U.S. Politics 28

[Shryke]

Well, I wonder which Republican is going to be the one to say, "Hey, those 25-year-olds you've got on your policy? They're on their own. Oh, and the doughnut hole that was closed? It's wide open once more. And that protection against rescission, that's keeping Wellpoint paying for your chemo? Kiss that goodbye." Maybe Republican voters are less likely to have kids, be old, or have cancer, but...

The same ones currently running on destroying Medicare?

[Ckrisz]

The same ones currently running on destroying Medicare?

That's not really working out well for them, as they are rapidly discovering.

[Shael]

That's not really working out well for them, as they are rapidly discovering.

From the article (in response to the contention that NY 26 is foreshadowing of future Republican losses):

"If special elections were an early-warning system, they sure failed to alert the Democrats of the political tsunami that flooded their ranks in 2010," Rep. Pete Sessions (Tex.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.

Uh, Pete. Think about what you just said there for a second, before you say something else that makes you look foolish in the rush to get in the dig.

[Commodore]

Haha, it sound like he basically thinks that if special elections are any indication the Republicans are going to get hammered in 2012.

I imagine he's referring to the Bill Owens / Doug Hoffman special election and how that was interpreted/misinterpreted.

[Shryke]

I imagine he's referring to the Bill Owens / Doug Hoffman special election and how that was interpreted/misinterpreted.

That special election was a pretty good predicter for the elections in Nevada and Delaware.

[Commodore]

Does anyone remember why Christopher Lee resigned that congressional seat? For posting a shirtless picture of himself on facebook soliciting an affair.

Well, (married) Rep. Anthony Weiner has managed to do him one better. He tweeted a picture of his package to a 21 year old coed. He is working furiously to get it scrubbed and claiming his FB account was hacked (which has nothing to do with Twitter or yfrog), but the screenshots speak for themselves.

I don't think he should step down, it's just funny.

[Shryke]

What always amazes me with these stories isn't that they do this shit, but that they are so bad at being discrete about it.

[TrackerNeil]

I don't think he should step down, it's just funny.

Actually, I don't see why Lee himself stepped down. David Vitter did way worse than send out a shirtless pic of himself, and he didn't resign. Neither did Larry Craig, who toe-tapped his way into a really seedy misdemeanor conviction. I think these pols are a bit too quick to resign. Conservative politicians in particular really just have to claim to have found God, go into rehab Ted-Haggard style, and then they're good to go.

[sologdin]

David Vitter did way worse than send out a shirtless pic of himself, and he didn't resign

a true troglodyte, from david duke's constituency.

think it is incredibly difficult to predict who will ultimately oppose Obama in 2012. Rick Perry may or may not enter the race. Jonah Goldberg pleads for Paul Ryan to enter the race in a recent National Review column. Some out there still seem to want Christie to jump in, though it looks totally unlikely that he's even considering it.

speaking of herr duke, he is apparently considering a run at the 2012 GOP nomination, boasting that thousands of teabaggers have encouraged him to run. that's one thing he's said that i can believe.

[Commodore]

http://twitter.com/#!/jimmiebjr/status/74693241525645312

jimmiebjr Jimmie

Try a little thought experiment. Replace "Anthony Weiner" with "Paul Ryan" in the story and imagine the press coverage.

so true

[Ormond]

What's the actually definition of a special election, after all? I had always just kind of assumed it's any election that happens outside of the normal voting cycle. But maybe that's not correct?

A "special election" in the USA is the same as what's called a "by-election" in the UK. It's when an election must be held to fill a vacancy that occurs in an office before its normal term is up.

The gubernatorial and state legislature elections in Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia, and New Jersey are "off-year" elections because they don't occur in the years that the other 45 states hold those elections. But they are not "special" because they DO occur within the normal legal voting cycle for those states, according to their own constitutions and laws.

[mcbigski]

This probably isn't the right thread, but I saw this linked on Drudge and submit it for your consideration as Headline of the Year:

Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Commodore,

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55877.html

Weiner is claiming someone hacked his site and threw up that photo. It's way too early to say what really happened. I doubt he goes anywhere.

[Andriy Czarchenko]

There seems to be some evidence that it´s actually not screencrab from Weiner´s account.

[Commodore]

There seems to be some evidence that it´s actually not screencrab from Weiner´s account.

I guess Weiner is lying about his own account being hacked then. He claims he noticed it himself.

The lascivious link was sent to a female follower, a college student in the Pacific Northwest.

The tech-savvy congressman saw the picture almost immediately. He had been tweeting about a hockey game just a few minutes earlier [ed. - untrue].

Weiner pulled the shot himself, but not before it had been retweeted and screen-grabbed by several followers.

It's also still on the TweetCongress website, a livestream of congressional tweets (1 day, 14 hours ago). So I guess they are in on the conspiracy as well.

A 21 year old journalism student from Seattle who is one of 91 people Rep. Weiner follows on twitter (but claims he has no ties to), receives a picture of his junk, and says nothing. In fact, she deletes her twitter account shortly after. Rep. Weiner claims his account was hacked a week ago, but it's still listed as a verified account, and he has not reported what is a federal crime (impersonating a federal official) to the authorities .

Thing is two people following each other on twitter allows them to send private messages to each other, and the difference between a private and public message is two keystrokes.

[Andriy Czarchenko]

I guess Weiner is lying about his own account being hacked then. He claims he noticed it himself.

No, the twitter account being hacked has nothing to do with the yfrog picture being fake.

The question you should ask is why would Weiner fake a picture to look like it´s from his own yfrog account and then send it on twitter?

EDIT: Agh, I got some things messed.

The Screencrab that is used as evidence is fake. No idea what was actually posted.

[lokisnow]

I wonder if a winning political strategy for the democrats is to take the medicare ball further to the left.

Don't build your response just on saying NO to paul Ryan's vivisection of medicare, proactively say you want to strengthen medicare and expand it's coverage. Make the alternative to Ryancare not just an extension of the status quo, but an expansion of medicare to everyone 55 or older.

Think of how much money businesses would save getting all their older employees off their health insurance rolls.

[Shael]

I imagine he's referring to the Bill Owens / Doug Hoffman special election and how that was interpreted/misinterpreted.

I took it to mean he was referring to to Scott Brown's win, but we'll never know because he didn't say.

[Shryke]

Here's some interesting polling:Buyers' Remorse Over New GOP Governors

Polls show voters in battleground states regret having voted for their new Republican Governors. Since February, Democratic firm PPP released surveys in eight states asking voters "if you could do last fall's election for Governor over again, how would you vote?" In seven of the eight, the Democrat now would win, with all seven showing double-digit improvements in their margin. (Only Rory Reid in Nevada still trails.)

If this trend gets more coroboration/continues, it could mean bad things for the GOP in a presidential election year. Especially since the current crop of candidates doesn't seem to have much hope of having good coattails.

[lokisnow]

coattails are interesting, Obama gets out the minority vote like nothing else, which means some coattails from that vote, though obviously you can't count on any such coattail group to universally support the party, you probably get a decent boost for downballot candidates. Downballot issues are another item entirely.

This is bad news for freedom and equality California, because the idiots put the prop 8 repeal on the 2012 ballot, and lots of socially conservative black and hispanic voters in cali will be voting for obama and against the scary gays.