Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The revolution will be supervised.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

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

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You are here: Home / Politics / Education / Repub ‘Silliness’ Open Thread: Voter Fraud Integrity Begins At Home

Repub ‘Silliness’ Open Thread: Voter Fraud Integrity Begins At Home

by | 93 Comments

This post is in: , ,

As a devout Cynic, I hope this is true! HBS-educated multi-millionaire Glenn Youngkin isn’t used to being challenged — with any luck, the media mudlarks who didn’t care about his background while he was simply ‘Not That McAuliffe Guy’ will discover it’s fun to push Youngkin’s buttons for a change.

Youngkin’s running around, taking victory laps, announcing at the top of his lungs that Virginia will be “open for business“ — no more ‘burdensome’ pandemic-related restrictions once he’s in the governor’s chair!

(May Murphy the Trickster God have mercy on your souls, sane Virginians… )

But, still: trying to vote illegally *once* is an honest error, but trying it *twice* in an hour veers into ‘deliberate attempt at fraud’ territory. If Junior Youngkin is a wannabe James O’Keefe, the world and his daddy’s constituents should know sooner rather than later.


Reader Interactions

93Comments

  2. 2.

    Jeffro

    These are all clever takes/tweets, but really only useful if the Ds want to get organized and beat on the media about how HMMM all the election fraud turns out to be from Rs.

    Or to beat on Youngkin, for being so…testy…despite his mild-mannered fleece-sportin’ manner.

    Otherwise, let’s all have a quick laugh and move on.

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    We lived in Virginia when the governor was George “Macaca” Allen. What an asshole. How did he fail to be hired by Trump?

  6. 6.

    debbie

    He is frustrated that the media is paying so much attention to this.

    Oh, the fun is just beginning, Glennie.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    “Every accusation is a confession” – it’s not just an aphorism.

    The Virginia election results were certified today.  There are 2 close races (< 0.5%) in the House of Delegates that may go to a recount.  So instead of todays results being 52 GQP: 48 D, there’s a chance it might go to 51:49 or even 50:50.  The two Democrats have 10 days to decide whether to request the recounts or not (IIRC).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  8. 8.

    bbleh

    Yes, well, when it’s a Democrat it’s criminal fraud, but when it’s a Republican it’s just harmless hijinx.

    What’s depressing is that the MSM buy into this so seamlessly …

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    I mostly don’t care about the son. I might care more if Youngkin interferes with any investigation.

    I regret that dopes in the state voted for a plutocrat with no political experience. Open for business. Jeez, this stale bullshit again. We gonna run gummit like a business. Into the ground.

    Who are the experienced politicians in the state who will play power games with Youngkin?

  10. 10.

    Martin

    #10 “Contempt for the Weak”, which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    My profound question on the news of the day – was Bannon wearing three shirts and a jacket? Or two shirts and two jackets?

  14. 14.

    Redshift

    (May Murphy the Trickster God have mercy on your souls, sane Virginians… )

    Yeah, it’s gonna suck. I’m not too concerned in relation to COVID, because we do not actually have any “burdensome pandemic-related regulations” at the state level right now, and major population centers are run by Democrats who are focused on real pandemic response. But in other areas, it will definitely suck.

  15. 15.

    RaflW

    Oh, lordy.
    “@peterbakernyt Out tomorrow: ‘Betrayal’ by jonkarl, one of the smartest books I’ve read about the Trump White House by one of the smartest White House correspondents we have. Lots of great reporting and insight.”

    The GOP operatives are lining up, as was predicted right here on this top 10,000 blog a couple days ago.
    Gack.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    @JoyceH: Bannon was wearing two shirts and a jacket when he turned himself in to the FBI, on condition that he not have to take a shower.

  24. 24.

    zhena gogolia

    I love the way he says, “I know my son really well.” As if there were some question about that? I guess he’s thinking of TFG and Byron or Brandon or whatever his name is. Barron, I guess.

  25. 25.

    Dan B

    @JoyceH: I saw a photo of Bannon in his early twenties.  He was very good looking.  How far he has fallen.  Is this from poor genes or from bad behavior?

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    After I voted at my western Greene County precinct, I stopped by a table where a friendly Republican lady was handing out literature. I passed on a bumper sticker, but accepted a folder with a plastic card inside that said, Member: Youngkin Election Integrity Task Force. “It will be a good souvenir for when he’s Governor,” she said, “or maybe even President.” She seemed a little star struck by him.

  33. 33.

    phdesmond

    jayapal is on larry o’donnell.  she’s talking about seattle and how much money it’s going to get.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: Ah, I remember all the Next Presidents of 2008-2016! Including Georgia’s own Bob McDonnell (sp?). Chris Christie still things he can get there; Marco Rubio (The Savior!) I think is in a Lindsey Graham-like “relevance” lane; Bobby Jindal has pretty much vanished. Myself, I thought Cory Gardner had it in him to be another  GW Bush. I’m sure there were others

  36. 36.

    mrmoshpotato

    Glenn Youngkin responds to reports of his 17 year old son trying to vote. He is frustrated that the media is paying so much attention to this.

    Awwwwww…….fuck ‘im!

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: gah! don’t know how I screwed that up. I still remember his response to Obama’s SOTU. Some highly questionable used of state troopers and National Guard members as props.

  39. 39.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: My favorite uncle was sure Bob Dole would run and be elected president — please note, he wasn’t looking forward to this and was happy to have only been half right.

    I always think back to this memory whenever people get too excited about their political predictions. For one, I lose no sleep over who may or may not run in 2024. I’m saving any worrying for 2024.

  40. 40.

    Yutsano

    @Another Scott: I will be forever grateful that we were spared Governor Dino Rossi. Even though it took three recounts for that to happen.

    EDIT: I’m sorry for the possible trauma here Washington peeps. But since he couldn’t get elected to anything after that life worked out.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    “I know my son really well.”

    Well, I don’t know him but I don’t believe he mistakenly attempted to vote twice. I think he was trying to catch the pollworkers accepting a fraudulent vote.
    Twice? Come on.

  42. 42.

    JustRuss

    @Redshift:we do not actually have any “burdensome pandemic-related regulations” at the state level right now, and major population centers are run by Democrats who are focused on real pandemic response

    Not to harsh your mellow, but I believe Texas and Florida have shown that governors have a lot of leverage to screw with local mitigation efforts.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    Let’s have a round of applause for the alert (and underpaid) pollworkers who foiled the governor’s son’s plot to ensnare them in a voter fraud sting.

    Good work.

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think you spelled McDonnell right but I bet you meant Virginia not Georgia.

    I don’t know about Youngkin’s national ambitions, but that lady and a lot like her are really grateful to him. A year ago the traditional and radical wings of that party were feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys. Youngkin came along, spread his money around, and now it’s like one big happy family. The hardest-right people worry that Youngkin may be a secret squish, but for now they are happy to at least be on the winning side.

  45. 45.

    Dan B

    @Yutsano: Trauma about Dino Rossi has faded because WA turned very blue about the time Rossi was running.  Now we’ve got Inslee making himself known on many places plus Pramila taking a prime leadership role nationally.  She’s put Patti and Maria in the background in how many months?

  47. 47.

    randy khan

    @JustRuss:

    I do fear that Youngkin will try to override local rules.  But I also think that in northern Virginia social pressure will be a bigger factor than anything Youngkin can do.  Businesses here know that being lax will drive customers away.

    Not to mention that if Youngkin wants to drive up D turnout in 2023, all he has to do is govern like a standard Republican.

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    Do you worry about his “Voter Integrity Commission” he wants to create? I understand that the VA Senate is still in D hands but if it switches to GQP in 2023….

    Well, that would mean the state legislature AND the governor’s mansion is in GOP hands in time for 2024

  51. 51.

    phdesmond

    @phdesmond:

    caption to pic:

    Jesse Jackson attends an International Conference ‘Is #Auschwitz only Sleeping?’ during the celebration of European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in Krakow, Poland on 5 July, 2019. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t know how serious Youngkin is about his “Task Force.” I figured it was a way to keep the trumpers on his side.

    As for the 2023 races, I’d be worried if I thought there was a strong Republican tide flowing, but I don’t see it yet. I still look at Virginia as a a D+5 state notwithstanding the recent result. The 2023 House of Delegates races will be run on a new, more neutral map, while Republicans barely eked out a 52-48 this year on a map that they drew in 2011. That map produced a 65-35 Republican majority going into the 2017 election. So I think Democrats will hold the Senate and retake the House in two years.

  59. 59.

    Yutsano

    @Dan B: I saw a map recently that showed that Spokane (to my surprise) votes fairly blue. I’m trying to square that with the fact that between there and Pullman the odious Cathy McMorris-Rodgers still keeps getting elected. I hope someone finally manages to kick her out. I also hope someone follows her around with a sign at every single infrastructure project she tries to take credit for that she voted no on the bill that made these possible.

    I hope our esteemed colleague H.E. Wolf can give me some hope here. I know in my district whoever wins the Republican primary will win the district.

  60. 60.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    Thanks for your insight. I guess the fact that the VA governor can’t serve consecutive terms is sort of a blessing here with Youngkin, but man it would’ve been nice for Northam to have run again, not to knock Terry McAufflie, though my impression of him from others is that he focused too much on comparing Youngkin to Trump. Do you think he would’ve won against Youngkin?

  62. 62.

    bjacques

    Ugh, fellow Rice Mech E grad. At least he was a few years after my time and not from my residential college.

  63. 63.

    L85NJGT

    Selling off the DC hotel.

    Someone asked me “where is he living now?” I thought maybe the club in NJ? It’s an oddly itinerant lifestyle. Sycophants and hangers-on all the way down.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @L85NJGT

    Able to tack on a premium to the selling price since the new de facto landlord is some competent, detail oriented guy named Joe.

    ;)

  69. 69.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @NotMax: i completely forgot Walker ran. I was just thinking of him the other day and wondering  whether he appointed the nutty judge in Rittenhouse’s trial.

    Also Tim Pawlenty but I don’t think he even made it to the debates.

  71. 71.

    Edmund Dantes

    It’s so weird how quick people are to just pass it off as “no crime was committed”.

    It’s fucking bullshit to watch a bunch of pundits and others just go “oh well, boys will be boys” basically to something that has been and will be prosecuted as a crime in the future.

    I’m sure the celestial referee will take this magnanimous gesture into consideration the next time the Dem’s need an intervention.

    GJGE

  74. 74.

    Benw

    @Kay: Yes!

    (1) firstly, Republicans like this kid don’t know how anything works. If the polls are anything like ours in NYS, there’s no way that kid was going to “trick” anyone into letting him vote. That’s fantasy land

    (2) thirdly, and lastly, why is someone committing voter fraud the fault of the poll workers!? That’s a weird framing. I look forward to putting Walgreen’s clerks in jail when a Republican commits a shoplifting on them, proving the clerk is a criminal.

    (3) finally, the shittiest part about working the last election, was the number of Republicans who, while being successfully checked in to vote, berated us about what a shitty job we were doing checking people in to vote because of “fraud”. My standard response was, “a photo ID is not required to be a citizen of this country,” which really pissed them off

    ETA: I don’t think you’re doing the weird framing in point 2. I’m curious why the media has bought into the whole stupid narrative of “doing voter fraud proves poll workers are the real criminals”. Generic punching down, I guess?

  76. 76.

    opiejeanne

    @Yutsano: Dino Rossi filled Andy Hill’s seat, appointed after the death of Hill. He didn’t run in the following election and we got the lovely Manka Dhingra, whose election broke the stalemate in the state senate.  Several bills that had bipartisan support were finally passed the week after her election, because the Democrats now had the majority.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @randy khan:

    Businesses here know that being lax will drive customers away.

    Which is why in Texas and Florida, they make it legally mandatory to be lax. Competition doesn’t matter if the cops will shut you down.

  78. 78.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    After I voted at my western Greene County precinct, I stopped by a table where a friendly Republican lady was handing out literature. I passed on a bumper sticker, but accepted a folder with a plastic card inside that said, Member: Youngkin Election Integrity Task Force.

    I’m sure she’s right on the case.

    Seriously, how does this guy, who was running for VA Governor at the time and is now Gov-elect, fail to explain to his own son that you’ve got to be EIGHTEEN to vote in a general election.  And you’ve got to REGISTER TO VOTE first.  (Which is the point where the kid would have found out he couldn’t legally register yet.)

    And once you’ve registered, they’ll tell you WHERE you vote; you can’t just go to some random voting location and vote there.

    If some random dad had failed to explain this to his kid, that would have been one thing.  But when you’re running for Governor?!

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think Northam and the Democratic Delegates had a good record to run on: a well run state with a budget solidly in the black; a good record on women’s reproductive rights; modest, popular gun safety measures; stable economic growth. Ideologically, Northam is not very different than McAuliffe (or Senators Kaine and Warner, for that matter) but he comes across as more authentic. So yeah, I think Northam would have beaten Youngkin.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: I think the likely explaination is that young Youngkin knew he was not eligible, and was trying to prove lax voting security. Some people get politicized at an early age now, and he might be one of them. He’s probably looking forward to attending Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA gatherings.

  81. 81.

    germy

    Anatomy of a media hit job: The corporate media goes after VP Harris. These headlines are all from last 24 hours smearing VP Harris. It almost feels coordinated…is it? Or is it a coincidence? The fear of a strong Black woman runs deep with the "old guard" of the media. pic.twitter.com/Bxk2KWHbTs

    — (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) November 15, 2021

  82. 82.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    @lowtechcyclist: I think the likely explaination is that young Youngkin knew he was not eligible, and was trying to prove lax voting security. Some people get politicized at an early age now, and he might be one of them.

    You’re probably right, but I’m willing to take Youngkin’s explanation at face value, because it’s a total fail, right at the junction of his roles as a parent and a politician.

    I’m sure neither Youngkin will admit anytime soon to the kid trying to entrap poll workers, so no point hammering on that.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @Benw: I think some Republicans believe that poll workers are Democrats who are in on and actively promoting the fraud. Thus the idea that poll workers are the criminals. It’s constant victimhood.

  85. 85.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: Last week I joked that Old Youngkin “grounded” Young Youngkin for this stunt. More seriously, Youngkin probably told his son, “Do NOT give interviews, or talk about this on social media, or I’ll suspend your phone service. Then if you want a phone, you’ll have to get a JOB!”

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    It is just reliably funny that when they win the fraud claims disappear. The Republican won! We’re back to legitimate elections! Do normies notice this? How do they square it with the claims?

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Yeah, it’s such obvious BS.  “TFG was a victim of the greatest election fraud ever!!  (But I was on the same ballot and won and everything was fine for me.  No problem there!)”

    ¯\(°_o)/¯

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I think he was trying to catch the pollworkers accepting a fraudulent vote.

    And if he hasn’t already tried to play it that way to the MSM, he will. I guess I’m a little amazed that Youngkin pere hasn’t already done so.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    @SFAW: It’s a better move for the Youngkin family to deny wrongful intent. Youngkin is a shrewd man, and is playing to a wider audience that the the “stop-the-steal” people.

  92. 92.

    Shana

    @Kay: I think there are a few things going on here wrt Youngkin’s son trying to vote.

    1. In VA 17 yos can vote in a primary if they will be 18 by Election Day.
    2. All Fairfax Co. public schools require a civics-related class for seniors, which I assume the kid is. They ALL make sure to cover registration (and have forms in class for those kids) in plenty of time for kids to register before election deadlines. However, Youngkin the Younger goes to a private school – which I know since the public schools are always closed the Monday and Tuesday of Election week since we have elections every year and most schools are polling places – and he went on to school afterwards. The private school near my house didn’t make any effort to teach their seniors any of this stuff.
    3. How remiss is Glen that throughout this whole campaign he never had a conversation with his almost eligible to vote son about registering and where to vote and the various rules associated with voting? Pretty damned remiss in my opinion.

Comments are closed.