election wackiness
Nobody knows yet what the election outcomes will be, but this is already shaping up to be the Year of the Wacky. Let's see, we've got bogus Republican attack ads:
* In Ohio, The GOP is saying Democratic senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown didn't pay a tax bill for twelve years. What actually happened was his campaign didn't pay it on time, they got sent a tax lien, and they paid it within four months. The state sent a lien release and everything. The campaign just didn't file that lien release for twelve years, so the bill was falsely listed as unpaid. Sloppy paperwork, yes, but not the same as not paying for over a decade. The state of Ohio even says the claim is untrue. The GOP is refusing to pull its ad.
* Via DKos: In a NY congressional race, the GOP has been running ads saying the Democratic candidate called a sex line, and billed taxpayers. Juicy story, right? But hold the phone...
The national GOP campaign office started airing an ad Friday that showed Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, ''Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.'' He supposedly dialed the service two years ago from a New York City hotel room and billed taxpayers - for all of $1.25 for a one-minute call. He is the district attorney in Oneida County.
Now the Utica Observer-Dispatch today notes that Arcuri's campaign has released records to the paper showing the call to the 800 sex line was followed the very next minute by a call to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services - and the last seven digits of the two numbers are the same.
So someone called a wrong number. Arcuri is threatening to sue. Which leads us back to Ohio and another pending lawsuit...
* Voting rights activists are hoping a federal judge will reinstate thousands of black and poor voters who were purged from the voting rolls. If not? "The Ohio elections may have already been won." Can we get Olbermann to cover this?
And the legal entanglements just get more tawdry from there.
* The Republican candidate for Governor in Ohio fending off allegations that he assaulted a woman after a campaign event. She's not pursuing the matter, but his "I caught her when she tripped" line isn't very convincing. And somebody doesn't call 911 three times for no reason.
* From awhile ago: Minnesota Democrat looks poised to become the first Muslim in Congress. His detractors are attacking him for being associated with the Nation of Islam in planning the Million Man March and for defending Louis Farrakhan in a newspaper column he wrote in law school. He's apologized and says he didn't know about Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. I guess I can believe that. Until a scathing FDL report on Lieberman palling around with Farrakhan before the 2004 election, I didn't know either. Just one thing, though... the person attacking him for these mistakes? Republican candidate Alan Fine beat his wife. They later divorced, and he got the record expunged. The Minneapolis Star Tribune dryly notes:
After state Rep. Keith Ellison won the DFL nomination, Fine launched a persistent attack on his character, focusing on his past ties to the Nation of Islam. Fine has repeatedly said "character matters."
Ahahahahaha! Here's a hint: if you're going to make your opponent's past the issue of your campaign, you might not wanna have a history of domestic battery. People are a lot more likely to understand a young man making a poor choice of role model in a fit of youthful fervor than a man hitting his pregnant wife. Alan Fine, you win at fail.
* Meanwhile, in Predatorgate news, Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), whom the blogosphere has been watching as another potential offender, has instead turned in another unnamed Congressman for showing "inappropriate attention" to a page. I'm sure he just found out about it, too.
Looking ahead...
* Molly Ivins is not optimistic about our chances in November: the Republicans have a lot of money, and she's seen this surge of anti-Republican sentiment before, in 2004. (If you want to help counter the money, MyDD is asking people to call their Democratic Representatives who have no or no real opposition and are sitting on a pile of cash to donate 30% of it to House challengers or party committees. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has already done so.)
* The Nation muses on the preplanned November "surprise" of Saddam's sentencing, possibly to death, right before the election, and how that aspect hasn't gotten much press. That's not a coincidence - it's likely to provide a bump to Republicans for showing "progress" in Iraq.
* In Ohio, The GOP is saying Democratic senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown didn't pay a tax bill for twelve years. What actually happened was his campaign didn't pay it on time, they got sent a tax lien, and they paid it within four months. The state sent a lien release and everything. The campaign just didn't file that lien release for twelve years, so the bill was falsely listed as unpaid. Sloppy paperwork, yes, but not the same as not paying for over a decade. The state of Ohio even says the claim is untrue. The GOP is refusing to pull its ad.
* Via DKos: In a NY congressional race, the GOP has been running ads saying the Democratic candidate called a sex line, and billed taxpayers. Juicy story, right? But hold the phone...
The national GOP campaign office started airing an ad Friday that showed Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, ''Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.'' He supposedly dialed the service two years ago from a New York City hotel room and billed taxpayers - for all of $1.25 for a one-minute call. He is the district attorney in Oneida County.
Now the Utica Observer-Dispatch today notes that Arcuri's campaign has released records to the paper showing the call to the 800 sex line was followed the very next minute by a call to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services - and the last seven digits of the two numbers are the same.
So someone called a wrong number. Arcuri is threatening to sue. Which leads us back to Ohio and another pending lawsuit...
* Voting rights activists are hoping a federal judge will reinstate thousands of black and poor voters who were purged from the voting rolls. If not? "The Ohio elections may have already been won." Can we get Olbermann to cover this?
And the legal entanglements just get more tawdry from there.
* The Republican candidate for Governor in Ohio fending off allegations that he assaulted a woman after a campaign event. She's not pursuing the matter, but his "I caught her when she tripped" line isn't very convincing. And somebody doesn't call 911 three times for no reason.
* From awhile ago: Minnesota Democrat looks poised to become the first Muslim in Congress. His detractors are attacking him for being associated with the Nation of Islam in planning the Million Man March and for defending Louis Farrakhan in a newspaper column he wrote in law school. He's apologized and says he didn't know about Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. I guess I can believe that. Until a scathing FDL report on Lieberman palling around with Farrakhan before the 2004 election, I didn't know either. Just one thing, though... the person attacking him for these mistakes? Republican candidate Alan Fine beat his wife. They later divorced, and he got the record expunged. The Minneapolis Star Tribune dryly notes:
After state Rep. Keith Ellison won the DFL nomination, Fine launched a persistent attack on his character, focusing on his past ties to the Nation of Islam. Fine has repeatedly said "character matters."
Ahahahahaha! Here's a hint: if you're going to make your opponent's past the issue of your campaign, you might not wanna have a history of domestic battery. People are a lot more likely to understand a young man making a poor choice of role model in a fit of youthful fervor than a man hitting his pregnant wife. Alan Fine, you win at fail.
* Meanwhile, in Predatorgate news, Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), whom the blogosphere has been watching as another potential offender, has instead turned in another unnamed Congressman for showing "inappropriate attention" to a page. I'm sure he just found out about it, too.
Looking ahead...
* Molly Ivins is not optimistic about our chances in November: the Republicans have a lot of money, and she's seen this surge of anti-Republican sentiment before, in 2004. (If you want to help counter the money, MyDD is asking people to call their Democratic Representatives who have no or no real opposition and are sitting on a pile of cash to donate 30% of it to House challengers or party committees. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has already done so.)
* The Nation muses on the preplanned November "surprise" of Saddam's sentencing, possibly to death, right before the election, and how that aspect hasn't gotten much press. That's not a coincidence - it's likely to provide a bump to Republicans for showing "progress" in Iraq.