Democrat Hillary Scholten won Peter Meijer’s old seat in MI-3 on Tuesday, prompting one of our intrepid political press corpse to ask the following:
Some Democrats deployed a more risky strategy — helping their Republican opponents. The idea behind the scheme was to persuade Republican primary voters to send their most extreme candidates to the general election, with the hope that swing voters wouldn’t back them.
The strategy was risky for Democrats. If they miscalculated, they could’ve been complicit in sending extremists to governors’ mansions, or to Washington. But this year, at least, the Democrats’ bet paid off.
One thing that has become crystal clear in the past few months is that national political reporters can’t be bothered to remember or repeat facts. Fact: In MI-3, Democrats ran adds during the primary saying that Scholten’s opponent, Joe Gibbs, is an election denier and generally a bad man. This raised Gibbs’ profile to Republican primary voters, who liked that he’s an election denier and voted for him over non-election-denier Meijer.
So, for the 100th time, the ads were not pro-Gibbs. Does that make them a “bet” on Gibbs? Maybe — but the key point is that Democrats did not repudiate our values in those ads. We just gave some MAGAts the mistaken impression that they would own some libs by voting for Gibbs. The desire for lib ownership is so strong in the typical Republican primary voter that they will choose a shit candidate over a candidate who can win, but won’t own libs as hard.
The spend on those ads was $425K. I think we got our money’s worth. We can argue whether $425K could be better spent, but I see no point in arguing whether the strategy itself is some kind of desertion of our values. The ads said, loud and clear, that we did not agree with Gibbs’ values. As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine. In future, Dems should carefully target a few other races like MI-3 until the MAGA base decides that their vote for the shittiest piece of shit running isn’t smart politics — which will never happen with those dopes.
Anyway, no rats were fucked in MI-3 — we hardly even looked in a rat’s direction. Congrats to Hillary Scholten and the residents of MI-3 who will be well-represented in the next Congress. No congrats to the press who will step over a hundred Republican ratfucks to find one slight rat flirtation done by Democrats.
Baud
Agreed.
But I can’t tell from the tweet alone whether the tweeter is being critical or supportive of the strategy. (Or just asking questions).
topclimber
To the Rat-mobile! Let’s do it again!
HumboldtBlue
Speaking of Michigan, here’s an excellent thread about just how big a night it was for Dems in the state.
$8 blue check mistermix
@Baud: Sorry it’s 425K – I corrected the post.
Here’s the rest of his tweet:
“Complicit” is what triggered me. I updated the post.
Anoniminous
I know the news been already posted but I want to gloat a little more …………………….
NEW MEXICO IS 100% BLUE!!!!
(Warning: NSFW, major F-bomb)
Alison Rose
Rotating tag.
Baud
@Anoniminous:
There’s a new Mexico?
Congratulations!
matt
Is hardball politics against Democratic values? Opinions vary.
It’s really staggering the number of idiots out there for whom avoiding poetic justice type outcomes is more important than winning.
Kay
I don’t know how a Meijer in Michigan loses. It’s Dutch, for one, and it’s a universally known supermarket brand, and a GOOD one. I assumed he’d win just on his name.
$8 blue check mistermix
@Kay: His epitaph: He might own a grocery store, but he couldn’t own the libs.
Feathers
This is just so lazy. The ads also had a purpose for the Democrat voters who saw them, warning them not to believe the Republican ads about this guy. If people getting an ad avalanche with the Republican viewpoint on this guy, you need to remind your voters of who he really is and to be ready to vote against him in the fall.
If some Republicans use your message as a queue to vote for the guy, that’s a side question. It can be hard sometimes to remember which one of the Republicans is the truly terrible one when getting barraged with their ads.
So says a Boston TV viewer who gets deluged with both Mass and New Hampshire political ads.
Geminid
Peter Meijer was a dead duck. His fellow Impeachers Tom Rice (SC), Jaime Herrera Butler (WA) and Liz Cheney (WY) all lost their primaries by big margins and Democrats did not spend a dime in their primaries.
MattF
Also, Megan McMegan was very upset that the D ratfucking strategy was so effective. No link. I’m still neutral about it, but I’m seeing the positive aspects more clearly now.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Another point: a run-of-the-mill Republican isn’t going to vote any differently from Taylor Greene, Boebert, Goehmert, Gaetz, Jordan or any other of these certifiable freaks.
I’d just as soon have an obvious freak rather than somebody who can con people into believing they’re “moderate”.
If you get the same votes from them either way, why not choose to run against the one who utterly repels normal people?
Kay
@$8 blue check mistermix:
Did he say something bad about the tulip festival?
He even looks Dutch. They’re extremely tribal! This is his fault. He has to be horrible.
oatler
one slight rat flirtation
gold!
PsiFighter37
The handwringing over these ads was always misplaced. And frankly, it’s smart politics: if Claire McCaskill hadn’t boosted Todd Akin – by calling him too conservative – she likely loses her Senate seat 6 years earlier. I have no issue with it whatsoever.
Omnes Omnibus
FFS putting out an ad saying that someone is big fuck crazy is not supporting that person in any rational world. If the GOP picked the BFC person that is entirely on their electorates. It’s the “Don’t drink bleach” thing again. Fuck ‘em.
Geminid
@MattF: I just don’t think this was ratfucking. Why shouldn’t Democrats get their licks in early? If this Meghan’s favored candidates can’t win that’s her party’s problem.
Miss Bianca
@Anoniminous: that’s amazing news! Yay
@$8 blue check mistermix: LOL!
Ken
Since it’s an open thread, I’m fascinated by this Russian TV host‘s discussion of his reporting dilemma. Maybe Adam will give it a brief mention in tonight’s Ukraine post.
Suzanne
@MattF:
Then it was absolutely worth it.
davecb
In Canada, all our national newspapers are owned by large, politically conservative companies.
I swear they then hired a particular kind of expert computer-quality-control persons to work on the logic of their articles.
The QA experts? They had spent their careers thinking up “plausible, malicious lies to tell to programs, to get them to fail” (;-))
Rusty
Dems did the same thing in the NH 2nd congressional district. The ads, run during the primary, said Burns, was too extreme for NH. He won the Republican primary and went on to lose the election to Kuster. See, the Dems ads were right. He was too extreme for NH. The fact that the Republican base thought extremism is good isn’t the fault of the Democrats.
Uncle Cholmondeley
Didn’t there used to be a BJ tag, “I read these idiots so you don’t have to”? Could have used that here.
Thanks for taking one for the team, mistermix. I can’t believe someone would write something like this. “Sure, it worked…this time. But what if they do it again and it doesn’t work? Then where would they be??”
eye-roll-emoji.gif
Redshift
But, but! McMegan called the tactic “unconscionable” 🤡
Barbara
The hand wringing over the poison pill ads is crazy. The only semi-valid objection is that money could have been better spent elsewhere (e.g., voter registration). But my bottom line on this is that “sane” Republicans vote pretty much exactly the same way as the lunatics, they just have better tools for deceiving normie voters in the general election. E.g., if Republicans decide to tank the economy in order to gut SS and Medicare, the “moderates” will be right there voting to do just that. Which is to say, it is not a “gamble” to make sure that voters know that they are voting for crazy because good things and fundamental rights are at risk if either Republican candidate wins. The fact that so many Republican primary voters like the crazier candidate better is not our responsibility.
Baud
I have no problem if the GOP wants to do the same thing and run ads during our primary that point out that a particular candidate is too moral, competent, and effective for the state or district.
Anyway
@Feathers:
I feel your pain!
-bombarded by Philly, So Jersey and Delaware ads
Geminid
@PsiFighter37: McCaskill’s Akin ploy is famous and armchair strategists want to see it repeated. But I think it was an outlier then and is an outlier now.
OverTwistWillie
JB Pritzker “PAC-smashed” his only credible opponent in the GOP primary, then trounced the MAGA dork that came through in the general.
Both had billionaire backers, so tough luck.
Cameron
It would appear that the only time Our Liberal Media give a rat’s ass about rat fucking is when they suspect it’s Democrats doing it.
Redshift
I’m at a post-election event with (shortly) Kamala Harris and Joe Biden!
Jaime Harrison was a really good speaker.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Feathers:
Yep and it also means they can’t pretend to be moderates for the general election If they would want to try that, like Youngkin (sp?) did in VA.
Suzanne
@Anyway: God. Last time I was in Philadelphia, the ads were driving me crazy. It is not hyperbole to say that 4/5 of the ads were political. And terrible.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Anyway: Just avoid the TV. Only ads I see are on YouTube and they have me targeted right down to the county.
Gravenstone
Antonym to small fuck crazy. =P
The Moar You Know
Dems are winning. We can’t have that!
Redshift
@Barbara: Exactly. It’s entirely based on the same fantasy of the political media that makes them hire Republicans – that reasonable conservatives must exist, and that electing them will cause then party to moderate.
In fact, in the short term, it’s probably better even if the carry wingnut gets elected, because they’re almost all professional trolls who won’t accomplish anything or be able to get along with anyone.
Ken
@OverTwistWillie: Illinois Amendment 1 also had billionaire backers on the “No” side, but passed handily. It’s terrible how billionaires have no voice in this country.
(Right to collective bargaining, and passed with 58% yes, to save you having to look it up.)
karen marie
Dunno if this is an open thread but …
“You can turn [your WordPress blog] into a Fediverse server using a simple plug-in. This means that people on Mastodon can follow it just like they follow any account on here.”
Is this a WordPress blog? I don’t know but I would love to see BJ on Mastodon!!
Alison Rose
@Baud: It’s actually California, as soon as his race was called, Newsom signed an executive order changing the state’s name.
kalakal
The day just got better
Alex Jones just got fined another $473 million. I’d like to lead my fellow jackals in a display of mourning
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
https://news.yahoo.com/alex-jones-ordered-pay-473m-184657882.html
And Hurricane Nicole has gone away
OverTwistWillie
Maybe shitting on the Speaker’s desk and attempting to murder her husband has caused some branding issues for the GOP.
Maybe not.
Let’s ask some slackjaw’d yokels shoveling garbage into their maws.
Redshift
@Anyway: Northern Virginia here. So Maryland wall to wall this year, plus some DC, and the weird lobbying ads trying to influence Congress all the time.
PAM Dirac
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
It amazes me that so few of our media geniuses can’t comprehend that just because an ad talks about a republican it doesn’t have to be aimed to republicans. Especially in closed primary states like Maryland, most D voters don’t pay much attention to the R primary and it does leave open the possibility of faking a more moderate image in the general, so it makes sense to show their extremism early and often to ALL voters. It’s also the case that it is stupid to think the R primary voters couldn’t figure out who drumpf has endorsed unless some ad told them. The person most angry about the ads being run in Maryland was Larry Hogan as he knew that Cox couldn’t pull that trick and would get blown out.
Martin
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Closer than county. They get it down the street. I only got ads for my House race (Porter) and my legislative district, and there’s not a lot of overlap between them. Not even my whole city overlaps them – but they both targeted me and I never saw an ad for any other race.
JPL
@Anyway: I live in GA and yesterday and so far, today has been ad free. That’s about to change, and Cruz is coming to town. You know he wants to be president.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kay: He did win on his name. He beat Scholten in 2020. Then his first vote as a Congressman was to impeach Trump and join with the Cheney-Kinzinger wing. Which killed him in the primary but might have given him a shot against Scholten. Hey what did the dirty trick Reagan folks used to say? Politics ain’t beanbag? Well then I guess the Dems did nothing wrong.
Martin
Fixed that for ya.
Anoniminous
Things are confusing but there are reports Ukrainian Special Forces and Ukraine Main Intelligence Directorate are {on the outskirts/in} Kherson and in either case are linking up with Partisan forces operating in the city.
patrick II
@Anoniminous:
@Alison Rose:
I am amused that Anon’s f-bombs concerns were immediately followed by Alison’s
comment.
JPL
@Martin: ha True and Ted will then apologize to trump.
kalakal
@JPL:
Did his flight get diverted from Cancun?
O. Felix Culpa
I haven’t had time to read all comments yet, but I see that the Dems Are Doing It Rong™ franchise continues:
-Dems should fight harder!
-No, not like that!
FFS, as others have said.
dm
@Ken: That was … worthy of the child of Lewis Carroll and George Orwell.
A few tweets down from that I found:
https://twitter.com/SJ69032798/status/1590730678361997317?s=20&t=ADQfpSYGyF76KYBtgz4v8w
“If I hold a sign that says, ‘Two Words’, will I be detained?”
“You are already being detained.”
Followed by another woman who just wanted to express support for the policy, but was detained before she could do so.
(I guess just talking to the cameraman was the crime.)
Martin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I don’t think Dems did anything wrong, but who gives a shit. Does anyone think Dems boosting an extreme republican candidate is really the biggest problem we have right now in politics? Who the fuck writes this article?
“Aww, the Democrats won wrong.”
Fuck off Karen. Go ask the reporters who were in the Capitol on 1/6 if Democrats should be more courteous to their Republican opponents. Go ask the voters in Florida who were arrested for voting if Democrats are doing this wrong.
Anyway
@Redshift:
Showoff!!
aka Jealous …
Mousebumples
WisDems were talking about Radical Rebecca (Kleefisch – Walker’s Lieutenant Governor) ahead of the GOP primary for Governor, and she lost to Michels. I think they thought she’d win the primary, and they wanted to define her ahead of time. Likely a similar strategy in these other districts?
eachother
Humble pie.
Just heard a reversal of a local outcome. One of the three district candidates who was declared the winner just got declared the looser in her race.
This district was redrawn and this was the first reconfigured election. Made tougher by design.
Cheez Whiz
Every single media reference to those ads has been deliberate misstatement of the content of the ads. They are all so in love with the Hot Take of “Democrats supporting Republicans” that they refuse to let the plain facts interfere with the sweet, sweet narrative.
Kay
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Good. That rule holds then. He was on third base just with the name. Whatever bizarre thing happened to him in lunatic Right wing politics after that is not our fault.
Miss Bianca
@OverTwistWillie: I really, really feel like I shouldn’t be giggling as hard about this as I am right now.
Baud
@$8 blue check mistermix:
Yeah, “complicit” is oftentimes a bullshit word meant to further the idea that only Dems have agency.
Jesse
At first, the Dems boosted a bananas Republican candidate, but I didn’t say anything because…no one gives a shit.
Doug R
@Baud: Like the Republicans who were trying to denigrate AOC by posting what she was for.
A lot of moderates looked at the list and thought: “Those are pretty good ideas”.
patrick II
@JPL:
Hev is so dislikable that sometimes I think he is every bit as delusional Pense in his presidential ambitions, but then I remember he finished 2nd to Trump in the 2016 primaries.
Chetan Murthy
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
This isn’t just another point: this is the key point. The key point. What matters is who runs the Speaker’s office: who gets to set the agenda. So any GrOPer is as bad as any other on that basis. Oh but *also*, unless somehow our “ratfucking” (which consists in describing these MAGAts accurately, oh the horrors!) succeeds in sending enough MAGAts to Congress that they actually are a majority, all they can do is incite discord in the GrOPer caucus — which is yet another great thing. So even if we’d sent this MAGAt to the House, he’d have been a wart on McCarthy’s ass (or whoever the Speaker is) for the following two years. That’s worth something too, if it causes such discord and dysfunction that maybe it induces one of the nearly-sane GrOPers to cross the aisle for key legislation (like happened under Boehner).
I see no downside to this approach, I really don’t. And thank you for noting the key point.
topclimber
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): It seems possible that with a great helping of luck, we could actually keep Nancy in her chair.
I keep fixating on House races. CNN says the GQP needs 9 out of about 36 open seats and I see only 6-7 in the bag for them. With urban returns likely to count late, not to mention absentee ballots, the Dems could still pull this off.
Now, if I could only stop worrying about two lose-able Senate seats.
Maybe we are at at Steve Scalise moment. He’s the guy who got shot by a Bernie fan. Let’s pretend he tells Americans that we all must talk and act more reasonably in our politics. He’s the Republican whip and very much in that party’s white whip wing. So he could probably get a bunch of team red Republicans to go along for a while.
Bonging along, he proposes a speaker who will be fair on procedure and reserved in controversy but won’t set the House agenda. Congress lets the factions in both parties hash out what actually gets done. The Speaker, like in Parliament, now gives the House added gravitas–something that will be in short supply when the clown show arrives in town on 01/03/23.
Stevie has been my choice as the guy the GOP turns to when Keven McCarthy face plants in the next Congress, due to start in about 60 days. He sucks in so many ways, but surely not as hard as Kev and Mitch and countless others.
piratedan
obviously this is certainly right out of bounds by the Dems, if they had wanted to screw over the Republicans, they simply had to reach out to a known national adversary of the United States and ask their Intelligence folks for dirt on those candidates. Make sure to do it in a nationally televised forum, so it would all be above-board.
Martin
Wondering what it’s going to look like when control of the house is fully in California’s hands and the media outlets can’t build an on site story to engage viewers because CA makes this process as boring as humanly possible.
Martin
@topclimber: Can’t speak for other states, but ATM the GOP has 6 in CA. I’m hopeful for fewer, but my money would be on them getting 6.
Alison Rose
@patrick II: full service blog and all that
Geminid
@Martin: The Cali Dally!
Hitchhiker
@Barbara:
Exactly. So if you know you’re more likely to beat the lunatic, it’s obvious that you’d want the lunatic to be your opponent. Spending your money to make that happen by pointing out the lunacy to lunatic-loving voters is a sensible way to go.
Wyatt Salamanca
@mistermix
No rats were fucked in the making of this ad.
dexwood
@Anoniminous: Isn’t it great? So happy that Horrible Herrell and Mark Wrongchetti lost (we’ve called him that for years because of his weather forecasts). And Melanie Stansbury is the daughter of an old friend of ours.
Baud
@topclimber: I expect Nancy will step down, but it would be great if she could do it with a majority.
topclimber
@Martin: CNN says about 36 open contests as of a given date. Republicans will easily win 170 seats, and I there are no doubt red bastions where California Republicans win 60-40. But in the remaining battleground districts, I say it is advantage blue.
cain
@Redshift: How dare Democrats fight fire with fire!
Baud
@topclimber: This morning, Kornacki was projecting the GOP would end up with 222, four more than needed for a majority. 🤞 it’s not more.
cain
@Martin: But there is a diner in OC that they can visit!
cain
@Baud: We know how much the media’s projections are worth these days. Let’s keep calm and carry on. :-)
topclimber
@Baud: Amen. Get her into witness protection.
Kent
Oh for Fuck’s sake.
Republicans do the EXACT SAME THING all the time. How many ads have they run saying that AOC or Ilhan Omar are “too liberal” for America and other such nonsense. Which is the exact opposite flip of Dems running ads saying that X-Trumper is “too conservative”
Except that in the case of Democrats it doesn’t really work because Democrats tend not to be lizard-brain voters.
And in any event, the entire first impeachment episode over Ukraine extortion was the very same effort to meddle in the other party’s primary and undermine the most electable candidate. Except that Trump and his minions did it illegally rather than using their first Amendment rights. And it didn’t work either.
Baud
@cain: The count will be what it is.
geg6
They’re saying the same bullshit about Shapiro’s anti-Mastriano ads during the primaries. It’s a bunch of crap. He basically cut and ran a general election ad that was run during primary season. It was the opposite of a positive ad and it set the image of Mastriano, using his own words from interviews, in stone for any normies who were listening. It’s not Josh’s fault the MAGAts want to pwn the libs more than they want to win. Meanwhile, Josh ran the exact same ad right up to November 8.
jonas
@Baud: At some point, running from behind bars is going to be the only way to signal you’re a truly authentic Republican.
Old School
@Baud: Not sure if you saw Kornacki on the TV or not, but according to his tweet, the projection is:
cain
@Jesse:
I was a life long democrat and then they boosted bananas. Now I vote republican
zhena gogolia
@Old School: So in other words, meaningless?
Baud
@Old School: Lots of close contests. I’ll hope for the best.
dm
I know we have the “Ballot Curing” thermometer, but does it include the Colorado Dems? Getting all the votes counted might be needed if we’re going to finish the job of sending Lauren Boebert back home.
JPL
@Baud: I agree. Nancy saw what political hate did to her husband.
Baud
@JPL: Yes, although there was a good chance of her stepping down even before the attack.
geg6
@topclimber:
Actually, he sucks much, much, much harder than McCarthy or McConnell. You’re nuts if you think he’s some sort of reasonable Republican.
trollhattan
@jonas: And Boebert lost her bar, so tricky.
mrmoshpotato
@kalakal:
Mmmmm delicious!
dm
It’s often good to look at questions like this by working through the counter-factual.
If the Dems had run those ads about how extreme the Republican in the Republican primary was, and that extremist had lost, paving the way for the more moderate Republican…. I wonder what the media narrative would have been?
“Dems shoot self in foot by ensuring electable opponent”, I imagine.
sdhays
@topclimber: I’ve heard him described as a Klan Wizard without a sheet (this was before that described most Republican “leaders”), so I wouldn’t expect anything good from him.
geg6
@Old School:
Wow, that’s why they pay Steve Kornykhaki the big bucks!
I hate the media and I have hated Kornykhaki for years and years.
Martin
@cain: Yeah, but they tend to be pretty hipster. If you want working class OC you hit up a roach coach and you better know Spanish pretty well. White working class? Rarer than millionaires.
topclimber
@Old School: Well, minus the fat end of that margin makes it a Dem Congress.
topclimber
@geg6: Did you miss the part about pretend?
Chetan Murthy
@topclimber: Well, except that Scalise describes himself as “David Duke without the baggage”. Self-description, SMDH. Gotta be someone else.
ETA: ah, geg6 and sdhays already got here.
Cameron
@Chetan Murthy: If he doesn’t have the baggage, how can he be David Duke? Not only vile, but incoherent as well.
topclimber
@Chetan Murthy: Now THAT sounds intriguing. Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.
Cheryl from Maryland
@HumboldtBlue: I love her sobriquets — Big Gretch and the Wolverine Queen. Michigan has been amazing, Past time for her and how she has turned the state around to have a bigger national stance.
Geminid
@dm: For some reason, these so-called moderate Republicans hyperventilating over Dems advertising in Republican primaries remind me of the way soccer players will flop onto the pitch in agony when an opponent brushes by them. Neymar would be be proud!
catclub
I think they know Whitmer is ineligible to become president. In contrast to DeSantis.
catclub
@Cameron:
If he doesn’t have [klan robes in ] the baggage, how can he be David Duke?
Baud
@catclub: I didn’t know that. Born in Canada?
Anyway
@Geminid:
There’s a running gag in Family Guy of Peter clutching his knee dramatically (after a minor booboo) – these pundits remind me of that.
Baud
@Geminid:
The main reason Republicans make it an issue is to feed the “both sides” beast for the media. Dem action that someone might perceive as potentially unethical balances out a host of actual malfeasance on the Republican side.
jonas
@catclub: I think you’re thinking of former governor Jennifer Granholm (now Energy Secretary) who was Canadian-born and therefore ineligible to run for President. Whitmer, I believe, was born and raised in Michigan.
matt
@Geminid: Message for Meg: we are not your ally – fix your party by yourself or not, this is your job not ours.
matt
@Redshift: she sounds like an activist, not a reporter.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
@jonas: Not sure if catclub is mistaking Whitmer for Granholm or making a comment on sexism, because Whitmer is….hold on to your hats, fellas…..a woman.
catclub
@jonas: oops, my bad, yes I was
catclub
@Baud:
I was wrong. first time evar.
Geminid
@Baud: This issue is also a staple of lefty party critics. They think it proves how hypocritical Democrats are when they talk about protecting Democracy from radical Republicans.
Most of those pushing this are not Democrats themselves and will use any and all means to undercut confidence in party leadership, often in bad faith.
I’ve also seen Chris Hayes flirt with this line of attack. Hayes tries shit like this out on Twitter to see if it flies.
James E Powell
My take on this – and it would take a lot to convince me I’m wrong – is that not one reporter looked for or discovered this “Democrats are boosting MAGA candidates!!!” story. It was fed to them by the usual Republican sources that the reporters use to decide what stories to cover & what angle to take on the stories. [Evidence for this is overwhelming.]
Their “Democrats have no one but themselves to blame for MAGA RED WAVE” columns were already written, featuring quotes from the very same Republican sources and maybe one from a former Democratic official who is a reliable source for anti-Democratic remarks.
Then the vote counting started. GET ME REWRITE!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Fortunately, I just ordered a fresh 6-pound bag of popcorn from Yoder so I’ll be set!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
Murc’s Law mated with Cleek’s Law and gave birth to a Bizarro baby that lies by telling the truth to Bizarros on Opposite Day.
Peale
@Kay: There are places I will not shop knowing that the owners are involved in GOP politics. But whenever I’m driving home or to visit my sister, I’ll shop along the way at Meijer and be sad that they haven’t expanded close by.
James E Powell
@jonas:
Yes, Gretchen Whitmer was born in Lansing. She’s a Sparty through & through. I would love it if our next president graduated from a college & law school that had the word “State” in its name.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott: Surprisingly affordable.
CaseyL
Hope this is OK: I am boosting a tweet I just saw. Nevada needs help contacting voters to get their ballots cured. Here’s the tweet:
Joseph Patrick Lurker
@Geminid:
Chris Hayes is one of the smartest, most insightful cable news hosts. The amount of bullshit critiques of him that get posted here is fucking ridiculous.
Dan B
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Joe Kent is the certifiable freak who took out Herrera Butler in SW WA. He seems to be losing (prays) even though he is very handsome and energetic
Youngkin campaigned for candidates who all lost and exposed his moderate cred a ls a lie.
different-church-lady
FUCKIN’ ZOMBIE LIE CONTINUES TO WALK. 😡
trollhattan
@James E Powell: Yale State University. :-)
Geoduck
@Dan B: believe I read somewhere that if the Dems manage to take WA03, then every west-coast district that actually touches the Pacific will be blue.
Dan B
@Geoduck: Makes me smile as wide as the Pacific! The Blue Pacific. Ahhhh..
Cameron
@Dan B: I think most (if not all) candidates that DeSantis endorsed lost, too.
Kent
You probably heard that from me and it is true. As long as Katie Porter keeps her seat down in CA and the Dem candidates in OR win. Some of those aren’t done counting yet. Oregon Congressional District 5 looks like it could flip to the GOP. Sigh….. That is another coastal district.
Geminid
@Joseph Patrick Lurker: I’m sure Hayes is a smart and insightful TV host. But this is not a bullshit critique. I saw him do this on Twitter with this issue as well as with Ukraine.
And the way Hayes tried to pump air into Tara Reade’s scurrilous lies against Joe Biden was reckless and irresponsible. Since you watch him on TV, please tell me: has he ever explained that? After she was shown to be a serial liar and grifter?
Lady WereBear
@karen marie: I am grateful, because I have such a blog, and it seems like a great way to get on Mastodon.
Much thanks!
RSA
@dm:
This was a Monty Python sketch in real life, with potential tragedy at the end. Wow.
Sasha
This thread. 👍
Glory b
@Geminid: I’ve got to disagree. EVERY Republican this tactic was used on LOST. Here in PA, Shapiro used it on Mastriano. All of those commercials had one theme, “X” candidate is TOO EXTREME for our state. Far from an outlier as you can get, it’s worked 100% of the time.
Glory b
@geg6: Exactly.
Mike in NC
We stayed with friends in NoVA whose WiFi wouldn’t work with my iPad, so I saw no election results until we went to the airport this morning and found discarded newspapers. Too bad Moscow Mitch shoveled buckets of money to help prop up Grassley (Iowa) and Johnson (Wisconsin). They should have been taken out. Same with Rubio.
karen marie
@Lady WereBear: I’m glad the info is useful!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
According to The Onion the FBI arrested a lunatic in the SF Bay Area who was planning to shoot up his work place.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/r3NlkTWsE0A
Geminid
@Glory b: But McCaskill’s ads belped shape the Republican primary. Had it not been for her ads, she might have faced a stronger opponent. That is the reason the ads still get such notice.
This year Mastriano was going to win whether or not Democrats ran those ads. Same with Meijer’s opponent. The ads were justified because they helped define Shapiro’s and Scholten’s opponents as extremists. Any addition to their primary vote was inconsequential, because they were going to win anyway.
But as you say, the ads were impactful on the general election result.
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: Whether it is an outlier in the future depends entirely on whether GQP voters continue to embrace garbage humans as their preferred candidates.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: Well, if Republicans continue to embrace garbage humans as their preferred candidates the tactic McCaskill used is unneccessary, at least for the purpose she used it. But Democrats getting their licks in during the primary season wiil be all the more justified, and I think we’ll see more of this tactic despite the whiners.
randy khan
I have no problem with setting the tone for the general election during the primaries, which is what these ads did. And Republicans have been known to do that, too, where there’s a presumptive Democratic nominee.