Chris McDaniel, that teahadist in Mississippi whose minions harassed Thad Cochran’s wife, is doing pretty well in the polls and probably has a real chance to become a Senator. A poll a few weeks ago showed him gaining ground (17 points back isn’t bad for a challenger with little name recognition) and a poll today — albeit one of the crazy right-wing variety — shows McDaniel up by seven points.
The Official Media narrative of this year is/will be that the Republican Establishment is back! Jebmentum! Adults in charge again! GOP Daddies 4evah! We need at least one true whack job to win a Republican Senatorial primary.
McDaniel sounds like a major-league asshole (big time), but the enemy of Ron Fournier is my friend.
Baud
You may as well consult a Magic 8 Ball.
Hunter Gathers
Don’t worry. When McDaniel gives his acceptance speech announcing the rebirth of the Confederacy, Fournier will just throw up his hand and proclaim ‘both sides do it’ because George W. Bush left him a hand-written thank you note and also because Obama won’t cut Ron Fournier’s taxes. He might withhold his productivity.
jl
@Baud:
” You may as well consult a Magic 8 Ball. ”
But the Magic 8 Ball can count. What about those teabagger yahoos?
Zifnab25
Remind me again. From a voting-record perspective, am I going to notice any actual difference between these two guys? And if the answer is “No”, why would I possibly give a shit who won?
BGinCHI
More minority outreach from the Confederate GOP I see.
Could a Dem beat a convicted pedophile in MS?
Frankensteinbeck
@Zifnab25:
Because one is more likely to deliver lines like ‘legitimate rape’ which will hurt the entire Republican Party by reminding voters what conservatives actually believe.
Joseph Nobles
Yay, mocking content notes is the new way to be a troll! So much fun, tell all your friends.
Zifnab25
@BGinCHI: Given the Rove-style tactics at work in the GOP, everyone will probably just conclude the Dem is the paedophile in the race by the time the negative ads are done running.
DougJ
@Joseph Nobles:
I’m only doing it for links to Breitbart, Politico.
Baud
@DougJ:
A public service indeed.
Schlemizel
@Zifnab25:
In fact, if the voting is the same having the more insane candidate possible is a net positive for us. We have a Republican here by the name of John Kline, he is every bit as batshit crazy as his neighbor to the north Michele Bachmann, his votes are as shitty as hers. But he is smart enough not to let the crazy run out loud unless he is among friends. He is 10 times more dangerous as some people don’t recognise what a piece of shit he is.
srv
I think Doug and his wife could do well in Mississippi.
We need a real southerner on this blog.
jl
@Hunter Gathers: And DougJ is just considering the direct effect on Fournier directly expressed ‘judgments’ (aka, weak tsk-ing of the McDaniels). The indirect effect is that the new McDaniels in Congress will pull Fournier’s certified center further into insanity.
And I don’t see how the media narrative that the center is back is true. Seems like same thing as 2012 presidential election, everyone had to pander to the lunatic reactionaries. Strong men like Huntsman wilted and he claimed that his wife forced him to say moderate things. Says she threatened to leave him if he acted deranged and illiterate on the campaign trail.
Hell, in CA Donnelly forced master of the universe Kashkari to chop toy trains in two with an ax. Very sad. Next commercials Kashkari will machine gun a package of wild caught salmon and then bludgeon a solar panel to death with a club. Will Jeb! do any better?
Mnemosyne
@Zifnab25:
What Frankensteinbeck said — with any luck, the teahadist is the next Sharron Angle or Christine McDonnell who manages to mess up a “sure thing” Republican pickup of the seat by being batshit crazy.
Trollhattan
@srv:
SEK seems to be getting along famously in Louisiana. Or, at least it’s keeping him well-stocked with SEK stories.
Baud
FWIW, in 2012, Wicker (incumbent) defeated Gore 57% to 40%. In 2008, Cochran (longtime incumbent) defeated Fleming (black Dem) 61% to 38%.
So if McDaniels wins, we’d need about a little over a 10 point swing for the Dems to take the seat.
ETA: The last two Senate elections in MS were obviously in election years, so the spread may be different for an off-year election.
Berial
Don’t expect the Dem to win no matter who wins the Republican primary. MS will vote ‘R’ in the general.
Also I don’t see how this is in any way an ‘establishment win’ even if the establishment Republicans win. They’ve all moved so far right to try and block the tehadists that they may as well be tehadi themselves.
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@Joseph Nobles:
How is warning people about a link to a racist effluent dump mocking content notes? Or is this some sort of meta thing?
Villago Delenda Est
@Hunter Gathers:
About the hollowest threat he could ever make.
ulee
Great Dylan song. The man can write and deliver.
Berial
I have to say it’s kind of funny to see McDaniel’s attack ads against Cochran trying to show Cochran as out of touch with MS values, when almost all of those attack ads come from the ‘Club for Growth’. Not exactly a homegrown group.
Mnemosyne
@Joseph Nobles:
I know what you mean, but I’m kind of glad I wasn’t drawn into a Breitbart link. As we were all saying yesterday, I’d rather know ahead of time what I’d be getting myself into if I chose to click on the link than get an unpleasant surprise.
gogol's wife
@ulee:
Unlike Slowinski.
lol
@Zifnab25:
No, but McDaniel getting nominated opens the door, even if it’s just a crack, for Childers to eek out a win.
This story is going to be toxic with the general public but a net positive with the Republican primary electorate.
Marc
Correction: we need at least one true whack job to win a Republican Senatorial primary anywhere but Mississippi. I’m hoping for Georgia or Alaska. Or maybe another Libertarian spoiler in Montana? You know, someplace Dems can actually win.
And yes, excellent song lyric as always.
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@Marc:
If Michelle Nunn keeps waffling the way she did when asked if she would have voted for Obamacare, she’s going to be lucky to finish third in a race with a Republican in Georgia.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I guess I always figured the internet gods gave us the hover feature so we can avoid unpleasant links. In the case of DougJ, I suspect the courtesy is more like mocking.
Higgs Boson's Mate
The Republican Establishment seems to be where the teahadists were about a two years ago. Both parties are moving to the right, the Republicans just had a bigger head start. As things stand, no one who was POTUS before 1989 would be considered an ideologically viable candidate by their respective party today.
maya
Where is this land called Mississippi of which you speak?
jl
Not sure if this will lead to any connection between the McDaniel campaign and nursing home picster perp. But I wonder a connection would help or hurt, given the kind of people who would consider voting for McDaniel.
Police Investigating Possible ‘Conspiracy’ In Nursing Home Break-In
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/thad-cochran-chris-mcdaniel-clayton-kelly-conspiracy
ranchandsyrup
I’m surprised that Ronny doesn’t have a leader-boner for McDaniels doing what it takes to win. So leadery.
scav
Quick OT pause to recognize and wonder at the perfection of Traditional Marriage that is such in need of protection as it is such a foundation and bulwark of all that is good in society. Indiana Man Gets Eight Years Home Detention for Rape of Sleeping Wife. Drugged her repeatedly and made sex tapes. Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade were all over the genre, no doubt.
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@scav:
I blame Tanizaki.
Citizen Alan
@Baud:
The “Gore” in this case was a guy who ran on the Dem ticket simply because he had the name Albert Gore. IIRC, he was over eighty years old. And he still got 40% against an incumbent.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
Ha! We need to find a Dem in Mississippi named Ronald Reagan.
Or Jefferson Davis.
Citizen Alan
The thing that people forget about Mississippi is that we have the highest percentage of African-American voters of any state in the country. If repulsive Grand Dragon McDaniel beats Cochran and there is a successful GOTV operation in the Delta and in Jackson, I think Childers has a shot. Obama only needed 15% of the white vote in 2012 to carry the state.
scav
@Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity): Well, at least Murasaki gets a pass for once.
Oh, and where’s my 400 Mozerdollars?
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@scav:
Off the shoulder of Orion.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity):
Yup, I’m afraid that was an own goal. As a Michelle Nunn supporter, I’ve never deluded myself that she is, to my mind, a pale simulacrum of the kind of Democrat I’d like to support for Senate. At the same time, I fully recognize that this is Georgia, and any candidate from the Elizabeth Warren wing would just not stand a chance of being elected to ratcatcher down here.
And for me, right now, electability is what it’s all about. I almost don’t give a fuck how Nunn would have voted on ACA; I do care that we have a chance to get someone with a (D) after her name in the U.S. fucking Senate, which would be a pickup. Right now, holding the Senate is way more important to me than purity tests. SCOTUS, bitches.
Roger Moore
@srv:
Betty Cracker isn’t good enough for you?
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@SiubhanDuinne:
I could have understood her taking a position along the lines of “imperfect but worth fixing” – which is what the polling suggests most people favor.I can’t imagine why she thought being so blatantly evasive was going to earn her anything but indifference, mockery and annoyance from independents, Republicans and Democrats respectively.
PaulW
I have a question: say McDaniel wins the primary over Cochran, but it’s later revealed McDaniel had a hand in the nursing home scandal and he’s arrested for it (as the current reports are that the police are viewing it as a conspiracy involving more people)?
scav
@Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity): Drat! I was concentrating on his belt. Hotels on Minitaka and Alnilam instead. Totally passed on Bellatrix.
Jeremy
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Actually you’re wrong. The republican party is moving right but the democratic party of late has been slowly moving leftward. Statistics on ideology from various groups have shown this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity):
I agree. It was a bad blunder, and pundits from Chuck Todd to Charles Pierce have noticed and not been shy about commenting. I’m not trying to defend her, and I hope she has some good advisors who can talk some political sense into her.* I was just saying why I am supporting her right now, because I still think she has the best chance of any Democrat in Georgia of picking up the vacated Chambliss Senate seat.
*FWIW, I think her father — the very definition of “conservative Southern Democrat” — may have
Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity)
@SiubhanDuinne:
I didn’t think you were defending her – and at this point I would vote for Walter Sobchak over any Republican alternative.
Anoniminous
@scav:
Why do you hate Betelgeuse?
ulee
Wow. It’s cold here in Maine. Everytime I think to raise the storms and lower the screens it gets cold again. Something horrible is going to happen if we don’t get a break from this.
Jeremy
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Also Jimmy Carter was considered a moderate- conservative democrat. If you look at his record the man was to the right of Obama. JFK was not that liberal if you look at his record in the senate and as President. You can’t paint things with a broad brush.
raven
Read What Georgia’s Michelle Nunn Actually Said About Obamacare
srv
@Roger Moore: panhandle Floridians are southerners? That’s like calling john cole a Yankee.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer (this is your final trigger warning, do not pass go if you have issues with depictions of Morzers engaging in Morzer-related activity):
I tried very hard to reply to this, but FYWP decided to fuck with me. About five times. As cranky as I am tonight, that’s not a good idea. The brunt was, I thought it was a terrible blunder on Michelle’s part, I hope she gets some good schooling by Dem operatives, and perhaps her father — not particularly renowned as a progressive icon — can at least help hone her political instincts.
ulee
I saw an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies where Granny referenced the war between the Americans and the Yankees. I thought that was pretty funny.
srv
@Jeremy: Obama is the most liberal president since Nixon
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Well-taken points, and I’m ashamed I didn’t notice them.
ETA: Of course I blame liberal media for misstating what she said and taking quotes out of context. But before I lit into her, I should have actually read the entire transcript.
scav
@Anoniminous: Don’t hate, couldn’t afford. I know where my towel is, but I’ve far less than 30 Alterian $ a day. The sweat equity in those hotels . . . .
JPL
@raven: She also said this..
Deal refused to expand medicaid and I’m not sure the state deserves a bailout because they voted for the idiot.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Never trust media reporting on any Democrat.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s almost bedtime. Have fun tomorrow and remember to read a book. Primary days are often slow.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I know, right? I should know better. I blame lack of sleep, lack of caffeine, and lack of common sense.
feebog
@SiubhanDuinne:
Go over to the Great Orange Satan site and read the entire post. She actually had some positive ideas in her reply. If she is asked this question in a debate I think she would come off just fine with this kind of answer.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
My last big task for tonight is choosing a book that is made of actual dead trees. E-reading and any kind of iCrap* not allowed.
*”iCrap” courtesy ABL.
SiubhanDuinne
@feebog:
Thanks. Will do.
raven
@JPL: This state has what it deserves.
Jeremy
@srv: You can make the case if you take everything into account. Jimmy Carter really wasn’t that liberal when he was president. He did some good things but a lot of liberals believe that Carter was a big time liberal because he is one today. Ted Kennedy ran against him from the left.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow! No nooks! I’d be lost. Publics had 3 books for ten dollars. I’m sure if you run over there some are still left. Actually I glanced at the titles and there are probably a lot left.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I know. I’m kind of terrified at the prospect of an entire day with electronic connections!
Actually, I do have to check in with the Mother Ship Election Headquarters every few hours, providing cumulative voter counts and other stats. Of course, if there are any problems or issues at all, we need to report them immediately. So those things require a phone. But the trick is, we have to go outside, beyond the “vote perimeter,” to place the calls or send the emails.
jonas
@BGinCHI:
o
No, because the convicted pedophile would find Jesus and seek forgiveness and then be good to go, being all redeemed and all.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I have thousands upon thousands (I’m not exaggerating!) of books — REAL books — so I am hardly at a loss for reading matter. Will probably end up taking an old favorite volume of short stories, and some current non-fiction — all stuff I can easily put down and pick up without losing track of the plot too much.
Edit: I also have a new Bargello project I might take with me.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Take at least one book. They might not like you doing bargello at the table.
(Note: when I was an SAT proctor, I walked up and down the aisles crocheting as I walked. Yes, the other proctors nicknamed me Madam Defarge.You always had to have two people up and walking and with me crocheting, since the other proctors were grad assistants, they could do their grading tasks.)
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
Oh, I am! I just hope to be prepared for any eventuality. At least two books, the Bargello (which I may not even touch), a couple of cryptic crossword books, A PEN so I can work the cryptics, water, and several flavours of granola bars. That should all hold me until the polls close, at which point I will head for a nearby bar and talk the bartender into changing one of the sports channels to an “election returns” station.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: Just don’t say that three times.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv: Panhandle Floridians are the most Southern of Floridians.
Florida is weird…south of Orlando, it gets more northern.
Will Twiner
@Baud: we expect to beat this loser if he gets the nod. He’s TOO CRAZY FOR MISSISSIPI ™
PaulW
@Villago Delenda Est:
The state of Florida has many sections, many factions, many flavors of crazy.
I’ve been witness to five crazy things in Florida. Two of which I don’t wanna talk about.
Arm The Homeless
Betty is from the Tampa region, which isn’t the panhandle. The only place in Floriduh without a noticeable cadre of ‘Necks is the Miami-Dade metro area and perhaps the Keys. Everywhere else is pretty much Lower Alabama to some degree.
Duke of Clay
The Florida panhandle is really just south Alabama in another state.