Send in the wingnuts

Former presidential candidate and Republican congressman Tom Tancredo is keeping himself in practice with his usual immigrant-bashing and xenophobic rhetoric. This time he wants to reenact the US-Mexican War with real soldiers and live ammunition. He held a conference call with anti-immigration activists and said he wants President Obama to send in the Marines to secure the border with Mexico and stop the flow of all those guns, drugs and people which he thinks will destroy America. He's also concerned that US politicians will use the violence in Mexico as an excuse to take guns away from Americans. "This issue of ‘It’s our fault just as much as their fault’ is a lot of crap, to tell you the truth,” he said. “It’s just another way to go after guns by this administration and also to let Mexico save some face.”

Maybe instead of troops Obama should organize a Wingnut Brigade, appoint Tom Tancredo commander and send them to the Mexican border. They'd be just as likely to shoot each other as any invaders from Mexico, but at least they'd be playing with themselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Buried wingnuts

Six days before the deadline for filing petitions, PolitickerNJ.com reports that a South Jersey wingnut is trying to put together a slate of candidates to run on the same ticket with GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan in the June primary. Seth Grossman, who claims to be an attorney, is sending emails soliciting candidates for county and legislative races in six South Jersey counties.

Grossman is a longtime Lonegan supporter who succeeded in getting himself arrested, along with Lonegan, for protesting at a townhall meeting in South Jersey featuring Governor Jon Corzine. He also hosts a radio talk show and is a former Atlantic County Freeholder.

In his email Grossman warns, "We must give Steve Lonegan good ballot position even if we fail to get endorsements. We can do that by getting other candidates to run for office, and then bracketing their names with Steve's. If we don't do this, Chris Christie will have a full slate of candidates below his name, while Steve Lonegan will have no candidates with his name, and his name will be buried with losing candidates with no other bracketed candidates."

Considering recent polls, county endorsements and widespread support for Chris Christie, Lonegan and the other losers who may run on his ticket are already buried so deep they'd need a backhoe to dig themselves out.

NJGOP candidate forgot to register to vote

A candidate for the New Jersey GOP State Assembly nomination was not registered to vote in New Jersey according to a report posted on the PolitickerNJ.com website. Robert Villare, a surgeon, signed his voter registration card at the Gloucester County Board of Elections four days after seeking the Cumberland County Republican Party's endorsement for an assembly seat at their convention.

Villare lost the Cumberland County convention to former Cumberland County Surrogate Arthur Marchand and Greenwich Township Mayor George Shivery, who are running as a team. Shivery said that he also heard rumors that Villare was not registered to vote in New Jersey, but "it was so far out there I didn't believe there's any truth to it. I don't even have the words. If it wasn't so ludicrous, it would make a sitcom on television."

I can't think of any better sitcom than a Republican primary in New Jersey.

Bullies and big tents

Former Republican New Jersey State Senator Dick LaRossa is complaining in a recent column on PolitickerNJ.com that former US Attorney Chris Christie, the frontrunner in the GOP gubernatorial primary, is a bully for using pressure tactics to gain county endorsements. He cites the recent Gloucester County endorsement of Christie as an example of party officials caving into pressure from the Christie camp to endorse their candidate over rival Steve Lonegan. Dick also brought up charges that Christie took donations from lawyers whose firm received a multimillion dollar no-bid contract.

Dick describes Christie as "uncomfortable with policy". He then goes on to say, "Moderates like Christie, always talk of big tents. Some genuinely believe it and enthusiastically work with conservatives, traditionalists, and libertarians. All this has done for statewide Republican candidates is produce losers over the 12 years. That’s why tents belong in a circus."

Of course Dick is an expert on losers having lost in four different elections. He sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 1996 and lost the in the primary. The following year he was defeated for re-election to the State Senate. He subsequently lost races for Mayor of Ewing, NJ in 1998 and 2002.

As to tents, they do belong in a circus. Along with clowns like Dick LaRossa.

NJGOP Food Fight - Wingnuts v. RINOS

The Republican gubernatorial primary in New Jersey is turning into a food fight between RINOs and wingnuts as frontrunner Chris Christie widens his lead over megalomaniacal challenger Steve Lonegan, whose mouthpiece is veteran political operative Rick Shaftan. The latter recently threatened a primary challenge to Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce who has endorsed Chris Christie. This elicited a response from Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson, who wrote a letter to Lonegan defending DeCroce and asking the anti-establishment Republican to distance himself from Shaftan who said that DeCrcoce was “happy to be a big fish in a small pond”

Lonegan said in response to Wilson's request, "I don't care what Tom Wilson says or thinks. Tom Wilson and Alex DeCroce are the duo that is responsible for the failure of the Republican Party to stand up for Republican principles and values, and they have done nothing but overseen the demise of the party. It's time for both of them to go."

I'd guess that Wilson and DeCroce would rather be big fish in a small pond than roadkill like Lonegan on June 2.