(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)
__
Before anybody gets too teary-eyed over “losing” Statesmandick Lugar (what, that’s not his legal first name?), let us ponder the words of actual Indiana resident Doghouse Riley:
NOTHING is ever going to change my perception of Dick Lugar. As long as I live he’s the man who–five years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and four years after the Voting Rights Act–spearheaded his party’s (successful) efforts to re-disenfranchise African-American voters in Indianapolis, by moving the city’s boundaries to accommodate White Flight and Republican majorities.
Hey, Robert Byrd apologized for his Klan membership. If Lugar’s said anything to the black community in Indianapolis in forty years I don’t know what it might’ve been. You can shove all that intervening “statesman” crap into a tricorn hat.
Lugar turned his status as Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor into a losing Senatorial campaign in 1974, and a landslide victory in 1976. Which, to paraphrase the Republican country chairman in this Roll Call piece, was the last time we saw Dick Lugar in Indiana. It is, without question, the last time he lived here. Or owned a home here. Or voted from a legitimate address…
If he’s gone he’s got himself–and his staff–to blame; I found this impossible as little as six months ago, but Lugar used whatever masses of money he’d accumulated by not being challenged since Jimmy Carter was president to go negative early, loudly, and incessantly. The bright boys are talking about what a mistake that was–now they’re talking about it–but none of ’em was asking why Lugar didn’t come out and defend his vaunted “moderation” in the first place. Because, y’know, everybody knows screaming “Repeal Obamacare” is a certified winner. Unless you’re talking to the general public…
And furthermore:
I may have mentioned, once or twice, but it bears repeating: the Lugar campaign is the gosh-darned stupidest thing I ever saw, and I live in Indiana. The longest-serving Senator in Indiana history is now in danger of losing a Republican primary to a Teabagger nutjob two years after junior Senator Dan “Carpetbagger” Coats managed to defeat one two weeks after moving back to Indiana. He’s losing despite the “support” of “wildly popular” Indiana Governor Mitch “RV” Daniels. He’s losing despite Mourdock’s clear and wide slime trail in Indiana Republican politics.And Lord knows I’m no expert, but I think saying “I need your help” to Democrats and independents at the eleventh hour might have been a little more effective if you hadn’t just spent the past four months, and untold thousands, on campaign ads that spit out “Obama” the way you might say “Gonorrhea” to the person you just learned had infected you…
Senator Lugar did some good work negotiating nuclear draw-downs after the Soviet Union imploded, but he was always a social conservative and a reliable Republican vote no matter how un-statesmanlike the Republican tactics at issue. If only because he’s eighty years old, I trust the Obama Administration to offer him no position beyond the purely ceremonial, despite the siren song of Centrism Triumphant. The frothing Teabagger now standing for Lugar’s seat has six months to further embarass the Republican Party in front of the sane Indiana voters (all 37 of them), and hopefully to depress straight-R-ticket voters come November.
What other Eeyore-ific delights are on the agenda tonight?
Mike in NC
Lugar is 80 frickin’ years old. What’s he trying to prove?
Elizabelle
Frontline on Rupert Murdoch tonight.
Spaghetti Lee
Indiana residents-does this make it any more likely that Joe Donnelly can win in November, or is that a lost cause?
Davis X. Machina
@Mike in NC:
He can beat Frank Lautenberg in a footrace?
Fun etymological fact — ‘senile’ and ‘senator’ are built on the same root.
The present Congressional madness, like a fever, has to burn itself out. How long it takes, and whether it kills the patient in the process remains to be seen.
At least one person up close to it — Olympia Snowe e.g., who’s a Republican, married to a former GOP governor, and not an idiot, whatever her other failings — think it’s going to take longer than the rest of her useful life, and she’s 65.
At least another decade… and even money, no better, on the patient surviving.
jrg
Educational data from the 2010 Census.
NC Amendment 1 results.
Yutsano
That cartoon is full of win.
Had my final pre-op this morning. Also got told my potassium was slightly elevated and I’m slightly anemic. My doc told me to eat a steak and he was genuinely unconcerned. Two more minor final bits to handle before the big day hits.
lol chikinburd
Madison’s free weekly, the Isthmus, has one of those “Cover It Live” liveblogs for tonight’s election. Unlike the excellent liveblogs they did last year for the protests, this one’s pretty much a hashtag aggregator and not much else. As such, it’s spammed over with the same handful of wingers (Sykes, Binversie, etc.) compulsively tweeting Walker’s running total compared to the combined totals of Barrett and Falk, plus a zillion lemmings retweeting those same tweets of theirs.
Never mind that they’re of course doing this before most of Dane and Milwaukee counties have reported (even while half of Waukesha is actually in (!)), and that Binversie in particular concentrates on Walker vs. Barrett + Falk where an apples-to-apples comparison would would pit Walker + Huber against Barrett + Falk + Vinehout + La Follette + Riggs. That’s easy enough to deride and dismiss. What I want to know if the folks at TheDailyPage could maybe think about filtering that feed in the general to get rid of the retweets.
Ash Can
IIRC, Lugar befriended Obama in the Senate; the latter can’t be all that happy to see him go. And it really does reinforce how far to the right the GOP has moved when Lugar is seen as a moderate (and such a rare one at that).
burnspbesq
Your boy Dogmeat done lost it. Like every other politician regardless of party or ideology, Lugar should be judged by by the totality of his accomplishments. Litmus tests, shibboleths, and lack of perspective are what we mock the other side for, not what we dabble in when it suits our fancy.
lamh35
So how does Cole explain this in his lovely WV:
BuzzFeed Politics @BuzzFeedPol
Obama Loses West Virginia Delegates To Prison Inmate http://bzfd.it/J3dQth
lamh35
So I’ve been discussing on twitter just how “Inaccurate” these gay marriage polls have been lately. I think there is a “gay Bradley” effect going on with the polls because for all the increased acceptance, ALL BUT ONE was passed. Even over the phone, people don’t want to come off as homophobic.
Something is not right and the polls are giving people false satisfaction that just by twitting about it or posting on FB about a subject means that there is no need for “boots on the ground”. The lesson learned from CA Prop 8 was ignored again…GROUNDGAME IS KEY!!!
When voters say they aren’t sure if voting yes mean no or does no mean yes, that is a problem with the ground game.
jl
The best hope for sanity in November is that the GOP has gone insane.
Rep. Dan Benishek Scolded and Mocked By Senior Citizens at Town Hall Meeting
http://youtu.be/OjaS6cozCNE
Benishek tried to say that the oil industry does not get any special tax breaks, and was treated just the same as any other manufacturing company. The oldsters begged to differ.
Here is an article from NYT laying out some of the oil industry tax breaks
As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Subsidies
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?pagewanted=all
jwb
@lamh35: PPP@lamh35: “Obama’s approval with West Virginia Democrats on our last poll there was 45%…what’s happening there is not that shocking…”
jwb
@lamh35: PPP: “Obama’s approval with West Virginia Democrats on our last poll there was 45%…what’s happening there is not that shocking…”
beltane
@lamh35: Something that will have to be confronted regarding these gay marriage ballot initiatives is that the straight people who are the most passionate about the issue are the bigots. While there is a large number of people who are not opposed to gay marriage, a lot of them are of the “I don’t care, not my problem” persuasion, and these people count be counted on to show up and vote.
lamh35
@beltane: the meme is that if Obama came out for gay marriage then he’d gain youth support. I call BS, youth support without actual voting means bupkis! If the youth needs a statement from Obama to just to get out to the polls and vote for equality, then guess what equality is NOT important enough to them to do so regardless of Obama issuing a statement.
yeah, maybe it would increase support, but like I said support without ya know actually getting out to the pols don’t mean shit.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
stay well and the best of luck with that surgery!
Spaghetti Lee
@jl:
Obviously paid operatives from the Obama-Media Complex. This calls for a new Breitbart site-Big Geezer!
danielx
Now Anne, that’s unkind and inaccurate. I live here and can testify that there are at least 107 sane voters in Indiana; I’ve counted them myself. I used to believe that there were even a few sane Republicans, but of late I’ve come to doubt that – sort of begs the question: if they’re sane, why are they still Republicans? Seriously – of the four Republicans running for the same House seat, two of them are suspected of hints of sanity. But the commercials for all four follow the same script: I’m more conservative than those guys, and I’ll piss on Barack Obama more than they will!
Although Susan Brooks, who is one of the four, changed her pitch in the last few days: My opponents are nice guys, but I’m nicer and smarter and better qualified than they are. And more conservative, too. Sort of makes you wonder how that’s working out, since there are at least two unspoken lies in that implied statement. Her opponents are not nice guys, they’re mean assholes. As a former U.S. Attorney, she’s not exactly Francis of Assisi material; nice people do not become U.S. Attorneys. So technically I suppose that makes all four mean assholes, which for local Republican primary voters (they’re mostly dumb mean assholes) means a plethora, nay, a smorgasbord of tasty choices! What could be better for Indiana wingnuts, except possibly tarring and feathering that RINO Dick Lugar on Monument Circle in celebration. With network coverage.
Yep, it can get pretty depressing here political-wise. All those years of Evan Bayh as governor and then as Senator, I ask you. That alone would be enough to turn one schizophrenic. And then to have Mitch Daniels elected twice – chrissakes, his record as Bush’s Budget Director should have disqualified him for any office higher than street cleaning in Loogootee.
Did I mention there are some really dumb voters here?
Martin
@lamh35:
You saw the photo, right? And you still have questions?
Hill Dweller
Who would have guessed Stewart would go after Obama on gay marriage?
Jay in Oregon
Someone needs to come up with a website that grades Villagers and members of the establishment based on some select and not-readily-disclosed criteria, and assigns them a value.
This value would be a ranking of how much of a useless gobshite they are, and how likely they are to be up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Like Klout, but actually useful.
What should the site be called? Being all Web 2.0 and stuff, of course it should be called “Tumbrl”.
Davis X. Machina
PPP on NC Amendment #1: “Those who know what the amendment would do are against it by 22 points, but they are outweighed by the strong support from the uneducated.”
(link is to a PDF)
Martin
@Jay in Oregon: Brodr?
Cap'n Magic
OMG-Bachmann claims Swiss Citizenship.
Can we please send her there? Or at least make a new Amendment that Congresscritters can’t wield dual citizenship?
jl
@Spaghetti Lee: Oldsters are a selfish special interest group, just like kids, college students, service worker unions, trade unions, public union teachers, cops, firefighters, and paramedics; women, blacks, Hispanics, the poors, and other social parasites. and any ‘hand picked’ military troops and their families who like Obama.
Edit: sorry, forgot nurses, who are mostly Bolsheviks and commies.
These special interest groups are over running the country and sapping its strength.
Wake up sheeples!
/snark tag, since you can never tell when it will come in handy
jl
@Jay in Oregon:
” Someone needs to come up with a website that grades Villagers and members of the establishment based on some select and not-readily-disclosed criteria, ”
I suggest salary, net worth, how many houses, and number of producers and staff.
Number of producers and staff might be very important to know, since then the media celebs would have to explain why they are so butt ignorant about those pesky facty facts and general knowledge about recent history and economics.
lamh35
@Davis X. Machina: so essentially, the lesson from Prop 8 was never learned. All the talk about the confusion about the wording of the initiative once again came to bite people in the ass.
GROUNDGAME IS KEY.
Funny enough, I see alot of tweets in support against the Ammemdment in NC (or just ugly tweets about NC in general, forgetting that ya know there were people who voted against the ammendment) but I sure didn’t see this much support on twitter prior to Biden’s comment on Sunday.
All the support was greatly needed in the months since it’s been known that the Ammendment would be on the ballot.
jwb
@Cap’n Magic: I’m surprised that someone who assumes foreign citizenship would be allowed to serve in Congress.
gaz
@lamh35:
* headdesk *
What’s the upside in * not * carpet bombing West Virginia?
Anyone?
Bueler?
jayjaybear
@Davis X. Machina:
This can, unfortunately, be generalized to pretty much any American election…
Woman (to Adlai Stephenson): Gov. Stephenson, all thinking people support you!
Adlai Stephenson: That’s wonderful, madam…but I need a majority!
David Koch
what’s the frequency, markos?
the truthers at GOS have not one, but, now, two diaries on today’s vaunted recommend list saying the latest underwear bombing plot was fabricated by the government to create a pretext to bomb yemen.
these are the progressive betters who love to say they’re superior.
Davis X. Machina
@lamh35: You can have the ground game of the 1963 Cleveland Browns and you’re not defeating Amendment 1 in North Carolina. Largely because it’s North Carolina. You couldn’t get the 14th Amendment passed there.
Hill Dweller
@lamh35: The only way to make progress in the short term is to pursue civil unions. It’s pathetic, but there are still too many bigots right now.
People are furious with Obama for not voicing support for same sex marriages, but it is probably still political suicide in a national election. That said, it hasn’t stopped him from doing more for the LGBT community than any other President.
Scott Alloway
@gaz: We’d lose Cole if we carpet bombed.
danielx
@Spaghetti Lee:
Depends on how deeply he gets submerged in SuperPAC money; by the time the election is over he’ll be lucky if they haven’t drugged him and tattooed “Obamalover” across his forehead. Mourdock is not a strong candidate; being state treasurer (and not a very good one) doesn’t qualify him to be a Senator. On the other hand, what does? Indeed, some of the current crop make Adam Sandler look like Thomas Jefferson. But Mourdock is another batshit crazy, and that’s the flavor de jour among Republican voters here – or anywhere else, so it appears. If the Dems really turn out the vote, Donelly could win.
Otherwise, Mourdock will win – there’s a reason, after all, that Lugar (R-corporate) was Senator so long, that Evan Bayh (R-moderate, er, D-conservative) was Senator for twelve years and that Dan Coats (R-wingnut/lobbyist) is the other Senator. People tend to vote Republican, and every Dem that runs for anything this year is going to tarred with the Obama brush – and I use the term advisedly, courtesy of the kind of poison that’s going to be poured into wingnut brains for the next six months via SuperPAC money. The racism is going to come right out the open, and particularly in Indiana. Mourdock might well win, because there are a lot of serious wingnuts here.
some guy
Lugar should be judged by by the totality of his accomplishments
effectively disenfranchising African-American voters in the birthplace of the Klan. for the win.
jl
One voter interview I remember from 2008 was that of a bearded WV resident. He said (paraphrase) ‘Well, the whites have been holding down the blacks for years and years. I figure if we let the blacks run things, they’ll just turn it around, the blacks will be on top.”
I have a hard time understanding the mind set of many WV people. There are close to revolutionary class consciousness, but somehow, get side tracked on certain issues.
Maybe like some of the more xenophobic Australian labor voters?
gaz
@Scott Alloway:
Point taken. For some reason, I kept thinking he was living in (saner seeming) Virginia. I get the two confused I guess (Y’all look the same to me! heh)
I like Cole. He apparently thinks I’m a “moran” who works in fast food, but I like him just the same. And then there’s tunch to consider. =)
RalfW
I am not making this up. Michele Bachmann now has dual citizenship with Switzerland.
I’m gobsmacked.
Is this the patriotic action of a freedom-loving TeaPartier?
beltane
@David Koch
That’s nothing. For the first time in months I ventured into Atrios’s comment section because I mistakenly thought the associated story-about the elections in Europe-might have interesting comments. Instead, it was an uninterrupted chorus of “Obama Sold Us Out!!” based upon his hatred of gays and love of austerity.
beltane
@RalfW: Switzerland and Michelle Bachmann both have holes in their cheese. It is a natural fit.
Suffern ACE
@David Koch: Why would we need a pretext to bomb Yemen? We send drones into Yemen all the time.
Steve
@some guy: Who else wants to prove that they don’t know what the word “totality” means? Lugar is assuredly no moderate, but I too am sick of this lamebrained thought process that goes “he once did wingnutty thing X, so therefore he is 100% wingnut and no other evidence need be considered.”
Cap'n Magic
@RalfW: Sorry that I beat ya to it, but yeah-quite amazing.
RalfW
@Hill Dweller:
Well it is Obama’s fault that N.C. went all biblical-literalist tonight.
/snark
ETA: Cap’n, Yeah, jumped to the bottom to yell w/o reading thru.
some guy
@Steve:
Nixon’s favorite mayor. what part of effectively disenfranchising African American voters in the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan was konfusing to you?
poets declaim history, sycophants and propagandists attempt to rewrite it
Steve
@some guy: the word “totality”: it clearly has you confused as fuck!
lamh35
@Hill Dweller: This isn’t really directed to you, but can I just say that I am alos tired of the idea that Black voters were the cause for Prop 8’s passage has been debunked by many people more willing than I am to get into at this point.
The fact that this persists is either due to people’s need for some scapegoat other than the fact that the grounds game for Prop 8 or this amendment in NC was targeted at the wrong people. Black churches, neighborhoods, universities, etc saw neither hide nor hair of the organizers.
This deep seated idea that it’s the Blacks and Hispanic voters holding back gay rights is ridiculous and has got to stop especially within the liberal community. All it does is lead to self-fulfilling prophecies, like “blacks and hispanics are against gay marriage, so why make an effort to even target these voters”. You will miss the water for the trees cause guess what, there are more Blacks and Hispanice than you think who are perfectly fine with gay marriage.
Also, please, tell me how a group of people who are less than 15-20% of a state registered voters (and thanks to GOP obstruction are being disenfranchised daily) are always the cause of these amendments passing, the answer, they are not, a whole lot of white people voted overwhelmingly in support of these amendments too, but somehow it’s always on the backs of Black churches and religious-minded Hispanic when they pass let’s forget about white evagelicals and in case of Prop 8 the Mormon church which poured tons and tons of money into adverts for their side.
RalfW
@Cap’n Magic:
Also, too, y’know to take citizenship, you are swearing allegiance to that nation. It’s not just some cool thing you do for tourist reasons or to give your kids a way out of this hell-hole when the shit hits (courtesy of your own loon policies, no less).
She’s on the freakin Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. And has loyalty to a foreign flag.
Seriously, this should disqualify her. Now. Not even on Nov 6th.
Where are the tricorner hats? Stat.
gaz
meh. My housemates are cooking something that smells like broiled dog-food. yech…
fuckin Mixtecs…I love em, and I try to be all culturally sensitive an’ shit, but this deeply offends my olfactory system.
Steve
@lamh35: The thinking is similar to how the GOP can vote en masse against a bill, but one or two turncoat Democrats will attract the lion’s share of the scorn. The blacks are on our side, the simplistic argument goes. How dare they not vote liberal on everything!
RalfW
@Hill Dweller:
Unconstitutional in N.C. as of this evening.
Last I checked, being filibustered or amended to death in Colorado (just tracking a few twitterfeeds on CO, seems chaotic there in a last-day session of posturing and foolery).
some guy
hee, totality, as if there was/were such a thing.
clown or idiot, steve decides. totally.
Cap'n Magic
@RalfW: Indeed. I hope whoever is running against her takes massive delight in pointing this out in advertisements.
some guy
@Steve:
less votes from the Negro, for the win
RalfW
FYI it’s looking bad for civil unions in CO. I’m thinking the GOP leadership doesn’t want to soften the N.C. blow to the LGBT community.
They’ll let ’em twist in the wind before doing one damn thing for liberty or freedom for teh ghey.
I was sanguine about N.C. 30 minutes ago. But this Colorado development pisses me off royally. It shows how full of rank vileness the GOP leadership is.
They can’t even extend civil unions.
But just you watch, NOM will run ads just a couple days before the MN vote in November, saying “We don’t hate gay people, in fact we think there should be civil unions. Just vote yes to protect marriage.” (They’ve done it in other states).
But then when actual civil unions bills advance anywhere, the christianist right freaks out and gets leadership to block it. They are contemptible, the whole damn lot of Republicans and their wingerchurch handmaidens.
Ash Can
@RalfW:
@Cap’n Magic:
If I were Boehner I’d rake her over the coals in front of everyone for this. In what conceivable reality is this acceptable for an American elected official to do? Can you imagine the massive loosening of bowels and sphincters that would occur if this were a Democrat doing this? The GOP would raise J. Edgar Hoover from the dead to do an investigation.
Martin
@lamh35: The interesting question on Prop 8 was on the crossover votes from Obama to supporting 8. The largest crossover was Latino Catholics. The 2nd was older whites.
Martin
Huh. So Bachmann sought out citizenship in a nation where citizens are mandated to buy healthcare.
RalfW
Or maybe La Bachmann got an email?
Dear Misseus Bachmann,
I am in receipt of an erroneous deposut of 5 bazillion Swiss Francs and if you will become a Swiss citizen, and provide your bank account mumbeur, I can most immediately transfer this funds to your convenience account.
Most cincerely,
Messr. Mittens Rmoney, Esq.
c/o Kampala Uganda State Bank
TheMightyTrowel
@Ash Can: Also, the state dept really doesn’t like it when people who aren’t children or parents to foreign citizens take foreign citizenship. I’m an expat, many of my friends are expats, at least one has been told that she has to surrender her british passport or the state dept will take away her US for treason.
RalfW
And who can blame her? We’ve all been suckered by these e-mails, right?
Right??
Steve
@TheMightyTrowel: When I was a kid, my recollection is that dual citizenship was extremely disfavored – even if you were born a dual citizen, you had to relinquish one when you turned 18. But the laws have been liberalized a lot since then, I think.
I tried to research whether any other Members of Congress have dual citizenship but all I found were a bunch of creepy anti-semitic sites (including, but not limited to, dailypaul.com) babbling about Congressmen with dual US-Israeli citizenship.
Origuy
@RalfW: Michele Bachmann didn’t take an oath of allegiance to Switzerland. Her husband, Marcus, was entitled to Swiss citizenship through his parents. He registered for it Feb 15. Once it was final, his wife and younger children became Swiss citizens automatically.
Lots of people have dual citizenship, for various reasons. Not everyone does it the way the US does.
Suffern ACE
@TheMightyTrowel: Yeah. I don’t understand this dual citizenship option and where it comes from. When my partner was naturalized, he had to turn in his passport and green card and take an oath. So what did Herr Bachmann do? Take the oath and then go get a new passport?
David Koch
PPP: “West Virginia Democrats are completely different from anywhere else in the country…Kentucky comes closest but still not the same.”
TheMightyTrowel
I know how britain responds: ‘your passport isn’t the only proof of your citizenship. once you become a citizen you are one. by all means give it to the state department, you can always apply for another’
TheMightyTrowel
Facts!
“The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. Claims of other countries on dual national U.S. citizens may conflict with U.S. law, and dual nationality may limit U.S. Government efforts to assist citizens abroad.”
gaz
My god. Fuck the police:
http://www.pixiq.com/article/shocking-video-of-kelly-thomas-released-watch-with-caution
Mnemosyne
Also, too, Switzerland’s citizenship system is kind of fucked up. Until 1992, a Swiss woman who married a foreigner would automatically lose her citizenship. It’s also one of the many European countries where citizenship depends on being born to the right people (ie to Swiss citizens) rather than being born in a particular place.
gaz
I challenge anybody to try to get through the FIRST SENTENCE of this travesty without projectile vomiting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/europes-elections-offer-economic-political-risks-for-obama/2012/05/07/gIQArUq98T_story.html?hpid=z2
This is bad even for Wapo. Way to lower the bar folks.
I swear, you will end up slightly dumber just for skimming the mess. And it’s not even on an op-ed page. Front page. Crazy stupid.
Another Halocene Human
@Hill Dweller: You do realize that Amendment One banned civil unions, right?
Frankensteinbeck
@Suffern ACE:
Technically true, although I’m not sure about ‘all the time’, but it lacks context. Actions we currently take in Yemen are on behalf of the Yemeni government against hardcore Islamic (think Taliban) rebels who control a significant part of the country and are active supporters of anti-US terrorism. In particular, the ‘bombing rebels with the approval of the government’ part is totally different from the ‘bombing Yemen itself’ concept.
MBL
Donnelly can beat Mourdock. He’s ahead in the polls right now, and in a sane world it wouldn’t even be a contest. But this is not a sane world, and sadly for Indiana the result of Donnelly beating Mourdock would be that we’d have fucking Joe Donnelly as a senator.
He was my Rep until he decided to flee after the most recent redistricting. I hate his guts and am nauseated at the thought of having to ever vote for him again. But he can win.
Yevgraf
@beltane:
It would help this if the gay activists started demonstrating commitments to racial and economic fairness instead of just acting like a bunch of aggrieved, spoiled, materialistic white boys.
HeartlandLiberal
@Spaghetti Lee: Polls so far suggest Donnelly has 50 / 50 chance at beating Murdoch. I personally think it will depend on what kind of campaign Donnelly runs. If he runs right down the center, he might be able to attract those on the right GOP who are not totally batsh*t crazy, although I wonder how many of those remain. If he tries to run to the right, many Democrats will just ignore him, I know I have pretty much had it with voting for Democrats who go to Washington and then vote with the GOP.
It is a tough call, but yes, it will be a much more competitive race, with the knee jerk response option of voting for the known incumbent Lugar of the ballot.
As for Lugar, I had lost all respect for the man, despite his positive accomplishments. He kowtowed the party line from the moment Bush took office, and never deviated from his support of every piece of legislation that has pretty much wiped my privacy and rights as a citizen of this nation from the books, and he was part and parcel of supporting the economic destruction of the nation.
So as far as I am concerned, he got what he deserved. He was consumed by the very beast he helped create.
Ed Dane Defender of Donuts
I’m looking for an open thread to post this.
http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/meow–country-s-heaviest-cat–dies.html
The gist: A 39lb cat dies one month after the elderly owner drops him off at a shelter.
WereBear
@Ed Dane Defender of Donuts: The cat was only two years old! In my experience, no cat gets that fat on canned food; this was a case of high grain dry food; or “kitty crack.”
I did an epic series of “overweight cat” posts last year.
ericblair
@TheMightyTrowel:
In most cases, the US doesn’t care about dual citizenship: they used to, but there was a big 14th Amendment case where the USSC told the State Dept to knock it off and toss out its rules.
However, this is a bit of an odd situation, since Bachmann is a senior US government official and the Swiss at least may have an issue with one of their citizens in such a position. Also, if she so much as lifted a finger to apply for or accept Swiss citizenship, her US security clearance should be immediately suspended per normal procedures. If they don’t, well, I guess there’s one rule for Us and one for Them. Shocking.
grandpa john
@danielx: Shit, sounds just like living in SC