Carl DeMaio: 2024's Badass At the Border

Once upon a time there was a San Diego City Councilman named Carl DeMaio. He’d moved to America’s Finest City from the upwind of the swamp where the deep state exists. 

His behavior was predictable. His office would crank out a thick “official report” on a government-funded program; he’d stand in front of cameras decrying the outrage of taxpayer dollars being misspent, and then a private sector-friendly solution would be offered up.

In 2012 he ran for Mayor and lost to grabby-grabby Bob Filner. In 2014, DeMaio lost a contest for a congressional seat to Scott Peters. A year earlier, as Filner crashed and burned, he was passed over by GOP bigwigs seeking a unity mayoral candidate for the special election. In 2020, he placed third in an East County congressional district election. In 2022 he campaigned to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.

What a winner!?

The former council member has kept his irons in the political fire with a talk show on KOGO am radio, and various iterations of his non-profit Reform California. I’m not sure about what reforms have actually been achieved, but you can bet on DeMaio jumping into the fray on any issue that’s pushing Republican buttons. And, of course, fundraising for all his (lost) causes.

This gang even fundraises when its cause gets pummeled by voters. When more than sixty percent of California voters decided to keep Gov. Newsom from being recalled, the Transparency Foundation (A DeMaio enterprise) cried voter fraud and begged for money to continue its “investigation.”

This year Carl DeMaio is running to represent the 75th Assembly district, currently represented by Marie Waldron, who is termed out. While there can be little doubt about the district being represented as part of the Republican superminority in Sacramento, what voters will be deciding will be just how obnoxious their Assembly member will be.

Times of San Diego reporter Ken Stone filed a report on a recent candidate forum in Ramona, where GOP-endorsed candidate Andrew Hayes was warmly received by those attending. DeMaio’s turn at the podium reinforced the perception that he’s running as an attack dog when he called his opponent a tool of the Democratic Party.

• Democrats, he told a crowd of 80, “want a go-along, get-along Republican because that’s the type they want up in Sacramento — until they pick him off and replace him with a full-fledged Democrat.”

• The founder and chair of Reform California, DeMaio said Democrats in Sacramento consider him an “existential threat.”

• “And you know what? They’re damn right,” he said on the eve of early voting in the March 5 state primary.

It can be said that the former councilman has an exaggerated notion of himself, or maybe he actually knows what bs he’s spouting and is just in it for the money. In any case, DeMaio is a joke, given that the 75th Assembly district significantly overlaps with a congressional district he campaigned for and lost not long ago. 

This time around DeMaio’s grift amounts to running alongside the Republican far right in obfuscating the real nature of what’s happening at the US Mexico border. And making promises that a mere Republican in Sacramento is incapable of carrying out.

The California wing of Politico has portrayed DeMaio as a credible candidate, because they must like digging through garbage looking for right wing solutions. 

He’s the “Pete Wilson I am not a racist” candidate, who’s come out of the dugout swinging a big bat at his fellow Republicans, wrapping himself in the battle flag of immigration hard liners.

• Not only does DeMaio not believe his plans would cause more Latinos to drift from Republicans, he also thinks it would help the GOP.

• “I believe that Latinos are with us on immigration and Democrats have been bamboozled by the liberal media” to shift further to the left, he said.

• But DeMaio was anticipating harsh reaction.

• Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant who has spent much of his career working on issues around Latino voters, said DeMaio should focus where polling says Latino voters are focused.

• “This is the California version of saying ‘The South shall rise again,’” Madrid said.

There may be a slight problem with this strategy, namely that the far right in the House of Representatives underestimated the Democrat in the White House. Now Republicans are looking like the car chasing dog that caught its quarry.

Here’s Jay Kuo:

• The border is likely President Biden’s weakest issue. The economy? It’s improving fast, and consumer confidence is rising. Abortion? The Democrats have Republicans on the ropes. Crime? It’s fallen across the country. So that leaves the migrant crisis at the border, and Republicans have doubled down.

• But here’s the catch: They have played up the crisis so much—running non-stop coverage of migrant crossings and overfilled shelters, and taking every chance to stage photo ops near the border—that voters have demanded a solution. Indeed, Republicans have been so gung-ho on the border that they insisted on delaying aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan unless the border crisis got fixed.

• Okay, said the White House and Democratic Senate leadership. If that’s what you demand, let’s get it done. The draft Senate proposal contains many huge concessions to the Republican demands on the border. But one thing really sticks out: It reportedly would grant the president emergency powers to close the border whenever average daily crossings in any given week exceeds 5,000 people—and we are already there.

Another thing that may be harmful to the border media blitzkrieg in progress are the far right groups gathering up their guns to save the American people from them thar illegals. The dregs of the Tea Party types may love convoys, but they’ve left a bad taste in the mouth of the electorate. 

Texas Gov. Abbott’s dick waving at the Rio Grande may have given Red State governors fodder for press releases, but immigrants will keep coming, regardless of the concertina wire. 

Shelby Park, the focus of the conflict, is named after a confederate general who fled to Mexico, refusing to surrender to Union soldiers. Seems about right to me. Pinhead pundits on the right are describing Abbott’s actions as the opening salvo in a new civil war.

I can only hope the bubbas rushing to the border to ‘back up’ the Texas National Guard remember to bring the right version of their confederate flag –the all white version.

There’s no love lost for the Border Patrol in the White House, so it’s likely those macho maniacs in Texas won’t get the confrontation they so desperately crave.

Back to DeMaio, who’s saying the judicial overturning of 1994’s Proposition 187 was wrong. He wants to instate its provisions, including cutting off access for non-emergency health care, along with public schools and colleges, for those who couldn't prove they and their children were U.S. citizens or legal residents.

As per Politico:

• The big picture: Wilson and Prop 187 won in 1994, but in the years since, the law and his campaign have been linked to the demise of California's GOP and a motivating event for a generation of Latino politicians.

• "The California Republican political establishment has been dead wrong for 30 years and they are guilty of political malpractice on this issue," DeMaio told Politico.

• In a press conference today, DeMaio is expected to announce a plan to deploy more California National Guard agents to the border, revoking so-called "sanctuary city" policies and suspending social programs for unauthorized immigrants.

I’m hoping that DeMaio’s record of making noise, asking for money, and doing little, is enough bad news for even the Republican voters of East County.

And here’s hoping that his campaign can be used by Democrats to point out the still-present xenophobic strain of the modern Republican Party.

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Tuesday News: Taylor Swift Edition

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Everyone Please Be Less Weird About Taylor Swift. Please. By Parker Molloy

Okay, so that’s New York Times columnist Ross Douthat making a little joke in which he (correctly) frames group B as people who absolutely shouldn’t be anywhere near the levers of power in this or any country. For a moment, though, let’s look at group A: people who think Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are “a sweet thing to watch and maybe the last best hope for America, we need them to marry and procreate.”

• First five words? Great. Perfect. Fine. Whatever. Next eight words? Getting just a bit weird. Final seven words? Ross, wtf, go to your room! Stop being weird about whether other people get married or have kids. Jesus, dude.

• It was less than a month ago that Steven Hyden wrote his “Can We As A Culture Resolve To Be More Normal About Taylor Swift In 2024?” column, and dammit, Ross, you’ve proven to me that the answer is “no.” *sigh*

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Latest Whackadoodle MAGA Conspiracy Theory: NFL Rigged For Taylor Swift Via Daily Kos

• Keeping up with MAGA insanity is beyond the capacity of any one human. One can only select some of the more zany things to show there is nothing so whackadoodle that these batfecalmaterial crazy lunatics won’t believe it. Everything that doesn’t go their way is rigged, from the election to the NFL.

• Their evidence? Pfft, it is as plain and clear as the toes on a turtle. The Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl. Why are they going to the Super Bowl? Well, it has nothing to do with solid quarterback play. It’s for no other reason than to boost woke singing superstar Taylor Swift. MAGAs hate Swift, Swift loves the Chiefs (or is at least dating one), so if the Chiefs win MAGAs lose and if MAGAs lose it must be rigged. 

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Did liberals put Taylor Swift and pro-vaccine Travis Kelce in the Super Bowl? Yes, we did. Via Rex Huppke at USA Today.- 

We made it so Chiefs players would play their best football once they got into the playoffs. We also paid off the Chiefs' opponents with offers of Cabinet positions in the next Biden administration.

• As a liberal in good standing, all I can say is: Dammit, how did they figure it out?

• I guess some of it was obvious. Pop superstar Swift has encouraged young people to register to vote and get involved in the electoral process, while her Chiefs tight-end boyfriend Travis Kelce has encouraged people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and others from a deadly and wildly contagious virus. Those are pretty liberal things to do.

• But I didn’t think right-wing sleuths would connect the dots this quickly.

• Oh well. The vaccinated cat is out of the reusable shopping bag, so I might as well let everyone in on the entire plan.