Annals Of Republican FAIL

The past few days have seen Republican lawmakers, now endangered in the harsh political environment, just making with the crazy and seriously damaging their re-election chances.

And I'm not just talking about the unholy merger of Katherine Harris and Joe McCarthy, Michelle Bachmann, who's now trying to wiggle out of responsibility for her own words. By the way, her oppponent El Tinklenberg used that bounty of campaign cash to put up a pretty solid bio spot that highlights his support for light rail!



Fantastic stuff.

But there's plenty more out there that that. In NJ-05, Chris Smith is a Republican from New Jersey who has decided he's from Virginia:

Rep. Christopher Smith, a Republican who has represented central New Jersey since 1980, probably didn’t realize he was walking into a political minefield when his family requested a break on his daughter’s huge college bill.

Smith’s daughter, who until recently lived with him in the family’s Herndon, Va., home, obtained in-state tuition privileges at a prestigious Virginia university — saving the Smiths $20,000 per year off the $29,000 tuition charged to out-of-state students.

But what Smith saved in cash could end up costing him politically – Democrats says the claim to Virginia residency shows that Smith is out of touch with the New Jersey constituents he’s supposed to represent.

These residency switches always come back to hurt the candidate (see Rick Santorum in 2006). And Smith's opponent Josh Zeitz is a great progressive.

Then there's Bachmann II (Bachmann Turner Overdrive?), Robin Hayes, another Republican in a tight race who claimed that liberals hate America at a McCain event, and is now denying that he ever said it. That doesn't work in an age of YouTube.



We have another great opponent in NC-08, former textile worker Larry Kissell.

And then we get into some real problems for the GOP. Mitch McConnell is tied in his race with Democrat Bruce Lunsford, according to a Survey USA poll. McConnell is the Republican Minority Leader, and has run rings around Harry Reid with procedural motions and obstructionism in the Senate. The Republicans become MUCH weaker without McConnell. And you know he's nervous when he touts his ability to bring home earmarks for Kentucky. I don't think voters give a crap about seniority when they vote for a representative. I had written this off, but McConnell is in serious trouble. I'm not a Lunsford fan but this would really hurt the GOP.

And then, there's Bill Sali. This guy is a Congressman and not a junior high student?

"Congressman Bill Sali and his campaign staff disrupted a NewsChannel 7 reporter and a representative for his opponent during an interview Tuesday in Downtown Boise.

KTVB reporter Ysabel Bilbao was interviewing Walt Minnick's campaign director John Foster Wednesday afternoon. During the interview, someone loudly yelled and was laughing during the interview at the Grove plaza.

Bilbao and Foster initially ignored the intrusion, but quickly noticed the source of the heckling -- Sali and members of his staff. (...)

Foster said he saw Sali making faces at him and holding up "bunny ears.""

It's statesmanship like that which has seen Sali trailing in the polls to his opponent Walt Minnick. Yes, the Democrat is winning. In Idaho.

It really is falling to crap for Republicans...

Famous Last Words

Even I didn't expect the avalanche of cash raised mainly by the netroots for Elwyn Tinklenberg, the candidate running against neo-McCarthyite Michelle Bachmann in MN-06 after her disturbing comments on Hardball. Tinklenberg picked up nearly a half a million dollars in a matter of hours. Wow.

Meanwhile, Bachmann is denying what she said despite the existence of a little thing called videotape.

This morning, Bachmann tried to undo the damage. Appearing on WCCO (Minneapolis’ local CBS affiliate), Bachmann denied she ever called Barack Obama’s views “anti-American”:

HOST: You do feel his [Obama’s] views are anti-American?

BACHMANN: I feel his views are concerning. I’m calling on the media to investigate them. I’m not saying that his views are anti-American. That was a misreading of what I said. And so I don’t believe that’s my position. I’m calling on the media to take a look at what his views are [...]

That’s a lie. Here’s what Bachmann said on Hardball:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti-American views?

BACHMANN: Absolutely. I’m very concerned he may have anti-American views.

It would be absolutely poetic to see Bachmann defeated.

UPDATE: The D-Trip is throwing down a million bucks, too. Way to nationalize your race, Michelle.

Like McCarthy, But Clumsy

If you put Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann together you still wouldn't add up to the stature of a Joe McCarthy, who was one of the lowest and most execrable figures ever to haunt the halls of Congress. Which tells you a lot about Palin and Bachmann.

Palin, who has now taken to using the Secret Service to cover up the hate rhetoric at her own rallies, went around today saying she was happy to visit the pro-American areas of the country (I don't think she was referring to my little patch of Santa Monica). In context, it looks worse. Apparently only small towns are pro-American. I guess that kind of spirit leads to pro-American behavior like assaulting journalists:

I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.
As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.

"Hey, hey, " I said. "I'm trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay? "

The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.

This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.

It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.

"Oh, you think that 's funny?! " the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that 's real funny…" he said.

And then he kicked the back of leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.

By the way, Joe Biden was perfect talking about this today: "It doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country, and I hope it gets through. We all love this country."

On Hardball today, Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) was asked about the "pro-American" quote and she essentially called for journalists to investigate all liberal members of Congress.



I associate myself with Katrina vanden Heuvel's remarks: "Chris, I fear for my country."



These people have touched off something very deep in a dark corner of the American psyche. They aren't just demonizing their fellow Americans, they are calling them into question. They are accusing them of treason. They are inciting. They are delegitimizing. They are summoning hatred and violence.

Palin will meet her fate in the Presidential election. But Bachmann and her neo-McCarthyism needs to be repudiated as well. Elwyn Tinklenberg isn't exactly my kind of Democrat (he's been endorsed by the Blue Dogs) but he isn't a vehicle for hatred and factionalism like Bachmann, a parrot for the basest elements of society. He's not that far behind in the polls, either. If you want to put an end to this, you can help out Tinklenberg here.