Scott Lee Cohen — a pawnbroker who shocked state Democratic leaders Tuesday night by winning the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor — was arrested about four-and-a-half years ago and accused of holding a knife to a former live-in girlfriend’s neck, newly obtained court records show.

The misdemeanor charge against Cohen was dropped weeks later when the woman — who had just been found guilty of prostitution — failed to show up to testify, according to those records.
…
Cohen disclosed his domestic violence arrest when he announced his candidacy, but the details about the knife and prostitution case didn’t surface in the campaign, as Cohen was considered a longshot.

So let me get this straight. He admitted to having been arrested for DV, nobody bothered to ask him about the details of that arrest, and then they nominated him to the Democratic ticket anyway? Ingenious. Maybe Democrats should just give up on this whole “winning elections” business entirely.

¹ Cf.

Because so many American voters are dumb.

This has been another rousing edition of Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

We’re working hard here, trust me. This is not a vacation.

—RNC Chairman Michael Steele, “while sporting a Hawaiian shirt and a flower lei” at the RNC meeting in Hawaii.

• Justice Alito should be commended for not shouting “You lie!” at President Obama.

Of course, we don’t have the best medical care system in the world, not that that matters to McDonnell and the rest of the GOP. Shouting “USA! USA!” seems to be their alternative to sound healthcare policy.

Chris Matthews is basically Walter Cronkite doubled, for his incredible journalism.

Wednesday’s speech should be interesting to watch.

• Drink every time President Obama tells a story about someone whose life was affected by not having health insurance. Drink more if the Senate healthcare bill won’t actually help that person
• Drink every time President Obama mentions Ted Kennedy. Drink more if the camera shows Scott Brown. Drink even more if the camera shows Harry Reid.
• Drink every time the camera pans to Joe Wilson in the hope that he’ll shout something embarrassing. Drink more when he actually does.
• Drink and throw empties at the TV every time Ben Nelson or Bart Stupak is shown. Drink twice for Joe Lieberman.
• Drink every time Joe Biden is obviously not paying attention and/or asleep
• Drink every time John McCain IS paying attention and/or awake
• Drink and bury your head in your hands every time President Obama praises Congressional Democrats for doing a good job
• Finish whole drink and groan loudly every time President Obama says he wants more bipartisanship

I may add more as I think of them…

Update: New rule!

• Everyone chooses one domestic program other than defense. Finish your drink if President Obama announces a spending freeze for it.

As recent polling by Gallup amply demonstrates, Jews remain the most Democratic of any religious group (66 percent of Jews say they are Democrats or lean Democratic, compared with only 47 percent of Catholics, 43 percent of Protestants, and 20 percent of Mormons) and the most supportive of President Obama. Only African-Americans demonstrated a higher percentage of support (95 percent) for Obama’s candidacy and have remained comparably loyal. While there is a range of opinion within the Jewish community, as revealed by an AJC 2009 poll—which showed that majorities of Conservative and Reform Jews approved of the Obama administration’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations, while only 14 percent of Orthodox Jews did—only 16 percent of Jews now identify themselves as Republican.

This has been another edition of simple answers to stupid questions.

(via)

Appearing on Sean Hannity’s nationally syndicated show the same day his new book, “Right Now,” hit store shelves, Steele said the GOP is set for “nice pick-ups” in the House. But, he said, at the moment there aren’t enough candidates to take out enough Dems.
“I can’t give a number [of seats the GOP will win] yet, because like I said, we’re just now beginning to look at the races,” Steele said. Asked if GOPers will take back the House, Steele confessed: “Not this year.”
“I don’t know all the candidates yet,” Steele continued, according to a transcript of the show. “We still have some vacancies that need to get filled, but then the question we need to ask ourselves is: If we do that, are we ready?”
In fact, when Hannity followed up on the point, Steele said he doesn’t know if the GOP is ready to take back the reins of power.
“I don’t know. And that’s what I’m assessing and evaluating right now. Those candidates who are looking to run have to be anchored in these principles,” he said, referring to 5 conservative ideals he lays out in his new tome. “If they don’t [anchor themselves], then they’ll get to Washington, and they’ll start drinking that Potomac River water, and they’ll get drunk with power and throw the steps out the window.”

Yet another reason to vote Democratic: the head of the Republican Party doesn’t thing his party can run a country.

Lieberman said he wasn’t sure which party, if any, he would represent in his next election.

“I like being an independent, so that’s definitely a possibility,” the Connecticut senator said. “But I’d say all options are open.”

He called running as a Republican “unlikely” but added that he wouldn’t “foreclose any possibility.”

“I’ve reached the stage in my career where I’m not measuring every step I take based on how it’s going to affect the next election,” Lieberman said. “I think if you do that, you end up compromising the quality of your service.”

I would posit that there’s a difference between basing your decisions on what will get you re-elected and doing the exact opposite of what the people who elected you want, but hey, what do I know?

—Lubovitcher poster, spotted in Union Square, NY.
(via)

• We only have a problem with seven year-olds learning about sex in school if it’s two ladies doin’ it.

(via)

According to an analysis by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, more than 10,000 same-sex couples from across the country could get married in the District over the next three years if the measure becomes law.

The analysis, created in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s historic council vote, estimates that 2,000 gay couples who live in the District will marry shortly after the law takes effect. But the bulk of the weddings, which could pump millions of dollars into the regional economy, would probably be out-of-state couples unable to marry in their own states, according to the analysis, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. It concludes that at least $5 million, and perhaps as much as $22 million, would be generated by same-sex weddings in the District over the next three years.

On a related note, the DC Council’s decision can only be reversed by the majority vote of the Democratic-controlled Congress and the signature of the Democratic president. So, y’know, who knows what could happen.

If I’m Blanche Lincoln, I’d consider converting to Judaisim just to thank Joe Lieberman for what he did for me.

— An anonymous source close to Sen. Joe Lieberman (R-CT), on how Lieberman’s obstruction of healthcare reform has allowed Lincoln and other conservative Democrats to avoid upsetting their Democratic base by voting against it.

“He kept us out of war” was the slogan for Woodrow Wilson’s re-election campaign in 1916. “Fifty-four forty or fight” refers to the dispute over the northern boundary of Oregon and was in issue the presidential election of… 1844. Huh? Is Google just pulling together all American election slogans? And if so, how could they possibly have left out “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine. The continental liar from the state of Maine?”*

So, technically, this blog post is related to the part of my thesis that I should be working on right now. Ahem.

(* No, seriously. That was the slogan of Grover Cleveland’s successful 1884 presidential campaign.)

Have the Democrats fucked up their own healthcare bill yet?

Anyway, while I’m away, this:

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana.

According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before Baucus and his wife, Wanda, divorced in April 2009. The Senator had informally separated from his wife in March 2008 and they were living apart when he began dating Hanes, according to Baucus’ office.

Hanes ended her employment with Baucus in the spring of this year.

Hanes, who is divorced and now lives with Baucus in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C., ultimately withdrew her name from consideration for the U.S. attorney position in order to move to Washington, and she now works in the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a counselor to the administrator.

Ugh. Good thing Baucus doesn’t have his hand in any major pieces of legislation. Oh wait.

Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.

In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. The insurance giant predicted that the company would subsequently lose between 300,000 and 350,000 members next year from its national account as well as another 300,000 from smaller group accounts.
…

Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.

In other words, Aetna is going to dump 600,000 customers because they… made money. Just not as much money as they’d like to make. Anyone who needed more evidence for why Americans need a health insurance option that isn’t tied to corporations’ bottom lines, here it is.

(via)

Activists and political observers expect the private members’ bill, which proscribes the death penalty for “serial offenders” and is still in the committee stage, to pass with little opposition and some minor changes.

Likely changes may include modifying the death penalty to life imprisonment, altering clauses nullifying international treaties, conventions and protocols that contradict the act, and removing a section about extradition.

“It’s catastrophic,” said Frank Mugisha, chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a local activist group.

“People are being arrested, intimidated already. What’s going to happen if it’s passed?”

COURT CHALLENGE

Bahati, of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, said diplomatic pressure would not affect the legislation.

“We cannot exchange our dignity for money,” he said.

Rights groups say gays and lesbians already face illegal detention and abuse under Uganda’s current laws, a situation that is likely to worsen if the bill is passed.

“Certain provisions in this bill are illegal. They are also immoral,” said Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s expert on sexual rights, in a statement with 16 other rights groups.

“They criminalise a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse.”

Museveni has been quoted in that local media as saying that homosexuality is a Western import, joining some Ugandan and continental religious leaders who believe it is un-African.

Activists see the legislation as another sign of the growing impact of U.S. evangelicals and anti-gay campaigners in Uganda. But Bahati denied any foreign influence contributed to the bill.

The act will criminalise anyone “who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality”, and a person in authority who “aids, abets, councils or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality”.

Activists say they will contest the bill in court if passed.

Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a prominent leader in the Ugandan Anglican Church has properly called this bill “state-legislated genocide” against homosexuals. Meanwhile, American evangelicals like Pastor Rick Warren (yes, that Pastor Rick Warren, who gave the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration) refuse to condemn the legislation.