It was inevitable that the Democrats would use the Curbstomper to club Rand Paul. Rand Paul did condemn the stomper, though he tried to blame activists on both sides for the problem.  Of course Paul was not personally responsible for this attack, and that will cause some Democrats to have the vapors and probably cause Fox News to howl in outrage.  Aware of the risk of a backlash, the ad will run only after 10 p.m.

The tea party movement has tapped into a violent undercurrent out there.  Sharron Angle once notoriously called for Second Amendment remedies if Harry Reid won (lately she seems to focus on spurious voter fraud claims) and on October 15 there was another attack on someone for having the temerity to protest Dino Rossi.

This is a brutal ad that seems targeted at independents scared off by the tea party.  With Rand Paul surging in the polls it is a Hail Mary pass.   We will know next week if this make the race closer or generates a backlash.  Video below:

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The list of deficit peacocks preening their fraudulent fiscal conservative plumes keeps growing.  It is scary to think that a party so detached from reality will shortly be rewarded with a return to power.   Some more examples are noted below:

• The original tea partier Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey when asked for specifics on spending cuts retreated to the standard Republican talking points which will do almost nothing to cut the deficit. Video clip is below:

• Mike Lee the soon to be Republican Senator from Utah wants to slash federal spending by 40% while extending the Bush taxcuts and without cutting Social Security and defense.  Whatever he is smoking must be nice.  It has created a rosy tea party alternate reality.
• Republicans are unveiling a bold plan to expand the deficit by replacing the Paygo rules currently in effect (requiring tax cuts and spending increases to be offset) with “Cutgo” (requiring only spending increases to be offset).  Even though the empirical evidence under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush indicates otherwise, Republicans continue to delude themselves that tax cuts do not diminish revenues.

It is going to be a long long two years in Republican Fantasia.

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Rachel Maddow visited Alaska on Tuesday and interviewed all three Senate candidates.  She also got some time to talk to some impassioned yet frighteningly clueless Joe Miller supporters.  Given the general ignorance about public affairs in this country you could probably make similar clips with leftist protesters.  However, since the tea party is taking to the streets to “take our country back” in this election cycle, I am picking on their inchoate rage:

The Black Panther case alluded to at the end of the clip involved a few losers who showed up at a largely black Philadelphia voting precinct on election day.  The Bush justice department concluded that it could not pursue a criminal case and pursued a civil case instead, which was later dismissed by the Obama DOJ.  Fox made it a story about an organized and serious attempt to intimidate white voters, even though no voters seem to have lodged a complaint.

As a bonus Maddow also snagged a brief interview with Joe Miller.  It is a rare opportunity to find a tea party candidate talking to someone outside of Fox “News.”  After Rand Paul’s stumble over the Civil Rights Act, it even rarer to see a tea partier brave Maddow.  While a soon to come post will slam Miller and other tea partiers on First Amendment issues, I will give him kudos for actually talking to a journalist not employed by the Republican Pravda.  Interview below:

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The tea party movement has been dogged by accusations of racism.  In the age of smartphones, racially charged (and sometimes outright racist) banners in the rallies to “take America back” do not help.  And then you get banners like the one below posted by a Daily Kos diarist.  Is this a jocular riposte at the charges of racism? Or, can people really be that obtuse?  You decide:

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A couple of long takes on the roots of the tea party and the myths that animate the movement:

• Matt Taibbi has his inimitable take based on his observances in Kentucky and other states.  There will be no mixed emotions about this.  You will either hate it or love it based on your political leanings.  I could not help chortling at this comment – “The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them.”  With the news seeping about about Rick Scott’s Medicaid fraud, Rand Paul’s back flips on receiving Medicare paymnts (covered in the article), Carl Paladino’s special tax breaks that went to his pocket instead of the intended purpose of job creation, Joe Miller seeking indigent status to get a hunting permit when he was not indigent and Sharron Angle who favors private health care but receives her own coverage through the federal government, that hit a chord.
• Kevin Drum has his take on how the tea party regurgitates rhetoric like a dormant volcano that erupts when any Democratic president is elected, going back to FDR.  He does not agree with Taibbi’s take on the fears of browning America that seem to animate some of the rhetoric – though even Taibbi refers to the tea party members as narcissists rather than racists.

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