The Republicans continue to nominate lunatics and scoundrels, many of whom will probably become members of Congress next year because people just don’t care enough to prevent it. One of my favorites is going to face Alan Grayson. Daniel Webster won the GOP nomination in Florida’s Eight District. He’s a supporter of covenant marriage and has introduced bills in the Florida legislature to ban divorce. Another fruitcake is Allen West, who embraces birtherism and won the nomination in Florida’s 22nd District.
Another surprise came out of Oklahoma’s Fifth District, where a Christian summer camp director won the runoff against the RNCC’s favored candidate. The Republicans are going to continue to scratch their heads over this one. They were mystified when Lankford came in first during the main election.
Then there’s Jesse Kelly in Arizona’s 8th District, who is disappointed that Sarah Palin endorsed a rival and thinks she has totally destroyed her image, but would vote for her in the 2012 primaries anyway.
Kelly is a tea party favorite — he claims an endorsement from Rep. Michele Bachmann, a leading tea party voice who is also a Palin ally. He has no prior political experience and left school to enlist in the Marine Corps before he finished his college degree. At 29, he’s one of the youngest candidates this cycle.
Back in Florida, the Republicans nominated Rick Scott to be their gubernatorial candidate even though his health care company committed the largest Medicare fraud on record.
And let’s not forget the nominee from Florida’s 25th District, David Rivera:
Democrats have a fairly short list of House seats that they are confident could go from Red to Blue this November. But they believe the race in Miami’s 25th district is starting to look like a prime target since the Republicans’ likely nominee, state Rep. David Rivera, is mired in controversy.
Trouble for Rivera began earlier this week when the Miami CBS affiliate and the Miami Herald uncovered possible allegations of domestic violence from the 1990’s and a police report from 2002 showing that Rivera was involved in a traffic accident where he ran into a truck full of his campaign opponent’s fliers, allegedly to prevent the driver from getting to the post office in time to mail them.
This isn’t even a comprehensive list. Marco Rubio is a crook. John McCain is washed up. And there are more loonies who have tonight won the right to carry the GOP banner in November.
But, we could continue to circle the wagons and fire inward.
Cranky McSame just smoked J.D. Hayworth.
…by becoming a zombie J. D. Hayworth. The choice was Hayworth in Hayworth’s body or Hayworth in McCain’s body.
because the non-loonies have no leadership.
Ed, are you a PUMA or something?
Lol wtf is this shit? Note to Ed: this wasn’t the November election, this was the primary. The non-loonies are the GOP’s candidates who lost to the tea partiers.
Look at who the “non-loonies” in the GOP have as leadership. Who counts as a non-loonie in a leadership position?
The RNC is being run by Michael Steele, so that’s out. John Boehner and Eric Cantor are the “leadership” of the House and they’re both allowing the loony faction of the party to pull the strings. Jim DeMint has been the kingmaker of the GOP with his endorsements this cycle. Outside of legislators the leadership is Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and other
Mitch McConnell is pretty much the pinnacle of the non-loonie leadership in the GOP right now. Think about that for a second and let it roll around in your brain – Mitch McConnell is the least loonie leader in the current GOP. Is it any wonder that the loons are doing so well?
Right, but I do not think that was Ed’s point.
I wish you’d do a whole list, BooMan.
Seconded!
Keep in mind that, currently, large swaths of the electorate still aren’t really paying much attention to the mid-terms. Times are still incredibly hard on folks, and they simply have more pressing matters than thinking about November. Usually poeple only start to “get informed” on the fall elections after Labor Day, and that might be more true now than usual.
Lots of people are recating negatively to the party in power because times are tough. If the DNC can push a big GOTV, and the candidates can at least move the conversation somewhat into the realm of making the election a choice rather than a referendum…
Yeah. Primaries are always really skewed glimpses of the electorate. I’m not sure how much I learned from this election, really:
It is not as important that Democrats win as that Republicans lose and lose big and lose key symbolic figures like Boehner, Bachmann, and Foxx.
The good news is that Alex Sink can hammer Scott about the largest Medicare fraud on record. Jeff Greene is not the Democratic candidate, and Kendrick Meek can hammer Marco Rubio’s past.
Right now, Oklahoma is more hopeless than South Carolina. At least there are two strong candidates for Congress in SC — Rob Miller (against Joe “You lie” Wilson) and Jane Dyer (for the open seat vacated by Gresham Barrett).
And to harp on a favorite theme, it is the get-out-the-vote activities that will make a difference in every state. And motivating those in your personal networks who you know do not want a Republican victory or are authentically on the fence.
Does Boehner’s Dem challenger have a legit shot against him? I haven’t heard anything about that race so far.
Agree on the GOTV. The Democratic Strategist flagged an interesting article from the Nation the other day, which stated the National Voter Registration Act is creating some huge potential opportunities for Dems:
On Boehner’s challenger. Yes, he does have a good chance if he can get the foundational support for his campaign. His name is Justin Coussoule, and he interned in Rep. Maurice Hinchey’s (D-NY) around the time he was in law school. He has a business rehabbing historic properties.
And John Boehner has never had a serious challenger before.
You can donate to his campaign through BlueAmerica.
Grayson called his opponent an American Taliban recently so it’s pretty much going to be Matt Stoller v. the Tea Baggers down there. Should be quite interesting to watch.