"So This Is What GOP Overreach Produces"

[sabrina 1]

So this is what GOP overreach produces



Kathy Hochul Wins NY Dist. 26 Special Election Congressional Race

On paper, this race should not have been particularly close. Even in optimal political climates, Democrats have failed to net more than 48 percent of the vote in New York’s 26th District. John McCain still won the district by six points in 2008, even with the GOP label in disrepute across New York state. Given that the political climate now is far from optimal for Democrats, Corwin should have won this race by ten points – and probably more. And rest assured, if the election had been held last November, she would have.

The Tea-Party was in control:

In several high-profile GOP primaries in 2010, insufficiently pure Republican candidates were rejected by the base. Keeping this base from revolting again in 2012, Speaker John Boehner and his fellow Republicans realized when they took over, would be one of their main challenges –

This is where the plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program came from. Boehner brought it up for a vote last month and nearly every Republican in the House voted for it – while every Democrat opposed it. The idea, it seemed, was to get it out of the way early – to take massive grief from Democrats and senior groups early in the congressional term in an effort to demonstrate purity to the GOP base, then to hope that it would all be a distant memory to swing voters by November 2012.

Privatizing Social Programs is a long-time goal of the far right and when they won last November, their puppet-masters thought they could pull off privatizing Medicare in the poisonous political atmosphere they had created regarding the President and Democrats in general.

Hochul made the Medicare plan (which Corwin initially said she’d support) the heart of her campaign message. And the race played out as polls showed that the Tea Party itself was becoming severely unpopular with swing voters. The deeply unpopular Medicare plan was one of the reasons for this. In 2009 and 2010, most swing voters mainly saw the Tea Party as a movement opposed to Barack Obama’s policies. But now, with Republicans running the House (and numerous state houses across the country) and pushing the Tea Party’s agenda, swing voters have come to see it as an extreme ideological movement. And there’s no better representation of that extremism than the Medicare plan.

If there are any independent thinkers left in the Republican Party, they will drop this insane plan now. But I hope they do not. And any Democrats who think that touching Social Security will benefit them in any way, should take a lesson from what is happening to Republicans.


In case anyone forgot the reason for the special election, it was because of the resignation of former Rep. Chris Lee:



NY Dist 26 Hypocritical Rep Chris Lee Poses Shirtless For Craigslist

Here’s another blatant example of moral hypocrisy coming from the GOP, and this time it’s closer to home. Married conservative Republican Congressman Chris Lee from NY-26 was caught sending (partly) nude photos to his dating prospects on Craigslist.

The problem is that Lee, like almost all other Republicans these days, is noted for his opposition to anything related to gay rights. He voted only a few months ago to keep the wholly discredited Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military regulations on the books. He’s also an opponent of marriage equality.

Thanks Chris!!

[suffragette]

1. Very good news, indeed!

K&R

[sabrina 1]

4. It is good news. And looking at

the reaction of Republicans, on FR eg, many of them who went along with the Medicare plan against their better judgement, realize it's not going to work.

I am surprised actually by some of the comments on FR. The smarter ones want their party to drop that issue, which is also good news as it means Medicare is safe for now :-)

[suffragette]

6. Powerful repudiation of Ryan's plan

more so given all the money and political weight thrown into this election.
Very nice to see this result.

I don't go over to FR, but thanks for the report from there.

[Skittles]

2. off to the Greatest Page with ye

yes INDEED

[99th_Monkey]

3. k 'n r

:kick:

[Quantess]

5. Chris Lee wants to "save marriage".

He's done a bang up job so far.

[sabrina 1]

7. Another hypocritical family values Republican.

[DeSwiss]

8. K&R

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail_%28metaphor%29">

- The 3rd rail still has plenty of juice......

[sabrina 1]

10. I was surprised to see that some Freepers called it that and

called their party stupid for trying it. Of course it's not that they were against it, they wanted to wait until they won the WH and the Senate, keep this issue quiet, until after they won, then ram it through.

All I can say is I'm glad Boehner et al are not even as smart as the freepers.

[DeSwiss]

13. Hahahaha!!!!!

"....are not even as smart as the freepers."

- I never thought I'd see those words in a sentence!!!




Thanks Sabrina 1, I needed that laugh today.

DeSwiss

[sabrina 1]

15. Lol, you're welcome, DeSwiss!

[Quantess]

9. I like how he's flexing his right arm and photographing himself with his left.

Something tells me he has watched himself in the mirror often, in a similar pose...

[sabrina 1]

12. Poor guy, I can't help feeling sorry for him in a way. It's almost

cruel to buy Congressional seats for them and expect them to change their entire personalities. He looks like a child trying to look like a super-hero and I think it's sad because he's probably not the brightest and would have been better off if he had just stayed out of the public eye and enjoyed himself doing his thing as a private citizen.

[Quantess]

16. I think he's good looking. Most likely, he's not the most intellectual guy...

I admit I don't know much about him or his story. But the combination of him being a Republican politician, and, being a married man posing shirtless for dates on craigslist...safe to say he wasn't given a full deck of cards, intellectually.

Looks like he "enjoyed himself doing his thing as a private citizen" quite a bit. I don't want photos of it! LOL

[sabrina 1]

17. When you think of the money the Kock Bros et al probably

spent getting him elected last November, and I think it was only a few months later that he was caught on Craig's list half naked. They push the family values image so much which is what makes all the more damning when they get caught. So, I think you're right, he wasn't playing with a full deck, but then anyone who was would not be a Republican/Teabagger to begin with.

And from what I've read, he used his own name! Definitely not the brightest thing to do!

Married GOP Congressman Sent Sexy Pictures to Craigslist Babe

On the morning of Friday, January 14, a single 34-year-old woman put an ad in the "Women for Men" section of Craigslist personals. "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?" she asked, inviting "financially & emotionally secure" men to reply.

That afternoon, a man named Christopher Lee replied. He used a Gmail account that Rep. Christopher Lee has since confirmed to be his own. (It's the same Gmail account that was associated with Lee's personal Facebook account, which the Congressman deleted when we started asking questions.)

By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He's also 46.)

And the emails are at the link. The woman googled him, (she had his real name which he gave her), and found out he had lied about his job, his age and his marital status. She then sent the emails to Gawker. Apparently she thought it was funny. Or maybe she was a Democrat? Lol!

This is my favorite comment attached to the article:

This person must be joking because nobody that stupid would be able to turn on a computer.

Lol, re 'doing his thing' I don't want photos either, but who knows? We may get to see them anyhow :rofl:

[calimary]

18. Not me. I find something intrinsically ugly about any politician with an "R" by their name.

Because what they want is ugly, and what they stand for is ugly. And what they believe in is ugly - and very much un-Christlike. Ever hear a single one of them quote The Beatitudes while they carry on incessantly about how Christian and pro-family-values they are?

[underpants]

11. Boehner isn't in charge Ailes is. They created this fake movement and now it surrounds them.

and they know it.

Inciting a mob is one thing but it is impossible to control. Tea Baggers cost them the US Senate majority in 2010 - we of course are never reminded of the uprising within the Democratic party (Ned Lamont) or the rare second-midterm flip of the House and Senate in 2006...let alone what actually happened in 2008.

Boehner is too drunk to control his own side (they routinely undercut his agreements) and he get-to-the-next-day boozathon explains why he thought he could get it out of the way and, dare I say, MOVE ON. That is because Fox News runs the show and they didn't let the Tea Baggers lose airtime.

Vicious cycle it is.

[sabrina 1]

14. I agree. And Boehner supposedly felt obligated to the

people who elected to do what 'they elected us to do'. Despite warnings that this might not be a good idea so he pushed it through, hoping if they did it now, by the time the election came around, people would have forgotten.

I suppose you have to say at least he cared about what those who elected him wanted. I bet he was crying last night though after hearing from those in his party who warned him against it.

But yes, the movement is fake. And Congressional Repubs are just hired employees so they don't have to think, just do as they're told. Their choices of candidates, like the guy in the OP eg, and Walker show that no intelligent person would do what they want no matter how much money they might offer.

Otoh, even though behind the scenes several Republicans predicted disaster if that bill passed, realizing what the Dems could do with it, publicly they got on board anyhow. Let's hope they don't learn anything from this :-)