Paul Ryan Ready For Real People? Probably Not... But Tampa Should Be Fine

After having banned most Republican stars from the Tampa convention stage-- from Palin, Bachmann, New and Santorum to Ron Paul, who's retiring and practically begged Romney twice for a chance to say good-bye-- the Romney campaign announced yesterday that Chris Christie will give the keynote and that Marco Rubio will introduce Mitt. A Koch brother is a delegate and will mingle with his subjects. This is shaping up to be a real snoozefest-- although Tampa health officials are bracing for a possible outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases.

Prostitution in the Tampa Bay area is expected to increase during the Republican National Convention. But will that lead to the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases?

We asked that question of a county health official, a high-end escort, and an academic expert. The answer is complicated.

..."Mary" isn't taking any chances. The high-end escort from Tampa has a plan.
Before she even meets her clients, she has a good idea of who they are.

"I want to talk to these people. I want to know who I'm seeing, why I'm seeing them," she says.

But what a simple screening doesn't reveal is whether they have a sexually transmitted disease-- a risk factor that is not lost on Mary. 

"There is no safe sex, there's safer sex, I mean you can get sick from drinking after someone, let alone kissing them!”

It's a job hazard that has her taking steps to keep herself safe. 

"I get tested. And a lot of my girlfriends do too," she says.

But long before it even gets to that point, she protects herself. 

"Condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, female condoms, male condoms, dental dams, condoms…what else? Condoms," she says.

Back to that question-- do political conventions lead to the spread of STDs?

Researcher Scott Cunningham, a professor at Baylor University, says the risk seems to depend on the type of prostitute sought and who is seeking them.

"It would be like saying there is such thing as a car, and you treat the car market as if there is just one thing," he says.

First of all, clients at the RNC may be different than at an event like the Super Bowl.

"That's where the public health question becomes a little bit more complicated,” he says, “if you are bringing in a lot of young men who are drinking a lot to a sports event, I think you have more reason to think they might be transmitters of STDs.”

He says that’s because these men are more likely to contact higher risk prostitutes-- women who may take on more clients and be less likely to use protection.

Through his research, Cunningham has found that the clients at political conventions tend to be older men who are more likely to hire high-end escorts.

And Tampa's 50 strip clubs are expecting a bonanza from Republican delegates, who, the club owners say, drop three times more cash on hookers and booze, etc than Democrats do.

“The average was $150 for Republicans and $50 for Democrats.”

As further evidence of the clubs’ nonpartisan appeal, Don Kleinhans, the owner of the 2001 Odyssey, said when the Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group, came to town years ago, business was rollicking.

“We had phenomenal numbers all weekend, and they walked in wearing badges and name tags and weren’t shy at all,” he said.

There's even a Sarah Palin impersonator, Lisa Ann (from the popular porn flic, Who's Nailin' Paylin?), appearing at a top strip club, Thee Dollhouse on August 24 and 25. And the gigantic Republican closet case contingent-- from relatively open gays like Lindsay Graham, David Dreier and Aaron Schock, to deeply closeted freaks like Patrick McHenry and Trent Franks. Words of wisdom from Republican pedophile and former Florida Congressman Mark Foley:



But political junkies are much more interested in knowing what went on behind the scenes in Romney's terrible running-mate choice than what goes under between the sheets between hypocritical Family Values Republicans. For example, the NY Post reported that keynoter Christie could have had the VP nomination... if he was only willing to resign as governor. That doesn't ring true but Joe Hallett 's analysis/Op Ed in Sunday's Columbus Dispatch about how Portman lost the nomination does. Hallett, the dean of Ohio political writers, thinks Romney may have blown the election by passing over Portman for the more controversial Ryan.

[I]n bypassing Portman for Ryan, the Republican presidential candidate made a big mistake. Paul Ryan doesn’t get Mitt Romney anything he already won’t get.

Portman, after all, made so much more sense as the GOP veep candidate. He could have been announced during Romney’s bus tour through Ohio this week.

It appears, though, that Romney kowtowed to his party’s far-right flank, selecting Ryan to appease the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and the ultra-right-but-rarely-right William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. They pulled hammies last week doing cheerleading jumps for Ryan.

Romney, they opined, needs an uncompromising advocate for conservative principles such as Ryan to consolidate the GOP’s base and present an economic vision totally different from President Barack Obama’s. Never mind, they argued, that Obama would use Ryan’s draconian budget proposal to scare seniors-- he would do that whether or not Ryan was on the ticket.

Rest assured now that Obama will tie Romney to the budget Ryan proposed as House Budget Committee chairman, including unpopular cuts to Medicare, and try to demagogue his way to a second term.

Memo to Journal editors and Kristol: Romney doesn’t need a far-right running mate to consolidate the base. The base is consolidated. It is fired up. Obama does that for Romney. Get out of NYC and D.C., come to Ohio, and see for yourselves.

...Portman is not Mr. Excitement, but he exudes a warmness and competence that would have allured presidential-election voters. After evaluating his congressional experience and White House service under both Presidents Bush, voters would have felt comforted knowing that Portman is a No. 2 ready to be No. 1. Ryan doesn’t inspire that confidence.

The last time Ohio had a vice presidential candidate was in 1944. Republican Gov. John W. Bricker helped Thomas Dewey carry the state against Franklin D. Roosevelt by a 0.37 percentage point. Romney just might become president if Portman were to do that for him. Instead, Romney might have blown his best chance to win the most crucial state in the election.

Romney just made becoming president harder for himself.

Cornyn Still Stumbling Around Blindly, Groping For Beltway Relevance As He Prepares To Watch Ohio Turn Bluer

Peek-a-boo

John Cornyn has been taking time out from his job as one of the Senate's slimiest obstructionists and from his mighty efforts on turning the recession into a full blown Depression, to play the Inside-the-Beltway p.r. game in his role as head of the NRSC. And he had an eye-popping success today in The Hill: Republicans staking early claim in 2010 Senate cycle. I wondered what it meant and actually decided to read it, it being a slight re-write of an NRSC press release The Hill was kind enough to reprint for them.

Following two cycles in which the party found itself perpetually on defense, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is giving early indications it intends to lambaste Democrats in a much more aggressive fashion in the 2010 cycle.

Observers say the NRSC is taking an early stand against several incumbent Democrats much earlier than it has in 2006 and 2008, following a model set by their Democratic counterparts that aims to create a constant refrain to hammer opponents.

The committee, headed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), has already taken an aggressive line against three newly appointed senators and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). And they promise more Democrats will find their way into the crosshairs.

Hold the presses! Why isn't this on the front page of the NY Times? (Or even on the front page of The Hill?) Maybe because the writer, Reid Wilson, was also reporting some real Senate-related news: that early polls show Ohio voters are going to reward Cornyn's ridiculous p.r. efforts with a Democratic win in Ohio, replacing George Voinovich not with NRSC top recruit Rob "George Bush's guy" Portman, but with a Democrat, any Democrat.

And, reflecting how voters feel about GOP obstructionism led by reactionaries like Cornyn, DeMint, McConnell, McCain, Coburn, and Vitter, is isn't even close.

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) sport early leads over ex-Rep. Rob Portman (R) and state Auditor Mary Taylor (R), according to the survey conducted by Quinnipiac University.

Fisher, a former attorney general and unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1998, bests Portman, the former director of President Bush’s Office of Management and Budget, by a 42 percent to 27 percent margin. Fisher leads Taylor by a 41 percent to 27 percent margin, in both cases sporting early leads among independent voters.

Brunner, who held the spotlight as secretary of state in the run-up to the 2008 election, leads Portman by a smaller 38 percent to 28 percent margin, and leads Taylor with 38 percent to the Republican's 26 percent.

Those margins should spell trouble for Republicans, says Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown.

"If Ohio is the indicator of what's going on in America, this is a very Democratic country," Brown said. "If Republicans can't get back into the game in Ohio, then they can't get back into the game nationally."

Can't get back in the game? With shills like Broder and Kudlow and Hannity pumping the GOP cause 24/7. With the "new look" of the NRC? You put on CNN and you get the idea that the Republicans are the dominant party; they're certainly the dominant party on that network, on Fox and on that subversive morning show MSNBC broadcasts-- not to mention all over Hate Talk Radio. Could it be that the American people have wised up about what's really in their best interests? Even with the all out attack from the GOP and their media shills Obama's disapproval rating (19%) is about the same as Bush's final approval rating! And Obama's job approval this week: still 66%.

So Senator Cornyn can stomp around making bizarre claims with Michael Steele about how they're going to win seats all over the country, but the fact is, the GOP is likely to lose red-held seats not just in Ohio, but in Missouri, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and will be fighting for their lives in rightist Deep South bastions like North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana and possibly even in places like South Carolina, Arizona, Iowa and Alaska.

Another Republican Senator Calls It Quits After Helping Bush Bring The Country To Its Knees-- Who Will Replace Voinovich?

Although George Voinovich had been elected a state representative and, in 1978, Ohio's Lt. Governor, his debut on the national scene didn't really come until he resigned as Lt. Governor after one year to run against-- and beat-- Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich. Later, after a disastrous run for the U.S. Senate in 1988, Voinovich was elected Governor of Ohio. My own awareness of him came because of the tremendous support (both as mayor and governor), to the tune of $65 million, he offered the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Since 1999 he has been a U.S. Senator and, at least in the beginning, was one of the Republicans most willing to vote with the Democrats on behalf of working families. (Right wing fanatics still haven't forgiven him.) And you may recall that he broke with the far right by refusing to back Bush's choice of extremist sociopath John Bolton as UN ambassador.

Today Voinovich announced that he would retire from the Senate after finishing his second term in 2010. Demographic and political trends, as well as recent polls, showed that he would probably lose a bid for a third term. His excuse for skipping out on the job?

"I have never seen the country in such perilous circumstances.  Not since the Great Depression and the Second World War have we been confronted with such challenges, as a nation and as a world," Voinovich said. "I must devote my full time, energy and focus to the job I was elected to do, the job in front of me, which seeking a third term-- with the money-raising and campaigning that it would require-- would not allow me to do."

OK... I hope some of his GOP colleagues come to identical conclusions, particularly obstructionist extremists like Jim DeMint (R-SC), David Diapers Vitter (LA), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Tom Coburn (R-OK). But what's on everyone's mind now is who's going to be Ohio's next U.S. Senator?

There are four likely Republicans eyeing the seat: Bush's spectacularly failed Director of the Office of Management and Budget (as well as inept U.S. Trade Representative), ex-Congressman Rob Portman; John Kasich, another former Republican congressman, although he had been gearing up to run a hopeless campaign for governor; defeated ex-Senator Mike DeWine; and former vote-stealin' Secretary of State, the much-loathed Ken Blackwell. Four complete losers. The Democratic Party's most likely nominee is Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, although popular Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who did a decent job cleaning up after Blackwell, is also a top contender. There are also four members of Congress considering the race, 2 progressives (Betty Sutton and Mary Kaptur), a moderate (Tim Ryan) and a reactionary whose voting record looks suspiciously Republican (Zack Space). And what about Paul Hackett? [UPDATE: Paul's not interested, according to a mutual friend.]


UPDATE: SENATE "LEADERSHIP" BACKTRACKS ON BURRIS... AGAIN

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois senior senator and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin said in a Monday statement that the Senate would accept the credentials of Roland Burris. He should be sworn in later this week. I wonder if Reid is embarrassed. Even Oklahoma kook Jim Inhofe likes Burris! They wound up having dinner at the Monocle and afterwards Inhofe said “I was very much impressed with him. From my little, meager research, I thought, ‘This guy looks like Senate material’.”

And you know that Florida Senate seat Mel Martinez is giving up in 2010? The one Jeb isn't running for? It looks like Rep Kendrick Meek will be announcing his candidacy tomorrow.