Associated Press
Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) has joined a growing club.
It was only a matter of time before Republican candidates started facing the question: do you agree with Mitt Romney, your party's presidential nominee, about 47 percent of the population being lazy freeloaders who refuse to "take responsibility" for their lives?
Yesterday, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) and Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon (R) both distanced themselves from Romney. They're starting to get some company.
Incumbent Sen. Dean Heller, who is in a tight race with Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley [in Nevada], played up his blue-collar background, telling POLITICO he doesn't "view the world the same way" as Romney. [...]
"You got to understand, I grew up with five brothers and sisters. My father was an automechanic. My mother was a school cook. I just don't view the world the same way he does," Heller said Wednesday. "Every vote in Nevada counts, every vote. And as a United States senator, my job is represent every one of those votes, whether they voted for me or against me," Heller added.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) also rejected Romney's comments. "We have a lot of people that are at the poverty level in New Mexico, but they count just as much as anybody else," Martinez said. "There is a net that does allow them to be caught and taken care of, whether it be through medical services, whether it be food services, whether it be with funding for apartments, for housing.... I think, certainly the fact that New Mexico provides that safety net is a good thing."
This morning, Ovide Lamontagne, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New Hampshire, appeared in a debate and also distanced himself from Romney's perspective. "The governor of New Hampshire needs to be a governor for all the people, and there's no 47 percent in New Hampshire as far as I'm concerned," Lamontagne said.
And in North Carolina, Mark Meadows, a Republican congressional candidate running in a center-right district, joined the club. "It might come as a surprise, but Mitt Romney didn't call me before he made those comments and ask for my advice," Meadows said. "I'm concerned about all 750,000 people. I am here to represent the people of this district."
Having so many in the GOP publicly reject Romney's rhetoric isn't going to help the presidential hopeful.
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Hopefully, this will cause them to not vote for him also. Can't you feel the Idiot wind?
I feel it! I feel it!
Can I use "Idiot wind"?
I like that !
As candidates turn publicly on Romney, we all know they privately are on the same page....Say anything to get elected then do God work and dirty tricks latter.
2010 showed us the scam, 2012 is no different..
Take it upon yourself to help regester your friends, and the ones that are, tell them about absentee ballots....
This year the democratic party needs a landslide victory in all elections the President, House, Senate all state, and local ............
Think landslide not just a win...........
That is so true but people will believe them.
Just like jobs, jobs, jobs by that I mean abortion.
These politicians will do anything to get elected. It is sickening.
If only twitt would make clearer his plan to put 40million people back to work..
The South is in play, hit it hard with a jobs plan..
Or we could cut a trillion dollars and luz a couple million jobs..
I don't know but I could see how the demographic "poor person afraid of luzing his/her job" would be heavily republican because the "government" hasn't really put forth another option to "trickle down" (oversight?), i.e. vote for big biz if you want to keep your @!$%#ty job...?. So what I guess I'm saying is that "Clinton Economics" needs to be "owned" and a catchier name,,,?.
You didn't really believe that the rest of the GOP would actually agree with Rawmoney on the record, did you? Puhlease! They may feel that way in private, but they would never, ever say so publicly, they at least have that much sense! Funny thing is that if you go by the numbers and the statistics there are more white people receiving these "freebies" than there are minorities receiving these "freebies" - sad part is it is these same white people supporting the GOP and their quest to do away with those "freebies"!
The red state "free-loaders" are the very ones sucking off the system they detest for everyone else, what hypocrisy!
All Dems have to do is dig up the candidates old statements about welfare, SS, Medicare, student loans and the Ryan budget. What Republicans said before Romney is just as or more important as what they are saying now. But even if they haven't said much, their votes are on record. Dems should tie Romney around the necks of the Republicans and yell "Albatross" (all credit to Monty Python for this imagery).
So NOW GOP wants to count "every" vote? But, but, but what happened to voter fraud?
Not hearing from PA GOP - where ya at? Oh, I forgot, the host of the "secret" $50,000 a plate dinner party is the co-owner of the Phila. 76ers! Guess, PA GOP has to be careful to not insult a contributor to their campaigns.
Heller specific phrasing was particularly damning, and Team Obama should find a way to get it into a commercial. It concedes that Richie Romney doesn't have the same worldview as those who have a mechanic for a father or a cook for a mother -- and there are a whole lot more people with those parents in the swing states than there are people whose fathers owned multi-billion dollar car companies. Beautiful.
There are many voices in this choir, but on concert night, they ALL SING THE SAME SONG! Who cares that on the off days, they don't share the same preferences?
Republicans in safe seats can afford to back Romney to some degree. Those in competitive races must distance themselves as soon as possible, or risk being pulled down with the sinking Romney ship.
That tells you that these competitive Republicans have decided that Mitt's comments (if not yet Mitt himself) are a drag on their own race. So, no coat-tails for Mitt's GOP Senate hopefuls!
At some point, Crossroads GPS and the others will pull their money from Mitt and concentrate on trying to take the Senate. Races like Heller's and Brown's and Thompson's. We can only hope that they make the move too late.
There's a reason it's called an "October Surprise." The fact that Mother Jones released this video in mid-September shows that they are not just an arm of the Obama campaign, but concerned about not getting scooped.
I note he said "Every vote in Nevada counts, every vote." Not every person. Not every citizen. Every vote.
One means he is committed to actual human difference and struggle. The other is a commitment to his re-election. Big difference.
The good news is, after Romney gets through imploding and losing so bad he takes the party down the tubes with him, we won't have to worry about Mormons running for President again for a very long time.
Steve,
Linda McMahon’s media consultants have been busy reinventing her again. Her campaign sent you statements disavowing Mitt Romney’s comments. But the truth is McMahon agrees with Romney’s remarks about 47% of Americans.
She said so herself in a 2011 interview, stating, "Forty-seven percent of the people today don't pay any taxes, so let's have a fair tax code where everybody pays their taxes." She does not seem to know or care that this would raise taxes on the 47% of Americans including senior citizens with fixed incomes and families who are working multiple jobs to put food on the table. McMahon is saying this at a time when tax rates for millionaires and billionaires like herself are at the lowest level in over fifty years.
Linda McMahon has spent millions on an extreme image makeover and to spread lies about Chris Murphy. Thank goodness there are journalists who are committed to keeping the record straight. See link below.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/mcmahon-launches-second-senate-campaign#.UFnr365ciri
Thanks for your excellent work!
They got a present from Mitt. He showed them how it is best to not mention their own belief in this until after the election.
By the way I saw a trailer on Rush's reaction to the video and I wonder if he had to take a cold shower or change his shorts.
Keep those repugs in line Rush. You..@&#$@.
I used to rail against the tendency of rank and file Democrats to lose bladder control and collapse into a fetal position at the first sign of adversity in a presidential campaign. I used to be infuriated at the flurry of anonymously sourced backstabbing and scapegoating comments that would appear in the papers. I would rail at the way Democratic politicians would knock down little old ladies if they were between them the camera in their eagerness to distance themselves from their party's standard bearer.
I used to say "look at the Republicans! They don't do this kind of thing. If their presidential candidate was caught in compromising position with a goat, a hooker and a set of jumper cables connected to a car battery, all of them would be out the next day in lockstep claiming that everyone should engage in that conduct because it was a positive, objective good!"
Looks like that stuff I thought was characteristic of a weakness peculiar to Democrats is really just what Americans do when their party is on the wrong side of a realignment, the way Democrats were after the Reagan realignment. Sorry about that, guys.
i wonder if Mrs. Martinez will look at her husband and say, "Oh sh!t, we aren't Republicans" after this?
The biggest mistake the RNC ever made was getting rid of Michael Steele. good on MSNBC for giving him a job, he's fast becoming one of my favorite political analysts...
I saw him on the Daily show when they were in FL. You are probably right it was a big mistake for the RNC to fire him. But I am glad they did it because he came across as very sharp and knowledgeable. Much better than Prince Reibus. The Demos would be smart to hire him.
The RNC kicked Michael Steele to the curb because his wasn't the "face" they wanted to present to their base. Their loss. They don't deserve him in their corner. They didn't stay in his.
Yes, I've said before that I definitely missed affable Mike compared to pasty robotic Priebus. But I think some of his spending decisions affected his firing, too.
There's an aspect to Mitt's 47% comments that I haven't seen broached anywhere.
Yes, of course, some of the wait staff serving dinner may well be poor enough and have enough deductions to be amongst the 47% who don't pay income taxes.
But...there's also an excellent possibility that one of the $50,000-a-plate guests he was speaking to is one of those thousands of millionaires with enough tax shelters, foreign investments, and high-powered accountants to not pay income taxes, either.
I'd love for somebody like Rachel to see if that's the case, and to do a profile of said millionaire 47% no-income-tax donor. Even better, a comparison between a millionaire 47%er and a waiter 47%er at that fundraiser would be awesome.
Cheers,
b&
BTW, is this campaign rapidly starting to remind you of the old SNL Jon Lovitz catchphrase, "Yeah, that's it?"
Like, "Of course we like poor people - now. Yeah, that's it.""
I want to know one thing, "Who's going to translate the full secret tapes that mother jones published to SPANISH???? and then leak it to spanish tv for wide broadcast.