Cabin Fever Is Setting In

I think people are getting a little nutty being cooped up in their houses this weekend with the 25 or so inches of snow that’s fallen. How can I tell? Here’s some evidence:

Adam Pagnucco says because Peter Franchot got more votes than Anthony Brown, he’s the most powerful Democratic politician in Maryland. No allowance for the fact that Franchot’s 2014 opponent raised a grand total of $4,405 during the general election campaign, or for the fact that Franchot performed worst where there are the most Democrats, or for the fact that Brown was in a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign, or for the fact that Franchot performed best compared to Brown where race was indisputably a factor. Skip all that, and one more thing: the fact that Franchot is arguing for alcohol privatization, which Adam is getting paid to promote, has nothing whatsoever to do with that ludicrous assertion.

Other than all of the above, Adam’s argument makes perfect sense. In this universe, however, there’s a name for Adam’s worshipful praise of Franchot. But this is a family blog so we’re not gonna go there.

Example #2 of incipient insanity: a gentleman named Peter Rosenstein wrote a column for the Huffington Post analyzing the CD8 race. Beginning with the unremarkable proposition that it’s important to replace Chris Van Hollen with another progressive, Rosenstein then drops a completely unsupported and ridiculous sentence into his piece:

There are a wealth of good candidates but it looks like this is now a three-way race between Kathleen Matthews, Senator Jamie Raskin and Joel Rubin.

Wait, what? What evidence does Rosenstein offer for that dramatic statement that Rubin, who only entered the race in October, is suddenly in a three way race with Raskin and Matthews? He offers none. He just says it. Now, I like Joel Rubin, he’s a nice guy and he’s put up a decent fundraising number ($160K) for a guy nobody has heard of before October, but barring some absurd spending spurt by one of the other candidates, every candidate in the race will still have more money than Rubin does when the reports are filed in the next week. It’s just nonsense.

Which makes it perfectly appropriate that my old friend, the nonsense spouting Barry O’Connell, has picked up the “three way race” line and run with it, embellishing it into “the Huffington Post says” Rubin is a “top three” candidate. Knock, knock, there is no “Huffington Post” position, only the many columnists who help enrich Arianna Huffington by writing for free. Rosenstein no more speaks for “the Huffington Post” than someone signing on to Daily Kos and posting a diary represents the views of Markos Moulitsas. But Barry and reality have never been on particularly close terms.

And naturally, Joel Rubin has sent out a blast email touting the Rosenstein column. I wouldn’t be shocked if Rosenstein and Rubin are friends, but I don’t know that. But the idea that Joel Rubin is more likely to win the primary than Kumar Barve, Ana Sol Gutierrez or Will Jawando is not just a ludicrous fantasy, it’s insulting.

For a last shot of insane political commentary, brave and intrepid soul David Moon wandered into O’Connell’s briar patch, and spent the day tangling with Barry over a wide variety of issues, including a 53 year old photo of Jamie Raskin’s parents, the respective political contributions of Jamie Raskin and Kathleen Matthews, Barry O’Connell’s past as a cold warrior in the service of Ronald Reagan in Nicaragua, and various demented insinuations about yours truly and others. Local luminaries Liz Matory, Adam Pagnucco, Mark McLaurin, Kevin Gillogly, and former CD6 candidate Andrew Duck all make appearances of one form or another in the comments. If you have nothing else to do tomorrow - and since you can’t leave the house, you don’t - go on over and check out the battle, which ebbs and flows across several posts and comment threads.

As for me, I’ll do my best to stick to reality based blogging. More tomorrow, including a new piece from national correspondent Dave Asche. G’night for now.

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