Another primary day has come and gone and, once again, the big loser is one of your generic media narratives. Yesterday, we braced ourselves for another terrible example of anti-incumbent rage that's said to be swelling so strong throughout the country that only the vast majority of incumbents are expected to keep their jobs in November. And last night, anti-incumbent fury was supposed to hit a new level of senselessness when Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln was set to become the third -- yes, the third -- sitting senator bumped off in her primary.
And then Lincoln went on to win her run-off against Bill Halter, when a larger share of D.C. Morrisson's support -- Morrisson finished third in the first go-round with 13% of the vote -- went to Lincoln. Morrisson was a conservative Democrat who supported the Fair Tax and a repeal of the health care reform bill, so the fact that his voters largely declined to support the candidate representing organized labor was surely a big surprise that no one could have possibly seen coming.
The White House, naturally, was exultant with Lincoln's win, and the media allowed them to do that thing where they give the White House a chance to slag off an important liberal constituency with the promise that no one will be identified by name:
A senior White House official just called me with a very pointed message for the administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's candidate, in Arkansas.
"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."
Pretty dick move from this "senior White House Official," who -- let's face it -- we should just call "Blahm Blemanuel." The bluster is pretty hilarious, given the fact that in the days leading up to the race, the White House was quietly trying to distance itself from Lincoln, because they were convinced she'd track loser stink all over the place. Now that Lincoln's won, however, they can pretend that they had some convictions, or something.
Of course, you know who didn't flush its money down the toilet? The big finance, real estate, and insurance interests who bankrolled her to the tune of $1.2 million. Watch and enjoy now, as the Democrats "reform" "derivatives!"
She's also taken a lot of money from big oil companies, which is probably why she hasn't manifested enough "emotion" over the BP oil spill.
Where are some other manifestations of anti-incumbent fury? Oh, yeah, a guy that no one in the world was talking about before last night, Representative Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) will probably lose his seat, pending the result of a forthcoming run-off. And, in Nevada, incumbent Governor Jim Gibbons lost his re-election bid, though it was less about voters being angry at incumbents and more about voters rejecting a man who was a "leering imbecile and national embarrassment" and a "complete and utter asshole."
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