The 1947 Jerry Voorhis book Confessions of a Congressman is of interest in particular because it comes right off the heels of the first Congressional loss to a Richard Nixon.

The 12th District campaign of 1946 got started along in the fall of 1945, more than a year before the election. There was, of course, opposition to me in the district. There always had been. Nor was there any valid reason for me to think I lived a charmed political life. But there were special factors in the campaign of 1946, factors bigger and more powerful than either my opponent or myself.

And they were on his side.

In October 1945, the representative of a large New York financial house  made a trip to California. All the reasons for his trip I, of course, do not know. But I do know that he called on a number of influential people in Southern California. And I know he “bawled them out.” For what? For permitting Jerry Voorhis, whom he described as “one of the most dangerous men in Washington,” to continue to represent a part of the state of California in the House of Representatives. This gentleman’s reasons for thinking me so “dangerous” obviously had to do with my views and work against monopoly and for changes in the monetary system.

It appears that his California friends listened to him and were impressed.  Just how much this Eastern gentlemen and others like him had to do with the actual running of the campaign I do not know.  But many of the advertisements which ran in the district newspapers advocating my defeat came to the papers from a large advertising agency in Los Angeles, rather than from any source within the Twelth District.  And payment was made by check from the same agency.

[Followed by a discription of a McCarthyite campaign full of misdirections.  And from the congratulatory letter Voorhis sent off to Nixon:]

During the 10 years of my service I came to have a profound respect for the Congress of the United States and to realize the critical importance of its work, not only for the future of our country, but for the future of the whole world.  For those of us who believe in democratic government, under a Constitution which protects the individual citizen’s rights and liberties, it becomes more and more evident that the one essential bulwark of the people’s liberties in such a nation is the vigor and effectiveness of the national legislature.
If that national legislature occupies its proper place as a co-equal branch of government, and especially if it puts forth and enacts into law a program calculated to meet the nation’s present and future problems, the future of freedom will be safe.  What will happen under opposite circumstances we all know. […]

And then the description of his parting meeting with Nixon.

 We talked for more than an hour and parted, I hope and believe, as personal friends.  Mr. Nixon will be a Republican congressman.  He will, I imagine, be a conservative one.  And I know I appreciated his coming to see me very sincerely indeed.
But, he also believes he will be a “conscientious” congressman…

The subject of the unnamed conspirators swooping into the district, if you google the excerpt, is of interest in various conspiratorial … analyses you might go ahead and say and chunk the “Conspiracy theory” label.

The big news coming from yesterday’s primary is that Mitt Romney has officially clenched the nomination.  This is sort of a fake news story — it is what got the headlines out of the Texas slew of elections due to there not really being any real elections to talk about or discuss.

So, if we lead with that here’s what we look at.
Mitt Romney … 68.97 percent
Ron Paul …  11.94 percent

Ron Paul is a favorite son.  Maybe?  I don’t think this gets him to a delegate.  The fun and frivolity continues at Daily Paul and various blog organs, though.  See here, for instance.  There will be a way that Ron Paul will get the Presidency, oh yes.

Coming in last place is… John Davis?  With .32 percent of the vote.  Who is John Davis?  Immediately I think of the 1924 Democratic Presidential nominee.  Who had a boomlet going for that as early as 1920, apparently.  The low point in Democratic Presidential vote-getting, a man who dared say that the Klan was evil [to the chagrin of William Jennings Bryan] and ended his career as fighting on behalf of segregation in Brown v Board of Education.
This is a different John Davis.   It may be that his campaign travel journal is worth a quick gander in the way any candidate fighting it out on a vanity campaign with a Constitution in one hand and a firearm in the other might be.

The Republican Senate campaign  drags us down to Ted Cruz versus David Dewhurst.  The big question we have on such a matter, as this is the first time I’m looking at this race — “So.  Who’s the Tea Party guy?  And how far to the right is the non Tea Party guy?”  Ted Cruz is the man who is running to the right of Dewhurst, who is having to figure out how to get to the right of Cruz.  Should be an exciting run-off, I suppose.

But the runoff, which will determine the GOP nominee to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, will mainly depend on which candidate can capture voters who turned out to support one of the other seven GOP candidates on Tuesday’s ballot.
That competition centers on third place finisher Tom Leppert, the former mayor of Dallas, who received 13 percent of Tuesday’s vote. Anecdotal evidence suggests supporters of Leppert are more likely to back Dewhurst than Cruz in a runoff. But Cruz supporters believe they can mobilize and capitalize on tea party energy to achieve a win in July.

Maybe he can snake out support from all the other five candidates to match the support from Leppert?

Craig James 3.59 percent
Glenn Addison 1.68 percent
Lela Pittenger 1.28 percent
Ben Gambini .51 percent
Curt Cleaver .47 percent
Joe Agris .32 percent

Just get all these votes and keep Leppert’s down, and you may get there!  Just as we can figure out what eats at the Joe Agris supporters — little help here?
I asked why he was running. He said that voters will “trust a doctor” more than politicians, who he accused of having “constipation of thought and diarrhea of words.”

On the Democratic side, we are outside of the Appalachia streak, so what we have is …

Barack Obama 88.21 percent
John Wolfe 5.05 percent
Darcy G Richardson 4.29 percent
Bob Ely 2.43 percent

A disappointment, actually, as it suggests that John Wolfe hasn’t consolidated the anti-Obama vote as I might have hoped with his earlier performances in West Virginia and Louisiana– nearly equaled Darcy Richardson.  Maybe Richardson isn’t that bad — a political lineage off of Eugene McCarthy (he got clean for Gene) and into the much Green Party proto party “Consumer Party“.  I suspect Wolfe had to ride momentum off of West Virginia to gain the vague name recognition in order to surpass Richardson.

Bob Ely is the cranky “Letters to the Editor” opinionator man who uses the words “Common Sense” a lot and thinks it’s neat to shout “Son of bitches” at the powerful.  A closer inspection of his website reveals he is not as kooky as I’d first suspect by first glance at his website.

The Senate race clusterfuck suggests that the Democrats don’t have a chance in Hell here.  In a situation like this — a Republican state in a Presidential election year, they really would need to have a clear good front-liner “slated”:

Pete Sadler 35.12 percent
Grady Yarbrough  25.82 percent
Addie Dainell 22.9 percent
Sean Hubbard 16.14 percent

Here’s to a run off between Pete Sadler and Grady Yarbrough.  The word is that Yarbrough is that “fluke”-ish candidate nobody had ever really heard of that didn’t have any money.  See
Unlike his three competitors in the primary, Yarbrough has not reported raising or spending any money with the Federal Elections Commission. Yarbrough said he just hasn’t filed any reports yet but did spend money around the state promoting his campaign. Yarbrough said he advertised in African-American newspapers and had yard signs up in several parts of the state.

I can state categorically:  he came in second because of the much heralded Senator in Texas history, Ralph Yarbrough.

That’s the state level for you.  After that we get down to the Congressional seats.  Where a lot of things are certainly there, under the radar, worth looking at.

I guess Mother Jones provides some goods.

Excellent news here:   An Anti-Drug War progressive knocked off an eight-term incumbent: In El Paso, progressive Beto O’Rourke beat eight-term Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes, and he did it without running away from the issue that brought him to prominence—the War on Drugs, which he considers to be an utter failure. Washington might not be able to talk about weed without making dumb pot jokes, but in far West Texas, they may have turned a corner.

Also excellent news here:  Texas’ top birther is done: State Rep. Leo Berman (R) is famous in these parts for introducing a bill demanding that President Obama produce his birth certificate and for attempting to ban Islamic Shariah law. (He also sponsored a secession rally.) But he’s a lame duck after losing to challenger Matt Schaefer. Per the Texas Tribune: “Berman, who is battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma, had said that he was retiring after the last legislative session but decided to run again after meeting Schaefer, whom he described as arrogant.

Two chips to throw down what probably over is vaguely annoying.

STORY NUMBER ONE:  SIDNEY HILL RETURNS IN WASILLA!!!!

A Sidney Hill update???  Remember Sidney Hill?  A cause celebre somewhere, but not in the Larouche publications.

Bill Hess brings us some Fantastic Photo-journalism updating us on the whereabouts of Sidney Hill.  Up in Wasilla.  (One of those places that one day nobody ever heard of, then the next… everyone knew of.)

I was very pleased to see that this old hippy had seen the sign and then positioned himself right beside it so he could defy it. He even had a pretty good sign of his own made up, asking Alaska passersby to feed him a peach. If you could see all the lettering, this is what you would read:
“This old hippie says AK feed me a peach.” A bit more follows of course, but that was the basic message. This guy wanted a peach. I don’t know why he wanted a peach and not a chunk of moose meat or salmon, but a peach was what he wanted.
I would have given him a peach, too, but I didn’t have one. I did have a bean burrito, but he didn’t want a burrito – only a peach.
He claimed to be a friend of Lyndon LaRouche, who apparently backs up the quest of old hippies to be fed by the great AK! It is nice to know there are still compassionate people in this country, state and town.

Eventually we’re going to have to expand that networked map (showing the candidates) to include Sidney Hill in Alaska and Perry Clarke in Kentucky.
By the way… for what it is worth… the Skull / Bones blog would like to take this opportunity to endorse Republican Chris Theineman for Kentucky State Senate, District 37.  Yeah, I know… this is John Wolfe country.

STORY NUMBER TWO:  KESHA ROGERS GETS HER ASS WHUPPED

I suppose if she wins we will have a big “Dewey Defeats Truman” situation with this headline.  I will update this when election returns come in.

Daily Kos assesses the big KP George — Kesha Rogers race
Even though the Democrats have next to no chance of beating Olson, the Democratic primary here is actually worth watching.  Kesha Rogers, a Lyndon LaRouche activist who calls for impeaching President Obama, was the Democratic nominee in 2010 and caused a big headache for local Dems.  Rogers is running again and local Democrats would like to avoid the embarrassment of sharing a ticket with her this year: her sole opponent is KP George.  George’s nomination wouldn’t give the party any more of a chance to unseat Olson, but it would be a huge relief for Texas Democrats if he was their nominee here instead of Rogers.
Yet the race only gets one star.  If only Pete Olson had had lost sight of getting candidacy paperwork in in the vein of Thad McCotter, the Dems coulda been contenders.
I sort of reiterate, win or less… the Democratic Party in Harris County will still have her to kick around some.

Howie G booted off Democratic Underground, I see, in relation to proseltyzing for the cause of the 6 Larouche candidates.

College Football Fans weigh in on this race:
Larouchies come in all colors. And they’re all nuts.
Screw congress, she’s got my vote for President!
“This is Henry Kissinger. He’s a Jew.” Followed by explanations that the Jews and Queen Elizabeth are running drugs to corrupt America’s youth, blah, blah, blah. (Lyndon LaRouche, 1984.)

STORY NUMBER THREE:  DIANE SARE LIES — CLAIMS REFORM PARTY ENDORSED HER, WHEN REALLY IT WAS JUST A LAROUCHIE WHO ENDORSED HERE

We begin with details from the New Jersey Debate.  Where Diane Sare wasn’t asked about recent comments made by her leader.  They never ask about the imminent themonuclear war, and always go to Gay Marriage… Lament Lament Lament.

Better yet, she ought be asked about this quotation.  Maybe that’ll filter into the Taj — Roberts debates?

LaRouche Democratic supporters made up at least half of the more than 100 attendees of the debate in Teaneck, based on the blue LaRouche shirts they were wearing.
Many of the questions supplied by the audience seemed to be geared toward their ideals.
LaRouche Democrats support Mars colonization, the impeachment of Barack Obama, the reinstatement of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act and place emphasis on the importance of classical music.
When a question from the audience about classical music came, Gussen wouldn’t take the bait.
“I think if (Albert) Einstein lived today he may just have likely been a DJ,” he said.
Even during direct questioning, Sare often went off topic. When asked about gay marriage, she instead put emphasis on ballistic missile defense systems in Europe.
“If we have thermo-nuclear war and a financial blowout,” she said, “we will all be dead whether we are gay, straight, married or not.”

Well, if this guy is a “Tea Party Patriot” he probably isn’t a registered Democrat, so we won’t have to worry about this guy’s vote.

And we have an answer to the question “Is Mark Quick a Larouchie?”  The answer: Yes.
From this blog here, Mark Quick says:  I believe before you publish statements like this you should actually research your facts before publishing. Nobody manages my campaigns but me. Your clearly out just to destroy people on a personal level. I took a boat load of crap because I went to Trenton to be involved with YOU. I have learned more about how corrupt and evil our government has become and people like you are paid to hide the TREASON. On LaRouche explain why Ronald Reagon and him were friends he worked for Reagon???
If asked before I saw that comment I would have said “No”.  But … there you go.

A Reform Activist chimes in
Mark D. Quick, a former Republican Committeeman who abandoned the GOP last year, does not speak on behalf of the Reform Party of New Jersey, the Reform Party of the United States, nor any of the elected officers of either organization. He is no longer a candidate on the party’s ticket nor will the party sanction any of his forthcoming announcements. Quick’s alliance with Sare has been officially rebuked by the party’s leadership and any online content pertaining to his previous Congressional bid hosted on Reform Party servers will be removed.

The Diane Sare campaign has chimed in by charging against the   NJ Reform Party co-founder, in a wildly slanderous attack on me and Lyndon LaRouche, which was no doubt dictated to him by the same people running the pathetically desperate attacks on my colleague Kesha Rogers, who won the Democratic Party nomination in the 22nd district of Texas in 2010.
Everyone who has had a chance to consider the issue knows that Mark Quick exhibits more intelligence and morality in two sentences than the pompous and ignorant Mr. Zychick and his ghost writer can muster in any series of pretentious paragraphs. No one should be fooled by these arrogant young liars whose only dream is to become corrupt party hacks in their later years.

The more interesting thing here is the headline change from something about the NJ Reform party endorsing her to  NJ Reform Party: Holding the Line for Obama Dictatorship…

“Conservative New Jersey” blog ids names behind the Mark Quick run.  They can sort it all out.  The issue at stake in New Jersey

Yesterday, Mark Quick endorsed Democrat Diane Sare for Congress. Democrat Sare is running against Congressman Scott Garrett, the most conservative member of the New Jersey delegation, and one of the top conservatives in Congress. By most measures, Scott Garrett is the most conservative member of Congress ever to come from New Jersey. […]
First we had the Bayshore Tea Party Group providing a platform for a Socialist Party candidate at a meeting in their headquarters. Now we have a Tea Party candidate – vetted and supported by a number of Tea Party groups – endorsing a follower of Lyndon LaRouche.
The Tea Party needs to end its war with Steve Lonegan, Mike Doherty, and the other conservative leaders in our state. They need to stop embracing pro-amnesty candidates like Bader Qarmout, liberals like LaRossa, bigots like Salanitri, racists like Hoyas, and Lyndon LaRouche Democrats.

A bottom line on this race provided by Blue Jersey
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is there a third candidate running in CD 5 by the name of Diane Sare? I saw her presence in the newspaper at two debates held by Bergen Grassroots and the Teaneck Democrats and was wondering if she is still running for the nomination since she was not mentioned in your story.
In many races there are numerous candidates, but in this diary I mention only those of consequence.
She wants to be on the same ballot with Obama – who she wants to impeach.  Diane Sare is NOT a credible candidate.  She may seem polite, but her positions are LaRouche crazy.

Worth mentioning her regardless, if only because the die is set with a race between what’s apparently a “lackidasical Democratic Establishmentarian” and an exciting Insurgent.  GOTV all you want for the Insurgent.  Just be sure not to  divide the two candidates to two sets of 33 and ending up losing to random 34-er.
No one has any money to do polling. If history is a good indicator, 15,000 voters will turn out on June 5th.

STORY NUMBER FOUR:  THAD McCOTTER OPENS THE WAY FOR SMASHING LAROUCHIE REPRESENTATION IN NEXT CONGRESS

The circumstances are such that the way is, I suppose, open.  The Democratic Party establishment may want to push some bigger name Democratic… for a (sigh) write-in bid.  McCotter may want to try the same.  Hilarity ensues, I guess.
Hm.  I assume unless the Democratic hiearchy has some big name power candidacy everyone knows and loves that their best chance is with the candidate actually running.

From Daily Kos  …  Fortunately, Democrats have a pretty respectable candidate filed for this race already in Syed Taj, a Canton Township trustee and former chief of medicine of a local hospital. Taj has raised $200K for his campaign so far, and I’m sure more resources will be made available to him now that McCotter has put himself in the jackpot. (Oh, and there’s another “choice” in the Democratic primary: Lyndon LaRouche disciple Bill Roberts, a man whose top item on his website reads “Dumping Obama is the Key to Avoiding War”.)

I will  note I haven’t been so much sleeping on this Democratic primary as putting it aside because whatever the case, the situation is thus — skip to bold part of the comments excerpts here — featuring the standard sillying sallying of the quirks of a country with more elections taking place than attention paid to them:

I could easily see the LaRouchie winning the Dem primary if the race is a low name-ID race between him and Syed Taj. So they’d have to invest a lot of effort to get Taj through the primary.
In the case of McCotter failing to get in the primary, failing to win the primary, and the LaRouchie winning the Dem primary, an opportunity would be wasted.
What’s with the “um”? FYI Roberts has raised $4K, Taj $200K.
But it’s not going to be a slam dunk unless they spend some money. Taj’s campaign doesn’t just have a ‘some cult dude’ opponent, it’s an opponent with a generic common name. So he can’t just lay back and keep raising money, he will have to act as if the primary is real without really acknowledging the opponent. (Not entirely sure they can directly mention the obvious about the LaRouchies and Obama through mailers without people ignoring it, plus it’s not like Michigan has party registration to make that easier)
and the law of diminishing returns may factor into the effectiveness of the “Hey, Bill Roberts is associated with a bunch of crazies” campaign. Although i’d imagine “Syed Taj, great guy, shakes his finger at property taxes, rode an ostrich once” campaign would be far more likely. Especially for reaching out to all those unfamiliar with the Canton Charter Township government.
Not sure if we’ve had a ‘credible candidate loses to random person’ race yet in this cycle. Closest would be the Jimmy Ferris primary in Idaho, i’d guess.
I have nothing whatever against Taj and surely hope he wins but I have to admit my joy at learning another set of lunatics is still around in our hare-brained politics today.
We’d have until August.  I think we can make sure he wins the primary.
So yeah.  You could wage a whisper campaign against him. More of an issue might be he speaks heavily accented and not all that dynamic of a speaker.   But maybe he’s better when the subject matter isn’t mindnumbingly boring.
so it’s a coincidence that they could lose two one-on-one primaries to Indian-born candidates (who are obviously agents of the Queen and Kissinger and Nelson Rockefeller)
MI-11 Democrats may do the same thing IN-05 Democrats did in 2010 and pick Roberts over Taj, simply because his name sounds “white”
Don’t think it can’t happen?  It DID happen in Indiana just two years ago.

From the other side of the asile we get this:
If McCotter is off the ballot, Bentivolio probably has a 70% chance to win against McCotter or Kowall write-in, and 85% chance to win against Trott write in, because only insiders and some locals know who Trott is. […] Parties need to save the resources in case Bentivolio does win the primary, which is likely (Assuming McCotter is off the ballot), and help out the guy who may for all we know be the deciding vote for the speaker and committee chairs.
Unless they want Bill Roberts.

This is, by the way, the scenario that would have to sprout up to actually get a Larouchie into the House of Representatives.

The Democratic candidate, for those who care, are:
Bill Roberts, who proudly touts his connection to Lyndon Larouche and the tin-foil-hat caucus.
Syed Taj, a medical doctor and native of India, who was elected to the Canton Twp board in 2008.  Not a hopeless, but also maybe not exactly what Waterford Twp is looking for in a Congressional candidate.
Ya gots until August.

STORY NUMBER FIVE:  LAROUCHE CRYONICS MOVEMENT CHIMES IN TO LATEST ALEX JONES APPEARANCE

The Larouche Cryonics Movement throws its lot lot against Alex Jones with ultimate insult Aex Jones is a Neanderthal Hybrid Crypto-Jew.

Then we get comments from the peanut gallery at Lunatic Outpost
Larouche is a just a flat out crackpot.   He’s makes guys David Icke and Clif High look normal.
The ultimate power behind the royal bloodlines are extra dimensional reptillian entities who literally hate humanity. What the Christians would call demons. Our royal elite have fallen for their lies of using alien technology to empower the elite with Godlike powers.
The only thing stopping the alien entities manifesting is the human vibration on the planet this love energy drives them insane with rage, a state of mind they can’t function rationally in.
Once the blue bloods do their bidding and reduce the love energy by reducing the population the cold authoritarian vibration will allow them to manifest with frightening consequences for our elite!
Why can’t we just have a Nuclear War, why’s it always got to be Thermal Nuclear War? WHY???
Oh wow! A guy with no credibility interviews another guy with no credibility!

No.  Wait.  Maybe we need a conflab between these two groups:

I would appear to not be the only person who is moving well, et cetera. The Freemason Confraternity of the Whole Wide World also seem to be offering a better deal than the LaRouche people.
(Yes, the local LaRouchies continue to e-mail me periodically, unconcerned by their continuing terrible prophetic record, and not inclined to admit any errors.)

Vern Nelson asks the question:  Hey Robert [Lauten], I know you’re a LaRouchie, but I see you on my ballot, under US Senator, as a Republican. Have all the LaRouchies become Republicans when nobody was looking?

Other campaigns:

Dateline Chicago
We drove by there today and saw them. Their sign indicated they wanted to impeach the President and that they were affiliated with the LaRouchies. I didn’t see them doing anything that might need a permit IMO.

Dateline Farmington
When asked why the two selected Farmington for their political efforts, the man said because of “the population.” The woman told one of the several people who stopped by her table at approximately 1 p.m. her group was trying to fix this country because “the whole system is dead. It’s broken.” […]
Willy asked them to leave while the man argued with police for several minutes, stating loudly, “We do this all over the place!”
Willy reported later the group did not leave the premises and rather resolved to hold their posters themselves. He said they eventually put the table away.
“Their(sic) well within their rights to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech, but you can’t do it by blocking the sidewalk,” Willy said, noting […]
Official representative for the LaRouche PAC Angela Vullo, who returned a reporter’s call from Virginia, said she could not confirm her organization was visiting Farmington on Tuesday, but said the described posters “sounds like us.” […]
“The policies that have come out … to get the world population under 1.5 billion, that is virtually targeting everyone,” Vullo said. “Not to mention, if Obama stays in office, we’re on the road to a world war that could be a nuclear war, and that could lead to the extinction of the human race.”

Jeff Steinberg on Iran’s Press TV.  Say… whatever happened to Russia Today?

Maybe you will feel compelled to vote for Alan Jacquemotte as he lays out his case here.  His race in Michigan is in August.  There are a couple of races I guess I’m now compelled to pay attention to now in that state.

Meanwhile, arguments are moving forth for and against one Buddy Roemer.  Hard to see him as “having a defective personality”, with a “hit squad” going after negative Internet commenters (I imagine there’s a wikipedia war of some sort, as there is with many a politician)…

But I don’t take sides in this dispute.

Interesting couple of comments that aim to set the record straight and peg Buddy Roemer’s reputation downward.  See here.

Note something like this:
He was one of the worst governors in Louisiana history. He could not get along with people, put together a competent staff, or pass legislation. He did not work hard and had no ability to govern. Read this history of LA governors, pages 259-268:

And on to:
As a LA commentator quipped, in bayou style:
“Buddy Roemer, who has been out of politics for 19 years, couldn’t win an election as a dogcatcher in Louisiana, much less the Presidency of the United States.”

All right.  I don’t care enough to shift about and figure out what my opinion of Buddy Roemer is, and I certainly do not think much of the Americans Elect concept that he attached himself to this last election.  But I have one thought to say about Buddy Roemer.  Whatever his faults as governor, or a politician, however off-base and self- congratulatory his message, whatever his level of effectiveness as governor…

His predecessor and successor was Edwin Edwards, and the man who beat him out was David Duke.

Sometimes you have to judge a politician by not any real ideals, but by who he is standing next to.  And while I guess you can say that there was obviously something wrong with him in getting to the public that he was beaten by those two men, nonetheless in grading off a curve, he may just well be seated into the Louisiana Governors Hall of Fame.

One thought about John Wolfe, Jr.

He sounds better than former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, currently Top 1 if the Democrats feel able to take a stab at a Senate seat.  And it’s hard to fathom who else Tennessee Democrats have sitting on their bench.  (Someone with a profile like Harold Ford, Jr I imagine.)

Maybe he can parlay a certain amount of fame in having come in second in the 2012 Democratic Primaries to jump-start past the “perennial candidate” role to take a stab against Lamar Alexander in 2014.  Not like anyone else is.  Stick an exclamation point after his first name.

Actually the question might be: if Tennessee’s Democrats don’t really try to field a candidate, and Wolfe jumps in, would the Democratic Party brass in the state opt to run someone to stop a man who once marginally embarrassed the party standard-bearer? — something I suppose they wouldn’t do if Wolfe fit the profile of fourth place finisher Jim Rogers.

And was this the man Ralph Nader had in mind when he claimed to have lined someone up to primary Obama?

Apparently wikipedia has concocted the county by county map for the 2012 Democratic primary, and where Obama is getting embarrassed.  Yes.  It looks like this 2008 “Where Obama underperformed to Kerry” map that should become as known to you as the 2000 Presidential Gore v Bush map, and it is freaking hilarious.

The regrettable thing here is that the Democrats will make the nomination unanimous.  Which is a damned shame.  It’s not that I am against figuring out how to remove Keith Judd from consideration — he’s in prison and won’t be able to deliver any speech, after all — but John Wolfe, Jr is… legitimate enough, I would say.

I hope Wolfe plays the spirit of Eugene McCarthy Chicago 68 as we hurtle into North Carolina.

With the results in Tuesday’s Arkansas and Kentucky presidential primaries, Louisiana now slides to fifth on the list of President Barack Obama’s weakest performances in 2012. In fact, the president’s 76 percent performance in Louisiana’s multi-candidate March 24 primary now looks retrospectively respectable compared to his tallies in Arkansas and Kentucky, where he was held to less than 60 percent of the vote in one-on-one contests. In Arkansas, Chattanooga, Tenn., attorney John Wolfe Jr., who won 12 percent of the vote in the Louisiana primary, carried 42 percent of the vote against the president. In Kentucky, the lone alternative to Obama was “uncommitted,” and uncommitted won 41 percent.
Two weeks ago, “no preference,” scored 20 percent of the vote against Obama in the North Carolina primary — a state that Obama narrowly carried in the 2008 general election — and that same day in West Virginia, Keith Judd, an inmate serving time in a federal prison in Texarkana, Texas, won 41 percent of the vote against Obama.

It is a shame that Vermin Supreme doesn’t stand alone on one of these ballots.  I might have edged him past Jim Rogers for personal favorite in Oklahoma.  I want him to enjoy his 15 minutes of fame.  Unfortunately, he stuck to New Hampshire.  Bad campaign strategy, I would say.

I will note for the record, you cannot say of a 58 to 42 percent citory “Barely won“.  Which I guess is why they probably changed the headline.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that in Kentucky, Obama actually compiled more votes than Republican winner—and general election challenger—Mitt Romney.  Oh, maybe.

Down ballot, the Ron Paul Revolution chugs in Thomas Massie.  One strain of Tea Party thumped against another, I suppose.  Or, it’s a “Proxy Battle” between Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell.  Just because we need to entertain ourselves with some storyline or other.

One Week Left and all will be decided.  THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF THE 2012 CYCLE!!!!

“We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 1912.
“I am issuing this statement to tell you something you need to know if you wish to survive. What I am going to say here requires that all notions of practical politics be set aside and that you reach down inside and fight with everything which is truly human inside you to remove Obama from office now. This may be your last chance. We are now standing toe to toe with the threat of thermonuclear war and the potential annihilation of the human species.” — Kesha Rogers, 2012.

No.  I’m mostly just bemused by the Kesha Rogers campaign now.  She’s not going to win the nomination, and now we just see this spectacle of things.  I hope the party hacks in Harris County are enjoying themselves right now — I have half a hunch the Larouchie challenger may be beneficial: the party knows they’re in the minority and trying to guide to a hopeful future election victory — you need something to sharpen your elbows and keep yourself going, I suppose.
In addition to some insane rhetorical fire from Kesha Rogers, we have that standard stand-by of paraochial campaigning — those sign wars.:

 Running against Kesha Rogers.  Local Democrats have a little contest running to see which one of us gets the most insulting description written by Kesha on her website.  She called Bubba a “Yokel,” which is funny for man with more degrees than your average meat thermometer.  She called our local party chairman Steve Brown a lackey and stated, “[he] has repeatedly tried to incite violence against me.”  She offers no proof of this and has made no police report.  In short, her brainwashing included lying as a sacrament to LaRouche.
Steve did help put out these signs next to her signs all over town:
Hehehe. But it really ain’t funny. One day I was at an event and talked to a Larouche supporter. I asked if she really likes Larouche and she said yes and I said “I’m so sorry.”
Why is that conspiracy nuts always mash together groups that can’t stand each other? And does she know that Hitler, HG Wells and Voltaire have been dead for quite a long while (as are John and George, alas)?
(Yeah.  Well.  I think the theory of this “push poll” is what Kesha Rogers is referencing as a “dirty trick”.):
A push poll might be fun. “Kesha Rogers believes crazy crazy loony Tea Party stuff, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for her? K P George performs life-saving procedures on rescue puppies, would that make you more or less likely to vote for him?”

Ballot Access News has the story.    And I see there has been some sort of accommodation with “Third Party Politics”  for sourcing.
In other news, the story has made its way to splog aggregators, where it’s hitched with gossip about the “Kesha” character for the tv show “Basketball Wives”.  So we get the hilarious comment “Feel sorry for Kesha.  Gonna get her ass whupped“, but it’s … to a completelyunrelated subject.  I love this race!

So the sign wars commence.
And on that race, I was very disappointed today to see that something I spotted yesterday afternoon has been undone today when I had my camera ready to capture the moment. Apparently some Republican joker decided to support Kesha Rogers’ campaign by planting one of her lawn signs in his front yard, right next to a Mike Elliott for Judge sign.
It seems the Republicans have glommed onto the movement in the Fort Bend County Democratic Party to get the word out on bat-guano crazy Kesha Rogers so we don’t have an embarrassing repeat of 2010 when she won the Democratic nomination to oppose Pete Olson for the CD-22 race. Someone in the GOP decided it would be funny to promote her race.
Kesha Rogers has had Republican supporters, only now it seems they have reconsidered their position and took the Rogers sign down.

Burnt Orange readers polled, and come up with
In another lopsided victory, KP George trounced LaRouchie Ke$ha Rogers in our reader poll, again by a margin of 90% to 10%. While the district is likely to remain a Republican seat come November, George is doing the yeoman’s work to oust the LaRouchie from the Democratic ticket.
Wait.  The Larouchies didn’t flood this internet poll?  Why not? It’s a proud tradition used by Free Republic and Democratic Underground! Anyway, this leads leads in to the official Endorsement at Burnt Orange.  The sales pitch at Burnt Orange
Don’t make the same mistake twice! George is a good Democrat, a credible candidate, and won’t foul the waters for the other Democrats in Fort Bend county — a county that is rapidly trending blue and should be focused on mobilizing voters, not handling an unruly LaRouchie that soils the party brand.

Bay Area Houston:
I’m sure everyone remembers “dog piling” on someone in grade school. It usually ended with someone crying to the teacher or followed by an atomic wedgie of mega proportions. Luckily most of us have grown out of that phase of life and have resorted to virtual dog piling with LaRoucherette Kesha Rogers being the target. So, I am compelled to dog pile.
Kesha Rogers is a bonafide political nut (much like Elaine Palmer). If she was from Brazil, she would put Brazian nuts to shame. Rogers is running for Congress as a Democrat when she should be steaming as a Teabag or Nutbag. Kesha is running on colonizing Mars and establishing intergalactic trade routes between the Moon, Earth, and Uranus. [insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here] The trade routes is not a joke. She truly believes that. She also believes everyone is a Nazi, especially the people she can draw a Nazi mustache on.
Rogers and her band of mobile, merry, misguided, mofo, misfits (seen here flagging cars down)  will be providing entertainment at the State Convention this year including banding together to sing (and be escorted outside). Delegates have been warned not to listen to them for fear they will be lured into their web of brainwashing like mermaids signing to drunken sailors, then ripping off their heads.
Lucky for us in Clear Lake we do not have to put up with this fruit cake, but folks in Sugar Land do and are dog piling on Rogers! See Juanita for more.

Yep.  See Juanita for more.
Little Bubba went up to vote last Friday and saw that Kesha and her Band of Bozos had placed her poll signs in an odd position.  She moved her signs to place them directly in front our our signs […].
Bubba asked me to document him moving her signs and placing them all 1/4 inch apart in a neat little line because obviously she likes signs that way.  He was just being helpful.
He truly enjoys that he’s getting under her skin, thin as it may be.  A man has to take his pleasures where he can find them and Bubba truly enjoyed hacking off Kesha.

I didn’t know that Lyndon LaRouche was still alive. Are you sure? Has this been verified by the absence of a long-form death certificate?
Took my wife and 88 year old mother in law to vote against Keesha today. No excuse for not voting.

From Dem Underground:  I didn’t know about that blog so thank you – now I’ve got it bookmarked. Kesha needs a new hobby.

Kesha Rogers upset by the “NotaDem” signs.  Rolls to twitter.

Make sure you vote in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY to revive the FDR-JFK tradition
–Note to Kesha Rogers:   Lyndon Larouche despises Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy.  Or is Lyndon Larouche just playing a version of this standard political game — and in a few decades the Larouche Movement will be praising the Genius of Barack Obama?

THE OTHER STUFF

Conspiracy claims to disclaim embarrassing Ron Paul-ite ally.
A page or two back I noticed a comment about Lindon LaRouche…LaRouche is a communist. Operatives from his PAC have been infiltrating TEA Party events, websites and groups doing what they can to disrupt the memberships. It is his people that show up at TEA Party events with their so-called signs and dressed up in an effort to bring as much dis-credit as possible to our side.
They also do everything they can to disrupt the remaining sensible blue dog Democrats as well….Back to Kokesh; Adam Kokesh is paid by Russia TV for his commentary, he was reported to the FEC and FCC for using his RTv program to raise campaign money for Ron Paul as well. If anyone thinks communism went away with the Berlin Wall, you’d be really far from it. Old hardline communists are still alive and kicking, they’ve “learned” to accept capitalism and have much invested in seeing the United States of America go down. It is a cold hard fact everybody needs to face and take head on. They are still here, they are for real and they want us to fail and Kokesh is simply another “useful tool” for them to use.
I tend to think of it as pay back for the USSR getting their butts handed to them by Bin Laden and muhjadeem in Afghanistan back in 1989. Another factor in all this is Putin, too. Former KGB or not, the boy isn’t anywhere close to being the saint he likes to portray himself to be in media…
f LaRouche is in fact a commy – why has the party of treason worked so hard to discredit and or blacklist him and his proposals—– their disinformation has been repeated so many times that people actually want to believe that misinformation. Do not confuse what I am stating vs whom I support – Ron Paul, & LaRouche both have viable proposals to restore our beloved Republic. Please do yourself a huge favor go to LaRouches’ website and study his proposals, IF you still believe that his proposals are commy then; ok; you might be right. I have been studying many of his proposals for years – I have never been able to “detect” commy leanings in his proposals, the one thing I see that I actually oppose is the “big” government approach to the operation of most proposals.

Memo to North Carolina and Republicans:  Walter Jones appears on this show.

Lunatic Outpost laments:    UHM – SPEAK ON THE CITY OF LONDON AND YOU’LL BE LABELED A LAROUCHE FOLLOWER
Probably uninteresting as Heck…. has been given direct access to the Constitutional Court regarding the devious activities of the ba-ks. Hallalooya! Lyndon LaRouche lives! Where do I sign?

Dateline from the Past:
Those LaRouche followers are even more cultist than Paul supporters. I somehow got on a mailing list of theirs back during the lead up to the Iraq War (I attended a lot of anti-war rallies) and they would not stop calling me no matter what I said or did. I continued to receive phone calls for years. It finally stopped when, in 2007 or so, I changed my number. Every week, for essentially almost five years, I received a call from his supporters.
I’ve seen them everywhere. They set up in front of the Post Office in Wakefield often. People basically just ignore them now.
My boyfriend gives them hell everytime he sees them there. The police were close by once and told not to cause a disturbance, but even they get a kick out of what he was saying!
I work in Foxboro, MA. I stepped out to get a drink and drove past the local CVS. On the sidewalk outside was a table with paperwork of some kind surrounded by posters saying things like “get rid of Obama” and the old tired Obama with a hitler mustache one. It was really teabagger, birther type crap.
Coming up — the 1976 Presidential Election retro-vote, and …
I can’t wait to see which 2 or 3 people vote for LaRouche next week. I have some predictions that I’ll keep to myself.
IRC LaRouche fell just below the cutoff and will not be on the ballot, although ’76 will still have the most candidates of any retrospective election.
Ah yes, you are correct. Wikipedia rounds him up to .05%, but doing the math puts him at just .0491%.
He’ll be on the ballot in 1984 though.
Two more weeks, so start your Campaigning NOW!
Dateline Seattle:
I thought the LaRouche movement was long gone, like Hitler.
Nope, like I posted, they were out in the last years of Bush. And, at least over in Seattle during the weekends Seattle maritime festival.

Dateline West Roxbury
A concerned West Roxbury resident called West Roxbury Patch in regards to “a couple of morons who have set up a table in front of Bank of America with a big poster of Obama with a Hitler mustache.” […]
“They’re going after people who are going into the Bank of America parking lot and trying to get people going into the bank… They’re waving and smiling trying to get people to talk to them and handing out pamphlets.” […]
A third anonymous resident sent in the attached photos of the individuals outside of Bank of America, adding, “Most people simply shaking their heads and walking by. The two men are spending most of their time just talking to each other.”

Dateline Manchester  Police responded to two complaints about political demonstrators taking over the parking lot on Beach Street on Tuesday.  Police received the complaints at 11:30 a.m. and 1:20 p.m.  When police arrived, they found the demonstrators, followers of Lyndon LaRouche, walking on the sidewalk. Police determined, however, they were not creating a disturbance.

Remembering the 1980 Presidential Election
I had some encounters with LaRouche followers back around 1980. I lived in New Hampshire, which had the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. During primary season I got lots of phone calls from people asking me to support their candidate. Almost all of these callers were very polite and friendly, even when I said I supported someone else.  There was one exception–the LaRouche supporters. They seemed to think that LaRouche was entitled to my vote, and I had no right to withhold it. They were very abusive.

Newt Gingrich Number One; Lyndon Larouche Number Two.
The second-largest campaign debt belongs to conspiracy theorist and perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche, whose five political action committees have amassed debts of more than $3.2 million, including nearly 5,000 loans from individual donors to his 1984 campaign totaling over $1.7 million. Those loans are remnants of a practice for which LaRouche was convicted of fraud in 1988 when a jury found he had no intention of repaying them.
Gerald Pechenuk chimes in on the ranking:
A couple of slight corrections are in order. First, you should report which political leader  in the US are “MOST INDEBTED TO,” NOT THE MOST IN DEBT.  The Hands Down Winner is who you list as number 2, Lyndon LaRouche.  He is the only political leader who warned people, starting in the late 1960’s , of the impending global financial collapse, which you all have to admit, despite your fancy sophistical tricks, has struck with a vengence.  So, ALL OF US ARE MOST IN DEBT TO Lyndon LaRouche for telling the truth which others refuse to face. to this very day!
As for larouche, the parable of the blind hog and the acorn comes to mind.
Note that giggling is probably considered a personal attack.
I predict that within the next 50 years, there will be another financial crisis. See I can do that too Lyndon and Gerald!
Warning about financial collapse since the 60’s is kind of like predicting a major earthquake in California every year.  Most years you look like and idiot and no one cares.  Then the big one DOES come and you look like a genius.  Lyndon LaRouche is the moonbat of all moonbats.
blind “hog”???  I’ve always used “squirrel” in that truism.
Look….  Substitute squirrel, or truffle for that matter.  But the parable is the same.
Look posted “Lyndon LaRouche is the moonbat of all moonbats.”  Wow, that’s saying a lot. There have been a LOT of moonbats, and as already noted – some still walk amongst us.

Occupy Moderators for metafilter metatalk:  “The truth is the mods are all secret LaRouchies, the bias in their moderation style becomes clear when you keep that in mind“.  (That explains all the problems?)

What’s a Protest in Maryland without…  The movement started slowly Friday morning, with just two representatives of the Larouche Political Action Committee standing in the town square, advocating that President Barack Obama be removed from office.  By noon, the ranks were growing, as members of Occupy movements had gathered in the Weis Markets parking lot to make signs and plan the rest of their day.  And who gets the photograph, you suppose?.

WHAT’s UP IN that Appalachian Belt That’s embarrassing Obama in the Primaries right now…
Gore had been the presumptive Democratic nominee for months. He had no real competition. Then came the Arkansas primary, and — right the hell out of nowhere — Lyndon LaRouche got 22 percent of the vote. This, according to partly bylaws, gave him the right to Democratic delegates. But the party found a way to claw them back.
On the West Virginia election result
Judd is not the first felon to appear on West Virginia’s ballot. Lyndon LaRouche ran in the Democratic presidential primary four times in West Virginia, including 1992 when he was in prison for mail fraud and tax violations.
But nobody paid much attention to LaRouche in ’92 because he was one of nine Democratic candidates and received just 3,141 votes. His quixotic White House bid got lumped in with the rest of the fringe candidates.
… getting traction to each of the nine politicos on the list.
Oh, just let the felon get his protest vote and have West Virginia get its fun, okay?  Yeah, this case is thrown with Larouche election footnotes to add impetus to ballot access law changes.
Reason commenter comments on West Virginia result:  T|5.9.12 @ 11:18AM|#. I’ve been voting for lulz for years. That’s why I like it when LaRouchies are on the ballot.
More Reason Comments:  Lyndon Larouche is one of the few guys to be in the L. Ron Hubbard level of cult … He’s been gone for a while, but a Larouche PAC was outside a post office … (Damned if we can’t get the “Dead or Alive” game right here.)
Chris W., I don’t consider this an “inner-leftist” dispute, since Platypus for me are not leftists, anymore than LaRouchies are. Maybe you want to take them at face value, fine, but these are some unsavory characters. SD,. “Similar brick bats are … The Limits of Spinozist Marxism

Updates from the Diane Sare Campaign:

The Reform Party candidate is jumping out.  Mark Quick endorses Diane Sare.  Entertaining to listen to, I suppose.  Ross Perot must be gnashing his teeth furiously right now at the news.

A message from the Reform Party of New Jersey:  The Reform Party of New Jersey would like to emphasize that we are in no way supportive of Larouche PAC or any organization that seeks to propagate racial, religious or classist tension into the American political system. We believe that candidates for public office must be held to the highest ethical standard and that civility must be returned to Washington DC; the recent endorsement of a far-right Democratic contender made by a former RPNJ candidate is NOT in any way reflective of the party’s official policy.
Yeah, that sucks when this is how your little political party edges into the news.

Diane Sare:  Themonuclear War or Second American Revolution.  Was not asked about this at the debate, apparently.  Damned.

Actually the question I’d ask Diane Sare in a debate, in similar step with a standard question asked to Democrats of “Biggest difference” between you and Obama — “What do you consider your biggest points of difference in opinion with Lyndon Larouche?”  Might be interesting.

A Warning Shot fired from Texas to New Jersey.
Heed it.  I’m not as concerned with Washington (but enjoy reading He’s already been thrown out of the 11th LD Democrats meeting for the impeachment crap.). I can say categorically that Kesha Rogers will not win her nomination.  I cannot say categorically that Diane Sare won’t.  There’s a better than even chance that she won’t, but…

Comments tell a story here:
Sare might be right about Glass Steagall, but she is right less often than a broken watch. As a Larouche Democrat, how can anyone take her seriously? Larouche is going to be on Allan Fineberg’s favorite boggie man’s show (Alex Jones) later on today. Its quite sad that our former congressman would have made a better candidate.

Also note the “above the fray” element here:  Diane Sare, the third candidate in the race that will decide who faces longtime Rep. Scott Garrett, provided he wins the Republican primary, called herself a “LaRouche Democrat” and kept out of their fray for the most part.

I sometimes think the Larouchies throw this one out for no other reason then that there has been sane and sensible advocating for Glass Steagall out there, but they need something insane from the past just to get rid of any potential ally and prove themsleve pure:  Sare said she would create jobs and drive the economy by breathing life into the North American Water and Power Alliance, which was debated in the 1950 and ’60s, but never built. It would have been a massive public works project to divert water throughout North America and generate electricity and drinking water reservoirs throughout the West.
And then there’s this.
All three candidates said they were pro-choice and supported marriage equality.

Yeah.  But some Exciting News from Larouche allies.  First the blast from the past, 1987 wise:

Schools were an obvious place for Lyndon LaRouche`s forces to spread panic. As early as the fall of 1985 they had vainly tried to stir things up in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. More recently, in Granby, Conn., a small town just outside Hartford, Paul Cameron, a psychologist and ally of LaRouche`s, crusaded-also unsuccessfully-against allowing a child with AIDS in school…..

Now we get this from the political force behind previous Larouche efforts.  Fundamentalist Says Obama is Gay; Imprison Gays Before they Kill.  Hm.  But where does he stand on Glass Steagall?

In other Larouche candidate campaigns:  Summer Shields gets $35.
Dave Christie takes on Cass Sunstein.  Yes, tell me Mr. Cass Sunstein.  Where is your Hitler mustache?  This should beat Adam Smith in Washington’s Ninth!
Apparently selling it from and to a kooky “Prominent” Russian Historian.

Well, I see Larouche has made his Alex Jones appearance.  And gets onto Rapture sites.  (Which gives a chance to drop in some Appropriate, I suppose, Jim Bakker news.) Getting brushback from Ron Paul fans.  Maybe I’ll do the commentpalooza round-up… in the comments… sooner or later.  Sigh.  Offer me a good suggestion on what to listen to while I go through that task.
God I hate Prison Planet / Alex Jones.  Birther crap.  Sigh.