(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)
.
Smartest thing I’ve seen about Sanford’s win so far comes from Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
…I will say that Busch’s defeat shows once again that the old southern white Democratic formula of moving as far to the right as possible and hoping to win a personality contest just doesn’t much work anymore, which is why the ranks of the Blue Dog southern white Democrats in the House from the Deep South have dwindled to near nothingness… At a minimum, any southern Democratic revival is going to depend on candidates who can get reliable Democratic voters enthused enough to turn out when the presidency is not at stake.
Gail Collins is a professional political humorist, and therefore one of the few sane people pleased to see Mark Sanford in public office again:
… One surefire result of this special election will be a plethora of Republican candidates debating cardboard versions of Nancy Pelosi next fall. It looked stupid when Sanford tried it, but, by gosh, it really did seem to do the trick. To be fair, Sanford’s opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, didn’t seem to come out in public very often, and he needed to argue with somebody. However, the demonizing of the House minority leader has its limits. Pelosi’s own opponent last year ran a very exciting ad depicting her as the queen of a zombie cult, and it had no effect whatsoever.
Everybody got excited about the South Carolina race when, at one point, Public Policy Polling showed Colbert Busch nine points ahead. Clearly, that wasn’t the case, and, in retrospect, I’m afraid we may have to revisit the P.P.P. poll last year that showed that 15 percent of Ohio Republicans believed that Mitt Romney had killed Osama bin Laden.
In the end, Sanford’s victory was just about a very Republican area picking a Republican member of Congress. South Carolina’s Republican mapmakers have spent eons stuffing as many Democrats as possible into the House district represented by Democrat James Clyburn in order to keep the other six districts as deeply red as possible. Their party controlled the seats anyway, but you never knew when there might be some emergency, like a special election with a Republican candidate who was due in court two days after the balloting to answer charges of trespassing at his ex-wife’s home…
Nobody outside the state seemed terribly thrilled by Sanford’s political resurrection. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which has a tolerance for screwing up that’s notably less extensive than God’s, had wiped its hands of his campaign awhile back. Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate in Massachusetts’ special Senate election, called him “pathetic.” And the House leadership needs another Tea Party zealot the way it needs another vote to repeal Obamacare…
So, Representative Mark Sanford. Where do you think he’ll live? Sanford was in the House once before and he slept in his office. This was possibly about staying close to his work but more likely about the same qualities of thriftiness that caused him to give his then-wife a $25 used bicycle for Christmas and her birthday combined. And what committee do you think he’ll serve on?
Please God, let it be Foreign Affairs.
NotMax
The first person who, on the House floor, stands and refers to “the honorable gentleman from South Carolina” deserves a great big Soupy Sales-type pie right in the kisser.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
President Cruz’s Ambassador to Argentina
ulee
I am a terrible gift giver, I can see myself giving a $25 bike as a gift. Maybe it was a neat bike. I would not give my wife the gift of adultery and public humiliation. But that’s just me.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Why? Calling Mark Sanford an “honourable gentleman” would be a classic bit of snark.
ulee
And yes, Bill Clinton is a serial adulterer and a shitheel of a husband. And Anthony Weiner is just an idiot. But they didn’t pay money for the privelege of wearing diapers or dissapear to Argentina to fuck their mistress while claiming to hiking the Appalacian trail. Whatever, I don’t know what’s wrong with any of these liars.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Sadly, there is no notation for air quotes in the Congressional Record.
raven
@NotMax: White Fang!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baW-A2vgfP0
NotMax
@ulee
Flash from the past:
Wilbur Mills won re-election after his hijinks with the stripper Fanne “The Argentine Firecracker” Foxe forced him to resign his chairmanship of Ways and Means.
ulee
Jenny Sanford was the only wife who had the guts to say–byebye asshole. Spitzer’s wife didn’t do it, Vitter’s wife didn’t do it. Hillary didn’t do it. Only Jenny did it. She said goodbye fucko. Good for her.
raven
@ulee: She’s independently wealthy, coincidink?
ulee
@raven: They’re all independently wealthy. There are no wolves at any of these doors.
NotMax
@raven
Cute (and true) story about the days before computerized files made cross-referencing and searching so much easier.
For literally decades, the librarian of the archives of the network (ABC?) fielded calls asking for clips from “The Soupy Sales Show.”
Response was always the same: “We get calls for that frequently, and we have no footage of any such program.”
Eventually, some reporter who had gone through the same frustrating song and dance did a bit more research. He called and asked her to look under ‘L’ for anything from “Lunchtime with Soupy.”
After a bit, she came back on to say that they had dozens and dozens of episodes in the vaults, and which one would he like clips from?
raven
@NotMax: I wish that would happen with some Allman’s concerts before Duane died. I saw them twice before he died and would love to see some. I’ve contacted their website and one of their sound guys lives up the street and apparently there is little that exists.
raven
@ulee: Hence, the question mark.
eta Weiner’s wife is no heiress.
WereBear
@ulee: The thing that gets me about Jenny Sandford is that she apparently loves politics but does not run herself. It can’t be that she’s a Republican; they run women, too. Despite all their rhetoric about God wanting them barefoot in the kitchen.
Makes me wonder, that’s all.
raven
Mornin Joe is beatin the Benghazi drum like a motherfucker!
ulee
@raven: Weiner’s wife will never have the wolf at her door. She’s a knockout. And I thoght Weiner was great, giving the Republicans hell. Why he acted like an idiot is beyond me. Still, I hope their family life is OK. But doesn’t his wife look at him every day and think, asshole.
raven
@ulee: k
raven
IMPEACH
Suffern ACE
@raven: morning joe wants impeachment? Oh this is precious.
Bill E Pilgrim
Smartest take I’ve seen so far was Paul Krugman’s, in a post titled South Carolina Voters Get It :
Yep.
NotMax
@raven
One more classic, the story of Soupy & The Naked Lady, related by someone who was there.
raven
Richard Wolf is mounting a good pushback. Joe dismisses it as a “Democratic talking point”.
raven
@NotMax: Damn!
ulee
Joe Scarborough couldn’t find his ass with both his hands. And Mika, well she knows her place. And Willie Geist, he’s Eddie Haskel. I sort of like Mike Barnacle, but only as a Halloween character.
raven
@ulee: I like Willie, we were both born in Urbana.
Schlemizel
I love Soupy Sales – that was the greatest kids show on TV until Pee-Wee came along then its a toss up!
Best birthday gift gone wrong I ever heard of: A columnist in the local paper grew up in the Ozarks, his grandfather gave his grandmother a headstone, all carved except the date of death. He wasn’t sure why she was not thrilled.
Exactly what high crime and.or misdemeanor does Mourning Joke believe Obama committed? I can’t bring myself to pay attention to this story since it is bullshit so that is a serious question. What are they claiming are the grounds for removing the president?
Rita R.
Mika, the designated Democrat on the show, is, I assume, sitting there with a confused-but-what-she-thinks-is-thoughtful look on her face, gearing up for when she’ll say something like, “Uh… well… you know, I’m not sure impeachment is appropriate… Yet… but President Obama and Hillary Clinton have a lot to answer for, four people DIED you know, and they need to start giving better answers and soon.” Then she’ll get quiet again while Scarborough resumes ranting and pretend to read the newspaper as she dreams of a Cinnabon to go with her venti soy latte half-caf with extra whipped cream — which she would, of course, promptly throw up during the commercial break.
ETA:
My secret shame: I find Willie likable and funny.
NotMax
@raven
Always felt he looks like a Muppet.
At least his parents didn’t name him Zeit.
Frankensteinbeck
No, it shows that Republican voters have gone over the deep end with tribalism. Something mysterious happened about four years ago that convinced them that Democrats are an existential threat and any Republican is a thousand times better than any Democrat. This effect is especially strong in the South (who knows why?). It also shows that a deep red district is a deep red district.
I suspect Republican Lite has never been a good strategy, but a loss in South Carolina in an R+11 district to an adulterer doesn’t prove that. They LIKE adulterers. While they go ’tisk tisk’ in church they’re going ‘Hell, yeah!’ over a beer. Southern conservatives are the people out of sitcoms.
NotMax
@ Schlemizel
Not nearly as well known (more’s the pity), but cult fave Uncle Floyd also deserves mention.
ulee
@raven: Willie is a tool. He knows he is a tool. He has the complexity of a beige crayon. I’m impressed he was born in Urbana.
Frankensteinbeck
@raven:
Republican hack pushes Republican hack position. News at eleven. Still, this might get the House GOP off their asses to vote to impeach and cost themselves 2014. The echo chamber is the thing. Just like they really thought Romney was winning, if their Villager buddies all nod and say Benghazi is totally serious and the question of impeachment must be discussed, they’ll take a vote. That vote can only go one way. That will become major news, and no matter how the Villagers try to spin it the 73% will go ‘Are you people fucked in the head?’ The Village has no idea they aren’t average Americans.
Kay
Weiner put out a “keys to the city” plan for his not-yet-announced mayoral bid that includes plans to remove more “troublemakers” from school.
By that he means expulsion and/or arrest.
It’s called “zero tolerance” and it’s been
completely discredited, although Bloomberg was a big fan. The whole country is moving away
from zero tolerance for juveniles. I live in the middle of nowhere and we’re not even complying with zero tolerance anymore, because it’s an idiotic idea that turns kids into career criminals.
Anthony Weiner wants to expand it.
Schlemizel
@NotMax:
Funny, I have never heard of that – the link does not provide a lot of info about the show, I’ll have to google a little and see what I find.
I used to think of subversive shows like Lunch with Soupy or rockey and bullwinkle twisted me as a kid but I think the truth is I was a twisted kid & those shows were right in my wheelhouse. It was fun to watch Pee Wee with my oldest because I saw the delight he got from the weird worldview & it reminded me of that joy in my childhood. Just knowing it was OK to be a little weird made things a little better.
WereBear
Truth is, we’re all weird as kids. We are living in a world “we never made,” full of contradictions and flat-out senseless at times.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@ulee:
I don’t get this. Why? Because he wasn’t born in Champaign?
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
Also OT, but regarding Dr. Richwine of the Heritage study, it should come as no surprise (via Warren Terra in LGM comments) that his dissertation includes a big shout out to Charles Murray.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been trying to find some clear take on the Hicks testimony. Even taking into account their slant, this Think Progress summary makes it look like even less than the Rs were hyping: the team that was told to “Stand down” was going to secure the Benghazi airport, not the non-mission, t to evacuate survivors. The airport was secured by the first team and the survivors were evacuated.
Did the guy actually say that his theory that a fly over could scared off the attackers came from “Libyan revolutionaries”?
geg6
@Kay:
Yeah, I’ve never been a Weiner fan. He was always all talk and not much else. And zero tolereance is the stupidest idea ever. Because what troubled children and adolescents really need is to take away the only structure they probably have in their lives. That will cure them for sure!
Lurking Canadian
@Amir Khalid: So are they all! All honourable men who give me leave to speak today.
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I almost feel sorry for this Hicks dude. Almost but not quite. He’s obviously not gotten past what happened and was totally traumatized by what happened and his own helplessness during the attack. But he’s just lashing out, talking about military actions that he really knows nothing about and in which he has no expertise. I think deep down, he feels somehow responsible and has survivor’s guilt and that’s why he is allowing himself to be used in such a ridiculous clown as Issa’s.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I just read the Guardian’s report on the Benghazi hearing, and in spite of a very dramatic headline and surprisingly heavy “this is bad news for Hillary!” slant, I don’t see anything in their report that suggests gov’t malfeasance during or after the attack
Patrick
@raven:
I don’t watch FoxNews and Morning Joe spouts right-wing talking points just like FoxNews. Thus I never watch his show.
But if Joe is so concerned about Benghazi, does he think we should now also go ahead and address all the embassy killings during the Bush era? How about Pakistan in 2002 when 10 US embassy officials lost their lives.
Or how about Reagan, when we lost 13 American diplomats in Lebanon in 1983?
And if Joe is so concerned about Benghazi, does he now think we should impeach the entire GOP House for cutting embassy security funding?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@geg6: I’m still kind of shocked that anyone remotely connected with politics could hire di Genova and Toensing and think that doesn’t hurt his credibility outside of the Foxiverse. Even if he didn’t know about them, none of his friends did? No one heard that and said, “you know, Greg…”
raven
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): You know, when I left there I swore I’d always say I was from Urbana but I’ve slipped.
Kay
@geg6:
To me, it’s embarrassing for him because it’s one of those fads that ten years in everyone knows is an absolute disaster.
This place is Right wing heaven and our juvenile judges bend over backward NOT to apply it.
They’d allocate their entire budget to adjudicating who hit who first on the lunch line.
I hate it because once they’re IN the court system I can’t get them OUT. They have some minor screw up and then it’s a probation violation. It just goes on for years. And everyone involved knows it’s a bad idea that doesn’t work.
ulee
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): Raven stated that he, like Willie, was born in Urbana. Raven was associating himself with Willie Geist, of all the people on the planet he could associate with. Willie Giest. I am impressed that Urbana could spawn a zero like Willie and Raven would say–hey, I was born in the same town as Willie Giest. By the way, I like Raven. Willie, not so much. Am I spelling Giest correctly?
ulee
Impressed is the wrong word. Disgusted is more accurate. All Willie is missing is the bow tie. Sorry Raven. I’m sure Urbana is a nice town. But Willie is a clown.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@ulee: It makes more sense now that you’ve explained it.
Kay
@geg6:
Kids and their advocates went to his apartment yesterday to ask him about it, but he wasn’t home.
I think it’s hilarious that they went to see him. He probably has no earthly idea what’s even in “Keys to the City”, because I’m sure consultants put it together.
Peering thru the shades: “who are these people and what do they want?” :)
mai naem
Walter Isaacson pushed back too. I don’t know why Petraeus saying that the attack was revenge for a CIA op is rarely brought up. Am I the only one who thinks that pretty damn important? I find Dannny Deutch’s ‘I’m a staunch Democrat but…” is getting old, esp. when he’s talking about the hurt fee fees of Wall Street.
Re: Willie Geist – I was listening to a show and the discussion was the Today show and Lauer etc. Guess the rumor is that Geist is going to take over from Lauer. To me, Geist is the male version of Mika. A male bimbo. Also too, I’m sure his daddy has taught him how to survive broadcast journo turf wars.
rikyrah
AAmom @AVD911
boom!Poll: Ed Markey leads Gabriel Gomez by 17 points in MA Senate special election | http://masslive.com http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/poll_ed_markey_leads_gabriel_g.html …
10:13 PM – 8 May 2013
kc
@ulee:
Sanford didn’t leave her much choice when he did that press conference and blubbered about his “soul mate.”
JoyfulA
@Kay: The way zero tolerance works in schools is that the kid seen first is the one who gets in trouble, not the one who acts first. My niece got a week’s suspension for pushing back, and that she was pushed first was no defense.
Kay
@JoyfulA:
I know! I think it’s really damaging to their perception of school, too, because they recognize that it’s almost arbitrary and often unfair.
Kids are like the Fair Police. If there’s anything they understand it’s “fair”. That’s such a big part of their particular ethical frame. You hear it when we mediate disputes. They have a sort of Inborn Code of Fairness they operate under with one another:)
I hate to see them get so bitter and cynical at 14.
Also. Weiner pushing One Strike and You’re Out? I believe HE got a second chance, didn’t he?
cckids
@JoyfulA:
It is an important life lesson I taught my kids plus my nieces & nephews; Don’t hit back, the second person always gets caught.
It doesn’t meet my mother’s approval; she just thinks I should have taught the “don’t hit” line. But reality is what it is.
Tone In DC
@cckids:
Glad I didn’t grow up in the era of zero tolerance. I wasn’t likes-to-fight kid in school, not by any stretch, but the kids who didn’t fight back were given a hard way to go by would-be bullies.
maya
Benghazi? Isn’t that the place where they found the dead intern?
someguy
I’m bummed out. It seems like while being a snarky comedian assclown is, in the voters’ eyes, a good qualification for public office, being the sister of a snarky comedian assclown is not. So, while Al Franken can win office, Ms. Colbert Busch cannot.
I’m sure that the sisters of Dane Cook, Chris Rock and Louis Black are all re-thinking their future political careers as we speak.