by Jon Ralston Wed, 09/19/2012 - 14:48
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@PatrickPetrell1 @maureendowd Also navel.
16 hours 26 min ago.
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@JamilSmith @maureendowd I disagree with your analysis of the lede and her column.
I, too, have been waiting to wa… t.co/JMsk1Eu5Pq
16 hours 50 min ago.
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@tommyxtopher So you agree with me?
16 hours 59 min ago.
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@UniversalEcho17 @maureendowd Thanks.
But it's not a contradiction. The proportionality referred to comparing what… t.co/QpKEidShwS
17 hours 16 min ago.
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@stevesingiser @neilmungeam @maureendowd Not at all, Steve. And I appreciate your passion and your support of The I… t.co/l1CYSd7F5s
17 hours 30 min ago.
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@supermills @maureendowd No, just in a minor way.
17 hours 53 min ago.
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@maureendowd Of course Trump was worse than any president in cultivating animus toward the media and his rhetoric w… t.co/6WzD9nBxHt
17 hours 54 min ago.
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@eaf820 @maureendowd How many?
17 hours 56 min ago.
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@maureendowd What's all too predictable about the responses to this tweet is that folks use the insurrection or any… t.co/zQ0xL4EjyU
17 hours 57 min ago.
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@JamilSmith @maureendowd Noted.
Want to be clear that I think performance art by GOP senators about Tanden is path… t.co/aw0OkdiVUB
18 hours 1 min ago.
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@baseballcrank That may be true. But I also see the right as brutal on the press. The left is just nasty. Distincti… t.co/R7kKSphmnK
18 hours 7 min ago.
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"It’s a lot more pleasant to be hailed by the left than demonized, as you are during periods when you’re holding a… t.co/QtSN3QbBxM
18 hours 12 min ago.
You could almost feel it over the last few weeks.
Sen. Dean Heller, with help from his Rovian friends, has been pounding Rep. Shelley Berkley over her ethics troubles. And despite her abysmal handling of the issue at times, the congresswoman has kept the race close. Yes, her image has taken a battering, and polls may lag that phenomenon, but this race is still far from over.
So although it was out of character for Heller to resort to hyperventilating hyperbole today by calling Berkley "the most unethical, corrupt person I’ve ever met in my life.” Really? Compared to ex-Sen. John Ensign, whom I think Heller met?
Even if Berkley recklessly used her position to advocate for policies that benefited her husband – and the Ethics Committee has not weighed in yet and despite Berkley’s amnesia about whether she ever asked for guidance – she did not commit nearly the depredations Ensign did.
But no matter: More interesting than Heller’s mini-temper tantrum is that the usually disciplined senator,, who rarely deviates from careful talking points, once even distancing himself from his campaign’s attack ads, is why: He hasn’t put her away.
Berkley’s transparent attempt to muddy the ethical waters, first with a series of ads tying Heller to a diamond scam that he has no ties to and now with the resurrection of an old issue old issue about a car driver friend of Heller’s. And the new Berkley ad didn’t even use the sex offender angle. It’s pretty clean, albeit almost as tenuous as the Diamond Dean hits.
But it sure hit a nerve with Heller, based on that quote. And I bet he doesn’t like to see these kinds of assessments, with the National Journal moving the race up a notch in Berkley’s favor and saying “the numbers aren’t moving here” despite the ethics attacks.
I still think Heller is a slight favorite here because of the ethics probe and Berkley’s challenge in Washoe County. But if Mitt Romney continues to falter in Nevada – and Heller scurried away from the GOP nominee today quicker than you can say “47 percent” – and the Democratic turnout machine reaches 2008, or even 2010 effectiveness, this could be a race where a congresswoman under an ethics cloud could win against a previously squeaky clean senator.
And the first debate is one week from today: Bring your popcorn.
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