The American Spectator

Romney has dumbed himself down to fit a Republican Party that has become anachronistic, hateful and foolish. He has never once stood up to the party’s extremist base in this campaign—not even when asked whether he would accept a deficit deal with $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenues, not even on immigration and contraception, issues that sent women and Latinos scurrying toward the exits. His has been a shameful, shameless campaign.

(September 24, 2012)

Seattle Times

The trials and tribulations of an apparent teetotaling public servant in good old Snohomish County:

A Snohomish County judge who presides over drunken-driving cases may be facing DUI charges

The Herald of Everett reports the State Patrol stopped Snohomish County District Court Judge Timothy Ryan on the Bothell-Everett Highway on Wednesday night. Patrol Sergeant Kirk Rudeen said Ryan’s car was drifting outside its lane and he was going 53 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Rudeen said Ryan was cooperative and polite, but he smelled of alcohol.

The arresting trooper reported that Ryan’s eyes were bloodshot and watery and that his face was flushed. A second trooper called to the scene said the Lynnwood judge’s speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol.

(September 4, 2012)

The Herald-Mail

In the incomparable “Mail Call” section of the Maryland Free State’s equivalent of the New York Times, a semi-literate cri de coeur from a stalwart of the Moron Vote:

I would like to thank the caller from Brightwood Acres East for saying that if you’re not smart enough or motivated enough to get a ID, you shouldn’t be smart or motivated enough to vote. I guess people that are handicapped aren’t motivated enough to get out and get an ID, when it’s very burdensome for them, but yet they gotta struggle to vote, but that’s OK with this caller. Or the military guy in Pennsylvania whose ID is turned down because it don’t have an expiration date on it. I guess he’s not smart enough. These ID laws are just strictly to keep out the Democrat vote. These people, that’s the trouble with the Republican party, they think everybody’s healthy just like they are, white, not poor, and they’re not.

Hagerstown

(September 5, 2012)