Victator Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 More or less. Nothing more scummy than a Senator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Even the good ones openly take bribes and inside trade on the stock market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Given the campaign she ran, she really should have ran as an independent. She probably would have still lost, but 2010 proved she couldn't win as a Republican in CT. She should have run elsewhere in the first place though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 On Vince running... he wouldn't have a shot of winning in CT. Could he win someplace else if (i) he had a well run campaign, and (ii) he followed the orders of that well run campaign? Quite possible. There are a lot of places Rand Paul couldn't have won. There are a lot of candidates against which Rand Paul could have lost. TN was a favorable state for him, especially in 2010. After pissing off the GOP Machine by running in and winning the primary (read Mitch as much as anyone), they circled the wagon around him... and actually got him to be very careful about what he said and where he appeared. He wasn't running against an strong candidate. There are plenty of other places in the country where he could have won a similar seat in 2010, depending on the opponents. Rand won in Kentucky not TN. In fact it is very unlikely Rand could have won in TN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Will Linda McMahon take the go away heat hint? (VIDEO) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 I don't think Franken getting elected was a fluke, certainly not to the degree that Ventura's was. As CFCW walked through, a lot of things came together for Jesse to win, the most important being that neither party had a strong candidate that could hold the entire base that party usually draws from. If either got to 40%, Jesse didn't win. Franken won his party's nomination. He was a active part of political discussion for more than a decade. He'd talked about running before that. While the third party wasn't without votes, it really was a battle between a Dem and a GOP incumbent. Franken won. He's been flat out on his best Senatorial behavior both when running and since then. Those of us who would like to see the old Al just ripping the fuck out of the GOP as Lying Liars in a way that is both funny but biting have been shit out of luck: he's put that away. I get the sense of three things: * he wants to step away from being boxed in as a Comedian rather than a Senator * that both in terms of the initial election and also the re-election * he likely feels that if he wins re-election, the seat is his for as long as he wants barring the state going hard right Klobuchar just won re-election with 65.2% of the vote. Franken may not ever get that high, but he's working hard to be Senator Franken and focused on his state. If he retains the belt in 2014, he knows that barring being completely bonkers or the state turning red he's going to be one of those Senators for Life. There's an incentive for him to be mellow. Thanks to Hubert Humphrey and Paul Wellstone, Minnesota became known for not just its liberalism, but its pound-your-fist-on-the-table-and-get-mad-as-hell type of liberalism. Klobuchar, and now Franken, are changing that. Klobuchar is about as bland as you can get. No major legislation introduced. No dig-in-your-heels stance on a major issue. No firely language that riles up her base and angers conservatives. She does a lot of on-the-ground type of work throughout the state and really only searches for publicity when it's an issue she knows most people will agree w/ her on. She won her seat back w/ about 65 percent of the vote over a military veteran/tea party candidate. The hardcore libs were excited about Franken because they thought he'd be another Wellstone or Humphrey, a fire and brimstone style of liberal that will fight, fight, and fight some more. The conservatives, and many independents, were scared of Franken because they thought the same thing. Well, Franken has morphed himself into Klobuchar 2.0, and with the exception of a few outbursts about net neutrality, really hasn't stirred the pot. The hardcore libs don't seem to mind as long it keeps a republican out of the seat. Franken is also winning over moderates. Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty were thought of as possible challengers to Franken when he's up for re-election. Both of their stars have fallen considerably. Who knows what could happen, but JDW is right, Franken has chosen to take the senator-for-life path and right now that path appears clear of any roadblocks. I still think he might crank up the liberalism a bit if he gets re-elected and feels more comfortable, but we'll see. Another side note on wrestling and and politics in Minnesota: Scott LeDoux, the former boxer who ocassionally appeared as a guest ref or in some other capacity on AWA cards, was elected as a county commissioner in Anoka county back in 2004 (I'm 99% sure that was they year). Anoka County is a northern suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul and is a conservative stronghold. County commissioner candidates don't run w/ a party affiliation, so I'm not sure where LeDoux fell on that spectrum. Anyway, LeDoux died in 2010 (again, 99% sure that's the year) of ALS and his wife took over his seat. She won re-election again this time around. Also, Klobuchar's father (Jim) was/is a sportswriter in the Twin Cities. I should do a little digging and see if he ever wrote about wrestling. If Vince ever did run, I wonder how smart Jim is to the business and Vince's many skeletons. A lot of the old sportswriters around here talk openly about the glory days of the AWA if you can get them going on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Most politicians are way more evil than Vince could ever be. He would need two terms in the Senate to even enter a beginners class. If a Vince Senate victory somehow leads to a Vince/Mitch McConnell match at Wrestlemania, then I'm all for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Most politicians are way more evil than Vince could ever be. He would need two terms in the Senate to even enter a beginners class. If a Vince Senate victory somehow leads to a Vince/Mitch McConnell match at Wrestlemania, then I'm all for it! Rush Limbaugh as guest referee. Ann Coulter would be Vince's valet, but would turn on him, kick him in the nuts, and leave w/ McConnell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Given the campaign she ran, she really should have ran as an independent. She probably would have still lost, but 2010 proved she couldn't win as a Republican in CT. She should have run elsewhere in the first place though. I think she would have done worse as an Indy from the start (i.e. avoided the primary). If the GOP produced a tea bagger out of the primary who did even a modest job of retaining the GOP Base, Linda would have been between two rocks: 0% of the GOP Base, and the Obama Dems over time coming home to Murphy. Linda wouldn't have broken 30%. Things in CT are different from 2006 where: * the GOP Machine intentionally tanked to help Lieb win * Moderate Dems were confused over their support of Lieb * Indies were confused over their support of Lieb The GOP Machine has much less control these days over the voters and also the candidates. Ask Dick Lugar about that. There also remain a lot of CT voters who felt burned by Lieb. It's why he didn't run for re-election, despite his massive asshole ego wanting to be Senator For Life: he'd long ago seen the polling that vastly too many voters in the state hated him. Few of those voters were going to take a suckers bet on Linda as an "indy" since they, more than just about any state, know that in the end an Indy in the Senate ends up with one of the parties... and then it's a matter of just how much they support that party. Everyone would have known that Linda would be a Republican. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 On Vince running... he wouldn't have a shot of winning in CT. Could he win someplace else if (i) he had a well run campaign, and (ii) he followed the orders of that well run campaign? Quite possible. There are a lot of places Rand Paul couldn't have won. There are a lot of candidates against which Rand Paul could have lost. TN was a favorable state for him, especially in 2010. After pissing off the GOP Machine by running in and winning the primary (read Mitch as much as anyone), they circled the wagon around him... and actually got him to be very careful about what he said and where he appeared. He wasn't running against an strong candidate. There are plenty of other places in the country where he could have won a similar seat in 2010, depending on the opponents. Rand won in Kentucky not TN. In fact it is very unlikely Rand could have won in TN. I get Lawler's territory mixed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Klobuchar is about as bland as you can get. No major legislation introduced. No dig-in-your-heels stance on a major issue. No firely language that riles up her base and angers conservatives. She does a lot of on-the-ground type of work throughout the state and really only searches for publicity when it's an issue she knows most people will agree w/ her on. She won her seat back w/ about 65 percent of the vote over a military veteran/tea party candidate. I *think* she's playing the long game. She came in with the massive Dem wave of 2006 that was then supported by another big batch of pick ups in 2008: 44+1 --> 49+2 --> 57+2 Just taking a quick look, it appears that she's already tied for 26th in the Dem Senate Caucus counting those who go out in January. In 2014, a few others ahead of her will retire or get bounced... there's also the possibility that some, like Kerry, will move onto other things earlier. She was a freshman who retained her spot, learned the ropes, supported Leadership, and moves up the depth chart and over a few seats closer to the Chair / Ranking spot on some committees. This is pretty smart. Like we both seem to be talking about: if your state is semi-stable, the keys are (i) getting elected, and then (ii) getting that first re-election under your belt. Then you can holding it a long time barring those waves or scandal or changing demos in a state. The hardcore libs were excited about Franken because they thought he'd be another Wellstone or Humphrey, a fire and brimstone style of liberal that will fight, fight, and fight some more. The conservatives, and many independents, were scared of Franken because they thought the same thing. Well, Franken has morphed himself into Klobuchar 2.0, and with the exception of a few outbursts about net neutrality, really hasn't stirred the pot. The hardcore libs don't seem to mind as long it keeps a republican out of the seat. Franken is also winning over moderates. I'm a hardcore lib, and really wanted him to kick the GOP in the balls for their most blatant lies. When Al didn't, and continued acting in the manner that he did when running, I think I got pretty quickly that he wasn't going to give the opposition fodder to paint him as out of control or a joke. That's smart. Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty were thought of as possible challengers to Franken when he's up for re-election. Both of their stars have fallen considerably. Who knows what could happen, but JDW is right, Franken has chosen to take the senator-for-life path and right now that path appears clear of any roadblocks. Not entirely sure if he wants to be senator for life like say Inouye, Leahy, Lugar and Hatch types. But I think he wants a "run". He's 61. 2014 re-election... could see him doing 3 terms: 2007-2025 which is 74. I still think he might crank up the liberalism a bit if he gets re-elected and feels more comfortable, but we'll see. Totally agree, and suspect it will come if he wins re-election. Then he has a clear 2014-2020 to define himself. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 I have to say, I've never heard anyone use "fire and brimstone" to describe Hubert Humphrey or Paul Wellstone before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 Really? My old boss worked with Hubert and that's how he described him, so I guess I always use that phrase too. I guess it conjures images of preachers telling us that "we're all going to hell," but I mean it in a they were very passionate and outspoken kind of way....and maybe a little crazy, depending on your point of view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 Here's the latest fallout: Linda McMahon Reflects on Her $97 Million Senate Bids McMahon planned Hurricane Sandy dirty trick... BLISS ATTACKS 'CLASSLESS, BITTER' SHAYS, SAYS HE NEEDS 'PSYCHIATRIC CARE' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 From the Businessweek interview: What had you learned from the first race? I felt I really needed to have my thoughts and plan written down so people could see it. Because of the associations with WWE, I wasn’t resonating with women so that became a priority, so we started something called “Conversations with Linda.” Those worked out so well that she did even worse with women voters this time around (60-39 vs. 59-40 in 2010). She also got creamed among working-class voters (67-30 among voters with incomes of less than 50k). So either the polls showing her doing well among that group were way off or they smartened up after the debates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 10, 2012 Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 Reads like Linda McMahon campaign manager Corry Bliss has been watching too much WWE as he's trying to cut promos. FWIW, it would be awesome to see how much he (and his related compaines and pals) got paid for exploiting Linda's deep pockets in this loser of a campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 10, 2012 Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 Wait... the fuck? Q: When did you realize you’d lost the race? LINDA: I was sitting by myself, actually. I had just taken a moment to go upstairs and get my thoughts together on what I was still hoping would be a victory speech. I was just sitting there, going over my speech—clearly you have a concession speech as well, but you’re hoping that’s not the one you use. I wasn’t paying that much attention to the TV. This was about 40 minutes after the polls closed. Then I looked up and saw a check mark next to Chris Murphy’s name on ABC. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye. I just thought, “Wow.” I was stunned for a moment. I sat there for a few minutes on my own, reflecting on what the race had been. I thought about the thousands of people who not only had touched me but whom I had touched as well. All the notes, “Thank you for running. Thank you for showing me that it’s worth putting everything on the line,” and things like that. She was still hoping to write a victory speech on election day? It was clear well before that she was going to lose. I get putting on the brave face, but come on... John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted November 10, 2012 Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 I was just sitting there, going over my speech-clearly you have a concession speech as well, but you're hoping that's not the one you use. Tell that to Mitt Romney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted November 10, 2012 Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 5519507[/url]'] Wait... the fuck? Q: When did you realize you'd lost the race? LINDA: I was sitting by myself, actually. I had just taken a moment to go upstairs and get my thoughts together on what I was still hoping would be a victory speech. I was just sitting there, going over my speech—clearly you have a concession speech as well, but you're hoping that's not the one you use. I wasn't paying that much attention to the TV. This was about 40 minutes after the polls closed. Then I looked up and saw a check mark next to Chris Murphy's name on ABC. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye. I just thought, "Wow." I was stunned for a moment. I sat there for a few minutes on my own, reflecting on what the race had been. I thought about the thousands of people who not only had touched me but whom I had touched as well. All the notes, "Thank you for running. Thank you for showing me that it's worth putting everything on the line," and things like that. She was still hoping to write a victory speech on election day? It was clear well before that she was going to lose. I get putting on the brave face, but come on... John Read it again. It looks like she was going over the speech she already had prepared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 11, 2012 Report Share Posted November 11, 2012 My point: she should have known for several weeks that she wouldn't need here victory speech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Linda pays up to unhappy campaign door knockers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 16, 2012 Report Share Posted November 16, 2012 McMahon move a boon for Independent Party McMahon's Independent support needed to reflect at least 1 percent of the total 1,503,056 votes cast in the race. She got three times that amount -- 45,209. They'll probably want her on the ballot in 2016 again then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted November 16, 2012 Report Share Posted November 16, 2012 Independents are typically republicans who refuse to admit that they're republicans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 22, 2012 Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 Linda McMahon's canvassers complain about bounced checks and condoms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 You guys remember how we were discussing what Vince McMahon running for office would be like? Donald Trump is showing us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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