PAUL MCCARTNEY: …Too Many Reaching For A Piece Of Cake
Too Many People Pulled And Pushed Around
Too Many Waiting For That Lucky Break
That Was Your First Mistake
You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two
Now What Can Be Done For You
You Broke It In Two
Too Many People Sharing Party Lines
Too Many People Never Sleeping Late
Too Many People Paying Parking Fines
Too Many Hungry People Losing Weight…
…Too Many People Preaching Practices
Don't Let Them Tell You What You Wanna Be
Too Many People Holding Back, This Is
Crazy And Maybe It's Not Like Me
That Was Your Last Mistake
I Find My Love Awake And Waiting To Be
Now What Can Be Done For You
She's Waiting For Me”
By any logical reckoning, this year should be considered on of great opportunity for New York State Republicans.
First of all, all six statewide offices are held by Democrats, four of whom got their jobs from processes other than by direct election. This situation if nearly always a killer.
Back in 1978 Minnesota, Walter Mondale got himself elected Vice President, freeing up one of the State’s Senate seats. Governor Wendell Anderson resigned, and his successor, Lieutenant Governor Rudy Perpich, appointed Anderson to the seat, a move which has nearly always proven highly unpopular. Then the State’s other Senator, Hubert Humphrey, died; and Perpich appointed Humphrey’s widow Muriel to fill out his term.
Though the other vacancies were really the occasion for either pride or sorrow, the Anderson/ Perpich swap looked sleazy because it was. And combined together with the surfeit of office holders who’d never had to face the voters, the circumstances provided the Republicans with a fool proof slogan. Imagine how it would play adapted for the Big Apple.
"Something scary is going to the New York State Democrats; it's called an election."
In Illinois, a series of vacancies resulting from both moments of pride and those of disgrace has produced elation among local Republican, who are fielding a strong slate and are loaded for bear.
In New York, there are other factors which one would think would add up to the same day of reckoning ahead.
The State is financially in a condition referred to by experts in the field as “being upon the balls of its ass.” The Governor, having assumed his office because his predecessor frequented a prostitute, differentiates himself by paying for his paramour with tax dollars instead of structured payments, and sometimes offers the excuse that he honestly thought he was canoodling with his wife.
And he’s pretty much the State Capitol’s embodiment of moral rectitude.
The Democrats further bear the burden of what appears on paper to be one-party control of State Government, and the truth that this is the case only on paper is not easily communicated in bite-size sentences.
And I didn’t even mention Scott Brown.
"Something scary is going to the New York State Democrats; it's called an election."
And yet, the best the Republicans can do for a Gubernatorial candidate is the only man besides her husband who has ever made Hillary Clinton appear to be a figure of sympathy.
And Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief that it is Rick Lazio, rather than his most credible rival, Erie County Exec Chris Collins–a man whose sole claim to fame is that he resorted to damning Shelly Silver with arguably anti-Semitic remarks, when Silver offers almost unlimited opportunities for insults which are fair game.
Then there are the US Senate races.
Strangely enough, the Republican rumored to be running for the seat that’s hopeless is a far more credible candidate than are any of the people running for the seat which is considered to be winnable.
Like lots of people, including myself and many other Democrats, Lawrence Kudlow finds Chuck Schumer to be really annoying. Unlike us, though, he apparently feels that it would be some sort of moral crusade to do something about it.
But Kudlow is eminently superior as a candidate to any of the Republicans currently being mentioned for the State’s other seat.
A significant number of people have heard of Kudlow outside of his home County. Those who remember his name have heard it mentioned in the last decade, and a majority of them don’t great its mention with laughter.
All of these things put him far, far ahead of the Republican candidates running for the seat held by Kirsten Gillibrand.
According to Wikipedia, “Cuckolds have sometimes been written as …"wearing the horns". This refers to the fact that the man being cuckolded is the last to know of his wife's infidelity. He is wearing horns that can be seen by everybody but him. This also refers to a tradition claiming that in villages of unknown European location, the community would gather to collectively humiliate a man whose wife gives birth to a child recognizably not his own. According to this legend, a parade was held in which the hapless husband is forced to wear antlers on his head as a symbol of his wife's infidelity.”
Up until recently, the sole Republican seeking the Gillibrand seat has been a man most noteworthy for the fact that his wife is an MTA Board member with a bad attendance record largely attributable courtesy to the fact she’s been too busy globetrotting around the world, having an affair on Page Six.
Mind you, it could be worse, since there is at least an assumption that if your wife is fucking an ex-Beatle, she must be really, really hot, a fact which reflects upon Blakeman with some favor.
Truth be told though, a better description of Shevell, who is not without resemblance to Liz Benjamin of "Daily Politics," is that she is hot if you like that type (I do). Beyond that, it can be added that she has two legs and they are both long.
Well, at least it’s not Ringo who‘s given him the antlers.
Blakeman last held elected office (as a member of the Nassau County legislature) in 1999, a year after losing a statewide election by a landslide to H. Carl McCall, a man who is himself remembered today mostly for being a horrible candidate.
Today, a new Republican hope emerged, as Troglodyte Party Chair Mike Long began touting the candidacy of former Westchester Congressman Joe DioGuardi, who lost his seat in 1988.
In this day of oversensitivity about the use of words like “Negro,” I think it is useful to understand that it not the words themselves which are important, but what they are saying. Here is the most famous thing Joe DioGuardi has ever said–a quote explaining why he opposed Medicaid abortions:
''You've got to look at the facts. The facts are that the minority groups in this country enjoy having children. It's their only joy, their only hope. It gets them another check. They're not going to have abortions.''
I should note that a few months ago, a Democratic candidate was forced from the same Senate race, after she was caught using the word “Nigger” to a reporter. Though for several reasons, it was a good thing that this candidate was forced from that race, the use of the N-word by that candidate indicated absolutely no bigoted intent (in fact, as the link shows, it was used pretty much in the context of showing empathy with the concerns of people of color).
By contrast, while DioGuardi’s quote is totally devoid of ethnic pejoratives, everything about it implies unspeakable contempt for people of color.
Quite clearly, there is more than one way to say NIGGER.
Truly, the Party's field for the Gillibrand seat should be enough to make Republicand nostalgic for Howard Mills.
Though I have no sympathy for Harold Ford, last seen trying to steal Reshma Saujani’s neat trick of using parochial reactionary opposition to Health Care Reform as proof of being better on choice than the opponent who supported HCR (even though he favors parental consent and opposes late term abortions), and even less sympathy for lunatic “progressive” JonathanTasini (who also opposes HCR), I had to laugh out loud when I read in today’s Times about Democratic Diva Sarah Kovner whining to party money people about how a Senate primary would “only hurt the party.”
This mantra was being chanted even before any hint of a Democratic fall from grace, but even in the aftermath of Brown, it seems wildly overstated.
People are clearly overestimating the Brown factor in New York, possibly because they are using it as an excuse.
First of all, it seems largely irrelevant to internal Democratic primaries. Even if Ford proves credible, it will be because he’s attracted minority support. In other words, it will be despite his conservatism, not because of it.
Remember, Martha Coakley was the Democratic candidate because SHE WON a hotly contested Democratic primary. There is no indication that Democrats who vote in primaries are revolting from the right.
But, even as to general elections, New York hardly seems the best place for a conservative, populist revolt.
And even if it is, the guy who used to vacation with Paul McCartney til “The Cute One” stole his wife hardly seems the best vehicle to rally the peasants carrying pitchforks