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mckay4senate.bsky.social
Bill McKay
@mckay4senate.bsky.social
12K followers 280 following 9.2K posts
“What do we do now?”
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mckay4senate.bsky.social
Nixon's 1972 campaign didn't bring up George McGovern's support for Henry Wallace in 1948 out of fear that voters would mistakenly assume that he supported George Wallace in 1968 and end up tipping conservative voters to him.
When McGovern published his autobiography, Grassroots, in 1977, a Truman revival was flourishing in the post-Watergate climate. Merle Miller had a huge bestseller with his oral biography of Truman, Plain Speaking, and there was even a popular song by the group Chicago, “America Needs You, Harry Truman.” McGovern wanted none of it: “Today Harry Truman is being elevated retroactively as a great President, whereas Henry Wallace is largely forgotten. But I believed in the late forties and I believe now that both the domestic health of the nation and the peace of the world would have been better served by the hopeful and compassionate views of Wallace than by the ‘Get Tough’ policy of the Truman Administration.”18 (Ironically, McGovern’s support for Wallace in 1948 did not hurt him in 1972. According to William Safire, Nixon campaign strategists decided not to bring up this bit of McGovern biography, fearing that just as some conservative New Hampshire primary voters had supported Eugene McCarthy in 1968 because they confused him with Joseph McCarthy, so some conservative voters might actually vote for McGovern because they were likely to confuse Henry Wallace with George Wallace.)19
February 14, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Bill McKay
uncrewed.bsky.social
Without a doubt one of the funniest posts I've seen from a politician that's supposed to be taken seriously
February 14, 2026 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
mckay4senate.bsky.social
The Kennedys meeting the Eisenhowers in between Election Day and Inauguration Day was so funny.

Mamie Eisenhower to Jackie Kennedy: oh, you just had a C-section? Well, it's not like you need a wheelchair for it... unless you're weak.

President Eisenhower to President-Elect JFK: INVADE LAOS
December 14, 2024 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Bill McKay
popecrocodylus.bsky.social
A parody of the Holden Bloodfeast meme where he's Leverett Saltonstall - moderate - please can we spend less on Vietnam even just a little bit what if we spend just 1% less - overruled 45-43
February 13, 2026 at 8:02 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Catalog of attempts to cut defense spending in the 1960s
that defense spending was excessive was raised every year. Butfor most of the decade the senators who sponsored specific cuts in the Pentagon's budget, or a general reordering ofpriorities, were a lonely and unpersuasive squad. In 1961 Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin proposed deleting1525,000,000 from the budget earmarked for B-52 and B-58bombers. He was defeated 87 to 4. A 1962 attempt to limitfunds for the RS-70, the white-elephant bomber that was later given up on, was defeated 72 to 15. In 1963 Senator LeverettSaltonstall proposed a 1 per cent Defense Department budgetcut. He was overruled in a rare close vote, 45 to 43. In 1964Senator George McGovern's proposal of a general 4 per centcut in the Defense Department budget was smothered 78 to 5. Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed a 2 per cent cut; he wasdefeated 62 to 11. In 1966 McGovern proposed a 2.2 per centcut in defense spending and was beaten 69 to 18. In 1967Senator Wayne Morse proposed a 10 per cent cut in militaryspending; he was turned down 85 to 5. Senator Joseph Clarkproposed a 3.5-billion-dollar cut, and was turned down 83 to 6. In every case Muskie voted with the majority. As this recitationsuggests, through 1967, and into the third year of the full- scale war in Vietnam, challenges to the Pentagon were simplyunrealistic. Only the tiny cuts proposed by Senator Saltonstall,himself a proper Yankee Republican and a member of theArmed Services Committee, received any substantial support.
February 13, 2026 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
matthewdownhour.bsky.social
Sure only the tattoo but also

Platner has yet to *run* in a race as big as the one Mamdani already won. The privileging of white faces as the ‘real American’ ones continues
newrepublic.com The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 1d
A base that has long made pragmatic, sober decisions appears increasingly attracted to charismatic outsiders who promise to break from the party’s failures of the last decade. They see their party’s leaders as feckless and inept.

It’s the Democratic Tea Party, with a twist. trib.al/mC5cBDA
February 13, 2026 at 7:50 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Beast mode thing to just be like "yeah I changed my view based on who was President."
Muskie had come to a position as extreme as that of the tiny band of war critics of the early years of the war. He was one of many. "The whole country's view has changed over the same period of time," he said in an interview in mid-1970. "I don't know of anyone's that hasn't." He was asKed if his views had shifted because of the alteration in his own position. That is, where he had been a loyal Democrat during a Democratic administration, he was now a leading presidential aspirant during a Republican one. This was not an easy question, since the answer could be easily misinterpreted. Many public figures would probably have waffled or lied. But Muskie said. Yes, the changed role was a factor in his changed views. "Parties do have their institutional role with respect to each other. Nixon criticized President Johnson for some of the things he's doing himself. This role has to be fulfilled. The party out of power has more obligation to criticize policies than when it is in power. That's the basis of our party system."
February 12, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Bill McKay
yungdreyfusard.bsky.social
i think a solid 60 to 70% of everything ezra klein says is nonsense akin to the envoi at the beginning of a troubadour's poem so that the audience hes writing for will listen to the other 30%. i dont know if he's even consciously aware that hes doing this.
February 12, 2026 at 8:13 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
A Bill Mauklin cartoon piinted in the Chicago Sini-Timc.s dining the 1968election campaign. Muskie is seen as "carrying" Humphrey.
February 12, 2026 at 8:01 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Jane Gray (no, not that one) tries to flirt with young lawyer Edmund Muskie, making little headway as "he simply wasn't interested in girls."
After graduating from high school, Jane had taken a job as a bookkeeper, salesgirl, and occasional dress model in a local fashion shop operated by two sisters. The sisters decided that she would make a fine catch for the young lawyer with wavy brown hair who had moved into town. The problem was Muskie. He simply wasn't interested in girls. Jane began to frequent the same restaurant as Ed on her lunch hour. But he always seemed preoccupied, often reading as he ate, and took no notice. Finally, in desperation, she purposely stumbled into Muskie as he rose to leave. "Excuse me," she said. "Certainly," said Muskie and walked on. Jane had about given up hopes on Muskie when she and a friend attended an open-house meeting of the AMVETS chapter. Muskie spoke and Jane was entranced. As they were leaving, someone came to tell the two girls that Muskie would like to meet them, and the introductions were made. The following day he invited Jane to lunch, and they dated for the next eighteen months. "I don't think you could say that Ed really courted Jane," McMahon says. "I think they just went together and then they got married. According to Jane, Muskie proposed after he'd been serving in the Legislature for about a year. "I've been carrying the ring around for quite a few months but I didn't want to give it to you until it was paid for," he said. Jane immediately accepted. When they were married, in the spring of 1948, she agreed to two conversions. A Republican and a Baptist, she consented to become a Democrat and a Roman Catholic. It's
February 11, 2026 at 6:27 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Two stories about Louis Brann, a Democrat who briefly governed Republican stronghold Maine during the Great Depression, and Edmund Muskie, who broke the Republican strangehold in the postwar era.
The only Democrat to succeed in Maine in decades had been Louis Brann, a florid-faced Lewiston politician who had been elected governor in the Depression year of 1932 and re- elected in 1934. In the unrest of the 1930's three Maine Demon crats also had won congressional seats, but none had left an imprint on the electorate and none had been reelected. Brann had been the exception. Victorious in 1932 by a margin of less than three thousand votes, he had been re- elected with ease two years later. A gregarious chief executive, he was a handshaking, backslapping politician that reserved Down Easters accepted for a time but never really understood. Once, Maine Democrats recall, while handshaking his way through a Democratic rally he clasped the hand of the son ofof a man he knew casually. "Hello Jim," said Brann, pumpingaway, "how's your father?" "He died last week," said Jim sadly. But Brann had aheady grabbed another hand to massage.As Brann worked his way around the hall, he eventually madehis way back to the disconsolate Jim. He grabbed the handagain, shook it warmly, and asked, "Well, Jim, how's yourfather?" "He's still dead. Governor," Jim replied. Years later, Maine Democrats would fondly recall that story, coupling it with one concerning Muskie during his reelectioncampaign in 1956. By then, handshaking had become almosta reflex. One evening, returning home from the hustings, hewas greeted at the door by his wife. Muskie automatically stuckout his hand and asked, "How are all the folks up your waytoday?" But Brann had been an oddity, a freak spawned by theDepression. In 1936 he had run for the United States Senateand lost. Two years later he had been defeated in his attemptto rewin the governorship. The two Brann successes were dis- counted for what they were, temporary aberrations of theMaine electorate.
February 11, 2026 at 6:23 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
quantian.bsky.social
They still can cook on X The Everything App
February 11, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com
all sports teams/franchises are evil but hearing it from a pats fan is still like getting the run-down on all the bad stuff buffalo bill has done from hannibal lecter
February 8, 2026 at 10:14 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Ultraleft meme about Dr Bordiga saving a Leninist over an MLM with the tagline "Stalinism is a sin!"
February 8, 2026 at 7:49 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Zoomer James Baldwin: Later, in the midnight hour, the missing identity makes one delulu. One can neither pass a vibe check nor lock in when the storm of the middle passage has them tweaking. One is mysteriously cooked forever, in Ohio.
dieworkwear.bsky.social derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 6d
Somewhere among you is a young person with the potential to be the next James Baldwin, but they are now online writing: "Is cortisol-maxxing via monk mode more EV than SMV chadfishing while mogging moids in mixed-use nightlife zones?"
February 8, 2026 at 7:10 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Frank Church and Fidel Castro, 1977
February 8, 2026 at 6:57 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Apparently some of McGovern's people considered Eagleton responsible for losing him the presidency—not in 1972, but 1976, on the idea that a respectable loss would have given him enough credibility to run again after the Linebacker II bombings and Watergate made him seem right in retrospect.
February 8, 2026 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
lowrhoufo.bsky.social
Part of why I hate on CNL so much is because I do think a hardline ~Georgist, pro-immigrant, urbanist organization would be an enormous asset to the democratic party. Instead I see something desperate to trip over its own shoes and blame the left. It's pathetic
February 8, 2026 at 5:19 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
George McGovern, at a speech at Boston State, discusses how the American air war in Vietnam "produces a My Lai massacre almost daily in some parts of Indochina."
American bombing "produces a My Lai massacre almost daily in some parts of Indochina" [McGovern] charged. American bombs have killed three-quarters of a million Asians, he said, "and some day that's going to weigh on the conscience of the American people."
February 7, 2026 at 7:07 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Who came up with the list of politicians for the "Modern Liberalism in the United States" WikiBox
February 7, 2026 at 6:48 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Charles Goodell, father of the current NFL Commissioner, became an incredibly liberal Republican Senator when Rockefeller appointed him to RFK's seat, but was a moderate conservative Congressman; in 1964, he compared pro-civil rights Republicans (negatively) to Reconstructionists.
In 1964, however, the conservatives had controlled the platform committee and produced a milquetoast civil rights plank. Five moderates spoke in favor of amending it on the convention floor, but their effort floundered when another group from their own wing of the party — with established records as advocates for civil rights — opposed strengthening the plank. Perhaps most astoundingly, New York Congressman Charles Goodell who had voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act, admonished Republicans not to let the party’s fervor for civil rights get the best of them as it had for Reconstruction-era Republicans after the Civil War.
February 5, 2026 at 6:37 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Frank Church attacks a young Idaho delegate who wants to vote for Humphrey at the 1968 convention, questioning his liberal credentials, only for the young man to ask him to "tell me again about gun control, Frank."
Church perhaps had Hubert Humphrey, among others, in mind when he referred to politicians who resembled “animated mirrors/’ Although Church and his former Senate colleague agreed on many issues, Church had been wary of Humphrey for over a decade and disapproved of the vice president’s cheerleading support for the administration’s Vietnam policy. The fact that the vice president was now likely to get the Democratic nomination galled him. His anger boiled up during a heated exchange with Byron Johnson, one of Carl Burke’s younger law partners and a rising Idaho Democrat. Johnson planned to support Humphrey at the Democratic national convention in Chicago but also to vote for an anti-Vietnam war plank in the party platform. Church “got on me pretty hard that I was supposed to be a young liberal and here I am voting for Humphrey,” Johnson recalled. “What he was really trying to say was, 'Here I’ve pinned a lot of hopes on you. You are going to be this great liberal, and now you go off and support Lyndon’s guy. What the hell is going on here?’ ” Stung by what he viewed as “a real putdown,” Johnson snapped back, “Tell me again about gun control, Frank.” Church said nothing more. “It was one of the few times that I ever saw Frank at a loss for words,” remembered Johnson, who took no pride in the exchange. He looked to Church as a model, and the senator’s comments had “cut a little bit.” As much as anything, the incident demonstrated Church’s frustration with Humphrey.41
February 5, 2026 at 7:56 AM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
Lloyd Bentsen gets married with a rock in his mouth
Six dates later, B.A. Longino and Lloyd Bentsen were married in Columbus, Mississippi, where he was taking Air Force flight training. The day before the big event, the U.S. Army put a wrench into the wedding plans -Bentsen was ordered to have two wisdom teeth pulled. That night, at a movie, he began hemorrhaging and had to go to the base hospital. The bleeding stopped the next day, and Bentsen called his bride-to-be from the hospital to assure her that he would be there for the ceremony. “So when The Wedding March started, 1 didn’t show up and B.A. didn’t know what had happened to me,” he said. “I guess I got excited, because I started hemorrhaging again.” Bentsen was determined not to let a little blood ruin his wedding day. The cool-headed Lloyd Bentsen took control. “I went out in the courtyard and I got a rock,” he said. “I put it down into that cavity, bit down on it and came back for the marriage ceremony mumbling my ’I do’s.’ “
February 5, 2026 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by Bill McKay
diplomatofnight.com
This guy absolutely knows zero about Western Sahara but I can guess what three think tanks are sending him memos telling him what to say
As Chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, I’m deeply engaged in fighting Islamist terrorist organizations all across the world. We break down the threat posed by the Polisario Front on today’s episode of Verdict: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/islamist-terrorists-tipping-point-in-iran-netflix-trying/id1495601614?i=1000747992696
February 4, 2026 at 10:46 PM
mckay4senate.bsky.social
In the Simpsons episode Kamp Krusty, Bart tells Ms. Krabappel that he can't take go to summer camp without a C average, to which she replies "Have a D-lightful summer."

In the Spanish dub she says "pero puedes ir al campo de concentracion." What the fuck?
February 4, 2026 at 3:56 AM