DeMint: We Lost Pennsylvania Because 'Forced Unionization' Caused Republicans To Flee
There are two competing interpretations of Arlen Specter's move into the Democratic party. It's not clear why they're competing, because they're not by any means mutually exclusive. In fact, they're deeply connected. But that's how it's playing out: Either Specter became a Democrat because the Republicans moved too far to the right or Specter became a Democrat because he was facing a career ending primary in 2010. Strangely enough, even though Specter himself insists both factors contributed to his decision, very few people seem to have absorbed this.
One of those people is Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who says the Republican party's hitting the sweet spot. He attributes the non-viability of the Republican party in state's like Pennsylvania to the fact that voters have fled "forced unionization" in the northeast for the safety and comfort of the southern motherland.
But don't mistake DeMint for a crank. He's actually a consummate optimist. He says "Pat Toomey, who is running in Pennsylvania, is one of the most maintream Americans I know." And surely all those diaspora northerners will repatriate Pennsylvania when they realize that the "mainstream" is on the rise and "forced unionization" will no longer beleaguer the tea-loving masses.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
I think the one big unanswered question is whether Specter's move clears the way for Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh to defect to the Democratic Party as well.
April 29, 2009 9:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
EXCELLENT snarkitude!!! Wouldn't want it to go unnoticed.
April 29, 2009 9:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. I'm left in a dilemma now. Do I vote for Evan Bayh in November next year or just skip it because I don't like the double Republican ticket? I think there is enough centrists in this state for him to win reelection. I swear, I literally feel like the lone communist in the middle of WWII Berlin in my part of the state here in Indiana. Its not so far off for being a self-described socialist here in Ultra-Ultra-Red Indiana.
April 29, 2009 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent snark indeed, but the sad thing is that the addition of Specter to their mini-caucus of pseudo-Dems may actually increase their influence.
April 29, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Specter seems pretty tight with Reid and Biden. I think he may turn out more loyal than Bayh.
April 29, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
He better be, if they are going to let him keep his senority and maybe even give him a chairmanship!
April 29, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
At least until after 2010. If he wins re-election, he'll just settle in with the Blue Dogs (um I mean Mod Dem Working Group--Jeez, could they shorten that a little?).
April 29, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Arlen isn't long for the world after the 2010 election. He looks like walking death, and had another bout with cancer and chemo last year. Of course that increases the chances on him being more erratic as he fades. But there's little chance that a Specter who turns 80 and in bad health next year is going to make it to 2016.
John
April 29, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn'y get too far out there in this vein. It's morbid as well as counter-productive. How can we as Dem/progressives/etc, call out GOPers on their intolerance and such if we are as vile as they are.
I get it, he's old....about as old as Sen. Byrd was 2-3 terms ago. By that same note, should our remaining liberal(ish) justices on the supreme court have retired during Bush's presidency because they were/are old? Clearly not.
April 29, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hell, Specter was a better Democrat than Nelson and Bayh before he switched.
April 29, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Think of it this way, the Blue Dogs have become the de facto opposition party, which imho is a good thing because 1. our political system actually depends on a reasonable but effective opposition and 2. the actual opposition party has gone insane. I just wish the Blue Dogs weren't generally so stupid, and, for all his flaws, Specter has never struck me as particularly dumb. So, if he can join the Blue Dogs, and make them a bit smarter as a political group then I think that would be a very good thing.
April 29, 2009 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
perhaps the blue dawgs will take the place of the repuglicans as they crash and burn before the mid-term elections.
April 29, 2009 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems to me that is the most likely scenario.
The Blue Dawgz can agree and say they are Democrats, yet disagree, and say they are Blue Dawgz, after all. It's the best of both worlds for them.
April 29, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a beaut, tc! Thanks for the chuckle.
April 29, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, way to call Pennsylvanians a bunch of brain-washed morons. Not that this is conservative "elitism" or anything.
April 29, 2009 9:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh-oh, Rep. Bachmann. You have a competitor for the title of most batshit insane Gooper. Time to step it up a notch!
April 29, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I beg to differ.
Michelle Bachmann cited a nonexistent epidemic during the Carter Administration, and attributed these things to the reigns of "Democratic" presidents... like Gerald Ford.
Sorry, you gotta get up pretty damned early in the morning, to top that.
April 29, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hate to nit-pick, but she referred to Carter as a DEMOCRAT president. She would never pass up an opportunity to insult DEMOCRATIC party members, especially when spouting crap she pulled out of her ass.
April 29, 2009 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
My bad.
I have never understood, with regard to the "DEMOCRAT Party": [a] why this particular "dog whistle" to fellow nazis is somehow supposed to be insulting to Democrats; [b] why blow-dried anchors and "journalists" assumed the frame so effortlessly (why, you'd almost think they'd never read blogs or understood framing or Karl Rove or... um, never mind...).
April 29, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
You might find this interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zHpYQZg_I
Every now and then, Chris rises to the challenge. It starts at the 50 second mark.
April 29, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I did catch that when it was first broadcast. As gratifying as it was, do you think someone could have done that, maybe the first couple of times that, say, Newt Gingrich pulled that shit in the '80's and '90's? It's a little late, Chris; damage is done...
Also, I'm glad he decided to use Issa to make an example. This is the Republican who energetically worked to have the governor of California recalled for the crime of having been scammed by Republicans (Enron), only to be told when he succeeded that sorry, the nod's going to a Movie Star, not you, boy. As I recall, he wept publicly.
What a tool. Deserves all the humiliation he can get.
April 29, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Chris was brilliant. HE not only dressed him down, he gave the air time back to Barney Frank. yes, it is very late. The press has grown a set since Obama won, but we still need to push back on this now.
April 29, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I missed that. Yup, she retains the crown! Nice work, Michelle.
April 29, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I thought she said it happened on Carter's watch because he was the real President - Ford was just acting like one ????
April 29, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, Bachman's got that honor all to herself.
We can think of another title for DeMint. How about:
"Republican with most idiotic soundbites."
No, that would be Michael Steele. Here's another:
"Most Clueless"
Plenty of competition for that one, but he deserves it for this and his Rick Sanchez interview yesterday.
April 29, 2009 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. Only Katherine Harris could give her a run for that title. Imagine the hi jinks of a debate between the two! It would be instant classic, leaving all watchers confused when the two competitor's debate dissolves into gibberish when they try to confuse each other with made up words....
April 29, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Step it up a notch? It'll be hard to top her most recent statement about the "coincidence" of Swine Flu only occuring during Democrats tenures!
April 29, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Really, I'm not being snarky, but when I heard Bachmann do that, I developed a kind of respect for her. Hear me out:
In life, in so many instances, we muddle through with mediocrity and the curse of being "average". Michelle Bachmann has, I think, proven that she is in a class all by herself, when it comes to being publicly, unabashedly Stupid... not an insult, but a cold evaluation: just "stupid".
Inhofe, Rohrabacher, Bunning, Palin, DeMint... pikers. This woman can get up and just make a perfect ass of herself, making even her ideological mates cringe and throw up a little in their mouths while trying to maintain a brave face of solidarity.
Everyone hopes to achieve some form of superlative, as opposed to going through life, unnoticed. Bachmann has certainly hit a 10.
April 29, 2009 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know whether Bachmann is stupid, but she is batshit insane. (And I think we need to keep the stupid and the insane distinct because they call for quite different responses.)
April 29, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Insane" implies that, through either chemical means, years of therapy, or both, Ms. Bachmann could conceivably emerge as a "smart" individual.
Now, you don't really believe that, do you?
April 29, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I disagreee w/ you and Barry Champ. Bachmann is likely not Stupid or Crazy. She may just be smart enough to know that her MN-06 constituents are in fact Stupid and Crazy enough to buy the crap she's selling.
April 29, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
the safety and comfort of the Slave States.
April 29, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, yeah.
Toomey mainstream.
Club for Growth: Metaphor for a fucking tumor.
April 29, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or a very blunt instrument.
April 29, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Some Texans have been talking about seceding from the Union; I say: Why not the whole South (again)? They wouldn't be missed, and then the remaining states might actually get to enjoy some true progressive governance for a change. Southerners, we promise not to fight you over this time. Hell, we'll even give you a big "severance package" just to get the hell out of town!
April 29, 2009 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Doofus is apt name for this comment.
April 29, 2009 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, I agree totally with Doofus.
You, on the other hand, are free to send your sons and daughters to shed blood, trying to kill better-armed rednecks, and to donate your tax money to Reconstruct the fuckers, so they can do it again, another 100 years from now!
April 29, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
That was funny. Required some wit. Good job.
April 29, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, now, some of those formerly Confederate states voted for Obama and sent Democrats to the Senate these last two elections.
I do sometimes kinda wish Andrew Jackson had just told South Carolina not to let the door hit them in the ass on the way out during the Nullification Crisis, though.
April 29, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
In 1832 South Carolina might have been better off on its own. It was making tons of money exporting cotton and they were getting screwed by the tariff. They were sending way more money to the federal government than they were getting back, unlike today, where there seems to be an positive correlation between the level of tea party rhetoric and the amount of sucking on the federal teat.
April 29, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have often tried to imagine the New Confederacy, with no Federal assistance and no trading partners.
Conceivably, they can tax their constituents (!!!!) for the revenues they used to send to Washington, but that won't make up for the expense of trying to launch a whole new country.
They can't use their National Guards to invade Blue states and loot them, because the only people they could recruit to kill Americans for their money would be a well-regulated militia made up of the hardcore gun rackers... they'd be annihilated in about 30 minutes.
And as DC (hopefully) just sits on its hands and lets them starve, the exodus of sane Southerners to the US would be mindblowing (think Black folks, escaping Jim Crow to live in the Big City... only bigger!). Northern industry and corporate powers would not exactly object to having a pick-and-choose labor force, so there would be Zero impetus to reach out and give the goobers another "second chance".
Nope, it'd be "Mad Max" time in Dixie. Word.
(Attention budding screenwriters: steal this scenario, and I swear to God, I'll sue! :-)
April 29, 2009 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is tempting to agree with you, but there really are Southerners who don't want to be out of the U.S.A. We hope you Yankees will help protect us again.
April 29, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Pat Toomey, who is running in Pennsylvania, is one of the most maintream Americans I know."
This statement just shows how completely out of touch the Republican party has become.
April 29, 2009 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here are some of Pat Toomey's mainstream beliefs:
from
* Voted YES on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy. (Jun 2004)
* Voted YES on implementing Bush-Cheney national energy policy. (Nov 2003)
* Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. (Aug 2001)
* Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)
* Voted NO on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. (Jun 2000)
And ...
* Voted YES on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror. (Nov 2001)
* Voted YES on requiring states to test students. (May 2001)
* Let schools display the words "God Bless America". (Oct 2001)
* Rated 17% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
And ...
* Voted YES on speeding up approval of forest thinning projects. (Nov 2003)
* Rated 0% by the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
And ...
* Voted YES on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages. (May 2004)
* Voted NO on limited prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. (Nov 2003)
* Voted YES on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs. (Jul 2003)
* Voted YES on small business associations for buying health insurance. (Jun 2003)
* Voted YES on capping damages and setting time limits in medical lawsuits. (Mar 2003)
* Voted YES on allowing suing HMOs, but under federal rules & limited award. (Aug 2001)
* Voted YES on Prescription Drug Coverage under Medicare. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on banning physician-assisted suicide. (Oct 1999)
* Voted YES on establishing tax-exempt Medical Savings Accounts. (Oct 1999)
* Rated 25% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
I can not tell you how much it gets under my skin when I hear politicians use the phrase, "Most Americans", "The Majority of Americans" or in this case "mainstream". First these guys do not speak for most Americans as they do not represent most Americans, in fact only Obama and Biden can really get away with that quote but you see from their many quotes they like many other politicians want an inclusive relationship with those who did not vote for them. I seriously wish a reporter would call them out when they say things like this and just ask them specifically whom they are addressing.
April 29, 2009 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't believe Toomey sold out! They get a big time contract with the music industry and then BAM!!, they just suck.
Um, that's what 'mainstream' means, right?
April 29, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
DeMint is just pointing out that in states like Pennsylvania, when people fear for their livelihood, they just tend to, you know, cling to things like religion and collective bargaining agreements.
April 29, 2009 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL, nice touch
April 29, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
IIRC, unemployment in South Carolina is 48th among the 50 states (49th if you count DC) at 11.4%, while Pennsylvania is in a four-way tie for 24th at a much less scary 7.8%. This brought to you by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm
Some safety and comfort.
April 29, 2009 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, that would be "employment." Seems the BLS chart lists the states in increasing order of suck, numbering top to bottom.
April 29, 2009 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excerpt from the linked article:
DeMint says he isn't worried. He denied that the GOP has become a southern party, attributing Republican losses in the northeast to some northern voters who have left the region and moved south hoping to avoid labor unions and "forced unionization."
So by his logic, the GOP isn't concentrated in the South since many of these Northern GOPers are migrating south to be part of the Southern Region of the Conservative GOP party.
Huh? Do these people have any sort of self awareness?
April 29, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Contest for the stupidest GOPer award in full bloom. And looks like it's highly competitive.
April 29, 2009 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope there are padded walls in DeMint's office.
April 29, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Retired Republicans vs. Unions
RE: Republican Voters Moved South Because Of 'Forced Unionization'
No. Republicans often worked in non-South states because they could make better money there which offset the higher cost of living outside of the South.
Retired Republicans flocked to the South to retire there because there was a lower cost of living.
The 'union' claim has very little to do with the mass of Republican migration as opposed to the small fraction of Republicans who were major manufacturing business owners who moved their companies to avoid unions.
April 29, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe that's what he meant - unions forced on business owners by the employees. How Unamerican!
April 29, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good Grief man. I don't know what's worse DeMint's asinine comment or you trying to explain it.
Everyone knows its bullshit. No one ever moved anywhere because of unionization unless it would be to get BETTER pay. In DeMint's world it would be moving south to get LESS pay. It just doesn't happen. Leave it at that and don't validate his bullshit with explanations.
April 29, 2009 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES
Secession NOW!
April 29, 2009 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
By Richard Hofstadter
Harper’s Magazine, November 1964, pp. 77-86.
April 29, 2009 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for this citation. I was intending to look for it at my library. I'll use the Harper's archives.
April 29, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Neil Young's "Southern Man" will now be playing in my head all day.
April 29, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
DeMint also had CNN's Rick Sanchez asking "What in the Hell are you talking about" when DeMint was talking about Republicans having a Big Tent of Freedom rather than the ever shrinking tent of the radical right.
April 29, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's just so hilarious. "Big Tent of Freedom." Seriously, why not call it the Freedom Tent of Freedom, or really max it all out by calling it the Freedom Freedom of Freedom.
After all, they're renaming July 4th "American Freedom Day", because you know, that holiday just isn't patriotic enough as it is currently named.
April 29, 2009 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, stop! You made me choke on my Freedom Toast!
April 29, 2009 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
When Rick Sanchez can't go with him on his dream ride of working man's exodus from forced unionization, there has to be a prize for that. What about the Dayly Prize of a tiara for Republican fairy tales. A tiara would suit Bachmann perfectly and Katherine Harris, and even DeMint.
April 29, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to wonder just what is going on here with this 'flight to the south'. I see lots of new factories and such being built with lots of tax breaks for companies and southern senators playing this for all its worth.
My question is why then is there this disproportionate flow of tax dollars coming from and going to southern locales? If they are doing so great then where is the federal tax revenue that logically has to be there? If we're having all this growth in the south and west does it not have to be fueled by jobs and profits that are then taxed. 2 + 2 is still four is it not?
April 29, 2009 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yup! Those patriotic southerners are all eager to work for foreign companies at less wages. If you want to compete with the Chinese, you can't make more then about $2/day, you know.
April 29, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
These guys and guys are void of rational thought. Look I know, I know rational thought isn't all that it used to be but I heard it is making a comeback!
What is really sad to me is thinking about how many of my friends and family who have grown up under Reagan Republicanism still identify themselves with the GOP simply out of not wanting to re-identify themselves. I mean many of these people would not agree with many of the quotes or policies that the GOP backs but still find themselves loath to switch themselves to the D's. I guess their might be hope, as Lincoln Chaffee pointed out last night that a third party emerges out of the Indy's and made up of moderates and Liberatarians who can some how agree to disagree on some of the more controversial issues but continue to move towards progress.
April 29, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ragged but determined Republican refugees grimly trudge south, fleeing the union lash with only what they can carry on their backs, the weak and the sick sometimes stumbling but then somehow pulling themselves back up to continue striving, striving onward toward the shining promise of South Carolina.
April 29, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep that;s just how me pappy made down here in the ol' south.
It reminds me of that Dana Carvey SNL skit, you know the one which started with, "Back in my day . . ."
April 29, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry I meant to include this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1_NhnXMCKw&feature=related
April 29, 2009 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hate to do this, but this is a pet misusage peeve of mine. Except in certain rare cases (and even those are questionable), you do not use apostrophes to form plurals. Just "s" or "es": "in states like Pennsylvania...". Apostrophes are used for contractions (can't, don't, didn't, etc.) and to make nouns (but not pronouns!!) possessive: Megan's law, daddy's little girl, etc.
April 29, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aw, come on. If you're going to correct someone's spelling, at least be honest about it. You don't HATE to do it -- you LOVE to do it.
April 29, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because if you hated to do something, you wouldn't do it, would you?
April 29, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I do hate to do it, but somebody has to. Apostrophe abuse is epidemic in this country!
April 29, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
You want to know MY pet peeve? These are examples and almost EVERYONE does it:
"There's lots of kids out there on the downtown mall."
"There's people who will disagree with me, but..."
"There's coins in my pocket."
Subject and verb agreement -- NOT rocket science, agreed?
April 29, 2009 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
And then there is the the "your" and "you're" issue and the "their" and "there" issue. Good grief, spell check can't do EVERYTHING. What are they teaching in school these days? Oh, yeah, I remember. It is the "they need to get their thoughts down on paper, we'll work on the spelling and punctuation later. We don't want to hurt their wittle feelings by correcting them" crap!
April 29, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real problem is that children don't read literature any more. When you see the written word correctly on a page, even if you don't know the grammar you recognize what is right and what is rong (tee hee!)
April 29, 2009 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't anyone ever ever ever even hint that the basis of the whole problem might be with "George and Dickie's 8 yr reign" . . HUSH HUSH HUSH
April 29, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do any of the right wing loonies in the House and Senate (and you know who you are!) EVER stop and think about what they are saying or making up? Do you think they think the whole of the public believes what they say? It is becoming fewer and fewer above the Mason-Dixon line and that is even dropping below the PA.- MD. border. More like down to SC. And this guy DeMint challenges Bachmann, Inhofe, King and the rest of the loonies for being the looniest.
April 29, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, people fled the Democrats and the evil unions in Pa. to the safer confines of Virginia and North Carolina, where they continued to vote for Democrats like Obama who supports EFCA.
April 29, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, those yankees can just stay where they are! We Virginians are finally a blue state and carpetbagging nopublicans can stay home or just keep driving on through to South Carolina!
April 29, 2009 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word is that a republican is favored for the VA governorship. How do you see it, cville?
April 29, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
As another Virginian, I see the Republican slightly ahead in polls while the Democrats have a vigorous three-way primary. At this point in an off-year race, there's no reason to think that a lead in the polls reflects anything more than name recognition, and McDonnell, having served as AG, has more statewide name recognition than the Democratic candidates.
I think it'll be a tough race, but I think we can win it. (Especially if all you slackers who don't have elections this year help us out. ;-)
April 29, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, we have a governor's race coming up here in OK. We have a Dem there now, but I'm afraid a republican will win it in 2010 which will be a disaster. Our lege is republican now and of the wingnut species of that genus so having a Dem, however blue doggish s/he might be, is vital.
April 29, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. I don't even know who to support in the primary. Cree Deeds has been around for a long time, but truthfully, he is very unimpressive when he talks. Moran, I know almost nothing about, and Terry McCauliff is someone I like, but I think the nopubs will hang him with the sin of not being a "true Virginian," and getting lots of $ from outside. That kind of nonsense can sway people who have always trusted repubs to keep taxes low, even at the expense of education, roads, etc.
Eric Canter nauseates me, and he is a typical Virginia repub, but the fact is there are still a lot of far-right people around. They forget that we got very good governance from these past two Democratic administrations, but they just remember that the dopey repeal of the car-tax was under a republican. (The car tax had to be reinstated because there was no funding for road infrastructure)
April 29, 2009 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope a Democrat will make it. I'm a little concerned about state and local races going to republicans because that gives them a foot in the door the next big election cycle.
April 29, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, you're only blue because we yankees started illegally immigrating into un-American northern Virginia!
At least that's how I think conservative Republicans would view it.
April 29, 2009 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was just joking; some of my best friends are yankees!
April 29, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Sen. DeMint! I'll be sure to use this logic when trying to convince Virginia Democratic office-holders to dump so-called "right to work" law!
April 29, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
OH PLEASE!!! OH PLEASE!!! Don't make my wages any higher! I don't want better health care and for God's sake, when they call me into the office to dress me down, I want to be alone against the Supv, Mgr, and HR. I don't want any recourse. I don't want to have a safer work environment and I don't want to go home...ever. Let me work all day and night at a pifly wage where I can barely support the family I never see. It makes me so happy to live like this. Pennsylvania, you've pushed me one step too far with your demand we should all be brothers and such. I'm outta here!
Who believes that really happened? Does DeMint really believe that? That is the sound of a party flushing itself down the toilet of history.
April 29, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a pretty crazy look at what happened. For one thing, industry in Pennsylvania and most of the East Coast and Midwest has been unionized for decades. This did not just happen. The idea that lots of people have left Pennsylvania to go work in the non-Union South so they would not be bothered by Union bosses is ludicrous. It is true that many Southerners are very happy to work for Honda, Toyota, and the other Asian automakers. These guys pay "almost" union wages in an area of the country where it is almost impossible to earn a living wage with any blue-collar work. Those jobs may look wonderful there, but people who are used to better aren't fighting them for it, unless they have to.
April 29, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, I'll have what Jim's smokin'.
April 29, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's remember that Arlen has a seriously varied history - in the Warren Committee, he was responsible for the original "single bullet theory" which has no doubt been one of the reasons all parties have given him some leeway. Despite his actual belief structure, which surely puts him more in line with the Dems, he behaved abominably during the Anita Hill debacle, and was a major reason for Clarence Thomas landing on the Court (as we like to remember - Thomas, the only man who thinks "harrass" is two words). I live in PA and worked for years with an attorney who was an ADA under Specter, and I often saw him say hi to folks he had known 20 years earlier and remember the details about their families, etc - so he is clearly the ultimate political animal. That said, Toomey, Santorum and so forth have been a nightmare for our Commonwealth of PA, so despite his issues, Specter is the best option here lately, no matter his party. Unless those folks who had to go South to get away from us decide to come back and try to get Toomey elected.
April 30, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink