Zephyr Teachout Challenges Beto O'Rourke for Title of Biggest Dem Failure

Happy New Year

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Jan 9, 2022, 6:45:02 AM1/9/22

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*Among active politicians. Hillary Clinton still number one overall.

Zephyr Teachout has conceded defeat in yet another campaign for
public office. The perennial candidate's recently announced
withdrawal from the New York attorney general's race means Teachout
has a shot at stealing Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke's title as the
biggest failure among active Democratic politicians.

Teachout, a heavily credentialed attorney with degrees from Duke and
Yale, announced her candidacy for attorney general less than a month
ago. She ran for the same office in 2018 but lost the Democratic
primary to the eventual winner, Letitia James, who recently
announced she was seeking reelection after abruptly ending her
campaign for governor.

"Attorney General Letitia James is an exceptional leader and
dedicated public servant," Teachout said in a statement on Sunday.
"Given her decision to seek re-election, I will be immediately
suspending my own campaign."

In addition to her two failed campaigns for attorney general,
Teachout also ran a failed campaign for the U.S. House of
Representatives in 2016, losing to Republican John Faso by more than
8 percentage points in New York's 19th Congressional District. Prior
to that, Teachout ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York in
2014, when she lost the Democratic primary to Andrew Cuomo by nearly
30 percentage points.

This impressive string of political failures makes Teachout a viable
candidate to surpass O'Rourke as the Democratic Party's biggest
failure. O'Rourke has failed fewer times but has done so on a much
larger stage. After losing his U.S. Senate race against Sen. Ted
Cruz (R., Texas) in 2018, he subsequently launched a presidential
campaign by declaring he was "born to be in it" on the cover of
Vanity Fair. Beto dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary several
months before the first votes were cast.

O'Rourke is currently seeking a third humiliating defeat in the 2022
Texas gubernatorial race. He is attempting to persuade voters—in
Texas—to back his candidacy by promising to take away their guns.
Matthew Dowd, a self-proclaimed "thought leader" who recently ended
his campaign for Texas lieutenant governor, has suggested O'Rourke
should drop out of the race in the name of "greater diversity."

O'Rourke should reclaim his title following his loss in 2022, but
for now it would appear that Teachout has the edge when it comes to
Democratic failures. Of course, we are only talking about active
politicians, because we all know who holds the title of biggest
Democratic failure of all time…

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/zephyr-teachout-failure/

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 30, 2022, 5:12:42 PM3/30/22

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What does this have to do with Oregon?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 31, 2022, 6:06:41 PM3/31/22

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And what kind of a name is "Beto O'Rourke", anyway?
("Madison Pawthorn"?)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Apr 4, 2022, 7:44:55 PM4/4/22

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It sort of translates, if you take the normal "connotations" of "Beto" and "O'Rourke"
from Latin American Spanish and Irish English: "Whore-beast". ("Beto" really turns
out to be *very* modern and *very* money-minded, and an "O'Rourke" is an
antinomian tester of things.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Apr 23, 2022, 1:49:30 PM4/23/22

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At the very least, he's not quite Bernardo O'Higgins.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Apr 24, 2022, 6:45:23 PM4/24/22

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I.e., "a famous Latin American hero".

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 9, 2022, 5:23:41 PM5/9/22

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...who was kind of *not* like Beto.
Also, a critique: there are really not "trans kids". It's an identity assumed at a personal maturity in adolescence or adulthood,
not childhood. Seems like one of those damn "tongue-twister" logic puzzles to push asexual children into that mould, and
adult trans people out of adulthood...

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 10, 2022, 3:37:10 PM5/10/22

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I guess he has other "fake names", too?

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 11, 2022, 3:54:17 PM5/11/22

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Traditionally, one was only to use one's *birth legal name* in US politics.
The famous "exception that did not disprove the rule" was when Al Smith, later New York governor
and the failed Democratic candidate for President in the 1920s, served in the State Assembly
under an "assumed name". Since Mr. Smith was so well-regarded (and New York so "shady" and
rule-laden), it was thought this might be acceptable but totally *sui generis* and never to be
imitated.

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 12, 2022, 4:32:19 PM5/12/22

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"What, are you trying to tell me that 'Beto O'Rourke' is some made-up name, like 'Wyatt Storm Belcher'?"
Well, maybe we could talk about this later.

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 13, 2022, 8:02:35 PM5/13/22

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(Later: At least one of those names is really way not a real name. "Why would you group them together?")

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 18, 2022, 7:49:49 PM5/18/22

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"Oh, you're just sore because Carrick Flynn lost his primary".
Who's Carrick Flynn?

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 21, 2022, 6:39:58 PM5/21/22

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I guess he lost. Maybe we could ask Beto about him.

Jeffrey Rubard

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May 25, 2022, 7:02:57 PM5/25/22

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(He doesn't go by another name now, does he?)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 9, 2022, 6:11:29 PM6/9/22

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And is that Christine Todd Whitman's daughter, Teachout is?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 11, 2022, 4:35:09 PM6/11/22

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That's kinda interesting, if it's so.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 12, 2022, 6:59:01 PM6/12/22

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Is "Beto" somebody's kid, too?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 18, 2022, 6:39:09 PM6/18/22

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Would they literally "challenge" each other? That's fucked up.
"Debate and discussion", I remember those days.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 27, 2022, 6:22:13 PM6/27/22

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"So, like who won?"

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 28, 2022, 4:12:59 PM6/28/22

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I didn't think that was how politics worked.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jul 25, 2022, 3:41:21 PM7/25/22

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Who would name their kid "Zephyr Teachout", anyway?
"Mr. and Mrs. Teachout, obviously."
And not, say, "Mr. and Mrs. O'Rourke"?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jul 28, 2022, 3:43:25 PM7/28/22

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"What's with the quotation marks?"
Would there be any reason to think "Beto O'Rourke" was, in some sense, not someone's "real name"?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jul 28, 2022, 3:44:00 PM7/28/22

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"Maybe he changed it?"
Maybe he did.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jul 29, 2022, 5:18:20 PM7/29/22

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"You sure you want to go there?"
Yes, right. Simply saying "just anything" about a person is a path to peril indeed...

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 6, 2022, 5:29:11 PM9/6/22

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Sometimes there is a little "leeway", though. I don't think Ms. Teachout would get hung up on homonymous wordplay
around the "Mann Act", whereas Mr. O'Rourke would... never mind.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 10, 2022, 6:53:36 PM9/10/22

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You know, the one about "transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes" or whatever that would "be about"?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 16, 2022, 6:05:23 PM9/16/22

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Update: Is she related to Terry Teachout, then?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 16, 2022, 6:05:53 PM9/16/22

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I don't think Beto is related to Mickey O'Rourke.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 16, 2022, 6:06:54 PM9/16/22

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"It's Mickey Rourke."
Right, that's the non-Catholic form of the name. (Still has roughly the same meaning, though: "antinomian".)