Republican Mike Erickson, candidate for the nomination in Oregon's 5th District, has come under heavy fire lately from primary opponent Kevin Mannix, with rumors afloat that Erickson used to hold wild cocaine parties on his boat.
Well, Erickson flatly denies these scurrilous allegations; he's not only never used cocaine, but
"I've never used cocaine. I wouldn't know what it looks like," Erickson said, adding that he has never used illegal drugs or tobacco.
He doesn't know what cocaine looks like? He's never seen Beverly Hills Cop? He's never cooked with baking soda?
I had to snort at that one.
Call me a skeptic, but Erickson's denial just doesn't pass the smell test.
It would have been a bit more plausible if he just denied knowledge of the coke parties. Something like "If there's been cocaine use here, well, it's been happening right under my own nose."
Anybody else got a clever pun? A not-so-clever one?
In all seriousness, this is one of the most ridiculous statements we've seen yet this cycle. Either Erickson is a bald-faced liar, or a first-class moran. It's his choice as to which he'd rather be.
And please submit all coke-related Erickson jokes below!
Another wonderful video is Chris Matthews, not someone I generally like, slamming a Republican for making references to Neville Chamberlain without having a clue of the real history. Parroting lame talking points is no longer working for the Republicans. Their gross ignorance is showing and even conservative talk show hosts are getting irritated by it.
I don't know about you guys, but I am sick of hearing about how "Reagan Democrats" will be the turning point. The general election battle is heating up, so I think it is time we dispel this myth for good.
REAGAN DEMOCRATS DON'T EXIST They did in the 80s, but no more. Today we call those people Republicans. My dad was part of the Reagan revolution, and he has voted for exactly one democrat since then, Leonard Boswell, and that was ten years ago.
With just five days left until ballots are counted, most of the papers in the state that will weigh in on their choice for Democratic Senate nominee have now done so. Steve Novick has now racked up 12 of 15 general circulation papers in the state, and they run the gamut of west, east, south, north, urban, rural, staid, irreverent, conservative, liberal, daily, weekly--you name it. If it's printed in Oregon and reaches a decent number of folks, unless you read the Salem S-J, The Bend Bulletin or the Eugene Reg-Guard you probably read a Novick endorsement.
Any candidate would love to overwhelm his opponent in newspaper endorsements, but this isn't just a run of the mill choice of one guy over another. One man has lots of legislative experience, the other has none (although more than enough policy experience). One man is his state party's leader, the other a faithful Democrat but by no means among the power players. One man has the weight of the national party dumping 400K into the race to help him, as well as the sitting governor, while the other man has his friends, the people he meets and a remarkable band of volunteers.
{Links to all 12 nods, plus a late analysis by WaPo's Chris Cillizza, below}
Due to some widespread confusion about how Oregon's results will be reported because of our vote by mail system, I thought I'd provide this guide on what to watch for Tuesday night.
On March 28, over at Chris Weigant's blog, Chris asked his readers to place their bets (in quatloos) when Clinton would drop out of the Presidential race. Well, I've done pretty well so far. I predicted that Obama would surpass Clinton in Superdelegates before the West Virginia primary (got it right) and several of my delegate totals from the primaries were darn close (I didn't do so well on my original delegate estimate for Indiana). Also, I was only 1 day off for the John Edwards endorsement of Obama. My final prediction is Clinton drops out on June 16, just 31 days from now.
The state of Oregon will be holding its Presidential Primary next Tuesday May 20. A week after the Clinton blow-out in WV, Oregon is the 16th "whitest" state in the Union but it's more educated and environmentally concerned populace has been becoming more progressive as the years go by. They have voted Democrat in every Presidential Election since 1988. 52 delegates are at-stake in the MAIL only primary.
Let's be clear: when a 527 forms for the express purpose of electing or defeating a particular federal candidate, and engages in public advocacy towards such ends -- as opposed to discussing issues -- it is breaking the law.
The Clinton 527 known as The American Leadership Project (ALP) just posted it's fifth pro-Clinton TV/Internet ad on it's YouTube account:
The American Leadership Project continues our commitment to highlighting issues of importance to the middle class with this new ad, now running in Oregon, focusing on clean energy and good jobs.
The following is a preview of Oregon's statewide and congressional races, as well as the Portland mayoral race. It includes my current projections for what will happen if the votes were counted today.
Ten years ago this coming Tuesday, on May 20th, 1998, fifteen year-old Kipland "Kip" Kinkel killed his parents.
The next morning, at 7:55 a.m., he arrived at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon carrying three weapons – a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle, a .22 caliber handgun, and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol. As he walked down the school’s hallway heading towards the cafeteria he shot Ben Walker and Ryan Atteberry.
When he reached the cafeteria, where as many as 400 students were gathered, he calmly emptied out the remainder of the fifty-round clip from the handgun and one round from the pistol. By the time Kinkel was wrestled to the ground by five classmates, one of whom had been shot, one student was dead – Mikael Nickolauson, who had just days before enlisted in the Oregon National Guard – and twenty-five others were wounded.
Just nine minutes after arriving at school, Kinkel was placed into custody. Another student – Ben Walker – would die of his wounds later that morning.
Poblano has a great post this morning up at his site, fivethirtyeight.com, entitled Hillary's Oregon Problem. His main point is that because Oregon votes by mail, and because so many ballots have already been sent in, any supposedly game-changing event in her favor between now and Election Day won't matter much because the election is already "literally in the (mail)bag."
But the best part of the post is that Poblano shows and compares the statements that Clinton and Obama made in the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet in support of their respective candidacies. It's a great comparison and Poblano's comment on them is just perfect. Go take a look, it's worth it.
Let me apologize to all the people of Oregon. I am sorry for my negative comments and tirades I made last fall regarding your state and the University of Oregon.
I'm a USC Football fan and California native, and watching your team trounce my team with your option plays and quick cutbacks (FING DIXON!)...well lets just say the amount of swear words I had for you could not even be said in this diary.
I voted today, though my state's primary is not for another week.
That's right, I am not bound by some antiquated notion that I have to cast my vote at some public place on a specific date for it to be valid. I voted today.
In successive days, the two most repsected pollsters in the country confirm that Oregon, the Great NW Battleground state, is Solid Obama Country. On a day that so much will be made about Working Class Whites in West Virginia, Lets preview the Exit Door for Clinton that is Oregon, a state that is 90.5% White.
