The horse race-addicts at Politico are throwing panties at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He’s a shitty governor who has disastrously politicized and mismanaged the pandemic in Florida. He’s closely associated with the disgraced two-time popular vote loser/twice impeached and seditious former president. But who cares because loopy backbencher Matt Gaetz said if the short-fingered vulgarian doesn’t run again in 2024, DeSantis is “the leader of our movement.”
Another point in DeSantis’s favor: Politico noted that when asked a question about his ridiculous push to fine tech platforms that banned Turnip (there being no other important business to conduct in the state), DeSantis said, “You can whiz on my leg but don’t tell me it’s raining.” That devastating bon mot sent a frisson of excitement though the base, Politico tells us, and that’s justification enough to call GOP operatives in Iowa and elsewhere to gauge the DeSantis buzz.
Could DeSantis be the 2024 nominee? Sure — after Turnip, I wouldn’t rule out an overtly corrupt and rabid skunk with a tawdry history of sexual assault and racism. But I suspect heaping undergarments on DeSantis is more exciting and less work-intensive than covering boring old President Biden’s boring old COVID-19 relief plan, which involves running down boring old policy details. And that explains today’s DeSantis boomlet.
There’s a way to nip this shit in the bud: DeSantis is up for reelection next year, and hanging a big, fat, well-deserved “L” around his neck would extinguish the bullshit buzz. Sadly, this would require competence at the state party level and the perspicacity of Florida voters, both of which are in mighty short supply. Our best bet is a Biden-Harris administration that is so successful that whichever Republican opponent it draws is promptly squashed like a rotten grape. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Open thread!
waspuppet
Not my idea of a party, but OK, hold still …
satby
I can’t believe he thought that was the way to wear that mask.
Baud
@waspuppet:
It’s not even his own quip.
And it’s probably older than that.
retiredeng
Why does Yale and Harvard produce so many morons?
schrodingers_cat
Does he have a D challenger yet?
MisterForkbeard
@waspuppet: Why would we aim for the leg, though?
Baud
Also, why is DeSantis giving people permission to whiz on his leg as long as they are honest about it? Does he have some kind of fetish?
Danielx
@Baud:
And what does he have against the trickle down theory?
catclub
I think the Biden admin stating that they have a hard time working successfully with Santis to stop the pandemic is fully justified campaigning. Every time he visits the state.
Mandarama
Well, as you can see from the book title, he got it wrong. You’re supposed to lead with “Don’t,” not “you can, but be warned, varlet, I will understand it is pee.” Jesus, what a moron.
The last time a crazy state exported their idjit to govern the rest of us, it didn’t go well. Come to think of it, the last time a relatively sane state gave us their idjit, it also went poorly. Sigh.
gwangung
More projection.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: There’s lots of speculation about who might run, but as far as I know, no official challengers have emerged yet. Unfortunately, our state party is a goddamned basket case. That’s nothing new; it has been for decades. But after the latest electoral debacle, everyone resigned, and they elected a new boss who seems the same as the old boss, so my expectations are low. Maybe they’ll surprise me.
danielx
The only proper response: “Governor, I wouldn’t piss on your head if it was on fire.”
Winston
@schrodingers_cat: I hope
StephanieRebekah Jones steps up.edited to correct the name.
Gravenstone
Republicans come out of the gate strong in the 2021 Obsequious Toadie Stakes! Gaetz sucking up to both T and DeathSantis with this little bit of fellatio. Lindsey saying (out loud no less) that Lara Trump is “the future of the Republican party “. Who will be the next contestant to grovel before the might of the Traitor’s brand?
Mandarama
@retiredeng: I think they aren’t really that stupid–just really bad at mimicking the “salt of the earth, common clay of the New West” culture they are trying to cultivate. Of course con men are venal, but these are also just bad at it. I’m not saying they’re good critical thinkers, mind you. But I’m not sure you have to be for some of our elite schools, as long as you get past the barrier of entry.
Baud
OT
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, it’s ancient. There’s even a Russian variant. Something like “don’t tell me your piss is dew from God” (it rhymes in the original).
Betty Cracker
@Winston: Who’s that?
zhena gogolia
@retiredeng:
Don’t forget Princeton.
jonas
It’s par for the course in today’s political media environment that Cuomo’s having his time in the barrel over NY’s attempt to hide the scale of nursing home fatalities during the first Covid wave last spring. The data skullduggery that went down in FL was 10x worse and….crickets.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
It’s supposed to be “Don’t piss on my leg,” not “You can piss on my leg.” What a maroon.
mrmoshpotato
Doggie diapers ad alert! I wonder why…
Just One More Canuck
“I wouldn’t rule out an overtly corrupt and rabid skunk with a tawdry history of sexual assault and racism.”
So Pepe le Pew’s evil twin?
Winston
@Betty Cracker: She is the lady from Dept of Health that was fired and whose house was raided after she ratted on DiSantis cheating on Covid info.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: “Piss on my leg, and tell me it’s not raining. In fact, piss on my leg in the desert.”
Nicole
Charlie Pierce refers to Politico as “Tiger Beat on the Potomac” and I think it is as accurate a description as any I’ve ever heard.
Baud
I suspect every conceivable GOP 2024 candidate will get their day in the spotlight at some point.
Betty Cracker
@Winston: Oh, okay — I thought I’d missed some rising Florida pol, which would be out of character for me! :) (But I believe the data lady’s first name was Rebekah?)
Roger Moore
@retiredeng:
With someone like DeSantis, it’s hard to know if he’s a moron or just play-acting one to try to win favor with the Republican base. But in general, the Ivies will always graduate more than their share of idiots as long as they maintain legacy and mega-donor admissions, AKA affirmative action for rich white people.
dexwood
@Baud: For interrogations, I hope.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Thank you. With the detail, that’s the most useful set of info I have seen on this so far.
prufrock
I’ve been voting in Florida elections since 1990, and I haven’t had a W since Walkin’ Lawton broke JEB’s brain with the He-Coon quote back in 1994.
It’s a painful losing streak.
Ken
@Gravenstone: I think Gaetz lost points by saying there’s a chance Trump might not be the GOP presidential nominee in 2024. Graham’s toadying was better (practice, practice, practice) because he’s was pushing Lara for a different office.
AxelFoley
Indeed. As Thanos told Thor, aim for the head.
Winston
@Winston: Rebekah Jones. I got her name mixed up between my daughter and my sister.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t get it. Is this just because it’s sorta almost if-you’re-watching-TV-in-1978 transgressive? If so, I had a similar thought watching one of the clips of The Beast on 1/6, and the crowd went wild when he said “bullshit”, meanwhile MSNBC is bleeping his supporters on their rampage and reporting McCarthy’s brief reaction to trump as “Who the “F” do you think you’re talking to?” I just can’t get over how childish we still are, as a country, about naughty language. “bleep-hole countries, grab’em by the bleep”. Etc
also, there are sexual assault charges against DeSantis? I hadn’t heard that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
My brain is a little fuzzy from the opiate tapering, but I have some thoughts:
1. Can’t Texans just shoot the cold away with all their freedomistical shootin’ irons?
2. Which libtards are to blame for the management failures of ERCOT, and why hasn’t AOC apologized for people being cold?
3. If you’ve prepped for the librul race war apocalypse, you should have considered “total power blackout” in the course of your planning.
4. After streaming several seasons of British Baking, I can confidently say that Noel Fielding is unfunny, invasive and annoying as fuck, maybe even moreso than Russell Brand (which I thought impossible). I’ll also say that Prue Leith is a nasty piece of work, who enjoys torturing amateurs with impossible tasks and then criticizing them for it. Mary Berry was infinitely nicer.
5. Finally watched the Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. Why do producers of material based on historical events insist on poorly embellishing what occurred?
Hildebrand
@Baud: Yep – and Politico will be the one holding the clown car door open for them.
Jeffro
True. It’s not like they have standards on that side of the aisle. There are no barriers to entry: you don’t have to have been successful at anything, including being a decent human being.
Think back to the 2016 GQP field: trumpov, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Perry, Carson, Fiorina, Christie, Bush, Gilmore, Santorum, Paul, Huckabee, Pataki, Graham, Jindal, Walker. That was almost historically unappealing. 2024 will be even worse, which is just amazeballs.
DeSantis, Noem, Cotton, Rubio, Hawley, Carlson, Cruz…ye gods…
burnspbesq
@retiredeng:
If you want your critique to have maximum force, you might want to use the correct form of the verb. /grammarscold
SiubhanDuinne
@Winston:
Rebekah Jones, not Stephanie (there is a Stephanie Jones, but she’s from California).
ETA: N/M, I see you caught it.
artem1s
@Betty Cracker:
https://runforsomething.net/
this group was featured on Maddow last night. Very interesting down ballot effort at supporting people who are willing to run but have no idea how. helped elect nearly 500 folks elected since 2017. They have endorsed only one candidate in FL for 2021 elections. And although they aren’t focused on anything as high as governor, these folks (and groups like them) are going to instrumental in taking back their states from Karl Rove’s GOP machine.
I love that they are focused on getting people involved in their own local government who want to lead and govern and help out and not just obstruction for obstructions sake.
different-church-lady
IT’S A FUCKIN’ HURRICANE AND I’M PISSING ON YOUR LEG.
AND I’M PISSING ON YOUR LEG BECAUSE YOU JUST TOLD ME I COULD.
MisterForkbeard
The DeSantis thing is basically all about him being an asshole. That’s pretty much it, from what I can tell.
There was a fictitious story about Biden calling DeSantis and telling him that we were going to put a bunch of covid restrictions in place, and DeSantis literally saying “Fuck you” to Biden. It was all over gab and the various Q sites earlier.
If it’s thanks to DeSantis campaign, his people are genius. Planting ludicrous and unverifiable stories about being a gigantic asshole to Democrats on Q boards and conservative sites is an excellent and riskfree way of creating enthusiasm and raising his profile, and it will get him cred with people who are completely unwilling to take in new information or admit they’re wrong.
Betty Cracker
@prufrock: It is painful indeed. But at least we have the He-Coon memory. :) I was watching that debate with a friend who was as confused as Bush about what Chiles meant, but as soon as I saw Bush’s pole-axed expression, I figured we’d win!
MisterForkbeard
@Ken: The Lara thing is mind boggling. Lara is useless and has no accomplishments. Her only accomplishment is marrying into the Trump family and being loyal. She’s not even a direct relative like Ivanka or Uday/Qusay.
Pushing her for office and as “the future of the republican party” is the most craven kind of ass kissing I can imagine. I don’t know how they top it – push Barron for head of US Cyberwarfare?
kindness
God knows we love you Betty but this is Florida of which you speak. Do I expect the voters of Florida to do the right thing in a tight election? Hell no I don’t.
different-church-lady
@MisterForkbeard:
Well, it’s the only thing the GOP base wants, so of course he’s rising over there.
The question is: has Trump permanently ruined asshole for the general electorate?
Ken
Stealing that. Not sure where I’ll ever use it, but stealing it.
I did once see a disaster prepper who was showing how he made his own rounds. He was melting lead with a propane torch; I wonder what his plans were for getting refills after the Fall of Everything.
Winston
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I thought they could have just used newsclips from the time which would have been more accurate for the police riot, but the trial itself?
scav
Ummm, DeSantis? Don’t attempt to pass off your incontinence as enemy action.
Just Chuck
@danielx: I dunno, I’d be happy to piss on his head if it wasn’t on fire.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
@schrodingers_cat:
Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried has been a presumed challenger, and is essentially the frontrunner after Gillum’s sad flameout. She’s the only Democrat with a statewide elected office. Val Demings has also been rumored, but I’m not sure if that’s just the usual name-gaming and besides, I don’t know if that would even be a risk worth taking. As much as I hate to say it I think DeSantis will win barring something far worse than what we’ve already seen.
He’s still coasting on the residual goodwill he generated in his first couple years when he “surprised” people by making pro-environment gestures and not being completely crazy. Then, of course, he went full Trump, hid COVID fatality data, etc., etc. But I just don’t think COVID in Florida will have the electoral impact it unquestionably should, especially by 2022.
Not to mention, because the state party is a godawful mess, Democrats are starved for oxygen in the press and they’re basically shut out of real governance, it’s a real tough row to hoe trying to win statewide. Which, again, makes Gillum’s unfulfilled promise all the more heartbreaking.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Winston:
This – they spent a ton of time expensively recreating the riot, and hacked the trial beyond recognition.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Agree with you about Fielding, whom I also find creepy, but come on, man, Prue is a sweetie! You’re right that she sandbags the contestants with ridiculous tasks, but they’ve had to up-level the assignments due to the show’s popularity. Victoria sandwiches just won’t do these days. But she’s nice about her criticism, mostly, and her motto — it has to be worth the calories — are words to live by.
If you’re looking for a show that combines facets of The Crown and GBBO, check out Great British Menu on Prime. It’s a cooking competition wherein pro chefs compete for a chance to cook for a banquet attended by Prince Charles (at least in the one season I saw — I don’t think he’s a recurring guest of honor). Also, a younger Prue makes an appearance.
Hope the leg is healing up!
Another Scott
@prufrock: I’ve wondered for a long time why nobody in FL has become the reincarnated Claude Pepper:
(roughly) “Keep your foul hands off Social Security!!”
I don’t know the rest of his politics, and given how long he served it’s likely to be bad, but he knew how to be loud and proud about protecting important social programs.
Health care, social security, schools, … – there’s a winning formula for Democrats there.
Cheers,
Scott.
bemused senior
California Juicers, I live in SF Bay Area, and I, my husband and my teacher daughter all just got vaccination appts. scheduled at the Oakland Coliseum drive-through site via myturn.ca.gov. Easy as pie. I and bemused husband have our 1st appt. Thursday, and second on March 11.
PPCLI
@zhena gogolia: The Princeton student newspaper used to have a column reporting quotes heard around campus. (Maybe it still does.) Usually it would be remarks from visiting speakers or professor’s lectures. But one time they had a remark heard at the local 24 hour convenience store, which was the only place in town for partiers to get late night snacks:
“Some of the stupidest people in the world go to Princeton”
— Unidentified Wawa Employee
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
I’ll look for that.
I REALLY want to try making a savory meat pie with a lard hot water crust when I’m feeling a little more up to it. I unloaded the dishwasher after feeding the pets and making coffee this morning so I could feel a bit more useful, and it took way more out of me than I thought.
MisterForkbeard
@bemused senior: Wow, nice! I’m going to check that out for my parents. I doubt I can get a vaccination, but I’m technically in stage 1C because I work in IT. So worth looking at.
EDIT: Yep, can’t get it yet and neither can my parents (in the 65-74 bracket). But I signed up for updates.
PaulWartenberg
I swear to God, every pundit and news editor out there panting already for the 2024 horserace should be placed in medically-induced comas and left in that state until the year 2024 itself, because we got SHIT IN THE HERE AND NOW THAT DESERVES OUR ATTENTION MORE, YOU HACKS.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
Harvard and Yale are far from alone in that regard. All of the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, Cal, UCLA, Michigan, Texas, Virginia, and others have alums they’d like us to forget about. Examples:
Ann Coulter, Cornell/Michigan Law
Dinesh D’Souza, Dartmouth
Steven Miller and Andrew Giuliani, Duke
Tiffany Trump, Penn and Georgetown Law
Ken
@Winston: @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: There might be issues getting the rights to use the news footage, or of getting releases from those who are shown in it.
VeniceRiley
@MisterForkbeard: Keep looking around. We are calling all our over 65 patients to schedule their vaccinations.
PaulWartenberg
@Baud:
I hope this is something that can get through the firewalls of conservative-packed federal courts and ends up with trump forced to sit in a courtroom having his own insurrectionist words shoved down his throat.
By the by, are these the kind of civil charges that lead to jail time…?
Betty Cracker
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): I hope Fried doesn’t run, but she probably will. Do you think Gwen Graham will run again? She drags DeSantis all over Twitter daily, but that might just be a hobby. I’m pretty certain former Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn will run for something at some point, but who knows.
Geminid
@retiredeng: Yale has long had a minority component of conservative student “intellectuals.” In the late 60s, after the Conservative party in the Yale Political Union had become Rockefeller Republicans, a “Party of the Right” was formed. John Bolton is a typical product of this group. I expect Princeton and Harvard were the same, and that the tradition persists. Laura Ingraham and Dinesh DeSouza came out of a similar contrarian culture at Dartmouth. Yale grad William F. Buckley was the intellectual godfather of these jerks.
Kathleen
@Baud: Ah yes but dang gum it it’s a folksy reach out to plain talking Real Americans etc plus adrenaline rush!
MattF
I suppose if T**** is out of the picture, we’ll have Mouseketeer’s anything-can-happen-day. However, DeSantis will have to clamber over a large amount very rotten meat to get ahead. I suppose he could do it, but lots of other maggots will also be going for it.
Ken
Does he have anything better to do with his time?
Matt McIrvin
The COVID denialists/minimalists continue to insist that Florida is actually a pandemic-management success story, because they opened everything up and their total deaths per capita is still lower than most of the Northeast. That’s the bar.
It helps to be Florida, of course, where the weather doesn’t drive people indoors for much of the year. Except in the summer. When Florida had a horrendous COVID wave. They’re actually coming off another one now, but almost everyone else is too so it doesn’t stand out. The Northeast, of course, bore the brunt of the incredibly deadly initial wave a year ago when there was little testing and doctors didn’t have a handle on how to treat it.
burnspbesq
A good, concise explanation of the uniquely Texas reason why Texas electricity consumers are so screwed.
https://twitter.com/adamcbest/status/1361692342110085122
Baud
@PaulWartenberg:
No. Compensatory and punitive damages. I don’t know of the KKK Act has a separate criminal component.
Ruckus
@Mandarama:
The barrier for entry is:
1. MONEY
2. MONEY
3. Something, something, something……,,,
4. Actual proof of intelligent thought and effort.
As you can see, ability is not all that important in this context.
topclimber
@Gravenstone: Oh please, brer Fox, don’t throw us into the briar patch and give us Lara Trump as the GOP Senate candidate in NC. No way the name Trump brings out Dems, sane Republicans, and actual independents to vote. No sirree, massa Fox.
Gravenstone
Appended your comment a wee bit…
MisterForkbeard
@VeniceRiley: My folks are perfectly happy to isolate – they live out in the country and get food delivered. They’re in relatively good health and are with Kaiser, and they’re waiting for Kaiser to reach out to them.
Which I get, though I wish they’d be a little more proactive about it.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin:
Bingo. I don’t know why so many people can’t wrap their minds around it, but that’s exactly right.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard: Maybe this is their way of saying they’d prefer you not visit.
A Ghost to Most
Meh. Floriduh. Soon to be part of the Atlantic Ocean. Problem solved.
Kathleen
@MattF: Friday was Talent Rodeo Day and Tuesday was Guest Star Day. How can I remember that from 1956 yet forget if I took my medication in the morning? #pathetic.
Sallycat
DeSantis finally convinced me that stupid people can get degrees from Harvard (as well as Yale, Princeton, etc.) Florida has had some great governors-Leroy Collins, Reuben Askew. The worst until DeSantis was Scott. We’re headed in the wrong direction with those two. Help!
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: Oh no. I bring them coffee every weekend or so from their favorite coffee place and place it on the porch then back off so they’re never near me.
But maybe that’s exactly how they like it. )
Winston
@Ken: That could be. The news footage at the time was much more brutal than the film as I recall. Plus pushing the crowd thru the glass at the restaurant seemed to involve a lot more people than depicted in the film. But 53 years ago what I remember most was the total outrage I felt.
Ken
@MisterForkbeard: For a moment I thought “why are you giving coffee to stray cats…”
louc
I moved from Florida 23 years ago after growing up in Fort Lauderdale and living in Palm Beach County for 10 years.
For the life of me, I don’t know what happened to the Florida Democratic party. After Bob Graham retired from the Senate and Bill Nelson lost to Voldemort, aka Rick Scott, it’s like the party went into disarray.
Also, a friend of mine who was born in Puerto Rico says the Republicans put out false but effective advertising on Spanish language media equating Democrats to Venezuela. Cuban Americans had been turning away from the Republican party in significant numbers and there is a large Venezuelan community. That was red meat. If you’re too incompetent to counter that advertising, maybe you deserve what you get.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
Ma: Should we get the shot?
Pa: Then we’d lose the coffee.
Ma: Well, shit. I guess we’ll wait then.
taumaturgo
Garbage in, garbage out.
PaulWartenberg
@Baud:
Well, it’s a good thing for trump he’s a really rich billionaire with tons of money to afford the fines.
(beat)
On top of the 20-40 other civil lawsuits he’s facing and the likelihood that trump is honestly in debt and has been running all these con jobs to hide that debt.
Geminid
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): A Politico article about ten days ago listed potential Democratic candidates for Florida governor. In addition to Fried and Demings, the writer mentioned Gwen Graham and Charley Crist. The last named candidate would engender a lot of heartburn among liberals. Crist may run for Senate instead, though.
But whoever wins the primary will likely face a close race. In 2010 Rick Scott beat Alex Sink by 60,000 votes out of 5,100,000 votes cast. In 2014, Scott beat Crist by 64,000 votes out of 5,660,000. In 2018, turnout jumped to 8,020,000, and Gillum lost to DeSantis by 33,000.
Obviously, turnout will be key. If Florida Democrats are similar to those I see in Virginia, they’ll probably come out in force. Republicans might not. Joel Ossoff won his Georgia runoff when the Republican dropoff from the November election doubled that of the Democrats. Will the trump bump of last year turn into a post-trump slump? Statewide races in Florida, Georgia, and elswhere will tell the tale.
zhena gogolia
@scav:
win
feebog
@bemused senior:
Fellow California senior here. The wife and I got our second shots (Pfizer) yesterday at Magic Mountain (LA County megasite). Most mega sites are doing all second shots this week due to the shortage of vaccine. I’m hoping things open up for the next stage by the first week in March. It all depends on the vaccine pipeline.
PaulWartenberg
@louc:
There is a solid Democratic organization in Florida but it’s overwhelmed by a successful gerrymandering effort since the 1990s by conservatives, and a lack of candidates that could generate statewide support for the Senate and Governor offices.
And like you’ve said, the Latino/Caribbean voting bloc in Florida is way different from the Latino voting blocs in Texas, California, and the Southwest. The Far Right has effectively painted Democrats in Florida as “Communists” in the Cuban/Venezuelan molds (Obama’s outreach efforts to open Cuba in 2014-2017 did not appeal to the anti-Castro crowds, for example).
Dems in Florida need to 1) appeal to more Latino voters, 2) continue their expanding outreach to the suburbs (especially in Central Florida), and 3) provide charismatic and effective candidates for Rubio’s Senate seat and the Governor’s office in 2022.
James E Powell
@MisterForkbeard:
Which makes her a perfect test of Trump’s ability to get people to vote for his chosen candidates. There is really no other reason to vote for her.
Winston
@Matt McIrvin: The main problem in Florida has been in nursing homes. The vast bulk of deaths are there and over 65. Most of the people I know who are over 65 have just stayed home and isolated. Including myself. The over 55 park where I live has totally shut down all activities, except for now as the snowbirds arrive and expect some things to happen, like pool which is sparsely attended anyway. But no bingo or shuffle or Friday night dances. I suspect it will continue to be that way until most of us get vaccinated. Under 55s don’t seem to be as affected. It’s a fact that 18% of the covid cases occur over 65 as well as 82% of deaths. Staying home is the smart thing to do.
Another Scott
ICYMI, driftglass on the birth and death of the Lincoln Project –
A taste:
It’s worth a click over.
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): Oh screw “Gillum’s unfulfilled promise”! He won a jungle primary by less than 3 points in a crowded field over Bob Graham’s daughter and mostly on the backs of Bernie Bros (who apparently didn’t care about his various ethics issues). Then, he ran a hard left campaign that narrowly lost to DeSantis when a more centrist campaign might have won. And then, he managed to get caught in a meth-fueled gay orgy. He is exactly the sort of candidate I expect Progressives to shove in our faces as a way to throw winnable races to the GQP in the interests of “purity.”
Uncle Cosmo
@burnspbesq: Consider changing your nym to Dog Grammarskjöld.
cope
@danielx: And don’t forget my favorite chestnut, “DeSantis is too stupid to pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions are written on the bottom”.
Ken
@Uncle Cosmo: Applause, although I suspect you have to be over 60 to get the joke. Fortunately that includes a good portion of the BJ commentariat.
WaterGirl
@Winston: I edited your comment to correct the name. I can undo that if you want, but I thought it might be helpful.
prufrock
@Betty Cracker: I was certain that Buckhorn was going to run in 2018, and I still don’t know why he didn’t.
Geminid
@Another Scott: The Lincoln Project crack up has spilled over into the Israeli parliamentary elections. Likud defector Gideon Saar had hired them to bash Netanyahu on behalf of Saar’s New Hope party. But after catching much recent flak, Saar told interviewers yesterday that he had parted ways with Rick Wilson and friends. The Israeli election will be March 23. Polling indicates that it will likely be as inconclusive as the last three.
Geminid
@cope: I read that after his public inauguration as Governor, DeSantis had a private ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in which a preacher anointed him with oil. Like he was some Hebrew king in the Old Testament.
West of the Rockies
Christ, Republicans adore the most objectively unlikable people: Trump, Palin, Gaetz, Jordan, DeSantis, Hawley…
If someone is mean and stupid, Republicans wet themselves.
Sm*t Cl*de
That was how Draco the Athenian law-giver died.
James E Powell
@Another Scott:
driftglass remarks that:
It’s pretty clear that the Lincoln Project had close to zero influence with voters, but I think they did have impact on the Beltway Courtiers. The LP’s aggressive mockery & skewering of Trump & his people kept the Beltway Courtiers amused and focused on Trump. This meant that we didn’t get the expected torrent of overheated objections to Biden’s food choices, Harris’s wardrobe, or the like. The LP’s shaming kept the Beltway’s tendency to worship right-wing authority at bay
ETA – There is no question that they are all assholes.
Betty Cracker
@Citizen Alan: I voted for Graham in the primary. It’s unknowable if she would have beat DeSantis in the general, but I suspect she would have, given how close the race was. Le sigh. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to characterize Gillum’s flame-out as a progressives vs. centrists issue. I think the corruption allegations (which weren’t wholly unwarranted but deliberately and possibly corruptly played up by Republicans) hurt Gillum more than his support for M4A. He wasn’t a Bernie Bro and was in fact a Hillary Clinton operative in 2016. And of course you have to factor in racism too.
@Another Scott: Do we know that credulous liberals are the ones who enriched LP? It’s assumed in that post, but I don’t know if it’s true. I figured most of their money came from anti-shitgibbon Repubs. Most Repubs fell for Turnip, of course, but there are enough who hate him to fund an anti-shitgibbon PAC.
I don’t think we should have to apologize for finding some of the LP people entertaining as long as we know who they are. I never sent them a dime and never would, but so what if they’re on TV?
John S.
@Geminid: Turnout is key here in Florida, and as you point out, the GQP has not been winning by huge margins. The 800 pound gorilla is get the fucking voting rights of convicted felons restored.
We voted for it, the GQP in the state overturned the will of the voters, and now it’s caught in limbo as Schrodinger’s Poll Tax. It must be resolved before the 2022 election.
John S.
@Betty Cracker: I voted for Graham in the primary as well for similar reasons. All our worst fears came true about Gillum, and he still came really close. My biggest gripe about Gillum is that he disappeared after the election. He just took his ball and went home.
Thats what makes Stacey Abrams so remarkable. She lost a close election (same as Gillum) and then went out and mobilized, energized and did something good to change the outcome the next time around.
Andrew Gillum is no Stacey Abrams.
Betty Cracker
@PaulWartenberg: There are many solid county organizations, and there are outreach groups that do great work, but the state party leadership has mostly been a shit-show since the mid-1990s, IMO. What I wouldn’t give for a Sunshine State version of Ben Wikler!
Mo Salad
@Matt McIrvin:
…and used much more public transportation.
…and had a much higher population density.
…and served as the nation’s main airport hub with Europe, etc.
Bill Arnold
@danielx:
Or, when appropriate, “I wouldn’t piss on your leg if your pants were on fire.”
Since nobody else (here) has said it.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: I think driftglass’s peeve is mainly that the LP folks crowded out liberal viewpoints. It’s the old “It’s a club and you’re not in it” stuff. There are only so many available hours on the TV “news” shows and LP sucking up oxygen means someone else isn’t. In that sense, he’s got a point.
But there’s no guarantee that If Not-LP Then Liberal, of course.
I like that he continues to remind the powers-that-be who schedule these programs and pick the host and the guests that people are watching what they do. That just about everyone has an easily searchable history these days and that while entertaining ads are entertaining, policy matters.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
Exactly. And I am fed up beyond words with this shit. Politico and its even worse spinoff, Axios, are in a league of their own, of course, but even more traditional media are too willing to cover the next horse race, even when it’s years away, at the expense of covering policy in the here and now.
I remember the exact moment when this became too much for me. Sunday, November 12, 2006. Five days earlier, the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections. I pulled the Outlook section out of the Sunday WaPo, expecting a good deal of discussion about how the next two years were going to play out with a Democratic Congress and a Republican President – what the Dems might pass, what Dubya might be willing to agree with, yada yada. (Of course, we know now that in 2007, Mitch McConnell started routinely filibustering everything, so that Bush would never have to even threaten to veto anything. But I digress.)
Instead, the front page of the Outlook section was dedicated to…you guessed it, the coming battle between Hillary and Obama for the 2008 Democratic nomination. They couldn’t even spare one Sunday to anticipate what changes the newly elected Congress would make; they had to jump straight to the next big horse race.
More than fourteen years later, it pisses me off more than ever. People actually care about policy, at least when it involves possible changes that might make a difference in their lives. And of course, most of the policies being proposed by Biden would do exactly that. People need to know what’s being proposed, who’s trying to pass it, who’s trying to block it, and why. But when the media are spending time on horse race coverage, or the bogus issue du jour, it leaves less bandwidth to talk about policies. And when people don’t know what’s happening and what’s at stake, that weakens our democracy.
Booger
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Having recently jumped on this particular bandwagon, I’d second Mary Berry as infinitely more pleasant as a host. Unfortunately, she didn’t cotton to Paul H. cheating on his wife with one of the producers, and it caused quite a rupture between them. She wouldn’t work with him again.
Betty Cracker
@John S.: Gillum did start a voter registration org after the election, but it never gained much traction, probably because he was still mired in the ethics mini-scandal that likely gave DeSantis the decisive edge. He ended up paying a fine to make it go away while proclaiming his innocence, but frankly, the behavior that got him in trouble was awfully hinky, and that’s not the footing from which you want to start a nonprofit where you’re asking for donations.
Then there was the hotel thing. I don’t give a shit what people do in their personal lives as long as they don’t do something so indiscreet and mind-blowingly stupid that it fucks the party over. Well, he fucked the party over. I hope he gets his shit together and has a happy, productive life…far away from FL politics.
Betty Cracker
@Booger: Ree-hee-heeely?!? How did I not get wind of this until now? I did hear that Hollywood was boinking a staffer AND that he had a thing with one of the contest winners (Candace — the lady with the adorable Cockney accent), but I didn’t know he and Mary had a falling out over it. :)
Bill Arnold
@James E Powell:
They also increased (this was one of their goals) the number of unforced errors by Trump and the Trump administration and the Trump re-election team. (IMO – very difficult to prove, yes.)
Geminid
@louc: The trump campaign may have wasted and grifted a lot of the billion plus dollars it raised for the 2020 election, but it did wage an effective propaganda campaign through social media microtargeting. This was how they won in 2016, and they never stopped. Observers warned of the effectiveness of these efforts in reaching Spanish speaking Floridians. But the Democrats did not counter until the fall, and by then it was too late. This was partly because the Biden campaign did not raise much money until late summer. But I think Democrats understand the power of social media targeting now, and hopefully will not be outfought in this area in upcoming elections.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
Editors have long concluded that the average reader doesn’t care about policy stories. They may be partly right. But it becomes a self-fulling thing. They don’t bother to serve the stories up, so they can’t test the idea that this is not what people want.
Also, I don’t know how many reporters are really good at digging in to policy stories.
Not entirely true. There is some good in-depth coverage. It is just hard to find. And there is plenty of room for more.
A lot of people take democracy for granted. And a good chunk of the media is happy to be just part of the Establishment. They don’t even particularly care who is in charge. They see themselves as part of the permanent government.
And sadly, we are seeing that a good chunk of citizens have tired of democracy, if it means really being inclusive.
Dan B
@Ken: Prince Phillip was involved with initiatives on Climate Crisis. He’s not completely useless. But that doesn’t make one molecule of me supportive of monarchy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: The O’Bros– with whom I also have some issues in spite of being a faithful listener– pointed out pretty early on that the LP ads were tailor-made for people who already despised trump. I had hoped they might have some influence on Senate races, but I doubt they did, and the case of Susan Collins pretty much confirms it.
I don’t read drift glass enough these days to know whose voices he thinks were crowded out, and my TV media bubble is pretty narrow (MSNBC) but there’s no question that Rick Wilson makes for better television than most pundits and… let’s just say I flip the channel or FF through a lot Chris Hayes’ guests.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
This is creepy in so many ways. Also clearly shows that Republicans don’t have time for any of that “separation of church and state” stuff.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The first open Furry candidate.
waspuppet
@Baud: Yeah I first heard it in the 70s. But he didn’t even say it right. Or maybe he said it the way he wanted to but …
PST
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, but it’s not just that. I think MSNBC feels a need to present some kind of balance of views, and that we should therefore be glad that it was able to meet that perceived need mostly with Lincoln Project types and other Never-Trumpers. I see plenty of good, solid liberals on that network, and did all along, so my conclusion is that it was other Republicans and conservatives who were crowded out. What’s more, some of those people are interesting, and by that I mean more than just mean and funny like Rick Wilson (although that has its place). I wouldn’t want to be in a political party with David Frum or Michael Steele, but their commentary can be thought provoking. Frum in particular has had insights I appreciate, more in his Atlantic pieces that on the air. I honestly think some of the neocons like Frum, Rubin, and Boot have been permanently changed by the Trump experience, not least by the clear antisemitism of the MAGAts, but even if I’m naive and wrong I’m glad that at least for a while they were inside the tent pissing out. In any event, no one I know ever contributed one cent to the Lincoln Project, and I doubt many liberals ever did. Whenever my friends and I saw a particularly enjoyable ad and someone said let’s throw them a few bucks, the immediate reaction was, “Nah, those bastards have plenty of money.” In an election marked by incredible turnout all across the board, I can’t accept driftglass’s conclusion that an increase in Trump and related turnout proves that LP failed. And while it is impossible to say how much good they did, I liked the fact that someone was available to make the kind of ads that the Biden campaign couldn’t given its wise decisions about how his image should be managed.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
100% correct and on top of that, they do it for 2 reasons. First, the effort/cost is less, second, that allows them to say look here, dems don’t do shit.
Cameron
So..that ‘whiz on the leg’ thing was some kind of code to Trump, like, “golden showers for real, dude? I’m so there!”
Cameron
@satby: “His eyes smoldered as he saucily tossed one strap off his…ear.” No.
sab
@satby: LOL. No wonder they are so stridently against masks. I bet they are uncomfortable when worn sideways.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I’m not a native Floridian – are there any specific issues you see that might be winners? I find the fact that the major state funding comes from sales taxes to be obscene – those are the most regressive taxes of all. The refusal to expand Medicare, even in a pandemic. The insane desire to fund public/private (emphasis on private) highways to nowhere while in the middle of a budget crisis. WTF resonates with Florida voters? WTF does it take? Florida voters wanted to give ex-cons the right to vote, and expressed that desire pretty strongly. State overrode them. So much for the will of the people. Will admit my friends down here are all relatively new arrivals from elsewhere, so we’re kinda clueless.
Mart
@Cameron: I am a bit of a hater of people not wearing their mask correctly. Looks like DeSantis has a precious N95 mask, where both straps are supposed to be affixed around the head over and under the ears. Not hooked on ears.
ETA – He also failed to form the nose clip which assures that the mask is sealed & will pass a fit test.
mrmoshpotato
Ummm? What? Huh?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: um… The Rainbow Stars & Blue Lives Matter Bars?
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If that’s what you want to call it. :)
My brain is still going “Ummmm…..what??”
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: It’s such a complex and diverse state that there are no easy answers. Possibly a recreational marijuana ballot initiative could juice left-leaning turnout. As someone said further up the thread, we need to counter GOP social media lies about socialism more effectively in South FL and do a better job with turnout overall. DeSantis and Rubio are vulnerable on multiple issues, but we have to find candidates who can challenge them effectively. Nikki Fried would not be the right person, IMO, nor would a former Republican retread like Crist. But with Trump out of the way, I think we’ll be back to razor-thin margins, so the state is winnable.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Log Cabin Republican flag.
Bostondreams
This will never go away. The Powers that Be in Florida would give up air conditioning before allowing an income tax.
Cameron
@Bostondreams: Totally agree, but that’s not what I want – I’m a Georgist, so I favor land value taxation. Of course, anything that smacks of ‘property tax,’ which LVT isn’t exactly, would provoke the same paroxysms of outrage as the idea of income tax. I think it would be great for Florida (even for the rich!), but doubt it would go anywhere. I might as well chase it, though – I’m old enough and deluded enough to do the Don Quixote thing.