Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let’s finish the job.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

When we show up, we win.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

T R E 4 5 O N

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2018 / Election Results Open Thread aka the End of the Richard Painter Vanity Campaign

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  4. 4.

    J R in WV

    Who the heck is Richard Painter (Vanity?) and what campaign is he/she involved in?

    Never heard of the person.

    Although we do read Vanity Fair regularly, there’s an amusing bit of fashion and high society, but mostly politics and cultural review.

    But this isn’t that at all, is it?

    Didn’t think so.

    Glad your dog is doing well, such good news. I admit, I’ve been reading fiction a lot more lately, because the politics is making me grind my teeth, and one has started hurting when I chew.

  7. 7.

    Miss Bianca

    Richard Painter?

    ETA: And I must have missed something, but why the fuck would Keith Ellison suddenly decide he wanted to be a state-level AG rather than be a US Rep? Seems like kind of a step backwards for an ambitious young politician.

  10. 10.

    p.a.

    Kobach wins in Kansas. Current gop slimeball governor will endorse scumbag gop gubernatorial candidate.

    Need a plan to divert the Mississippi to scour that state clean (h/t ummm, Hesiod?)

  18. 18.

    Mandalay

    the End of the Richard Painter Vanity Campaign

    Thank goodness. This is Painter just four months ago:

    He had been exploring a run since early April but was undecided on whether to run as a Republican, Democrat or an independent.

    Republicans hate him like poison, and he realized that running as a independent might hand victory to the Republican. So for Painter running as a Democrat was the only option from a personal perspective, but the only thing he has in common with Democrats is that he despises Trump. That’s just not good enough, and like George Will, Joe Scarborough, David Frum and all the other toddlers who have thrown their toys out of the pram, he’ll be crawling back to the Republican Party the moment Trump is gone.

    The goods news isn’t just that he is losing; he is getting his ass handed to him on a plate. Hopefully this serves as a warning to any other Republican phonies who want to pretend to be a Democrat in future.

  24. 24.

    MobileForkbeard

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve been waiting for actual evidence. If someone has a 911 tape of all things and it’s real, Ellison needs to drop out of the DNC and the AG race immediately.

  27. 27.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m worried CT is going to go for a Repub governor. Ned Lamont is a weak candidate. I voted for him, but only because his opponent just got out of prison. Sigh.

  30. 30.

    J R in WV

    OK, so now I know that Painter was a ethics guy in the Geo. Bush administration, so obviously a lying, unethical, piece of shit, pretending to be a Democratic candidate, and having his ass handed to himself on a plate.

    Good. Thanks, Cole, for bringing this to our attention!!

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @MobileForkbeard:

    We’ll have to wait and see. If there is something to the allegations, I hope he takes a page from the NY state attorney general and drops out of public view quickly and quietly.

  33. 33.

    tobie

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I know next to nothing about Ellison except that he chose to be sworn into office with Jefferson’s Koran. That’s pretty cool. On the other hand, I do think it’s important to ask when accusations stick and why, and one thing that has come out recently is just how vigorously Russian bots pushed the accusations against Franken. I forget where I read it recently but the twitter and bot activity pushing the Franken allegations was astonishing. Has any non-establishment Dem been the victim of a disinformation campaign in the past two years?

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    Welp, Kris Kobach now has a clear path to continue Brownback’s work killing Kansas as a viable state. Sucks to be you, Kansas.

  39. 39.

    Mandalay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Seems like kind of a step backwards for an ambitious young politician.

    That’s what I thought at first as well, but the thinking is that Ellison can do more harm to the Trump Administratiion as AG:

    Since Trump’s inauguration, the 22 Democratic state attorneys general have sued his administration on everything from enacting the Muslim travel ban and reversing auto mileage standards to building a border wall and ending net neutrality. California alone has sued the Trump administration 38 times. And, unlike Democrats in Congress, they’ve fought and won.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: WI is odd. And, as I said, he pre-admitted baggage. Had I lived in that district, I would have chosen him because I think he will have the best chance of beating the asshole the GOP puts up.

  45. 45.

    Bobby Thomson

    Painter has said, though, that he doesn’t plan on respecting the primary results and will continue to run as a spoiler.

  46. 46.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ve heard nothing but enthusiasm about Bryce from the union guys I know. I agree, he seems like a good fit for the district. For a lot of the midwest, really. And his Twitter feed is a clear call out of Republican bad acts and actors. People like a fighter they feel will defend them..

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    @Omnes Omnibus: I (who live in NoVA) gave to Randy’s campaign maybe a year ago and have been inundated with begging letters from him every week or two ever since. He’s got a huge political fundraising machine behind him. He better win in November!!

    Cathy Myers seemed like was a good candidate, from what little I saw and read about her (just before the primary). I admit to feeling a little bit of buyer’s remorse when I heard her. He better win in November!!

    I hope she continues in politics.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @Miss Bianca: Richard Painter is a never Trump republican running as a Democrat.
    As to AG being a step down from Rep, I can be a starting point for Governor. Especially with high profile cases going Supreme. See WA AG Ferguson for example. Not that he went from Rep to AG, but definitely getting publicity.
    ETA@Mandalay: got their first

  52. 52.

    tobie

    @Bobby Thomson: Hasn’t Painter heard of teamwork? Does he want to bring Trump down or does he want to stand in the limelight? Sounds like he’s on an ego trip.

  58. 58.

    Uncle Cholmondeley

    It looks as if Tim Pawlenty is going down in the MN Gov GOP primary. Ha ha. He was always overrated, never won with more than 40% of the vote, but just got lucky with a strong third party candidate in ’02 and ’06, but he managed to convince a bunch of folks that meant he should be president.

  63. 63.

    Starfish

    @Miss Bianca: The AG’s office is where some of the disenfranchisement fights are going to be. Remember when Cynthia Coffman just handed off voter data to the bogus Voter Fraud commission that was being run by Kobach?

  65. 65.

    Raoul

    The End of the Richard Painter Vanity Campaign comes as a significant relief to me. I had no worries that he’d win. But if he’d pulled a strong showing, it’d have made the narrative the next several weeks (or right thru to November) that Tina did poorly. Phew.

    In other happy news, our terrible Hennepin County Sheriff (where Minneapolis and all the west and a fair amount of NW and some south metro reside) got less than 50% of the vote in a three way race. He’s an ICE-er and Trumper, and he sent deputies to Standing Rock. He’s an asshole. November will favor him, but he isn’t the invulnerable juggernaut he has always acted like.

  66. 66.

    Raoul

    @Bobby Thomson: Painter said he wasn’t going to respect the endorsement process earlier this summer and run in the primary. He has claimed he’ll campaign for Tina Smith. We’ll see if he follows thru. I suspect he may half-heartedly do a thing or two, but he’s got his non-MN twitter fans to be fluffed by and probably grift off of.

  67. 67.

    Aleta

    I just saw this from the ACLU. In 2017 they took N Hampshire to court over their signature law, using the case of a woman in her 90’s, legally blind, whose signature supposedly didn’t match so they disenfranchised her and hundreds of others.

    A federal court just struck down a New Hampshire ‘signature-match’ law that disenfranchised hundreds of voters without warning.

    No one should be denied their fundamental right to vote because of penmanship.

    ACLU

    Can this federal ruling now be used to ask other federal courts to look ASAP at signature laws in other states? Or does a suit have to be brought in each state, based on individuals in that state, proving those individuals were denied the right to vote?

  68. 68.

    grubert

    Peeved at this stupid take on Painter from all of you. He was a fine candidate. Tina Smith is a classic empty suit Democrat, and now that’s my only choice.

    Cole would have been calling Paul Wellstone a “vanity candidate” too if this blog existed in 1992.

  69. 69.

    grubert

    You’re all so smug in your lazy-ass cynicism. Why the hell do I bother with reading the comments anyway.

    Adam and Cheryl and MomSense excepted.

  71. 71.

    dogwood

    As far as Painter goes, the WH ethics lawyer in a Dem or Rep administration isn’t exactly the job that people are implying. He/she doesn’t deal with the “ethics” of policy. They deal with the nuts and bolts of making sure the staff understand the legal and ethical norms of working at the WH. No using your job to get dinner reservations. No using inside information to profit from your position etc. I saw a conversation between Josh Ernest and Nicole Wallace where they discussed how scary it was to even be called in to talk to the ethics guy. It’s an especially important position because young staffers with little experience can screw up without even intending to be unethical. The Trump WH has no ethics lawyer.

  72. 72.

    icedfire30

    @Raoul: Plus the fact that Dave Hutch is a progressive family man with a husband and a reasonable understanding of gun control. This gay man hopes Stanek goes down in flames and flamers!

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