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   Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
 The federal government is supposed to issue new rules about debt levels for students in for-profit colleges. In the meantime, the states are working on their own regulations.
 Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
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February 4, 2010
THURSDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP.... Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers. * In Delaware, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons (D) officially launched his Senate bid yesterday, with the enthusiastic support of the state and national party. He'll be the underdog against Rep. Mike Castle (R). * A new Rasmussen poll shows Rep. Mark Kirk (R) with the early lead over state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) in Illinois' Senate race, 46% to 40%. * Speaking of Illinois, Democrats leaders were dismayed when pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen spent a lot of his own money and won the party's nomination for lieutenant governor this week. Those concerns grew far more intense today when it was reported that Cohen was arrested in 2005 for holding a knife to his prostitute girlfriend's neck. (In case you're wondering, the only way Dems can get this guy off the ballot would be for Cohen to voluntarily quit.) * In Connecticut, a new Rasmussen poll continues to show state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) looking strong in the open Senate race. His margin over the top Republican candidates is about 20 points. * Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) was made to look pretty foolish during his exchange with President Obama last week, so naturally, the far-right lawmaker is trying to raise money off the incident. * Some recent polls showed former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) as a very competitive opponent against Sen. Russ Feingold (D) this year, but we learned this week that Thompson has accepted a new job with a venture capital fund, making it unlikely that he'll run for office this year. * And in California, Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina (R) released a new web video late yesterday, going after her primary opponent, former Rep. Tom Campbell, as a FCINO (fiscal conservative in name only). It features some kind of demonic sheep/man, and is among the strangest ads for a major office I've ever seen. —Steve Benen 12:00 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (18)
Comments
In Illinois, the lieutenant gov candidate runs separate from the guv candidate in the primary. (Despite what the eventual GOP candidate for governor will try to imply in his ads, Quinn and Blago hated each other.) The party never pays any attention to the lieutenant governor race or puts much effort into lining up a candidate -- so we get people like Cohen, the pawnbroker with no college degree who beats up his hooker girlfriend but had a lot of money to spend on campaigning. Now Quinn has to run with this guy: add the governor's seat to the Senate seat we will likely lose to the GOP in November. Of course, the party choosing the candidate doesn't always work out, either, since everyone who gets chosen has to be Daley-approved. It's amazing that David Hoffman did as well as he did. Downstate voters don't know him, but had he won the primary and had time between now and November to establish himself as the anti-Daley corruption buster, I really think he could have beat Kirk. Giannoulias is almost certainly not going to prevail in the general after Kirk's team successfully flogs his status as an Outfit-connected bankster whose family bank is begging for a bailout. It's really, really frustrating to live here. Posted by: shortstop on February 4, 2010 at 12:11 PM | PERMALINKohmygodthatFiorinaad. I'm speechless. Posted by: shortstop on February 4, 2010 at 12:13 PM | PERMALINKThat Carly shit is viral. Easily the stupidest political advertisment of all time! I'm thinking she'll never be a Senator from California.. God, the stupid, it burns! Posted by: Slap that Trollop on February 4, 2010 at 12:26 PM | PERMALINKYeah, the demonic sheep ad explains everything you need to know about Carly's long track record of fail. Any sane person running for office looks at that piece and thinks: Good god, this is the most laughably stupid thing I've ever seen. Fire the morons who produced this crap. Carly? "Let's get this thing on the air!" perhaps carly could run the illinois state dimocratic party -- dept of lt. gov. pickin'... Posted by: neill on February 4, 2010 at 12:38 PM | PERMALINKDEMONIC MAN-SHEEP. Fiorina's web ad against Tom Campbell is the funniest thing I have seen in decades. I LOVE the man-sheep with the red demonic eyes. And the black faced sheep falling out of the heavens. I can see the RINO reference but FCINO unlike RINO is impossible to pronounce. Finally, the TONE IS SO SERIOUS as to be a parody of itself. Are we sure the folks who put it together did not work for SNL? Alternatively, the DEMONIC man-sheep is an entirely new creation and damn close to genius. I have never seen anything like that in a political ad. Posted by: Kurt on February 4, 2010 at 12:59 PM | PERMALINKI've got to agree: the Carly attack ad is the silliest thing I've ever seen. It says more about Carly than it does her opponent. If you haven't seen it and need at laugh, you owe it to yourself to see this ad. It's a scream. Posted by: kevino on February 4, 2010 at 1:02 PM | PERMALINKNot only is the Carly ad ridiculous, it's also well over 3 minutes long. This isn't something they're going to be putting on TV. Did they deliberately make this completely over-the-top ad in hopes that Faux News would play it on one of their shows? So many things about this ad just don't make sense. Posted by: Kris on February 4, 2010 at 1:30 PM | PERMALINKI just watched the Fiorina ad: strange, very strange indeed. And in all the bizarre visuals, perhaps overlooked is the east coast (I'm putting in somewhere in Mass. or NYC Irish neighborhoods) accent of the voice over. Definitely not the golden state where I was born, raised, and now after years in the East, live again. Oh my. Posted by: SF on February 4, 2010 at 1:33 PM | PERMALINKOh, and all that phallic symbol stuff with the rising sheep? Oh dear, Carly: perhaps something to discuss with your physician? Although the glowing eyes: priceless. Posted by: SF on February 4, 2010 at 1:36 PM | PERMALINKI'm really starting to wonder if this ad is a hoax. I went to the fcino.com website, and it's similarly over the top, and a whois of the website shows an address in Bellevue, WA, with email info hidden. Posted by: Kris on February 4, 2010 at 1:37 PM | PERMALINKSweet Jesus I need comet for the shower after being carlyfornicated. Posted by: Realist on February 4, 2010 at 1:40 PM | PERMALINKI'm really starting to wonder if this ad is a hoax. It's promoted on Fiorina's campaign website, with lengthy transcript excerpts and a link to FCINO.com. Posted by: shortstop on February 4, 2010 at 1:42 PM | PERMALINK"A new Rasmussen poll shows Rep. Mark Kirk (R) with the early lead over state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) in Illinois' Senate race, 46% to 40%." TPM has an interesting story today which reports Kirk is a particular favourite of AIPAC. He reportedly received $414,000.00 in 2008 from pro-Israel PAC's, and the article suggests he may be being positioned as AIPAC's "point man" in the Senate. Followers will remember his comment during Israel's pounding of Gaza last year; "...something is rotten in Gaza and now it's time to take out the trash". He's also the founder of the Iran Working Group, which is trying hard to get a war with Iran off the ground. Gee; he'll fit right in. You can read it here; http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/will_mark_kirk_be_aipacs_point_man_in_the_senate.php?ref=mblt Posted by: Mark on February 4, 2010 at 1:57 PM | PERMALINKThanks, Shortstop. Wishful thinking, I guess. Posted by: Kris on February 4, 2010 at 2:15 PM | PERMALINKThe acronym FCINO sounds somewhat vulgar, and recalls the punchline to a bad joke:.... What do you get when you cross a fox, a hawk, an elephant and a rhinosceros?.......FAWKEPHINO! Posted by: clay on February 4, 2010 at 2:51 PM | PERMALINKThis is by far the most ridiculous campaign ad I have ever seen. No wonder Carly isn't in charge of any company anymore... Posted by: mishanti on February 4, 2010 at 5:15 PM | PERMALINKI loved it, she'll lose the race of course, but that ad reminded me of the movie "Agency" starring Lee Majors, except there is nothing subliminal about Carly's ad. Priceless. Posted by: tomtom on February 4, 2010 at 10:56 PM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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