Speaking of comments, the top-rated one on the Times’ Booker story is this:
[…] Bottom line, the gay black guy won easily. On top of the other disasters of the day for the Republican party you’d expect this to be a wake up call, but I doubt it will be.
Booker won with 55% of the vote in a special election called because brave maverick Chris Christie was worried that too many blahs would turn out in a general election. The Star-Ledger story is a little more straight news than the Times, which seems to be having a hard time holding back its disdain for Booker.
Linda Featheringill
Cool.
jibeaux
Booker does not identify as gay, though, correct? The evidence of this is that he’s unmarried and does not sufficiently harass strippers on twitter?
gene108
Scary that Lonegan got 45% of the vote.
He’s on the record of wanting to abolish the Department of Education and other Federal agencies.
He’s a “drown government in a bathtub” true believer nutjob.
The kind that isn’t supposed to do well in blue states.
gene108
@jibeaux:
Any unmarried man over 40 is by default gay. Even if he has been seen in public with girlfriends.
Figs
@gene108:
But they can do well in blue states in special elections randomly called on a Wednesday in October. Results would have been different on election day in November.
GregB
That 11% loss by his nutbag opponent is a sign that the tea-party is ascendent according to Congressshitheel Matt Salmon on Morning Joke.
Hopefully the 2014 elections will contain more winning math like that for the Teabagublicans.
dedc79
@GregB: and John Fund
raven
@gene108: And he’s Rachel’s pal.
big ole hound
@gene108: Yeah but 27% of that vote are pure racists so the worry is that 18% who are just mentally challenged.
Anya
@jibeaux: Booker is pro gay rights and he does not seem to be bothered by the rumors. I could be wrong but he doesn’t strike me as the closeted type.
aimai
@gene108: Maybe he’s saving himself for marriage?
Patricia Kayden
Not sure Lonegan, as a delusional T’Bagger, ever had a chance to win. The governor’s race in Virginia should be much closer although McAuliffe is leading in all of the polls.
realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2013/governor/va/virginia_governor_cuccinelli_vs_mcauliffe-3033.html
fidelio
@aimai: (and gene108)
Maybe he likes power and money more than sex. It’s not un-possible.
MattF
I’d say that Lonegan trying, at the end, to ride the coattails of ex-Governor Palin was undignified, but this was New Jersey, after all.
Ronnie Pudding
Glad to see the Times story mention the documentary Street Fight, which I’d recommend.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden:
A busload o Duggars was just campaignin’ for Cuccinelli this week.
Not sure if it was all 21, but be afraid. Be very afraid.
RSR
a buddy of mine on the twitters last night:
raven
In know we all love to talk about “stenographers” but this one took it to a new level!
Stenographer Removed For Shouting On House Floor (VIDEO)
““The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God. It never was,” the stenographer said as she was carried off the House floor, through the speaker’s lobby and into the hall. “It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons that go against God.”
Anya
OT – Looks like Obama prevented Susan Colins and that dim-witted fella from West Virginia (as my father-in-law calls him) from saving the day – via GOS (No link for Politico)GOS
rikyrah
If he is gay, present a partner soon.
I’m with Olivia Pope..
Married
Divorced
Gay with partner..
“people get that”.
this single, nobody around..
makes folks suspicious.
dmsilev
I love those NewsMax headlines over on the sidebar:
It’s like reading really bad free-verse poetry from the Star Trek Mirror Universe.
Kristin
The people who voted for him are obviously racist. And, bigoted against straight people.
Zifnab25
@RSR: New Jersey could probably do better. But, I’ve got family out in New Jersey, and I can also confirm that the state could do a hell of a lot worse. I’d hold my nose and pull the lever for Booker if he was running in my state.
RSR
Booker’s a ‘third way’ dem, and Christie needs as many of them as he can muster.
Speaking of third way BS, how about this little bit of crisis management/shock doctrine sausage making slipped into the debt deal yesterday:
washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/16/the-debt-deals-gift-to-teach-for-america-yes-tfa…
MattF
@dmsilev: Also “House Stenographer Dragged Away Ranting.” Not to make a joke at some poor soul’s expense, but I think we’re going to see more of this.
fuckwit
Damn glad Booker won. But I predict it won’t be too long before he does something dumb and gets thrown under the bus by Obama.
CarolDuhart2
@MattF: I wouldn’t be surprised if Palin increased turnout for Booker. The baggers don’t realize that Palin is toxic pretty much anywhere outside of Republican leaning areas.
Another thing that I think hurt Lonegan was the shutdown.
The shutdown gave more than a few federal employees both the incentive and the time to campaign for Booker, and the rest of the electorate an immediate focus on how craptastic Republican policies were.
fuddmain
@raven:
The Nutty Stenographer was the perfect ending for this shitshow.
Great tweet on this from one of my favorite authors:
Joey Maloney
@raven: Imagine, if you will, that you had to spend hour upon endless hour silently transcribing – accurately, without editorializing – the scripted and spontaneous productions of people like Louis Gohmert and Michelle Bachmann.
I’m surprised she lasted as long as she did. And, as a commenter at Roy’s place pointed out, even while they were dragging her away she was still only maybe the 12th craziest person in that room.
C.V. Danes
The only problem I have with the guy is his bromance with Wall Street. Other than that, seems like an excellent choice, given the alternative.
Tone in DC
I don’t care if Booker is LGBT, straight, undecided, or just not into discussing his business.
Don’t care if he’s secretly REALLY good at World of Warcraft, speed chess or Stratego.
He won the damn race. He beat the drooling teabagger.
Folks want to pontificate on someone’s, uh, proclivities, there’s all that tasteful, wholesome reality TV to discuss.
raven
@Joey Maloney: Plenty of people in these comments are on board with her.
“This country was founded under a belief in GOD.Regardless of if you believe in it or not is of no matter.The belief was in God and country before all else.The Constitution and Bill of Rights were written on this fundamental belief.Now days with everyone being supposedly offended by the word God in anything American we have proven that we no longer abide by the Forefathers writings and thus have a country more divided these days more than ever!!!!
gelfling545
@jibeaux: I hope to live to see the day when this obsession with the perfectly legal sexual activities of politicians ends. You’d think they were planning to mate with him rather than vote for him. I don’t expect to see it, though.
Roger Moore
@fuckwit:
Obama will just be returning the favor.
Anya
@raven: I can’t be the only who thought it was Luke Russet or Robert Costa losing their shit because Boehner lost, when read the headline “House Stenographer Dragged Off House Floor After Open-Mic Rant.”
shelly
“Morici: Obama Victory Based on Deception”
***********
I guess this is the legislative version of ‘voter fraud!’ which is still the comforting excuse for the Wingnuts on why Romney lost.
Yes, very glad Booker won. Lonagan is as Tea Party as they come. Government regulation? Get rid of it, including the minimum wage. Let market forces decide! Cause that’s working out so well in places like Walmart.
raven
@Anya: Ding!
dmsilev
@Anya: Hah! I’d pay to see that.
Linda Featheringill
@Tone in DC:
I agree. Cory’s sexual preferences are none of my business and I don’t care.
HOWEVER, if he indicated that he wanted to come to my bed, I would certainly listen to his petition.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Anya:
Higgs raises hand.
fuckwit
@Anya: He’s said he’s not, but is flattered by the rumors that he is. And yes he’s been seen dating women. So, basically, who gives a shit?
What concerns me about Booker is he’s a Wall Street tool, and some whiffs of corruption in his history that don’t sit well with me. Still, he beat a screaming teabagger, so win.
Botsplainer
Query – who was the House steno? How’d she get the job, and why is she so nuts?
I feel like there’s a wingnut welfare story in there somewhere.
Linda Featheringill
@fuckwit:
Please allow me to channel my inner southern belle and say: You expected an angel from New Jersey?
aimai
@gene108: I think I’ve given up thinking that voters (all voters) pay any attention to actual policy positions. People seem to accept or rather prefer to believe that the person with the R or D after their name reflects their own basic beliefs. If those beliefs are pragmatic they think the guy is just bloviating to get over on the voters. If their beliefs are radical and the R or D sounds moderate then if they are planning to vote their party ID they simply assume he’s sounding more moderate in order to get over on the voters.
So if you are a republican, or a democrat, and you are planning to vote at all you probably just show up and pull the lever and hope for the best. I take this belief from the fact that when you show Republicans, say, what is in the Republican platform a fairly large proportion of Northeaster Republicans simply don’t believe it. They’ve been voting on autopilot for years without ever realizing the party they vote for has actual crazy principles.
fuckwit
@big ole hound: Or who were turned off by Booker’s Wall Street supplications. Also, consider the off-year-election factor: teabaggers are way over-represented in those.
That’s really the biggest problem we have to deal with for next year, the one on which the future of the country rests: HOW TO GET DEMOCRATS ENTHUSED TO VOTE IN 2014?
We can’t use anger, fear, vindictiveness, grudges, or existential terror, like the teabaggers use and the fundamentalists have been using for a generation, to get people out to the polls in off-year elections. Rove and the ALEC crew have been doing that for along time, basing it on the work of Pat Robertson and fundamentalists before them.
Though maybe if the R’s really push the voter suppression, you’ll see some communities like latinos and students make a determined effort to assert their rights to vote.
I’m reminded of Sarah Silverman’s “Wake the Fuck Up!” campaign from last year, with Samuel Johnson and that little kid. We need to get people woken up. Maybe the people doing the fast-food strikes can get people out. Maybe OFA can do it. Maybe Occupy. Maybe Latinos. Maybe the unions. We need to be building all that infrastructure now, in all 50 states, and especially in districts where progressives are very thin on the ground.
Because you know the teabaggers will be marching to the polls carrying Gadsen and Confederate flags and singing “Amazing Grace”. They can still do a great deal of damage.
artem1s
@rikyrah:
really? so we have accepted the concept of same sex couples now, but certainly let us continue to marginalize those outliers who threaten society with their evil singleness! degenerates!
shortstop
I would like to be amused at the shock redux the “Unskew the polls!” crowd is suffering today, but I do not think it is fun or healthy to live with so many people who now devote entire, carefully coordinated memes to denying every inconvenient fact.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@raven:
That’s what happens when you have to write down everything that people like Michele Bachmann and Louis Gohmert say every day.
shortstop
I kind of hope he’s straight, just because he’d be the first straight politician I know of to basically say, “Why? Is there something wrong with it?” without further elaboration.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Oops, can’t spell my own name.
Litlebritdifrnt
@shelly:
About the Booker win Hannity was already pushing the “voter fraud” meme yesterday afternoon. Something along the lines of people requesting mail in ballots, not returning them and then ERMEGERD turning up to vote in person.
JMG
The date of this election (a Wednesday?) was designed to minimize turnout and that’s what it did. The percentage for the Republican was in line with previous New Jersey Senate elections for the last couple decades, where it’s been between 40-45 percent. And those were held on November Tuesdays.
The Red Pen
Best Freeper comment:
Yeah, not a good day for wingnuts.
Of course, Booker one because blacks are the real racists. No, seriously, that’s an actual Freeper viewpoint:
Yeah, blacks are the real racists.
mai naem
@Anya: I thought more along the lines of Carl Cameron or Jim VanDerHei
rda909
@fuckwit: Uh, “occupy?” yea, no. As a life long Democrat and major O-bot, I don’t want the “occupy” people anywhere near our campaigns. In fact, please Occupy people, run your 3rd party folks this time and stay far, far away from Democrats. Be sure to criticize us loudly too, and especially President Obama.
We’ll win more actual elections before the Occupy people agree to the rules for a proper “mic check.”
Jim C.
@fuckwit:
Agree completely. Not a fan of Booker at all and haven’t been since he completely undercut Obama’s Bain attacks. He’s just a guy who strikes me as way to far in bed with Wall Street. His being in bed with another guy wouldn’t bother me in the least…unless that other guy is like the JPMC CEO or something. :)
Still, it’s a Democrat instead of a Republican and that’s a win any day these days. Not the best Dem I could have asked for, and certainly feel like we should be able to do better in deep blue New Jersey, but I’ll take it.
feebog
Glad Booker won. Can we lay off the “Wall Street Tool” meme for a while? Let’s see how he votes over the next couple years and judge him on his record.
Robert Sneddon
@artem1s: The natural state of adult humankind is partnered up, two or many, same-sex and/or opposite. Absent crazies like nuns, Catholic priests and others whose voices in in their heads tell them that having a flesh and blood SO is naughty in the eyes of God, someone who is single, adult and visibly unconnected is worrying to many folks who describe them with derogatory words like “slut”, “player” or “spinster”. Lurking at the back of their mind is the idea that a freewheeling social degenerate of this ilk might steal away the love of their life when they’re not looking because being single is somehow unnatural. See also Condoleeza Rice and Janet Napolitano.
rda909
@Botsplainer: Thought the same thing. She’ll probably be all over Fux News now, and speaking at all the Koch-paid events, pontificating about the evils of liberals. As a stenographer though, she already has the job skills to be a “reporter” at any of the major TV networks.
Plus, she’s got it all wrong anyway. We all know it’s the Illuminati that wrote the Constitution, and then created the “Chicago Machine” to make President Obama win a national election. Dude…triangles. It’s all in the triangles.
burnspbesq
The map of Booker’s win is interesting, in ways that are not good news for Republicans.
No surprise that he won by huge margins in all the urban counties. No surprise that he got whomped in the northwest and at the Shore. But he won Bergen (way to go homies) and Burlington which are predominantly suburban, and he won Gloucester and Cumberland deep in the heart of mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, cousin-marrying South Jersey.
If Booker can carry parts of New Jersey that look like West Virginia demographically, that’s a BFD.
Elizabelle
Speaking of black dudes who won big yesterday:
Betty’s got a fresh thread up. PBO expected to make remarks in a few.
Joe Buck
Well, yeah, it’s cool that we have another African-American in the Senate, but he’s the black Wall Street tool, the one who attacked Obama for hurting fee-fees with rather mild criticism. One more vote for undermining any effort to reform our financial system.
TAPX486
@GregB: Similar to the point that I was going to make. Can you imagine if the TP’er had won? The unique circumstances of a Wed. special election would have been overshadowed by the ‘CRUZ was RIGHT’ meme. The entire GOP cave would have disappeared in a flash and it would have been replaced with how could this guy have won in blue NJ and what does it mean for the 2014 mid-terms. The elephant echo chamber would have been calling for a major RINO hunt to eliminate the weaklings in the Senate and replace them with clones of Ted.
tybee
Lonagan is now Alone Again
burnspbesq
@tybee:
Naturally.
catclub
@Robert Sneddon: Also Derek Jeter
Kay
@RSR:
They have amazing clout. TFA. Which I could live with, if they would stop pretending they’re bold, grass roots “anti-status quo” mavericks. It’s just baloney. We’ve had market-based ed reform for over a decade now. There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Bush’s NCLB and Obama’s RttT. TFA is integral part of that.
They ARE the status quo, and it’s reflected in federal funding of their organization and how politicians bow and scrape before them
I defy anyone to read the stated goals of Democrats for Education Reform (Booker is on the board) and Jeb Bushs “Chiefs for Change” and show me a substantive difference. Bush uses different rhetoric, “government schools”, etc, and he’s overtly anti-labor but ON THE GROUND, in actual existing public schools, there is no difference. Market-based education reform damages existing public schools, and it doesn’t matter if the schools are “failing” or doing just fine.
I’ve watched market based ed reform play out in my local public school district for the last decade, under Bush and now under Obama. You know what existing public schools got? They got more mandates, more expensive, faddish, over-hyped and ever-changing gimmicks, less local (democratic) control and less money. My local public school is worse as a result of reform, and I’m not the only one.
Ed reform was sold to the public as a way to improve existing public schools. They sold it that way because 90% of the kids in this country ATTEND traditional public schools. After a decade and billions of dollars, it hasn’t benefitted existing public schools, not under Bush and not under Obama.
PNW_WarriorWoman
Cory Booker is not all that he seems. nsfwcorp.com has a great August issue long form article on his supporters, and outlines his relationship with the Chavad-Lubivitch sect goes back to the early ’90s, when he became an active member of Chabad outfits at Oxford and Yale. The connections he forged through Chabad have provided him with a wealthy and powerful right-wing donor network that helped seed his political career. His relationship was more than a simple political alliance: Booker became mesmerized with Chabad’s teachings and began studying with Chabad rabbis. He now reads Hebrew, recites portions of the Torah from memory, helps Chabad fundraise and—most disturbingly—genuinely shares the sect’s messianic worldview. This article discusses how Cory Booker ended up so close to a right wing cult that promotes deep-rooted racism, violent Islamophobia, medieval positions on abortion, homosexuality, women’s rights and more. The article is paywalled. I’m having trouble uploading to Google docs. If I can figure it out I’ll share a link. But a subscription to NSFWcorp.com is well worth it. Long form journalism on political, cultural, environmental subjects you care about.
shortstop
@PNW_WarriorWoman: Come now! There can only be one black politician who “isn’t what he seems” and is up to all kinds of sooper sekrit mischief under the radar while the sheeple never suspect a thing. Sorry, the antichrist position has been occupied since January 2009.
Booker is a slightly shady, cloyingly self-promoting New Jersey politician who is going to hold a Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate and vote with the caucus 90-something percent of the time. Just stop with all this crap.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Holy fuck on toast – a gay black man won a Senate seat in a special election. Aren’t special elections supposed to be the domain of the over 50 white conservative voter?
pseudonymous in nc
@rda909: Don’t be silly. A clerical worker had an unfortunate public moment. Let’s hope she gets whatever help she needs. That’s all.
Chris
@The Red Pen:
If blacks are killing each other because they hate each other so much, isn’t that the opposite of racism?
shortstop
@Chris: The author’s awesome point is that blacks hate blacks more than whites could ever hate blacks. Yeah, I know.
Ed in NJ
Booker didn’t win by a larger margin for two reasons- some suburban Dems didn’t vote because they figured it was in the bag, which it was, and because NJ Republicans are racist and hate all things urba, especially Newark. They convinced themselves that Lonergan was an acceptable alternative to the phony superhero celebrity mayor of godforsaken blacktown.
Gene108
@burnspbesq:
You have been in CA too long.
The non-Piney parts of Burlington county, ie where most folks live, lean Democratic in Congresional races. These are the places that make folks think “this year NJ3 can be flipped Dem”, but there’s enough of the district in Ocean county to keep that from happening.
The same for cities in Gloucester county, they lean Dem.
Cumberland county is poor enough that folks can lean Democrat if you can GOTV, which I think Booker’s people did and OfA helped to do.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Suspicious of what?
Anoniminous
@burnspbesq:
That’s extremely interesting. I wonder if Moderate Republicans – despite all the snark, they do exist – have broken their habit of automatically voting for the GOP candidate?
liberal
@gene108:
I love it when right-wing morans say we should abolish the Dept of Energy, without realizing that more than half its budget is military (namely, nuclear weapons stuff).
Paul in KY
@fuckwit: If he does something dumb & President’s judgement is that he needs to be ‘thrown under the bus’, then I support my President’s judgement.
Drexciya
I find it sobering to think that Cory Booker is the first democratically elected black senator since 2004. I find it equally sobering that his presence automatically doubles the amount of black people in the Senate. To two.
When we celebrate who’s in the white house and what it took to get him there, it’s helpful to keep in mind how structurally insufficient singular examples of progress tend to be. We shouldn’t use those singular examples to pave over a political reality that relishes in the marginalization of needed black voices and normalizes black absence from meaningful political power and access.
NonyNony
@gene108:
What’s scary is that a cheese sandwich with an (R) next to its name could probably get 45% of the vote in an election.
Also the cheese sandwich would probably support better policies.
Another Holocene Human
@RSR: win.
I hope, like Biden, he turns out to be more liberal than his campaign contribution history and corporate whoring would presuppose.
Interesting note: at 44, Mayor, now Senator Ex Machina (google it, heh) is firmly in the GenX generation. Although I note a suspicious lack of tribal tattoos or fucking awesome hair. Hey, at least he doesn’t make a fool of himself on the twitters … and when he chats with a stripper, it’s a vegan stripper. That’s so GenX.
As for his preferences, maybe he, like so many Americans his age and younger, is secure in himself and being single (he clearly has a close-knit family behind him) and doesn’t feel the need, like so many “values” politicians, to rush into making a Stepford family to forward his political goals. There’s something suspect about someone having the maturity not to be another Mark Sanford? Yeah, I could see why that would annoy Republicans.
Another Holocene Human
@Anya: remarkable discipline by Democrats
maybe they finally understand what they’re up against–and most of the conservaDems got purged by red state voters anyway back in 2010
BubbaDave
@pseudonymous in nc:
This. There are a lot of people with real power spouting lunacy as a reason (or excuse, doesn’t matter which) to attack the most vulnerable among us. She’s a public servant who had some sort of breakdown. There are 144 people in the House who deserve to be mocked and abused– she ain’t one.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Sorry, rikyrah, as a GenXer, he just reflects America. Check out the chart on this page:
prb.org/Publications/Reports/2012/us-household-change.aspx
Single people living along have gone from less than 10% of all households in 1940 to over a quarter.
Plenty of politicians know of your distrust of single people. That is why they enter into sham marriages. For example, Charlie Crist entered a marriage quietly shortly before running for national office that is widely believed to be a sham. (Unlike Cory B–youcansaythatonWP–er, Crist is widely believed by gay people to be gay.) Since these aren’t exactly love matches, such politicians become notorious for two-timing their spouses–Vitter, Ensign, Sanford, just to name a recent few.
But our Cory is of a younger generation. Probably many people he grew up with, went to school with, personal friends, cousins his age, etc, are single as well. It’s normal. He doesn’t feel any fear or a need to cover up. He’s out as a single person.
And that’s cool.
also, there’s an antecedent, as I believe SF Mayor Gavin Newsome was single when he took office a decade ago… the gay voters supported him
Another Holocene Human
@Litlebritdifrnt: About the Booker win Hannity was already pushing the “voter fraud” meme
hahahahaha, please proceed, dumbshit
Another Holocene Human
@PNW_WarriorWoman: B00xeR being involved in Chabad doesn’t surprise me and even explains some things but you have to understand that with a worldwide, evangelical group like the Lubavitchers there is a great deal of internal diversity. (For one thing, there’s the group that says Schneerson is the messiah and still alive, and then there’s the group that says “First rule of Schneerson club, never talk about Schneerson club [to outsiders]!”)
They are creepy, especially in the way they muscle in and take over or coopt small, vulnerable Jewish diaspora communities around the world. However, it would be a big mistake to confuse them with other ultra-Orthodox sects such as skverers, Ger, etc.
Also, too, remember when we’re talking about fringe right-wing Jewish sects, the ones with the most to hide are always, always the rabbis, not the congregation. (Especially congregants with a job, like B—er.)
Since Chabad-Lubavitch is outward facing and engages the gentile world they tend not to view non-Jews with as much contempt as some of their Ultra-Orthodox brethren (the sistren are supposed to stay covered up, pregnant, and silent).
Another Holocene Human
@liberal: Wait, wait–you’re telling me DoE does something else besides nukes?
Mind. Blown.
pseudonymous in nc
I’m not so bothered about the Chabad thing as I am with the Shmuley Boteach connection going back to the Rhodes Scholar days in Oxford. Let’s just say that the way in which L’Chaim collapsed and Shmuley ended up back in the US raised all sorts of questions about Boteach, even before the Michael Jackson stuff.
Peter Beinart’s piece from earlier in the summer talks more broadly about Chabad, but it’s also drawing on his memory of L’Chaim as simultaneously attractive and dodgy.
Geeno
@Robert Sneddon“See also Condoleeza Rice and Janet Napolitano.”
I didn’t know they were an item.:
BruinKid
Rachel herself said on her show a few nights ago that Cory is NOT gay. And she should know, as they were good friends (not just classmates) at Stanford. Along with a guy named Richard Engel.
From what I’ve heard, and what the Twitter conversation with the stripper seemed to indicate, is that what Booker doesn’t want to admit is that he likes white women (with all due respect to his checking out ABL). And that unfortunately, admitting that would cause a serious shitstorm, even in 2013, even in New Jersey.