Endorsement #1: Would a liberal blogger really pick Ensign over Carter?
Yep. But it’s got nothing to to with politics.
Jack Carter meets the basic qualifications of running for the Senate. He’s over thirty. He’s been a citizen of the United States for nine years. He is a citizen of the State of Nevada — for two whole years, lucky us. It’s been nice to see President Carter and the various other celebrity that Carter has brought to the race. But Jack Carter is going to lose, no matter who anybody endorses. Boy was his race exciting, but Carter never had the chops to be a Senate Candidate. He’s got no gravitas. His speaking is an abuse of the speaker’s privilige — often droning on well past his welcome, just because people are too polite to leave. 
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where these things didn’t matter? Wouldn’t it be great if it were 1938, and it didn’t matter how things looked on TV. Are we not endorsing Carter because he talks in circuits and not in straight lines? Absolutely not. It’s silly to focus on the trivial. Our endorsement of Ensign is this: Ensign will be better for Nevada.
Bla bla bla, he’s so coneservative and it’s a travesty that he (insert super conservative party-line vote/democratic dogma attack here), how could you — a defender of intellectual honesty — endorse such a slimebag? Because a lot of times, we’ll be going to meet some friends across the valley and a twenty-minute drive takes an hour and a half. And, with Ensign in line to hold a position in the upper eschelons of the Republican pork factory is appealing. Frankly, Nevada needs the money.
If the Democrats can keep their shoes tied tight enough to win the Senate back, it won’t have anything to do with Nevada. It’ll have to do with Ohio, Tennesee, Rhode Island, Montana and Pennsylvania. But NOT Nevada. Democrats have a better shot at beating John McCain in Arizona. “But wait, I’ve got this hackneyed partisan poll result to show you and post in the comments.” Yeah. That poll is wrong. Don’t believe us? Let’s chat on November 8th.
Jack Carter is a nice guy. He’s genuine, we suppose. But we’ve seen nothing about him that leads us to believe his first term would be anything more than a mundane six years of missteps and embarrassment from the man who comforted Tahoe voters with “I’ll admit I’m a carpetbagger — but I want to be YOUR carpetbagger.” And, when we vote for our bland do-nothings, we’d rather have they have some sort of access to power. We’re voting out of our own self-interest, and today we’re interested in Federal Highway Funds and block grants. We’re against Earmarks, until we realize that earmarks are going to give millions of dollars to UNR and UNLV in the next budget. Did you know there’s a Harry Reid building at UNR? Guess how he paid for it… PORK!
Pork is what keeps states like Nevada in the game against lumbering giants like Illinois, Michigan — places with more electoral votes. And the more senior our Senate Delegation, the better. Since Nevada’s not going to play a big hand in the Democratic Revolution that re-takes the Senate, we may as well vote in our own rational self-interests. Just in case the tide isn’t big enough to re-take the whole affair, well, then we should probably hedge our bets a little bit and have a Senior republican somewhere in the ranks.
As a democrat, we like that Jack Carter has captivated the activists and the blogfolk and the lefties. It’ll really help the rest of the ticket out… maybe. Carter’s field operation its all but guaranteed to work for all the democrats running down the ticket. If anything, his candidacy has been a public service down the ticket. Jack Carter’s race will probably help Laurayne Murray the most — she’s the democrat running for Sherer’s old seat out in Nye County-ish area. That may be the only county Carter wins, and Murray’s got a great chance to ride his coattails.
Plus, look at that hair.
Similar Posts:
Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or subscribe to my feed. You also can sign up for email delivery by clicking here.
Yeah, the guys got good hair! But really, thanks for your critical thinking and tight argument.
We had to think of something disarming to sign off with. Because really, we’re not excited about the idea of supporting Ensign, and didn’t want to confuse people, or lead them to think we were especially fervent one way or the other.
If Ensign doesn’t appeal to you, then don’t endorse him.
This is a cowardly way out.
To back him you are supporting Bush, like it or not.
He does have good hair. I’ve never had that good of hair. Even when I was a child.
Susan: It’s people like you that made us shy away from Carter first place. When you call the folks who support candidates you don’t like cowards, you’re just as bad as the president you reject. This brand of simple-minded rhetoric is a disgrace to the polticial politics. But, it takes all stripes, so thanks for commenting.
GingerMan: When we were younger, we had MUCH better hair than we do today. But even then, it came nowhere close to Senator Ensign’s.
Thank you for the insightful commentary of Ensign and Carter. I’m sorry but Nevada isn’t ready to have a carpetbagger for a senator. Especially when our senators seem to work together pretty well and therefore have a lot of pull together.
Yes, Ensign (and Reid) have really delivered (see Daily Kos post here for statistics):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/27/19921/9310
States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:
1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)
I guess Carter could drag us down to below New Hampshire (48th), or worse, so I guess your endorsement holds some water. Please, we are getting porked, not pork!
Carter might be a nice guy but will get 30% of the vote– if that.
2 years of living in NV? and he expected to be elected to the US Senate?
try the state senate first!
Dagnummit MMP! Sometimes, its the principle that’s important. Ensign and his ultra conservative religious agenda completely skeeves me out. And what skeeves me out even more is that he’s so good at hiding it. He’s just waiting for his time to arrive.
More responses en banc.
NVlaw: When pulling two-year-old studies that you found on a blog that links to another blog that links to a nonprofit that no longer endorses its findings, you should keep in mind two things. 1) It didn’t include military spending, like the money the government spends to support all those families over on Nellis Air Force Base or Fallon’s NAS; and, 2) It Doesn’t take into account the amount that is spent on services for the indigent.
Did you notice that the states that get the most money are the poorest (like Mississippi and Arkansas) and those that got the most are the richest (like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Colorado, et cetera). Nevada’s median income is still way above the national averag — so there just isn’t the volume of folks receiving federal assistance that other states would have.
Wiley: We’re not sure that Carter ever expected to be elected to the Senate. But we’re pretty sure his “home” in Las Vegas is in a Republican-held Senate District.
Myrna: Maybe we’ve been doing this too long to think that principle is all too significant. Even so, we read about Ensign and his prayer circles — and we don’t really see that as part of a religious agenda. We could be wrong, but don’t see much of a threat at this time, and we’re pretty dialed-in.
Plus, damnit, Myrna: the Hair! Look at the beautiful hair. It’s hypnotic.
If government by god isn’t a religious agenda, I dont know what is. Perhaps its because I am a staunch supporter of reproductive rights and Ensign, Brownback, Kyl etc. are determined to take us back to legislate us back to the stoneage where the women all stayed home to take care of the house and the kids(they could afford it then) and the men supported their families with union jobs. Oh, except, God doesn’t believe in unions, headstart programs for the kiddies, and healthcare for poor women and children. However, God does support business. PTL
Ha! Somebody linked to DailyKos in the comments. That makes me happy!
Yeah, that’s us. RenoKos. Give me a break. You realize that you the post you just read was an endorsement of a Republican don’t you?
“Skeeves me out.” From the Italian “mi fa schifo.” Or “Che schifo.” Butchered by New Jersey Italo-Americani; and thus Myrna is obviously from New Jersey. Solid. Ensign is not schifo, but voting for him is — even if you’re from New Jersey. Any why the hell does seniority justify voting for him — especially with Reid? In Alaska they have Uncle Ted and some dudette named Murkowski. Uncle Ted seems to be more than enough for their bridges to nowehere. Or is this all just a cynical, ironically detached approach to politics? Politics as kitsch-cool? Or maybe Myrna has a pet project in mind? I mean, there’s a war on that started with fraud folks. This election is not about highway funds.
Let’s get serious here. Which one of the candidates can bring sexy back? Who can deliver sexy to the voters? It takes a lot of work to bring something like sexy back–after all, it’s been gone for quite a while. I say, whomever can bring sexy back is the way I have to vote. I have principles.
Speculator, notice that MMP endorses Ensign, not I.
Here’s the latest DEFENSE spending statistics, putting Nevada at 80% of what the rest of the Nation receives, per capita:
http://www.nemw.org/fedspend4.htm
Not much pork sizzling here. In fact, a real low-fat diet Ensign has us on. We did beat out Utah, for last place in U.S. 2004 per capita defense spending, though. God Bless You, John Ensign!
The pork gets extremely rancid, when you look at the March 16, 2006 update issued by taxfoundation.org (the source that found its way to Daily Kos in 2004):
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html
In 2006, Nevada remains at $0.73 received back per $1.00 of taxes paid in, but now we vaulted ahead of Minnesota, to reach a lofty tie with Illinois for the 46th worst recompensed State in the U.S.
A March, 2006 Special Report by the Tax Foundation bears out the earlier news items regarding the Silver State.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr139.pdf
Careful, folks, this Report is 8 pages long, is in small type, and has big words, and numbers, too, all of which is factual.
The uninformed critic might imply there is more recent information than United States Census data from 2004, further implying a sunnier reality for us on Election Eve 2006. Sadly, there is not. But fortunately for Sen. Ensign, even when official information is widely and readily available from credible sources, the pundits, posers, prognosticators and posters convince themselves, and many of their followers, that Nevada is getting such a great deal from the Feds that returning the Senator to Washington, D.C. must be in Nevada’s best interest.
Even a casino cashier knows when he is presented with a $100.00 bill, he should provide $100 back in change!
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
http://www.census.gov/govs/www/cffr.html
You have to be careful about lumping all federal money into the category of “pork”. A lot of federal money comes into states in the form of matching $$$. Nevada is a fiscally conservative state and does not always pay out the federal maximum, which makes the total amount of money that we receive smaller than other states.
It’s easy to post statistics, but something else to really understand the complexities that make them. Are there any sources that list the number of federal earmarks that go to building projects which include the sponsor’s name?
I’ll be sure to remember your sick butt when Prez and his Ensign seated congress put the draft into place just in time to invade Iraq. Disappointing. Won’t be reading your stuff any longer, MMP.
Got nothing much against Ensign. He works fairly well with the Reid Machine and various N. Nevada mafias.
But if you want to “send a message” or whatever, vote all the mofos out.
And then we’re left with what, Reid? Pelosi? Eh, best not to think about that right now. Run the rats out of town, and then burn the whole town to the ground.
Actually, Ken’s right. I wish we start from scratch, remove all the money from politics–no more TV ads–force some of these guys to interact with the voters more often before getting elected.
I gotta disagree with you, Myrna. Endorsing Ensign - to any degree - is to endorce the fact that his superficial sops to Nevada’s voters forgives the party line vote on everything. That might be forgivable = or more forgivable- if there was a distinction between “Republican” and Administration positons, but there simply is no disticntion for Ensign. If there’s a oonflict between even republican principles and the administration, principles - and Nevada - lose.
Carter may not be a polished spitter of sound bites, but he actually has something to say, and it’s worth waiting to get to the point.
When Ensign talks - well, he talks very well; he’s a polished performance artist. But it you actually think back to what he said, you realize that he didn’t say anything.
Carter is simply the better choice as a working Senator. He’s got ethics, he’s got related business experience, he’s got an educated thinking brain and he has the ability to say something I found totally surprising.
I asked for his position on something - and his answer was “I don’t know.”
Honesty appeals to me.