Romney’s ‘Etch-a-Sketch Express’ bus tour
June 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Did you hear that Willard "Mittens" Romney plans a bus tour to visit all of the factories he closed and the small towns he devastated while at Bain Capital? No? Maybe that's because Romney's Bus Tour Turns Into VP Tryout Extravaganza. Oooh, shades of John McCain and his "Double-Talk Express" bus tour … Read more
Jesus has an “unwavering commitment to the values that make America great”?
June 14, 2012
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by David Safier Jesse Kelly is licking his wounds and heading back to . . . wherever he's heading back to. My guess is his commitment to Arizona ended on June 12 and he'll be moseying back to Texas. I usually stay away from commenting about anything that smacks of religion, but this, from Jesse's … Read more
Jesus tells Jesse to pack it in
June 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Talking Points Memo reports Jesse Kelly Drops Out Of Arizona House Race: After losing the special election in Arizona to succeed Gabrielle Giffords in Congress, two-time Republican candidate Jesse Kelly has announced that he is dropping out of the race for a full term in November. “I would like to thank our … Read more
SCOTUS Watch: Montana, Arizona in the Court
June 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
While I am waiting for SCOTUSblog to report what happened today at the Thursday Conference of the Justices, here is a preview from Cormack Early at SCOTUSblog, Thursday round-up : SCOTUSblog:
Campaign finance is also back in the news, with the Court scheduled to consider American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, the challenge to the Montana Supreme Court ruling upholding a statute that bans corporate spending in state elections, at its Conference today. Coverage comes from David G. Savage and Melanie Mason of the Los Angeles Times and Ariane de Vogue of ABC News. Marcia Coyle of Law.com profiles Anthony Johnstone, the University of Montana law professor leading the effort to save the Montana law. Sarah Wheaton of the Caucus blog of The New York Times reports that David Axelrod, communications director for President Obama’s reelection campaign, floated the idea of a constitutional amendment to permit stronger regulation of campaign finance; more detailed proposals in the same vein come from Geoffrey R. Stone, writing in the Huffington Post, and Laurence H. Tribe, writing in Slate.
A constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. FEC is gaining public support. I propose that all candidates for state or federal office should be asked this question: "Would you sponsor and support a constitutional amendment to the United States Constitution / Arizona Constitution to declare that corporations are not people and that money is not speech to reverse Citizens United v. FEC?" If the candidate responds no, he or she should not be elected to office.
Neither MAS nor the story of its demolition is dead
June 14, 2012
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by David Safier Until a few court decisions come out, the fate of the Mexican American Studies program is up in the air. Is the anti-MAS bill HB 2281 unconstitutionally vague? Is it too targeted at one program? We don't know how the judge will rule or whether the ruling will be appealed. And we … Read more
Bonus fact checking the mendacity of Mittens
June 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It's only Thursday but we get a bonus round of fact checking the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Mittens has really been stepping up his "big lie" propaganda campaign this week.
Mark Kleiman writes at the Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square – The Tongue Is Quicker Than the Eye:
Pay close attention, class. This one moves fast.
1. Mitt Romney criticizes Barack Obama for saying we need more police, firefighters, and teachers.
2. Mitt Romney gets roasted for saying that.
3. Romney surrogate John Sununu says remark wasn’t a gaffe, and defends it.
4. Obama campaign is all over Romney about wanting fewer police, firefighters, and teachers.
5. Romney goes on TV and says it’s “completely absurd” to charge that he doesn’t want more police, firefighters, and teachers.
This is part of a pattern. Mitt Romney is a chronic, pathological, utterly shameless, pants-on-fire (thirteen times so far), four-Pinocchios liar.
Kevin Drum thinks that the rules have changed – that even Presidential candidates can now get away with constant fibbing – and that Romney is simply smart enough to have noticed.
I’m not so sure. It’s possible that the press will start to report Romney’s lies as lies. That’s unconventional, but he’s asking for it.
The fact checkers are putting in overtime this week with the torrent of lies that eminates from the Romney campaign on a daily basis.
2012 ain’t 2010, but it ain’t 2008 either
June 13, 2012
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by David Safier
A few thoughts on yesterday's solid Barber victory.
All things being equal, Barber's 7 point win should be very good news for Democrats in Arizona and, by extension, across the country. But all things aren't equal, so it's hard to say what it means. Still, it gives Democrats reason to believe that 2012 isn't 2010. Hard political work and good messaging can put them in position to keep the presidency and gain back some of the ground they lost in the last election.
In 2010, Jesse Kelly came within a hair's breadth of unseating Gabby Giffords, a popular incumbent. Jesse was full bore Tea Party back then, unnuanced and militaristic, and it worked, or nearly did. But in 2012, the district is no longer in the throes of an anti-Obama backlash, and the Tea Bags have been steeped in boiling rhetoric a few times too often. They've lost flavor for more mainstream conservative voters. Kelly's team understood things were different, so they tried to soften his message and his manner. The re-messaging probably saved him from a 12 point blowout, but it wasn't enough. CD-8 almost bought what Jesse was selling in 2010, but it wasn't buying this time, even against a relatively unknown, low key opponent.
Kelly's indecision about how to present himself has become a nationwide Republican problem. The party-animal fun of seeing candidates go full bore gonzo could only last so long. Savvy Republicans realize crazy-base rhetoric may work fine to stir up the 25% who make up their crazy base, but it's beginning to make the rest of the Republicans and R-leaning Independents uncomfortable. "Crazy" was on full display in the Republican presidential debates, and the voters, after becoming enamored with a string of gonzo flavors of the month, discarded them one by one until only Mitt who-knows-what-the-hell-he-stands-for Romney was left standing.
The Arizona Republic shills for the Open Elections/Open Government initiative
June 13, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I have been warning you about this "good government" idealists (Goo-Goos) initiative for some time now:
- The latest Goo-Goos gone bad: The top two primary (Nov. 2011)
- The Open Elections/Open Government Act initiative – 'silver-bullet naivete' (Dec. 2011)
- Ivory tower political theory meets cold hard reality: the false premise of the 'top two primary' system (Jun. 2012)
I posted yesterday, California's experiment with the 'top two' primary was an epic failure:
As I have said before, the media villagers love this kind of thing, in particular, the Arizona Republic which has promoted this initiative in its pages.
Sure enough, the Arizona Republic's Laurie Roberts has a column today promoting the Open Elections/Open Government initiative. This requires some explanation.
A couple of weeks ago Ms. Roberts proposed "Operation Dekookification" in which she encouraged readers to identify the most extreme members of the Arizona legislature running for election this fall and encouraged independents to vote for the "moderate" candidate in the party primary.
It sounded good in theory, but Ms. Roberts apparently never checked to see who had filed to run for office before she wrote her opinion. She later discovered to her dismay that many of the extreme members of the Arizona legislature are running unopposed in the GOP primary, and Ms. Roberts just could not bring herself to call for a "Democratic coup" in November, as she termed it. Spoiler alert: independents also can't be bothered to vote in party primaries. There are years of data to prove it.
Next, Ms. Roberts got the bright idea that moderates could sign up to be elected as precinct committeemen to modify the extremism of the GOP. Of course, this bright idea only came to her after the filing deadline had passed. So she had to encourage readers to sign up to become write-in candidates for precinct committeemen (that deadline is today).
I can tell you from years of experience that: (1) few will sign up as write-in candidates, and (2) Ms. Robert's plea likely only encouraged the more extreme activists to do so out of anger at her. The law of unintended consequences at work.
So today Ms. Roberts latches onto the Goo-Goo idealists' Open Elections/Open Government initiative. An open primary is best hope. Her superficial reasoning is typical of media villagers:
This is not a Republican initiative or a Democratic one. Not a single elected state official, party hack or legislative lobbyist has thus far signed on.
Which is perhaps why I so like the idea.
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[S]ome legislators, lobbyists and political strategists are starting to pooh-pooh the plan, warning that it won't spur independents to vote and that it may actually strengthen the two parties and incumbent politicians.
The thing is, the people doing the pooh-poohing have a vested interest in keeping things just as they are.
