Townsend, spurned by Cheeto, quits race for Congress

From KJZZ -

Townsend, not endorsed by Trump, quits House race in Arizona

Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend announced Friday she is withdrawing from the race for the Republican nomination for Arizona's new 6th Congressional District because former President Donald Trump hasn't endorsed her.

Despite encouragement and repeated assurances, “the promised formal endorsement has still not materialized," leaving her unable to unify the conservative vote in the August primary, Townsend said in a statement.

[snip]

Redistricting put (state senator Wendy) Rogers and Townsend in the same legislative district and they avoided a head-to-head matchup when Townsend decided to seek the congressional seat.

Townsend's statement said she would “happily” focus on the state Capitol rather than the nation's Capitol, which left open a race against Rogers for the Senate.

Responding to an inquiry from the Associated Press, Townsend said that was indeed a possibility. She also said she could return to the private sector or return to college to get a doctorate. She is a doula, a trained professional who assists mothers giving birth.

What "possibility"?

She's running.  The only question remaining is if it will be against Rogers.

From Twitter -

Ducey says he's not running for Senate

From The Hill -

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tells donors he won't run for Senate

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) has put what Republicans see as a final kibosh on any chances he would challenge Sen. Mark Kelly (D) later this year, ending a long-running courtship by top Washington Republicans who saw him as their best hope of winning back the seat.

In a letter to donors, Ducey said this year, the last of his eight years in the governor’s office, would be the end of his public service career.

He may not be running in 2022, but in 2024?

I expect that he will be looking *hard* at Kyrsten Sinema's seat in the Senate, no matter what she does. (She's more vulnerable than Kelly, IMHO)

And I also expect that he will also be looking at a run for the White House. (His decision there may depend on if Cheeto continues to dominate GQP politics and if he runs in 2024)

And saying that this year will be the "end of his public service career" implies that he ever really worked for the public.  He never has done so.

Ron DeSantis is shameless enough to be in the Arizona legislature

From Politico -

DeSantis defends scolding students over masks — and fundraises off it

“Predictably, the leftist propagandists in our media had a meltdown and called me a ‘bully’ for allowing children to breathe fresh air," a campaign email reads.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is fundraising off a recent viral video depicting the Republican governor bluntly asking a group of high school students to take off their masks ahead of a public event, which drew outrage among Democrats.

In a Thursday campaign email attempting to spur donations “before the truth is silenced,” DeSantis blasted the “corrupt and biased legacy media” for chastising him over his claims that “masks are political theater.” The DeSantis campaign also created a hype video over his controversial brief scolding of high school students that slams Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Stacey Abrams for going maskless at public events.

"[A]llowing"?

Well, at least he's got a Cheeto-like ego.

A former Missouri legislator writes about the craziness in the Missouri legislature, but she could have been writing about the AZ lege

Pointed to this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

From an op/ed in the Kansas City Star -

I saw booze, guns and fights on the Missouri House floor. Voters must fix this mess 

BY Stacey Newman Special To The Star

The Kansas City Star’s Feb. 17 editorial, “Of dogs and dysfunction: Anarchy in Jefferson City,” was so right on the money. As a nine-year veteran of the Missouri House, I can wholeheartedly vouch that dysfunction is the legislature’s middle name.

 

As do most voters, I expect legislators to be serious when they take their oath of office. I want to trust they will treat their offices with reverence instead of middle school immaturity — I really do.

 

My first late-night session as a freshman involved debate over a pornography bill. Arguments proceeded way past midnight as I was introduced to #molegafterdark. Coffee cups are allowed on House chamber desks, yet during evening sessions, many of those cups contain alcohol. I was appalled at the drunken debate, remembering how hard I campaigned just to be sitting at one of those desks. Surrounding us were the words carved at the very top of the House chamber: “Liberty, Justice, Law, Progress, Truth, Knowledge, Honor.” Yeah, right.

I can't speak to there being any actual fights on the floor of the AZ legislature; I really don't know.

As for booze, while I HAVE seen some behavior that reeks of "under the influence", but absent seeing consumption of alcohol, or an actual blood test, or even smelling booze on someone's breath, I'm not prepared to accuse someone of legislating while intoxicated.

Lastly, guns?

Well, I was there when then-state senator Lori Klein packed some heat at a state of the state address.

And the AZ lege hasn't become classier since then.

Maybe Ron DeSantis thinks that being hooked up to a ventilator is a "presidential" look

From CNN -

Ron DeSantis just yelled at high school students for wearing masks

Ron DeSantis is apparently not above scolding high school students to make his, uh, point about Covid-19.

The Florida Republican governor approached a group of students wearing masks who were standing behind a podium at the University of South Florida, where he was scheduled for a news conference Wednesday.

"You do not have to wear those masks. I mean please take them off," DeSantis said to, at first, polite laughter. But he wasn't kidding around.

"Honestly, it's not doing anything. We've gotta stop with this Covid theater. So if you want to wear it, fine. But this is ridiculous," he continued.

From Johns Hopkins University -

1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated. 

I'd call killing an unarmed civilian doing "something wrong"

From AP (emphasis added by me) -

Fired cop says he did nothing wrong in Breonna Taylor raid

Former Louisville detective Brett Hankison testified in his own defense Wednesday

 

about his actions during the police raid that left Breonna Taylor dead, saying the

 

gunfire began with a muzzle flash that illuminated a shadowy silhouette, and he

 

thought it was someone firing an automatic rifle at his fellow officers.

Hankison is not on trial for the 26-year-old Black woman’s death but for

 

firing bullets 

that went into an adjacent apartment, endangering a pregnant neighbor, her

 

young child and her boyfriend.

Asked if he did anything wrong during the raid, Hankison replied, “absolutely not,”

 

even though he acknowledged firing into the window and patio door. As for

 

Taylor, he said, “She didn’t need to die that night.” Breonna Taylor’s mother,

 

Tamika Palmer, then stormed out of the courtroom.

Hankison said that as a police battering ram broke open Taylor’s door, the

 

blast of a gun lit up the apartment’s hallway and his fellow officer fell wounded

 

in the doorway. He said he thought the muzzle flash matched that of a long rifle,

 

but no rifle was found in the apartment.

No remorse?

More innocent people will die.

Just a guess: The Republicans aren't learning the right lessons from Gosar's, Greene's, and Rogers' ties to a white nationalist group

There are two lessons here:

1. Don't be a white supremacist.

2. Don't be SEEN as being a white supremacist.

Guess which one the Rs are taking to heart?

First, from NBC (emphasis added by me) -

GOP leaders denounce Greene, Gosar for speaking at white nationalist event

GOP leaders in the House and the Senate on Monday denounced a pair of far-right Trump allies — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. — for speaking at a gathering of white nationalists in Florida over the weekend.

“There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a terse statement.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters for CNN and Punchbowl News that it was “appalling and wrong” for the two lawmakers to attend the meeting in Florida and that he plans to discuss the matter with them.

Second, from Jeremy Duda at the AZ Mirror -

Senate votes to censure Wendy Rogers for threatening her colleagues

Her ties to white nationalists and antisemitic statements were removed from the censure

In the wake of her speech to a white nationalist conference and a string of offensive and inflammatory social media posts, the Arizona Senate voted to censure Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers. 

The Senate voted 24-3 in a rare censure of one of its own, with 11 of the chamber’s 16 Republicans siding with the chamber’s 13 Democratic members who were in attendance. Rogers voted no, as did GOP Sens. Nancy Barto and Warren Petersen.

The censure, which has no practical effect, was for comments calling for people she perceived as enemies to be hanged from gallows, and for social media postings Rogers made threatening to “personally destroy” fellow Republicans who sought to punish her. The censure resolution was silent on her embrace of white nationalists and a string of antisemitic and racist things she had posted online in recent days. 

The vote on the censure motion -

The motion passed overwhelmingly, with 24 members voting for it, 3 voting against it (Rogers herself {of course} Warren Petersen {not really a surprise}, and Nancy Barto {a bit of a surprise}) and 3 not voting (Gowan, Steele, and Townsend).

Another guess: Rogers will do it again.  Not only is she not penitent about this, she believes she's a victim. (pics of tweets taken today) -

I had to look hard but I DO agree with Rogers on one thing -

Though I expect that we have very different reason for arriving at this conclusion. :)

Cheeto wins CPAC straw poll/name recognition contest

From CNN -

Trump wins CPAC straw poll

Former President Donald Trump easily won an informal straw poll of conservatives Sunday, when asked who they would support in a GOP primary for president in 2024.

Among attendees as the Conservative Political Action Conference, 59% said they would vote for Trump if the 2024 Republican primary were held today.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second with 28% of the vote in the poll. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came in a distant third with 2% of the vote.

This would be significant...until one remembers that Ted "Cancun" Cruz won the same straw poll in 2016.

From Politico, dated 3/5/2016 -

Cruz wins CPAC straw poll

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.

Cruz was named the winner with 40 percent of the attendees' support, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in second place with 30 percent. Donald Trump, who was scheduled to speak at CPAC on Saturday morning before pulling out, came in third place with 15 percent, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich had 8 percent.

And who do the people want for veep? South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has 12 percent, Haley has endorsed Rubio, and traveled with him on the trail. Kasich may not have placed high for the Oval Office but he’s tied for first for vice president. Carly Fiorina – who dropped out of the race earlier this month – is a close second with 11 percent of the vote. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Rubio are tied for third place with 9 percent a piece.

Of course, to be fair, for a poll two years out from the election, we should look at the results from 2014.

Also from Politico, this one dated 3/8/2014 -

Paul wins big in CPAC straw poll

Rand Paul handily won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, one gauge of the Republican base’s mood less than two years before the 2016 primary season kicks off.

The Kentucky senator received 31 percent, far ahead of second place Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who received 11 percent. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson finished third with 9 percent, ahead of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who received 8 percent.

Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott of Texas should be heartened by the 2022 result.  Both have presidential ambitions, but weren't even mentioned in the 2022 poll.  

However, the eventual winner of the 2016 Republican primary wasn't even an afterthought in the 2014 poll

I've never said anything positive about Mitt Romney, but I'll give credit where it is due. When he's right (which isn't often), he's right.

Pointed to this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

And this applies to US Rep. Liz Cheney too.  I may never agree with her politically, and I consider the Cheney family to be almost purely evil, but right is right.

For both, I attribute it to "stopped clock syndrome" :) .

Romney gave an interview to CNN today.

From the transcript of that interview (emphasis added by me) -

[snip]

BASH: You talked several times during this interview about the world seeing the difference between good and evil.

I want to bring that closer to home and talk about something that Congresswoman Liz Cheney tweeted yesterday about sitting Republican House members appearing at a white nationalist gathering.

She said -- quote -- "As Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling. All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now."

Do you agree?

ROMNEY: Absolutely. Liz Cheney was right with that statement. And she's been right for a long time.

And I also saw that Ronna McDaniel came out with a statement as well talking about how repugnant these white nationalists are.

Look, there's no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong. It's -- it's -- as you have indicated, speaking of evil, it's evil as well.

And Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, I don't know them, but I'm reminded of that old line from the "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" movie, where one character says: "Morons. I have got morons on my team."

And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few I.Q. points.

Public figures calling Paul Gosar a "moron" get some respect in my book; of course, morons everywhere are like "Really?  That was low."

US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema may be the most accomplished rationalizer in the state of Arizona

Watching her interview on Phoenix Channel 3's Politics Unplugged (video not posted as of this writing), that's the conclusion that I've reached.

And given that we live in AZ, home of unabashed rationalizers like Doug Ducey, referring to her as the "most accomplished" one is saying something.

State Sen. Wendy Rogers brings moral equivalency to a new low

Pic taken of Twitter on 2/27/2022

Maybe her post made more sense in its original Russian.

Cheeto's habit of using demeaning nicknames comes to Arizona

And while it was hardly a good look for him, his habit has been enthusiastically embraced and continued by...wait for it...the gift that keeps on giving...state Sen. Wendy Rogers.

Pic taken on Twitter, 2/26/2022

I'll say this about her - Rogers appears to be an accomplished multitasker.  Not only did she spout nicknames for Jeremy Duda of the AZ Mirror and Brahm Resnik of channel 12, she threw in a conspiracy theory about George Soros (as an aside, where do I sign up for a paycheck? :) )

Of course, she loses points for vocabulary usage - unless "sweet" is her term for "nutty", and "gaslighting" is her term for "telling the truth".

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/27/2022

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to propagate propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority.  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language into the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

No strikers this week (not as of this writing, anyway) as committees start considering measures that made it out of the opposite chamber.

On Monday, 2/28 -

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  10 bills on the agenda.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  2 bills on the agenda.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  5 bills on the agenda, including SB1048, barring municipalities and counties from ordering businesses to close during a health emergency.

Senate Government meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  2 bills on the agenda, including HB2453, barring governmental entities from requiring masks on their premises.  Interestingly, the bill would also repeal a section of law barring vaccine passports.

Senate Transportation and Technology meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  3 bills on the agenda.

On Tuesday, 3/1 -

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  3 bills on the agenda.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  8 bills on the agenda.

House Natural Resources, Energy &Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  1 bill on the agenda.

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  3 bills on the agenda, including HB2025, requiring school districts to establish parental visitation policies for classrooms, HB2439, requiring school districts to allow parents to "review" all books in a school's library and books purchased for inclusion in that library.

On Wednesday, 3/2 -

House Government & Elections meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  8 bills on the agenda, including SB1009, limiting the governor's ability to declare states of emergency and gathering greater power unto the legislature itself; SB1013, requiring the Arizona Secretary of State to request that the federal government in the state's citizenship requirement on its federal voter registration form; and SB1094, invalidating the signatures of people who sign petitions for ballot initiatives or referenda if the person passing the petition doesn't read the description on the petition to each signer/

House Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  6 bills on the agenda, including SB1092, limiting the circumstances under which the seller of a product is subject to a product liability action.

House Ways & Means meets at 9 a.m.in HHR3.  6 bills on the agenda, including SCR1011, asking the voters to expand property tax exemptions.  According to the bill's fiscal note, this measure would cost the state's general fund $2.1 million. while it would cost other taxing jurisdictions, like school districts, an indeterminate amount of revenue.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  9 bills on the agenda.

Senate Finance meets at 10 a.m. in SHR109.  3 bills on the agenda, including HCM2004, a love letter to Congress urging them to oppose stricter financial reporting requirements.

House Transportation meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  No bills on the agenda.

Senate Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  9 bills on the agenda, including HB2107, barring municipalities and counties from ordering businesses to close during a health emergency.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  5 bills on the agenda.

On Thursday, 3/3 -

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  15 bills on the agenda, at least 6 of them bad.

Federal Committee update

From the website of the Federal Election Commission -

Independent Gilsdorf is running in CD9.

Big Oil: "We'll be good. We pinkie promise, so you can trust us."

Of course, their other hand was behind their back, and the fingers in it were crossed.

From CNN, dated 2/24 -

Big Oil CEO responds to Biden: We would never 'take advantage of' war in Ukraine

American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers insisted on Thursday that US oil companies would not seek to capitalize on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Our companies would never take advantage of this kind of situation," Sommers, who leads the most powerful US energy trade group, told CNN in a phone interview.

Earlier on Thursday, Biden delivered a warning to the oil industry amid soaring prices.

"American oil and gas companies should not -- should not exploit this moment to hike their prices to raise profits," Biden said in prepared remarks.

Sommers argued that US oil companies want to do what's best for consumers around the world.

"My member companies are patriots," he said. "This is not a time to target one particular industry that has a proven record."

From the US Energy Information Administration -

He said that the oil industry has a "proven record".  In and of itself, that statement is true, and perhaps the most truthful thing that he said.

Of course, it isn't a *positive* proven record.

Personal aside:

A long time ago, I worked for a relatively small convenience store chain (~170 locations, all in the northeastern US) and we had a company picnic/outing at a campground.

It was during Operation Desert Shield, and our gas prices went up at least daily, sometimes more than once a day.

At the outing, I was seated at a table that was next to a table filled with company execs who, after imbibing some alcoholic drinks, and still imbibing, were laughing about how they hoped that the press didn't find out how much profit they were making off of the conflict in the Middle East.

I learned two things that day:

1. Fully grown men shouldn't cackle.  Actually, no one should - it's not a good look for anyone.

2. Some folks *really* should stay away from booze.  Especially folks who believe who place profits ahead of human lives.