Soft-focus hologram Kari Lake, who campaigned for governor of Arizona in 2022 on a platform of lies about the 2020 election, lost. Then, following the trail blazed by the sore loser Trump, Lake filed a frivolous lawsuit over the Maricopa County results. She lost again. Now the county is asking the court to sanction Lake and her attorneys [TPM]:
Lawyers for unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who have made their name in the cottage industry of seeking to overturn elections for MAGA candidates, are now trying to bat back sanctions after their latest court loss.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed Lake’s lawsuit to overturn her election on Saturday following a two-day trial.
Lawyers for Maricopa County, joined in their arguments by the team representing Arizona Governor-elect Katie Hobbs (D), are asking the court to sanction both Lake and her lawyers “to impart to them the seriousness of their misuse of the courts to seek to undermine Arizona elections and impugn hardworking elections workers and officials for purely political — not legal — purposes.”
Good. Republicans are using the courts to undermine democracy, and it’s past time to shut that nonsense down. Making an example of some of these losers would be a good start.
Open thread.
Parfigliano
First unlike loser Lake.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Heh. I’m baffled by the way people talk about her charisma and how good she is on TV. I get a televangelist doing a late night info-mercial vibe. Of course, I disliked her before I ever saw her speak, but….
and speaking of AZ: is anyone following the AG race? Google tells me they haven’t started the (final?) recount?
jackmac
“Soft-focus hologram Kari Lake.” Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Rotating tag candidate?
Alison Rose
FTFY
MattF
The soft-focus in her videos is deeply creepy. She actually has a normal middle-aged woman’s face, a bit weathered- not dewy but not terrible either. But hiding behind a soft focus filter while attempting to overthrow a democratically elected government— is just dizzyingly evil.
piratedan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I believe because of all of the legal crap that was in the queue ahead of it in answering the Lake and Finchem lawsuits. Just a guess, I could be completely mistaken. As the Governor elect, Hobbs still has to perform her Secretary of State duties regarding election lawsuits (as should outgoing AG Brnovich, but he’s GOP so how much “help” he’s offering could be an issue)
Kent
I’m a middle-aged guy and there is something about her that makes my skin crawl. She gives me Karen Hughes vibes from the George W Bush days.
piratedan
@MattF: she’s following the trails blazed by Palin and Boebert in attracting the incel vote. (wish I was kidding, but lets face it, there are likely some dudes out there using that as a deciding factor)
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: To me, she looks like a Stepford wife-doll.
Creepy.
edit: Maybe it’s the guys who get a tingle up their leg who think she looks good on TV.
WaterGirl
@jackmac: It would be, except I don’t ever want to have to think of her again once this round of bullshit is over.
Baud
Even Hershel Walker gracefully conceded.
Suzanne
As someone who got used to seeing Kari Lake’s frozen smiling face on billboards for years….it’s super-strange to find out that she’s batshit crazy and evil. Like, I never watched her newscast, but she was just part of the ecosystem. I never would have figured her for a lunatic.
Burnspbesq
Sanctions are appropriate and necessary, but won’t stop these folks and their supporters from continuing to believe that the system is rigged against them.
If you want to win, try taking positions that appeal to a majority of the electorate. That almost always works.
Miss Bianca
@jackmac: Betty had me ensnared from jump with that one. How I wish I had that kind of needle-sharp way with invective! I will just have to sit back and have a hearty laugh with BC, Anne Laurie, and of course the Blogfather, who come up with these magical turns of phrase so I don’t have to!
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Was the movie Network (or a different network) where you could see that the anchors were not very smart and just did and said whatever the voice in their ear told them to say or do?
Seems to me that she may have been an empty shell as a news anchor, but she has since filled her empty shell with Q-craziness and hate.
edit: Broadcast News! (not Network)
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
It’s always hard to tell how much of this is genuine craziness and how much is grandstanding in an attempt to please the crazies. I said it about a different politician yesterday, but you should never take what a politician says as an accurate measure of their beliefs. They’re in front of an audience, and what they say and do is filtered through a need to play to that audience.
Not that it necessarily matters from a practical standpoint. There’s no functional governing difference between someone acting crazy and someone who actually is crazy. But in terms of “I never believed so-and-so was that crazy” it’s an interesting distinction. They may only be acting crazy because it’s in their interest.
Mike in NC
KKKari Lake will appear at Fat Bastard’s hate rallies until hell freezes over or until both of them are pining for the fjords.
andy
the evil HR director at my workplace is also named Kari Lake, so every time the Arizona one is in the news shitting the bed, I feel a flash of joy.
hells littlest angel
@Baud: Yeah, that was impressive. He even seemed to tone down the stupidity and incoherence, which few believed he was capable of doing.
eclare
Awesome. There need to be consequences.
Roger Moore
@Burnspbesq:
What if the electorate wants something different from what you (and your rich backers) want, though? Sure, you could change your desires, but it’s much more profitable to try to change the electorate. That way you can keep doing what you want without those pesky votes getting in the way.
catclub
@MattF:
a young Angela Lansbury in the Manchurian Candidate.
Everything old is new again.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
Not Network, ‘Broadcast News’, William Hurt, Holly Hunter.
Hurt’s portrayal of the totally vacant news reader was fantastic.
Those of us who’d seen it and were then working at the Pentagon during the first Gulf War when Wolfie at CNN came onto the scene saw the total accuracy of Hurt’s portrayal. Blitzer’s as dumb as they come.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Broadcast News
eclare
@hells littlest angel: If Herschel had talked through his campaign like he did in his concession speech, he might have won.
CaseyL
I think of Kari Lake – and the other MAGAt losers who took to the courts – as one round of strategy from the Federalist Society/Heritage Foundation country wreckers. See what works and what doesn’t, and focus on what worked for 2024 and beyond.
It seems that just crying “Fraud!” and filing suit comes into the “Doesn’t Work” category. SCOTUS could throw a spanner in the works should Lake, or someone like her, get their lawsuit on their docket… but I’m not sure SCOTUS will feel any need to do so, since there is a much better method already in their hands.
And that method is the ISL monstrosity, which SCOTUS is poised to endorse in its next term, and which will render democracy dead in any state with a GOP majority in the state legislature. (Picture the Federalist and Heritage folks high-fiving one another when the decision comes down.) That most of those states are already deep red, and ISL can’t do much more damage, isn’t very reassuring.
Overt cruelty, and blatant appeals to bigotry, work just fine, thanks: Abbott and DeSantis, and JD Vance being the prime examples of success along those lines. Abbott and DeSantis were incumbents, but Vance wasn’t. So I expect to see a lot more of that.
Insurrectionism/sabotage: An ongoing tactic, what with RW terrorists taking down power stations. If Trump and his enablers aren’t indicted and convicted, if the various groups sabotaging critical infrastructure aren’t arrested and charged, we’ll see a lot more of this, too, particularly on the state level.
Kari Lake, like Trump, is a clown who has outlived her usefulness. But the gangrene their backers have inflicted on the country will continue to spread without them.
Suzanne
@Roger Moore:
For sure.
It’s just this strange feeling, to realize that something that was so innocuous that you never thought about is dangerous and bad! Like if there was a dust bunny in your house but one day you found out it had fangs and wanted to eat your face.
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yes! I knew it wasn’t Network and I could picture William Hurt, but I couldn’t come up with his name.
Ruckus
@Burnspbesq:
They think sanctions are just more bullshit blocking them from their rightful position as the arbiters of all that is holy. Which to them is racism, hate and the current date, which they think is somewhere in the 1400s. But with TV.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is the exact same impression I had of Trump: slimy used car salesman.
There’s a certain kind of person (including media, apparently) that sees that as “authentic” and loves it.
J R in WV
I saw and clicked on a CNN video regarding Missed Lake, and saw her speaking about crazed election fraud claims earlier this morning… wow!
I could only stomach a few minutes — well, maybe a couple of minutes, tops, was crazed to the Max.
What a Qracked nutjob she is. Not even able to act serious and coherent. So sad for her that she is about to be slammed with legal expenses for her fraudulent law suit(s) in AZ.
I wonder if it’s legal to use campaign donations in a phony lawsuit?
Or to defend yourself against sanctions seeking penalties for filing a fraudulent lawsuit?
Will the same lawyers who filed the fraudulent lawsuit defend her in the proceedings seeking financial sanctions? I hope so… not very good lawyering on show so far.
Suzanne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Mr. Suzanne, who is a speech-language pathologist who works with many children who have various disabilities, suspects that Wolf Blitzer is honestly intellectually disabled. It makes me feel bad for saying that he’s dumb.
Delk
She would perfect if they ever decide to remake Mame.
Roger Moore
@eclare:
I don’t know. The Republicans are caught on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, they need to act crazy to keep the base energized, involved, and enthusiastic about the candidate. On the other hand, acting too crazy can scare away the normies. Walker had a built in disadvantage as a Black man and a carpet bagger, so he had to dial up the crazy to keep the base engaged.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
There is substance to what you are saying.
A lot of the desires of the people like her are for power. Power to control, power to hate/racism (against those not like them – it’s not always white against black – look at some of the current/just past LA city council folks. Racism is a lack of humanity issue, and not just a US issue)
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Also too Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
;)
Keith P
@MattF: I call her “Kari Headroom”
prostratedragon
@CaseyL: Yes, they are always probing.
azlib
Kari appears to actually believe what she spouts. I always thought she was just another cynical pol. The WAPO had a story about how her campaign basically melted down because she refused to take the advise to steer a more middle course in the General to pick up the independents here in AZ. Independents make up close to 1/3 of the electorate and are a larger faction than the registered Dems.
A friend of mine who is politically connected said her diatribes against the so called McCain Republicans to get the hell out of the Republican Party probably cost her 15K votes.
Katie Hobbs campaign with her low key approach and not being particularly good in front of a camera or in a debate against a media savvy opponent, adopted the strategy to just let Kari destroy herself and her campaign which she did.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne:
LOL! Wonderful description of that phenomenon!
I got a similar case of whiplash from Pam Bondi, who used to be a state attorney and Tampa office spokeswoman who came across as a mostly nonpartisan if Junior League-variety Repub until she bared her fangs in 2010 to run as a raving wingnut for AG of FL, then went on to the various Trump scandals, etc. Did not see that coming at all!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Because I’m pretty sure Herschel really, deep down, never wanted to be Senator.
Captain C
Since this is an open thread, and somewhat AZ-themed to boot, I’m going to repost my Verde Valley suggestions from yesterday morning’s open thread for Quinerly here, as that thread was petering out at that point and I’m not sure if they got to see it:
Another Scott
Stephen Robinson at Wonkette (from December 1):
Yup.
Cheers,
Scott.
Other MJS
@Betty Cracker: Where did your blockquote come from? Sorry; I keep poking around but can’t find the linky.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
I never would have figured her for a lunatic.
Lunatics come in all sizes, shapes and colors. And often sort of hide in the shadows till one day you realize that their largest/strongest personality trait is lunacy. That lunacy has always been there, it just hasn’t been the most visible trait, until it is.
scav
@Ruckus: It is power exactly? Or is it more publicity, personal profile, etc (running out of low-hanging p words) and politics is just the current venue where those seem easily available. Before it was in media — thus their original career choices — but now the hot stage to national attention comes with party affiliation. Sure, they like the personal power of getting what they want for breakfast and commanding all attention in the room, but many (the headliners) don’t really seem to care about the power to effect national change. Talk a good game on it, certainly, but less effort on actually getting shit done — the boring stuff. (minions are often more fanatic about that.)
Alison Rose
@Other MJS: From TPM
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore: The depressing thing about the Georgia results is that if Hershel Walker had said and done everything exactly the same but been a white man, I think he would have won.
Chief Oshkosh
@Roger Moore:
That reminds me — shouldn’t someone be investigating Walker’s voting fraud? What with having their permanent residency in Texas, he and his wife illegally voted in Georgia, didn’t they?
Alison Rose
@Citizen Alan: Sadly probably true.
The thing that really made me go bonkers was when I saw conservatives trying to make it about religious aspects and I’m like THE DEMOCRAT IS A REVEREND WHAT MORE WOULD HE HAVE TO DO???
Tom Q.
@Suzanne: The stories I’ve heard are that she had liberal positions/leanings in the not-distant past. So either she had a life-conversion (possibly from watching the wrong media), or she saw where she thought the easy money was and went for it.
WaterGirl
@Other MJS: It’s in Suzanne’s comment at #27.
Alison Rose
@Chief Oshkosh: IOFIYAD
Citizen Alan
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Suzanne:
@Betty Cracker:
It Crawled Out of the Woodwork
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
See Alabama, which failed the test that GA just passed.
Tom Q.
@Suzanne: Did you see him when he was on Celebrity Jeopardy? I think he ended up somewhere from $3000-5000 negative; the worst showing of anyone I’ve ever seen.
If he’s mentally challenged, I suppose I should feel bad about chortling over this. But it’s like the Herschel Walker thing: why are you pursuing a job that requires some level of intellect? I mean, the William Hurt character in Broadcast News at least had the asset of All-American good looks. What does Blitzer bring to the table?
Betty Cracker
@Other MJS: TPM — I meant to add a link and have since done so via an edit. Sorry about that! I try to be scrupulous about sourcing.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Tom Q.: I think the word we’re looking for is “ambition. “
kindness
I wonder why Kari Lake needs all those ‘soft filters’ when she’s obviously sucking up all the botox in Scottsdale AZ. OK, that’s shallow of me, but not as shallow as Kari Lake trying to stay relevant by giving us Trump 2.0 at bad at election losing.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: I’ve read accounts by friends and acquaintances of Lakes that said she was not especially interested in politics up to a few years ago. It could be she was radicalized but there could be a large component of opportunism too. She might be a cynically opportunistic demagogue, an Elmer Gantry type, and maybe an effective one.
That’s why I was relieved when Katie Hobbs’ narrow victory was confirmed. Arizona really needs a Democratic Governor, but it was also important that Lake be blocked from political advancement at least for now.
Snarki, child of Loki
As long as “sanctions” are just MONEY, then they won’t be much of a deterrent, because there’s plenty of $$$ in GQP donors.
Drag ’em behind the courthouse for a horse-whippin’, sez me.
zeecube
Monetary fines/ sanctions are are start, but need to go further, such as suspending attorneys from practicing in Arizona federal court. Also, state bar associations need to start disciplining these a-holes for continually violating rules of professional responsibility.
JCJ
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: and sung about by one of the Eagles band members (maybe Don Henley?)
“We got the bubble-headed bleach blonde, comes on at five
She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye”
eachother
You know that muck that gets in your toes walking in some Lakes? Especially at the bottom of the Lake.
Lake Muck. Yuck.
Ken
For me it was the flipside: THE REPUBLICAN HAS PAID WOMEN TO ABORT HIS ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN, HAVE YOU EVANGELICALS NOT BEEN LISTENING TO YOURSELVES FOR THE LAST FIVE DECADES?
Almost Retired
@kindness: Kari Lake sort of reminds me of Cybil Shepherd on the last couple of seasons of “Moonlighting.” She was so softly-lit and filtered that she looked less like Bruce Willis’ business partner, and more look a ghost appearing in semi-corporeal form to give him detective advice.
zhena gogolia
I hope everyone’s seen the great Cecily Strong as Kari Lake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr2LyxJpHu8
Captain C
@Ken: Agreed, but given that their opposition to abortion seems to be much more about misogyny and controlling women than saving lives (cf. all the other Republican policies), I almost wonder if “well he told her to do so, so that makes it more ok” plays into their thinking.
topclimber
@CaseyL: Preach it.
coin operated
@JCJ:
Don Henley…his first solo album “I Can’t Stand Still”
prostratedragon
@Alison Rose: “Except ye be reborn as white …” Sort of like the emended principles on the barn in Animal Farm.
eachother
@Betty Cracker:
“Like if there was a dust bunny in your house but one day you found out it had fangs and wanted to eat your face.”
Nominated.
Roger Moore
@Snarki, child of Loki:
I think it’s even more extreme than that. They actually want some money sanctions because it makes them into martyrs for the cause and boosts their ability to beg for money. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sanction them to the extent allowed, but we shouldn’t hope for it to do any real financial harm.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: If my grandma had wheels…. As it turns out, Walker was who he was. If he had been someone different, the Warnock campaign campaigned differently. Assuming one aspect of a situation changed with a counterfactual but nothing else does is one reason I think counterfactuals are almost always counterproductive.
if you are looking for a reason to be down, you can usually find one. I don’t understand why you would want to.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I had not — thank you for the link!
Roger Moore
@Captain C:
More than anything, their opposition to abortion is about signaling their identity. It has much less to do with whether any woman can end her pregnancy than it is about showing the world which side they’re on. That’s why they act so surprised when the policies they’ve been championing for decades have the effects their opponents have predicted. They never really thought or cared about them as policies, just as ways of showing which side they’re on.
Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: It’s about showing that they’re on the side that wants to control women. That’s one of the fundamental brand attributes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: she’s so good. She did a perfect Susan Collins, too, but I don’t think there are enough political junkies to be interested in a Susan Collins impression
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Baud: When I saw Hershel Walker made his concession speech, I read it as “concussion”, and realized it worked either way.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
As a team athlete Hershel has won and lost. He’s been taught to be graceful about the public side of losing. It’s part of any sport, even if you are the best. I worked in professional sports and yes there are assholes who are sore losers, but even most of them learn or are taught that winning is never guaranteed, you have to earn it. And yes I’ve known some assholes in sports, some Major Assholes. But they are a lot fewer than one might imagine. And as anyone should know losing sucks. But there is losing and there is LOSING.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
As you suggest, there is no material difference between a politician who is crazy and one who only pretends to be crazy, if their decisions and actions are nuts and harmful.
Geminid
@Brachiator: I think the politicians who just pretend may be the more dangerous in a practical sense.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: i think Kari Lake got sucked in by QAnon. I know a couple of people IRL who got sucked in by QAnon so I think I recognize it. She was just batshit crazy on Twitter. Currently, though, I think she’s aiming for a Fox/Newsmax gig.
Geminid
@Ruckus: I think that Herschel Walker may have had enough self-awareness to know that he was in over his head, and that on some levels he may have been relieved to lose. This may have made his quick concession easier.
StringOnAStick
I recently spent some social time with a PhD forensic psychologist, a lot of his practice has to do with criminals. I asked him if TFG was a narcissist or sociopath and he stated that he’s worse than both those, he’s a psychopath. I recall another friend in the medical profession talking about the thing that makes psychopaths so dangerous is they often have an ability to get right inside your head/emotions and manipulate you, which I think explains a lot about our national nightmare.
Ruckus
@scav:
My experience in professional sports is that there are all types of competitors, good ones, poor ones and shitty ones. And that is not a description of their sport abilities. There was one guy who was forever a major asshole, not so much in public but to all the people that worked in the sport and I worked around them and knew many of them well, so I got a lot of crap from the shitty ones.
I think politics brings out the best or worst in people, often depending on why they are involved, personal gain or public service. People in it for personal gain are the worst because they have to be either very good or very ruthless to win. Which brings up a story about one individual in the sport. He treated me like crap no matter what. If he saw me he pushed his asshole button and went full on asshole. There were times I wanted to exercise an official response and have him punished. About then he got injured and the next season he came back and was a different person. I asked his team manager what the hell happened to him. They sat him down and had a career discussion – where it’s grow the hell up or get thrown the hell out. He grew up about 20 yrs worth over the off season. And he became an even better competitor. And human being.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
This. After all, last time out, Warnock won against a white male GOP candidate.
Maybe he’s just a good candidate who is able to connect with a lot of voters.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Lake may give elective politics another try. The 2024 Arizona Senate race may be an attractive option for her. She seemed to enjoy campaigning and I think the money will be there if she wants to run. In the meantime she can build up her national profile through TV appearances.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
There are scoreboards in sports, every participant knows exactly who is winning and who is losing, at any moment during the game.
IOW I’m agreeing with you.
JoyceH
You know, we can laugh about the soft filter, but is there something similar available for Zoom? My webcam is a little too… faithful to reality.
lowtechcyclist
@StringOnAStick:
Fortunately, I think TFG has lost that ability, at least for now. He doesn’t seem to have that visceral connection with his audience that he used to. He had a real talent for making his fans feel that he was a kindred spirit, he saw where they were coming from.
I think that ever since losing in 2020, he’s been so caught up in his own resentments that it gets in his way of seeing and connecting with theirs. And I’m not sure any of the others have this talent. Hopefully not.
Jackie
@Citizen Alan: Ala Sen Tuberville.
Baud beat me by a mile.
UncleEbeneezer
The latest episode of the Jack Podcast is really good! Allison Gill and Andrew McCabe interview Chuck Rosenberg (former U.S. attorney, senior FBI official and chief of the DEA). One of the things that really stands out is when McCabe and Rosenberg explain how as former FBI/Attorneys, the huge dump of transcripts from the Jan 6 Committee can actually hinder DOJ’s ability to do its’ job.
TLDR: Making all those transcripts public gives every potential target/witness an idea of how to craft their testimony to avoid prosecution. It lets them get their story straight to avoid the perjury traps that DOJ often uses to get leverage to flip people to cooperate. It also puts witnesses in the public spotlight for incredible harassment, thus making it even harder to get witnesses to cooperate, which is always a challenge to begin with. Anyways, very interesting to hear perspectives that are not about setting a precedent, informing the public, crafting better laws (the goals of 1/6 Committee) but instead are hyper-focussed on the goal of building cases and getting indictments/convictions.
lowtechcyclist
@JoyceH:
I know what you mean! Last night was a rare moment when both of our cats were on my lap, so my wife took several pictures and texted them over to me. I replied, “great pix, but who’s that old guy in them?”
MattF
@JoyceH: It says here that Zoom has a setting for a ‘softer’ look.
karen marie
@Chief Oshkosh: My understanding is that his candidacy was not legal given his well-established Texas residency. He owned property in Georgia but hadn’t lived there in at least 15 years. That was known before the election yet somehow he wasn’t yanked off the ballot.
Once again we are reminded that rules are for Democrats and the poors.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: I don’t know where they are or how to do it, but I believe there are filters for zoom.
dww44
@lowtechcyclist:
Pretty sure Warnock’s competitor in 2020 was a female white candidate. Ossoff beat Perdue. Warnock bested Loeffler. His decency and commitment to public service came through both times. Plus, he’s simply a likeable person.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: I don’t think Lake could win a GOP primary here. I don’t think the GOP party apparatus here will let her win a primary. They’ve lost 3 senate elections in a row and now gubernatorial, AG and SOS races . Furthermore, she ran in a midterm which should have favored her and she still lost.
Captain C
@karen marie: I wonder if the Georgia Democrats figured Herschel would be a softer opponent due to both his shadiness and his obvious unsuitability for the job, and figured they’d just let this one slide.
dww44
@karen marie:
The candidate whose presence on the ballot most disturbed me was the Republican fake elector who is now Lieutenant Governor of the State. How is that allowed to stand…not only by the Republican party but with no pushback from elected officials?
Jackie
Happy New Year, Donald!
”“Donald Trump’s redacted tax returns will be made public on Friday,” Reuters reports.
“The Democratic-controlled committee obtained the returns last month as part of an investigation into Trump’s taxes, after a lengthy court battle that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the committee’s favor.””
Instead of champagne flowing, ketchup will be flying through the air!
Per Political Wire
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
He’s also aging out and that can change a lot of a person’s perspective. He’s also been shown the door, which seems to have smacked him in that perspective manner which it often does as someone ages and loses a very public job at the same time. He’s been holding on to his “successful” win of the presidency in a rather lunatic manner, completely overlooking that he didn’t actually win the second time around. But then if he wasn’t acting as a bit of a lunatic he wouldn’t be himself.
KenK
@Baud: A rotating tag line if there ever was one.
MomSense
“Soft-focus hologram”. LMAO
JPL
@karen marie: If I remember correctly, his residency isn’t an issue unless he wins. Then he has to live in the state. He did vote though and that could be challenged.
karen marie
@Roger Moore: We can hope, we just can’t expect.
lowtechcyclist
@dww44:
You’re right, I confused the two.
He’s definitely the sort of guy that you wish there were more of in this world.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Lake might not win the primary, but she was a strong enough candidate to come close to winning the Governor’s race in what now is apparently a purple state. If she can consolidate the radical wing of the Arizona party behind her Lake would have a real shot at the nomination, I think.
And if Lake likes the limelight, she will want that nomination badly. If Kyrsten Sinema runs it would be a sensational 3-way race with national coverage. If Sinema retires Lake would be contesting an open seat with a candidate with less statewide name recognition. She’d raise plenty of money and perhaps more importantly to her, get plenty of attention. A loss would probably be the end of her political career but it will have been fun while it lasted, at least for her.
karen marie
@Captain C: I don’t know. What I do know is, it’s incredibly annoying that the DNC does squat to assist state-level Democratic orgs with vetting opposition candidates early on. Both Walker and George Santos should have been disqualified from running straight out of the gate. Where was the DNC? Busy being one of the most useless national political organizations in the history of national political organizations. It’s like a black hole of stupid. Everyone knows who the head of the RNC is. I bet you can’t find one person in 100 who knows who’s “leading” the DNC.
lowtechcyclist
@JPL:
OTOH, the Dems need to be hollering to see Santos’ “long form birth certificate.” Using those exact words, of course.
Frankensteinbeck
On the pandering vs believer argument, I think it’s important that they interact. It’s cognitive dissonance*, a basic function of the human brain. By faking crazy, they open themselves up to becoming crazy, and it only takes one swallow of that, then you drain the whole jug. There are other factors, but the environment of a GOP candidate pushes them towards crazy once cognitive dissonance opens the door.
*Actual cognitive dissonance, not the internet definition and platonic example of why Wikipedia is untrustworthy.
MoCaAce
Anchorman. Kidding… not kidding.
karen marie
@JPL: I had taken other people’s word for what the residency requirement was – my bad!
It’s incredibly vague: “Must be an inhabitant of the state for which chosen when elected.”
“Inhabitant”? What the fuck does that mean? Also, too, “of the state for which chosen”? Who wrote this – ALEC?
Merriam Webster defines it as “one that occupies a particular place regularly, routinely, or for a period of time” – eg, “the tapeworm is an inhabitant of the intestine.”
I mean, I guess you could say that Walker was an inhabitant prior to running for senator because he owns some scammy businesses that operate out of Georgia.
bbleh
Alas, judge denied sanctions. However, Lake is on the hook for Hobbs’s attorney fees and court costs, estimated at around $33K (although to a campaign like hers, I’m afraid that’s chump-change).
https://www.kold.com/2022/12/27/judge-denies-sanctions-against-kari-lake/
JPL
@karen marie: When Ossoff first ran for the sixth district, the republicans ran back to back ads because he lived a mile outside of the district. Meanwhile, MTGreene lives in Alpharetta but is elected to a district representing Rome, Ga. IOKIYR
Geminid
@karen marie: I think the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put out a long fact sheet detailing some of Santos’s shaky biography, and the Democratic candidate raised these issues repeatedly. They got little traction in the media or the electorate. Other more salient issues did.
Democrats being Democrats, there is a lot of fingerpointing going on about Santos, and that’s on top of the recriminations over the Democrats poor showing statewide. And that’s on top of the Democrats’ other feuds in that state which many Democrats in other states are eager to join.
I hope this does not contaminate the party’s response to the Santos affair, at least not publicly, Democrats should assert unequivocally that Santos is a Republican problem. He ran on their ballot line. Republicans chose him, they supported even though they knew about his bogus resume, and he is first and foremost their responsibility. Democrats should wrap Santos around the Republicans’ necks so tightly their eyes bulge out.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
Failure can be humbling, and sports are good at exposing most people to failure. IMO, it’s one of the reasons to keep sports in the schools. There are a lot of life lessons to be learned through sports, and some people will learn them better that way than any other.
That said, endless success can teach the opposite lesson, so you will run into some real assholes in sports. Every athlete needs a coach who will teach them that success in sports doesn’t make them better as a person, but too few coaches are willing to teach that one to their most successful trainees. Coping with real adversity for the first time can make or break an athlete.
Brachiator
Just wanted to note how great this description is.
I guess that thanks to Zoom, she could deploy this soft focus effect in interviews, which to my mind just made her look even crazier.
I continue to be amazed that anyone would vote for her.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Yeah, I fail to see how the Republicans running a shady crook is somehow a problem that *Democrats* are responsible for fixing. I mean, I know a lot of other people seem to think so, but their logic continues to escape me.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: Me too. It’s just, blame Dems for everything.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
I think it’s telling that FTFNYT waited until after the election to “break” the news about Santos being a serial liar, even though his Democratic opponent tried to make it an issue. I guess this falls under the same umbrella as refusing to publicize the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program until after the election. FTFNYT doesn’t want to affect the outcome of the election by publicizing information that might make a Republican look bad.
Captain C
@Geminid:
NYT: It’s the Democrats’ fault for not making us report on this juicy story.
Dems: We told you about it repeatedly. You didn’t do your jobs.
NYT: You can’t expect us to listen to you; you’re biased*!
*With a not-so-hidden subtext of “unlike Republicans, who can always be trusted, despite our detailed investigative report on page B17 which shows otherwise, just like the last 500 reports on page B17.”
zhena gogolia
@Captain C: I’m still shocked that in their entire article (on A 17) about Cassidy Hutchinson and her Trumpy lawyer, they never mentioned the fact that he said Haberman was friendly to them. And in all the hundreds of comments on the article, I didn’t see one of their readers raise the issue.
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
The NYT was never going to undermine its own reporter’s credibility by admitting that she was one of the Trump inner circle’s pet journalists.
Michael Bersin
@Kent: We got (and get) the same thing in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District. Mark Alford, a right wingnut news reader for the Kansas City Fox affiliate, won an open seat primary and the general election to replace Vicky Hartzler (r). He’s just as bad as she is. We hear too much of “he was so nice/good/polished on the news.”
Ken
Open thread, but I hope we get a thread specifically for Musk / Tesla schadenfreude tonight. Down over 11% today.
Captain C
@Amir Khalid: Even if it’s a) news and b) might show a conflict of interest (and thus be the ethical thing to do).
ian
@lowtechcyclist:
Is this actually a good idea, or would this just make you feel better because crazy people did this to Obama?
A member of the house does not need to be a natural born U.S. citizen, so finding inaccuracies in a birth certificate would not achieve any tangible results.
I’m not convinced we should do insane and/or stupid things just because the GOP does them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Captain C: would that it were just the NYT. Smart People all over twitter are blaming the Dems. More than a few people on these very threads are convinced that the good folk of the district were just waiting for an email from the DCCC
karen marie
@Geminid: Yes, “Democrats” should do that. Unfortunately, as I said, the DNC makes no noise whatsoever about this or anything else. Google “RNC chair TV appearances” and “DNC chair TV appearances.”
Jaime Harrison has been as bad as his predecessors. The first story is from January 2022 indicating he was considering stepping down early. Then we get a story from March 2022, a couple from early 2021, and then … 2017.
We have a real problem with the way the DNC is organized and doesn’t function.
Geminid
I was happy to see this item in today’s Politico Playbook:
Matt McIrvin
@scav: The ultimate example: Donald Trump had no real desire to transform America–what he wanted was to be worshipped and acknowledged as America’s King, Strongest Daddy and Ultimate Winner. To have all the power but not necessarily to do anything in particular with it. Of course, he’d happily do the bidding of anyone who got him there and kept him there and kissed his ass.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@karen marie: people who watch the shows where party chairs punditize (and who have any fucking idea who Jaime Harrison and Ronna notRomney are) aren’t really swing voters, and I imagine TV time on nightly news and sporting events (the kind of thing people who might be persuadable actually watch live) is pretty damn expensive in the NYC media market
MobiusKlein
@ian:
The don’t need to be natural born citizen, but they have to be a citizen. Either a birth certificate or naturalization papers would be great. Especially for a giant liar like Mr Santos.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What are the dumb people doing?
Geminid
@karen marie: Political scientist and campaign practitioner Rachel Bitecofer said she thought Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison did an excellent job this cycle. I thought that overall these were good midterms for party candidates, and the result in the New York 3rd CD does not change that opinion.
This is not to say that Democrats should not constructively criticize their party’s leadership, because there is always room for improvement. But judging Jaime Harrison by the result in one race without considering the positive results in others is not balanced analysis in my opinion.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Cheering on Elon and retweeting Marge Greene
livewyre
@Geminid: You don’t understand. Democrats need to be punished for losing by making them lose. It’s the only way they’ll get the message. Nothing else is important. Policy can wait. I am not a Republican.
ETA: Alright, alright, less sarcastic: it’s still mysterious to me what gives this idea so much traction, that the Democratic Party and its distributed apparatuses are solely responsible for making sure Republican candidates qualify correctly. Besides, isn’t it a win if their offering flames out in blatant fraud and potentially denies them a seat? What’s the downside?
dnfree
@Ruckus: When my brother was in high school, a coach asked him “Do you want to be an athlete or an asshole?” He still talks about the impact that had on him.
Captain C
@Geminid:
As a New Yorker, I think Harrison can be blamed only after the dysfunctional, incompetent, corrupt New York Democratic Party is at least partially fixed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: if Jaime Harrison is responsible for the result in this one race that wasn’t, to my recollection, on the radar of anybody here ten days ago (maybe there were lots of “We have to do more to support Rob Zimmerman” posts while I was traveling), doesn’t he also deserve credit for the marquee races we won? and holding the “Red Tsunami” down to a single digit gain? and the state legislatures that got bluer?
If I had called him “Fred Zimmerman”, how many people would have noticed?
Burnspbesq
@Ruckus:
The famous Bill Parcells aphorism applies equally to sports and politics:
”You are who your record says you are.”
Geminid
@Ken: “Buy the dip!”
karen marie
@Geminid: Oh, I’m not judging him on one race. I’m judging him on his lack of presence – and lack of support of state Dem orgs – since he took the position. How is it that NY and FL – and other states – are left floundering?
Other than fundraising, what is the point of the DNC? If they’re not supporting state-level orgs, what is the point
@Captain C: I don’t know but it seems like the national org should be providing help and guidance to the state orgs. I do blame the DNC for allowing things to get as bad as they apparently are in NY.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also for making voters care about the things we think they should care about
Burnspbesq
@dww44:
And Loeffler was not. For me, the tell was when the players on the WNBA team she co-owned came out against her.
karen marie
@Burnspbesq: “Her team” coming out against her was a delicious moment in politics!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Burnspbesq: I heard on MSNBC today– I think from the latest J6 trasncript– that Mrs Raffensberger personally reached out to Loeffler and Perdue, to ask them to talk to trump about targeting her husband because of the violent rape threats she was getting, by text, to her private cell phone. They didn’t respond.
Geminid
@ian: It’s possible that George Santos will be disqualified because of his citizenship status. I rather hope his papers are in order, though. I think he has lots worse skeletons in his closet that will come rolling out in the next weeks, to the discredit of his caucus and his party. It is likely that Santos will be indicted by next summer on multiple counts, and that other Republicans including Representative Stephanik will be dragged into this mess.
Another Scott
@karen marie: HarrisonJaime was quite active on Twitter and often told about what the DNC was doing. I assume that’s still the case, but I haven’t checked recently.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Quinerly
@Captain C: thread be dead, I’m sure. Hope you see this…might try to catch you in the AM thread. Thanks for all the suggestions. JoJo and I had a wonderful 3 nights at La Posada in Winslow. Took the backroad to Cottonwood today. Looks like rain tomorrow so we may prowl around Jerome. Lots of traffic and very peoplely. I am coming off of a week of no traffic and very few people in Window Rock, Tuba City, Cameron, and Winslow. This will be interesting. Again, thanks for all the suggestions. I have saved them.
ian
@Geminid: Maybe, but I’m not jumping into the Orly Taitz bandwagon of “he isn’t a U.S. citizen, show me the birth certificate”.
If he isn’t a U.S. citizen, there is something seriously wrong with the candidate requirement vetting done by the New York state board of elections. This was his second congressional race.
They ask that information of candidates.
https://www.elections.ny.gov/RunningOffice.html
https://www.elections.ny.gov/NYSBOE/download/law/FAQ_2022_August_23_Primary.pdf (PDF)
Geminid
@ian: The Board of Elections may ask for but I wonder if they check it. they check it. They may not have any investigators on their staff and this might be an honor system.