I’m not missing him already. Let’s see if No Labels continues to attempt to float a presidential ticket, as I suspect Joe, along with No Labels CEO Nancy Jacobson, were the primary forces behind that project. Just yesterday Chris Christie declined to be their candidate. I understand Joe Manchin and even Krysten Sinema turned them down, also. NBC News:
Among the Republicans who have said no after approaches from the group: former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, according to public statements and sources familiar with their responses. The group was still trying to lure Sununu to the ticket within the last two weeks as Sununu, an avowed critic of former President Donald Trump, fell in line behind Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
No Labels had also openly suggested that it was interested in former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who shut down any openness to running on a third-party ticket in an interview early this month.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declined No Labels’ entreaties, as did Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The group also engaged with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Maybe Andy hasn’t turned them down, yet.
Well-known non-politicians like businessman Mark Cuban and retired Navy Adm. William McRaven did not reciprocate interest from No Labels, either. No Labels’ search has gone far and wide — it even tried to make overtures to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The latest rejection, on Monday, came from former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, an anti-Trump Republican who had been reported to be under consideration to lead the No Labels ticket. But Duncan told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that he withdrew himself from consideration to instead focus on “healing and improving the Republican Party.”
Apparently Nancy Jacobson sincerely believes that the moment is ripe for a centrist third party ticket to come forward and break us out of the two-party box. Nancy Jacobson is married to Mark Penn. Remember Mark Penn? Michael Tomasky wrote of Penn several years ago:
But there are two people who appear ready to stand by Penn, hell or high water, and they are the two who matter: Bill and Hillary Clinton. Penn joined Bill Clinton in the mid-90s, after the early woes (gays in the military, healthcare), and he kept the president on the ideological middle ground. He did the same for Hillary while overseeing her 2000 Senate campaign. In the course of these experiences, both Clintons came to swear by Penn’s advice. They saw his gift for numbers and demographic analysis, but they failed to grasp his obvious weak point.
Pennism is a kind of Democratic politics that one could argue was right for an era of conservative dominance: take few risks, and move as far to the centre and even right as possible so you couldn’t be labelled soft on defence or wobbly on support for the free market.
Definitely a Joe Lieberman kind of guy. Stuck in the 1990s.
For those too young to remember, once upon a time in America there was a generic brand movement that went too far. Yellow was the color for some time, but then it went to white. At that point the six packs were all white and just had the word beer written on them. Of course, it was the lowest price point on the shelf as was the custom of the generic no-brand product.
We bought it one time. No one bought it twice that I knew. If that was your only choice, temperance was, it seems, your only real choice.
No-Labels the political party rejected like beer-beer in the white can.
We can all rest easy, and all those bible scholars can retire as Trump has used his authoritarian power to decide the one true and approved version of the Bible, ending eons of quibble over ancient texts and languages. Somewhere in it, you have to guess, is a chapter and verse stating that the 2020 election was rigged. The con never ends.
I remember those no-name brands! In those days before "product placement" in movies, those plain labels made me feel like I was in a movie. The only modern-day equivalent I can think of is if I had a phone number that started with "555"
There was a great [fake/ironic] product placement scene in Repo Man, where Emilio Estevez reaches into the refrigerator, grabs a large white can labeled "Food" in that generic blue font, and gobbles a few tablespoons, while his parents sit on the sofa watching Pat Robertson on TV & sharing a joint…
It was a perfect picture of the dark side of the Reagan Years.
That movie had a great soundtrack! My favorite tune!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYwhINZgVeU
NO LABELS is an honest group with the clear goal of turning a dysfunctional plutocracy into a functional plutocracy. They want Joe out because he will let the Trump tax cuts expire. And they plutocrats have been able to trim the IRS and EPA a little as the price of keeping the government open, but they can gut those agencies completely if Trump becomes Dictator.
On the flip side (and off-topic) Eastman and Clark got disbarred yesterday. Slowly, the legal institutions are holding Trump's enablers to account.Somebody needs to make a concise case using the carnage Trump left behind. Rudy is bankrupt for promoting the election lie. "True The Vote" has admitted to the court, they have no evidence. Now Clark and Eastman. Ellis and the ding-bat have copped pleas. It looks like Meadows will testify against Trump. Trump lost the election. He knew it but he tried to steal it. Joe can't go there without providing Trump a factual defense. But somebody has to.
This reminds me of Alyssa Farah Griffin, the republican lady on the daytime show The View. For months she kept extolling the "Never Trump" virtues of Tim Scott. She made a point of bringing up his name during every political discussion. It's almost like she was trying to conjure him into being a front runner in the race against Trump.
Until he dropped out and endorsed Trump.
I'm no fan of Joe, as I'm sure you all know…
I said what I had to say about him in the last post – so I'll leave it at that.
I visited the "salon" website this morning and saw this:
Remembering My Friend, Joe Lieberman
For most progressives, Joe Lieberman will always be a villain. I don't care – he was a total mensch
by Matthew Rozsa
It seems to be from the "He was often nice to me, so he was a great man" school of journalism.
Lieberman was a schmuck.