Kicking Ass: The Democratic Party's Blog

The Unsweet 16

Posted by on March 21, 2006 at 02:21 PM

We'll bring in our "bracketologists" Tim Tagaris and Josh McConaha to disect the matchups and predict the first round outcomes for two of the brackets. Join us later for the second half, and feel free to put yours in the comments:

Tim: Let's start out in the "Pioneers and Rangers Bracket" where Jack Abramoff earns the one seed.

Josh: The Tobin vs. Noe matchup in round one is one of the more intriguing of the first round.

Tim: Personally, I think Tom Noe deserved the two seed in this matchup. I mean, Coingate... come on! And that doesn't even take into account the real darkhouse in this matchup, his wife, Bernadette. She was an elections officer in Lucas County, an area that experienced extreme voting difficulties during the 2004 election. It was so bad that Ken Blackwell, of all people, asked her to resign. She's such a key player that even President Bush personally thanked her at a campaign rally in Toledo. I gotta go with Noe, and I don't even think this ones going to be close.

Josh: I think you underestimate Tobin, greatly. Of the two, he is actually a convicted criminal. And that's to say nothing of the fact that the RNC has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to his legal defense fund. But as an Ohio partisan, I'll go with Noe as well ... but it will be close.

Tim: Well, one game down, and our first upset. Let's move on to Abramoff vs. Ralph Reed.

Josh: Is there any question here?

Tim: Not really, but it's fun to see all that effort from GOP's Golden Boy land him a spot in the tournament.

Tim: Alright, let's move on to the Senate regional. Bill Frist vs. John McCain in the first round.

Josh: McCain's status in the tournament was in question only days before the selection committee met this weekend. I think his hiring of Terry Nelson probably put him over the top.

Tim: Terry Nelson?

Josh: Yeah. He was the guy forced to testity to a grand jury about his involvement during the money laundering scadal with Tom DeLay's TRMPAC.

Tim: You don't think that's enough to beat Frist, do you?

Josh: I'm not sure. But as we all know, the Senate Majority leader is being looked at by both the Justice Department and the SEC because of questionable stock sales and insider trading.

Tim: Well, who are you going with?

Josh: I'm not sure yet.

Tim: Up or down vote please, McConaha.

Josh: I'll go with First... but McCain is truly a rising star in the Republican culture of corruption. Remember what Abramoff said about him two weeks ago in Vanity Fair? "As best I can remember, when I met with him, he didn't have his eyes shut. I'm surprised that Senator McCain has joined the chorus of amnesiacs."

Tim: Ahhh, the "Straight Talk Express" ... derailed. But I agree, it's Frist. Now Santurm v. Conrad Burns. If ever there was a matchup that both people deserved to advance in. But there's gotta be a winner.

Josh: I like Burns in this one, who can forget the quote from Abramoff, again, in that Vanity Fair piece: "Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns's committee] we got. Our staffs were as close as they could be. They practically used Signatures as their cafeteria. I mean, it's a little difficult for him to run from that record."

Tim: Too tough to call here. We all know Conrad Burns is so deep in culture of corruption he might not even run for re-election this year, but Santorum, I mean, this guy doesn't get the name "Captain K-Street" for nothing. And so brazen too ... you hate to see that kind of chutzpah go out in the first round. The man has zero shame. None. First he denies ever even talking to Grover Norquist -- then a video shows up Santorum thanking him for all his support.

Josh: Remember that Washington Post article earlier this month?

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Tim: I like Burns. But man that was tough.

Josh: Yeah, gotta be Conrad Burns. Either way, neither of them will be in the Senate come 2007.

Tim: That's about all the time we have right now ... join us later as we disect the other half of the bracket.

Comments (12) «

Make Bush own Iraq until his last day, last hour, last minute, and last second.


Make George The Grand Prevaricator Bush own the lies, the deception, the moral cost, the morass, the shame, the obscene expense, the nebulous and changing enemies (more lies), the raping of the Constitution, the Orwellian psycho-sickness of it, the cronyistic ourtrage of it, the failure of it, and the historically prodigious blunder and plunder of it all.

Make Bush wear the stain of Iraq like the stain of sin, indelible, oozing, forever, odious, and unforgiveable.

Make him deal with it by the hour until we are iberated from him on January 20, 2009, a moment which cannot come to soon for the sanctity of our Constitution, our laws, our freedoms, and our revered legacy of democracy.

Make Bush breathe with each breath the putrid air of his violations against all that was right and should be right with America.

Make Bush smell his own stench of deceipt, the rot of his arrogance, and the reek of his unprecedented incompetence, ineptness, and diconnection.

Even before the war, Colin Powell said it and predicted it: "It's like Pottery House rules: you break it, you own it".

Well, Mr. Dean, the DNC, and Democrats all: Bush broke America by imposing Iraq on Americans, and now he must own it, now and forever and ever.

See to it that he does.

1
ChuckWisconsin on March 21, 2006 at 04:30 PM

You guys are so clever.

I'm going to blow up this chart and have me and my kids take copies to class. This is just the sort of stuff we need to get discussions going about the Republican culture of corruption and incompetence. Send copies to drive-time radio disk jockeys.

Who says politics isn't a particapatory sport? Bluejae, here's another winner for a county fair booth. We could even make some money for the local committee while attracting a lot of attention and foot traffic.

Nice job, staff.

2
SandyH on March 21, 2006 at 05:01 PM

Please add a neocon bracket and Cabinet Officer bracket.

3
SandyH on March 21, 2006 at 05:02 PM

How about we add the RNC to Unsweet.

Shame on them.

4
PeppermintLizzy on March 21, 2006 at 05:48 PM

Man,

I think I am going to move to Mexico. I am so depressed!

5
ranger995 on March 21, 2006 at 08:39 PM

Rick Santorum is a really weak 2 seed considering his terrible poll numbers against Democratic challenger Bob Casey.

6
democratic-boy on March 21, 2006 at 09:35 PM

Cute post, Tim - very well done. Great job!!

7
dorsano on March 21, 2006 at 11:37 PM

What about the controlled demolitions on September The Eleventh and the stolen elections on Diebold machines etc. We better get to the bottom of this muck and scrape it up as far as I'm concerned. Let's play.

8
Orangutan on March 22, 2006 at 12:20 AM

Well, I hope Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm, Kerry, and the whole Dem Establishment Hee Haw Gang are happy this morning for killing off a great candidate in Illinois, Cindy Cegalis. The grassroots heart of the new Dem Party took on the big boys and damn near prevailed against all that money, all that hype, all that free media, and all that meddling with the Illinois people's business.

I was once a devoted Kerry fan, gave money, and worked hard. Never, ever again.

I have one question for the DCCCCCCCCCCC, for Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm, and for the Dem Palace Guard who raised cash for Duckworth and found Cegalis unacceptable as a candidate:

Why? Someone tell me that.

Was it because in your incumbent heart of hearts, you did not want Cegalis to win and, therefore, to bring new blood to town?

Now when November comes, this year and in '08, and the Palace Guard are in tough races and need us peasants out here in the hinterlands to pony up and show up, it ain't gonna happen.

9
ChuckWisconsin on March 22, 2006 at 08:33 AM

Bill Napoli, the pro-coat hanger state rep from South Dakota, said this:

"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

One of the first Republicans to do a hand spring for this guy and what he had to say was good old Not So Straight Talk himself, John McCain.

I hope the DNC has that commercial in production; it will be a good one.

10
ChuckWisconsin on March 22, 2006 at 09:07 AM

Posted by ChuckWisconsin on March 22, 2006 at 08:33 AM

If you worked on Cindy's campaign, Chuck - thanks for your efforts

11
dorsano on March 22, 2006 at 08:21 PM

I meant Christine ..

12
dorsano on March 22, 2006 at 08:23 PM


« Hide Comments

Comments are now closed for this entry.