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The Afternoon Dispatch is written by BillOReilly.com staff.
Remember Christine O’Donnell? Hint: ‘I’m not a witch!’ Or Todd Akin? Another hint: ‘Legitimate rape.’ How about Roy Moore, accused of having ‘sexual contact’ with a 14-year-old. All three won their respective Republican nominations and ran for the United States Senate.
The predictable results: O’Donnell was trounced by Chris Coons by 17 points in Delaware. Akin lost to Claire McCaskill by 15 points in Missouri. Moore accomplished the near-impossible by falling to Democrat Doug Jones in crimson-red Alabama.
The Republicans nominated some very questionable candidates in the not-too-distant past, and it cost the party dearly. Even more recently, former football great Herschel Walker was thrown for a loss by Rafael Warnock in Georgia, and TV doc Mehmet Oz lost in Pennsylvania to John Fetterman, who at the time was recovering from a stroke. The point is that at times the GOP has sabotaged its chances of winning a larger majority in the Senate.
Well, now it may be the Democrats’ turn to self-immolate. Exhibit A, of course, is Graham Platner, running for the Senate in Maine against Republican incumbent Susan Collins. You know all about the now-disguised Nazi tattoo on his chest and his many excuses for that bizarre choice of ink. Less well known is what he said about rape victims, claiming they should ‘just take some responsibility.’
The always-charming Platner questioned why Black people don’t tip more in restaurants and wrote this pithy message: ‘F*** these cops.’ That’s in addition to his praise for the military genius of Hamas. But most Democrats are all in for Platner because he has a (D) behind his name. The Man With the Nazi Tattoo vanquished Maine’s Governor Janet Mills in the primary and will likely be the party’s standard-bearer in November. He has been raising money hand over fist and is always a most welcome and fawned-over guest on MS NOW.
To the west in Michigan, Democrats are likely to run another extremist. Abdul El-Sayed, heartily endorsed by Bernie Sanders and far-left lunatic Hasan Piker, has a slight lead in the Democratic primary. El-Sayed, striving to become the first Muslim elected to the Senate, is virulently anti-Israel and, of course, wants to abolish ICE. Those positions put him in the Democratic mainstream, but he is no moderate.
El-Sayed refused to celebrate the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei because many Muslims in the city of Dearborn were ‘sad.’ He also had no problem equating Iran’s fanatical mullahs with the MAGA movement. But many Democrats cherish El-Sayed for his fighting spirit, exemplified in a recent fiery speech. ‘When they go low,’ he said of Republicans, ‘we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out.’ That violent imagery is music to the ears of many Trump-haters.
Right now, the Republican Party is favored to maintain its majority in the Senate, but that obviously depends on the war in Iran and gas prices over the summer. The Democrats’ chances to eke out a majority may hinge on the unhinged Graham Platner winning in Maine.
But let us pose an interesting wild card possibility. This is what Senator John Fetterman said of his prospective colleague: ‘If Maine wants an a**hole with a Nazi tattoo on his chest, they get him.’ He added that he is ‘incredibly disappointed’ with his party. John Fetterman, despite being powerfully pro-Israel and in favor of the Iran war, has frequently maintained that he will remain a Democrat. But a victory by Graham Platner could change his mind and give the Republicans an additional seat, one occupied by a very large man in a hoodie.
The views expressed in the Afternoon Dispatch are those of BillOReilly.com staff.
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