Bloggers Break Into Candidate's Home... Film at 11

David Weigel | May 17, 2006

The insufferable Sen. Joe Lieberman is trying to head off a challenge from Ned Lamont, a cable mogul who argues that the nation's #1 source of Joementum is too close to George W. Bush. His new TV ads feature what must be a first in American politics - a cameo by a popular blogger. His 60-second ad portrays the strangely William H. Macy-looking candidate sitting on his couch, explaining where he stands on the issues, until he's swarmed by a mob of excited volunteers, led by Markos "Daily Kos" Moulitsas.

A cynic could suggest this is a kitschy way of referencing Moultisas' own political manifesto. I humbly suggest that our democracy needs more homages to Twisted Sister videos, not less.

Comments

PJ|5.17.06 @ 2:24PM|#

William H. Macy rules. Between Fargo and Boogie Nights, the man can do no wrong. And Jurassic Park III never happened.

R C Dean|5.17.06 @ 2:24PM|#

If I have to choose between Kos and Lieberman for the title of "most insufferable", I know who I'm going with.

And it ain't Joe.

Speaking of which, I didn't know Kos supported Lieberman. Given their opposing positions on the war, I would have thought not.

Captain Holly|5.17.06 @ 2:36PM|#

Based on Kos' record in the past couple of elections, I'd say Mr. Lamont's candidacy has just suffered a fatal blow.

BTW, Macy was great in Seabiscuit.

|5.17.06 @ 2:58PM|#

Captain Holly,

Boy you have that right about KOS being the kiss of death to candidates. It will be fun to read Kos's rationalizations after Lieberman wins. "Well we took a candidate that was dead in the water and got him within 25 points of incumbant. That is a real win." God, he is a looser.

Since when did Joe Lieberman become "insufferable"? What has he ever done besides support the war? Has Reason really become so narrowminded that anyone who supports the invasion of Iraq is immediately deemed beyond the pale? Perhaps KOS should be writing for Reason.

|5.17.06 @ 3:00PM|#

Macy was even great as The Shoveler in "Mystery Men"!

|5.17.06 @ 3:06PM|#

Macy is great in everything he does. But, he will never top the crooked car salesman in Fargo.

|5.17.06 @ 3:11PM|#

Maybe it's just me but I think he looks more like Dylan Baker

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048414/

Andrew Ian Dodge|5.17.06 @ 3:19PM|#

Lieberman is a reasonable Dem; that is clearly why the Kos mob hate his guts. I think those prats will help Joe's candidature.

|5.17.06 @ 3:25PM|#

Well, Lamont is your typical limosine liberal -- he lives in Greenwich, of all places -- with the same ol' progressive cliches, going up against Lieberman, who I think will be in the job until the day he dies, polls be damned. Certainly Jumpin Joe will win the Democratic nomination.

But, egad, nothing pisses me off more than when out-of-state celebrities (D-list or otherwise) come in and start embroiling themselves in state politics. Kos is just another F-ing Jesse Jackson, who comes running in every time there's a strike at Yale to sit in the street and sing Kumbayaa. I don't think those kinds of shenanigans go over too well with anyone other than the true believers. Kiss of death indeed.

Gabriel Chapman|5.17.06 @ 3:28PM|#

Kos is to Electoral Victory as Bob Shrum is to Electoral Victory. Well, at least Shrum won one race.

Consistantly I'm amazed by the emphasis placed on "netroots" of the left. I've yet to see a single election or candidate that was mega-whored by the "netroots" as gaining any significant traction, let alone a win. I love it when they lose too because the "we only lost by 10% = victory" is just so absurd that you have to question their mental faculties.

I'd hazard a guess the only person who recognizes Kos in that ad, is well Kos himself. The 99.999999% of the remaning viewers will be like, why is there a douchebag with a Members Only jacket on TV?

|5.17.06 @ 3:39PM|#

"I'd hazard a guess the only person who recognizes Kos in that ad, is well Kos himself. The 99.999999% of the remaning viewers will be like, why is there a douchebag with a Members Only jacket on TV?"

You can close this thread down, that pretty much sums it up.

|5.17.06 @ 3:41PM|#

Based on Kos' record in the past couple of elections, I'd say Mr. Lamont's candidacy has just suffered a fatal blow.

Kos is to Electoral Victory as Bob Shrum is to Electoral Victory. Well, at least Shrum won one race.

Uhmm..Stephanie Herseth just off the top of my head.

And Kos' record is no worse than the Club For Growth -- yet no one rails about those fucking loons.

Stop hatin' y'all. Jealousy isn't becoming

|5.17.06 @ 3:47PM|#

Chicago Tom,

I never have really followed the Club for Growth but their website states "Our members support the Reagan vision of economic growth through limited government and lower taxes." How does supporting limited government and lower taxes make them loons, especially on an aledged libertarian website?

As far as them being loosers, at least according to thier website "Twenty-two candidates recommended to Club members in the November 2004 election by the Club for Growth PAC, and 17 elected." That sounds a lot better than Kos.

Lastly, I don't see how anyone with any sense of shame or self worth could be jealous of a douchbag like KOS.

|5.17.06 @ 3:47PM|#

I'd hazard a guess the only person who recognizes Kos in that ad, is well Kos himself.

You'd be quite wrong in that guess.

Here's the thing....dailykos get a LOT of traffic. A TON... and everyone at his site knows his face.

Furthermore, its an ad for a primary. Most people who are interested in the Dem primary in CT (the target demographic of the ad) will recognize Moulitsas right away.

But hey..if libertarians think its stupid -- it will probably resonate with voters. The ones who don't think they are too cool and better/smarter than everyone else.

|5.17.06 @ 3:48PM|#

I lost tolerance for him in that ad the moment I heard him say "rah-ther".

|5.17.06 @ 3:58PM|#

Chicago Tom,

What is a ton of traffic? A million a day? Two million a day? And is that hits or actual number of people reading the site. Yes, KOS has a hardcore following of a few hundred thousand or perhaps even a couple of million. In absolute terms that is a lot. In the context of a country with nearly 300 million people, that is nothing. It is certainly not going to get you elected to anything. Moreover, I agree with the above posts about locals not liking candidates who use out of state b list or in this case d or e list public figures to come in and tell all of the dumb hicks how to vote.

|5.17.06 @ 4:23PM|#

I never have really followed the Club for Growth but their website states "Our members support the Reagan vision of economic growth through limited government and lower taxes." How does supporting limited government and lower taxes make them loons, especially on an aledged libertarian website?

I admittedly couldn't find any culture-war hot buttons on the CFG site, but their ardent support of the uber-reactionary Pat Toomey against Arlen Specter in 2004 made me see them in more than just a limited-government, pro-free-market light, and not a favorable light by any means. Toomey was arguably CFG's highest-profile candidate that year.

|5.17.06 @ 4:27PM|#

John,

Club for growth has supported quite a few failed campaigns. They're record is pretty abysmal in terms of percentages. They tend to actively support more candidates than kos does, so in absolute numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if they do fare a little better.

Furthermore, kos has supported quite a few candidates who have won (the Salazar Brothers, Herseth just off the top of my head). He also supports quite a few underdogs and progressives who the establishment democratic party wants nothing to do with for fear it will change their internal power structure. In short he is trying to change his party from within (very similar to the loonie club for growth) -- so why is one a-ok with you, but the other a big loser and a douchebag??

It's easy to support the Ted Kennedy's and the John Kerry's -- if all you want is bragging rights to prove "how many winners" you supported. But he is trying to change his party -- succcess isn't determined only by wins and losses by long shot candidates he supports...it is also determined by how the party reacts to his actions. On that front he is making quite a bit of progress, and has gotten quite a few incumbent politicos to post on his blog frequently. That sounds pretty successful to me -- but then again im not pedantic

Lastly, I don't see how anyone with any sense of shame or self worth could be jealous of a douchbag like KOS.

What exactly makes him a douchebag, John? That he isn't a rabid Bush supporter willing to wipe his ass with the Constitution? Or that he doesn't swallow the administration lies hook line and sinker and then rail on blogs about how necessary it was to start a war of choice, based on lies and deception, against a weak powerless dictator and then bend over backwards justifying secret detentions, no due process for arbitrarily labeled "enemy combatants", extraordinary rendition, and NSA spying?

Your personal attacks show just what kind of pathetic little man you are. He's a veteran and a proud liberal -- and if having an opposing political belief than yours is what leads you to call him names, then You John are the douchebag.

Rick H.|5.17.06 @ 4:28PM|#

Another comment destroyed.

I HATE THE REASON SERVER.

Why do I waste my time?

|5.17.06 @ 4:30PM|#

Yes, KOS has a hardcore following of a few hundred thousand or perhaps even a couple of million. In absolute terms that is a lot. In the context of a country with nearly 300 million people, that is nothing.

It's an ad for a CT primary John, not for President of the USA. In non-absolute terms (not that it is really relevant) a couple of hundred thousand is probably at least 10X more than total voter turnout for a CT primary.

But that's all besides the point. Don't try and shift the debate. The reason I cited his traffic was to dispell the belief that : "I'd hazard a guess the only person who recognizes Kos in that ad, is well Kos himself." and "99.99999% of people wont recognize him". That's a bullshit statement -- no matter the outcome, people will recognize Kos in the ad.

|5.17.06 @ 4:39PM|#

Comment by: ChicagoTom at May 17, 2006 04:27 PM

"Your personal attacks show just what kind of pathetic little man you are. He's a veteran and a proud liberal -- and if having an opposing political belief than yours is what leads you to call him names, then You John are the douchebag."

Pot meet kettle

|5.17.06 @ 4:39PM|#

John:

I suspect Reason's characterization of Lieberman as "insufferable" has less to do with his support of the invasion of Iraq as it does with his penchant for being a moral scold, saving the kids from evil video games and such.

David Weigel|5.17.06 @ 4:43PM|#

Kevin - You are correct. I encourage doubters to follow the link on Lieberman's name.

RightIsWrong|5.17.06 @ 4:51PM|#

Isn't it sort of ironic that people are here writing comments on a blog that say bloggers are losers? Oh wait, I mean "loosers" as the brilliant John would say.

The fact that a Libertarian web site is now discussing Ned Lamont suggests to me that these commercials are doing their job. Lamont is running in a Democratic primary, so what's he losing by expressing a sense of humor in these commercials? Any registered Democrats here at HitAndRun? Yeah, I didn't think so. In the meantime Kos will use this to fire up his base which will translate into contributions.

Even if you think Markos is a liberal dickwad, aren't you a little bit jealous of his 1 million plus audience?

Lastly, I'm sure proud liberal William H. Macy appreciates all the money you've spent on his movies. He was kind enough to pass some of it on to friends like Democrat Barbara Boxer to support her last election. Keep up the good work.

|5.17.06 @ 4:54PM|#

Good point Kevin, I had forgotten about that.

Chicago Tom,

Have you ever actually read the horrible nasty things that are said at the KOS site? Call him a douchbag is going easy on him. KOS is one of the nastiest most hate filled people on the web. He is no better than Ann Coulter or Micheal Milkin on the right. As a matter of fact he is worse, Coulter is at least kind of funny sometimes. The only good thing I can say for him is that he is not as bad as some of the toadies that post on his site. Whenever I get too agrrivated with Reason, I just go to Kos and see the kind bile that flows there and realize just how reasonable (pardon the pun) the worst Reasonites are in comparison to those trolls.

|5.17.06 @ 6:16PM|#

John,

I am an avid reader and poster over there. If you are going to talk about something, please get your basic facts right. It isn't the KOS site. Its called "Daily Kos". Kos is one of the many people who post there (just like we have Mr. Baily, Mr. Walker and all the other wonder HnR posters).

Kos also allows users to post their own diaries, and doesn't police / restrict content too much. In fact, the community is rather independant of kos himself.

There are lots of things said at Daily Kos, most not by kos himself. Just like Reason isn't responsible for your rants and rave's neither is Kos responsible for his reader's comments. If you don't see the distinction, then I dunno what to say.

If you want to cite of some kos' nasty and vile and filled posts, please feel free to post links to back up your claims. I read the site every day and rarely ever do I seem him post invective filled messages -- but feel free to prove me wrong. I believe you will have a hard time doing that because kos isn't really the caricature in your mind.

And as for nasty and vile words, the right wing blogosphere has perfected nastiness. And I don't mean the comments (when the right actually allows comments) I mean the hate filled posts and places like Little Green Footballs and Michelle Malkin.
And Ann Coulter is hardly "funny at times". Maybe people laugh at her -- but it isn't because she is trying to be funny.

So let's not pretend that your side is oh so civilized. You're side tends to attract all the racist, xenophobic, bigoted people in the country. You want to rail about hate filled speech? Start by not giving a free pass to the people on your side, and providing some proof of kos' hate filled posts, and then maybe your criticisms would be taken seriously.

The Wine Commonsewer|5.17.06 @ 6:28PM|#

Kos is a Kommie. And he gets a billion hits a day.

|5.17.06 @ 6:36PM|#

Chicago Tom,

What about the time that KOS celbrated the deaths of the Haliburton employees that were hung from the bridge in Faluja and said they were nothing but mercenaries who got what they deserved? Yeah that was real classy and nice.

|5.17.06 @ 6:58PM|#

You can always tell a dedicated Kos Kid when they drop in here, long before they acknowledge it - they start out sounding normal, then you get the "wiping his ass with the Constitution" language, then the "You're (sic) side tends to attract all the racist, xenophobic, bigoted people in the country," etc. etc., and most noticably the cool-disagreement-to-spittle-spewing-rage posts in under 30 minutes, and you have to wonder a) what led them here, and b) how shocked are they to find a site where people of different political views hold forth without (many) scatological references, ad hominem and tu quoque attacks, or schoolyard "poopyhead" taunts?

Seriously - all John said was that Markos' face is not likely to be widely recognized by Connecticut TV viewers and that he thought Markos was a douchebag (ok, that's a scatalogical reference - but a general one, and no worse than calling Senator Droopy insufferable, which of course he is.)

No, Tom - Kos is not widely recognized by viewers at large. The vast majority of Americans - including the majority of people in CT - don't read blogs regularly and they certainly don't recognize bloggers on sight. Those of us who spend a lot of time on blogs tend not to realize how small a percentage of Americans we are. Millions of daily hits is indeed impressive, but his web traffic is miniscule compared to cable and network news shows and newspaper subscriptions, which are still the chief sources of most Americans' information.

|5.17.06 @ 7:00PM|#

Jesus Tom, could you please give me a harder challange than finding dumbass hatefilled inane comments on KOS? As for KOS himself, he is such billious bastard you really have to look to even figure out his point. Here are a few "highlights" from the current batch of KOS comments.

and a conviction. Then you're damn right, hang them up and let them kick.

But I'm against the death penalty, even though these sorry fascist traitorous sons of bitches deserve it far more than any serial killer you care to name. So permanent incarceration serves our purposes well enough and keeps us on the side of the angels.

-9.88, -7.18
This Far and No Further

by Black Max on Tue May 16, 2006 at 06:56:02 PM PDT

[ Parent ]
Let me be his fucking jailer. I'll teach him what "stateless detainee" means.

... similar to young Rethugs today who do essentially the same crap, which is why they can't possibly go fight in Iraq. (I don't know if Rove & the Chimp worked together as larval scum.)
.
During his AWOL year deserting from the Champagne Corps, a duty for 1st Lt. Unfit to Serve on the campaign trail was to deliver (for radio broadcast) a ginsu'd tape just before the election that "proved" his candidate's opponent liked nigrahs too much and wanted to ruin white schools by bring a bunch of the young ones into classes.
.
You know ... just politics, like the First Douchebag explained to McCain about that black baby push-poll.

don't think this corrupt regime has even thought a wit about us losing our freedoms because of the terrorists. They don't give a rats ass. They want power and money, more power, more money, and on and on. That's what this is about. Kill government's help for ordinary people, privatize everything, make the corporations rich and make them rich along with it. This supposed war on terror is a sham. They don't even hide it anymore.


I have better things to do than read this crap, but it took me all of 20 seconds to find those. The level of dialog and thought that goes on there is so low. Has there ever been a disagrement over there? People are at each other's throats over there. I guess what strikes me the most about it is how emotional and irrational the posters seem to be. It is like this huge primal scream therapy for the parnoid and dellusional, all reinforcing and bringing out the worst in each other.

wingnutx|5.17.06 @ 7:01PM|#

Markos "Screw Them" Moulitsas?

AFB|5.17.06 @ 7:27PM|#

Wouldn't the ad be more accurate if it portrayed Lamont performing fellatio on a Daily Kos checkcard? Besides, Lieberman would be so outraged.
Having Markos and his gang of "spontaneous" activists leering through Lamont's window is creepier than the lyrics to a Rockwell song.

|5.17.06 @ 7:57PM|#

Agreed, AFB. The spot is creepy, cheesy and dumb all at once. Reminds me of why I don't vote.

|5.17.06 @ 10:20PM|#

"So let's not pretend that your side is oh so civilized."

That is known as the fallacy of the excluded middle. Or, as some of us who do not imagine political philosophy can be reduced to the colors red and blue might prefer, the fallacy of the excluded axis.

News flash: Believing a liberal is a douchebag doesn't necessarily put one on a 'side'. Your assumption that anyone who doesn't like Kos is taking cuddlenaps with GWB is precisely the kind of loopy fringe thinking that gets zero traction around here.

|5.18.06 @ 7:25AM|#

John --

Those are posts by commenters on the Kos site, not Kos himself. Try again.

You don't even know that those are posts by Kos supporters. If I was a Republican party official with a few spare interns one day I'd send them to the left wing blogs to post rants just so I could keep the "see, all the left has is hate of George W. Bush" meme going, with the help of people like you.

Gabriel Chapman|5.18.06 @ 10:35AM|#

Just to clarify, I called him a douchebag.

And I would stand by the point that nearly no one in the Vermont district will recognize him, nor understand why he's in the ad.

It may be good for generating hits to his website, but it will be yet another non-factor when it comes to the election. Id say that the net positive for this would be Kos-kids throwing the guy a bone in the form of a $10 contribution (usually all they can afford) which is most likley the reason that Kos was featured in the ad, to generate out of state money for a candidate that won't win a local election.

|5.18.06 @ 10:04PM|#

"And I would stand by the point that nearly no one in the Vermont district will recognize him, nor understand why he's in the ad."

This wouldn't be surprising, considering the ad aired in Connecticut.

Kos has explained why he backs long-shot candidates; because the sure winners don't need any more backing. Also, in the case of long-shot democrats running against republicans (not the case here, I know), it would be in order to force the Republican party to devote more of their resources to races where they expected to sail through without opposition (resources that can't be used elsewhere).

I think I found Kos' site through Hit and Run. His own posts (as opposed to some of the rants in the comments section) tend to be moderate. The "screw them" post was more motivated by his hatred (as an ex-soldier, not as a liberal) for mercenaries. Aside from that, he has been known to post articles about Democrat, as well as Republican corruption, which I haven't seen too many partisan bloggers do (although maybe I don't read enough blogs).

I have also defended libertarians on occasion on that site. So it seems proper to defend Kos on this one.

|5.19.06 @ 10:49AM|#

You don't even know that those are posts by Kos supporters. If I was a Republican party official with a few spare interns one day I'd send them to the left wing blogs to post rants just so I could keep the "see, all the left has is hate of George W. Bush" meme going, with the help of people like you.

Oh, come one. Do you really think that's the most likely origin of those posts?

Here's what I think: Those posts were made directly and personally by Karl Rove and Bushitlerburton W. McChimplestein himself, operating out of their secret underground love nest eight miles beneath the White House!

Also: Hitler was actually a Jewish plant, designed to fool people into thinking the Nazis were deranged extremists!