Noon-time debate today between Rep Glenn Nye (D), Scott Rigell (R) local car dealer, and independent Andrew Golden, mostly a teabagger sort.
God help me if the bagger didn't come off the best of them all.
There were 8 questions, each got a chance to answer and then jump in with a rebuttal to the others. Unfortunately, Nye and Rigell spent most of their time sounding like 3 year-olds, name-calling and arguing back and forth over silly shit.
Silly shit example: Rigell is running an ad criticizing Nye for having voted with Nancy Pelosi 83% of the time. I have already diaried this, showing that even Repub Whip Eric Cantor voted with Pelosi 54% of the time, since this counts all votes, including procedural and non-legislative votes such as declaring Oct 14 National Jump Rope Day or voting for a resolution to honor one of our trooops, etc. Instead of pointing this out and showing that he thus votes independent of the party about 50% of the time and thus Rigell's ad is misleading and dishonest, Nye just crowed about not voting for health care or cap and trade, and how this shows he's independent. Basically, he played right into it. Rigell kept repeating his stupid ad line, and Golden responded that he'd vote for 2nd district interests whether Pelosi voted for it or not.
Another example was the question on what specifically would you do to help create jobs. No specifics at all from Nye or Rigell - Nye's answer was that the US Chamber of Commerce has supported his candidacy (which made me put down my sandwich for 5 minutes so it wouldn't come back up)along with the National Federation of Independent Businesses, so this shows he'll create jobs. Rigell responded that he didn't want the US Chamber's backing, this is just another Washington lobbyist group that works with Washington politicians (lmao, a Repub against Tom Donahue, who would have thought), and that because he and his wife started out with a janitorial company, somehow this makes him qualified. Golden actually answered the question and said he wanted to increase the tax credits for hiring new workers.
They continued this thread and all 3 concluded that yes, we need to keep sucking the defense department's dick here in Hampton Roads and ensure that no aircraft carriers move (despite the fact that they are all concentrated here and could all be taken out with one good blast of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) and that the Joint Forces command must remain intact, despite SecDef Gates' assessment that the thing is a waste of resources. God knows we couldn't do like Ayer, MA when Ft. Devens was deemed no longer necessary and turned the base into a multi-use industrial park, golf course and retail site that provides better jobs and more tax revenues.
Thankfully, just as teabagger Golden was sounding the most reasonable of all 3, he brought up his support of the FAIR tax which reminded me that, in the end, a nutjobbie is a nutjobbie. But honestly, I'm going to not only have to hold my nose, but vote on an empty stomach if I'm going to vote for Nye. Every day he gives us one less reason to do so.