It's not just South Carolina Republicans who bring us more than their share of The Crazy. That no-name Democrat who didn't run a campaign to speak of but still managed to win the party's nomination to challenge Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)? Well, he has an outstanding felony charge against him for allegedly showing obscene photos to a South Carolina college student.
Honestly I'm not sure what that charge is. Showing someone an obscene photo? I'm not sure I've come across that being criminally charged before. The AP story doesn't make any reference to the student being a minor. We're trying to figure our more on this. But there's your Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina.
--David Kurtz
BP share prices have gone off a cliff today. Earlier this afternoon, they were as low as they've been since 1997, but they've declined farther since then.
--David Kurtz
Nikki Haley was on Fox & Friends this morning. Let's just say it wasn't an inquisition. Watch.
Special Bonus Feature: Dana Perino was guest hosting on the F&F; sectional sofa.
--David Kurtz
The tea party insurrection -- part grassroots movement, part co-opted astroturfism -- made some inroads last night. Whether Republicans or, indirectly, Democrats were the beneficiaries of the tea party successes will be the real story come fall. We take a look at last night's tea party losers and winners.
--David Kurtz
It's funny how things can be sitting there in plain sight but only to get a lot more attention when a candidate wins a nomination or gets pushed to the center stage of a campaign. Our reporter, Evan McMorris-Santoro, interviewed Sharron back at the Tea Party Express meeting in DC in April. And during their talk, Angle told Evan that she was a member of the far-right "Oath Keepers."
When we did some more reporting on this yesterday, it turns out that because the "Oath Keepers" have some pretty arcane membership rules -- you actually have to be serving in uniform -- she may only be an "associate member" rather than a "member". The idea behind the Oath Keepers is that you pledge that as a soldier or law enforcement officer you won't obey any orders that conflict with the Tea Party interpretation of the Constitution, including rounding up ordinary Americans into concentration camps. But she says she's a member and she's actively solicited their support in her campaign.
--Josh Marshall
Incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) was forced into a runoff for the Republican nomination by a more conservative opponent.
--David Kurtz
Orly Taitz lost the GOP primary for California secretary of state.
--David Kurtz
Tea party fave Sharron Angle has been fighting the dangerous encroachment of government in all its dictatorial, concentration-camp-building scariness since the water fluoridation battles of the early '90s.
--David Kurtz
It was pretty clear Sen. Jim DeMint was going to win reelection this year. But now it looks like he won't even have a challenger.
--Josh Marshall
Former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), a TPM fave and bête noire of environmentalists, sputtered across the finish line in third place last night in the Republican primary as he sought to return to Congress.
--David Kurtz
Harry Reid campaign manager Brandon Hall: "Sharon Angle is a Rand Paul-type candidate. In fact, I would say she's more extreme than Rand Paul."
--David Kurtz
Great piece on the big guns Team Reid brought in to Nevada to turn things around for the boss, particularly a guy named Kelly Steele with a bulldog rep they brought down from Washington state. Definitely take a look.
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader JP questions our editorial judgment:
You might have buried the lede with the Oath Keepers story. Concentration Camps are bad craziness, but is it really a tenet that they swear to oppose orders to invade a state "that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union"?Am I misunderstanding this but are they declaring that the Confederate side of the Civil War was the righteous side? And that active duty military should disobey orders or commit treason against the Union if it ever comes up again?
Yeah, it was a tough call.
--David Kurtz
Reason 101 why the Reid folks are so happy about Sharron Angle's victory tonight. Probably one they don't even know about yet. Just take a look.
--Josh Marshall
I mentioned before that Sharron Angle's win tonight may be the big tell about what to expect in November. But even though the Tea Party, down-the-line right candidate didn't win in the California Republican Senate primary, Carly Fiorina herself ended up going really hard to the right to win the primary, particularly on immigration. And that will be a real cudgel for Barbara Boxer in the fall.
--Josh Marshall
You probably haven't heard about it, especially if you're not in California. But the AP just declared it a win for Proposition 14 which will dramatically alter the way the state holds its primaries.
--Josh Marshall
I cannot even begin to say how big a stroke of luck this is for Harry Reid.
--Josh Marshall
We still don't have clear read out of Nevada. But it's not too early to take some stock of what tonight tells us. We know about the huge tide of anti-incumbency across the country. Blanche Lincoln looks like the exception that proves the rule on that one. And whatever you think of Lincoln, don't underestimate the difficulty for an incumbent of getting pushed into a primary run-off with a very disappointing result and then coming back to win the run-off. That's very difficult.
--Josh Marshall
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