2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDemocrats cringe as Schweitzer weighs in on gays, Cantor, Feinstein
From the LAT:
It's the rare governor who begins an interview with a joke about statutory rape. But Brian Schweitzer doesn't just throw caution to the wind. He flings it skyward like a clay pigeon then blows it, skeet-style, to smithereens.
That makes the Montana Democrat both an irrepressible personality and irresistible subject for reporters, who love nothing more than a politician who slips the bonds of pollsters and press handlers and speaks, if not truth, something that doesn't sound like its been focus-grouped to a near-catatonic state. (I would swear she was 18 at the time, was how Schweitzer began that Los Angeles Times interview on Montana and guns some years ago.)
But Schweitzer may have overstepped not just the bounds of good taste but the load-bearing weight of his political ambition with a pair of recent utterances that gained wide circulation Thursday. For the full story, see http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014829346
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For a party that considers itself a champion of women and gays and never passes on a chance to attack Republicans as benighted if not downright hostile to same this is not exactly ideal messaging.
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Voluble as ever, he dismisses President Obama as inept and a disappointment and characterizes Hillary Rodham Clinton, the commanding Democratic front-runner, as a corporate tool and not terribly effective secretary of State. He popped up last week, of all places, at Mitt Romney's Republican donor summit in Park City, Utah, where he joined the pile-on over Clinton's lucrative speaking fees. I'm not going to defend what she said, Schweitzer told the GOP crowd, referring to the former first lady's I-left-the-White-House-dead-broke defense. Schweitzer's presidential bid was already going to be an extreme long shot, regardless of whether Clinton runs. While his left-leaning populism has an eager audience among Democrats, his strongly pro-gun stance is at stark odds with the party's prevailing sentiment.
Schweitzer's presidential bid was already going to be an extreme long shot, regardless of whether Clinton runs. While his left-leaning populism has an eager audience among Democrats, his strongly pro-gun stance is at stark odds with the party's prevailing sentiment. He disappointed some by passing on a run this year for an open U.S. Senate seat, strongly boosting chances of a Republican pickup and the six-seat gain the GOP needs for a takeover in November.
And for all its spectacular beauty, Montana doesn't offer much in the way of a financial or political base from which to mount a White House bid. Now those already daunting odds have grown even steeper after Schweitzer's verbal self-immolation in the pages of the National Journal, which serves as a sort of Washington field guide to politics and policy.
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On Thursday afternoon, Schweitzer said he was sorry in a post on his Facebook page. I recently made a number of stupid and insensitive remarks to a reporter from the National Journal, he wrote. I am deeply sorry and sincerely apologize for my carelessness and disregard. Too late, it would seem. The political damage has been done.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-brian-schweitzer-eric-cantor-effeminate-20140620-story.html
Alex P Notkeaton
(309 posts)bubbaye.
Larkspur
(12,804 posts)Hillary is not much better.
But then I also call men, like Bill Clinton, whores for Wall Street, so I'm gender neutral when it comes to throwing the 'W' word around.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)He's better than this.
He's not perfect and he'll probably stuff his foot in his mouth from time to time. All of them will unless they're kept on a choke chain pulled tight if they stray off script.
yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)He is toast.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)MSNBC has Republicans on salary, who can say the same stupid shit!
--imm
packman
(16,296 posts)Get rid of the idiot.