Finally, Rick Weiland and I have something we can disagree on.
Our Democratic candidate for Senate is telling Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee to pull their ads against Mike Rounds. In a Monday press release, Weiland accuses the national Dems of using negative ads against Rounds to harm Weiland's campaign and boost Independent Larry Pressler:
Everybody knows the ugly attack ads you have been running against Mike Rounds help Larry Pressler, not the candidate of the party you are supposed to be campaigning for. They make me, as the Democratic candidate, look like a dirty campaigner. They damage Governor Rounds. And they let former Senator Pressler stand on the sidelines looking clean and gathering votes from disgusted South Dakotans, just as you intended them to do [Rick Weiland, press release, 2014.10.27].
Weiland's assertion that the DSCC is working for Larry Pressler holds about as much water with me as did assertions back during the GOP primary that Mike Rounds planted Annette Bosworth in the campaign to divide his opposition. If I were the DSCC and had a million dollars to spend, I can't imagine intentionally undermining a progressive Democrat who sounds a lot more like the ascendant progressives in the national party than our preceding Blue Dogs in favor of a quixotic Republican-cum-Independent who will only be around for one term and won't do any fundraising for the DSCC.
But Weiland maintains that's the DSCC plan, as evidenced by their long-standing dismissal of his candidacy:
For every one of the 18 months since I became a candidate for the United States Senate, and the 6 months since I was formally selected to be the candidate of the party you are supposed to represent, I have been asking you for positive assistance with my campaign. Instead of that assistance you have said I am not your choice, tried to dry up my funds by saying I cannot win, refused to have your DSCC even endorse me, and now you have come into my state with ugly, negative attacks against Mike Rounds, ads that you and every knowledgeable political strategist in America knows hurt me and help Larry Pressler, the longtime Republican who has apparently won your support for his so called independent campaign by whispering that if elected he might vote to help you keep your job as Majority Leader [Weiland, 2014.10.27]
I guess I'm not a knowledgeable political strategist. I'm not buying the DSCC-Pressler gambit.
Nor am I buying the suggestion that negative ads are bad. If we don't run negative ads against Mike Rounds, his record of incompetence and corruption goes unchallenged. If we do run negative ads, some people engage in moral grandstanding, but the message gets across, and we have a better shot of winning, as evidenced by the underlying assumption of Weiland's arguments that the negative ads damage Mike Rounds.
Evidently political scientist Larry Sabato isn't knowledgeable, either:
"This is done in all 50 states," he said. "People are so used to these sorts of negative ads sponsored by the party that there usually isn't that much political effect. People will absorb the political information, even as they say they hate negatives" [David Montgomery, "Weiland Accuses Own Party of Sabotaging His Campaign," that Sioux Falls paper, 2014.10.27].
Weiland asks that the South Dakota Democratic Party repudiate these tactics. I ask the South Dakota Democratic not to be timid or stupid. Mike Rounds gave Richard Benda and Joop Bollen carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, without regard to state law or Regental rules, because they waved dollars in his face. That fundamental breach of public trust is the biggest reason Mike Rounds should never be trusted with public office again.
It may be ugly and negative to hear that we can't trust our former governor, but it's the truth, and South Dakotans need to hear it, lest they elect the wrong man for this important job.
That said, I'm more than happy to see MoveOn.org complementing the negative ads with this wonderful new 30-second summary of all the positive reasons to make Rick Weiland our next Senator:
Democrats, we can walk and chew gum. We can show Rick's a stud and prove Mike's a dud. And when we're running blue in red South Dakota, we need to use every tool available.
I'm guessing he wanted something like Rounds where he approved the ad, paid for by them, and I'm wondering if the DSCC even returned the call.
I got one of those emails and thought about it for some time. I wondered why the DSCC did not help out from the get go. A little bit of money in this state goes a long way. Then, suddenly they come in a blasting after months and months of silence. So my question would be this, why did they come in the first place? Why after all of this time did they suddenly decide that there was a progressive here when Reid knew it when he and Daschle were discussing this a long time ago? Puzzling
Reid is not popular here. He insulted the dems in sd and turned his back on weiland. Rick has said if elected, he won't support Reid as leader. He may move the needle a bit by calling out Reid. Besides, he probably knows outside groups will keep running ads if they want.
Perhaps not everyone realizes this, but those PAC ads cost about 3x more to run per spot than the candidate ads do. And the candidate has no control over either message or money.
Not sure why they don't just contribute to the campaign and let the people on the ground plan the message, run the ads, do their GOTV stuff, etc. with as much efficiency as possible, but they don't.
The net result in these "PAC Wars" is that you can sometimes end up with neither candidate actually having direct communication with the voters.
Everything is being filtered through PACs, oftentimes produced by people out of state, and paid for by people whose names and faces most of us will never know.
This may have more to do with the sleazy Rounds ads now attacking Weiland for hypocrisy on the money issue than anything the national Democrats did or did not do. Rounds sleazy attack ad on Weiland and Ellsworth were run again despite the much smaller ad with Sen. Tim Johnson's comments supporting Weiland.
There can never be too few attack ads against GOP nonsense, corruptions, secrecy, and incompetence in South Dakota.
I'm with Douglas. We're not making stuff up the way Mike Rounds and Dick Wadhams do. We're talking about honest-to-goodness nonsense, corruptions, secrecy, and incompetence carried out by Republicans. We have an obligation to point out such sins. That means using negative language, like "Corruption is bad; don't vote for it!"
If there is any Reid gambit to play, Weiland seemed to play it sufficiently last week by saying he wouldn't vote for Reid for majority leader. Let that one line carry that whole gambit, and don't waste any more time on it.
The Rapid City Journal website has two new stories about Pac's.
Mayday Pac is investing $1 million into Rick's campaign in addition to the million they have already spent.
Change.org has added to Rick's campaign.
Neither story said how the money will be spent.
I suspect there was more going on in this issue than Weiland’s Sioux Falls press conference and appearance on the Ed Show, both of which left much to be desired. Somewhere this got set up wrong. The text of his remarks were fine until he hit the accusation that Harry Reid conspired with the DSCC to run anti-Rounds smear campaign that would backfire on Weiland. That jumped the shark. So did the Larry Pressler/Harry Reid conspiracy.
If there has been a failing on this whole Rounds scandal, it’s been the focus on the EB-5 program mechanics instead of the outright theft disguised as economic development. This played into Rounds’ hands, who wanted to keep people confused and disinterested in learning anything more.
Where they got the public moneys is not nearly as relevant as what they did with it. The Rounds racket fleeced a federal program and filled their pals’ pockets… end of explanation. And, yes, I know it’s a lot easier to define this scam now than it was six months ago when we knew less than 25 percent than we know now.
Weiland played the issue too cute wanting to keep the focus instead on green cards in exchange for large investments and letting rich foreigners in front of the immigration lines. Tell me what part of that gets you excited. Breaking the law trumps a fairness issue 100 percent of the time. And most South Dakotans don’t care about immigration because it doesn’t affect their everyday lives. If Weiland wasn’t going to make this count 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10, he should have left the issue alone and let the earned media handle it.
If this was set up right yesterday, you would have had the candidate declare Harry Reid to beat feet outta town or go positive on TV. Say nothing about Larry Pressler. Explain that research shows that excessive negatives drive down the challenger’s numbers, even though it’s the party and not the challenger who’s paying for those ads.
Next, make sure there is a chorus of letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, State Party press conferences and legislative candidates praising Rick Weiland for standing up against the Party when it’s wrong. They should also remind voters Mitt Romney nor any other Republican in the last three elections have had the spine to criticize their Party and their Tea Party base when they launch racist remarks and attacks on women and gays. At least Rick Weiland has the spine to tell his party it’s wrong and to leave town.
But that didn’t get set up right either.
Having said all this, Cory, I’m with you. Rick Weiland might be an almost perfect candidate, and he’s 100 times more trustworthy and representative of regular South Dakotans than the arrogant and corrupt Mike Rounds who ducked debates and won’t come clean on his Rounds Racketeering Scam.
Oops!
Change.org is adding $250 to Rick's campaign
It's not the right time to be a Boy Scout. While some negative ads could backfire use the truth for all its worth.
pressler says he doesn't campaign negatively but he does, an obvious example just the other day. will find and post it.
reid wouldn't support pressler. weiland can say he doesn't want the benefit of the PAC money but should benefit anyway.
negative big money campaigns win, in this kind of a race were rounds is doing it to weiland. He's gotta go for broke. he is up against the Koch Bros. and every other affiliate of the republican party likely including karl rove.
to not benefit from big dem. $ is foolish, imo.
Gosh, can anyone see the forest for the trees? Both Cory and John T come out today and criticize Weiland for his attack on Reid. The only part of their attack with which I might agree, is the part as relates to Pressler. But stop and think a minute. Rick had closed to within 3 percentage points prior to the outside money coming in with their drum beat of attack ads. Mike Rounds won the Republican primary in 2002 when the other two candidates, both considerably more qualified to be Governor, because they were going so negative on each other. Don't ask me why but negative apparently does not work in SD.
So now all the outside money is coming in and we are going to end up the same way we did in 2004. It won't make the 36million dollar mark that it did then, but it will be considerably more than one would have guessed just a short two weeks ago. Sure glad I wasted my few bucks on candidates in this race, Stace in the primary and Rick in the general. My money does not mean squat when millions come in from out of state. Please don't pass the hat in my direction next go round.
Almost all national media reported when the DSCC came in that DSCC was hopeful for either a Pressler or Weiland win. Pretty disgusting. They did not endorse Rick and they did not give him cash to use (as they could have) for a ground campaign. There is background detail that we do not all know, I'm sure.
I have been a proponent of going after Rounds hard on EB5. This is a problem of lack of law enforcement. Pretty tough for the candidate to step in and fully and effectively prosecute a very complex case without legal powers and a limited budget. Certainly it should be the candidate making decisions of how to best manage the risk-reward of any negative strategy and not be left with no say whatsoever.
I agree with Rick's decision to break from Harry Reid and call them out on their games. But he also broke with Harry Reid irrespective of the DSCC--he thinks Harry Reid is part of the problem in Washington and the senate needs New Democratic leadership.
Hopefully the DSCC will go positive and provide the kind of support they should have from the beginning.
I think Rick knows what he's doing and I think he plans to win!
I truly believe from the evidence, so much of which we have Cory to thank for, that Mike Rounds is unfit to hold public office. I obsess about how to communicate that evidence to the voters of South Dakota, still believing that if voters really understood what Rounds has done, he could not possibly achieve the votes he needs to win. Let's keep working on this and working to elect Rick!
Lash out at whomever you can!
Careful Grud, someone may spit in that breakfast of yours if they hear you are against minimum wage! Although when they hear that you are not a big fan of teachers, well, they may just put a bug in your gravy.
First, let's take Mike Rounds to the woodshed.
We can work on Harry Reid later.
I'm guessing the strategy is to counter the current GOP cheerleading whisper speech that goes "Ssst... look, so okay, Mike's not our best guy, but we gotta beat Harry Reid, and Weiland is a Harry Reid puppet. See? He just gave him a million bucks. Pass it on."
So Rick takes that talking point away.
Could be a good move, who knows?
John, even a Boy Scout needs to know how to use his knife.
Has anyone asked Mike who'd he support for Mitch McConnell's job?
Didn't think so.
Rounds may be thinking ditch the Turtle and let's get John in there to continue the great tradition of South Dakotans leading the Senate....wait...what? Oh that's right, we hate success.
Rounds is probably in the bag with Ted Cruz and the Fear Factor...you know... when you can't think for yourself, just scare the crap out of old people.
To an extent I can understand what Rick is saying, Rounds is campaigning against President Obama and Harry Reid and not acknowledging that Rick has gone on record how he feels about Harry, Rick has also indicated that he is not in full lock step with President Obama.
There are plenty of Rounds ads out there trying to connect Rick to Harry, who South Dakotans hate, and this maybe one way to further distance himself.
Lanny, I am thinking you are correct on this. As my memory serves me, the reason we got the little twerp in the first place was that he was the last man standing for the governorship. Weiland did close quickly with rounds and I think he will rise again with this strategy. A lot can happen between now and the 4th, lets see who was right and who missed it on Wednesday. Whatever the case may be, I think taking away a sleazy talking point from the gossip masters will certainly help.
Lanny, I appreciate your look at the empirical evidence. You are reasonable to contend that, if the poll numbers are accurate, the rise in Rounds's stock coincides with the entrance of the big negative outside advertisers.
But remember that Weiland launched his own negative ad against Rounds on EB-5 at the beginning of September. The next five weeks were then almost nothing but new revelations, bumbling responses, and blatant misstatements by Rounds on EB-5. Did all that negative press undermine Rounds's lead, only to be undone by negative ads in October? Or is something else going on to move the numbers? Or are the numbers wrong?
The 2002GOP primary is important to consider, but Rounds 2002 is not Rounds 2014. Then he was the quiet, smiling darkhorse not drawing any fire. Now he is the nervously smiling frontrunner and the direct object of the attacks. Rounds 2002 is Pressler 2014...
...assuming, of course, that 40% of voters would actually mark Pressler's name. Here's the thing: Rounds is the wall between Democrats and victory. Dancing around the wall and singing, "We're nice and smiley too!" won't knock Rounds down. We have to blast that wall to bits. Yes, Pressler could run through the opening the DSCC and friends blast in that wall. The solution is not to tell the DSCC to cease fire. The solution is to tell them to fire harder, destroy Rounds, then deal with Pressler when dealing with Pressler matters.
Jana, during their last debate, Rick did challenge Rounds about supporting McConnell, as usual, Rounds did not respond.
Jana, one more thing if Rounds is elected, he will do what he is told, just like Noem and Thune do.
You are absolutely right, Roger. Rick said that he would not be supporting Harry Reid for Senate majority leader if elected and challenged Rounds to commit not to support Mitch McConnel. Rounds response was that Rick was right that neither of them would be supporting Harry Reid.
I thought it was the best shot Rick made in that last debate. He left Howie to do the heavy lifting in that debate. Tomorrow night, (I believe) Rick needs to come out with both guns ablazing if he intends to beat Rounds. He needs to be specific about the corruption of the Rounds Daugaard administration as relates to the fraud that was committed in the EB-5 program and not just say EB-5 or crony capitalism.
He must also hit Rounds and Daugaard on the way the two's leadership has shortchanged education. While they were investing money in promoting failed economic development projects, they failed to fund education at the levels by which they were mandated by State law.
Cory I must strongly disagree with this, Rick Weiland has tried and tried to get the DSCC to back him, with Reid bashing him from the start. He told all Democratic US senators not to support him and that they would be better of supporting Larry. That is a fact.
He was so close, 3 points, but DSCC made a head fake, and it brought in some small donation money for Weiland, sure, but sent his negatives flying. To fake out the GOP, maybe? Rick has run two ad's on EB-5, that is it, yet he is being blamed for the attacks on Rounds. Check his numbers.
So the DSCC throws down a million to see if Rounds gets hurt, the ad's are from the DSCC mind you, and they never endorsed him. So how does that not effect my father? Is that really what you want from your national party?
Everyone on this blog, it is safe to say, is pretty much engulfed in EB-5, blinders are on, and not me or anyone else reading this understands why so many people can stand with Rounds and his corruption. I get that, but we are the fanatics, we hinge on every word. The public, well they are not like that at all, they would rather not be told that their Government is corrupt, here or in Washington, not that they're not upset about it, they would just assume it worked and that was that.
I think Harry Reid is a part of the problem, he has been purposely against this campaign from the start, and I don't know about you, but when the Majority Leader of the United States Senate tries to cherry pick a nominee in my home state, Twice, first with Herseth and now Pressler, I get a bit upset. (And South Dakota was not the only state this happen in!!)
Well, I have never been more proud of my father, Rick Weiland. I think it is what Paul Wellstone would have done and I think it shows exactly what kind of Senator my dad is going to make when we pull the biggest upset in 2014. He is not afraid to take a stand on something when he thinks he is right. Corey, I hope you will change your mind on this, this is the moment. Reid has a huge part in this election, and he should be held accountable for it, and my dad is standing up against one of the most powerful men in human history. Please stand with him.
Thank you for all the hard work
Nicholas, I appreciate the fact that you're much closer to the flak from Reid than I am. You may be better positioned to read what's really going through the Washington guys' heads than I. And don't worry: not one thing I'm saying here lessens my support for Rick.
That said, if it was the DSCC's plan to weaken both Rounds and Weiland in order to get a Pressler win, it appears not to be working. If the current polls are to be believed, Rounds is up and Pressler is down. Did the DSCC miscalculate, or are we and or the polls missing something?
Thanks Roger, is anyone else surprised the moderator didn't press Mike on the issue?
Nicholas, I'm proud of your dad too.
He's doing a remarkable job and so are you.
Best to everyone, as always.
Let's win this thing.
namaste, y'all.
Nicholas, good job and great job!
Reid doesn't care about South Dakota. We know that and if there was any doubt it was dispelled well into the campaign when he didn't jump in and support Rick.
Reid has been a piss-poor-lousy replacement for our own Tom Daschle.
Picture in your mind Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell and then lament the fact that no amount of bleach will ever remove that stain.
They are both more concerned with playing power politics than governing and unfortunately they both suck at the game.
We need your dad in Washington, Mike Rounds would be nothing more than what Reid and McConnell represent...only more of an empty suit.
Thank your father and your whole family for the sacrifice you have all made to change Washington and take it back for all of South Dakota.
namaskar, indeed.
And there are getting to be a lot of Nicks around here, aren't there?
That makes me think we need to spread the word that we once had a powerful voice in South Dakota with Tom Daschle and the petty partisans that represent the reprobate republicans ripped the truth to shreds and set South Dakota back to the bottom of the pile...right where our education funding lives.
I always that that there was something genuine about the people of South Dakota, and I still think there is. It just doesn't show up when someone like Mike Rounds, who doesn't even register on the the Genuine Meter, can pull the wool over everyone's eyes.
For what it is worth, lets put Weiland in the senate seat and put Warren in place of Reid to lead the Senate. Unless of course, Warren decides to lead the country. Then lets just see who will give the middle class the support they need to make all boats rise with the tide that will come directly with a leader of power in the Senate, one that will kill that pos filibuster and make it what it was originally.
Grud, are you giving Rounds special training on being genuine? How did you teach him to perfect the phony smile and breathlessness?
God knows he's good at both of them.
Oh wait, was that professional training in the Obama stimulus package he so 'whoreishly' accepted?
Here's a link to the history of the poll that started all the Pressler buzz.
Note that a new one is coming out tomorrow, and Pressler's numbers have dropped precipitously. He's in free fall. Let's make Mike's numbers look the same way next Tuesday in the only poll that really counts.
http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/local/survey-south-dakota-rounds-gains-ground-pressler-support-drops/article_5cbefaab-cc16-5405-85f3-df6b83884f2c.html
Quick reminder: Joe Biden is President of the US Senate.
Ms. Jana, with all the negative Rounds ads I've started to lean Pressler. I like his "little bunny being attacked from all sides" shtick.
Right with you, Nicholas. Stay strong and honest because in the end, no matter what happens, the honest man sleeps with a clear conscience.
Similar story in my state. State rep candidate busted his ass with a good ground game plan, knocked doors early, canpaigned right in a winnable district, researched incumbent's voting record, didwhat a good candidate does. Could not get the state party's attention or help.
Six weeks before the election the incumbent died. Suddenly the state party got very excited, and wanted "in" on the campaign.
I got to be on the phone call when the candidate told the party, "You guys didn't care about me and were not interested in me when I needed you. But now you need me. Know what? Go f*ck yourselves."
Can't say as I've ever been so proud of a candidate that stuck to what he believes and did not compromise himself.
Both Mr. Weilands have my ever lasting respect. In the end, they have to live with themselves.
The rest of you can go twist in the wind.
Grud...you were with Jimmy Carter in the boat? Or is that the bunny rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Pressler might not have sold out to the FBI in the ABSCAM sting, but he has sold out to the way things are in Washington DC...got to be an insider to play.
Well Larry Pressler, South Dakota is the antithesis of insider when it comes to Washington. Take a good hard look at the show ponies we have there with Kristi and John and you will understand how badly we need a Rick Weiland there.
On Roger and Jana's point: we have no debate moderators in the South Dakota press. We have question readers and timekeepers. We could use a debate where a moderator pulls speakers off their scripts and back to the questions posed and makes clear to us when questions are not getting answered.
Maybe my problem, Taunia, is that I'm expecting the DSCC to act rationally, and I can't find a rational reason for them to sabotage a genuine, skilled, loyal Democrat in favor of a longshot Republican larking as a one-term Indy... but the DSCC is motivated by something other than Democratic rationality. Do I have too much faith in the ultimate goodness of the national party?
Could some support be coming out of Josiah's Coffee House? He did willingly drag me in to supporting Kevin Weiland.
I remember that rabbit, Ms. Jana, on my living room Zenith as I waited for my TV dinner. That rabbit was an attacking rabbit, it was not being attacked. That rabbit was attracted to Mr. Carter's lower bleeding.
you people play me like a kazoo:
http://www.blackhillsfox.com/home/headlines/Black-Hills-Area-Habitat-for-Humanity-dedicates-its-86th-home-280469802.html
Ya know Taunia, it sounds like Rick just told the Washington D.C. insider DSCC to go F*ck themselves.
That's South Dakota common sense. Sticking up for South Dakota and what is right and fair and not playing into the petty little politics that are the lifeblood of the South Dakota and national GOP.
Atta Boy Rick!
Maybe the good obedient press people will finally see this as a positive rather than a "Page 6" piece of political pornography. Look it up Monty!
So Grud, were you sitting in your easy chair all Archie Bunker like and yelling at your poor wife to bring you a deluxe saulsbury steak tv dinner?
The dreaded precursor of the sammich in the land of rednecks with new fangled microwaves.
Weiland appears to be getting the bad half of his wish: this AP report says the DSCC is scaling back its South Dakota spending to $29K... while the GOP has booked $340K. DSCC had better be sending the money to Rick himself to spend as he sees fit and not leave those Republican ads unanswered in the last week.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/872ab08b6ca9497fb509c0db0bde1aab/documents-democrats-cut-ad-buy-south-dakota
Cory, I think it was more like a "two-fer" on the DSCC thing. Very detached, with no real respect for how hard Rick has been working on the party's behalf, which is, of course insulting.
But they saw a possibility when the numbers got close and decided to throw in some money and see whose numbers rose to the top, Rick's or Larry's.
At the time, Pressler's were the ones on the rise. It wouldn't surprise me at all if DSCC (Reid) cut a deal with Larry about caucusing with them, and that might well have been part of his/their decision to throw in some bucks, especially since there were already a couple of other PACs helping Rick.
I had a chat with a friend close to one of the other PACs and heard they were nervous that Pressler might actually be approached to cut a deal with the R's to caucus with them... but I doubt that ever happened. Seems like Howie said he was though, and turned them down. Go Gordo.
Anyway, it's almost certain that Larry was "in play" in those days, and I wouldn't be surprised if a deal was cut with Dem leadership. No need to negotiate with Rick of course, because, like... who else would he caucus with, right?
Did they throw Rick under the bus? Probably not. They wanted to see what happened with the numbers first.
Would they have bagged Rick if Pressler's numbers would have kept going up and Rounds' down?
That's the question.
And yeah, maybe that's also the answer Rick and Nick know that we don't.
At any rate. It is what it is, right now, so no regrets. Let's suck it up and go fight Mike. Once we win that, there will be plenty of time to sort out all the other stuff, right?
Bill, here's a new ad we need help with.
Visual of Washington DC, sinister images of Harry Reid, McConnel, Government shutdown, do nothing congress all in scary black and white...fade in Mike Rounds and Larry Pressler.
Narator: Wonder why everyone is working against Rick Weiland...it's because he won't play their game...so now they want to take their ball and go home.
Too bad. Rick never wanted to play their game, he wants to play for South Dakota...not Washington DC insiders and wannabes.
You don't need someone to tell you what South Dakota Common Sense is...you know it when you see it.
Close with one of the many pictures of Rick with real people he's met. (Unlike the "real" people who Mike made rich.)
What do you think Bill...does that work? Can we make it viral? Is there enough time left for someone to make it big?
Just for fun...should we ask the DSCC to fund it?
Then again, Mayday PAC isn't chickening out; they're doubling down:
http://www.argusleader.com/story/davidmontgomery/2014/10/28/national-parties-cut-investment/18076689/
Dang, maybe the Reid-Pressler narrative has merit. Maybe Reid thought, "What the heck! Let's gamble a million on running negative ads, see if they drag both Rounds and Weiland down and make Pressler the winner!" and then the plan failed miserably. But... but really, is that how rational power brokers in Washington act?
Right on, Jana!!! That's the spirit and we need to hear a lot more of that coming from us rank-and-filers who care about a quality Senator fighting for South Dakota. Let's move on.
In the final week of the campaign Rick has nothing to lose by telling Reid and the DSCC to buzz off. All they need to do is send Rick the money and let him run his campaign as he sees fit like Cory says.
When Rick wins and becomes Senator Weiland he will not owe Harry a thing and Harry will be begging for Rick's vote which he will not get.
I'm certainly not quitting!
I don't talk about EB-5 anymore. I talk about the rampant crony insider games that are played by the GOP to keep themselves in power and their friends and donors wealthy with my money.
I talk about the choices Pierre has made when it comes to money and how if we were smart our better investment is in medicaid expansion.
I talk about how phony the whole "I get my merit badge if I demonize Obama" and shriek about repealing and replacing...and not even having a clue about what replacement looks like from an economic or health standard.
I talk about the seeing through phony smiles and candidates that couldn't spell genuine if you spotted them all the letters but the I. (they only use that for themselves)
I talk about there being not two Americas, but one smart America where people work together...and not for companies, but for all people.
No one sits with me at coffee anymore...go figure.
Don't forget the $250,000 Change.org chipped in for Rick today.
Just finished watching the Argus 100 eyes program. Someone asked why they only have GOP guests to talk about the election. The Dick Wadhams and today Jim Bolin...
Monty tells us that it's because they asked to come on and no one from the Dem party has asked to come on and talk.
You have got to be effing kidding me.
1st...certainly the Argus must see some imbalance, unless they are going all Sally Field and saying "You like me...you really like me" and Gus the janitor is busy.
or
2nd...no Dem supporters or legislators have asked to go on.
Either way....it's tragic.
Cory, you once told me in an email DKos made no useful contributions to your day, keep in mind several major contributors to DKos are also major contributors to DSCC, and a couple work for DSCC. You may have your answer to the way they operate and not realize it.
Bull puckey, this 100 eyes is blind like Meet the Press and their handling of GOP operatives full time all the time. Or, like my granddad used to say, democrats are busy working so republicans can sit on their arses and tell story's about how hard they work.
Montgomery must have dumped his love for John Thune and is now courting Mike Rounds.
Cory, Could it be that in two of your last three posts, the one at 19:29 and the one at 20:00, you have figured out what had been said by a lot of folks for the past ten years, Washington is broken. How many times have we seen a pol and its party run on one issue and do the absolute opposite once they get the nomination or win the general election?
In 2004, Dennis Kucinich won a considerable number of delegates to the Democratic National convention. You may remember that he was the peace candidate. Prior to the meeting to set the party platform, K had a meeting with his delegates and asked them not to hold out in the platform committee for a peace plank in the party platform. Then prior to the first vote he asked all of his delegates, who had absolutely no respect for Kerry to vote for Kerry on the first ballot to help show unity and make the nomination unanimous. I know that is the way that politics has been played for years, but politics has gotten dirtier and a helluva lot more expensive than it use to be. The national Dems talk a good game, but they are war mongerts just like some of the Pubs and they vote for tax cuts along with the Pubs and they never hold out on the social issues the way they used to.
To your first question, hell no they are not rational. To your second, hell yes that is how they act, but that does not necessarily mean they are rational.
I told my good friend, Senator Abourezk, two weeks ago that Rick should have turned the money down from the DSCC and I still think I was right.
The TV stations are loving this stuff. Talk about an economic development tool where these dollars will echo thrice around our economy! The media moguls will take all this money and eat, probably at Mr. Weiland's restaurant where he will be grilling in the back room. Mr. Weiland and the other fancy stuffed shirt restaurants wills pend their money at the car dealers for new BMWs. And the car dealers will pay property taxes to the county who will give it to the local school districts who will pad the fatcat administrator's already bloated salaries.
Jerry...with Meet the Press and the rest of the talking heads.
Lindsay Graham and John McCain are using their frequent customer cards. If they get 12 punches, McCain gets back 1% of his credibility for thinking Sarah Palin was worthy of the VP let alone a spot on Dancing With the Stars or an episode of COPS. (Classy Palins...real classy)
Lindsay's fully punched ticket get's him a drum lessons so when he pounds the drums of war he sounds articulate and voice lessons so when he rails against "teh gay" he doesn't sound self loathing.
Kudos to Rick. Enough of the crap.
Grudz, you are a pretty good fiction writer, if you are looking for one last career. For the rest, if you haven't arleady taken the course, here is
Argus Leader 101. When David Kranz ran the editorial political column, they were accused of being a liberal rag because he had a thing for writing about Daschle, McGovern and Johnson, because they were the power brokers. It is the same today, with the exception that those in the ediitorial department are rookies compared to Kranz. The Argus is lazy just like the TV stations. Run three stories that will be replayed in the next half hour on the network news. Once in a while, run a local piece and then tell you that they will cover the rest at 6 and 10. And finally they constantly tell you "see news happening, send us an email or a tweet" or whatever.
That is why you and I are on the internet trying to find out what is going on, because we cannot find out anything from our local media. And that is also why I hope that someone on here who knows what they are doing with the media, is planning on putting Cory in for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the EB-5 and economic development scandal in South Dakota.
Kudos to Rick, absolutely, Adam. But if Rounds produced a pile of crap in office, are we to not talk about it?
Jana,
Lindsay Graham is John McCain's boy toy.
Cater to the voters of both parties who say,"it doesn't matter who gets elected, they can't change DC". Get those votes and win, whoever you may be.
.
Debate wise and on through Nov 4th, as precise in performance as Howie and as genuine sounding as Rick could change things significantly. Apathy will turn this election over to Rounds.
It is late in the cycle, but Rick needs to have an ad with him sitting behind a desk with a suit on and a flag behind saying something like:
1. I will support you and not Trans-Canada and their foreign pipeline.
2. I will work to keep SS solvent and do it by supporting taxes on the very rich.
3. I will look for real solutions instead of talking points.
4. I will protect Medicare and have no intention of turning it over to insurance companies.
5. I will welcome your ideas for better tomorrows for America. Thanks for your careful consideration.
Love all the ad ideas as always. And I think Rick's made it pretty clear they also have something in mind for their end game. Hopefully, if they see something here they like, they'll feel free to use it. And I'm looking forward to seeing what it is they have up their collective sleeve. Should be a fascinating week.
Jana, I hear grudz saves his TV dinner boxes and makes his wife hang them up on the walls in their house as artwork. He's especially fond of the Swanson deluxe Salisbury steak dinner, the Hungry Man fried chicken, and the Marie Callender's apple pie boxes, and posts them in rows of three with double stick tape, like an Andy Warhol wannabe.
Talking about the opposing sides poor results, is not neg ads. They are points informing voters, hey this is what your vote going to get you. Dismissal strategy that is used is by Mike Rounds is actually insulting the voter. The guy went low to use Grandpa Don in his ads, that was a sign of desparation, and a cheap shot. Advice to independants and the undecided - sometimes you have to vote for the candidate who will represent the best interest of the state and your country. Now is not the time to dilute the votes so that the wrong man wins.
And by the way, elected officials behave the way they are managed. The SD EB-5 was abused and permitted to be abuse because the the abusers knew no one was paying attention. After you vote someone into office, provide input and feedback to influence their position. Election Day is the start of the process, as well as the end. But guess who is the constant, the voters.
So looks like I poked the bear and the bear ate my comment.
Dick Wadham's negative campaign won the race for Thune against Daschle. I think I remember them slowing down the voice track of Daschle saying he was a DC resident so it sounded creepy. In any case the attack ads were relentless. Rounds should not have survived EB5 while Daschle lost due to a slip of the tongue. It's an uphill battle in South Dakota because everyone here wants to think they are a Republican.
Dick Wadham discussed the EB5 issue Oct 7th on 100 Eyes. He doesn't hold back any punches.
John, including punches into the side of his own head. Wadhams is a slimemeister of the highest order, with a mean case of foot-in-mouth disease. So bad, even Rounds fired him.
I am really surprised that you guys haven't figured Steve out. He is actually a closet liberal and keeps poking at folks on this blog to make sure that they get out and vote and that they drag as many to the polls for Rick as they possibly can.
I don't think Rounds fired him. Wadhams seized control of the GOP to make sure its voter turnout machinery had Rounds as its highest priority.
I'm not saying Dick Wadham is a nice guy. If the EB5 situation was reversed he could exploit it in a very effective way so there is something to learn from him. He gave us Thune.
Turns out here is another senate candidate that is running his campaign like Rick Weiland. http://davedomina.com/
Who knows, maybe this kind of candidate will not be so unheard of in the US. Time to take the special interest moolah out of the political system. It is like a southeast wind, it blows no good.