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While all the attention was on the Democratic presidential race Tuesday, it turns out the GOP had a very bad day, to say the least.
In New Mexico, Steve Pearce, the much more conservative Congressman, edged out Heather Wilson, a more moderate Republican with a much better shot of winning the open Senate race. Wilson was endorsed by retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (who has been in office since the time of Meshuselah), so her loss was a major blow to the GOP Establishment there, in addition to their hopes of beating Democratic Congressman Tom Udall.
In New Jersey, GOP Establishment favorite Dick Zimmer won the right to take on Senator Lautenberg (who won his own primary with 61% of the vote), yet in a fractured primary Zimmer was unable to get 50% of the vote, in an already difficult state for the GOP.
In Montana, a GOP-targeted state, the results were even worse for the Republican Party. Bill Kelleher, a perennial candidate who hasn’t won a race since 1972 (and looks like he may have invented the steam engine), beat out the Establishment choice Mike Lange to take on Max Baucus for the Senate seat.
Finally, in South Dakota, Republicans nominted Joel Dykstra to take on Senator Tim Johnson. Dykstra is most famous, or infamous, for calling rape and incest "buzzwords."
There you have it, McCain’s speech was actually not the worst moment of the night for the Republican Party.
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There’s also this little tidbit from the Boston Globe…..”In a major embarrassment to Republican leaders in Massachusetts and in the US Senate, Jim Ogonowski, the party’s anointed candidate to challenge Democratic Senator John F. Kerry, failed by a razor-thin margin today to qualify for the GOP primary ballot.
With Ogonowski’s stunning blunder, the only GOP name on the primary ballot will be Jeff Beatty, a little-known security expert from Harwich.”
Cliff, I really love your work.
Sorry to be so late, but welcome to FDL.
The current GOP reminds me of the latter days of the USSR. We really didn’t know how diseased, sclerotic and fragile the heart and infrastructure were. It seemed so monolithic and invulnerable. Like the Deathstar in Star Wars.
It is devolving into just one silly man pulling levers behind the curtain before our very eyes. Had they not been so venal and destructive, I could almost feel sorry for them. But like a seriously wounded rattlesnake, they still have a very, very dangerous bite. They have so earned their wilderness.
And to think that the internet was a large part of their downfall. Who knew?
They could buy and control newspapers, radio stations, TV stations and shape the message, but not the internet, not the toobz.
God, they have been such a virulent, pilfering pox on this country. Now they just look foolish and old in front of a green screen.
Just more evidence that the GOP has its head up its ass and is still the ‘government arm’ of the oil, gas, and extractive industries. Worked for about a hundred years, but too many of the mines are resources are now played out.
The economics of Montana mean now that it needs to transition to a ‘leisure and recreation economy’. There’s more money in the future in fishing, hunting, hiking, and the outdoors. Then of course, ‘Glacier’ National Park is impacted by global warming, as is everywhere else.
The crappy sprawl and subdivisions going on around Kalispell and Whitefish are like horrendous, and that’s pretty much all that the outdated, gutless Dems and corrupt GOP can offer people, because that’s their worldview.
The Dems need to talk about resource protection, because that’s the best hope for a vibrant economy in much of the Inland West, including Montana.
I agree with your sentiments…except for the part for almost feeling sorry for them. I don’t go there at all.
And I am a recovering republican, now dem. If being republican is the gateway drug to batshit crazy neocon, I’m out. And I have all the zeal of someone who has quit smoking.
BTW Cliff, I like your framing of “establishment” republicans.
There’s a similar story to Alaska. They used to be the wild crazy hermits and hippies who escaped ‘civilization’ and then the oil pipeline came through and brought in a lot of other kinds of people. It went from Democratic to Republican and has stayed there.
Of course, along with Republican government they have had corruption and now that’s been exposed. I’m wondering if we can turn the tide there.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to see all those western states go from wild libertarian modes to environment-friendly states. Of course, these changes also mean huge effects to their economy and the lives of families. It’s not all good for them, even if it looks good politically.