Marc Ambinder ranks the Senate races today. He put Minnesota in the catagory “Leaning Democratic Flip.” Here’s what he had to say about the race:
Al Franken has finally broke free of the comedian’s curse, as Norm Coleman’s suits have somehow become the big campaign issue. If this race is tied, it leans D because the state leans D.
Loading ...
This is going to be a bloodbath. A comedian from New York is going to be our next Senator.
This will be for Democrats what 1994 was for Republicans. So the cycle is 14 years? I guess I’ll be flying high in 2022.
The cycle is about 40 years for when the Democrats have control, DtM.
And that’s how long the cycle should be. It was only 14 years on the last cycle, because the GOP was not only incredibly incompetent, they were also incredibly corrupt.
Staep aside and watch the difference between Democrats “governing”, and what the GOP did, which can only kindly be called “ruling.”
DtM
This year is for Democrats what 1932 was for Democrats. I’m afraid you’ll be swimming around in your bloodbath for the rest of your pitifully selfish life.
“I’m afraid you’ll be swimming around in your bloodbath for the rest of your pitifully selfish life.”
Lojasmo - Who is selfish? I’m going to pay the taxes that the Government will force me to. I’m going to fund the government operations for dozens of Americans. And I won’t qualify for things like an IRA or a energy efficient tax credit because I make too much. But I’ll still pay for a big chunk of our government to operate. I’ll do it without kicking and screaming.
Just when I start to link Tinklenberg, think Sarvi is a good guy, and have a generally good opinion of guys like Walz and Collin Peterson, I read BS like what you wrote. This is why I can’t be a Democrat.
It is a little like why I can’t cheer for the Packers. I always liked Brett Favre. I actually thought the guys on the field were half way decent. But just when I see myself starting to like the Pack, I look at the fans. And there is no way I could root for a team who has fans like that.
You don’t represent your party very gracefully, lojasmo.
I would just add that that last time we had a Democratic trifecta (Pres, House, Senate) was 1976 - 1980. Turned out real well for all of us.
I am hopeful that our politicians can go to Washington and clean up this economic mess. I wouldn’t mind some work across the aisles, as I think it is time for all of us to remember we are first and foremost Americans.
Breaking news — - Sarah Palin did in fact ABUSE HER POWER AS GOVERNOR. This was a bipartisan commission stating that Sarah Palin BROKE THE LAW. Walter Monegan can now file a lawsuit against Ms Palin.
I would say game-set-match for this election cycle.
I can see DTM on the sidewalk to nowhere with all the McCain Palin ilk. Is he shouting epithets, or just nodding silently in agreement? Either way, his Conservative party and ideology are bankrupt. It will take more than 14 years to fix the mess the GOP made for my generation. Pathetic.
“I wouldn’t mind some work across the aisles, as I think it is time for all of us to remember we are first and foremost Americans.”
SWD - We’re completely in synch on that one. In fact, if we had good, honest, bipartisan effectiveness across the isles, I couldn’t care less who is technically in power.
Zach - I’m a Ramstad Republican. I can live with common sense Democrats. What I don’t like is two wolves and a rooster sitting down and taking a vote on what to have for dinner. That is essentially what happens when you know that you can do whatever sounds nice and always stick the bill to someone else. But the Gordon Smiths, the Evan Bayhs, the Collin Petersons… I can live with them.
I’m excited to see what Democrats can do. Believe me, for the sake of the country, I would love nothing more than to be proven completely wrong. We’ll know in four years.
DtM, I never thought I’d see the day I’d miss Richard Nixon.
Your president made me do just that.
And I say “yours”, because he sure didn’t give a ass s’tar about anybody that wasn’t in his party.
Since Gingrich in 1994, GOPers have played extremist partisan politics. The last eight, under Boy Blunder, has been partisanship on steroids from the GOP.
It’s going to take a long time to dig out of the hole of an 11 TRILLION dollar debt. Under the GOP, the national debt now has more digits than the sign in Times Square has spaces.
And to fix it, it’s going to take constant reminder of who got us into this mess. I look at this country’s problems, and I see three letters: a G and an O and a P.
“Just when I start to link Tinklenberg, think Sarvi is a good guy, and have a generally good opinion of guys like Walz and Collin Peterson, I read BS like what you wrote. This is why I can’t be a Democrat.”
Poor dan. His values are so fragile that some bad meanie who called him selfish is scaring him away from being a democrat.
Dan: You have voted for two democrats and an independent (who you somehow count as a democrat) in the last ten years. You will NEVER be a democrat. Even if every democrat you ever meet in real life or online kisses your ass repeatedly, you will never be a democrat.
Dan, you are a selfish person. You repeatedly rail against taxes and ‘entitlements’. You are opposed to the government promoting the general welfare as called for in the preamble to the constitution. In my opinion, your values are anathema to everything our nation stands for.
I don’t give a flying fvck how I represent my party to people like you. In public, in real life, to people who might possibly vote to better our country, I represent my party and it’s values just fine.
TPT -
Here’s the deal. It’s clear your party is going to win big. Maybe even a veto-proof majority. So, if in 4 years:
- Dems have made progress to make our government more efficient, and Obama has gone line-by-line through the budget looking for waste as I’ve heard him promise me at least twice
- Dems have created an environment where jobs are more plentiful because it is a better environment for entrepreneurs and small businesses to create them
- Our health system is able to provide better care to the population in a way that can be supported by Americans in 20, 40, 60, and 80 years from now (not another Medicare)
- We are safer as a nation and have not been attacked on our soil by terrorists
- We are doing this all at a tax rate that leaves enough money for all families in America to pursue the quality of life that they have worked for
Then I will be the first to say “Nice Job Democrats”.
Here’s my attitude: If you guys are going to be in control, I have every reason to want you to succeed. I’m rooting for you. I really am. And if I 4 years you’ve made things worse, I’ll be the first to send my max campaign contributions to moderate Republicans to go in and create Change I can Believe In.
“Dan, you are a selfish person. You repeatedly rail against taxes and ‘entitlements’. You are opposed to the government promoting the general welfare as called for in the preamble to the constitution. In my opinion, your values are anathema to everything our nation stands for.”
I’m sorry for the lack of civility I’m about to display, but kiss my arse.
Am I selfish because I don’t think that paying half of my take home pay to the Government is the best way for me to help people with my good fortune? Is the only way to show compassion in this country to write massive checks to the government each year? Is paying taxes “patriotic” as Joe Biden seriously claimed? Sending money to Washington doesn’t make me feel like I’ve helped people. It simply makes me feel like I’ve paid for layers and layers of bureaucracy.
lojasmo, if you combine what I pay in taxes with what I give to my charitable cause, I am paying WAY more to the less fortunate and to our society than I would under even the dreamiest Democrat tax plan. And that charitable cause is helping people — every day. It helps people exactly where they need it. And it does it in a way where over 98% of the dollars get to the people who need it. I challenge government to make that kind of use of their treasure. They’d fail miserably.
Here is the catch: I think there are better, more effective, and way way way more efficient ways to help people than giving another dollar to uncle sam so that 60 cents of it can actually help someone after we’ve paid all of our federal departments to process the money.
Let’s open the books, lojasmo. Let’s see whose more frickin generous. You’re right, I don’t like our entitlement quagmire, and I prefer for workers to keep more of what they earn. But don’t call my selfish if you can’t back it up. You’re flat out wrong, and you’re awfully narrow-minded.
so silently nodding then? thats what i thought. weak. pathetic.
DTM,
Normally it seems like you are a pretty decent guy, and someone to have a good discussion, and a good sport to come on this site. Sometimes we Dems get so frustrated at being attacked we get angry and say dumb things, but that is really not the Democratic way, although sometimes I can be a dick too.
Anyway, a couple questions. Do you really think that the last 8 years have been good for the country? And don’t say we haven’t been attacked so it is all good. Clinton “kept” us safe for 8 years after the World Trade Center bombings just like Bush has “kept” us safe after 9/11. So, were the last 8 years good for us in any way?
Secondly, I am really sick of the short sightedness of conservatives who think their entire quality of life is dictated only by how much their taxes are. We have had 30 years of labor busting anti-worker policies, so that real wages have not increased one red cent in the last 7 year business cycle. So, conservatives crush labor so we have lower wages and worse benefits, but they offer the common man a $100 tax cut.
It is so short sighted and simplistic.
Anyway, sometimes we get fed up with being called socialists, communists, terrorists, traitors, redistributinists, leftists, and so on, and we may act like the dicks we despise.
I apologize for us all, and for the future because I am sure that I will let anger get in the way sometimes and lash out too.
Take care, Alec
Oh, yeah…
Ramstad actually voted his conscience, which is probably why he is leaving politics. Republicans are no longer allowed to vote their conscience. Granted Ramstd had a conservative conscience, but if stuff made sense he would vote for it even if it was a Democratic idea. Too bad those guys are few and far betwen in the Republican party these days. Alec
Democrats will win in a landslide. When they do, I’ll say “godspeed”. I hope they do well.
Bush has not been good for America, but there is more to the political spectrum than Bush and Obama. Does every last person in American have to pick one or the other as the person they 100% identify with?
Alec - I liked your post. Republicans do call Democrats socialists as a rhetorical technique, even though they know that the typical Democrat wouldn’t take us to socialism. Democrats call Republicans greedy and fascist, even though they know that guys like Ramstad are simply trying to keep Govt from getting too massive.
What tipped me off about lojasmo’s post was the personal attack that I was selfish. I do take offense to an uneducated and uninformed comment like that from someone I’ve never met.
Say, Alec?
To surmise - Ramstad wouldn’t play the game; Paulsen IS the game.
And that’s why I’m glad to watch his political career end; crashing and burning for the old-fashioned reason: he EARNED it.
Dan - you’re a vanishing bred - the Moderate Republican.
Sen. Lincoln Chaffee of RI failed to be re-elected in 2006, losing to a Democrat. Ramstad’s retiring, and the many other Republicans retiring from Congress this year are likely to be replaced by Democrats. In Minnesota, moderate Republicans like Kathy Tinglestad and Bud Heidgerken are retiring after feeling unappreciated by their party for role in helping to pass a new Transportation Bill in Minnesota to fix our crumbling transportation infrastructure.
The people that show up at McCain campaign events show us that the Republican faction of the population is filled with irrational people who live in fear of an Obama presidency because they believe old tired rumors about his religion, and other proven untruths.
So unfortunately your hard-earned money that goes not to taxes and to nonprofits but to political candidates is getting little return on the investment. But then Wall Street returns have been lousy this week too.
I agree, Virtually Speaking. The old fashioned Minnesota IR, the moderate Repub, is a dying breed. It is sad to see.
Yes, Wall Street returns were horrendous this week. The best return on your money right now? Either give it to an effective nonprofit or pay down your mortgage. Both will have an immediate, gauranteed return.
DtM, when the GOP gets beaten like a cheap drum, a rational person would think it’d be time for some serious genuflection by the base, to figure out what went wrong.
But today’s GOP base won’t do that; instead, they’ll go ballistic and become nastier and more divisive than ever.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance; today, that vigilance needs to be directed at monitoring the enemy within - today’s GOP party.