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Subscribe to RSSThe AP: “Just five weeks from midterm elections, groups allied with the Republican Party and financed in part by corporations and millionaires have amassed a crushing 6-1 advantage in television spending, and now are dominating the airwaves in closely contested districts and states across the country.”
Stu Rothenberg issues this cake-is-almost-baked warning: “You’d never know it from the avalanche of TV ads, direct-mail pieces and phone calls that voters will receive in October, but most campaigns have only another week or two to change the likely outcome of their contests… A few elections will likely turn on late campaign developments, possibly an ad, a weak debate performance or an issue introduced at the last minute. And a big national news story can obviously have a significant effect on November’s results. But for most races, the die will be cast around the beginning of October. Either the early ads changed opinion or they didn’t.”
ALASKA: Sen. Lisa Murkowski is considering releasing two ads taped by late Republican Sen. Ted Stevens who was killed in a plane crash shortly before the ads were set to air, the New York Times reports.
ARIZONA: The Arizona Republic endorses Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for re-election.
“A woman was tackled outside a Senate debate in Arizona on Sunday night after she approached Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) with a sign and shouted slogans,” The Hill reports. “The woman was tackled by a member of the senator's security detail after she got close to McCain, but continued to chant while on the ground. ‘John McCain has to go,’ the woman shouted before being taken down.”
CALIFORNIA: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce releases an ad in support of Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman.
ILLINOIS: “The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has placed a $400,000 ad buy for the second week in a row in Illinois to boost Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias’s bid against Republican Mark Kirk,” Politico reports.
IOWA: “The National Rifle Association will urge every gun owner and hunter in Iowa to vote for Democrat Chet Culver in an endorsement that turns pro-gun politics on its ear,” the Des Moines Register writes.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: In a campaign stop for Democratic Senate candidate Paul Hodes, Vice President Joe Biden, “in his second visit to the state in about a month, blamed the Bush administration and GOP policies for putting the economy, especially the middle-class, in a ‘ditch,’ and said the Republican ‘Pledge to America’ will only return the nation to an economic crisis while cutting vital government services.
NEW YORK: “Conservative Party candidate Rick Lazio on Monday withdrew from the race for New York's governor, a decision that helps the tea party candidate who beat Lazio in the Republican primary,” the AP writes.
TEXAS: “In a surprise move, the Democratic Governors Association has decided to up the ante in Texas, with plans to launch an attack ad against Gov. Rick Perry (R ) that assails him as a career politician who has lost touch with the people of the Lone Star State,” the Washington Post reports.
A poll commissioned by large newspapers in Texas shows Perry up 46%-39%.
WISCONSIN: Neumann! You’ve heard of the “Beard of Defeat,” is this the “Beer of Defeat”? NPR reports, “Former Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann placed fifth out of 16 in a national beer stein holding contest. Neumann held his stein full of beer, with his arm fully extended, for nearly seven minutes. But the national winner held on for nearly nine minutes. Neumann lost the GOP primary earlier this month.” Here’s a photo from local affiliate WISN.
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So how can the TEA Party Republicans have a weak debate performance if they don't participate in any debates?
I don't care how many paid liers Republicans waste their money on, I'll never vote for a Republican again.
Good....
I don't care how many ignorant azz people vote Democrat either. I will never vote for a Democrat again....
Like the stupid ads for "bankruptingamerica.com" that mention the uncontrolled spending by Congress, like the "bridge to nowhere," but fail to mention that it was a GOP Senator. Or the lady in the grocery store complaining that Congress wants to decide what we eat by taxing things like soft drinks - never realizing that her alcohol and cigarettes are already taxed and will be taxed more. Since the GOP at the national and state levels will never raise an income tax, they resort to all the "sin" taxes and your cell phone and cable services.
Plain and simple, the truth is that the Republicans won’t ever solve the problems. There are those of us who would really like that to be different but the reality is that their ever solving, not just giving lip service and a lot of subterfuge to disguise and then rationalize, is impossible. Their focused and disciplined commitment is to their personal and political ambitions at any cost, which totally occupies them with being ‘puppets’ for Special Interests and the influential, powerful and extremely wealthy few who they feel support and enable them and who literally ‘pull their strings’. Their actions for the last ten years totally substantiate that and leave no doubt; they clearly demonstrated their unity in supporting all Bush-Cheney did in placating and patronizing Special Interests and the select few while giving the people only apathy, the costs and an abundance of subterfuge, and since, in again being irresponsible and arrogant in withholding any cooperation and instead faulting and obstructing everything to ultimately be serving only Special Interests and the few. They are tied into and dependent on those who ‘pull their strings’ and who ‘call the shots’ and who even pick the candidates (by their ‘puppet’ qualities instead of by their qualifications). The Republican Party has been totally consistent and the resulting frustrating futility and the significant cost for the average American has been totally obvious to anyone who can just avoid being swayed, manipulated and conned.
There are those who claim to be ultra-conservatives and who greatly benefit from putting their substantial power, influence and money into controlling the Republicans’, both Tea Party and regular. The resources they make available, both overt and covert, and the commitment they demand really make it impossible for the Republicans to deviate. The creative subterfuge and the organized, sponsored and extensive efforts they undertake to sway, manipulate and con public opinion are impressively offensive. John Dean (a self-proclaimed Goldwater conservative and past member of Nixon’s staff), in his book “Broken Government”, recognized the extent of the cancer when he said that the Republicans “with their current mentality were simply incapable of responsibly governing”. All we have to do is look at recent history to see where the majority, including the total middle-class, consistently looses ground as only the very wealthy gain under Republican control. It is a shame but unless we recognize reality and actually become offended by the insult of the constant deception and of being taken for granted and then totally reject them, we could be returned to ‘more of the same’ which just favors the few and caused all of the problems. That is what everything they say/do is attempting to accomplish, whether Tea Party or regular, a return to ‘more of the same’, where once more there would be the subterfuge to maintain the status all over again.
Dems are in so real trouble.....