Benzionapalooza
by David Benzion · 11/08/2006 6:16 amQuestion– What kind of night was Election Day 2006 for David Benzion?
Answer– The one Democrat in the entire country I wanted to win… lost.
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“Real life” work intrudes this morning, but I’ll be back throughout the day as I get a chance, to sprinkle this space with various nuggets of insight on a number of races and the election as a whole. In the meantime, feel free to start gloating and beating the hell out of me in comments. I prefer to have all my opprobrium served to me in a single, convenient place.
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US SENATE– Regardless of whether or not the GOP can cling to a majority in the Senate, Dick Morris is advancing the theory that what the party needs is to elevate Trent Lott back into a leadership position, since he “knows how to make the trains run on time.”
Yeah–because the best way to communicate to the American people that “we got the message” is by empowering an entrenched political hack infamous for prioritizing federal pork for his contributors above all else and telling back-slapping, good-old-boy jokes about racial segregation.
Here’s my suggestion– put Tom Coburn in charge. His “Revolution of 1994″ credentials with the conservative base are, literally, impeccable. He’s charismatic and articulate. He is a decent man. And his opposition to earmarks and commitment to not doing “business as usual” is legendary. That would get some attention, and prove the GOP was serious about doing things differently.
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TX GOV.– The people have spoken– and 61% of them don’t want Rick Perry to be their governor. More interesting is if you combine Grandma and Kinky’s votes into a combo-candidate–let’s call it the “I Want to Shake Things Up But Don’t Like Voting For Liberal Democrats” vote–you get 31%. Still losing to Perry’s 39%, but as big of a voting bloc as Bell got with the straight-party 30% Democrat base.
God help the Texas GOP if the Texas Democratic party can get its act together and start putting forward conservative/populist statewide candidates in the mold of Chet Edwards (or pre-shift to the GOP Phil Gramm).
The simple fact is that at 39%, Perry trailed Hutchison (62%), Dewhurst (58%) and Abbott (59%) by anywhere from 23 to 19 points. Rick Perry owes his reelecton to the fact that a majority of Texans couldn’t come to agreement on who should be the one to throw his butt out.
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First again! Don’t worry Mr. B, I’m first in line for my whoopin’…sigh…Speaker Nancy Pelosi? I need an adult beverage…
Dick Morris is Dead Wrong about Trent Lott. Trent didn’t have the guts to impeach Clinton and initiated the breaking of the Republican’s Contract with America.
Trent Lott? Oh yeah, baby, that’s the ticket!!
Good grief. Heaven help us.
Tom Coburn???? Give me a break. Last night’s election only proves that the public is sick of the ultra right wing of the Republican Party. I know I am. That faction of the party lost these elections because of their petty nature.
Well I hope the loss was worth it because your precious little wall definitley isn’t getting built now, amnesty for illegals is on the way, and you have definitely have put our boys in Iraq in harms way by giving that nut job Pelosi the keys to the coffers. WAY TO GO NAZI WING OF THE PARTY!
So here’s a suggestion. Since ya’ll seemed to be so fond of that Democrat that LOST yesterday why don’t ya’ll join his party. I’m sure most of the Republican Party won’t miss you. I know I won’t.
Guiliani in 2008! DEAL WITH IT
Your plea for donations reflects that people are leaving you. The site has changed into something very different that it was when it began. In the old days, there was brief, clear opinion on news events. Now we get hundreds of words on legal technicalities and WAY too much “inside baseball.”
Want support? Come back to what people came here for in the first place.
Clinton-Obama vs. Guiliani-Rice on pay-fer-view Nov.4 2008.
Tagteam Smackdown, winner takes all. And the best part, the decision would be clear as day and night, or should I say black and white?
Your plea for funds sounds like Air America.
Since you strayed from the mainstream and started supporting people like Kinky and Blanton, you have become nothing more than another kook blog.
This morning, better reevaluate your direction and become a little more responsible, or be thrown on the ash heap of other kook blogs.
Well, we put up with eight years of Bill Clinton, let’s hope we only have to put up with two years of Nancy Pelosi. It will be interesting to see if the Democrats have some in-house squabbling over whether Nancy gets the spot.
Tom Coburn is the right idea, he would put our party back on track
#4, Jose,
You sound like an excellent candidate for joining the Democrats.
You are correct joese as the wall won’t be built but I guess the illegals take over and build cardboard houses and live in third world condition while the alverados, whites and clintons live in luxury as the patrons. Sounds great as for me I am getting things together to move one more time as this will be the beginning of the south africanization of the US by the illegals.
joese do you have that guy’s name who promised to impeach bush the liar if he got in control as I want to send him some support money so he will do a great job with at least one investigation and file an impeachment proceeding a month to bankrupt bush.
Did anyone compare hutch’s totals with perry’s and dewhurst?
#5 Sorry OldGuy. Traffic has never been heavier. My plea for donations reflects that I want some money to pay for our dedicated server and to compensate myself a little bit for the time and energy I put into the project.
#7 kman0602– Yeah, that’s us, “Air America.” If not automatically drinking the Party establishment Kool-Aid makes us “irresponsible kooks,” so be it.
#5 OldGuy
Color me stupid, but I don’t remember seeing your name here before. But then again, I only log on when I have time, could be the reason, so I don’t know how you qualify that argument. We donate because we want to, we are not forced. No charge for lurking.
#10 You probably would make the better candidate. I supported the REPUBLICAN for County Treasurer unlike many on this blog.
There were a number of school districts with yet again more bond requests. I have a question for all those money-hungry isd boards:
Since the common motto for the reason to have Taj Mahal schools and stadiums (you know developers won’t develop in areas with “ugly” schools), why don’t the developers build the schools in the subdivisions? Since they are the ones that will be making all the millions of dollars, shouldn’t they also be responsible to build ‘nice’ schools if that is part of their criteria when they select a site to develop? Should the taxpayer be required to put “acceptable” buildings in areas in order for developers to make money? They are responsible for building all the other infrastructure, i.e. roads, sewage, water, lighting, etc. in a new subdivision. When they put these streets, etc. in then the county/city will then take over maintenance of it (as long as it meets code). Why can’t the schools be done the same way?
#14 Jose– WHY did you support the Republican candidate for County Treasurer?
#15 Because I wasn’t idiotic enough to get knifed in the back by a democrat.
I think Perry owes his re-election to Dan Patrick who convince many to vote for Perry so Bell would not elected through the back door.
Jose - if you had read this blog earlier you would have known that the democrat was running with the pledge to abolish the office. It is just as bad to blindly vote for a republican as it is to blindly vote for a democrat.
#17 Keep telling yourself that. Perry doesn’t owe Senator Patrick bunk. If anything he owes him a suggestion to Lt Gov Dewhurst to Rosebush Rule every suggestion he has.
#17 trl3 I have to agree with you, I had several friends who said they would vote Kinky but chickened out at the last minute.
#16 Jose– so you voted for a Republican who you KNEW would be ineffective and waste your tax dollars so that you could be certain you wouldn’t be betrayed by a Democrat who was promising to save taxpayers money?
OK.
#20 You got some sort of crystal ball or ESP that helps you see into the future? I based my support on what I have seen from democrats acting like they were something they were not (i.e Bill Clinton).
Jose:
Think what you will, But Perry will either change his ways and come over to the conservatives or this was the last election he will ever win in Texas. Let the numbers speak for themselves, Rick Perry was fortunate to win and did so ONLY because to many were afraid Bell might sneak in.
Dewhurst should have been paying attention also, because we can dump his butt in the primaries too.
#24 Whether you win by an inch or win by 100 yards, a win is a win. Perry and Dewhurst don’t owe anything to anybody who asked a message be sent to the GOP by voting democrat.
Jose:
Are you actually saying that Perry owes nothing to those that helped him get elected? That would be extremely ARROGANT.
I can believe that Perry might think that, however, if he does that will be the reason that he will never be elected again.
#27 I didn’t say that he didn’t owe anything to the people who helped get elected, I just said he didn’t owe anything to the johnny come lately Senator Elect and his hacks. As far as never getting elected again he’s got at least 3 elections under his belt that prove different.
You are missing the point in the Dick Morris article.
1. Trent Lott is a client of his so there’s a little bias.
2. He’s saying that Lott was big picture guy who was not afraid to fight fire with fire. (I’m neither a Lott supporter or Repub voter)
3. Overall, Morris is saying the Repubs have come down with “majority party disease”. You need only observe election results to see that.
Even more than the division, Perry owes his reelection to Chris Bell and John O’Quinn. Had Bell continued from the point he was at in August pre-O’Quinn’s cash he would’ve finished a distant third at best. Seeing a weak democrat challenge, more disillusioned Perry voters would’ve ventured out to somebody else, knowing there was no risk of a Bell surge. When Bell got a cash infusion it scared them back onto the reservation, causing people to pinch their noses and vote for Perry.
The real results are in the rank ordering of the candidates. If you look at virtually any poll that did a “second choice” question, Strayhorn won it handedly. Pairwise against Perry she would’ve won - a feat that remained feasible if not for the Bell cash infusion.
The problem with Bell is that he literally maxed out his support and had nowhere to potentially gain ground. The polls showed this was gonna happen early on. He had a core of die-hard Democrats, but if ranked in preference along side the other candidates he finished poorly. Virtually all Republicans ranked Bell last behind the other three. He was ranked last even by conservatives who dislike Perry but accepted him as the lesser evil.
His cash infusion did two things though: (1) it brought some moderate Dems home who could’ve helped another candidate oust Perry, and more importantly (2) it caused conservatives to circle the wagon. Perry’s poll numbers bear this out - he was in the low 30’s two months ago, but surged back up to 39% when Bell started consolidating the Dems. In short, more than any other candidate in the race, Chris Bell is to blame for Perry’s reelection…along with his sugar daddy John O’Quinn.
Jose:
That Johnny come lately Senator elect is probably the reason Perry was re-elected. If he fails to pay attention to those that helped him remain in office, this is the last election he will ever win.
Benzene - The Dems won’t be putting out any sort of conservative candidates. We’ll be lucky if the GOP doesn’t misinterpret these election results and move further left.
All righty then. It is noon on the day after a bad election cycle. It is time to stop crying and time to start working for a better election cycle next time. Let’s start promoting Comservative canidates for the Republican primaries and working with elected Republican so they will know they need to pay attention to conservatives if they want to reverse the losses of last night.
TX GOV.– The people have spoken– and 61% of them don’t want Rick Perry to be their governor.
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Can someone clear me up on this? In Primaries if no one gets a majority, there is a run-off. What makes the General Election different?
Thanks,