Saxby Chambliss deserves to lose

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Back in ‘04, the national GOP went hard after Sen. John Kerry to talk shit about his service in the military during the Vietnam War. Kerry, like many other vets, saw the war for what it was and reacted against it when he came home.

That’s what’s so sick about Sen. John McCain’s assertion that he’s served the country since he was 17 and “has the scars to prove it.” The RNC didn’t seem to care about that with Sen. Max Cleland in 2002.

Cleland was a man who served in Vietnam and lost not one, but three limbs in the service of his country — two legs and and arm. Who among you could say that you would lose two legs and an arm in an unpopular war, yet come back home and want to serve your country?

Yet, Chambliss and the RNC set to make it like Cleland was allied with Osama bin Laden and the like.

Riddle Vierdsen this — if a Democrat ran an ad saying a Republican, who lost three limbs in Vietnam was un-American, what would be the amount of time until he was forced to drop out from the race?

Still, Chambliss was complicit in these attacks. Now, it looks like he might lose. Sen. Barack Obama is getting a large number of young people and blacks to return to the polls, and that very well may make the difference.

As of right now, Chambliss is up by less than three percentage points. Considering the amount of “non-likely voters” who are heading to the polls, hopefully he will get beat. Anybody who will put their stamp of approval on a despicable campaign like he did on the ‘02 race deserves to get beat.

Dispatch from Blue Virginia

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Turns out, Vierdsen mère is doing civic duty as a poll worker on election day (hoorah for someone under 80 doing that job), and the City of Richmond is in high gear for the elections.

Richmond, which is so blue that the voters in the 2000 GOP primary were almost all Dems, has early voting lines that are over an hour long. Other developments:

* City Hall, which is having heat issues, had to shut down because space heaters caused a fire alarm to go off. They moved the voting machines to the health department, which is just across the street.

* Several women, in various stages of disability, said they wouldn’t have voted (too painful), but this year is different and they brought chairs and inched along in the line to make sure they could cast their ballots.

* In what’s a really cool regulation, if you’re too disabled, injured or whatever to stand in line, poll workers will bring out a voting machine to your car, allowing for “curbside voting.” To make sure everything’s kosher, a Democratic and a Republican poll watcher tag along.

* In what sucks, mayoral candidates are making robocalls to cell phones. Wonder how many votes that costs them (at least one).

*As of right now, the city is expecting a massive turnout on Election Day, mainly because of the large amount of student and black voters in the city (and middle-aged white liberals, natch). Over/under on NoVa students trying to vote, but not realizing they’re registered in Fairfax?

Sounds like it should be an interesting day in Virginia on Tuesday.

Georgia is a toss-up? Seriously?

If this map is anything close to accurate, Sen. John McCain better start getting his concession speech in order.

Pollster.com

GOP getting ready to re-tool

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Sean Connery, as a Soviet ballistic missile submarine captain in “The Hunt for Red October,” said, “A little revolution, now and then, is a good thing, don’t you think?”

Certainly, it must be for the national Republican Party. The party is at its worst spot in decades. Word is that two days after Election Day, major players in the party will gather in Virginia to figure out “where do we go from here?” This is good. Like nature tells us, forest fires are actually healthy events, killing off underbrush and allowing healthy vegetation to grow.

Maybe it was Bill Maher, or Dennis Miller (before he went off the reservation), that said that the reason people vote for Republicans is because of fiscal conservatism. If there is anything that the Bush years have told us, the modern national Republican Party wants to spend your money like it doesn’t matter. Even more, they want to get involved in your personal life.

Let’s face it — apart from the minority of social conservatives, people don’t want government in their bedroom. What wins for the GOP are fiscal issues, not social issues. You start telling people who they can diddle and where they can do it, that’s going to turn people off (looking at you, Fogle).

If the leaders of the GOP have their wits about them, they’ll realize that the way to win is to get to the fiscal conservatism that the American public expects, but haven’t gotten in recent years, from the GOP.

If the leadership goes down the Sarah Palin path, expect more than four years in the wilderness.

SCGOP just givin’ it away!

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

While the state Democrats are having to import funds to supplement their election efforts, the state Republican Party is, dare John say, redistributing the wealth?

Fo sho, fo sho. In an effort to buttress GOP efforts in some swing and not-so-swing states, S.C. Republicans are taking advantage of their respective largesse and putting some of the money elsewhere. According to the pre-election report, the following cash is going the following places:

Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania
$100,000

Republican Party of Florida
$50,000

Maine Republican Party
$15,000

North Carolina Republican Party
$25,000

Nevada Republican State Central Committee
$40,000

New Hampshire Republican Party
$20,000

Republican Party of Virginia
$75,000

Oh, wow. When you consider that a recent poll has Rep. Henry Brown with just a five-point lead in SC-1, you’ve got to wonder about the state party spreading out the cash to so many other places.

UPDATE: Turns out, the Penn GOP returned half that cash, and, surprisingly, the RNC put some money in the state like WOAH. That is, $275,000 in one transfer. Not bad, Kemo Sabe.

South Carolina Republican Party [FEC.gov]

Obama, DNC dump more bones into SCDP’s federal account

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Vierdsen doesn’t entirely know where all this money is going to, but as of the pre-election report, Sen. Barack Obama and the DNC have put even more cash into the state Democratic Party’s federal campaign account.

In the first two weeks of October, Obama put a whopping $48,000 toward the efforts of the SCDP, which is pretty shocking considering that the Illinois senator has no chance to carry the state next week.

The DNC, at the same time, funneled $99,893. Over all, Obama has spent $58,500 and the DNC has put in $247,407. One has to wonder how things will end up, with the party getting so much money from national sources.

Democratic Party of South Carolina [FEC.gov]

Thin-skinned

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

It’s really amazing how irritable the crowd at Richard Quinn & Associates is these days. The election is next week, yet the operatives at the firm seem to be working overtime dealing with bloggers than doing work for their clients.

Smart strategy, there.

Now, someone from RQ&A (from the firm’s server, no less) has been trying to post comments, not refuting what Vierdsen’s posted, but just trying ad-hominem attacks:

Wes,

When are you going to start posting under your name now that everyone knows who you are?

Sincerely,

Wes Wolfe’s inner conscience

P.S. – At least Rick Quinn has a job

Then there was this one:

Why are you censoring my comments, Wes? What’s the matter, you can’t take what you dish out?

Well, Vierdsen is used to some good give and take. What’s funny is how thin-skinned Young Republicans are (with due respect to Vierdsen’s conservative friends). John knows it’s YRs at the firm because older Republicans have actually got the maturity to let it roll off and move on.

It reminds Vierdsen of that great American, President Harry Truman. In a famous interaction a supporter yelled, “Give ‘em hell, Harry!” Truman responded, “I don’t give ‘em hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell!”

Rick Quinn maybe can now pay his property taxes

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Believe it or not, Rick Quinn still hasn’t resolved the back taxes on his former home at 39 Eastpine Court in the Harbison neighborhood. As of the latest update on the Richland County records on Oct. 24, Quinn still owes $2,412.09 on the property, which is slated to be sold at auction.

But, maybe he can pay it now. Word on the street is that the South Carolina Association for Justice (formerly South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association) has re-upped Quinn’s $9,000/mo. contract.

Vierdsen wonders how the fellas at S.C. Club for Growth feel about this. After all, the Club is using RQ&A as its in-state mailhouse, paying the firm $16,730 in June.

As we all know from the Gospel of Luke, you can’t serve two masters.

HD-79 set to turn from red to blue (maybe)

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

The retirement of Rep. Bill Cotty in HD-79 (Columbia/Northeast Richland/Kershaw) looked, at the first glance, to be a bad thing for House Republicans. Also, it’s always a shame to lose a good guy in the General Assembly, no matter what party they are or what their ideology is (or lack thereof).

Before he retired, Cotty expressed that if he did step down, it would mean that the district would likely go Democratic in the next cycle. Community organizer and political consultant Anton Gunn, who gave Cotty a run for his money the last time, announced for the seat.

Gunn, having been a leader in Sen. Barack Obama’s big win in the South Carolina Democratic Primary, had then, and still has, a lot of people believing that if the seat can be flipped, he’s the guy to do it.

The Republican Primary battle for the seat was a little strange. Sheri Few, a leader of S.C. Parents Involved in Education, an SCRG ally and a first-class nut, seemed like she would get the nomination, what with her money and initial showing. But, in the runoff, moderate (well, anybody put next to Few looks moderate) David Herndon pulled the upset. Few’s people didn’t get out to vote, and Herndon put together an excellent GOTV operation.

Now, Republicans that may have crossed over in the event of a Few nomination could be staying with the party. Plus, no one can discount Herndon’s ground game after his performance in the runoff. Going into the last of the disclosures (Oct. 15 reports), Gunn leads Herndon in cash-on-hand by 2-to-1, and has been massively outspending his opponent.

It still remains to be seen whether Gunn, in what should be his bailiwick, can combine a good ground game with his money advantage, and whether Herndon can keep district Republicans at home while recreating his runoff upset.

David Herndon (R)
3Q $ raised: $14,085
3Q $ spent: $9,289.16
Cash on hand: $5,024.48

Anton Gunn (D)
3Q $ raised: $43,215.23
3Q $ spent: $58,131.68
Cash on hand: $11,410.03

Too little, too late for Team McCain

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Sen. John McCain’s old m.o. was that he was a flinty ex-fighter pilot and POW who voted his conscience and tried to emulate his role model, Sen. Barry Goldwater. He did it in 2000, but the Bush campaign proved to be the rougher of the two.

After apparently “learning his lesson,” McCain embraced Bush’s policies, to the detriment of his image. That’s caused problems for him this entire campaign, as there seems to be a civil war between the old McCain and the new McCain.

This has led to bad choices, namely the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, and focusing on issues that didn’t matter to the majority of voters, like the Bill Ayers mess and using hyperbolic language (eg. he’s a Marxist! He eats babies for sport! He pushed Stephen Garcia!).

Something that would have worked, as Vierdsen said earlier, is going after Sen. Barack Obama as the missing part in a Democratic trinity that would mean an all-Democratic government for the first time since ‘93-’94.

While pointy-headed academics have long advocated for majoritarian government (like in European parliaments), in the past 20 years the American public has largely decided it would rather have divided government — a way for both sides to keep an eye on each other.

Though the air is decidedly toxic for Republicans this cycle, there may have been a chance for McCain to keep it close, and perhaps shrink Obama’s coat tails.

And, now it’s too late.

Alabama 29 – Tennessee 9

Pwn3d.

No. 2 Alabama Cruises to 29-9 Win Over Tennessee [AP via ABC News]

Alabama – Tennessee Hate Week goes into the homestretch: ‘I don’t like pumpkins’

By the way, Tennessee honk and “SEC blogger” Clay Travis has said that Bama will lose this game. Vierdsen doesn’t like to break out this word, but it’s clear that Travis is a Grade-A cunt. The guy is an admitted Vols fan and if you’ve ever spent an extended time around Knoxville, you know that the entire populace is related by less than six degrees. Even a relative of Vierdsen’s, who had no real animus toward Tennessee, came out of a two-year sojourn in Knoxville with a death-hatred of those assholes. Oh, and Clay — yeah, the Vols might win, but Bama actually has a defense, and God knows Tennessee can’t score against one of those.

College Football Preview: Check Your Messages Knowshon [Deadspin]

Who is Keyser Soze?

Fogle’s certainly lined up the usual suspects, and as of 6:50 p.m., these are the standings:

1. Wesley Donehue (18%, 15 Votes)
2. B.J. Boling (15%, 13 Votes)
3. Ross Shealy (13%, 11 Votes)
4. Trav Robertson (11%, 9 Votes)
5. Other (10%, 8 Votes)
6. Mike Rentiers (7%, 6 Votes)
7. Corey Hutchins (5%, 4 Votes)
8. Garrett Gay (4%, 3 Votes)
9. Adam Fogle (4%, 3 Votes)
10. Lachlan McIntosh (4%, 3 Votes)
11. Michael Reese (4%, 3 Votes)
12. Phil Bailey (2%, 2 Votes)
13. Paul Adams (2%, 2 Votes)
14. Will Folks (1%, 1 Votes)
15. Tim Kelly (1%, 1 Votes)
16. Patrick Norton (0%, 0 Votes)

Someone commented that write-in votes should be Hogan Gidley, Morton Brilliant and Greg Foster. Well, Vierdsen can tell you one thing — it ain’t Morton Brilliant. John’s of the opinion that guy is a total douchebag. Is there anybody who knew him that thought he wasn’t a little slimy?

Anyway, it’s a little funny that Fogle’s going after little ol’ Vierdsen. Unlike Mr. Scoop, John doesn’t have an entire major political consulting firm backing him up, and all the resources and advantages that entails, or an extensive network of the firm’s clients feeding him information. He’s just a guy that’s a little smart, can figure out a few things and write a coherent sentence.

It’s like UL-Monroe’s win over Alabama last year — you don’t have to have the depth or the facilities and resources, but when the other guys are throwing you picks on their side of the field on a regular basis, it’s not hard to pull an upset.

By the way, you may want to watch out for the balding guy with a limp.

Who is John Vierdsen [The Palmetto Scoop]

T. Boone just lost all your money

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

When Oklahoma Mr. Moneybags and Oklahoma State alum T. Boone Pickens decided to give $165 million to the Cowboys’ athletic department and put in plans for a massive renovation of the OSU football stadium, fans and everyone else in the program didn’t expect this.

In a stunning vote of faith in the free market, the university allowed Pickens to have total control of the cash, investing it in a hedge fund. See, this is a bad idea. You’re depending on that money. If something goes pear-shaped, and it did, your ill-timed all-in at last Friday’s poker night would look wise in comparison.

There are ways — bonds, money market fund, a fucking savings account, anything that will be pretty safe but still earn interest on the donation.

Now, construction has to be stopped on the stadium, and not even head coach Mike Gundy (HE’S A MAN! HE’S 40!) can fix the situation.

Oklahoma State Would Like to Renegotiate That Mortgage Right About Now, Please [The Sporting News]

Lindsey Graham delusional about the chances of his boyfriend, John McCain

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

This is absurd. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. John McCain’s “Little Jerk,” is under the delusion that the Republican nominee will win both North Carolina and Virginia.

John would like a little of what you’re smoking, Lindsey. Especially since in your own reelection race, Undecided is beating you 46-31 against an unknown crazy man.

Look, LG, Pollster.com has Virginia as a “solid Democrat” state. The equivalent the other way is if some off-base Democratic pundit said that Sen. Barack Obama would take Arizona.

Not only that, but North Carolina is increasingly getting out of reach. As of right now, the last five polls are all just about for Obama (+3, Tied, +3, +4, +2). The previous five polls were in Obama’s advantage, as well.

What’s infuriating isn’t Graham taking up for McCain. That’s natural, for a friend and political ally. What is silly is the fact that the facts are so counter to what he’s saying. Talking like he is, is just making him look like Baghdad Bob.

ETV poll | Not-so-solid South [The State]

Vierdsen’s not popular with the S.C. GOP

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

In recent days, John’s tried to follow some people on Twitter just to see what’s up. Several of those have been staffers at the state Republican Party.

They don’t seem to like what Vierdsen’s been posting lately, and have “blocked” him. The thing is, the way Twitter works, you can simply click on a person’s name and look at what they’ve put up. The only thing blocking does is take your Twitter posts out of a person’s feed.

So far, the following have “blocked” Vierdsen:

Jay W. Ragley, S.C. GOP Executive Director
Rob Godfrey, S.C. GOP Communications Director
Katie Baham, S.C. GOP Political Director

Well, hell. John doesn’t know what he’s done, except to show that your boss is a fraud. Sorry about all that.

Alabama national championships by president, party

Tom Oliver/The Washington Post
Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Of course, it’s hard not to think of 1992. Twelve years of Republican presidents yielded to a Democrat from Arkansas. There was a recession. Alabama was unheralded, and beat the holy hell out of a Miami team that included people like Warren Sapp, Lamar Thomas and (laugh) Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta. Onward!

National Championships
1925
Record: 10-0, President: Calvin Coolidge (GOP)

1926
Record: 9-0-1, President: Calvin Coolidge (GOP)

1930
Record: 10-0, President: Herbert Hoover (GOP)

1934
Record: 10-0, President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem)

1941
Record: 9-2, President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem)

1961
Record: 11-0, President: John F. Kennedy (Dem)

1964
Record: 10-1, President: Lyndon Johnson (Dem)

1965
Record: 9-1-1, President: Lyndon Johnson (Dem)

1973
Record: 11-1, President: Richard Nixon (GOP)

1978
Record: 11-1, President: Jimmy Carter (Dem)

1979
Record: 12-0, President: Jimmy Carter (Dem)

1992
Record: 13-0, President: George H.W. Bush (GOP)

There you go. Yeah, no real trend there, except the last time the Tide won it all, a Bush was in the White House, a Democrat won the presidency and the country was in a recession.

Um, fingers crossed?

Vierdsen makes ‘Brad Warthen’s Blog’

It’s nice to see The State is so interested in Vierdsen. By the way, it’s also nice to see that South Carolina’s Clown-in-Chief is tweaked, as well.

Who (if anyone) is John Vierdsen, and why does he want to be my ‘friend’? [Brad Warthen's Blog]

Action among the losers

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

People rarely check up on what’s going on in the campaign accounts of losing candidates. It’s not liable to be newsworthy or politically relevant.

Then there’s blogs, thankfully.

Katrina Shealy, who got about $50,000 from Howard Rich and his friends, then nailed by Sen. Jake Knotts in the runoff, is still paying her consultants. Starboard Communications got $15,000 from Shealy on Sept. 1, about two and a half months after the election. She also paid $561 to Nelson Mullins on Sept. 28 for a “legal opinion.” That’s a little odd. Sure, a campaign may put an attorney on retainer during the race to run things by them, but a “legal opinion” in late September, three months after the election?

Two of the SCRG/Conservatives in Action-tied Sandlapper Group’s losing candidates are still paying those guys, too. Ed Rumsey, who got absolutely obliterated in his race for HD-2, paid Chad Connelly and Taft Matney $20,000. Kyle Boyd, who lost to Rep. Carl Gullick, sent $14,481.14 Sandlapper’s way.

Joe Bustos, who lost to Mike Sottile in HD-112, has lauched a camapaign for mayor of Mt. Pleasant and has hired Rod Shealy to run that race.

SCRG spokesman threatens to leave the party

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Originally uploaded by johnvierdsen

Reports coming out of the Big Top on Devine Street have it that SCRG spokeman Neil Mellen is a little pissed off at the amount of direct mail he’s been getting from the state Republican Party.

It’s understandable — direct mail is the [insert green, leafy vegetable here] of politics. It’s a very needed and effective tactic, but like spam and phone calls, can irritate people.

Vierdsen has been told that Mellen, in a response to the state party, threatened to leave the party and max out his contributions to Democrats if the mailings continued.

Of course, this is the guy that brought the ACLU into VMI, so it wouldn’t be the first time he’s been involved with lefties.

Either way, it sounds like Katon’s been pretty zealous in hitting the print button.