New this morning for @POLITICO and @POLITICOMag. https://t.co/2MINcDZEqJ
— Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse) August 5, 2022
If you haven’t yet read this whole article, it’s well worth doing so — even if is Politico:
… I’ve watched over the years countless candidates’ set-piece speeches — never, though, one that deliberately elevated a pedestrian piece of potential political pork into a nearly holy totem of American democracy. In a recent week of campaign events, official events and church events, it wasn’t the only time I saw him do this, and it always conjured something Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told me earlier this summer when he called to talk about Warnock: “There’s never been anybody like him in the United States Senate.”
Neither has there ever been a race like the race he’s running right now. Warnock, of course, is facing Herschel Walker, the former football player and University of Georgia star — not only pitting two Black men for a seat in the Senate, itself a matchup that is vanishingly rare, but two Black men who present a contrast that’s almost impossibly stark…
In 2020 and (in the run-off that extended into the first week of) 2021, Warnock won with the mantra to “remain the reverend” — a campaign that combined a faith-based social-justice heart with a careful prebutting of Republicans’ race-laced attempts to cast Warnock as radical by calibrating a benign look and vibe. He wore a puffer vest. He was in ads showing him walking a dog (that wasn’t his) on the sidewalks of identifiably suburban streets. He presented the even keel that’s been a Warnock hallmark from the time he was a teen.
This time, though, according to more than 50 interviews with officials, insiders and operatives from both parties and campaigns, Warnock is doing all that and then some — running in a way that’s every bit as disciplined but in a year that’s considerably more difficult. After earning by two points the last two years of the late Republican Johnny Isakson’s term, Warnock is a low-ranking member of an often stalemated, 50-50 Senate from a mostly riven, more-or-less 50-50 state. While continuing to push for voting rights even as Democrats’ signature bills have been stopped and stalled — the franchise has been the most elementally important issue for Warnock forever — his legislative efforts and accomplishments have focused on lowering the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs, investing in infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing, and prioritizing seniors, farmers, servicemembers and veterans and the lower- and middle-class Georgians he most conspicuously aims to serve. He talks about Covid relief in terms of “tax cuts.” He talks about other spending bills in terms of “jobs, jobs and jobs.” And he seldom so much as says the name Joe Biden — frustrating foes trying to tie him in ads to the deeply unpopular president. “He is a very gifted politician,” Stephen Lawson, the head of a pro-Walker Super PAC, told me — a compliment not necessarily meant to be. “We fully understand,” Lawson said, “that he’s going to be very difficult to unseat.”
More broadly, though, the way Warnock has operated in the last year and a half in the Senate as well as the way he’s vying now for a full six-year term are natural extensions of the tensions that have animated his life and his work — the “double-consciousness” of the Black church, as he describes it in the 2014 book drawn from his doctoral dissertation, the “complementary yet competing sensibilities” of “revivalistic piety and radical protest,” the saving of souls and the salvation of society, what King called “long white robes over yonder” and “a suit and some shoes to wear down here.” In strictly political terms, this tension and connection might be expressed as purity versus pragmatism. And for Warnock, ever the reverend, the balancing act between the high and the low, the eternal and the utterly quotidian, sometimes means taking a run-of-the-mill legislative compromise — one that doesn’t even allocate any actual money for the asphalt — and attempting to frame it as the apotheosis of our ongoing experiment of representative self-government…
The eleventh of 12 children, he grew up in Kayton Homes public housing in an apartment with four bedrooms, a single bathroom and a set of World Book encyclopedias. His parents were Pentecostal pastors, his father straining to make ends meet by selling to a steelyard old, abandoned cars — but, “thanks to the assistance of the federal government,” Warnock recalls, “my family never lived outdoors, we never went hungry, and I never missed out on an opportunity to learn.”…
… [F]rom what is one of the country’s most important pulpits, Warnock has spoken out against voter suppression, the war in Iraq, the overincarceration of Americans but especially Black Americans, and the death penalty — “state-sanctioned murder,” in his words, and “the final fail-safe of white supremacy.” He wore a hoodie in the pulpit after the killing of Trayvon Martin. He was arrested at the state Capitol and again at the U.S. Capitol protesting for access to affordable health care. He hosted an interfaith meeting on climate change with former Vice President Al Gore. He was the spokesman and then the chair of Stacey Abrams’ New Georgia Project…
Warnock formally introduced himself to his new colleagues in his maiden speech in March of last year. The eleventh Black United States senator ever, he told them he has a seat that was held when he was born by a staunch segregationist. He told them his mother who “used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls in January and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator.”
The speech is worth reading or watching or listening to in full, but Warnock landed hardest on the right to vote. “The right to vote is preservative of all other rights. It is not just another issue alongside other issues,” he said. “This issue — access to voting and preempting politicians’ efforts to restrict voting — is so fundamental to our democracy that it is too important to be held hostage by a Senate rule, especially one historically used to restrict the expansion of voting rights” — the filibuster. He called democracy “the political enactment of a spiritual idea: the sacred worth of all human beings, the notion that we all have within us a spark of the divine and a right to participate in the shaping of our destiny,” he said. He conjured the image of John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Bloody Sunday beatings. “And we in this body would be stopped and stymied by partisan politics? Short-term political gain? Senate procedure?”…
What Warnock’s done, though, is what he can, and also what is pretty much politically necessary in a hard cycle in a purple state. He’s focused most on nuts-and-bolts problems like supply chain issues and shortages of semiconductor chips and other “kitchen-table” concerns. As a member of the Agriculture Committee, the Commerce Committee, the Banking Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging, he’s zeroed in on gas prices and the cost of prescription drugs and has positioned himself as a champion of the recently passed CHIPS and jobs and competition bills. At times bucking the Biden administration, he’s pushed for more student debt relief and teamed with Republican congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia to prevent the closure of a military facility in Savannah, with Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama to try to help the peanut farmers of Georgia and with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to earn increased funding to try to reduce maternal mortality. He has been measurably one of the more bipartisan members of the Senate.
“He is clearly trying to play this moderate role,” said Lawson, the head of a pro-Walker Super PAC. “But he’s still sort of lockstep with Biden and is seen that way. I mean, I think his voting record with Biden is over 95 percent.” It’s 96.2…
And then, of course, there’s his opponent… a former football star / ‘troubled individual’ imported from Texas by the GOP in hopes of exceeding the Crazification Factor:
Herschel tonight: “It’s time that we had leaders in Washington that gonna make the right leader for you. Because we brought people to the table, but all they’ve done at the table is just sit there. They haven’t moved the stick at all.” pic.twitter.com/ndm3siNdq2
— Ron Filipkowski ???? (@RonFilipkowski) August 18, 2022
This is really disgusting. On so many levels. Herschel is a terrible candidate, appears to be a bad guy too, but this blatant exploitation reeks to high heaven, as well. Painful to watch.
— Don Lewis (@DonLew87) August 17, 2022
Nothing much to see here
Just two good buddies, Rudy Giuliani and Herschel Walker, hanging out in September 2020 chatting about insurrections a few months before an insurrection ?? pic.twitter.com/Ze9KyQLCsc
— Qondi (@QondiNtini) August 18, 2022
No one is better at raising money for Raphael Warnock than Herschel Walker.
— BluePartyGuy???? (@IsMyHandleOk) August 18, 2022
War for Ukraine Day 176: Ukrainian Military Intelligence Issues a Warning Regarding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Ken
The parallels to the 2004 Obama/Keyes senate race are striking. One little-mentioned effect of this will be to give us an updated measure of the crazification factor.
stacib
@Ken: As clueless as Keyes was, I think Herschel actually has him beat in the saying stupid shit department. But, yeah, the GA race does kinda remind you of that race.
Elizabelle
@Ken: Good point re the crazification factor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@stacib: Keyes was nuts, but a kind of political nuts we’re more or less used to. Walker is .. well I”m not a doctor so I’ll just way, it’s concerning.
I’d say Georgia is pretty purple, and Illinois is probably bluer than it was in ’04, but Obama definitely had a friendlier terrain over all than Warnock. This race shouldn’t be close
ETA: Keyes really faded after that race. Sometimes they do go away. Bay Buchanan is selling real estate. So I guess there are limits to wing nut welfare
WaterGirl
@stacib: Except that there’s so much more at stake here. This is not the same Republican party.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I agree. This race isn’t about the caliber or worthiness if the candidates. It’s pure party, Republicans vs. Democrats. Good vs. evil. Democracy vs. Authoritarianism. It’s like a death match for the soul of America.
It’s distressing that it’s this close.
Ramona
I do hope that Warnock’s few points over of Walker in current polls turns into a gaping chasm in November’s election.
RaflW
That Noem video has all the warmth and authenticity of a late night hair-growth supplement endorsement. I suppose it might appeal to a certain skittish southern white woman who just generally doesn’t, y’know, vote for people quite exactly like that Mistah Walker there (not that she has other options but to skip the ballot line or stay home, but either of those are disaster for the GOP).
SpaceUnit
Herschel Walker’s campaign managers would have to be stupid or insane to allow him to debate Senator Warnock on live television. Obviously the good news is that Herschel’s campaign staff are probably all stupid and insane.
RaflW
I read a nice little piece in the New Yorker this evening that said there’s some reason for optimism. It very genteelly poked at the CW merchants like Amy Walter. Those folks all think inflation and even gas prices will be determinate.
I’m not so sure.
And there is good economic news. Frequently.
Like, this: Minnesota had a blockbuster July with the addition of 19,100 jobs while its unemployment rate held steady at a historic low of 1.8% (star tribune)
bbleh
A major part of Trump’s 2016 victory was his 15+ years on TV, playing a role that was commensurate with his personality and loosely connected to reality. Most of what a large fraction — perhaps even the majority — of his supporters thought they knew was mostly or entirely formed by his TV role.
The Republicans are attempting to replicate that with Walker (and also Oz, but that’s a separate matter). The thinking is that most voters won’t know much at all about his campaign, his positions (such as he has) or his capabilities (ditto and equally minimal). They’re betting on his celebrity and the ‘R’ after his name. I would guess they’d prefer he never opened his mouth in public.
We’ll see whether the combination of voter ignorance, negative campaigning, and Republican sabotage of election administration will be enough to pull him through. At this point, I’d call it a coin-flip. (And yeah I know what Cook said, but that assumes fair administration.)
SpaceUnit
@RaflW:
I’m feeling optimistic as well.
And it’s not really in my nature.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team
@Ramona: from your lips to God’s ear 🙏🏻
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team
I wish Manchin and Sinema would surprise us with a filibuster carve out for voting rights.
After IRA I don’t mind risking disappointment. That was really a freaking miracle.
Ramona
@Ramona:
@AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team: Amen!
But I agree with the poster who said that such a slim lead in the polls is distressing given the discrepancy in character between Warnock and Walker.
Origuy
Musical diversion
Don’t Stop Believing with three female bagpipers
Amir Khalid
@SpaceUnit:
On the other hand, it seems to me that debate performance has much less effect on a candidate’s popularity compared to their opponent’s, than it does on morale among their own supporters. Hillary outclassed TFG in their debates, but didn’t win over any significant number of TFG’s voters. Similarly, Democratic voters will enjoy seeing the obvious contrast between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, but I don’t see it shifting votes from Walker to Warnock.
Another Scott
@RaflW: Thanks for the pointer. From the cited Susan Glasser piece at the NewYorker:
I think he’s right. TFG has been and continues to be a disaster for them. But, as we know, wounded animals are dangerous…
Remember the 2017 Women’s March (the day after TFG was sworn in)? People – especially women – saw – and continue to see – the threat. Kansas tells us that, also too.
We haven’t seen motivation like this in a long time in American politics. Maybe the 2003 Iraq War protests were larger, but it took longer for that sentiment to have political effect (Kerry lost in 2004). Maybe we’d need to go back to the early ’70s for comparable focused, effective activism.
CBSNews (from July 20):
We have to stay motivated, stay strong, and keep pushing forward.
I like our chances.
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
Chelsea Handler handles Boebert.
Stacib
@WaterGirl: I’m putting ALL of my chips on the Black folks in GA. They know firsthand the cost of losing that seat, and I believe they will “show up and show out”. Even with the attempts at voter suppression, I’m not worried a bit about Senator Warnock not being a strong voice in the U.S. Senate for at least the next six years
Adding: I’m not sure GA can get both Abrams and Warnock elected, but I don’t think both loses.
dmsilev
I found it. The stupidest op-ed of the month: What Biden could gain from pardoning Trump
It, somehow, gets worse from there.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: It’s only this close NOW. Hopefully, Stacey keeps closing the gap with Kemp. Abortion rights will definitely help!
And, Warlock should expand his lead especially after the debate(s) – if Walker follows through. Even the Repubs (other than hardcore Trumpies) know he’s a loser.
WaterGirl
@Stacib: That makes me feel better about Warnock. He elevates the Senate in so many ways. It would be tragic if he doesn’t win.
Ken
@dmsilev: Sadly, my own editorial — “Iä Cthulhu! How Biden Can Increase His Approval Rating by Sacrificing Members of the White House Press Corps to the Great Old Ones” — has been rejected by every news outlet I’ve tried.
Wyatt Salamanca
Raphael Warnock is one of the brightest lights in the Democratic Party. The more I see him, the more I like him.
Herschel Walker’s idiocy is astounding and breathtaking. He sounds dumber and more clueless with each successive video clip I see.
I can’t imagine a greater travesty in the midterms than a class act like Warnock losing to a goddamn moron like Walker.
Cameron
@dmsilev: I could only stand a couple of paragraphs of it. Just the first few assumptions were too weird for me.
dmsilev
@Ken: Perhaps we could seek the middle ground and replace the WH Press Corps with some Shoggoths. It couldn’t be any more shambolic.
Bupalos
Warnock might be president. He’s a talent like that.
Thank you ms. Laurie for using the word exploitation with walker. This whole thing has made me very uncomfortable. Walker likely has CTE, he clearly has no attachment (and barely familiarity) with the words he’s been told to say. It’s grotesque. He was used for white people’s entertainment untill he was used up, and now he’s being used to both exploit and stereotype black people.
And living out in exurban ohio, I wish more people would come to understand that this is also roughly the position many if not most Trumpers occupy. A lot of them are, I guess, what we’ve decided are “bad people.” And alot of them are identifiably just being exploited. And you’ll never sort out the one from the other, or be able to explain where these lines lie. Because at heart, “bad people” are people who didn’t get what they needed to make them good.
Come work with the kids of the Trumpers and you’ll understand what I mean.
Wyatt Salamanca
@dmsilev:
One of the stupidest op-eds of the year. Jason Willick is out of his goddamn motherfucking mind.
Aside from his numerous crimes, 500,000 people died because of Trump’s epic incompetent response to COVID.
Trump deserves to die in prison and Jason Willick can go fuck himself.
Cameron
@dmsilev: Actually, my first thought of fictional characters was of President Blackadder being given a cunning plan by this yoyo.
WaterGirl
After my winning streak on Quordle, Quordle just told me to “step it up” because I missed 3 out of 4 words. In case I didn’t already know it’s time for bed, I know it now
I’m just gonna listen to the latest Randy Rainbow one more time. He’s not a favorite of mine by a long shot, but this one is so good. In case you missed it.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
An impressive display of boneheadedness from that WaPo columnist. Evev I can see that the dumbest and most dangerous thing Biden could do is setting TFG free to wreak more damage on the republic. Biden would alienate a lot of Democrats if he pardoned TFG, and he’s for damn sure not going to win over any Republican voters.
Steeplejack
Here’s Stephen Lawson, the head of the “pro-Walker super PAC.” He has a predictably punchable face and quite the client list—Florida GOP, Rick Scott, Kelly Loeffler, Ron DeSantis. I’m sure he and everyone else involved in Herschel Walker’s campaign have their beaks dipped deep.
WaterGirl
@Ken: I would publish that!
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: Yep, and it’s not like Trump would feel or act chastened by any pardon; he’d instead take it as vindication.
justinb
OT (not really, since open thread, and BJ)
Can someone suggest a band / vocalist that’s led by a woman – the edgier side of rock? I’d like to explore something I probably haven’t heard of so… @Omnes, SteveATL, Immet(…), anybody?
Damien
Dear WaterGirl, can I please beg for a dark mode for this website? It’s so bright
Bupalos
Wait no I want to modify that last bit.
Don’t come work with the kids of the Trumpers. Rather reflect on the reality that YOU AREN’T GOING TO DO THAT, NO ONE IS GOING TO DO THAT, AND NO ONE HAS BEEN DOING THAT FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS
There are some new chickens coming home to roost, America.
Steeplejack
Is it just me, or does Kristi Noem sound condescending referring to Walker only by his first name? Ugh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so…. not planted? not because he was packing in a hurry? not careless underlings? not that he didn’t know what was in those boxes? I think there have been a couple more excuses
Wyatt Salamanca
@Steeplejack:
I didn’t get that impression. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump chose Noem to be his running mate.
ian
@dmsilev: Its a former WSJ and Forbes writer, somehow landed on WAPO. A quick google of his work shows he is a typical right wing hack. His other big thing going is that because Canada is allowing euthanasia, it proves that liberals want to genocide all people with disabilities. That might top this op-ed in sheer stupidity.
Jackie
@Steeplejack: She sounded like she was forced to *support* him. TFG probably dangled VP if she complied.
I see Wyatt Salamanca and I are thinking the same!
Bupalos
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: they’re fishing you in, my friend. You can’t “gotcha” this. The very idea is to toss out so many contradictory and orthagonal lines of smoke, leaving everyone saying contadictory and orthagonal “AHA! AHA! AHA’s”…until the very idea of truth disappears
It’s not an argument or explanation. Of course it’s not.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Wyatt Salamanca: first-namification is so out of control (and I am not a cranky old man!) that I don’t know if it was condescending, but in spite of all the “my friend… my friend…”, I was put in mind of a car-dealer’s second wife who wanted to be on TV and a fading local star athlete who was used to doing TV and thought, “Free car? What the hell?”
Wyatt Salamanca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Rudy doesn’t know when to STFU. Time magazine’s decision to name him “Person of the Year” clearly has not aged well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
not really, I just found it amusing
Amir Khalid
@justinb:
How about St. Vincent?
H.E.Wolf
Amen. One of my guiding principles, these past 5 years and more, is to follow the political lead of Democratic Black women, and Democratic Black folks more generally.
ETA: I hope to see Rev. Warnock become one of the lions of the Senate. And I’d be proud to call Stacey Abrams “Madam President” someday.
SpaceUnit
@justinb:
Hands Off Gretel. Their last album I Want the World is a masterpiece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o71wASUMdWI
Redshift
@Amir Khalid:
Despite “swing voters” being the unicorns our political media like to seek out, almost nothing switches voters from one candidate to the other these days; the shifts are almost all about turnout. So Warnock making his supporters and potential supporters feel proud and motivated, and Walker making his feel uncomfortable and embarrassed, is probably a pretty good result to get out of the debates or other public appearances.
Bupalos
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: yeah I get that. But acting like entertaining clowns is part of the deal too.
Every so often I have to remind myself that Trump palpably and baldly and elaborately lied ABOUT THE WEATHER. To people who had just witnessed and been out in that weather.
It’s taken me a long time to get on that wavelength.
Bupalos
@H.E.Wolf:
I’m hoping the turnout kicker here is that running Walker is a kind of deep down personal insult.
Republicans look like they are flat out scorning black people.
Redshift
@justinb:
How current are you looking for? Blondie and Joan Jett immediately come to mind. Annie Lennox/Eurythmics, also Florence + the Machine. Pink is hit-or-miss, but her good stuff is fun.
Redshift
@Bupalos:
I found Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” very helpful. (I read it when I was trying to understand why Shrub and his people were telling obvious lies even when the didn’t have to.)
Joe Falco
@Wyatt Salamanca:
I think of Alabama and how the voters there chose Tommy “Dumb as a Sack of Potatoes” Tuberville over Doug Jones, a decent man who has done more to advance justice than Potatotown ever could, even when given the chance to impeach Trump. Tommy had a R after his name and coached college football at Auburn, and that’s all he needed to win election in Alabama.
Democrats in Georgia were able to do so much already by replacing cardboard cut-out Kelly Loeffler with Warnock. I hope this November we can prove again to the rest of the nation Georgians can and will vote competence over celebrity. Give Warnock as many terms in the Senate as he wants.
James E Powell
@RaflW:
But in this diner in Zumbro Falls . . .
Wyatt Salamanca
@Joe Falco:
The Alabama race is a great analogy. Tommy Tubberville can certainly give Heschel Walker a run for his money in terms of stupidity.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Redshift:
Given that Trump is the biggest bullshit artist in our nation’s history, a copy of Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” belongs in the drawer of every single hotel and motel room in America right next to the bible.
phdesmond
went to the dentist for my regular cleaning, but i just saw my dentist in passing, so we said hi.
ran across this stanza from emily dickinson. copied it and sent the dentist this text:
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul –
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47653/this-world-is-not-conclusion-373
half an hour later she emails back,
How have I never heard that before?
Very true!
Always a pleasure!
Dr S
So, if you like your dentist, you have my permission!
Calouste
@justinb: Garbage, the Breeders, L7, Skunk Anansi
JCJ
@justinb: A few come to mind, but I am not very up to date. Paramour, The Pretty Reckless, In This Moment. I think Evanescence has a new album. Also, you can never go wrong with Garbage
hilts
@phdesmond:
You can never go wrong with Emily Dickinson!
phdesmond
@hilts:
apparently!
Anyway
@justinb:
In addition to those mentioned already — Hole (discussed recently on BJ), TLC, Cranberries
raven
@justinb:
Amanda Shires – Hawk For The Dove
Geminid
@Redshift: Yes, the Georgia races depend a lot on base mobilization. Relatedly, this year voter registation efforts may make the difference.
There still are “swing voters,” just not as many as 20 or 30 years ago. Georgia’s election will be a good test of their numbers. Polling is showing a significant number of Kemp yes, Walker no” respondents. Kemp’s way ahead of Walker in terms of candidate quality, and factors of mysogyny and racism may weigh against Abrams. And Georgia is doing well fiscally and economically and a little of this will rub off on the incumbent Governor.
The differential between Walker and Kemp could narrow by election day, but I think it is still likely that Kemp will poll 3-5% ahead of Walker. This doesn’t neccearily mean Kemp will win.
justinb
@Amir Khalid: That’s it, exactly! Thank you!
justinb
@SpaceUnit: I didn’t like the first 30 seconds or so, and that started to color my opinion, but man, that sucks you right in. Wow. I’ll definitely be checking out some other stuff
Sheldon Vogt
@Redshift: No love for Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders?
justinb
@Redshift: Those are on my list – high school for me. I’m mostly looking for current stuff along those same lines. The same idea, just current
justinb
@Anyway: I absolutely love the cranberries! I used to drive the facilities guy nuts playing it loud on my office with the door open, but everybody liked it, so it wasn’t disturbing anybody
justinb
So many great suggestions!!! Thank you all :)
Skepticat
This was both infuriating and disgusting.
frosty
@justinb: Dead thread, but Halestorm and Evanescence are two favorites of mine. Might be a little too metal for you but give them a try.
Chris Johnson
@Redshift: Edgy female rock frontwoman? Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, first album. If you don’t know that, it’s exactly what you asked for. Outrocks white boys handily. Precioussss…
Also, PJ Harvey.
Also someone mentioned In This Moment. I think they’re more metal, but In This Moment is SO good <3
Steve in the ATL
@justinb: in case you are still monitoring this thread:
Cocktail Slippers
Luscious Jackson
Veruca Salt
Vibeke Saugestad (ok, not too edgy, but fun!)
The Primitives (maybe not edgy musically, but the lyrics are bitter!)
The Vibrators
Dog Party
CTMF (too obscure?)
Juliana Hatfield
S Cerevisiae
@justinb: Halestorm is awesome!