It's Sunday

 

It's Sunday

Do you know any Christians who need to hear this short 4 minutes from Raphael Warnock?  

If they can't make it through 4 minutes, the last minute will do.

Full No Lie episodes (The above clip is from the Feb 2, 2025 episode: Trump's Democrat-blaming blows up in his face.)

Warnock it is

The incumbent Democrat was leading with Democratic areas still to report when the race was called Tuesday night. Warnock bested Walker by just under a percentage point during the general election last month, but didn’t cross the 50-percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. His victory means Democrats will hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate, expanding their slim majority in midterm elections that were projected to favor Republicans.

[...]

As far as public office goes, Walker will have be content with his “honorary sheriff” title and prop badge, which he brandished during the lone debate ahead of the general election last month.
  Rolling Stone

Seriously, though, it was way closer than it should have been.

I suppose if there are still Democratic strongholds to be counted, that image could look different, but it should have been a blow-out.

Throughout the campaign, Walker stumbled to respond to allegations of domestic violence and claims that he paid for ex-girlfriends' abortions, despite expressing support for a nationwide ban on the procedure. He was also prone to gaffes and false claims, exaggerating his record in academics and business and displaying a loose grasp of policy.

[...]

Walker, who Trump urged to run, was the only Georgia Republican not to win outright in November.

  NPR

Walker may be the least qualified person ever to run for office.  At least among the top of that list.

Warnock's win now gives Democrats [...] a cushion in trying to pass bills, assured committee control and eliminates procedural hurdles to carry on the business of the Senate.

[...]

Warnock's win offers Democrats a clear path for action for the final years of Biden's term.

  NPR

And the question now is, will they take advantage of it? I have my doubts.

Democrats now have enough wiggle room to lose one vote in their caucus and still move bills through the chamber without issue.

[...]

Because the current power-sharing agreement equally splits the Senate committees, tied votes must undergo an additional vote on the Senate floor to move ahead with bills or nominees.

But Warnock's win means Democrats will likely have an extra seat on every committee, clearing an open path to passage when Senators ubiquitously break on party lines.

[...]

In 2020, Schumer and McConnell settled on an agreement to share power in the evenly split chamber after an early stalemate that stalled the confirmation of President Biden's cabinet nominees.

[...]

Warnock's triumph means [Schumer] does not have to again negotiate a power-sharing arrangement.

I think we owe more credit - or at least as much - to John Fetterman in Pennsylvania for flipping a seat than to Warnock for keeping his.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  You can read this article if you want, but I'm pretty sure it's by not being Herschel Walker.

If the Republicans had nominated a halfway qualified candidate, they could have won this seat.  I'm glad they didn't.  I'm just saying, Democrats shouldn't feel smug, or even confident, in their standing in Georgia.

What Dems get if they get Warnock

Aside from a little bit of breathing room if one senator is out of the picture for some reason:

The devil went down to Georgia

I'll be looking for a way to watch this live.  Updates to this post will be added after the debate.

UPDATE:  Well, I did indeed miss it, and now I have no desire to do so.  Here's an MSNBC article, which seems to indicate that Herschel Walker actually can make sense.  

And you can watch the whole thing here.  A quick peek shows Walker stringing together actual sentences, so that's better than I've seen to date.

UPDATE:

This is definitely a possibility.

Yeah, I didn't think he'd do it

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker says he's declined an invitation to participate in a debate in Macon against Senator Raphael Warnock.

During an appearance in Wrightsville on Friday, Walker said he has no plans to attend the Oct. 13 debate.

Warnock accepted the invitation to participate about a month ago. Walker’s campaign had not responded to the invitation since it was sent in June.

  13WMAZ

Can you imagine what that debate would be like? I'll give you a hint:

“I'm not going to respond to anything because you know that's not a debate, and you know that,” Walker said. “You've got people that are contributors to his campaign and it's in this room that only two people gonna see it on a Sunday night, I think. NFL Football, I am giving you an opportunity to be statewide so everybody can see what it is, see the contrast between the two of us. I don't know how you can ask for anything better.”

[...]

The debate is set for a Thursday night, not a Sunday. It is a co-sponsored debate by 13WMAZ, our Atlanta station 11Alive, Georgia Public Broadcasting, The Telegraph and Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University.

[...]

Walker has accepted a debate invitation on Oct. 14 in Savannah. The debate is hosted by the Nexstar Media Group and other television stations.

I'll believe it when I see it.

"It is like the 'Rumble in the Jungle.' Everyone gets a chance to see he and I go at it," Walker said in Wrightsville on Friday. "This little country boy that's not too smart, and I am trying to unseat a Senator who is wrecking things. I’m going to call him Wreck-It Ralph. He ought to get to Savannah, Georgia, to go up against Herschel Walker."

“Two months ago, Reverend Warnock accepted invitations to three well-established Georgia debates in Atlanta, Savannah, and Macon to be broadcast statewide, after Herschel Walker said he would debate Reverend Warnock anywhere, anytime,” said Quentin Fulks, Warnock’s campaign manager. “Nothing has changed. Reverend Warnock remains committed to debating Herschel Walker and giving Georgians three opportunities to see the clear choice about who is ready to represent Georgia.”

[...]

Republicans in Georgia – many of whom have expressed concern over Walker’s liabilities as a candidate – say the first-time candidate would be better served by not facing Warnock in a public debate format. Walker easily won his May 24 primary without having to debate any of his GOP opponents.

  CNN

If that debate against Warnock actually happens, I will be glued to my screen. I likely won't be able to make sense of what Walker says, but I'll be watching.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

I'll believe it when I see it

I don't think he actually will, but if he does, I wouldn't miss it for the world.

There's no way!

I think we all know the answer.  Herschel Walker can't afford to debate ANYBODY. Not even a five-year-old.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

So proud of Georgia

The south lost the civil war in 1865, but today is the day the South fell. The people of Georgia now know what they can do. And the people of Mississippi and Alabama were watching. I look forward to a new black holiday. Janteenth doesn't quite fit, but January 5 is a red-letter day. Black Lives DO Matter.

Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate with Raphael Warnock the projected winner over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff leading Republican Sen. David Perdue in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections.

  USA Today

And Mitch McConnell has lost his seat! The whole country won. (I'm assuming a win for Ossoff if the votes they're counting now are mail-in and those fall the way they did in the general election.)

Trailing much of the night, Ossoff surged ahead of Perdue by more than 8,500 votes after batches of votes from Democrat-heavy DeKalb County were released. Most uncounted votes remain in Democratic strongholds in the metro Atlanta area.

[...]

Around 2 a.m. ET Wednesday, the Associated Press projected Warnock the winner over Loeffler after the Atlanta pastor built his statewide lead to more than 46,500 votes.

And that should widen under my assumption about the mail-in votes.

Warnock made history with his election win, becoming the first Black Democrat elected as a U.S. senator from a state in the South and only the 11th Black senator in the history of the nation. He becomes the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 20 years.

[...]

The Perdue campaign was not ready to concede.

Of course not.

“We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia voting system implementation manager, said he expects most ballots to be counted by Wednesday but for final counts not until Friday.

[...]

The possible Senate sweep in Georgia would give Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 2004 and boost President-elect Joe Biden’s ability to carry out his early legislative agenda.

Not to mention take McConnell's foot off the throat of the Senate and actually allow bills to come to the floor for votes.*

Tuesday’s election was a rare double run-off. Ossoff and Warnock ran against Perdue and Loeffler in the Nov. 3 general election, but no candidate in that race passed the 50% threshold under state law to win the Senate seats outright, forcing Tuesday's runoffs.

And don't think the MAGAts won't be screaming about being cheated because of it. In fact, I'm actually rather surprised Georgia uses that system. I suppose that reveals a level of arrogance on the part of the GOP that no other state has dared reach.

Georgia election officials said turnout Tuesday shattered the previous record for a run-off in the state, including more than 3 million who voted early.

[...]

Following the playbook that helped Republicans retain control of the Senate after the general election, Loeffler and Perdue attacked their opponents as "radical socialists" and said the fate of nation was at stake with the race.

Well, they were right about that last part.

Congratulations, Georgia! You may have just saved democracy in America.

P.S.  A lot of credit goes to power house Stacey Abrams, who worked tirelessly organizing blacks to vote.  Governor Kemp's days are numbered.

UPDATE 8am:

Democrat Jon Ossoff, who leads Republican David Perdue by about 16,000 votes in the Georgia runoff that could give Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, claimed victory Wednesday in the race. The Associated Press, which NPR relies on for its results, has not yet called the contest.

  NPR 

*I didn't realize Senate Majority leader does not automatically go to the party with the most senators. (I thought that would be a tie, broken by Kamala Harris.) I just read this tweet that seems to indicate the Senate votes on the leader, no matter who has the most seats. Manchin better not bail on the Democrats. Surely he wouldn't, would he?

 

Another good Warnock ad

And....there's still hope for the Senate

I know you're tired, after that presidential fiasco, but don't let down just yet.

Based on races that have been called so far, Republicans and Democrats are deadlocked at 48 seats each.

Besides Georgia, the two remaining uncalled races are expected to go toward Republicans.

In North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tillis (R) has had a small but steady lead, and officials in both parties acknowledge that Democratic nominee Cal Cunningham is unlikely to overcome his vote deficit.

  The Hill

There will be runoff elections January 5 for both of Georgia's senate seats. If Dems can take them both, there will be a 50-50 split in the Senate, and Kamala Harris will be the tie-breaker on any party-line 50-50 votes.

The runoff elections are expected to be incredibly expensive. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Ossoff and Perdue's campaigns spent almost $45 million combined ahead of the November election. Warnock and Loeffler's campaign spent nearly $40 million combined. With the fate of the Senate in the balance, it is likely that national Republican and Democratic organizations could spend heavily money in the races ahead of the runoff in an attempt to push their candidates to victory.

  

It's a huge burden to put on Georgia, but she can do it. And you can help. 

(They really need to change the title of that video.)

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.