Mark Warner: “It was a little like the Goldilocks example yesterday; some guys saying this bill’s too soft on the banks, we had other folks saying this bill’s too hard on the banks, so maybe it’s just right for the American people because it kind of makes both ends a little bit upset.”

UPDATE 2:55 pm: The Senate just voted, 60-40, for cloture on the financial reform bill.  Three Republicans – Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – voted yes, while two Democrats – Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold – voted no.

UPDATE 9:02 pm: Financial reform passes, 69-39, in another major victory for President Obama. This guy’s quickly becoming LBJ in terms of legislation passed and signed!

Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Thursday “Clips.”

1. KAINE SUGGESTS VIRGINIA EXPLORE WIND POWER

2. KAINE ADDRESSES NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

3. MILITARY GIVES PRELIMINARY OK TO VA. WIND TRACTS

4. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT SAYS MILITARY’S CONCERNS TO HELP DETERMINE FUTURE OF VIRGINIA OIL DRILLING

5. MCDONNELL ADDS TO STAFF

6. CUCCINELLI MOVES TO PRINCE WILLIAM

9. CUCCINELLI REITERATES U.-VA. SUBPOENA IS ABOUT FRAUD, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS

10. FORMER U.-VA. PRESIDENT URGES CUCCINELLI COURT CHALLENGE

15. U.S. CHAMBER PRAISES VIRGINIA FOR FREE ENTERPRISE POLICIES

17. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION REMOVES NAVY VETERANS ASSOCIATION FROM DIRECTORY

18. MCDONNELL TO GIVE $5,000 TO VA. BEACH CHARITY

19. DANVILLE TEA PARTY LEADER PICKS MORTON

We had a good night last night.  So why am I complaining?  I’ll tell you why.  The so-called MSM (shame-stream, not lame-stream, Sarah), in its outrageous and fawning coverage of Rand Paul (more on him in a moment), eclipsed the fact that Democrats had a far better night than Republicans.  

The Democratic base turned out in far greater numbers.  Joe Sestak unseated a former Republican-turned “Dem”.  Mark Critz won Murtha’s seat in a real contest, the special election, against a Republican.  And Blanche Lincoln, a DINO and Republican in Dem clothing, was forced into a run-off.  Bill Halter now leads Blanche Lincoln — 48% to 46% — in overnight polling for the June 8 Run-Off! But you’d never know this if you listen to the so-called MSM.  Yet all the corporate media can talk about is Rand Paul and the so-called Tea Parties.  A so-called movement spawned by Dick Armey and Peter Peterson and populated by mostly conservative Republicans IS NOT a populist movement, nor a movement of any kind.   And the populist yearnings of some individuals, albeit some duped individuals they have roped in notwithstanding, it is still not a populist movement.  

The media does this brainwash despite the fact that the so-called tea partiers aren’t (tea partiers).  They don’t qualify as a modern rendition of an historic tea party because the 2010 ones have representation.  Are they too ignorant to know what really happened in the original one?  Or are they reading GOP rewrites of history.  The original tea parties were not sparked, as today’s ones are, by corporations trying to interfere with impending legislation in and oversight by Congress. There was no US Congress at the time of the original tea party.  And the crowd is too ignorant to know, or too corrupt and deceitful to care, that they front for/represent corporate interests, all the ones Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works (and others) front for.  Yet they call themselves a “movement.”  It’s laughable.  

If they are a “movement” they are one which dumps a crap load of twice-chewed corporate drivel upon the rest of us.  And the shame-stream media knows, but won’t report it.  Indeed, the “movement” is nothing more than the base of the GOP.  From hence forth I will not use the term “Tea Party,” but rather TP, a more fitting term, I think.  They don’t like the term tea baggers (which they began using first).  Call em TP.

And now a few words about Rand Paul.  Son-of-an-elite, and an elite himself, Rand Paul is a country club Republican pretending he’s an outsider.  His father went to an Ivy (Duke–not that there’s anything wrong with Duke, but it is one of the most expensive universities in the nation) and is a physician and member of Congress (insider).  Daddy Paul says he believes in term limits, but doesn’t believe in them when the term limit is his own.  Elite.  Washington Insider.  Did I mention xenophobe?  Daddy Paul is an “insider” in that respect too.  No “outsiders” need apply.

Baby Randy is a doctor, an ophthalmologist.  Elite.  But because he lives in KY instead of , say TX, with Daddy, he’s hoping the folks see him as an outsider.  Yeh, sure.  Have you actually heard him speak?  An more effete snob there has not been since, umm, William F. Buckley.  Yeh, he’s a TP.  He wants to kill the Dept of Education and the Federal Reserve.  He wants to drown government and programs people depend upon. He’s an opportunistic, arrogant  and messianic demagogue, who uses malicious lies to strike fear in a gullible electorate…all for the greater glory of corporations and Club for Growthers everywhere.  “Movement?”  No.  It’s insider radical conservatives making a power play and taking some Americans populist and libertarian yearnings along for the ride.  So stop BS-ing us, so-called MSM outlets.  Tell it like it is, for once.

Well, that didn’t take long!  Soon after Jim Webb called “foul” on the “U.S. Navy Veterans Association” – an organization which the DPVA points out has engaged in “questionable and potentially corrupt dealings” (while also donating $55,000 to Ken Kook-inelli, who refuses to donate the money) – the Veterans Administration has pulled the group’s page from its website. In addition, Senator Webb’s office reports that the VA “will conduct a review of the group as well as a review of procedures used to screen organizations before they are listed on the VA website.”

Just for fun, check out the “before” and “after” screenshots after the “flip.”  Oh, and great work by Jim Webb!

I hear that famed (Warner, Kaine, Miller, Wagner, McAuliffe, Deeds) Virginia communications strategist Mo Elleithee is now in Connecticut, having ridden to Richard Blumenthal’s rescue in the last day or so. Check out these tweets by Elleithee.

*”Is the New York Times giving Blumenthal a RAW deal? http://shar.es/mCCZM ”

*”Correct link. AP BREAKING NEWS: (SAME) Video shows Blumenthal correctly stating service http://tinyurl.com/3xgg3gz ”

*”Hartford Courant: Blumenthal and Vietnam, the director’s cut http://bit.ly/cQMBWG ”

Mo also tells me that “the CT press are rallying behind him for the most part.”  In addition, it looks like the leading CT pro-Democratic blog is supporting Blumenthal and criticizing the “journalism” in this situation.

My view is that Blumenthal has been a superb Attorney General and should be a no-brainer for U.S. Senate, but also that embellishing his Vietnam War record – or, lack thereof – is not good at all.  If it’s just one instance, taken out of context, then it’s probably not a huge problem politically. On the other hand, if it’s part of a pattern of “misstatements,” then it could (and probably should) end his candidacy. We’ll see, but for now, it seems like the NY Times is the one with egg on its face a lot more than Blumenthal.

P.S. Whatever Blumenthal said, it’s still a gazillion times less insane than the crap Ken Kook-inelli has been spewing almost every day since he’s been in office.

UPDATE: Fox’s Neil Cavuto argues that everyone should “cut Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal a break.” According to Cavuto, Republicans should “[g]et him on issues that matter, for God’s sake; not nonsense like this that does not.”