Micro and Macro Senate
Go to the comments for “COBURN WARNS OF “RAMPANT LESBIANISM.”… The comments relate to Coburn’s concern over what’s a’happening to Southeast Oklahoma schools:
The Tom Coburn comment: “Our [campaign] rep down here in the southeast area, he lives in Colgate and travels out of Atoka. He was telling me lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?”
Liberal Media Watcher: I comment like that is not going to hurt Coburn. This is not California or New York, this is Oklahoma.
Coburn has regain alot of the support he lost over the last couple of weeks.
You notice carson isn’t jumping all of this b/c he knows it would be the kiss of death to be seen has stand up for the radical homosexual lobby.
Liberal Media Watcher
Proud Dem: That must be why this race is a toss up, instead of safe R. Humphries would have been able to win. Coburn is a stupid version of Alan Keyes. He can’t open his mouth without saying something stupid.
Corey: I think that Coburn and his former choice for President, Alan Keyes may be engaging in an inside joke, trying to outdo each other on the campaign trail.
Tomorrow, is the first Keyes-Obama debate. I bet Alan Keyes is going to come out with something real good in order to one up Coburn!
Ethan Quinn: I don’t think the fact that they are talking about homosexuals hurts as much as the fac that Coburn just made shit up. Lying usually doesn’t go down well in any state.
Corey: Democrats should probably feel they would be better off having someone like the anti-gay Coburn in office so they can vilify him and use him to raise money, than they would with the anti-gay Carson.
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The odd thing about these comments — from across the political spectrum — is that they are all very prescient. Occasionally contradictory (does the bizarre comment hurt or help Coburn? And why does it hurt or help Coburn? What’s the trade-off for the nation’s Democrats in a vote for Daschle over Frist to organize the Senate with a vote against much of what they care for and for much of what they don’t?), but even in the contradictions we find the nuggets of truth.
Stare at the Senate races that are going to decide which party controls the chamber, and a vague sense of dread washes over me. Meet the Press has been airing debates between some of the Senate candidates: Oklahoma? The Democrat is running off of support for all of Bush’s major initiatives. The Republican looks like a goofy version of Alan Keyes (the only Congressional figure to endorse him for the nomination in 2000), is the great hope of the Club of Growth (whose major goals are to replace the tax code with either a national sales tax or a flat tax; to shrink the size of government to that size where you could drown it in your bathtub [and here we get into a Leninist argument that’s best described with Andrew Sullivan’s disgust at the political system: one party supports solvent big government, the other insolvent big government. The Insolvent Big Government is useful because it de-legitimizes gummint and forces drastic cuts in the future.], and to get something named after Ronald Reagan in every county in the USA.). To his credit, Coburn has some problems with the Patriot Act — an area of concern that Brad Carson, for the sake of proving he ain’t no liberal — can’t come near.
With the Colorado race, Tim Russert asked the question “Knowing what you know now — no WMDs — would Congress have authorized the use of force in Iraq?” The Democratic candidate answered with a slightly more hawkish straddle than Kerry. The Republican candidate provided us with the answer that common sense dictates is the correct answer to the question: “No.”
I don’t want to touch the plight of Tom Daschle.
In a week, everybody’s going to know how things are shaking up in Kentucky… which may end up being the Upset of the Election year. The national trend line this election cycle seems to be that the Republicans are losing their minds (to wit I refer to the Illinois Republican Party for picking Alan Keyes, and comments made by him, Tom Coburn, and Jim DeMint). In the case of Kentucky, that… sadly for him… appears to be the case… literally. (And, yes, that is a mean and insensitive joke.) (Since I already directed the readers to politics1 and I’m too lazy to dig up a different summary of Kentucky events, I’ll direct everyone to “WHAT’S THE STORY WITH SENATOR BUNNING?”
Anyway: I made some changes with the parlor game that is the listings of Senate races. The Republican longshot pick-up opportunites seem to have not gotten the momentum that they’d need. Kentucky has opened up somewhat for the Democrats. Pennsylvania, what with the Republican Senator that National Review called “The Senate’s Worst Republican” and a strong 3rd party challenge from the right-wing Constitution party — remains there. It’s… fairly interesting. The Democratic Party had a bad hand going in, and have managed to come out well. But I don’t know what the meaning of 51 people corralled together who slap themselves on the back due to nothing but a shared “D” after their name means in connection with a second Bush term or a first Kerry term.