Here’s a little break from the Trumpster fire.
Tim Huelskamp represented KS-01, a R+22 rural district in Kansas. Unfortunately for Tim, he walked the walk instead of just talking the talk:
Since entering Congress on the tea party wave of 2010, Huelskamp proudly took on the mantle of the far right in Congress. But his actions –not falling in line on key votes– came at a cost. After a strong rebuke from then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in 2012, Huelskamp was ousted from the House Agriculture Committee, a move that left voters back in his farm-heavy district without representation as the panel negotiated a major farm bill. Later, Huelskamp voted against the farm bill citing conservative purity, another move that came back to haunt him in his primary.
Huelskamp got whupped in his primary last night by a more mainstream Republican. Of course, since he touched the third rail of Plains politics: he disrespected the farm bill.
In a R+22 district, you can propose throwing women into jail for using birth control, suggest the death penalty for abortion, and introduce a bill to turn national grasslands into interment camps for the gays. Your constituents will tolerate those modest proposals, or any other harebrained scheme that you pull out of your ass, as long as it doesn’t affect the farm bill. Anybody who can fuck that up deserves what they get, and Tim got it good and hard last night.
The “mainstream Republican” (what does that mean anymore) who beat Huelskamp is a doctor-turned-politician, which is usually a bad turn, especially in the Republican party. I can hardly wait to hear that guy’s set of crazy schemes, but I’ll wager a fair sum that voting against the farm bill isn’t one of them.
MattF
I’ve read that pro-Brownback state legislators got decimated in the primary.
Peale
Yeah. Umm someone noted last night that his opponent is a Koch funded “mainstream” candidate, so probably more of the same. Just in a better tailored suit.
OzarkHillbilly
Abortion causes cancer, hair loss, abdominal fat, and promiscuity. Did I miss anything?
nonynony
@MattF:
90% of them kept their jobs?
(I kid, I kid.)
Elizabelle
Happy to learn Huelscamp went down. But it’s Kansas, Dorothy.
And Scalia is still dead. For eternity.
rikyrah
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
aimai
This is why getting rid of earmarks, though nominally a “good government” thing, was terrible for the Republican Party and for actually getting things done at all in government. The people, at least in these R +22 kind of areas, can be bribed to vote by offering them a package of total inhumanity towards their fellow man, or by cash on the barrelhead for the local economy, but without one you are simply left with the other as the major form of interaction between the national state and the local area.
NorthLeft12
Roger Marshall was not Koch supported, but was supported by another conservative ultra rich family from Kansas.
Mr. Marshall is rabidly anti ACA, anti-regulations, strongly Pro Life, ++ National Defence and Second Amendment which he sort of considers the same thing, and finally, very strongly states rights.
So basically, he sounds like a slighter saner and maybe less abrasive version of Rep Huelskamp….but not by a lot. Although not a tea bagger [yet] he is not very far from their POV.
MattF
@nonynony: I worried a bit about that when I wrote it. But then I thought… nah.
nonynony
@NorthLeft12:
So he’s a typical Kansas conservative Republican then?
So long as he votes for the farm bill he’ll get to keep his job. Idiots like Huelscamp drunk the Koolaid and think that people voted them in because of their nutty economic ideas. They didn’t – Kansas farmers love their socialism when it comes to keeping their farms afloat. They voted him in because so long as they get their socialism and their farms are afloat they can target their political votes at things that don’t directly impact them at all (like abortion politics). Take away their socialism, though, and put their farms in danger and you’ve threatened their livelihoods – they become laser focused on getting the portion of that evil government socialism that benefits them directly secured again.
What’s happened is that the new generation of conservatives don’t realize that all that talk about no socialism is just a code. They think it means something profound when in reality it means “we hate black people” and to a lesser extent “we hate poor people”. White Republican voters love them some socialism, so long as its coming to them. Threaten their social programs and they will come down on you like a bag of hammers.
MattF
I need one of these. Awoooga!
Agrippa
@aimai:
You are correct about earmarks.
Miss Bianca
I’m wondering what it would take to bring back earmarks. Pig ears for everyone!
Agrippa
@nonynony:
Got it in one.
The Ancient Randonnuer
House of Representatives version of Bill Frist. Sad.
nonynony
@aimai:
The thing is – the Republicans generally believe that “getting things done at all in government” is fundamentally a bad thing, and I suspect that is part of why earmarks were targetted in the first place. Thinking that by eliminating the ability to cut deals for local districts the conservatives could get a better hold on the votes – since there would no longer be a conflict between ideology and pragmatism. Get rid of the pragmatic reasons to vote for compromises and you don’t get any compromises.
And they were right. And I would argue that while it’s been bad for individual Republicans and for Republican leadership, it’s been really damn good for movement conservatives who finally – FINALLY – have the government that does nothing. Which is what they’ve always wanted.
Cermet
Just proof that most teabaggers really are nuts; vote against the farm bill in Kansas!? Wow. These guys are serious and really don’t get that fact thing at all.
Anoniminous
Welfare moochers get rid of barrier to welfare mooching instead of working hard and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
SAD!
BruceFromOhio
Later, Huelskamp voted against the farm bill citing conservative purity, another move that came back to haunt him in his primary.
Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed.
ETA: TPM says Marshall was backed by the non-Koch money.
Bodacious
Just curious, how does this square with the TPP future? It’s looking bad for trade policy, while often enriching big business, has always aided agriculture. Not sure the outcome of this, but farming ain’t gonna like it.
Felonius Monk
Just tradin’ in the old asshole for a new asshole with fewer hemorrhoids. What’s the matter with Kansas?
lamh36
On the subject of Republican stupidity…
Can’t make this up. Reince Priebus, Newt, and Rudy are preparing an intervention with Trump
why exactly would Trump listen to them?
lamh36
of course he doesnt
Donald Trump says he doesn’t regret “anything” about repeated attacks on Khan family
rikyrah
@lamh36:
you believe he has that kind of money?
really?
OzarkHillbilly
@Felonius Monk: No trees, too much sun on the brain. (what’s MO’s excuse, I have no idea.
lamh36
Sort of back on topic…but has Trump actually endorsed ANY down ticket candidates?
lamh36
@rikyrah: actually yeah I do…its the money that’s attracts him and keeps him going
joes527
@rikyrah: Yes.
Actually, he has $4.95 in cash, and $73,999,995.05 in the value of the Trump brand.
les
@NorthLeft12:
This is what Kansans call a “moderate Republican.” Electoral contests in my lovely state are waged exclusively between “Republicans (Brownback/Huelskamp) and “moderate Republicans.” Moderate Republicans, running on a “maybe we shouldn’t burn down the entire state just to lower the Koch’s state taxes” made some ground in the state races.
In my district (sub. Kansas City) in 2008, the only Dem on my ballot was Barack Obama.
Chris
“The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending, with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what the movement is all about.”
dmsilev
@lamh36: Because nothing says “serious, sober leadership” like Rudy and Newt.
Anoniminous
@Bodacious:
Kansas Senator and Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee Pat Roberts has said:
Which I take to mean he is for it. Given he represents Big Ag (Koch Brothers, Cargill, etc.) and this oligopoly, cutting to the chase, controls 15% of the global wheat market and 60% of the global corn (zea mays) market that’s not surprising.
Mike in NC
So Drumpf sulked when told he couldn’t lob nukes at ISIS camps in Syria? Sad! Campaign seems to be unraveling, according to talking heads on MSNBC. Very sad!
Albatrossity
I live in this district. Huelskamp was defeated because he is a jerk, and folks finally figured that out. His positions on the issues are identical to those of his opponent (repeal Obamacare, more guns = more freedom, the EPA is killing the farmer, lesser prairie-chickens (total population about 20,000 birds) don’t deserve to be on the endangered species list, more fracking = more freedom, etc.). Mailers sent out by these campaigns and their supporting PACs were all offensive negative slams on the opponent with no positive things to say about the candidate. So we will gain very little if this guys replaces Tiny Tim in Congress.
That said, there is an independent candidate, Alan LaPolice, running against him in November that would be a modest improvement. He has mainstream GOP positions on things like abortion and taxes, but does acknowledge climate change and doesn’t think we need another war in the Middle East. We’ll see if he can pull off an independent run in a bright-red state, but if there ever was a year to do that, it might be this year.
joes527
@lamh36:
And in a related question: If the Democrats were to place their own candidate in the Republican race to ratfuck the Republicans, what would that candidate do differently from Trump?
The only answer I can come up with is that a Democratic plant would be more subtle in torpedoing the Republican party.
pamelabrown53
@lamh36: #27
Actually, I’m with rikyrah on this. I believe that Trump heard about Hillary’s yuuuge haul (@90 mil. and @ 58 mil cash on handand he pulled a larger number out of his ass.
NorthLeft12
@nonynony: Yes, I love reminding the so called “conservatives” up here in Canada that we are all socialists, and that their own supporters would bleat the loudest if they dared to try and gut the social programs that all of us treasure.
Side note: About ten or so years ago there was a very popular program and vote on CBC to determine Canada’s greatest Canadian. The winner [by a lot] was Tommy Douglas, the Premier [Governor] of Saskatchewan who introduced Medicare [single payer health care] to his province which was later adopted across Canada. He was a Scotland born socialist. Terry Fox [cancer fund raiser extraordinaire] was second, followed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau [former PM], and Dr. Frederick Banting [discovered insulin and donated his discovery to the world]. Yeah, we be socialists.
Felonius Monk
@OzarkHillbilly:
Obviously not enough OzarkHillbillys. :-)
Waldo
I hope he at least took a moment to savor the Tea Party kool-aid that did him in.
amk
So, peak wingnut has passed us by without our noticing it?
I kid, of course.
Chris
@nonynony:
Yep. This is the single biggest issue with governing with the GOP as a major stakeholder in the system. It’s like trying to run Wall Street if half the CEOs on it were communists who didn’t believe Wall Street should run at all.
@les:
The reddest states really do keep looking more and more like the South between Reconstruction and the civil rights movement. A one-party system where the only things that matter are intra-party struggles.
nonynony
@lamh36:
Odds that Reince, Newt and Rudy get told some variation on the classic “I’m not trapped in here with you – you guys are trapped in here with me” line from Watchmen approach 100%.
Trump is going to lay it out that they need to support him, and if they don’t he’s going to use his megaphone to go negative on them. He’ll trash talk Paul Ryan and John McCain and anyone else who criticizes him from within the party and there is literally not a damn thing any of them can do to stop him. And if they somehow eject him and make him an un-candidate through some kind of Republican Party rules lawyering? They only increase the size of his megaphone.
He’s not going to back down on this. They challenged his alpha status, and that kind of challenge has to be met. If they don’t apologize to him and back down to indicate their submission to his alpha status he’s just going to go farther with it. I’m not sure what they can do short of drugging him with acid and keeping him locked in a closet until the first week of November passes.
BR
I think the media is setting up a Trump comeback story — there’s no way he drops out, and there’s still the hacked DCCC and Clinton campaign emails out there that could drop at any time.
Now is the time to lock down the lead and/or throw Trump an anvil. Hope Clinton is planning on it.
Peale
@Bodacious: Yep. NAFTA was really awful for Mexican corn farmers, but me thinks that part would stay the same in a Trump administration. Rip up NAFTA, but renogoiate the deal so that Mexican lose the manufacturing jobs and their markets are still flooded with Kansas grain. That is usually the expectation – I mean, we have the nukes, so other countries should simply allow us to have our cake and eat it too in trade.
OzarkHillbilly
@Felonius Monk: Most of my “friends” think I am one too many.
BR
@nonynony:
They’ll find a way — press releases, etc. Trump himself won’t have to apologize or clean things up, protecting his ego.
CONGRATULATIONS!
The medical profession is not attracting the same kind of people it used to. The number of doctors I’ve met in the last decade who were nice people can be counted on two fingers. The idea of any of the rest of them getting into politics makes my blood run cold.
And I’ve been to more docs this last ten years than I have in the rest of my entire life; it’s true. Getting older sucks.
OzarkHillbilly
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Well, if you had to deal with cranky, broke down, old MF’ers** all the time, wouldn’t you be a bit of an asshole too? Speaking as one cranky, broke down, old MF’er to another.
Lurking Canadian
@nonynony:
They could dose him with acid and let him talk. It’s not like he’d make less sense than he makes now, and he might be nicer talking about rainbow gumdrop clouds or whatever.
Miss Bianca
@Chris:
I try to make headway with conservatives by telling them that voting for politicians who claim to hate government would be like a Board of Directors appointing a CEO who says, “I hate big business and I’m going to do my best to make sure that this one doesn’t work!”
Not sure I’ve actually convinced anybody yet – they just look at me, say, “That’s crazy!” and don’t make the connection. Sigh.
Peale
@nonynony: I wonder how it would even work. It’s not like the Republican Party can do anything to get his name off the ballot. There was this whole convention the other week where it appeared that they nominated him for president and I bet there’s a lot of state rules about who gets to appear on the ballot as a republican. Accepting the nomination at the convention probably carries quite a bit of weight in that regard. Reince Preibus calling up the state election board and telling them to replace his party’s candidate with someone more electable probably isn’t going to fly.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@OzarkHillbilly: You win the point. Some of the people the docs have to deal with are beyond unbelievable. I’ve noticed that too.
ETA:
@Peale: Also, I don’t know what the cutoff date is but I imagine there’s a hard time limit as to when the state just can’t do that, because the ballots are printed and ready to go.
FDRLincoln
I live in KS and the story is much bigger than this one seat.
Several of Brownback’s top legislative allies were thrown out in the primaries, including the Senate Majority Leader, in some cases by large margins. This group of moderate Republicans is focused on saving the schools and roads and rolling back the insane tax policy. They are overtly running against Brownback and say they will cooperate with the existing moderate GOPers and the few Democrats in the statehouse to stop him.
Come January, the moderate GOP/Dem coalition may have a majority. But if they don’t, it will still be a lot closer to sanity than what we have now. The legislature will no longer be a rubber stamp for Brownback’s experiment.
Mike in NC
An intervention to save Trump from himself? Ain’t gonna happen. He’ll continue to double down and then triple down until the Trumpster fire burns itself out.
FDRLincoln
Brownback’s approval rating is about 15% according to the latest data.
les
@Chris:
KS was the South between Reconstruction and the civil rights movement. This is no change.
Cain
@lamh36:
All they are going to do is put themselves in his cross hairs. He is going to humiliate them, and destroy them. When he becomes president, they will be dead in political circles. You dont fuck with the Trump!
montanareddog
Looks like the Trump intervention already happened
Betty Cracker
@FDRLincoln: That’s really good news. It’s heartening to hear that trickle-down austeritarian con men can’t hoodwink the public forever, not even in a deep red state.
Cain
@Albatrossity:
Yeah, but can he keep the seat if he gets it? That’s the hard part. Secondly, if these fools don’t believe in global warming they are asking for it. You don’t fuck around with the weather if you are a farmer. You’ll find yourself out of work with nothing. There will be nothing you can do.. of course being the party of personal responsibility will only mean that they will blame Republicans or most likely Democrats for their plight.
Sometimes I wonder what people thought when Noah told them shit was going to happen. I mean the damn global warming thing is practically biblical. Maybe there isn’t going to be 40 days and 40 nights, but weather patterns that change your sources of food will create widespread issues that will take decades to resolve and will cause war, famine, and trump.
dww44
@Albatrossity: Keep us informed. Hope candidate La Police outperforms in November. We could use a few more moderates in the Republican party and I say that as a lifelong Dem.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Voter ID and HB2 keep sucking up all the oxygen in the room. This needs more attention:
The widening scandal in the McCrory Administration about coal ash and drinking water
chopper
@FDRLincoln:
HA HA HA couldn’t happen to a douchier bag.
James E Powell
@Peale:
I’m curious to know if there is a procedure under the party’s rules and, if so, under each state’s election laws.
And I repeat my question from an earlier thread, who would the RNC put in his place? Who wants to take the hit?
James E Powell
@FDRLincoln:
It would jump back up over 50% if he were running against any Democrat.
rikyrah
@FDRLincoln:
thanks for the Kansas information.
rikyrah
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Uh huh
Not surprised .
Michael Bersin
Actually, Huelskamp’s (r) constituents got exactly what the voted for in 2010, 2012, and 2014. It’s just that when his votes to cut “big government” were to the agricultural welfare state and their bottom line that they rejected him for someone else. It’s just more of the same screw everyone else I’ve got mine because I’m more deserving garbage from reality challenged right wingnuts. Huelkamp’s contituents deserve him and his replacement.
Peale
@rikyrah: He may have it because he isn’t paying for anything that normal campaigns pay for at this point. Its not like he’s running a tight ship or something. Its just that he’s not hiring anyone and still isn’t doing more than the minimum of advertising.
Chris
@lamh36:
When I was at AU, I originally fell in with a Christian fundamentalist group (it was one of my introductions to conservatism) who were, while believing some really fucked up shit, still capable of basic human interactions with other people, even liberals. Halfway through my college, they were joined by a new kid, who was actually bugfuck fire-and-brimstone-preacher-on-his-soapbox insane. Who pretty much just walked around calling people slurs or telling them they were going to hell; attempted to disrupt and/or takeover several political and religious conservative groups; stalked women he was interested in and exhaustively researched the social media backgrounds of people he was having a fight with, i.e. attacking the head of the student government (a Republican) for having a girlfriend who’d voted for Al Gore.
The fate of the GOP since Trump came onto the scene’s has reminded me a lot of that junior year in college. The reason I’m bringing this up is that the older fundies I used to know apparently tried to stage an “intervention” much like this one to make him realize that, while, of course we all agree that homosexuality and Islam and liberalism are bad and Jesus wants a flat tax and a war in Iraq, but there are ways of talking about these things that aren’t egregiously counterproductive and so shocking that even we are offended… Didn’t take, and eventually they had to throw him out of the church.
Unfortunately for them, the Elder Statesmen of the GOP don’t have that option.
nonynony
@BR:
At a minimum they need to convince Trump to shut up. Stop attacking the Khans, stop attacking Paul Ryan and John McCain and Kelly Ayotte and any other Republican who has said anything critical about his massively stupid handling of the Khans. Then they also need to convince him to shut up while they do damage control via press releases.
If this were literally any other candidate I would think you were right. In fact if this were almost literally any other candidate they wouldn’t be in this mess. I’m not sure that Trump is physically capable of shutting up about this. He’s been slighted, and unless THEY apologize to HIM – very publicly and very openly saying he was right and they were wrong – I don’t think they’ll be able to stop this (until the next Trump-splosion of stupid happens).
I agree with what you said upthread that the press is dying to do a “Trump redemption” story too. The problem is that Trump needs to cooperate, and that means that Trump has to do something to move that narrative. And he has to shut up about the Khans and John McCain and Paul Ryan and all of that – because they can’t start the redemption narrative until he stops digging that hole. And at this point I’m not sure that Trump will actually give them the opening to do that.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@OzarkHillbilly: They have confused governance with the Border Showdown.
Look, people adored Dick Ichord when he chair the HUAC committee back in the 1960s; not much has changed.
gene108
@CONGRATULATIONS!: @OzarkHillbilly:
Plus patients, who do not comply with instructions.
Doc: Stop smoking
Patient: When you see me in three months I’ll have quit. Count on it.
Three months later
Doc: Did you quit smoking?
Patient: No doc, it’s impossible. You just gotta give me another pill to keep me alive longer.
Doc: There’s nothing else I can do until you quit smoking.
The Pale Scot
@nonynony:
Chris
@The Pale Scot:
I’ve never read that book, but I still crack up every time I read the excerpt. Such a perfect summary of post-New Deal conservatism.
Splitting Image
@Chris:
Catch-22 includes perfect summaries of a lot of things. Easily one of the best books of the 20th century.
Gretchen
I’m here in Kansas, and there has been a lot of on-the-ground activity in opposition to Brownback. People are used to good government in the form of good schools, highways and public safety, and they’re pissed that those things are in jeapordy. So there has been a lot of movement here running moderates against the teabaggers, and a lot of moderates won yesterday. And one Democrat for State Senate saw a bigger turnout for a Democratic primary than has happened before. He worked very hard and got legions of people out knocking on doors and putting up signs for him, and he won. People are angry here and it made a difference.
Gretchen
I’m hoping for a veto-proof majority so Brownback’s veto pen won’t matter.