As I have been telling folks, I would have loved to have seen Ashley Judd run and win, but there wasn’t any way she was going to survive King Coal, Kentucky Blue Dog Dems, and Bill Clinton.
Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate.I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months ~
— ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
So while it’s increasingly looking like Alison Lundergan Grimes will run, because six more years of Turtle is going to give me a heart attack…
BREAKING: Sources: Alison Lundergan Grimes has spoken w DSCC, plans to file for #KySen exploratory committee @alisonforky
— Joe Arnold (@joearnoldreport) March 27, 2013
So is a Blue Dog better than Mitch? We’ll see by how much. Here’s a hint, it won’t be by a lot, as Yellow Dog reminds us.
I trust Mitchie-poo is suitably grateful to the Kentucky conservadem
establishment, the DINO Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Bill
Clinton and his buddy Jerry Lundergan (father of Alison) for sabotaging
the only chance Kentucky had to get rid of him.
It’s going to be damn hard for Lundergan Grimes to inspire liberals in the state to come to her aid when her positions on mining, labor, the environment and the state’s badly needed safety net aren’t any different from Mitch, and that’s where Judd would have been clearly different. On the other hand, Mitch’s plan if he wins in 2014 is simple: to take health care away from tens of millions of Americans by repealing Obamacare, including hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians. On the gripping hand, King Coal still runs this gorram backwater hellhole, and all the other supposedly top-line Dems (Gov. Dinosaur Steve Beshear, Lt. Gov. Dan “The Coal Man” Mongiardo, AG Jack “I lost to effing Rand Paul” Conway, and Rep. John “Deep Blue Dog” Yarmuth) all ran screaming from this race like the cowards they are. So yeah, we’re down to the daughter of the state’s former good ol’ boy Dem party chair and a huge, long-time Clinton backer. Thrilled about that, just thrilled.
All that might be enough to get Grimes the win. I don’t honestly know. Better than Mitch? Yes, but with serious reservations.
We’ll see.
Linda Featheringill
Maybe a better candidate will emerge. Good luck.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
1. What did Clinton do?
2. Would Judd have won?
3. Was she that into it right now?
ETA: I live in Texas, where having the (R) is pretty much a guarantee of winning.
zombie rotten mcdonald
On the gripping hand
I love Motie references.
c u n d gulag
Even if a good Democratic candidate can be found to challenge Mitch “Yertle, the Anti-gay, Gay Turtle” McConnell, I’m not sure that KY can be saved.
It seems to be well on its way from being a Border State, to being a Borderline-insane State.
The inmates, I suspect, will now rule that asylum for a while.
Marc
Judd seemed pretty far to the left relative to Kentucky. I’d have loved to see her run, but the odds seemed pretty high.
And the difference between a D and a R in the Senate is pretty big in terms of overall direction. She’d vote for Obama judicial appointments and against filibusters, for example.
Zandar
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): 1) Jerry Lundergan and Big Dog go way back. Lundergan is about as Good Ol’ Boy network as it gets. Jerry in 2008 was (and still is) a huge Hillary backer. Big Dog recently dropped by the state a couple weeks back to have a little talk with everyone involved, and now Judd is out and Alison Lundergan Grimes is reportedly in. Just connecting the dots.
2) Not unless Mitch totally self-destructed. Nobody gets past King Coal here. Judd would have been flayed open by the Dems, saving the GOP a lot of effort.
3) Possibly. Then the reality meteor hit.
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix
Was Judd actually any good as a politician? I haven’t seen her in action.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Mitch McConnell is flat out the most unpopular Senator in the entire nation, by approval/unapprove ratings…and he’s going to skate on by comfortably, isn’t he?
Fuck this shit.
Brian S
If she wins, she’ll be an improvement if only because McConnell has power as minority leader right now. They could be clones other than seniority and party affiliation and that’s still a win for the Democrats.
PsiFighter37
What’s with the hating on Yarmuth for? He was the only Kentucky Dem I am aware of who was actively pushing for Judd, not against her…
NonyNony
@Marc:
Seriously – I’m surprised that after the past decade we even need to have this discussion. OF COURSE a terrible Democrat is better than a Republican. The Democrat at least is going to help judicial and other executive branch nominees along, no matter how much of a Blue Dog they are. I’d prefer a liberal Dem every time, but if the choice is between a conservative Dem who will vote the wrong way 90% of the time and a Republican who will vote the wrong way 100% of the time, it’s pretty clear what the right choice is.
And knocking out that the opposition leadership is almost always worthwhile – the only thing to consider is how bad the next guy in line is. The Minority Whip is John Cornyn – do you think he’d be more or less capable of leadership than McConnell has been? (Plus knocking out McConnell makes the Senate ripe for a GOP Senate civil war as they jockey for power – the only thing that’s too bad is that Jim DeMint has left the building, because you know he would have been ready to commit to a fight that would break the party in half if McConnell got ousted).
Zandar
@PsiFighter37: Cause he’s terrified of Mitch?
jibeaux
If she’s electable, think of her as a gateway Dem. Who knows, the future might be open to people from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.
Schlemizel
And therein is the problem. We can get Dems who are only marginally better than goopers elected but nothing more. When the chips are down and on critical issues the support from those who blew dogs is tepid at best. The party suffers because we seem to stand for nothing and the nation suffers because pathetic pieces of shit will not pass the bills that could lead us out of the morass the goopers created.
At some point we will have to take the real bastards head on. For all the GOS-hate around here their plan “first more Dems, then better Dems” is the right one and targeting the turd from Connecticut was the exact right thing to do. At some point we are going to have to bite the bullet and blast a lot of turds out of the punchbowl.
cleek
PURITY! We Wants It!
cmorenc
@Schlemizel:
So what would the punch brewed in Missouri have tasted like with turd McCaskill blown out of it and double-turd Aiken floating in it instead? The classic Utah Phillips joke about “moose turd pie” comes to mind. (Hint: next person on the railroad work crew to complain about the food gets reassigned to become camp cook…Say, doesn’t this McCaskill woman taste like political moose turd pie? But my, oh my she sure tastes good!).
PsiFighter37
@Zandar: Frankly, I’d rather have Yarmuth stay where he is…he’s the only federally elected Democrat left. We should really be building up the bench at the House level with this supposed depth that exists at the state level.
At the very least, he’s better than Ben Chandler.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Schlemizel:
Let’s all channel our inner firebagger.
“More and Better Dems”. Sure, sometimes that’s a contradictory mission statement but one needs to know when and where to pick the battles one can win.
I live in Misery and no Dem despises McCaskill more than me but I sure as hell voted for her sorry ass. Why? The most important vote she makes is for who will be Senate Majority Leader. And every Dem Senator can be relied upon to vote against judicial filibusters.
After that, well, we eventually work on getting a “better” Dem to replace the “more” Dem we have to settle on the first time around.
We can all muse about how nice it would be to throw McConnell out on his ass but unless the candidate is a sooopreeemely gifted politician and campaigner, it ain’t gonna happen no matter how unpopular he might be. Never underestimate the cracker vote in a state like Kentucky.
FlipYrWhig
It seems like an electoral strategy reliant upon galvanizing “liberals in the state” when said state is Kentucky might have a few design flaws.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@cmorenc:
Good, though.
kerFuFFler
Problem is, Judd would never have won.
Several years ago she explained her decision not to have kids (which is perfectly fine) by saying she thought it was not right to bring kids into a world such as this. The problem with that statement is that while I understand what she was trying to say, it is too easily twisted to mean that everyone who has chosen to have kids has done something immoral. It is hard enough to explain choosing to not have kids in a red state, but appearing to look down her nose at immoral breeders puts her out of contention.
At that is just one of many impolitic things she has said long before she considered entering politics….
FlipYrWhig
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: plus, if Daily Kos ever did use to stand for more, then better (which they clearly did at the beginning, for example Brad Carson and Stephanie Herseth), they gave that up long ago in favor of railing against betrayals of liberal Democrats by conservative ones. Isn’t the whole point of more/better that you vote for the D over the R, whoever it is, and _then_ agitate them leftwards with your mighty numbers?
Hill Dweller
Does despising Bill Clinton make me a bad person?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@FlipYrWhig:
Well, at least after the election is over you can use them to make washtubs and corrugated sheet-metal roofing. Gotta look for the
silverzinc lining.Kathleen
@FlipYrWhig: This.
Mike in NC
Rove and the Kochs will bankroll the turtleman.
NonyNony
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Yes. This.
20 years ago it was possible to believe that a “reasonable” Republican might be better than a lousy Democrat, because Republicans still went along with cloture on most things and didn’t obstruct every nomination that came their way. This is no longer the case.
Davis X. Machina
@FlipYrWhig:
It is a well-known fact — so well-known to anyone who widely reads blogs that I don’t have to adduce any evidence to support it — that the reason why we have 50% turnout and 50% registration rates is that the silent mass of non-voters are far to the left of their voting co-evals.
The only possible reason for their absence at the polls is our inability to put forward left-enough candidates to pull them out of the bleachers and into the game.
drew42
Oh, come on — We’re talking about Mitch McConnell, and switching a Senate seat from R to D. Unless Grimes is Joe Lieberman’s sith apprentice, it would be a huge step up.
Will the wringing hands of ideological purity ever stop?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@FlipYrWhig:
The Front Pagers (and Markos) over at Teh Orange still work toward More and Better Dems. The problem is that the Wrecks List and the high-count commenters are all all firebaggers who go there to piss and moan about the usual things they piss and moan about because they get visibility there; if they pissed and moaned at Calamity Jane’s site, nobody would see it.
The process is that in the primary, you work hard to get the Better Dem. If you end up with the More Dem, you still vote for them, you just don’t use the netroots to raise money for them.
Joe Manchin is a poster child for this entire discussion, far more so than our dear Claire. Yes, he’s a turd who if he changed parties tomorrow, I doubt we’d see much of a change in his voting habits. But he does vote for that Reid fella to lead the Senate. Sure, he can be counted on to be reprehensible much of the rest of the time but we can deal with that.
Pococurante
While from Kentucky, I could care less how Kentuckians vote to screw themselves over.
I do care when their choices screw the rest of the country over. I’ll donate to her ActBlue on that basis alone.
Alex S.
I also think that Judd was not a good option. Yes, her numbers were good initially, but they had nowhere to go but down. Still, I think the Dems can win this. Someone of these statewide officials has to come through. Conway came quite close to defeating Rand Paul in 2010 – which says something. A Clintonite has a good chance, too bad Mrs. Lunderson Grimes is a woman – yes, a man has better chances of winning there. Any winner is going to be somewhere between Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill, but the Senate Majority is worth it.
eric
@Davis X. Machina: You have put your finger on the quintessential progressive delusion (read with voice from Matrix)….politicians are just not inspiring people with progressive impulses to get to the polls. In truth, the real fundamental fact of american politics is the the corporate media (national and local) is not int he business of informing, but in the business of making money. So, you have a poorly informed populace that cannot even be counted on to know that the climate is changing and that it is the result of human actions that can be changed or that austerity hurts regular people to benefit the profiteers. It is not that progressive people are not inspired to vote by politicians, but progressive positions are often non-profit driven so that they are ignored or, worse yet, caricatured to the point that no one would be seen voting for them.
shortstop
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Forget it, Jake. It’s Kentucky.
pamelabrown53
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
I agree that besides some of the front pagers, GOS has become a repository for the far left who squelch any possibility of real discussion.
That’s what I like about BJ: discussions are much more interesting and edifying because of the diversity of opinion expressed.
Also agree that while bluedogs are frustrating their republican alternatives are worse. Today’s republican party is radical and dangerous.
Splitting Image
The main reason I would have liked to have seen Judd run is that she plays against the stereotype of what a Kentucky voter would vote for. The trouble with backing a Blue Dog is that it plays into the idea that the people won’t vote for someone they can’t identify with and the default voter in most of the country is white, male, straight, conservative, and well-connected with big business. #davidbrooks
Having said that, McConnell was instrumental in creating the toxic environment in Washington right now. He was the one who decided that the G.O.P. caucus could not allow Obama any legislative victories and publicly said that his main goal was to make Obama a one-term President. Taking him out is probably the single most important thing the Democrats can do to end the constant obstruction. If it takes a Blue Dog to do this, then so be it.
Maude
@Hill Dweller:
#23
No.
Unabogie
OT: But I see that Erick Erickson is spewing more bile.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/41787_Erick_Erickson-_Gays_Are_On_the_Road_to_Hell/
So I suggest everyone do what I do when referring to him. Call him a goat-fucking child molester.
“Oh, what did Erick say this time? That goat-fucking child molester?”
Because really, what’s the response? Don’t call him names like that?
kc
Better than Mitch?
My irony meter just broke.
Phil Perspective
@Zandar: Why? How powerful is Mitch any more? His hand-picked candidate got beaten like a rented mule by Rand Paul in ’10.
Anya
Better than Mitch is all we can aspire to in Kentucky.
patrick II
@Splitting Image:
I agree with your sentiment, but I am not sure I agree with your reluctant conclusion. if the democrats don’t have a blue dog who can actually win as opposed to a candidate less offensive to the status quo, then they should run a candidate who has a puncher’s chance. People in Kentucky, and other southern states, don’t often have the opportunity to hear the liberal case made to them by an eloquent candidate. Take the opportunity and see what happens.
Phil Perspective
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: So you don’t mind that he does most of the GOP’s dirty work for them? Got it!!
Phil Perspective
@patrick II: That’s what people don’t seem to understand. Despite having the warm and fuzzies over Clinton, do people not see that he’s not on their side?
patrick II
@Phil Perspective:
It is not that Clinton’s not on people’s side, it is just that philosophically he is a “third way” politician — besides which anything Clinton does right now is with an eye towards Hillary in 2016. He is is not going to to anything to rock the boat.
NR
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
This doesn’t work, because the party establishment and leadership always supports the conservative Democrat in the primary. See Blanche Lincoln vs. Bill Halter in Arkansas, where Obama and the rest of the Dem party apparatus supported Lincoln even though Halter had a better chance to win in the general.
Chris
@NonyNony:
The big imbalance is that Republicans have successfully purged their liberal minority (think how absurd it is that Chris Christie is now considered “moderate” by the party’s standards) while we have done no such thing to our conservative minority (as we saw in HCR, they maintain enormous clout).
I’m not sure when the last time this happened was – even at the height of the liberal consensus and Gilded Age consensus, both parties still had liberals and conservatives. The imbalance is something new.
NR
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
And the party leadership shuts you down by stacking the deck against the progressive candidate. They rig the process by giving money and machine support to the conservative candidate.
And this is why. Because they know that you’re still stupid enough to vote for whoever they foist upon you through a rigged primary process. And they know that the second that anybody even remotely left of center talks about not voting for the Democrat, you will spew bile and shout them down.
You are guaranteeing that we will never see progressive change in this country.
Paul in KY
Liberals had damn well get behind Ms. Grimes, if they want to see Mitch dethroned.
Pooh
@NR:
Go vote for fucking Nader again, then.
gene108
@patrick II:
Too bad Mondale and/or Dukakis didn’t do better and we’d not have needed a DLC/Third Way type.
To me Clinton was a missed opportunity to undo some of the damage Reagan/Bush,Sr. had done, but he got buried by a lazy media rehashing right-winger crackpot rumors, like Whitewater and then stepped in it with his marital infidelity.
The initial reaction to his speech on universal healthcare was overwhelmingly positive, for example, so there was room to move the country to the left.
Losing control of the House basically crippled what he could do, with regards to advancing a liberal reversal of the Reagan Era.
Self-Righteous Little White Guy
Reminder: Alison Grimes has already won statewide election in Kentucky with over 60% of the vote. Let Kentucky pick its own elected officials. If her lack of purity offends you, don’t donate to her campaign.
dww44
@Splitting Image: Very good. Thanks for this. It is worth throwing our all into defeating McConnell and personally I believe that an honest-to-god Democrat can do that. By honest to god, I mean someone who’s Not afraid to speak up for the things we support. Like a social safety net, fighting against austerity budgets, and living wages for working people. Someone who can counter the GOP meme with facts and clarity.. Give people a choice, for heaven’s sake. Let the rest of us throw our monies behind that candidate. Sherrod Brown in Ohio is a good example of that.
Too bad it seems that everyone in this state thinks that the GOP has a lock on Saxby’s seat. While we don’t have any high profile Democrats, it would be nice to field a good one. As it stand now, the chances are highly likely that we will end up with a new Senator who will be further right than the one we’ve got now. After all, Paul Broun is gonna run!!
burnspbesq
@Schlemizel:
Call me crazy if you will, but I subscribe to the heretical notion that tepid support is better than vociferous opposition.
DougJ, Friend of Hamas
I like this title.
burnspbesq
@NR:
No, YOU are guaranteeing that there will never be progressive change (whatever the hell that might look like) by blaming your problem on everyone but yourself. If you want progressive change, get up off your lazy ass and go sell it to a deeply skeptical population.
FlipYrWhig
@NR: waaaaaahhh, but it’s too HAAAARD to win the election because the other guys are SOOOO MEEEAN. Win against the headwind or shut the fuck up. Actually, start with the latter.
FlipYrWhig
@burnspbesq:
HomerNR: StupidTVpolitics. [Hits it] Be morefunnyliberal!burnspbesq
@Unabogie:
Umm, yeah, engaging on substance is, as a general rule, better than libel and slander (I am assuming for purposes of this comment that you have no irrefutable evidence that Erickson has secksytime with either goats or children).
Tom Q
Yeah, Clinton does still seem to advocate for the premature surrender/punt-on-first-down option, but, on the other hand, Kentucky is a state that has swung way GOP since Bill was president. Judd was probably a pipe dream.
As for the efficacy of Blue Dog Dems…pollsters say that, over time, elected officials of both parties tend to vote the party line more often than most people assume/perceive. Just witness this past week, when a whole bunch of Senators thought wishy-washy came out for gay marriage (including the much-maligned McCaskill). If you elect a Democrat, you’re going to get alot more pleasant surprise votes than you will from any GOPer (and if by “a lot more” I only mean three as opposed to zero — I’ll take that.)
Don Pratt
Allison LUNDERGREN Grimes SO QUICKLY INTO THE RACE. The machine and CORRUPTION STILL REIGNS IN KENTUCKY!!!!
Don Pratt
Allison LUNDERGREN Grimes SO QUICKLY INTO THE RACE. The machine and CORRUPTION STILL REIGNS IN KENTUCKY!!!!
Don Pratt
Allison LUNDERGREN Grimes SO QUICKLY INTO THE RACE. The machine and CORRUPTION STILL REIGNS IN KENTUCKY!!!!
Don Pratt
I hope there is a TRUE INDICATION in this race that corruption by party politics and by special interests has not taken over this race… and maintained control of both parties!!!
I DO NOT WANT ANY MORE CORRUPT DEMOCRATS and certainly want to DITCH MITCH!!!
That is the only reason I was for Ashley Judd, a brilliant woman besides actress.
And Alison LUNDERGREN, do not wrap yourself into the
“web of special interests, including BIG COAL AND slimmy banking industry” or the “web of military spending,”that is the military-industrial complex which President Ike Eisenhower to wisely and profoundly condemned.
It is truely the most abused political tool of a politician, or second next to “God” even “religious freedom”, to use military service in campaigning.
burnspbesq
@Don Pratt:
You don’t have a better option, and you know it, so suck it up and get with the program. Getting rid of McConnell is worth doing even if his Dem replacement is only .0000000000001 percent better than he is. The worst Democrat is always better than the best Republican.
Paul in KY
Zandar, you are either FOS or letting your inner hipster-totebagger show when you answer your ‘Better than Mitch’ question by saying: ‘Yes, but with serious reservations.’
Come on, man! You live in KY, you know Mitch. Ms. Grimes would be soooo much better than him. She wouldn’t be trying to put the kibosh daily on anything Pres. Obama tries to do. She’s no liberal, but compared to the mutant turtle, she’s Eugene Debs.
LAC
@FlipYrWhig: It used to be…until it became the “sit on your hands to show Obama whatfor, inhale your rose scented purity farts, and get excited when Bernie Saunders or Michael Moore appears on a MSNBC show.”electoral strategy. Did wonders for us in 2010.
Steve M.
It’s going to be damn hard for Lundergan Grimes to inspire liberals in the state
And that would be you and … who’s the other one?
Anton Sirius
@NR:
You are a dumb.
1badbaba3
Jeez Louise, all this commotion and she never said she was gonna run in the first place. It was funny to see the other side wetting their drawers at the very thought, but no reason for us to do our version of the freakout. Focus people, focus.
JasonF
If you think Alison Lundergarn Grimes is only martginally better thn Mitch McConnell, you are a fucking moron who should not be allowed to opine on matters political. Nor, for that matter, to be around sharp objects. The bluest of blue dogs (Joe Manchin) still votes with the Democrats nearly two times out of three. The most weak-kneed Republican (Susan Collins) still votes with the GOP nearly two times out of three, with Mitch McConnell hewing to the party line upwards of 90% of the time. It’s not rocket science. Even if Grimes votes with the Rpeublicans on every single thing with the exception of Senate organization, she will have proven herself an exponentially better Senator than Mitch McConnell.
NR
@burnspbesq:
The population already wants progressive change. Poll after poll shows this. Democrats win elections by running on populist rhetoric promising to stand up for the little guy. Of course, because the party is deeply corrupt and owned by the exact same interests that own the Republican party, they never follow through on this rhetoric, but people like you are always willing to give them just one more change, because this time, THIS time, they really mean it!
Blanche Davidian
@Zandar: Just because you good folk in the 4th District can’t elect anything but Republicans, don’t go hating on Louisville for sending a very good Democrat to represent the 3rd District. And give the Governor his props for vetoing the execrable Religious Freedom Act.
Pooh
@NR: And voting for Republicans will show them! No wait, you want plausible deniability, so you’ll just write a progressive unicorn in and help the Republican get elected that way. The Syrians will greet you as a liberator when we invade.
Jeremy
@NR: You do know that the party always supports the incumbent until they either drop out or lose in a primary. President Obama and the dems did not support her because she was more conservative than Bill Halter (who by the way had no chance of winning just like Lincoln). President Bush did the same thing in 2004 when he supported Arlen Spector against Pat Toomey who was to the left of him because he was the incumbent.
You really need to get a clue and understand how politics work before spouting nonsense.
Jeremy
@JasonF: Thank you ! At the end of the day it’s a numbers game. FDR had 2/3 majorities in both houses but all of the democrats were not liberals. There was a coalition of liberal and moderate Democrats with Southern Conservative Democrats. It wasn’t perfect but you take the good with the bad.
FlipYrWhig
@NR: The institutional Republican party had their guy all set in Kentucky. Rand Paul ran against him and beat him. There’s no reason why grassroots progressives are prohibited from doing the same thing if they don’t like the institutional Democratic candidate. Don’t whine and pule about how it’s TOTALLY NOT FAIR MOMMY MAKE IT STOP, capture this disaffected vote you’re sure exists and come out on top. But, see, before you do that, consider this piece of advice. Listen closely here. People have to actually fucking vote for your guy. If they don’t, maybe you overestimated how wonderful your ideas actually were. I know, I know, that’s un-possible, everyone would be totally with you if not for the bus-throwing and the punching of the hippies and the corruption of the corporatocracy and the plutocrats and such. Convenient, ain’t it, that there’s always some excuse for why you couldn’t do something so simple as having a more popular candidate than the one you think obviously sucks?
FlipYrWhig
@Jeremy: Not to mention that if they didn’t support Lincoln there’d be little reason for Lincoln to support them by doing things like support health care reform, which she was obviously disinclined to do because it would make her re-election more challenging.
But of course we still get down to this. If you’re sure Blanche Lincoln sucks and that no one wants to vote for Blanche Lincoln, and the voters deserve an alternative, so a viable one, Bill Halter, runs… AND LOSES, well, maybe Arkansas Democrats _actually_ like Lincoln better than Halter. It’s kinda up to them, ain’t it?
Jeremy
@Jeremy: Actually should have said that not all of the Democrats were liberal.
angler
“Win against the headwind or shut the fuck up. Actually, start with the latter.” In reference to Halter-Lincoln. So trying to win a primary gets the STFU, but not trying gets the STFU too, Even toying with the idea of running as Judd did gets the STFU. And this post, gets the . . . STFU. All proved because the left lost 2010 by staying home . . . . right. http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/raw-data, scroll down for liberal turnout 2006-2010. And when you finish, STFU.
As for Lundgeran Grimes, beating McConnel is top priority. If she wins it’s big. Will this work any better than Judd? One test is how much the DSSC goes in for nocking out the opposing leader. Mitch pulled no punches when Reid ran for re-election, here’s hoping Reid does the same. Based on his track record, I’ve got doubts, but I know, I know ST .. . .
NR
@FlipYrWhig: No thanks, I’ll devote my time and money to a party that doesn’t fuck me over at every opportunity instead.
David Koch
Uh-Oh.
Attacking Bubba from the left is gonna send his legion of blue-haired old-bag PUMAs into a tizzy.
Pooh
@NR: heighten the contradictions!
Tool. (Nicer than “useful idiot”)
FlipYrWhig
@angler: I don’t know whose stuff you’re merging with mine, but I’m all in favor of primary challenges. But, of course, the whole point of primary challenges by insurgent candidates is _to overcome the obstacles_ because, yeah, by definition, you’re not going to have the party’s backing. That also means that you don’t get to complain about the unfairness of it. Primary elections are low turnout base-heavy environments. If your outsider candidate can’t capitalize on the passionate support of people like NR and actually win, maybe, just maybe, there are just too few people like NR to win an election. Perish the thought, I realize.
Tim I
What a stupid fucking post! I love Ashley Judd, but she had no chance to win. She is far to liberal, and she doesn’t even fucking live in Kentucky!
We need candidates that can win. Nor purist assholes who don’t stand a chance. Progressives appear to be almost absolutely brain dead.
We want candidates that will lie their asses off to red state republicans to get into office. Then they will hopefully support the Dem agenda. I worked for Joe Donnelly in Indiana last year. He is a blue dog who is mostly voting the right way. That’s a big fucking deal in a cherry red state!