How to screw an unscrewable pooch

1. Start with a solid Senate seat

2. Find a weak candidate

3. Lose complete control of the messaging

4. For good measure, call a legendary pitcher for your home team "...a Yankees fan!"

5. Run in a state that already has health care

Voila! The trick she is done!

If the Democratic Party insists on behaving like losers, they shouldn't be surprised when they lose. It's time for them to wake up, or they'll soon be relegated to the cheap seats in the Senate.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Tessa Marquis over at My Left Nutmeg has more.

Schiff wants us to invest in China

In his speech in front of maybe 50 or 60 people at a Tea Party in New Haven on Saturday, Republican candidate for Senate Peter Schiff began his remarks by saying that the health care crisis in America was created by the government.

I think he should tell that to the person who's denied coverage due to a common pre-existing condition. He should tell that to the cancer sufferers whose insurance companies refuse to cover the medications that can save their lives. And he should definitely tell that to the families who can't afford the out-of-control health care costs that threaten to bankrupt them.

It's easy for a millionaire like Schiff to rail against government participation in regulating health care, because he can afford to provide his family with the very best care money can buy. But for the majority of middle class families who are struggling to pay for the ever increasing premiums and reductions of coverage that the unregulated insurance companies get away with, it's just not that easy.

And if you listen to his speech, he then goes on to list dozens of ways the government should become involved in regulating insurance companies.

Mr. "Free Market Economy" is all for investing in offshore opportunities. He stated that we should be willing to buy our insurance from Japanese or Swiss insurance companies. He also said that he invests heavily in Communist China, and Americans should do the same.

Schiff then responded to a questioner in the crowd when asked how much money he had invested in America with "Very little!" He later finished his retort with "I pay a lot more taxes in Connecticut than you do," which, while presuming that he's always the richest guy in the room, seems to imply that only those who are wealthy enough may express an opinion.

(New Haven Register photo, link to their story here)
Hmmm...interesting caption. Why is the one dissenter in the crowd called "irate", while the extremists hysterically railing against the government are known here as "activists"? A person in the crowd responded to the "irate" heckler with "Go back to Ireland!" which seems to underscore the intolerant tendencies of the tea party throng. What kind of activists are those?

Is Scott Brown following Joe Lieberman?

This is creepily similar to something that came up during the 2006 Senate battle here in Connecticut.

In 2005 Scott Brown, as a Massachusetts state senator, co-sponsored a bill that would have exempted hospital personnel, on religious grounds, to inform victims of the availability of the "morning after pill", otherwise known as emergency contraception or "Plan B".

Anyone remember Joe Lieberman's stance on Plan B?

Well, there's no doubt that the Massachusetts Democratic Party played hardball with this mailer that went out over the weekend:

There's more details on Greg Sargent's blog.

And "Short-ride Brown's" campaign responded to the mailer, calling it “negative,” “flailing,” and “malicious.”

But the one thing they didn't call it was "untrue". Interesting.

Vote in Massachusettes on Tuesday

Get it? Apparently the only credible thing the GOP has against Martha Coakley is that the name of the state in an ad's disclaimer had an extra "E" in it. More than likely it was a low-level copy editor at the campaign's ad agency who made a spelling error. Ooooh, somebody alert the media!

Just because it's a minor thing isn't stopping the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat from being a real nail-biter. This is a close race that the Democrats can't afford to lose.



There are things you can do to help. If you live in Massachusetts, be sure to vote on Tuesday. If you live anywhere, go to MarthaCoakley.com and click on Get Involved and select "Call From Home" for instructions on how to make phone calls for Martha Coakley. You CAN do something to help ensure this senate seat remains in Democratic hands!

Joke candidate steals joke party

(Christine Stuart photo)
John Mertens, the erstwhile standard bearer of the Connecticut For Lieberman party, has named himself (with the help of a few friends) the nominee for Senate in the 2010 race.

By doing this he'll be directly opposing Richard Blumenthal in the general election, as the CFL party has maintained a ballot line through the terrific work spearheaded by Dr. John Orman, the late and very much missed former chair of the party.

For those of you not too familiar with the CFL party, here's a recap:

Back in 2006 when Joe Lieberman was challenged by his own party for the nomination, he hedged his bet by collecting signatures to qualify as an independent candidate in the event he lost the primary to Ned Lamont. Local statutes require a name for the ersatz party, so Lieberman chose a suitably ego-drive name: "Connecticut For Lieberman".

Lieberman never actually became a member of his own party, and after he won reelection, he figured the party would simply die a natural death.

So that left the party open to anyone who wished to take it over. Dr. John Orman, a political science professor at Fairfield University, had run against Lieberman previously and he saw an opportunity to grab the party and use it to both embarrass Lieberman and prevent him from using it in 2012 if he wanted to run again.

John Orman possessed a great sense of humor, and he created an atmosphere of fun within the party. He also intended the party to remain viable in 2012, so it needed to gain at least 1% of the vote if endorsing a candidate.

Eventually Dr. Orman turned over the reins of the party to John Mertens, with the implicit understanding that it would be used as Orman intended. Mertens, a failed independent candidate who couldn't manage to gather enough signatures to gain ballot access in his own quest for Lieberman's senate seat in 2006, likely nursed an aching desire to occupy the stage with a guaranteed ballot line. The CFL party provided a way for him to do so.

So Mertens took the party, disregarding Dr. Orman's wishes, and turned it into a vehicle to give his ego a nice ride. He intended to use it to challenge Chris Dodd for his seat, rather than Joe Lieberman. And now he wants to try to beat out Richard Blumenthal.

The fact that if Mertens fails to gain 1% of the vote in the general election, the party loses the ballot line and it becomes essentially moribund. And he's challenging a real Democrat; not a Republican in donkey's clothing like Lieberman.

Listen, I think it's great to have an ego and you can be as obnoxious as you want to be, but you shouldn't do it at other people's expense. Believe me, I'm a blogger with a somewhat inflated ego (shut up!) but I wouldn't try to take over another blog like say CTLP simply for self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. This is the same thing. Only worse.

It just makes me sick that someone John Orman entrusted with his pet project has decided to shamelessly exploit it solely for his own gain. This makes me miss Dr. Orman all that much more.

Christine Stuart has more over at CT News Junkie.

500,000

From all over the world, we just reached a milestone here at Connecticut Bob. As of yesterday, this blog has officially received a half-million hits!

While this pales in comparison to other higher-profile blogs, and a major number of those hits are from Google searches, I'm still amazed that anyone at all reads this thing!

Credit is due in part to Kirby, who brings a good bit of class to this otherwise unruly collection of rants, diatribes, and goofy observations, peppered with at times agonizing videos and amateurish photoshopped images.

...and, every now and again (but very rarely), a somewhat astute reflection or canny insight makes its tortured way from deep within my gray matter onto your computer screen. Sorry about all that other bullshit you have to wade through to find the occasional gem, but you should think of it like an Easter egg hunt, where the search for goodness is just part of the fun!

2010 is shaping up to be a real humdinger, and we're looking forward to yet another exciting year of political intrigue and drama! Thanks everyone for reading!

Q-Poll crushes GOP dreams

In a just-released Quinnipiac Poll for CT-Senate, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads all Republican challengers by 35 to 47 points. And Blumenthal's approval rating among Connecticut's Republicans is an astounding 62%! This is very good news for the Democrats, anxious to hold on to a longtime "D" Senate seat.

This is the first Q-Poll taken since Sen. Chris Dodd announced his retirement and the AG jumped in the race.

In a statement just released by his campaign, Blumenthal said:

"I am pleased that Connecticut residents consider me a worthy Senate candidate, but polls don't vote, people do -- and the only vote that counts is the one on Election Day. This campaign will be exciting and hard fought, and I fully expect that the polls will tighten as the race goes on. I plan to continue what I've done for the last 20 years -- fighting hard for the people of Connecticut, listening to their ideas, earning their trust and, ultimately, continuing my public service.

I take nothing for granted, and I will work like an underdog."

In a head-to-head GOP matchup, Rob Simmons is leading Linda McMahon 37 - 27 percent, with Peter Schiff almost not registering at 4%, but a significant 28% are still undecided. The focus of the Republicans will have to be gaining a foothold with that undecided block, and that likely means we'll see an early start to the sniping at each other. The Republican convention is scheduled for May 21-22, just over four months away.

The other Democrat in the race, Merrick Alpert, obviously has an ongoing issue with getting his message out, with 93% of the voters surveyed saying they haven't heard enough about him to form an opinion. Of course, these numbers parallel Ned Lamont's from early 2006 when he first entered the Senate race, so there is definitely room for improvement.

But with Dick Blumenthal's numbers so staggeringly high, I expect we'll see any number of candidates from either party decide that now isn't the right time to take a long shot campaign to the absolute bitter end.

UPDATE: While I'm thinking about it, I do want to say that I totally despise when a polling outfit tries to make a cutesy, goofy headline out of their results. "Blumenthal Body Slams Republicans In Connecticut..." Because, you see, Linda McMahon is one of those Republicans, and she's the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.

GET IT???

I mean, c'mon! Quinnipiac has a reputation for doing serious numbers work, and then they let some self-aggrandizing blowhard (and we know who you are, too) write a header that would embarrass the editorial department of the New York Post!

I don't know how many times I've already said this, but if you're in the business of doing scientific polling and you then resort to a totally hacky title like that, you're in the wrong business! Try your luck at comedy in the Borscht Belt; they appreciate that level of "humor". In the meantime, just report the numbers and the great unwashed out there figure it out!

PS - I'm not against self-aggrandizing blowhards in theory (seeing as I am one), but I don't cotton to someone who runs a supposedly non-partisan polling organization trying to bestow editorial interpretation on the results. I make no claims that this blog is non-partisan.

Then again, I've only received a single donation from a Republican (and none from Democrats lately), so maybe I need to rethink my strategy here! ;)

Help keep Massachusetts blue!

Watch the video below, then go over to My Left Nutmeg and read the "call to action" to to help Martha Coakley win Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts. The Special Election is Tuesday, January 19th - the day after Martin Luther King Day.



I like how they refer to the teabaggers as "the same extremist group that backs Sarah Palin." It's great to see both them AND Palin accurately described as "extremists".

This is the meme that the Democrats absolutely need to push in 2010. No more allowing them to get away with claiming that their corporate-sponsored so-called "grassroots" movement attracts anyone but extremists.

Susan Bysiewicz for AG

(Christine Stuart photo)
The Capitol is abuzz today with talk of Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz changing course to run for the Attorney General's seat to be vacated by Dick Blumenthal.

Christine Stuart over at CT News Junkie has some breaking details, with more to come:

Rumors that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz would switch from her gubernatorial bid to the attorney general’s race have been swirling ever since Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced he would run for U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat.

It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

Bysiewicz’s campaign confirmed that she would officially make the switch 11 a.m., Wednesday at Middletown’s City Hall.