Tag: Elections

Get out, and take your mean, nasty brother with you.

Finally, some uplifting news from the Sunshine State. A recent poll finds that Floridians want Jeb gone, and his war-mongering big brother even goner.

A growing majority of Florida voters disapprove of the job President Bush is doing, a poll shows.

Most also say they wouldn’t likely vote for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, if he seeks the presidency in 2008.

The Quinnipiac University telephone poll of 855 registered Florida voters Nov. 8-13 found 61 percent disapproved of the president’s performance, compared with 37 percent approval…

Floridians’ assessment of the president’s performance mirrors the way they feel about his handling of Iraq: 64 percent disapproval, 31 percent approval. Sixty percent said going to war there was the wrong thing to do.

As for Gov. Bush, 58 percent of Florida voters said they probably or definitely would not vote for him for president, while 33 percent said they probably or definitely would.

[…]

Associated Press:

Former President Clinton, accompanied by his family, on Sunday visited a Jordanian hotel devastated by a suicide bomber, condemning the “destructive terror that murdered children and other innocents.”

He, his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and their daughter, Chelsea, interrupted a visit to Israel to make a brief trip to Jordan at the invitation of King Abdullah II.

The former president spoke while standing in the wrecked hall of the Radisson SAS hotel, where an attacker detonated a belt of explosives during a wedding last week.

He said the family wanted to express “solidarity with the people of Jordan and our support for doing whatever is necessary to fight against and defeat this kind of destructive terror that murdered children and other innocents.”

The Clintons walked over on a bloodied carpet scattered with broken glass, silver knives and napkins.

“These people have no respect for anyone or anything,” Hillary Clinton said of the bombers. “They believe in death and nihilism.”

How do you smear a progressive Democrat? Call him a Republican. An email, labeled a hoax, proclaims Tom DeLay’s support of Florida candidate for governor and state senator Rod Smith.

The e-mail sent to Smith supporters mixes crude innuendo with suggestions that Smith — campaigning as a moderate Democrat — is a closet Republican. Smith’s campaign calls the missive “crude and juvenile.”

But the e-mail seeks to poke fun at Smith, who often says he’s the only Democrat in the race who can appeal to Republicans and independents, as well as to conservative Democrats who have fled the party in recent years.

DeLay, the faux e-mail from ”Republican Rod” says, endorsed Smith because of his “reliably conservative voting record.”

Smith’s campaign said it hasn’t spent much time tracking down the origin of the e-mail, which refers to Smith as “The Mallet” — a play on DeLay’s moniker in Congress, “The Hammer.”

Since I am more amenable to the other guy, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, I would hate to think – and have a hard time believing – his campaign is behind this. They of course deny it.

The really tantalizing thought is that Republican strategists – and there are some nasty ones in Florida – cooked this up. How bad is it when the way to make someone else look bad is to say they are like you?

If Democrats were ever of a mind to say, “I told you so,” now would be the time.

• Hurricane Katrina, which offered Bush a way out of the nightmare Cindy Sheehan had made of his extended vacation – as well as an opportunity to look presidential again – instead exposed cronyism and ineptitude.
• Bush’s must-do social security reform campaign laid there like road kill, with Democrats holding their noses and politely steering around it.
• The Harriet Miers nomination shows Bush to be clueless but committed – just like in Iraq – no matter bad a choice he’s made.

But Democrats are doing what any party without power does, pointing out problems while no one pays attention. After hearing Howard Dean on ABC’s This Week talk about the Democratic platform for 2006, I only feel gloomier.

Dean named several things Americans care about: schools, jobs, health care. He left out a clean and diverse environment as well as reestablishing America in the eyes of the world as a good country full of good people.

Dr. Gov. Dean has spent too much time in rooms full of fellow Democrats, debating the best way to appeal to the most voters. He’s distilled the issues into inoffensive bromides all can agree on. But what that means is that no one cares very much about a single one of them.

Here’s what Dean and my other party leaders don’t seem to get: Kitchen table issues like “more jobs” don’t bring out voters. They don’t rally people, they don’t fire up the electorate. Republicans know this. The best way to turn out a bunch of GOP voters in Florida is to put a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage on the ballot, even though this state already forbids gay marriage through statute. Repugs know if they convince their folks that unless they turn out to vote on Tuesday, legions of gay couples will appear on Wednesday, people will vote. And while they’re there, they’ll vote the rest of the GOP candidates and initiatives as well.

Instead of running from things that actually matter, like separation of church and state or protecting a woman’s right to privacy within her own body, Dean is focused on… nothing much. And even on issues he’s identified, like health care, there are no distinct Democratic solutions. Dean isn’t standing up and saying something radical like, “We have to quit tying health care to employment.” Instead, the Democrats just want to “help” (read: have the government give tax breaks to) businesses so they can continue to provide health insurance to employees.

Al Gore has never followed the Dean strategy, which might be why he a) got more popular votes than Bush in 2000 and b) electrifies our party every time he makes a speech. Man, I hope he runs in 2008.

Meanwhile, if the CIA leak investigation produces indictments, and Tom DeLay ever gets convicted of anything, Democrats have a real opportunity to say not only, “We told you so,” but, “Give us back our country and move over because we’re taking it where it needs to go.” Dean’s milquetoast truisms aimed for mass appeal will only produce more Republican victories.

There’s no trouble in the Republican party that money can’t fix, and anyone who doubts the GOP’s ability to out-raise and out-spend opponents needs to smell that coffee. No matter how much they disagree, Republicans can be counted on to spend big on elections.

Deep pockets in question: H. Wayne Huizenga, who’s throwing a little bash for the warchest. WSNV-TV Miami:

Governor Jeb Bush and a couple hundred of Florida’s wealthiest Republicans will party next Thursday at the 18,000-square-foot mansion of billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga in Fort Lauderdale. The invited guests are being encouraged to donate $100,000 or more to keep the Grand Old Party humming along.

Bush says he’s serving as the main attraction at next week’s fund-raiser to keep Republicans focused on their 2006 election battles against Democrats.

According to Wikipedia, Huizenga started out like American presidents 41 and 43 – i.e., rich. Unlike the Bushes, whose every venture ended in losses for other people, what Huizenga touched turned to gold. Christian fanatical gold, but gold.

He started with Waste Management, then Blockbuster, finding great success with the strategy of running Mom and Pop businesses out via either acquisition or undercutting. He then moved on to sports team ownership, counting the Miami Dolphins and Dolphins Stadium along with the Florida Panthers and at one time, the Florida Marlins, among his possessions.

Those big bucks will come in handy in Florida. One of Jeb’s few successful initiatives last legislative session was to raise the limit on campaign spending for the governor’s race. Candidates can now spend up to $20 million during the election cycle. Since Democrats typically spend closer to the number of millions you can count on one hand, there is no doubt Florida’s next governor will be the best that money can buy.

Bloody Monday: Yesterday saw the ongoing exits of Republican candidates and potential candidates from major mid-term election contests.

In West Virginia, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R) announced she would seek re-election next year instead of challenging US Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D), despite White House attempts to recruit Capito into the race.

In Maine, RNC member and former State Rep. Peter Cianchette — the 2002 GOP nominee for governor and viewed as the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2006 — unexpectedly abandoned his previously announced candidacy against Gov. John Baldacci (D) for “personal reasons.”

In North Dakota, the weekend decision by Gov. John Hoeven (R) not to challenge US Sen. Kent Conrad (D) next year caused just about every top Repug in the state — including former Gov. Ed Schafer, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, State PSC Chair Tony Clark, Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman, State House Majority Leader Rick Berg, State Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem and US Attorney Drew Wrigley — to all announce they would also not run against Conrad.

Larry J. Sabato’ s Crystal Ball:

How could Democrats do it? First, they must hold all of their open seats (MD, MN, and possibly NJ). None of the three is an absolute slam-dunk for the Democrats, but Maryland and New Jersey are likely Democratic in the end. Minnesota’s situation is unclear, given the lack of a solid Democratic frontrunner, and Congressman Mark Kennedy has a fair-to-good chance to steal this seat from the Democrats. Yet if there is a national breeze blowing for the Democrats in November 2006, it will probably be felt in Democratic-leaning Minnesota.

Second, the Democrats must keep all endangered incumbents in the winners’ circle: Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, and the “Nelson Twins” (Bill of Florida and Ben of Nebraska–not Matthew and Gunnar). Conrad will be the most endangered if Governor John Hoeven (R) decides to challenge him. The other Democratic senators in this category are at least slight favorites to win another term currently.

[…]

War vet: With Coin-gate and the myriad scandals generated from it, the Ohio Republican Party is in complete disarray. (Gop Gov. Taft’s approval is at 15 percent!) And two-termer Mike DeWine is considered to be one of the most vulnerable senators running for reelection next year. Paul Hackett could be the candidate to do it:

Paul Hackett, the Iraq War veteran from Cincinnati who was hailed by national Democrats for his narrow loss this summer in a heavily Republican House district, has decided to challenge Mike DeWine for U.S. Senate in 2006.

Com’n, Mikey, just throw in the towel!!