Tuesday Paul Krugman was ruminating on how lucky the GOP establishment is that the noisy mess that is Herr Trumpf is keeping people from focusing on “the hard right turn even conventional Republican candidates have taken, a turn whose radicalism would have seemed implausible not long ago. After all,” he wrote in his Times column, “you might have expected the debacle of George W. Bush’s presidency– a debacle not just for the nation, but for the Republican Party, which saw Democrats both take the White House and achieve some major parts of their agenda– to inspire some reconsideration of W-type policies. What we’ve seen instead is a doubling down, a determination to take whatever didn’t work from 2001 to 2008 and do it again, in a more extreme form.” He goes on to discuss the doubling down on Bush’s failed economic policies by all the Republican contenders and on his catastrophic foreign policies by most of them.

The decision to reject Bushism (again) will come for Florida voters not just in November, but in the Democratic Senate primary two months earlier, on August 30. That’s when brilliant and pugnacious Alan Grayson will have to overcome the supremely well-financed but supremely mediocre establishment puppet, Chuck Schumer and his Wall Street bankster allies have picked for the seat, Patrick Murphy, the weakest possible bulwark against a Bush agenda.

This week, Grayson wasn’t talking about Murphy, an “ex”-Republican, but about the current Republican whose seat he is hoping to fill, Marco Rubio. Many of his criticisms of Rubio, however, apply equally well to Murphy. “You know how it is. Politicians chop up the law into little pieces, sell those pieces to the highest bidder, and then gorge on the proceeds. They raise all the sewer money that they can– from lobbyists and PACs alike– and then they spend it on personal indulgences. I’m running for Marco Rubio’s seat in the Senate. Just ask Marco Rubio about that free back-waxing he got from the Florida GOP. I’m serious.”
Marco Rubio is now third in the GOP Presidential polls. The media repeats, ad nauseam, just two things about Rubio: (1) he’s a good-looking young man; and (2) he’s Hispanic! They somehow never mention that when he was Speaker of the Florida House, he obtained a Florida GOP credit card amply funded by corporate campaign contributions, and he charged thousands upon thousands of dollars of personal expenses on it.

Including a back-waxing. You can look it up.

Why doesn’t the media ever mention that? Why doesn’t Rubio ever get questioned about it at those frequent food fights called the GOP debates? I don’t know– maybe they all feel about Rubio the same way that Marc Antony felt about Brutus at Caesar’s funeral– “Brutus is an honourable man.” Not.

Yes, so much in campaign contributions are diverted to graft by “leaders” like Marco Rubio that no one even bothers to mention it anymore.

How about we try something else with campaign contributions: I reach out to you and other small donors to power our People Power campaign– and you help. First, it was to take an “R+4” House seat that nobody thought we could win. (In 2008, I beat a four-term GOP incumbent in a red district that the GOP had held for 34 years.) Now, it’s winning a seat in the Senate for our movement. After that, when I’m in the Senate in Rubio’s seat, I foreswear the lobbyist-funded back-waxing, I spend exactly 0 minutes kissing up to special interests and lobbyists, and I devote all my time to getting good things done for The People. Wouldn’t that be something completely different?

…Here’s something else worth mentioning about Marco Rubio– as far as I know, the only legislation that he has passed during his five years in the Senate is a resolution renaming September as National Spinal Cord Injury Month. Now, admittedly, September is overdue for a renaming. September is Latin for “seventh month,” and it’s not. But couldn’t Marco Rubio grapple with a more serious and pressing problem?

Rubio hasn’t renamed a Post Office yet. Maybe he should try that, next.

So tell me: Why, oh why, doesn’t the media ever mention Rubio’s infinitesimal list of accomplishments?

In contrast, the last bill that the House passed before the current recess had four Grayson provisions in it– one increasing funding for environmental protection for estuaries, one reversing GOP cuts for senior housing, and two extending “green energy” tax credits. I literally accomplished more in one day in the House than Rubio has accomplished in his five years in the Senate– by a wide margin.

How about we try something else with the power the comes from being an elected official: I reach out to you and other small donors to power our People Power campaign– and you help. Then, when I’m in the Senate in Rubio’s seat, I foreswear renaming months, and get lots and lots of good things done for The People. Wouldn’t that be something completely different?

…This is the path forward, toward the oldest new (and newest old) form of government: Government of the People, by the People and for the People. This is how to make real change, and make change real. Will you help, right here and right now?

Yesterday we updated a post about how dishonest, scammy campaigns try it manipulate donors and referred to a phony match qualification offer from the worst of the Schumercrats, Florida conservaDem and scam-artist Patrick Murphy. Soon after, he followed that e-mail up with another Beltway burn-the-lists classic:

This news just hit. Roll Call just said that this race “is a virtual must-win for Democrats to get back to the majority.”

The pressure is ON.

There is no way we can miss our FEC goal now. We only have 24 hours. Some of our best supporters are matching gifts right now.



This time a staffer at Grayson’s campaign responded with an e-mail of their own, mocking Murphy and the rest of the corrupt little sleaze bags like him who flood our in-boxes with this junk:

Our primary opponent, Patrick Murphy, sent me a fundraising email this morning claiming I’d “qualified” for a match program. I’m sure you’ve seen emails like this before. Politicians trying to trick you into donating by saying your contribution will be doubled– or even tripled.

I’m here to tell you, your contribution will not be matched.

It’s a slick trick– and I’m sure it works– but our campaign doesn’t need to lie to supporters in order to motivate them. All we have to do is tell the truth, and let you do the rest.

Your gift will not be matched, but it will 100% support sending a progressive champion like Congressman Alan Grayson to the United States Senate. That’s better than qualifying for a fake match.