The media narrative on Georgia's special election makes no sense
Orange Man Bad! Plus, the chips on the table for Iran's poker game.
I am struck by the New York Times coverage of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District special election. “Shawn Harris, a Democrat and retired U.S. Army officer, and Clayton Fuller, a Republican endorsed by President Trump,” is how America’s newspaper of record described the all-but-decided runoff for former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat. Let’s be real: a Democrat has never won this district since it was created after the 2010 census. Even before that, going back to 2000, the 9th and 11th CD represented by Phil Gingrey (11th) and Nathan Deal, then Tom Graves (9th), all Republicans. The seat belongs to Fuller.
Listen, I’m the one here who wrote the way forward, the way to bring back fidelity to the Constitution by this administration, never mind the one before it, is to split the powers, meaning Democrats get Congress. I even went so far as to suggest that, in certain competitive Republican-held districts, like AZ-1, NE-2, CO-8, NY-17 and NY-7, if the Democrat seems sane and not a frothing-at-the-mouth progressive intersectional Bolshevik, vote for the D. Right now, Republicans are not so worried about losing their seat to a Democrat, as they are worried about losing their seat to a Trump-warrior. If you’re waiting for me to talk about Texas, I’ll get there in a bit.
Let’s settle GA-14. It’s not competitive. The race is not between a a retired U.S. Army officer, and a “Trump-endorsed former prosecutor,” like the NYT is saying. Harris is a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, and his website makes it seem like he’s echoing many Republican themes, but the paper fails to mention that Fuller is a USAF Lt. Col., a military lawyer, a former White House Fellow, and not a “former prosecutor,” but the serving District Attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit in north Georgia.
Shawn Harris, in the “jungle election,” where all candidates, regardless of party, run equally in the same voting pool, received the most votes: 43,241. He says it’s the most votes a Democrat ever got in that district. I don’t know, and it may be true. But the Republican field was divided up by 22 candidates. If you add up all the Republican votes, even with Democrats playing their Get-Out-The-Vote strategy, GOP candidates received 63,356 votes. People in the left-leaning media are crowing that Harris forced a runoff. It wasn’t Harris that forced a runoff—it was Colton Moore, a Republican running against Fuller. Moore received 13,472 votes, or 11.63% of the total.
Now that the race goes to a runoff, it’s all about GOTV, but I imagine having Trump’s backing will bring out the crowds and Fuller will easily defeat Harris. I’m not a betting man, and I’m almost willing to wager on this outcome.
And actually, I’m happy. MTG was a dumpster fire. I never liked her. She was a minor figure in Alpharetta, who ran a fitness center while her (now-ex) husband ran a successful contracting business. Apparently, it’s more than rumor that she had flings with some of the trainers at her gym. MTG “moved” to their house in Rome, to get into politics, because there’s absolutely no way the voters in north Fulton County would elect her. Our current Congressman is Rich McCormick, a medical doctor and former Marine. He’s very pro-Trump but he’s sane and composed.
I’m happy that Georgia’s 14th CD will get a sane and composed person as their representative in Congress. MTG has gone from nuts to toxic-nuts and her anti-semitism has risen to the surface, unmasking her real persona—mean and dumb is no way to go through life.
But it’s striking to me that the NYT simply forgot all the facts and went with the narrative that Shawn Harris might beat Clay Fuller. It’s not going to happen.
Now about Texas. I am not a fan of Ken Paxton. I’ve compared him to the cockroach in the movie WALL-E, “he survives despite the universe’s best attempts to do away with him.” Paxton should have been convicted after the Republican-led Texas house impeached him. He’s a walking gross miscarriage of justice. Sen. John Cornyn is not a hero, he’s a typical Republican scared of losing to someone to the “right” of him, but actually not the right, but the conspiracy-flecked cabal who watch OAN and feast on Alex Jones podcasts. I hope Cornyn can keep his seat in the runoff against Paxton.
However, James Talarico, the Democrat who’s running as a Christian, represents all the things that white liberal Christianity has done to ruin the church. He’s a seminarian from a very liberal mainline denomination, and his theology is cracked and even heretical. But we don’t elect people on the basis of their faith. Talarico’s policies are mainline intersectional progressive Bolshevik Democrat. I am glad I don’t live in Texas, because in a race between Talarico and Paxton, I could not hold my nose enough to vote for either.
Perhaps if Cornyn beats Paxton, he’ll regain his spine and become the senator he used to be before fear of Trumpism stole his courage. Most of the Republicans who couldn’t bear the pressure have opted out in the last eight years. The rest are docile mandarins, extensions of the Trump administration. That’s not how Congress is supposed to be, but it’s how Congress is right now. Democrats were no better under President Joe Biden. They protected him from any close inspection, and led themselves into a terrible campaign that amounted to elder abuse, because they thought their job was to serve the executive branch, not the people.
The people have elected some real stinkers. I don’t think Clay Fuller will be one of them.
But a lot of the media lives on “Orange Man Bad,” so the NYT will continue to promote every possible young Democrat, like Graham Platner in Maine, who sports a Nazi tattoo, James Talarico, and now Shawn Harris. They’ll take any position, even in non-competitive districts like GA-14, to show how Democrats are harvesting candidates who can appeal to conservatives, and also stand up to Trump. They know deep down that the world does not work this way, but they are paid to promote the narrative.
Iran’s poker play
The U.S. is doing a good job dismantling Iran’s war-making capability. But it’s a big country with a large, modern military, and many places to hide missiles and drones. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed, despite our efforts to sink Iranian mine-laying boats.
The White House gave a classified briefing to Congress about the conduct of the war, and Democrats pounced, claiming there’s no goals, no end-game, and no justification. Apparently, it’s more complicated than just sinking mine-laying boats to make the Strait of Hormuz safe for tankers again, at least to the standards of insurance companies that have to bear the liability, and have canceled policies, which keeps ships from transiting.
This is a poker game, and Iran has no intention of folding. They are actually putting more chips on the table.
Iran does not have to let Israel and the U.S. declare victory. By not negotiating and keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed they cause us economic pain which will influence the election in November if not addressed. This will put pressure on Congress and Trump to end the war quickly. But Iran doesn’t have to end it and we can’t end the regime without boots on the ground. Whether it’s our boots or someone else’s, the regime will survive our missile and air campaign.
Israel does not want to end the war. The Israeli people are fairly united on that. U.S. voters are divided on the topic. November elections are coming, and more Republicans may feel pressure to end the war, versus bending to Trump’s wishes. Congress will move toward ending the war the more gas prices stay high.
Now maybe Trump can pull a rabbit out of his hat. But I do have concerns about conflicting goals with Israel. If we want to end the war by negotiation, while Israel keeps killing anyone with whom we might negotiate, that could be a wedge between the two countries. The current Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is not prone to negotiating with the U.S. He’s a hard-line “twelver” who believes the destruction of Israel is his mission from Allah. But he might offer some kind of deal to Trump to end the war quickly, simply to get us to stop Israel from continuing the war. Then again, Israel might assassinate him.
Meanwhile, oil is not moving through the gulf, and I don’t hear the administration saying how they’ll fix that. This is a poker game, and Iran has upped the ante. We need to call, raise, or fold. Which will it be?
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