WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2026
Staffers strike again: We've been semi-wondering when some sch snowshoe might imaginably hit the fan. Mediaite sends in the sled dogs:
Alaska Dems Spent Months to Find New Dan Sullivan to Derail Republican Foe...
Alaska Democrats working for Senate hopeful Mary Peltola engaged in a coordinated effort to find someone named “Dan Sullivan”—the same name as the Republican in the same race—in a bold bid to confuse voters, a bombshell New York Times report has alleged.
The Times report, which is sure to shake up the closely watched Alaska Senate race, alleged Wednesday that Peltola staffers worked for months to find another “Dan Sullivan” who could draw votes away from incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan (R)...
“The plan worked,” according to The Times, when they found Dan J. Sullivan (unaffiliated), who threw his hat into the ring earlier this year.
Ugh!
"Name's-the-same" ballot misdirections have a long history in American politics. That said, they're always an unsightly, unattractive attempt to fool a helpful number of voters, possibly tipping the scale in a close election.
On MS NOW, obedient anchors have been rolling their eyes at the very thought that Alaska's sophisticated voters could possibly be so fooled. Unfortunately, a campaign doesn't go out and find a "name's-the-same" entry unless they think the unattractive answer is an unattractive yes.
Amazingly, here we go again! Rather, here they go again. We refer to the hapless, self-involved Peltola staffers who were involved in the earlier New York Times report about the troubling way they were dragooned into the care and fee3ding of Peltola's pet iguana, Cricket—or was Cricket really a hamster?
Actually, Cricket was a chameleon, but these staffers are always the same:
The Times report cites Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former aide and campaign manager, who was fired in the summer.
“Alaskan voters need to know,” Rios told the paper. “There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions.”
While Peltola is “definitely aware” of the effort, she was not directly involved, Rios added.
Last week, however, Rios told The Times she no longer wanted to participate in the story, and said she wanted to retract her previous statements to the paper.
“As discussed on our call earlier today, I am confirming that I have retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race in connection with any article you may or may not be writing,” Rios reportedly told the paper. “I am not willing to be a source for any story in any capacity.”
The firing may have been a mistake. That said, how did this person ever get hired to begin with?
(For the record, no. You can't unsay what you've already said to a major news org!)
Hopeless! This could help the GOP win the Alaska Senate race. Given the publicity it will create, it could conceivably help the GOP win elsewhere as well.
(Yesterday afternoon, we asked a version of this question: Could a Blue American player ever do something wrong?)
ReplyDeleteYeah, like I said: dirty Dumbocrat tricks, without a slightest pretense this time.
Stealing elections -- that's the ticket! Dumbocrats' way.
So says the man ensconced in Jon Husted's ass.
DeleteThe most that can be said about the Alaska election is that both sides are playing hardball.
DeletePeltola was slammed by a nasty hit piece on her behavior at a time when her husband and mother had both died. She wasn't perfectly nice to her staff and someone complained about it, giving fodder to insinuations that she is mean to her staff all the time, even these days several years later. Even if it were true, it doesn't mean she is unfit for an office she has been holding and is demonstrably effective in today. But kicking a woman who is suffering from such deaths seems like an OK election strategy for Republicans.
Now there is a guy on the ballot who was not recruited by Peltola but by party operatives without her knowledge or cooperation. That is being used as a hit against Peltola when she had nothing to do with it. Yes, that may be dirty pool (although totally legal -- it is the guy's right to run, as a US citizen). And Republicans are making hay off it by suggesting that Peltola had anything to do with it.
And now, it seems a staff member who was fired wants to retract a story. That has nothing to do with Peltola either. The person wasn't fired for speaking to the press, but after her firing gave an ugly story obviously from a disgruntled person. That has nothing to do with Peltola's qualifications either. People should be fired for cause and no one expects them to like it when that happens.
But Somerby explains none of this. He links to his own non-discussion without providing any perspective on the situation, as a seemingly deliberate piling on to these Republican attacks. That isn't what any liberal does. It hurts Peltola's cause. There is no benefit to what Somerby has written here today. Also no excuse for it.
This is a sad story.
ReplyDeletePeople don't like Democrats.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which.
DeleteLatest Trump Approval poll:
Republican Voters: 83%
People not sexually attracted to children: 0%
anon 5:20, leave it to you to reinforce how dumb the 'blue" side can be. Really helps the cause.
DeleteWe don't know that @5:20 is a Democrat or a Republican. Most likely a Russian bot dissing Democrats on Trump's behalf. How does that make Democrats dumb?
DeleteI think it would be better for Democrats to realize how much people don't like them. I don't understand what is meant by " helping the cause". I think it's best just to be realistic and true. Sometimes, as Democrats, we have bad news. Like in this case, we were caught cheating. Or in the case of the Russian collusion accusations, they were all totally made up. It sucks. But if we pretend things like this are not true, we're affected in the long run. It's like the old grandmother thing, take your goddamn medicine, child. This is something that, as a group, we most certainly do not do almost ever. And you know what, it's debilitated us in the most profound ways.
DeleteOur inability to avoid understanding and deny that people hate us because we are assholes - and to be in denial about myriad other realities - has been God's gift to Trump.
Democrats are responsible for both of Trump's elections. If we had been real and true, he wouldn't have stood a chance.
AC/MA what do you mean by " helping the cause"?
DeleteRepublicans hate Democrats because they have been maligning them for decades as part of ongoing propaganda and disinformation campaigns by the right. Democrats do not hate Democrats.
DeleteI think you meant to say that Obama and Biden are responsible for both of Trump's elections, didn't you? I believe it is the Russians and the billionaires who have colluded on Trump's behalf.
You are not part of "we" when talking about Democrats. You are echoing right wing talking points and no one is going to think you are a Democrat just because you say so, any more than anyone believes Somerby when he says it. Democrat is as Democrat does. You have to walk the walk, and so far, you haven't been doing that.
Like the primary psycho troll here seems to think Bob isn't truly a Democrat because he points out the shortcomings of the Democratic party. As if we are all supposed to be engaged in some kind of secret confederacy to deny reality in order for some kind of political end.
DeleteIt's craziness. Our craziness has put us where we are. The most unpopular political party of modern times.
8:57 Yes, I understand the rationale of which you speak. I just described it above. It's craziness. Your first paragraph is mostly correct though
DeleteDemocrats didn't make up the Russian collusion with Trump.
DeleteThat was the corporate-owned Right-wing media, who tried to gaslight suckers into believing it would take a foreign power to get Republican voters amped-up about voting for a bigot to be President of the United States of America.
It could have worked, if people hadn't noticed anyone who isn't a bigot already stopped voting for Republicans decades ago.
No one can say you're not committed to the bit.
DeleteMy comment at 11:42 was in response to 8:49.
DeleteYes, Hillary, we all believe you that it was your comment addressed to a comment 10 comments before it.
DeleteYou know why we believe you? Because we know that you're retarded.
Mao,
DeleteThank you for taking the time away from your busy schedule supporting child rapists, to let me know your super important feelings.
I meant anon 3:51 not anon 5:20.
DeleteTrump is trying to steal the election in Alaska for the Republican candidate.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for not letting us know that, Bob.
Of all the goofy attempts to smear Bob as pretending to be a Democrat, yours is the lamest yet.
DeleteGo away Cecelia
DeleteNo, Cecelia, interesting you would claim that I (at 6:59) was implying that Somerby isn’t a democrat. No, you came up with that all by your little lonesome.
DeleteMy point was actually, that , by now, Somerby’s fainting couch is getting worn and rickety. Every time a Dem isn’t perfect by his standards, he heads for it. The Alaska Supreme Court has already ok’d the ballot, where the incumbent Senator Sullivan is listed as “Republican incumbent.” Trump is demanding Peltola step down or be prosecuted, and his DO”J” has filed a lawsuit that intends to set aside the vote if the Republican doesn’t win. None of that made it into Somerby’s screed today.
Anonymouse 8:23pm, oh, you were chiding Bob for not telling you something that you DID already know. Bob had the temerity to shake his head over highly ridiculous and embarrassing political maneuvers via his own side, but the point of Bob’s blog SHOULD have been to do cleanup maneuvers for these idiots. Anonymouse 8:23pm, in other words, you were attempting to do the routine smear job on Somerby’s political intentions.
DeleteSomerby is too smart to believe there is a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
DeleteSomerby's political intentions smear themselves.
DeleteIf Somerby cared about truth or were an actual liberal, he might have reported Peltola's response to the NY Times article. She said this:
ReplyDelete"Hours after the report dropped, Peltola angrily denounced the Times.
“This is just another distraction,” she told reporters. “Every day, it’s some new, you know, ‘Look over here moment.’ Not Dan Sullivan, registered Republican, incumbent, voted for this war in Iran 14 times. Lisa Murkowski quit voting for that war in Iran six months ago, and he’s doubling and tripling down. And this is not somebody who’s working in our best interest. And anybody who’s working in our best interest isn’t going to talk about the nonsense. This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions. Nobody at The New York Times cares about affordability in Alaska.”
The info printed by the NY Times comes from the Republican effort to remove Peltola from the ballot:
"The U.S. Justice Department has filed a broadly panned preemptive lawsuit against Alaska if Peltola wins the election.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump demanded that both Peltola and the non-senator Dan Sullivan be removed from the ballot."
Somerby, of course, reports none of that. His goal is to portray Peltola negatively, not to be fair in presenting both sides of an issue. Somerby takes the complaints at face value without seeing that this is an effort by Trump's DOJ to skew the midterms toward Republican candidates.
Somerby is an educated person who understands the Republican Party is an amoral dumpster fire of bigots.
DeleteWhy would Somerby say this, if he had that understanding?
Delete"WEDNESDAY: Did Dems just lose the Alaska race?"
Peltola is way ahead and this attempt by Republicans is more of the same effort to reduce her support, unlikely to hurt her campaign. But Somerby is still helping Republicans with this crap.
It would be better if Peltola hadn't played this stupid trick.
DeleteMike Johnson assures us that Sullivan will win, because good will triumph over evil.
DeleteNotice that in the entire paragraph of Peltola's response to the article, she nowhere says the charges are false.
DeleteShe does say that she was not involved. Because the charges are about her behavior, that makes them untrue about her.
DeleteThe paragraph from Peltola refers to the staff quotes about her being mean to her workers in 2022. The stuff about Dan Sullivan comes from the DOJ's effort to remove Peltola from the ballot. The NY Times has dug up both negative stories about her in order to help Republicans. Peltola is right that this is part of Republican efforts to derail her candidacy, a distraction.
DeleteSomerby claims that Trump is mentally ill but trained observers are suggesting he has something like vascular dementia:
ReplyDelete"On Thursday, a widely cited psychologist warned that during his most recent rallies, President Donald Trump displayed “glitches” that suggest some severe form of “neurodegenerative disease.” According to Dr. John Garrison, not only has Trump been “struggling tremendously lately,” but his condition is “getting worse.”
Garrison begins by noting that Trump’s recent symptoms have included involuntary vocalizations, confusion, motor issues, and disinhibition – all suggestive of major cognitive decline. During the president’s rallies in Texas on Wednesday, asserts Garrison, these “strange behaviors” were on full display, including “what appears to be seizure-like activity,” and “the frequency of this behavior is getting worse” as it’s now happening at “almost every single rally.” While reviewing footage from Wednesday, Garrison noted that what once was the occasional twitch has progressed to an “entire body spasm.”
Indeed, as Trump is in the middle of railing against Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, he suddenly appears to spasm and stammer. “You could hear the interruption in his voice,” says Garrison, “but if you watch the body, if you watch his left hand, you actually see it moving up his arm to his face to the other side.” Zooming in on the footage, as Garrison suggests, it’s clear that the spasm begins in Trump’s hand before passing through his entire body as he has trouble speaking. According to Garrison, “It's the exact same pattern I've pointed out over and over again: one limb, to the eyebrows, to the voice, to the other limb. We have seen this pattern repeatedly over the past few months.”
As the recording continues, Trump launches into a tirade about Talarico being a vegan, mispronouncing the word as “vagan.” In Garrison’s estimation, “I know that he's joking right now, but I don't think that the word of vegan was necessarily a joke. I think that he is just coming up with strange words because I don't think his brain is functioning properly right now.” Immediately after that, as Garrison notes, Trump stutters while saying “Second Amendment.” According to Garrison, “He’s struggling again. He's struggling to get these words out.” Then Trump’s next line is “completely incoherent. That last statement made absolutely no sense in this context. And I think that he's getting lost right now because that really makes absolutely no sense.” Garrison argues that “this could be related to a wide variety of issues, whether it's recovering from a stroke or something like vascular dementia or another type of dementia.”
Moments later, the footage shows Trump “glitch” while trying to say the name of Republican senatorial candidate Ken Paxton. As the president speaks, his left hand gives a sudden twitch, and for a moment it seems that he’s frozen. “What you're observing is a spread of this neurological dysfunction,” explains Garrison. “You're seeing it spread throughout his body. You can hear it in his voice, that part is very obvious, but if you pay attention to his hand, you can see it there as well.” What’s more, “For a very brief moment there, it appeared that he couldn't speak.” From there, Trump displays a number of similar spasms, and at some point says something that “made absolutely no sense.” [Alternet]
This suggests Trump should be removed as president, not excused based on some personality disorder, as Somerby keeps saying. Trump's physical problems are getting worse and should justify his removal.