That's from a Washington Post article noting that the Republican Governors Association has just put another $1 million into ads for Scott Walker's reelection. The headline of the article puts the emphasis on Walker's state of mind — "RGA puts additional $1 million into Wisconsin ad buys as Walker frets" — but I think Christie's is the more interesting mind about which to speculate.
Walker is trying to get reelected and the polls show a close race. That's a mundane objective reality. The subjective matter of how that feels to him — whether he "frets" — is dumb in the same way that it's dumb for reporters to ask, say, a person whose house is burning down "How do you feel?" The answer is already known: How do you think I feel? There's nothing about the subjective aspect of the story that isn't inherent in the objective aspect of the story.
But what's going on in The Mind of Chris Christie? That's where the subjective part of the story is complex and speculation-ripe.
Here's the above-referenced Weekly Standard article: "Does Chris Christie Have Scott Walker's Back?"
"The Center for Public Integrity reported Thursday that Walker and his backers spent nearly $6.1 million on ads through Monday, while Burke and her supporters ran nearly $6.6 million," the AP reported on Thursday. On Sunday, Walker told the Washington Post's Robert Costa: "We are always looking for more help. Our main help has to be the RGA." But according to the Center for Public Integrity, the Republican Governors Association has spent $5.9 million on TV ads in Michigan, where Governor Rick Snyder is up for reelection, and just $801,000 on TV ads in Wisconsin.ADDED: Writing this post made me want to look the word "fret" up in the OED. The original meaning is to eat, to devour, referring to the behavior of nonhuman animals. It still has that meaning in the sense of a small animal — like a worm or a moth — consuming or wearing away something by gnawing at it. The figurative usage is very old, the passions and various irritants consume or wear away at a person's mind. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: "So many curiosities drive one crazy, and fret one's heart to death." The intransitive use — "To distress oneself with constant thoughts of regret or discontent; to vex oneself, chafe, worry" — is also very old, going back to 1551, first in a translation of Thomas More's "Utopia": "He..so fret so fumed & chafed at it."
Why would the RGA spend more on Rick Snyder than Scott Walker?...
I like the verb "fret," and use it a lot, probably mostly to make a person seem fussy and overly inward. But searching this blog to find how I've used "fret," I see the first thing that comes up is a fond tribute to an old Kinks song: "Don't You Fret." And there's a reference to the famous line from "MacBeth": "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/And then is heard no more: it is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing." And, remember, MacBeth was already king when he said that. Chris Christie, on the other hand, is only the Thane of New Jersey.
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58 comments:
Why would the RGA spend more on Rick Snyder than Scott Walker?
Because of the widespread -- and possibly mistaken -- belief that Walker is going to walk away with this election.
I get so sick and tired of the media stories that focus on who has how much money and how much they have spent. How about some in depth stories about the candidates and their policies and ideas and positions?
The Weekly Standard article seems to ignore all the get out the vote stuff, focusing mostly on TV dollars to the exclusion of the full picture.
It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself. Was the RGA his major source of funds during the recall?
All the finger pointing ahead of the elections makes it feel like a sinking ship. Why start apportioning blame now if you think you will win?
Because Walker is not what the RGA or the beltway republicans want in an executive.
Christie is a statist. He is the governor of a state that is throwing people in jail for stupid gun laws and he does nothing. Christie wants to "govern" with democrats and hugs Obama on the eve of an election. He gets elected in a blue state by teaming up with progressives to manage the decline of that state. His goal like the republican establishment is to get to be in charge of the growing state apparatus every now and then. He has little fake fights with unions every now and then but that is all rhetorical. The unions are still in control.
Walker actually did something. He took the union money laundering operation out. Republicans in DC don't actually want to accomplish anything. They wont support Walker.
Does Chris Christie have anyone's back?
Christie is throwing his weight around.
That is a common phrase, but gathers humor because Christie is fat. Many people are fat, but Christie is fatter than many fat people. He is FAT fat. Meaning: he has a lot of weight to throw around. Although 'throw' might be the wrong word: maybe 'jiggle'. As Will Smith might say, Christie is 'gettin' jiggly with it.' Because Will Smith wrote a song that had a line almost like that. It was popular a while back, and is probably on YouTube.
Maybe he 'has a beef' with Walker, and that's funny because Christie probably eats a LOT of beef. He is fat -- FAT fat -- and so he probably eats a lot of everything. Probably a lot of cheese, too, because he is New Jersey's 'Big Cheese'. A lot of beef and a lot of cheese, that can make you fat, or even FAT fat.
You could say that Christie is 'exercising his will' in the situation, and that becomes funny, too, because Christie is fat -- FAT fat -- and probably does not exercise. He probably does not exercise and he eats too much beef and cheese and so he is fat. He doesn't have hamstrings, he has the whole pig. See: when one thinks of hamstrings one probably thinks of an athlete. Christie is not an athlete, unless the sport is rolling downhill. Because he is rotund he would roll well, that's why he would be successful in that sport; other sports, not so much. Unless Competitive Weight-Gaining gets on ESPN.
That is my analysis of this situation.
Mark said...
"It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself. Was the RGA his major source of funds during the recall?"
Because he doesn't do the bidding of rich people? The only rich people ever accused of supporting him are the Koch brothers who are libertarians. most rich people are statists and donate their money accordingly.
jr565 said...
"Does Chris Christie have anyone's back?"
Obama got a hug.
Other than his own no. That makes him the perfect dhimmi republican.
"Christie is a statist. He is the governor of a state that is throwing people in jail for stupid gun laws and he does nothing. Christie wants to "govern" with democrats and hugs Obama on the eve of an election."
I wouldn't trust Christie as far as I could throw him. He spent his GOP convention speech praising himself instead of Romney. He is all about himself and I wouldn't put it past him to try to stab Walker in the back.
"most rich people are statists and donate their money accordingly.:
Yes, to Obama who supports Zirp which is making them more rich. That will continue until the economy collapses. Then, I hope there are enough street lamps and rope.
I think we should all pause and acknowledge how diligently and tirelessly commenter Mark has been spreading Walker FUD here at Althouse. Effort like that shouldn't go unappreciated.
I like the etymology posts. They remind me of William Safire's "On Language," columns. Popular expressions also fascinate me.
What Achilles said above. ^^
This is what RINOs do to conservatives or those they see as being voted in by the 'tea party' (the 'people' who are sick of the statism in both parties). They won't support them, in any way, and sometimes when those people do get voted in, they will gerrymander them out of the position.
"Christie is throwing his weight around."
Agreed. The question is does he punch above his weight class? I don't think there is a weight class above, so the question may be rhetorical.
Yes, Achilles. Walker has no rich donors.
Let's ignore that fact that Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump both donated post-primary. Or that Diane Hendricks [Wisconsin's richest person] has also written checks in the last months.
Yup, Walker has no rich donors.
Laughable.
It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself.
Walker was getting ungodly large donations to his campaign in the run up to the recall. Diane Hendricks and Bob Perry each gave Walker $500,000 in one donation. Wonder if that dried up? Maybe they think they already got all they could out of Walker.
Re: "The question is does he punch above his weight class? I don't think there is a weight class above, so the question may be rhetorical."
Christie doesn't have a weight 'class', he has the whole school.
People think Christie's hugging Obama was a mistake. This is wrong. Actually it was something on the order of a gypsy curse, laid on the President by Christie.
Look at what has become of Obama since Christie hugged him. He's a wreck, distracted, depressed, lethargic, detached, ineffective, a shadow of his former self. His poll numbers reflect the depth of his personal desperation.
To understand this you have to understand the deep-fried Irish Spring smelling, soul-constipating, love on the hoof power of a Chris Christie hug. Its weird. Its like smoking. People who do it can't see how repulsive it looks, they only want another one. To let Christie hug you is to unwittingly condemn yourself to a life of nostalgia.
Look at Obama, running around, hugging everybody. He's trying to recreate that moment, that .....feeling, but alas, its all in vain. Sooner or later he'll return to New Jersey, to the arms of Chris Christie. I wouldn't be surprised if he retired there.
"Maybe they think they already got all they could out of Walker."
More likely, there are people hostile to the recall in principle who are less involved in the regular election.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he retired there."
Ha!
Mark and garage, I assume (perhaps wrongly) that you plan to vote for Burke. In your opinion, would a governor Burke really be the best course for the sake of Progressivism in this state? An alternative would be to write-in Brett Hulsey. As a protest vote. Walker would likely get four more years if Progressives did that, but wouldn't that be more likely to lead Wisconsin back to public union dominance rather than 4, 8,12 years or more of Walker-lite, Mary Burke?
whether he "frets"
In the MSM, republicans "scramble" and socialists "move forward".
In your opinion, would a governor Burke really be the best course for the sake of Progressivism in this state?
Yes. And the best course for the state.
Narrative:
"Republicans are always fighting"
(and "too extreme!!")
In the first three quarters of 2014, the Christie-led RGA raised $71.6 million. Surprising they are spending so lightly in Wisconsin.
This is what I get when not reading the linked articles before commenting. The RGA has spent a boatload of money, just not all on ads. Sounds like Christie is getting a bum rap. Sounds more like a plan to weaken Christie in 2016 than anything about 2014.
From the Washington Post article:
According to the two officials, the RGA, which has so far spent $5.8 million in Wisconsin, will spend a total of $8 million in Wisconsin by the campaign’s end, counting the supplementary $1 million in ads as well as more than $1 million set aside for grassroots organizing and get-out-the vote efforts.
During Walker’s recall election in 2012, the RGA spent $8.9 million. During Christie’s tenure as chairman, it has raised $90 million.
From the Weekly Standard:
But a GOP source with knowledge of RGA spending threw cold water on this theory. The source claimed that total RGA spending--a "large majority" of which is "focused on TV ads" but also includes things like polling, research, and field operations--has actually been $6 million in Wisconsin and $10 million in Michigan as of Tuesday. But, the source said, the RGA has $4 to $5 million in TV ad time reserved in Wisconsin for the final two weeks of the election, and the RGA will end up spending more in Wisconsin than Michigan by the time the election is over.* (The Center for Public Integrity numbers certainly do appear to miss a lot: CPI doesn't show any RGA spending in Florida, but the source says the RGA has spent $17 million to date in the sunshine state).
Chris Christie will not have my vote in the 2016 primaries. He enjoyed his photo op as Obama pledged to cut the red tape for Christie's constituents in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Fair 'nuff, a governor should do what it takes to support his constituents.
But what I learned afterwards from Jersey residents I know was that the red tape was not cut, and it was hurdles to jump, hoops to go through, business as usual dealing with FEMA and the rest of the federal government. So in my book Christie, in failing to publicly hold Obama to his promises, did more than merely sabotage his party's candidate, he sabotaged his constituents as well.
Chris Christie just lost my vote for 2016. No values, no ethics.
It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself. Was the RGA his major source of funds during the recall?
Because Burke isn't actually hauling in massive amounts of outside money. No sir.
Christy has lost almost 100 lbs with his lap-band surgery, which seems like cheating since no will power is required. So maybe he would make a good athlete.
Christie making a big splash in Wisconsin. The ripple effects could reverberate from Racine all the way to Ashland. IS THERE A BURKE WAVE???????
LOL
It is disgusting how the liberal media keeps reporting that this race is "close". After his stellar performance in the debates there is no way at all Walker can lose.
Sounds more like a plan to weaken Christie in 2016 than anything about 2014.
Sounds good to me.
As to why Walker isn't able to raise enough money on his own: I keep reading that the "John Doe" investigations were intended to deter donations to Walker. Do all you Wisconsinites say that the investigations have not been effective that way?
Meade -
Act 10 will never be repealed, and certainly not with a Republican controlled legislature as is the likely future for a while.
Your question is moot. You know that it is moot just as well as I do.
I am not a fan of Walker, but I am also not a fan of one party supermajorities of either party. As we have seen here and in 2008 nationally, inept and politcally-connected appointments will become a chronic problem and lead to major failures in various agencies because of this.
Swinging the pendulum widely from side to side is no way to run a society. Even if it goes swinging in a way I agree with, the end results never work out well.
I am electing a fairly middle of the road person with a veto pen. Mary Burke is no progressive, but at least she isn't clearly deranged like Brett Hulsey.
Ever get between Brett and a microphone? It ain't pretty. Hell, the Dane County annual DNR meeting had him show up to rant [at which point about 25% of us all left, it was just bozos of both stripes left to speak, we had voted on all the hunting and fishing rules already].
Mark said...
Yes, Achilles. Walker has no rich donors.
Let's ignore that fact that Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump both donated post-primary. Or that Diane Hendricks [Wisconsin's richest person] has also written checks in the last months.
Yup, Walker has no rich donors.
Laughable.
But that's not what he said.
Nice try though.
Rusty, didn't he say
"The only rich people ever accused of supporting him are the Koch brothers who are libertarians."
And I corrected him. Plenty of other ultra rich have donated this year to Walker.
The list is pretty long, actually. It's not just the Koch Bros.
*sad trombones*
If Walker should go down, Chisholm will get the credit/blame. Nice job on the illegal investigation. He should be up for the Al Franken Award.
Mark said...
Yes, Achilles. Walker has no rich donors.
Let's ignore that fact that Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump both donated post-primary. Or that Diane Hendricks [Wisconsin's richest person] has also written checks in the last months.
Yup, Walker has no rich donors.
Laughable.
10/25/14, 12:42 PM
garage mahal said...
It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself.
Walker was getting ungodly large donations to his campaign in the run up to the recall. Diane Hendricks and Bob Perry each gave Walker $500,000 in one donation. Wonder if that dried up? Maybe they think they already got all they could out of Walker.
10/25/14, 12:42 PM
These boys only have a problem with rich people giving to Republicans and not with rich people donating in principal since apparently they have no principals only expediency.
Squirrel!
I noted the existence of donations. Does that automatically equate with wanting to stop them?
Christie is all about Christie's political future. He basically sabotaged New Jersey Republicans (like them or not) to enlarge his re-election vote. I wouldn't put anything past him.
It's Chinatown, Jake.
Mark said...
Squirrel!
I noted the existence of donations. Does that automatically equate with wanting to stop them?
10/25/14, 8:05 PM
I call your squirrel with another squirrel. I don't seem to see any consistency on your part about noting rich people contributing to the other candidate. So if you don't automatically want to stop the rich from donating then what difference does it make to whom the rich donate to?
Achilles said...
Mark said...
"It also raises the question on why Mark said...
Rusty, didn't he say
"The only rich people ever accused of supporting him are the Koch brothers who are libertarians."
And I corrected him. Plenty of other ultra rich have donated this year to Walker.
The list is pretty long, actually. It's not just the Koch Bros.Walker cannot get donations himself. Was the RGA his major source of funds during the recall?"
Let's recap.
Because he doesn't do the bidding of rich people? The only rich people ever accused of supporting him are the Koch brothers who are libertarians. most rich people are statists and donate their money accordingly.
Achillies said that the only only rich people your side has accused of supporting Walker has been the Kock brothers. He didn't say they were the only ones.
Achillies then goes on to assert that most wealthy political donors happen to be statists or progressives.
You go on to name a few wealthy republican donors. I know Trump. I'm unfamiliar with the others though.
I'm presuming from your response that he is biased because he didn't go on to name any rich democrat donors to Burkes campaign.
I bet there are a few though.Burke herself being one of them. Bloomberg? Soros? SAIU? Although Soros wouldn't donate in his own name. He has front organizations to do that for him.
That's the whole point isn't it Bob. mark wants to play "gotcha" over nothing.
I don't give a shit about Wisconsin politics but This American Life had a story today about some student from UW-Platteville. The student was appointed to the Board of Regents at the UW System. The Walker admin found out the kid signed the recall petition at the age of 18 and "rescinded" the offer giving the kid no explanation-the kid has since become a repulican and supports Walker policies.
If a company in the private sector rescinded an offer, with no explanation, they would be sued big time.
I am voting for the repubican candidate for governor in Mass-Charlie Backer! He would be considered a democrat in 90% of the U.S. states though. Loves abortion and gay marriage, natch-like Mitt Romney when he was governor.
My hope is both parties will be obsolete in 20 years, except in the south where a former Reagan staffer, wants them to secede, because of fag marriage, and be renamed Reagan.....natch.
I would totally support the south seceding. Fucking takers and we are the givers.
Fret, shouldn't this be under the next blog post on Jack Bruce? I see them in the pic with his bass guitar!
@Danno Actually, it looks like a fretless bass.
Mark said...
Yes, Achilles. Walker has no rich donors.
"Let's ignore that fact that Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump both donated post-primary. Or that Diane Hendricks [Wisconsin's richest person] has also written checks in the last months.
Yup, Walker has no rich donors.
Laughable."
I understand that it is tough for you to get the concept that the wealthy class wants big government. but it is obvious why. They are able to influence government with money more easily than the general population. If general Electric donates money to a bunch of senators to get incandescent bulbs banned so people have to buy their cfl bulbs the return on investment for them is far better than spending money on developing a product people actually want and it wipes out some pesky domestic competitors. Solyndra's board made a calculated decision. They had a shitty company that was losing money so obviously in that situation you donate a giant pile of money to Obama and Shazam you get 100 times as much money from a stimulus loan declare bankruptcy and walk off with the money.
Only the wealthy in this country can pull crap like that off. They know the dems play ball and they work together to make government bigger because that gives democrats more power and the cronies get bigger checks. That is why democrats are getting more money from wealthy people than republicans. Sure there are some rich people who donate to republicans. Most are just hedging their bets in case the republican wins but some actually believe in their advocacy. The fact you can name most of them belies the failure in your argument.
Shit to he democrat candidate in the campaign is even a born with a silver spoon up the butt Havvaaad educated part time snow boarder who hasn't done a challenging thing in her life.
"Laughable" describes your critical thinking skills.
Laughable is your commentary. Go rant about Obama on a thread discussing him.
The fact is that if Walker is solely dependent on the RGA, this is a new development. The fact that they are pointing fingers suggests a sinking ship.
Go ahead, rage about the system. I thought we were talking about the WI Gov race here.
I am off to enjoy a perfect October day in Wisconsin. You can all mock me from your sinking ship. Enjoy the ride.
"he curbed bargaining rights for most public workers in his state"
Walker didn't curb "bargaining rights", he curbed the power of public workers to capture tax payer money and funnel it into the democrat party.
It also raises the question on why Walker cannot get donations himself.
Republicans raising money: bad.
Republicans not raising money: also bad.
"Walker didn't curb "bargaining rights", he curbed the power of public workers to capture tax payer money and funnel it into the democrat party."
Well, yes, "bargaining rights" in this case is really a euphemism for the statutory power of public employee unions to tacitly threaten going out on strike.
Your the one whos nose got out of joint over republican campaign financing.
Jesus. Get a grip.
Mark said...
"Laughable is your commentary. Go rant about Obama on a thread discussing him.
The fact is that if Walker is solely dependent on the RGA, this is a new development. The fact that they are pointing fingers suggests a sinking ship.
Go ahead, rage about the system. I thought we were talking about the WI Gov race here.
I am off to enjoy a perfect October day in Wisconsin. You can all mock me from your sinking ship. Enjoy the ride."
Aww pookie. That read like your argument just got crushed in every possible way.
Please don't cry. =(
You caught me, Ann! I was actually trying to see if I could redirect the blog-versation away from the inane things that were being beaten to death by my fellow Althousians at the time, and thought this might be better than yelling 'squirrel'.
Anyway, when I first looked at the video I couldn't tell if the bass he was using had frets that weren't color-contrasted to the rest of the guitar neck, but then I went into Google search mode and found the following info on jackbruce.com-
Though trained on the upright bass, Jack Bruce took a liking early on to small, short-scale electric basses. One of his first was the Fender Bass VI, a 6-string bass tuned EADGBE like a guitar, but one octave lower. Jack recorded most of Fresh Cream with this bass, before moving to the classic Gibson EB-3, the sound of which he made famous during Cream's live tours.
In 1976, Jack moved to the fretless bass. After stints with some Aria and Spector long-scale basses, he found Warwick, a German producer of high quality electric basses. Jack made some suggestions for improving the balance and pickups, and Warwick produced the instrument he now uses. The Warwick Jack Bruce Signature Model is a modified fretless 4-string Thumb Bass featuring MEC active pickups and LED position markers on the side of the neck. Jack strings his instrument with S.I.T. medium gauge roundwound strings (.050 - .105). Jack also uses some Warwick 5-string basses for recording, though he doesn't use them onstage. Recently he acquired a fretless Star Bass II at Warwick's New York City custom shop. For fretted bass playing Jack occasionally makes use of a refitted Gibson EB-1 bass.
And these Youtube videos from 2005 at the Royal Albert Hall have some camera angles where light shows down the neck and no frets are to be seen. The bass Jack is using seem to be the same one as in the instructional video.
Sunshine of Your Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYYeM_t6b5c
White Room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCc00pX_pFA
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