A couple of months ago, the word on the street was that Republicans would sweep their way to the Senate Majority and anoint Yurtle McTurtle as the old, new Majority Leader.
But that was before National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott burned through bucks like a drunken ghoul, and the Mango Menace rounded up perhaps the most churlish, stupid and hapless Senate candidates ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting electorate.
But, of course, in today’s GOP, none of the blame can be attributed to Dear Leader, so NRSC Chairman Rick Scott, very deservedly IMHO, gets the thrashing of his political life:
“Republican Senate hopefuls are getting crushed on airwaves across the country while their national campaign fund is pulling ads and running low on cash — leading some campaign advisers to ask where all the money went and to demand an audit of the committee’s finances, according to Republican strategists involved in the discussions.
In a highly unusual move, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week canceled bookings worth about $10 million, including in the critical states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona. A spokesman said the NRSC is not abandoning those races but prioritizing ad spots that are shared with campaigns and benefit from discounted rates. Still, the cancellations forfeit cheaper prices that came from booking early, and better budgeting could have covered both…”
“If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired and investigated,” said a national Republican consultant working on Senate races. “The way this money has been burned, there needs to be an audit or investigation because we’re not gonna take the Senate now and this money has been squandered. It’s a rip-off.”
Hey, I’m no political genius, but if the NRSC is pulling money out of those Battleground States at this point in the campaign, I suspect that it has more to do with internal polling that suggests that goofy Dr. Oz, who thinks salsa belongs on a veggie tray, the Kremlin’s favorite Senator, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, and Dime-store Nazi Blake McMasters in Arizona are in deep doo and the Hillbilly Elegizer in Ohio and the wife-beater in Georgia are gonna need every available dime to make their races even close. Further evidence of my theory is that the Campaign Committee is flinging a Hail Mary by spending money in long shot states like Colorado and Washington…
“Other spending decisions, such as putting about $1 million total into reliably blue Colorado and Washington earlier this month sparked fresh questions after the committee turned around and canceled buys in core battlegrounds.”
…to try to cobble together 51 seats.
Hey, WaPo, Occam’s Razor suggests that those “core battlegrounds” are looking increasingly unwinnable.
Hell even Tucker FishHeir can see it…
Brutal. Tucker Carlson tells “the sad and bewildering story of Dr. Oz”. “Dr. Oz is getting crushed by a stroke victim who was already crazy.” pic.twitter.com/nWPRKd7L3M
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 20, 2022
Fuck you for John Fetterman, btw, Tucker. But you are correct about Dr. Oz.
There is clearly enough blame to go around Republican Circles for the fact that, with just a smidgen of luck, Democrats will squeak by with a House Majority again and Schumer, Pelosi and President Biden will be around with a 2 seat Senate edge and continue to shove progressive legislation down McConnell’s wrinkled gullet.
Bad candidates, chosen by a very bad man, bad State Legislatures passing bad laws to victimize women and girls, and a Supreme Court that wants to decision the whole damn country back to 1910 chief among them.
But Rick Scott deserves some too, for sure:
“As of that month (June) the committee disclosed spending just $23 million on ads, with more than $21 million going into text messages and more than $12 million to American Express credit card payments, whose ultimate purpose isn’t clear from the filings. The committee also spent at least $13 million on consultants, $9 million on debt payments and more than $7.9 million renting mailing lists, campaign finance data show.”
All that money going to consultants and e-mail lists, plus a big chunk not being disclosed, instead of for ad buys, just what is Chairman Scott thinking?
Well, 2024 is just around the corner…
I’d say that the Republicans are furiously paddling a leaky canoe to get above water, but it’s sinking faster the more they paddle. Can’t wait to see how this works out….
Yup
Why would anyone believe Scott could be trusted to make sound fiscal decisions?
Aside from that, when I think of the amount of money spent on political campaigns, R or D, it makes me furious. Such a waste when millions are struggling to keep a roof over their heads or their children fed and healthy. Even before the rotted corpse of the GOP floated to the surface, I’ve resented the amount of money it takes for any politician to run a campaign and those who win do as little as possible to help the average citizen.
Hear, hear.
What, no mention of Scott’s relationship to money, specifically his own documented grifting?
I remember a time when you ran on these things called “issues”. There were people who agreed with your take on those issues and they, now you’re not going to believe this, volunteered to pound the pavements (canvass) for the candidate. I did it myself back in the seventies-helped my uncle going door-to-door handing out pamphlets and explaining the candidate’s stand of the issues of the day. For these candidates there were no T.V. ads, those were for prez candidates. At best a candidate might run an ad in the local newspaper.
It was a simpler time running on your take on these “issue” things.
You lie down with dogs…you get up with fleas. Sorry dogs for using that cliché. Never had a dog as sorry as these nazi loving swine.
So many GOP crooks…never forget the criminality!
Thank you for reminding me of Scott’s early modeling career as the tabloid’s Bat Boy.
If the folks in charge of the Senate campaign funding are lousing it up, why would we assume the House races are going any better? And DON’T bore me with gerrymandering, voter suppression and the like. Most House districts by default are usually mortal locks. It’s the ones that are less certain where the focus must lay.
I’ll bet a lot of the older crowd of GOP mega donors are having flashbacks. To 2000 and Bush 43s campaign. Junior had mounted and INCREDIBLE fundraising operation which created a war chest that stunned everyone across the political spectrum. The he played despicably dirty (the SC primary where they started a rumor campaign the McCain’s adopted daughter with VERY dark skin was a “love child”) and the GOP primaries were effectively over at that point. He could have coasted to the nomination and spent very little in the process. Yet when they were in the month before the GOP convention the campaign was broke! A lot of running around and begging for donations took place, and there was a LOT of grumbling from a LOT of very rich conservatives. They knew how much had been raise and groused questions about where the fuck all that money went. And took another hard look at Junior’s business record and collectively thought “Oh fuck – just what have we bought?”
As we know, they wound up ponying up enough to squeeze out a close election and all that is a longer subject. But there was a lot of establishment effort put into ensuring baby Bush had some actual adult supervision.
In Scott’s case I marveled that the GOP put him in charge in the first place. This guy presided over massive fraud and the best thing we can take from it is that he had to spend a lot of his ill-gotten gains to keep his ass out of prison. Being a rich and connnected white guy that led to him being where he is now. But he’d better start worrying about his own cronies crawling up his ass with calculators before the feds get around to taking a look! Unlike baby Bush who was a Presidential nominee (and eventual President) Scott is still only a Presidential wannabe with little chance of making a splash in the primaries. And, as I said the remaining Koch brother and other big money folks are I’m sure thinking about all that wasted money back twenty some years ago and looking at Scott and the very real potential of losing the Senate AND Trump’s stranglehold on the RNC and it’s fundraising apparatus.
You have to wonder if they will quietly have some get togethers to strategize a return to old-school politics where they did very well. Basically, a realization they got greedy and overreached and it’s time to dial back and “settle” for far more of the pie than they deserve instead of the whole fucking thing.
I’m pretty sure that’s where it’s all going, Denis. I’m equally sure that it won’t mean a damn thing to whatever is coming next.
I will admit that it’s hard for a political party to raise funds when their dear leader is running the collections on his own behalf (and not spending it on the minions who might just need it)