Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Everybody saw this coming.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I really should read my own blog.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Russian Interference Open Thread: Sen. Claire McCaskill Earns A “Prize”

Russian Interference Open Thread: Sen. Claire McCaskill Earns A “Prize”

by | 41 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

And I do believe Sen. McCaskill is canny enough to turn this attempt into a weapon against the perennially dissatisfied Never-Dem “true progressives” who bitch more about her than her Repub opponents:

The Russian intelligence agency behind the 2016 election cyberattacks targeted Sen. Claire McCaskill as she began her 2018 re-election campaign in earnest, a Daily Beast forensic analysis reveals. That makes the Missouri Democrat the first identified target of the Kremlin’s 2018 election interference.

McCaskill, who has been highly critical of Russia over the years, is widely considered to be among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats facing re-election this year as Republicans hope to hold their slim majority in the Senate. In 2016, President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by almost 20 points in the senator’s home state of Missouri.

There’s no evidence to suggest that this particular attack was successful. Asked about the hack attempt by Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, McCaskill told The Daily Beast on Thursday that she wasn’t yet prepared to discuss it…

On Friday, Trump is scheduled to chair a meeting of the National Security Council on election vulnerabilities facing the midterm elections—amid persistent criticism, particularly after his Helsinki meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that he isn’t taking Russian interference seriously…

McCaskill is one of 10 Senate Democrats facing re-election this year in states that Trump won in 2016. Her likely Republican challenger is Josh Hawley, who currently serves as the state’s attorney general. Outside groups and campaign committees have spent more than $15.5 million against McCaskill so far…

I also assume we can count on Hawley to make a bad situation worse for himself, yes?

Much more, including details of the hacking methods, at the link.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    So, I guess that Trump Tweet from like 2 days ago about how Russian hackers were going to try to help Democrats was wrong?

    I’m shocked.

  2. 2.

    Yarrow

    And I do believe Sen. McCaskill is canny enough to turn this attempt into a weapon against the perennially dissatisfied Never-Dem “true progressives” who bitch more about her than her Repub opponents

    She is so good at figuring out how to win in her state. If anyone can make this work for her, she can.

    In other Russia news:

    NEW: California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with alleged Russian agent Maria Butina in 2015, her emails reveal, fueling more questions about his longstanding Kremlin connections, ABC News' @ajdukakis reports https://t.co/6lSE8aouVk pic.twitter.com/rAJ4sx6JAz— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 26, 2018

    Tick tock, Traitor Dana.

  9. 9.

    JMG

    “I;m the Senator Russia hates the worst” isn’t a bad campaign slogan. Neither is “why does Russia want my opponent to win?”

  13. 13.

    Duane

    McCaskill is our good Senator. She’s becoming more vocal and more effective. She called out Hatch on his bs, and did the same for Eichhert (sp?) of OMB recently. Hawley is a bad candidate, trying to act like a choirboy, instead of the glibertarian trump-humper he is.

  14. 14.

    Steeplejack

    @dmsilev:

    Hey, get your facts straight. Trump later clarified that he said “Russian hackers were not going to try to help Democrats.” It was all over the media.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @BGinCHI:

    Claire has been blessed with some truly terrible opposition.

    Yeah, and she earned some of that terrible opposition by cleverly working the Republicans against themselves. She may not always toe the party line, but she’s a bare knuckle political brawler come election time, and the Democrats could use some more of that.

  16. 16.

    Duane

    @JMG: Why does Russia want my opponent to win is gonna leave a huge mark, hopefully a permanent scar.

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    @Roger Moore: Yeah, she doesn’t go high when they go low, she doesn’t bring a gun to a knife fight either. She donated to and bought ads for Todd Akin in his primary six years ago, if I remember correctly. And her yelling at Orrin Hatch in the healthcare committee that time had me cheering.

  18. 18.

    Platonailedit

    Claire McCaskill: "Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare … While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully."

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 26, 2018

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    Trump on Thursday used a taxpayer-funded trip to Illinois to openly advocate for electing Republicans to Congress — blurring the line between official and political events in the heat of the midterm campaign season.

    “You’ve got to vote Republican, folks, you’ve got to vote Republican,” Trump said during the speech at a steel plant in Granite City, Ill., that had recently reopened. “Vote for these two congressmen; they know what we’re doing. They know what they’re doing. They’re tough, and they’re smart.”

    Trump didn’t name the lawmakers, but three Illinois Republicans accompanied him during his tour of the plant, according to the White House: Reps. Mike Bost, Rodney Davis and John Shimkus. Bost represents the district Trump traveled to on Thursday and has been one of the most fervent Republican supporters of the president’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

    White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters on Air Force One that “there is no legal prohibition” on endorsing political candidates at official, taxpayer-funded events.

    I’m so old I remember when this was considered borderline impeachable.

  21. 21.

    gene108

    @JMG:

    Neither is “why does Russia want my opponent to win?”

    A question I wish journalists would ask, knowing Russia wants to weaken our international standing. Why is Russia so keen on electing Republicans? And therefore, are Republicans weaken our country?

    It is a pipe dream, but a boy has to dream.

  23. 23.

    kindness

    Bless all the people who live in Missouri. I couldn’t do it. I have some friends there though. Claire is one of those Democrats you’d have to hold your nose and vote for because the Repub is worse. I hope she wins but she pisses me off way to often. Out here on the People’s Republic of California we have our own election issues. We have two Democrats running against each other on our ballot. Yea, I am NOT a fan of the whole top 2 thingy. Anyway, DiFi who I have always held my nose & voted for in the general now has actual competition. You wouldn’t believe how liberal she’s become. Quite a change. I am thrilled with Kamala, so that’s good. I can live with a moderate as my Democratic Senator. There is no reason for us to have a conservative one though. Bet DiFi wins, no matter what Bernie’s folk do.

  26. 26.

    Platonailedit

    Racist whiny pos pulls a temper tantrum.

    The founder and former chairman of Papa John’s has taken the company to court seeking access to documents related to his exit from the pizza chain.

    John Schnatter resigned earlier this month after apologising for using the N-word in a conference call.

    Lawyers for Mr Schnatter said they wanted to see the documents because of the “unexplained and heavy-handed way” that Papa John’s had treated him.

    Papa John’s said it was “saddened and disappointed” by the lawsuit.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    An attorney for Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in 2016, launched a bid to overturn his client’s convictions before a panel of skeptical appellate judges Tuesday, arguing that Turner never intended to have sexual intercourse with the woman. He just wanted “outercourse,” attorney Eric S. Multhaup told the court in a brief and in oral arguments.

    The distinction is central to Multhaup’s argument that Turner should not have been convicted of assault with intent to commit rape because, he claims, Turner’s clothes were on when two bicyclists saw him thrusting on top of the half-naked, unconscious woman. He argued that Turner was engaged only in “outercourse,” a “version of safe sex” with no “penile contact,” Multhaup explained, the Palo Alto Weekly reported.

    This may be the stupidest thing I’ve seen today.

    Is this lawyer trying to get himself disbarred for sheer incompetence?

  29. 29.

    Gretchen

    I just learned today that Hawley is in a field of 18 primary challengers. One of them is raffling off a 3 d printer that can make untraceable plastic guns because he doesn’t think Hawley is far right enough on guns.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    @kindness: They’re good people and they probably know some good people, but I don’t think they’re staying in those places for the lovely climate. Their kids are bailing out of the two states.

  31. 31.

    feebog

    So, there were three candidates who Russian Intelligence attempted to hack. Who are the other two?

  33. 33.

    Ian R

    Hawley must really think it’s his time. After all, Trump is trying to revive the Smoot Hawley tarrifs.

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    and this is just the first that we’re hearing about, anyone want to take bets that the Dems actually won Wisconsin? Won the votes in Minnesota and Michigan? Congressional races?

    I’m also guessing that on one wants to lay bets that actual hacking is going on right now trying to work against all of the voter registration drives that have been in place?

    If the press had any nads nationally this would be the proof that was in the pudding and we’ll all get downed in the avalanche of everything else that is coming down the pike. Lets hope that some of our local juornos are up to the task….

Comments are closed.