Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

In after Baud. Damn.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

This really is a full service blog.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Cruz-ifiction / Open Thread: Ted Cruz, Hoist by His Own Wet Fart

Open Thread: Ted Cruz, Hoist by His Own Wet Fart

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Dana Milbank, in the Washington Post, “Ted Cruz gets burned by the birther fires he stoked”:

… Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) last week made his latest appeal to the U.S. nativist fringe by naming Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) as a national co-chairman of his presidential campaign. King, called a “courageous conservative” and “incredible leader” by Cruz, is the anti-immigrant hard-liner who spoke of Mexican immigrants having “calves the size of cantaloupes” and who was a prominent birther.

Raising raised questions about President Obama’s birth certificate, voiced doubts that Obama had been born in the United States, floated the idea that Obama’s birth announcement in Hawaiian newspapers may have been placed “by telegram from Kenya,” and alleged that Obama “was not raised with an American experience.”

So we’re entitled to savor some schadenfreude now as Cruz himself gets caught in the birther web. Donald Trump’s questioning of Cruz’s status as a natural-born American and, therefore, his eligibility to be president is rough justice. Cruz, like Trump, has stoked the fires of resentment and xenophobia, so it’s entirely fitting that he gets burned…

Like Cruz foe John McCain (the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said Cruz’s eligibility is a “legitimate question”), Democratic leaders have been happy to see Cruz twist in the wind. “I do think there is a distinction between John McCain being born to a family serving our country in Panama and someone born in another country,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday…

Of course this charge is going nowhere, except to the wilder fringes, but — as in the famous LBJ anecdote concerning a whispering campaign that his opponent enjoyed sexual congress with barnyard animals, “We can make him deny it.”

WaPo‘s political horse-race tout, Chris Cillizza:

… It’s no secret that Cruz is hated by McCain and lots and lots of the Washington establishment. McCain famously/infamously called Cruz (and a few other tea party types) “wacko birds” — he later apologized — and has repeatedly clashed with the Texas senator over what he believes to be the latter’s tendency to grandstand. (McCain detractors will roll their eyes at the idea of him being apoplectic over other people grandstanding.)

What has been less clear is how the GOP establishment’s white-hot hatred for Cruz could manifest itself in the Republican presidential primary. This is how.

By McCain giving a “you know, that’s a good question” response to the question of whether Cruz is eligible to be president, he keeps the story — not a good one for the Texas senator — very much alive…

McCain shivving Cruz won’t drastically damage the Texas senator’s strength in the race. For some, it will affirm that Cruz is the anti-establishment force they love. But, McCain’s comment shows how the establishment can influence the race — by using the platform senators (and others) have to kill or boost stories.

Expect more of this. And the establishment will relish every minute of it.

So… if R-Money is actually what passes in today’s GOP for an elder statesman, where would this fall on the “using the platform senators (and others) have to kill or boost stories”?

Upon one thing we can all agree: Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of thugs…

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    Germy

    Romney: “This isn’t the issue you’re looking for.” (waves jedi mind-trick hand in front of stormtrooper and is allowed to pass.)

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Somewhere James Madison is weeping

    “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves in prayer and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,” he intones, along with his audience, “then I will hear their prayers, and will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.”
    He stretches his lips across his teeth into a forced smile, as his congregation gives him the third standing ovation of the morning. (The first two having been for his promises to destroy Isis and mount some kind of insurrection in Washington.)
    Nobody votes for a self-effacing candidate. But Cruz’s aura of smug sanctimony, like his lack of humility, is striking even in an age of Trumpery

    from Richard Wolfe at the Guardian

  4. 4.

    Germy

    “I do think there is a distinction between John McCain being born to a family serving our country in Panama and someone born in another country,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday…
    Smashing!

  5. 5.

    max

    Of course this charge is going nowhere, except to the wilder fringes, but — as in the famous LBJ anecdote concerning a whispering campaign that his opponent enjoyed sexual congress with barnyard animals, “We can make him deny it.”

    {snore}

    Sorry. Having a great deal of difficulty caring about this. Cruz isn’t going to be the R nom and he’s getting pounded for what he was always obviously going to get pounded for. So, old news.

    max
    [‘Or new-should-have-been-obvious-from-the-first-news.’]

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @max: Cruz isn’t going to be the R nom

    Every outcome wrt the nomination seems equally unlikely to me. But other than that, I agree.

  8. 8.

    Germy

    Salon headline:

    “Like hearing that someone roofied Bill Cosby”: Trevor Noah dissects the hilarious irony of the Ted Cruz birther movement

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    I was skimming by one of the Meet the Face of the Nation’s Stephanopoulos Press shows this morning, and a GOP strategist was noting how the Republican Establishment hates Cruz, but fears Trump, and sees the rest of the challengers as insignificant. All this misery and confusion couldn’t happen to a sappier bunch of dopes.

    It’s only fair that Cruz have his mug pushed into the manure of the same birther BS that he happily wallowed in before.

    The additional bit of fun is that apparently the big money boys are keeping their cash in their pockets for now, totally unsure as to how to spend it. Chalk up another side effect of Trump the Disrupter.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    Cruz would be having a lot less trouble with this if he had told his father to keep his trap shut about Obama needing to go back to Kenya.

    Also, this Forbes article from a couple of years ago has some good points about why it’s hypocritical for Cruz and his allies to question Obama’s birth but insist that Cruz’s own birth should be exempt from the same scrutiny.

  11. 11.

    RSA

    If Cruz were a Democrat, the actual fact of his citizenship, one way or another, would be less important to Republicans than his parents being presumptive traitors for having turned their backs on America.

  12. 12.

    gene108

    Cruz is not facing a Birther movement.

    HE. WAS. BORN. IN. CALGARY. ALBERTA. CANADA.

    Whether this will cause right-wing heads to explode or not is up to the electorate. Maybe being born in Canada is just too foreign for the Republican base.

    They are free to use his actual place of birth as a reason to vote against him, because of how they feel it may influence his ability to be President.

  13. 13.

    jl

    The link to the MIlbank piece is interesting as a guide to the arcane corporate media ceremonies of ‘balance’.

    ” In the early days of the Obama presidency, I argued that the left was more ill-tempered. But now there’s nothing equivalent to the right’s rage – despite attempts to draw some phony parallels. ”

    As for internecine birther developments in the GOP shit show: live by the clown car, die by the clown car.

  14. 14.

    Germy

    @gene108:

    Whether this will cause right-wing heads to explode or not is up to the electorate. Maybe being born in Canada is just too foreign for the Republican base.


    I think their hatred of all things democrap would compel them to vote for a lizard from mars, if necessary.

  15. 15.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Looked up my caucus site and it’s the UAW hall. Good. 22 days until caucus.

    Trump was on all the Sunday shows, which Mr IOL watches. I am suddenly infuriated. I think it’s the blaming of HRC for her husbands infidelities in the 90s. I want Trump crushed and humiliated.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jl: ” In the early days of the Obama presidency, I argued that the left was more ill-tempered.

    I guess he dozed through the McCain-Palin campaign events and the Tea Party rallies before they realized they had to “police” the racist signs, as I recall an MSM article approving write up. May have been the Washington Post

  21. 21.

    Splitting Image

    People, Cruz was born in Calgary. That’s basically the Houston of Canada. Surely that counts as American.

    FDWI (For Dave Weigel’s information), Calgary has a Muslim mayor and voted en masse for the social democratic NDP government that took power in Alberta last year.

    Alberta has a long-standing and well-deserved reputation as the Deep South of Canada, but in the last few years, immigration from the rest of Canada has turned it from the equivalent of a red state to more of a purple one. Virginia would be a good comparison, or Colorado. Calgary is more Denver than Colorado Springs.

    Liberals shouldn’t actually be too displeased if Weigel wants to compare Alberta to Texas. The Conservatives’ 60-year hold on the provincial government was broken last year because the local Tea Partiers formed their own party (Wildrose) and the moderates fled to the NDP. Sounds like a good plan for Texas, too.

  22. 22.

    jl

    @Germy:

    ” compel them to vote for a lizard from mars, if necessary. ”

    I agree. Trump and Cruz leads in many states are evidence

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    Still shtupping that chicken.

    “I know people care about my family- they love my brother, they love my dad and they love my mom,” Bush told reporters after the event. “I don’t go out of my way to talk about it, but it’s part of who I am. So it does get a good response.” Source

  26. 26.

    Gex

    The concern trolling of Mr. Milbank is duly noted. While he never approved of birtherism, it’s pretty clear that he scolds and holds accountable the left far more than he did the right. So to him, this is a fair tactic for the right to use, but it is unseemly for the left to do so. And note too how he is scolding the left for this when the charge is mostly being made by Trump. Milbank is essentially chastising Democrats for not defending Cruz. That is not their job and they have no responsibility to use their time, resources, and public exposure helping Cruz.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If Dana Milbank had done a “comedy sketch” calling Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio an asshole, I’d a million counterfactual bucks he’s have been fired by the Washitngon Post. But calling Hillary Clinton a “mad bitch” is just the boyish hijinks of a middle-aged wannabe-comedian. See also Chris Cilizza.

    They could probably get away with it with Cruz, since calling him an asshole has John McCain’s seal of approval.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    OT, I thought this was funny.

    Andy Borowitz:

    ISIS Chief Abruptly Cancels Meeting with Sean Penn
    A spokesman gave no reason for the abrupt cancellation, but said that al-Baghdadi no longer felt that meeting with Penn would be “prudent.”

  31. 31.

    bystander

    @Germy:

    “I do think there is a distinction between John McCain being born to a family serving our country in Panama and someone born in another country,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday…”

    I only wish she’d added, “…to a Cuban religious kook and his mate.”

  33. 33.

    Germy

    @Elizabelle: That is funny.
    I read some of Sean’s article, and he’s a better actor than writer. I hope he meets with some of the GOP hopefuls next.

  35. 35.

    22over7

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wasn’t Milbank Skull and Bones at Yale? Once a dudebro…

    Anyway, this the weirdest primary I’ve ever seen, and I have absolutely no idea how it’s going to play out on either side. But Cruz shouldn’t be taken lightly. If Trump implodes, it’s Cruz who’ll benefit.

  37. 37.

    kindness

    Cruz will win Iowa. Doesn’t mean squat. Look who Iowa voted for the last two times.

    I’d love the schadenfreude but TeaHaddists have no need for consistency so they won’t give two shits about their hypocrisy in saying it made Obama ineligible and not caring wrt Cruz. It was a convenient way to give Obama one of the 10,000 cuts they wanted.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @kindness: It was a convenient way to say “just look at the color of his skin!” without saying “just look at the color of his skin!”.

  40. 40.

    ThresherK

    Spousal ThresherK and I just got back from the open-on-Sunday clinic, and then the pharmacy. The respiratory and sinus thing we’ve each been dragging around for eight days has resulted in antibiotics for each of us.

    I’ve been handwashing like I was back working in the hospital, and scrubbing like a washerwoman (obs.) in order to keep my germs to myself.

    Nice to get professional confirmation that I haven’t been just malingering out of professional class for 1 1/2 days last week. But I should have gone to the doctor’s sooner, even though I have a very good track record of not going to the doc for minor respiratory ailments.

  41. 41.

    22over7

    @kindness: I understand your point, but I’m not so sure this time. If Trump loses Iowa, does he have the ability to stay on track? What if he loses South Carolina, or New York? I’m just saying, he doesn’t have much to fall back on except “winning.” Iowa usually means nothing, but it could change the dynamic.

    Or not. As I said before, no idea.

  42. 42.

    mclaren

    Rafael “Expensive handmade Italian booties” Cruz, born in Canada. Can this guy do anything more to make himself hated by the wingnuts?

    Anyone who says Cruz will be the Republican nominee is dreaming.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: @RSA: @gene108: If he were a Democrat they’d also be really, repeatedly harping on the fact that his father not only supported Fidel Castro, but was actually one of his revolutionaries. The redemption narrative so beloved on the right in the US only applies on the right.

  47. 47.

    eemom

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I am suddenly infuriated. I think it’s the blaming of HRC for her husbands infidelities in the 90s. I want Trump crushed and humiliated.

    Srsly. I thought I was beyond outrage at anything any of these vermin does or says at this point — FAR beyond — but there is something I too find particularly infuriating about the concept that Bill fucking around has anything the fuck to do with Hillary’s candidacy.

  50. 50.

    hkedi

    @22over7: I think he can pretty easily brush off Iowa, although it’s first, it’s gotten a pretty lousy reputation for picking primary and presidential candidates recently. It’s caucus rules are pretty arcane, and I think Trump will try to brush it off as not being a “serious” state.

    New hampshire, the next state looks pretty stable and solid for him currently (Not ruling out last minute swings, but he’s like 17 points ahead of the next candidate)

    The third primary, South Carolina, I think will be the one to watch. If current polling holds, (yeah, I know) then Cruz and Trump each will have one state victory, and the media will be looking at NC to be a early-term tie-breaker. In my completely non-scientific opinion, I think that Trump will squeak it out for two reasons. The weaker reason is that he is currently +11 points, the slightly stronger reason is that Ben Carson was not able to pass Trump in SC during his rise and fall (unlike in Iowa), so I’m guessing that there are not enough primarily evangelical people to beat the primarily racist people.

    edit: South and North Carolina, how do they work? ^^;

  51. 51.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @eemom: As Paul Begala once said; “Bill Clinton likes girls, you didn’t need to spend $70 million to figure that out, I’d told you that for free.”

  52. 52.

    Baud

    I’ll give Sean Penn an interview.

    @smintheus:

    I think birthright citizenship refers to automatic citizenship to people born here. That doesn’t apply to Cruz.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    They are each awful in their own special way.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @smintheus: Cruz isn’t stupid. He’s an evil SOB who fortunately has left behind a long long trail of former allies eager to stick a knife in his conniving back.

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @smintheus:

    And yet his claim to citizenship depends upon his mother’s own birthright citizenship.

    His citizenship depends on his mother’s citizenship. It would not matter if she was a birthright citizen or naturalized.

  55. 55.

    dmsilev

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Clearly Paul Begala isn’t thinking like a proper American capitalist. Don’t “tell them for free”, undercut the other guy and only charge $65 million.

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    @Mike J: I think that means that for his last SOTU, Obama has decided to let Joe Biden give the speech instead. Onion Joe Biden.

  59. 59.

    David Koch

    Ted Cruz’s Mother Was On Official List Of Canadian Citizens Eligible To Vote. Cruz’s mother’s name appears on a Canadian government document, obtained by TPM in 2013, that lists Canadian citizens eligible to vote in 1974.

    1. Hahahhahahahhahahhahahhahahahha

    2. ¿Jeb ? is emptying out his oppo research. He’s gonna take everyone down with him.

  60. 60.

    smintheus

    @Omnes Omnibus: But his mother has citizenship because she was born in Delaware, not because she was naturalized. Releasing his mother’s birth certificate rather than his own highlights the fact.

  61. 61.

    David Koch

    In an interview on Fox News Fiorina said: “I find it odd that Sen. Ted Cruz did not renounce his duel Canadian citizenship until 2014 when it became clear he was running for president.”

    Nom, nom, nom, nom popcorn. nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.

  62. 62.

    smintheus

    @dmsilev: It was incredibly stupid to respond to Trump’s taunts by releasing his mother’s birth certificate, turning what could be a nothing story into a prolonged debate and inviting journalists to root around in his family’s claims to citizenship. That was political malfeasance.

  65. 65.

    feebog

    @mclaren:

    Can this guy do anything more to make himself hated by the wingnuts?

    What makes you think he is hated by wingnuts? It’s true that he has very few friends in Washington, having demonstrated he is a complete jerk on numerous occasions. However, there is a large segment of the base who think he going to ride in on a white horse and they will finally have their true conservative candidate. I think he has a least a good a chance as Trump at this point, and certainly a better chance than most of the dopes who are also running.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My memory is such that I had to Google for the number. I remember #1 and #3, but had totally forgotten Marla and all the local controversy when the affair was exposed. Ivana was a very unhappy woman.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hkedi: The Iowa Caucuses are basically a fraud. Martin Longman covered this back at the beginning of DEC:
    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/12/6/105456/661

    The BLUF: the initial reported winner was Mitt Romney, but that still took several days to announce. A couple of months later that was reversed and Rick Santorum was announced as the winner – not that that did him much good. Several months after that, because of the rules for actually selecting and assigning delegates, Iowa’s GOP delegates chose Ron Paul as their nominee. Because Ron Paul’s organization had figured out that the only thing that matters is how the delegates are organized and chosen, not the actual outcome of the caucuses. So they worked that system and were able to manipulate it in their favor.

    For this election cycle they have supposedly fixed this mess, but that remains to be seen.

  68. 68.

    sdhays

    @hkedi: Totally agree, but I just want to add that Trump is the perfect person to actually blow off a second place showing in Iowa. In the Iowa Republican caucuses, the votes literally don’t matter (they do in the Democratic caucuses). It’s just a fancy straw poll. And if anyone can pull off saying that “it’s all stupid and rigged and look at how good I still did” and getting away with it, it’s Trump.

  69. 69.

    22over7

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah. The thing is, Trump’s not a politician, and is pretty high-strung (that is, he’s a psychotic narcissist). How he TAKES a defeat is the question.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    The additional bit of fun is that apparently the big money boys are keeping their cash in their pockets for now, totally unsure as to how to spend it.

    Which isn’t necessarily a good thing for the Democrats. This just means they’re saving their money for the general election. It would be much better for the Democrats if the big money were being spent now on dragging the names of Republicans- including the eventual nominee- through the mud.

  71. 71.

    eemom

    @debbie:

    Well, of course he’s a hypocrite, and despicable for that as well — but the concept that a woman should be judged for what her husband does places him in yet ANOTHER category of scumdom, in addition to the many wherein he already resides.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: you can find the divorce trial testimony online. Its not pretty. Accusations of marital rape, that she then recounted. The discussion of him keeping a copy of Mein Kampf on his bedside table. Weird, weird guy. If he didn’t have lots of money, he’d be someone you’d cross the street to avoid while walking around.

  73. 73.

    Gex

    @kindness: Exactly. This was a party that discussed changing the requirements when they considered having Arnold run for president. They don’t give two shits about natural born citizenship or not.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    serious, smart, moderate, pragmatic reformicon, so I am told

    ‏@ JohnJHarwood
    Stephanopoulos to Rubio: “your ad said Obama plan would take away our guns. Where? He hasn’t done that.” Rubio: “well if he could, he would”

  75. 75.

    Gimlet

    Fortunately we have a majority of strict constructionists on the SC.

    After straightening out the issue of bearing arms and that the Constitution only forbids the the feds from choosing one Christian religion over the other Christian sects, they will channel the FF and tell us what is meant by Citizenship.

  77. 77.

    debbie

    @eemom:

    True, more despicable, but also very common. It’s always the wife driving the husband into another woman’s arms, etc.

  79. 79.

    Origuy

    @David Koch: Cruz was born in 1970. The fact that his mother was eligible to vote in Canada in 1974 doesn’t prove anything, except maybe that she had applied for Canadian citizenship. I don’t know how long it takes to get that. It could be a mistake in the records; Wikipedia says that the family moved to Texas in 1974.

  80. 80.

    Anoniminous

    @22over7:

    On the GOP side, winning Iowa is less important than winning New Hampshire and South Carolina. Get maybe four days of press out of Iowa versus 3 weeks of press from NH, while SC sets up for Super Tuesday.

  81. 81.

    scav

    @Baud: “real” americans meaning clones of themslves, bien sure. Land of the Free-to-be-exactly-like-me (or else).

  82. 82.

    Boatboy_srq

    Something tells me the first act of a Cruz pResidency would be to annex Alberta retroactively – just to silence the critics (never mind getting all those oil execs on the same team).

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @debbie:

    And are we to believe that Trump was chaste as he moved from wife to wife to wife?

    No, but we are supposed to blame his ex-wives for his marital problems. That’s more or less what he’s saying about Hillary.

  84. 84.

    Boatboy_srq

    FYWP. What the BLEEP put me in modu3eration?

    ETA: Phatphingered my email add. FY auto-correct.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: Chris Christie is tripping over his record this weekend, too.
    Not that there was ever much to that alleged comeback (A three way tie for fourth place!)

    Sabrina Siddiqui ‏@ SabrinaSiddiqui 15m15 minutes ago
    Christie says he never donated to Planned Parenthood despite saying in 1994 he made a “personal contribution”

    He’s also denying his much more recent endorsement of Sonia Sotomayor for the SC

  87. 87.

    22over7

    @Anoniminous: I know this, we all do. What I’m saying (badly) is that Trump may not look at a few losses as a politician would. He believes his own hype. He may do just fine, or he may have a complete meltdown on national teevee. A girl can hope, anyway.

  88. 88.

    David Koch

    @Origuy: UR reply only raises more questions and greater doubt on his eligibility and loyalty. For example: was his mother trying to infiltrate the country as a spy for Canada or for Cuba? We just don’t know.

    As Alan Grayson recently said:

    “He’s technically not even an American.”

    ”I’m waiting for the moment that he gets the nomination and then I will file that beautiful lawsuit saying that he’s unqualified for the job because he’s in eligible.”

    ”Call me crazy but I think the president of America should be an American.”

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    Which isn’t necessarily a good thing for the Democrats. This just means they’re saving their money for the general election.

    But the big money guys have already given money to Bush, to Rubio, and others. So this also means that they have been thrown into confusion by Trump and don’t know how to use their bucks to exert influence. And we know that they don’t like Trump. So now, they may have to eventually use their money to help him. Or would they sit on the sidelines and let him spend his own money?

    It would be much better for the Democrats if the big money were being spent now on dragging the names of Republicans- including the eventual nominee- through the mud.

    The mud dragging is already happening, and it is not costing the Democrats a dime. And it is getting so nasty that the money boys may have to invest in rehabilitating the eventual GOP nominee.

    No matter how you slice it, having big bucks is not guaranteeing as much influence as the conventional wisdom claimed it would.

  93. 93.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Brachiator: That was the mistake our troll(RtR) used to make, thinking that whoever had the most money would win(jeb?). I mentioned Gov. Whitman’s stunning defeat of Jerry Brown in 2010. Oh wait, that didn’t happen.

  95. 95.

    Anoniminous

    @22over7:

    Trump knows TV so I doubt we’ll see anything like the Dean Scream.

    As you say, Trump isn’t a politician, he isn’t dependent on even the dregs of party discipline we have in the US, so who the heck knows what he is going to do. He could stay in all the way even with no hope of winning and show up at the convention to make a stink — which the networks would love. He could drop out. He could win the nomination.

    shrug

  97. 97.

    The Other Chuck

    @Gimlet:

    And the FF meant for Obama to be only 3/5 ths of a Citizen.

    I really need a bumper-sticker way to explain that whole damn 3/5 thing and that the proper number was ZERO until the thirteenth amendment made it one. Or was giving even more votes to slave states a good thing?

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @efgoldman:

    It’s pretty clear you can buy pretty much any local or statewide office (or referendum) on which you can properly direct your financial fire, but the presidency, at least so far, is not saleable.

    Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman might beg to differ with you on the ability to buy statewide office. And there is a whole history of well-funded ballot propositions going down in flames here in California. Money helps, but even at lower levels it has real limits.

  100. 100.

    The Other Chuck

    @efgoldman: Pink salt is about as fancy as black pepper. McMegan for all her aristocratic noises is still just a fucking peasant.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anya: What’s Rubio’s status? Is he 2016’s Giuliani?

    Combover and a girlfriend? Those are the rumors, but nobody seems to have proof of the latter.

  103. 103.

    gene108

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Saw something on TV this morning about how the caucuses work for each party.

    Republicans gather in a public place, talk about who to vote for and then vote by secret ballot and leave.

    Democrats gather into groups in each corner of the room, depending on which candidate to support. If your candidate has less than 15% of the support in the room you go to the corner of your second choice.

    After much dickering, the corner of the room that has the most people huddled in it gets that proportion of “votes” for delegates to be apportioned to the monimating convention for their respective candidate. For example, if 12 people show up to caucus and 8 choose Hillary and 4 choose Bernie, Hillary gets 2 delegates to Bernie’s 1.

    Could be a bit off in the details, but it is a fucking crazy way to apportion delegates.

    Might’ve been better than the party bosses in smoke filled rooms, back in the day, but times have changed.

  104. 104.

    GregB

    Have we seen baby Ted’s birth certificate yet? We need to test the ink on the footprint and see of the heel tests positive for traces of shit. He strikes me as a congenital case.

  105. 105.

    Mike J

    Wasn’t there an issue with a residency requirement that they tried to claim Obama’s mother didn’t meet? HOw long had it been since Cruz’s mother had turned her back on her birth country?

  107. 107.

    Anya

    @efgoldman: I seem to recall some on our side where clutching their pearls at the prespect of Walker becoming the republican nominee. I am still wondering how he manged to win three elections in Wisconsin.

    In Rubio’s case tho, the media keeps changing the rules for him. The latest I’ve read states that if Trump loses Iowa or New Hampshire he’s finished but if Rubio loses both, he still has a chance.

  108. 108.

    Princess

    It is interesting that when asked about Cruz’s parents’ names on the Canadian voter lists, his campaign attempted to minimize the issue by saying something demonstrably false — that they aren’t voter lists at all. If Cruz had nothing to hide, why wouldn’t they just explain she got Canadian citizenship after he was born? They could show us her Canadian citizenship papers. Telling such an obvious lie suggests he has something big to hide.

    Questions…questions…

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman:

    Yup. It’s pretty clear you can buy pretty much any local or statewide office (or referendum) on which you can properly direct your financial fire, but the presidency, at least so far, is not saleable.

    As has been noted, Meg Whitman’s money could not buy her the California governorship. I also remember Carly Fiorina running for the California senate. Wonder whatever happened to her?

    Even on the state and local level, money does not always guarantee victory.

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    @Adam L Silverman: I am hoping you mean that the The Iowa REPUBLICAN Caucuses are basically a fraud and are not intending to include the Democratic caucuses in that statement.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    @gene108: Hey there! Without Iowa in 2008, I’m not sure we’d have Barack Obama as our president. I will always be grateful to Iowa for that!

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Anya:

    In Rubio’s case tho, the media keeps changing the rules for him. The latest I’ve read states that if Trump loses Iowa or New Hampshire he’s finished but if Rubio loses both, he still has a chance.

    In 1992, Bill Clinton didn’t win any primaries until Georgia.

    And the early Democratic field was pretty shambolic back then.

    Pundits have never been good at fortune telling. But some never give up.

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Its both. My understanding is that they both came out of that right wing pundit mill/think tank. It gets them started then works to continuously place them higher and higher up the food chain. It starts off paying well for people with only a bachelors and then it keeps pushing the curve as you work your way up the pundit food chain. The only person to come out of the process and crap out seems to be Chuck C. Johnson.

  120. 120.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @gene108: You’ve got it right. It’s basically voting by raising your hand and then getting a second swing if you want one. If your candidate doesn’t have at least 15%, you don’t technically have to change your vote. You can try to talk someone else into changing theirs or stick it out and throw your vote away. In my precinct in 2008, the Richardson people debated whether to do that.

    I’ve seen TV showing a handful of people at a caucus, but I don’t understand that. They’re by precinct. My caucus usually has maybe 80 or 90 people at it, though in 2008, we had over 180.

    ETA: The 15% comes from each precinct being able to send 7 delegates to the next level. Any candidate has to earn 1/7 of the voters there (about 15%) to be viable.

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @mclaren: Don’t underestimate his appeal to the Jeebus-addled loons that are the talibangicals. The wingnut universe is a strange place, but there are factions within it, and dominionist douche Rafael is the choice of the talibangicals, much to the distress of Mike Hucksterbee and Rih Santorum.

  123. 123.

    pea

    @jl: in the early days of obama’s presidency the left may’ve been “ill-tempered” because they realized, with a slap in the face” that 40% american’s savings had been wiped out, they lost their jobs and homes…all americans saw it, only the “left” saw why.

    “the more we do to you,the less you seem to believe we are doing it”
    Joseph Mengle

  124. 124.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman: The Iowa Caucuses are nothing more than the Ames Straw Poll held in the middle of winter.

    Our worthless MSM salivates at it, and Iowa, happy to get the munnies from the MSM and all that attention, has no reason at all to end the farce. It’s a grift. All of it.

  125. 125.

    Anya

    @Brachiator: okay, I was a toddler then but from everything I’ve read, Bill Clinton was ahead until the’bimbo eruption.’ Rubio is not ahead in a single state, including his home state. He might luck out if both Trump and Cruz implode but it doesn’t look like he’s making any waves right now.

  127. 127.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gex: Integrity, intellectual consistency, and ethics are for losers. Winners do whatever it takes to win and seize power.

  131. 131.

    PurpleGirl

    @Adam L Silverman: There was a big newspaper headline in either the Daily News or the Post in which Marla Maples proclaimed him the “best sex she’d ever had.” And Melania has been photographed nude in a magazine. Yeah, Trump’s women are the very soul of virtue. (Probably there is something out there about Ivana but I don’t remember it right now.)

  132. 132.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Villago Delenda Est: NOTHING is little broad. The delegates we vote for go to the county convention, where they elect delegate to the district and state convention. Their votes are bound, at least through the first round of voting. Delegates to the national convention are chosen mostly at the district level, some at the state.

    ETA: Speaking only for the Democratic side, of course. I have no idea how the Republicans do this.

  133. 133.

    PurpleGirl

    @efgoldman: Yes, it’s his businesses that filed the bankruptcies, not Trump personally. And that the businesses even had to that does shows what a bad businessman he is. He borrows too much, burdens his companies with too much debt.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @Anya:

    okay, I was a toddler then but from everything I’ve read, Bill Clinton was ahead until the’bimbo eruption.’

    Clinton had all kinds of problems, but recovered. Yeah, Rubio is not impressing anyone just now, but the GOP field is crazytown right now, so who knows what might happen.

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anya: See, I’m so freakin’ old I think of Ted Baxter and his Con-kweest-a-Dor boots….

    ….anyone…. ?

  136. 136.

    danielx

    This isn’t the issue you’re looking for.

    — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 8, 2016

    ‘This is not the issue you seek’ would have sounded much more impressive, but nobody is ever going to mistake the Marquis du Mittens for Obi-wan, much less Yoda*.

    *Besides, Yoda is an alien. Therefore no good Republican gives two toots on a flute about anything he says.

  138. 138.

    stinger

    @Iowa Old Lady: Your precinct must be highly populated; mine’s quite rural. I’ve been caucusing since the ’80s, and a handful of attendees isn’t uncommon during “re-election” years, such as ’96 and ’12, when there’s really no contest for the nomination.

    We only get 2 delegates–I’ve been an alternate delegate twice–so it’s only interesting when there are 3 or more candidates with substantial support, such as Gephardt/Simon/Dukakis/Jackson, or Obama/Edwards/Clinton. That’s when it gets fun!

  139. 139.

    xenos

    I don’t know about Albert in the 70s, but in Québec in thé 80s I, a US citizen with a temporary visa, was eligible to vote in municipal elections. In fact, my opinion did not.matter. Once the canvasser at my door understood my status he was going to put me in the rolls whether or not I wanted to be. As he was being paid per eligible by unsigned voters he could root out.

  141. 141.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Because Obama being born in the United States to a mother who was a United States citizen is exactly the same thing as Ted Cruz being born in Canada to a mother who may or may not have been a US Citizen depending on her legal status in Canada at the time.

    That’s Villager Logic for ya, right there. Well done, Dick Whisperer.

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