Politics is the art of reality, not the art of handwringing. As a former prosecutor, state legislator who sat on ethics committees, and someone who's been vetted for both elected and appointed office — I received more scrutiny running for a state house seat than Platner apparently got for a U.S. Senate race. Democrats have a vetting problem. Republicans simply don't care.
Julie Roginsky's column today is provocative and helpful. Sanders' response to date isn't helping. He needs to do what Ro Khanna did — name the behavior, believe the woman, call the political affiliation irrelevant. That took maybe 90 seconds on Face the Nation. It's not complicated.
Going forward, Platner can show seriousness by doing something constructive: propose mandatory ethics training for candidates and ongoing training for all members and staff. I once led an office that helped with this training for Iowa — it's not easy, it has to be continuous, or it will not matter and be seen as trivial. Planter offering concrete policies will demonstrate accountability, not just survive it.
I have no special love for Platner, but I can certainly understand his fans reacting angrily to every “scandal” that comes out against him from a media that has decided Trump will be Trump and we will let Ken Paxton slide after all his shit. And the Democratic establishment has so thoroughly beclowned themselves that even if Mills didn’t seem comatose she’s have been sunk by Schumer’s endorsement. If Schumer really wanted to stop Platner he should have endorsed him early. And Fetterman coming out against Platner just makes Platner look better.
At this point, it’s time to just buckle up and crush Collins who has proven to be a typical Republican who is sometimes given leeway by her party to cast meaningless “independent” votes. Yes, overlooking Platner’s scandals makes us look like Trump supporters, but from the standpoint of nasty assholes who just want to hurt Americans, they got what they wanted with Trump. Maybe with Platner we will get someone willing to block Trump.
The thing that people do not understand is that Maine is really its own thing. Even in the auspices of New England, Maine does not behave like Massachussets, Vermont, Connecticut, or even New Hampshire. It's very much a purple state with a distinct culture and way of life. A Problematic Rough Around the Edges guy was going to do well there, regardless of the left-bros. And trust me, I do not have much love for the left-bros and their podcasts.
The working class folks in Maine just probably see more of themselves in Platner than anyone else on offer. I don't think this situation is the tragedy people are making it out to be. Remains to be seen, and lord knows his history doesn't thrill me, but we have to keep an open mind at this point.
Maine and NH are far more libertarian leaning than the rest of New England, although the lower two counties are almost completely blue now. Makes running for statewide office as a Republican difficult for anyone but Susan Collins when you can’t crack 20% in the most populous areas of the state.
oh yes, definitely the most libertarian, but the blue-ward lurch shows good common sense. I am a New Englander (from CT - we still count, dammit!), and I know the mix of practicality and fierce independence all too well. I am hoping for a good outcome here.
I responded, non to kindly to him, in my opinion the real issue is that Platner is a progressive,and as such is anathema in the Democratic party and a feared evil in the Republican.
Using the pretext of his tattoo, everyone is trying to make him out as a NAZI.
Well I've seen that tatt and there is a photo of it on the interwebs, it is a skull and crossbones, and not even a good one. The SS was not a skull and crossbones,the symbol on their caps was simply a skull and it looked nothing like the tatt Graham has. The tatt is now covered with a CelticKnot.
If anything it is an adolescent display of machismo, there are probably a thousand Marines with the same tattoo. A skull and crossbones are associated with pirates and biker gangs, why didn't they choose to associate him with a biker gang?Because in America,especially among Jews, there is a knee jerk reaction to NAZI's, so if you have an enemy associate him with NAZI's.
He and his ilk supported Trump in 2016, then like a dog that catches a car he became a never Trumper. Were it not for Burke, Buckley, Friedman, Reagan, Bush, the Tea Party, there would have been no MAGA or Trump, now he disavows the very man he helped create.
I don’t have a lot of respect for the never trump movement. I appreciate that they hate Trump and are working to bury MAGA one way or another, but they aren’t allies in any other sense of the word and they share no other liberal values. The ballwashing of Dick Cheney when he died is a good example.
Totally agree, Cheney did more damage to humanity and this country, than anyone until Trump.
When Dubya selected him for VP, he was president of Halliburton and Haliburton was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was Cheney who claimed that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, and both he and Dubya are war criminals, they knew the truth that Saddam didnot have WMD's or Nukes.
And is the world better off now. Doubtful, because the Shia, who are allied with Iran run the country, and the Popular Mobilization Force (Hashd al Shaab) is a semi offiical paramilitary and an unofficial partof the military, and is launching rockets into Kuwait. in support of Iran.
Great column, resonates perfectly with me, especially this part: "I know Democrats want to take the high ground against Republicans, but whenever we do, we’re somehow the ones who end up catching fire in flaming lava."
Voters vote for who they think can win. Wile I like Porter I voted for Baccera because I did like his politics but I also liked his chances. Platner’s not perfect so people are left to vote for the one least not perfect.
As for Mace. Time for that white trash to be taken out. As I said elsewhere I hope that she slithers back into anonymity and shut the hell up. Happy Pride beyotch!
[Many Democrats who are horrified by this result want to blame everyone but Gov. Janet Mills, whose campaign was barely comatose, or Chuck Schumer, who somehow thought the party’s best bet was a 78-year-old sitting governor with cratering approval.]
Call me old fashioned, but I tend to blame voters for the way they vote. If American voters voted rationally, we wouldn't be here.
I think some Democrats fear Platner for the Cotham/Fetterman effect, or also what else might come out with the sex pestery. Really, there are worries about anything that gives people an excuse—no matter how tiny—to vote for Collins. Because that kind of thing is only a concern for Democrats under Murc's Law. But hey let's see how it goes.
And LOL for Nancy Mace, the Biggest Fake in the House. Anyway, folks get ready for the general and make sure you have jumped your voter suppression hurdles!
I assume because the whole racist tattoo thing tracks with Fetterman's accosting of a Black jogger with a shotgun, but that's part and parcel with this kind of populism. Honestly I really don't care anymore, Platner said the Pretty Words What Democrats Like, he's not an Old. So yeah what's in the past is past and we're not going to talk about that anymore.
I will say this too, all the online Dems shitting on Schumer seem to not be backing a replacement for him. We've seen that the Democratic rank-and-file can get rid of Democrats they don't like, like Joe Biden. There should be umpteen million challengers declaring so they can force Schumer (and Jeffries) out.
But that's what I mean, Dems if they really think that Schumer's way of comity has to go, show it. We've all seen that a Democrat can easily be set upon and destroyed. That they choose not to do so I think is deliberate, and I will say it...it's deliberate on the left flank. I'm convinced more and more that Schumer (and Jeffries) are ablative armor so they don't have to make tough decisions in a minority party status. Just blame it all on those two and keep your 'purity.'
Well, maybe. I admit I hadn’t thought of it like that. But I do think Schumer will have a run for his money if by some miracle the Senate really does flip. A Graham Platner is not going to be a reliable vote in that respect.
I too fear that Platner could be the next Fetterman. I understand his military PTSD but I also understand Fetterman’s stroke. And, sadly, I really feel like he pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes as to his real motivations.
To me it is definitely "six of one, half a dozen of the other." Fetterman seemed like the least worst choice, but Oz still got to be someone in Trump's regime and we're stuck with a disturbing Fetterman grifter until 2028. Bitch owes me money, too!
Fetterman sucks but he is still better than Oz. Replacing Collins, who votes with Trump consistently, with a Fetterman, who otherwise votes with Democrats consistently, is still an upgrade.
"Besides, Collins has consistently beaten “generic, milquetoast Democrats.”
As I am sure you all know by now, I live in Maine, and I have watched this in real time over decades. Joe Brennan. Chellie Pingree. Tom Allen. Shenna Bellows. Sara Gideon. All respectable, well vetted candidates who had the right resumes and said all the right things and Collins not only beat them, she *ate their lunch* at election time. She would have eaten the lunch of Janet Mills, our retiring, not-so-popular-anymore governor. What *I* think in-tune political people REALLY don't like about this is that the voting populace is frustrated, angry and fed up and, for good or ill, wants to see that reflected in their candidates. They don't want fancy suits or position papers or moaning about democracy. They don't want to elect people who will just do the same things that got us where we are today. Platner's rise is a giant middle finger to the Dem establishment who are commencing the first stage of grief right now. To paraphrase my girl Bette Davis, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy election summer!
Well said. However, I hope D voters are smarter than MAGA ones, who apparently just wanted to burn it all down and assumed they wouldn't be burned in the process. An unknown number of them are waking up to the nightmare they pushed on us all, with the help of those who failed to show up when it counted in 2024.
Bumpy ride? It's going to be a bumpy 12-16 years, should we get out from under the boot of Project 2025-loving, Trump-crime-family-supporting, power-is-all Rs.
Well said! Schumer and others in the Dem establishment need to read the room - we are "frustrated, angry, and fed up" as you so aptly put it. Platner has apologized for the Nazi tattoo and had it altered to a non-Nazi one. I believe his excuse that he didn't know that it was a Nazi symbol, because I didn't know it either, until the issue came up. His womanizing was done before his marriage, and the sexting isn't good, but not a deal breaker, as it was to consenting adults. It's between him and his wife.
Platner is a fighter, and in his own way, so is Talarico. I think that both can win, and I hope that Dr. Annie Andrews can beat Graham to join them in the Senate. I am not surprised that Graham won, in spite of being loathed in SC. He kissed trump's ass hard enough to get his endorsement, and he does have seniority in the Senate, which matters.
One of Graham's opponents was a guy named Lynch, I don't know much about him, because I voted in the Democratic primary, and think that all Republicans today are awful. However, there were some ads put out by Graham, or a PAC supporting him, slamming this Lynch guy - claimed that he was some kind of criminal who claimed to have a presidential pardon, but didn't. I have no idea if that was true, but I wondered if it would actually help Lynch, because Republicans clearly don't care if the vote for criminals or not. It may have - he came in second, but it wasn't close. The tagline for the ad was called Lynch "a dangerous lunatic." When talking or writing about trump, "dangerous lunatic" should be used, not simply "lunatic," because not all lunatics are dangerous.
It was not a NAZI tattoo.. The SS had a Totenkopf, which translates to deaths head, It was simply a skull, no crossbones. Platners tattoo was a skull and crossbones and looked nothing like the Totenkopf, there are thousands of men running around with skull and crossbones tattoos, especially pirates and bikers and adolescent men who want to be macho.
However the establishment latches on to anything to defame and scandalize a progressive, progressive scare them more than their brethern Republicans.
The source of this opposition research (which comes from with the party) is an ex girlfriend, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
His other ex's say the just the opposite, that he was a gent.
And sorry but any accusation coming from a GOP Kavanaugh supporter is just BS as far as I’m concerned. I discount anything from those bad faith bastards.
As for the tattoo, I just don’t give a shit. His wife’s Jewish, the Deaths Head (even if it was that) is obscure to most people (and I say that as a WW2 buff, its easily mistaken for a pirate symbol) and right now we have actual concentration camps in this country for asylum seekers. Media can fuck off with these bullshit scandals.
Media thrives on controversy and scandal, if it bleeds it ledes is their motto.
The problem is within the house, Schumer, the DSCC, the DNC are scared shiitless of progressives, they would rather a Trump humping Republican win that a genuine progressive.
Stupid people think it is, though. Seriously, how many of them even knew what a Totenkopf was, much less what it looked like, before the media told them? Then it’s fainting couch time.
Absolutely correct. BTW (I'm going back to the 1980's when I was a vehement right winger. There was an item, buried in the local paper , about a seller of NAZI paraphenalia..he was a Jew.
All they are doing is looking for a scandal to delegitimize him, because they are scared shitless of progressives,because the donor class is scared shitless of progressives,and with donor cash, the analysts and strategists will be unemployed and not sucking off the donaton teat.
Most Democrats (there is an old white woman contingent here still salty over 2008 who are vowing they are Never Platner, eh, we’ll see) in Maine would agree with you. Susan Collins is a formidable opponent, though, and if she wins again it won’t be because of Nazi tattoos or reddit posts. Time will tell.
I think you are right. The Dem establishment of middle-of-the-road consultants who pushed candidates into inoffensive boringness, and who refused to fight the barrage of culty false populism displayed by unhinged Repubs, have lost their sway. You can only follow a losing playbook for so long before you have to try something different.
Platner is certainly personally flawed, but perhaps he has what it takes to overcome the inertia that has kept Susan Collins in the Senate for so long. Holding the moral high ground is meaningless if you never win. Another D in the Senate would be worth it as long as he isn't hiding some deeper, more destructive flaws.
Exactly. It's not like he's Ken Paxton who, in a just world, would be doing time. While I wouldn't underestimate Collins, Platner's progressive populist stance against corporations and corruption has resonance at this particular point in time (see Zohran Mamdani). Collins is old (73) and has been in DC forever. People maybe ready to give Platner a chance, warts and all.
Time will tell. Stephen seems to underestimate Collins’ political adeptness-she is a different politician here than what out of staters see on TV. I remain skeptical that she will be beaten this cycle either, and that has nothing to do with tattoos or reddit posts. It has to do with the fact that Collins remains singularly focused on what benefits the state, and makes trade offs unpopular with the rest of the (Democratic) country to do so. If you see her ads, she never once mentions Trump or the national GOP. It’s all about how she saved clean water, reigned in the cost of insulin and cured cancer in Maine. Doubt her at her peril.
Sadly, I was pretty sure neither would. One was the most unpopular Democrat since LBJ and an establishment figure in a chaos election; the other a face of an administration with a less than 40% approval rating.
Politics is the art of reality, not the art of handwringing. As a former prosecutor, state legislator who sat on ethics committees, and someone who's been vetted for both elected and appointed office — I received more scrutiny running for a state house seat than Platner apparently got for a U.S. Senate race. Democrats have a vetting problem. Republicans simply don't care.
Julie Roginsky's column today is provocative and helpful. Sanders' response to date isn't helping. He needs to do what Ro Khanna did — name the behavior, believe the woman, call the political affiliation irrelevant. That took maybe 90 seconds on Face the Nation. It's not complicated.
Going forward, Platner can show seriousness by doing something constructive: propose mandatory ethics training for candidates and ongoing training for all members and staff. I once led an office that helped with this training for Iowa — it's not easy, it has to be continuous, or it will not matter and be seen as trivial. Planter offering concrete policies will demonstrate accountability, not just survive it.
"which I’m always in favor of resolving before we’re actually in the air. " LOL. (Also: enjoyed many other insights in this piece.)
I have no special love for Platner, but I can certainly understand his fans reacting angrily to every “scandal” that comes out against him from a media that has decided Trump will be Trump and we will let Ken Paxton slide after all his shit. And the Democratic establishment has so thoroughly beclowned themselves that even if Mills didn’t seem comatose she’s have been sunk by Schumer’s endorsement. If Schumer really wanted to stop Platner he should have endorsed him early. And Fetterman coming out against Platner just makes Platner look better.
At this point, it’s time to just buckle up and crush Collins who has proven to be a typical Republican who is sometimes given leeway by her party to cast meaningless “independent” votes. Yes, overlooking Platner’s scandals makes us look like Trump supporters, but from the standpoint of nasty assholes who just want to hurt Americans, they got what they wanted with Trump. Maybe with Platner we will get someone willing to block Trump.
The thing that people do not understand is that Maine is really its own thing. Even in the auspices of New England, Maine does not behave like Massachussets, Vermont, Connecticut, or even New Hampshire. It's very much a purple state with a distinct culture and way of life. A Problematic Rough Around the Edges guy was going to do well there, regardless of the left-bros. And trust me, I do not have much love for the left-bros and their podcasts.
The working class folks in Maine just probably see more of themselves in Platner than anyone else on offer. I don't think this situation is the tragedy people are making it out to be. Remains to be seen, and lord knows his history doesn't thrill me, but we have to keep an open mind at this point.
Maine and NH are far more libertarian leaning than the rest of New England, although the lower two counties are almost completely blue now. Makes running for statewide office as a Republican difficult for anyone but Susan Collins when you can’t crack 20% in the most populous areas of the state.
oh yes, definitely the most libertarian, but the blue-ward lurch shows good common sense. I am a New Englander (from CT - we still count, dammit!), and I know the mix of practicality and fierce independence all too well. I am hoping for a good outcome here.
Well, the Red Sox cheering part counts anyway 😁
LOL. WE HAVE CLAMS TOO OKAY
😆😅😂
Also, building on your closing thought, see Popehat:
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social/post/3mnvucos4uc2o
>> House Rep. Tom Allen, who looked like a cover model for Milquetoast Democrat Monthly.
<strike>Harsh! (*checks Wkp*)</strike> Accurate!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Tom_and_Diana_Allen.jpg
As if on cue, here is Charlie Sykes, today: https://charliesykes.substack.com/p/the-temptation-of-lesser-evils
I responded, non to kindly to him, in my opinion the real issue is that Platner is a progressive,and as such is anathema in the Democratic party and a feared evil in the Republican.
Using the pretext of his tattoo, everyone is trying to make him out as a NAZI.
Well I've seen that tatt and there is a photo of it on the interwebs, it is a skull and crossbones, and not even a good one. The SS was not a skull and crossbones,the symbol on their caps was simply a skull and it looked nothing like the tatt Graham has. The tatt is now covered with a CelticKnot.
If anything it is an adolescent display of machismo, there are probably a thousand Marines with the same tattoo. A skull and crossbones are associated with pirates and biker gangs, why didn't they choose to associate him with a biker gang?Because in America,especially among Jews, there is a knee jerk reaction to NAZI's, so if you have an enemy associate him with NAZI's.
Charlie Sykes can gf himself with a rake. I absolutely can’t stand that sanctomonious shitheel.
He and his ilk supported Trump in 2016, then like a dog that catches a car he became a never Trumper. Were it not for Burke, Buckley, Friedman, Reagan, Bush, the Tea Party, there would have been no MAGA or Trump, now he disavows the very man he helped create.
I don’t have a lot of respect for the never trump movement. I appreciate that they hate Trump and are working to bury MAGA one way or another, but they aren’t allies in any other sense of the word and they share no other liberal values. The ballwashing of Dick Cheney when he died is a good example.
Totally agree, Cheney did more damage to humanity and this country, than anyone until Trump.
When Dubya selected him for VP, he was president of Halliburton and Haliburton was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was Cheney who claimed that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, and both he and Dubya are war criminals, they knew the truth that Saddam didnot have WMD's or Nukes.
And is the world better off now. Doubtful, because the Shia, who are allied with Iran run the country, and the Popular Mobilization Force (Hashd al Shaab) is a semi offiical paramilitary and an unofficial partof the military, and is launching rockets into Kuwait. in support of Iran.
Great column, resonates perfectly with me, especially this part: "I know Democrats want to take the high ground against Republicans, but whenever we do, we’re somehow the ones who end up catching fire in flaming lava."
Voters vote for who they think can win. Wile I like Porter I voted for Baccera because I did like his politics but I also liked his chances. Platner’s not perfect so people are left to vote for the one least not perfect.
As for Mace. Time for that white trash to be taken out. As I said elsewhere I hope that she slithers back into anonymity and shut the hell up. Happy Pride beyotch!
[Many Democrats who are horrified by this result want to blame everyone but Gov. Janet Mills, whose campaign was barely comatose, or Chuck Schumer, who somehow thought the party’s best bet was a 78-year-old sitting governor with cratering approval.]
Call me old fashioned, but I tend to blame voters for the way they vote. If American voters voted rationally, we wouldn't be here.
I think some Democrats fear Platner for the Cotham/Fetterman effect, or also what else might come out with the sex pestery. Really, there are worries about anything that gives people an excuse—no matter how tiny—to vote for Collins. Because that kind of thing is only a concern for Democrats under Murc's Law. But hey let's see how it goes.
And LOL for Nancy Mace, the Biggest Fake in the House. Anyway, folks get ready for the general and make sure you have jumped your voter suppression hurdles!
Some Democrats need to pull their heads out of their asses, too. Why is Platner any more likely to be Fetterman than any other Democrat running?
I assume because the whole racist tattoo thing tracks with Fetterman's accosting of a Black jogger with a shotgun, but that's part and parcel with this kind of populism. Honestly I really don't care anymore, Platner said the Pretty Words What Democrats Like, he's not an Old. So yeah what's in the past is past and we're not going to talk about that anymore.
I will say this too, all the online Dems shitting on Schumer seem to not be backing a replacement for him. We've seen that the Democratic rank-and-file can get rid of Democrats they don't like, like Joe Biden. There should be umpteen million challengers declaring so they can force Schumer (and Jeffries) out.
I never assume anything and it has served me well thus far.
Re: Schumer, Republicans are not the only ones making decisions based on loyalty. Schumer has a lot of friends on the hill.
But that's what I mean, Dems if they really think that Schumer's way of comity has to go, show it. We've all seen that a Democrat can easily be set upon and destroyed. That they choose not to do so I think is deliberate, and I will say it...it's deliberate on the left flank. I'm convinced more and more that Schumer (and Jeffries) are ablative armor so they don't have to make tough decisions in a minority party status. Just blame it all on those two and keep your 'purity.'
Well, maybe. I admit I hadn’t thought of it like that. But I do think Schumer will have a run for his money if by some miracle the Senate really does flip. A Graham Platner is not going to be a reliable vote in that respect.
I too fear that Platner could be the next Fetterman. I understand his military PTSD but I also understand Fetterman’s stroke. And, sadly, I really feel like he pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes as to his real motivations.
He's not Fetterman. Why is he more likely than any other Democrat running?
My PTSD for donating to Fetterman. LOL!
Fetterman is still 1000x better than Mehmet Oz would have been
To me it is definitely "six of one, half a dozen of the other." Fetterman seemed like the least worst choice, but Oz still got to be someone in Trump's regime and we're stuck with a disturbing Fetterman grifter until 2028. Bitch owes me money, too!
Absolutely.
Fetterman sucks but he is still better than Oz. Replacing Collins, who votes with Trump consistently, with a Fetterman, who otherwise votes with Democrats consistently, is still an upgrade.
Right? Just like Jared Golden is 1000x better than Paul LePage, who is running on the GOP ticket to replace him. That blue seat is in danger.
"Besides, Collins has consistently beaten “generic, milquetoast Democrats.”
As I am sure you all know by now, I live in Maine, and I have watched this in real time over decades. Joe Brennan. Chellie Pingree. Tom Allen. Shenna Bellows. Sara Gideon. All respectable, well vetted candidates who had the right resumes and said all the right things and Collins not only beat them, she *ate their lunch* at election time. She would have eaten the lunch of Janet Mills, our retiring, not-so-popular-anymore governor. What *I* think in-tune political people REALLY don't like about this is that the voting populace is frustrated, angry and fed up and, for good or ill, wants to see that reflected in their candidates. They don't want fancy suits or position papers or moaning about democracy. They don't want to elect people who will just do the same things that got us where we are today. Platner's rise is a giant middle finger to the Dem establishment who are commencing the first stage of grief right now. To paraphrase my girl Bette Davis, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy election summer!
Well said. However, I hope D voters are smarter than MAGA ones, who apparently just wanted to burn it all down and assumed they wouldn't be burned in the process. An unknown number of them are waking up to the nightmare they pushed on us all, with the help of those who failed to show up when it counted in 2024.
Bumpy ride? It's going to be a bumpy 12-16 years, should we get out from under the boot of Project 2025-loving, Trump-crime-family-supporting, power-is-all Rs.
Well said! Schumer and others in the Dem establishment need to read the room - we are "frustrated, angry, and fed up" as you so aptly put it. Platner has apologized for the Nazi tattoo and had it altered to a non-Nazi one. I believe his excuse that he didn't know that it was a Nazi symbol, because I didn't know it either, until the issue came up. His womanizing was done before his marriage, and the sexting isn't good, but not a deal breaker, as it was to consenting adults. It's between him and his wife.
Platner is a fighter, and in his own way, so is Talarico. I think that both can win, and I hope that Dr. Annie Andrews can beat Graham to join them in the Senate. I am not surprised that Graham won, in spite of being loathed in SC. He kissed trump's ass hard enough to get his endorsement, and he does have seniority in the Senate, which matters.
One of Graham's opponents was a guy named Lynch, I don't know much about him, because I voted in the Democratic primary, and think that all Republicans today are awful. However, there were some ads put out by Graham, or a PAC supporting him, slamming this Lynch guy - claimed that he was some kind of criminal who claimed to have a presidential pardon, but didn't. I have no idea if that was true, but I wondered if it would actually help Lynch, because Republicans clearly don't care if the vote for criminals or not. It may have - he came in second, but it wasn't close. The tagline for the ad was called Lynch "a dangerous lunatic." When talking or writing about trump, "dangerous lunatic" should be used, not simply "lunatic," because not all lunatics are dangerous.
It was not a NAZI tattoo.. The SS had a Totenkopf, which translates to deaths head, It was simply a skull, no crossbones. Platners tattoo was a skull and crossbones and looked nothing like the Totenkopf, there are thousands of men running around with skull and crossbones tattoos, especially pirates and bikers and adolescent men who want to be macho.
However the establishment latches on to anything to defame and scandalize a progressive, progressive scare them more than their brethern Republicans.
The source of this opposition research (which comes from with the party) is an ex girlfriend, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
His other ex's say the just the opposite, that he was a gent.
And sorry but any accusation coming from a GOP Kavanaugh supporter is just BS as far as I’m concerned. I discount anything from those bad faith bastards.
As for the tattoo, I just don’t give a shit. His wife’s Jewish, the Deaths Head (even if it was that) is obscure to most people (and I say that as a WW2 buff, its easily mistaken for a pirate symbol) and right now we have actual concentration camps in this country for asylum seekers. Media can fuck off with these bullshit scandals.
Media thrives on controversy and scandal, if it bleeds it ledes is their motto.
The problem is within the house, Schumer, the DSCC, the DNC are scared shiitless of progressives, they would rather a Trump humping Republican win that a genuine progressive.
Stupid people think it is, though. Seriously, how many of them even knew what a Totenkopf was, much less what it looked like, before the media told them? Then it’s fainting couch time.
Absolutely correct. BTW (I'm going back to the 1980's when I was a vehement right winger. There was an item, buried in the local paper , about a seller of NAZI paraphenalia..he was a Jew.
All they are doing is looking for a scandal to delegitimize him, because they are scared shitless of progressives,because the donor class is scared shitless of progressives,and with donor cash, the analysts and strategists will be unemployed and not sucking off the donaton teat.
Most Democrats (there is an old white woman contingent here still salty over 2008 who are vowing they are Never Platner, eh, we’ll see) in Maine would agree with you. Susan Collins is a formidable opponent, though, and if she wins again it won’t be because of Nazi tattoos or reddit posts. Time will tell.
I think you are right. The Dem establishment of middle-of-the-road consultants who pushed candidates into inoffensive boringness, and who refused to fight the barrage of culty false populism displayed by unhinged Repubs, have lost their sway. You can only follow a losing playbook for so long before you have to try something different.
Platner is certainly personally flawed, but perhaps he has what it takes to overcome the inertia that has kept Susan Collins in the Senate for so long. Holding the moral high ground is meaningless if you never win. Another D in the Senate would be worth it as long as he isn't hiding some deeper, more destructive flaws.
He's personally flawed in many of the same ways that LBJ was personally flawed...
We all have personal flaws and foibles. To hear some talk, you'd think he was the first public figure with a past.
Exactly. It's not like he's Ken Paxton who, in a just world, would be doing time. While I wouldn't underestimate Collins, Platner's progressive populist stance against corporations and corruption has resonance at this particular point in time (see Zohran Mamdani). Collins is old (73) and has been in DC forever. People maybe ready to give Platner a chance, warts and all.
Time will tell. Stephen seems to underestimate Collins’ political adeptness-she is a different politician here than what out of staters see on TV. I remain skeptical that she will be beaten this cycle either, and that has nothing to do with tattoos or reddit posts. It has to do with the fact that Collins remains singularly focused on what benefits the state, and makes trade offs unpopular with the rest of the (Democratic) country to do so. If you see her ads, she never once mentions Trump or the national GOP. It’s all about how she saved clean water, reigned in the cost of insulin and cured cancer in Maine. Doubt her at her peril.
I've DEFINITELY learned not to count my chickens over the years
No. I was very hopeful about Sarah Gideon-polls showed her leading right up to election day, and then Collins trounced her. Didn't even need a runoff.
yep..same for me re: HRC in 2016 and Harris last year...I was CERTAIN they would win...
Sadly, I was pretty sure neither would. One was the most unpopular Democrat since LBJ and an establishment figure in a chaos election; the other a face of an administration with a less than 40% approval rating.