Geoff Duncan of Georgia, what a guy
Seems there’s an awful lot of fake sanctity going around these days – for example, Georgia’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan. Ah, such virtue! Such principles! Perhaps Duncan will have a future someday with that pinnacle of moral rectitude and intellectual rigor, CNN:
Duncan is really the epitome of why so many people on the right detest the politicians they refer to as the GOPe.
Not that Duncan gets any credit for virtue among the many Warnock-admirers who seem to constitute the entire comment pool at that YouTube video I just linked. The comments prominently include mockery for Duncan’s supposedly standing in line while knowing who the candidates were, and then not voting – something few people think actually is the truth. Another typical response was that of course he voted for the obviously-superior Warnock but didn’t want his fellow Republicans to know it. Alternatively, some thought he actually voted for the terrible awful no-good worst-ever candidate Herschel Walker (they never give a specific example of why they say he’s so beneath contempt; apparently it’s supposed to be self-evident) and was too ashamed to admit it.
And all of those commenters would probably have voted for Fetterman without hesitation had they lived in Pennsylvania.
I’m not sure why this is even remotely newsworthy. He is the outgoing lieutenant governor. Does his opinion really matter to anyone?
RINO! This is so typical of virtue signaling Republicans. They have “standards” don’t you know. If he was on a football team, would he intentionally drop a touchdown pass from a quarterback who didn’t meet his “standards.” If so, he doesn’t belong on the team. Why not just keep quiet? His words may suppress the turn out in GA. Does he think that Walker’s and Warnock’ s supporters won’t remember what he did if he tries to run for office again? And, since both candidates are black and he’s white, can’t this be claimed as a racist opinion? My guess is that he’s not planning on running for office again.
To his credit, Gov. Kemp has endorsed Walker and, I think, campaigned for him.
To pretend that Warnock is somehow morally superior to Walker requires shutting one’s eyes and ears. Warnock is an unworthy successor to the pulpit he holds.
And as the Conservative Treehouse posted, which GOP Elite is rebuking this?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/12/01/if-you-wonder-whats-wrong-with-georgia-the-republican-lt-governor-appears-on-cnn-to-tell-georgia-republicans-not-to-vote-for-hershel-walker/
What would happen if a Democrat did this to a Democratic Candidate?
He is probably another concerned conservative, nominally a Republican.
Ray SoCa:
Actually, I could not care less if they rebuke it or not. I think they do well to ignore this guy – I think he is hoping for a media job. I point him out merely as an example of a certain mindset among some virtue-signaling Republicans.
Among warnocks greatest offenses is tarnishing mlks parish (yes thaf ebenezer baptisf church) with slum lordism and evictions of vietnam vets
The guy was a CEO before going into politics. My guess is that this is his play to get back into the business world after serving in government as a Republican.
There is already an erick erickson he is redundant the pretense he couldnt decide after an hour is bogus
There is an internal war inside the GOP – between mostly non-college grad workers, and the college educated elite.
Almost all “leaders” will be college educated, as is Trump (and Palin! and Reagan! – Eureka), especially since the “only those who go to college will get good jobs” myth began dominating. We college grads who yet support workers against elites are thus “class traitors”.
Is it better for the long term GOP to have more GOPe folk, or more MAGA representatives? Most would say MAGA. But it’s the MAGA folk, not just Trump, who are being demonized, including a bit by the GOPe.
They are not really RINOs, because anti-MAGA Reps really are a big, important, cash-rich part of the Republican Party. And they’re smart enough to be against the too-Woke Dems, as well as unwilling to go 3rd Party. But they hate hate hate Trump’s style, almost as much as the Dem elite hate him.
Trump’s MAGA Republicans, evolving the GOP into a worker’s America First party, can’t really “win” if there are a lot of GOPe who support Open Borders, and “free trade” with commie China & its lowest cost slave production.
MAGA voters need to control the GOP, and so far they do not; both MAGA and GOPe have big influence. America won’t become Great Again until the vast majority of Republicans are consistent in their support for the MAGA policies. Mitch McDonnel is not on board, nor is his supported GOPe Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowsky.
If the Demonization of Trump is enough to stop him in 2024 – America will still be savable in 2028. But it won’t really be recovering until there is a GOP party that is not often allied with the left Democrats who are so effective Power grabbers, and corruption beneficiaries.
Demonization Syndrome is the US problem, mostly Democrat Demonization Syndrome. Not quite Derangement, nor Delusion, but Demonization.
Comment on Sundance’s post, on why Duncan was not censured by any of the RNC or GOP leadership:
“Except he wasn’t promoting a position contrary to the interests of the Republican Party. He [was] promoting a position contrary to the interests of Republican voters, but that’s obviously not the same as the interests of the Republican Party.”
AesopFan:
Why surprise, surprise – sundance has his own interpretation, which just happens to be the one that is the most pernicious one possible regarding the GOP. Why does that not surprise me in the least? His stock in trade is to be as divisive as possible.
How about this explanation, which is mine: Geoff Duncan chose not to run for re-election in 2022. He’s been a Liz Cheney type of anti-Trump Republican for years, mouthing off about it and even writing a book saying what he thinks the GOP should be doing instead. Right now he’s a lame-duck lieutenant governor who may have further political ambitions on the national level but who knew he couldn’t win in Georgia. He’s not exactly a household name but he would love to become one. If the GOP censures him, it only gives him what he wants: more fame and more attention. Right now he’s getting little attention, so why enhance his profile by censuring him on a national level? Best to ignore him. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. Kemp endorsed Walker; best to leave it at that.
neo – Building on my prior comment, there’s another possibility. There was a WSJ opinion essay this week from a (former) partner at a major law firm who was fired for expressing support for the Dobbs decision. This woman made the mistake of speaking up on a firm-wide conference call to “discuss” the decision. There was another even more chilling story this week from a progressive commentator at a legal industry blog about another female partner at another big law firm who tried to discretely decline “pro bono” work representing pro-abortion interests. She was asked if that was because she was pro-life. After admitting that she was pro-life, the partner was fired. Both (former) partners are women.
A lot of commenters here talk about a civil war between the colleged-educated and working class or MAGA GOP. Well, those stories above are a good summary of what the MAGA GOP era is like for a lot of college-educated conservatives now. Of course it started before Trump. Don’t underestimate Brandon Eich as a big reason that a lot of suburban college-educated conservatives held their noses and voted for Trump in the first place. But for all the lauding of the Trump administration that goes on here, the whole proposition didn’t turn out so well for college-educated conservatives. Now, if you are a conservative lawyer, engineer, or corporate manager, you don’t want your employer to know how you voted. You certainly don’t want your employer to know if you are a social conservative, and you begin to wonder about whether you want your employer to know about your religious practice.
Now if it was all about principle, that would be one thing. But much of it is not about principle, it’s about the crazy anti-social behavior of the ego from Mar-a-Lago and his acolytes. Those who go on about OMB and suggest that I need to lighten up about mean tweets are missing the point. Childish (and worse) behavior from Trump drives the ideologically moderate and uncommitted into the arms of the woke Jacobins. The same thing happens in elections, which is why Republicans underperformed in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
Tying this back to Geoff Duncan. Maybe he’s done with politics. If so, this stunt probably buys him enough woke cred to hold off the jackals in private business for a while, maybe long enough to get his kids through college and retire. And the alternative is to vote for a deeply flawed candidate like Hershel Walker who is likely to lose anyway?
Thats sounds like they are immature children who dont consider their own long term interests look at the damage they have wrought
Bauxite:
I’m curious what you think is so “deeply flawed” about Walker. I keep hearing stuff like that, but when I’ve listened to him – and although I haven’t listened to tons of what he’s said, I’ve listened to quite a bit – I don’t hear anything that has alarmed me or impressed me as deeply flawed. If you mean that he doesn’t sound like an intellectual, and isn’t one, I don’t see that as a problem. I’ve never had any difficulty understanding him and what he says seems to be pretty commonsensical to me. The earlier allegations against him about an abortion in his background didn’t seem to be well-sourced; just the usual attack stuff that any GOP candidate will be facing. People keep repeating that he’s stupid, but I haven’t seen any stupid comments coming from him, and apparently he did well in his debate. What’s so DEEP about his flaws? Are you just saying he’s not the perfect candidate?
The TOP 10(TM) Reasons Why Herschel Walker is a DEEPLY FLAWED Candidate:
10. He loves his country.
9. He isn’t corrupt.
8. He’s taken far too many brain-addling hits on the gridiron, which gives him an unfair advantage over his respectable opponent (who hasn’t taken ANY brain-addling hits on the gridiron).
7,6. He hasn’t swindled anybody, unlike his opponent, nor does he have his opponent’s vast experience in governance.
5,4. He “ain’t Black” (according to Biden’s rigorous definition of the concept) and therefore he can only be “appropriating” Blackness. IOW he’s a total fake…
3. In fact—if one pays any attention to our vaunted media—he’s White Supremacist-friendly (which is a DEEP, DEEP FLAW…IF you’re a Republican).
2. “…what he says seems to be pretty commonsensical…”
1. Trump supports him.
Now, a major motion picture, here’s the link to the “DEEP FLAW” trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjk0jWuzI2
neo – I don’t have any problem with Walker’s presentation and I couldn’t care less whether he sounds like an intellectual. I was referring to the personal stuff. I found it particularly powerful when his son accused him of lying and disclosed that he had urged Walker not to run in order to avoid airing the family’s dirty laundry.
Bauxite:
I didn’t find it the least bit convincing. Perhaps that’s because I’ve worked with families and there is often so much bile between family members and false accusations are not unusual, especially with divorce. Read this. Also read this. Right up to the moment he denounced his father as having been a liar and abuser just about forever, the son was his staunch supporter. His son is also obviously a publicity-seeker.
Flaws in the fundament. Certainly anything less than a saint in the senate would be unacceptable. We will just have to endure another Democrat until we find that perfect candidate. (sarc) Just as we endure McTurtle because any alternative is just too scary.
The guy was a CEO before going into politics.
Two of the companies he ran had fewer than 10 employees. One appears to have consisted of Duncan and his desk. Both were ad agencies. After he’s elected to the Georgia legislature, he is hired to run a company based in Nashville with about 100 employees. After less than a year as ‘CEO’ of this company, he announced he would be a candidate for a 5th wheel office in state government. It’s not clear when he tendered his resignation to the board of Wellview Health. He resigned from the legislature in September 2017. His LinkedIn notes he attended Georgia Tech, but doesn’t tell you what he studied there or the year he finished. Something does not add up about this guy.
Art Deco – I think that actually bolsters my point. It sounds like the guy is going to have to make a living for a few years. Wikipedia says he was born in 1975 and has three sons, so he’s going to have to make a living for a decade or so and college for the kiddos is probably either happening now or going to happen shortly.
I’m not sure what doesn’t add up. Not everyone uses Linkedin as a complete resume.
neo – I have no illusions about what can go on in families but good grief. So, the son, the first woman who claimed that Walker impregnated her and then paid for her abortion, and the second woman who claimed that Walker impregnated her and paid for her abortion are all lying? (And the explanation for the first woman having a record of the money Walker sent her is really that Walker “sends money to people all the time?”) Maybe. But I seriously doubt it.
For a pro-life candidate, a record of hypocrisy on abortion is absolutely a major flaw. (I’m sure some people actually do have majror religious awakenings just before seeking political power, but I’m pretty skeptical of that one too.)
Look, I’d vote for him if I lived in Georgia, but mostly just to have another Republican/non-Democrat vote in the Senate.
Art Deco – I think that actually bolsters my point.
It doesn’t.
It sounds like the guy is going to have to make a living for a few years.
I don’t think his employment with the Nashville start up was a merit hire. Coincident with his hiring, they also installed an ‘executive vice president’.
Ask yourself what his real skill set is.
For a pro-life candidate, a record of hypocrisy on abortion is absolutely a major flaw.
I take it you’ve never heard of Bernard Nathanson.
Bauxite:
At least from what I’ve read, the son was not talking about the abortions at all (I don’t think he claims any personal knowledge of that particular issue), he was talking about this:
And yet right up to the moment of the abortion allegations, he was an enthusiastic supporter of his father’s candidacy. Something is not right with his story. If he hated his abusive father for many years and didn’t want him to run, why did he initially support his campaign? The son seems to be a publicity-seeker and also somewhat unbalanced (see this article).
There is absolutely no question, however, that Walker has had a volatile life and had affairs and illegitimate children, mental health issues, and threatened violence during his first marriage and when his son Christian was growing up. That makes him “flawed” in terms of the past, but Herschel Walker even wrote a book about this, so it was not a secret at all. The book was published in 2008, almost fifteen years ago. In the book (and you can follow the link and read a lot about it) he credits his Christian faith as being one of the things that helped him get past all that.
So why did his son only dredge up all that old stuff last October, although it happened so many years ago and had been acknowledged by his father and even written about?
As far as the allegations by the women that Herschel Walker requested abortions, he says those are not true. I have no idea whether they are or aren’t, but they were not recent events and what’s more I’ve long been wary of allegations that come out only during campaigns. Walker says of the woman who had a check from him that he indeed helped the woman financially but it was not about an abortion. There is no “smoking gun” that says it was about an abortion, either, so it is one of those he said she said things.
This is one of those situations that is impossible to sort out, except it is clear – because all parties agree – that Herschel Walker went through a period of great turmoil many years ago when he had mental health issues and exhibited threatening behavior (I haven’t seen any allegations that he actually carried through his threats, although I may have missed something and at any rate I’m sure it was frightening to those around him). I haven’t seen any allegations that anything of the sort has happened with Walker in recent years. On the other hand, there are allegations about Warnock that are recent.
But you see these campaign allegations could have been much worse; putting “women in binders,” or driving down the interstate with your pet dog strapped to the top of his car. Oh, the moral abominations these Republicans are. Almost enough to put you back in chains or to force you to push Granny and her wheelchair off a cliff.
These charges are unprecedented, that candidate is totally unacceptable! (sarc)
According to the NY Times, both women who claim Walker paid them to have abortions, one in 1993 and the other in 2009, have refused to be identified.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/us/politics/herschel-walker-abortion.html
Brian E:
Fascinating.
Also, apparently the second woman was introduced on the scene by Gloria Allred. This is Allred’s specialty.
neo – All of this stuff was dredged up again in October because Walker ran for the Senate. (They don’t call them October surprises for nothing.) When you run a candidate who needs a luxury walk-in closet to house all of his skeletons, you better believe that you are going to hear about those skeletons again during the campaign. When you run a candidate who has admitted to a past of extensive womanizing and threatened violence against women, you had better believe that there are going to be incidents you don’t know about and and of course the opposing campaign is going to find out about them and publish them, most likely in October. Also, when you run a candidate who has admitted to extensive womanizing and all that, you had better believe that candidate will also be uniquely vulnerable to false accusations that appear to be consistent with his past character.
In sum, the result is a deeply flawed general election candidate. It’s a real shame too, because Warnock really is a radical progressive mess and would be unelectable in GA against a candidate without Walker’s baggage. There’s really no justification for having both of GA’s senate seats held by Democrats.
As to his son, I’ll come full circle and reiterate my biggest problem with Walker. Walker knew that he had all of these skeletons in his closet. He knew (or should have been told) that all of them would be dredged up and run through the media if he ran. He chose to put his family (and his son) through that anyway. The behavior of the son is consistent with the son being a publicity hound, true. It is also consistent with a son breaking under the weight of seeing all of his father’s misdeeds broadcast on every conceivable media format for weeks on end.
So, yes. Hershel Walker is a deeply flawed candidate. And I’m really not the one you need to convince otherwise. I’ve said that I would hold my nose and vote for him anway given the circumstances. There are a lot of other Republican and Republican-leaning voters (i.e., Kemp voters) who are going to be offput by the noise and just stay home, which is why Walker is likely to lose. (I’ll gladly eat crow if he does win.)
Art Deco – It seems that it’s not enough for you that you disagree with what Duncan did. You have to impugn his character too based on . . . well nothing but your own conjecture really. I have no idea what motivates Geoff Duncan or whether he’s a good man or a bad man, but neither do you.
Bauxite: “When you run a candidate who needs a luxury walk-in closet to house all of his skeletons, you better believe that you are going to hear about those skeletons again during the campaign.”
Now that’s funny. Made me laugh, even if I disagree with your view of what constitutes a deeply flawed candidate. In my book, deeply flawed candidates are the establishment worthies who have betrayed their oath of office and blandly (and profitably!) presided over the destruction of this country. Or even greased the skids (e.g. Bush II, the DHS, and the godawful “Patriot Act”). But, chapeau for that bit about Walker.
“It’s a real shame too, because Warnock really is a radical progressive mess and would be unelectable in GA against a candidate without Walker’s baggage.”
Are you quite sure about that? Does the name “Fetterman” ring a bell?
Art Deco – It seems that it’s not enough for you that you disagree with what Duncan did. You have to impugn his character too based on . . . well nothing but your own conjecture really. I have no idea what motivates Geoff Duncan or whether he’s a good man or a bad man, but neither do you.
Thanks for red herring. It’s enlightening to all of us.
I never remarked on anything he had done as Lt. Governor or in the legislature and never said whether or not he was a ‘good man’ or a ‘bad man’. But you knew that.
What I actually did was to point out that you’d misrepresented his work history. That does not impugn his character. It impugns yours. I also pointed out that it’s a reasonable inference that he never actually ran Wellview Health. Now, why the founder of Wellview Health wanted him as a frontman I cannot say. I suppose participating in a charade would be a blot on him, about the only evaluative statement I gave you was ‘does not add up’.
I’m not sure what doesn’t add up.
Yes, you are, but you’re determined to not acknowledge what’s out of place. (There aren’t any gaps on his LinkedIn profile, bar one: he lists an association with Georgia Tech without specifying his degree).
Maybe Bauxite’s right.
Fox, quoting Duncan left right and center, sure isn’t crazy about Walker (OTOH, one MIGHT wanna take into account FOx’s objectivity when it comes to Trump-supported candidates…).
Which leaves us…where, exactly?
Hey, is it too late to run this guy instead?
“Georgia sheepdog fights off, kills 8 coyotes after pack attacks his sheep”—
https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-sheepdog-fights-off-kills-coyotes-pack-attacks-sheep
Or even greased the skids (e.g. Bush II, the DHS, and the godawful “Patriot Act”)
Greaser-in-chief is Addison Mitchell McConnell.
Is there a fundamental flaw in concerned conservatism? Battered spouseism, or Stockholm Syndrome? If they play really nice with the left, they get to sit at the children’s or servant’s table? Didn’t work for an “extreme conservative” who proved to be not so conservative or principled after all.
Art Deco – And your evidence that the man’s arrangement with Wellview Health was not on the up-and-up is?
And your evidence that the man’s arrangement with Wellview Health was not on the up-and-up is?
I realize being disingenuous is your signature. We’ve already been over the reasons the whole episode looks fishy:
1. He had no experience in that sector.
2. He had no experience supervising a double-digit staff.
3. The business he ran from his house was not sold. The corporation is classified as ‘inactive’.
4. They hired co-incident with his installation an ‘executive vice president’.
5. He announced his departure after less than a year on the job, in order to seek a ceremonial public office.
his premise doesn’t make sense, spend an hour and not vote, I think there is an independent candidate fwiw, then you have the consequences of giving the dems a 51st vote, as if they haven’t done enough damage, and then, as bill engvahl, the other famous southern comedian used to say, ‘there’s your sign’
in florida, we have a few critters like duncan, but they are no longer in state office, like bob martinez chief of staff, mac stipanovich, a general waste of space, in terms of conservative priorities, desantis primary rival, putnam, was another cigar store indian, david jolly from tampa environs,
Walker said that the violent actions his ex-spouse was referring to were due to his Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.). This disorder causes one’s psyche to split into different personalities, or put more succinctly; other alters; a reality he opened up about in his 2008 book.”Breaking Free.”
Walker and his wife Cindy Grossman were divorced after a 16 year marriage in 2002, about the same time Walker sought treatment for his violent outbursts.
While they were married, Grossman was confused and frightened by Walker’s behavior, but she said “the diagnosis now makes it much more understandable”.
Beyond the violence, speaking about what she experienced, Grossman recalled the different alters or personalities that her husband would change into, saying: “It’s hard to explain, but even his physical countenance would change… There was also a very sweet, loveable [personality]. That’s the one he told me I married. He told me I didn’t marry Herschel.”
Hear is the smear that Bill Kristol and his Republicans Accountability PAC. Scroll further down and see Warnock’s ex-wife talks about Warnock’s abuse and child neglect.
https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1556647005442789385
The interview with Grossman that Kristol pulled the clip from, included Walker. It was intended to help others understand the illness.
Brian E. – So your argument is that our guy’s violent domestic abuse was justified because of mental illness? I dare say that you would never accept that excuse from a Democrat. So if Warnock discloses that he too has a diagnosis, would all be forgiven in your mind? I suspect not.
We’re not talking about whether a person is forgiven or their quality as a human being. The issue is whether a person is a good candidate for the Senate. I wish Hershel Walker and his family the best, but, he is not a good candidate and it would have been much better for the Republican Party (and maybe even for Hershel Walker’s family) if he hadn’t run for public office.
Could have, should have, …. but those other “haves” didn’t make it or show up, and yet you persist. So goes the concerned conservative™.
Bauxite, given what we know now, Walker shouldn’t have run. I was pointing out that the smear by Kristol was just that, a smear.
Could have, should have, …. but those other “haves” didn’t make it or show up, and yet you persist. So goes the concerned conservative™.
The state commissioner of agriculture ran. He’s pro-Trump. For some reason, Trump did not endorse him and he was outpolled by HW by a margin of 5-1. Makes no sense to me, as the Republican electorate was perfectly capable of rejecting Trump’s endorsed candidates in other races and there are all these distractions and embarrassments in re HW. I don’t really understand what motivates people in a voting booth.
I was pointing out that the smear by Kristol was just that, a smear.
Kristol’s activities the last seven years have called into question the probity of his entire career. Ditto the crowd at The Bulwark, The Dispatch, and, in a more attenuate way, National Review.
Bauxite:
As far as I can tell, the following is the case: Walker threatened violence during that period but was not actually violent. That does not minimize the frightening nature of the threats, but there actually is a difference between threats that are carried out and threats that are not carried out. But the second point is that the allegations are quite old and there are no allegations in recent years, after he’s had treatment. So the question becomes: if he’s not done any of this stuff for fifteen or twenty years, what does it mean for him now? At what point is that sort of thing behind a person? Or is it never behind a person?
Obviously, it would be preferable to have a candidate with no such history. But no one can say that this history of Walker’s was hidden. It had been in the news long ago, and he wrote a book about it in 2008.
Take ana navarro please
She was a lowly staffer for one of the three amigos who represented the south florida delegation then she did unexceptional work for the mccain huntsman and jeb campaigns talk about failing up