Archive for posts ‘GA-Sen’

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Is 60 Still Possible? and more

  • First of all, your blogging overlords demand that you take this reader survey. Do it. Do it now!
  • Saxby Chambliss wins reelection in what could turn out to be a landslide. So far, he’s far outperforming his Nov. 4 results. Oh well, we’ll get the bastard next time. (CNN)
  • 60 Democratic Senators is officially out of reach for this Congress, but maybe not for too long. Mel Martinez (R-FL) will not seek reelection in 2010, leaving his already vulnerable seat wide open for the taking. In two years, this will be the seat to watch. (New York Times)
  • In the midst of this economic disaster, some Congressmen have decided to take advantage of Barack Obama’s displeasure with the BCS and are considering opening a Congressional investigation. Basically, the BCS messed with Texas (specifically the University of Texas) and now a bipartisan cohort consisting of Congressmen Abercrombie (D-HI), Westmoreland (R-GA), Matheson (D-UT), and Simpson (R-ID) want to bring the BCS down. (MSNBC)

12/2/08 7:56 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , ,

Elections Everywhere!

  • It’s Election Day in Georgia, again. The fine people of the Peach State just can’t get enough of voting, so they’re having a runoff election for the state’s Senate seat. If you live in Georgia and haven’t gone to vote for Jim Martin, do it! (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  • The DC Republican Party (all three members) is challening the election of Michael Brown to an at-large seat on the city council. The DC GOP argues that Brown, who is a registered independent and ran as an independent, is actually a secret Democrat, unbeknownst even to himself! DC law prevents all four at-large council seats from being held by the same party even though 93% of DC residents voted Democratic in November’s election. (Examiner)
  • The Liberals are staging a coup! No, I’m not talking about Barack Obama’s election, these are the Canadian Liberals, eh. They’ve signed a pact two other Candidan opposition parties that would allow them to take control of the government away from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party. But, you know, they’re being very polite about it. (Toronto Star)
  • Israel’s Labor Party has canceled their primary elections due to problems with electronic voting machines. No word yet on what the exact glitch was, but Labor is going to have a do-over with paper ballots next week. Is this something Americans could be seeing in our near future if we keep relying on electronic voting machines? (Haaretz)

12/2/08 9:01 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , ,

Bush Gets PEACE Award, and more

  • Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will today award Still-President Bush the first-ever “International Medal of PEACE” in recognition of his tireless efforts in the fight against the use of condoms by people with AIDS. I’m sure the neocons have been praying for months for someone to make up an award for Bush and–what do you know!–they got one with the word PEACE in capital letters. It’s World AIDS Day and Neocon Christmas all rolled into one! Update: Pandagon commenter Ellen wonders if this is a pathetic response to Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize. Hm. (ChristianNewsWire via Pandagon/The Guardian)
  • Tomorrow is the Georgia Senate runoff election, and GOP superstar Sarah Palin is back on the stump for Saxby Chambliss. But since the whole country has settled on the fact that Palin is a first-class moron who probably cost McCain the election, the Democrats are matching her with Ludacris, who, in addition to actually being from Georgia, probably has a better command of the English language than Palin. (Ben Smith)
  • Good news for universal healthcare fans! Looks like everybody in the frickin’ world–businesses, hospitals, doctors, unions, insurance companies, lawmakers–wants it. Hopefully Secretary Daschle is figuring the whole thing out now so he can start working on it on January 20. (Los Angeles Times)
  • Also, that thing with Hillary Clinton we’ve been hearing so much about is happening at 10:40 am eastern time. (Washington Post)

12/1/08 8:29 am | Comment (1) | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Post-Turkey Update

  • Oh, Bill Kristol. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone even publishes anything you say anymore. Yesterday, you wrote that Still-President Bush should not only pardon torturers and NSA wiretappers, but give them the Medal of Freedom as well. Congratulations! You managed to find the complete opposite of accountability. (Weekly Standard via Andrew Sullivan)
  • Meanwhile, one of the soon-to-be Medal of Freedom-winners who actually was an Air Force interrogator in Iraq says that American torture has been a successful recruiting tool for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The greatest accomplishment of America’s torture policy is that it has killed thousands of American soldiers. Hardly worthy of the Medal of Freedom. (Washington Post)
  • Washington University political scientist Steven Smith notes that the Constitution places final authority over who is elected to the Senate in the hands of the Senate. That means the Senate could reverse the state canvassing board’s decision not to count disputed absentee ballots, a move that could shift the recount in Al Franken’s favor. Time to watch the “strict constructionists” freak out because something in the Constitution benefits Democrats. (UPI)
  • And over in the other remaining Senate race, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss still won’t admit that we’re in a recession. The Federal Reserve and 96% of economists surveyed by the National Association of Business Economists say we’re in a recession, but all Saxby Chambliss can come up with is a botched definition. Please, oh please, can we kick this guy out of Congress on Tuesday. (ThinkProgress/Los Angeles Times/MarketWatch) 

11/30/08 7:30 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Sunday Blogging, Christmas Cross-Burning Edition

  • Celebrate the election of the first Black Presidizzle of the USA by putting this burning cross on your front lawn! That’s the message from the American Family Association, which is offering this “beautiful Christmas Cross” on their website for only $81.85 + shipping and handling. This year, the science-hating, gay-hating, and generally hateful AFA is honoring the Baby Jesus Ku Klux Klan style. Ugh. Makes me want to declare a war on Christmas. (AFA Online via Balloon Juice)
  • Meanwhile, in the sane world, Barack Obama’s election has spurred the Iraqi cabinet to approve a security agreement that will set a January 1, 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of American troops. Said one Iraqi politician, “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.” (New York Times)
  • The 2008 election continues! Bill Clinton is heading to Georgia to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Jim Martin. Martin is looking to replace Shameless Saxby Chambliss who, if you’ll recall, was responsible for the despicable ad in 2002 that put triple amputee and true American hero Max Cleland on the same screen as Osama bin Laden. If you live in Georgia, make sure you vote on December 2! (CNN)
  • And finally, the GOP Civil War took to the airwaves this morning, with Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, and Michael Steele all making the rounds on the Sunday talk shows. Arnold Schwarzenegger was also on TV this morning which I find weird since, y’know, his state is on fire again. (Associated Press)

11/16/08 10:44 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Still Counting the Ballots

In Alaska:

With tens of thousands of votes left to be counted, the Alaska Senate race is far from over. The state Division of Elections announced Friday that there are 81,224 ballots yet to be counted in Alaska, where two embattled Republican incumbents are leading their Democratic challengers for now.

What’s more, the winner of either race will not be known for almost two weeks during counting. The state is scheduled to review the final results on Dec. 1, according to Elections Division Director Gail Fenumiai, though vote tallies will be updated in the meantime starting Wednesday evening.

Convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R) led Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) on Friday by 3,257 votes — or about 1 percent of the total ballots that had been cast, counted or uncounted.

Similarly, embattled Rep. Don Young (R) has not been declared the victor despite his 16,939-vote lead over state House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz (D), who has yet to concede the race because of the high number of outstanding ballots.

And in Minnesota:

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie pledges to oversee a fair, accurate and open recount of the nearly 2.9 million ballots in the Senate race.

“Minnesotans have an expectation of a nonpartisan election recount,” Ritchie said late last week.

Yet a fight with partisan overtones is shaping up over the recount of the race between U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Democrat Al Franken.

On Friday, the Coleman campaign questioned the integrity of the vote counting by citing “improbable shifts” in vote tallies that it said benefited Franken.

Ritchie responded by scolding the Coleman campaign for trying “to create a cloud” over the recount and “denigrating the election process.”

Picking up these two seats would put Democrats that much closer to that magical 60, but it’s going to be real tough. Keep an eye on Alaska and Minnesota (and Georgia, which has a Senate runoff election scheduled for December 2). The 2008 election isn’t over yet.

11/10/08 8:21 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , ,

Georgia Senate Goes to Runoff

At the last minute, Saxby Chambliss drops under the required 50%: 

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is heading for a runoff with Democratic challenger Jim Martin, according to the Associated Press.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press called the hotly contested race a runoff. Chambliss ended with 1,841,449 votes, or 49.8 percent of the total, while Martin had 1,727,625 votes, or 46.7 percent. Libertarian Allen Buckley had 126,328 votes, or 3.4 percent of the total.

A candidate needs 50 percent plus one to win.

The runoff election is set for December 2, so we’re back to GOTV in Georgia. Jim Martin has reached out to President-Elect Obama (that still feels great to say!) for assistance. This one is going to get interesting.

11/5/08 1:12 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , ,

Senate Race Wrapup

Of course, Obama’s wasn’t the only big election last night. Let’s take a look out how things are shaping up in the Senate.

 

  • Democratic pickups by Mark Warner (VA), Kay Hagan (NC), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and the brothers cousins Udall (CO and NM) put us at a respectable 56 seats (55 if Joe Lieberman is politely asked to get the hell out of the Democratic caucus). Is there any way to the magical 60? It’s going to be hard without Kentucky. Bruce Lunsford put up one hell of a fight, but Mitch McConnell managed to hold on to his seat by a 53%-47% margin. 
  • Oregon is still too close to call, although the polls had been trending towards Democrat Jeff Merkley. Incumbent Republican Gordon Smith ran a campaign of tying himself to Barack Obama, and, with a 15,000 vote lead and 75% of precincts reporting, it just may well have worked.
  • In Minnesota, GOP Sen. Norm Coleman has delcared victory, but the AP is uncalling the race for him. With a roughly 1,000 vote margin, this race is going to a mandatory recount, so it will be a few days before we know whether Al Franken managed to edge Coleman out.
  • Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss holds a three point lead in Georgia, but this is still one to watch. Chambliss has 50% of the vote to Democrat Jim Martin’s 47%, but if Chambliss drops below 50% this race will go into an automatic runoff. 
  • Convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens looks poised to defeat Mark Begich, thus proving that Alaskans are entirely batshit crazy. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, NRSC Chairman John Ensign, and the McCain-Palin ticket all have called on Stevens to resign. Harry Reid has said that if reelcted, Stevens would almost certainly be expelled, which would allow Gov. Sarah Palin to appoint his replacement–and maybe herself!

11/5/08 9:11 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , ,

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