Reminder: 56% of Weiner’s constituents wanted him to stay, but the DCCC and the Democratic leadership knew what was best for the 9th district of NY. it was a safe seat. And while the true impact is negligible, as the 9th is likely to be redistricted out of existence, the optics are awful, it exposes the DCCC to charges of incompetence, and it’s a huge waste of money and time.
But that’s the DCCC for you: Suuuuuper-geniuses, all of them.
Again a defense of the unfit for public office Weiner? Here’s what was wrong with Weiner, apart from him believing that his weiner was God’s gift to humanity. First, he was Hillary Clinton’s and Chuck Schumer’s foil. For that alone he should be condemned. Secondly, he would incoherently scream for hours about nonsense and nobody, except a small group of true believers, would pay any attention to what he had to say. Of course that was part of him being the well paid foil for Clinton and Shumerl. Third he was an unabashed apologist for Israel. A committed Zionist who could never find any fault in Israel’s actions. There’s so much more, but that’s enough for now.
Former Mayor Koch endorsed Turner, the Republican, early on because he thought Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, would not be as radically pro-Israel as the Christian Tea Party Republican would be. Indicates more about Ed Koch than about Weprin, I fear.
I heard Turner on WNYC early on, when he’d been named to run by the R’s, and he was barely coherent, even with Tea Party-esque talking points he used while saying he had nothing to do with the Tea Party. It was truly a waste of 20 or so minutes of my life listening to him. The commenters were apoplectic that the host, Brian Lehrer would not/could not get the guy to say anything specific, could not get direct answers from him.
I only caught the tail end of the segment with Weprin, so I can’t address his political POV or responsiveness. However, when googling for info on the race, I noted that many of the local newspapers were endorsing Weprin as the one who would best represent the interests and needs of the district.
Weprin had been a state assemblyman for some time, so he at least has a record. Turner is a retired cable TV business owner.
Re: Weiner — it’s now moot, but his district did want to keep him, by 56% per polling, and wanted the chance to either vote him back in or vote him out. They didn’t get that. The Dem leadership wanted him gone, fast fast fast, as they didn’t want to face ongoing penis jokes. So, special election, possible embarrassment to the party, and a new Tea Party hero?
I hope not, but, hey whadda I know? I’m from NJ.
However, this special election may be presaging a “throw all the bums out” wave election in 2012.
We really do need a party which actually represents the needs and issues of the non-wealthy. Turner is not going to represent this district well — but, apparently, the voters are feeling a deep feeling of betrayal by the Dems.
As in: What have you done for me…at all…lately?
As in, on the national level, under Obama, Dems haven’t done very much that helps people experiencing the bad effects of the Big $h*t Pile Meltdown. And they can see very well that most of the banksters responsible for the Big $h*t Pile Mess are doing extremely well.
So, why vote for the party which betrayed you?
By Tuesday we’ll have the results, and we’ll see how good this pollster is — unless it’s so close there’s a recount. WNYC reported that Turner was ahead by 8 points. Gonna be interesting — and this may one reason Obama was appearing as a Democrat, not a St. Ronnie acolyte, in his Big Jobs Speech last night.
Can we trust him to live up to any of his words, except the ones about cuts to Medicare and Medicaid? Or was it part and parcel of his electioneering?
Callers to WNYC and some iterviewed by the BBC and NPR said Obama finally sounded like the candidate they voted for, sounded like a “real Democrat.” A woman calling WNYC, an independent, said she felt he was campaigning and his words didn’t mean very much; she was looking for actions, that he’d never lived up to his words to the voters.
The host, when taking another call from an independent, said something which indicated he thought the woman indie wasn’t really an independent, but the second indie was. The difference? The second guy liked Obama’s middle of the road approach and the first didn’t.
The MCM doesn’t get that independent voters can be to the left of the Democratic Party. Dem leadership doesn’t get that either, I’m pretty sure. It’s the “Where ya gonna go, sweetie” thing.
In the meantime, there is another special election going on in NV, to be determined at the same time as NY, one in which just a few weeks ago polls showed a 1 point difference between the D (Kate Marshall) and the R (Mark Amodei).
Since that poll came out the R’s have outspent the D 3-1. And the DCCC is nowhere to be found.
It is a double waste of time and money because NYS has to lose two congressional seats based on census numbers. They easily could have waited and then redistricted Weiner out. The rumors are that a Democratic seat gets lost downstate and a Republican seat gets lost upstate. What a waste.