Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday Question for Liberals
Very straightforward this week: who are you rooting for on Tuesday? Holding the partisan balance of power even, which specific races do you care about winning?
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Two things:
ReplyDelete1) The prospect that Angle could be elected (and probably will be according to Nate Silver's estimates) is the most horrifying thing about the upcoming election. She has run perhaps the most overtly racist ad in over a generation, and the fact that she could be elected in a purple state makes me intensely upset. I also think Reid is under-appreciated.
2) Though he's not likely to win, I am furious beyond words that Boehner is campaigning for Rich Iott. This is the true mark of how low the GOP leadership has sunk, that the House Minority Leader, the presumptive Speaker of the House, is trying to get a Holocaust revisionist elected to the U.S. Congress. Even the Republican Jewish Coalition has withdrawn support from Iott, as has Eric Cantor, but I suppose Boehner heeds the old James Baker advice, "They don't vote for us anyway."
Russ Feingold. Even though it looks very likely he will not win the election, it'd be a very sad day for the Senate if he were not re-elected. He's one of the few advocates for our civil liberties in the federal government. I don't live in Wisconsin anymore, but when I did, it was one of the few politicians I've actually been proud to vote for.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see Joe Miller lose in Alaska.
ReplyDeleteDitto the previous comments.
ReplyDeleteHere in MI it's looking like a Rethug sweep. Great Depression II, here we come.
JzB
Similar to the other comments, I'd love to see Angle and Joe Miller lose.
ReplyDeleteFeingold seems like wishful thinking at this point, and the same might be true of Tom Perriello, but a man can root.
Sestak and Michael Bennett would be nice.
Not much new to add here, but it would be (will be, most likely) a real shame to lose Russ Feingold and Tom Perriello. As was noted above, Feingold is the only real civil libertarian in the Senate. And you have to admire a guy like Perriello who refused to duck tough votes in the name of getting reelected.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, seeing a nutjob like Sharron Angle in the senate will be unfortunate. I think Reid is unfairly maligned, and doesn't really deserve to lose, but thems the breaks when your state has 14% unemployment.
Marco Rubio is a rising GOP star, so his loss would have real national implications. But I guess that's too much to hope for (thanks loads, Kendrick "Meek" -- perfect name for a Democrat, by the way).
ReplyDeleteOther than that, would love to see Jack Conway beat Rand Paul.
I'm no Rand Paul fan, and the election of a Democrat in his place would send the GOP an important message, but Conway's ad about Aqua Buddha left a dirty taste in my mouth. If Conway wins, it'll be a triumph for dirty politics, and that doesn't make me happy.
ReplyDeleteI'm rooting for the Giants. I'm sorry, I know that's the wrong answer.
ReplyDeleteYeah, losing Russ Feingold is going to be salt in the wound on Tuesday. It looks like Boxer and Brown are going to win, so silver lining for me there.
ReplyDeleteNot a candidate, but I really hope Prop. 25 passes in California. Getting a Majority-Budget seems like the first step to restoring fiscal sanity in my state.
Just echoing what others have already said. A loss for Feingold--which looks extremely likely, though I haven't completely given up hope--would sadden me the most. Like Aaron I was proud to vote for Feingold when I lived in Wisconsin during college back in the late 1990s. His defeat would be a real blow to progressives so I'm rooting for him big time, and indeed he is the only candidate I've given money to this cycle.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd really like to see Rubio lose in Florida, which also probably won't happen. Crazier candidates like Angle, Miller, O'Donnell et. al. have made Rubio seem less extreme, and he could be a pretty potent VP candidate in 2012 if he gets to the senate. I don't want him to rise to the national stage, which puts me in the bizarre position of cheering for Charlie Crist. Makes me feel a bit dirty.
Second most of these, esp in re: Reid Feingold Perriello (the Little Congressman Who Could!). Since no one's mentioned Patty Murray, I'll throw her in, since there aren't enough women in the Congressional leadership as it is, let alone if she were to lose her seat. I'd be delighted if the Dems outperformed expectations in state legislatures, too. (From my absentee-voting NY perspective, control of the state senate there is important -- even if the Dem leadership can't ever manage to get their stuff together -- and obviously in lots of states -- e.g., Florida -- the redistricting consequences will be as important as anything on the local-legislative front.) And aren't the Iowa judges who legalized gay marriage up for reelection, too?
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd have been pretty happy with Bill White over Rick Perry in Texas, too. Etc. for Sink et al.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Toomey-Sestak race. Nobody likes to talk about it, because he's less gaffe-prone than his tea-party counterparts, but Pat Toomey had a voting record in the house comparable to Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo (I think Toomey was rated something like the fifth most conservative person in either house of congress in the last 20 years). A guy like that getting elected in Pennsylvania is scary. Sestak, on the other hand, seems like a good candidate, and I think the thing that appeals to me the most about sestak is that he thinks the stimulus was too small, which means he actually understands (or has somebody around him who understands) economics.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that as many Democratic candidates win as possible. Even the worst ones are infinitely better than any Republican. However, I really want the Democrats who are going against the Tea Party darlings like Angle or Paul to win plus Sestak in Pennsylvania.
ReplyDeleteI can't really understand the furor about the Aqua Buddha ad. Many liberals complain about Democratic politicians being weak and not aggressive enough against Republicans on campaign and in government. Conway actually releases a good but truthful attack ad and a large number of liberals are aghast. We aren't going to win if we keep fighting like gentlemen when the Republicans wage combat like bar room brawlers.
We don't know if it's true or not. It's based on one anonymous accusation in a GQ article, and Paul has denied that it happened. But even if it is true, it's irrelevant, and Conway's use of it makes a fairly direct appeal to bigotry against non-Christians.
ReplyDeleteStrength has nothing to do with "playing dirty" or engaging in unfair, bigoted attacks. On the contrary, it is precisely the Democrats' feeble responses to the right's bigotry and slander against Muslims, gays, and Latinos that has made them seem weak. I want the Democrats to grow a pair so that they can end the absurdly out-of-date DADT policy, not so that they can use a middle-aged candidate's college hijinks to question his Christian faith. I want them to be forceful in exposing these tea-partiers for the right-wing nuts they are by focusing on the insane views they currently hold, not use some cheap personal attack that has nothing to do with their fitness for office. Bullying isn't strength; it is cowardice. I thought we all learned that when we left grade school.
I conquer with most of the previous comments (It is actually a fine use of the word, for a Simpsons junkie at least).
ReplyDeleteWhere I'd disagree is that I'm just not sure on all the tea party wackos. I kinda want them to win to set them up as the face of the GOP. On the other hand, they give voice to insanity and will have the power to push the debate into crazy town. I'm not as sure as everyone else seems to be.
I'm hoping as many crazies as possible win on Tuesday......let them take responsibility for what they've already done. The only problem is that I suspect Obama is already getting ready to cave in on everything. I'd like to see him pull a Truman but it'll most likely be more like a Clinton (and I like Bill).
ReplyDeleteAs for the aqua bhuda ad being over the top.......have my liberal friends forgotten what Saxby Chamblis did to Max Cleland? After that one I really feel that nothing is off limits. The only problem is getting the dems to understand that. They don't, they never will.......and we will always get what we have now and are going to have on Tuesday.
Kylo: while I agree with you on substance that twenty-five-year-old hijinks, or even major missteps, are not and should not be a barrier to holding office (and not just in this case, where the Aqua Buddha incident actually makes Rand Paul seem much more likeable to me!), you're incorrect that Paul has denied that it took place. He's denied that he ever kidnaped anyone -- a charge that neither the woman nor the GQ reporter (Jason Zengerle, normally of TNR) made -- and that he ever fired anyone to smoke pot -- which was never part of the story (she's said when she refused, they let her be). His unwillingness to lie combined with having turned professional enough to respond like a proper politician left him looking quite good both to the people who aren't paying attention and to those who are, I think. Fwiw, Zengerle was horrified by the ad, too.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:14: Good call. One of the worst things about the Angle Paul Buck et al. campaigns is that their sporadic-but-loud indiscipline has taken all the heat off Rubio and Toomey.
Oh, and Anon 6:16: no, this won't force anybody to take responsibility for anything, because most people aren't paying as much attention as we are ...
Losing Feingold would send an awful message to congressional Democrats --it'd show there's no electoral benefit to standing up for civil liberties.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we're talking props in Cali, I would have to say that my biggest hope would be for Prop 19 to pass. It's time for a much more sane drug policy in the United States. Even my best friend's mother (who's a Republican) is in favor!
ReplyDeleteI will, of course, be watching the races here in Maine very closely. While Chellie Pingree is probably safe, if this is truly a "wave" year, then she might be in more jeopardy than one might guess. And I'm going to watch as an idiot (meaning Paul LePage) becomes governor of our state.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see Miller fail (which seems likely enough) and Angle defeated (which doesn't). Frankly, I'd like to see as many Palin-endorsed candidates fail, because I'd like to see her influence wane as quickly as possible.
I'll be sad to see Periello go; he seems like one of the few honorable people in DC.
Man, I really want Dan Coats to lose in Indiana's senatorial election. The problem is that I can't work up much enthusiasm for the alternative (Brad Ellsworth). I will wind up voting for Ellsworth, though.
ReplyDeleteCoats was a failure as a senator when he served before, providing nothing that resembled thought. This time around, he's bought deeply into the tea (our new synonym for kool-aid?), even though that does not reflect his record as a senator (yes, the repubs were THAT MUCH less crazy a two decades ago).