More GOP prez candidates face drop-out point

You'll notice that I have a poll at the top left corner of this blog. It asks which Republican presidential candidates are likely to drop out before the Iowa caucuses.

I put it up before Scott Walker surprised us all by doing so, even though he seemed to have money in the bank while still struggling.

Well, five of the six in that poll — Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey Graham (figure out who he is) — along with Rand Paul, are all going politically broke, some rapidly.

Paul and Graham both have some reserves, but, by percentage of overspend, they're two of the three worst.

My venture is that, due to the nature of the Iowa caucuses, and that their overspend percentage isn't too high, Huckabee and Santorum hold on, hoping for a boost from the Protestant and Catholic Religious Right, respectively.

Pataki and Jenga (heh, heh) are both running "vanity" campaigns and we all know it. As soon as other people refuse to refund their vanity, those two are out.

Rand Paul may figure out a way to re-energize his daddy's supporters.

Butchmeup? What, the Log Cabin Republicans aren't backing him? Well, they could, if he'd openly give them a reason to do so.

Anyway, the poll's still up; cast your vote!

Good-bye, Scott Walker; hello, Koch Brothers?

Shock me. Shock me so much that I didn't have him listed in the top 5 most likely to withdraw, in my poll at right.

I heard the news on NPR, while on my current vacation, about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker withdrawing from the GOP race.

And, yes, I am actually surprised.

I thought that he would use his neighboring-state candidacy to continue to try to boost himself in Iowa. But, no soap.

That said, on the GOP side, Iowa's caucuses lean heavy to the Religious Right, as Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have shown in the past. Walker has no such connection.

The Wisconsin miracle, economically? It's about as real as Donald Trump's non-bankruptcy business success.

And, Trump had hogged the oxygen from the big biz side of the GOP, along with his strange appeal to some tea party types. And, Jeb Bush, while not "charismatic" compared to Trump, was still ahead of Walker. And, ahead of him on donors, too.

Speaking of, it looks like the Koch Brothers' alleged anointing of Walker, long rumored, never actually happened. Was this a rumor with any legs, and they just were wanting to see more out of him? If they are going to anoint any GOP candidate, who, and when?

Meanwhile, and not to justify SCOTUS on either Citizens United or McCutcheon vs. FEC, but, this shows that money, or the hints of it, aren't everything. Tricky Ricky Perry is gone. Bush is struggling. (We'll see how much Walker interruptus helps him.)

The Donald, I do believe, will eventually blow over. More on that in a separate post.

So, who's next?

Coming soon on #PBS #Nova — cheese, Koch style!

Scott Walker/Wikipedia

The Koch Brothers got outed earlier this week on their GOP 2016 Presidential nomination favorite — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

First, why Walker?

1. He's a governor, and Dear Leader's leap from the Senate aside, from Jimmy Carter on, previous executive experience (counting Poppy Bush as Veep) has been the normal White House route. That rules out Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul, as well as, possibly, Jeb Bush as an ex-governor too long removed from office. Chris Christie probably is too liberal. John Kasich will probably stay out. Rick Perry

2. He's shown the chops as a union-buster.

3. By winning a recall, and re-election, he's shown he's a winner.

That said, Ed Kilgore notes the Koch Corleones are likely to do the equivalent of a "request for proposals" before officially tapping one candidate. And Vox says that the Kochs might not tap anybody too quickly, lest they lose leverage — as risible as it is to imagine a group of billionaire brothers losing political leverage.

Meanwhile, the first point may be worth bearing for Democrats, too. Martin O'Malley's a (recently ex)-governor. Hillz Clinton was the executive power behind the throne for the Slickster, and after running for Senate, then was an executive of sorts as Secretary of State. Bernie Sanders, whatever his odds are, is a senator. (So is Elizabeth Warren, should she change her mind; that said, her short Senate tenure would put her in the Obama category.

Now, that said, the joking header?

The David H. Koch Fund for Science is a major supporter of PBS' Nova science program. (Nova's already been criticized for pulling its punches on climate change ever since getting Koch money, and PBS in general has been accused of kowtowing.) Hence my joking about the science of Wisconsin cheddar!

Scott Walker becomes even more lying and sneaking

Somebody acting on the Wisconsin governor's behalf officially published legislation stripping collective bargaining rights from state workers despite a court injunction.

How?

The measure was published to the Legislature's website with a footnote that acknowledges the restraining order by a Dane County judge. But the posting says state law "requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish every act within 10 working days after its date of enactment." ...

The restraining order was issued against Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette. But the bill was published by the reference bureau, which was not named in the restraining order.

In other words, Walker continues to show that he thinks he's above the law.

Wisconsin voters need to push to change state law to allow recalls of officials before they've served two terms in office.