"...In Spite of Donald Trump's Endorsement..."

 

Democrat Mary Peltola, a native Yu'pik woman, beat Sarah Palin last night in the Alaska special election to serve out Rep. Don Young's term (Young died in March). It was a "ranked choice" election, and all the candidates ran together in a scrum of nine. Peltola beat Palin with 2nd choice votes.

Peltola is 49, a former 10-year veteran of the Alaska legislature, and a preservationist/community activist. Blake Hounshell in the NYTimes: "She ran a relentlessly upbeat campaign that implicitly contrasted her reputation for kindness with the bombast and penchant for drama associated with Ms. Palin, even though the two women have been friends since serving together in the Statehouse as expectant mothers. They even exchanged text messages on the day of the general election for the temporary seat, with Ms. Palin advising Ms. Peltola to dress warmly for her final round of canvassing."

“I think respect is just a fundamental part of getting things done and working through problems,” Ms. Peltola told reporters as the first votes rolled in.

According to NPR, Palin never attacked Peltola, possibly because of their old bond, though Palin went after her chief Republican rival, Nick Begich III with the usual Palin slashes and insults. Meanwhile, Palin was calling Peltola "a sweetheart." Peltola also did not badmouth Palin, telling NPR, "The region where I'm from, there is a big premium on being respectful, on not using inflammatory language or harsh tones."

By Gawd, Mary Peltola tamed Sarah Palin.

And vanquished Trumpism. In Alaska. Which is pretty damn Republican but also pretty damn independent. Palin had been pleased to share the stage in Anchorage with Trump for a rally and endorsement. "Don't retreat. Reload," was her mantra. That's the school-yard pugnaciousness at the heart of Trumpism. Mary Peltola slew that bully.

Plus people are getting sick of it -- that Trumpist swagger, that I'm-armed-and-not-afraid-to-use-it attitude and penchant for intimidating, or trying to intimidate, people.

What I wrote on August 4, immediately after the Kansas Surprise upheld abortion rights: "I feel the pincers that grip the GOP right now, because I'm squeezing as hard as I can. Biden's not the issue this November. The Republican Party is, as it's been transformed by Trump and his flying monkeys of Cruelty and Fraud."

Wouldn't it be something if the perfect storm of aroused female electorate plus Trump fatigue actually produced a Blue Wave this November? 

Sarah Palin Endorses Deanna Ballard in NC Senate District 45

"I don't know about you, but I've had it with establishment politicians," says Sarah Palin in an endorsement message posted on Sen. Deanna Ballard's website.

The establishment politician in question here is Shirley Randleman from Wilkes who was first elected from Senate District 30 in 2012 and has been reelected twice since then, before redistricting threw her into Ballard's Senate District 45.

I'm assuming that Ballard's mentor Franklin Graham arranged for the Palin endorsement. Because he thinks the failed governor of Alaska and the failed candidate for vice president will carry great weight with Republican voters in District 45. And perhaps she will.

The Party Line

From this a.m.'s Winston-Salem Journal:
Rep. Virginia Foxx, U.S. Congress, N.C. 5th District (Republican):

"I don't think members of Congress incite that kind of rhetoric -- I don't think the things we say incite that kind of behavior. And I don't know that the things other people say incite it. I just think we have deranged individuals in this country and occasionally they do bad things.

"This guy appears to be a communist. His beliefs are the liberal of the liberals. There is no evidence whatsoever that this man was influenced by Sarah Palin or anybody in the Republican Party. This man is not a conservative; he's a fan of communism -- that's the opposite of conservatism.

"The members of Congress, we put ourselves out there, and we're willing to take whatever risk there is, but it is so sad that this involved innocent people. We never want anyone else to be harmed because of our positions."

The Rhetoric of Violence

A list by no means complete and in no particular order:

1. From the campaign calendar of Jesse Kelly, the Tea Party Republican who ran against Gabrielle Giffords last fall: "Sat, 6/12/10, 10:00 AM - Get on Target for Victory in November - Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office - Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly"

2. Republican senatorial candidate Sharon Angle, who said she wanted to "cure" Nevada of Sen. Harry Reid and said she knew a Second Amendment "remedy": "I feel that the Second Amendment is the right to keep and bear arms for our citizenry. This not for someone who's in the military. This not for law enforcement. This is for us. And in fact when you read that Constitution and the founding fathers, they intended this to stop tyranny. This is for us when our government becomes tyrannical...."

3. Florida GOP congressional candidate Allen West, talking to a crowd of Tea Partiers about his opponent last fall, incumbent Dem Ron Klein: "Let me tell you what you've got to do. You've got to make the fellow scared to come out of his house. That's the only way that you're going to win. That's the only way you're going to get these people's attention."

4. Someone dropped a gun at a Gabrielle Giffords event in August 2009. Also that August, another man brought a gun to a town hall meeting by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in Memphis. On August 18, 2009, at least a dozen men were carrying weapons outside the Phoenix convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech. The week before that in 2009, during a presidential health care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a sign reading "It is time to water the tree of liberty" stood outside with a pistol strapped to his leg.

5. On the May 17, 2005, broadcast of The Glenn Beck Program, Mr. Beck said: "Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?"

6. Bill O'Reilly mentioned Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller on his radio show 29 times between 2005 and the doctor's assassination in his church on Sunday, May 31, 2009, nicknaming the doctor "Tiller the Killer."

7. In August 2010, a day after talk radio host Laura Schlessinger quit her show, following criticism for using the N-word repeatedly in a broadcast, Sarah Palin told her: "Don't retreat ... reload!" Subsequently, Palin used that line repeatedly in public rallies.

8. On March 4, 2010, James L. Schmidlin placed a call from Tennessee to the office of Democratic Congressman John Boccieri, in which he threatened to set fire to Boccieri's home. (Schmidlin has actually been charged with a crime.)

9. On March 20, 2010, at the Tea Party Republican rally against health-care reform on Capitol Hill, several protestors carried signs reading "If [Sen. Scott] Brown Can't Stop It, A Browning Can." Another: "Vote No Or Else!" Another: "Kill the Bill or Face the November Slaughter!"

10. In September 2010, Justin Carl Moose, 26, of Concord, NC, was arrested by the FBI after posting tips on bomb-making and making threats against Planned Parenthood on his Facebook page. According to the FBI, he had planned the bombing of an abortion clinic in North Carolina.

11. "I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that [health reform] bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country." --Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, November 2, 2009, on the floor of the U.S. House. "All the promises [President Obama] has kept have endangered our lives." --Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, on the Bill Lumaye Show, NewsRadio 680 WPTF, Jan. 5, 2010. "We're talking about four years. If we don't take this country back from the leftists who are running it now, we will lose our country." ---Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, to the Iredell County Republican Party's Reagan Day Dinner, Feb. 6, 2010

Not that any of this would have anything whatsoever to do with influencing the mind of a Jared Lee Loughner. No never.

For the Record

This is the map of the 20 targeted members of Congress on the Palin website cited below. Gabrielle Giffords was one of the three that are "bulls-eyed" in Arizona.

Notice the heading to the page: "We've dianosed the problem... Help us prescribe the solution."

Jeebus.

Gabrielle Giffords Was in Palin's "Bulls-eye"

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.-5) was shot point-blank in the head this morning in Tucson where she was holding a "Congress On Your Corner" event at a grocery store.

The gunman ran up and shot Giffords in the head and then shot some six of the Congresswoman's aides and unknown others, including apparently at least one child. (These numbers are approximate. We tried getting on the Tucson Citizen, but its servers appear overloaded.)

Back in September 2010, Sarah Palin launched a website identifying 20 House members who voted for the health overhaul bill. Giffords was one of those. The map of the United States on the Palin site contained 20 rifle-scope bulls-eyes (still contains, actually, but you better go look quick, before the site disappears entirely -- scroll down on the homepage).

Palin posted an apology on Facebook that does not mention the website linked above.

What Would Jesus Bomb?

According to Justin Carl Moose, 26, of Concord, NC, Jesus would bomb Planned Parenthood.

Moose is a self-described "extremist, radical" and the "Christian counterpart of Osama bin Laden." The FBI arrested Moose in Concord this past Tuesday in what is described as "a sting operation." Apparently, he had been posting tips on bomb-making and threats against Planned Parenthood on his Facebook page and had "collaborated last week with a confidential informant to plan the bombing of an abortion clinic in North Carolina."

From the Charlotte Observer:

According to the FBI affidavit, Moose advocated violence for a variety of causes and communicated with like-minded abortion opponents online.

Moose's Facebook page, which was still public Thursday [but NOT today, far as we can find], contained posts expressing anger at abortion doctors, President Barack Obama's health care plan, and plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York City. It also included expressions of support for those who have killed abortion providers.

"Whatever you may think about me, you're probably right," he wrote on his Facebook page, according to the affidavit.

"Extremist, Radical, Fundamentalist...? Yep! Terrorist...? Well, I prefer the term 'freedom Fighter.' " ...

"There are few problems in life that can't be solved with the proper application of high explosives :)" Moose wrote two months [after President Obama's health care plan was approved in March]....

There's a lot more, including the NewChannel36 live footage showing the Tea Party "Don't Tread on Me" flag flying over Moose's home.

Fox News must be so proud. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich too.

The Palmetto Bug Is Just a Giant Cockroach

Apparently, the good ole boys just don't like Nikki Haley, the Mark Sanford disciple now locked in a 2nd primary run-off of her own to be the next Republican governor of South Carolina.

All those accusations of infidelity didn't do the trick. So the male Republican establishment in S.C. is trotting out a platoon of other disqualifiers, like that she's a secret practitioner of the Sikh religion. (Incidentally, the only Sikhs I have personally known were in mass attendance at one of the last pro-choice rallies I attended in Washington, D.C. So, if Nikki Haley is a secret Sikh, that may mean she's secretly also pro-choice?)

Don't tell Sarah Palin. Palin has endorsed Haley. 'Course, Palin also endorsed getting a bunch of Dutch dike-builders down to the Gulf to fix that leak problem. (Sarah doesn't remember a lot from school, but she remembers that "finger in the dike" story!)

Some of those Republican ole boys in South Carolina say they may support the Democratic candidate for governor if Nikki Haley wins her 2nd primary. Anything can and probably will happen south of the border.

Logic

You know the old saying, that if there's no evidence of a conspiracy, that's just proof that the conspiracy is working!

That was the line of attack of half-term Gov. Sarah Palin yesterday at the National Rifle Association convention in Charlotte. She said that President Obama and Nancy Pelosi wanted to ban all guns in the United States, and her proof is that they haven't done anything to ban all guns in the United States. But they want to, and the more they want to, the more they don't. Which is just a damn conspiracy to confuse all of us real Americans.

I'm not making this up.

The rhetoric at an NRA convention could be used to strip old oak furniture.

I Am Woman, Hear Me Bloviate

Sarah Palin in Wilkesboro in June! Not.

A non-profit Wilkes County org with ministerial leadership, BlueRidge Educational Resource Group, had touted appearances by both Palin and former First Lady Laura Bush on a stage together at a Wilkes Community College venue, but the event is being moved to the Charlotte Time Warner Cable Arena for "better security, safety and parking."

The event is being called "the Complete Woman Expo 2010." We should say so! The pro-choice and quiet-spoken Laura Bush together on the same stage with the sheet-metal stylings of paleo-Palin. It's at least about as complete as one can get on the Republican distaff side. (But ... what? no Ann Coulter?)

We suspect the real agenda behind this gathering will not emerge until the loud speakers get warned up.

unCivil Rights

Foot soldiers for the Republican minority in Congress -- a devil's sabbath of tea partiers, birthers, racists, bigots -- invaded the Capitol yesterday. They chanted "faggot" at Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). They chanted "nigger" at Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), both members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Someone spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), another black legislator, and House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, "I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus."

That's just the slime that's gotten reported.

Yup. We shore do hope these fine specimens of humanity are the people who get control of our government!

At least one Republican member of Congress on the Sunday Morning Gasbag shows tried to excuse the behavior -- "Well, people are just so angry" -- without bothering to acknowledge that the misplaced rage has been artificially ginned up by a wealth of misinformation and outright lies spewed by leading Republicans and going back at least a year. Sarah Palin had her tongue all wrapped up in that. And Michele Bachmann. So did our own Rep. Virginia A. Foxx ("at least we Republicans won't be putting people to death like the Democrats!"). The gullible, the naive, the under-informed either fell for that bilge or find it convenient to hang their racism from those particular hat racks.

Haven't been personally enthusiastic about the Senate bill about to be passed, but I confess to being driven to root now for its passage, witnessing the desperation of Karl Rove on ABC this a.m. Rove was either severely over-caffeinated or showing the true panic of realizing a Democratic victory in this matter will damage his own ... shall we be generous and call it "his own legacy"? (His credibility was already as damaged as a Pinto in a roll-over.)

Or take the true creepy mendacity of the fake memo trotted out on the House floor by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) yesterday. Unfortunately for Garrett, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) also happened to be present, and he don't take no shit. Weiner called out Republicans for the lie, while our own Virginia Foxx tried futilely to come to Garrett's aid. Watch it.

McCrory Slams Door on Future with the NCGOP

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, making his exit today from 14 years of incumbency, shreds the Eleventh Commandment for Republicans, which is to say, he speaks ill of some fellow GOPers.

As in ... Sarah Palin is an obvious bobblehead and the national Republican Party has begun to feel like acid reflux. Not in those exact words, but still.

When and if he decides to reenter politics, the right-wing of his party (which is to say, his party) is going to make him eat those words.

On the Menu at Montreat: Turkey Hash

Sarah Palin is having dinner with Franklin Graham and his father Billy tonight in western North Carolina.

Back-up to be provided by The Angel Chorus.

Words o' Wisdom

Tom Jensen over at Public Policy Polling:

All three of these folks [current top GOP contenders Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee] reinforce the negative perceptions that much of the country holds about the Republican Party. The GOP needs a fresh face that challenges people's assumptions about who Republicans are and is visibly not just going to be George W. Bush under another name. I don't know who that person is, but he/she needs to emerge if the party is going to win back the White House in 2012.

Some conservative talking head the other day -- maybe it was Pat Buchanan -- uttered the name Bob McDonnell in reference to the above perception that something is dreadfully outta focus (rather than mavericky) about the current Republican field of presidential contenders. Which we think kinda proves Jensen's point, if you're turning to the man who just won a Southern governorship but hasn't even been sworn in yet.

McDonnell = a fresh face, yes. But "challenges people's assumptions"? Not so much.

Monday Morning Laundryline

For all the dissension in the Democratic Party, the Republicans have their own internal rotting fish heads.

Congressman Heath Shuler (NC-11) following not just PhRMA's talking points but the talking points that PhRMA specifically tailored for Republican members of Congress ... about protecting PhRMA's huge profits by way of prohibiting generic versions of certain cancer & AIDS drugs. UPDATE: Tom Sullivan at Scrutiny Hooligans goes a more complete blow-by-blow of all this under the appropriate headline "Corporate Ventriloquism."

The Barracuda bites the hand that fed her.

North Carolina Republicans, even with headliner Dick Armey and the personal blessing of Jesus Christ, can't get but 400 measly protesters out in Raleigh over the weekend? Who'd a thunk it!

Republican conservatives dismember their most promising politicians. Fine by me.

Will That Moose Hunt?

Less than 48 hours before the election for governor in Virginia, at least some of the state's voters began getting robo-calls from Sarah Palin.

Apparently, she can see Virginia from her house.

The Republican candidate for governor up there, Robert McDonnell, a right-winger of the Pat Robertson school, had politely requested that Palin not stick her cute little button nose into his election campaign, fearing that the state's independents might not cotton to the under-informed former Alaska governor (who couldn't even get through a single term in office).

Curiously (or perhaps, understandably, given the above paragraph), Palin does not mention McDonnell by name: "Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles. The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don't take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too."

"Your values" = gay-bashing anti-abortion get 'em women back in the kitchen, all of which fit McDonnell to a tee.

The calls are being paid for by the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition, the state branch of a national conservative group founded by former Christian Coalition director (and Jack Abramoff palsy-wowsy) Ralph Reed.

McDonnell is heavily favored to win over Democrat Creigh Deeds, but perhaps Palin intends to brag that she turned the (already very red) tide in McDonnell's favor. She ain't nothing if she ain't an opportunist.

Abstinence-only "sex education" did not work in Texas schools when we went through them (in the 1880s). And abstinence-only sex education isn't working now. It's a joke almost as big as a certain former guv of Alaska, but at least some Texas school districts are beginning to recognize that.

There are few states where the Southern Baptists are more powerful than in Texas, and the Southern Baptists have been resolutely opposed to giving teenagers actual facts about their raging sexuality, including actual information about how to prevent pregnancy. On the other hand, the Southern Baptists have been extremely effective in forcing abstinence-only on public schools. Not to mention the federal government. Under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the feds spent $1.3 billion (billion) on the abstinence-only fairy tale. The result? A soring teen pregnancy rate, especially in God-blessed Texas, which

has the third-highest teen birth rate in the country and the highest percentage of teen mothers giving birth more than once.

The rate of student pregnancies in Austin high schools has increased 57 percent since the 2005-06 school year, and rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising among Travis County teens.

At least some Texas school districts (urban ones to be sure) are changing direction to combat such dismal statistics. For country school districts, where going to the football game and screwing under the bleachers constitute the standard teenager Friday night, well, they're not going to feel so free.

Return of the Know-Nothings

Ah, the odor of singed hair arising from the Republican Party of North Carolina. They're not so much "rebranding" (the source of that burned hair smell) as they're performing seances over the buried corpses of their ancient fears. The Know Nothings of 1840 were pikers compared to the hysterical mobs of today, taking their intellectual cues from the triumvirate of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh.

Public Policy Polling has found that "in North Carolina 64% of rural Republicans think [President Obama] was not born in the US, compared to 47% of Republicans overall." The statistic in the first part of that sentence is startling on its own, but what about the almost half of statewide Republicans who say they think we have an unconstitutional, unqualified foreigner (not to mention Muslim!) sitting in the White House?

That's what they say. Whether they actually believe it is another matter. It may be that they just woke up and discovered they lost the election and need some ready cudgel to flail at the air. "Foreigner" has had a long history as readily weaponized rhetoric in America.

Plan B: Blame "Thug-Like" Behavior on the Dems

The best sign we've seen that the mob atmosphere at town-hall meetings, engineered by corporate-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, is actually backfiring is this charge from Dallas Woodhouse, N.C. state director of AFP:

The outbursts against Democratic legislators at town hall meetings are being coordinated by the White House through the Democratic National Committee and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, so they can demonize those who speak out against the proposed insurance reforms, Woodhouse said.

"It's disgusting, thug-like politics, happening because President Obama is losing this debate on the merits," he said.

Note that Woodhouse admitted the behavior is "thug-like."

So, in case you're not following plain English, the Congressional Democrats, taking but a little time off from arranging death panels to send Sarah Palin's parents and Trig off to the ovens, are finding, recruiting, training, and encouraging a bunch of elderly white people with red faces to show up at Democratic town halls to shout nasty stuff at Democrats.

Makes total sense!

Give Shuler Credit

...for this, at least.