How Do Crackpot Republicans At The NRSC See The Senate Races Unfolding? -- A Non-Confidential Memo

lesser evil

All-- not some-- of the public polling show the Republicans losing the Senate in November. The newest Marist poll of Arizona voters, for example, was released yesterday by NBC News. First time candidate, Democrat Mark Kelly, is eviscerating incumbent Republican Martha McSally 53-41%-- in a traditional Republican state that Trump won 1,021,154 (49.5%) to 936,250 (45.4%) in 2016 and where Republican Doug Ducey beat Democrat David Garcia in the 2018 guberatorial election-- in the middle of the "blue wave"-- 1,330,863 (56.0%) to 994,341 (41.8%).

In Michigan, where Republicans said they could knock off unimpressive backbencher Gary Peters, a new poll by SSRS, out yesterday from CNN, their candidate, John James falls flat with 38% to Peters' 54%.

The most current poll from North Carolina, Change Research's battlegrounds survey for CNBC, shows mediocre and unimpressive Democrat, Cal Cunningham, besting equally mediocre and unimpressive Republican Thom Tillis 49-42%.

Even in a state as Trumpist as Montana-- he beat Hillary there 279,240 (56.2%) to 177,709 (35.7%)-- the most recent Senate poll shows Democrat Steve Bullock ousting Republican Steve Daines 46-44%.




On average, Democrats are ahead in Senate battlegrounds Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Colorado and Michigan and competitive in Georgia and maybe even in Alabama. But on Sunday McConnell's NRSC chairman, Senator Todd Young (IN) and executive director Kevin McLaughlin released a boneheaded memo to the press asserting the GOP still has a pathway to keeping their majority. It wasn't really written for the media. It was written for fat-cat GOP donors, like Stephen Schwartzman of Blackstone who just gave a McConnell-controlled PAC a $10 million check, to persuade them to keep giving. The memo is filled with ridiculous propaganda that challenges the credulity of the authors to anyone other than someone desperately hoping to be convinced. The media recognizes it as fantasy and wishful thinking. Fat-cat GOP donors don't. Enjoy:

With just 100 days until Election Day, conventional wisdom is that the Senate Majority is the Democrats’ to lose.

And judging by any commonly accepted metric-- fundraising, spending, generic ballot, right track/wrong track, etc.-- one can see why.

From 30,000 feet, things look pretty bleak.


But, as Lee Corso says, “Not so fast.”


There are currently eight Senate races that are within the margin of error.
Candidly, considering all that is going on, that is nothing short of a miracle for Republicans.

We are in, arguably, the most unsettled environment since the 1960s. Our country is facing a once in a century global pandemic. Democrats held a partisan impeachment trial and have outspent Republicans by more than $60 million in Senate races-- cycle to date-- and by significant margins in every single targeted race. People have been locked in their houses for months, schools are toying with not opening in the fall and protestors and looters have taken over many of our major American cities.

Yet, despite it all, Republicans have proven remarkably resilient and remain well positioned to hold their Senate majority.

How could that be?


Republicans have one distinct advantage: Democrats.

[This is true... but so is the converse: the Democrats have one distinct advantage: Republicans and this year the Republicans are more fucked up than the Democrats.]

Voters despise the policies championed by today’s Democrat party. Suburban voters in key battleground states loathe the Green New Deal. When asked about specific aspects of the program 78% of voters oppose the Green New Deal, and 62% oppose it strongly.

They reject calls to defund the police. Over 60% of voters in North Carolina and over 70% in Georgia oppose defunding the police. Even in Colorado nearly 60% of voters think Democrats are out to lunch on this issue.

They have no interest in forgiving everyone’s student loan debt and 54% of voters oppose efforts to make college tuition-free.

And they aren’t ready to take a risk on ethically challenged, untested Democrat candidates (we’re looking at you John Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock, Sara Gideon and Mark Kelly) whose mere presence in Washington will enable Chuck Schumer and the Squad [an idea that exists only in the minds of Fox brainwashed Republicans] to realize their dream of turning the United States into a socialist dystopia. [Sounds familiar?]

If I were a Democrat, and the road to the Senate Majority hinged on wins in Kansas, Georgia, Montana, and Iowa, I would not feel too good about it.

But, as my six-year-old daughter says, “you do you, boo.”

SIDE BAR: It’s worth noting that Maine, despite Democrats throwing everything-- including the kitchen sink and multi-million-dollar slush funds at it-- is not among those eight margin races previously referenced. The fact that Susan Collins is leading outside the margin of error is a testament not only to her deep, personal relationship with Mainers, but also to voters’ reluctance to take a flyer on a weak, untested, ethically challenged candidate like Sara Gideon. This race, however, will remain close to the end in spite of Gideon, not because of her.

I’m not going to call Senate Democrats hypocrites, but for a group of folks who claim they want to get money out of politics, they sure do raise and spend a lot of money on politics. Democrats have spent over $180 million in key Senate races, cycle to date. They’ve also reserved another $220 million between now and election day. Allegedly ‘anti-money in politics Democrats’ will end up spending north of a half billion dollars on Senate races alone. Yahtzee!!

Unfortunately for Democrats, they have a fatal flaw, and all the money on earth can’t make up for it. It is the one thing voters crave the most, and Democrats don’t have it. In a word, it’s: authenticity.

Campaign finance reform is a perfect example. Every Democrat candidate is running on it. They each claim to hate dark money. Yet every single one benefits from it...A LOT of it.

The NRSC has been doing all we can to close the money gap, consistently outraising the DSCC and laying down the largest IE buy in committee history. We have started spending earlier and more aggressively than ever, and we enter the final stretch with more lead on the target than the DSCC.

And while Democrat challengers are printing money it seems few, if any, people are paying attention to one, fairly significant, data point: cash on hand. After all, you can raise all the money you want, but if you aren’t banking any of it, what good is it? Anyone who does take the time to look would see that-- with only one quarter of fundraising left-- many Republican Senate candidates actually have a cash-on-hand advantage over their Democrat opponents going into the final 100 days.

For the first 17 months of the cycle, Democrats largely had the airwaves to themselves. That all changed when the NRSC went up in June, and it certainly will not be the case for the next 100 days.

And where we are spending, it is working. [Remember I mentioned "fantasy" above?]

In Arizona, the more voters get to know the real Mark Kelly, the less they like him. We have been informing Arizonans about Kelly’s close, personal, financial relationship with China, and his image has eroded by 12 points in just seven weeks. Additionally, China is the number one issue voters recall about him (38%).

In Colorado, John Hickenlooper’s net favorability rating has plummeted by 20 points since he entered the race. Hickenlooper’s image is now underwater in the Denver suburbs, at 42% favorable and 45% unfavorable, and when you ask what issue or action people most associate with Hickenlooper, far and away the number one answer is “dishonest and corrupt.”

Things are just as bad for Sara Gideon, whose image has also cratered by 20 points and she is now decidedly underwater with independents. Focus group respondents consider her “weak,” “naïve,” and “unprepared,” and Gideon is also struggling with the revelation that she covered up for an alleged sexual predator for her own political gain. A whopping 67% of independents are less likely to vote for Gideon after learning of her cover up, with 54% much less likely. But, hey, at least she rearranged the chairs!

In North Carolina, Thom Tillis has already been outspent by $18 million to date with much more coming. His opponent, Cal Cunningham, started this cycle largely undefined but we are already working our magic to fix that. We’re up with ads hitting Cal for his coziness with the far-left, and we’ve already seen his net favorability drop in a short period of time. This race will not be easy, and Tillis has ground to make up, but Tillis has already shown he’s ready for this fight and his record of leadership is a stark contrast to Cunningham’s habit of hiding in Chuck Schumer’s basement.

Finally, it would appear Iowans aren’t fans of people who evict mom and pop businesses for personal financial gain or support Nancy Pelosi’s death tax. Unfortunately for Theresa Greenfield, she loves both. Iowans have responded in kind and her negatives have gone up 21 points, and it is only July!

Between a favorable map and $200 million spent cycle to date, Democrats have always had a numbers advantage in the battle for the Senate majority.

Despite that, and an incredibly favorable environment, the race for the Senate majority is still dead even.

That is a testament to the strength of our candidates.

Beating incumbents is hard. In fact, Democrats have only beaten three GOP incumbent Senators in the last three election cycles.

They will need to beat at least that many to win in November.


All in, more than $500 million will be spent on Senate campaigns alone in the next 100 days.

There is a ton of uncertainty right now, but the one thing we can guarantee is that the world will look a heck of a lot different on November 3rd than it does today.

Republicans are well-positioned to defy conventional wisdom and hold our Senate majority.

I hope the Republicans lose their Senate majority. I hope McConnell, Gardner, McSally, Ernst, Tillis, Perdue, Collins, Daines, Sullivan, Graham, Loeffler, Cornyn and the rest off them all lose their seats. But there is only one Democrat I'm cheering for because of what she is offering as an alternative. That Democrat is Paula Jean Swearengin who is running to replace Trump enabler Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia. The DSCC is ignoring that race entirely. Capito has raised $4,443,824, most of it legalistic bribery, while Paula Jean has raised $592,933. There is no outside spending in the race at all. The DSCC and 2 groups it pretends not to control-- End Citizens United and the Senate Majority PAC-- have already spent over $4 million against Susan Collins, over $8 million against Joni Ernst, about $3.7 million against Cory Gardner, almost a million against Martha McSally, and over $1.5 million against Daines. But not even enough for a poll in West Virginia. Speaking to Cathy Kunkel, a House candidate in the state, over the weekend, she noted that Republicans who have spent the last 3 years defining themselves by their support for Trump, as her opponent, Alex Mooney has and as Capito has, may be in for a rude awakening. "Here in West Virginia-- as around the country-- voters are not impressed by Trump's handling of the pandemic," she told me. "Running on Trump's coattails is not the strategy it was 4 years ago." If you want to help a long shot candidate in a state the Democrats are ignoring again, please click on the Blue America 2020 Senate thermometer above and contribute what you can to Paul Jean's campaign.

I Wonder If Pundits Predicting That The GOP Will Keep Control Of The Senate Factor In Schumer's Incompetence

As Trump's leader-less FEC prepared for Hurricane Dorian's landfall Saturday morning, Trump took time out of his busy schedule of golfing and not going to Poland to tweet about giving the wealthiest Americans another tax cut and to start fighting with his reality TV doppelgänger Omarosa, who he brought into the government and then fired:

He's very worried that another of his ex-employees is going to do a tell-all about what a psychopath he is too, Madeleine Westerhout, the one who was fired last week for getting drunk and telling reporters that Trump won't allow his daughter Tiffany in any photos with him because he thinks she's too fat. At least he won't have to worry about Jim Mattis directly attacking him. In an interview with CBS News, Mattis said "I will not speak ill of a sitting president. I’m not going to do it… He’s an unusual president, our president is."

Most Republicans in Congress know how to read polls and know how to read the pulse of the voters. And they know Trump is on his way out. Republicans are desperate to hold onto the Senate, at least so they can obstruct anything the next president, a Democrat-- with a Democratic House-- tries to accomplish. Yesterday, Carl Hulse wrote a piece for the NY Times, Both Parties See Control of the Senate as Pivotal, noting that "it is the rapidly intensifying struggle for control of the Senate that will determine how power is truly wielded in Washington come 2021... [Republicans] see maintaining control of the Senate as their last line of defense against the prospect of Democrats controlling both the House and the White House. Democrats... say that winning the White House only to have Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, remain in charge of the Senate would stifle any legislative effort to undo the effects of the Trump presidency." Who else has managed to screw up all three branches of government simultaneously as badly as #MoscowMitch?

The kind of convention wisdom Hulse is addicted to points directly to "strategists" for both parties and independent analysts currently giving Republicans a narrow edge in narrowly holding on to the Senate "given the small universe of highly competitive races. But the distinct possibility of wild cards adding to an already volatile atmosphere was underscored this week by the news that Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, will retire at the end of the year. His departure unexpectedly put another seat in play and gave Democrats a second pickup opportunity in a state they believe is trending increasingly blue.

Schumer's role in this play is to say "We have a decent shot. Republican incumbents and Donald Trump are far weaker in the challenger states than people realize.” Meanwhile, the Republicans screech "Socialists!!!" and pretend immensely popular progressive programs like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal are toxic. Todd Young (R-IN), the chairman of the NRSC fed Hulse the party line: “Every week Democrats offer up a different radical proposal that alienates mainstream voters in competitive states, so it’s best to let Democrats keep talking.

Hulse wrote that "Republicans in charge of the party’s overall Senate strategy say that the progressive agenda being embraced by leading Democratic presidential candidates and other prominent voices in the party-- Medicare for all, the Green New Deal, public benefits for undocumented immigrants-- is turning off the swing voters that Democrats will need to win Senate seats in places like Iowa and Arizona. Republicans are doing their best to brand Democrats as far out of the mainstream. The term socialist' will be a regular feature of Republican ads and speeches." The last time the GOP went crazy on their "socialists!!!" nonsense, the Democrats wound up with trouncing the GOP for around 2 decades.

In 1932 the brilliant Republicans decided their electoral strategy would be to call the Democrats "socialists," the year FDR defeated incumbent president, Herbet Hoover 57.4% to 39.7% with a 472-59 vote rout in the electoral college. (FDR lost 6 states-- Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Delaware). That same year, the Republicans lost 101 seats in the House and 12 in the Senate, flipping both bodies. Two years later, the Republicans were shrieking, "See? We warned you; they're nothing but a bunch of socialists." That was a good midterm for the Dems as the GOP shed another 14 seats in the House and 10 more in the Senate. Imagine-- just 25 Republicans left in the U.S. Senate. How sweet does that sound?

The GOP decided the best strategy to use to defeat Roosevelt in 1936 would be to show voters how horrible his socialist policies were. That didn't work out so well for them, as Alf Landon wound up losing every state but Maine and Vermont-- 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 523. The landslide was 60.8% to 36.5%. The Republicans somehow managed to lose another 15 seats in the House, which then had 334 Democrats to 88 Republicans. In the Senate, 5 more seats flipped red to blue. There were only 17 Republicans left to fight socialism.

In 1940, Roosevelt put an actual socialist, Henry Wallace, on the ticket as his running mate and managed another landslide-- 10 points in the popular vote and 449-82 in the electoral college. Having picked up some congressional seats in the 1938 midterms, the Republicans lost more in each House in 1940. Four years later, the GOP was certain their "socialism!!!" would finally work. It didn't. FDR was reelected to a 4th term with 432 electoral votes to Thomas Dewey's 99. And once again-- his coattails were strong: 20 more Dems in the House. The Senate remained at 58 Democrats to 37 Republicans.

Hulse pointed out that the Dems "need a net gain of three seats to assume Senate control if they win the White House and four if they do not since the vice president serves as the tiebreaker in a 50-50 Senate... Both sides agree that just a handful of seats are truly up for grabs at this point, limiting Democratic opportunities for the gains they want."

“They need to put another seat on the board or pull another rabbit out of their hat in Alabama and I’m not sure they can,” said Jennifer E. Duffy, who handicaps Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Her Alabama reference points to the fact that Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat, faces re-election there after an upset victory in 2017 over Roy S. Moore, a former judge who was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. Washington Republicans are determined to deny Mr. Moore a rematch. But other Republican candidates will be heavily favored in a very conservative state, making Mr. Jones the only seriously endangered Democratic incumbent at the moment. The party is defending a dozen seats compared with 23 for Republicans.

In contrast to 2018, Republicans otherwise will be almost entirely on defense in 2020 with Republican-held seats in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina considered by both parties to be the top targets; seats in Iowa and elsewhere could move on to the list as the campaigns there develop.

Republicans are now maniacally calling all Democrats socialists, even Democrats with voting records to the right of Republicans! Right now, far right Blue Dogs in the House, like Anthony Brindisi (NY), Joe Cunningham (SC), Jeff Van Drew (NJ) are consistently voting less progressively than Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Thomas Massie (KY) and John Katko (NY). Are they all socialists? Justin Amash, a former conservative Republican and today a conservative Independent, has racked up a lifetime voting record score of 32.72. These are the lifetime scores of a half dozen right-wing Democrats the brain-dead NRCC refers to as socialists:

• Jared Golden (ME)- 32.56
• Ben McAdams (UT)- 32.56
• Kendra Horn (OK)- 30.23
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)- 20.93
• Joe Cunningham (SC)- 20.93
• Jeff Van Drew (NJ)- 20.93

Meanwhile all of Schumer's handpicked candidates-- like Mark Kelly in Arizona, John Frackenlooper in Colorado, Sarah Riggs Amico in Georgia, Cal Cunningham in North Carolina, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa-- are pretty conservative and don't back any of the policies that are animating the Democratic base (with the exception of beating Trump). Hulse presented the DSCC talking point which is basically that "it is Republican candidates who are caught in a squeeze, trapped between independent and suburban Republicans uncomfortable with Mr. Trump and base voters who will brook no dissent when it comes to the president. Mr. Schumer noted that the same crosscurrents helped Democrats defeat the Republican senator Dean Heller in Nevada last year. 'As Dean Heller learned, when they embrace Trump, they lose the middle, and when they run away from Trump, they lose the base,' he said in an interview, describing what he sees as the quandary for Republican incumbents in contested states. Democrats say they see opportunity in the low poll numbers for embattled incumbents such as Senator Thom Tillis in North Carolina and Senator Susan Collins in Maine, who is facing the challenge of her political life after supporting the nomination of the Supreme Court justice Brett M. Kavanaugh as well as a tax bill that has proved unpopular with some in Maine. But Ms. Collins has shown in the past that she can overcome waves of discontent in her party and survive in a tough environment, similar to the way Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, has managed to defy the political odds in his state."

Hulse's hackishness really showed itself as he accepted his role as a stenographer instead of a reporter: "Democrats have struggled to land their preferred candidates in Georgia and Montana." Which Democrats? Many Democrats are over the moon that Teresa Tomlinson is running in Georgia, someone who may be a trifle too progressive and too independent-minded for Schumer, who prefers candidates like Mark Kelly who know exactly how to follow orders and not make waves. Hulse wrote, absurdly, that Frackenlooper's entry into the race is a good sign. He's been in the race for about a week and most Colorado Democrats say they want anyone but him-- including Colorado Democratic Party county chairs and, in private, the state party chair. And now Schumer is more hated in Colorado than Cory Gardner. Has Hulse been asleep all week? Does that NY Times need a more with it political reporter? All through his piece he insinuated that "Democrats" are delighted that Schumer's picks are running. Democrats everywhere are holding Schumer's endorsement against his picks.

So far, Blue America has endorsed Andrew Romanoff in Colorado and Maggie Toulouse Oliver in New Mexico, both of whom are being aggressively opposed by the corrupt DC Establishment Dems. We are in the midst of vetting several other are we're likely to be endorsing someone not named Greenfield in Iowa and someone someone not named Cunningham in North Carolina. If you'd like to contribute to Romanoff or Oliver, please click on the 2020 Blue America Senate thermometer above.

Who’s The Creepiest Old Man In The Senate?

After Republican child molester Roy Moore announced he would be running for the Alabama Senate seat again, appointed Senator Martha McSally of Arizona was quoted by Politico’s Burgess Everett saying “Give me a break! This place has enough creepy old men!” Was she wasn’t referring to Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and some of the other creepy old men in the Senate? No doubt— but this time the whole DC wing of the GOP is united against Roy Moore, the Alabama Republican ho has already proven he can win Republican primaries in his state— and not general elections. And speaking of McTurtle… he’s flipping out. If the Democrats can hold onto the Alabama seat, there’s a good chance McConnell won’t be majority leader in 2021— or ever again.

Alabama has a statewide PVI of R+14, one of the worst in the country. In 2016, Señor Trumpanzee beat Hillary there 1,318,255 (62.1%) to 729,547 (34.4%). And yet when Trumpanzee named Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions Attorney General, the voters of Alabama replaced him with Democrat Doug Jones instead of Moore— 673,896 (50.0%) to 651,972 (48.350. Trump campaigned vigorously for Moore but many Alabama voters saw it as one sex deviant supporting another sex deviant and just stayed away from the polls. The institutional Republican Party immediately pledged to do everything it could do to derail Moore’s primary bid this time. One possibility would be to dig up Jeff Sessions to run for his old seat again, although he has indicated he’s finished with politics after his acrimonious months as part of the Trump regime.

"There will be a lot of efforts made to ensure that we have a nominee other than him and one who can win in November,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “He’s already proven he can’t.”

Added Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “We’ll be opposing Roy Moore vigorously."

A Moore candidacy could harm Republicans’ national brand if he catches fire again, and incumbents running in purple states— like Gardner and McSally— are loath to find themselves tied to him. And facing a tougher 2020 map with several battleground seats in play, Republicans are eager to beat Jones and cushion their majority.

If Republicans do defeat Jones, that would require Democrats to pick up a minimum of four seats elsewhere to take the Senate. Alabama should be an easy pickup for Republicans, given the state’s bright red hue and Trump’s popularity, which is why Moore’s new run is causing such alarm in the GOP.

“You think it’s been divisive before? It gets really divisive on the other side,” Jones said of Moore’s Senate bid. Moore defeated former Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) in 2017 despite significant support from the party establishment.

…Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) and former Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville are already in the race, and Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) is considering it. But that crowded field could easily play to Moore’s advantage given his past popularity with the state’s most conservative voters. What's more, Moore also could conceivably win a general election with Trump atop the ticket, a nightmare for the Senate GOP that would then have to deal with a bomb-thrower in the caucus.

The president and his son, Donald Trump Jr., have already expressed their dissatisfaction with Moore’s run. Trump tweeted last month that Moore “cannot win,” and Trump Jr. tweeted Thursday that “Roy Moore is going against my father and he’s doing a disservice to all conservatives across the country in the process.”

“The people of Alabama rejected Roy Moore just a few months ago. And I don’t see that anything has changed,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Yet Moore has been unbowed by that criticism, seeking to run once against as an outsider against the establishment. Republicans largely pulled their support from his bid after the sexual misconduct allegations were reported by the Washington Post, leaving Moore adrift in a race that should have been an easy GOP hold.

On Thursday, Moore called out Young for opposing his candidacy and slammed both the NRSC and the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group that spent heavily against Moore in 2017. He accused the NRSC of running a “smear campaign” and bashed Shelby for doubting his viability.

“Why such a hatred and opposition to somebody running? Why does mere mention of my name cause people just to get up in arms in Washington, D.C.?" Moore said at a news conference Thursday.

That combative stance is leading some Republicans to suggest Trump may have to do more, because otherwise “we probably lose the seat,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

“I’m concerned,” Cornyn said. “If President Trump came out forcefully against him … that would certainly make it more likely that somebody else will get nominated.”

Yet Republicans are also wary of doing anything that could repeat the debacle of 2017, when support from Senate Republicans seemed to weigh on Strange and give Moore an opening in the primary. The Senate Leadership Fund is not yet vowing to spend in the race, waiting to see if his candidacy will fall apart on its own, and senators said they need to have a lighter touch this time around to stop Moore from succeed.

“We will do everything we can to stop him. But we need to be careful about that,” said one Republican senator. “We have to be more elegant.”

Not an NRSC strong suit. Moore is likely to run against the establishment. McConnell is an easy enemy even inside the GOP, where he’s hated everywhere. Moore: "I think there was so much opposition because they don't want the truth in Washington. I think they want to continue the status quo." That’s a message that resonates among Alabama Republicans, who could easily be offended by DC politicians telling them who their nominee will be.

Inside the Beltway Fail: Handpicked Candidates Melting Down

I got a funny e-mail yesterday-- unintentionally funny-- from a friend who works at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The subject line had a glaring typo: "DSCC Fail: Handpicked candidates melting down  coast-to-coast." I couldn't imagine what snark it could be and hurried to open it. I mean, where they about to announce they had made a grievous error in recruiting Cal Cunningham and then pushing his candidacy against the far more popular Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall? Menendez? That would be a first. Or maybe they were ready to announce what a terrible mistake they had made in jumping into the Pennsylvania primary on behalf of "ex"-Republican Arlen Specter? Not likely. Really not likely!

That's when I realized it was a typo and he meant to push out a story about the other anti-grassroots Inside-the-Beltway shitheads' backing of wrong candidates-- John Cornyn's NRSC. They're the ones picking the candidates their grassroots hate. OK, all true... but it really is about how badly both Beltway party establishments absolutely blow chunks and are, by their very nature, always at odds with real Americans, regardless of ideology.

The TPM post is all about how the NRSC's recruitments of establishment hacks are being rejected by GOP activists in the states-- just the way North Carolina Democrats are telling the DSCC to go back where they come from and take Cal with 'em. By now everyone knows about how Charlie Crist's only chance to win a Senate seat would be to run as a Democrat because unless someone has a picture of Marco Rubio tickling a bunch of teenage boys, he's the Republican nominee. And the chances of Rubio's tickling pictures coming before the public before entire scrapbooks of Crist tickle and snorkel sessions, is pretty unlikely. And Crist isn't the only NRSC endorsee being rejected by teabaggers and Republican voters. Carly Fiorina is a total dud and she'll be lucky if she comes in second in the primary. Dan Coats (IN), Jane Norton (CO), Trey Grayson (KY), Rob Simmons (CT) Sue Lowden (NV), and Kelly Ayotte (NH) are also NRSC picks who are having trouble back in their own states-- not to mention incumbents John McCain (AZ) and Bob Bennett (UT).

And, unlike the Democrats where no one ever stands up to the Stalinist party leaders, the Republicans have an effect anti-Establishment rallying point: South Carolina extremist Jim DeMint (SC). His Senate Conservatives Fund has taken the lead to blatantly challenge Cornyn's candidates in California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania.

"The rules have changed and the political ground has shifted under the feet of the establishment and they are still trying to get their footing," Mike Connolly of the conservative Club for Growth told me in an interview today. The group was backing outsider candidates before it was cool, encouraging contested primaries by running Pat Toomey (R-PA) against Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.
In many cases, DeMint's candidates seem to be prevailing. For example, Rubio has won more than two dozen Florida straw polls over Crist, who is being targeted in part for supporting President Obama's stimulus plan last year.

The current TPM Poll Average of this race shows Rubio with 56.9% and Crist with 28.5%.
Last weekend Colorado Republican Jane Norton-- dubbed the mainstream candidate by conservatives-- lost a straw poll to Ken Buck... Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), a top recruit to run for the seat Sen. Evan Bayh is vacating, came in last in a very small straw poll conducted by a tea party group backing the candidate who prevailed, State Sen. Marlin Stutzman.

The party which best responds to its grassroots is probably the party that will chalk up the most victories in November. And it's something the Republicans are at least talking about. Menendez and his crew of idiots are prepared to preside over a half dozen Martha Coakleys before they ever realize something needs to be addressed. I haven't found conservative Democrats Pat Caddell (yeah, the Fox guy) and Doug Schoen particularly worth paying much attention to over the years, but Thursday they worked on an article together for the Washington Post about how dismal its looking for Democratic prospects in November. Why? Because Democratic insiders think they know what's best and they're ignoring Democratic voters.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November... [T]he battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.

Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats' current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.

Predictably Caddell and Schoen are then off and running about how the public wants whatever Fox tells them to want because, of course, that's exactly what Caddell and Schoen want. But the grain of truth in their self-serving anti-Democratic Party rumbling is that no one does want the crap health care bill-- other than Big Pharma-- Obama and the Senate are pushing through. It has good aspects, but the bill as a whole is too flawed for the Democrat's pathetically dismal message machine to turn it into a winning platform for anyone-- and that includes Democrats outside the Beltway!

Alan Grayson's Public Option bill is gaining tremendous momentum. It might not get any more bipartisan support than Obama's and the Senate's horrendous bill, but at least Democrats and independents will love it. When we first mentioned it, there were 10 co-sponsors. Last I counted there were over 60-- and growing: Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Donna Edwards, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carol Shea-Porter, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia Fudge, Danny Davis, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, Rush Holt, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Tammy Baldwin, Mike Doyle, Diana DeGette, Steve Cohen, Bennie Thompson, Andre Carson, Yvette Clarke, Steve Israel, James Moran, Emanuel Cleaver, Judy Chu, Donald Payne, and John Garamendi.

If you missed Grayson's floor speech when he introduced the bill Tuesday, here it is again. Unlike most of his colleagues, he speaks for ordinary American working families.

Jim DeMint Bucks GOP Establishment, Endorses Rubio Over Crist In Florida Senate Contest

This made DeMint's head explode... on so many levels

When the GOP was hysterical that they would lose the open Florida Senate seat they pressured Governor Charlie Crist to run, popular despite being a regularly outed closet case. Crist agreed to do it if he was guaranteed that he would have all the Republican Establishment support. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the chair and vice chair of the NRSC, jumped at the deal. The NRSC endorsed Crist out of the box, despite the fact that Crist has been far more supportive of Obama's agenda than any Republican in the Senate and despite the fact that the other Republican in the race, Marco Rubio, is a knee-jerk obstructionist and lemming-like right-wing fanatic (not unlike Cornyn himself).

The two highest profile closet queens in the Senate, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hopped right on board, as did retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez and former Florida Senator Connie Mack. Cornyn came through with his personal endorsement, as he had promised he would, and then a slew of GOP insiders, led by John McCain (R-AZ) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) started signing on. The Florida Republican Party is on board but Michael Steele has been too savaged by the party's extremist wing to get into the fight so the RNC is staying neutral.

Rubio has been less successful in getting any big name Republicans to get behind him, although many secretly would rather see him in the Senate than the undependable and scandal-prone Crist. Rubio managed to rope in religious right lunatic Mike Huckabee, as expected, and Jeb Bush's jailbird son, Jebby, Jr, also gave him the thumbs up.

Then today Rubio had some great news. Congress' most extreme member, South Carolina lunatic fringe senator, Jim DeMint, declared for Rubio. DeMint also has a PAC which only endorses candidates with strictly neo-fascist policy agendas. Aside from Rubio the only other endorsees this year are Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Tom Coburn in Oklahoma.

[T]he fight over the Florida Senate race is a proxy battle over the future direction of the Republican Party. The battle pits conservatives pushing candidates who adhere strictly to conservative values even if they face a bigger risk of ultimately losing against more moderate candidates who may stray from the party’s bedrock principles but give the GOP better hope in the general election.

Meanwhile, the Republican Establishment has successfully pressured another right-wing extremist, Missouri's former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, to back off her threat to primary the Insider fave, crooked Congressman Roy Blunt. Steelman will probably run for the House seat Blunt is giving up. Or maybe not. Now Steelman, best know as the Show Me State's worst political opportunist, claims that Aaron Blake, the Hill reporter who interviewed her and announced she wouldn't primary Blunt, got it wrong.

"I don't think Mr. Blake understood what I was trying to say. I said I didn't want to be destructive and immediately he thought I was saying I didn't want to be in a primary because he assumed like all the insiders do, that all primaries are destructive. The Republican establishment thinks primaries are destructive. I don't believe primaries are destructive because they provide a healthy debate about ideas such as fiscal responsibility, ethanol mandates and government bailouts. However, the Republican establishment wants to hold on to power at all costs and a primary would force the establishment to admit they made mistakes and take responsibility. Anyone who challenges those ideas threatens their power and they view it as destructive to the party. I want to be constructive and build a bigger and better party based on good ideas. I mentioned 'other outsiders' who may want to run because I don't presume to be the only one who can carry that message. However, I do believe that the messenger in order to be credible cannot be a part of the Washington establishment who lead us into the minority."

After that obvious bitchslap at Blunt she signed off with the new Dave Matthews hit, Funny The Way It Is

Jeb Bush, Jr. vs The Republican Establishment-- A Stalking Horse For Jebby, Sr?

John Ellis Bush, AKA- Jeb, Jr., is the criminal family's next hope for a political power grab. Although he's already been in trouble with the law for substance abuse, public sex acts with a teenage girl. and resisting arrest, if you read Russ Baker's book, Family of Secrets, you know that the Bush's make their takeover plans years and even decades in advance. Jebby Jr's string of missteps-- his effusive endorsement of Giuliani just as that campaign proven to be the dud of the presidential cycle and his arrests in Tallahassee and Austin-- are unlikely to have any more impact on his career as his infamous uncle's tragic life had on his ability to pull the wool of the voters' eyes.

The Bush family, particularly the Florida branch, detests Crist, not because he's gay or a hypocrite but because his entire record as governor has been premised on undoing all the damage Jeb, Sr. did while he was governor. Early this morning Marco Rubio, the anti-Crist, let me know about his endorsement by Jebby The Younger:

Miami's New Times is reporting it-- and Mike Huckabee's endorsement-- in more detail. There's plenty of speculation that Jeb, Jr. is a prelude to Jeb, Sr.'s endorsement, something that could well make Rubio, from the Limbaugh-Cheney-Rove faction of the GOP, competitive with Crist, who is favored by the Republican Establishment as the only Republican who could hold the open seat for Team Red. Jebby, Jr:

My choice was a simple one: Marco Rubio represents the best in what our Party should strive to be and who it must engage-- he is young, conservative, and believes in the principles of our Founding Fathers, that individual freedom and liberty are what makes our country great and always will.

Marco Rubio is a candidate who can help to bring our Party back on track by reaching out to our youth, entrepreneurs, Hispanics and those who believe that if you work hard enough, anything you dream can be achieved.  With Marco, we have a great opportunity to elect a true conservative and a greater obligation to elect a man of principle.

But John Cornyn (R-TX), head of the NRSC, is sticking with his controversial endorsement of the closeted gay governor, despite intensifying pressure from the party's nutroots and a primary race that is increasingly trending away from Crist and towards Rubio. A GOP propaganda outlet quotes Cornyn, between shoveling forkfuls of bacon and pancakes into his face, explaining why the NRSC won't budge on Crist:

"Getting the right candidate is 90% of the game... Gov. Crist is the strongest candidate that will enable us to hold the seat,” Cornyn told me, “Marco Rubio...[has] a bright future ahead of him, but right now the Mason Dixon poll shows Crist beating him in a primary by 53% to 18%.”  By nominating Crist, Cornyn believes, “we won’t have to spend precious resources in Florida” to retain the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (who has also endorsed Crist).

It is a different story in Pennsylvania, however, where conservative former Rep. Pat Toomey is so far the lone major candidate for nomination to the seat of Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (who Toomey came within two percentage points of denying nomination in the ’04 primary).

Would the NRSC give its early backing to Toomey, I asked?  Cornyn replied, “That primary is still forming and there are other people looking at the race.”  To endorse Toomey now, he believes, “would be premature.”  (Sources close to the NRSC say that the more moderate Rep. Jim Gerlach has been sending out feelers about switching from the three-candidate primary for governor to the Senate race).

Cornyn will never back down on Crist now matter what kind of hysterics the base gets into. As for Pennsylvania, I think he'll have no choice but to back far righter loser Toomey after Gerlach declares he is switching from the gubernatorial contest-- but to the Lt Governor's race.

Charlie Crist's Bright Shiny Object

Ex-GOP operative Jason Wetherington admitted having sex with Crist

Is the fight between the far right plus nutroots extremists and the Establishment Republicans of the NRSC and the Florida Republican Party over the Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio Senate nomination just a ruse to keep the media from talking about Crist's closet problem? With the release of Outrage, which exposes Crist's hypocrisy on gay issues while he himself was seducing young gay men, it was important to the GOP to point the media in another direction-- any other direction.

So Republican extremists and John Cornyn's NRSC are engaged in a noisy, very flashy topless mud wrestling match about who's further to the right, the Republican Governor who Inside the Beltway Repugs felt is their only shot of holding onto the Florida Senate seat, or the fanatic Bush-clone ex-Speaker of Florida's lower house who's stuck with a job.

Before Crist agreed to jump into the Senate race, he demanded that the Florida Republican Party and the NRSC back him and do their best to discourage a primary. Mainstream conservatives in Florida are delighted with Crist and smell victory but the extremists are apoplectic because, as governor, he's veered away from the kind of obstructionism irresponsible members of Congress and Hate Talk radio hosts can easily get away with. The nutroots campaign is calling on the far right of the GOP to stop donating to the NRSC until they withdraw their Crist endorsement. Michael Steele and the NRC have already declared neutrality.

Although polls show that Crist would win a general election and that Rubio would be soundly defeated, inside the crazed little GOP whites only pup tent, Rubio is starting to make ferocious headway-- even before playing the gay hypocrite card against Crist. Yesterday an editorial in the Tallahassee Democrat summed up why Crist's support inside the Republican Party has started evaporating. There is, for one thing, a genuine dislike for the Inside-the-Beltway Establishment trying to dictate to local Republicans.

Take Gov. Charlie Crist's announcement last week that he was seeking the Senate seat being vacated by fellow Republican Mel Martinez. Within hours, the Republican establishment in Washington-- desperate to save its dwindling number of Senate seats-- threw its support behind him.

That puts Crist in position to reap tons of campaign cash, tap into the party's other resources and improve his chances for victory.

The only problem is that former GOP Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio is also running. While Rubio has given no indication of pulling out, it's doubtful other Republicans will jump in.

The more candidates in a race-- and the more level the playing field-- the better.

A large field ignites the strong debates necessary for a healthy democracy to thrive, especially with the serious problems the country is facing. Strong-arm tactics to freeze out candidates are a disservice to voters and the cause of good government, and increase public cynicism.

Ironically, the national GOP's decision to back Crist could cause blow-back.

Many Republicans dislike Crist's moderate policies and may flock to Rubio, who is billing himself as the true conservative.

That could make for the tough primary that Republican leaders in Washington want to avoid, but give GOP voters what they should have:

A wide-open contest with the best candidate winning.

Sounds lovely but this is one fairy tale with only one winner: the Democrats. On the other hand, it is keeping the media's mind off Crist's closet and away from Crist's ex-honey, Jason Wetherington, whose Facebook page lists Michelle Obama, Howard Dean, Alex Sink and Robert Wexler as his favorite political figures. On the other hand there have always been and will always be people who deny men-we-know have sex with each other-- or who manage to find ways to punish them when it just cannot be denied. It's always awful when these "people," the deniers and punishers, are, like Crist, gay themselves-- and looking to protect their own asses by screwing someone else's. That's ugly. And that's why Charlie Crist is a Republican and why he doesn't deserve to be a public servant.

Ironically, the Republican Party can't even get any credit in the diversity arena from Crist's LGBT status, just denunciations of his hypocrisy. The GOP got beaten up in today's Miami Herald for being out of touch with Florida's demographic changes.

At a time when the Florida electorate is growing increasingly diverse, the Republican party is gearing up to field an all-male, all-white slate in 2010.

...The Republican front-runners for statewide office include Gov. Charlie Crist for Senate, Attorney General Bill McCollum for governor, Senate President Jeff Atwater for chief financial officer and U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam for agriculture commissioner. Putnam is the only one of the GOP candidates under 50 years old.

It's hilarious that the Herald, well aware that Crist is a closeted homosexual, refuses to mention it in a story about diversity-- any more than they'd mention that Adam Putnam is red-headed or a millionaire. And yet Florida is one of the "gayest" states in America. Not counting closet cases, like Crist, Florida has the second biggest gay population in the country, 609,219 (4.6%), less gay than California (5.2%) but gayer than New York (4.2%). Miami-Dade has the biggest percentage of gay people of any consolidated metropolitan area in the country (4.7%), even bigger than the San Francisco Bay area, and both Tampa and Orlando are among the two-dozen gayest metro areas in the U.S. Asked about the potential lack of diversity in the Republican slate, Crist said, ''I think people ought to elect whoever they want.'' Of the Republican party in Florida, he said, "Well, I love it. It looks like it's doing incredibly well to me.''

Meanwhile Republicans are desperate to drive Marco Rubio out of the Senate race and they think by persuading him to run for Lt. Gov. under McCollum they can kill two birds with one stone-- make the ticket look less lilly white and give the old (gay) white guy a clear shot at the Senate seat without a bloody, divisive primary. One Republican operative, Ana Navarro, whose job is to lure Hispanics into voting for the GOP, thinks Republicans will regain the political momentum in Florida. ''The next election is not going to be about change,'' said Navarro, who has already written McCollum a check. "This is going to be about experience and qualifications, given the dire economic straits that Florida is in right now. It's going to be about policy, not personality.''

Will Cheney Help Bury The Republican Party In The 2010 Midterms?

As though the GOP doesn't have enough problems to face going into the 2010 midterm election cycle-- primarily a perception among moderate voters that they caused the country's problems and that now they are mindless, partisan obstructionists, coupled with high level retirements in blue-trending (and not so blue-trending) states and an inability to recruit competitive first tier candidates-- the most detested figure in American politics has now inserted himself, front and center, into the campaign.

Pollsters may debate whether Cheney has a higher public approval rating than Paris Hilton or not, but in the shriveled and shrunken Republican Party he's still considered a respectable figure. Always looking to promote ratings-friendly food fights, the media has shamelessly propped him up. A few days ago, the beleaguered chair of the NRSC, Texas Know Nothing John Cornyn, said he'd be "proud to appear with the vice president, anywhere, anytime.” Not even anywhere in Texas would be a good idea and for many Republican candidates the idea of campaigning with Cheney is anathema. McCain refused to allow him out of his cage bunker during the 2008 campaign and many non-Southern Republicans wish he was still locked away somewhere.

Even a high profile right-wing Mormon, Utah Senator Robert Bennett, facing a serious primary from an even more extreme winger, has indicated that he doesn't want Cheney coming around Utah during campaign season. Utah! (That's almost as lame as Oklahoma.)

Asked whether he’d like Cheney to campaign with him, Utah Sen. Robert Bennett-- who faces a primary challenge in 2010-- said: “The most powerful national politician in Utah is Mitt Romney, and he’s already come to Utah to campaign for me. And I think I’ll leave it at that.”

Bennett isn't the only Republican who doesn't want to be identified with the unpopular ex-vice president who most Americans see as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. Even radical obstructionist Richard Burr, a complete Cheney clone, isn't eager to see Cheney coming to North Carolina to lend a hand. And, petrified, neither Florida's Charlie Crist, Ohio's Bush Regime leftover, Rob Portman, nor Lisa Murkowski (AK) would go on the record when asked if they'd like having Cheney campaign with them or not.

In Florida, Marco Rubio, who almost makes Cheney look mainstream by comparison, is eager to have the ex-VP come help him out against his popular closeted gay opponent. KKK supporter Johnny Isakson (GA) as well as John Thune (SD) and Tom Coburn (OK) also feel they would benefit from some joint appearances with Cheney in their states. McCain, who just reminded a writer that Cheney's position on torture is basically advocating a war crime and comapared it to the Spanish Inquisition, still doesn't want Cheney campaigning for him. Not that Cheney would. Cheney hates McCain with a passion and is far more likely to support Chris Simcox, founder of one of the Minutemen terrorist groups, who is challenging McCain for the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona next year.

Interesting rumor: when someone asked right-wing ex-football player Mike Minter, who we reported was mulling over a run against popular freshman Larry Kissell, whether he was interested in having Cheney come down to North Carolina to campaign for him, he said he'd pretty much decided not to run after all but that he would have been proud to campaign with Cheney. We also asked a Paul Ryan (R-WI) staffer if the congressman would invite the former vice president to Kenosha, Racine or even Janesville and the string of expletives was so intense that I wish I had had my recorder on! Anyway I hope someone asks Cheney enablers like Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), David Dreier (R-CA), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Peter King (R-NY). They all rubber stamped the Cheney agenda that landed us in trouble. They should all appear onstage in their home districts with Cheney around their necks.




h/t: Glenn Greenwald

Rightist Bloggers Crying About Cornyn & The NRSC Again

First deranged Georgia extremist Erick Erickson started a Facebook page called Not one penny to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and started sending out anti GOP messages:

First they supported Chafee.

Then they supported Specter.

Now they support Crist.

I pledge to give no money, no support, no aid, and no help at all to the efforts of the NRSC.

There are scores of messages from angry and disallusioned Republicans threatening to join millions of normal Americans in dropping their GOP registrations. Then Erickson teamed up with another lunatic fringe wingnut, John Hawkins to send a petition to Cornyn demanding he rescind the NRSC's endorsement of the Republican Party's one outreach to a gay candidate. And when they got on a conference call with him yesterday he refused to respond to any political questions, pissing them off even more. Maybe that's why Erickson sent me this today:

Subject: Charlie Crist admits he'll be just like Arlen Specter

Florida media is reporting that, having taking [sic] the "no tax" pledge from American for Tax Reform last week, Governor Crist will not use his veto pen to stop the Florida Legislature from raising taxes to balance the state's budget.

More troubling, Governor Crist himself said yesterday that were he in the United States Senate, he would have voted with Arlen Specter to support Barack Obama's +$1 trillion stimulus bill.

Senator Mel Martinez voted against the bill.  Crist's Republican primary challenger, Marco Rubio, also opposed the stimulus.

Nonetheless, Senator John Cornyn, the NRSC, and the Senate Republican leadership have lined up behind the tax hiking, Obama supporting Florida Governor.

Call John Cornyn at 202-224-2934 and ask him if his endorsement of Charlie Crist is an admission the GOP should stand for nothing in order to win.

It sure seems that way.

Erick

On top of all that this video is driving the nutroots crazy crazier:



I wish them all the success in the world-- and was delighted that they managed to scare off the Republican Party of Florida from continuing to back Crist and that they attack him at every opportunity-- and we should all do everything we can to make sure Marco Rubio is the GOP candidate for the Florida Senate seat, something that would make all the wingers happy as clams-- until the inevitable Election Day vote count. Rubio is widely viewed as unelectable to any statewide office, although it is the very self-righteous extremism which so turns off mainstream voters that gets the lunatic fringe wet in their panties.


UPDATE: Erick The Red's Newst Attack On The NRSC

Maybe he expected something different from the NRSC? I mean the "R" stands for Republicans. This is what they do. Or have you been sleepwalking?

Subject: What is the NRSC hiding?

Yesterday, I ambled over to John Cornyn’s page on Facebook and wrote on his wall.

I told him, very politely, that I was disappointed in the NRSC endorsement of Crist. At a time when Senator Cornyn says we can capitalize on the anxiety people have about spending and deficits, it undermines his goal by endorsing a man who supports the spending and deficits and also says he’d vote for Obama’s stimulus.

Senator Cornyn responded that given a recent third party poll showing Crist at 54% and Rubio at 18%, Crist is the candidate who can hold the seat and the NRSC wanted to go on and support him.

I responded that there were more than 365 days before the election, Crist was elected statewide with high name identification, and Rubio has 365 + days to show people that Crist would support the policies that are increasingly unpopular in Florida.

I tell you this all here because you cannot now go to John Cornyn’s page at Facebook to see the exchange.

Whoever runs the page for him has deleted it.

That's a shame.

Erick

The influential and extremist GOP fringe group, Club For Greed jumped into the Florida controversy opposing Cornyn (again). The shady group's fanatic president, defeated member of Congress Chris Chocola, went on the attack against fellow Republican Charlie Crist. “Charlie Crist has shown he’s willing to say one thing and do another,” he said, in reference to Crist signing off on a budget to rescue Florida's devastated economy. The bill included a cigarette tax hike and was presented to him by a Republican state Senate and a Republican House. “Voters," Chocola continued, "deserve to know just how far he'll go for the sake of political expediency.” Chocola supports far right extremist Marco Rubio. Rubio is also being supported-- although not publicly-- by dangerous right-wing fanatics, the Diaz-Balart brothers, former Cuban terrorists currently representing two Miami Dade districts in Congress.

And the bloodletting between Crist and "Jeb Bush's personal hand-puppet" is spilling over into the rest of the Florida electoral battles. Many are not happy with the far right's gubernatorial candidate, ex-Congressman (and Bill Clinton inquisitor) Bill McCollum.

This is just what the Republican Party needs-- fresh blood, a young buck, a visionary whippersnapper.

Enter Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a man never shy about resisting the burdens of charisma, who has proclaimed his desire to succeed Gov. Charlie Crist.

In an announcement that had all the thrilling excitement of a novena, McCollum, who will be 66 come election day next year, launched his gubernatorial bid surrounded by more middle-aged white men than the Gasparilla Krewe.

The aging Howdy Doody of Florida politics has held this strange sway over the state Republicans. For McCollum it is always his "turn" at bat, pursuing nominations for higher office as if it was a matter of sub-tropical Manifest Destiny.

Back in the 2000 U.S. Senate race, Tom Gallagher, an infinitely better candidate with superb retail stump skills, was pressured to step aside by Gov. Jeb Bush and other party leaders to make room for then U.S. Rep. McCollum. At the time, it was felt McCollum had earned the right to run against Bill Nelson based on his leading role in the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

That's not a political campaign. It's awarding a nomination as if it was a Miss Congeniality contest. So McCollum won his party's sash and now Bill Nelson is in his second term as Florida's senior U.S. senator. Say, that was some keen political strategizing.

Now Florida's Republican mandarins are once more lining up like Apollo Creed's entourage in Rocky behind the Urkel of Tallahassee's quest for the governor's mansion.

Just how pulse-challenged is McCollum? His presumptive Democratic opponent is Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who also has never been confused with Charo when it came to an effervescent presence on the hustings. Yet, compared to McCollum, Sink is now being touted in some circles as a veritable Margaret Thatcher meets Cher of the 2010 gubernatorial contest.

McCollum has been marketed as a steady, experienced candidate who has been repeatedly tested in the political arena, which is a nice way of saying this chap is extraordinarily skilled at giving concession speeches.

Still, if you are a Republican power broker sitting around the men's grill contemplating your goblet of 300-year-old Glennfidditch, no doubt McCollum's jib might well be to your liking - as jibs go. After all, throughout his political career McCollum has carved out a reputation as a highly partisan conservative Republican true believer.

So it had to leave some of the GOP purists standing behind McCollum choking on their Monte Cristos when the candidate suddenly started singing Kumbaya at his campaign announcement, albeit the Lawrence Welk version.

Doing his best impression of Mr. Rogers, McCollum noted he wanted everyone to be his neighbor, insisting he would reach across party lines and welcome bipartisan access and inclusion.

Of course when, according to several recent polls, only about 23 percent of the body politic regard themselves as Republican, one better give at least lip service to wanting to dance around the maypole with all manner of constituencies, unless one aspires to become less relevant than Katherine Harris.

Considering all the GOP smoking jackets slapping him on the back, McCollum's conversion to diversity did seem a bit odd. After all, when Gov. Charlie Crist starting palling around with less the than ideologically pure such as Democrats and independents, going so far as to heretically appear on a dais with the president of the United States in support of Barack Obama's stimulus package (Oh dear!), he was vilified by the Roundhead wing of the Republican Party as the Lord Haw-Haw of the Tallahassee's Apalachee Parkway.

Indeed, Crist was regarded as such a Republican apostate, when the popular governor announced his own intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, the keepers of the Republican Da Vinci code of conservatism promptly started pimping Jeb Bush's personal hand puppet, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, as a more worthy and dogmatically acceptable alternative.

Apparently news that the Republican gubernatorial primary was supposed to be more of an exclusive affair than a Skull and Bones smoker, didn't find its way to Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, who had been mulling over the race himself and whether Mrs. Bronson would let him go out and play. She didn't, and on Thursday he announced he won't run.

And thus the GOP apparently gets a clear primary pathway for a candidate whose prospects for election are at best problematic, while causing mischief in a Senate campaign where Crist is a virtual lock to win.

Perhaps this is what happens when the Republican brain trust regards 23 percent party identification as a mandate, rather than a product recall.

Republican Civil War-- Florida And Kentucky, Mostly Florida

Perhaps Florida Governor Charlie Crist, now the controversial NRSC pick for the Florida Republican Senate primary, should send Michael Steele a thank you card. The clownish head of the RNC, who's still allowed to talk but not allowed to spend money, bowed to pressure from the party's nutroots-- which has called for a financial boycott of the NRSC-- and told Meet the Press that he would not endorse Crist. I guess that fits nice and smoothly with Steele's homophobia.

I'm sure Crist considers himself better off not being endorsed by a walking, talking national punch-line. And it wouldn't surprise me if Rubio feels more comfortable with neutrality than with an endorsement of Steele. Interestingly, though, Steele wasn't the only high-profile Republican "leader" refusing to endorse another Republican yesterday. Although he wasn't invited onto any real TV shows this weekend, Mitch McConnell hissed his disapproval of poor beleaguered Jim Bunning on Fox News Sunday when he was asked, point blank, to endorse his fellow Kentucky Republican for re-election. (What a bitch!)

CHRIS WALLACE: Finally, your fellow Republican senator from the state of Kentucky, Jim Bunning , is mad at you, I think it’s fair to say. He says you don’t want him to seek re-election and that while you’ve given money to other GOP incumbents, you’ve stiffed him.

You can put this all to rest right now, Senator. I’m going to give you the opportunity. Do you endorse Jim Bunning for re-election?

MISS MCCONNELL: Well, what’s happening in Kentucky, obviously, is the race has not yet formed. Senator Bunning has encouraged someone to file an exploratory committee. There are now two exploratory committees. And there’s a Democratic primary on the other side. I think it’s safe to say the Kentucky Senate race is unfolding.

WALLACE: I didn’t hear an endorsement there. You usually endorse as the Senate...

MCCONNELL: Well, it’s -- it’s just not clear exactly who the players are going to be in Kentucky.

WALLACE: So you’re not endorsing him.

MCCONNELL: It’s not clear who the players are going to be yet.

WALLACE: I tried.

MCCONNELL: You did.

Now, back to Florida, where there's a lot more at stake than the cat fight over who's the real Republican, Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist. Another lunatic fringe Republican from the Rubio wing of the party, Bill McCollum, an ex-congressman who was widely considered the most corrupt legislator in Washington, is announcing his candidacy for governor today. Republican leaders are feigning excitement and even strong-arming other contenders out of the way so McCollum has no primary opponent.

But behind the scenes, and usually off the record, there are serious concerns in party circles that the party is putting too much stock in McCollum's chances against Democratic candidate Alex Sink, a charismatic former banker with Republican appeal who could be the state's first female governor.

Demographically, McCollum presents voters with everything that the Republican Party is struggling with these days, said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant based in Atlanta.

McCollum, who will be 65 in July, is an older white politician who could struggle to win over independent women, young voters and minorities, who make up key voting groups along the pivotal Interstate 4 corridor where so many Florida races are decided.

"He's not very exciting," said Johnson. "He's not your charismatic rising star. He's more of your solid party man."

And while he will campaign on his career as a public servant, at the same time it will be difficult for him to campaign against big government when he has been a part of government for most of the last 30 years, said Chris Ingram, a Republican campaign consultant based in Tampa... "If we nominate Bill McCollum, it's over," said Ingram.

Say goodnight, Gracie.