SSP Daily Digest: 9/10

• FL-Sen: Today is the day we say goodbye to Mel Martinez, resigning to… well, he hasn’t figured it out yet. Martinez leaves sounding rather downbeat, having been pilloried by much of his party for his work on immigration. And today we say hello to George LeMieux, Charlie Crist’s former right-hand man and now body-double in the Senate. Interesting trivia: Kirsten Gillibrand is no longer the youngest Senator; LeMieux is a youthful 40.

• MA-Sen: The rumor du jour coming out of the Bay State is that Andy Card, the former Bush White House chief of staff, is interested in the Senate special election for the GOP. Card would be a long-shot (as would any Republican), but would at least come to the race armed with a giant Rolodex full of donors. (Wait… do people even use Rolodexes any more?)

• UT-Sen: Is Bob Bennett just ready for retirement, or is he trying to move to the left of the the gaggle of far-right primary challengers, hoping they split the wingnut vote and let him win by occupying all of the quasi-moderate Huntsman-style space in the GOP field? Either way, he took a few provocative actions yesterday, as one of only four GOPers to stand and applaud Barack Obama’s call-out of the “death panel” lie last night — which earned him the spot of Public Enemy #1 at RedState — and earlier as one of only five GOPers to vote in favor of cloture on the Cass Sunstein nomination, who currently holds the #2 spot on the list that Glenn Beck is holding in his hand.

• NY-Gov: This is a weird-ass rumor, but apparently several different sources are telling the Weekly Standard that Hillary Clinton may bag on being Secretary of State in order to run for Governor of New York. Take with… I dunno, is there something much stronger than salt? Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani was supposed to be in the middle of a power play involving remaking the leadership of the state GOP in preparation for a gubernatorial run, but seems to be losing that proxy battle, as the insufficiently-pro-Rudy Ed Cox still seems on track to take over as state GOP chair.

• TN-Gov: Rep. Zach Wamp has an edge in the GOP primary for the open gubernatorial race in Tennessee, according to his own polling, done by the Tarrance Group. Wamp has 22% of the vote, followed by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey at 15, Shelby Co. DA Bill Gibbons at 14, and Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam at 12. Wamp also led the field with 22 in a poll several months ago from Southern Political Report.

• CA-11: There are already a bunch of next-to-no-names running against Jerry McNerney in the R+1 11th, but the GOP has dug up someone who’s at least one notch above that: Tony Amador, the former U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of California under the Bush administration, giving him some sort-of-non-partisan law-and-order cred. Amador was the son of undocumented immigrants — but does that make him the kind of courageous by-the-bootstraps story that Republicans love, or unacceptable to the GOP’s rabid nativist base?

• MO-08: Here’s an appealing-sounding recruit for the Dems to go against Jo Ann Emerson: college instructor and Army vet Tommy Sowers. He served two tours in Iraq, then taught at West Point, and now teaches at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He’ll still have an uphill fight against Emerson, who hasn’t drawn tough competition since her initial 1996 election, in this district that actually went for Bill Clinton but has fallen off the cliff lately at R+15.

• SC-02: If last night were a movie, the poster would say “Starring Barack Obama, and introducing Joe Wilson!” With one over-the-top line of dialogue, Wilson was catapulted from back-bench anonymity, to front-and-center among one-dimensional cartoonish House Republican villains, right next to Michele Bachmann and Jean Schmidt. While Wilson privately apologized last night, he is refusing today to publicly apologize in the House well, and Democratic House leadership seems eager to let that slide, not wanting to get distracted from the more pressing matter of health care. However, the assault from the netroots has been merciless; Wilson’s 2010 opponent, Iraq vet Rob Miller (who came within 8% of Wilson in 2008 in this R+9 district), has hit the fundraising jackpot, raising over $200K since last night according to the DCCC. (Prior to last night, Miller had $49K CoH while Wilson had $212K.) This includes $135K alone at Act Blue (hint hint). UPDATE: PPP teases that they’re going into the field tonight to poll SC-02; they’re asking for help in drafting the poll, so be sure and give them a hand.

• CA-St. Ass.: In case you were under a rock yesterday (or had a particularly aggressive work-safe web-blocker), Republican Mike Duvall resigned immediately from his state Assembly seat in northern Orange County after getting caught on an open microphone talking in lascivious detail about his sexual transactions with a oil-and-gas lobbyist. The resulting special election in AD-72 doesn’t seem likely to go to the Dems — Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby is set to run for the seat — but it’s the least hardcore part of the OC, where John McCain won only 50-47, so it’s worth paying some attention. (See californianwonder‘s diary for more.)

• House: Here’s a GOP poll that I’m sharing simply because of the sheer irrelevance of its premise: that Nancy Pelosi is the most polarizing House Speaker since Newt Gingrich. Remember that there was exactly one Speaker in between Gingrich and Pelosi. Should it be any surprise that the highly visible Pelosi is considered more polarizing than the shapeless, flavorless DeLay-puppet Dennis Hastert… or that the GOP paid good money to ascertain that?

45 thoughts on “SSP Daily Digest: 9/10”

  1. As the article said, he can raise money. That’s about all he’s got going for him.

    It’s an interesting open question as to what extent a strong association with the Bush administration specifically would harm a candidate running for office, one that will be interestingly tested with Rob Portman running for the OH-Sen seat.

    I’d have to think being heavily inolved with Dubya would be pretty much a deal killer in a state like Massachusetts. I might even go so far as to say that a theoretical Republican primary opponent (in an election of interest to no one save the small minority of voters registered GOP) should be able to use that association against Card.  

  2. New Disclosures Show Wilson Deep in Debt

    Talk about bad timing.

    Jonathan Allen reports newly-amended financial disclosure forms show that Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) — who heckled President Obama last night — is heavily leveraged and his debts may even exceed his assets. The new filings reveal for the first time hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported loans from federal credit unions and banks.

    A Wilson aide did not reply to e-mailed requests for information, and phone lines to Wilson’s office were jammed.

    Meanwhile, Wilson’s Democratic opponent in next year’s election has pulled in over $400,000 in new campaign contributions since last night.

    So yeah, it looks like the dem will at least have a big cash advantage.  I wonder if it will be enough.

  3. – Why in the world would Card even waste his time?  He has to know the only Republican who had a shot was MAYBE Romney and even he had an uphill battle.  

    – Hillary running for Governor is laughable.  Why in the world would she do that?

    – Why did it take so long to get the vote on Cloture for Sunstein if they had the votes?  Why not do this months ago?  Why not do the same for McHugh?

  5. Yet more proof that Andy Card, like most longtime Bush sycophants, is completely delusional.

    When UMass’s Romney-appointed president awarded Card an honorary doctorate a few years ago, the audience booed and a good number of the graduating class refused to walk – and this is doctorate students, mind you – they spent 6 years getting a Ph.D, only to have to boycott their own graduation ceremony because the politician who runs the school decided to diminish their achievement by awarding a scumbag like Andy Card a degree he didn’t earn.

    The only Massachusetts Republican less popular than Andy Card is Mitt Romney, and that only because Card hasn’t repeatedly insulted Massachusetts while serving as a Massachusetts elected official and/or spent the entire second half of his term out of state campaigning for higher office.  

  6. The delusional Clinton hate had me confused for a second. And since when does the Weekly Standard count as a reliable source of information about any democrat? As for Pelosi, never been a big fan. She’s not as spineless as Harry but she’s no Tip O’Neil either.

  8. Apparently Chris Norby and Orange County were sued by a former employee.

    From the Orange County Register:

    In April 2005, an Orange County Superior Court jury sided with Mokler, and awarded her a $1.7 million verdict on grounds she was fired for raising questions about the agency’s operations. The jury also agreed that Norby made inappropriate sexual remarks, but did not award her any damages on the sexual harassment claim.

    Following the jury’s verdict, trial judge W. Michael Hayes decided the amount was excessive, and asked if Mokler would accept a lower damage amount of $125,000.

    Mokler refused and appealed, asking the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal to reinstate the $1.7 million. The county argued the court should negate the jury award entirely. Norby also appealed, saying he did not commit sexual harassment.

    On Monday, the court did not reinstate the $1.7 million award, instead finding that a new trial should be held regarding damages.

    The court also considered Mokler’s claims of sexual harassment. The first cited instance reportedly occurred in January 2003, at an off-site budget meeting. Mokler introduced herself to Norby, who called her an “aging nun” when he learned she was not married, according to the ruling.

    The next month, Norby took Mokler by the arm at a hotel celebration and drew her close to him, saying she had a nice suit and nice legs, according to the ruling.

    The last instance was in March 2003, the ruling said, when Norby told Mokler she looked nice and put his arm around her while the two were in his office. When Mokler started to talk about services provided by the Council on Aging, including services to Latinos, Norby interrupted, stating “Why the (expletive) do you have to do something special for Mexicans?”

    “While we do not condone Norby’s improper behavior, Mokler failed to present sufficient evidence of acts ‘sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of her employment and create an abusive working environment,’ ” the justices wrote.

  9. NY-Gov: Pepper?  I’d say it’s stronger than salt, and that this could only happen in (a Republican leader’s twisted version of) Pepperland.

    MO-08: Ouch, R+15.

    SC-02: I just heard about this news today.  Holy crap, this is hilarious and awesome.

    CA-St.Ass.: I still love that abbreviation.

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