Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans in disarray!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

White supremacy is terrorism.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Don’t Panic, Mr. Dent

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    imonlylurking

    I have this week off so I’m planning lots of cooking. I’ve got a pot roast in the oven now.

    I don’t know if I’ll get to the cleaning, but the cooking is as scheduled.

  3. 3.

    Randy P

    Is this one active? I always have mixed luck with the interactive ones, seems like most of the ways I access the net they don’t work.

  5. 5.

    scav

    @Randy P: Few things hidden in there that move and beep.

    ETA. The goog had no option but working a bable fish in there. . . .

  8. 8.

    danimal

    I can only imagine what Douglas Adams would have to say about Daylight Savings Time.

    DST would have been one of those ridiculous concepts that Adams eviscerated with cool wit, in great detail.

  9. 9.

    Raven

    It’s spring break at the U and local school so all the students and friends with kids are gone. The grocery was empty and so were the streets. It’s a nice break but man time flies. Got my kettle bell set today so now I can try to de-jewel myself in the name of fitness.

  13. 13.

    Chris

    @Raven:

    Campuses are so beautiful when they’re empty. Although I always feel like I’m in a Stargate or Star Trek episode where they come across a deserted civilization and wonder what could’ve happened here before being attacked by alien monsters.

    (“Serenity” takes the cake in terms of making that meme freaky).

  14. 14.

    nancydarling

    I am trying not to despair over the lunatics in the Arkansas legislature, some of them DINOS but mostly teabagger fundies. I’m calling this the “tats and twats legislative session”.

    I think the WVA lege has to be at least one quarter as lunatic as AR and I’m wondering how Cole manages to be happy.

    I’ve got two dogs and a cat. My daffodils up by the pond are blooming. I’m doing prep work for my garden. And still I am despairing.

  15. 15.

    Raven

    @ranchandsyrup: That’s funny, I’m moving some old doors from the attic and I came across my old cup that I wore when I pitched slow-pitch. 46 ft is not very far!

  16. 16.

    lamh35

    I was supposed to go see a movie on Sunday with my lil cousins in NOLA. Drove down there for that purpose alone. When I got there, my younger cousins decided to have a crawfish boil (we ended up buying crawfish and all the fixins since it was raining), so needless to say, I never made it to the movies. I spend my time on da porch eating crawfish with the fam, watching my godkids and all the other kids of my cousin play in the front yard and finally listening as my aunts, uncles, my mother, my sister and extended fam ribbed each other while playing dominoes.

    I was tired when I went home, but I was extremely happy!

  18. 18.

    the Conster

    @Chris:

    Acquaintances of a friend of mine bought a house and moved into it on July 1, on a quiet little side street near the UMass Amherst campus. LOL. They knew it would change once school started, but they had no.idea.how.much.

  20. 20.

    Suffern ACE

    Watched about 90 seconds of Wilf blitzer at the gas station regarding the bomb in Afghanistan and some rift it reveals between Karzai and Hagel. I swear he was about to opine that we should stay there until they love us. Then Rabd Paul was brought in to opine about disrespect and I’m glad it was my turn to pay.

  22. 22.

    jl

    @Chris:

    hmmm… I dunno. Raven wandering around a suddenly empty college town. Other day he was talking about his vast swarm of flesh eating beetle minions.

    Note down that comment down, just in case something hits the news soon.

    Edit: and he was talking about some ‘project’ too.

  24. 24.

    Raven

    @Roger Moore: We got a new AD a couple of years ago and he took and morning run through the downtown bar area and was SHOCKED. Place is like a little French Quarter when the kiddies are here.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @lamh35: I lived in Lake Charles in the mid seventies and my oldest son was born there. I still miss crawfish boils. There’s a restaurant in the town I live in GA that is advertising a crawfish boil for $32.00 a person which is a tad steep or me.

  28. 28.

    Calouste

    @danimal:

    If Douglas Adams would have had anything to say about Daylight Saving Time, he would have said so. It’s only been observed in his native country, with a four year exception, since 30 years before he was born.

    But success with tying other famous dead people to your pet causes.

  30. 30.

    Chris

    @Roger Moore:

    Not at FIU. Less busy, but still plenty of people. Going back to college made me realized I’d developed misanthropic tendencies since undergrad. Not against other people per se, but definitely against crowds.

    ETA: and it’s only been three years. Not sure what happened in the interval.

  33. 33.

    MikeJ

    @Calouste: Some people are shocked to learn that there exist others who both have to work and would like to enjoy time outside.

  35. 35.

    LanceThruster

    Even though I love Douglas Adams dearly, I happen to think that digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

    Saw him at a book signing on campus shortly before he merged with the infinite.

    Last Chance To See, indeed.

    :-(

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:
    I may be projecting from my alma mater. The food service there stopped serving breakfast long, long ago because there weren’t enough takers to make it worthwhile. Anyone you meet there at 7 AM is far more likely to have stayed up that late than gotten up that early.

  38. 38.

    gogol's wife

    I love spring break. I’m only now starting to relax (unexpected blizzard on the last day of class before break didn’t help any).

  41. 41.

    lamh35

    @Raven: @Roger Moore:

    LOL. No need to be taught, I’ve been eating crawfish since I learn to walk and chew…LOL.

    Now I’ve been to queasy to suck crawfish heads, I hate that part, but I can go to town on some tails…LOL.

    Funny enough, I have this lil cousin Jasmine. She loves crawfish, but she can’t peel them. So she literally chews the tails and just spits out the harder bits…lol. But don’t you take that plate from her, she ain’t having it. She’s just gonna chew to her heart’s content…LMAO.

  42. 42.

    lamh35

    did ya’ll see that crap from Howard Fineman on Tweety’s show?

    the segment was about Ashley Judd. Fineman was reporting that the old school Dem establishment in KY DO NOT WANT Judd to run.

    when Alex Wagner pointed out that if the Obama apparatus if behind Judd, then Judd who will be able to fundraise big and who has been a big, vocal and very articulate supporter of women’s rights and with the GOP’s stupidity when it comes to women’s issues, then McConnell should be scared.

    So then Fineman said “the Obama people don’t want Judd either” and then when challenged by Tweety, he added some caveat about “well old school establishment” dems didn’t want her to run. Then when asked by Tweety, well who else they got and why not Judd, he said mentioned what his “sources” said and he mentioned Judd’s “mental issues”, her divorce, her liberalism, and then issues of her profession and Tweety was basically what are you talking about and Fineman said basically they were talking about her “nekkidness” in her films. He masked it in what his “sources” were saying, but if you saw the smirk on his face, you’d want to smack it off his face. It was disgusting.

    Ugh. Now I fully expect the usual suspects, who should know better than to follow hacks like Fineman, will jump on the “the Obama people don’t want Judd either” bandwagaon even though, to my mind, Fineman began to try to backtrack from the statement both on the show and on twitter once challenged. Fineman’s “sources” line I suspect is bullshit, I just don’t see the Obama people leaking anything against Ashley Judd or any female Dem candidate right about now.

    It was a classic Fineman hit piece of reporting, masked in “sourcing” to pit the “Obama people” against Judd before anyone Judd even announces her candidacy.

  43. 43.

    raven

    @HinTN: God yes, the way she sings

    I see you now at the piano
    Your back a slow curve
    Playing Ray Charles and Fats Domino
    While I sang all the words

    is crushing

  44. 44.

    raven

    @lamh35: Reminds me of a time when I made a big mess of tamales for a party and one dude says. “man, these are good but they are hard to chew”!

  46. 46.

    Anoniminous

    @Raven:

    When living in Iowa City we would do our Photography Expeditions in and around the campus. Opportunity for me to indulge in my passion for neat, semi-surreal, imaging.

  49. 49.

    askew

    @lamh35:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if this was coming from the old KY Dem establishment who are big Clinton backers. Allison Grimes is a big Clinton supporter and there are those who want her to run against McConnell and are trying to push Judd out.

  51. 51.

    jl

    @lamh35:

    Fineman went to The Famous Pundit Bob Woodward School of Journamalism? What a surprise.

    Fineman is a brave man. The dreaded ‘have a nice day’ threats will come any day now. Will Fineman have the courage to speak out?

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    @lamh35: Damn, now you got me craving some mudbugs. Been forever and a day since I had some good ones. My parents imported some for my brother’s college graduation, we ate really really well for like three days afterward. And they were still ALIVE after they were shipped!

  54. 54.

    askew

    @raven:

    @askew: I’m all for her but she has said some intense shit.

    She has, but until recently the KY Dems didn’t have anyone seriously considering a bid. Now that Judd is considering it, Grimes and others are being pushed by the Dem establishment.

    I doubt Judd will win but I bet she gets close and I don’t think Grimes or anyone else would do better.

  56. 56.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    I always thought Douglas Adams died of a broken heart. He wanted to be taken seriously but people kept saying “haw haw! Say ‘Beeblebrox’ again!”

    Poor guy. I loved his work.

  58. 58.

    lamh35

    @askew:

    As Tweety and Alex Wagner and even Fineman conceded, McConnell’s disapproval in KY is 55%, approval is 35%. Still what you need to run against McConnell is MONEY. Ashley Judd has the ability to not only raise big money for a well funded run, but she has the added virtue of being able to soak up the “free media” by virtue of being a celebrity.

    And even Fineman reported, that Judd is doing all the right things when running and that even from his reporting, outside of the “establishment” Dems in KY, Ashley Judd has a big up with women outside the “establishment” and she will have to ability to run a new more modern type of campaign and bring the mixture of paid, free, entainment, digital, etc media in much the way that Obama did.

  62. 62.

    ? Martin

    @22over7: I’d put her odds of winning at better than even.

    Seriously.

    And I was in the ‘relax, Obama’s got this’ all the way through the 2012 runup, even after the first debate.

  63. 63.

    the Conster

    @lamh35:

    Tamron Hall is flat out the most beautiful woman on TV. I’ve been saying that since I first laid eyes on her and apparently Prince agrees with me.

  64. 64.

    dance around in your bones

    42! 42! The answer is 42!

    Anyway, open thread – so I have been re-connecting with my mom after 20 some years (as some of you may remember) and it’s actually going pretty well. She talks about a lot of spiritual stuff, which sometimes makes me fall asleep[(been there, heard that) but we have also gone through a bunch of family history that I wasn’t aware of before.

    Some of it I don’t really WANT to know, ya know? I have my happy childhood memories and I don’t necessarily want them disturbed with an alternate reality, which would alter my whole past history.

    Oh Gawd, not that anybody’s interested, but you asked what’s going on, right? Anyway, we walked all over Santa Barbara today, to the pier and Shoreline cafe and etc, so now my mom is taking a nap (she’s 80) and I am taking advantage of the time to catch up on BJ !

    Jeebus Christ. Family stuff can be weird.

  65. 65.

    raven

    @dance around in your bones: I had a totally fucked up kidhood. Parents divorced when I was 11, kidnapped by my old man and brainwashed against my mother for years. I ended up patching up with everyone before they died and I’m glad I did.

  67. 67.

    lamh35

    Fineman’s last tweet:

    @howardfineman
    Obama folks acidly dismissive of #AshleyJudd. “If she gets in she’ll be out of the race in three months,” one told me Sat. “Too much stuff.”

    based on his sources. Now how soon and who will be the first left-leaning activist to use Fineman’s hackery for their usual BS?

    If there is one thing I’ve never thought about the “obama people” is that they’d ever be so stupid as to “source” anything like that against a female candidate and especially someone who was a BIG OfA and Obama supporter.

    Fineman is full of shit!

  72. 72.

    realbtl

    @raven: Re: Pineola.
    I used to perform that on acoustic guitar with my friend the ex-speed metal guitarist on lead, told him to rip the guts out of the thing. We both loved it but I’m not so sure about the sedate open mic audience.
    One of the most intense songs ever.

  74. 74.

    Warren Terra

    Today’s Google’s doodle is a tribute to Douglas Adams, the late author of the acclaimed novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

    It’s a novelization, dammit! It was a radio comedy first, and (imho) the radio series is still the best version, among radio, television, novel, and (sort-of) film. Though the hand-drawn “computer” animations of the television series are pretty special.

    Mind you, there are some novelizations that are better than the original. Red Dwarf, by a significant margin, for example.

  75. 75.

    Todd

    Greatest story ever. One of the biggest conservatard cardinals there is lives just above one of Europe’s premier gay saunas – and bunches of priests share the neighborhood.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/as-cardinals-gather-to-elect-pope-catholic-officials-break-into-a-sweat-over-news-that-priests-share-23m-building-with-huge-gay-sauna-8529670.html

    The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, who is due to participate in tomorrow’s election at the Sistine Chapel.

    This 76-year-old “prince of the church” enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.

  76. 76.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @LanceThruster: That is a comforting way to look at it.

    I remember that part of why I thought the way I do, that he wanted to write less silly stuff, is this 1989 LAT interview, in which he said that his next novel might be “downright mainstream.”

    Though now that I reread that interview it doesn’t really come across the way I remembered. Kind of cool that it’s online.

    (ETA: though it does say ‘For one thing, he thinks he will try “to suppress the need that I sometimes suffer from, which is . . . to instantly and duck for cover under the nearest joke,” whenever his writing leads to something serious.’)

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    @lamh35:

    Happy tired is the best kind of tired!

    You are making me think of summer visits with my Dad–sitting on the front porch–the best!

  79. 79.

    22over7

    @askew:

    You think she doesn’t know that? Maybe she’s ready for a brawl.

    For me, the 2012 victories meant that it’s time to push the envelope. Yes, the old white men are still in power and still angry, but they’re also scared. Yes, they’ll try to tear her to bits, but if she runs and fights, and has some money to back her up, maybe, just maybe, her message will appeal to all those voters who aren’t old white men.

    That’s my hope.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @askew: It is hard to tear someone apart if the person simply owns his or her past. Take Al Franken for example. I know there are differences between MN and KY, but I don’t think her career is a killer. The people who will be turned off by it would be unlikely to vote for any Democrat.

  81. 81.

    IowaOldLady

    @Raven: Some TV cop show had a case where the fitness instructor had been beaten to death with a kettle bell. I fully understand the impulse.

  83. 83.

    22over7

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    And if it were, say, Kentucky native George Clooney running for the senate seat, there would be little mention of the fact that we’ve seen his bare bottom more than once.

  84. 84.

    MomSense

    @lamh35:
    Tamron Hall is absolutely the most gorgeous woman — and Prince definitely has a weakness for beautiful women.

    @Roger Moore:

    He is over the top isn’t he! But we are trying to get through Senior English here–and he does stick to the text. Kate Winslet is her usual wonderful and I was so pleasantly surprised to see Jack Lemmon. Not sure that Marcellus is his best–but I did love him.

  86. 86.

    Schlemizel

    Its sobering to think by the time I reached Mr. Adams age he had been dead 2 months.

  87. 87.

    askew

    @22over7:

    You think she doesn’t know that? Maybe she’s ready for a brawl.

    Of course she knows it and she’s ready for it. I just think the conservative lean of the state will be too much for her to overcome. I saw what it did to Conway against Paul in 2010. Conway was a 100% better candidate than Paul and he crushed Conway.

  90. 90.

    askew

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @askew: It is hard to tear someone apart if the person simply owns his or her past. Take Al Franken for example. I know there are differences between MN and KY, but I don’t think her career is a killer. The people who will be turned off by it would be unlikely to vote for any Democrat.

    I am not worried about her career, but about them going after her mental health issues and her recent divorce. MN is significantly more liberal than Kentucky and Al is a man so the media didn’t go as hard on him as they will on Ashley.

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @askew: I am still guessing that most who would be turned off are not potential Democratic voters. What she could bring to the the table is new voters.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    I always thought Douglas Adams died of a broken heart. He wanted to be taken seriously but people kept saying “haw haw! Say ‘Beeblebrox’ again!”

    I’ve read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul), so I don’t think Adams wanted to be taken “seriously,” exactly. He may have wanted to be able to move beyond Hitchhiker, but that’s a slightly different thing.

  94. 94.

    ? Martin

    @askew:

    KY is a conservative state and the GOP will tear Judd apart with media’s help.

    That’s going to be difficult to do. Judd isn’t a local celebrity, she’s a global one. If the KY GOP swing, they’re going to find a lot of people with a lot of influence outside of KY swinging back. The cost of going too hard at someone that is popular outside of the political sphere will be felt against the GOP in ways that they are unaccustomed. The KY GOP may not be aware of that, but the national GOP will. They’re going to have to go quite easy on her.

  95. 95.

    Anoniminous

    @? Martin:

    Unsurprising the Northwest, heavily settled by Scandinavians (Yea us!), has the lowest rate – by A Lot – and the Southeast, almost totally settled by Scotch-Irish, the highest fatality percentages.

    Om du kan läsa detta du troligtvis inte kommer att skjuta någon. (Även om du kanske skära av huvudet med en yxa.)

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    not to get too dimensional-chessy, but if the GOP really tried to slut-shame Ashley Judd, they might win that battle but lose a broader war, especially if Hillary decides to go for it. The far right can’t contain its misogyny. Between the star power of the Clintons and and a fully engaged OFA, and an improving economy, I think 2014 has the potential to be a very different off-year election, he typed hopefully.

  97. 97.

    Todd

    @? Martin:

    That’s going to be difficult to do. Judd isn’t a local celebrity, she’s a global one. If the KY GOP swing, they’re going to find a lot of people with a lot of influence outside of KY swinging back. The cost of going too hard at someone that is popular outside of the political sphere will be felt against the GOP in ways that they are unaccustomed. The KY GOP may not be aware of that, but the national GOP will. They’re going to have to go quite easy on her.

    I dunno. The local right wing hag for Clear Channel has a daily three hour hate here in Louisville (to the exclusion of most items of local interest), and she is already landing blows.

  98. 98.

    Anoniminous

    Judd’s polling numbers aren’t bad this far out. Granted it’s, most likely, pure name recognition for Judd and McConnell’s horrible re-elect numbers. But it’s something she could build on.

  99. 99.

    ChrisNYC

    I watched the Ashley Judd event in DC a week or so ago. I like her but wow it was, to my eye, not good. There was a mememememe quality — star-ish — that I think will not play in a campaign. Also, a reference to “your sacred narrative.” I’m all for sacred narratives but we’re not ready for them yet in Senate races, I suspect. And a “Bono is the greatest person evah.” Ick. But I do like her.

  100. 100.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: If the sequester isn’t fixed, economic growth will be significantly lower.

    Benen linked to Merrill Lynch’s projections for job creation shrinking to below 100,000 in April and May. Unemployment isn’t going to drop with jobs being created at that rate.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ChrisNYC: And a “Bono is the greatest person evah.”

    She said that? You know the joke in Ireland, what’s the difference between God and Bono?

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @dance around in your bones:

    Glad it’s going okay with your mom. Twenty years is a long hiatus.

    Mine just turned 83, and I am flying out to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks to see her and my wingnut (younger) brother. Both have a history of depression and (the last few years) increasing negativity, so interacting with them can be, uh, an “inconsistent” experience. I am trying to plan things to fortify myself against any craziness that might arise. I am staying with a good friend from college (neutral ground), and, worst-case scenario, we will do some fun things when “family time” becomes too much.

  104. 104.

    ChrisNYC

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It was not THAT, really. But very close. It was how Bono called her and it was him and some other celeb and they asked her to do a UN (?) ambassador thing on water or women or something. “When Bono calls you answer because he’s the savior of the world.” Like that. There was, thankfully, no mention of George Clooney’s house on Lake Como. :)

    What’s the Bono joke? If it’s slightly mean, I’ll like it.

  105. 105.

    lamh35

    @MikeJ: but George Clooney is a man. Seeing his naked bottom means nothing. He’s divorced with no kids (just as Judd soon will be) and he has very liberal politics.

    And yet, I sure bet the KY Establishment Dems would certainly welcome a Clooney candidacy. And they certainly wouldn’t be worried about his nakedness

    it’s a double standard, pure and simple

  106. 106.

    imonlylurking

    @Omnes Omnibus: I certainly hope the Republicans do to Judd what they did to Al Franken. They took a snippet of video of Al imitating Paul Wellstone being agitated about something and tried to make people think that Al was an angry liberal. Totally failed. If that’s their worst-bring it.

  107. 107.

    Warren Terra

    @MomSense:

    Did you see him in the series Wallander? Not hammy at all. Even though it can be gruesome–it is very well done.

    Wallander lost me with the first series of episodes, when (SPOILERS) the case developed from being the investigation of a local crime to being a race against time to stop a world-spanning plot to destroy all of Western Civilization, which only Baranagh’s character could accomplish, almost by himself. Too overblown, too portentious.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Warren Terra:

    Feature, not bug. The Henning Mankell novels, especially the later ones, can get preachy about big social issues, and Firewall is about the worst (in that sense).

    I like the Swedish series better. It’s a little more low-key and a bit more of an ensemble piece. The Branagh series is sort of Wallander-centric.

  111. 111.

    ? Martin

    @Todd:

    I dunno. The local right wing hag for Clear Channel has a daily three hour hate here in Louisville (to the exclusion of most items of local interest), and she is already landing blows.

    It’s not going to stay local. The left will promote that stuff nationally. Painting the GOP as the party of angry screeds is the current formula, and there’s nothing wrong with nutpicking folks screaming over a 50,000 watt transmitter. The last thing the GOP wants are a nation of People magazine readers hearing Republican pundit after pundit launching epithets at Winona Judd’s lovely sister.

  114. 114.

    gene108

    @askew:

    but about them going after her mental health issues and her recent divorce

    With divorce rates as high as they are and with the divorce being amicable, I don’t know how much you can make out of the divorce, other than a snicker campaign about how she’s a dyke.

    Mental health issues can be a liability. Given the fear mongering about the mentally ill being responsible for all the gun homicides in the country and the general contempt people have for mental illness, I can see this being too much to overcome.

    It really depends, if Judd does run, if she can get ahead of it and define the mental health issue on her terms, before the opposition defines it.

    Which means she has to start talking about it now, before the right-wing media jumps on it, which could be any day now.

    I also think her open acknowledgement of not being Christian could hurt her in the Bible Belt. She has a lot of name recognition, but stuff like that can be used to define her as too radically different than the normal Kentuckian.

  115. 115.

    Todd

    @? Martin:

    It’s not going to stay local. The left will promote that stuff nationally. Painting the GOP as the party of angry screeds is the current formula, and there’s nothing wrong with nutpicking folks screaming over a 50,000 watt transmitter. The last thing the GOP wants are a nation of People magazine readers hearing Republican pundit after pundit launching epithets at Winona Judd’s lovely sister.

    Thing is, the bit about her therapy dog and her depression will not play well here.

    http://abcnews.go.com/entertainment/t/blogEntry?id=15955857

    Her living in Tennessee won’t hurt – hell, she’s spent more time here than Yertle the past 20 years, but personal weakness is a killer unless she’s thought up dynamite messaging.

  117. 117.

    Todd

    @gene108:

    Which means she has to start talking about it now, before the right-wing media jumps on it, which could be any day now.

    Already has, locally.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of Scottie Brown, is his new lobbying job essentially his retirement from electoral politics?

  119. 119.

    Warren Terra

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Speaking of Scottie Brown, is his new lobbying job essentially his retirement from electoral politics?

    He’s working out of the Boston office of the law firm, not the DC office, which may suggest that he retains electoral ambitions in Massachusetts.

  120. 120.

    lamh35

    @Todd: ok, here’s the thing. McConnell has an upside down approval rating (55% disapprove, 35% disapproval). Lawerence has a poll up that said that only 17% of Kentuckian said they would vote for McConnell, 34% said they would vote against McConnell no matter who was running and 44% said their vote depends on who is running.

    Now who does the Dems in KY have that can beat McConnell, who do they have that can match him in fundraising, free media, on-camera interviews, etc. By virtue of name recognition alone, she will be able to totally dominate free media resources without even tapping into her paid media until she needs to.

    I admit, I’m not from KY, so I’d like to ask those who are familiar with the state, who do the Dems truly have that can compete with McConnell, and also, there has to be a reason why Rove et al have already started trying to go after Judd even before she “declares”.

    I’m with those who say that McConnell would rather be up against the usual male blue dog Dem which he has beat countless number of times or a new commodity, that he has to firstly walk a fine line between not appearing sexist and aggressive (especially with how that worked out for Repubs in last election) while still trying to make sure that he isn’t primaried by a more “conservative” pol

  121. 121.

    Concerned Citizen

    I like this site because I read the last comments first. For example look at post 117 By Todd. Read it and then click on the link from @gene108.

    Then for every post click the @ links. It’s like the movie Memento. I’m going to tattoo @22over7 to my arm so I’ll remember this.

  122. 122.

    ? Martin

    @Todd:

    Thing is, the bit about her therapy dog and her depression will not play well here.

    Doesn’t matter. The threat from liberals isn’t to save her in that race. The threat is to poison the populace against the GOP in the other 49 states. KY GOP may defeat her, but the tactics of the KY GOP against an actress which is quite popular nationally will be credited to the GOP broadly. Nobody will care how it plays in KY or what your local attitudes toward depression is, the DNC will use that imbalance to leverage anger against Republicans to win other senate and house seats all around the country where attitudes toward depression are quite different. Yeah, she’ll get thrown under the bus, but that’s politics.

    The issue is really whether the national GOP will allow the KY GOP to do this. I’m sure they’re divided over this. They won’t want to lose McConnell’s seat, but they could lose a lot more trying to save it.

  123. 123.

    gene108

    @? Martin:

    house seats all around the country where attitudes toward depression are quite different.

    Attitudes towards depression are pretty uniform nationally; depression (broadly speaking to cover various forms of mental illness) is something most people don’t understand and many view contemptuously because they wouldn’t be “sad” in a similar situation and unable to take constructive action.

  124. 124.

    LanceThruster

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    His non-fiction book “Last Chance To See” about endangered species world wide was quite the eye opener while at the same time wonderfully sardonic.

  125. 125.

    dance around in your bones

    @raven: Yeah, my parents divorced when I was 15. which was when I ran off with my (eventual) husband.

    I have been talking so much with my mom that I have gotten laryngitis. (Freudian! haha!)

  126. 126.

    dance around in your bones

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks steep – I have been talking so much with my mom that I haven’t had time to hang out in my favorite place and bitch and moan!

    You would not believe how my voice sounds right now. I sound like a drunken sailor or a long-time smoker. Oh well.

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