From The Roots

Two New Ads From Senate Candidates

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Two new ads from Democratic Senate candidates hit the airwaves today, one from Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and the other from Robin Carnahan in Missouri.

Week In Review

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

-In Alaska, the extremists of the Tea Party seem to have won yet another Republican primary, as right-wing attorney Joe Miller leads incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski

Miller could become the sixth Tea Party-backed insurgent to topple a GOP frontrunner.

-In Colorado, Ken Buck has been taking fire from the Denver Post for his hypocrisy on earmarks. Although Buck has crusaded against earmarks during his campaign, even signing an anti-earmark pledge, the Post revealed that Buck himself has requested over $5 million in earmarks.

Meanwhile the DSCC has gone on the air with an ad against Buck in Colorado, and Buck’s Democratic opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet, has done the same.

-In Nevada, Sharron Angle has been caught on yet another jaw-droppingly outrageous statement of her campaign, on a radio show with conservative host Bill Manders:

MANDERS: We have domestic enemies. We have home-born homegrown enemies in our system. And I for one think we have some of those enemies in the walls of the Senate and the Congress.

ANGLE: Yes. I think you're right, Bill.

-In Wisconsin, Ron Johnson has been called out for hypocrisy similar to Ken Buck’s: the businessman who rails against government subsidies got at least $4 million in government loans to help build his business. Though Johnson claims “never to have lobbied” for government assistance, there are now four million examples to the contrary.

-Though Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey has supported privatizing Social Security for years, he apparently doesn’t want anybody to know. Earlier this week he denied ever having supported the idea:

“I’ve never said I favor privatizing Social Security,” Toomey said Monday in response to a question at the Press Club of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. “It’s an intentionally misleading term,” he added.

The DSCC subsequently came up with no fewer than 36 instances where Toomey supported Social Security privatization. Quite the embarrassment for Mr. Toomey.

From Sunspots To "Green"-land

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Every time Ron Johnson opens his mouth on climate issues, he reveals just how ill prepared and ill suited he is for public service

Johnson received heavy (and well-deserved) criticism for his assertion that global warming is primarily caused by “sunspots”, a theory roundly debunked by scientific experts.

Undeterred, however, Johnson went on to opine that the island of Greenland was named for its once-balmy climate:

"There's a reason Greenland was called Greenland," he said. "It was actually green at one point in time. And it's been, since, it's a whole lot whiter now."

In fact, Greenland was covered in glaciers when it was named; according to legend, Erik the Red named the icy island “Greenland” in order to entice potential immigrants.

Johnson’s command of history is no better than his understanding of science, it seems.

Week In Review

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Highlights from this week in campaigns...

New Ad From Richard Blumenthal

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic nominee for Senate, is up with a new TV ad in the wake of the GOP primary. Click through to watch it.

Mark Kirk's Duplicity

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Mark Kirk, August 9, 2010:

Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he's inclined to vote for a $26 billion jobs bill that Democrats are pushing.

Kirk is a congressman from Chicago's northern suburbs. He was headed back to Washington for Tuesday's vote on the bill, which is expected to keep teachers as well as state and local government workers from losing their jobs.

On Monday, Kirk called the measure deficit neutral and said it would keep teachers in the classroom.

Mark Kirk, August 10, 2010:

No.

Mark Kirk didn’t just lie about being a teacher, he lied about supporting teachers as well.

Fortunately, the jobs bill in question (which Kirk himself admitted would be deficit neutral and save thousands of teachers’ jobs) passed the House today, 247-161, despite Kirk’s duplicity.

Kirk has now flip-flopped on cap-and-trade, gun rights, and now the jobs bill for teachers. Is this the influence of his mysterious “Svengali figure?”

Coats Seeks To Privatize Social Security

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Career Washington politician-turned-lobbyist Dan Coats made it clear again that he stands with Wall Street and special interests over working Hoosier families by embracing the much-maligned “Ryan Roadmap”, a radical proposal by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan to privatize Social Security, cut the tax rate on corporations, raise the retirement age to 70, and replace Medicare and Medicaid with private vouchers.

Currently 1.1 million Hoosiers receive Social Security benefits, but Coats apparently likes the idea of leaving their retirement funds up to the vagaries of Wall Street – a plan which, had it been enacted prior to the recent financial crisis, would have thrown thousands into poverty.

Evidently Dan Coats prefers to line the pockets of Wall Street bankers rather than protect Indiana seniors.

Toomey Opposes Saving Jobs For Teachers, Police, Firefighters

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Today the United States Senate voted in favor of a critical, bipartisan bill which will save the jobs of teachers, policemen and firefighters; among teachers alone, the bill will save nearly 140,000 jobs, all while reducing the deficit.

Former Wall Street trader Pat Toomey, however, announced today that he would have voted against the bill.

The bill will cut $1.4 billion off the deficit by closing foreign tax loopholes for large corporations, and will keep 12,500 Pennsylvanian teachers, policemen and firefighters employed. Yet Pat Toomey is unconcerned about saving the jobs of these hardworking Pennsylvanians.

Apparently he prioritizes Wall Street and big business over Pennsylvania.

Money Can't Buy Me Love

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

As the Connecticut primary approaches, Linda McMahon is getting savaged in the press, which apparently prefers sorta-kinda-candidate Rob Simmons to McMahon despite the fact that Simmons is barely running any more.

In endorsing her opponent Rob Simmons, the New London Day focused on the unsavory aspects of McMahon’s business career at the WWE:

Ms. McMahon made her riches through an exploitative and often degrading form of entertainment with links to steroid use. WWE glorifies violence and bullying. It has treated women as objects and people with disabilities as victims, not equals.

The Manchester Journal-Inquirer focused on the general lack of substance in her campaign:

“When it comes to substance, her campaign is null, nothingness, a void. She is neither conservative nor qualified. She is a new face, a millionaire who supposedly was once bankrupt, a candidate with a fat checkbook. Period.”

The Norwich Bulletin hit *both*:

“McMahon’s campaign is based on her successful business career, the former CEO of a sleazy “entertainment” business that exploits and degrades women, glorifies violence and is riddled with drug scandals. She refuses to deal with that honestly, instead dismissing it as “just a soap opera. When people die, it’s not just a soap opera.”

“McMahon has no vision or plan. Her campaign is nothing more than 30-second sound bites about the past.”

And the Hartford Courant is skeptical about her refusal to debate the issues:

“It's a strike against her that she won't test her capacity to withstand hostile questions in additional debates with her rivals.”

Despite the tens of millions of dollars she has poured into her campaign, Linda McMahon can’t buy any love.

On The Anniversary Of Medicare...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

45 years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law, and since that day, the program has become one of the most successful and most popular in the history of the United States.

It is a mark of how thoroughly retrograde Republican Senate candidates are that nine of their top candidates seek to privatize it, get rid of it altogether, or (in the case of Rand Paul) refer to it as “Soviet-style socialism.”

Colorado Senate candidates Ken Buck and Jane Norton have both opined that government shouldn’t be running health care programs like Medicare, an opinion shared by Roy Blunt (who has specifically cited Medicare in support of the argument that government should not be involved with health care).

For his part, Blunt also voted to replace Medicare with a private program, a vote also taken by his Congressional colleague John Boozman. Sharron Angle would be satisfied to simply "phase it out".

David Vitter, Ron Johnson, and Dan Coats have all endorsed similar plans to privatize or replace Medicare, but they’ve got nothing on Rand Paul when it comes to rhetoric:

“The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed -- socialism doesn't work.”

752,556 Kentuckians depend on Medicare, and it’s clear that Paul – and the rest of his Republican friends – have no interest in protecting it for them.