Sharron Angle raised $14 million in the third quarter. Teatards love them some dumb candidates.
I’ll write a longer post about this later, but I’m beginning to think that Sean Willentz is right that Birchers have all but taken over the Republican party.
Ailuridae
In fairness to the Teatards those donations probably have a lot less to do with Angle and a lot more to do with taking down the Senate Majority Leader. The latter is one of those events that even if the GOP doesn’t take the House back (which is the absolutely lowest bar any reasonable person should allow for as “success” for the GOP on election day) they can’t point to as a refutiation of the last two years/confirmation that “we are a center-right country”
cat48
Banksters on Wall St are giving to Repubs 80/20 per Politico so this was quite funny to read…hadn’t thought about it but Foreclosures may be the October Suprise:
GregB
The tea-party is a broad movement. It consists of members of the right, the far right and the extreme far right.
*Breathless Peggy Noonan
Perry Como
I’ve been saying that Tebaggers are modern Birchers ever since Welch’s pustulent corpse was resurrected on CNBC.
El Cid
Sean Wilentz gave the context, but it’s not Sean Wilentz’ argument that neo-Birchers (as well as inherited Birchers such as the Koch bro’s), rather it’s been made repeatedly. It’s part and parcel of the simultaneous rise of the neo-Confederates.
Ella in New Mexico
Does anyone REALLY think this amount of money in this short a period of time came from individual ‘Tard donators?
When the accounting comes in, you’ll pretty much see that this is “How Big Money Can Purchase an Election, Citizens United-style”.
MattF
Rick Perlstein’s “Before The Storm” is all about the first time the lunatics tried to take over. The result was Nixon, and then Reagan– so… it’s hard to make predictions about where the current stuff will all lead, particularly since it’s in the future.
El Cid
Richard Iott on the Nazi SS group he’s imitating to Anderson Cooper:
For those who think the Birchers were too liberal and soft on Communism.
You know, the bigger evil of not just Soviet Communists, but Jews, labor unions, soshullists, atheists, homosexuals, you know, all the Big Evils of history.
Poor, poor understood SS.
Joseph Nobles
I saw a tweet fly past that Angle has already won. She could lose the Senate and still have an incredible database of small donation Tea Party enthusiasts.
MattF
@El Cid
I guess I’m in “Book Week” mode at the moment… Anyone who thinks this is even a remotely passable argument should read the new history of WWII in Eastern Europe– “Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Ailuridae:
Good point.
geg6
OT, and I realize this guy was most likely toast from the start and is now not even going to get elected dog catcher, but this is some funny shit (GOS link):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/12/909581/-Rich-Iott-knows-a-Jew.-So-its-all-good.
eric
This is good news for dems. I relatively inexpensive state for ads is now awash in millions of dollars that could have added real value in WV and Wash and KY and Penn…..yeah, i know that the Chamber and its ilk can make up for some of that, but it basically takes around $7M out of play for the rest of the country….so, keep sending her money….more…more…more
Bender
Yeah, not everyone can be a Democrat Genius like Hank “Guam-Sinker” Johnson.
Catsy
@El Cid: You know, in the early days of this controversy, I was getting pretty annoyed at all the breathless “Nazi reenactor! Oh noes!” coverage. And to an extent I still am: there’s a sizable chunk of people who don’t grasp the point of historical reenactment, or that someone has to play the bad guys–or who are so invested in tearing down shitty candidates that they’re willing to trash all reenactors in the process.
But the more info that comes out about this shitheel, the more impossible it is to come to his defense on the matter. He’s the kind of person who gives legitimate reenactors a bad name.
Steve
@Ella in New Mexico: Citizens United has nothing to do with direct contributions to candidates. It’s no easier or harder to put millions of dollars of corporate money in a candidate’s pocket than it was in the past.
valdivia
@El Cid:
Apropos I have a friend who did a lot of of work in Eastern Europe in the 90s and he calls the Tea Party and the new Republicans the Milošević wing of the Republican party. I think he is right.
Linda Featheringill
@cat48:
Foreclosures:
Foreclosures are unfortunately an important part of the mortgage game. Why give out mortgages if you aren’t going to get either the money or the property?
If all foreclosures were halted even temporarily, I think that no mortgages would be issued.
And that wouldn’t help us.
This is probably why the Administration is against a blanket moratorium. They could probably insist on better oversight of the paperwork without causing the whole system to grind to a halt.
Should we apologize to the Republicans for taking their candy away?
El Cid
@MattF: I think it should be even more obvious. It’s one thing to discuss the ordinary German pressed into the army, yet many (maybe most) sharing the same racialist ideology. This point has been made repeatedly.
But the SS ran the fucking concentration camps. You know, fighting against what they saw as a bigger evil and such. They ran the death squads. It’s just simply impossible that Iott doesn’t know any of this, given the fetishistic concentration on uniforms, arms, movements, decoration and particular actions by re-enactors.
It’d be like ‘re-enacting’ particular Salvadoran or Guatemalan death squads, the latter of whom actually committed genocide, and later saying ‘well, they were good men who fought for what they believed in.’ Well, yeah, I guess when you’re swinging infants by their legs to break their heads open against trees and cutting open pregnant women’s bellies to rip their unborn babies out does require a person to believe in what they were doing.
eemom
OT, but I thought it was amusing: The teleprompter line was just the beginning. Walter Mondale was on Diane Rehm this morning doing more condescending lecturing about ways the guy who actually, you know, won a presidential election has fucked up. He almost literally said he knows better than Obama because he’s more EXPERIENCED.
Kinda old to be a firebagger, isn’t he?
El Cid
Is there a list of words which prompt auto-moderation? I’m so tired of this shit when I don’t even know what in the hell could trigger it.
valdivia
@eemom:
I heard that. And turned it off. What a fucking idiot.
beltane
While I was taking a walk this morning, I thought of a really clever way to profit off of teabaggers. Print out a stack of glossy, eagle festooned, red, white, and blue promotional literature for a “soshalist protection plan” insurance policy that can be purchased for “only” $1,000. Bet someone could make quite the haul with a scam like that.
El Cid
@Catsy: Exactly. I wouldn’t much care if it was just part of a joint re-enactment. But that doesn’t at all appear to be the case. It’s like Confederate re-enactors who give all the indicators of agreeing with the Confederate cause, and speak the bullshit ideology of the ‘Lost Cause’ liars.
On the other hand, we had to keep Dukakis out of office because this one time he looked funny wearing a helmet in a tank, because we all know that Presidents only look right co-flying a fighter plane onto a falsely anchored carrier and wearing a package-complimenting flight suit.
[Also, just imagine that a Democratic candidate were found to regularly dress up like Nazi assassins or Soviet, um, I don’t know, whatever equivalents there would be, because I don’t think the KGB had clearly recognized uniforms.]
Citizen_X
@eemom:
At losing, crushingly? Oh, absolutely.
El Cid
@beltane: And say that the money would be applied to gold so as to prevent the Mugabe crash from drying up their insurance.
kay
@El Cid:
He really thinks he’s a soldier.
Last night, at a debate:
He inherited the family grocery business, then sold it, and the purchaser closed up and moved out of town.
He’s retired. He lives off the proceeds of the family business he inherited then sold.
So why does he list his occupation as “soldier”?
4tehlulz
@beltane: War Bonds to fund the struggle against soshe’llizm! Backed by the full faith and credit of Ron Paul freedom golds.
mikefromArlington
$225k of donations according to Opensecrets are from NV.
The rest being from who knows where.
DCPlod
OT but John’s post about fighting over DADT strategy is now a moot point as a Federal judge has just suspended enforcement of the law.
This is very good news.
El Cid
@kay:
Attempted glory. Kind of like those who say that G. W. Bush Jr. served in the Vietnam War.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eemom:
Good Lord. Lemme guess: He thinks he could have worked with his “old friends” in the Senate and gotten mad shit done with lots of bipartisanship and comity and compromise. Just like Max Baucus and his pal Chuck Grassley; just like John Kerry and his goodfriend John McCain; just like Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy.
Leaving aside his W/L record on the national level, he last held elective office thirty years ago. He doesn’t have a fucking clue. Though it is kind of interesting to see how powerful that spotlight addiction is, even when someone’s been clean for more than a decade.
Steve
@eemom: Walter Mondale was Vice-President for 4 years, in an administration that made him a key part of the decisionmaking process, much like the Clinton-Gore model.
Some of his criticisms of Obama strike me as silly but I think he deserves more respect than just some random guy who lost an election once. I mean, it’s kind of GOP-style bullying to go around making fun of how Mondale is a big fat loooooser.
Ailuridae
@Catsy:
And to an extent I still am: there’s a sizable chunk of people who don’t grasp the point of historical reenactment, or that someone has to play the bad guys—or who are so invested in tearing down shitty candidates that they’re willing to trash all reenactors in the process.
Wait, what is the point of historical re-enactment? I think the focus on Iott’s role as a Nazi re-enactor has been entirely unfair but would have welcomed some snarky mocking of the fact that he was a re-enactor at all. About the only thing I can think of that would make me reconsider voting Dem in a given election is if I found out that the candidate was a re-enactor or a Renaissance Fair or SCA types.
JPL
This is from the Stan Willentz article that Doug linked to
There’s a lot of truth to the statement. The Repubs in power don’t realize or don’t care how much damage the Bircher’s can do to our country. They just want to be in control again.
Obama and the democratic congress were not ready to combat the Birchers rather due to lack of experience or guts.
Someone explain to me though why there are left wing sites not using their forum to combat these nuts. Do they realize that the country might not be able to rebuilt?
4tehlulz
@Steve: Once? He lost to fucking Norm Coleman in 2002.
cleek
and if Iott is doing eastern front reenactments, does that mean the other guys are dressing up as communist Russians ?
not a great club for people with political aspirations…
Steve
@DCPlod: That is good news. It’s also funny because I had checked the court docket like 2 hours ago and saw that the judge hadn’t ruled on the injunction yet. I didn’t think there would be a nationwide injunction. I was wrong.
I shouldn’t make any more predictions, but an appeal is virtually mandatory at this point, and there is a reasonable chance the Ninth Circuit will handle this the same way they handled the Prop 8 appeal: a stay pending appeal and an expedited briefing schedule. I sure would like it if Obama used this as a basis to suspend DADT, at least until the appeal is decided.
cleek
@JPL:
what would such “combat” entail ?
Steve
@4tehlulz: And you would have beaten Coleman, of course, demonstrating how superior you are to a loooooooser like Mondale.
Fact remains that there are only a handful of living human beings who know more about governing this country than Walter Mondale. Barack Obama has earned the right to blow him off if he wants to, but I think the rest of us could maybe be a little less contemptuous.
joe from Lowell
@El Cid: Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.
I gave this guy every benefit of the doubt. Lots of people do historical re-enactments, and somebody’s gotta be the Germans. Besides, the Germans had the coolest stuff – just look at any picture from WWII. The Germans looked like superheroes coming to conquer the world, and the Americans looked like somebody coming to fix the air conditioner. Look at the covers of most books about World War II, and you’ll usually see Nazi iconography or pictures of Nazis because, let’s face it, they totally had the best graphic design. Lots of people are history buffs.
But those comments are just insane. This guy clearly feels a connection. That’s some sick shit.
Martin
@El Cid:
How about merely reminding voters that you volunteered to serve in a US military uniform during Vietnam and earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star and 3 Purple Hearts? For that, you get crucified by the so-called ‘patriots’.
kay
@El Cid:
Except there was a Vietnam War, and there is a US Army.
He thinks he’s a soldier in the Ohio Army.
Earl Butz
True. And yet, Angle’s likely to win, stupid or not. Democrats might want to remove the demonstrable fact that a candidate is “stupid” from their criteria of whether they can win or not.
So far, seems the American people are loving stupid more and more each day.
4tehlulz
@Steve: I may not have great governing experience, but, unlike you, I can count higher than one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steve:
When he stops parroting the stupidest of FoxNews talking points because it’s the only way he can get anyone to pay attention to him, I’ll stop being contemptuous.
JPL
@joe from Lowell: I read that Iott believes that some SS were fighting for personal freedom. He didn’t say whose personal freedom.
Linda Featheringill
I finally have a day off and a little time to waste.
Just spent a few minutes at the sites of DCCC and DSCC, looking at the videos they have assembled for ads out in the field.
They are negative. Some have a sharp edge. I found them aggressive.
Made me feel good.
Legalize
@El Cid:
Guess where Iiott still enjoys substantial winger support ….
Because Tom Cruise dressed up like a Nazi in a movie.
cleek
i wish i felt more warmly towards Reid. i’d slip him some cash, if i thought he was a good fighter for The Cause.
alas, he’s gonna have to do it without my help.
and frankly, we could use a new Majority Leader.
Steve
@4tehlulz: I’m not asking that you respect me, only that you respect Walter Mondale. Democrats have such hatred for their losing candidates that it isn’t funny.
kay
@Steve:
The one and only reason he’s being interviewed is that he’s a nationally-known Democrat who will happily take Obama apart.
Come on. It’s stupid and self-indulgent. You don’t see Carter or Clinton falling for it. I laughed when I read Carter’s paragraph, because he turned the (inevitable) question right around and trashed Republicans. It’s not hard to do.
If Mondale wants to offer Obama advice, he’s in a position to actually contact him. What’s the point of publicly trashing him three weeks before an election? It makes him look small and bitter.
Earl Butz
@El Cid: The Soviet equivalent to the SS was the NKVD.
Phoenix Woman
From John’s rotating link quote list:
That’s not what Tom Daschle said in his book. I never knew you loved building straw men so much, John.
But anyway: WRT the Birchification of the GOP, that’s been underway for some time now. We may actually be hitting the stage where the Rockefeller Republicans have finally, finally had enough and are leaving the party — and ironically, the move the GOP leadership made to co-opt the original libertarianish Tea Party movement (before it could become an actual nationwide party capable of peeling off votes from the Republicans) seems to have backfired; the people tasked with doing the Borging of the TPers were the social conservative nutbars like the Koch brothers who stripped off the libertarian trappings and amped up the godbothering and racism. which while it locked down the looney tunes has turned out to be the last straw for the Rockefeller types.
Case in point: In Minnesota, the Reform/Indepence/Whatever Party has been a consistent thorn in the side of Democrats for over a decade, taking more from the DFL (MN Dem) than from the RPM (MN GOP) and keeping DFL candidates from the governor’s mansion. In fact, in 1998, former wrestler Jesse Ventura managed to attract enough people who normally didn’t vote that he was able to beat both the DFL and RPM in the general! (To be fair, while Ventura was largely an egomaniac, he was capable of the occasional Great Thing, which in his case turned out to be vetoing anti-abortion bills the RPM-controlled lege rammed through, and giving us light rail transit.)
But this year, this year it’s different. With former governor Arne Carlson (who endorsed Obama, by the way) leading the parade, the Rockies are marching over to the Independence Party to back Tom Horner for governor, knowing full well that this will result in the election of DFLer Mark Dayton, because they’re sending a message to the social-conservative nutbars that they’ve had enough of that crap from them and they won’t meekly allow a dipwad like Tom Emmer to become governor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cleek: I don’t feel warmth for Reid, and he’s certainly well to my right, and I’m fine with a new majority leader, but considering the not-very-bright and stupendously arrogant cats he had to herd (like this one) I don’t think Reid did too bad a job.
scav
Hey, looks who’s got all sort of new extra money to donate to favored pols? US bankers set for record pay and bonuses for second year.
eemom
I think Commandant Iott is moot at this point anyway. Eric Cantor exercised his authority as Jewish Republican to officially throw him under the bus.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JPL:
Because on the Left we like to spend our free time doing historical re-enactments too – The Spanish Civil War, specifically. Viva Catalonia! Now if you’ll excuse me, there are a few execrable former comrades from POUM that still need purging…
liberal
@cleek:
Heh. Problem with Reid isn’t necessarily that his heart’s in the wrong place (or rather that he’s looking after some special interest)—though it might be—but rather that he’s a crap leader.
Moreover, WTF have the Dem Senate leaders been from non-blue states? (Daschl, Reid)
JPL
@cleek: Hand to hand combat of course.
The Tea Party talks about the government being to big and how regulations are stifling. Many sites have columns about individual candidates being whacky but why not more articles about policy differences. I just went to Kos and the entire page is filled with info on Buck, Angle and Miller. Maybe it would be more effective to tie these candidates together and describe what tea party members ascribe to.
The tea party candidates are not just a group of individuals like they preach and they need to be called on it.
i. e. Banks are to big to fail, but the Canadians banks are big and they did not fail because of heavy regulation. The tea party wants less regulation. Deep oil drilling would be another great one.
Why use a popular forum like FDL to talk about Obama’s failures instead of talking about the dangers of a libertarian society.
The front pagers at BJ talk about ideas and I appreciate that. Mistermix is a welcome addition btw.
cleek
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
yeah, no doubt it’s a shitty job.
kay
@eemom:
It’s an odd situation.
The Toledo Blade launched this assault on their own unionized work force about 4 years ago. They then used the newspaper to attack unions in general. Like, full-page ads. About that time, they started this relentless editorial drum beat that Kaptur didn’t bring enough money back to the district, all the while calling for fiscal prudence. She couldn’t win. If she didn’t lobby for money for Toledo she was ineffective. If she did, she was a free spending Democrat.
They had it in for Kaptur, ( GET THE UNIONS!) then Crazy Tea Bagger won the primary, and they were stuck with him.
They promoted him. They kept insisting Kaptur was in a “tight race” but she really wasn’t. She had an opponent, sure, but it wasn’t “tight”.
The Toledo Blade created Iott, in my opinion. It was wild to watch.
cleek
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
oh great… now i’m gonna be humming Spanish Bombs all day.
El Cid
@Earl Butz: I didn’t know they had uniforms. I never thought to look, and when reading about them I don’t recall it ever mentioned. So, there you go, I’m sure John Kerry could have dressed up like an NKVD agent on weekends and I’m sure Richard Iott would have totally respected that.
General Stuck
Would some front pager put up a fresh “obama sold out the PO thread”. The “obama sold out DADT” is getting full, and dare I say repetitive. And “the obama sold out Aghan” was just a dud. Isn’t there some secret video of Obama meeting Cheney in his hospital room, making a blood oath for some sort evil legacy commitment, or something? That would be a snappy new false meme to debate, wouldn’t it?
Remember, time’s a wastin’, only 3 weeks left to Armageddon, or no biggie, depending. The GOP needs all the help it can get.
Tighten up libtards.
Michael
@Steve:
Fuck him, he never did shit for me.
Poopyman
@cleek:
Yes we could, but unless we take some kind of action (cash being the quickest and easiest), we’re looking at a Minority Leader instead.
No guarantees either way, but I’m putting up now so I don’t have to shut up later.
Linda Featheringill
@valdivia:
I did a quick search on Milosevic and think that your friend has a valid point.
Milosevic [in addition to his personal greed, etc.] seemed to favor the type of nationalism that is based on homogeneity of ethnicity and philosophy. That kind of homogeneity is not natural of course, and is possible only in places that are very isolated or under regimes that apply a good deal of force.
Interesting.
eemom
ah, another sack of firedog shit hurled at John from Phoenix Drive-by Woman before she scuttles off to hide in Jane’s ass again.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@liberal:
Because traditionally one of the most important responsibilities of the Dem Senate majority leader has been to prevent legislation which might become an albatross and and an embarrassment to red state and purple state Senators from ever reaching the floor, where it might threaten their re-election prospects by putting them in the uncomfortable position of actually having to vote for something their hometown electorate doesn’t particularly like, or on the other hand having to cast a vote against said legislation which will enrage more progressive Dems in other parts of the country (and sink any chance that Senator Someday-I-might-be-President might have in the next round of national primaries).
And who better to do that, than one of their own?
Your average red/purple state Dem Senator is a political Schrödinger’s cat who would greatly prefer that you keep shoveling dollars through the slot in the top of the box without ever opening it up to see if anyone is inside.
cleek
@Poopyman:
if you think things are tough now, wait till 2012, when the Dems are going to be defending 21 Senate seats (+the 2 independents), vs only 10 for the GOP.
they’re split 19/18 this year.
Linda Featheringill
@cleek:
Reid: The last time I checked, Reid had a LARGE campaign budget. Lots of money.
It would probably be more prudent to give your widow’s mite to another candidate.
Earl Butz
@El Cid: I’ll send Kerry an email with the link for reproduction NKVD uniforms and he and Iott can play together on weekends when they’re not working. Oh wait, Iott doesn’t work during the week, either. Well, maybe he can find someone else to play dress-up with Monday through Friday.
I’ve got a feeling he plays dress-up a lot, and not always with SS uniforms.
chopper
@El Cid:
this is what i love about the teabaggers and the krazy konservatives. they don’t know when to shut up. it’s almost comedy!
General Stuck
If you want to see what lengths the msm will go to build an Obama fail meme, read this article in Bloomberg on their own new comprehensive poll.
But first consider the title of the article
Then the first paragraph
Sounds really bad, doesn’t it. especially the lack of quantifying between “less supportive” and “no longer supports”
The read the article, and find it actually is a pretty good poll for Obama, with job approval at 47%, and personal approval rising to 53% from a July poll. And all the other numbers that look worse for the repubs than dems, especially the Bush administration in comparison, and who is to blame for our problems.
But you wouldn’t know it from the title and opening paragraph. Anatomy of a pol hit piece.
chopper
@Catsy:
oh, totally. my first thought was that his biggest sin was being dumb and naive enough to think that running for office while enjoying that type of hobby was feasible.
if i were him, my response would be to say it’s acting. nobody assumed tom cruise or chris paltz were nazis because they played them in the movies. shit, how many dudes have playing nazis on screen in this country? it’s a reenactment, somebody’s got to play the bad guys.
then he starts defending the guys he’s dressing up as. what a fuckin shitheel.
Ella in New Mexico
@Steve:
Tell that to Turdblossom. He’s sure running around like a chicken with his head cut off if that’s the case.
TooManyJens
@joe from Lowell: That’s where I am, too. “Hey, my sister used to do Civil War reenactments, it’s no big … holy shit, what?”
CalD
Pace H.L Mencken, it’s also true that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Origuy
Wikipedia has a list of historical reenactment groups. Iott’s doesn’t seem to be listed among them. They range from ancient Greece to the Vietnam era. I’ve known some reenactors; for most of them it’s just a hobby; the Jacobite reenactors didn’t really think they could restore the Stuart dynasty to the Scottish throne. The motto of the Society for Creative Anachronism is “The Middle Ages, the way they should have been.”
There are a lot of WWII reenactment groups on that list, though, but only a few appear to be about a specific German unit. That’s a little closer to reality than most of them get.
RadioOne
that was an excellent article by Sean Willentz, and I agree with him. Right wing extremism isn’t anything new, and has only become prominent because there hasn’t been anyone able to satisfy the JBS regiment to vote center-right since Reagan.
I think this was a thoughtful parody of what we’re still up against, fifty years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6taS9R1KM