Who could have predicted that putting a crook like Rick Scott in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee would make all the money go poof? Excerpts from an article in The Washington Post:
Republican Senate hopefuls are getting crushed on airwaves across the country while their national campaign fund is pulling ads and running low on cash — leading some campaign advisers to ask where all the money went and to demand an audit of the committee’s finances, according to Republican strategists involved in the discussions…
“If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired and investigated,” said a national Republican consultant working on Senate races. “The way this money has been burned, there needs to be an audit or investigation because we’re not gonna take the Senate now and this money has been squandered. It’s a rip-off.”
The NRSC’s chairman, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has already taken heat from fellow Republicans for running ads featuring him on camera and releasing his own policy agenda that became a Democratic punching bag — leading to jokes that “NRSC” stood for “National Rick Scott Committee” in a bid to fuel his own presumed presidential ambitions.
Seriously, what did they think was going to happen? It would be like entrusting me with the nation’s store of pinot noir. It’s only slightly less dumb than leaving a big fat bag of money with Trump and being shocked when it disappears. And also, hahahahahaha!
Open thread!
Ocotillo
Maybe they should run it like a business…….heh
Frankensteinbeck
It’s a movement that glorifies liars, crooks, idiots and assholes. Their PACs are already notorious grifter paradises. The only wonder is that this hasn’t happened so obviously before. It will certainly happen again.
dmsilev
I quoted this bit from the article in a thread yesterday, but it bears repeating:
Gosh, who could possibly have expected that Donald Trump would suck away all the revenue from a business “partner”? That’s totally and completely outside the normal way that he’s operated all his life.
Ocotillo
Of course Skeletor ran a business and stole more than any convenience store hold-up crook did.
rikyrah
This really is hilarious. A crook who might have stole money?
NO😒😒
You don’t say🙄🙄
RandomMonster
There central plank of the GOP is grift. This result seems inevitable.
rikyrah
@dmsilev:
The entire paragraph is…
Total BULLSHYT.
The truth is Orange Jesus is sucking up all their small donor$$$
And, of course, he’s not sharing with the Republican Party.
😂😂😂😂😂
trnc
Seconded!
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
They’re not going to learn their lesson. If history is an indicator, they’ll start looking for a bigger crook.
EDIT – @rikyrah:
And then demanded a cut of their fundraising. A demand they ignored.
Anonymous At Work
Rick Scott is apparently running the NRSC like he ran his hospital business. Next step: discovering the fraud and charging only the RNC.
artem1s
@rikyrah:
And the Federalist Society has sucked up all the big money donors. That’s what happens when you destroy transparency in campaign finance laws. I noticed none of them are whinging about Citizens United.
PaulWartenberg
What part of “MEDICARE FRAUD” has the Republicans been overlooking when dealing with a guy like Rick Scott who was responsible for over $2 BILLION DOLLARS DISAPPEARING FROM HIS HEALTH CARE COMPANY???
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/03/florida-democratic-party/rick-scott-rick-scott-oversaw-largest-medicare-fra/
This is like putting Henry Hill’s buddies from the Lufthansa Heist in charge of Fort Knox. A known thief in charge of financial funds? It’s not going to be a question of IF money were embezzled, it’s going to be a question of HOW MUCH.
Betty Cracker
@Ocotillo: That line is extra hilarious because when Rick Scott was CEO of Columbia/HCA hospital corporation, he was fired and investigated — and the company was fined nearly $2B for Medicare fraud. I mean, you can’t make this shit up!
ETA: What Paul said. And also, hahahahaha!
Frankensteinbeck
@artem1s:
I remember after Citizens United being told that after the first election as a trial run, all the PACs would work together as a nationally organized campaign. Instead, we’re getting this chaos that gets worse every election. And thank goodness, since that’s the only silver lining to that ugly cloud.
artem1s
@PaulWartenberg:
feature, not a bug!
hells littlest angel
@dmsilev: I think Trump is in no hurry to declare himself a candidate, because right now “donations” go straight into his pockets instead of a campaign fund, which would be slightly harder to steal from.
Anthony
They run their party like they run the country
Andrew Abshier
Having suffered 8 years of his governorship, I personally can’t wait until they catch Herr Reichkanzler’s hand in the NRSC cookie jar. Of course he did squirm out of his Medicare fraud, so him getting caught isn’t a guarantee of anything, but I would still laugh and laugh.
Baud
The one thing you can say about the GOp: they deserve themselves.
The rest of us, not so much.
Geminid
. Rick Scott’s successor appeared in Pittsburgh last night with Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for Governor. Ron DeSantis talked a little about Doug Mastriano, Politico reports, and a lot about Ron DeSantis. He did tell the cheering crowd that if they can get Mastriano elected, Pennsylvania could be “the Florida of the North.”
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Mastriano made the mistake of repeating that “Florida of the North” line on camera. If Shapiro can’t cram that line down Mastriano’s throat like a concrete hoagie, he should call Fetterman for backup.
I mean, even before it was completely overrun by fascists, Florida wasn’t a state others aspired to emulate. I say that with love as a 7th gen resident who never plans to live anywhere else. There’s no “Florida of” anything. It’s sui generis, and not entirely in a good way.
OzarkHillbilly
Why does DeSantis hate Pennsylvania Republicans so much?
Kristine
So if they indeed fail to take the Senate, they’re going to blame Scott and not their shitty candidates and policies. “Ignore this 18-wheeler dumpster fire–it’s the driver’s fault. We’ll just get a new one and it will be fine.”
Betty
The wonder is that Rick Scott has been elected and re-elected in Florida despite his obvious awfulness. Maybe Democrats will come up with a viable opponent next time he is up for re-election.
Benw
I hope they fail to take the Senate SO HARD
Old Man Shadow
Do some Republicans still not understand that the entire Republican apparatus is a scam to move money from the peons to the pockets if friends and family of those in charge?
Baud
Rick Scott wouldn’t have stolen money from the RNC if Dems weren’t so mean.
CaseyL
@Old Man Shadow: Oh, they do, they do. They’re just upset that they might not be able to get in on the grift themselves.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: They made him do it.
Geminid
@Betty: Scott won the Governor race in 2010 by 60,000 votes out of over 5 million votes cast. He won reelection in 2014 by 66,000 votes. I think his Senate win was even closer.
Such a lousy person should have lost by hundreds of thousands of votes, but at least nearly half of Floridians won’t buy what Scott is selling.
Baud
@Betty:
If Val Demmings can knock off Rubio, that’ll encourage more quality candidates to take on Scott.
Baud
@Old Man Shadow:
Republicans don’t care because they fully understand that honest, morally upright people are not going to do what it takes to implement their hate.
Shalimar
@Betty: Rick Scott ran a “voters are idiots” re-election campaign, and won that bet. By which I mean he was horrible for his first year in office. He passed a mountain of Republican dream legislation. Absolutely everyone hated him. His popularity was at Nixon resignation levels. And then he coasted for 3 years with as low a profile as possible and enough people had hate fatigue to get him re-elected.
Betty Cracker
@Shalimar: Scott is a smart and disciplined crook, and he’s also been fortunate in his timing and opponents. The next time he’s up will be in a presidential election year. Maybe his luck will run out.
Suzanne
@Geminid:
Fuck.
Is it too late for the taco trucks on every corner?
John S.
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know how you do it, Betty. I lived in Florida for 40 years (since being transplanted from NY at age 4), and just recently moved to Washington state. I couldn’t be happier here and often wonder why I didn’t make this move sooner.
HinTN
At least you’d invite your friends, Betty C.
Danielx
It has always been a source of wonder to me that Rick Scott didn’t do a spot of time as a guest of the state. Did he use the Ken Lay defense, i.e., as CEO I had no idea what was going on in the company I was being extremely well paid to run?
Baud
Are you declining the position of Sommelier General in the Baud! administration?
Geminid
@Betty: J6 Commitee member Stephanie Murphy will be rested and ready in 2024. There should be other good prospects as well.
Danielx
@Geminid:
Yeah, i can see all the Philadelphians lounging in swimwear on the banks of the Delaware. In January.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: When I lived in Iowa, I used to think it was hard to find a Democrat with the kind of state-wide visibility it would take to knock off Grassley or even Ernst. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to get that visibility in a small media market. I used to fantasize that some HS or college football coach would be a smart D, win a championship, and run.
MattFcommittee
I do wonder how Scott got control of that
MattFcommittee
I do wonder how Scott got control of that
MattF
(Deleted)
MattF
I do wonder how Scott got control of that committee. It’s those CEO skillz, I guess.
ETA: More fat-fingered commentary.
Betty Cracker
@John S.: There are plenty of places in Florida where I would NOT want to live (pretty much ALL of South Florida), but my family is here, and this is my front yard, so I find it quite tolerable.
ian
Where do you keep the booze?
With a lady, some dogs, and a ton of guardian gators.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t know what the polls are saying (and I’ve learned not to trust polls anyway), but I like what I’ve seen of Adm. Mike Franken. Are you following that race? Is there a prayer he can take out Grassley?
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Yup, that view would definitely ease the pain.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I’m still surprised that Rick Scott managed to get elected Governor and then US Senator after the scandal broke.
By the way, an update on Malaysian Official 1* — former PM Najib Abdul Razak. Heis now just days away from moving from his big house in KL to an even bigger house in Sungei Buloh. Knowing that he stands zero chance of winning his final appeal in the Federal (that is, supreme) Court, he has taken to delaying actions: changing lawyers just a month ahead of his Federal Court date and having the new lawyers seek a two-month postponement; and trying to bring in weak evidence of the original trial judge’s purported bias against him. This isn’t an actual defence. Najib is just building a miscarriage-of-justice narrative to go in his future petition to the Agong for a royal pardon.
The Fed Cour’s five justices unanimously rejected these attempts and gave his new lawyer this weekend to prepare some kind of defence submission for Tuesday.
So now Najib’s supporters have chosen to defend their beloved “Bossku” (my boss) by attacking the Chief Justice and her husband on social media. Somehow, I don’t think this will work.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
That’s really pretty. There’s very little I miss about living in Florida, but I did love the spectacular skies. And you get them just about every day!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Some of us would never get any work done, with that outside our front window!
Jackie
@Kristine:
Eric S.
@Ocotillo: proving once again these men don’t understand how business works. No CEO would suffer suffer any consequences.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
* The FBI gave Najib this appellation while investigating the US end of the 1MDB scandal, which this trial is part of.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Gorgeous.
scav
@MagdaInBlack: Especially as there’s a distinct lack of near neighbors visible.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Hmmmmm…….pinot noir…..
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Agreed. They are awful people wallowing in their awfulness. I they like it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: I haven’t been following that race. I think Narya lives in Iowa? She might know.
Kevin
I mean when Trump is your role model on how to operate a business how is this surprising?
Ken
@Geminid: “Pennsylvania Man” just doesn’t flow like “Florida Man”. And it will be a few decades before PA is warm enough for alligators and imported pythons.
FelonyGovt
@Amir Khalid: A corrupt former leader facing accountability! Sounds refreshing.
rikyrah
I still gotta 😂😂😂 at the GOP wondering where their Senate funds went. They put A CROOK in charge…and wonder why there’s no money left?🤔🤔🤔
Also…wondering where their small donor base is??
Muthaphuckas….. Giving all their coins to their Orange Jesus….
Duh!
Orange Jesus share with the Republican Party?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That’s why I never gave a phuck about how much Orange Jesus was fleecing from the rubes….that was money not going elsewhere in the Republican candidate sphere.
NorthLeft
Who coulda known?
Putting a documented thief in charge of a big pile of money and then wondering what went wrong. Only the best people, folks. Only the best.
brendancalling
As a long-time PA resident, I Can fairly confidently say the idea of making Pennsylvania the Florida of the north is going to go over as well with the state’s parochial mindset as Dr. Oz’s carpetbagging.
Dangerman
Rick Scott had to pay Trump’s “consulting fees” for Oz, Walker, et al.
FelonyGovt
@rikyrah: That IS hysterical, isn’t it. All the small online donations flooding into TFG from his many self-pitying email begs, so now these idiots have no more money to give to the Republicans!
Ksmiami
But but FisCal REsponSibiLiTY is supposed to be the GOP’s appeal…
hueyplong
I had sort of hoped that the GOP money spigot issues were due to Putin himself suffering cash flow issues. It’s the romantic in me.
Mike in NC
Florida is so irredeemably weird. Our friends in Tampa Bay have retired and are leaving the state soon, but they live near a huge nudist colony that we’ve driven past several times.
Probably the only place that could have elected Rick ‘Batboy’ Scott governor, and then after doing a terrible job he failed up and landed in the US Senate. As bad as Micro Rubio is, I think he will eke out a reelection.
Florida is Mecca for the MAGA movement: the entire Trump family is there. Roger Stone lives there. Brad Parscale lives there. Paul Manafort? (Need to look that up.) Pretty much every convicted felon that worked for Trump lives there.
Cameron
Is this some sort of parody of “we never thought the leopard would eat our faces?”
SFAW
@dmsilev:
The first three are standard excuses made by the usual suspects, i.e., members of the Party of Personal Responsibility who never take responsibility for anything they do.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I suspect Fetterman is already salivating and sharpening his knives over this: “Tell me, Dr. Oz, would you like Pennsylvania to be the ‘Florida of the North?” You know, like your fellow Republican who’s running for governor? That guy, yeah, the one whose besty is a big-time antisemite?”
p.a.
Did Scott spend $100M on a consulting firm whose final report was :Do Not Trust Republican Consulting Firms.
Betty Cracker
@Mike in NC: Paradise Lakes?
Kristine
@Betty Cracker: I grew up on the West Coast, so I remember the sunsets. Hard to beat a Gulf sunset.
Kristine
@Jackie: Yes, we could turn it to our advantage and given all I’ve seen and heard recently, we are. 🤞
Cameron
@Danielx: I believe he took the 5th over a thousand times, easily besting Trump’s 400+.
Ken
They might be forced out. I wonder if Rick Scott managed to slip a “golden parachute” clause into his agreement with the NRSC Though even if he didn’t, they may end up paying him to go away, after realizing just what an audit might turn up.
Gin & Tonic
I knew Europe was experiencing a drought, but…
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
Try singing it to the tune of “Secret Agent Man.” The accent’s even on the right syllable.
MagdaInBlack
@scav: That factor sure does add to the beauty.
Tim C,
@Frankensteinbeck:
The reason that good triumphs over evil half the time is because evil people are evil to each other as well.
lowtechcyclist
Josh Marshall’s comment:
Seconded!
geg6
Fuck that fucking piece of shit Deathsantis. No one in their right mind here wants PA to be anything like FL. The only thing worse would be to be like WV.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Frightening.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Holy shit
Ramona Rosario
Jeffro
Are we sure that some of this isn’t because of the sanctions on Russia impacting the GQP’s ability to fill its coffers? That’s a lot of rubles that Republicans can’t count on anymore.
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker:
Believe me I understand.
I’m a native Mississippian, having lived in the state for nearly 60 years.
I have to ask myself just about every day though why I continue to live here. While there are good people here, the state is populated with belligerently ignorant backwoods backwards rednecks who oppose any kind of progress whatsoever and think that anything giving “those people” a break somehow strips conservative white evangelicals of their rights.
There’s a saying that’s attributed to Twain that I’ve adapted for my own purposes:
“When the end of the world comes I want to be in Mississippi because it’s always 50 years behind.”
I guess you could say I have a love hate relationship with this state.
I have deep roots here … but, now that I’m in the “golden years”, I’m seriously considering moving to a less benighted state.
Eunicecycle
@Geminid: wasn’t there something hinky about the ballot design in one large county? The Senate race was at the bottom of the list of instructions and there was a huge undervote in that county, I think.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: Just freakin’…wow.
Almost Retired
@SiubhanDuinne: I was on a Zoom last week with college friends – all of us were Political Science majors at the University of Iowa in the late 17th Century or something. Two of them still work in state-wide politics. As attractive of a candidate as Admiral Franken is, the consensus was that the only way to get rid of Grassley was via the Funeral Home. Or perhaps he will be shot by an armed IRS agent.
p.a.
@Ramona Rosario: Late ’80’s had a job putting a phone line to a trailer in a nudist campground. Guy was dressed so I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. People outside were saying, “phone man take your clothes off!”
“I can’t, the tool belt really chafes.”
kalakal
@brendancalling: I can’t wait for “Make New Jersey Florida”, that’ll be a winner
Cameron
@Almost Retired: I may be thinking of somebody else, but isn’t Grassley’s son being prepped to replace him?
Cameron
@kalakal: Might convince Dr. Oz to return home.
Geminid
@Cameron: It’s Grassley’s grandson, an Iowa state legislator. The theory is that Chuck Grassley will retire sometime after being reelected, and then the Republican Governor will appoint the younger Grassley to the seat.
Almost Retired
@Cameron: Grandson, Pat. I think he’s Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives. Don’t really know where he falls on the Scale o’ Evil.
Ramona Rosario
@p.a.: I bet!
@p.a.:
Geminid
@Eunicecycle: I don’t know about that county’s ballot, but Scott beat Bill Nelson by a little over 10,000 votes out of 8.19 million votes cast, or 0.12%.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: OMG “cram that down Mastriano’s throat like a concrete hoagie” is {chef’s kiss} perfection!
And, yeah, Florida I think still connotes in a lot of minds land scams and corrupt government. Thus circling right back to FL’s junior Senator.
Cameron
Thanks, both of you. The American system of…what? Feudal meritocracy? Democratic nobility? Or just standard corrupt politics, maybe.
Nelle
@Almost Retired: if Franken loses, it won’t be because we didn’t try. I owe it to my granddaughters to try to dislodge the old fool.
Whomever
@Betty Cracker: Somewhere along the line my 10 year old heard about “Florida Man” (no idea where, online I guess). His suggestion when Russia invaded Ukraine was “let’s just send all the Florida Men to Russia!” This is not…a completely stupid idea :-)
Cameron
@RaflW: Judging by the contents of this article, Mastriano might be even worse than DeSantis, hard as that is to believe:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/desantis-is-going-to-appear-at-a-rally-with-pennsylvanias-extremist-candidate-for-governor/
Nelle
@Cameron: Grandson, who is state house majority leader. But Kim Reynolds, the guv/Trump cheerleader, may pull a fast one and appoint herself.
kalakal
@Gin & Tonic: That’s terrifying, on that twitter thread someones put up 4 photos, of the Rhine, Danube, Colorado & Yangtze rivers, they’re all basically puddles.
Mike E
@Gin & Tonic: I read where in Germany dry river beds are turning up ‘famine stones’, centuries old markers that read “when you see me, weep.”
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
This article is for you.
trollhattan
@Mike E: Evidently lots and lots of sunken warships, too.
Geminid
@Cameron: Well, one thing the scheme to replace Grassley might show is that Iowa Republicans are not confidant enough in their brand to just run the younger Grassley. Although it could be that Chuck Grassley is making his winning another term a point of pride.
Cacti
@Cameron: Home to New Jersey or home to Turkey?
Mike E
@Mike in NC: did you like Blazing Saddles? Young Frankenstein was also made in ’74, it’s Mel Brooks’ ‘miracle year’
Mike in NC
Worth repeating: no shitbag Republican from Florida will ever get elected president. Mickey Mouse stands a better chance.
Baud
@Mike in NC:
We prefer our shitbags from New York City.
Ken
Anyone interested in setting up a pool on what the NRSC audit will uncover? Assuming there ever is one, and that the results are made public — neither of which is a sure thing. I’m thinking the breakdown will be something like:
Cameron
@Cacti: Sounds to me like he’s pretty comfy in the Garden State.
Cameron
@Mike in NC: What about a part-time Floridian?
Kristine
In OT news, Chicago area Starbucks continue to unionize.
The labor movement momentum just makes me happy.
Baud
@Kristine:
Romnified.
scav
@Kristine: Edgewater! Three cheers!
SiubhanDuinne
@Almost Retired:
Well, thank you for the response, but of course it wasn’t what I had hoped for. I guess that means that Grassley will either die in office or resign for reasons of health; either way, I believe it’s kind of a foregone conclusion that his grandson will be appointed to his Senate seat. Ugh.
JaneE
For whatever unfathomable reason, the GOP has been rewarding candidates who have some criminal or immoral activity publicized. Scott defrauded Medicare. Why did they think that someone who would misuse money intended for sick old people would not misuse money intended to elect people? Trump is the same thing, always managing to make a profit out of bankrupting businesses and making sure the fine print gave all the money to him.
Now they don’t have the money they raised to do the things they raised it for. Have they been blind for the last decades?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Whomever: Sort of like China sending us their bad air.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Excellent, the GOP 2024 is already shaping up to a clown caged death match.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Wow. And not in a good way.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Dog bless the scientists engaged in that research!
Tony Jay
Fixed.
Sympathy, I have none. The Hubie Marstens of the G.O.P. opened the window for Senator Looks Like Orlok to drift on through, they should have had no illusions about what would happen next.
trollhattan
Digby discusses new voter registrations since Dobbs, including this from PA:
Here’s hoping the trend continues right into November.
Kay
Where’s our cancel culture/free speech warriors?
scav
When we said “Run it like a Business!!! (Strip its assets, run it into the ground and then have the fire sale.)” we meant the Country, not the Party! — GOP
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: Yup. We live in a West Nile area and have the mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever and malaria–yellow fever was once endemic, too.
People invite me camping, as bait.
They can’t unlock the puzzle soon enough.
Layer8Problem
@Mike in NC: Legislatively and constitutionally, I’m sure Disney’s already on it.
Tazj
It’s great what’s going on with the Republican’s Senate campaign. They deserve it.
I never heard about Rick Scott’s firing or corruption on the national news, only here and from a few other liberal news sources. Now I’m sure it was reported on, but I was still surprised when Scott was elected.
I can’t look down on Florida though. Carl Paladino, the out and proud racist and Trump supporter, is running for Congress here and I can’t turn around without seeing one of his yards signs or ads. I wish someone took his money to run for Congress.
Kristine
@Baud:
I can hear him now.
“But–but–not our kind of people. Not the right kind.”
Every time I see that bastard, I think of his “quiet rooms” remark. Fascism would suit him just fine as long as it was, well, quiet and polite and knew which fork to use when.
RaflW
@JaneE: It all reminds me of a certain country which thought it had a powerful military, but it turned out that skim, graft, theft and incompetence meant their readiness was at best 1/3 of what was expected. Huh.
That the country in question is now, bizarrely, viewed as a friend to Republicans just cements the whole corrupt-pallooza together.
stinger
@SiubhanDuinne: The latest Iowa Poll, taken in July, had Grassley up by 8 points. Franken’s going better against him than any candidate in the past 42 years. The last time that seat was up, Grassley beat the Dem by 24 points.
Franken ran TV ads during the primary season, but they’ve stopped — I assume he’s waiting until after Labor Day now. Grassley has two big weaknesses, and I hope Franken hits him hard on them: He’ll be EIGHTY FREAKIN NINE on election day, and what did he know that made him say he’d be standing in for Pence on Jan6???
Mike in NC
@Mike E: Love everything by Mel Brooks. Hard to believe that The Producers isn’t streaming anyplace that I know of.
moops
There are many in Pennsylvania that would love their state to be more like Florida, but all those people are already reliable Republican voters.
RaflW
@Kay: Way more press shops could have the Plain Dealer’s chops. Obviously a rally is in part about pumping up the people actually there (and getting all their contact info and probably stealing location data from their phones going forward, and who knows what else).
But when campaigns put restrictions on journos (and I say even just the ‘press pen’ bullshit from 2016 counts), then the press should respond like the P-D: You’re restricted to a shitty pool report on pg. B7 … if we have room. We’re not attending, and we’re surely not covering you live.
Lapassionara
@Kay: Just when I think they cant sink any lower, they sink lower.
stinger
@Geminid: Yep.
@Almost Retired: He’s a Republican.
Kay
Here’s an example of how Hillary Clinton was covered when media objected to media rules. This was national news for days:
The only people who are going to speak up about the DeSantis presidential campaign completely shutting down media access are the editors at the (dying, local) Plain Dealer?
Do we have national political reporters anymore or are they all writing books about being national political reporters?
Villago Delenda Est
Rick Scott is a criminal. A thief. It says a lot about Florida’s electorate that he was first elected governor, then US Senator.
Kay
@RaflW:
Some citizens were covering it on cell phones. They didn’t want any unvetted, uncontrolled media access because DeSantis and Vance are running on straight up White Christian nationalism.
DeSantis is running for President. It’s important that people find out how far, far Right he is. This was like some kind of cult event.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: Haberhack needs to be relegated to The Washington Free Beacon where her vile type belongs.
moops
I would have said no shitbag sleazy moron from NYC will ever be elected President.
Kay
Good news for the Democrat in Wisconsin. Even 5000 votes could matter.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Going by the media people who reply to NYT Pitchbot, they are a lot of them, but like the paper you mention, they an’t the cool kids who fathers were deans at the right kind of Journalism schools club, so their stuff is ignored by the big outlets.
Kent
Ha ha ha!
Democrats couldn’t have designed anything better. Essentially conservatives from Trump on down have designed machines that sponge up as many small dollar contributions as possible and make them disappear rather than get put to productive use electing Republicans.
The big money donors are not fooled and they tend not to donate to these sorts of mechanisms. They tend to control their own spending. So it is mostly the small MAGA donors who get scammed. Boo hoo.
We need more of it not less in my opinion!
Mike in NC
@moops: Remember back when the media was treating Rudy G as a serious contender? Those were the good old days!
Ken
@Kay: I was hoping to see more of this in the Republican primaries this year. It’s an easy leap from “the Democrat stole the general election from me” to “the other Republican stole the primary from me”.
SteveinPHX
@Betty Cracker:
Hi BC. I lived in north FL (outside Lake City) for a number of years. I always liked that area.
You’re right. My go-to statement was, “You could take Orlando and everything south of there and give it away.”
My mother was a Flagler County cracker and I’m well into my 70s, so we go back a ways in north FL.
Beautiful front yard you got there. Hope the fishing is good.
Thanks for all your work.
-Sent from the Command Deck of my mighty Pixel phone.
Spanky
@Cameron: On the evil/crazy ratio, DeSantis is definitely more evil than crazy. Mastriano seems about 50:50.
And then there’s Dan Cox here in Maryland, who is definitely crazy. First three sentences of a WaPo article:
He hasn’t let up on the crazy as his campaign has catapulted him into being the nominee for guv. There should be no chance that Maryland would vote him in. However, his Democratic opponent is Wes Moore. Highly qualified, but Marylanders have had a problem voting for a black man in the past. I haz a concern.
Major Major Major Major
Lol. Good.
James E Powell
This gives us a moment of schadenfreude, but Republicans are never wanting for money. One thing that never changes, billionaires will spend millions to keep their tax rates or their employees wages from going up 2%.
Kent
@moops: Yes, if a scammy, twice divorced, serial sex criminal and uber-flashy NYC real estate developer can become a hero and role model for rural America then ANYTHING can happen.
No matter who the GOP nominates they will get at least 45-48% of the vote guaranteed. They could nominate Charles Manson if he were still alive and he would get 45% of the vote. Hell, even Herschel Walker could get 45% of the vote.
All they need to do is get to do is get within shouting distance of 270 electoral votes and the voter suppression and election denial machinery they have built will do the rest.
Redshift
@HinTN:
I’m pretty confident Scott is sharing with his “friends,” too. I suspect his method of stealing involves kickbacks from excessively compensated consultants.
Kent
Maryland voted for Obama over Romney by about 26 percentage points 62% to 36%.
Or does that not count?
ian
@SteveinPHX:
I’m not a Floridian, so take my 2 cents as you will, but isn’t Orlando/South Florida where the majority of Florida Democratic voters live? I was under the impression the panhandle and North Florida were basically Alabama in terms of voter breakdown.
Redshift
@James E Powell: Yeah but it’s not just the overall amount of money that gets spent. If it was, whoever spent the most on advertising would always win. With how lackluster the fundraising has been by these Senate candidates, their campaigns are short on funds to do the the voter engagement and tracking that’s more effective than blanket advertising.
Especially since, in my experience, Republicans are bad at volunteer organizing and assume they’ll be able to pay people to do all that stuff.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker:
I agree, but Youngkin talked about how he wanted to make Virginia more like Florida (in pandemic response in particular!) and still got elected, so it may require more effort to capitalize in than you might think.
Kent
Wait, don’t forget the “Redneck Rivera” which gave us Matt Gaetz. And, of course Jacksonville gave us DeSantis and that is north of Orlando.
Geminid
@Redshift: I recall a report I read about RSCC spending that said there were $12 million attributed to credit card charges. There could be some real doozies in there. Republicans may to sweep all this under the rug if they can.
germy shoemangler
The eyes have it.
Mai Naem mobile
@Kent: this is what scares me in Arizona.. The three statewide GOP candidates are nut jobs. Kari Lake the gubernatorial candidate has boarded the Qanon train. The SOS candidate Mark Finchem is like a Bundy wannabe. The AG candidate Hamadeh is a Trumper through and through. All three have a good chance of winning because people will vote for them solely because of the ‘R’ behind their name. Never mind that any of the three winning will guarantee the state being embarrassed in the news for cringeworthy actions taken by them.
Spanky
@Kent: In 2014, Marylanders chose Larry Hogan over Anthony Brown, so maybe Obama’s win doesn’t count so much.
Mai Naem mobile
@germy shoemangler: I’ve noticed that before too and its the whackier ones who have the crazier looking eyes.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Geminid:
“I HAVE WARNED YOU.”
Steeplejack
@Baud:
True, there’s no shitbag like a New York shitbag. 🧐
RepubAnon
@Old Man Shadow: There’s three kinds of Republicans: the rich tax dodgers, the scammers, and the marks.
The rich tax dodgers fund the organization as long as the tax cuts (and funding cuts to the IRS) keep rolling in.
The scammers are the ones siphoning off as much money as they can while conning the marks in to voting Republican.
The marks, fed a constant diet of Fox News and Alex Jones, actually beli3eve that they’re voting to “save America” and for Freedom (for white cis males, no others need apply).
Dan B
@Kristine: Having worked for some high level Starbucks executives, and my partner having worked for Shari (Mrs. Schultz) I can state that the culture at the top is heartless. I’m surprised they didn’t all kill each other. I can only conclude that bug bucks is a pacifier.
Steeplejack
@Mike in NC:
You can rent it for $3.99 on a bunch of sites, but that’s it. (JustWatch is my go-to site for checking stuff. I use it only for the search function.)
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: I keep hammering the message that the Climate Crisis will most likely kill more people from famine than from sea level rise, hurricanes, or fire. The mass migration and chaos will be swift and unexpected by most people and by governments.
Gin & Tonic
Um, wow…
Nettoyeur
@SiubhanDuinne: If I decide on spectacular skies, I will retire to Provence or Australia. Less humiditymany fewer hurricanes, but you do have to watch for fires. I have lived in both, and can attest that the MAGA types are rare.
Dan B
@germy shoemangler: There was speculation that this type of gaze, almost a glare, is an indicator of sociopathology. The Japanese have a name: Sanpaku. They attribute it to trouble in the future.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: Really nice front yard! Hard to argue against it.
Uncle Cosmo
@Spanky:
In the last 5 MD gubernatorial elections, the GOP nominated white males, while Democrats nominated a white female, a white male (twice), and two black males. In a state where registration by party is 60-40 Democratic, the Democrat won two of those elections (40%) – both times a white male (my friend Martin O’Malley). Outside of the DC ‘burbs, Baltimore City and Howard County, there are more racist, misogynist DINOs than a century’s worth of Jurassic Park spinoffs, and most of ’em would crawl nekkid down a mile-long road paved with hot coals and broken glass to vote against any statewide or national candidate with a D after their name.
I worry about Wes Moore too – even if he manages to win. He seems to be a bright guy, but – with exactly zero political experience at any level, who knows how much damage he might do to the MD Democratic brand before he figures out how to “governate”?
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: All true, and you know the state much better than me in my vantage point in NoVA, but I think a couple of things hurt Brown a lot:
Having a GQPer in office in MD for 8 years should blunt those issues, the national Democratic party is on a roll, TFG is a disaster for the GQP, and similar things should give Moore a much better shot this time. Of course, the MD party needs to be behind him and fight for the ticket.
I have to admit, though, that I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the MD race yet.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
leeleeFL
@Betty Cracker: I am so sad I had to work and miss all this delight! On break, so, may I join you in your hahahahaha! Rick Scott is a large Skeleton shaped POS, with all sorts of proof of nefarious money dealings to not recommend him for anything but prison! And, like tRump, he gets a shot a f—king over the rubes AGAIN! THE MIND, IT BOGGLES, DOES IT NOT?
So, hahahahaha! I hope none of those MFs come out of this with any jingle in their pocketses!
SteveinPHX
@ian: I was focused on the natural beauty. You’re right about the politics.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
OK, that’s a fabulous photo of your front yard… ‘cept for the invisible gators and skeeters…
Seriously,, we loved our year+ in Key West, the USN couldn’t have sent us anywhere better. But Key West today is nothing like it was in 1970-72. Nothing. And then the Navy moved us to Pascagoula MS, a chancre sore on the anus of North America!
We’re home in WV now, thanks be. But looks like visiting riverine Florida would be fun in the cool months. Can you hire a tour guide and do a week in a house boat cruising one of those spring-fed river?
J R in WV
@geg6:
Hey!! Watch that talk around here!! ;~) There is a lot to hate (Politicians), but a lot to love too, forested Mountains!
catclub
@OzarkHillbilly:
up until Georgia in 2020, the recent south was uniformly GOP except for NC once and Florida.
ETtheLibrarian
Couple of questions/thougjts
WaterGirl
@Mai Naem mobile: If all 3 win in AZ, it could be game over for Democracy because they won’t care how people vote in 2024, their electoral votes will go to the R.