2014 Election

[Ryan Ruck]

LMFAO!

Sorry, What? The Huffington Post Says Mia Love Enjoys WHITE PRIVILEGE

November 9, 2014

Mia Love, the former mayor of Saratoga Spring, Utah, won her race for Utah’s 4th congressional district Tuesday and will now be the first black Republican woman (and first Haitian-American) to sit in the United States Congress.

The heads of leftists have been exploding ever since Love’s victory as they attempt to come to grips with how a black woman could champion bedrock conservative principles such as fiscal discipline, limited government and personal responsibility.

The most fascinating treatise about Love — thus far — comes via The Huffington Post where Darron Smith, a desperately confused blogger with a Ph.D. in education, accuses Love of benefitting from a form of “white privilege.”

Smith, who is somehow on a first-name basis with Love as he writes, lauds Love as a super-duper minority member: black, a woman and a Mormon to boot.

He can’t understand, though, how Love doesn’t agree with his own political ideology. Because she disagrees with him, he declares that the principles she espouses go against her interests — because of the color of her skin and the sexual organs she possesses.

“Love’s political convictions show a strong support for values that do not necessarily represent her interests as a member in any of these oppressed groups,” Smith writes. “For example, blacks are not doing well with respect to education, economics and health outcomes, while women still trail behind in salary and significant positions of power, and conservative politics are not typically known to aid these groups in such key issues. These actualities of Mia’s existence seem to be diametrically opposed to her values that are grounded in a white, male, Christian context.”

Smith then lays down his blogger coup de grâce:

“She appears publicly unhampered by the daily grind of white racism that affects other racial minorities within the United States,” he proclaims. “Unlike most of them, Mia gets to walk through the hallowed doorways of white institutions controlled by elite, powerful men. She is allowed to pass through in her black, female body with the understanding that she must not see, speak or openly advocate for anything related to race or gender — an unholy compromise. Hence, she might look black, but her politics are red. This is one way white privilege is reproduced at the legislative level of government.”

“Mia and others like her are seemingly out of touch with the political realities of African Americans and what remains at stake for them,” the blogger concludes, hastening to add that “[i]t would be a mistake to assume that all black people are monolithic and share the same political inclinations.”

Smith also suggests that the Republican Party — but not the Democratic Party — exhibits a “pattern of using blacks to further white interests.”

Love is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and a first-generation American. She was first elected to the Saratoga Spring city council in 2003.

She also made headlines in 2012 for her speech during the Republican National Convention.

While Love was the favorite going into Tuesday, she won by a slim margin of only a few thousand votes.

[American Patriot]

This whole "white privilege" thing is the biggest load of bullshit words created by the left in a long time. It has people confused about what the term even means and someone I know has argued with me, her brother and her mother about how she "disdains" "White Privilege" because it's JUST WRONG and we should give it up too.

When I asked, "How, precisely does one give up something one doesn't HAVE in the first place?" she couldn't explain that.

When I explained that our family comes from a background of Irish immigrants who were basically forced to the "New World" to get rid of our fighting, drinking, criminal asses as slaves she was completely flabbergasted.

It is sad that 30-somethings are so illiterate, misinformed and brainwashed.

[MinutemanCO]

My family came here from Naples at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They worked, as most Italians did, in the worst possible conditions unfit for man or anything claiming to be man. For generations they cleaned the lime kilns at the Solvay Process plant for Allied Chemical in Syracuse, NY, manufacturing sodium bicarbonate. My grandfather was stricken with blood poisoning from the job site and could not go anywhere near the plant after about the age of 50 and subsequently denied any post-ailment benefits. I would doubt these working conditions would be allowed any longer for any man nor beast. Not in that form.

My father worked at the plant until he realized it was killing our family and joined the Marines. Following the Marines he fought and scratched to get his masters degree at Syracuse University.

Family on the other side were farmers, coal miners, and railroad workers in Pennsylvania.

So, as for white privilege? Blow it out your ass.

[American Patriot]

That's my thinking too.

You know the whole Irish Cop stereotype? I had folks in the family who did that job back in the 20s and 30s. Even before that. Because you know those "micks" couldn't do anything else, they weren't "smart enough".

And some of them came here as prisoners and indentured servants in the 1700s. Then there were the other Irish that came here during the potato famine. Thousands came here. Thousands more died because they couldn't get here.

My father was a Marine and a truck driver. At one time he operated printing presses and the linotype (look that one up).

His father was an alcoholic who died in the early 1970s (I used have to help clean his sorry ass up... my grandpa... right) but he too worked his ass off in his younger days.

The Great G-pa was a farmer, so were the others before him that I know of. The man we think that came over and started the family was originally an indentured servant who "served his time out" and went on to have several sons (one of which is in my direct line) though we've never been able to prove his is directly related. There are no tax records, or immigration records that survive from that time. I know of the other part of the story because we hunted through hundreds of records to find a tiny bit of information.

(Btw I don't bother to DO genealogy any more because frankly no one in the family but me is even interested - and why bother if no one else of the kids doesn't give a shit?)

All of this has a point. NONE OF US were born with money. We've worked our asses off for it.

[Ryan Ruck]

Dems' Final Insult: Landrieu Crushed

Cassidy trounces incumbent with Republicans set to control 54 Senate seats in the next Congress

December 7, 2014

In the final insult of a devastating 2014 election for Democrats, Sen. Mary Landrieu, the party’s last remaining statewide officeholder from the Deep South, was trounced Saturday in the head-to-head Louisiana Senate runoff election.

Republican Bill Cassidy’s resounding victory is the ninth Senate seat picked up by the GOP in this year’s elections, three more than the party needed to take control of the chamber. With nearly all the ballots counted, Cassidy led Landrieu by 14 points, 57 percent to 43 percent.

“On November 4th, the American people sent a message that they didn’t like the direction our country was heading,” Cassidy said in his victory speech. “Our state is the exclamation mark on that message.”

His win gives Republicans a four-seat cushion going into 2016, when the party is seeking to protect its first Senate majority since 2006. The next election cycle’s Senate map is as bad for Republicans as this year’s was for Democrats, with the GOP forced to defend seven seats in states President Barack Obama carried twice.

Landrieu, the three-term incumbent who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, found herself cut off and left for dead by national Democrats after party strategists decided she had no realistic path to victory in Saturday’s Bayou State runoff. She lost much of her clout when Democrats lost their majority, and her failure to pass legislation to move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline in the lame duck session last month made her look politically impotent.

Cassidy, a medical doctor, first elected to a Baton Rouge-area congressional seat in 2008, ran an uninspiring but mistake-free campaign that capitalized on increasing hostility to the Democratic party in Louisiana and throughout the Deep South.

It was the final major race of a 2014 election cycle in which Republicans won nearly every battleground Senate election, gained three governorships and at least 246 House seats. Democrats’ efforts to localize many of these contests fell flat, and Republicans succeeded in making the election a referendum on the unpopular president.

Cassidy, excited as he addressed a throng of supporters in Baton Rouge, wrapped up his speech by yelling “Boom!” — and then making his way off stage to celebrate.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), the outgoing chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, noted that Cassidy will be one of a dozen new Republican senators to take office next month and added that, with his win, “Republicans now control every Senate seat, governor’s mansion and legislative body from the Texas high plains to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas.”

Obama — and his 39-percent approval rating in the November exit poll — has been an anchor on Landrieu all year. In 2008, Landrieu won a majority on election night — pulling 205,000 more votes than Obama and avoiding a runoff.

But the reputation she cultivated as a moderate was no match for the increasing toxicity of the Obama brand in the state.

During the open primary election last month, Landrieu won just 18 percent of the white vote, according to exit polls, compared to 33 percent six years ago. She got 42 percent overall; since no candidate earned a majority of the vote, the top two finishers went to a runoff.

Landrieu, delivering her concession at the Roosevelt Hotel in the Big Easy just an hour after polls closed, received some of the loudest cheers when she mentioned her vote for Obamacare.

“This is something to be proud of, and I’m glad we fought for it,” she said, describing her own record as one of “courage.”

Cassidy, 57, ran a low-profile campaign featuring fewer public events. He made the remarkable decision to spend Wednesday and Thursday in Washington for routine House votes, a reflection of his confidence.

The only debate of the runoff took place Monday and produced nothing close to a game-changing moment. Cassidy was awkward and stiff, while Landrieu tried to gin up controversy over him earning $20,000-a-year to practice medicine at Louisiana State University while collecting his congressional paycheck.

Landrieu found herself on the defensive for improperly billing taxpayers more than $30,000 in private charter flights to campaign events since 2002. But the debate mainly focused on the issues that have defined the contest, such as Obamacare, gun control and abortion. Landrieu is on the wrong side of the state’s electorate on each.

She made two significant strategic miscalculations. First, she thought she could win outright in November and spent accordingly — burning through almost $16 million, more than double what Cassidy spent. Second, she thought control of the Senate could come down to the results in Louisiana, which would guarantee national Democrats spent millions — or maybe tens of millions — on her behalf.

Neither came to pass. Just two days after the first round of voting, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee canceled $1.9 million of advertising reservations it had made to help in the runoff.

Landrieu publicly criticized the party for giving up on her, and she asked female colleagues to try cajoling DSCC leaders to reverse their decision.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee also scaled back its buys after the Democrats pulled out but still spent around $1 million in the runoff. Also spending around $1 million were American Crossroads, Freedom Partners and the National Rifle Association. Ending Spending, the conservative group, spent $1.7 million on TV ads and direct voter contact.

The Republican National Committee said it spent $2.9 million on the ground game, including an effort to test new tactics it wants to try during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The main outside group helping Landrieu on TV during the runoff was the Humane Society Legislative Fund, which spent a paltry $123,000.

In total, outside groups supporting Landrieu aired about 100 TV ads, compared to more than 6,000 commercials from anti-Landrieu groups.

Before the November election, Landrieu’s campaign aggressively reached out to the African-American community, which is about one-third of the electorate. But they did so carefully to avoid linking the senator too closely with Obama.

During the runoff, the campaign became much less cautious. Her chief of staff was caught on hidden camera bragging to a predominantly African-American crowd that his boss votes with Obama 97 percent of the time and would continue to — a statistic already being cited in Republican attack ads.

Also believing the runoff was ultimately a base election, Cassidy focused on winning over conservatives who didn’t vote for him in the first round. The Friday after the election, Cassidy took fellow Republican Rob Maness, who won 14 percent of the vote in the primary, to dinner at Ye Olde College Inn in New Orleans. Maness agreed to endorse Cassidy at a unity rally the following Monday.

The phones were ringing off the hook at Cassidy campaign headquarters with top-flight surrogates, including potential presidential candidates, trying to help so they could claim some credit for an anticipated win. Among those who campaigned on the ground were Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), along with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), neurologist Ben Carson and Sen.-elect Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent fundraising emails, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headlined a high-dollar fundraiser in Washington this week.

Landrieu brought in a handful of lesser-known Senate colleagues. Hillary Clinton hosted a fundraiser for her at the start of this week, but it was in New York City.

Cassidy was not seen as running a strong campaign. If the majority was at stake Saturday, or polls showed the race in play, national Republicans planned to send several operatives to help right the ship.

But there was really no need. Landrieu made a last-ditch bid during the lame duck to demonstrate her clout by passing the Keystone XL pipeline bill. She pushed her colleagues hard and had support from every Republican senator, but she fell short of breaking a filibuster by one vote.

The Landrieu dynasty is not over. Her brother, Mitch, is the fairly popular mayor of New Orleans and may try to run for statewide office in the future. In her concession, Landrieu said “Louisiana will always be worth fighting for” and promised that her family “will continue to do so.”

Indeed, as soon as she finished her speech, Taylor Swift’s hit song “Shake It Off” started blasting through the ballroom.

The Louisiana governorship is opening up next year, as outgoing Gov. Bobby Jindal plots a presidential campaign. GOP Sen. David Vitter is the frontrunner to succeed him, which could create a vacancy when his seat is up for election again in 2016.

Republicans also held onto two Louisiana House seats in runoffs on Saturday in solidly GOP districts. Ralph Abraham won the seat currently held by GOP Rep. Vance McAllister, who finished fourth in last month’s primary following an adultery scandal. In the race for Cassidy’s House seat, Republican Garret Graves beat former Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards, the colorful, 87-year-old seeking political redemption after felony convictions for corruption.

Cassidy tried to strike a conciliatory tone near the end of his speech, saying he wanted to let those who opposed him know: “I don’t care that you voted for Sen. Landrieu. I am here to serve you too.”

But he also couldn’t help cracking a joke about his outreach efforts. “I did a robocall in Spanish,” he said. “It probably cost me votes.”

[Avvakum]

Lol, I can imagine the Butthurt in the White House.

[Ryan Ruck]

Cuomo Had A Secret Re-Election ‘Pact’ With Republicans

November 10, 2014

The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.

Former state Republican Party Executive Director Michael Lawler — who managed Rob Astorino’s ill-fated gubernatorial run against Cuomo — told The Post that he learned of the alleged bombshell deal between Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos and Cuomo just days ago, after suspecting for months that it existed.

“Dean Skelos clearly was working against Rob’s campaign — he and the governor cut a deal,’’ seethed Lawler, a protégé of GOP Chairman Ed Cox.

The Nassau County-based Skelos and his aides “fight for nothing, stand for nothing except staying in power,’’ Lawler charged.

Lawler said he found out about the alleged Skelos-Cuomo arrangement from a top political aide to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican and Skelos ally who, in a serious setback to Astorino, endorsed Cuomo last month. “We heard rumblings that Mangano was going to [endorse Cuomo], and I reached out to his folks and was told ‘absolutely not,’ that Mangano would endorse Astorino, although he would then let Cuomo use a video of him praising the governor,’’ Lawler said.

“But after Mangano actually endorsed Cuomo in a video on TV, I called Mangano’s guy and said, ‘What the f–k?’ He said, ‘When this is over, give me a call.’

“So I called him a few days ago, and he said, ‘A deal was cut for Mangano to endorse Cuomo in exchange for Cuomo staying out of the Senate races on Long Island,’ ’’ Lawler continued. “I asked him, ‘Who cut the deal?’ And he said, ‘People higher than me.’

“I said, ‘Dean?’ And he responded, ‘That would be a pretty good guess.’ ”

Both GOP and Democratic sources had been speculating on the possibility for a while, noting that in the lead-up to last week’s election, Cuomo had been doing little to help his party win a majority in the Senate. If the governor made any appearance on behalf of a Democratic candidate on Long Island, it was a token in-and-out visit, with no follow-up and virtually no financial support, observers said.

The GOP rout of Long Island Senate seats included Jack Martins’ win over Adam Haber, Tom Croci over Adrienne Esposito and Kemp Hannon over Ethan Irwin.

Lawler said he and others in Astorino’s camp saw repeated additional evidence that Skelos — a key Cuomo political ally on such controversial measures as gay marriage and the anti-gun Safe Act — wanted the governor re-elected. “We asked Dean numerous times to hold press conferences with Rob in Nassau in reference to Cuomo’s Moreland Commission scandal, in reference to Rob’s tax, jobs and education plans, on Cuomo’s taking $37.5 million from Sandy victims for his Start-Up NY ads,’’ Lawler said. “And each time, Dean or his people either refused our request or they just didn’t respond,’’ Lawler said.

Skelos spokeswoman Kelly Cummings called Lawler’s charges “totally false,’’ insisting that “Skelos supported Astorino’’ and contending that Mangano’s decision to back Cuomo “was his own.”

A Cuomo spokesman also dismissed any deal between his boss and Skelos as a “delusion,” adding, “It’s wrong on the facts.”

But Lawler noted that ironically, Skelos would likely become leader of the new Republican-led Senate because Astorino’s presence at the top of the ticket helped three upstate GOP challengers defeat Democratic incumbents.

“The only reason Republicans will have a majority is because of Rob Astorino, who outperformed the governor in key areas including Monroe County and the Capital District, where we won,’’ Lawler said.

“Senate Republicans worked against Rob tactically, but if it wasn’t for Rob providing a strong top of the ticket in these areas, those same Senate Republicans would not have won the majority,’’ he said.

Lawler said he realized his explosive comments could cost him his future in New York politics but insisted he didn’t care.

“I’ve had enough of these f—ing people,’’ he said. “I’m happy to go on the record about all of this, and if that means I don’t get a job up in Albany, I’m happy with it.”