The Plum Line: October 10, 2010 - October 16, 2010
Open Thread
Polls show voters only care about the things I say they should care about....
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Greg Sargent
| October 16, 2010; 8:57 AM ET |
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Miscellaneous
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Happy Hour Roundup
* NPR talks to some voters who don't seem to have gotten the pundit memo informing them that they aren't supposed to care about the anonymous cash flooding the airwaves. * Endorsement of the day: Rush Limbaugh, in endorsing John...
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Greg Sargent
| October 15, 2010; 6:10 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Happy Hour Roundup, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Sharron Angle: No insurance mandates
There's been a ton of attention paid to Sharron Angle's exhortation at last night's debate that Harry Reid "man up" on Social Security, and much commentary on the debate has focused on whether her answers were too canned or whether...
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Greg Sargent
| October 15, 2010; 3:29 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Dems' next challenge: Linking secret election cash to economy
Okay, so here's the next question. It appears Democrats are doubling down on their strategy of hammering Republicans for benefiting from the massive amount of undisclosed corporate cash that's funding ads attacking Dems. Whether this can work may depend on...
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Greg Sargent
| October 15, 2010; 12:59 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, economy
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Thiessen's misleading attack on due process
Adam Serwer is a staff writer with The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Earlier this week, Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen crowed about the difficulties the Justice Department is facing in its prosecution of alleged Tanzanian U.S. Embassy...
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Adam Serwer
| October 15, 2010; 11:03 AM ET |
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Foreign policy and national security
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The Morning Plum
* Calling the Nevada debate for Sharron Angle: Nevada top-dog journalist Jon Ralston, who has a good read on the Nevada electorate, says she won, because she managed to avoid appearing as "the Wicked Witch of the West." Ralston also...
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Greg Sargent
| October 15, 2010; 8:30 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Morning Plum, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Harry Reid and Sharron Angle have their big debate tonight at 9 p.m. eastern, and Chris Cillizza has a good curtain-raiser telling you why it matters and what to look for. * Big boost for libs? In a move...
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Greg Sargent
| October 14, 2010; 6:28 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Happy Hour Roundup, House Dems, House GOPers, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Yes, voters do care about secret cash funding elections!
It has become an article of faith among certain Beltway inside-game commentators that there's no way the Dem attack on secret money funding elections could ever have a prayer of working. Surely the issue is too esoteric, too process-y, and...
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Greg Sargent
| October 14, 2010; 3:24 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, economy
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Sarah Palin advisers prepped Christine O'Donnell for debate
By some reckonings, Christine O'Donnell had a bit of a rocky time at her Delaware Senate debate with Dem Chris Coons last night. She wouldn't say whether she believe in evolution, described Coons as a Marxist, and appeared to stumble...
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Greg Sargent
| October 14, 2010; 1:24 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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NRSC admits responsiblity for `hicky' language
That National Republican Senatorial Committee is copping to the casting call for "hicky blue collar" workers for an NRSC ad in West Virginia, admitting that its vendor was responsible for the language and terminating its relationship with that vendor. The...
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Greg Sargent
| October 14, 2010; 11:51 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Republicans
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Why did Sharron Angle think Sharia had taken hold in Dearborn?
Adam Serwer is a staff writer with The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Yesterday, Greg reported Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle's latest comments on how she came to believe that two towns, one of which doesn't exist, had been...
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Adam Serwer
| October 14, 2010; 10:39 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Republicans
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The Morning Plum
* Will Dems go big in the coming war over the Bush tax cuts? Read of the morning: Lori Montgomery's look at liberal Dems who are hoping the battle over whether to let the high end Bush tax cuts expire...
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Greg Sargent
| October 14, 2010; 8:35 AM ET |
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2010 elections, House Dems, House GOPers, Labor, Morning Plum, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Sam Stein reports that Dem Rep. Scott Murphy is running the toughest pro-health care ad of the cycle -- even though he's in a tough race and getting attacked by his GOP opponent and a third party group on...
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Greg Sargent
| October 13, 2010; 6:24 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Happy Hour Roundup, House Dems, House GOPers, Political media, Senate Dems
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Sharron Angle on Sharia law in America: "That's what I had read"
Sharron Angle has now addressed the national flap over her suggestion that Sharia law might be a threat in certain American cities, and while she seemed to try to disavow the claim, I'm not sure her clarification will clarify...
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Greg Sargent
| October 13, 2010; 4:07 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Foreign policy and national security, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Rove, Chamber ads widely debunked as false or misleading
Here's something important that's getting lost in the firefight over the money funding the ads by the U.S. Chamber and Karl Rove's groups: Many of the ads themselves have been debunked by independent fact checkers as false, grossly misleading, or...
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Greg Sargent
| October 13, 2010; 2:21 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Rand Paul's college letters: Asked whether gov't should combat discrimination, worshipped Ayn Rand
I've obtained several letters and Op eds that Rand Paul wrote to his school newspaper in the early 1980s, and they provide a glimpse into Paul's budding libertarian mind as he grappled with his early hostility towards government. In the...
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Greg Sargent
| October 13, 2010; 12:04 PM ET |
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Paladino's apology shows Dem timidity enables discrimination
Adam Serwer is a staff writer with The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Yes, Carl Paladino has now apologized for his widely-reported homophobic remarks. But the real story here is that Paladino has merely retreated to a...
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Adam Serwer
| October 13, 2010; 10:33 AM ET |
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2010 elections, gay rights
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The Morning Plum
* The ever-expanding House map keeps Dems on defense everwhere: I'm told National Republicans are expanding their list of Dem targets yet again, airing a new NRCC spot targeting Blue Dog Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, who hadn't been thought...
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Greg Sargent
| October 13, 2010; 8:31 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Foreign policy and national security, House Dems, House GOPers, Morning Plum, Political media
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Happy Hour Roundup
* The Dems' triage continues as the DCCC cancels its ad buys in six embattled districts for the remainder of the cycle, a sign national Dems view these seats as lost. * Responding to Karl Rove, the White House releases...
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Greg Sargent
| October 12, 2010; 6:47 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Happy Hour Roundup, Political media, Senate Republicans
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Axelrod: We'll keep pounding outside spending and foreign money
The White House will keep up its assault on outside spending by conservative groups and will continue to press the case about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's foreign money, despite hints of retreat on the latter issue, senior adviser David...
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Greg Sargent
| October 12, 2010; 5:04 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, House Dems, House GOPers, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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How about some fact-checks of Karl Rove's and right's falsehoods?
Virtually every news org under the sun has now weighed in with an aggressive fact check of White House/Dem foreign money allegations against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And that's as it should be. But when are folks going to...
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Greg Sargent
| October 12, 2010; 2:55 PM ET |
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Pundits and Republicans agree: Dem attack on Chamber is a flop
The full-scale assault from the White House and Dems on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's groups shows no signs of abating. But is it already a political flop? Some commentators are rushing to proclaim this offensive a...
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Greg Sargent
| October 12, 2010; 12:36 PM ET |
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White people haven't gone crazy
Adam Serwer is a staff writer for The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. A few weeks ago Steven Thrasher wrote a piece for the Village Voice that I think speaks to the exasperation of many liberals who are confounded...
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Adam Serwer
| October 12, 2010; 10:53 AM ET |
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Foreign policy and national security
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The Morning Plum
* Dems start doing triage: With exactly three weeks to go until election day, here's a key thing to watch: National Democrats are now beginning to cut off the money flow to some embattled incumbents, in order to shift the...
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Greg Sargent
| October 12, 2010; 8:36 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, House Dems, House GOPers, Morning Plum
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Happy Hour Roundup
* The U.S Chamber of Commerce may be complaining about its rough treatment from the White House and Dems, but as Sam Stein reports, the Chamber has previously defended its lack of disclosure specifically by claiming they will pay a...
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Greg Sargent
| October 11, 2010; 5:42 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Happy Hour Roundup, House GOPers, Senate Republicans
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"Hicky" actor backs up GOP version of events
The other day I suggested here that it was unfair to slam national Republicans over that casting call for "hicky blue collar" actors who ultimately appeared in that NRSC ad featuring regular guys bashing Obama and West Virginia Dem Senate...
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Greg Sargent
| October 11, 2010; 3:56 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Pat Toomey: Human activity might not be main cause of global warming
As many people have already pointed out, some of the leading beneficiaries of this season of Tea Party craziness are Republican candidates who hold extreme views on specific issues but nonetheless come across as moderate and reasonable when compared to...
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Greg Sargent
| October 11, 2010; 2:28 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Climate change, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Scarborough retracts false claim about lefty groups' disclosure. Will Rove and other righties do same?
I suppose this is par for the course. But perhaps it should be part of the discussion that right wing commentators who claim lefty groups and unions are running ads funded by anonymous donors -- just as the U.S. Chamber...
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Greg Sargent
| October 11, 2010; 12:25 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Labor
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Carl Paladino's Homophobic Extremism
Adam Serwer is a staff writer for The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has said and done a number of things that might leave voters with a negative impression. He...
By
Adam Serwer
| October 11, 2010; 10:45 AM ET |
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2010 elections, gay rights
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The Morning Plum
* It's the disclosure, stupid: With the war between Obama/Dems and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce entering into its second week, it's important to keep in mind that the foreign money charges should only be a small part of this...
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Greg Sargent
| October 11, 2010; 9:00 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance, Climate change, Morning Plum, Tea Party, economy
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Sunday Open Thread
Where did Democrats get off thinking that one-party Dem rule should be anything but an occasional two-year historical aberration? Only 23 days until House Speaker-to-be John Boehner and senators-elect Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell set about restoring the rightful order...
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Greg Sargent
| October 10, 2010; 9:37 AM ET |
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