(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)
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Warning: This New Yorker blog post on the third Marathon victim will break another little piece of your heart.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Jason Zengerle at NYMag reports “How Savvy Jenny Sanford Sabotaged Ex-Husband Mark’s Political Comeback”
… Indeed, while Jenny has never come out and publicly opposed Mark’s congressional candidacy — choosing to remain officially neutral — she’s waged a brutally effective passive-aggressive campaign against it. Whether it was revealing to me that Mark had shamelessly asked her to manage his election bid; or telling the Washington Post that, until the night Mark’s fiancée showed up onstage at his victory party in April, one of her sons had never met the woman; or just generally making it known that she is furious that he’s running, Jenny has done a masterful job of keeping her ex-husband’s past (and not-so-past) transgressions in the news. She has seeded the ground with political land mines, stood back, and waited for Mark to step on one.
Now that he has, in the form of this trespassing news, Republicans are cutting bait, with the National Republican Congressional Committee deciding that it’s not going to spend any more money on Sanford’s behalf. Meanwhile, the conservative group Concerned Women for America has announced that it’s contemplating a write-in campaign on behalf of Jenny in the May 2 congressional race: “CWA’s staff is still checking the legalities but I gotta say,” its head told the Washington Post, “Congresswoman Jenny Sanford has a nice ring to it.” She’s certainly proven to be a better pol than her ex.
Also, I thought this was an experienced and cynical crowd, and yet nobody in DougJ’s earlier thread seems to have shared my first reaction to the news of Mark showing up with a cellphone flashlight when he thought Jenny was out of town… [steel magnolia accent]…
“Mark, I knew ALL ABOUT those nasty, nasty pictures in your ‘secret stash’ — I burned those vile things ten minutes into your ‘Appalachian Hike’ — so you can just stop sneaking around like the low dirty hound you are and leave us all in peace!”
Amir Khalid
As much as one enjoys seeing Mark Sanford receive a comeuppance only he is too obtuse to understand, one wouldn’t want Jenny taking the place in Congress that he is after. Stupidity would limit his capacity to help damage your country. Not having that limitation, she’d be more dangerous.
JPL
He’ll have the money to run ads and win the race. It’s a safe republican district.
Schlemizel
WAIT! SHE has been keeping his past transgressions in the news? Funny because I have not heard a peep out of her. The candidate and the stumble-bum media type who write endlessly about it don’t appear to need little Jenny’s help
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Wanting to recover a secret stash didn’t occur to me because, frankly, he didn’t strike me as smart enough to worry about them. If she didn’t use them in the divorce, she must not have found them, right? She wouldn’t be smart enough to hold them back to use later, right?
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: For what she’s got all the dough? The dude is an admitted adulterer so she didn’t really any evidence of anything else.
amk
How very accommodating of the local judge to fix this punk’s b&e case 2 days after the elections.
raven
@amk: He may have done us a favor.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Schlemizel: That’s the joy of it. Her fingerprints are nowhere to be found, just the little wronged wife who keeps getting dragged back into things by those sleazy gossips masquerading as reporters.
Until you have another Southern woman look at it. And we’ll just sit back and admire her handiwork.
Time was, even if he won, he’d be shunned by the other Rethugs as an embarrassment. I still think that’s what they’re signaling by pulling their funding.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: You know they. I know that. I’m not sure he’s smart enough to know that. Or maybe just not subtle enough.
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: This ain’t no southern woman:
Anne Laurie
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
If it doesn’t involve children or animals, how much does a guy’s pr0n stash really hurt him in divorce court? Sanford just seems like the sort of self-centered idiot who’s got a yen for something laughably weird, like Dick Morris’s toe-sucking — nothing impeachable, just embarassing.
raven
Mornin Joe has just declared the Republican Party dead.
Baud
@raven:
Because of guns?
arguingwithsignposts
@raven: Joe Scar is such an emo crybaby.
amk
A fucked up supreme court. A fucked up congress. A fucked up senate.
Yay, democracy!!!
JPL
If you need a laugh, Luckovich’ s cartoon might help.
Schlemizel
@raven:
If only he were right! Sadly, I just don’t see it as a fact yet. They are on the wrong side of every social issue, they have demonstrated an inability to run government in any way beneficial to the governed but yet they hang on & win just enough to maintain the ability to inflict so much unnecessary damage on the country.
mai naem
From the post Appalachian Hiking Tour stories, you got the feeling Jenny Sanford was not one to be messed around with. She seemed not only to be the $$$ behind Sanford but the brains too. She’s a former Wall Streeter and a Georgetown grad. BTW, isn’t Mark Sanford the fourth congress critter who lived in that conservative house in Washington who’s gotten caught up in scandal?
Also too, I know I shouldn’t sound political in the Texas deal, but I hope Texas isn’t going to ask for federal emergency funds for taking care of West, Texas. I mean the debt and deficit and all.
Schlemizel
@mai naem:
You are joking, right? OF COURSE they will ask for federal money, they feel they are owed it because they are real Americans, not like that liberal scum in New York or mud people like in New Orleans.
Anything I get I earned, anything you get is a hand out that will just make you dependent on the government
amk
@mai naem: Didn’t the texas cretins vote against Sandy aid ? Come on, peter king, show them.
JPL
@amk: If they ask for help, Peter King will block it. imo.
mai naem
Jeezus, it’s Congressman Bill Flores, a Republican and yet he did vote against Sandy and he did it loud and proud.
http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/waco_politics_report/rep-bill-flores-votes-no-on-sandy-aid-bill/article_bca3bc9f-a8ab-5da0-abbb-3d1629c9deed.html
JGabriel
WaPo:
It’s not a sex scandal, it’s a love scandal!
JPL
@JGabriel: If there are no diapers, you must acquit. I still don’t think the seat is in play. IOKIYR
Cheryl from Maryland
Mark Sanford is a fool, a jerk and not fit for public office. But so’s his wife — like Ariana Huffington, she’s the power behind the throne and not too picky about the throne. Go Colbert Busch!
JPL
@mai naem: He’s on CBS News now.
JPL
@JPL: haha.. What’s FEMA involved. hahahahaha
aimai
In re the Sanford thing I highly recommend the original British miniseries The Politician’s Wife. It is rapier sharp. An important, fast rising, glad handing and domineering Politician fucks over his wife and his gay election manager and the two outsiders take him down, viciously, and replace him with her. She takes his life, his family, his reputation and his seat. It is so good I think I’ll go rent it again.
Suffern ACE
@JGabriel: at this point, there is nothing that our elected people could do sexually that should be called “spectacular”. “Juicy” or “tawdry” or “crude” still work. But only our surprisingly prudish press finds this stuff spectacular.
JGabriel
As a New Yorker, should I call my Congresscritter and ask her to vote against any aid for West, Texas?
On the one hand, I just don’t think there’s enough money in the budget to help Bill Flores and all the people in his district who voted for him. I mean, we have to bring down the deficit somehow. On the other hand, what about all the good people who voted for a Democrat in the last election?
2012 17th Texas Congressional District Results:
Candidate……Party……….Votes…….Percent
Bill Flores…….Republican….143,284…..79.92%
Ben Easton…..Libertarian……35,978…..20.07%
Oh. No one in the district voted for a Democrat in 2012? Fuck’em, then.
.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven:
That sort of thing can be learned, dear. You can’t spend that many years moving in those circles without learning it in self defense.
If she hadn’t been adopted as an honorary Southern Woman by Society there, we’d have heard a very different tone in the local reporting around the divorce.
(I’ll snark all day about Society, but I have to admire how she’s used those weapons.)
@Anne Laurie:
Not much if any, though I don’t know how many men realize that. I’m thinking that he’s assuming she would have used it if she’d found it. Therefore, she hasn’t found it.
As much fun as the pr0n speculation is, though, the same thought process works on less salacious topics. If she had found evidence of financial improprieties, she would have used it. Therefore, she hasn’t found it. I was thinking out loud about his mental process (and lack thereof).
lojasmo
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Eh, she lives in Charleston, probably the best city in the entire state. She’s probably retained a little bit of her soul.
Patricia Kayden
@JGabriel: Wow. Democrats are pretty unpopular in Texas or just in his district? My former boss would always say proudly “That’s why I’m from Texas”. I see her point.
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Who you tellin? I’ve lived in Georgia for 29 years!
Cassidy
@JGabriel: I think that’s an excellent idea.
@lojasmo: Charleston is the only place to live in SC that’s got civilization.
Kay
Rand Paul should really have to defend the “props” comment, because it’s revealing.
Rand Paul thinks those people don’t have any agency, can’t make independent decisions about where they go and what they do. Rand Paul thinks he knows better than them, that they’re too stupid to understand what’s “really” going on. It’s amazingly arrogant and patronizing.
It’s also absolutely laughable that the professional lobbyists in the gun industry have set this debate bar so high that ordinary people can’t compete with the professionals’ command of the facts, so we can’t have sentiment intrude. They make shit up constantly. They appeal to fear constantly. “Fear” is their number one fundraising tool. Not a peep from the principled libertarian on that.
Suffern ACE
@Patricia Kayden: hard to vote for one when there isn’t one on the ballot. It’s the Democratic Party 20 state strategy.
raven
@Cassidy: Edisto ain’t bad.
Cassidy
@raven: I try to avod anything Carolina-ish. I love Charleston, but I’ll never willingly move to that state.
arguingwithsignposts
@JGabriel:
No, because you shouldn’t sink to their level. They’d like that if everyone adopted their randian moral code.
Also, fwiw, if it’s like many places, there’s probably not even a democratic party to vote for in West.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@lojasmo: Not so sure about the soul. I’ve never known the CWA to admire anyone with a soul.
Though I do agree about Charleston. Love that city.
@raven: Clearly, I need more caffeine to make sense of that.
arguingwithsignposts
Also, this is just a bureaucratic question, but would FEMA even be involved in something like the Texas explosion?
aimai
@arguingwithsignposts:
It sounds like the entire town is devastated and needs new housing etc… so why wouldn’t FEMA be involved?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
It will be 29 years in Georgia for me in October (although the aggregate is more like 32 years — I was here also from 1962-65).
NonyNony
@JGabriel:
As a decent human being regardless of where you live and who you vote for, I think you already know the answer to this one.
However – pointing out that any Republican who voted against Sandy relief efforts and turns around and votes for relief efforts when it’s their ox being gored is a horrible, horrible human being who should worry about whether or not there really is a Hell because if there is they’re destined to end up there someday is perfectly fair game.
Because truly – they are horrible, horrible human beings.
(The only ones who would be worse are the ones who continue to vote against relief efforts on principle. Sure they’re consistent – consistently horrible and inhuman.)
arguingwithsignposts
@aimai: Because it was a man-made chemical explosion? I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Here’s what I tell em: “I’m not from Georgia but I got here as soon as I could”! I guess if I count the 2 months in Grady when I broke my back in 75 it’s a tad longer.
raven
@arguingwithsignposts: I don’t think the cause matters, the scope is what’s important. I think.
eta”The agency’s primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the president that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster.”
MomSense
@Schlemizel:
You see Republicans are the party of personal responsibility–unless they actually have to take some for themselves. At that point it is either the women, the gays, the blahs, or the ferriners..
Once you realize this–it is incredibly easy to predict how they will respond to any situation.
arguingwithsignposts
@raven: So if Rick Perry asks for help, then he’s collaborating to set up the FEMA camps. Interesting.
Another reason I’m tired of the States Rights bullshit – people bleed the same color no matter what state they’re in.
gelfling545
@lojasmo: The only part of SC I am familiar with in Charleston which I visit when I can & enjoy thoroughly so I never realized SC was so crazily right wing. After all, in Charleston you see inter-racial couples, gay couples & all sorts of diversity & no one blinks an eye (although I guess that “holy city” label should be a clue). My nephew, who worked at a well known college in SC explained to me that there is SC and there is Charleston & they are not the same.
raven
@gelfling545: Well the same could be said for Atlanta, Athens and Savannah.
gene108
Our failed Media Expirement From the “liberal” Huffington Post
WASHINGTON — A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Barack Obama’s health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it’s headed for a “train wreck.”
“I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama’s health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense.
Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance that start next year.
The six-term Democrat is also expected to face a tough re-election in 2014. Baucus is still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state.
Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday’s hearing.
SNIP to the middle of the article
Responding to Baucus, Sebelius pointedly noted that Republicans in Congress last year blocked funding for carrying out the health care law, and she had to resort to raiding other departmental funds that were legally available to her.
SNIP to the end
But half the states, most of them Republican-led, have refused to cooperate in setting up the infrastructure of Obama’s law. Others, like Montana, are politically divided. The overhaul law provided that the federal government would step in and run the new markets if a state failed to do so. Envisioned as a fallback, federal control now looks like it will be the norm in about half the country, straining the resources of the department Sebelius leads.
Obamacare’s a “train wreck” because the White House is failing and if you read past the headlines and persevere to the end of the article you find out it’s mostly because of Republicans willing to score political points on the backs of the uninsured.
But why bother mentioning Republicans sabotaging the anything to help anyone but the rich because that might require looking at facts from different states and Congressmen, summarizing them and writing a few coherent paragraphs.
It’s easier just copying quotes and pasting them together as an article.
arguingwithsignposts
@gelfling545: To be fair, Greenville is fairly progressive in a Southern way, but I blame that on its proximity to Asheville, NC.
MomSense
@JGabriel:
Let’s just set aside Federal disaster relief funds for a minute and look at how much Federal funding goes into that district.
You have a huge university that gets a ton of federal money for research. You have a VA hospital. You have at least one military base. The list goes on and on.
Cassidy
I’m with @JGabriel: .
I’m sorry, but these fucking treasonous, anti-American fucksticks need to learn that their actions have consequences. You vote for some teabilly dipshit who votes against disaster relief fund because it might help Democratic states, then fuck you. Here’s a rag and a stick, tie yourself a fucking tourniquet and pray to baby jeebus that you don’t bleed out before someone comes up with a free market solution.
I’m tired of these conservative piles of shit whining about the gov’t and their fucking death cult persecution complex and then crying that they need help and it is’t coming fast enough when something bad happens in their de-regulated right to work for shit pay and no benefits randian jesusland. Fuck them. Let’s save Federal funding for people who really need it.
gelfling545
@raven: I’m sure you’re right. Probably any city that has a lot of tourist or business traffic is going to have to be more accommodating to diversity.
mai naem
@arguingwithsignposts: Yes, WH released statement saying that they are monitoring situation re:FEMA resources needed. @arguingwithsignposts: I actually don’t think its so much sinking to their level – more like this is what you said for our emergency needs, how does it feel to have thrown right back at your face?
grandpa john
@mai naem:
Yes another case of a smart woman taking an idiot and constructing a puppet. she has always been the brains and money behind the marriage.
grandpa john
@Cheryl from Maryland: she may be a jerk, but she’s no fool, although he is.
grandpa john
@Suffern ACE: This, You would think that there is someone in the Democratic National party
organization with enough intelligence to look at the last 40 years and realize that continued control of the National government is dependent on winning statewide elections and governments. Winning the presidency only gives you one of the three branches, winning the other two involves winning
the majority of state wide elections for the house and senate, to do this you need strong competent organization in the states, all of them. what’s complicated about understanding this?
kc
@Cassidy:
Charleston is chock full of wingnuts. They’re just not wearing overalls.
gene108
@grandpa john:
Same counter argument can be made to Republican state organizations in New England, Connecticut, New York and California, where Republicans tend to get overwhelmed by Democrats.
The problem with the South/Midwest/Mountain west is sometime in the 1980’s liberal became a dirty word and state Democrats had to run away from the national party/President/Congressional leaders.
The wheels for state Democratic parties fell apart in the 1990’s and 00’s. Texas had a Democratic governor 20 years ago. Alabama had a Democratic governor 10-12 years ago*.
The list of state Democratic parties that fell apart and never recovered is pretty huge.
Once the state Democratic parties started losing elections the money dried up and they really became dysfunctional.
Until we can make it safe for state Democratic parties in these areas to run towards the national Democratic party, it’s going to be a long hard slog to change things.
With the billions funding the right-wing media, I’m not sure we can really change anything in these places. We aren’t like them so they don’t trust us.
*I wonder how much the Bush, Jr. era DoJ political ratfucking helped speed up the decline of state level Democratic parties, because I really think it was one of Rove’s goals for a permanent Republican majority.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@gelfling545:
It got the name because of the number of churches. It could be argued that that shows a long history of tolerance; one of those churches is the oldest Unitarian church in the South.
Seanly
I welcome a write-in campaign to split the conservatives.
grandpa john
@gene108: True but SC,NC and other southern states are ripe for reorganizing due to the increase in minority population, especially Latino.Here in SC the Hispanic population is by far the fastest growing. N ow we can ignore them as we are doing now, and since most of their agenda would be the same as the Democratic agenda, we can reorganize and reach out to them,and get them into leadership positions, or actively pursue elected offices., The point is we must get them involved in the party, not just seek their votes
grandpa john
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Charleston is to the rest of SC much like NYC is to upstate NY.
What must happen in SC is for the Dems to reorganize the party structure, get the large minority population actively involved in the political system and to get their voters to the polls
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
“Principled libertarian” is an oxymoron. Emphasis on the “moron”.
grandpa john
@gene108: more info
The numbers are on our side we just need the national party to get their heads out of their asses and realize this and act accordingly
Pongo
I do so hope that Bachmann is not made of Teflon. It would do my soul good to see her go down in flames.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/203515841.html?page=1&c=y.
Fun Fact: She currently holds the lead in fundraising in the House with an enormous amount of national support. Without the big givers outside of MN, it is doubtful she would have had the war chest that allowed her to squeak out a victory in the last race. She outspent her rival Jim Graves (who just announced he’s going after her again!) by 12:1.