The Commentariat -- June 11, 2014
CW: Sorry, lost my Internet connection (I'm sitting in the parking lot of a local resort), so I probably won't be doing any more till this evening.
Congressional Races
God acted through people on my behalf. -- David Brat, to Fox "News," after defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
God hates Mexicans. -- CW Translation
Holy Shit! Robert Costa of the Washington Post: " In a stunning upset propelled by tea party activists, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was defeated in Tuesday’s congressional primary, with insurgent David Brat delivering an unpredicted and devastating loss to the second most powerful Republican in the House who has widely been touted as a future speaker." The New York Times story, by Jonathan Martin, is here. ...
... Ha Ha. Here's a WashPo story, posted by Sean Sullivan at 5:09 pm ET Tuesday: "A poll conducted late last month for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) shows him with a wide lead over challenger David Brat heading toward next Tuesday's Republican primary election. The poll, shared with Post Politics, shows Cantor with a 62 percent to 28 percent lead over Brat, an economics professor running to Cantor's right. Eleven percent say they are undecided." ...
... Nate Cohn, the New York Times' political statistician, can't explain how Cantor lost. "Mr. Cantor's loss is not likely to endanger the Republican hold on his district. Mitt Romney won the district by 15 points last November, and it is not at all apparent that Mr. Brat is the sort of fatally flawed candidate who could lose such a Republican district. After all, he defeated Mr. Cantor." ...
... Jonathan Chait: Brat teaches economics at Randolph-Macon college, and won a $500,000 fellowship funded by libertarian banking millionaire John Allison to spread the word of Ayn Rand to impressionable college students.... Brat was outraised by Cantor twenty-five to one.... The biggest issue by far was immigration reform. Cantor was no reformer, really. He rejected the bipartisan immigration reform deal that Marco Rubio and other Republicans had negotiated in the Senate. But he did hope to salvage some partial compromise.... Brat rejected even that. Any token of conciliation was too much.... Cantor went out the way he carried himself throughout his career: making comically disingenuous attacks.... Cantor was, finally, Cantor'd. He will not be missed." ...
... Joan Walsh of Salon: Cantor "is the first majority leader in history to lose in a primary in his own party since 1899. This is a huge victory for anti-immigration extremists, including Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, Laura Ingraham and Mickey Kaus.... I it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. Cantor is another conscience-free Republican leader who courted the Tea Party when it seemed politically advantageous and then tried to run from it when it was clear it was going to bite him in the ass.... [Cantor's defeat] of course means there will be no immigration reform at any time in the foreseeable future." ...
... John Judis of the New Republic: "Dave Brat's victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has been widely attributed to Bart's [sic.] opposition to immigration reform. But in his campaign, Brat and his Tea Party backers gave equal weight to denouncing Cantor as a tool of Wall Street, the big banks, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. Brat's campaign reflected an old strain of rightwing populism that continues to be an important part of our politics." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. ...
... CW: Either way you look at it, I think what you see in Southern Republicans -- and these voters from Richmond & the D.C. exurbs are not backwoods bozos -- is out-and-out racism &/or religious bigotry. They voted for Brat because they don't want those Mexican/Catholic (tho many Central American immigrants are evangelicals) "illegals" in this country, AND/OR they have stereotyped Cantor -- the only Jewish Republican in Congress -- as a "Wall Street Jew." I don't deny that Cantor is thick with the moneylenders, but he is no more a tool of Wall Street & the big banks than are many (a majority??) of his fellow MOCs. Dave 'Mudcat' Saunders, a Virginia Democratic strategist, said Cantor was unpopular partly because "He was never in the district.... He was out gallivanting all over the country being a big deal and this is a lesson." One of the places Cantor "went out gallivanting" -- twice -- was on the annual Civil Rights Pilgrimmage organized by John Lewis, part of the purpose of which is to restore the Voting Rights Act. Cantor's participation -- and his promise to work with Lewis on the VRA -- received a lot of press. To recast a Tea Party "joke" Judis reports, "A politician, a Jew, and a civil rights activist walk into a bar, and you now what the bartender said? Good evening, Mr. Majority Leader."
... If You Think Cantor Is Bad ... Jim Dalrymple & Gideon Resnick of BuzzFeed: "... Meet the guy who beat" him. ...
... Al Hunt of Bloomberg: "... the remaining four months of this session will be dominated by internal jockeying for leadership posts among the majority House Republicans.... Emboldened by the shocking Cantor upset, the Tea Party caucus almost certainly will demand one of the top three leadership posts for one of their own."
Lindsey Graham has won the South Carolina Senate primary. One of seven candidates, Graham has a lead of 59.5 percent, with about half the precincts reporting. If his lead holds at above 50 percent, he will have avoided a runoff.
Ben Giles of the Arizona Capitol Times: "Cesar Chavez, formerly GOP candidate Scott Fistler, is making a blatant attempt to confuse and mislead voters in Arizona's 7th Congressional District and should be tossed off the Democratic primary ballot, according to a challenge to Chavez's candidacy filed Tuesday. The challenge alleges that Chavez, who changed his name in December and his party affiliation in April following two unsuccessful bids for elected office as a Republican, did so in an effort to interfere with the CD7 election by confusing voters.... Attorney Jim Barton ... filed the challenge on behalf of strong> Alejandro Chavez, the grandson of the Hispanic labor icon Cesar Chavez." Via Catherine Thompson of TPM.
Bradley Clapper of the AP: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will face angry lawmakers as he becomes the first Obama administration official to testify publicly about controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban. Hagel was scheduled to appear Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, which is investigating the deal that secured the end of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's five-year captivity. In exchange, the U.S. transferred five high-level detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Gulf emirate of Qatar."
Jessica Pressler of New York: Robert Benmosche, the colorful, self-described 'in-your-face' CEO that brought insurance company AIG back from the brink of collapse (with a heavy assist from the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and of course the American taxpayer), has announced his retirement.... The CEO threatened to resign multiple times after the government, in their parsimony, gave him a hard time for vacationing at his Croatian villa two weeks after taking the high-profile job, the size of his salary and his insistence on taking a private flight to a family affair on the taxpayers' dime. 'I'm going to go and see my granddaughter, and I'm going to take that plane and shove it up your fucking ass,' Benmosche recalled he told the Treasury when interviewed by New York in 2012." CW: What a lovely, civic-minded person.
Beyond the Beltway
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: Virginia "Gov. Terry McAuliffe has lost his battle with the legislature over Medicaid expansion, an enormous retreat from the high expectations he set for a liberal agenda. However, he is thought to be studying how to press the issue by executive action -- a legally and politically uncertain course.
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Reader Comments (13)
I wonder whether there is a way to measure how many of the votes for Brat were from Democrats at the behest of Ben "Cooter" Jones. I used to live in Cantor's district and have been enjoying seeing karma bite Cantor in the butt. Unfortunately, Brat is a well-spoken and probably disciplined candidate. Unless the Democratic party decides to wholeheartedly support the Democratic candidate Trammel (they have abandoned other candidates running against Cantor), Brat will probably win.
It ain't just about immigration, says John Judis, in his excellent "Dave Brat––the Triumph of Rightwing Populism," piece. Our winner here breaks bread with Ayn Rand and I imagine––given the joke at the end of the article––a bit of a racist brat.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118097/dave-brat-and-triumph-rightwing-populism
The real reason Brat won? Hard to tell whether this is a real story or a spoof, but ... it IS Richmond! Seems that the anti-samsonites just wanted a Christian, telling the gospel in the good ol' way.
http://nationalreport.net/voters-say-cantor-jewish-recent-poll/
At the bottom one voter says they tried it with a black president and a jewish congressman, and since that hasn't worked out might as well go back to the tried and true.
Interesting...Brat won in the more liberal counties and Cantor won in the more conservative. This may have been A Cooter-d-Etat!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/11/1306055/-Cantor-s-End-A-Cooter-d-Etat
In at least one way Brat resembles Cantor: they both have the smarmy, smirky thing down pat. At least that's how Brat appeared at his victory address. On the other hand, almost his first words were to attribute his win to God... religiosity being one of the.one of the few annoying traits Cantor most likely does not possess. As Lisa says, being a "Christian" may have helped Brat succeed. Also all the support from worthies such as Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck. Cantor apparently spent a lot of money, but mostly on ads - not GOTV. There are some reports that Cantor had lost touch with his district - no surprise there. Then there is the crossover voting issue Lisa raises. All and all, this election may say more about the specific conditions of this district than it does about the national political landscape. Or not.
It will be interesting to see how congressional Republicans regroup.
@PD; Fear of immigrants and racism are two peas in a pod. The BuzzFeed article cited above has some of Mr. Brat's cut sheets he sent out. "Fear of Ims" plays a big part. Mr. Brat is also a Catholic. Mr Brat is not an immigrant nor from a family of immigrants, nor from a family of a family of immigrants. Mr. Brat is native as Sitting Bull.
It doesn't appear that the Tea Party had much to do with Brat's victory, at least in terms of money. They're too busy deciding who gets the next turn with their Gulfwing.
But Teabagger sentiments, no compromise, anti-government, hatred of immigrants, no working with the "enemy", all certainly seem to have percolated up from the swampy mire of standard Teabagging moral turpitude.
Lucky for them god was on their side. Who knows who the hell might have been elected without him? So instead of a preening, hypocritical poser, who helped shut down the government then lied about it, and who was shivved for even thinking about immigration reform, we'll have a guy who knows how to say "no" to everyone and everything.
Except guns, I'm guessing. Plus, Virginia voters don't have to worry about being represented by a Christ killer.
I'm happy Cantor got his, but it's like Al Capone being replaced by Ted Bundy. The first guy does bad shit because it's in his interest to do so. It's a calculated decision. The second guy does bad shit because he can't help himself. It's the way he's built.
But good news, girls and boys, lines from Hillary's new book won't be showing up anytime soon in a speech by Aqua Buddha boy.
According to Andy Borowitz, in the New Yorker, Li'l Randy has turned up his nose at Hill's wordsmithing. “I read it, and honestly, I didn’t find anything in it worth plagiarizing", said the junior senator from Kentucky and the Junior junior of a crackpot faux libertarian racist, do-nothing for about 50 years congressman.
Maybe if Hillary had included more stuff about how the Civil Rights Movement was the bunk, Bad Toupée might have stuffed a few sentences under his rug for later use.
Ah, well, there's always Ayn Rand to steal from. All that muscular prose about muscular men and their muscular bank accounts who never need help from anyone, unlike Rand who mooched off everyone she ever met, oh, and never mind stealing those lines about how god doesn't exist.
It must be so confusing to be a wingnut!
OK, so maybe the Dems didn't have much influence: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/06/11/did-democratic-votes-doom-eric-cantor/
Well surprise, surprise.
Fox Nooze has curtailed all coverage (even excising all mention) of the Las Vegas Tea Party Terror Killings.
Gee whiz, I wonder why?
Well, I suppose if you ran a television network dedicated to spreading fear, hatred, and violence, and routinely invited on crazy people spreading racism and secession and foaming at the mouth about government agents coming to take your guns, and avid viewers of this dangerous claptrap took you at your word and put their money where your mouth was by going on a murder spree, you probably wouldn't throw a party in their honor. Or if you did, you'd do it quietly.
As News Corpse on Daily Kos reports, "...Fox is well known for promoting some of the very same political ideologies as the Millers. They have featured guests who advocate secession from the United States, as well as armed resistance to federal law and authorities. An example of that is the recent Cliven Bundy affair where Jerad Miller just happened to show up threatening to use "the language of violence" against representatives of the Bureau of Land Management."
Luckily for Fox, they were able to steer viewers away from a tragedy born of the kind of ideology they unquestioningly support, to an event they didn't mind covering, seeing as there are so many of them.
A school shooting in Oregon.
That Fox isn't shouting from the rooftops has to do with the fact that they recognize how criminally irresponsible and morally reprehensible they've been for years. Otherwise, why hide the fruits of their labors?
@re: More Bergdahl:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bergdahls-writings-reveal-a-fragile-young-man/2014/06/11/fb9349fe-f165-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html
This article, in WaPo, by Stephanie McCrummen, shows a far more complex story about Bergdahl. IMHO, he never intended to be captured by or join the Taliban. WHAT he intended is a mystery; maybe he doesn't know for sure.
After Las Vegas, police should call for SWAT backup whenever armed loons walk into a business. Make them drop their weapons and get on the floor.
As for the civilian killed by the Millers, packing doesn't guarantee the outcome dreamed by LaPierre, et.al.
Barbarossa,
A good idea but Wayne (kill 'em all) LaPierre has got you beat. SWAT teams would be far too late to save anyone because of conceal/carry laws spreading across the country like an unsurvivable communicable disease. Insane gun stokers can now sneak loaded weapons into airports, bars, schools, day cate centers, spelling bees, circuses and CYO basketball games because ...oh, who the fuck knows why? Anyway, if you're against that, Wayne's acolytes and his political testicle cozies will be after you. And it won't matter that, unlike most of them, you wore a uniform. As far as they're concerned, they're patriots and you're a no good commie who needs to die.
What an incredibly insane world these assholes have fashioned.