In light of the Democratic victories in Kentucky and Virginia Tuesday night, a teensy touch of Schadenfreude seems in order:
Fred Barnes—executive editor of the defunct The Weekly Standard and a prolific contributor at Foxaganda who one critic of his book on George W. Bush called a “perfect Bush hack”—wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal a week ago. The guy being quoted in these final two paragraphs is Mark Rozell of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University:
Mr. Trump was poison in the 2018 midterm election in Virginia, and Republicans lost three U.S. House seats. But Democrats have overreached in 2019 by pushing the notion of a “new Virginia.” Liberal activists are thrilled and eagerly celebrating it, but it sounds off-puttingly radical.
Better still for Republicans, Mr. Trump won’t “be as much of a drag in 2019” as he was earlier, Mr. Rozell believes. “Two thousand nineteen is different. Not much national context and no statewide race to anchor turnout. It’s all local this time, and Republicans traditionally have done better at turnout in these off-off-year elections in Virginia.”
Hahahahahaha. To provide a bit of context: Barnes was one of very few pundits—right, left or center—who predicted John McCain would win in 2008, and Mitt Romney would win in 2012.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Another Scarborough political donation:
Politico's Ken Vogel flags another donation from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough to a Republican candidate, this one made in April of this year for $5,000 to a GOP candidate in Alabama. Combined with his 2006 contribution of $4,400 to a GOP congressional candidate, Scarborough has donated at least $9,400 to Republican candidates as an MSNBC host -- more than the amount that led to Keith Olbermann's suspension.
It's not just contributions, either: Vogel points out that in August, Scarborough traveled to Alabama to headline a fundraiser for the county GOP where he made his contribution.
Given the obvious double-standard here, Griffin's decision to suspend Olbermann but not Scarborough seems to be motivated by personal or political factors. After all, Joe Scarborough not only has contributed more money than Keith Olbermann, he's headlined fundraisers.