.@JohnCornyn: whatabout Obama? pic.twitter.com/ddoRUoxmbe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 1, 2019
Side note: Beto O’Rourke is not helping me, you or anyone else in this country by running for President instead of running to unseat John Cornyn and flip a vital Senate seat.
Regardless of how you feel about Beto, we should all be calling for him to turn his attentions there.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 1, 2019
Beto could be a rising star as a Senate candidate or a fading star as a distant trailer for president.
Cornyn needs to go.
I seriously hope Beto reverses course there.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 1, 2019
Question, especially, for Texan Juicers: Of course Beto’s not gonna step sideways now, but is there anything he / his campaign can do to signal-boost M.J. Hegar’s campaign?
And — I’m guessing the answer is no, but: Does Coryn’s disgraceful performance today make it any more likely that ‘independent’ voters will stay home come voting day, rather than pull the lever for Dishonest John?
Nope, @mjhegar’s got this. #MJforTexas https://t.co/maUANmmbq7
— Ashley ???? (@ashleydixon) May 1, 2019
Baud
Not Texan, but I’m going with “no.”
debbie
Set aside the ego, Beto, and toss that bastard out of the Senate!
Immanentize
There are a lot of just white folks in that Hegar video.
What if she went by “Hodor” for this cycle?
Major Major Major Major
Why would Beto do better against Cornyn than he did against Cruz? Even factoring that it’s a presidential year, Cruz is uniquely unpopular, no?
Baud
The sideswipe at Beto is frankly nonsensical. He’s not going to change his mind now, especially since he’s still in the top five.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t think Cruz is unpopular with Texans, certainly not like he is with much of the rest of the country.
Baud
@debbie:
He was deeply unpopular for a republican in Texas.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
HODOR!
Haven’t typed that in years. Feels good.
VeniceRiley
The handmaid’s Tale just released a trailer for the June 3 season premiere. It’ll put you in the mood for the fight.
Oh, and the twitterverse has reports of Iowans getting long survey calls for … wait for it … Bill deBlasio!
#DEBLASIO2020 (shouted exactly zero people)
MJS
Isn’t this at least a little bit, “Step aside ma’am and let the man take care of Cornyn”? Or am I reading too much into it?
debbie
@MJS:
Not for me it isn’t. I just think Beto’s got more of a public presence.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: Your question is confusing. Cruz may be a slimeball, but he has that Senate seat until 2024. ?
Immanentize
@MJS: I think that in good faith one could believe Beto, who has run a state-wide campaign and did really well (for Texas), probably has a better chance than a woman who has mounted one losing house campaign.
Belafon
As a Texan, I say that the best way for Beto to help Hegar is to be VP. As for running, Cruz was a better target than Cornyn.
West of the Rockies
@Major Major Major Major:
I think you’re right. And if Beto takes on Cornyn and loses for a Senate seat again, he’s got serious loser-taint on him. Maybe there is a winnable House seat he could grab? Is Castro giving up his seat in his bid for Pres?
Similarly, I wish Pete would run for something besides president. He is a good, useful contributor, but he’s got to better pick his spot.
Harris or Warren!!!
ETA spelling of Cornyn
Belafon
Cruz is way more unpopular here than Cornyn is. And the rule-of-law types here prefer those laws to be applied to non-white people.
When you see those popularly numbers for Cornyn, realize that’s Cornyn against himself. Texans will vote for a cactus if it has an R next to it.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: It does, doesn’t it?
gene108
If Cornyn says Obama allowed Russians to sow chaos and division amongst our electorate and the end result of their effort is President Trump, what exactly does that say about Trump and his Republican lackeys?
Mai Naem mobile
Why doesn’t the Castro brother not running for POTUS run against Cornyn?
Immanentize
@Belafon: I don’t live in Texas anymore — do you get any sense that, as Anne Laurie asked, do you think some of the Trump voters will sit the next one out?
Immanentize
@Mai Naem mobile: Probably because he thinks he has no chance of winning?
Steeplejack
@MJS:
@Hoarsewisperer may not be aware, or may have forgotten, that M.J. Hegar is running. She hasn’t made a huge splash so far.
gene108
@West of the Rockies:
What are the chances of a gay Democrat winning higher office in Indiana?
The Democratic Party is in a pickle. They have a couple of good, talented, politicians in Republican states, who really will struggle for higher statewide office.
There are probably more than just Beto and Pete, in Republican states, with few options of political advancement.
Belafon
@Immanentize: The answer to that question is that Cruz is so unpopular, some Republicans actually voted against him. And he still won.
Immanentize
@Belafon: Sad face.
Doug R
@Immanentize: M J Hegar closed the gap from 21.9% to 2.9% a gain of TWENTY POINTS.
Tokyokie
I think Cruz is more popular among Republican right-wing nut cases in Texas than Cornyn, but that Cornyn has broader, but shallower, support. Beto’s best shot would be running against Cornyn in an off-year, but that would mean waiting until 2026.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Cruz is, apparently, more popular than Beto
Doug R
@gene108: Well, Mayor Pete could always run in a district in his city or one nearby.
debbie
@Baud:
I stand corrected.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
I think those struggles for statewide office can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone with any talent is afraid to run, then the party winds up being taken over by a bunch of hacks and declines even further. Talented Democrats need to run even where their hopes look slim, or their hopes will never have a chance of getting better.
Immanentize
@Doug R: And lost.
A State-wide race is exponentially more difficult. And costly. What happened to Wendy Davis? She at least ran a Statewide campaign and was elected in Texas.
Steeplejack
@Mai Naem mobile:
Joaquín Castro just took a pass on the Senate race.
HeleninEire
@Baud: I agree. And especially because he’s a mediocre white man. We all know how far they get in America.
J R in WV
@gene108:
Then move… establish yourself as a worthy person in your new home, and pick your run carefully. Of course, you need a career in order to do this, and a career that you’re willing to give up for running for an office.
eemom
Who IS Horsewhisperer?
Shit, I am almost as out of touch here as I am with my kids.
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV: also everybody will see you as a power-mad opportunist carpetbagger. If you’re a democrat.
Ocotillo
Julian Castro is running for president, he is former mayor of San Antonio. His twin brother, Joaquin is a congressman from Henry B. Gonzales and Charlie Gonzales’ old seat and is said to be considering a run against Cornyn.
As someone above said, the tribal nature of the GOPers is strong in Texas and most will vote for anyone or anything with an R by it’s name.
Credit to Hegar for having the guts to run but her name ID is going to make this an uphill battle in a major way. These battles have to be fought and lost (like Beto’s run against Cruz) for progress to be made. Joaquin would be a good Senator but even he would be an upset if he ran and won.
ETA, saw above Castro is out, go Hegar!
Bobby Thomson
No discussion of Bennet’s threat to the Hickenlooper candidacy by going after the bland white Coloradan dude demographic.
But then, as pundit Billy Preston observed, nothing from nothing leaves nothing.
Baud
@Bobby Thomson:
Did Bennett announce? I heard a while ago he was going to.
feebog
Beto knows that if he loses two senate races back to back he is pretty much toast as a serious candidate for anything. He came close to beating Cruz because Cruz is a living anal cyst. Cornyn is just as bad, but for some reason Texans like him better. Stacy Abrams just made a similar calculation in Georgia, don’t see anyone slamming her.
HeleninEire
@eemom: Big liberal Twitter guy. He was married to a narcissist and he calls Trump’s next move pretty accurately.
ruemara
@Baud: But so are dems.
Baud
OT
Baud
@ruemara:
Right. I was just explaining why Cornyn would be a tougher race.
Bobby Thomson
@Ocotillo: Joaquin backed out today.
Mai Naem mobile
@Immanentize: I know Texas isn’t Arizona but there were so many lost statewide races for Dens before last year. We managed to get State Schools Chief, Secretary of State and Senator Sinema. I have a gut feeling people who are passing up these 2020 Senate runs are going to regret it. I think Trumpov is really going to help Dem GOTV efforts during a presidential year. On top of that you have demographics helping the Dems incrementally every year.
cain
Man, these Republicans in Texas are such assholes. But not as bad as the North Carolina or Florida or some other place. But I would think thanks to Beto that Texas has a chance to turn blue. If we can capture Texas that would be amazing. I really can’t understand these personalities who WANT to be president when the Senate has not flipped. We need that goddam Senate flipped and get McConnell out so that we can’t stop filing the Judiciary with assholes. It’s even more important than the presidency in my opinion.
In good news, I just found out that Imani (eg angryblacklady) is following me on twitter! Woot!! I’m sure it’s all my snarky comments on John’s twitter. :D
Now I just need that @ruemara follow and I’ll be complete. I’ve commented on her twitter enough already sheesh :D Dig that lipstick girl!
Baud
@cain:
Or she actually tapped the wrong icon on her phone. :-P
Omnes Omnibus
If Beto runs two losing campaigns for Senate, he will have loser stink. If he uses his better than expected result in TX in 2018 to stage a better than expected result in the Dem primary, he would certainly be on the nominee’s short list for VP and/or cabinet slot. He would be an interesting VP prospect because he would force the GOP to defend TX. Money spent shoring up TX can’t be spent in other races. I don’t thing the GOP has a realistic path to White House they don’t have TX.
OTOH, Mayor Pete seems like a good guy and an interesting person, but I don’t think he is ready for prime time yet.
Fenix
@West of the Rockies:
Texan here (Houston). Even though Beto lost to Cruz, he came insanely close. He came away from that race a rock star, a rising star. I was so enthused for him to take on Cornyn.
Then he went on that inane cross country listening tour with his Republican buddy Will Hurd, and declined to endorse Hurd’s Democratic challenger.
Beto played incredibly well to Texas. But not nationally. He doesn’t have the experience, instincts or cred to run for president. I thought he would eventually. But he’s coming off as naive and egotistical, playing at white male savior, before he’s paid his dues, in a Dem presidential field already crawling with multiple highly qualified candidates.
I don’t think Beto would have the loser-taint by running for senate again and losing to Cornyn. He already reeks of loser-taint now. Not from losing to Cruz in 2018, but from the poor judgement he has displayed in deciding to run for president, and how he has conducted himself in that campaign. Fading star.
Yes, I’m bitter and disappointed in him.
I don’t know if he could have beaten Cornyn. I don’t know if Hegar can. But I’m covering up my Beto Senate bumper sticker with a Hegar one. I’m enthusiastically all in for her.
But….. Joaquin Castro jumping into the TX Senate race would be pretty exciting too….. ETA: Never mind, he’s out…..
ruemara
@cain: Oh, which account are you?
cain
@Baud:
I concede that is a possibility Until she figures it out, I’ll enjoy my follow :P
Steeplejack
@eemom:
Somewhat popular Twitter commenter. As HeleninEire said, he knows narcissistic personality disorder and how it applies to Trump. Take a look at his pinned tweet thread for a sample. He’s also pretty funny.
Note: You don’t need to sign up on Twitter to read stuff there. You can just navigate to someone’s page and go from there, e.g., https://twitter.com/hoarsewisperer
or https://twitter.com/Popehat (their @nym minus the @).
Also, with your sense of humor, you should definitely check out Three Year Letterman.
cain
@ruemara:
@sramkrishna
tobie
Another red state Dem who came insanely close to winning in 2016 was Jason Kander. I’m not sure what the prospects are for Democrats in state-wide Missouri races. Probably not good. And Kander had the courage to admit he suffers from depression and PTSD, which will probably keep him out of elective office for some time. Shame.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus:
Secretary of the Interior O’Rourke
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Colbert said on Monday that Trump had passed the 10,000-mark for telling lies (and I believe it was the “young and vibrant” lie that did it).
Steeplejack
@debbie:
That was a great one to get over the top!
BC in Illinos
@debbie:
twitter.com/MO2ndDist4Chg/status/1123594572666408961
lamh36
Oh Jesus..
good lord tweety
HeleninEire
@Steeplejack: He’s also a big Guiness drinker. I hate Guiness. But I like Guiness drinkers.
waratah
@Omnes Omnibus: Beto on the top of the ticket will win Texas, Vice President will not win Texas.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: That would not be a bad position for him given his really solid climate plan. I was surprised at how little attention the plan got in the blogosphere given the praise it got from people in the environmental movement with the exception of the Sunrise Movt which acted like assholes. I think David Roberts from Vox tweeted that the Sunrise Movement is opposed to any and every climate proposal that doesn’t come from Bernie. That’s it in a nutshell.
Steeplejack
@HeleninEire:
Yeah, he had (at least) one with a burger tonight to decompress from live-tweeting the Barr hearing.
I skipped watching the hearing on TV and just read his thread. It was almost @ddale8 quality.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: Kander really impressed me. I am glad that he is taking time to get well. I expect that he will be a firce to reckoned with in the future.
HeleninEire
@Steeplejack: Agree.
Wapiti
@lamh36: Wow. Tone deaf in 2019.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh36: Go home, Tweety, you’re drunk.
Baud
@tobie:
I’m surprised because Vox loves them some Wilmer.
Does Bernie have a plan? I don’t recall it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: He’s been all over the immigration and wall shit for a while now, Maybe DHS.
Kay
Oh, God. I somehow missed this. I was focusing on how he told Harris that none on them looked at the supporting evidence. As it turns, out, they didn’t need the report either!
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
LOL
Omnes Omnibus
@waratah: I am okay with that. If he is in the ticket, the GOP will be forced to spend money in Texas. Money spent in Texas can’t be spent in a real toss-up state.
Steve in the ATL
@HeleninEire: Guiness seemed less a national obsession in my more recent trips to Ireland than in my earlier ones. Maybe because it was no longer owned by an Irish company.
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
To his partial credit, Tweety did quickly and sincerely apologize after the next break. I think the producer yelled in his earbud.
MisterForkbeard
@lamh36: Harris just makes me love her more and more. Between this and today’s work, she just keeps impressing. :)
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Old Man Yells At Carbon Dioxide is a plan.
tobie
@Baud: No. No other candidate has put out a comprehensive climate plan yet. But Roberts and Topher Spiro were, I think, alarmed that the Sunrise Movement and its director Varshini Prakash came out immediately to oppose an incredibly ambitious and comprehensive climate plan. I see Prakash has walked her fiery criticism some but I still think the Sunrise Movement is just another arm of Justice Dems:
Harbison
We’ve gone through this in multiple previous posts: If Beto can’t beat Rafael Cruz, he can’t beat Cornyn. Done. End of stupid discussion.
This hoarse whisperer person is not very bright.
HeleninEire
@Steve in the ATL: Yeah. It is now owned by a British company. Brexit sucks. And hey anyone who is thinking of traveling to Dublin hear this: Do not do the Guinness tour. It is €17.50 for nothing.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Bernie’s plan is to become POTUS any way he can. After that, shrug, whatever.
Steeplejack
@Steve in the ATL:
Could it be they’ve had something akin to the American renaissance in craft beers? More and better choices?
waratah
@Baud: I was hoping some of the juicers would look at Beto’s climate plan. I am not an expert but it includes creating jobs and not just the usual ones we have now with solo and wind and batteries.
He switched from Medicare for all because he knew people need insurance right now and looked at what could pass in congress.
I think he did the same with the climate control.
Roger Moore
@Harbison:
Sorry, but you can’t just blow his chances off like that. You don’t know what’s going to happen to the national political picture between now and the election and how that’s going to affect voting patterns. Something that really hurts Trump could easily mean the Democratic candidate has big enough coattails to let a strong Democratic candidate beat Cornyn.
cain
I see I got some follows.. I hope y’all don’t mind me talking about open source and other shit as well as politics. Also, currently, I’m the topic of gossip on whether there was a saturday night massacre as me and one other director of my company and the people who work for us all got fired at once on saturday near midnight.. Good times.
I also, in the last 4 years, I’ve been fired on the same weekend in April for the last 3 years … every year, at the same conference. It’s a curse.
cain
@Amir Khalid:
Warm milk and a nap?
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: maybe, but my impression was that they hate that their iconic national brands such as Guinness and Jameson are now owned by Diageo.
If only there were a regular poster here who recently lived in Ireland….
Steeplejack
@cain:
Pro tip: maybe don’t go to that conference anymore.
Okay, now that you’ve teased us you have to give us the whole story. Dish!
Josie
@Harbison:
As a frustrated Texas voter of many years, I agree completely with you. Beto is doing the only thing he can to remain a viable politician in Texas.
NotMax
@HeleninEire
Recalling an Irish pub in Queens sometime during the 1970s – an old school one which offered both Harp lager and Guinness on tap (both rarities at the time) – and ordering a black & tan. Waitress responded with “What’s that?”
Other than that one aberration, a wonderful slice-o’-the-past place (conveniently proximity to where was living at the time, so was not exactly a stranger to it). Mens’ clubby dark wood throughout, stained glass panels in the ceiling, hammered copper work on the bar. Top notch lamb stew.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: @Steeplejack: What Steep said.
Harbison
@Roger Moore:
Sure, that’s possible.
It is just as likely that Beto’s presidential campaign takes off and he could win nomination, too.
I think both are pretty far fetched, personally.
Dan B
@Baud: You do realize it’s Old man yells at cow farts. Doncha?
Pssst, it’s actually cow belches. And co2.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: In quite a few places, I would steer clear of the term black and tan.
Mayur
Because this is a blog comment section and therefore I have no qualms about bloviating, I’m going to run with it:
1) I agree with pretty much everything “harbison” said upthread.
2) Beto is by no means my top pick for nominee, but he is getting ridiculously slagged on for running and TBH that Vanity Fair article is starting to feel more and more like “Her Turn” or one of those awful Clinton hitpieces.
3) all the people slagging on Beto for being just another entitled white guy are eliding the fact that the Castro brothers BOTH passed on running against Cruz in 2018 despite the fact that Julian, certainly (*who is also running for President*) had a higher profile than Beto. Beto also did more than the Castros did to GOTV and fundraise for Rep and state-level candidates; Beto’s entire buddy thing with Hurd really fucked him on this because it erased the stories of him carrying people over the finish line and replaced them with this one Bidenesque needless bipartisan capitulation.
All that said: I’m disappointed that NEITHER Beto nor one of the Castro brothers is taking a shot at Cornyn, and I think that their atonement needs to be MASSIVE retail politics work to get Dem officeholders elected in TX, including (in a distant prayer) MJ Hegar.
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: I drank a few Black and Tans until I learned the root of the term. Was lucky I didn’t get my ass kicked for it….
burnspbesq
@Fenix:
Hegar ran a hell of a race against John Carter last year. Cornyn is a whole other kettle of fish. But if she can force the Republicans to divert resources to Texas, it’s all good.
The demographics of TX-31 are changing fast. Unless he gets a really favorable redistricting, 2022 looks like Carter’s expiration date.
Steeplejack
@Steve in the ATL:
So what is it called?
cain
@Steeplejack:
I know right? The first 2 times, it was only me. This time I took 5 people with me!
OK, fine…
Up to recently, I work for a privacy and security social purpose company – let’s call them ‘PunksRHere’ they make hardware products – I think I mentioned before that I was promoted to Director of Marketing at the beginning of this year. I built a great team in a short time and our plan was to move from “gut reaction, emotional” decision making to a data driven one. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with a number of factors that soon became apparent – 1) they are idealogues who I have to fight with because they want to put restraints on marketing 2) they top down decision making instead of trusting the head of the dept (who are all A listers with over 20 years of experience) 3) they don’t know jack shit about how to do product development.
The new people like me were fighting with the existing management over a bunch of stuff. It all came to a head last week when we had a F2F (we are a remote company) and the sales and marketing teams got together and compared notes.. and realized that the CEO hasn’t been exactly up front about how the company was going and how it has been funding, using ‘happy talk’ to cover a bunch of risky maneuvers. We confronted him with it, and the whole meeting went off the rails…
We came back, and I went to a conference the next day which was a Friday. Saturday, the CEO said he wanted to talk to me and talk about what happened on that meeting. I didn’t hear back. I was at a party at 9pm, and then I get this mail saying my contract was terminated.
Anyways, I’m glad I’m out, they have a lot of issues, and if they survive in 6 months I will be surprised, but also okay with it since there are a lot of great people there who deserve to keep their jobs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: A half and half. These guys sort of ruined the other name for the actual Irish.
raven
@Steeplejack:
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Had been there enough to know the bartender had no problem with it.
tobie
@Mayur: I don’t think any candidate this cycle has been treated more dismissively by the press than Beto. Every article on him in the Post makes a point of saying that he’s light on policy. This led Topher Spiro, who is no slouch when it comes to policy, to tweet
Beto’s approach may be better suited to Texas than national politics, but I’m glad he took the fight to Cruz when no one else would. I didn’t realize both Castros declined. Good luck to M. J. Hegar in taking on Cornyn. She’s fighting the good fight.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus, et al.
Also too, the Ben & Jerry’s kerfluffle.
Jay
@waratah:
It’s better than what you’ve got right now, but it’s not enough, or fast enough.
The IPCC say’s we have 12 years to get to Zero, or +5C, (+9F) is baked in for hundreds of years.
Every past IPCC report has been deliberately understated to avoid political accusations of “climate alarmism”. As a result, Climate Change is hitting almost twice as fast and as hard as past IPCC reports have projected.
“Many of the areas expected to dry out as the planet continues to warm are centers of agricultural production, and some could become permanently arid. “The human consequences of this, particularly drying over large parts of North America and Eurasia, will likely be severe,” the authors wrote.”
nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1149-8
Josie
@tobie:
Thanks for this. Anyone who says Beto is light on policy is simply not paying attention.
NotMax
HRC currently on Maddow’s show, if anyone’s interested.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@NotMax: She’s looks fabulous.
Steeplejack
@raven:
I knew about the original Black and Tans. I was asking about the drink.
Which Omnes answered.
I think I’ve ordered them only in the South, where “offending random Irish people” doesn’t even make the Top 10 of insensitive bigotry.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Of course, in the South it is served in a Dixie cup.
:)
tobie
@Jay: The IPCC’s recommendation is net zero global emissions by 2050. The problem is that even if the US and Europe reach net zero by 2050, it’s highly unlikely that India or China will. You might want to look at Brad Plumer’s entire twitter thread on this topic. It’s quite detailed with full quotes from the relevant IPCC’s report.
Plumer is the NYT climate correspondent.
grammypat
@burnspbesq: Did we have a ‘failure to communicate’?
tobie
@Josie: You’re so right.
Ithink
I know the thread is already dead and it may be too late, but as a lifelong and current Texas resident, I can honestly say that if Beto is not our nominee for POTUS than a Senate run may or may not be the next best thing for him if the lady candidate can’t pick up enough name I.D. through the media or her own campaigning. Don’t know what our Senate prospects are like at the moment but I would honestly love Beto to go out for the Texas governorship the next go-round. I know he’d be a heart at it considering he got more votes than any other Democrat including mine last Fall, shockingly…
In other sad news, Stacy Abrams will not be competing for the upcoming Georgia seat in the U.S. Senate as so many were speculating. We literally have all the talent in the world as Democrats in this era and can’t seem to un-fuck ourselves getting elected!:D
burnspbesq
@grammypat:
I think we did. My spam filter is probably the culprit; it’s dumber than Louie Gohmert.
Will look, but advise trying again.