million in just four years to promote his ideas and image, American Solutions for Winning the Future, has quietly gone belly up.
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Gingrich set up the 527 group in 2007, but it began to lose fundraising steam almost as soon as the former House Speaker launched his presidential bid in May, Joe Gaylord, the group’s chairman told iWatch News. It closed its doors early last month, an apparent casualty of Gingrich’s beleaguered presidential drive…
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Some GOP strategists and lobbyists familiar with the group say that the Gingrich “brand” was tarnished by his lackluster presidential drive, an effort that didn’t seem to help his 527’s fortunes. Gingrich’s bid was battered in June by the departures of top staff who complained about the campaign’s lack of direction and Gingrich’s lack of focus. Among those who exited were campaign manager Rob Johnson, his long-time spokesman Rick Tyler, and a few fundraisers.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Gingrich’s staff quit, pretty much en masse. He’s polling in the low single digits. He’s a laughingstock pretty much everywhere. And now his fundraising org has gone tits-up.

    How much longer, O Lord, how much longer?

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I would love to see the donor list. Are there that many rich people dumb enough to believe Newt Gingrich is useful? that many lonely confused old people who didn’t know who to send their money to after Jerry Falwell snuffed it? I mean, if you’re rich and evil, wouldn’t you send your money to Dick Armey or Karl Rove, who at least know what they’re doing?

  6. 6.

    Lee

    BTW back when I was in the service if you were E-3 or below with a spouse and kid you qualified for food stamps.

    I believe it is still the same today.

  7. 7.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    @Lee:
    Yes, including Zombie John Holmes. Holmes was willing to work for brains but quit when he found none in the Gingrich campaign.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    Gingrich will be around for a long time, after all what else will he do. Grifters gotta grift.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    So doesn’t this sort of undercut the thinking that Newt got into the race because the money was drying up. Getting in the race didn’t help him in the money game. Why did he finally declare instead of just stringing people along like he had been doing for years?

  10. 10.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Oh, here he comes, another goddamned progressive grifter – Dr. James Hansen, top NASA climate scientist, was arrested at the White House for his dopey Jane Hamsher-worshipping grifting, allegedly on behalf of “the global climate” or some such other personal line-his-pockets scheme. Worse, the other 520 arrestees have now learned to grift along with the best there is, sharing all their secret grifting techniques while crowded together in Cell Block Number 9, and at the same time trying to fool people into thinking they’re “progressives” or “liberals” or that they “care about” anything other than pure grifting… We know what these evil ratfuckers have on their minds, oh yes we do! Trying to slip one over on the astute balloon-juice.com crowd – listen up, you progressive grifting racists, it ain’t never gonna work cuz we are ON to you! So stop trying!
    .
    .

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have possibly related this, but a number of years ago when Newt was still a back-bencher, I had a number of occasions to contact his office for work-related reasons. His was the ONLY congressional office I have ever dealt with — and I’ve dealt with about 75 such offices over the years — his was the only one, I say, that just plain flat out never bothered to return a call. I would have been pissed beyond measure if I had been a constituent.

  14. 14.

    MikeJ

    Gingrich wold have probably done himself better had he said he was in the race merely to raise issues, not that he was in it to win it. Easier to blow off the fact that not even republicans are stupid enough to vote for you, yet the act of campaigning lets you stay in front of the cameras.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MikeJ: I hadn’t thought of that. If Gingrich had stuck to the Huntsman path he kind of started on, he’d probably have wound up with an hour on CNN. Not Fox money, but they don’t need or want him. CNN is flopping around like a fish.

  17. 17.

    gordon schumway

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Gingrich’s staff quit, pretty much en masse. He’s polling in the low single digits. He’s a laughingstock pretty much everywhere. And now his fundraising org has gone tits-up.

    He sounds like the perfect guest for Meet the Press, This Week, etc! I do hope they can work something out…

  21. 21.

    RossInDetroit

    He was grifting years ago. A woman I dated in the early ’90s had his expensive collection of videotaped speeches. Utter waste of time unless you want to watch a smug, preening egotist wank on for an hour.
    Apparently people do want to watch that but it usually comes with a plot about a plumber, less dialog and some cheezy background music.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman: Yes, except I was also calling district offices in other parts of Georgia, plus Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and North and South Carolina. Of the dozens of House members from those states, Newt’s was the only one that routinely blew us off.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Re the cartoon, top: did anyone hear the weekend Marketplace program on NPR with Tess Viglund (however she spells it) interviewing Barbara Ehrenreich on the tenth anniversary of “Nickel and Dimed”? Ehrenreich is one of my heroes, but what she had to say yesterday was just depressing as fuck. Basically that ten years ago she was at least able to get those horrible, demeaning, marginalizing, minimum wage jobs; today she couldn’t even get that far because nobody’s hiring. So dreary and sad.

  33. 33.

    Another Bob

    Gingrich is a fat, prissy old whore. Nowadays, the wingers are into a saucier brand of eye-candy. The twinkly-er and more starburst-y they are, the better.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    Night shift checking in.

    Off work today, but back home in the man-cave for the first time since Thursday night. Spent the weekend hunkering down in the brother’s stately Arlington manor in advance of Irene, which turned out to be not so bad in this corner of NoVa. (Not to make light of others’ travails.)

    Feels good to be back in my little hideout. Catching up on the Balloon Juice threads and switching among U.S. Open tennis, Jets-Giants and Phillies-Reds for background TV.

  38. 38.

    Cliff in NH

    @jeffreyw:

    What should I do with spinach to have it be successful on a pizza?

    the plan is spinach, bacon, chicken, on a thin crust … undecided on the sauce. Maybe with tomato too if one ripens or I ride into town and pick up a cheap one.

  39. 39.

    Yutsano

    What the duck is UCT babbling about now?

    @Steepman: glad to hear you weathered Irene well. I’m hoping a Dawg dropped me a note when I get home letting me know he survived special duty. Turns out those Marines standing around the President aren’t just mere decoration.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Got a lot of rain Saturday and Saturday night, and some wind during the night that knocked down some tree limbs and the occasional tree, but that was about it. Signs here at the man-cave that the power was out at some point (flashing appliance clocks), but yesterday the weather was balmy–sunny, breezy, mid-80s–and it was the same again today. Caught the first faint whiff of autumn in the air for a moment this afternoon, which will be very welcome after this hellishly hot summer.

  45. 45.

    Svensker

    @Cliff in NH:

    I’ve found spinach gets crispy if it the raw leaves are on top and exposed to the heat. So either cover it up with cheese or soften it a little first in some olive oil and garlic.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @JWL:
    The reports as I understand them was that Jesus was betrayed, while what I see here is newt has betrayed everyone else.

    And himself.

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