New Show: Krystal Ball co-hosts “The Cycle” on MSNBC

Remember Krystal Ball, the Democratic political candidate from the 1st District?  In 2009, a couple of local male bloggers had quite the time at her expense. It seems that some rat bastard had released a few pictures of her and her first husband at a private party.  The pictures involved what the older generation would probably describe as silliness punctuated with a little naughtiness.  It was all in good fun but definitely not something you want to surface during a political campaign.

The male bloggers had all sorts of nasty comments to make, posted everything, knuckled dragged in typical caveman style and were generally speaking, obnoxious male Chauvanist pigs.   There was no thought given to the fact that Ms Ball was someone’s wife, mother, daughter, sister.  Something mildly naughty was turned into “something dirty” and dealt with about like a 12 year old boy might deal with it.  To Krystal’s credit, she addressed the issue, said she wished those pictures were not released, apologised to her ex-husband who she said did not deserve the exposure, and looked the media and audience in the eye, and said, in essence, that  she was not going to allow herself to be treated like a whore over something this silly.

Read More

Your Krystal Ball says to Beware of Unintended Consequences

Former political candidate Krystal Ball is one of the new political commentators on MSNBC”s Dylan Ratigan Show.   This time a year ago, Ball was challenging an incumbent Republican for a house district seat that included a little chunk of Prince William County in the Montclair area.  Krystal Ball was just sticking a toe in the political water when a big bad alligator or two tried to nip it off. 

The Washington Post:

For Ball, those two appearances book-ended a strange year-long journey: from little-known Virginia congressional candidate to infamous Internet sensation to professional pundit, opining on nearly every subject on the news.

Ball has become a fixture on MSNBC, with a freshly inked contract to serve as a “contributor” and go-to “Democratic strategist” on the network. She appears to have a bright future in the world of political media.

Celebrity works in funny ways, and Ball acknowledged she wouldn’t be on the right path now if she had not become famous for the wrong reasons a year ago.

“I don’t think I would have ended up going in this direction,” Ball said, if she had not been the subject of an online controversy. “Because that was what got me on to a lot of these programs and sort of got me in the loop, and then after the campaign was over, they just kept asking me back.”

Read More