GOP Looks to Win Ugly

The GOP plan to win presidential elections by allocating electoral college votes based on congressional districts rather than winner-take-all in states Obama won twice is finally getting attention.  Rachel Maddow has been raising the alarm, and here’s Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

“Rather than going by the overall vote in a state, they’d allocate by congressional district. And this is where it gets real good, or bad, depending on your point of view. Democrats are now increasingly concentrated in urban areas and Republicans did an extremely successful round of gerrymandering in 2010, enough to enable them to hold on to a substantial House majority even though they got fewer votes in House races than Democrats.

“In other words, the new plan is to make the electoral college as wired for Republicans as the House currently is. But only in Dem leaning states. In Republican states just keep it winner take all. So Dems get no electoral votes at all.

“Another way of looking at this is that the new system makes the votes of whites count for much more than non-whites — which is a helpful thing if you’re overwhelmingly dependent on white votes in a country that is increasingly non-white.

“This all sounds pretty crazy. But it gets even crazier when you see the actual numbers. Here’s a very illustrative example. They’re already pushing a bill to do this in the Virginia legislature. Remember, Barack Obama won Virginia and got 13 electoral votes. But… if the plan now being worked on would have been in place last November, Mitt Romney would have lost the state but still got 9 electoral votes to Obama’s 4. Think of that, two-thirds of the electoral votes for losing the state. If the Virginia plan had been in place across the country, as Republicans are now planning to do, Mitt Romney would have been elected president even though he lost by more than 5 million votes.

“Remember, plans to do this are already underway in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states in the Midwest.

“This is happening.”

Got that?  Mittens would be president today with five million fewer votes than Obama.  If the GOP can’t win with women and minorities, they’ll just win with gerrymandering.  Be afraid, be very afraid.  They know demographics are against them, but if they soften their crazier stands, they will lose their base.  So desperate times call for desperate measures, and this is pretty damn desperate.

Bizarre Story of the Day

Ann Coulter says that Rachel Maddow is “not comfortable around black people.”

I can tell you that I’m not comfortable around Ann Coulter.

Cory Booker, STFU and RIP

How could Cory Booker not see the hay Mitt and the GOP would make of his comments about Bain?

There’s something to be said for the old Soviet system (and Czarist as well) of exiling folks who mess with you to Siberia.  I think it’s safe to say that Booker is in Siberia, metaphorically speaking.

He looked pretty miserable with Rachel tonight, trying to tap dance as fast as he could.  Too little, too late.

An Unusual Dedication

Rachel Maddow dedicates her new book, Drift:  the Unmooring of American Military Power, to Dick Cheney.  “Oh, please let me interview you.”

Cheney believes in gay marriage, so that would be a promising start to the interview that ain’t gonna happen.

The Apocalyse Must Be Near

Fox News head Roger Ailes wrote a blurb for MSNBC star Rachel Maddow’s new book, Drift:  The Unmooring of American Military Power.

Ailes wrote in part:  “People who like Rachel will love the book.  People who don’t will get angry, but aggressive debate is good for America.  Drift is a book worth reading.”

I score this one for Ailes.  He knows his blurb won’t boost book sales among his Fox true believers, let alone change any minds, but he also knows that Rachel is a nice person, who will now feel that she owes him one.  Roger won’t hesitate to collect when the moment is right.

Oh, Own Your Quote, Michael Steele, You Big Baby

“Mitt needs to be comfortable with his wealth and what it symbolizes.”  Politico* attributes that quote to a “former Republican National Committee chairman.”

Come on, Michael, we know it’s you.

Ask him about it next week, Rachel.

* “Newt blows GOP race wide open,” by Jonathan Martin.

 

The Palin-Perry Feud Continues

Sarah Palin seems to be continuing her feud with Rick Perry.  Telling Greta Van Susteren on Fox tonight that the GOP needs a candidate who comes from a modest family background, she could have named Rick Perry, but chose instead to name Herman Cain.  Actually she called him “Herb” Cain throughout the interview, but just because Fox is paying her $1 million a year for commentary is no reason for her to bother to learn the candidates’ names.

Palin also said that she likes making people think!  No, Sarah, what you do is make people’s heads explode.

In case we had any doubts, Nicolle Wallace confirmed tonight on Rachel Maddow that the mentally-ill vice president in her new novel was inspired by Palin.