Nick Kristof Just Destroyed His Own Brand. He's Also Right.

[brooklynite]

Politico

Has Oregon candidate for governor Nicholas Kristof — a former New York Times columnist — been huffing fumes from Donald Trump’s helicopter? Yesterday, after Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan disqualified Kristof’s candidacy for governor because he did not satisfy the residency requirements for the office, he rushed to Twitter to declare that the ruling is unfair and his campaign would continue!

“A failing political establishment in Oregon has chosen to protect itself, rather than give voters a choice. We will challenge this decision in court, and we are confident we will prevail, because the law is on our side,” Kristof tweeted, vowing to appeal the decision.

The “failing political establishment” Kristof was referring to was, of course, the Democratic Party under whose flag he is running. But no matter. For Kristof, as for Trump, the near enemy of his party colleagues is far more treacherous than the far enemy of the opposing party. At a Thursday press conference, he offered this Trumpian non sequitur about the opposition coming from his own party. “Instead of working to end homelessness, they’re working to end my candidacy,” he pouted.

The secretary of state might be a running dog of Oregon’s political establishment, but her argument against Kristof’s candidacy seems entirely rational. The residency requirements for candidacy are not “clear-cut,” as Portland’s alt-weekly Willamette Week notes: A candidate for governor must be a resident of three years standing, though “resident” isn’t defined. But as the Oregonian reported, Kristof voted in New York state in the 2020 general election, he maintained his New York driver’s license through December 2020, and he paid New York income taxes beyond November 2019. These lapses and choices converged, the secretary of state decided, to make Kristof a nonresident for the purposes of his candidacy. Kristof might call himself a native bird, but unless a judge overrules her, Fagan is the relevant taxonomist here.

[Celerity]

1. RW bollocks from a RW shitrag

The “failing political establishment” Kristof was referring to was, of course, the Democratic Party under whose flag he is running.

[JohnSJ]

2. +++ Absolutely. They also try to interject a "bothsiderisms" into this piece by placing trump into

the same situation, as though Kristof and trump face the same obsticles from those pesky respective establishments of either party.

Perhaps they haven't noticed, but where is this "so-called establishment" in the republican party? The republican party have fully embraced trump and his view of a government autocracy.

[Celerity]

3. Politico doesn't even try & hide their RW'edness anymore, since the RW German publisher

Axel Springer SE bought them a couple months ago. Many of their big hitter journos and editors have left. Trash-talking trolls like the perpetual 'Dems-in-disarray' squealer Holly Otterbein and her ilk have been elevated in prominence (perhaps in position and pay too).

I see Politico, the zombie mag, RW-loving Newsweek, and even Murdoch's abominable NY Post tossed up here far too often.

All 3 should, IMHO, be banned sources, but it is not my site, so not my rules.

All three shitrags, as they often (the NY Post always) left-punch/hippy-punch, also have a built-in fanboi/fangirl club here for many of their 'kick-a-proggy' screeds.

[JohnSJ]

4. Excellent observation Celerity