Salon.com > 2010 Elections http://www.salon.com Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:15:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Voting, not OWS, will change America http://www.salon.com/2011/10/18/voting_not_ows_will_save_america/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/18/voting_not_ows_will_save_america/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10123053 Take a close and objective look at the angry demonstrators now gathered on Wall Street, and at similar protest encampments burgeoning from San Francisco to Madrid. What you see is not simply a vast expression of rage at the crisis enveloping the world of democracy.

The demonstrations also frame a fundamental contradiction – a profound source of strength that has been transformed into a disabling weakness.

They deserve enormous credit for drawing a global spotlight to the perpetrators of that crisis: a sinister cabal of financial scamsters and right-wing politicians, backed by the dubiously “grass-roots” electorate of the Tea Party. What almost no one, on the right or left alike, wants to talk about is that the cabal was empowered by the very people who are now denouncing it.

Progressives, out of a mixture of political correctness and embarrassment, carefully avoid the subject. The Republicans are delighted at the silence, because it masks what should be fatal weaknesses in their own position.

It may not be pleasant to hear, but a massive Democratic voter cop-out in last year’s elections is what put the reactionary right in the driver’s seat, creating the disastrous logjam in Congress, and bringing to a dead halt the hyperactive first two years of the Obama administration.

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]]> Take a close and objective look at the angry demonstrators now gathered on Wall Street, and at similar protest encampments burgeoning from San Francisco to Madrid. What you see is not simply a vast expression of rage at the crisis enveloping the world of democracy.

The demonstrations also frame a fundamental contradiction – a profound source of strength that has been transformed into a disabling weakness.

They deserve enormous credit for drawing a global spotlight to the perpetrators of that crisis: a sinister cabal of financial scamsters and right-wing politicians, backed by the dubiously “grass-roots” electorate of the Tea Party. What almost no one, on the right or left alike, wants to talk about is that the cabal was empowered by the very people who are now denouncing it.

Progressives, out of a mixture of political correctness and embarrassment, carefully avoid the subject. The Republicans are delighted at the silence, because it masks what should be fatal weaknesses in their own position.

It may not be pleasant to hear, but a massive Democratic voter cop-out in last year’s elections is what put the reactionary right in the driver’s seat, creating the disastrous logjam in Congress, and bringing to a dead halt the hyperactive first two years of the Obama administration.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/18/voting_not_ows_will_save_america/feed/ 167 Karl Rove begins general election campaign without pesky candidate http://www.salon.com/2011/10/05/rove_crossroads_campaign/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/05/rove_crossroads_campaign/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:30:00 +0000 From the publisher who hates dealing with flaky authors to the football coach who dreams of his brilliant plays being run without unreliable players, high-powered professionals everywhere wish they could stop the fallible human element from interfering with their genius. Karl Rove, campaign strategist extraordinaire, is no different. How much easier it is to manage a campaign without a stupid candidate ruining everything by having an long-buried arrest record or saying something obscene into an open microphone! Thanks to Citizens United, Rove's dream has come true: The candidate-less presidential campaign has begun.

Rove has no great love for Rick Perry or Mitt Romney, but his raison d'etre is getting Republicans elected and viciously smearing Democrats, so he's charging ahead without waiting for the party to settle on one of those jokers. American Crossroads, Rove's shadow-RNC is launching ad campaigns targeted at President Obama's campaign stops, accusing him of wanting to raise everyone's taxes. ("The message is somewhat misleading," ABC News says, but because "Karl Rove lies" is a "dog bites man" story, they don't devote much ink to it.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/05/rove_crossroads_campaign/feed/ 16 Blanche Lincoln joins conservative lobby in fight against EPA http://www.salon.com/2011/09/29/blanche_lincoln_epa/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/29/blanche_lincoln_epa/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:30:00 +0000 Last year, then-Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Walmart) was facing a tough primary fight from a more liberal Democrat. With labor and progressive groups aligned against her, the White House and the Democratic Party jumped in to defend Lincoln. Bill Clinton himself campaigned for Lincoln, and the effort paid off: She lost to a Republican in the general election. And then she joined a right-wing interest group. And now she's fighting the EPA's plan to regulate greenhouse gases.

The National Federation of Independent Business is generally treated in the press as the official practically apolitical voice of American small business (and the press treats the word of "small business" with almost as much reverence as that of military generals) but it is, in fact, a conservative lobbying organization that has spent decades fighting for anti-labor, anti-environmental and anti-consumer policies, all in the name of protecting our cherished "independent businesses."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/29/blanche_lincoln_epa/feed/ 20 Christine O’Donnell just walked off CNN because she was running late http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/odonnell_walk_out/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/odonnell_walk_out/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/18/odonnell_walk_out It seems pretty obvious that Christine O'Donnell "walking off" that CNN show hosted by the oleaginous talent show judge and former phone-hacker was a put-on, right? Not like it was "scripted," per se, but it certainly wasn't a spontaneous decision inspired by a particularly outrageous line of questioning. Anyone can come up with something anodyne and vague to say about gay marriage -- the president does it all the time! -- if one doesn't feel like offering a decisive opinion. So Christine O'Donnell obviously left for other reasons. Publicity for her book? In part, probably. But was she also just ... late for another appointment?

That's what she told the crowd assembled at Women's National Republican Club in New York, where she was apparently booked to speak at the same time that she was booked to be interviewed on cable news by that guy from "The Apprentice." The New York Observer was there:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/odonnell_walk_out/feed/ 22 Now Christine O’Donnell regrets her witch comment http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/odonnell_now_regrets_witch_comment/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/odonnell_now_regrets_witch_comment/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/12/odonnell_now_regrets_witch_comment One of the more entertaining Senate races of 2010 involved conservative activist Christine O'Donnell, who won a startling Republican primary victory in Delaware over the party establishment's candidate, then-Rep. Michael Castle.

During the ensuing general election campaign, a video from 1999 emerged in which O'Donnell told Bill Maher that she "dabbled" in witchcraft in her youth. The Tea Party candidate, fearing that this might alientate her Christian support base, quickly released a video in which she stated, "I'm not a witch." The comment invited a wealth of media mockery (and an SNL spoof -- see below).

In her new memoir, "Troublemaker: Let’s Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again," O'Donnell expresses regret over the video. According to the AP, she writes, "It was a wrong-headed move, made for all the wrong reasons, but it was mine." O'Donnell also blames an insistent media consultant for pushing the idea.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/odonnell_now_regrets_witch_comment/feed/ 26 Muslim-bashing doesn’t win elections http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/muslim_bashing_doesn_t_work/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/muslim_bashing_doesn_t_work/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:25:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/07/18/muslim_bashing_doesn_t_work During the 2010 midterm election campaign, virtually every hard-charging candidate on the far right took a moment to trash a Muslim, a mosque, or Islamic pieties. In the wake of those elections, with 85 new Republican House members and a surging Tea Party movement, the political virtues of anti-Muslim rhetoric as a means of rousing voters and alarming the general electorate have gone largely unchallenged. It has become an article of faith that a successful 2010 candidate on the right should treat Islam with revulsion, drawing a line between America the Beautiful and the destructive impurities of Islamic cultists and radicals.

"Americans are learning what Europeans have known for years: Islam-bashing wins votes," wrote journalist Michael Scott Moore in the wake of the 2010 election. His assumption was shared by many then and is still widely accepted today.

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]]> During the 2010 midterm election campaign, virtually every hard-charging candidate on the far right took a moment to trash a Muslim, a mosque, or Islamic pieties. In the wake of those elections, with 85 new Republican House members and a surging Tea Party movement, the political virtues of anti-Muslim rhetoric as a means of rousing voters and alarming the general electorate have gone largely unchallenged. It has become an article of faith that a successful 2010 candidate on the right should treat Islam with revulsion, drawing a line between America the Beautiful and the destructive impurities of Islamic cultists and radicals.

“Americans are learning what Europeans have known for years: Islam-bashing wins votes,” wrote journalist Michael Scott Moore in the wake of the 2010 election. His assumption was shared by many then and is still widely accepted today.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/muslim_bashing_doesn_t_work/feed/ 25 How business lobbies bought all the laboratories of democracy http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/buying_state_laws/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/buying_state_laws/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/07/14/buying_state_laws It sure is funny that, at basically the same time, state legislatures across the country began passing a slew of similar measures attacking collective bargaining, undocumented immigration and abortion, right? Just a weird coincidence, I'm sure, this sudden nationwide war on public employee unions and immigrants and women.

Hah, I am just kidding. We all know it's because of lobbyists and the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is sort of a Match.com for state lawmakers and the nation's worst industry lobbies. The Center for Media and Democracy's ALEC Exposed project has a handy list of the hundreds of bills ALEC pushes in every state in the union, on subjects ranging from school vouchers to gutting environmental regulations to opposition to the National Popular Vote Compact. (Yeah, that one I don't even get.)

Here's how the ALEC process works: GOP state legislators go to fancy conferences where they sit down with lobbyists and right-wing activists and draft right-wing legislation together. They return home and introduce it without mentioning the source. The lobbies then throw some cash at the legislators working to advance their agenda. Then, these days, the bill passes, and everyone else gets around to getting outraged about it, long after their outrage would do much good. Repeat.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/buying_state_laws/feed/ 46 If gay marriage fails in New York, Mayor Bloomberg’s money is partly to blame http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/bloomberg_gay_marriage/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/bloomberg_gay_marriage/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/06/24/bloomberg_gay_marriage New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has forcefully urged the New York state Legislature to pass gay marriage. He's spoken on it in public and lobbied for it in private. He clearly sees the equality fight as an important part of his legacy, and he's urged Albany politicians to do the same:

In his speech, Mr. Bloomberg said state lawmakers have a clear choice: "Do you want to be remembered as a leader on civil rights? Or an obstructionist?"

"On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly," the mayor said. "Not on abolition. Not on abortion. Not on women's suffrage. Not on workers' rights. Not on civil rights. And it will be no different on marriage rights."

Here's the situation in Albany right now: Marriage equality has passed the Democratic-led state Assembly, as it has multiple times in the past. It's stalled in the Senate, which, as always, is deadlocked. Tempers are flaring. Equality advocates now accuse Republicans of deliberately delaying in order to kill the issue without a vote.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/bloomberg_gay_marriage/feed/ 33 Is Rand Paul as dumb as he sounds? http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/rand_paul_playing_dumb/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/rand_paul_playing_dumb/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/06/24/rand_paul_playing_dumb Here, via Oliver Willis and Steve Benen, is a clip of Sens. Al Franken, Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul discussing a bill that would help prevent senior hunger:

As Sanders and Franken explain: If we make sure old folks have money for and access to adequate nutrition, fewer of them will need to be hospitalized or placed in nursing homes. Because Medicare would pay a lot more money for hospitalization or nursing home care than it would cost to make sure these old folks don't go hungry to begin with, this program is cost-effective in addition to being humane.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/rand_paul_playing_dumb/feed/ 300 One party to rule them all http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/connecticut_wisconsin_one_party_rule/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/connecticut_wisconsin_one_party_rule/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works//2011/06/09/connecticut_wisconsin_one_party_rule On Wednesday, The New York Times offered readers a fascinating look at the consequences of one party rule in two different states. In Connecticut, Democratic control of the governorship and state legislature have pushed through an agenda of higher taxes and extended social welfare safety net benefits that must make President Obama green with envy.

Lawmakers over the last several weeks have enacted the largest tax increase in Connecticut history and approved the nation's first law to mandate paid sick leave for some workers. They voted to extend protections for transgender people, to charge in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants, to extend an early-release program for prisoners and to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Republicans, fearful that recalls will soon allow Democrats to take majority control of the state Senate, are racing to push through their own priorities.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/connecticut_wisconsin_one_party_rule/feed/ 17 Rand Paul: Deport the Tea Partiers! http://www.salon.com/2011/06/01/rand_paul_jail_tea_parties/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/01/rand_paul_jail_tea_parties/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/06/01/rand_paul_jail_tea_parties "Tea Party" Senator Randall "Rand" Paul (R-Ky.) says he supports free speech, but does he actually want his own supporters jailed for sedition? Definitely yes, according to a shocking audio recording!

Paul is mostly good on civil liberties -- he was one of the few senators to oppose the extension of the Patriot Act -- but he is also kind of dumb, and he often makes dumb arguments, especially when speaking extemporaneously. And that is how, on Sean Hannity's radio show last Friday, Rand Paul announced his support for the deportation of Tea Partiers:

The transcript (emphasis ThinkProgress's):

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/01/rand_paul_jail_tea_parties/feed/ 56 Meet Patrick McHenry, the rudest, most shameless College Republican in Congress http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/patrick_mchenry/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/patrick_mchenry/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/25/patrick_mchenry Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Countrywide) called Elizabeth Warren a liar at the conclusion of a House Oversight subcommittee hearing that had already consisted mainly of Republican members of Congress getting very basic information about Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau completely wrong.

McHenry has been one of the most completely shameless of House Republicans since his arrival in Congress, in 2005, when he immediately and publicly endorsed Tom DeLay's brilliant plan to exempt himself from ethics rules as his connections to Jack Abramoff began to end his career. But he was born to be cheerfully corrupt: He's a product of the College Republicans, an organization that trains little Lee Atwaters, Karl Roves and Grover Norquists in the arts of scorched-earth campaigning and wholly irresponsible "governing" on behalf of the monied interests that bought you your job. The ethos is win by any means necessary, legal or quasi-legal (or worse, as long as you never get caught), and McHenry was very good at that, according to Benjamin Wallace-Wells' memorable profile of the then-freshman in the Washington Monthly.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/25/patrick_mchenry/feed/ 68 Private messages from top Palin aide leak http://www.salon.com/2011/05/24/mansour_twitter_messages/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/24/mansour_twitter_messages/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 15:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/24/mansour_twitter_messages Tucker Carlson's Internet Tendency has published a series of private Twitter messages sent by Rebecca Mansour, Sarah Palin's closest advisor, to an unknown "online-only acquaintance." The direct messages forwarded to the Daily Caller were sent in the summer of 2010, and they contain a number of unflattering descriptions of various figures in the Republican party and the conservative press. The Caller does provide the (partially redacted) original messages, in case you don't want to rely solely on their interpretation of the material.

The DMs are not that outrageous or shocking, because we already all know that Palin and her inner-circle are paranoid and petty. It's news that they hate Mitt Romney? The fact that Palin's operation is an unprofessional cult of personality is public knowledge. But they're still entertaining for anyone fascinated by Palin and her camp.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/24/mansour_twitter_messages/feed/ 7 Five political books that were doomed before they were even published http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/bad_idea_books/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/bad_idea_books/#comments Fri, 20 May 2011 11:55:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/20/bad_idea_books On May 12, it was reported that Donald Trump was working on a "policy book," to be released this summer by the right-wing Regnery Publishing. No surprise there: All candidates and would-be candidates for president release either memoirs or policy books, or both. On May 16, less than a week later, Trump announced that he will not be running for president. Whoops! Now that book is pointless, months before the ghostwriter has finished it.

Trump's is not the first, and will not be the last political book that was rendered ridiculous or blatantly incorrect before or very shortly after its release. It's not even the only one released this year! Here are some of our favorite sad, wrong books:

"Where's the Birth Certificate?" by Jerome Corsi, 2011

Oh, there it is! Sorry, Jerome Corsi, but you couldn't have realized that your entirely pointless search for the "long-form" birth certificate would end nearly a month before your book's publication.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/bad_idea_books/feed/ 20 Rand Paul, America’s dumbest senator, will not be enslaved by your “right” to basic healthcare http://www.salon.com/2011/05/12/rand_paul_dumb/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/12/rand_paul_dumb/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/12/rand_paul_dumb Rand Paul is stupid. Or, at least, he is not very bright. I say that not because I disagree with him politically, but because he regularly says stupid things. Stupid things that he thinks are very clever. (Also, he seems pretty ignorant of the history of the state he was elected to represent and the powers of a senator, but ignorance is different from dumbness.)

So considering his history of smugly saying stupid things, no one should be surprised that Sen. Paul said this:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/12/rand_paul_dumb/feed/ 86 Charlie Crist is very sorry, David Byrne http://www.salon.com/2011/04/12/crist_sorry/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/12/crist_sorry/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/04/12/crist_sorry Here is Charlie Crist, being held hostage by lawyers, apologizing profusely to legendary musician and bicycle enthusiast David Byrne. Look at his sad, dead eyes:

While he was running for U.S. Senate, Crist used the Talking Heads song "Road to Nowhere" in a campaign ad, but he neglected to actually seek permission. Byrne sued him, and this, apparently, was part of the settlement.

Not long ago, Crist was a superstar governor and rising star in the Republican Party. Then the "Tea Parties" happened, Crist was forced out of the party, and he lost what should've been an easy Senate race to upstart Marco Rubio.

Oh, look, Mr. Byrne has already posted his gracious acceptance of this apology:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/12/crist_sorry/feed/ 12 Paul Versus Paul http://www.salon.com/2011/04/04/paul_versus_paul/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/04/paul_versus_paul/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/04/04/paul_versus_paul Texas libertarian Ron Paul will probably run for president again. But if he doesn't, his son, brand-new Republican Senator Rand Paul just might run instead. Which one would make the better candidate? Which one has even a shot at winning a single primary or caucus, anywhere? Probably neither one, but that is no reason why we cannot compare and contrast their "strengths" in a hypothetical 2012 match-up:

Ron Paul Rand Paul
Wise and experienced Young and dynamic
Already has kick-ass logo Much better at sucking up to money
More time in office Senator outranks Representative
Actually interesting to listen to Not 100 years old
Didn't rename himself "Rand" like an idiot Didn't publish racist newsletters like an idiot
 Is a real doctor, not just a silly "eye doctor" Has message from tea parties
Already has kick-ass logo Prickly demeanor, droning speaking style denote "authenticity"
Wars he opposes no longer managed by Republican president More "mainstream" than father due to not talking about libertarian stuff that freaks out Republicans
Understands that deficit is caused mostly by giving healthcare to immigrants Has decided Constitution needn't be read literally when dealing with immigrants
Long history of voting no on everything appeals to childish, nasty feeling of resentment at heart of American dream Hates mountains
Supporters will rent blimps Supporters will stomp on heads until he is elected

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/04/paul_versus_paul/feed/ 18 Michigan Dems charged in fake Tea Party scheme http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/dems_tea_party_charges/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/dems_tea_party_charges/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:53:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/17/dems_tea_party_charges (UPDATED) This one does not look good for the Democratic Party in Michigan: Two county-level party officials have been hit with felony charges in an alleged scheme to put bogus Tea Party candidates on the ballot to draw votes away from Republicans. (Via Jim Geraghty.)

Former Oakland County party chairman Michael McGuinness and former county operations director Jason Bauer were each charged with perjury, forgery, and another violation called false swearing. The Detroit Free Press explains the alleged scheme:

The indictment alleges that the pair attempted to place two county commission candidates, Aaron W. Tyler and Ruth Ann Spearman, and a state senate candidate, Johnathan M. Young, on the ballot without the candidates' knowledge. The two men forged the signatures on the affidavit of identity and falsely swore under oath to qualify them to run, the indictment says.

A Free Press investigation last summer found that Bauer notarized petitions for a dozen tea party candidates statewide but Bouchard and Cooper couldn't say if any additional charges would be brought in connection with other races.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/dems_tea_party_charges/feed/ 73 America is bored with Glenn Beck http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/pareene_beck_fox/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/pareene_beck_fox/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/08/pareene_beck_fox Have you heard? Popular medicine show entertainer Glenn Beck is a bit less popular than he used to be. His show -- already something of a loss-leader for Fox News, as it's lost most of the better class of advertisers -- has lost a million viewers since last summer. It's still doing well, but any random frothing talk radio windbag could pull the same numbers on Fox at 5 p.m., and without the advertiser-worrying controversy.

In the New York Times this weekend, David Carr addressed a few of the possible reasons for the drop-off in Beck's popularity: his shtick has gotten depressing, he's less fun than he used to be -- but he's always been gloomy, apocalyptic and relentlessly repetitive.

Sure, the novelty's worn off. Lots of people have probably just gotten bored with him. I am kind of bored with him, though his efforts to spin the recent Middle East upheavals have been impressive, even for him. (Without the guiding light of the late Cleon Skousen's skewed history lessons, Beck has to improvise his take on world events, which can be fun.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/pareene_beck_fox/feed/ 51 Scott Brown begs for money from David Koch http://www.salon.com/2011/03/07/scott_brown_koch/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/07/scott_brown_koch/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/07/scott_brown_koch Well, this is embarrassing. At a fancy party for a cancer research institute at MIT last week, Think Progress caught Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown begging for money from billionaire industrialist David Koch. Koch and his brother Charles are the wealthy backers of much of the modern conservative and libertarian movements, and their money helped elect Republicans nationwide in 2010. They have since become the semiofficial bogeymen of the left, because they fit the part of "evil wealthy industrialists buying a pliant government" quite well.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/07/scott_brown_koch/feed/ 21