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@crunchyrugger @magi_jay Sorry, life is messy

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@fancy_1982 @RichardHanania Oh yes, there is always something else over the hill 🙄

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@StefFeldman He will be the next Senator from Maine

[Morris Katz @katz_morris]

LET’S FUCKING GO

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@LPDonovan @Jon8x There is no SA aligation here

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@LPDonovan The story it’s self is a complete nothing burger, add in that she’s a right winger and it’s infuriating.

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@RalstonReports He doesn’t have a troubled candidacy, sorry

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@explodedbagel @PovertyPots207 @AnthonyMEmerson After Tuesday, you folks will have to stop with all the concern trolling

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@explodedbagel @PovertyPots207 @AnthonyMEmerson The voters of Maine are the ones that support him

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@BigB__9332 @ChrisCillizza @nytimes They did

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@ChrisCillizza @nytimes Give it a rest, we are taking the risk… he has a huge base of support, if the Democratic Party tries to force him out of the race, that’s a guaranteed Collins win.

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@PovertyPots207 @AnthonyMEmerson Sorry but we can’t live life worried about every thing Republicans might say

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@yesh222 Yea sorry, if this is the story that’s been hyped for weeks, he’s going to be the next Senator from Maine.

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@AyySiegs @grahamformaine Yea sorry, you guys took your big shot and it’s weak as fuck

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

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@JNLevin @ambermarieduke That’s not the way it works. The Democratic establishment wants to take him down more than Republicans.

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@ambermarieduke It is a nothing burger

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@Thetrolltour @brianros1 Platner is going to win, and after Tuesday all these Democratic opps can stop their concern trolling.

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@bethanyshondark @lyndseyfifield That story was a nothing burger