Cassandra, Congress, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks

We Can See You

You know the political heat is getting to the Republicans because they are doing increasingly stupid things. Let’s take a look at some examples. First up, Blake Masters, the cyborg running for the Senate in Arizona. He’s doing terribly in the polls, partly because he is an unappealing human being, and partly because he’s a total fake. He’s also kind of stupid.

For example, his response to the backlash Republican candidates are facing from voters in the aftermath of Dobbs was to…delete his opposition to abortion from his campaign website. Pretty slick, huh? He then immediately went on the offensive to complain about how unfair Mark Kelly was being to him:

And he would have gotten away with it too, if not for you meddling kids! One thing that these awful GOP candidates never seem to glean is that people passionately dislike them and keep tabs on their activities. Such was the case with Masters:

And this:

Eventually the media caught up with the story:

Now at this point you would think Masters had learned his lesson. Think again:

 

And lest you think Masters is special in his own unique way, he’s not.

Tom Barrett, running in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, removed language saying he would “always work to protect life from conception.”

And in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, since winning the May 17 primary, Republican Bo Hines has removed his “life and family” issues section from his website, which previously linked to a fundraising page touting his belief “that life begins at conception and that we must protect the rights of the unborn.”

I can’t even with these people.

Never to slack off when it comes to lying, other Republicans pulled their own stunts. First up, Lee Zeldin, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in New York. He was attacked at a campaign stop. OK, actually a drunk veteran who doesn’t remember how he got to the rally tried to take the microphone from Zeldin and Zeldin immediately turned it into an assassination attempt.

He then began squawking about how the criminal justice system in New York was broken because the would-be assassin was released without having to post bail. Except, since Zeldin is a Republican, his arrogance led him to skip a few steps to build a believable lie:

These people, right?

Finally let’s talk about Ron DeSantis. Earlier in August he triumphantly announced he had found widespread voter fraud in Florida’s 2020 election. There was one catch though:

After Donald Trump pushed the lie of mass voter fraud in 2020, Florida Republicans created an investigative unit to uncover “election crimes.” It was obvious that this office would continue the work that GOP lawmakers began in the wake of Amendment 4: persecuting Floridians who made the honest mistake of voting despite a disqualifying conviction. That, of course, is exactly what happened. It appears that most if not all of the 20 men and women arrested by DeSantis’ election police did not realize they were not allowed to vote due to disqualifying convictions. They believed, in good faith, that they could exercise their civil rights.

But they did not reach this conclusion on their own. As Politico’s Matt Dixon has reported, these defendants were told by Florida officials that they were legally permitted to vote. And because they believed these officials, they now face up to five years in prison for the crime of voter fraud.

In affidavits and media interviews, defendants share the same tragic story: They filled out a voter registration card; their county election office approved it, telling them they could vote; they cast a ballot in 2020; and now they are charged with a felony offense. Because local election officials approved each registration, DeSantis’ spokespeople have sought to blame them for failing to uncover the disqualifying convictions. This accusation conveniently overlooks a crucial fact: Florida law tasks the state government with flagging felony convictions that bar a resident from registering to vote. It wasn’t local officials who dropped the ball. It was the DeSantis administration.

We’re going to find out that he ordered local officials find and approve those applications, right? Mini TFG gonna Mini TFG.

Take it away, Annie!