Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republicans in disarray!

The willow is too close to the house.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

He really is that stupid.

This fight is for everything.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

This blog will pay for itself.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Local Races 2018 and earlier / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Suggestive?

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Suggestive?

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What’s on the agenda as we gear up for another day?

Results are in from the Virginia special primaries…

Per the Washington Post,

…Republican Ed Gillespie held off a surprising challenge from Donald Trump acolyte Corey A. Stewart for that party’s nomination.

… Stewart refus[ed] to concede and [said] he wouldn’t support Gillespie, a man he derided throughout the campaign as “Establishment Ed.”…

Stewart’s strength on the Republican ballot was the biggest surprise of the evening. He had been running as more Trump than Trump, making provocative statements and campaigning on the issue of preserving Confederate monuments. Polls had shown him with a fraction of Gillespie’s support, but a low turnout among Republican voters gave Stewart’s committed base an outsize influence, and Wagner drew significant votes in Hampton Roads that might otherwise have gone to Gillespie.

Overall, Democrats turned out in far greater numbers than Republicans. About 540,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, while just over 360,000 voters cast ballots on the Republican side, with nearly all precincts reporting…

Gillespie’s narrow win, coming from a small and apparently unenthusiastic electorate, suggests that he faces a major challenge as he tries to both woo Stewart voters and attract moderates and independents while he fights a highly motivated Democratic opposition…

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  2. 2.

    Jeffro

    OMG PEOPLE GO READ RICK WILSON’S 25-TWEET MANIFESTO…I know the man has his issues, but O.M.G. He lays into Trumpov’s slavish followers like nobody’s business. “Kim Jong Don”, too…I think I have a new favorite nickname for the Orange Fart Cloud. LOL

    I never thought I’d go back to smoking again, but I sure need a ciggy after that…

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    @germy: so looking forward to watching Ed Gillespie try to thread the needle all year…good luck Ed, you soulless douche.

  4. 4.

    BC in Illinois

    I can’t recall who said it first, but someone has given credit to Stewart for making a fitting tribute to the Confederacy that he loves . . .

    . . . by losing.

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    @BC in Illinois: Stewart is saying today, “There’s one word you will never hear from me, and that’s ‘unity’ ”

    LOL

    There’s one place I rarely go, and that’s ‘church’, but I might just hafta stop by today and send a little thanks upstairs…it’s already a GREAT day…

  10. 10.

    satby

    @Baud: I read it, it’s pretty spittle-flecked, which is why it’s fun. Won’t matter to the true believers though, they tuned out Wilson as soon as he came out as a never-Trumper.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    I just went to check out Trump’s Twitter page (via Google) and all these balloons floated up and out the top of the page. Does anyone know what this is about?

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    How the Washington Post dismissed Corey Stewart’s campaign, which came within 1.5 % points of pantsing “heavy favorite” Ed Gillespie (and Stewart still has not conceded; he is waiting for the absentee ballots to be counted before deciding on whether to ask for a recount).

    From the article in which WaPost endorsed Northam (while saying Perriello was well qualified too):

    As for the Republicans, the choice for us is simpler. Mr. [Frank] Wagner is in some ways a GOP version of Mr. Northam — down-to-earth, substantive, principled and well-versed in policy and the ways of Richmond. [He got just shy of 13.8% of the vote, likely mostly from his base in Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads.] By contrast, the putative front-runner, Ed Gillespie, a former Republican national chair and George W. Bush White House veteran who has dodged debates, is more opportunistic, proposing a pie-in-the-sky tax cut that disintegrates upon contact with reality. As for the third candidate, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart, his candidacy has been a romp through the fetid fields of intolerance and Confederacy nostalgia.

    Gillespie took 43.7%, Stewart hot on his heels with 42.7; admittedly, Wagner’s 13.8 would probably have gone to Gillespie (or stayed home, perhaps).

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    Re: message from his 437th golf outing motorcade:

    Yeah, he’s trying to say he’s the world’s world’s biggest prick, and proud of it.

    Either that, or he thinks repeating endlessly (in all ways) that he is yuuuuge will actually make it so.

  20. 20.

    Lapassionara

    “Narcissistic maniac” works for me. Unfortunately, I don’t get to have a governor who speaks truth to power. I get a Brownback wanna-be. In Missouri, or as Ozark calls it, “Misery.”

    99 degrees here yesterday, and forecast rains never came, so out to the garden before the heat.

    And good morning, all.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    People on social media depressing me by saying the only solution to Trump is The Great General Strike, which could totally happen.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart

    Is he really from Minnesota? There’s this whole white male Right wing faction of midwesterners who yearn to be southerners. It’s bizarre. It’s like they had no identity so they just picked up a confederate flag and ran with that. It’s really one of the best arguments that it’s about racism because it sure isn’t about their “heritage”.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara:

    I don’t get to have a governor who speaks truth to power.

    I never knew a Navy SEAL could be such a coward. He actually ran away from a reporter.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: If your only solution is The Great General Strike, there is no solution. The vast majority of people want to eat far more than they care about politics. Even running an ordinary little strike takes a tremendous amount of organization that simply doesn’t exist across the whole society.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    Did Virginia Democrats pick the person who will win? Beat the Republican?

    We should try to do that :)

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    What does another day bring? Let’s see –

    Turkey’s Erdogan calls out Saudi Arabia and Egypt as unIslamic.

    Meanwhile, in the Pacific:

    Armed U.S. troops are on the ground near Marawi City in the southern Philippines, but are not involved in fighting Islamist militants who have held parts of the city for more than three weeks, a Philippines military spokesman said.

    “There are some U.S. personnel who are operating equipment to provide information on situation awareness to our troops,” Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told a news conference.
    [snip]
    The Philippines military has previously said the United States was providing technical assistance to end the occupation of parts of Marawi City by fighters allied to the Islamic State group, but it had no boots on the ground.
    [snip]
    The U.S. embassy in Manila did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

    A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was providing a P-3 surveillance plane as well as intelligence gathering from a drone. That drone, however, crashed on Saturday after it lost communication links with its operator, the official said.
    [snip]
    It was the 23rd day of fighting in Marawi, and there was no sign that it would end any time soon.

    “There will be no more deadlines,” said Padilla, referring to a promise by the military to clear the city by June 12, the country’s independence day. “It may take some time.”

    In Washington, a security official who is familiar with the region said the battle in Marawi appeared to be locked in a stalemate. Source

  30. 30.

    satby

    @Lapassionara: Good morning! We got a badly needed drencher yesterday, with forecasts of pop-up storms for the next couple of days. But the highs in the 90s will last until Sunday. And the rain will just pump up the humidity. I hate this weather.

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Martin Longman was pushing Periello pretty hard on Washington Monthly; I imagine he’s disappointed.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    There’s this whole white male Right wing faction of midwesterners who yearn to be southerners. It’s bizarre

    A commenter on LGM pointed out that “white supremacy > historical accuracy.”

  38. 38.

    satby

    @Matt McIrvin: A general strike is just a stupid tactic. Too diffuse in purpose, relies too much on expecting the people with almost no employment security to risk their jobs for it to be effective. This country hasn’t ever had a successful one to my knowledge, unlike in Europe. It’s just unicorn wishing.

  41. 41.

    Morzer

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/a-referendum-on-trump-style-politics-in-virginia/530109/

    Fueled by job growth in the D.C. suburbs, Virginia has undergone a rapid demographic and political transformation in recent years. More than half of the state’s residents are now non-native; the population is heavily college-educated, with large numbers of immigrants and African Americans. In the Post poll last month, 59 percent of Virginians disapproved of Trump, 52 percent of them strongly. Trump narrowly won the Virginia GOP primary last year, with 35 percent of the vote, and still has the approval of 77 percent of Virginia Republicans.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: Yes, Virginia voters did just that.

    I am loving how the WaPost (shame on you) story paints Northam as the Virginia party machine/establishment candidate.

    They could have gone with “Army veteran, pediatric neurosurgeon, who has served in the legislature and is currently lt. governor.” The Army veteran from Hampton Roads will go over well in Virginia, and he’s highly competent, besides.

    But: establishment! Machine!

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: Minnesota? Had no idea. LOL. Their loss is our loss too. Lucky Virginia. Why couldn’t he have just joined his brethren in Idaho?

  48. 48.

    satby

    @Kay: @Baud: They don’t yearn to be Southerners, they’re just racist. That the South was able to roll back equal rights with Jim Crow is what they yearn for.

  49. 49.

    Morzer

    @Elizabelle:

    To be fair, Northam did get the support of just about all the Virginia party establishment, so it’s not an unjustifiable description of where he’s coming from. Not the totality of the man, to be sure, but it’s a reasonable way of putting him on the map for readers.

  50. 50.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: I decided the media is the laziest industry in the country. They use buzzwords so that they don’t need to expend the effort of writing any context, background, or have to explain any effects of any policies. Then they’ll have the column inches available for important coverage about the Kardashians.

  52. 52.

    bemused

    @Morzer:

    As a Minnesotan, I say good riddance to Stewart and glad he didn’t stick around here. We have enough of these wannabe Confederates. I found a Mpls Star Trib article about him. He was born in Duluth, MN and got his law degree in MN. “Feeling surrounded by liberals in the twin cities, Stewart had fled MN by 1998”.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @Morzer: establishment has become a meaningless word if “he who must not be named” can be in elective office for 25-30 years and still be allowed to call themselves not part of the establishment. Holding office is the fucking establishment.

  55. 55.

    Morzer

    @Baud:

    Well, by all accounts Northam got an endorsement from just about anyone who held a position of significance in the Virginia Democratic party, so you could see why the Post might understand him as the candidate of the party “machine”, making allowances for a bit of verbal imprecision.

  57. 57.

    Morzer

    @satby:

    Well, waiting for precision in journalistic analysis of US politics strikes me as a good way to spend a life being disappointed. It shouldn’t be that way, but we are where we are.

  58. 58.

    Juju

    @satby: There is no difference past 90 to you because you live in the Midwest. I live in the southeast and 90 is hot, but 95+ is where I call it too hot to make a difference. I understand though. I lived in Il and upstate NY and I considered 88 to be oppressively hot way back then.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @Morzer: Why would I make such an allowance, given the negative connotation of a “machine” in politics? Maybe the word had changed meaning and now means the same thing as “supported by the party”, but I can’t recall it ever being used to describe Republican party leaders.

  60. 60.

    mali muso

    I voted for Northam yesterday. Frankly, I’d have been happy with either, but the Wilmer endorsement pushed me away from Perrielo.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @Morzer:

    Well, waiting for precision in journalistic analysis of US politics strikes me as a good way to spend a life being disappointed

    The original comment was about journalistic imprecision and you attempted to defend WaPo. That’s how we got started down this road

  62. 62.

    JPL

    Multiple people were shot at a baseball diamond were gop members were practicing. One feed is say Scalise was shot, but hopefully, he’ll be okay.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    Looks like there’s been a shooting near DC at a GOP congressional baseball practice — at least one House member hit. Details sketchy, but it’s actual journalists on Twitter reporting it.

  64. 64.

    Morzer

    @Baud:

    Why would I make such an allowance

    Because that’s the reality of how journalists describe these things? There are mole-hills worth dying on, no doubt, but I have a hard time really caring about this one.

  65. 65.

    Morzer

    @Baud:

    I pointed out that the WaPo’s understanding wasn’t without some logic behind it. Anyway, who made you Grand Inquisitor today?

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    @Quinerly:
    Why discuss it when you are in on it?
    I honestly thought that the most revealing part was when Attorney General White Citizens Council admitted that, yeah folks say that the Russians interfered in our elections, but I haven’t really reviewed it. nor do I any working group on it.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Morzer: But you do care, which is why you commented on it. But I accept your confession of error and will drop the subject.

    @Morzer: Self-appointed.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    “Machine” means something, and you’re right- it’s always applied to Democrats. I think Florida has a GOP “machine” but no one ever uses the term there:

    A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The machine’s power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.

    It absolutely implies “corrupt”.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    The guy who won on the Democratic side for Governor in Virginia did so on the strength of the Black vote.
    Well well well…
    Hmmmmm

    The Lt. Governor candidate is African-American.

  77. 77.

    ET

    I am struck by “but a low turnout among Republican voters gave Stewart’s committed base an outsize influence” which is something that may portend something especially when combined with “Democrats turned out in far greater numbers than Republicans. About 540,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, while just over 360,000 voters cast ballots on the Republican side” – the general will be one to watch.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    I don’t think Team Trump are trying to discredit Mueller. I think they’re working the ref so Mueller will hire some Trump people who can then obstruct from the inside.

    It might work. I hope Mueller sees it for what it is, but it would be great if we weren’t relying on one person and his honor. If Mueller fails at this we’re screwed. It wasn’t supposed to all hinge on one person. We’re supposed to get more process protections than that.

  79. 79.

    Morzer

    @ET:

    Low turnout among polite racists gives advantage to thuggish racists. ‘Tis a mystery and a wonder what persuaded the hordes of moderate Republicans we keep hearing about to hide themselves under the bed this time.

  81. 81.

    Morzer

    @Kay:

    I don’t think so. This looks like Team Trump accepting that the boss is going to snap and fire/try to fire Mueller in the near future, so they better try and provide some cover that a Republican of low intelligence or bad character could find plausible.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @Morzer:

    I don’t trust anything they leak to the NYTimes. That paper has become their preferred outlet for pushing whatever it is they want to push.

  84. 84.

    Morzer

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    No. I didn’t even meet with the Russian ambassador in a hotel that wasn’t the Mayflower and where I don’t know that they make a mean mint julep.

  88. 88.

    Quinerly

    @JPL:
    First thought. I hope no Dems shot. Second thought. I hope the shooter is a middle aged Confederate Battle Flag wearing Trump supporter. Third thought. Please, please don’t let the shooter be a POC or an immigrant. I hate how jaded I have become.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Morzer:

    A 70-year-old man charged with robbing a bank said he did it because he preferred a jail cell over living with his wife.

    I had the same thought when I was married to my first wife.

    @ET: Same here.

  90. 90.

    Morzer

    @Quinerly:

    I wish that my first thought hadn’t been that I was surprised it took so long. The GOP have been abusing the patience of the American people for a long time now, while ratcheting up the rhetoric of violence and intimidation. Sooner or later, that was going to have consequences. I just wonder how long it will be before we see calls for martial law and militias protecting the peace from the right wing crazies.

  91. 91.

    Quinerly

    Rand Paul saying everyone would have died but for Scalise being there. Since he was there, he had his security detail which fired back.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    Kay,
    There was an exchange between LarryO and Heidelman(sp?) about the general cluelessness by Team Trump about Bobby Three Sticks (that nickname cracks me up). How he just doesn’t get that threatening him isn’t the way to go. The only one who probably has a clue is Priebus, but we know he’s not in the inner circle. It was in the last segment of LarryO’s show last night.

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: My financial adviser was involved with Greiten’s campaign. When we met with him last month, I asked Jeff what was up with Greitens and that 501(c)4 and all the dark money, and I didn’t get an answer at all. This, from a man I respect, was troubling to say the least. I think Greitens’ whole objective is to establish his GOP bona fides to run for president in 2024. He’s a dangerous snake, because he’s got that Navy SEAL thing and has that aw-shucks manner about him. My friend Sue, who worked for the local state university when Greitens came here, said that he was rude to the back stage personnel, and she was unimpressed with him.

    I can’t believe he wasted MO taxpayer money on a second special session in a month, all because he didn’t get his way on abortion legislation. What’s he going to do, call a special session for everything he didn’t get? What about a special session on the prescription drug database proposal – that would actually be a worthy reason to call one.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t know if you saw this:

    Wow: Movie about ATL principal who cheated is in the works, starring Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station). @tanehisicoates is writing it.

    There’s a real story there. I read the investigator’s report, which was actually very sympathetic to the teachers. It was ridiculous how they perp-walked those teachers. Just them. There are number-fudging issues all the time with test scores- JUST those Atlanta teachers were prosecuted and publicly humiliated.

  98. 98.

    satby

    @rikyrah: they don’t like liberals because, bottom line, we’re race traitors (if we’re white). That’s the dynamic underlying Cleek’s law. Everything else is obfuscation of that basic truth.

  99. 99.

    Quinerly

    @Morzer:
    Blue jogging suit. As I said on the new thread…this dashes my hopes for a Confederate Battle Flag wife beater undershirt.

  100. 100.

    satby

    @Morzer: I read that. Poor Mo Brooks, his voice breaking as he described the terror. A terror he’s willingly voted repeatedly to potentially subject the rest of us to every day as he dances to the NRA tune, just like every single one of them out there.
    Not that I think the experience will bring any enlightenment.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2:

    I think Greitens’ whole objective is to establish his GOP bona fides to run for president in 2024.

    He is already running for President. A more manufactured (as opposed to self made) politician I have never seen. He is what a Republican sees when they think “presidential”.

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: Damn. I am sorry to hear about the security protection. I think those GOP fuckers should be as at the mercy of random gun violence as the rest of us.

    Interesting to see how this plays out. Dead Sandy Hook schoolkids and teachers: meh. Powerful House member shot on a baseball diamond — OH MY GOD.

    We were going to see some shooting before much longer. They’re radicals. And dangerous to Americans.

    And here, I speak of the GOP congresscritters. With few exceptions.

  104. 104.

    Tenar Arha

    @debbie: It’s one of those unwanted “new” features they keep adding to the Twitter app instead of taking steps to solve their Nazi problem.

  105. 105.

    Tenar Arha

    @Kay: The Massachusetts variety drives me insane. Because for realsies there’s so much to hero worship in what all the soldiers of this state fought for (USCT units and everything) that it’s difficult to not become speechless at the thought. It’s like someone from Maine dissing the role of the 20th Maine’s importance to the victory at Gettysburg. It’s just wrong.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    Yeah, around 90° is my threshold for “noticing” the heat: minimize exposure, get demotivated to go out for errands or whatever, etc. At 95° I go into full bunker mode.

    That said, after a run of hot days in NoVA we’re back down in the 80s and supposedly won’t hit 90° again until Sunday. (Currently 81° and sunny.)

  107. 107.

    Tenar Arha

    @Morzer: @Quinerly: This reminded me of something I’d read. It was via Robert Reich. Talking to an old GOP friend:

    CONGRESSMAN: Let me tell you something. Most current and former Republican members of Congress are exactly like me. I talk with them. They think Trump is deplorable. And they think Giuliani and Gingrich are almost as bad. But they’re not gonna speak out. Some don’t want to end their political careers. Most don’t want to risk their lives. The Trump crowd is just too dangerous. Trump has whipped them up into a goddamn frenzy.

  108. 108.

    sherparick

    @Morzer: Yes, the “Democratic establishment,” if you mean the Democratic politicians who have actually run in the state and gotten elected with the support of tens of thousands of voters. Also, the African American community is the heart of the Virginia Democratic Party since the Civil Rights Revolution (and the resulting and ongoing counter-revolution). Look at the county by county breakdown, and Northam making connections to the African American Community was a key to his primary victory over Perriello (who I voted for). Things to remember about Virginia.

    1. Up until the 1970s, the Republicans in Virginia were the pro-civil rights, liberal abortion law, Government employees and military party. The party then called the Democrats, controlled by the Byrd family, was a segregationist, bourbon Democrat, wealth protecting party which fought for segregation to the bitter end.

    2. The 1970s saw a struggle between Movement Conservatives (often the sons of Democrats or former Democrats like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson) and the old, moderate Republicans like Linwood Holton (Tim Kaine’s father-in-law), Godwin, and Dalton. With Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 campaign the capture of Republican Party by Movement Conservatives was completed. John Warner was the last representative of this old Virginia faction in national politics.

    3. However, the split in the Republican Party allowed the reconstituted Democrats to win state wide elections with the black vote being joined by votes that use to go to moderate Republicans. There were also some blue collar and union support in the Newport News and Norfolk area. Also, in the nineties and oughts, the demographics of the state changed as more Yankees (like me – although in D.C. and my family lived in Arlington until I was 5, I grew up in Chicago) moved in as tech and Government contract work drew in a large middle and upper middle income group of immigrants, Asians, and social liberals. It was this awkward coalition that elected Warner as Governor in 2001, Kaine as Governor in 2005, and then Obama as the first Democrat to get Virginia since Truman in 2008. Now the House of Delegates is gerrymandered so that the rural white districts are over represented and hence the large Republican majority in a 50/50 state and why it is important to elect a Democrat in 2017 for reapportionment in 2021 (I am being incredibly optimistic that we will have fair and free elections in 2018 and 2020, but one can dream, one can).

  109. 109.

    sigyn

    @bemused: I’ll bet Virginia was disappointed that he showed up empty-handed. They’re still whining about their battle flag, which was captured by the 1st Minnesota volunteers at Gettysburg. They’ve asked for it, they’ve threatened to sue, they’ve tried to “borrow” it. It’s staying in Minnesota.

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