Last Call For The First Of Many

In the battle of two Tea Party Republicans fighting it out for one seat in NC, it's Rep. Renee Ellmers who ended up without a chair when the music stopped.

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) lost her bid for reelection Tuesday, becoming the first GOP congressional incumbent to lose their seat in 2016.

Ellmers, who was elected in 2010 amid the tea party takeover of the House, lost in the Republican primary to Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes suburban and rural Raleigh.

Holding won with over 53 percent of the vote with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Ellmers was barely clinging to second place ahead of Greg Brannon, edging him by little more than 200 votes.

Brannon previously ran for Senate in 2014 — earning an endorsement from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — and lost to Sen. Thom Tillis (R). Brannon ran again this year, losing to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in the March Senate primary.

Holding used to represent the 13th Congressional District but chose to run in the 2nd district after court-mandated redistricting took effect earlier this year, prompting an incumbent-versus-incumbent showdown.

It's important to note that in the case of this GOP primary, Ellmers had the endorsement of Donald Trump. Which is weird, because she's one of the handful of Republicans who realized that in an increasingly larger Hispanic voting population in NC, voting against the President's executive orders on immigration was a bad idea.

While Ellmers criticized Obama’s executive actions, saying she would “fight tooth and nail to put a stop to his amnesty plan,” she said in a statement that the bill was “overly broad in scope, as it has the potential to have a real negative and lasting impact on jobs and families in North Carolina.”

“There are businesses in the Second District who contract with Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and many of these jobs could be put in jeopardy with the passing of this legislation,” Ellmers said in the statement her office issued in response to questions.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article24778438.html#storylink=cpy

She forgot she's a member of the party that wants to deport millions, and it cost her with them.

A whole lot of Republicans are going to find themselves in similar positions this year.

I won't miss them when they are back home and out of Congress.

Trump Cards, Con't

And the septic tank that is the GOP continues to make excuses for Trump's overt racism.

This was probably not the interview that New York state Representative Lee Zeldin had in mind.

The Republican Congressman sat down with CNN’s John Bermanand Kate Bolduan Tuesday morning to address his support for Donald Trump head-on in the aftermath of the newest controversy embroiling the campaign. Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee for President, has been arguing that an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage can not fairly oversee a lawsuit involving Trump University given the candidate’s proposed southern border wall.

Shortly after House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comments — but not the man — “textbook racism,” Representative Zeldin had a tougher time walking that razor-thin tight rope.

“I think that Mr. Trump made a regrettable mistake with his statement,” Rep. Zeldin admitted.

But as soon as Berman and Bolduan turned up the heat on Zeldin to hold him accountable for defending someone embattled in a controversy of racism, Zeldin seemed to buckle and squirm with discomfort.

His answer on Trump?

"There’s more than just words to define a person and, by the way, aside from words, there’s a whole lot more to define everyone, but you can easily argue that the President of the United States is a racist with his policies and his rhetoric."

Ahh, the ol' "prove the NAACP isn't racist" canard.  From a grown man and Member of Congress, no less.  But this is who they are, folks.  And they are proud of their hatred.

And in November, they will still control a hefty chunk of this country.

The Huckster Returns

With Trump now the presumptive nominee, his former opponents have of course been on his side against the Republican establishment since the beginning, right?

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in a radio interview on Friday that establishment Republicans should be happy that they are not being executed by angry voters.

“Who made it possible for Obama to have the Iranian deal, full funding for Obamacare, Planned Parenthood funding? Republicans did that,” Huckabee, a Trump surrogate, said on the Sean Hannity Show.

“And they’re getting what they justly deserve, they’re getting spanked,” he continued. “And they need to be happy they’re only getting spanked and not executed because there is seething rage out in country for those who have fought to help some of these guys get elected. And they get there and they surrendered to Obama and people are sick of it. And I think that’s why we’ve seen the spirit of this election, and frankly Donald Trump gives me great comfort. I tell people, ‘I don’t have any hesitation going out there and genuinely supporting Donald Trump.’”

Now you can say Huckabee realized early on that Trump was going to win, backing The Donald well before he packed his own campaign in, appearing at Trump events as early as January, taking on the role of Trump surrogate.

The problem is of course that The Huckster's not a very good surrogate.

KELLY: When did he repeatedly disavow the Klan?

HUCKABEE: Well, he did it in his Twitter account. He did it on Friday --

KELLY: The Klan or David Duke?

HUCKABEE: Well, both. And I don't know of anybody who has ever suggested that Donald Trump is a racist. I'm not speaking as somebody who's out there advocating for Trump. I just want to say that I just don't think that Donald Trump has given any indication that he's supportive of the Ku Klux Klan. My gosh, who would be? --

KELLY: None except in that interview, is what his critics say. None except in that interview, is what his critics say. Because it was so strange that he would say on Friday, "I disavow David Duke," and then when specifically asked on Sunday, act like he didn't know who David Duke was.

HUCKABEE: You know, I can't answer that. You know, I really can't. You'll have to ask Donald Trump because I haven't talked to him about it. But the fact is --

KELLY: How do you explain that? What his critics say is the explanation is he heard very well and he was trying to give some sort of a dog whistle to people in the South who don't want to hear David Duke disavowed. That's what Mitt Romney is suggesting right there.

HUCKABEE: Sure. Mitt Romney wasn't on the ear piece. Neither was Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. And I wasn't either.

KELLY: But Trump heard, Trump heard David Duke in that ear piece. You know that. Because he repeated back David Duke to Jake Tapper.

HUCKABEE: Yeah. Look, here's the one thing I think is important. Is Donald Trump a racist? I don't think he is. Does Donald Trump support the KKK? Heavens no. I don't think anybody seriously is suggesting that he is giving a wink and a nod at the KKK. They're a deplorable, disgusting, abominable entity. Sometimes I'm amazed that they even still exist. I just don't know of anybody who embraces them anymore except a handful of crazy people.

KELLY: The very point you're making, that it's such a no-brainer, is what makes his response to Jake Tapper so confusing to many.

Of course, now we know that there's plenty of support among white supremacist groups like the KKK for Don The Con.  And Huckabee has backed him for months anyway.

Remember, the GOP establishment is "the enemy" because they haven't stopped the first black president.

Cleveland is going to be mighty fun in a few weeks, huh?

StupidiNews!

• Analysis by the AP shows that Hillary Clinton has enough delegates and commitments from super-delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination going into today's final primary contests.
• The ruling party of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto suffered a number of defeats in state and local elections, losing governor's races in at least four Mexican states, including Veracruz.
• Washington, DC's City Council will vote on a proposal to boost the district's minimum wage to $15 by 2020, which would affect about one-seventh of jobs in the district.
• A car bomb in Istanbul has killed at least 11 and injured dozens one day after Turkey announced the end of military operations in two cities against separatist Kurds of the PKK.
• Google's AlphaGo AI will soon face off against China's world number one Go player, child prodigy Ke Jie, before the end of the year, according to China's Xinhua news agency.