Tag Archives: GOP Primaries

Bush Whacked!

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Bush family scion Pierce Bush of the general Sugar Land area became the first Bush family member to lose an election in Texas since Uncle W. lost a bid for Congress back in 1978.  Safe to say that George W. Bush recovered from that defeat.

In the Republican primary for the 22nd Congressional District, a veritable truckload of Grand Old Partisans lined up to succeed the smartly retiring Pete Olsen.  Bush probably thought he had an easy path to November nonetheless based on his family name and connections.  But unfortunately for Pierce, his parents did not name him George which appears to be the true ticket to electoral success in Texas (ask do-nothing Texas Land Commissioner and cousin George P. about that).   He could have been “P. George Bush” and probably have cruised to victory.   Instead, he wound up with a third-place finish and will be at home watching the runoff in May.

To counter this problem, Red suggests that the Bush family follow the lead of boxing legend George Foreman and name all future Bush children either George or Georgina.  It will get confusing at family reunions, but they can assign numbers.

Actually, what probably did in Pierce Bush was the fact that he did not appear to be a complete Trumpian ass-lick.  The two participants in the runoff, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls and soon-to-be perennial candidate Kathaleen Wall almost fell over themselves in swearing absolute fealty to Trump.

From Nehls website with Red’s commentary:

Troy supports President Trump, term limits (except apparently for wannabe President-for-Life Trump), securing the border, cutting our out-of-control $23 trillion debt (how does he say this with a straight face?) and ensuring the free market economy remains strong (for wealthy campaign donors anyway). He believes we need to get back to business (wait a minute, isn’t America great again already?) and deliver President Trump’s agenda to grow on his historic accomplishments of record lows in unemployment, record job creation (total bullshit here), and a record stock market (oops!).

From Wall’s website again with Red chiming in:

Stop Illegal Immigration. Build the Wall (with money stolen from the military and pretend otherwise).

President Trump needs a leader (actually he prefers an ass-licking follower) who will fight (by hurling personal insults and vitriol) alongside him (please let me stand close enough so that he can grab my P-word) to defend our conservative values (holding on to power at all costs), stop illegal immigration, and build the wall (exactly what happened to having Mexico pay for it?).

Texas’ Hottest Primary Contests

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The Texas Tribune’s Ross Ramsey has categorized some of the 215 contested primary elections for statewide office, U.S. Congress and the Statehouse according to his calculation of the heat of the race  See Ramsey’s temperature scale of hottest, hotter and hot contests here.

The one GOP race that has Red excited is the contest to unseat Do-Nothing Land Commissioner and only holding office by virtue of his family name George P. Bush.  The Bush family scion had done nothing to deserve election to statewide office and by all accounts doesn’t really do much on the job other than collect a paycheck on the taxpayer dime.  Red is firmly backing former LC Jerry Patterson who actually wants to do a good job for Texas and protect Texas public lands.  Patterson fought hard for our historically open beaches when the Texas Supreme Court attempted to cut back access with bizarre rulings based on arcane concepts.   Patterson is a little extreme for Red’s taste on the weapons front –  but other than allowing hunting on some public lands (which is sorely lacking in Texas compared to our western neighbors), his views on concealed and open carry laws will not have much impact on the Land Commissioner’s office.

George P.’s endorsement of Donald Trump after Trump totally trashed his father JEB!!!!$$$$? tells you just about everything you need to know about the current LC.  Some might say only a spineless weasel of an ambitious politician would endorse a man who called his dear old Dad “dumb as a rock” – which was actually among his kinder things Trump said about JEB!!!!$$$$?.  Red won’t go that far, but you can.

Cruz Tries to Steal the News Cycle

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In the wake of his crushing losses in five primaries on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) made a bold attempt to divert the nation’s attention away from the incredible ass-whomping he had just received by naming failed businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential running mate.  Cruz made an interesting choice in picking Fiorina who was soundly rejected by the Republican electorate in the early going.  Fiorina failed to ignite her campaign and performed miserably in the contests in which she competed.  Fiorina had less than 2%support in the Iowa caucuses, received 4% of the vote in New Hampshire with an 8th place finish, and was done.  She won exactly zero (o) delegates.   Fiorina kept proclaiming that her campaign “was not about me” – which in Red’s opinion is the clear sign that a campaign is indeed all about the candidate’s ego.  Fiorina gave voters absolutely no reason to cast their ballot for her – not surprising when he main accomplishments were her record as a horribly failed CEO of Hewlitt-Packard and her losing Senatorial campaign in California.   Her one claim to fame was a good performance in the “undercard” debate preceding Iowa which put her to prominence until the voters had the good sense to reject her as completely unqualified.    So what attracted Ted to her.  Cruz claim he was attracted to Fiorina as his running mate because she  was “born in Texas…the very first thing I liked about her.”  Interesting since that is something that the Canadian-born Cruz cannot say about himself.   Cruz did succeed in turning the national press away from the Trump blow-out on Tuesday, but Red thinks this smacks of desperation and predicts the news cycle will move on in a day or two or at best until Cruz loses in Indiana.

Cruz Stomped in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

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Here are the numbers for Cruz from last night GOP primaries:

Pennsylvania    21.6%

Maryland           18.9

Rhode Island    10.4

Connecticut     11.7

Delaware           15.9

Cruz barely avoided single digits in Rhode Island and Connecticut and was generally stomped elsewhere finishing behind Trump and the weakling Kasich.  Pennsylvania was the sole “dim” spot for Cruz last night where he eked out a second place finish over Kasich but still lost by almost 40 points to Trump.  Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that Cruz was bloviating about how 65% of Republican voters had rejected Donald Trump.  Well last night, close to 85% of Republican voters rejected Ted Cruz.

Cruz’s only path to the nomination is to pray for Trump to fall just short of first ballot victory and then sneak away from Cleveland with a second or third ballot nomination.  If that happens, almost every commentator is predicting rioting in the streets.

And then there is this from Cruz:  “If you want to beat Donald Trump, the way to do so is not some backroom deal in Washington that steals the nomination and hands it to someone who hasn’t won at the ballot box. The way instead is to beat Donald trump at the polls.”

Listen to yourself Ted.

Whither the GOP (cont.)?

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Salon does an excellent job of explaining the choice now facing Republican voters in choosing between (1) Donald Trump – running for President on a cult of personality that would make Kim Jung Il blush; or (2) Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) who would likely be the most radical major party candidate to ever win the nomination.

Indeed, last year the site analyzed the voting records, public policy statements, and fundraising sources of 32 major Republican presidential candidates, going all the way back to Barry Goldwater, and concluded that Cruz was the most right-wing candidate out of this entire group.

 

Per this analysis, Cruz is far more right-wing than such relatively “liberal” figures — all from that distant era before the Republican Party was taken over by hard-right ideologues — as Richard Nixon, Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush.  He is also much more right-wing than Mitt Romney and John McCain.  But that isn’t the half of it: based on their respective political records, Ted Cruz makes Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan and the current Tea Party-dominated Republican Congress look liberal by comparison.

The Republicans are Master-debaters

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Red is pretty damn sure that last night’s GOP debate is the first time that penis size has ever come up in a presidential debate.  The spirited repartee over the size of Donald Trump’s penis has generated some interesting and heretofore unprecedented headlines on the important topic of just how big our President’s dick should be.

From CNN – Donald Trump Defends Size of His Penis

From the International Business Times – Donald Trump Discusses Penis Size During Fox News Republican Debate

From HuffPo – Donald Trump Nearly Turns GOP Debate into Literal Dick-Measuring Contest

From patch.com – Who Won Thursday’s Republican Debate: Yoga, “Little Marco”, Penis Size

From Hollywood Life – Donald Trump Fires Back at Marco Rubio: “There is No Problem” with my Penis

Red thinks  the headline writers were challenged by this unusual development and failed to respond with their usual expertise.  Red also notes that Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) stayed out of the dick-swinging fray last night.  Does Ted have something to hide?

 

Carson Crowd Trashes Cruz

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Ben Carson’s presidential bid appears to be on the fast track to Nowheresville, but he was still able to attract a crowd Tea Party hotbed Tarrant County on Sunday.  The most surprising aspect of the overflow event, was the hostility of attendees towards Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas).  The Texas Tribune has the skinny on the increasing disillusionment with Cruz in his “home state.”

[O]ver and over in conversations, members of this racially diverse, mostly evangelical crowd expressed revulsion toward the other GOP candidates, including home state U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cathy Singleton, a Frisco flight attendant, has admired Carson since she heard him speak at an event in Branson, Missouri. 

“I think he has a big shot. We were discussing it earlier today,” she said gesturing to her husband, James. “So far, he is the only candidate we haven’t caught in a lie. I don’t like to vote for people that have lied consistently. He’s an honest campaigner.”   

Singleton confirmed her comments alluded to Cruz’s recent campaign turbulence: accusations that his campaign deceived Iowa Republicans into believing Carson was dropping out of the race there, and charges that a Cruz staffer shared an online video that falsely purported to show U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida making a negative comment about the Bible. 

“Before that, I was looking at some of the other candidates thinking, ‘Yeah, well, you know, maybe’,” she said. “But if someone’s going play that dirty with someone in their own party, they’re going to do that to anyone.”  

The Carson supporters who gathered Saturday showed no bias for the Texas candidate. The overriding sentiment expressed was disillusionment.  

Carolyn Nelson is a retired educator and real estate agent from Irving. She said she voted early for Carson because he serves as a positive contrast to the “bullish stupid activities that’s going on with the other candidates.” 

“I have no anger toward him,” she said of Cruz. “But I have no trust in him at all. He makes me nervous. I think he is dishonest. I thought he was dishonest before Trump called him a liar. I just would not vote for him.” 

Linton Davis is an operations manager at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant. He called Cruz “a politician,” as if the term was an ad hominem attack. 

“The thing that makes Ted a politician is… not what he says, but the way he says it and the things he will do,” he said. “He plays dirty pool… There’s a sense with Ted that it’s an ends-justifies-the-means type attitude.” 

More Bad News for Cruz

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The bad polling results in his home state keep piling up for Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas).  A SurveyUSA poll conducted for WFAA-TV in Dallas released on Wednesday shows Cruz and Donald Trump tied at 32% among likely and actual GOP primary voters.  The poll was taken after the South Carolina primary but before the results of the Nevada caucuses were known.  Cruz continues to poll well with self-described “very conservative” voters but is a walking disaster with moderates – getting on 18% support from that group.

In a very sick way, Red would like to see Cruz nominated because he believes that the Tea Party firebrand would go down in flames in a general election and likely never be heard from again as a serious candidate for president.  But even a remote chance of a Cruz victory is much too dangerous for this country.  However, if Cruz loses this go round, we undoubtedly have not heard the last from him.  That is, unless somehow Texas miraculously wakes up and boots him out of the Senate in 2018.  Not holding Red’s breath.

Bad News for Cruz

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The latest Texas poll shows Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) barely edging out Donald Trump with Marco Rubio nipping at all 4 heels.  The Emerson College Polling Society  poll of “likely primary voters” shows Cruz at 29%, Trump at 28% and Rubio with 25%.  For reasons Red will never fathom, Rubio has the highest favorability rating among Texas GOP voters at 64% with only 29% viewing the Florida senator unfavorably.  Cruz trails with 56% to 41% favorable/unfavorable ratio.  Trump brings up the rear among the frontrunners with a 45% to 50% favorable/unfavorable deficit.

If Cruz cannot carry Texas by a fairly wide margin, it’s time for the Junior Senator to hang up the “argument boots” and go back to doing the job that he was elected to do and apparently hates so much.   The only losers will be his colleagues in the Senate – not one of whom has seen fit to endorse the Tea Party firebrand .