Are The Republicans Killing Themselves By Playing Up Their Know Nothing Attitude Towards Hispanic-Americans?

Sunday on CNN's State of the Union one Republican who knows he will never get to give one, scratched around the reason why. “On the issue of the Hispanic voter," pontificated John McCain, "we have to do a lot more. We Republicans have to recruit and elect Hispanics to office. And I don't mean just because they’re Hispanics, but they represent a big part of the growing population in America. And we have a lot of work to do there.”

They have a lot more work to do now than they even did before McCain went down to his historic defeat last year, losing far more Hispanic voters than even George Bush. McCain only managed to eke out a disappointing 31% of Hispanic votes, where Bush had won 44% in 2004-- in a population that made up 9% of those who voted (up by a percentage point from 2004).

Latino voters shifted in huge numbers away from the Republicans to vote for Senator Barack Obama in the presidential election, exit polls show, providing the votes that gave him unexpectedly large margins of victory in three battleground states: Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

Mr. Obama’s pull on Latino voters also extended to Florida, where a majority of them [57%] voted for a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since at least 1988, when exit polls were first conducted in the state.

In a year when turnout among many groups surged nationwide, the number of Latinos who went to the polls increased by nearly 25 percent over 2004, with sharp rises among naturalized immigrants and young, first-time voters, according to a study by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Hispanic support for the Democratic nominee increased by 14 points over all compared with 2004, the biggest shift toward the Democrats by any voter group.

For the first time, Latino voters emerged as a mobilized Democratic voting bloc in states across the country, Latino officials said.

It was even worse for McCain and Republicans among younger voters. The Republican candidate didn't even crack 20%. Could it get worse? Well, with high profile xenophobes and racist spokespersons like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Pence (R-IN), John Boehner (R-OH) and the two senatorial Oklahoma kooks getting lots of TV face time, it can get a lot worse, especially with divisive GOP allies in the media like Limbaugh, Dobbs, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, etc, being looked at as existential dangers to the Hispanic community. The impending confirmation vote for Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court, is turning into a disaster, for both the GOP and, potentially, for McCain himself. Last Thursday we talked about how McCain is in the awkward position of having to decide to alienate his own state's large and growing Hispanic population or his own party's crazy and getting-crazier-by-the-day base when he decides on his confirmation vote. Yesterday, shamefully, he decided to stick with the racists and xenophobes in the base and forget the Hispanic voters he used to court. He's voting against confirmation-- and his statement is filled with gross lies and pandering to white supremicists.

Sunday, Digby went much further in explaining the danger Republicans face from their own crazed opposition to all things Obama mixing in with a virulent nativist strain of racism and xenophobia, to make jackasses of themselves voting against Sotomayor for no discernible reason.

This is what I find inexplicable about Republican strategy. They knew before she was nominated that the person Obama named was 99% likely to be confirmed. They knew she was replacing a liberal on the court, so no harm no foul in terms of the balance on the court. And they know they have a problem with Hispanics, the fastest growing demographic in the country. Allowing a large margin to vote for Sotomayor would be an easy way to ease some of those tensions, buy some good will and provide some cover the next time the Democrats try to block a nominee, without having to actually do anything. It's just good politics.

And yet they've gone out of their way to publicly sully the woman's reputation and now are pulling every possible string to keep the vote as tight as possible, thereby reinforcing the notion that they hate Hispanics so much that they will do everything in their power, even when they are sure to lose, to keep one from the Supreme Court.

I've heard people make the case that this is payback for Thomas, which is seen as the destruction of a good man's reputation for no good reason. But aside from the merits of the case, (which was about sexual harassment being ignored by a bunch of powerful, pompous men, not race) the Democrats weren't in the process of losing the black vote in vast numbers when it happened and because the Dems had been the party of civil rights by that time for more than 30 years. If anything, they were going against type.

This is so politically obtuse that makes me wonder what in the hell these people are really worried about. It occurs to me that they are seeing something much more devastating in their numbers than just losing the Hispanic vote of the future. It seems they must be afraid of losing the white working class. Assuming they are behaving rationally (which is assuming a lot) the only logical reason they could have for ginning up all this racial animosity is if they feel the need to secure their base with the old tried and true racial resentment. If they were secure there, they could afford to be magnanimous toward Sotomayor in a situation that makes no substantial change in policy.

Of course, it could also just be that they are a bunch of sexist, racist bastards themselves and just can't stand the idea of a woman of Puerto Rican extraction being in power. With these people it's usually a good idea to apply Occam's Razor and call it a day.

Even just putting aside other Hispanic groups and just looking at Puerto Ricans-- and forgetting about big city votes that always go Democratic in NYC, Chicago, Philly, Newark and Hartford where so many Puerto Ricans have been concentrated traditionally-- the GOP is endangering 6 of their own candidates in Florida (where Puerto Rican voters put Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas over the top in 2008 and where they could pose a significant threat this year for birther Bill Posey, for doddering relic Bill Young, and for whomever runs for Adam Putnam's old seat and against Kathy Castor), 2 in Pennsylvania (Charlie Dent and whomever they get to run for Jim Gerlach's seat) and Frank LoBiondo in New Jersey. Surveys of non-Puerto Rican Hispanics show that they aren't terribly pleased with the Republican Party jihad against Sotomayor either and it isn't going to help Republicans reclaim lost seats in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada and could jeopardize Republicans in almost every region of the country. McCain has been wrong about almost everything but he wasn't wrong yesterday when he told the CNN audience that “I am of the belief that unless we reverse the trend of Hispanic voter registration, we have a very, very deep hole that we’ve got to come out of." Not wrong-- just too late... and still digging it deeper and deeper. Even radical right sociopath Pat Toomey acknowledges Sotomayor is a qualified and mainstream nominee, implying that McCain is nothing but a partisan hack.

Lamar Alexander Abandons GOP Obstructionists-- Will Vote To Confirm Sotomayor

Some felt it was remarkable that conservative Lindsey Graham (R-SC) voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Once Specter did his little fence jump though, it was inevitable. The Judiciary Committee rule says that at least one Republican has to vote "yes" on a nominee in order for the committee to send a recommendation to the full Senate. (This may have something to do with why not one single judge nominated by Obama has been confirmed so far.) Anyway, the Republicans secretly agreed internally that they had to put on a big anti-Sotomayor show for the drooling racist savages in their base but that they couldn't afford to actually block the nomination without risking sustained, perhaps even fatal damage at the polls. So someone on the committee had to take the political risk. The seven Republicans on the committee are all very right-wing: Jeff Sessions, the KKK member from Alabama, Orrin Hatch (UT), Chuck Grassley (IA), Jon Kyl (AZ), Graham, John Cornyn (TX) and Tom Coburn (OK). It was always a question of whether it would be Hatch, Grassley or Graham who would provide the one vote to let the nomination move forward.

Grassley begged out citing a tough re-election bid in 2010, and Hatch pointed out that his state's party has been taken over by teabagging radicals who have been replacing conservatives with extremists-- last year Chis Cannon was dumped for far right lunatic fringe Jason Chaffetz and this year Hatch's colleague Bob Bennett is facing political extermination at the hands of wingnut Mark Shurtleff. That left Graham who won't have to face the voters again until 2014.

But then today, just as the most conservative (and aisle-crossing) Democrat in the Senate, corporate shill Ben Nelson (NE) announced he might not vote for confirmation, up steps the first member of the Republican Senate Leadership Team, Conference Chair Lamar Alexander (TN) to announce that he's supporting confirmation. “I will vote to confirm her because she is well-qualified by experience, temperament, character and intellect to serve as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court,” he said, also pointing out that her “political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendment rights.”

Aside from Nelson there are a number of Democratic senators who have proven they have no backbone, particularly when it comes to standing up to the NRA, which is vigorously opposing Sotomayor. Worst among the Democratic cowards is Mark Begich, a freshman from Alaska, who has proven a terrible disappointment to the progressives who helped him narrowly defeat Ted Stevens last year.

Many eyes are now focused on John McCain-- who also faces the voters next year. The radical right kooks at the Moonie Times are demanding in an editorial today that he oppose confirmation. But as the somewhat savvier Hill pointed out this morning, McCain has been hiding out and ducking the issue-- and with good political reason: he's scared to move in either direction.

Somewhere, in his new life as a political hermit, Sen. John McCain must be grinding his teeth. Facing a primary challenge from the right in his campaign for reelection, McCain (R-Ariz.) has gone from spending nearly a decade as a hyper-exposed, perennial presidential candidate to being someone you can only find on Twitter.

But with a tough decision to make any day now, McCain will reluctantly do what he has avoided for so long: make news. This will happen when McCain announces his vote for or against the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Either choice will be surprising-- risk losing votes in a primary by supporting her, or risk losing votes in the general by alienating Hispanic voters in a purpling state where the Hispanic population is double the national average. President Barack Obama’s selection of Sotomayor was exactly the kind of complication McCain really didn’t need.

McCain’s attempt to woo Arizona Republicans is challenged by his maverick identity and long history of bucking his party. A founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has announced his candidacy and criticized McCain for “reckless bailout spending” (he voted last fall for the Troubled Asset Relief Program) and a record of “opting to hold our nation’s border security hostage to his amnesty schemes.” So while McCain has spent time blasting Obama’s energy reform plans, his reaction to the election in Iran and his policies that have grown deficits and debt, he hasn’t spent much time keeping that promise he made on election night 2008: to “do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.” Most notable is the absence of the bipartisan dealmaker in the midst of the brutal battle over healthcare reform.

Two of McCain's trusted gay pals, Lindsey Graham and Charlie Crist, have taken different positions on the Sotomayor nomination. With Graham voting yes, Crist-- under pressure from right-wing fanatic Marco Rubio-- has taken the gamble that Florida Latinos won't care that he's opposing the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court. "Perhaps," speculates The Hill, "McCain is consulting with both Graham and Crist. We will learn soon-- likely by Tweet rather than a press conference-- which friend McCain is going to disagree with."

As of today 6 Republicans (not counting Arlen Specter)-- Olympia Snowe (ME), Susan Collins (ME), Dick Lugar (IN), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mel Martinez (FL) and Lamar Alexander (TN)-- have pledged to vote for confirmation. Many of the lunatic fringe extremists have already declared they will oppose confirmation, including the other 6 Judiciary Committee members, Jim DeMint, Jim Bunning (KY), Jim Inhofe (OK), Miss McConnell (KY), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Thad Cochran (MS), Richard Burr (NC), Mike Johanns (NE), Sam Brownback (KS), Pat Roberts (KS), Bill Bennett (UT), Jim Risch (ID), Mike Crapo (ID), and of course, Richard Shelby (AL). Reactionary Democrats who play footsy with GOP interests who have not announced one way or the other-- aside from Begich and Nelson-- include Blanche Lincoln (AR), Mark Pryor (AR), Evan Bayh (IN), Tom Carper (DE), Max Baucus (apparently too busy thinking about how to wreck health care reform for his corporate donors to have even thought about the historic Supreme Court nomination), and Michael Bennet (CO). This afternoon, for example, 2 putative Democrats, both far right of the mainstream, voted for another obstructionist anti-Obama bill, this one offered by right-wing fanatic David Diapers Vitter. Who were the 2 miscreants-- Nelson, of course... and Blanche Lincoln, who apparently enjoyed the Blue America TV ads and is asking for more.

Today's Hotline guesses that Judd Gregg (NH), McCain, Kit Bond (MO), George Voinovich (OH), and John Ensign (NV) are the most likely to join the growing Republicans-for-Sotomayor Club and brave the overwrought hysteria of the Republican Party fringe. Ensign, though, they rate as "a longshot."

[T]he beleaguered Ensign has a little more than three years to rehabilitate his reputation before his re-election bid. Where to start: his conservative base, or the 25%-and-growing Hispanic population of his home state?

UPDATE: Amazing-- A Democratic Senator, More Or Less, Announces His Support For His President's Nominee

Break out the champagne! Looks like someone had a talk with that shithead Baucus. I guess killing health care is all he'll do for the Republicans this month.

PARTY SWITCHERS-- MEDIA TWISTS REALITY

Don't be afraid; you can click on it

It's big news-- the media can never get enough of it-- when Democrats, especially rich Jews and somewhat hysterical (if not deranged) Hillary partisans, declare they're voting for McCain. A few days ago the McCain campaign had suckered the Hill into trumpeting its claims that they had lured a rich Jewish Hillary supporter from-- extra points-- South Florida onto the Double Talk Express. Two minutes worth of googling proved the McCain catch, Stephen Muss, was actually a Rudy Giuliani supporter who, as a developer, has been giving lots of money on both sides of the aisle, including to such right-wing all-stars as Ted Stevens, Conrad Burns, Slade Gorton, Rudy Boschwitz, Robert Bennett, and Frank Wolf. He maxed out in donations to Giuliani this cycle.

The story died with a whimper but today the media was back with another confused, unfortunate Hillary partisan, Debra Bartoshevich from Wisconsin whose understanding of what Hillary Clinton was all about was so shallow to nonexistent that she has decided to vote for John McCain. A friend of mine was at the Republican state convention in Texas this week. He mentioned that there were more than one delegate who just couldn't stomach John McCain. One delegate from Houston, Gregory Banville, was a Ron Paul supporter but plans on voting for Bob Barr. He doesn't think McCain has a chance. Oh, wait; he does think McCain has a chance-- "I don't see how he has a chance at all unless people vote only because they don't like black people."

Now I know nothing at all about Ms. Bartoshevich, except that she was an elected Hillary delegate (since stripped of her delegateship, the same way Joe Lieberman was) to the Democratic convention, and, for all I know she could be the glaring exception to this, but every Democrat I've met so far who claims to be voting for McCain, is a stinking racist. Many are desperately looking for an excuse to vote against Obama that is unrelated to race so that they can look at themselves in the mirror without noticing how repulsively ugly they are. But, like I said, for all I know, Ms. Bartoshevich could be an Ethiopian Jew. Offering no evidence, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claims "she’s not alone in refusing to support Barack Obama."

In an interview, Bartoshevich expressed lingering unhappiness over the Democratic nominating process, said Clinton was treated unfairly by the party and said she has deep reservations about Obama’s lack of experience and his judgment.

“I’m kind of disenfranchised,” she said.

She said she planned to vote for Clinton at the convention, but in an Obama-McCain matchup in November, “I will not be voting for Obama. I will cast my vote for John McCain.

“I just feel you need to have somebody who has experience with foreign matters.”

She said a series of controversial Obama associations, including but not limited to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Chicago developer Tony Rezko, reflected poorly on his judgment. And she echoed the complaints of many of Clinton’s most ardent supporters that Clinton was treated unfairly in the nominating process and by the party.

“No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her-- that’s by Susan B. Anthony,” said Bartoshevich, referring to the suffragist.

Bartoshevich called herself a “devoted Democrat” who had never voted for a Republican for president.

“I’m on a lot of the (pro-Clinton) blogs, and so many people, male and female, feel the same way as I do,” said Bartoshevich, who was listed as a Racine County co-chair for the Clinton campaign and who traveled outside Wisconsin to volunteer for Clinton. “The Democrats jumped on this wagon of Barack Obama, and nobody really knows him.”

Hoping to tap into discontent among Clinton supporters, the McCain campaign is reaching out to them in a variety of ways, including a telephone “town hall” meeting today targeted to non-Republican voters.

And it isn't only McCain's campaign that is swooping in on the overwrought and/or racist Democrats. I mentioned a few weeks ago that a friend's mother and her entire canasta game have decided to revel in their unconscious racism-- each will tell you she "always helps them" and "some of my best friends are"...-- by switching from avidly feminist, pro-choice Democrats to... John McCain, a long-time sexist pig and misogynist. Anyway, her son-- my friend-- sent me a "private e-mail" that seeks to monetize (i.e.- rip off) the foolish ex-Hillary supporters now flirting with McCain. The e-mail:

Hi All: I wanted to update you on what we are doing. In the next few days, you will be ask to donate money. This money will be used to file a lawsuit in Federal court to get a [sic] injunction barring the DNP from making Obama their nominee. I have been in touch with a [sic] attorney who is a PHD [sic], and I am waiting on his reply. It is his belief that under the laws that was in effect at the time of Obama birth, he is a "naturalized citizen", not a "natural born citizen" was is required by law to be president of the United States. Also I am talking to a person about the "whitey tape" and I maybe able to buy them. So once again you may be asked to donate money. We are not sitting around, blogging all day and doing nothing but complaining, like all the other web site are doing, we are attacking and we continue to use all weapon at our disposal. Thanks all. Ed Hale

Hale may be a scoundrel and a shyster but he's smart enough to target a really dumb segment of the population for victimization.

In a democracy, we protect the right of even a moron to participate. And no one can tell the media how to cover a story. Well, you can; but they're not obliged to pay any attention. Nor will they. But... there is a very respected polling firm, Diageo that just published some data that flies in the face of the media spin. Not only is Obama viewed far more favorably than McCain by voters and not only do 68% of Democratic primary voters say they are satisfied with Obama as their candidate (as opposed to 30% who are not), but-- and here's what the media seems hell-bent on missing-- only 52% of Republican primary voters say they are satisfied with him as their party's nominee while a whopping 45% say they are not). Odd how all the stories in the media are about disgruntled Democrats, when there are so many more disgruntled Republicans.

Yesterday The Moderate Voice has a more interesting story for the media-- all the outspoken African American conservative abandoning McCain to vote for Obama. No takers? OK, I didn't think so. I'm going back to The Great Debate-- McCain vs McCain:



An afterthought: Yesterday's Washington Post had a story by Juliet Eiperin about how McCain is refusing to return the money from, Clayton Williams, his rape-lovin' fundraiser. After all, $300,000 is a lot of money to the cash-strapped McCain campaign. He did, however cancel a fundraiser with the rape guy in his Midland, Texas home tomorrow. The party was canceled after the Post and ABC News "questioned what the senator thought of Williams' remarks that women should give in while being raped. 'As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it,' he said during his unsuccessful bid for governor against the late Ann Richards." He also said (while campaigning against Richards) that he would "'head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt' like a cow on his ranch." Welcome, ladies; this is what you're getting into bed with... so to speak.