Bill Maher-- Closer To Flipping A District?

Farenthold & Grimm

In January, Bill Maher promised to try to flip a district. I was hoping he would work his magic on the North Shore of Long Island-- the Gold Coast, home to Princesses Long Island-- and go after Steve Israel. Alternatively, we picked 6 very vulnerable Republican-held districts that Steve Israel and his pathetic DCCC protect:

• Fred Upton (MI-06)- R+1
• Peter King (NY-02)- R+1
• Dave Reichert (WA-08)- R+1
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)- R+2
• Mike Rogers (MI-08)- R+2
• Paul Ryan (WI-01)- R+3

Friday, Maher announced the first of 16 picks, supposedly by viewers. Both are repulsive Republicans who certainly deserve to be flipped: Staten Island Mafioso Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (a DCCC target with a wretched Democratic opponent, Domenic Recchia) and tubby Texas teabagger Blake Farenthold in a relatively impregnable gerrymandered district. Obama won Grimm's district (NY-11) against Romney last year, 110,088 (52%) to 100,811 (47%). On the same day, Grimm beat a flawed Democratic opponent 103,118 (52%) to 92,430 (47%). Unless you're new to DWT-- or don't pay attention-- you probably know more about Grimm than Maher or his staff do.

Very different story down in Texas. TX-27 had been carefully gerrymandered in time for Farenthold's first reelection effort in 2010 and the district went from an R+1 to an R+13 district by adding most of the Gulf Coast north of Corpus Christie right into the outer 'burbs south of Houston. Obama beat McCain 53.32% to 45.98% but under the new boundaries that went into effect two years later, McCain would have won the district 59-40%. In 2010, a terrible year for Democrats, 14-term Solomon Ortiz lost to Farenthold by 799 votes, a major upset. Two years later, the DCCC abandoned the district entirely and Farenthold was reelected 57-39%, winning all 13 counties, even-- albeit by a bare 49-48&-- Nueces (Corpus Christie), a blue county. This cycle, the Democratic nominee is Marine Corps Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Reed, a conservative Democrat who would likely join the Blue Dogs, like his ally, Pete Gallego, the freshman who has voted most frequently with the GOP. In reporting the Maher story, Politico emphasized that Grimm and Farenthold are just the beginning.

Grimm and Farenthold are the first two of Maher’s “Tweet Sixteen,” with 14 more lawmakers to be revealed. Displaying a NCAA-like bracket on the show, the eventual 16 nominations will be narrowed to one member, who Maher will then focus efforts on his or her race. Introducing Grimm and Farenthold, Maher called them the “first two public embarrassments.”

“He’s a guy who thrust himself into the running this year by threatening to throw a reporter off the balcony of the Capitol,” Maher said of Grimm. “He seems to be all of Staten Island distilled in one man and there is a lot of enthusiasm out there for making him go away.”

However, Maher said he is personally “pulling” for Farenthold to win.

“He’s the poster boy for why we are doing this. He won in 2010 by 799 votes and then they redistricted it. They gerrymandered it and in 2012, he won, going away, by 18 points,” the late-night host said.

Maher urged constituents of Farenthold’s district to bring his lead down to single digits.

“I am not a miracle worker,” Maher said. “Let’s not forget that Obama’s phrase in 2008 was ‘Yes we can.’”

Also on Maher's show Friday was progressive champion Keith Ellison. I think the audience appreciated him and his progressive vision more than Maher did, who was eager to lecture him on his shitting the Democratic Party has become. Maher's right of course, but he then goes and picks a couple of Republicans who's opponents are exactly the kind of Democrats he clobbers Ellison over the head with. "They're not different enough from the Republican Party," he asserts when explaining why the Democrats will lose in November. He then echoes his pal Alan Grayson: "If people have the choice between a Republican and Republican-lite, they're probably going to go for the real thing." Watch: