Sunday, January 06, 2008

...in with the New


Happy New Year, L St readers! Great to be back in this new even year. 2007 was a bit odd, no?

So here we go..


***


You may have seen that the Johanns camp has raised $1.5 million and has a mil COH now. The Flynn campaign will never know what hit them.


And MJ has a new intro video for his website and...it's a pleasant surprise. Shockingly, for a campaign, it actually looks like it was produced post 1985. There are no plants, and he's not even sporting a tie. Now, of course, it's a bit corny, and we think probably gives too much air time to Stephanie. But nonetheless, it comes across as upbeat, relaxed and modern. Not sure if this is a Schrock piece or not, but who ever put it together did a nice job.


***


On the "Dem" side, apparently Kleeb and Raimondo are going to make up their collective minds soon. Who really knows though, right?


As was reported last week, Paul Johnson is up from his Shreveport, Louisiana house to consult for Raimondo and probably put an easy $50K in the bank And Johnson went ahead and registered raimondo2008.com for Tony (according to the registration info). Nothing there yet...


***


On the Presidential front, you probably saw that Dave Heineman trooped off to Iowa for Romney. And just to make sure there were other Nebraskans there for the runners-up, Mike Fahey showed his support for Hillary.


Of course while Bob Kerrey wasn't shooting his mouth off about Obama being his kind of Muslim, he was telling KFAB that he's too old to be Vice President -- in case anyone came asking.


And then Chuck Hagel will be in Norman, Oklahoma with lots of middle-of-the-roaders who are itching to jump on the Mike Bloomberg bandwagon. Of course, Bloomberg toldnone other than Ryan Seacrest on New Year's Eve that he "will not" run for President. The NYT's did an analysis of the "Shermanesque" statement.


***


And then there are the young Nebraska Dems. If you read the blogs, the kids over at the NNN, have been duking it out as to whether the Nebraska Dems are doing their job by supporting a possible Raimondo run. The NNN leader, Kyle Michaelis, has been comically pro-Raimondo as soon as TR became a Democrat. (Had Raimondo run as a GOPer,Michaelis would have labeled him an anti-labor Fascist.)


So there are a few outspoken Dems, banging the anti-Raimondo drum. One, Brian T. Osborn, the Phelps County Dem Chair, has even threatened to sue the party for violating its own constitution for supporting Raimondo and "allowing" him to run as a Dem. (Our non-investigated analysis leads us to believe that the Nebraska statutes will allow TR to run as a Dem no matter what.)


Anywho, Michaelis took it upon himself to draft an essay to the Dem State Central Committee on why Osborn is bad for the party, etc. etc. And when we say "etc.", we mean ETC! Up on Daily Kos, you can see the small book Michaelis wrote hacking at Osborn. It's 1,600 words! Sixteen hundred! The Gettsyburg Address is only 278 words. The Declaration of Independence is 1,325! Heck, the Rosetta Stone only has 1,200 words, and it was in three different languages! So, the message there is clearly, "If you want to be a Democrat, adhere to the party line, or you're out of the club!"


***


Speaking of which, we've heard a rumor of ANOTHER Republican joining the Dems, this time to run against Lee Terry. But we're not going to propagate that one until we see some actual movements, and not just the standard head-fakes.


***


What say you L St readers?! It should be a fun year...


29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why should Bloomberg wish to dive headfirst into unknown waters until he has the best possible idea of what's down there?

Delay is a tool that can advantage a campaign and a nation if handled wisely.

The Nebraska Governor and Omaha Mayor jumped in headfirst when they endorsed what proved to be big losers in the Iowa primary. They may have good long term vision, but at the moment they appear to have bad judgement and that assessment remains bad if thier choices continue to lose.

Delaying an endorsement, like delaying running, is sometimes the wisest course of action.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on...who's considering switching to run against Terry? Have they not seen his oh-so-awesome interview with Stephen Colbert? That kind of comedy gold is unbeatable.

Anonymous said...

Joe Jordan has reported that "republican" Brad Ashford had been recruited by Bob Kerrey to run against Terry. Is this who you're referring to Sweeper, or is someone else in the fold?

What a sad commentary on the NE Dems - not only are they courting republicans to run as democrats, but their lead recruiter is a New Yorker.

Street Sweeper said...

Nope, not Ashford. Once we get a little more confirmation, we'll post about it. I will say that it's NOT a major name, and frankly not that big of a deal.

Now, Uncle Rico, let's see you throw that football over them mountains...

Anonymous said...

Not a major name or just a nobody?

Anonymous said...

Hey, y'all want to see my video?

Anonymous said...

To BTO ---------- thanks for telling "IT" like it is. I went to DailyKOS and was encouraged by people that stood up for you and the long standing values of our party.

Do not get intimidated by the few. We as a party need more leadership like you have to offer.

Our party is in such disarray -- I have asked on Kleeb's website on two occasions to keep me informed about his campaign and he totally ignored my requests. I know I am just a little guy but it will be a cold day in hell before I will vote for him again.

Kyle Michaelis said...

SS-

Would you care to substantiate your mockery with a single statement I've made that has been "comically pro-Raimondo"? I've never asked for anything more than patience and respect from Nebraska Democrats - that they give Raimondo a chance to state his positions before judging him solely on his history in the Republican Party.

Is that really too difficult a concept for your shrill partisanship to fathom?

Street Sweeper said...

Kyle,

We stand by what we wrote:
If TR was a GOP candidate, you would be knocking him with all your standard PARTISAN vitriol.

But suddenly there's a "D" next to his name, and now he must be given "patience and respect".

Give us a break already.

(But then, you wouldn't give a break to BTO, so we won't really expect it from you either.)

Thanks for reading!

-SS

Anonymous said...

Now Sweeper, don't be a tease.

Give it up, sweetheart.

Anonymous said...

Why on earth would Bob Kerrey consider think he is able to run for the Senate, but he is "too old" to run for VP? What kind of logic is that?

Anonymous said...

I am a Sarpy Co. GOP insider and I can tell you that one conservative longtime Republican is considering challenging Jeff Fortenberry. That is all I can or will say.

Anonymous said...

A challenger to Fortenberry?

SIGN ME UP!

Anonymous said...

Let's see a traitorous liberal republican who has a history of giving the proverbial finger to the GOP and who has delusions of grandure to run against Lee Terry. My guess Kermit Brashear ...hmmmm

Street Sweeper said...

Well, that's not who we're talking about...
SS

Anonymous said...

Any hints street sweeper on the Terry issue

Street Sweeper said...

No. It's not really worth discussing. If we get more info, we'll let you know in a post.

Anonymous said...

"the Flynn campaign won't know what hit them" Do you think they will even notice?

Anonymous said...

The name in question is Carl Jennings, truly not a big deal.

Anonymous said...

JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR BTO...Steve Achepol is stepping down. Can you sue yourself Brian?

Anonymous said...

Bond:

Wanna make a bet that Mitt Romney will indeed be the GOP nominee at the end of the day? Heineman chose right on this one. Coming in second place in two consecutive primary contests isn't a bad showing.

The Romney train takes the lead on Jan. 15.

Anonymous said...

Romney can find his roots and become the first president to have multiple First Ladies.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Omahaw Repub,

"JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR BTO...Steve Achepol is stepping down. Can you sue yourself Brian?"

I'd have to if I ever became a Republican.

I say let's give Steve a nice framed certificate of appreciation, buy him a few beers down at the corner pub, then watch as he rides off into the sunset with "Happy Trails" playing in the background. Then, right away, go to work getting the Nebraska Democratic Party turned around and back on a path that serves the working class folks of Nebraska with responsibility and accountability.

Anonymous said...

Hey anonymous, nice biggoted remark about Romney. Why don't you use your real name. For the record Mitt has been married to only one wife for over 30 years unlike Guliani, Thompson and several other candidates.

Street Sweeper said...

Anonymous at 1AM,
One could argue that your points are valid, but we don't really want this to be a place to take shots at low-level staffers.
Ergo, your comments are gone.
-SS

Anonymous said...

Street Sweeper can we have a post on possible Democratic Chair replacements? I will start off with David Kramer, Chuck Sigerson, or Mark Quandahl...If you are going to recruit Republicans for Democratic candidates, you might as well have Republicans run the Democratic Party...Another idea maybe Chris Peterson and Carlos Castillo can run the Dems campaigns as well..success breeds success..lol

Anonymous said...

It isn't Carl, unless you were talking about Fort's seat-he does own a little spot of land in Wahoo-it's called Peony Park.