From THINK PROGRESS:
Republicans have spent this week trying to downplay the notion that Democrat Kathy
Hochul’s upset victory in this week’s special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District was a referendum on the Medicare-ending Republican budget. First, they blamed Tea Party candidate Jack Davis for splitting the conservative vote, but as The New York Times’ Nate Silver, Slate’s Dave Wiegel, and others noted, the math shows it’s highly unlikely that Republican Jane Corwin would have won even without Davis.
With the Davis-as-spoiler talking point debunked, the new conservative argument seems to be that Corwin was an inferior candidate, so her loss speaks more about Corwin than about Medicare. “Jane Corwin was not a good candidate,” wrote Erick Erickson, editor of the influential Tea Party blog Red State. “Certainly the Democrats made Paul Ryan’s medicare plan an issue, and certainly it was not hugely popular. But to say that is why Corwin was defeated is spin devoid of fact.”
Speaking carefully, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin that Corwin “allowed her opponent to define her.”
…snip…
Tea Party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) had even harsher words for Corwin on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal yesterday, saying she was inferior even to former Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY), who resigned in disgrace following his Craigslist sex scandal […]
…snip…
But these very same lawmakers who now are trashing Corwin not only supported her, but campaigned for her. Boehner made a high profile trip to the 26th District earlier this month, where he attended a fundraiser for Corwin and declared her the “only one conservative in the race.” For his part, West sang Corwin’s praises in a robo-call he recorded for her […]
…snip…
Blaming Corwin won’t change the fact that polling indicated the GOP Medicare plan was voters’ single most important issue in choosing a candidate to support. The plan’s author, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), even tacitly endorsed this idea, re-posting a Washington Post article on his PAC’s website with the headline “N.Y. Race is a Referendum on GOP Medicare Plan.”
The election confirmed what numerous polls had already shown — Americans don’t want to privatize Medicare and will take that conviction to the voting booth.
(Video at THINK PROGRESS link)
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Gee, commentary about spin from the masters thereof. Whodda thunk?
Oh, and just so you know, we ain’t kin. Not that I’d admit it if we were….
i, for one, am very glad you’re not related to that racist asswipe.
There they go ago …. blah blah blah down the one-way street. Sure were singing a different tune when Scott Brown won … or even the 2010 results. Time will tell and much can happen between now and Nov 2012.
Looks like Boehner is singing only 10 bottles of beer are left on the wall.
and the election of all those rethuglican governors amounted to a mandate, too, right? how’s that working out for them?
p.s. bronzo the clown wouldn’t have beer on the wall. he prefers merlot.
No really, it wasn’t about Medicare at all. It was all of the reasons they listed above.
Dear Rethugs, we are not pissed off about you trying to trash Medicare and Social Security. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Keep strong on that message right into the 2012 election and I personally guarantee you a sweeping victory. You have my word on it.
Signed,
Really not pissed off voter and open to the total sellout of our nation to the corporate state concerned citizen.
i googled to see if corwin had responded, and i couldn’t find anything. i wonder how she feels now that the rethugs have thrown her under the bus, backed it up, and then ran over her again. i wonder if she’ll be a good little rethuglican and keep her mouth shut. if not, i expect she’ll be slimed even more by faux news and all the right-wing mouthpieces.
I actually started to feel sorry for Jane. Stay classy, Republicans.
i’d feel sorry for her, if i wasn’t convinced she would have done the same thing if she had won and got the fax that she was to blame the candidate. remember, this is the woman whose campaign manager tried to punk another candidate on tape.
Nonnie…huge funny with the title, but Jane Erred! 😆
🙂 I worship you. 🙂
i was under the gun for a title, and that just popped into my head. i’m better under pressure. as for the movie title, i thought of it while i was talking to my sisters, anne, emily, and charlotte. 😉
It’s good to see the Raisin hitting the classics. And now the Wisconsin recall elections, all six of them, are set to go. That won’t be a referendum on right wing crank notions either. The three dem recalls are hung up in certification. Too many names of dead people from the for hire petioners. And now Colbert is saying the princess is solving Nancy Drew mysteries!
yeah, the raisin is very highbrow these days (if you ignore the post’s title).
i saw that about the recalls tonight. it sounds like the rethugs are not really trying to recall the dems, only trying to stall the process. the rethugs know that they’re in real trouble. i’d love to see them lose the majority. they, and the brothers fitzgerald, deserve that, not to mention the asswipe in the governor’s office.
Great title!
Ever notice republicans can’t admit defeat and democrats can’t admit victory?
thanks, kip! 😀
excellent observation! so very true.
referendum indeed
I a perfect world…..
I hope they push hard on the killing medicare issue & Palin runs as a Tea Party spoiler.
*In* a perfect world…
if princess does run, and i don’t think she will, it would be as the tea party candidate, because then she wouldn’t have to show up for debates or give interviews to the lamestream media. she’s much too lazy to run as a real candidate.
I’m convinced she’s going to try and broker this thing and, hopefully it will blow up in Rogers face. Watch her try to show up at the convention an get nominated by proclamation. Could someone this stupid really get the nod? Just think George S. F. B. Bush.
i don’t think she wants to be president. even though she’s an utter imbecile, she still has to know that it’s hard work, and she would never want to work hard.