Freshman state Senator Michael Baumgartner from Spokane announced today that he will run for U.S. Senate–the position currently held by Sen. Maria Cantwell.
At long last, Republicans have found their David to take on the Goliath in Sen. Cantwell. I don’t really know much about Sen. Baumgartner, so a little media research was in order.
The Seattle Weekly provides this insightful glimpse:
The 35-year-old Baumgartner is telegenic and Harvard educated, undoubtedly helpful qualities in going up against a woman not only known for her wonky intelligence but her good looks. (See HuffPo’s affirmation of her as Capitol Hill’s “sexiest senator.”)
Ummm…I’m gonna just try and forgetting that I ever read that.
Need. Better. Sources.
Let’s see, um, maybe the Houston Chronicle has something more salient (really via the AP, of course):
The 35-year-old Baumgartner is in his first term after winning the most expensive state senate campaign in Washington history last year.
Baumgartner graduated from Washington State and holds a master’s degree from Harvard. He served as a State Department diplomat in Iraq and as a civilian contractor in counter narcotics in Afghanistan. He says the nation needs to restore a dynamic economy at home and end a haphazard foreign policy overseas.
Okay…now we’re getting somewhere. And, while I would usually recommend completion of at least 1/2 a term as a state Senator before jumping into the big leagues, the guy sounds almost, kind of, like he may be reasonable (you know…if you ignore the scarlet R on his breast).
And, via Publicola we learn that
Specifically, Baumgartner told PubliCola he doesn’t think the US should leave the UN or withdraw from the WTO; he doesn’t want to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; he doesn’t want to shut down the Department of Education; and he doesn’t support ending no-fault divorce in Washington State.
Okay…well that all just makes him sound rather moderate. Doesn’t it?
There is only one problem (my emphasis):
In this morning’s Fizz, we reported that during his 2010 election for state senate Baumgartner signed the Spokane County GOP party pledge, which includes some off-the-charts conservative tenets: Privatize Social Security; abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; eliminate the Department of Education; withdraw from the UN; return to the gold standard; ending no-fault divorce.
What the fuck?!? Baumgartner explains
…that while he signed the pledge, “I made it clear that I had some reservations,” and that “there was an understanding that I didn’t support everything on the pledge. The Republican Party of Spokane is a big vibrant party and this is the place for people to express their ideas.”
Call me “old school,” but I think when you sign a pledge, it means you are making one or more specific promises. And if you didn’t agree with those promises, you simply don’t sign the pledge.
He adds: I signed a pledge supporting Republican principles of freedom and liberty and upholding the constitution. (The Spokesman-Review questioned Baumgartner about signing the pledge back during the 2010 campaign.)
Oh come on! That’s fucking lame. There are no serious candidates, Republican or Democratic, that wouldn’t sign a general pledge in favor of “principles of freedom and liberty and upholding the constitution.”
Here is what the Spokesman-Review pledge article points out:
But some of the platform’s 120 policy statements make more-surprising calls, for, among other things: An end to no-fault divorce. A return to the gold standard. Tax incentives for the shoe and textile industry. U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
And some Republicans worry the platform – which they’re asked to pledge to support when they seek party endorsement – diverges from their values and opens the door to attacks from Democrats.
[…]GOP officials responded that candidates, including Baumgartner, who pledged to support the platform weren’t necessarily saying they backed its nearly 120 policy statements.
“We know that no candidate is going to agree 100 percent with what’s in the platform,” county GOP Chairwoman Cindy Zapotocky said. “We require the candidates to read it and consider it.”
Zaptoocky’s statement make the “pledge” seem like little more than a “I’ve read this document” statement, and not a real pledge, per se. And, yet:
As candidates have requested official party endorsements, they’ve been asked to sign a pledge that includes a box where they check if they “promise” to “support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Washington State Constitution and the Spokane County Republican Party Platform.”
Zapotocky said so far, the party has endorsed only candidates who have checked the box […].
Wait…it’s back to sounding like a freakin’ pledge again! I mean, there is zero risk for any candidate to “promise” to “support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Washington State Constitution….” The “promise” to “support” “the Spokane County Republican Party Platform” sure sounds like the meat of a pledge that is made in return for the possibility of a party endorsement.
Apparently it’s all Republican-engineered bullshit to fool their voters.
What this says about Baumgartner is that he was willing to sign any crazy-ass shit to make sure he gets elected. He was more concerned about getting elected than he was about integrity of signing a “pledge” that wasn’t really a pledge.
I have to think that visible lack of integrity in the “pledge” episode is going to inflict more damage than that caused by the collection of crazy-ass things he “promised” to support.
At least this Baumgartner guy has Cantwell’s pro-Obama voting record to go against.
And I think what Obama said today on his National gasbag session will help too.
The American people, Obama conceded, are “not better off” than they were four years ago.
That will help everyone who runs against a pro-Obama Democrat incumbent.
It doesn’t matter what Cantwell has done over the past few years: she’s assured of getting re-elected because, at the national level, this state is firmly on the side of the Democrats. Republicans and others have no chance of defeating an incumbent Democrat in any national position. Any campaign against a sitting Democrat from Washignton State is merely going-through-the-motions of pretending to challenge the incumbent. It makes for great theather, but won’t amount to much.
re 1: “At least this Baumgartner guy has Cantwell’s pro-Obama voting record to go against.”
You mean the Obama policies supported by 70% of the electorate? That should be a cakewalk.
He served as a State Department diplomat in Iraq and as a civilian contractor in counter narcotics in Afghanistan.
So he’s been a recipient of some of the most wasteful government spending of the past decade. This should be interesting.
Baumgartner’s “record” pretty much demonstrates the trend for Republicans in Washington State. They have to move far to the right – hell, they have to fall off the right side of the chart – in order to get on the ballot as the Republican candidate. Then they have to try to move rapidly back towards anything they hope will get the Seattle Times to declare them a “moderate”. That journey has gotten longer and longer, and most don’t succeed at it.
Their last straw is simply to claim that because the Democrats have held office so long, that we should change just for change’s sake. Kind of like changing the draperies in the living room every quarter-century or so. But having a Republican in office is a lot more dangerous than redecorating. By the time you get them out, you are lucky if you still have a home and a job.
rhp@5, unfortunately under our funny Top Two primary ballot system, Republican candidates don’t face off against one another for the party nomination. Instead, it’s just like municipal elections: the top two candidates move on to the general election, regardless of party label. He doesn’t have to run to the right to get to November, but on the other hand, if he has to at least seem to be rightwing to generate some passion among the Tea Partiers in charge of the GOP agenda.
Say anything to anybody to get elected.
Throw red-meat to the Republican crazies…
…then disavow when someone sane starts asking questions.
Republican S.O.P.
Gawd I’m tired of liars and sociopaths running our society.
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Light the charcoal under the lad. Then, start the rotisserie.
Why are you attacking this Harvard educated man like this Perfesser Darryl? Apparently he read the document and didn’t agree with some of it’s contents unlike Nancy Pelosi who told the world
So if he’s running for Senate, at least we know he’ll read the bills if elected. Did anyone ever ask Maria Cantwell if she read the health care bill before she rubba stamped it? Hmmm…?
Bikini graph
One quick look at the bikini graph shows why we are not better off than 4 years ago. The real surprise is that we are doing as well as we are after the auger job Bush did to the country.
At least he’s from our state. The last GOPer to announce against Cantwell lives in Hong Kong.
“(See HuffPo’s affirmation of her as Capitol Hill’s ‘sexiest senator.’) ”
Cantwell has gravitas. Bachmann is cute but sounds like a little girl.
“Okay…well that all just makes him sound rather moderate. Doesn’t it?”
No, it makes him sound like a guy his own party is gonna call a “socialist.”
“upholding the constitution”
A Republican advocating upholding the constitution??! ROFFLMAO!!! That’s a good one!!! The last thing those guys want is someone coming along upholding the constitution!
“An end to no-fault divorce.”
Republicans will be able to get divorces anyway, because there isn’t a single one of them who isn’t at fault.
http://www.republicansexoffenders.com/
Hey, lickspittle @ 10. Yes, you, the dumb fuck bootlicker. The full quote from Pelosi:
You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.
You’re such a fucking tool.
Translation: I did what I needed to do in order to get elected. I didn’t think anyone would take it that seriously or that it would bite me in the ass later on.
So the question, when it comes to the B-man is, do you make him look like a member of the far right to scare the liberals or do you make him look like a liberal to scare the far right?
*****************************
Never met the guy, but I think I hung out with one his cousins for a while back in the day. Nice girl and pretty liberal.
Yeah, I got a chuckle out of that one too.
When I was in high school (mid 1980’s) a bunch of local churches thought it would be a great idea to have all the kidies to take drug-free chastity pledges. People got up on stage, said a prayer, pledged not do drugs and to remain virgins until married. Never mind most of the kids on stage weren’t virgins and had smoked pot.
The whole thing seemed out weird and out of another era to me then and this whole pledge thing that the righties are still on still seems silly and out of place. Like its still 1952 or something.
The biggest fault I can find in The B-man is in engaging in this silliness to begin with.
@6 “under our funny Top Two primary ballot system, Republican candidates don’t face off against one another for the party nomination. Instead, it’s just like municipal elections: the top two candidates move on to the general election”
Which raises the possibility that both candidates on the November ballot will be Democrats, doesn’t it?
Cantwell does her job and she does it well. She doesn’t do it with much flourish or fanfare. Cantwell doesn’t really seem to like being a politician. She’s no glad hand gal, for certain.
As far as her focus is concerned, she’s the kind of senator everyone always says they want. Most would probably also want some personable qualities along with that, but most people will take focus over superficiality.
Cantwell has a good read on what’s coming down the pike in terms of energy, natural resources, and technology. And that’s coming from a guy who generally bashes both Democrats and Republicans alike for being clueless about what’s coming. She’s one of the few people in DC that I actually like.
Hey, I’ve got a couple mutual friends with Michael Baumgartner on Face Book!
Maria Cantwell is a very fine Senator, who pays attention to details and is not ideologically driven. If only there were a few on the right like her.
Here’s the interests from the B-Man’s FB page. Apparently Al French doesn’t know how to use lower case letters.
coughcoughbullshitcoughcough
Maxie @ 27
I’ll say this as politely as I can, how about you go stick your gaping maw into your ideologically-driven steaming, heaping platter of go fuck yourself? We need more fact-driven Senators like Cantwell. Your party doesn’t have any, anymore. And, that’s a shame.
28 – LOL! He says he doesn’t care for Republicans or Tea Baggers.
That only leaves the moronic asshat one-note wonder party of one.
“What this says about Baumgartner is that he was willing to sign any crazy-ass shit to make sure he gets elected.”
This makes him different from most other pols…how, exactly? Oh, wait, most of them are too smart to sign these things.
Oh Pleeeessss in Obama’s economy, stock market dropping like a rocket, now down close to 2500 points, 9.1% unemployment, and rising, Cantwell will be lucky to win even in a blue state.
Cantwell is 100% culpable for the Obama economic collapse.
The Dow is down over 150 points at the opening today.
Obama wants us to be like Europe.
Europe is collapsing and dragging down the only large, stable economy Germany, down with it.
The REAL Unemployment when you add back those who have stopped looking, underemployed etc. is around 23% and the REAL Inflation is over 7%
http://www.shadowstats.com/
Wake up America. Obama is dragging us down the shithole with his Euro buddies. We need to get back to what made us great, not a nanny government state.
And don’t kid yourself. Incumbents from both parties are in deep trouble. When Congress is at 10%, lots of shockers are going to happen in 2012.
Candidates will be wise to distance themselves from Obama if a Democrat…and fron the Republican establishment.
People are really, really pissed.
There is little HOPE for the masses. And a class warfare battle may allow Obama to squeak in…but then what?
Obama needs to change course..or history will record him as the Leader who dragged this great country down.
Even Joe Biden has said Obama is responsible!
And now, even Obama himself acknowledges his failures…but wants us to believe he can bring us out of it.
What indication has he shown?
None. Just teleprompter bullshit. When he gets in front of folks without that teleprompter, he looks like the fool he is.
Cantwell is out there talking energy jive like the jive man. It’s like trying to fix a loose board on the porch when the whole f***ing house is burning down.
Incumbents are so sheltered from reality.
They are being fed by MIT 30 year-old jokers who don’t live in the real world either.
Look at the economy in the elite areas of DC. Government money. Everything is great.
Totally out of touch.
Dow now down 220 points.
You mean unionized steel workers? Excellent!
The Leftists are in denial. The Progressive Empire is crumbling like the Walls of Jericho.
And your dumba$$ leader Obama is a shell of the man you worshipped so in 2008. Confused, befuddled and looking whipped.
You are, of course, either insane or a liar. What is crumbling is the conservative dream of upward redistribution of wealth that has been going on in this country for 30-40 years.
Kinda hard to have a democracy when the majority expects free stuff…..to be paid by someone else of course.
Too many lazy fucks running around
This whole pledge to end “no fault divorce” is wierd. It’s a response to the more authoritarian evangelicals who insist that their wives must be forced to live with them until they give their husband due deference as the “leader of the household”. They get absolutely apopletic when they are informed by their lawyer that the wife is free to leave if she chooses to do so.
Why anybody would want to force a wife to stay with a husband they detest is beyond me. Marriage is hard enough when both parties are trying to make it work. Once either party to the relationship has given up, and decides it’s over, it’s really too late to go back and fix things. Forcing them to live with you longer isn’t going to make that better, it’s only going to make it worse.
I agree on the pledge aspect in general, but the no fault divorce thing makes the Repub look like an idiot. You know, like Debonair.
Bloomberg says the Dow is barely off 8 tenths of a percent…
So much for that sky is falling ODS crap.
Just like clockwork!
Election season is here, and here come the republiclown trolls.
“yd”? Who the fuck is THAT?
“debonaire”? Know NOTHING asshole?
“I live off the net”? Puh-lease.
You morons are playing in the wrong sandbox. Just a friendly warning. You don’t want your “handlers” to see you get fucked over here.
‘Cause it’s gonna happen.
@38
Fixed it for ya.
Too many lazy fucks running around on wall street.
A post and forty-one comments, and nobody’s mentioned the significance of the pledge: candidates have to sign it in order to receive support from the local party. That means money, voter lists (for doorbelling, phone banking, and direct mail), volunteers, and all other sorts of essential support.
The “pledge” means nothing more than that Baumgartner, like most other candidates, is willing to sign something he may or may not agree with in order to get what he wants. Since this is a “pledge” that makes him guilty of either being a far-right nut or a gross hypocrite. It is also exactly how most legislative bodies work, including Congress back in the era when people actually compromised on stuff – pretty much every bill is a combination of stuff you like and stuff you don’t.
Debonair=HA’s Chicken Little..
Not that things aren’t bad but they sure aren’t going to be solved by putting tea baggers and their panderer’s in charge.
Interesting point. Progressives won’t get anywhere until they make the D party’s future politicians make similar pledges on the progressive side.
EVEN IF THEY DON”T BELIEVE IN A WORD OF IT. The other side (right wingers) will hold them to the pledge if nothing else. So over time you’ll have people running for office who’ll ACTUALLY BELIEVE in what they’ve signed on to.
Thomm Hartmann has been pointing out for months that this is what the tea baggers did to take over the R party. This is what the Koch brother’s stink tanks trained them to do.
@44
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48 – Zzzzzz… Fastn’Furious, Solyndra, GetAjob, Dow’s down x points, Obama is a *@!$, the sky is falling! rinse, repeat..
And what happened to Obamacare??? Oh North Dakota showed that was bullshit.
I get it now. The “friendo” from Montana is hiding his man-love for Darryl Issa now.. He was laying it on a bit thick for Ryan.
Glued to each twist and turn of Issa’s Obama witch-hunt.
Something about those tall dark types – Ryan and Issa.. Weird..
Whatever.. Issa isn’t making any headway I can see and it’s all just silly season fluff.. Heh. Fluff.. Just what the doc ordered to make the “friendo”‘s life just a click or two above totally pathetic.
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Hey De Boner,
It’s great news that your Rethug buddies in Congress are working on something profitable for the country like their presidential fishing expedition. I mean, given enough time they might even find something.
Otherwise they might waste their time doing something stupid like investigating the Wall Street thugs or working on creating jobs for the rest of us.
His campaign chairman Michael Cathcart blackmailed people to quit being derogatory against old Balmy during his 6th district election.
Yep he NEVER SERVED…and tried to steal other Veterans honor.
Hmm….
@32 “the Obama economic collapse”
HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR-!!!!!!!!
@4 “He served as a State Department diplomat in Iraq and as a civilian contractor in counter narcotics in Afghanistan.”
Assuming this was during the Bush years, you can bet dollars to donuts he’s as dirty as a Sanikan at the end of a tractor pull.
@58
A Bushie & worked for Hecla Mining & and barely lived in his district shouldn’t be that hard to show him to be a corrupt ass hole.
I’m excited Michael Baumgartner checked a box in support of the Spokane County Republican platform – not because I agree with everything in that platform, but because it shows he is willing to consider some challenging NEW ideas. Our country isn’t in the mess it is in because our government tried new approaches in the last 12 years – it is in the mess it is in because career politicians like Maria Cantwell do what is best for themselves first – and are afraid of thinking outside of the box and considering the types of approaches that will fix the huge problems we’re facing.
Michael Baumgartner is willing to consider new ideas. You’ve seen that when he’s cross party lines to be deciding votes on topics like shutting down dirty coal plants or making medical marijuana regulations more reasonable. You also see it with his challenge to Maria Cantwell around bringing the troops home – something she’s failed to do!
Don’t let the typical democrat scare tactics get to you – Michael Baumgartner is THE right choice to help lead our country and state out of the mess we’re in.
The pledge he signed was filled with old, dead, ideas.
He married that chick from England and she was pregnant with some other dudes kid.