If Brewer agreed to another debate it immediately sets up the IOKIYAR Lowered Expectations Mulligan. You know what I’m talking about: When a Republican faceplants in a debate, because he/she is a Republican everyone decides to vastly lower the expectations in the next debate. It happened with GWB in the 2004 Presidential debates. Shoot, Palin got it right off the bat for her debate with Biden in 2008 due to her already demonstrated poor elocution and lack of knowledge of, well, anything. Under the lowered expectations rule all the Republican has to do is not fumble too badly at the debate and the punditocracy will swoon before such a valiant attempt at mediocrity. (Democratic politicians don’t benefit from mulligans or lowered expectations, you understand. One flub and you never live it down. I chalk it up to people having higher expectations of us.)

The low bar for a future Jan Brewer debate has broken a new record for the IOKIYAR Reduced Expectations Mulligan. Terry will win every debate with Jan on the technical merits because he knows what he’s talking about and she’s clueless but Jan will “win” the next one no matter how deplorably she actually does. Her handlers will double down on prepping her and if she burbles out the talking points in anything resembling the English language, there will be swooning en masse.

Which makes you wonder why Brewer’s handlers aren’t jumping at the chance for another debate.

On edit: “There but for the grace of God, I have did.” QED

If reducing fuel consumption would lessen fatalities among soldiers putting themselves at great risk transporting the fuel, then why would anyone in their right mind oppose that?

Excerpt from a Gabrielle Giffords campaign press release sent out today:

August 30, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Anne Hilby
(520) 289-4515
anne@giffordsforcongress.com

AZ-08: Conservatives for Congress plays politics with troops’ lives

Tucson, Ariz. – Every year, American troops risk their lives guarding fuel transport lines and convoys, with nearly 1,000 casualties in 2004 alone. Giffords for Congress today called on special interest group Conservatives for Congress to cancel its new TV ad that plays politics with the lives of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.

The ad—which cuts off General David Petraeus before he has finished speaking—makes an issue of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ questioning of General Petraeus before the House Armed Services Committee. Giffords asked General Petraeus about the military policy of reducing fuel consumption. Many U.S. troops have lost their lives or been injured on fuel resupply convoys.

Arizona National Guardsman Mark Cardenas saw firsthand the dangers of our military’s dependence on fuel. Cardenas guarded more than 4,000 miles of convoys during his 15-month deployment to Iraq that began in August 2006. “As someone who spent 15 months guarding convoys – the vast majority of which were fuel convoys – in Iraq, I find this ad un-American. Our dependence on fuel wastes our resources, puts thousands of soldiers in danger everyday and does nothing to advance our strategic missions. There is a better way to do this overall, and that is by freeing ourselves of this leash so our military can go do the job they were sent to accomplish.”

Conservatives for Congress: Not letting girlie hippie stuff that saves the lives of soldiers get in the way of petroleum profits!

Silly women, why did you think you mattered?

Sorry dudes, but we women vote and we don’t care for the likes of Ben Quayle. Quayle’s denials of his involvement with the Dirty Scottsdale website are comical but his misogyny is not. He made comments on Dirty Scottsdale denigrating women as sex objects and is now running on a “family values” platform of wanting to take away our reproductive rights. He couldn’t even give Greta Van Susteren a straight answer to her question of whether Dirty Scottsdale and The Dirty sites degrade women. Quayle is a giant hypocrite who had his fun in the Scottsdale club scene and then, upon deciding he had political aspirations, embraced social conservatism.

Quayle boasts of his “lifelong” social conservatism on his campaign website. IOW, he’s for imposing a harsh and punitive sexual moral code on the little people (women especially) while while he and his rich pals can have a grand old time having “youthful indiscretions” until whenever.

Screw that. And screw anyone who thinks “Brock Landers” doesn’t matter and that Ben Quayle’s disparagement of women and his deplorable hypocrisy don’t matter.

Women matter, guys, and Brock Landers might just get the hell knocked out of him at the ballot box in November.

The reason is that Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), which requires us to be getting 15% of our energy from renewable sources by 2025, hangs in the balance. The RES is where we need to be going policy-wise for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are job creation and the fact that traditional fossil fuel costs are projected to go up in the future while renewables like solar and wind are getting cheaper. (Yes, Alan, I know they’re more expensive now. I’m talking about the future.) Plus, there’s that hippie girlie climate stuff to consider, and most people do consider it a looming problem.

Solar development is highly popular with Arizonans and Republicans Brenda Burns and Gary Pierce (who both won handily Tuesday) know it. So they claim to support the RES, while being coy and wishy-washy about it, with Pierce calling for “flexibility” about the percentage and both he and Burns wringing their hands in concern over the surcharge. Moreover, Gary Pierce pretty much straight up denies man-made global warming, claiming the “science is not robust at all”. It’s cyclical, ya know.

It’s imperative to get at least one Democrat elected to protect and expand the RES. I have to be honest and say I’m fairly discouraged by our chances at this point. Burns and Pierce are running on the right mix of pandering to the tea-whackos, blowing kisses to anti-RES interests, and feigning moderation in public. Both are endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and anti-tax cultists and will probably be the beneficiaries of big independent expenditures by homebuilders who want to stick utility customers with the cost for installing lines to new developments.

I’ll be back later with some thoughts on the other primary races.

2. Every so often I get a comment to a post I did months ago, probably because the person googled a topic and my post came up. Normally I just approve them and move on, but this poor creature was so upset about a post I did back in January about Rep. Judy Burges and her Birther Bill that I wanted to make sure y’all didn’t miss it.

Quoth Ronda:

NO. YOU SUCK. She is doing a great job and has a right to her opinion without trashy people like yourself making obnoxious comments. Judy…keep up the good work.

Judy sure does have a right to her opinion, Ronda. No matter how ignorant and bigoted it is. I hope you feel better now.

**UPDATE**: I facebooked Ronda and her full name is Ronda Burges-Apolinar. She’s Judy the Birther’s daughter.

To be sure, there’s been mud slung and some of our candidates have over-promised and exaggerated their own qualifications and their opponents’ shortcomings, which is to be expected in elections. But I’ll happily support every statewide and local candidate who emerges in tomorrow’s election for the general race. (Of course, I live in a lege district with no contested Democratic primaries so that’s easy for me to say.)

*I know. Some of y’all are really committed to a particular primary candidate and are convinced that his/her opponent is a putrescent scalawag of the worst order. But starting Wednesday we gotta put it behind us to face a tough, but not insurmountable, General Election season.

(P.S.: Good luck tomorrow, Katie!)

Next up, I’ve been asked to encourage y’all to contact Jan Brewer to demand that she participate in debates with Terry Goddard. He wants to do 6 and she intends only to do the Clean Elections one, and you know she’d try to wriggle out of that one if her participation weren’t mandatory. Phone number is 602-542-4331 and you can contact her via email here.

Here’s what I’m sending:

Dear Governor Brewer,

Governor of Arizona is an incredibly important responsibility and this state has problems far too numerous and pressing for you to be avoiding debates with your opponent. If you have time to be interviewed by national cable news networks then you have time to face Attorney General Goddard and let voters know where you stand and how you plan to address issues ranging from education to the economy to public safety.