If I Ran the Lieberman Campaign...

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Saturday June 10, 2006 · 8:58 AM PDT

2006/06/10 · 08:58

Joe Lieberman is in trouble. His campaign seems to think it's because some voters disagree with his stands on a litany of issues: "entitlement reform," "personal responsibility in borrowing," "cleaning up Hollywood," and "the War on Terror." (I feel like a need a shower after describing the issues in his words, but bear with me.) The real reason boils down to the growing understanding that he's not a good Democrat--neither in the sense of being effective, as this excellent diary suggests, nor especially in the sense of having the larger interests of the party in mind. Read More

Boehner and McCain: Birds of a Feather

KevStar

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Wednesday February 08, 2006 · 9:59 AM PST

2006/02/08 · 09:59

Look, the fluffers in the media are comfy with the notion that John McCain is beyond reproach. Democrats have to stop agreeing with them or it will come back and bite us in the ass.

McCain wants to pretend he's as pure as the driven snow, fine. We need to start reminding people that he was implicated in a real bipartisan scandal back in the 1980s. He was one of the Keating 5. Now, the press has bought his explanation that it was an "oversight" on his part, but how exactly is leaning on a federal regulator to stop investigating a key contributor an "oversight." It sounds like a sin of commission with malice aforethought to me. Read More

Axis of (Dem) Attack: Schmidt Guaranteed Rubber Stamp

KevStar

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Friday July 29, 2005 · 9:08 AM PDT

2005/07/29 · 09:08

Jean Schmidt says "I am not a rubber stamp. But if Jean Schmidt's cozy relationship with lobbyists wasn't a tip-off, consider that by the time this race is over the Republicans will have dumped close to half a million dollars in to this race. Pure mammon, people.

They're not doing this because they admire her fur coat. They expect a quid pro quo. They will demand lockstep voting. If she pulls out a win it will only be Republican training wheels, which should be unthinkable in this deeply conservative district. She will be forever fearful of squirming too much in the palm of her masters' hand lest they decide to squash her like an ant.

This cowering would entail a whole bunch of stuff people in this district would go apeshit over, but the most salient one is that she'll be an ironclad vote for trade deals requested by Republican's corporate paymasters, like CAFTA.

That then is how we beat her over the head. Go meta. This whole truckload of cash stinks of weakness and fear. She's unfit to represent OH2 because she'll forever have outsourcers, lobbyists, and corporate pirates yanking her poodle leash.

Why Howie Kurtz is a Shameless Whore

KevStar

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Monday May 02, 2005 · 10:00 AM PDT

2005/05/02 · 10:00

From today's WashPost online chat, just minutes old as of this writing: Read More

Tom's Tainted Team Toting Targets

KevStar

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Friday April 22, 2005 · 9:07 AM PDT

2005/04/22 · 09:07

By way of Josh Marshall I saw the League of Conservation Voters has rounded up a list of those House members most in thrall to DeLay's corrupt machine. They have dubbed these ten Tom's Tainted Team.

Their criteria include their slavish devotion to the MTBE (a groundwater contaminant found in gasoline) polluter bailout provision in the pending energy bill and how much money DeLay has funnelled their way.

The list:

Bob Beauprez (CO-7), Count Chocola (IN-2), Phil Gingrey (GA-11), Katherine Harris (FL-13), Mark Kennedy (MN-06), Rick Renzi (AZ-01), Mike Rogers (AL-03), Pete Sessions (TX-32), Clay Shaw (FL-22), Heather Wilson (NM-01).

The thing that jumps out at me is that the list is a veritable who's who of most vulnerable House Republicans: Beauprez, Chocola, Gingrey, Harris, Renzi, Wilson are all top flight pick-up opportunities, and the rest aren't exactly sitting invulnerable. Wouldn't it be nice to hang this around their necks and go 10 for 10 next year?

Ruminations, and a Poll to Freep

KevStar

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Tuesday March 08, 2005 · 10:05 AM PST

2005/03/08 · 10:05

It might seem to some that Frank Luntz works for the History Channel. On their home page right now they have a misleadingly worded survey on Social Security privatization which is unsurprisingly running 66% on the wrong side of the issuse. (So by all means go fight the power...) Read More

Be All That We Can Be

KevStar

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Thursday February 10, 2005 · 2:14 PM PST

2005/02/10 · 14:14

It seems to me recruiting high-quality candidates is going to be the most visible indicator of the success or stalemate of reforms of the party and its main campaign committees (DSCC, DCCC). But, what makes for a high-quality candidate? And, what innovative methods can we use to recruit winners in this climate--particularly, is there something you or I and not, say, Tony Coelho, can do to persuade, cajole, inspire, get winning candidates to run? I don't have many answers--I merely hope to pose intelligent questions.

This seems especially appropriate today given Franken's non-announcement--we've still got an open seat that we need to retain. How can each of us make sure that the right combination of voices is heard in the primary campaign? I mean, it's either going to be us, or the serendipitous decision of an individual to run, or the usual--someone agrees to run based on a pitch from a party insider.

(more below the fold) Read More

Band-Aid Goon No Garden Variety Activist; What We Can Do About It

KevStar

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Tuesday August 31, 2004 · 7:58 AM PDT

2004/08/31 · 07:58

The AP has reported on the creep passing out the Purple Heart band-aid type bandages on the floor of the Republican Convention, as noted in skiddlybop's recommended diary.

As usual, journalistic shorthand has tabbed him as "Morton Blackwell, a longtime GOP activist from Virginia." But, given the shallow conventions of these journalistic shorthands, I Googled the clown to see what the real deal is. (An impulse that is shared, it seems, with Kossite Fred in Vermont.) Read More

Kossites' Premature Triumphalism on Swift Boat Liars

KevStar

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Saturday August 21, 2004 · 5:25 AM PDT

2004/08/21 · 05:25

The prevailing wisdom laid down by Kos over the past couple days is that investigative reporting has laid the smackdown on the Swift Boat Liars. From a factual standpoint, that may be true, but it unfortunately rides a different conventional wisdom arrow than influential segments of the press are on.

Last night I did something I seldom do: I watched a lot of cable infotainment. While wallowing in this sewer of humanity, it became obvious what the true objectives of the Bush campaign have been in this escapade. They are playing a version of the film-oriented "You want Brad Pitt, you'll settle for George Clooney, you get David Caruso." In their case: "They want to show Kerry broke the law repeatedly and served dishonorably, they'll settle for showing Kerry was not a competent soldier, what they got was the meme that "'both candidates served honorably.'" Read More

School Days: Former Bush Business Prof Had Him Pegged

KevStar

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Wednesday August 11, 2004 · 3:28 PM PDT

2004/08/11 · 15:28

A former Harvard Business School professor who taught George W. Bush found him to be a a sarcastic, mediocre student. Read More

The Goring Begins

KevStar

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Tuesday August 10, 2004 · 7:44 AM PDT

2004/08/10 · 07:44

As reported in this morning's ABC News The Note, the Associated Press and the Manchester Union Leader are "debunking" John Kerry's stump anecdote about the New Hampshire woman with breast cancer.

The quibble is this: Kerry's stump version says Mary Ann Knowles needed to keep working while undergoing chemotherapy to keep her health insurance. Apparently, she needed to keep working while undergoing chemo because her husband was unemployed and couldn't afford to take the cut in pay that came with going on disability.

Isn't the key point "she need to keep working while undergoing chemo?" Is there some suggestion from the Repbulican spinmeisters who clearly planted this story with the reliably partisan Union Leader that this family wasn't struggling to get by? Isn't that the real message, that in America, we still have challenges to meet? Read More

Bush Rally Attendees Must sign Loyalty Oaths (Poll Link)

KevStar

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Monday August 09, 2004 · 6:50 AM PDT

2004/08/09 · 06:50

Boston Globe story this morning titled Bush-backers-only policy riles voters at RNC rallies details how voters trying to see Pres. Bush have been turned away if they refuse to sign loyalty oaths.

What gets me the most is this graf:

[RNC spokesman Yier Shi] added that the decision was made to use the forms at the New Mexico rally after the local RNC office received ''suspicious calls" about the event before it was advertised. He said the caller identification indicated some numbers were from cellphones of members of America Coming Together.

Um...WTF? Does BC-04 have an enemies list? I mean, how paranoid do you have to be to track the phone numbers of opponents?

Update: Poll question at MSNBC: Which presidential candidate make [sic] you feel safer. To quote Atrios: "Go!"

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