In 2005, Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA-8) was one of only 21 Republicans to vote against House Resolution 639 that, essentially, authorized drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). HR-639 passed the house only to be killed in the Senate (thanks to a big show of leadership by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)).

Reichert has gotten a lot of mileage out of these types of “courageous” votes against his own party…but he shouldn’t. After all, Reichert stupidly admitted that his voting record was built on a strategy of keeping himself and Republicans in power—even on this very ANWR vote:

Sometimes the leadership comes to me and says, “Dave, we want you to vote a certain way.’ Now, they know I can do that over here, that I have to do that over here. In other districts, that’s not a problem, but here I have to be able to be very flexible in where I place my votes. Because the big picture here is, keep this seat, keep the majority, keep the country moving forward with Republican ideals…. Not the vote I place on ANWAR that you may not agree with, or the vote that I place on protecting salmon.”

With redistricting, Reichert finds himself moving from a very competitive district to a safe district. So today, when the House Republicans took a vote on the Ryan budget—you know, the one that would dismantle Medicare and replace it with a coupon system–how did Reichert vote?

He voted in favor of it (via Publicola):

Perhaps it’s because he’s in a safer Republican district now thanks to redistricting (and the only person running against him has raised just $12,000), but US Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA, 8 ), who has broken with his party on some high-profile and highly politicized votes in the past, stuck with his party today. (In the past, Reichert voted against his party to override President Bush’s veto of a children’s health care bill, voted for the employee non-discrimination act, i.e., for gay rights, voted with President Obama and the Democrats to extend emergency unemployment benefits, and, most dramatically, voted for the cap and trade bill.

Today, the liberated Congressman from the redrawn 8th (no more rich Microsoft liberals coming after him), voted for the controversial budget pushed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) in a party-line 228-191 vote.

Last year, Reichert skipped this vote…not out of political strategy, but because his mother had just died after an 18-month bout with pancreatic cancer (and, no doubt, Medicare prevented another bankruptcy). His office suggests he would have voted for it with the caveat that:

I’ve heard from my constituents and share their concerns about reductions in Pell Grants for low-income students, oil drilling expansion in our wilderness, and how entitlement reform could affect seniors and those approaching retirement.

Today he really did vote for a extremist right-wing bill. Sure…this version is a bit less extreme than the previous version, but it is still extreme. Yes, this one lets Senior’s use their coupons to purchase their way into a Medicare-like system. (This particular modification came about with the assistance of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).) It’s still extreme.

The bottom line is that the bill gives tax breaks to the wealthy at the same time raising health care costs for Seniors by thousands of dollars a year. And it does lots of other bad things, like repealing key parts of “Obamacare” and cutting Pell Grants.

If this bill were to become law millions of Americans would be affected by loss of insurance, increased health care costs, uncertainty and bankruptcy.

As Publicola suggests, Riechert is free now—free from having to take strategic votes that appease his constituents against his conscience.

Reichert still represents the OLD 8th Congressional District. What his vote today did was tell many of his constituents (the soon-to-be ex-constituents from the liberal parts of the old 8th) to fuck-off. And why shouldn’t he? Yeah…as he said last year, he’s heard from them, he knows their concerns. But they no longer hold anything over him, so screw ’em.

Via Human Rights Campaign:

You’re not gonna use the pink ball. We’re not gonna let you do that. Not on camera. Friends don’t let friends use pink balls.

I’m pretty sure Rick prefers blue balls….

No surprise, really:

While he is yet to campaign in Wisconsin, Mitt Romney worked the state’s Republican voters from Dallas on Wednesday, holding a “telephone town hall” in which he embraced Gov. Scott Walker’s labor policies, endorsed U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s House budget….

Got that?

1. Romney endorses Walker’s anti-labor policies
2. Romney endorses Ryan’s budget which will end the current Medicare program and replace it with “coupon care”

The problem for Romney is that these two positions taken together pretty much make him unelectable in a general election.

Romney is counting on being able to “hit the reset button”—start over in his political positioning—after winning the nomination.

Will it work in 2012? Can a campaign really erase history when access to video, audio, and print media has become so democratized? Or will truckloads of money succeed in buying a big case of collective amnesia?

Mercifully, there is no new episode of the Primary Reality Show this evening. But a certain case being argued before the Supreme Court will be to talk of the tavern.

So please join us tonight for an evening of jurisprudence under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. We’ll begin at our usual starting time of 8:00pm, but some folks will show up even earlier for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle? There are DLs meeting all around Washington state, including in the Tri-Cities and Bellingham tonight, Burien on Wednesday night, as well as Yakima and South Bellevue next Monday.

With 233 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

The polls close in a few minutes in Lousiana, and if the pre-election polling hold, Rick Santorum should win easily.

Tonight’s win is important for Santorum, because there is mostly bad news for him in the near future primary Schedule. A week from Tuesday will be a triple header of D.C, Maryland, and Wisconsin. I doubt Santorum can win any of these, unless Mitt’s Etch-a-sketch wound turns into full-blown political septicemia. And after that, we have a April 24 mini-Super Tuesday, with Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. As it stands now, Romney should take all but Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania.

I’ll probably get dragged away from the computer for various thing, but have at it in the comment threads.

5:59 pm (PDT): There are 20 delegates up for grab in LA (46 total). They are’t very important for Santorum who probably cannot win on delegates anyway. He needs a outright slaughter with hopes that it will catalyze a big momentum change in his favor.

6:03: Results can be found here and here.

6:12: Here is a livestream from NBC. From what I can tell, both NBC and CNN have called it for Santorum.

6:30: Barack Obama seem to be taking the Democratic primary in Louisiana with 69.3% of the vote (0.4% reporting).

7:50: With 83.1% of precincts reporting, here is what we have:

• Santorum, 49.7%
• Romney, 25.9%
• Gingrich, 16.1%
• Paul, 6.1%

Santorum would get a “bragging rights” boost by getting over 50% and/or doubling Romney’s votes—perhaps the former will happen.

Thom: Paul Ryan’s budget—most extreme corporate welfare.

Mark Fiore: iWhine.

Young Turks: Man sues Secret Service over Cheney “assault”.

White House: We the People — Your voice in our government.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Etch-a-Sketching:

• Some things you can’t shake off.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Sketchy.
• Even Mitt Romney knows an Etch-a-sketch can’t erase his extreme positions
• Young Turks: The Etch-a-sketch disaster.
• Maddow: Mitt and lying:
• Mitt Romney: Unshakably Extreme.
• Newsy: Romney’s campaign stimulating jobs in Ohio.
• Sam Seder: The real Mitt Romney is an Etch-a-Sketch
• Mitt Romney’s bad day

President Obama nominates Dr. Jim Yong Kim for World Bank President.

Thom with even more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Greenman: Michael Mann’s hockey stick under oath.

Jon on Cable News.

Ann Telnaes: The Going-Nowhere strategy in Afghanistan.

The Republican Primary Jousting Contest:

• Young Turks: Is Rick Santorum Opus Dei?
• Ed: Romney gives George Bush credit for saving economy
• Actual Audio: Santorum versus Romney.
• Ann Telnaes: Santorum’s higher calling.
• Ed: Obama derangement syndrome.

Thom: Westboro Baptist Church’s Rush advertisement.

Health Reform in Action: One mother’s story:

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Porn-con.

Ann Telnaes: Second anniversary of the Health Care law.

Young Turks: Five worst things about the G.O.P. Ryan budget.

Sam Seder: “Katherine Harris” talks Occupy, Joe the Plumber’s campaign & more!

ONN: Joad Cressbeckler denies he incited mob to drag Congressman through briar patch.

Newsy: Congress hires their relatives.

Thom: Why is Tennessee teaching creationism?

Greenman: The search forLord Monckton.

More Skirmishes in the Republican War on Women™:

• Mitt to Women: You’re on your own.
• Maddow: Idaho’s forced transvaginal ultrasound bill, and other news in the G.O.P. culture wars.
• Mitt Romney vows to get rid of Planned Parenthood
• What women need to know about Mitt Romney.
• Maddow: Governor Ultrasound.
• Young Turks: The War on Women.

Health care reform across the country.

Alyona: Worst Proposed Internet laws of 2012.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Young Turks: Ryan’s budget, Zimmerman defenders and other topics.

White House: West Wing Week.

Death by Hoodie:

• Young Turks: President Obama on Trayvon Martin.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Geraldo ‘Hoodie’ killed Trayvon Martin.
• Sharpton: Trayvon could have been any one of our sons
• Olbermann and Prof. Turley: the danger of Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law
  .
• Young Turks: Trayvon Martin smear attempt by Glenn Beck’s web site.
• Sam Seder: Geraldo Rivera blame Hoodies for Trayvon Martin killing.
• Pap and Ed: Did police blow chance of conviction with Zimmerman?
• Newsy: Florida shooting putting gun laws in the spotlight.
• Alyona’s Fireside Friday: Trayvon Martin.
• Young Turks: TYT crew dress to die.

Ed: The return of Coupon Care.

Conversations with Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson:

Maddow: Obama nominates true humanitarian for World Bank.

Jimmy Kimmel with some unnecessary censorship.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Here are a few things we learn from gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna based on this audio taken yesterday before Kemper Freeman’s Eastside Transportation Association:

• He is a “deep deep skeptic of bringing light rail across [the] I-90” floating bridge.
• He “isn’t even sure how it is going to work.”
• He doesn’t understand “fixed rail on a floating bridge.”
• Regardless of his lack of understanding, he “envisions it be shutting down [for] winds.” And this worries him.
• He believes Sound Transit is a “significantly unaccountable regional transportation body.”
• He believes uninformed voters were duped by Greg Nichols in 1998 over the first public vote.
• He definitively sides with opponents of light rail on I-90 saying, “we have lost the key battles ever since.”
• He isn’t sure how to move forward on stopping light rail on I-90 (because of votes and bonding issues), but he is sure he can work with light rail opponents on it.

I need to say this again: Should he be elected, Rob McKenna will be Washington state’s Scott Walker.

There’s a meme in the mainstream media that chalks up these comparisons of McKenna to Walker as “demonetization” (with a figurative roll of the eyes).

In some ways this is fair. After all, aside from McKenna’s single biggest political blunder—joining the A.G. lawsuit against the 2009 health care reform law—he’s been cautious. He has dodged talking policy stands on hot-button issues where his views are likely to be unpopular. I mean, we can be sure McKenna doesn’t like light rail, same-sex marriage, public employee unions, death with dignity, etc. When asked about these things, he dodges. He bullshits his way out of expressing his opinion. He offers little about what a Gov. McKenna would do about particular issues. And, apparently, the state’s media aren’t skillful enough to coax non-weaselly answers from him.

So, we are forced to make inferences by an occasional controversial statement and by the people he endorses. We read between the lines. We parse his weaselly answers to try and understand what he’s dodging. We accept that he is a Republican in a state where moderate Republicans are nearly extinct.

Now we have a new piece of evidence—something stronger than inference from a dodged answer. We’ve know for a long time that McKenna doesn’t like Sound Transit and doesn’t care for light rail. But this is more: Rob McKenna has, essentially, made a campaign promise to work with Kemper Freeman, Jr. and company to find ways of killing light rail to the East Side.

Seems like something Scott Walker would do.

Another Tuesday, another chance to raise a glass and have a laugh over the G.O.P. primary melee.

There have been four Republican primary polls taken in Illinois this year, and they were all taken in March. Here’s what they show:

• Chicago Tribune: 7-mar to 9-mar: Romney 35%, Santorum 31% (+4 Romeny)
• FOX Chicago News 14-mar: Romney 37%, Santorum 31% (+6 Romeny)
• Rasmussen 15-mar: Romney 41%, Santorum 32% (+9 Romeny)
• PPP 14-mar to 18-mar: Romney 41%, Santorum 31% (+15 Romney)

It is possible that the trend of Romney pulling ahead of Santorum is simple polling variability. Or, Santorum might be tanking, big time, from (1) alienating women through his War on Contraception™ and (2) alienating men through his War on Porn™, or both.

War is hell.

Anyway, this is an open thread, so have fun…but, you know, keep it Santorum-approved.

5:40: The polls in Illinois are closed and 15% of the vote is already counted (according to Google after typing “Illinois Primary” into its general search). So far, no signs of Romeny is not getting his ass, um, kicked by Santorum:

• Romney: 54.7%
• Santorum: 27.4%
• Paul: 10.4%
• Gingrich: 6.7%

6:06: As Michael points out in the comment thread…that was quick! The election is called for Romney. Since Illinois does proportional allocation, the interesting question is how badly will Santorum lose. (I was in transit when the election was called, so sorry about the late update.)

6:12: It isn’t impossible for Romney to win the 1,144 delegates before the August G.O.P. convention. It would require a change in momentum for Mitt:

Even after polls close on the last contest, held on June 26 in Romney-friendly Utah, according to an analysis by ABC News the former Massachusetts governor may still be short of 1,144 delegates — the magic number a candidate will need to secure the nomination.

Based on 2008 presidential-primary results, conventional-wisdom expectations, statewide 2010 primary results by county, and polls, a conservative estimate suggests Romney will end this primary season just shy of the 1,144 delegates he’ll need to win.

…or some help from G.O.P. superdelegates:

The Republican Party, however, has its own version of Democratic superdelegates: members of the GOP who will attend the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August as voting delegates, not having been elected or appointed, but included by virtue of their party roles. In nearly every state and territory, the GOP chairman, RNC committeeman, and RNC committeewoman hold this status.

In all, 123 of these superdelegates will attend the Tampa convention — enough to push Romney over the edge if a majority of them support him. Romney already enjoys the backing of 33 of these automatic RNC delegates, included in the 521 delegates ABC News estimates he has won.

Remember during the 2008 Democratic convention how the Republicans criticized the hell out of the Democratic nominating process because of the superdelegates?

Yeah…typical fucking G.O.P. hypocrisy!

6:37: Mmmmm…Mexican pasta! I enjoyed it without reservation….I must hate America.

6:40: According to my sources (namely, Google), just over half the votes are counted:

• Romney: 49.3%
• Santorum: 33.2%
• Paul: 9.1%
• Gingrich: 7.5%

It looks like Santorum is going to lose by double digits. Even so, how pathetic is Gingrich!

[Read more…]

Please join us tonight for another evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. Tonight is the Illinois primary and, in addition to the G.O.P. presidential primary entertainment, there are a number of important primary races that could affect the balance of power in the House.

Seattle DL meets every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our regular starting time is 8:00pm, but feel free to show up earlier to catch the earliest election returns.

I’ll be live blogging the results at horsesass.org.

Can’t make it to Seattle? There is also a meeting tonight of the Tri-Cities chapter.

With 231 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

Thom: Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Ann Telnaes: John McCain responds to HBO’s Game Change.

Pap with John Nichols: The Wisconsin Uprising.

Comcast Newsmakers interviews Gov. Christine Gregoire.

The Republican War on Women™

• Olbermann with Molly Ball on Republican opposition to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Abused wives should stick it out?!
• Ann Telnaes: The G.O.P Crusade against women.
• Young Turks: Romney, “I’ll get rid of Planned Parenthood”.
• Thom: Tell your boss why you are on the pill.
• Jennifer Granholm: GOP must stop their war on women
• Stephen: The plot against Rush.
• Olbermann with Lewis Black on Rush Limbaugh.
• Young Turks: Santorum, “Raped women should accept the gift of a child”
• Mitt: Wrong for women
• Tweety interviews Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Republican’s refusing to fight violence against women.
• Sam Seder: Conservatives’ viscious attacks on women
• Jon: The cultural battle for supreme vulgarity.
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: ‘Papers Please’ birth control policy
• Mitt Romney wants to eliminate Planned Parenthood.
• Jennifer Granholm and Tracy Clark-Flory: Mock bills threatening men’s rights offer comic relief—and perspective.
• Ann Telnaes: PA Governor, “You can close your eyes.”.

Mark Fiore: Koney or Baloney.

Jon on Syrian President Assad.

White House: West Wing Week.

Tom with some Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Thom: Somewhere Grover Norquist is freaking out.

Martin Bashir: On Sarah Palin and vetting.

The G.O.P. Freak Show Continues:

• Stephen on candidate’s speech pattern.
• Martin Short belts out a Romney anthem on David Letterman (via Indecision Forever):
• Ed: The charlatan right wing media battling over presidential nomination
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Inside the 2012 Republican ‘3 ring circus’
• Newsy: Newt ignores calls to drop out.
• Young Turks: Santorum’s War on Porn™.
• The G.O.P. big encounter.
• Pap: Why Republicans hate their candidates.
• Mitt foregos Medicare, but Seniors need it.
• Jon on last Tuesday’s primaries (via Political Wire).
• Sam Seder: Rick Santorum to Puerto Rico: Speak English!
• Young Turks: Romney gets into a fight with FAUX’s Megyn Kelly.
• Ed: The three stooges.
• Stephen: Santorum’s wild Southern night.
• ONN: Romney & Santorum supporters to beat the living shit out of each other for Montana Primary
• Actual Audio:Mitt goes Southern.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News “Recording Cop” story forgot First Amendment.

Maddow does Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on climate change “hoax” (via Indecision Forever).

Obama on American Energy.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Sam Seder: Dick Cheney fears Canada!

Jennifer Granholm and Ann O’Leary: What you need to know about Obama’s health care reform law.

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Santorum and his war on porn.

Young Turks: Racist bumper stickers.

Comcast Newsmakers: State Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) on marriage equality:

Maddow: Ronald Reagan’s 1982 tax hike was the biggest ever in America’s history.

The Daily Show: U.S. cutting off funding for UNESCO.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Eli Sanders observes:

Continuing a theme he’s been pounding for a while now, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee just released a statement praising the senate Republicans’ turnabout on education funding.

For those who’ve been paying close attention (which may only be political reporters, but that’s not an unimportant constituency when you’re running for governor), Inslee’s statement is an implicit reminder that Republican Rob “Education Candidate” McKenna has been totally silent on his party’s slash-and-reverse education snafu.

Of course McKenna has been totally silent. It’s because he’s a fraud on education. A bullshitter. Someone who is simply embarking on a strategy of claiming he is pro-education because doing so should be beneficial to his campaign. McKenna’s wants to be the “Education Candidate”, the man who would restore Washington’s underfunded and underperforming primary education system and be a champion for higher education in Olympia.

McKenna’s problem is that his strategy is transparent and, ultimately, may not be very convincing. His position on education is largely at odds with the Republican Agenda. First, it requires raising taxes, big time. McKenna cannot implement his promised funding increases for education without raising taxes. Period. And there’s no fucking way McKenna is going to raise taxes. I mean, hell, we can’t even get our Democratic Governor to do that.

No…the increased funding for education thing is total vaporware. McKenna’s “commitment” to education, should he win, will boil down to instituting a series of G.O.P.-inspired “education reforms.” We get strong evidence for this in McKenna’s silence when Republicans slashed education in their ill-fated budget and his lack of comment on the restoration of education cuts in the current proposal.

We’ve mentioned this contest before. Now there is just one day left in the Freewayblogger slogan contest.

Freewayblogger is looking for slogans about climate change for his next tour. Slogans should be short, smart, fit well into a rectangle, and look good in traffic.

The winner of the best slogan earns $1,000. Second and third places get $500 and $250, respectively. All winning entries get their slogans posted on freeways up and down the west coast.

Scarlet writes:

So far the entries have been well-meaning but a bit toothless – (“Global Warming is not Cool!”, “Respect Mother Earth”, fracking puns, etc.) My theory is that the sort of wry cynicism it takes to make for good sloganeering is the same sort that keeps people from entering contests…

Probably the best so far has been “Climate Change = Primate Change”.

What I’m looking for ideally is the climate change equivalent of a word like “Frankenfood” – that one simple word or phrase that practically forces people to think about things more critically. (Whoever came up with “Frankenfood” is a big hero of mine – man they cost some rich people a bunch of money…)

Send entries to freewayblogger – at – yahoo – dot – com. The deadline is tomorrow…March 15th.