Primary Season Ends For Another Cycle

Christine O'Donnell must be missing student loans payments or mortgage payments again. She's threatening the Republican Party that she may run for the U.S. Senate again. Her successful primary challenge to popular mainstream Rep. Mike Castle in 2010 in universally thought to be the reason the GOP doesn't hold the Delaware Senate seat occupied by Chris Coons now. “I think I owe that to my supporters, to at least consider a run,” O’Donnell said in an interview last week. “People sacrificed. Not only came out of their comfort zone-- sacrificed to work hard in order to win the primary. And I think that I owe it to them to give it every consideration.” (She has also said she is available for a paying gig in a Romney Administration if he wins the November election.)

If Democrats are cheering, mainstream Republicans must be rolling their eyes at the thought. Primaries by right-wing extremists like O'Donnell have hurt the GOP in general elections, not so much in deep red states where the brain-dead citizens would vote for a lump of shit labeled "Republican"-- think Utah or Texas-- but in normal states. This primary cycle, for example, saw 15 congressional incumbents defeated-- 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats, although, to be fair, one of the Republicans, Bob Turner, was gerrymandered out of his district and then lost the GOP Senate primary.

All but 2 of the Democratic losses were incumbent vs incumbent matches-- Jason Altmire lost to Mark Critz in western Pennsylvania. Both are extremely reactionary right-wing Democrats who commonly vote with the GOP. In New Jersey moderate Steve Rothman lost to more progressive Bill Pascrell. In Ohio, quirky economic progressive/social conservative Marcy Kaptur beat progressive icon Dennis Kucinich, in a district that was drawn to predict those results. In Michigan under-funded progressive Hansen Clarke was beaten by ConservaDem Gary Peters and St. Louis political fixture Russ Carnahan, a moderate, was beaten by the more progressive William Lacy Clay in a 63% to 34% landslide. In the two districts where there were actual non-incumbent challengers, corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden was beaten by a more progressive Matt Cartwright, 57-43%, a stunning and rare upset. A few weeks later a similar primary battle in El Paso resulted in longtime Establishment Democrat Silvestre Reyes going down to defeat at the hands of popular young reformer, Beto O'Rourke, 50.5 to 44.4%. (Beto, pictured on the right, will be the Blue America live guest at Crooks and Liars tomorrow at 11am (PT, noon El Paso time.)

In Republicanville, there were 3 incumbent vs incumbent races. Florida Establishment shill John Mica swamped teabagger Sandy Adams, widely considered the stupidest Member of Congress (yes, dumber that Gohmert). He swamped her financially, spending $1,214,486 to her $451,281, and beat her 60-40%. The Republican Machine wiped out an annoying teabagger without much effort. In Illinois, the GOP Machine got behind freshman zombie Adam Kinzinger and helped him beat Don Manzullo, 56-44%, even though the redrawn 16th CD included 44% of Manzullo's constituents and 31% of Kinzinger's. Kinzinger spent $1,548,515 on the primary and Manzullo spent $1,257,113 but outside groups orchestrated, possibly illegally, by Eric Cantor and Aaron Schock (widely rumored to have a gay crush on Kinzinger) spent a great deal of money to defeat Manzullo. The third incumbent vs incumbent race pitted Dan Quayle's lunkhead son, Ben, a leadership lackey, against David Schweikert. Ben Quayle was never popular in the Arizona district and was remembered for having been an on-line pornographer (DirtyScottsdale.com/Brock Landers) before narrowly winning a wild primary against 10 other Republicans (outspending all his rivals combined). This year Schweikert spent $1,289,381 and Quayle spent $1,537,407. An Adelson-funded superPAC, Friends of the Majority, spent another $1,120,000 in negative ads against Schweikert. But Arizona voters were tired-- after just one term-- of being embarrassed by the clownish Quayle and he went down 53-47%.

Far more interesting were the 4 races where non-incumbents beat incumbents. The headliner, of course, was far right extremist Richard Mourdock beating Indiana GOP icon Richard Lugar with a stunning 60% of the vote. Lugar was viewed (disapprovingly) as a mainstream conservative when the GOP primary voters wanted someone more like... Christine O'Donnell. Mourdock spent $3,162,191 on the primary and Lugar spent $8,301,994. But outside spending, mostly from extremist groups, was tilted in Mourdock's favor. Club For Growth spent $947,991 in negative ads against Lugar and $517,810 in favor of Mourdock. The Koch brothers' FreedomWorks spent $341,503 against Lugar and another $330,129 in favor of Mourdock. Similarly the NRA spent over a quarter million dollars tearing down Lugar and approximately $638,000 bolstering Mourdock.

In the Tulsa, OK-area and Jacksonville, FL-area House races, unknown challengers came from nowhere to beat, respectively, John Sullivan and Cliff Stearns. Jim Bridenstine beat Sullivan, an extremist and drug addict, 54-46%. Sullivan spent $1,113,091 on the primary and Bridenstine spent $293,890. The PACs from opthamologists and anesthesiologists, who had felt dissed by Sullivan, spent around $100,000 against him and seem to have made the difference in the race. And in the case of the never-popular Mean Jean Schmidt, it was podiatrists who did her in. In fact, a podiatrist, Brad Wenstrup, beat her 49-43%, in a district east of Cincinnati. Wenstrup sent $357,260 and Mean Jean spent $657,489. The good government group, Campaign for Primary Accountability, spent $132,022 against Schmidt. (It's worth noting that they also spent $240,000 against Reyes, $130,875 against Hoden and $224,529 (some of it funneled by Cantor and Schock) against Manzullo.

Primary season is over and it's time to get serious about November. Normally this would be a time when we could safely say that there isn't a single congressional race anywhere in America where the GOP nominated someone better than the Democrats. That may not be the case this year. We're still investigating, but Republican rebel and libertarian may well turn out to be a less odious choice for voters than anti-Choice fanatic Steve Pestka in the Grand Rapids/Battle Creek area of south-central Michigan. We'll get back to you on that one.

Like Fathers... Like Sons-- Or Worse

John Sarbanes, a progressive 40-year-old, nose-to-the-grindstone Maryland Democratic congressman, is kind of the odd man out when it comes to congressional offspring. John represents a district, the 3rd, once represented by his father, Senator Paul Sarbanes. John an alum of Princeton and Harvard, is widely considered a serious, thoughtful, hardworking Rep., very different from most of the sons of a congressional parent. Yesterday a far more typically incompetent son of an already grotesquely incompetent former congressional dad-- Ben Quayle/Brock Landers-- gave his maiden speech on the House floor, before hitching a ride on Air Force 1 and accompanying the gracious man he called, in a distinctly reptilian manner, "the worst president in history" just a few months ago. Already tied for the 354th worst member of Congress, Quayle/Landers can boast a perfect zero score in every single category surveyed by Progressive Punch since he took the oath of office. There's no reason to believe he will ever go beyond the zero mark.

Of course Quayle/Landers and Sarbanes are hardly the only fortunate sons to have followed their father's footsteps into Congress. Rand Paul (R-KY) already disgraced his family name by pointing out that-- qualified after self-certifying himself as an eye doctor-- that right-wing terrorist Jared Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic, although his rambling "philosophy" sounds shockingly like the philosophy of the Paul Family. And, like the Pauls, he's even a fan of the lunatic fringe author Rand was named for, Ayn Rand.

Yesterday's L.A. Times pointed out that experts tend to agree "that several oft-repeated phrases and concepts-- his fixation on grammar conspiracies, currency and the "second United States Constitution"-- seem derived from concepts explored with regularity among elements of the far right. 'What you can see across the board in his writings is the idea that you can't trust the government-- that the government engages in mind control against its citizens,' said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has long monitored the radical right. Loughner's assertion that he would not 'pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver' is a running theme among right-wing opponents of the Federal Reserve system," and is the ultimate in the Paultardism shared by father and son.

Funny enough, it was a piece in the NY Times last week about how badly Andrew Cuomo is going wrong, that got me thinking about how political kids should not generally be encouraged to go into the family business. Mario Cuomo was never in Congress but he was an exceptional governor of New York. His son promises to be among the worst in the state's history, for working families and for the Democratic Party. And there's an endless list of godawful Democratic sons far worse than accomplished fathers-- Dan Boren (OK) and Mark Pryor (AR) especially stand out-- as well as some who are competing with already mediocre or awful parents, like Dan Lipinski (IL) and Kendrick Meek (FL), the first child to follow a congressional mother into the House. In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell points to the headstarts in the family business-- what he calls the "10,000 hour rule"-- that give offspring a headstart on mastering their parent's jobs.

In 1929 Paul John Kvale followed former Minnesota Congressman Ole Juulson Kvale into the House, a mention of which I stumbled across in a story I found in an old issue of Time Magazine, that was actually urging Minnesotans to elect another son of a Congressman, pro-Nazi fly-boy Charles Lindbergh. The story starts off on the right foot-- "primogeniture and hereditary public office have no place in U. S. tradition"-- and then almost immediately veers off into an ominous direction.

This fact, however, did not last week deter the voters of the 7th Minnesota District from electing by a two-to-one majority Paul John Kvale (pronounced "Ka-volley") of Benson to the Congressional seat for six years occupied by his father, the Rev. Ole John Kvale, whose charred body was last month found in his burned summer cottage (TIME, Sept. 23). Like his father whom he, the eldest of six sons, served as secretary in Washington, Son Kvale was chosen as a Farmer-Laborite and will be the sole representative of that party in the House. The new Congressman is an engaging young man, thoroughly Nordic in appearance, thoroughly accommodating in manner.

The Congressional District adjoining Son Kvale's in Minnesota might offer a spectacular opportunity for the perpetuation of another father & son tradition in U. S. politics. From that district came the late Congressman Charles Augustus Lindbergh, father of official No. 1 U. S. Hero. The late Congressman Lindbergh left his seat in 1917. Son Lindbergh then lacked ten years of the constitutional age (25) for House membership. Many have been the suggestions that Hero Lindbergh should now attempt to succeed to his father's old seat in Congress. Against these suggestions arise three mighty obstacles: 1) Col. Lindbergh lacks a Minnesota residence. 2) Short, smiling Harold Knutson who took the Lindbergh seat a dozen years ago is firmly entrenched in the Republican organization of the House where he serves Speaker Longworth as whip (chief aide-de-camp) and from which he has no desire to be dislodged even by Hero No. 1 of the U. S. 3) Lindbergh Sr. made his political reputation as a radical. Col. Lindbergh has comfortable, conservative political views, if any. Many another son has followed his father into high office. Only one President's son has become President (John Adams-- John Quincy Adams); only one President's grandson has become President (William Henry Harrison-- Benjamin Harrison). But two Senators' sons now sit in the Senate: Frederick Hale of Maine whose sire was the late great Eugene Hale (1836-1918) and Robert Marion La Follette of Wisconsin, the Peter Pannish offspring of sturdy "Battle Bob" (1855-1925). In the House today is found a rare grandfather-father-son tradition of service in the ancient and honorable family of Tucker from Virginia. Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) served in the 14th and 15th Congress. His chief distinction: a tirade and a vain vote in 1816 against increased pay for Congressmen which he refused to take himself. John Randolph Tucker (1823-1897) served from the 44th to the 50th Congress. Henry St. George Tucker, 76, is now serving his ninth noncontinuous Congressional term since 1889. His chief distinction: a tirade and a vote in 1927 against increased pay for Congressmen which, according to family tradition, he refuses to take himself.

Time had a different paragraph policy back then. I'm shocked they didn't mention any Frelinghuysens. Today Rodney P. Frelinghuysen represents New Jersey's wealthiest district (the 11th)-- second most affluent congressional district in the U.S.-- but starting in 1793, four Frelinghuysens represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate and Rodney's father, Peter Hood Ballantine Frelinghuysen, Jr., was elected to Congress in 1952 and served until his retirement in 1974. In 2000 Michael Moore tried to get a potted plant (a ficus) on the ballot as Frelinghuysen's opponent.

Recently Illinois voters were smart enough to reject the uber corrupt son of uber-corrupt former Congressman (and House Speaker) Denny Hastert. It looks like the fix is already in though to make Harry Reid's son a Member of Congress from Nevada's new aborning congressional district (in return for making Joe Heck's swing district more Republican-friendly). Probably the worst case of a son taking a House seat on his father's name is Dan Boren, a slow-witted and craven Blue Dog who represents eastern Oklahoma. His father, David Boren, was a popular governor and U.S. Senator (and closet case) and his grandfather, Lyle Boren, a far right anti-union kook, also represented the area. Presumably because the two of them were Democrats, the ultra-conservative Dan, has maintained pro-forma ties to that party, although he votes more frequently with the GOP and was George Bush's favorite Democrat.

Teabaggers Triumphant... Well, Depends How You Define Triumph

Today teabaggers are celebrating the way their boy Marco crushed Governor Charlie Crist in a straw poll last night in his own home county, Pinellas. Although Crist has lost every single straw poll in the state-- and by far worse margins than he did in Pinellas-- Pinellas is his home county and the media is blowing this up big. One prominent extreme right blogger tweeted last night, "Ladies & Gentlemen, first we drive Crist from this race, then we march to Utah and crush Bob Bennett."

So far the only electoral accomplishment of the teabagger movement has been to crush the GOP chance to win a congressional seat in a very red district, NY-23. But that isn't going to dampen their delusional enthusiasm for lemming-like self-destruction. Yesterday the always befuddled Dan Quayle got in a newspaper by endorsing a teabagger insurgent, Ovide Lamontagne, for the open New Hampshire Senate race in which the Republican Establishment has recruited one of their own, Kelly Ayotte. (Laura Ingraham is also backing Lamontagne, who she calls the "only true conservative" in the race, code for "crazed, sociopathic teabagger.")

A recent poll that showed teabagger candidates beating Republicans in 3 party races-- Democrats would win the seats but teabaggers will trump official GOP candidates-- has encouraged more teabaggers to forego Republican Party primaries and opt for third party runs. It's happening all over the country, and this week it happened in a seat the GOP felt certain they could pick up. Tennessee's eighth district is one of those few districts where McCain actually did better than Bush, racism probably playing an outsize factor. In 2004 Bush took 53% against Kerry, while last year McCain managed 56% against Obama, light skin or not. This mostly rural district in the far west of the state (minus Memphis) hasn't had a Republican Representative since just after the Civil War. Blue Dog John Tanner has been the congressman from the 8th since 1988, but he recently announced he would be retiring, it certainly looked like a prime GOP pickup. Tanner's career-long ProgressivePunch score on substantive votes, 55.25, is the lowest of any of the conservative Tennessee Blue Dogs-- and since Obama has become president it has sunk to a dismal 39.34. Aa victory for a Republican won't do any damage to any progressive legislation, since the aisle-crossing Tanner never supports any of it anyway.

But even that easy Republican victory is now in jeopardy as an angry Republican candidate, Donn Janes, bolts the GOP to run as a pure Teabagger.

“As of today, I am no longer going to run for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican,” Janes announced. “We need to change the way we elect our representatives. We continue to rely on the two-party system to provide us with different choices; but thanks to this corrupt system, there is little difference between the two of them. Both parties voted to increase the size of our government; both parties voted to trade your freedoms for security; and both parties are responsible for our monstrous debt, our failing economy and the exporting of our jobs overseas. I will be running as an independent Tea Party Candidate, a candidate who doesn’t answer to or work for party leadership, but a candidate who will work for the people of West Tennessee.”

When asked about what led to this decision, Mr. Janes stated that the National Republican Party continues to aggressively support candidates who lack depth on issues and conservative values, but instead focus on candidates who are able to self fund or raise large sums of money.

The GOP Establishment is supporting gospel singer Stephen Fincher, another far right kook, but not as far right and not as certifiably insane as Janes. There's also a millionaire doctor, Ron Kirkland, who just threw his hat into the fractured Republican race. Democrats are relieved and feel that if Janes stays in the race 'til the end, state Senator Roy Herron will easily keep the seat in the Democratic column.

Rachel Maddow, who pointed out last night that only a dozen or so sorry, frozen teabaggers showed up at the Detroit Tea Party yesterday, has been keeping track of the battle for dominance between grassroots teabaggers-- who I can attest are primarily motivated by racist rage-- and Republican Party operatives, motivated by purely partisan lust for power and patronage. Last week she summed up the purging instinct that has taken over the far right very well:



UPDATE: How Could I Forget The Confederate Sarah Palin?

South Carolina's most responsive-- and attractive-- political leader, Katherine Jenerette, sent us this post to emphasize how strongly an extremist teabagger like herself can absolutely crush-- that word again-- any pathetic Republican Establishment hack the party choses to field. Jenerette may be poohpoohed by the media, but she's every bit as compelling to the brainwashed Beck/Limbaugh masses as Marco Rubio is. And she's looking like a winner to replace Henry Brown in South Carolina's first congressional district-- even handily beating Insider favorite Carroll "Tumpy" Campbell III by more than double.

IS MITT ROMNEY THE NEW DAN QUAYLE-- OR THE NEW ALICE COOPER?

Golfers Dan & Alice have some makeup tips for Mitt

One of the wise old men of the Republican Party, golfer Dan Quayle handicapped the presidential race today. He says it will be a race between Hillary and a Republican making believe he is an outsider. Like everyone else, except for Lindsey Graham and Paco, the Honduran janitor at his campaign headquarters in suburban DC who send half his minimum wage check to his wife and children in suburban Tegucigalpa and is feeling quite flush, Quayle has written McCain off. He thinks it will come down to a choice between the billionaire Mormon and the two lobbyists, Giuliani and Thompson. Quayle coyly doesn't play his hand and has something sweet to say about each of the dismal prospects. "Romney still hasn't gotten on track but he's doing very well in the early primary states and has very good campaign staff and is able to raise money," he said. He didn't mention anything about Romney's nice chin, fine make-up consultant (Hidden Beauty of West Hills, California who he tried passing off as a "communication consultant"), or wonderful relationship with the pornography industry.

EarthTimes is less myopic about Romney than Quayle. They claim Romney's big spending campaign isn't making much of an impression on the voters. "Smooth talking Mitt Romney is back on the air with yet another new television ad just days after his second quarter fundraising report revealed that his multi-million dollar ad campaign has been funded virtually entirely with donations from his personal fortune. Romney's latest ad, entitled Ocean, offers more of the same smooth talk and empty rhetoric aimed at convincing conservative Republican primary voters to ignore his real record. Once again, he fails to outline clear plans on critical issues like the war in Iraq and fails to explain his constantly shifting views on just about every issue in the campaign."