Blaska Policy Werkes

David Blaska, going out of his way to provoke progressives in Madison WI to make America safe for democracy!


Steve Bannon is the alligator in the swamp

Now Bannon is bushwhacking electable Republicans

The Squire received his first Christmas gift this season. My personal Santa is a most interesting and accomplished citizen, former U.S. Justice Department civil rights attorney and fighter pilot Bud Sather of Middleton. He was also former chief legal counsel to Gov. Warren Knowles.

Bud bestowed a book: Let Trump Be Trump, written by the President’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and David Bossie, the plaintiff in the Citizens United case. (The book’s message, The Weekly Standard snarked: “Let Trump be Bannon.”) Oh, well. It’s the thought that counts. Thanks, Bud!

But if Trump wanted to be Trump, if his Trump-osities were bringing win after win, he would not have found it necessary to call in the Marines. Four-star Marine Corps General John F. Kelly was specifically assigned to impose order. If Trump wanted to continue being Trump he would not have pushed out Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, the Mooch, and other figures of the political underworld. People CAN grow in office. JFK did.

Bannon
Bloody Steve

Taking his revenge like “Bloody Bill” Anderson’s Civil War guerrillas, Bannon is bushwhacking elected (and therefore, electable) Republican senators — especially majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has fought for every Trump initiative permitted by the Constitution, including repealing Obamacare. (Not Mitch’s fault Trump dissed McCain before the election! That’s not draining the swamp; that is breeding more alligators.)

We have our own example of a Bannon Republican in Wisconsin, one Paul Nehlen, who again appears to be running against Speaker Ryan, after garnering 16% of the primary vote in 2016. A few weeks ago Nehlen told a journalist to “eat a bullet.”

Trumpites love that kind of talk. Voters not so much.

‘Bannon is for losers’

“It takes a very special Republican to lose in Alabama,” Karl Rove writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, after Bannon-backed Roy Moore lost to a pro-abortion Democrat.

 … Roy Moore is the most recent in a too-long line of cranks and nuts who threw away almost-certain Republican victories in Senate races. It started in 2010 with Nevada’s Sharron Angle and Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, continued in 2012 with Missouri’s Todd Akin and Indiana’s Richard Mourdock …

“If [Tuesday’s] election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates,” the president tweeted Wednesday morning. That’s absolutely correct. So don’t put Steve Bannon in charge of recruitment.

Instead of draining the swamp, Bannon made it more likely the next retiree from the Supreme Court will be replaced with an alligator instead of another Neil Gorsuch.

“Mr. Bannon cares less about conservative policy victories than he does personal king-making,” today’s Wall Street Journal editorial admonishes.

He wants to depose Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader even if it costs Republicans Senate control. GOP voters, take note: Mr. Bannon is for losers. …. The Moore defeat should also be a lesson to the Republican Party, and President Trump, that many GOP voters are still at heart character voters.

“The obvious lesson here is that angry populism fueled by resentment against the bogeyman of supposed ‘elites’ is not the basis for a political party or movement,” Robert Tracinski in The Federalist.

Republicans are or ought to be the champions of honest but limited government and paragons of personal responsibility.

“As frustrating as it is to lose a Senate seat in a ruby-red state, it would be worse to spend the next three years having every inane, offensive, and Constitutionally illiterate utterance from Roy Moore’s mouth hung around the necks of rest of the party,” observes Jim Geraghty in National Review.


Did you notice? We’re not quoting liberals, progressives, or socialists here!


Maybe it’s a matter of ‘Wisconsin nice’

We suspect our fellow wizard, Jim Wigderson, got it right over at Right Wisconsin:

If there is a lesson for Republicans in last night’s results from Alabama, it’s that character still matters, at least at a statewide level. You can count the noses and figure the vote margins, but in the end Judge Roy Moore was the one Republican who could lose in Alabama.

Now Democrats in Wisconsin are at least feigning that the results are somehow meaningful in Wisconsin. “We just elected a Democrat in Alabama,” tweeted Randy Bryce, a Democrat challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan. “The most conservative state in the country. Next up, it’s Paul Ryan’s turn to face the voters.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidates state Rep. Dana Wachs (D-La Crosse) sent a fundraising email, “If Alabama can do it, so can we.” … But unless Ryan or Walker have been pursuing dates in Wisconsin’s middle schools, what happened in Alabama doesn’t translate to here.

We repeat that Kevin Nicholson is the current Bannon favorite to replace Tammy Baldwin next year. We would be supporting Leah Vukmir even if she were not best friends with Our Ms. Vicki.

 

32 responses to “Steve Bannon is the alligator in the swamp”

  1. AnonyBob

    I DID notice you weren’t quoting liberals, progressives, etc. Splat, dad29 and other refugees from political reality must be getting uneasy with you, Dave. Better keep an eye over your shoulder, the RINO knives will be out soon.

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    1. I read this blog for the humor. Intended and not.

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  2. Tom Paine

    Dave, your screed ignores a few issues. Perhaps you might add a postscript about the effort of McConnell to spend millions to support Luther Strange and not Mo Brooks. And McCain?
    What is his position again about repealing O’Care? Or his views about The Wall or limits to illegal immigration? Seems local political meetings have consumed so much of your time that you’ve neglected to listen to the podcasts of Mark Levin. He has repeatedly articulated a more compelling case against Mitch and the RINO’s. And Ryan? Where is he, again, regarding The Wall and limits to illegal immigration? Yo hablo?

    We don’t need more like Susan Collins, Flake, McCain, or Lisa Murkowski, none of whom I think we can agree would be supported by Bannon. And, just to be clear, are you directly blaming Bannon for candidates: Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, all of whom I agree are flakes? Don’t blame Bannon because the Pubs selected the aging Thompson to run against Tammy. Will you credit Bannon for anything?

    The New Yorker quoted him on Sen. Tom Cotton, certainly no RINO:
    “Next to Trump, he’s the elected official who gets it the most—the economic nationalism. Cotton was the one most supportive of us, up front and behind the scenes, from the beginning. He understands that the Washington élite—this permanent political class of both parties, between the K Street consultants and politicians—needs to be shattered.”

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    1. Flakes and idiots are bad enough but a constitutionally illiterate pervert? The aforementioned flakes & idiots were running in toss-up states that Republicans maybe could have won, states like Nevada, Missouri, and Delaware. Roy Moore was so bad he managed to lose ALABAMA!

      The Drudge Report’s Matt Drudge blasted Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore after his loss Tuesday, saying Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) would have won the race. “Luther Strange would have won in a landslide… Just too much crazy in nerve racking times,” Drudge said Tuesday night in a rare tweet. “There IS a limit!”

      Btw: Luther Strange was no Susan Collins. As Alabama A.G., filed suit vs. Obamacare required birth control coverage. Voted to repeal Obamacare. etc.

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      1. Tom Paine

        Dave, you should extend your intellectual horizon. Listen to Mark Levin, Audio Rewind for Dec. 14. At least, you’ll learn a different analysis. Yes, the podcast is archived for all time. Everyone can listen to his compelling analysis.

        Or, you can brand him a “fureigner” and retain your errant view,

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  3. Tammy is a pervert, Dave. Check your dictionary. Men who like men are perverts. Men who like women are not. And while you’re at it, it might be a good idea to check Southern mores and idiosyncrasies–and make certain that you understand the term “pedophile,” while you’re at it.

    By the way: Drudge is a pervert, and what makes Strange a better Conservative than Mo Brooks? Hint: nada. In fact, Brooks was a MUCH better candidate until McConnell took him out. .

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  4. AnonyBob

    Men who like men and women who like women is becoming more acceptable to society so, by definition, is considered less and less of a perversion as time goes by. But dad29 is right in saying you’re wrong to label Moore a pedophile, because his victims were too old. He must want you to correctly call Moore a child molester (victim 16 and under). Just being technical here.

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    1. Sorry, Bob, you can’t simply re-label something to your liking. Perversion = homosexuality.
      And techinically, the term is not “child molester” unless there is molestation. I know, you can prove it, right. People who like teenaged kids are technically ephebophiles. Usually, they are adult homosexual men, as you know.

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      1. AnonyBob

        Sorry, dad, but I’m not re-labeling anything to my liking. Societies determine what is considered a perversion, and different societies do things differently. Ancient Greece and all that. Societies also change and evolve, which is what is happening now with our acceptance of gays. Maybe you heard marriage is now legal for them. And the term used for legal charges is child molestation (btw, our society still DOES consider that a perversion), something your boy Moore would’ve been well aware of as a young, strapping DA. There is also no scientific basis or research supporting your stereotype that adult homosexual men are the usual perpetrators of teen sexual abuse. They’re actually usually heterosexual adults. Funny how the facts don’t support your stereotypes and prejudices.

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  5. madisonexpat

    I agree with Ted Cruz’ opinion of Sen. McConnell.
    ABob personifies the post modern, post national post Christans. Family, sexuality, gender, marriage, borders, race, truth, God and constitutional rights are all just social constructs we can reimagine every day in his brave new world.
    I say no. I hold some truths as self evident.

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  6. Madtownguy

    Funny you should mention Todd Akin. Claire McCaskill boasted about how she helped him win the primary so she could beat him in the general Senate election. Missouri has open primaries; so does Alabama. What are the odds of crossover voting pushing Moore through to the general?

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    1. AnonyBob

      You’re confused, read the article. Claire helped him win the primary by portraying him as being too conservative – an impossibility for GOP primary voters. There was no crossover voting by Dems hoping to face the weakest extremist. The GOP primary voters did that all by themselves, just like with Moore.

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    1. Yes. AnonyBob has real problems with reading comprehension and reality in general. But in his Mom’s basement, he’s a god!!

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  7. Societies determine what is considered a perversion

    Wrong. Nature, and Nature’s God make that determination. And let me help you with that: rain falls down, no matter the legislation of fools…

    Madisonexpat has it right.

    By the way, can you prove beyond the shadow of doubt, that Moore “molested” any children? You’re back to creating your own truth by abuse of language–just as Orwell told us you’d do.

    Evidence of ephebophile orientation? Read the statistics on the Catholic priest-child abusers. I know that reading is hard, but try it sometime.

    Being a moderate Lefty in Madistan may seem like being a “conservative.” That’s a delusion. Add it to your other delusions.

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    1. AnonyBob

      If Nature and Nature’s God (?) held universal truths, all of mankind at all times would have the same mores. Nope.
      Catholic priests? Kind of an outlier group, don’t you think? I thought you were making a (false and disparaging) comment about homosexuals in general, not about a group of immoral men of God.
      And I live in one of the reddest of red parts in the country.

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      1. madisonexpat

        Sun comes up in the east. Every day for everyone no? Polaris is north for us all right?

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      2. all of mankind at all times would have the same mores

        Name one other major religion or society which licensed queer marriage. And don’t bother with “Australia” or “Ireland.” I said major.

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  8. different societies do things differently

    Indeed. Older men have been chasing younger women (see, e.g., Pygmalion) for decades, if not centuries. Princess Diana was a teen bride, marrying someone in his early 30’s.

    You use “societies are different” to excuse acts against nature, yet condemn some Southern guy for acting in accord with accepted Southern norms at that time.

    Just thought I’d bring that up. You appear to be confused.

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    1. AnonyBob

      So did Charles put Diana’s hand on his tightie-whities clad hard-on when she was 14? Missed that. 30-something Moore was credibly accused of sexually assaulting 14 & 16 year old, scared girls. That was acceptable in the South? Hm. I don’t think I’m who’s confused.

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  9. madisonexpat

    No one who voted for either Clinton is in a position to lecture anyone on sexual misconduct.

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    1. Clearly, there’s no point in having an intelligent discussion with someone who lacks the primary requirement: IQ. Little AnonyBob will have to play with his Ernie and Bert dolls all by himself

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  10. AnonyBob

    Splat and dad: Guess you two old guys told me! (Snork!)

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  11. madisonexpat

    So you agree with my observation on your moral relativism ABob.

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    1. AnonyBob

      Some would just call my morality tolerant.
      Like I’m also tolerant of dad’s personal insults because they evidence how weak, humorless and indefensible his and your arguments are, which I can understand would cause frustration. (Seriously, dad: Mom’s basement? Ernie and Bert dolls? Doesn’t speak well of the strength of your argument.)

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  12. madisonexpat

    ABob,
    You tolerate government depriving citizens of our rights to speak (GAB gag orders), assembly (Lois Lerner’s IRS), privacy (Shane Falk).
    You tolerate false accusations of racism.
    You not only tolerate evil, you revel in it when its directed against your political foes.
    You’ve given over some portion of your life to hate.
    Enjoy.

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    1. AnonyBob

      Not hate. Just appalled by the other side’s lack of ethics, morality and compassion. You could be a little less of a condescending conspiracist against your political foes.

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      1. madisonexpat

        Bob, your telescope is backwards. Turn it around.
        I would demand prosecution if these abuses of power were done to you and yours. You do not.
        Get it?

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      2. AnonyBob

        I’ll believe that when I see you call for Trump’s hide.

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  13. madisonexpat

    I’d like to shake his hand. He and we are exceeding all conservative expectations. When Europe looks at us and sees 5-6% growth, secure borders, strong military, personal liberties paramount and the rule of law, they’ll find their own Donald Trump. We’ll be the envy of the world… again.
    You, of course will see nothing but racism, sexism, xenophobia and a dearth of transgender potties.
    Enjoy.

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    1. AnonyBob

      You sure loves you an authoritarian, don’t you. 5-6% Growth Fantasy Land…woo, woo.

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  14. madisonexpat

    But so was 4% ABob. And he couldn’t be elected, and the GAB did nothing unlawful and there wasn’t a smidgen of corruption at Obama’s IRS. And the FBI is honest.
    Keep up the good work.

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