It just would not be right not to include
the most vile, homophobic attack of the cycle as a candidate for this week's Hell to Pay. In case you missed it, the
Washington Times is out today with an
editorial urging Wisconsin Republican Tommy Thompson to make a campaign issue out of the fact that Tammy Baldwin is an out lesbian. "Barney Frank in a dress," they call her, in the least offensive slur. Go read it, if you have the stomach for it.
Contribute to Tammy Baldwin here.
But there's more, of course, because the election is less than three weeks away, and the shit is being flung far and wide. For example, you had Scott Brown (right after it's revealed that the state GOP has paid homeless people to say they support him) saying that Elizabeth Warren paid a bunch of actors to pretend they lost family members to asbestos. That didn't work out so well for him, when one of those family members released this statement:
“Let Scott Brown tell me to my face that I am nothing but a paid actor, and I’ll set him straight on what it was like to watch my father suffocate to death,” said John English, who discussed his father’s death from mesothelioma in Warren’s ad.
That'd be fun to see, actually. The incomparable Charlie Pierce
perfectly encapsulates just what Brown did here: "There is shooting yourself in the foot. Then, there is shooting yourself in the foot, cutting off the foot, placing it upon your head, and then shooting yourself in the foot and in the head simultaneously."
Contribute to Elizabeth Warren here.
Speaking of shooting oneself in the foot, how about California Republican Gary DeLong (running in CA-4647 against Alan Lowethal) saying, “I don’t see any scientific evidence that confirms" global warming.
DeLong later told the crowd at this forum that they should recycle more. That's an interesting suggestion from a guy who
has written editorials in opposition to his opponent's efforts to toughen up recycling standards.
Contribute to Alan Lowenthal here.
Those are just the stories that hit my radar screen this week. But we've got a whole boatload of House and Senate candidates who are eligible to contest in Hell to Pay, and enough deplorable Republican opponents to do this campaign daily instead of weekly.
So make the case for the most egregious act against one of these candidates you've seen recently. Tomorrow, we'll vote on the nominations, and Saturday we'll play!
4:09 PM PT: We've got a late breaking new possibility. One of the reasons Daily Kos endorsed Ami Bera was this:
Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced the Defense of Marriage Amendment. The bill is designed to thwart efforts to undermine the sovereign right of the people of a state to defend the traditional definition of marriage.
Lungren was also responsible for authorizing spending to continue defending DOMA in the courts when the Obama administration withdrew. That means Lungren is responsible for the
$1.5 million of taxpayer funds that has been wasted on defending bigotry.
Contribute to Ami Bera here.