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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by Tim F|  June 10, 20149:33 pm| 174 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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1) Just astounded. Every time the twitchy GOP caucus wanted to run off on some suicidal gambit like the debt ceiling default, it was Eric Cantor’s job to ask everyone to think about the party. If anything he acted like the Tea Party’s advocate against John Boehner whenever doing so did not spell imminent party death. Now they took his head. Think how that tilts the cost-benefit analysis for your average GOP Rep trying to decide between doing the right thing versus stampeding into whatever barbed wire fence the tea party demands this week.

2) Spotted in DC: Mitch McConnell staffers discreetly shopping for Depends.

3) If any pundit got too invested in the idea that the GOP establishment has crushed those tea partiers, I bet she feels pretty stupid right now. And by ‘she’ I mean Jennifer Rubin.

4) Open thread. Talk about whatever, including but not limited to whether it is possible to eat something and crap it out before another mass shooting happens in these United %*^$%#^ States.

***Update***

Interesting fun fact: both the Republican who beat Eric Cantor and the Democrat who will challenge him have teaching positions at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA. Republican David Brat is a professor of Economics & Business (and the director of “Moral Foundations of Capitalism” program, for those who need a book group to finish their Ayn Rand) whereas Jack Trammell is an assistant professor (and director of disability services) who studies the effectiveness of requiring undergrads to learn a secondary language. Neither have put much money into their campaign.

For any wags planning to point out that the whole race amounts to an academic exercise, shame on you for such an obvious pun.

***Update 2***

(per the comments) Jack Trammell has a campaign website, though Google seems unaware of this. Drop a few bucks and congratulate the man on his good luck. Web designers out there might want to gently volunteer your services.

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Reader Interactions

174Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    June 10, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    Jennifer Rubin is too stupid to ever feel stupid.

  2. 2.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    It is an ex-Cantor, it has ceased to be. Mission Accomplished! I wonder what comments Boehner will have for the media?

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    Hahahahahah fuck that guy.

    He so clearly had his eyes on the Speakership, too.

    In other news, an organization one of my former professors helps run just had a major fair-use victory in court.

  4. 4.

    beltane

    June 10, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    How shitfaced is Boehner right now? It might be a celebratory shitfaced but still.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    June 10, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Chaos erupts at Cantor election night headquarters after his departure

    RICHMOND — As if the political drama were not powerful enough, chaos erupted at the election night headquarters shortly after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor conceded his stunning defeat to tea party backed conservative David Brat.
    …..
    Then it got really rambunctious. In the room of downcast Cantor supporters, a new energy suddenly erupted — but not the kind they wanted election night. A group of immigration activists stormed the ballroom, screaming and waving a flag. “What do we want? Immigration reform! When do we want it? Now!”

    A few Cantor supporters tried to block their entrance into the ballroom, and pushing and shoving ensued. And before they reached the microphone, one Cantor supporter threw his glass of wine onto a female protestor. She swore at him in return.
    ….
    They did so, but in the parking lot, a Cantor supporter yelled, “Get a job!” to a immigration reform supporter who was wrapped in an American flag.

  6. 6.

    Rheinhard

    June 10, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    As someone who remembers their reactions when Ned Lamont beat Holy Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary in 2006 (including, but not limited to phrases such as “far left takeover”, “greatest fratricide ever”, and “Stalinist purge”), I am looking forward to the Fox News commentary on this.

  7. 7.

    Mowgli

    June 10, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    Not convinced this is a “win” for anyone. Likely means another teabagger in the House, another “rational(?)” GOP Rep taken out. Short term it’s fun to gloat, but doesn’t this just make things worse for America as the GOP clown car careens further off the reservation and toward the crevasse?

  8. 8.

    skerry

    June 10, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    Jack Trammel campaign website

  9. 9.

    gf120581

    June 10, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    There’s no way to measure how much long term damage this could end up doing to the GOP. I’d say any chance of 2016 may well have died tonight if the GOP gets so spooked they start trying to top each other in Hispanic bashing to keep the TP wolves at bay.

    I have no sympathy for Cantor. He tried to play the Tea Party for his advantage one time too many and it blew up in his face. Now his political career is ashes. He’ll never be Speaker and likely never hold political office again. You don’t come back from a defeat like this.

  10. 10.

    beltane

    June 10, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @Baud: Heh, Eric Cantor’s the one who needs to “get a job” at the moment.

  11. 11.

    Tim F.

    June 10, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    @Mowgli: sez I:

    Think how that tilts the cost-benefit analysis for your average GOP Rep trying to decide between doing the right thing versus stampeding into whatever barbed wire fence the tea party demands this week.

  12. 12.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 10, 2014 at 9:45 pm

    The ballot measure to fund construction of a new middle school in my neighborhood passed by an overwhelming margin.

    I think the vote was necessary because of Proposition 2 1/2. Anyway, the measure won so hugely, I think, because the “yes” campaign actually was a real campaign, with door-to-door canvassers and doorhangers and such just designed to GOTV. Nicely done.

  13. 13.

    David Koch

    June 10, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    Mwahhahahahahhahahhahahahhahahah

    J Rubin is crying so hard she can’t find her keyboard.

  14. 14.

    schrodinger's cat

    June 10, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    @beltane: One who knows not and knows not what she knows not. In other words, a fool.

  15. 15.

    chopper

    June 10, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    that shit is bananas. I still can’t believe it.

  16. 16.

    Cermet

    June 10, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    Who fucking cares if cantor falls and teabaggers and those in fear of them refuse to work with dem’s or President Obama? Like when did they ever? Wake up and smell the beer; until the average (read stupid) amerikan also wakes up these puppets of the 0.001%who really run this country and make the real laws will continue; also, as long as the 0.001% hold this party the real elite will continue to grow stronger. In this respect, the more thugs who fall to teabaggers and then these loons than further shut down a working government, the sooner the voters wake up and do something to stop these loons. Maybe even some of the 0.001% (very few) also realize that a functioning government allows them to get a few more bucks causing them to also help the dem’s – maybe.

  17. 17.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    I see this is a R+10 district, but what are the odds that the crazy scares voters to the Dem nominee?

  18. 18.

    Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    Just because I didn’t do this enough in my first post:

    BWAAAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAHAHAHA
    HAHAAHAHHAAAAA
    ahhahaahAHAaa
    ha.

    Lie down with dogs &c.

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    @skerry: It needs editing. Too wordy and too many typos. I assume the DNCC will put money into this race for the psychological in-your-face that taking that seat from the GOP would be.

  20. 20.

    raven

    June 10, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @skerry: It’s not ready for prime time but I bet the Democratic Party gets off its ass most rickey tic and fixes it!

  21. 21.

    raven

    June 10, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You are really smart!

  22. 22.

    Comrade Jake

    June 10, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    I fucking hated Cantor. I’m concerned about whatever douchecanoe is going to support him, but still, good riddance. Guy was a massive tool.

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @raven: So are you.

    @Comrade Jake: Iago wasn’t written to be a sympathetic character.

  24. 24.

    raven

    June 10, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @Cermet: the long view huh?

  25. 25.

    schrodinger's cat

    June 10, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @raven: After all he is the first of his name.

  26. 26.

    Mowgli

    June 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    His site comes up as “PAGE TITLE HERE” in my browser.

    The writing is horrific: “Both Audrie and I are very excited about what the possibilities are,”

    This guy needs serious help in every department.

  27. 27.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    “I was thinking about this prisoner swap. I kind of wish that President Obama would have thought this through a little bit more. Instead of sending five Taliban MVPs over there, he could have just traded one Eric Cantor,” Ingraham said

    That little gem appeared on Frightfart recently.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    June 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    I would say this is karma at work, but for this to truly be karma, he wouldn’t just lose his job—he’d have to lose all his money, his house, his freedom, and maybe have his dog run away, too.

    Shorter: BWHAHAHAAHAAAAA.

  29. 29.

    PsiFighter37

    June 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    Jennifer Rubin is the female version of Sick Morris or Billy Kristol. Keep fucking them chickens, J-Rube!

    I will have to see Cantor’s concession on YouTube at some point…that had to be awfully tasty schadenfreude.

  30. 30.

    raven

    June 10, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: He also said what I said (more elegantly as usual but still)

  31. 31.

    cokane

    June 10, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    At the risk of being silly by extrapolating one tiny race with low turnout…
    I don’t think it’s good news for the U.S., even if Clinton wins in 2016, it’s looking like nothing major and positive is getting accomplished in Washington until at least 2022 (first election after new redistricting).

    :[

    Seriously the fever dream of the American right is not ending for a long, long time.

  32. 32.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
    Follow
    As I have said, the Tea Party is alive and well and fighting hard for the USA. BIG WIN TODAY!

    If you needed any confirmation about just what a disaster this is for the GOP.

  33. 33.

    Brian R.

    June 10, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    If I’m feeling schadenfreude over the defeat of a Jewish politician, is that anti-Semitic?

  34. 34.

    skerry

    June 10, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    @raven: I think it reflects that Trammel joined the race yesterday. Should be interesting to watch.

  35. 35.

    schrodinger's cat

    June 10, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    @raven: Yes, that too. I was just kidding around. Cantor’s news has made my day.

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    @Brian R.: Only if it’s because he’s Jewish.

  37. 37.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    The Spurs are whooping the Heat at the moment

  38. 38.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    Hey, is Teh Sadly gone? I can’t get my browser to open http://www.sadlyno.com

    Such good times there in the old days, and I visit fairly frequently even still.

  39. 39.

    PsiFighter37

    June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    @Brian R.: Why do you not stand with Israel?

  40. 40.

    raven

    June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    @skerry: Yea, it’ll be fine. His facebook page has a number of suggestions to get the site together. Brat’s ain’t all that great either.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    @skerry: Yeah, it gives off the feel of a placeholder put together in a very short time by an intern.

  42. 42.

    Comrade Mary

    June 10, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    @Mowgli: He’s a university prof and a published writer? Oy.

  43. 43.

    David Koch

    June 10, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    This IS priceless –

  44. 44.

    James Hare

    June 10, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    Rubin isn’t capable of feeling stupid. If she was she would have stopped writing for the Post right after she started.

  45. 45.

    PsiFighter37

    June 10, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    @KG: Good. I hope they avenge last year’s heartbreaker this year…cannot stand LBJ and his constant whining during the game.

  46. 46.

    Comrade Mary

    June 10, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    … and the Paypal “Donate” button is a blank link. Jesus.

    DO PEOPLE NOT EVEN BUILD STAGING SITES ANY MORE?

  47. 47.

    OGLiberal

    June 10, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    I was listening to Mark Levin go off on Cantor a few weeks back. I didn’t know who he was talking about at first so assumed it had to be a Dem. Guess the Levin opinion gives the klan-like folks in VA an excuse – “Hey, Mark Levin’s a Jew and he hates Cantor!”

    My guess is guys like Cantor are regretting the no earmarks pledge. Wingnuts hate government “welfare” unless it’s the kind they get. When it’s there they’ll vote for the guy who brings it. When it’s not, they’ll vote for the most racist guy.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    June 10, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    @Suzanne:

    I would say this is karma at work, but for this to truly be karma, he wouldn’t just lose his job—he’d have to lose all his money, his house, his freedom, and maybe have his dog run away, too.

    But then he’d have all the material he’d need to write a classic Country song.

  49. 49.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 10, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    There’s a “First they came for the moderates, and I did not speak out…” thing that pretty much writes itself here.

  50. 50.

    James E. Powell

    June 10, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @Mowgli:

    This guy needs serious help in every department.

    So we can put you down as a volunteer?

  51. 51.

    David Koch

    June 10, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @Comrade Mary: you know who else was a published writer?

  52. 52.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    You have the ghost of LBJ with you at games? That’s… unusual.

  53. 53.

    mclaren

    June 10, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    Aside from the preponderance of wannabe-blackshirts like Mnemosyne and Martin and raven and Omnes Omnibus who are auditioning for spots in the American gestapo with their comments, the remaining commenters like Tim and DougJ and John Cole and Anne Laurie seem to have the notion that America has some political problems and the goal involves fixing them by means of elections.

    An alternative view would consider that the problem with America has nothing to do with politics, but social pathology, and boils down to the fact that America was founded by religious nuts with guns — the David Koreshes of Europe.

    As a result, America is a puritanical sadistic society obsessed with violence and torment (“No pain, no gain!”) which despises joy and the human body. You would naturally expect such a society to go berserk slaughtering and torturing the native population, which of course Americans did with gusto, and then to proclaim itself as “having pulled ourselves up by our boostraps” after genocide-killing the native Americans and stealing their land and resources.

    When America ran out of native Americans to torture and kill, we moved on to Mexico, various islands (the Philippines, where American soldiers first used waterboarding on enemy prisoners in 1901, Cuba, etc.) and eventually defenseless smaller countries around the world, from the Marshall Islands to Bikini atoll.

    As with all groups of violent religious fanatics, Americans are cowardly bullies. This worked well for them as long as their opponents consisted of loincloth-clothed tribesmen. When they ran up against real opponents who had advanced technology (the Japanese, the Nazis), Americans developed the atomic bomb — the ideal weapon for a nation of sadistic cowards.

    Unfortunately for America, the era of international bullies wound to an end, and now America finds itself in possession of a vast arsenal of terror weapons with no one to use them on. Like the family bully raging throughout the house looking for small children to beat up with his baseball bat, America now threatens and rages at various impotent tiny ethnic groups around the world to the disgust and revulsion of the rest of the world community.

    Sadly for America, the era of large-scale land wars has now come to a close, courtesy of the exponentially increasing cost and lethality of modern weaponry (like the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or Raytheon’s microwave pain ray, the ideal torture device, capable of inflicting endless unendurable agony while leaving no marks), and this leaves America as a bully without a cause.

    Cooperation seems the theme of the 21st century, from international accords on inernet protocols to worldwide agreements banning nuclear bomb test, which bodes ill for America’s go-it-alone bully mentality. Increasingly, the traits that worked well for America in the 18th and 19th century make America look like the lone kook on the block of suburban houses who holes up with a house full of military weaponry and periodically screams crazy threats at the neighbors.

    The solution to America’s dilemma is of course annihiliation, which should arrive in due course, and will be self-inflicted. The Texas Republican party has issued its new platform for 2016, which includes enthusiastic endorsement of the death penalty along with vaccination denialism and global warming denialism. As America’s David Koresh conteingent increases in influence to become the dominant voice in our national politics, we can look forward to a swift descent into collapse and self-immolation.

    An objective observer must applaud. America has slaughtered and tortured and raped its way across the North American continent and has so far evaded the consequences of its brutality and sadism: obliteration seems just.

    Various deluded commenters will naturally deny that Americans are unusually violent compared to other societies, or that America exhibits far great religious fanaticism than other countries.

    It’s trivial to debunk such claims. Aside from the obvious documented facts of the Salem witch trials and the fact that the first person executed in the Massachusetts Bay colony was not some violent criminal but a young 16-year-old boy accused of having sex with a mare and a cow and two goats and some sheep, reams of statistics point to the overwhelming violence and religious fanaticism and puritanism of Americas compared to the populations of other countries.

    Surveys regularly show Americans to be far more religious than Europeans. America remains, according to the verified statistics, an exponentially more violent culture than other nations, with orders of magnitude more assaults or rapes or murders per capita than any other culture. (As just one example, the entire police force of Germany fired a total of 85 bullets last year, while a single American police officer often fires hundreds of rounds in a single shoot-out, killing innocent bystanders in the process.) And of course America has 5% of the world’s population but (according to the FBI) 75% of the world’s serial killers. And needless to say, America remains the only country in the world to build Creation museums showing bizarre “exhibits” like Adam and Eve riding dinosaurs to church. That kind of religious fanaticism simply isn’t found in any other developed nation. It’s a mark of the pathology and dysfunction of American society that Americans don’t even regard such a bizarre fact as unusual or noteworthy.

    The evidence is overwhelming. America is an outlier for both religious fanaticism and violence per capita. This all traces back to America’s origin as a haven for heavily armed religious fanatics.

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    FWIW I find the DirectTV ads with the marionettes to be very creepy – especially the bedroom one.

  55. 55.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    June 10, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    As I mentioned in an earlier thread, there’s an ActBlue Donation Page for Trammell. It’s bare-bones, but it works.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    Comrade Mary

    June 10, 2014 at 10:06 pm

    Update 2: Per the comments, Jack Trammell has a campaign website, though Google seems unaware of this. Drop a few bucks and congratulate the man on his good luck. Web designers out there might want to gently volunteer your services.

    TOO LATE DRINKING AND POPPING POPCORN NOW AHAHAHAHAHA

  57. 57.

    skerry

    June 10, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    Dave Brat is on Hannity right now. omg, it burns.

  58. 58.

    PaulW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    My comments attached.

    This is a truly scary moment. That the GOP Majority Leader who carried the banner for most of their Far Right agenda still couldn’t save his own ass is going to make the House Republicans go Full Wingnut on us. That Benghazi special committee is gonna turn into a bloodbath. I don’t want to guarantee that the House is gonna impeach Obama as the first order of business tomorrow, but I’d place good money on it happening before the 4th of July…

  59. 59.

    Brian R.

    June 10, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    @Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty):

    Phew, I’m in the clear. It’s because he’s a gaping asshole.

    @PsiFighter37:

    Apparently, I stand with the heathen.

  60. 60.

    Jennifer

    June 10, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    @Xecky Gilchrist: I can’t get it to come up, either. Makes me sad if it’s gone, but really, it’s been gone for quite some time. For the past year, I’ve only looked at it every few months, and never was real inspired to comment on anything there.

  61. 61.

    Brian R.

    June 10, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    @David Koch:

    Cantor always knew he’d have a special place in history.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    June 10, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    @Comrade Mary: Right? Brat’s site is godawful too. My 15-year-old could design a better page and supply superior copy in under an hour. Come to think of it, she’s idle as it’s summer vaycay…I’ll put her on volunteering for Trammell tomorrow!

  63. 63.

    GregB

    June 10, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    Hoping that the Repubs have their Goldwater moment with this coming election.

  64. 64.

    chopper

    June 10, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    @Brian R.:

    eh, he was a goniff.

  65. 65.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 10, 2014 at 10:17 pm

    Okay this really is hilarious. I saw it mentioned in some other thread and thought someone was making it up as satire.

    Cantor Campaign: Internal Poll Showed 34-Point Lead Over Tea Partier

    Face reality? Nah. Why don’t we get drunk and skew.

  66. 66.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    @PsiFighter37: every great player bitches at the refs. MJ and Bird and Magic were worse than anyone in the game today. And Duncan has that look where it looks like he is about to cry. Leonard with 18 in the first half, 71-50 Spurs at the half

  67. 67.

    James Hare

    June 10, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    @Mowgli: It means the second-ranking Republican in the House (who was pretty close to the Tea Party — he certainly was their stalking horse for the Speakership) is now going to be at best a freshman House member. The folks in Cantor’s district have given up a great deal of institutional power to make a statement. It’s a terrible move on their part and their district will suffer for it.

  68. 68.

    BruinKid

    June 10, 2014 at 10:21 pm

    @Baud: Hey immigration reform activists, you need to do this to David Brat now. And make sure you bring cameras to record all the racial epithets Brat supporters will then throw your way. Eric Cantor is no longer the problem. And no, executive orders from Obama are not a solution to immigration reform either. Focus on those who deserve your ire in Congress.

  69. 69.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    @James Hare: especially considering the Tea Party is so fundamentally opposed to pork

    Just realized that there’s a joke in their opposition to pork and islam’s prohibition. Just can’t think of it at the moment.

  70. 70.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 10:24 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Cantor outspent Brat by $5.2 million to $122,000 – and lost 56-44. Let that sink in and marinate for a while.

  71. 71.

    Kristin

    June 10, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    @Xecky Gilchrist: I’m worried about that, too. It wouldn’t surprise me. But, I still visited about once a week to check out what was going on there. Sad, if true.

  72. 72.

    mclaren

    June 10, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    @Comrade Mary:

    … and the Paypal “Donate” button is a blank link. Jesus.

    DO PEOPLE NOT EVEN BUILD STAGING SITES ANY MORE?

    The synonym for “programmer” is “incompetent fool.”

    My personal favorite is the FAQ section of Indiegogo, which leads to 404 – PAGE NOT FOUND dead links.

  73. 73.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    I know jack about basketball. Are the Spurs actually curb stomping the Heat as badly as it looked in that half?

  74. 74.

    Joseph Nobles

    June 10, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    Is Cantor really not considering a run as an independent? I know he’s in shock right now: Lieberman had advance knowledge of his primary problems and had time to consider options beyond a loss. But in the morning why wouldn’t Cantor look at his bank book, look at that nutbag on Hannity, and the weakness of the Democratic candidate, and think, “Fuck it, I’m in”?

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    June 10, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    Jim Messina’s tweet:

    That vomiting sound you hear is wise R’s who just realized what the ’16 nominee will have to say & do to get thru primary. #Cantor

  76. 76.

    Morzer

    June 10, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    @Joseph Nobles:

    He can’t. He could run as a write-in, although he’s unlikely to try.

  77. 77.

    CaseyL

    June 10, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    @Joseph Nobles: My understanding is that, according to Virginia’s election laws, Cantor can’t run as an Independent. It’s apparently not even clear if he can run as a write-in.

  78. 78.

    RaflW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:30 pm

    @Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty):

    Hahahahahah fuck that guy.

    QFT.

    Even if the Republican douchecanoe wins in the general, this is good news for John McCain. No, wait, this is gleeful news for me.

    Cantor is a wormtongue. I just wish I could be a fly on the wall in the GOP House caucus room. Hahahahahah fuck that guy.

  79. 79.

    David Koch

    June 10, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    Dow Jones newswire reports Popcorn futures are skyrocking.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @Joseph Nobles: That could cause a TP/Trad GOP split and ensure that Hammell wins. Also, we don’t yet know that Hammell is weak. He has an iffy website on the first day that he is the candidate. If Cantor were the candidate, very little money would have been thrown his way because Cantor should have been a shoo-in in a R+7 district. Things have changed.

  81. 81.

    PaulW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Cantor ought to sue his pollsters for emotional damages, at the very least. Anyone doing polling THAT FAR off the results was clearly asking the wrong people in the wrong places with the wrong questions…

  82. 82.

    pseudonymous in nc

    June 10, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @Mowgli:

    This guy needs serious help in every department.

    I hope he gets it. I’m sure he’ll get it, and not just from DC-area Dem campaign professionals who now have an extra campaign to sign up for. Run it a bit loose and see how it goes.

    You have to have someone competing in every district, no matter how R+ it seems. Brat-man won the primary with a relatively low outlay and lots of teabaggers on his side, and while it’d be nice to treat this as a sink for Teabagger Money, it’s perfectly feasible to run a campaign on the cheap.

  83. 83.

    SarahT

    June 10, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I know, right ? WTF are they thinking ? Nightmare stuff right there

  84. 84.

    NonyNony

    June 10, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    @James Hare:

    The folks in Cantor’s district have given up a great deal of institutional power to make a statement by not bothering to show up to vote. It’s a terrible move on their part and their district will suffer for it.

    Let’s be real here – if this is true then it’s very, very likely that Cantor’s campaign flat-out thought they had it in the bag and were concentrating on coasting to victory in November in their R +10 district. And didn’t realize that the Tea Party Machine and Laura Ingraham (but I repeat myself) were organizing a GOTV against him.

    You can be beating your opponent by 34%, but if your supporters are only marginal supporters and they don’t bother to show up at the polls you’re not guaranteed to win. This story has all of the hallmarks of an overly confident incumbent getting bitten in the ass because he stopped treating every race as if it could mean his job.

  85. 85.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 10, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    @efgoldman: Haverhill.

    The old middle school (which is also my polling place!) has been disintegrating and sinking into the ground for years, and it’s gotten a lot of local publicity. They had to close about half of it because of a massive mold problem that was making people sick, and the ground underneath is unstable. They claim they’ve got ways to address the latter problem for the new construction, which is going to be right next to the old building.

    The plan, I think, is to make it a K-8, and also eventually replace the old elementary school (serving only K-2 students) where my daughter’s gone for the past few years–a lovely 19th-century building and not nearly as decrepit as the crappy 1960 middle school, but also one that lacks a real cafeteria or gym or air conditioning.

  86. 86.

    chopper

    June 10, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    seriously, this is fucking hilarious. the majority leader lost to a gibbering gibbon who spent a little north of a hundred grand on the race.

  87. 87.

    KRK

    June 10, 2014 at 10:34 pm

    @Jennifer:

    That’s not quite fair. Like many community blogs, it changed as the front-pagers changed, but it is/was still pretty active and interesting. It’s been several days since I’ve been able to get through though, and there was no warning that they would be signing off. Sad. Hope it was just a bill-paying snafu.

  88. 88.

    Mowgli

    June 10, 2014 at 10:35 pm

    @James Hare:
    To be blunt, I could give a shit what this red district gets or doesn’t get for their ‘statement.’ I’m concerned with the impact on the House and whether any sane legislation will get passed in the next two years. I don’t like the odds based on the likely reaction to this upset, which will likely be for the GOP to drink even more tea-flavored Kool-Aid…

  89. 89.

    PaulW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:35 pm

    wait wait wait: the voter turnout was… terrible?

    did the Democrats have to primary or did their candidate Trammel just be there on the ticket unopposed?

    if only the far right wingnuts showed up to vote… that could signal a huge number of disgruntled moderate voters (because let’s face it, Brat did not appeal to moderates) just sitting there needing to get motivated to vote in November… hmmmmmmmmm

  90. 90.

    pseudonymous in nc

    June 10, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Face reality? Nah. Why don’t we get drunk and skew.

    I don’t think it was skewed. I think it was a district where there was no history to assemble a representative sample of who was going to show up and how they were going to vote, given that Virginia is new to primaries.

    But it’s a reminder that most American campaigns spend a shitload of money on the equivalent of reading entrails. The Obama presidential campaigns were remarkable because they were largely not in hock to the professional campaign-runners in DC.

  91. 91.

    pseudonymous in nc

    June 10, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    @PaulW:

    if only the far right wingnuts showed up to vote… that could signal a huge number of disgruntled moderate voters

    I think it’s more that Virginia never did primaries, the teabaggers demanded primaries, the state party gave them primaries, and common or garden GOPers may have seen the ads but weren’t really bothered about going out and voting, because they’ve never had to do that.

  92. 92.

    Susan K of the tech support

    June 10, 2014 at 10:40 pm

    I’ll be VERRRRRRY interested in reports of turnouts at the polls. Do they do a breakdown by party?

    What did the ballot look like? Since there was no Democrat running (my understanding is that Trammel was recently appointed the Democratic Party Nominee by Democratic Party methods other than an election, so Dems had no one to vote for).

    A small section of twitterers [cantor+dems+crossed] are saying that it’s an open primary and so Dems crossed over to defeat Cantor. Anyone here from Virginia who can confirm that it’s an open primary, and can we see what the ballot looked like for that race?

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 10:41 pm

    Wow. Only one word needed for this pic of Canter after the race was called.

    SHELLSHOCKED!

    http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1083/1039/original.jpg

  94. 94.

    PaulW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    @beltane:

    How shitfaced is Boehner right now? It might be a celebratory shitfaced but still.

    On the one hand, Boehner gets rid of a guy two moves away from backstabbing him for a power grab at the Speakership.

    On the other hand, Boehner has to realize he must kow-tow to the Tea Party agenda – impeach Obama and destroy Obamacare – lest more sitting incumbents facing primary challenges are going to get their asses handed to them. Even though 1) it will kill every media narrative about “bipartisanship”, 2) make Obama supporters come back in droves in defense of their guy (with the realization Obama is MORE POPULAR than Congress has ever been), 3) the excuses to get rid of both Obama and the ACA grow weaker by the day.

    Repeating 1998 is looking more and more likely. Even with the possibility of gerrymandering and voter suppression favoring the Republicans, a strong enough turnout of Democratic and moderate voters would work. If only the Democrats across the state and national levels were savvier about using their kung fu here…

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    @lamh36: “Clenching!” would also work. He is House Majority Leader and he just lost all of his power.

  96. 96.

    mdblanche

    June 10, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    Ha!

  97. 97.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    Boehner Deflects Reporters’ Questions On Cantor Loss

  98. 98.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The old middle school (which is also my polling place!) has been disintegrating and sinking into the ground for years, and it’s gotten a lot of local publicity.

    Is that the place on Washington St? If so, I lived a block from there until I was eight years old. I spent a lot of time on the playground and ballfields behind it.

  99. 99.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    I can’t stand the tea party for like 10,000+ reasons. But my gosh they freaking vote. If there is ONE thing I wish we could copy from them it is this. They vote. They’ll turn out the vote on a Sunday at 3AM for local dog catcher.

  100. 100.

    PaulW

    June 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    Query: does Cantor stay on as Majority Leader until November, or does he have to give up that chair to someone still running for the general election?

    If he decides to jump in as an Independent – Lieberman style – he would have to give up his Party seat, right?

  101. 101.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    June 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    If any pundit got too invested in the idea that the GOP establishment has crushed those tea partiers, I bet she feels pretty stupid right now. And by ‘she’ I mean Jennifer Rubin.

    Jennifer Rubin is too stupid to be able to feel stupid.

  102. 102.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    @mdblanche: Brilliant.

  103. 103.

    Belafon

    June 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    According to someone on Daily Kos, a lot of Democrats turned out to vote against Cantor: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1305392/53644843#c10

  104. 104.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): the Spurs are just shooting way above average. At one point they were 90% from the field! that just doesn’t happen. They’re now at 72%, Miami us shooting like 55%, which is usually pretty good. So, not quite a curb stomping

  105. 105.

    the Conster

    June 10, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    @lamh36:

    LOL. It looks like he just smelled the shit in his pants.

  106. 106.

    Violet

    June 10, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    That website is awful. The Donate link doesn’t work for me at all. Twitter link either. I hope the national Dems are helping him work on a new version of his site right now.

  107. 107.

    ? Martin

    June 10, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    Woo! Steny Hoyer for Majority Leader!

  108. 108.

    KG

    June 10, 2014 at 10:49 pm

    @PaulW: my guess is he gets to keep the job until January when the new Congressman is sworn in. And it’s a caucus position, not a party position, so he probably could keep it as an independent

  109. 109.

    eemom

    June 10, 2014 at 10:49 pm

    @lamh36:

    Well, to be fair, Cantor is SO fucking stupid he always looks astonished by whatever’s right in front of him.

    In fact it’s kind of amazing a flight of Capitol steps didn’t break his dumbass neck before the teatards did.

    Oh, and have I mentioned, bwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaahaaa?

  110. 110.

    R. Johnston

    June 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    I’ll bet Sheldon Adelson is crying into his bowl of prunes at this very moment! Ah, good times!

  111. 111.

    mdblanche

    June 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    Do you still think you can control them, Eric?

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    @PaulW: Off the top of my head, I would say no and no to your questions. The leadership positions are chosen at the beginning of the session and last throughout. As far as running goes, he does the Joe Lieberman thing – assuming VA law allows him to run at all.

  113. 113.

    Violet

    June 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    From Jack Trammell’s Facebook page:

    Jack Trammell for Congress
    Yesterday
    We kicked off our campaign today after receiving a unanimous nomination from the 7th District Committee. I want to thank all of those who supported my nomination and endorsed me as a candidate. We are excited about the next few months on the campaign trail.

    Sounds like he was just appointed by the Dems. Probably thought he’d be a placeholder. Things are going to get interesting for him. I hope his countertops are in order.

  114. 114.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    David Plouffe ‏@davidplouffe 2m
    Caesar outlives Brutus because of a Brat. Think this is interesting? Wait for IA caucuses and SC primary in ’16.

  115. 115.

    Redshift

    June 10, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    @Susan K of the tech support: Yes, Virginia doesn’t have registration by party, so anyone can vote in either primary, if there are two, but not both. That said, while this speculation often pops up in VA elections, there’s rarely any evidence that crossover voting is a significant factor. There just aren’t enough people who are that politically involved, and while turnout in primaries is low, it’s still quite a lot of people.

  116. 116.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    @billburton
    Follow
    Am I too much of a jerk if I am reminded of President Obama telling Eric Cantor: Elections have consequences… ?

  117. 117.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    Who the hell did the polling for Cantor’s campaign? This is why you want a pollster who will tell the truth good or bad and not fluff the numbers to make you feel good.

    @TPM: The Cantor campaign insists it had internal polling that showed a 34-point lead: http://bit.ly/1qqJ8OP

  118. 118.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    June 10, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    Immigration reform is, and will continue to be a dead letter. If Hispanic voter turnout ever rises above 17% then maybe. The Democratic party has some serious GOTV work to do in heavily Hispanic districts. That would be a given save for he fact that the Democratic party only puts forth an effort in the national elections. This year’s mid-terms in my state (CA) saw less than 20% of registered voters turn out statewide.

    This is not how you turn things around.

  119. 119.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    June 10, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    Ozzy said it best a long time ago:

    “We’re going off of the rails on a crazy train.”

  120. 120.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    June 10, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    Last week my 88 year old cousin said – Cantor came to our retirement apartment complex. Entitled jerk in his big SUV, she said, looking for votes but also like we were dirt on his shoe. Love my cousin!

  121. 121.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    @Redshift: Maybe you can help me here, sounds like you might know VA pretty well. I’ve spent a ton of time in the state, but all in NOVA. I just don’t know the Richmond area. Is there a chance we could win this if moderate/traditional Republicans stay home and it is just the core of the “tea party” in the general?

    I mean the city does have a fair sized university, and it is my experience nation wide that if you have a university that isn’t like a fundamental Christian college, there are a fair number of liberals lurking around. Factor in there are some liberals everywhere and Richmond is kind of a “cool” town with some arts and other stuff going on …. it has me thinking we could win this.

    Am I crazy?

  122. 122.

    Susan K of the tech support

    June 10, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    Trammel writes historical fiction books. And has taught creative writing.

    Here’s his books web site:

    http://www.jacktrammellbooks.com/Home_Page.html

    http://www.jacktrammellbooks.com/About_Jack_Trammell.html

  123. 123.

    James E. Powell

    June 10, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @lamh36:

    His wife doesn’t look that unhappy. I wonder if she doesn’t like being in politics. I am guessing that Cantor’s income will go up considerably assuming he goes into the backroom connections business.

  124. 124.

    Redshift

    June 10, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    I think it’s more that Virginia never did primaries…

    If that’s based on the statement by whatsisname on Maddow, it’s just not true. Democrats are more likely than Republicans in VA to have primaries in contested races, but to say that “Virginia never did primaries” just doesn’t match reality. In particular, wingnut activists in recent years have wrestled the party into holding either primaries or conventions, whichever they thought they could win. (Cuccinelli’s people got it changed from a primary to a convention, BTW.)

  125. 125.

    the Conster

    June 10, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Republicans are doing the heavy lifting for us though. They’re so consistently awful and hateful across all media platforms, that this midterm may finally get people up off their asses. They’re busy hate fucking everyone but old white rural males.

  126. 126.

    amk

    June 10, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    @Mowgli: Yelling from sidelines is so easy.

  127. 127.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    June 10, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: So will the new message from the GOP bethat primaries are “undemocratic”?

  128. 128.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @tnr 1m
    Cantor Lost His Job, the GOP Establishment Has Lost Control: http://on.tnr.com/1qrjlWU

  129. 129.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @Cheryl from Maryland: LOL Cheryl. It is my experience, and I could be wrong here, but you got to work pretty hard to piss off most people that are 88. I mean spend some time with them. Treat them with respect. Listen. Act like you respect your elders and really want to hear what they have to say. I doubt your cousin is just somebody that wants to yell “get off my lawn” so maybe Cantor is really just a dick.

  130. 130.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    June 10, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @Susan K of the tech support:

    Trammel writes historical fiction books.

    So, he can read and write eh? That makes him walking dead for today’s Red State Khmer Rouge voters.

  131. 131.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:05 pm

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Obvious contempt for your constituents, that’s a heck of strategy. I remember an anecdote for Ted Kennedy’s autobiography where he was going through a factory and shaking hands with workers; one guy said he didn’t want to shake hands because his hands were dirty and greasy; Kennedy said “I’m not afraid of getting some honest grease on my hands,” and shook the guy’s hand; Kennedy also said he made point not to wipe off his hand until he visited the lavatory before leaving the factory. Little things can make a difference.

  132. 132.

    Susan K of the tech support

    June 10, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    aaaand he’s tweeted on his old twitter account and created a new twitter account. To wit:

    https://twitter.com/jacktrammell/status/476557972630700033

  133. 133.

    Anoniminous

    June 10, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    @lamh36:

    Brat also attacked Cantor for his supposed cooperation with and enabling of Obama. This charge may seem strange to the White House and, for that matter, most sentient beings.

    LMAO

  134. 134.

    GregB

    June 10, 2014 at 11:08 pm

    Cantor is the epitome of tight-lipped and white-faced in that post ass-kicking pic.

  135. 135.

    someguy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:09 pm

    Oh please. Enough with the “Eric Cantor was moderate” crap. He was just a typical vile right wing extremist, like the rest of the House Republicans. Good riddance.

    The scenario is that a highly effective, well wired-in right wing extremist, just got replaced with a brand new, unpolished, un-connected, unlikely-to-be-effective right wing extremist. We should be celebrating. And funding an Eric Cantor write-in campaign just to disrupte Republican chances in the general election. .

  136. 136.

    Suffern ACE

    June 10, 2014 at 11:09 pm

    @the Conster: I have a tough time thinking of a more hateful campaign than 2010 and a lot of that animosity was aimed directly at Latinos and also Muslims. Republican candidates can still show up at anti-sharia breakfasts and kick-em-out dinners and win. Yeah, there are 2,000,000 more eligible Latino voters in 2014 than there were in 2010. But very few candidates appear to know how to get them voting.

  137. 137.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    @Tommy: My grandmother, who died last year at 92, changed the TV station anytime Bush came on. FDR-era New Dealers frequently don’t like Tea Party weasels.

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: The right wing assholes weren’t going to vote for a Dem anyway, so how does that matter?

  138. 138.

    Susan K of the tech support

    June 10, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    Jack Trammel, Teacher of Poetry to children. (emphasis mine)

    From here: http://www.jacktrammellbooks.com/News.html

    Audrie Trammell (Orange County High School) and husband, Jack Trammell (Randolph-Macon College; Poetry Society of VA member; Virginia Writers Club member) recently spent a week in July teaching poetry and creative writing coupled with art to 3rd and 4th graders at the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond. Audrie and Jack have offered similar programs for area schools, having recently done so in schools in the Fairfax area. They utilize a variety of poetry lessons, some of which have come from Poetry Society of VA members. Their program is available to schools by contacting him [links directly to email address, oh boy, how long will THAT last?]

  139. 139.

    jheartney

    June 10, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    Trammell is NOT the Democratic candidate; he deliberately (so he claims) didn’t file for the Dem slot. He’s an oddball liberal who expected to be an irrelevant independent lefty candidate in a safe GOP district. He’s not going to win, no matter what stupid stuff Brat does. Save your energy and money for a more meaningful campaign.

  140. 140.

    mdblanche

    June 10, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: How many Soviet Republican policemen does it take to issue a ticket?

    Three. One who can read, one who can write, and one who can keep an eye on those two dangerous intellectuals.

  141. 141.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    @the Conster: That is just it. I watched it happen to the state to the left and right of me when they ran Todd Akin in MO and Richard Mourdock in IN. Heck in my Bluedog district that was just “owned” by a Democrat for decades, he was literally unbeatable. The Republicans would run out their “towel boy” against him to get trounced by 30+ points. Well he retired and didn’t run last year. If the Republicans would have put up a moderate, but I guess they don’t have any, they could have won this House seat.

    They ran out this wacko tea bagger. The race was far, far closer then it should have been. 6 points. But that just reinforces my point.

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @someguy:

    The scenario is that a highly effective, well wired-in right wing extremist, just got replaced with a brand new, unpolished, un-connected, unlikely-to-be-effective right wing extremist. We should be celebrating. And funding an Eric Cantor write-in campaign just to disrupte Republican chances in the general election. .

    Fucking aye, right.

  143. 143.

    LAC

    June 10, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    @Mowgli: I am going to enjoy the gloat if you don’t mind. It is a win to see that oily creep get his comeuppance.

  144. 144.

    bnmng

    June 10, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    @skerry: Yes that’s right, and there are people working on the site right now. I don’t think web designers offering their services would be helpful right now but by all means, visit the site and show some love.

  145. 145.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    @jheartney: I think that you are thinking of Mike Dickinson.

  146. 146.

    jheartney

    June 10, 2014 at 11:19 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You’re right, my bad. Still think Trammell hasn’t a prayer.

  147. 147.

    Suffern ACE

    June 10, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): ok. The internet is supposed to have everything. It is letting me down. No one is running or two Dems are running? Or maybe I’m running and no one told me.

  148. 148.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    June 10, 2014 at 11:21 pm

    @the Conster:
    Would that it was so. I have no concrete idea why the Hispanic voter turnout is so low. It is consistently low and Hispanic voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters significantly lags the turnout of African-American and Caucasian voters. It would be good for Democrats if one of their highly paid consultants figured out what it takes o get Hispanics to the polls. It would also be good for Democrats if the party leadership wasn’t too afraid of imaginary backlash to undertake the measures needed to solidify the Hispanic vote. The idea, boys, is to court those who would vote for you, not to conciliate those who would vote against you anyway.

  149. 149.

    Redshift

    June 10, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    @Tommy: Heck if I know, but I doubt it. Richmond is Democratic, but Cantor’s district isn’t Richmond, it’s just down toward Richmond. And it’s almost certainly gerrymandered beyond belief.

  150. 150.

    NonyNony

    June 10, 2014 at 11:23 pm

    @PaulW:

    On the one hand, Boehner gets rid of a guy two moves away from backstabbing him for a power grab at the Speakership.

    I continue to insist that people are misreading the Boehner/Cantor dynamic.

    Cantor does not want Boehner’s job. Most days Boehner doesn’t want Boehner’s job (but the perks are too good to give up once you’ve got ’em). Cantor never had the support to oust Boehner and he knew it. And if he had the job he couldn’t do what Boehner has done – i.e. stand there and take shit from everyone, looking like a jackass who is out of his depth, and unable to maneuver around the Democrats because his own party won’t give him enough room to maneuver. (McConnell in the Senate has it easy in this regard – McConnell can literally just say NO to everything because his party doesn’t control anything. Boehner’s supposedly in charge of the House. He can’t say NO to himself, he has to propose things. And that’s where his trouble lies because his caucus is full of crazypeople who all want to propose crazythings).

    Cantor and Boehner were engaged in political kabuki – Boehner would stand as the “establishment” guy, Cantor would make noise as the speaker for the Tea Party Idiots, and the two of them could play both sides and keep their respective jobs.

    Well that strategy has turned out to be a loser. So now Boehner is crapping his pants. First of all the Majority Leader position is open, and the fight over who has to be Majority Leader is probably going to be ugly. Second of all there’s a chance that an actual Tea Party Moron is going to get the job that was previously held by someone pretending to be an actual Tea Party Moron but who was actually just a Bog Standard Republican Jackass. That’s going to make Boehner’s life even harder than it was before. And make him look like even more of an ineffectual jackass than he was before. And third of all, there’s now a decent chance that the Tea Party Moron faction will feel emboldened by this and make a move to replace him as Speaker. No Tea Partier has had the support of the House to do it in the past, but if the so-called “establishment” Representatives decide their terrified of Laura Ingraham, then who knows how it might go.

    Boehner has GOT to be thinking that he’s getting too old for this shit at this point. Why he hasn’t given his caucus the finger and walked away yet I do not understand. He must get some goddamn good perks for being the Speaker of the House because otherwise I don’t see it.

  151. 151.

    lamh36

    June 10, 2014 at 11:23 pm

    @jbendery 18s
    Boehner’s statement on Cantor makes it sound like somebody died: “My thoughts are with him and Diana and their kids tonight.”

  152. 152.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    @jheartney: Even if that is the case, I see it as a victory for our side. The GOP just decided to trade a hard right, wily player who occupied the number 2 spot in the House and could get on TV whenever he wanted for, at best, a person who will vote the same way that Cantor would have done and, at the same time, bought themselves a fight instead of a walkover.

  153. 153.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Yeah I bet:

    FDR-era New Dealers frequently don’t like Tea Party weasels.

    My mom became a Democrat at 67. Voted for Obama in 2008. First time in her life she didn’t vote Republican. I can point to a single reason why. Her name is Sarah Palin. My mom is a smart, educated, intelligent, and strong women. She worked to put my father through his PhD program and when she had me, well stopped to be a stay at home mom. My dad did a lot of amazing things. I don’t doubt for a second if my mom had kept working, she would have done even more amazing things.

    In my little family behind her back we call her the “little general.” We do it behind her back cause well, the other three men (myself, dad, and brother) that make up our family are intimidated by her. The “little general” is in reference to if she gets an idea in her head you get out of the way, don’t try to talk her out of it, cause she will roll right over you like Napoleon. Oh and she isn’t five feet tall :).

    I kid you not when Palin was brought on the ticket (and she likes if not lives McCain) she was floored.

    Mom said all kinds of things to me. My favorite, and it will stick in my mind the rest of my life.

    She is an affront to intelligent women.

    When she told me this I noted that for years I wondered why she voted Republican, cause I knew her views were more leaning towards me (I never asked cause “little general”). I wouldn’t call her a “raving fan” of our party, but we did get one vote :)!

  154. 154.

    ? Martin

    June 10, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    @lamh36: See, they polled unlikely voters instead of likely voters. Easy mistake to make.

  155. 155.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    @Redshift: Darn it you all to hell Wikipedia. I swear they showed the 7th in and parts of Richmond. Or maybe I can’t read a map :).

  156. 156.

    Arclite

    June 10, 2014 at 11:29 pm

    @Suzanne:

    I would say this is karma at work, but for this to truly be karma, he wouldn’t just lose his job—he’d have to lose all his money, his house, his freedom, and maybe have his dog run away, too.

    Bad karma will never taste as sweet as his seven-figure lobbying gig will make it taste.

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Jack Trammell is the endorsed candidate of the local party. Mike Dickinson claims to be an Independent Democrat is trolling right now. He has not, it appears, filed the appropriate paperwork to be a candidate. So, as I understand it, one Dem is running and a firebagger is making noises right now. Of course, I may be wrong.

  158. 158.

    Redshift

    June 10, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    @Tommy: Looking again, it kind of wraps around the north side of Richmond. I’m guessing it’s just the wealthier, more Republican suburbs.

  159. 159.

    Arclite

    June 10, 2014 at 11:33 pm

    @David Koch:

    This IS priceless –

    That’s what the radical tea party does.

  160. 160.

    Groucho48

    June 10, 2014 at 11:37 pm

    Anyone seen this? From the LA Times

    Teachers union officials denounced a ruling Tuesday by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge deeming job protections for teachers in California as unconstitutional as a misguided attack on teachers and students.

    The ruling represents a major loss for the unions and a groundbreaking win by attorneys who argued that state laws governing teacher layoffs, tenure and dismissals harm students by making them more likely to suffer from grossly ineffective instruction.

    If the preliminary ruling becomes final and is upheld, the effect will be sweeping across California and possibly the nation.

    Judge Rolf M. Treu ruled, in effect, that it was too easy for teachers to gain strong job protections and too difficult to dismiss those who performed poorly in the classroom. If the ruling stands, California will have to craft new rules for hiring and firing teachers.

    Only a preliminary ruling, but, I’m sure right wingers all over the country are, even now, readying lawsuits in other school districts.

    Arne Duncan is quoted as being pleased with the decision.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teacher-protections-ruling-20140610-story.html#page=1

  161. 161.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 10, 2014 at 11:40 pm

    @Tommy:

    My mom became a Democrat at 67. Voted for Obama in 2008.

    That’s a generation younger than my grandmother. That’s my parents’ generation – the kids of the FDR-era New Dealers. If we want to talk about moms though, mine is a lifelong liberal Democrat who as a teacher was a union member and never crossed a picket line.

    @Groucho48: Sounds like Lochner-era bullshit to me. I doubt that an appellate court lets it live.

  162. 162.

    Arclite

    June 10, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Is Cantor really not considering a run as an independent? I know he’s in shock right now: Lieberman had advance knowledge of his primary problems and had time to consider options beyond a loss. But in the morning why wouldn’t Cantor look at his bank book, look at that nutbag on Hannity, and the weakness of the Democratic candidate, and think, “Fuck it, I’m in”?

    Would he still be majority leader if he won?
    Would the GOP fuck Brat the way the some Dems fucked Ned Lamont over Lieberman?

  163. 163.

    RaflW

    June 10, 2014 at 11:50 pm

    Robert Costa is indicating that Cantor may have to resign as Majority Leader some time before the mid-terms as part of his ass-whupping (my words at the end there).

    Ohhh, salty tears. Would that I could see the weeping.

    Speaking of which, Boehner is now vulnerable, IMO. Cantor didn’t want the Speakership. But every tinpot Tea-man in Congress will.

  164. 164.

    Lyrebird

    June 11, 2014 at 12:19 am

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): @raven: Seems that it currently redirects to an ActBlue donation page, so that was a good move while they renovate!

    I tossed him a few coppers.

  165. 165.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 11, 2014 at 12:19 am

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): It’s Hunking School on the Bradford side of the river. You’re thinking of Consentino, which as far as I know isn’t falling apart, at least not so spectacularly.

  166. 166.

    pseudonymous in nc

    June 11, 2014 at 12:19 am

    @Groucho48:

    I’m sure right wingers all over the country are, even now, readying lawsuits in other school districts.

    The NC teachers’ association already won a ruling saying that the legislature couldn’t strip tenure.

    So McCrony and the leg offered a pay raise in exchange for giving it up. Not a big pay raise, but big compared to the fuck-all they’ve had over the past decade.

  167. 167.

    Lyrebird

    June 11, 2014 at 12:40 am

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    FDR-era New Dealers frequently don’t like Tea Party weasels.

    ..and some nonagenarians (sp?) who don’t remember what they just told you _do_ still remember how a gummint job (WPA etc) put food on their table when there had been none/not enough.

    Anyone remember when Granny-Starver Ryan visited an AARP conference? and got booed?

    I told my Gram. Her response?

    “Couldn’t happen to a better guy!”

  168. 168.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 11, 2014 at 1:27 am

    @Lyrebird: That generation isn’t our problem except that they keep seem to be dieing off.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    June 11, 2014 at 1:50 am

    @Groucho48:

    Unfortunately, the union for LAUSD has shot themselves in the foot in a lot of ways with the way they insist on strict seniority when it comes to layoffs. Basically, the teachers who have been there the longest are concentrated in the suburban schools, so that when there are layoffs, they lay off half the teachers in urban neighborhoods and the suburban schools are barely touched. It’s so bad that the ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of students in urban school districts:

    At Fremont High, the lawsuit claims, just before the school year started in 2012 the principal’s job and all four assistant principal positions were vacant. They were eventually filled with last-minute and interim appointments.

    High turnover among both administrative and teaching staff, plus a lack of counselors, leads to scheduling and staffing chaos, the ACLU says. At Fremont, that wasn’t resolved for almost three months. In the meantime, many students had blank schedules and spent the day in the auditorium.

  170. 170.

    AxelFoley

    June 11, 2014 at 2:30 am

    @mclaren:

    Does every post of yours have to be a fucking novel?

  171. 171.

    AxelFoley

    June 11, 2014 at 2:52 am

    @BruinKid:

    This.

  172. 172.

    karen

    June 11, 2014 at 3:20 am

    Sorry to be random but has anyone decided about where we’re going for the DC meetup and if it’s 6/11 and/or 6/12? I don’t have a car so I’ll have to arrange a ride to get wherever we go. And if this was already posted, I’m sorry to be repetitive. Thanks!

  173. 173.

    Chris

    June 11, 2014 at 4:14 am

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    Oh, good it’s not just me.

    I, too kind of hope it comes back up.

  174. 174.

    SFAW

    June 11, 2014 at 7:45 am

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    FWIW I find the DirectTV ads with the marionettes to be very creepy – especially the bedroom one.

    Seconded.

    Filed under the category “WTTF Were They Thinking?”

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