Guy Who Said Conservatives Should "Kill The Claire Bear" Can't Figure Out Why Democrats Think Akin's Views Are Outside the Mainstream

When we last heard from St. Louis-based tea party activist Scott Boston, he was telling a Missouri tea party audience the following about Senator McCaskill:

“She walks around like she’s some sort of Rainbow Brite Care Bear or something but really she’s an evil monster.” “We have to kill the Claire Bear,” he added.

This prompted additional security at Senator McCaskill's events and a harsh rebuke from the Post-Dispatch.

Today, as you can see from the above tweet, Boston is absolutely shocked about a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee email that stated the following:

From his record to his rhetoric, everything about Todd Akin’s Tea Party policies are outside of the mainstream and dangerous for Missouri families.

Noting first that the email was referring to Todd Akin's policies, rather than "conservatives," why would anyone think that Akin's policies are "dangerous" and "outside the mainstream"?  Well, aside from the fact that Akin refused to condemn Boston's "kill the Claire Bear" comments, here are a few reasons:

• The Hill: Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) voted against the creation of a national sex offender registry and against reauthorizing a program that assists runaway and homeless children.
• On CSPAN: In March 2011, Akin said he doesn't like Social Security. "Now, Social Security through the years, for many, many people, has been a terrible investment. It's really a tax, that's all it is. Social Security is a tax. The government has taken the tax. There's been more money coming in than going out. And we spend it. That's not been responsible. I don't like it. I didn't design Social Security. It actually came from Bismarck, FDR put it in place." [CSPAN Washington Journal]
• Fired Up Missouri: ...when giving an interview to Greg Knapp on KCMO, republican extremist Todd Akin stated that he would ban emergency contraception because he "believes it is abortion," and he would ban it for everyone, with no exceptions.
• The Washington Post: In 2012, Akin was one of 24 to vote against the Training and Research for Autism Improvements Nationwide Act; 147 Republicans voted for it. A GOP press release described this as an effort to “advance training and education for autism service providers” so that “autistic children and adults can lead fuller, happier and healthier lives.”
• And: In 2010, Akin was one of only 13 to vote No on a motion “expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program.” 155 Republicans voted for it.
• And: In 2009, Akin was one of 11 to vote against a measure “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance.” 152 Republicans voted for it.
• Buzzfeed: Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin drew fire from fellow Republicans in the '90s for praising a private militia group associated with extreme anti-abortion actions, according to a 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.
• Mediaite: Rep. Akin, a veteran and father of three Marines, clues us in about his confusion on the issue with very inarticulate language:

  There is a misunderstanding. If people are gay, they can serve in the military now. It’s just that they can’t allow their ‘gayness’ to get in the way of getting the mission done.

I could go on, but life is too short.

So yeah, even if you don't think that conservatives are "dangerous" and "outside the mainstream" you certainly have reasons for thinking that Akin's policies are.

John Brunner's Favorite Candidate Pat Buchanan Ousted From MSNBC Over Racist Book

MSNBC, after years of pleading, has finally gotten rid of Pat Buchanan because of racially-charged language in Buchanan's latest book. Buchanan, as pointed out by Think Progress, has a long history of bigotry, and included chapters in his book titled, "The Death of White America," and "The Death of Christian America."

But the local angle is that despite Buchanan's long history, Republican Missouri Senate candidate John Brunner has been a huge supporter of Buchanan. Brunner was Buchanan's state campaign chair when Buchanana ran for president, and donated thousands of dollars to his campaign, even when Buchanan jumped from the Republican Party to the Reform Party. Check out Progress Missouri for all the gory details.

Todd Akin Seems Proud of His Ability to Convey False Information

First Todd Akin's senate campaign sent out a press release that strongly implied, without actually saying, that he had been endorsed by Paul Ryan.

Then his political director tweeted that he had been endorsed by Paul Ryan:

And on Mark Reardon's show, Akin clearly dodged Reardon's question about whether Ryan's statement was actually an endorsement:



By the way, Todd Akin was not endorsed by Paul Ryan.

What seems so strange to me is that pretending it's an endorsement seems to have so little added value (assuming you think being endorsed by a guy who wants to end Medicare as we know it is valuable) over just saying that Paul Ryan likes Akin's Congressional record. Why not just be honest and upfront about the fact that it wasn't an official endorsement? And it's not like he could possibly think that no one would find out that it wasn't a real endorsement. The only explanation I can think of is that he's trying to prove to the tea party types that he can play that "passing on wildly false information without technically lying" game they're so found of. But even so, he failed, because his political director falsely claimed that he was endorsed by Ryan.

Tea Party Blog: Ann Wagner is "Insider" Who Hangs Out In D.C. Swamps

Now that Dana Loesch has officially tugged Bill Hennessy's leash to prevent him from criticizing Ann Wagner on behalf of Ed Martin, that job has apparently been outsourced to other tea party members.

Some quotes from 24th State:

Ann Wagner had an event yesterday and one today in the feted[sic] swamp of Washington, D.C.

And:

Say what you will, those are not the trappings of an outsider candidate. Not that Ms. Wagner has presenter her as such. I just prefer outsider candidates.

Pretty mild mannered criticism, but it's interesting that Ed Martin's folks seem to be doing most of the attacking lately.

By the way, I think he probably meant "fetid" swamp.

Update: Forgot to mention that this line of attack just happens to correspond perfectly to one Ed Martin was pushing in his tweets:

Blast From The Past: Akin Joked About Democrats Being Lynched

Joan Walsh of Salon reminded me on Twitter today of a nasty incident from Todd Akin's past, which seems very much in line with his recent hateful comments about liberals. Via Fired Up, here's Rachel Maddow's coverage of Todd Akin joking about Democratic politicians being lynched (comments about Akin start at the 4:33 mark):

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Joking about lynching Democratic politicians. Saying that the "core of liberalism" is a "hatred for God." Saying that "seculars" want to "snuff out the light of freedom." America is a country that should and occasionally does celebrate informed, reasonable discussions between people with different ideologies. A hateful extremist like Akin who demonizes his political opponents should not be allowed anywhere near the U.S. Congress, let alone the Senate.

Ann Wagner Defends Dick Lugar From Tea Party Attacks

Jo Mannies at the Beacon reported that Ann Wagner will be co-hosting a fundraiser for Dick Lugar, who's trying to fend off a likely primary challenge from tea party favorite Richard Mourdock:

Some of the region's most prominent Republican activists -- including Sam Fox, Roy Pfautch and possible U.S. Senate candidate Ann Wagner -- are co-hosting a fundraising event later this month to aid veteran U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who's facing a stiff primary challenge in 2012.

It continues:

Fox's letter goes on to warn that Lugar is expected "to face a formidable competitor" in 2012. What it doesn't mention is that the rival, for the moment, is a prominent fellow Republican: Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who is apparently close to the Tea Party movement in his state.

In fact, the Washington publication The Hill reports this week that some Indiana GOP members of Congress, including Mike Pence, are declining to endorse Lugar's re-election, choosing instead to remain neutral.

Earlier in the year, Lugar told the tea party to "get real" because of their opposition to the START treaty.

Phyllis Schlafly Vs. The Facts

Another great post from Hotflash at Show Me Progress about the Ed Martin forum where Martin supporters where outnumbered and outdebated by supporters of the Affordable Care Act. This one is of Phyllis Schlafly's factually-challenged speech about "Obamacare:"

Sean at Fired Up Missouri also had a nice roundup of the coverage of Ed Martin's failed event.

Ed Martin Forgets His Supporters, Claims People "Know How To Be Civil"

Ed Martin today grumbled about a forum on civility being hosted by Representatives Russ Carnahan and Jo Ann Emerson, saying "People know how to be civil:"

Apparently Ed Forgot his supporters, who shrieked and threw boots at a photo of Russ Carnahan before setting the photo on fire, and then carried a coffin to Carnahan's home the next day.

Here's some video of Ed's campaigners:


At that same rally, the tea party set a photo of Carnahan on fire:


And Ed Martin was supportive all the way:

So yeah Ed, you really should look into attending that conference. You might learn a thing or two. Oh? And the reason why your "Obamacare" forum was "civil," despite the fact that health care reform supporters massively outnumbered your crowd? Because the people who disagreed with you were polite, unlike the screamers from the tea party two years ago.

Don't Worry: Ed Martin Says He's Only Incompetent At Filing Financial Reports for the House

Political observers were rather worried about Ed Martin's complete inability to accurately file routine financial reports for runs at office:

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Ed Martin's revised campaign-finance filing for his defunct congressional campaign has prompted new questions about his initial faulty report, which listed more than $50,000 in post-election contributions that actually were made prior to the election.

But don't worry, says Martin, that was only for his run for Congress, and doesn't have anything to do with his senate race:

In any case, Martin underscored that the report and the errant contribution dates dealt with his congressional campaign -- not his new bid for the U.S. Senate. A separate Senate campaign committee and bank account are being set up, he said.

I'm really glad he underscored that because...well...OK, actually I have no idea why he underscored that. It still seems just as pathetic and doesn't do anything to get him off the hook for remarkable incompetence. His excuse is "the standard defection of campaign workers after Nov. 2." But if that were a good excuse, shouldn't we have seen roughly 435 X 2 FEC reports that were just as disastrous as his?

Or Not In Defense of Claire McCaskill...

OK, so I just got done defending Senator McCaskill's relatively mild comments about health care reform. However, it's also worth pointing out a couple of things she's done that are pretty clear pandering to the far Right and do fall into the terrible political strategy of a Democrats pretending to be Republicans. First, her suggestion of spending caps is horrible given that, were it passed, it would appear to inevitably lead to cuts in social security. And though I think there's little chance of it passing, McCaskill's public comments feed perfectly into the long-running Republican narratives about "spending bad! government bad!" that prevent progress from occurring. Then there's her recent decision to co-sponsor a bill with Senator Rockefeller preventing the EPA from regulating carbon emissions for two years. As pointed out by Ed S. on my facebook wall, this would not only be damaging in itself, but also would inevitably lead to a situation similar to the Bush tax cuts, where gutless politicians reframe the debate as if letting the temporary act expire would be some new radical change. There are some things we can plausibly put off for political reasons: but acting on climate change is not one of those.

It's also surely worth nothing that the far Right is very clear that they are not impressed by Democrats who try to pander to them:

I'm sure tea partiers aren't really the people Senator McCaskill is trying to reach, as they are nowhere near the center, even in Missouri. However, as Maddow noted, history has shown that running as a conservadem is not a winning strategy. Robin Carnahan's attempts to distance herself from Obama did not gain her any ground. McCaskill has an extremely tough challange in attempting to win in Missouri, but she can't do it by adopting the Republican line on core issues.

Ed Martin Files Amended Statement And Still Gets It Wrong on His Big Oil Donations

FiredUp has all the gory details of Ed Martin finally getting around to finishing up his embarrassingly bad attempt at the simple act of filing a campaign finance report. Martin had originally reported having $175,514 cash on hand, then said it was more like $40,000, and now he admits he only has $25,317. There are other strange discrepancies as well.

I looked through the itemized donations, and noticed that he got $4,000 from Conoco Phillips Spirit PAC.

Actually, it looks like he still managed to get his report wrong, since the aggregate donations from those two donations of $2,000 should of course be $4,000. This fits nicely with the $5,000 he received from Exxon throughout the campaign. But remember how huffy he gets if anyone suggests that he's a Big Oil candidate?

Martin also received a $2,000 donation from insurance company WellPoint, to make it $3,000 for the campaign.


There's no indication that Martin ever paid his former communications director for her past work. I guess Martin is standing by his retroactive decision that those would be "volunteer hours."

So, in summary, when I look for a Senator, I know I sure want someone who's a willing tool of Big Oil and Big Insurance companies who can't manage to pay his employees and somehow continuously messes up basic disclosure forms even when under increased scrutiny, don't you?

Ed Martin Joins Crazy Call To Defund Public Education in Missouri

Ed Martin tweeted the following today:

The link went to a page calling on the Missouri Legislature to send back tens of millions of dollars in federal money for education in Missouri that had already been allocated. Senator Lembke has said the following about the federal education money:

"The state of Missouri should take a stand," said Lembke, R-St. Louis. "If the federal government's not going to live within their means, then we've got to show them how to do that."

As pointed out by FiredUp, the idea of taking money from children to try to score cheap political points is nuts. But I guess nothing Ed Martin does surprises me anymore.

Ed Martin's Financial Disclosure Flub: Part of a Pattern

Sean at FiredUp Missouri linked to a story in the Hill that caught Ed Martin falsely reporting having nearly $200,000 in the bank in his FEC report. Jake Wagman at the Post-Dispatch of course simply regurgitated Martin's claim that it was a "computer error," but Sean has presented some good reasons for thinking that even Ed Martin's amended comments are suspicious, especially considering that he now claims he had no activity in Q4 according to PoliticMo.

Of course, this isn't exactly new territory for Martin. During his failed bid for Congress, he filed his financial disclosure forms 300 days late because he was "really busy." Sure is interesting how much difficulty Ed Martin has with basic things like reporting his finances, and how it's always someone else's fault.

Amazing Coincidence! "No Sarah Steelman" Talking Points Exact Same As Ed Martin's!

There's a new Twitter account up with the moniker @noSarahSteelman. In what can only be described as an amazing coincidence, the first two talking points of that Twitter account just happen to be the exact two talking points Ed Martin mentioned in his radio interview yesterday when he was asked to differentiate himself from Steelman. Both claim that Steelman is against tort reform and supports the bogeyman SEIU, which does scary things like protecting workers' rights. Here are the first three @nosarahsteelman tweets:

And here's the interview with Ed Martin (which, BTW, alludes to a debunked conspiracy theory about SEIU):

DADT: Ed Martin Doesn't Need Silly Things Like Facts

Ed Martin claimed yesterday that "Democrats like Claire McCaskill" are "not the party of Missouri" because they support having a military that doesn't discriminate:

When Jennifer Haro, the person he was responding to with his "correction," pointed out how ridiculous his position is given that the vast majority of Americans fully support homosexuals serving in the military, Ed Martin responded by saying that he didn't need silly things like facts because he talks to Real Life Missourians, like, all the time:

Seriously, who would think that applying statistics to large samples of people would be a good way of gauging opinions when you can instead talk to people like Gina Loudon?

Haro let it rip on Martin, first pointing out Martin's support from Karl Rove's secretive donors:

Then linking to statistics that show that 77% of Americans supported the repeal of DADT:

And finally pointing out that maybe hanging out with people who carry coffins to Congressmen's homes and burn photos of them isn't the best way to get the sense of the average Missourian:

Ed Martin has been spending the last few weeks positioning himself for a run for office in 2012. Apparently, he thinks the best way to do that is to show how utterly clueless, out-of-touch, and regressive he is.