Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Open Forum

Schlesinger goes on Hardball. It's not pretty.

Molly Ivins and Susan Campbell write about the Lamont-Lieberman race, while Ned Lamont pens a piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Colin McEnroe explores election irregularities.

And, most importantly, I really hope Xena gets to be a planet. I think that makes me a nerd.

What else is going on?

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doing an online research project - calling town clerks to see where Lieberman's petitions stand - this morning.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/16/8130/48155

Genghis Conn said...

I thought Matthews was pretty hard on him. He did okay, but I can't imagine he made a good impression.

Anonymous said...

Neddie is trying furiously to shed the Kos/Sharpton/Jesse Jackson skin he's adopted by pretending to be a DLC type who's against the war because it costs too much money.

What a crock. I suppose that's how Greenwich millionaires think, just change the summer wardrobe for the new designer fall collection. Can;t wear white, I mean liberal, after Labor Day

Anonymous said...

Simply put, Matthews is a good interviewer. He forces answers to tough questions. Alan S is an admitted card-counter at the casinos...It wasn't any worse for Mr. Gold, umm, Schlesinger, than the truth...right?

GMR said...

I don't have a problem with anyone counting cards at a casino. Counting cards is not illegal, it's simply using mathematics to make better bets. I look at it simply like I look at making good bets (e.g., don't split your 10s, etc).

Card counting isn't easy though. You can turn the odds in your favor, but not by much, and you've got to be really good at it. Schlesinger, or Gold, wasn't good at it.

There's also the allegation that Schlesinger used a fake name on the wampum card or whatever it's called. I don't see a problem here either, as he was a semi-public figure, and as long as he didn't cheat on his taxes, using a fake name on a frequent gambler card isn't a big deal.

What's my beef with the guy? Well, one thing that I'm more upset about than I could ever be about the card counting and wampum card allegations was that Schlesinger had to be nagged by two NJ casinos to pay back around $20K in gambling debt. That tells me a few things: he's not good at figuring out when to fold up and try something else, he's not good at paying back people he owes money to, and he's certainly not good with finances.

But, hey, we could be talking about the Nevada Treasurer's race. That has three candidates to manage the $3.3 billion pension fund for Nevada state employees. One of the candidates died of a heart attack after being indicted for fraud, and the other two both declared personal bankruptcy in the past year (one of them said something like, "I'm a bit of a risk taker").

Anonymous said...

Of course Lieberman is still wearing his Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield/Hannity/O'Reilly/Coulter/Buckley skin.

Geez, this is fun. So much easier than real debate.

Oh, and I forgot to call Joe the D.C. multi-millionaire that he is.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't be messing with the planets....

Too bad Diebold didin't run the election machinery, that would be sweet. What is up with Colin??? So 4 losers couldn't remember how they registered....wowser.

Anonymous said...

Schlesinger looked like certifiable on there. His head was tilted up, chin stuck out, and he had that maniacal smile stretched across his face the entire time. The way he handled the questioning about the card counting and gambling debts was enough to have people make a decision against him well before they even got to talking about "issues."

Anonymous said...

Lamont's family was partner with J.P. Morgan.

Lieberman's dad sold Captain Morgan

About four decimal points of difference

Anonymous said...

TG: It's hard to hurt yourself when you're pulling 6%.

Anonymous said...

truebluect - whatever % points AS costs the 3 R Congressional candidates will be more than offset by the fact that Lieberman is running as an independent. Sorry to disappoint you, but in the end, all 3 are going to be re-elected.

Anonymous said...

Taking a side note on another Republican has anyone actual looked at the bills Johnson's ads talk about? I personally looked into the added tax increase on clothes, since I'll be school shopping with my kids soon. The fact is you use to be able to buy clothes up to $75 without having to pay the sales tax. Murphy really did voter to cut this to $50. Not what I call family friendly.

Sean said...

GC, I don't know if "its not pretty" is really accurate. I actually thought Schlesinger did better than I had predicted he was going to.
I blogged about it and thought he did generally well, though he did have to admit some damaging stuff about gambling in the beginning. If you compare his performace to Lamont at the debate, I would say Schlesinger was more articulate and spoke better, but had to discuss the detrimental topic of gambling. Having said that, he still should probably resign to make room for a better candidate.

Anonymous said...

like ORCHULLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Where did everyone see this article on Murphy? Also, I don't think the general assembly in CT - not sure where you're writing from - has ever had a SB2000? And, in giving you the benefit of the doubt, I check on SB 200 and that was a bill regarding Trauma Informed Behavioral Health that didn't even pass. I imagine that when Nancy's staff is going to write, all at once with suddenly new, waterbury related screen names, they will have their facts straight.

I guess after a quarter-century in one job though, your line of facts becomes a bit blurred.

Anonymous said...

Come on anon 12:55, Orchuli is a loser too. Smart Republicans will vote for Lieberman.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure how Johnson's campaign can possibly point fingers at Chris Murphy about some random 2k check when Nancy Johnson has been bought and paid for by the pharma/medical and insurance companies. Quite unbelievable - talk about hypocrisy?

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?CID=N00000561&cycle=2006

Anonymous said...

Free tip to all the Johnson interns: in addition to doing your homework (SB2000?) spacing your blog comments out a bit might make your efforts seem a bit less contrived. You're new, we know, just try not to let it happen again.

Anonymous said...

Are those tax increases that Murphy voted for the same ones signed in to law by Rell?

Anonymous said...

I don't know what some of you were watching, but the opening of that Hardball interview looked like the 1919 World Series, with Alan playing the role of the White Sox.

You just say, "Chris, this is old news. The casinos don't like me because I'm really good at card-counting- you probably saw the scene in Rainman. They don't like to lose. And yeah, years ago I ran up some debts- but that's behind me." End of story. Whether it's totally true or not.

My guess is that Alan is trying to again cut his support in half. Maybe to 3%.

Anonymous said...

Brubenstein,

When you're right, you're right. We don't want a bad card player in the Senate. That's why Republicans are voting for Joe. They are smart enough to see your wisdom.

Harry Truman was probably the best card player ever to sit in the Oval. And he was pretty good, with a few exceptions.

And he would have been Foxwoods worst nightmare.

By the way, I have a law degree and a degree in economics, too. The law degree has proved decidedly unhelpful in my table games- except poker.

Perhaps you can explain to us how the JD can be applied to blackjack.

Anonymous said...

Hey Blue Coat-- Rell vs. Dems in Hartford- Who do you think would win out?

Anonymous said...

No, bluenose, most were signed by the best friend of senate Democrats (espcially your soon to be unemployed bud Kevin Sullivan) at the time, the Honorable John G. Rowland

You do have a point. As 41 learned, all a Republican ever gets by agreeing to a Dem tax hike is to have them blame you for it later.

Anonymous said...

LOL at the WSJ editorial.

Ned said

Here are the four lessons of my business life that I talked about every day on the campaign trail, and that have resonated with Connecticut Democrats:

Ned doesn't list lessons for business success five, six and seven:

5. Be born into wealth in order to accumulate capital

6. Marry a rich woman. It's just as easy to fall in love with a rich woman as it is a poor woman.

7. When you take a wrong turn in your business (Cable TV systems for gated communities), downsize quickly.

While not especially actionable, 5&6 are key to success in Senatorial politics. (Rockefeller, Kerry, Kennedy, etc, etc.)

Anonymous said...

Hey Anon 1:10- The fact we must all face is that politicians need money to run and they get it from companies and individuals. However, it wasn't to swift of a move on Murphy's part to take money from from a group then campaign against them. Very simple don't bite the hand that feeds you or votes for you. Maybe I should have given this little life lesson to Lieberman earlier.

Anonymous said...

I went back and looked at the 2005 votes, and you were right. SB 2000 was a transportation tax bill that passed the Senate 33-0 and the House 124-7. So, you are going to bring up a bill from 2 sessions ago, that everyone voted for, because of some 2k check? Yet, you don't have a problem with the 100's of thousands of dollars Nancy has taken from the Medical Industry and the Pharma Industry - that has arguably been a catalyst for the increasing medical coverage costs and pharmaceutical drug increases? You talk about hypocrisy???

Anonymous said...

and Jodi told everybody what a good job Johnny was doing by raising taxes 27 times; OK I got it.

Anonymous said...

Given the circumstances, I thought Schlesinger did an okay job on Hardball. If nothing else comes out about him, he could have a decent showing (25%) if Lamont and Lieberman go after each other "hammer and tongs" and AS is left looking like the reasonable one.