Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We will not go back.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

“But what about the lurkers?”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Be a wild strawberry.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You are here: Home / Politics / Democratic Politics / Two Sides To Every Story

Two Sides To Every Story

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We could worry about this story.

Republicans’ Senate campaign arm has actively worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to jump into the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, believing she will be the easiest opponent to beat.

Just a month ago, there was grave concern among Republicans about the Senate race, where incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is running for reelection. Democrats were running two formidable candidates, and Cornyn was caught in the middle of a bruising three-way primary that Republicans were concerned would weaken the eventual nominee.

Or we could be encouraged by this one.  h/t Jackie

Republicans clearly think they got one over on the Democratic Party by boosting Crockett. Her entry has already forced the moderate Allred out and has pushed Talarico, who was viewed as the progressive challenger to the Democratic establishment, into the “electable normie” lane. But a supposed Bible-lover like Johnson should remember Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction.”

People thought Zohran Mamdani was unelectable too. Granted, he is nothing like Crockett, outside of not meeting Johnson’s Christian, white and male standards. Mamdani is to her left on policy, but he also has an affable, disarming demeanor.

It’s also worth noting that most political experts thought Donald Trump couldn’t win, and that his hack insult comedy routine would fail. Turns out, though, that a lot of voters are fine with a candidate who is a loudmouth or a bully, so long as they feel that person is a fighter who is ready to shake things up. The Bulwark’s Tim Miller argued that Crockett might be more viable than conventional wisdom would suggest because voters seem to be craving heterodox candidates who offer a promise of real change, whether it’s on policy matters like Mamdani, or simply on style points as with Crockett.

(Granted, there’s a third way modeled by Mamdani — and, I’d argue, by Talarico — of making your opponents look small without being rude by displaying courage, smarts and strong convictions. But name-calling does play better on social media, where attention spans are short and people don’t have the cognitive energy to process multiple sentences, much less entire debate exchanges.)

Crockett’s candidacy will likely empower even more Democrats to believe they can do more than lie low and hope to survive long enough to pick up the pieces after Trumpism implodes. Win or lose, she will show that doing things differently is at least possible. Crockett will empower a lot of people, both political leaders and everyday citizens, to take the fight to MAGA. This isn’t just a few Democrats in Congress using curse words. A lot of people are sick of feeling hamstrung. They’re eager to lash out at the right, even if it means dispensing with previous taboos against mocking people’s bodies or identities.

Two different takes.  What’s yours?

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  2. 2.

    laura

    Win or lose, Jasmine Crockett has every right to run her campaign. She’s whip smart, savvy, knows her strengths and weaknesses, knows her constituents and her army of support. I hope that she can win the primary and go on to win in the general election. I fear that she, too, will get the full heaping helping of misogynior, as we’ve already seen in this here almost top 10,000 blog. I’ll kick some cash her way in the New Year and hope that Texas voters trust themselves enough to elect her.

  4. 4.

    Ohio Mom

    My take isn’t aimed only at Crockett, it’s about all the Representatives whose ambitions send them running for Senate — thinking here of Katie Porter and all the people who want to see AOC run for Senate and even the Presidency, but I’m sure there are other examples.

    Didn’t Nancy Pelosi’s career and achievements show us that there is plenty of glory and potential accomplishment in being a lowly Rep? Pelosi changed this country from her seat, much more than any number of Senators have.

    But Cockett knows things I don’t, so I’m not judging her specifically, only commenting on what I see as a trend.

  5. 5.

    Raoul Paste

    If she could locally meet her voters throughout Texas, the way Mamdani did in NYC, her odds go up.  The problem is that Texas is a big state.
    The voters will decide.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: Is she the one that the Rs have quietly submitted to the appropriate committee in the hopes that they can get her through legally?

  8. 8.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ohio Mom: I believe Tex-ass’s new map gerrymanders her out of her House seat, which, if I’m not mistaken, is likely a big factor in her decision.

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    I can’t allow myself to think Crockett has a chance, nor any Dem, but here’s my ray of fucking sunshine: If it’s a high-profile combative race that brings out the vote, those fresh purportedly Republican House districts they just created might find themselves going Democratic because of slim vote margins and a high turnout over the senate race. A few of those plus five new Dem seats from California will have an impact on the next House.

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    going to say this..

    Texas is not a Red State

    Texas is a VOTER SUPPRESSED STATE.

    The largest part of that Voter Suppression is Voter Apathy.

    Texas can be won for Democrats, in Harris County – period.

    I certainly hope that she doesn’t waste her time going after ‘ disaffected Republicans’

    FOH with that SHYT

    I hope that she is a full throated Democrat who goes out to try and get our Natural Democratic Voters to the polls.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Ohio Mom: Guessing she would have stayed where she was if they hadn’t gerrymandered her district.

    Katie Porter is a cautionary tale, for sure.  But she screwed herself by saying her (non) election was rigged and revealed a personality that is not, shall we say, pleasant.  She could have had a long life in the House, though.

  14. 14.

    jonas

    That NOTUS article notably failed to reach out to Crockett (or her staff) for any comment on the story they were being fed about her essentially being baited into running by a Republican ratfucking campaign. That’s really, really sus imho.

  17. 17.

    They Call Me Noni

    I have a very left leaning daughter and SIL in Galveston who are very tuned in to both national and local politics and I’m going to trust that there are a lot of people in that state of Texas who think as they do and are not happy with what’s going on in their state.  Here’s to hoping that Jasmine Crockett can tap into the frustration they feel and turn them out when voting commences.  She’s whip smart, full of charisma and not afraid of calling it like she sees it.  From what I understand she has been gerrymandered out of her current seat but still wants to fight for her constituents.  I look forward to watching her making her case to the people.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: Ah, thank you.  I wonder if the plan is the same for Habba.

    edit:  Either that, or Habba thinks she’s Gandalf.  They struck her down, so she will come back even stronger.

  19. 19.

    Wapiti

    I think that whichever comes in second in the primary, Crockett or Talarico, there’s space to support the winner of the primary, seriously act as the bulldog so that the winner doesn’t need to do all of the work, and build name recognition (and goodwill within the Democratic Party) to be prepared for the next run.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    Cui bono? is a good question to remember.

    Political insiders and consultants have to convince candidates and parties of their value.  Playing up “I’m the genius who got Crockett in the race, hire me to help pick your [opposing] candidate too!!” is the way they build their brand and potential value and it’s free advertising.

    Crockett isn’t stupid.  She knows how politics works, especially in Texas.

    Forward!!

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    jonas

    @trollhattan:  A few of those plus five new Dem seats from California will have an impact on the next House.

    Unless SCOTUS finds a way to throw out the results of that referendum. And you know they’ll try.

  23. 23.

    Eolirin

    I don’t see the point in getting excersized about a primary unless it’s in your state. And even with the shift in Latino sentiment, I have my doubts that any Dem can win statewide in Texas. But I’ll leave it to the Democratic voters in Texas to decide for themselves who gives them the best shot of winning.

    If we win the Texas seat, it’s almost inconceivable that we don’t take the Senate back, several other states would go first. But I’d definitely temper expectations there.

  24. 24.

    jonas

    @Wapiti: Important point. The whole game plan here — if the reporting is correct — was to create a primary landscape for the Dems like the ones Repubs are facing, hoping that it’s a bitter, recriminating, racial-politics-poisoned fight that results in one side or the other staying home on election day out of spite and the Republican cruises to victory. Dems can’t let that happen. Fortunately I think both Talarico and Crockett are smart enough not to go there, but we’ll see.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    If Paxton wins the Republican primary, I think Jasmine has a good shot at beating him.  And I think Paxton is going to win the primary.

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    In the spirit of that other thread: whichever candidate wins the Texas Senate primary, their particular characteristics will be blamed for the more or less inevitable general-election loss, which in fact will happen because it’s fucking Texas.

  29. 29.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ohio Mom: Didn’t Nancy Pelosi’s career and achievements show us that there is plenty of glory and potential accomplishment in being a lowly Rep? Pelosi changed this country from her seat, much more than any number of Senators have.

    Pelosi  never had to deal with the california legislature eliminating her district. Continuing in the house is not a viable forward strategy for crockett at this time.

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    @jonas: ​
     
    From what little I’ve read the approval margin makes it hard to attack from a vote fraud/inconsistency angle, which they were hot to do pre-election. Of course with these mooks you never take your eye off.

    On the California topic, a challenge: Find Newsom’s latest Trump troll.

    x.com/CAgovernor/status/1999501704929378406

  31. 31.

    Shalimar

    I think both Crockett and Talarico are great candidates.  If Crockett had a safe seat, I would prefer she stay in that rather than risk not being in Congress at all.  But Republicans fucked that up, so she is my favorite.

  32. 32.

    Eolirin

    @trollhattan: The potential for a sizable shift in Hispanic voting might also fuck with their maps, just like it might in Florida.

    But it’s going to be very hard to predict how any of this plays out and we have no idea what other factors may go into the election environment, but I anticipate we’ll be dealing with at least some illegal bullshit.

  33. 33.

    Josie

    Texas is not NYC. What works here has nothing to do with what worked there. Also, Texas is a very large state. What works in the Dallas area (Crockett’s area) will not necessarily work in central Texas, south Texas, or west Texas. I resent any implication that supporting Talarico is racist or misogynist. Neither is the case. Crockett is polling well due to name recognition at this point. Only time will tell if that holds up.

  34. 34.

    laura

    I am going to be thinking and manifesting Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan – their strength and fortitude for Jasmine Crockett.

  37. 37.

    cckids

    Off topic, but just in case you all would like a feel-good story:  My town of Everett, WA is facing historic flooding in places. Our animal shelter is very close to the river, and Tuesday night were told they should evacuate. They had 120 dogs and cats in residence, and weren’t sure how they could evacuate all the animals. They put the word out on social media, and before 10 am Wednesday, all the animals had foster homes. The spouse & I went down around 9:30, but all the kitties were spoken for, and we do not have space for the large dogs who were still there. I wasn’t worried, though, because there were around 40-50 people waiting to volunteer for the 10 or so dogs left.

    Hopefully some of the fosters will have their forever homes! :) It was truly sweet to see.

  40. 40.

    Betty

    @rikyrah: You mean the lawyer who had a grand juror correct her pronunciation of “indict” and who thought she got to vote on whether or not to indict? That Lindsey Halligan?

  41. 41.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Raoul Paste: in 2018, Beto O’Rourke visited all of Texas’ 254 counties during his campaign, even the one with about 150 people.  He had the best performance in a Senate race in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.  If you’re committed, you can get to every part of the state.

  43. 43.

    wonkie

    Oh God. I am so sick of the need some have to force others into simplistic boxes. A Black woman enters the race so immediately all supporters of Talarico must be just supporting him because he’s white blah blah. Who is the real true progressive? My candidate and not yours! How dare anyone suggest that gender is a factor in a statewide race when obviously it is?  Both Talarico and Crockett are great people who would make excellent Senators. Mostly likely neither can win. Both can do outreach to people who don’t normally vote D, though they will reach different people. Both could increase turn out and support local and legislative races. Texans are blessed with a bounty of excellent candidates. I hope they make a pact to support each other and minimize the circular firing squad that is already shooting.

  44. 44.

    Cliosfanboy

    I hope it works as well as such tactics did for the Democrats in 2016, who thought Trump should get the republican nomination because Hillary would beat him easily. Yes, I know she won the popular vote, and there’s no Electoral College in a Senate run. But the point it sometimes the seemingly weak candidate can motivate a lot of support. And I think Crockett can turn out a LOT of people who never voted before, or who don’t vote in off-years.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    FWIW, I don’t believe the Republicans influenced Crockett’s decision at all. It’s a planted story.

  48. 48.

    Ishiyama

    I’ve been a Jasmine Crockett stan since I saw her at the Democratic Convention last year. She is an absolute diamond, sparkling and brilliant. I’ve watched her on various media shows, including The Breakfast Club as well as traditional media. She doesn’t miss a beat. If anyone can win Texas, she can. Talarico? Never heard of him.

  52. 52.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I believe comment #2 was reacting to a specific comment in one of the earlier threads that referred to her as an “angry black woman,” not to general support for Talarico.

  55. 55.

    Old Man Shadow

    I like Talarico, as someone who can point out the hypocrisy of conservative Evangelicals and call people to a better way. He seems like he would be a good Senator.

    But Crockett is a fighter. She says what is on her mind and she doesn’t back down. That does have appeal. Also she would be a good Senator.

    Ultimately, I’m not a Texan, I don’t follow Texas politics unless there’s a national story, and I’ve been wrong about American voters a lot lately, so what the fuck do I know… ?

    They both seem like good Democratic candidates to run in Texas. Just a shame one of them has to lose.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    Republicans’ Senate campaign arm has actively worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to jump into the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, believing she will be the easiest opponent to beat.

    I posted that when it was first published.  I was told in the comments by many jackals who are more savvy than I am about campaigns, that the behind-the-scenes hijinks like this are actually quite common. Both sides do it and the most recent example was Adam Schiff with ads that subtly boosted the Republican over Katie Porter.

    I was reassured by the comments and concluded that it was a nothing-burger, just business as usual behind the scenes in political campaigns.

    But highlighting it in a news story is now what is suspect.  More psyops by the Republicans to diminish Jasmine Crockett’s appeal?  Magi’s 8 ball says very likely.

  57. 57.

    Hoodie

    My gut tells me Talerico is the favorite. Without Allred in the primary he can be more solicitous of the progressive parts of the party without that being used against him. If he’s smart, he’ll welcome Crocker to the race but hope a lot of her supporters will conclude he’s acceptable but more electable. Texas dem voters know their state better than outsiders. If Crocker wins the primary, fine. It’s a long shot for either of them anyway. Several liberal white dudes have failed, so there’s no clear reason for not trying something else. And to be clear, there’s no obvious reason Talerico would be a better senator than Crocker, or vice versa.

  58. 58.

    Suzanne

    The Bulwark’s Tim Miller argued that Crockett might be more viable than conventional wisdom would suggest because voters seem to be craving heterodox candidates who offer a promise of real change, whether it’s on policy matters like Mamdani, or simply on style points as with Crockett.

    My take is that I want this to be true, but I don’t know if it actually is true.

    I do think style matters a lot to people, much more than we nerds would prefer. Whether or not Jasmine Crockett’s particular style is enough to win a primary or a general is beyond my powers of prediction.

  62. 62.

    Ishiyama

    @Baud: FWIW, I don’t believe the Republicans influenced Crockett’s decision at all. It’s a planted story.

     

    Of course it’s a phony story. Jasmine Crockett said, publicly, that she was doing her own private polling in order to make her decision. The story that is referred to fails to state that fact. Public polling did not play a significant role. And the Repubs aren’t releasing their private poll results.

    I’ll roll with the 6Bs girl!

  63. 63.

    Josie

    @JoeyJoeJoe: ​
     You are exactly correct. It is the only way to have a chance as a Democrat. It’s carving votes away from Republicans on the edges. Talarico has already been quietly following Beto”s example.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: My friend Debbie sent me this joke and I thought you might like it.

       A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, the man noticed a huge wall of clocks behind him.

    “What are all those clocks?” he asked.

    St. Peter replied, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has one. Every time you tell a lie, the hands move.”

    “Oh,” said the man. “Whose clock is that?”

    “That’s Mother Teresa’s. The hands have never moved– she never told a lie.”

    “Incredible ” the man said. “What about that one?

    “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s. The hands have moved twice. Abe told only two lies in his life.”

    The man looked around again.”So…where is the President’s clock?”

    Saint Peter smiled and said, “Oh that one? It’s in Jesus’s office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.”

  67. 67.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @trollhattan: I agree.  The winner of an energized Democratic contest might beat impeached, looks very corrupt Ken Paxton, too.  It does appear Paxton will defeat Cornyn for who knows what reason.

  68. 68.

    piratedan

    I fully expect that Ms. Crockett will make her case to the State of Texas with the same care that she brings to her role as a Congresswoman.  While she has a “persona” that the media likes to portray as “Angry Black Woman”, as usual its in context of her job having to counteract GOP bullshit and that is never mentioned, just like the fact that she has receipts and has stated thru those receipts that her GOP counterparts are lying.  I find her appearances on other media very measured in comparison.  In many ways she reminds me of AOC, someone else who brings receipts and asks questions that do not get answered by the other side, so she gets attacked for doing the same thing but many attempts to smear her seem to be falling short.

    I expect Ms. Crocket (and Mr. Talarico) will have one thread that points out the ills of continued GOP leadership and how incredibly self-serving it has been and another thread about what they propose to do for the state as a whole, coupled on healthcare costs, energy policy and immigration.  How they will resonate and inspire people will be telling.

    I like them both but am pulling for Ms. Crockett.  I expect that we may well need her legal background in the coming years if we can turn back this fascist tide.

  69. 69.

    Ishiyama

    @Hoodie: Jasmine Crockett graduated from Law School, and practiced in some challenging fields; she’s a fighter by personal inclination and by experience. Defense attorneys are always fighting against the odds.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    FWIW, I’m skeptical the US will elect a woman Dem president, but I wouldn’t condemn or criticize a woman for throwing her hat in the ring in 2028.

    Same with Crockett in Texas.

  72. 72.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @WaterGirl: did she though?  I found her “offense” rather mild.   Maybe we could give women some frustration space in a world where men routinely use actual threats of violence to get their way.  Some men, including our president, do so publicly.

  73. 73.

    Princess

    My take is we let Texas Democrats decide. I would encourage non Texans to not donate to the primary candidates and to save their money to support the winner. But no one listens to me.

  75. 75.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @rikyrah: this president wants the blue slip killed again.  The gop senators did it for him last time.  He wants a repeat performance.  For once I am relieved Joe Manchin got his “promises”.  I hope they hold.  These appointees, like Halligan, are like a sick, sadistic joke.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @Miss Bianca:

    I believe Tex-ass’s new map gerrymanders her out of her House seat, which, if I’m not mistaken, is likely a big factor in her decision.

    Could Crockett won in her gerrymandered district – especially given the state of Dems regaining popularity re FFOTUS’s crashing polls? He’s not a coattail many republicans are willing to hang on to.

  78. 78.

    tam1MI

    I think that, win or lose in the general, a strong campaign by Crockett or Talarico will be of benefit to the Dems because it will force Republicans to pour money and resources into a state that, by rights, they should have sewn up, thereby opening up the map in other places that they have to deny those self-same resources to.

  79. 79.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @Eolirin: if one of them wins the general, it will be because both candidates used the primary to rain truth fire at the Texas GOP, while the GOP primary focused on Paxton’s threats of violence against anyone who opposes him.  Imho

  80. 80.

    JoyceH

    I like Crockett and I love listening to her and I honestly have no idea whether or not she could win a Senate run. I do however think she would be a misfit in the Senate. Crockett is a battle hammer. Nothing wrong with that, battle hammers have their uses. They are useful in the House.

    You don’t want a battle hammer in the Senate, it’s the place for the stiletto in the dark alley. For the Senate, you want someone who can filet their opponent so skillfully and subtly that the poor schmuck doesn’t even realize he’s been gutted until he’s heading back to the office and his intestines fall out into the floor.

  83. 83.

    Redshift

    @Suzanne:

    I find it somewhat encouraging that the articles (or at least these quotes) talk about style and personality rather than the usual focus on policy and how far left or right a candidate is. Because as incomprehensible as it is to us politics geeks, the vast majority of voters don’t vote based on policy positions.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Princess: I don’t get involved in primary campaigns for offices outside of my state/district, for this reason. It seems like there are activist groups like Indivisible that always want me to, but I don’t know, man. Not my choice to make.

  85. 85.

    cain

    @Ishiyama: ​
     

    That only means that Crockett will get a lot of outside money than Talarico. It doesn’t translate to a win or anything. As one commenter mentions, it is a big state and so the person who can go out there and visit all of them and talk to all of them especially during these times.

    The GOP think they don’t have to do any work because Texas is a voter suppressed state. But I truly believe they fucked themselves with their gerrymander. People are hurting and they’ll vote for anyone who is listening to them. That fucker Ken is going to sit on his ass and suck his own dick.

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    @tam1MI:

    I think that, win or lose in the general, a strong campaign by Crockett or Talarico will be of benefit to the Dems because it will force Republicans to pour money and resources into a state that, by rights, they should have sewn up, thereby opening up the map in other places that they have to deny those self-same resources to.

    THIS THIS THIS

    Please don’t forget, that both times Beto lost (sob sob), he helped down ballot Dems win all sorts of local elections, especially in the Texas Judiciary.

  88. 88.

    Redshift

    @JoyceH: I have no way of knowing, but it’s also possible that Crockett understands that as well (or will learn), and battle hammer is one thing she is good at rather than what she is.

  89. 89.

    JoyceH

    @Jackie: That’s what I was wondering – just how gerrymandered is Crockett’s district? If it’s anything less than R+13, that’s not a safe pickup for the GOP.

    I think the Republicans are making a big mistake in their redistricting efforts. Texas in particular took maps straight from the White House. And after that inexplicable swing of Hispanic voters to Trump in 2024, the administration is acting on the assumption that “those voters are ours now.”  And then they go out and unleash a literal rein of terror against all Hispanics, citizen or otherwise, sending a Proud Boys-infused ICE to grab Hispanics off the streets, smashing car windows and ignoring their pleas of citizenship. And the Texas electorate is over forty percent Hispanic now! And Trump and the GOP expect their votes?!

  90. 90.

    Ishiyama

    @cain: Just to fill in my gaps of knowledge, I checked youtube. One candidate is a dynamic speaker with facts at her command; the other speaks in a passive voice about other people’s feelings, bland as cold gruel. Talarico will inspire nobody.

  92. 92.

    cain

    @Jackie: ​
     
    The GOP are lazy they don’t like to work hard. They’ll use the coat tails even if they think it might work against them. Plus, you saw the kind of political violence that the Trump administration can bring. They have no choice.

  93. 93.

    RealDemSocialist

    Jasmine Crockett says it would be “one of the scariest things” to stop giving taxpayer funding to Israel because that would endanger the 75-year “allyship” between our countries.

    No thanks!

  94. 94.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah: And while it is intensely frustrating that being female and especially a Black woman is still a handicap, one of the ways to chip away at that is to run and do better than expected.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty:

    who had a grand juror correct her pronunciation of “indict”

    Wow, I totally missed that one.  Did she pronounce the second I as a soft i?   snort

  103. 103.

    Ishiyama

    “I have won cases and convinced juries in the reddest parts of this State!”

    That’s what she got.

  104. 104.

    cain

    @JoyceH: As I said, I laughed when I heard they were going to push that gerrymander in. They haven’t even started going after hispanics. That whole thing with SCOTUS taking on citizenship, every one of those hispanics know that it’s targeted at them.

    Legal or illegal, they know that this administration and the by extension the GOP are out to get them. They can’t not know. This includes all the white people who have married hispanics or have children of mixed heritage.

  107. 107.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: Oh, geez, I’ve forgotten, it was on Mastodon a while back. My impression was that they were generally supporting left-progressives vs. centrists.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:  She did say she decided to run because of the good polling.

    The real question is whether she was looking at the bullshit polling the Rs influenced or if she did her own polling.

    If the first, maybe she did get played, but it may still backfire.

    She’s a smart cookie, so surely she did her own polling before jumping in.

    edit: I see that someone upthread said that Jasmine Crockett had indicated that she had done her own polling.

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    @Ishiyama:

    I’ll roll with the 6Bs girl!

    I am not hip enough to know what that means.  In fact, I am likely so hip that I don’t even know that the kids don’t say hip anymore.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @RealDemSocialist: I approved your first comment when I saw it a couple of minutes ago.  Guessing this second comment was a test of some sort?

    The first comment here has to be manually approved.  After that has been done, your comments show up right away for everyone.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Scout211: Remember Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” in 2008? He was openly chortling about how he was going to sink the Democrats by urging his fans to register Democratic and vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary because she was weaker. And I forgot this part, but apparently he later changed his mind and switched to telling them to vote for Obama because now he was weaker (maybe because of the Jeremiah Wright thing?) But generally Limbaugh wanted them to sow “PUMA” type division in the party. Of course, bragging about that on the radio meant that it was mostly intended to get attention for him.

  115. 115.

    Ishiyama

    @Josie: Because that’s not the question that you asked me. You asked me if I knew any Texans, and I said yes, I had even met Ann Richards.

  117. 117.

    gene108

    It’s also worth noting that most political experts thought Donald Trump couldn’t win, and that his hack insult comedy routine would fail.

    When Trump called Mexicans racists, in 2015, he shit up to the top of a crowded Republican field and stayed there. In 2016, he has Putin running disinformation for him and Cambridge Analytica and Peter Thiel micro targeting social media ads at right-wing irregular voters. The BBC covered the social media capaign, as part of their CA coverage. Trump’s team wasn’t trying to figure out if a pickup truck in the background would appeal to a voter, they were figuring out what color pickup truck would most appeal.

    One of the big factors, in my opinion, during the 2024 campaign was an overwhelming effort from right-wing media. They targeted Spanish language social media channels. They roped in a bunch of podcasters who appealed to young men to be pro-Trump. They developed other social outreach efforts, like TPUSA, to draw young people into Republican circles. Plus Fox News, OAN, News Max, right-talk radio, etc., and Musk’s Nazi-ification of X.

    Trump didn’t win by running tight campaigns, like Obama did. He had a lot of help.

  118. 118.

    Captain C

    @HopefullynotCassandra:

    It does appear Paxton will defeat Cornyn for who knows what reason.

    Republicans do seem to like their candidates to have these attributes:

    impeached, looks very corrupt Ken Paxton, too.

  119. 119.

    Dan B

    @cckids: Thanks for the great story.  Mike was in Everett yesterday having lunch with his brother and some boat (Schooner Zodiac) guys.  One of the guys lives on the Skagit River so he’s on edge, of the river and of his nerves.

  120. 120.

    Ishiyama

    @WaterGirl: “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body”. And if you don’t know to what that refers, it was her reply to Marjorie Taylor Green insulting her about her eyelashes during a Committee hearing. It’s a lesson in parliamentary procedure; she asked the Committee Chair, who had ruled that Green’s remarks were not a personal comment, if, hypothetically, it would be a personal comment to mention another member’s “”bleach blonde, bad built, butch body”

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Why are non-Texans taking sides over a primary between to perfectly acceptable candidates?  Neither has walked around with Nazi ink for a couple of decades, right?

  123. 123.

    Ishiyama

    @WaterGirl: She was in Madison in 1998, supporting Tammy Baldwin’s first campaign for Congress. I attended a rally at Tammy’s place. I was running for District Attorney, which helped boost turnout for Tammy, too.

  124. 124.

    Josie

    @Ishiyama: ​ No, if you go back and check, you will see that I asked what part of Texas are you from?​
     ETA: And, for what it’s worth, meeting Ann Richards is not the same as living your whole life in Texas.

  125. 125.

    WTFGhost

    @WaterGirl: There is a religious component to some of these people. You know, I think the religious right really set themselves up to be conned by a Trump. Lead from the GUT! Do what it takes! Be completely confident, for the LORD is on your side!

    Well, Trump will do all that, because he doesn’t have any plan, any beliefs, any values, so he looks like a perfect prophet onto whom they can project all of their desired values for a prophet.

    If he wasn’t so objectively, joyfully, cruel, I’d feel a bit sorry for the “home team” (I was raised Christian, Roman Catholic, in fact) for being snookered, but I feel a bit stronger of a sense of contempt that they don’t notice that he’s not feeding the hungry and tending the sick, he’s fighting to cut SNAP and closing hospitals!

  126. 126.

    Glory b

    @gene108: Lit’s not forget THE BASE of the party, black voters.

    Clinton/Trump was the first election held after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.

    Black voters standing in line FOR HOURS to vote, only to have polls close before they got there?

    The states that made it a crime to give a wsiting voter a drink if water, a bit of food or hold their place while they tried to find a restroom?

    I’m disappointed at how many people have memory holed this outrage.

  129. 129.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah:

    Trump’s Acting US Attorney for Delaware announces she is following Alina Habba and stepping down: “The people that think they have chased me away will soon find out they are mistaken. I did not get here by being a shrinking violet. God has a plan.”

    Your god is obviously Trump, and no he doesn’t.

  132. 132.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Shalimar: Having two strong candidates seems like a good thing to me. It up to Texas Democratic primary voters to make the call. And yeah, my one-word response to “unelectability” claims is “Mamdani”. (NYC is not nearly as liberal as people unfamiliar with the city imagine.)

  137. 137.

    Eolirin

    @Steve LaBonne: Mamdani definitely benefited from the only real competition being Cuomo.

    But a lot of that was down to having consolidated enough initial support by actively campaigning everywhere during the primaries. If it was a more split field Cuomo might have gotten the Democratic line with a plurality.

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    My favorite thing about all the Texas stories was finding out that Beto and Castro and Allred and Talarico met to discuss the primary before making their respective decisions about whether to run for Senate.

    Those are the kinds of leaders we need.

  140. 140.

    WaterGirl

    @Eolirin: I really think of Cuomo as Republican, so I did a virtual double-take for a second at your suggestion that Cuomo could have run as a Dem.

  141. 141.

    billcoop4

    @Cliosfanboy:And I think Crockett can turn out a LOT of people who never voted before, or who don’t vote in off-years.

    From listening to her on both Stephanie Miller and Zerlina Maxwell, that is her goal — increasing turnout in nominally D-friendly communities while not ignoring “moderate” Anglos.

    BC

  146. 146.

    XeckyGilchrist

    A number of Democrats wanted to run against Trump bc he’d be the easiest one to beat, so yeah, sometimes that thinking does backfire

  147. 147.

    Peale

    @JoyceH: Yeah. I think we should get some of those voters back. Whether it will be enough? I don’t know. They hear what they want to hear.  If they hear “President is hating on Somalis and Venezuelans and I’m not them”, I’m not hopeful that it’ll make a change. But the Senate bill about dual citizenship and Miller harping on denaturalization and making citizens or their parents go through the process again on a whim after they had already completed that process years ago…that sounds expensive and risky to people who already have the right to vote. That I think will move the needle more.

  148. 148.

    Baud

    One good thing might come from desperate Trump trying to improve his poll numbers.

    Trump seeks to cut restrictions on marijuana through planned order

     

    The president is expected to direct agencies to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug, similar to some common prescription painkillers.

  149. 149.

    Deputinize America

    Meh – no matter who wins the primary, Textards are going to do their best to fuck everyone over yet again.

    I’ve long given up on anything decent happening politically or societally on a national scale from that benighted white supremacist shithole of unearned entitlement and cattle-less pride.

    I’d love to be proven wrong, but who am I kidding?

  151. 151.

    sab

    Late to the thread, so I am commenting before reading the other comments. I love Crockett. She is as fast on her feet as Buttigieg (they both can talk faster than I can think and it’s obvious that both think before they talk) and quite a bit more abrasive in a not very rude style. (I also love Buttigieg as I am a midwesterner who prefers ‘nice’ but sometimes we need a bit more bite.)

    Not a  Texan so you all do your thing.

    Crockett came to town to do fundraising and an event for Emilia Sykes our congresswoman. Sykes is more misdwestern nice, low key but quick on her feet and very prepared. She is a workhorse, low key but always doing her job.

  153. 153.

    Doug R

    @rikyrah:

     

    going to say this..

    Texas is not a Red State

    Texas is a VOTER SUPPRESSED STATE.

    The largest part of that Voter Suppression is Voter Apathy.

    Texas can be won for Democrats, in Harris County – period.

    I certainly hope that she doesn’t waste her time going after ‘ disaffected Republicans’

    FOH with that SHYT

    I hope that she is a full throated Democrat who goes out to try and get our Natural Democratic Voters to the polls.

    Yup. I’ve heard that Houston is the most suppressed city-if she can get Houston registered and voting, she could win.

  154. 154.

    bbleh

    @jonas: yup.  Only sourcing I saw was someone “familiar with” an RNC operation.  So yeah, just propaganda, cultivating the press, and probably a little career enhancement.

    Never Trust A Republican.

  155. 155.

    Suzanne

    @Redshift:

    Because as incomprehensible as it is to us politics geeks, the vast majority of voters don’t vote based on policy positions. 

    P R E A C H.

    I have my personal politics, of course, but the older I get, the more I think style matters a lot, and I find it less incomprehensible than I used to. I mean, I was musing on the idea in the morning thread of being loyal to a candidate. Like, that’s bordering on a parasocial relationship. Those kinds of relationships are inherently vibey.

  157. 157.

    Dan B

    @sab: Unless you’re driving around or live in / near a flood zone you’d never know there are severe floods here.  We’ve got lots of “terrain” and very little flat.  Satby remarked that Seattle was more hilly than she expected.  You’re on an  Ice Age moraine, a river valley bottom, ie flood plain, or a ridge radiating from the mountains.  The flooding is isolated to flat river valleys, except for landslides on the unstable slopes.  The other thing noticeable about the flooding is it’s not currently raining and there’s no wind (or breeze).  Our visibility is about 6 blocks.  We’re in a cloudbank.

  158. 158.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I’ve said before, I thought after 2008 that the Republicans could have regained some mojo by running “left” of the Democrats on pot (with libertarian justifications), but it was an opportunity they mostly missed.

  160. 160.

    sab

    @Dan B: “satby remarked that Seattle was more hilly than she expected.” When I saw Seattle in 1980 visiting a law school friend who lived there I was horrified. It was so hil7ly. “What is it like in winter?”  I live in NE Ohio and we have hills, but not like Washington State.

    He was originally from Prague in then  Czechoslavkia. He laughed and said Seattle didn’t have real winters like we have in the midwest or he had had in Europe.

  161. 161.

    Deputinize America

    @rikyrah:

    The city which is famous for treating everybody like shit, and a cheerful “good morning” earns a retort of “fuck you”?

  163. 163.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Of course– Trump actually does a fair bit of crowd-pleasing little stuff like that.  Musing aloud about getting rid of Daylight Saving Time, killing the penny, dumb stuff like “Gulf of America” or declaring that we should call soccer “football” etc., and even if you agree on the merits, he’s probably exceeding his legal powers or he just can’t do it.

  164. 164.

    different-church-lady

    Well, let’s see…

    * Run vilification playbook on Mamdani
    * Mamdani wins
    * Run same playbook on Crockett

    Scientific method, and all that…

  166. 166.

    WTFGhost

    @Baud: I wonder what that will do for medically prescribed marijuana… whether there will be medical dispensaries (able to use banks) and recreational (still cash only, but, wow, do they have a lovely money laundering capability…).

    I always mourned that I was so exhausted during the legalization in Washington. It seemed like a time when a smart guy, with some IT background, and a head for finance, and the ability to understand physical and technological security, could have made a *pile* of money, with POS and inventory systems, with high dollar prices, but low %-age of profit prices, and a database engineer who will quickly learn what people want to search for, because he does too!

    Get just 20 stores using your software, at 1%, and you’re pulling down 20% of a dispensary’s sales, for doing nothing but tech support! (They want to stiff me? I’ll brick their systems! They want to claim sales were down? Dude, it’s a POINT OF SALE system, I record your every sale!)

    Man, I think of the scornful 18-year-old who was so in need of a few good edibles, who hated the demon weed marijuana, the destroyer of lives and… and… I’m sure it does something horrible, I just need to think about it.

    You know what it actually does? It makes it so an entire day spent writing in pain isn’t as memorable as if I’d spent it not-stoned. So, instead of remember “OMG, I wanted to die all day today!” I remember “oof, rough day, but I made it through.”

    Even though sometimes, every single minute was a living hell.

    Never mind, I should be trying to write, but I can’t. (This isn’t writing. This is babble run through my fingertips!)

  167. 167.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WTFGhost: It’s definitely in a weird place legally– in my state it’s legal and loosely regulated at the state level, sold through dispensaries for recreational use, but of course it’s still double-nuclear-illegal to the feds, they just… usually kinda don’t enforce it. And of course, that kind of situation is ripe for abuse, a cop’s dream in some ways. A thing that’s illegal but mostly tolerated means a blank check for the relevant type of cop.

    I once had a job that I actually had to get pee-tested to get, and the memory of that is one of the things that keeps me from partaking, but I know people with pain issues for whom cannabis is a lifeline and I’ll put up with a lot of stank in public places to not make it the slightest bit harder for them.

  168. 168.

    cain

    @Baud: Ugh. No. Corporate interests will just start consolidating and just fuck things up. They’ll try to reduce choices. I’m not interested in the consolidation that will come once banks allow transactions for pot.

  169. 169.

    gene108

    @Steve LaBonne:

    (NYC is not nearly as liberal as people unfamiliar with the city imagine.)

    NYC socially is much more liberal than many parts of the country. The city is around 40% immigrants. A huge cross section of different industries, for lack of a better word, are centered there like visual and performing arts to finance.

    It’s diverse. This keeps it from forming the homogeneous mindset needed for conservatism to take root.

    What NYC has an abundance of are very ambitious people, who want to have very successful careers either as part of a large company or as an entrepreneur or in the arts. They are sensitive to issues like crime, red tape, etc., if they are perceived to be problems for them.

    ETA: If something like crime or homelessness is seen as a problem, they may to take a more right-wing attitude to clearing the issue from their lives.

  170. 170.

    gene108

    @Suzanne:

    I have my personal politics, of course, but the older I get, the more I think style matters a lot, and I find it less incomprehensible than I used to.

    People make a fuck ton of instantaneous decisions about others based entirely on how they present themselves.

    We assess and reassess others very quickly based on instinctive clues. This is how we figure out if someone is happy or sad, or a threat or not-a-threat, or if they need help.

    Anytime we’re around people we’re constantly doing this.

    We also do this with public figures, even if they aren’t in the room with us based on drips of news about them.

  172. 172.

    Ohio Mom

    Mea culpa, I did not know Crockett had been gerrymandered out of her seat.

    I knew of course that Texas was on a gerrymandering tear but somehow that information did not reach the part of my brain that stores information on Crockett.

    So she might as well run for Senate. Good luck to her!

  173. 173.

    HinTN

    @Ohio Mom: There’s a very old joke that today’s Rs have rendered implausible but it goes like this, “The dimest bulb in the House of Representatives ran for and won a Senate seat, thereby raising the IQ of both bodies. “

  175. 175.

    Fair Economist

    Crockett has pretty high unfavorables and I think she’s less likely to win due to that. We all love her brassy style but normies like the Kumbaya shit and Republicans get offended and more likely to come out to vote. I like Talarico because I like having somebody who can attack the evangelical hypocrisy at the core of the modern Republican party. Sometimes I wish I could pretend to be Christian to go after that, but I can’t.

    That said, the article is nonsense. Crockett is too smart to be “manipulated” that way. It’s just that the gerrymander left her with no other way to stay in politics.

    Of course whoever wins the primary deserves our wholehearted support.

  176. 176.

    Fair Economist

    @Eolirin:

    If it was a more split field Cuomo might have gotten the Democratic line with a plurality.

    NY now uses transferable vote in primaries so a plurality doesn’t cut it anymore. For a while the conventional wisdom was that Cuomo would get a plurality but then lose when most of the progressive candidates got dropped and their votes transferred.

  177. 177.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @laura:

    I fear that she, too, will get the full heaping helping of misogynior, as we’ve already seen in this here almost top 10,000 blog.

    That was coming regardless. Any non cishet Caucasian Xtianist male is in for a ration this cycle. Crockett is smart making the bigger play: if they are coming for us all anyway, might as well go big.

  180. 180.

    Kirklin

    In November I will vote for the Democrat who wins the March primaries.

    I do not know who I will vote for, yet. I have three months to listen to people – the candidates, their agencies, and fellow voters in Texas whose voices I’ve learned to respect. I’ve three months to watch the performance – to see who stands by principles I admire despite the travails of the campaign.

    After all that, I’ll decide who gets my time, my money, my vote.

  181. 181.

    Steve

    I’m in Texas, and I honestly don’t know. Talarico’s religious angle doesn’t resonate with me, but maybe it will with the voters? But he’s young and unknown. Meanwhile, Crockett will clearly face racism and misogyny, and will no doubt be branded a raging Marxist by the right (as will anyone).

    But if history has taught me anything, it’s that picking someone because you think some unknown blob of anonymous “voters” will like them is a bad game. So I’ll have to read more and pick whoever appeals to me, and not guess at the whims of “voters.”

  183. 183.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @WTFGhost: as long as people aren’t driving while stoned, physically abusive, or neglecting their children, I am in cautious favor of legalization. However I don’t want the marijuana smoke around any more than I want cigarette smoke around, so I would much prefer regulated edibles over smoking or vaping.

    And if I can smell the reek of your car while I’m walking by or driving with my window open, you are presumably operating while impaired and I think that it should still be probable cause for the cops to pull you over.

  184. 184.

    anitamargarita

    All in favor of her running. Texas dems have gone with bland white Christian candidates  for years and got nowhere. Time to shake it up.

  185. 185.

    Paul in KY

    @Raoul Paste: She needs to read Mr. Caro’s book about LBJ’s 48 Senate race. Get on some good uppers and then go out there and campaign 18 hours a day. Cause that’s what it will take if she’s the nominee.

  186. 186.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: She needs to ensure all the Hispanic voters in TX know in their bones how TACO and the GQP has played them for fools. Let them marinate in that and then show them how to get their revenge: By voting for her.

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