"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress notes that David Horowitz seems to be stocking up in the Rule 5 department. Meanwhile, here is my friend Ali Akbar with two young lovelies at the Alabama GOP meeting Friday night in Montgomery:
I’m pretty sure this was after Ali ordered a round of Jack Daniel shots for the table — an offer that I had to refuse. I swore off whiskey after an unfortunate incident with Mr. Daniel in 2000.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Bailey Barber greeted us at the front door of her family home Saturday morning with ecstatic news. “We’re going to a parade,” announced the 6-year-old daughter of Republican congressional candidate Rick Barber.
Retail politics requires a relentless press-the-flesh effort on the part of the candidate, and Barber hit the streets Saturday. After attending a morning conference of 2nd Congressional District officials at the annual state GOP meeting at Montgomery’s Renaissance Hotel, Barber learned (via Facebook) that there would be a pre-Mardi Gras parade in the Elmore County town of Millbrook.
Despite cold, windy weather, hundreds turned out on Main Street in Millbrook for the parade, with children collecting the beads, trinkets and candy thrown by parade participants. Bringing along his daughter, Barber walked the route, handing out cards and shaking hands.
Barber talks to a Millbrook voter. “I’d love to have your vote June 1,” he told voters, referring to the date when he’ll be facing off against Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby in the Republican primary. Here are three short videos, beginning with the fire trucks that led off the Millbrook parade, and Bailey scrambling to grab some Mardi Gras beads thrown by the firemen.
Democratic Rep. Bobby Bright — the “Blue Dog” congressman whom Barber hopes to defeat in November — rides in a truck in the Millbrook parade. Bright spotted Barber shaking hands in the crowd and was heard to say, “I see him over there.”
Barber points out a float in the parade to his daughter.
By the time the parade ended, Bailey sported an impressive collection of Mardi Gras beads.
How many votes did her dad collect? It’s hard to say, but there is ultimately no substitute for the old-fashioned politics of meeting voters one-on-one and asking for their votes. For all the advances in communications — TV ads, phone banks, e-mails, etc. — Americans still like to see candidates doing this kind of retail campaigning. Anyone who watched the Scott Brown campaign in Massachusetts knows what a difference it made that Brown spent weeks driving his truck from town to town, shaking hands with voters, while his opponent . . . didn’t.
(Cross-posted at Right Wing News.)
by Smitty
Update: the links internal to The Other McCain have quit working. I blame a recent server upgrade. I’ll change the PostID values to Permalinks when I get a chance. Thanks to Political Byline for keeping me straight.
This week’s misleading FMJRA title is a fun poke at RSM, who, if I may, serendoofusly* managed to be out of town when the storm hit. Not a recipe for domestic tranquility, that.
I’m way behind on getting this posted. The shiny new thing this week is that, for each post, we’re also spotlighting the commenters whom we adore, in addition to full-on blogs.
*Sort of a mild antonym for serendipitously. I doubt I need elaborate. Continue reading Flakes Mandate Journalist Repair to Alabama →
by Smitty
Below is a sampling of the speech. Themes included Scott Brown as a Tea Party signal, the need for common-sense values, questions on national security and stimulus money. Broken promises.
I thought it a solid effort. The critics are going to be all over the shrill voice, in their own shrill tones. Continue reading Live Blogging Gov. Palin at Tea Party Convention →
Alabama blogger Truth on Troy has posted an open letter to the state Republican Party:
Dear Chairman Hubbard and Members of the ALGOP Executive Committee,
The time has come to encourage your expeditious review of Troy King’s actions as attorney general which directly contradict the conservative principles of the Republican Party. As Alabamians prepare to head to the polls in June, they deserve the full facts regarding their political candidates as well as the exposure of any ulterior motives which may guide these candidates. . . . We also ask that you protect other Republican candidates in the 2010 elections from scandal by directly acting to condemn a candidate responsible for serious, egregious violations of basic ethical principles and good governance. . . .
Read the rest of that. The same blogger also has a post about The Rumor That Dare Not Speak Its Name:
Let’s think for a minute about what brought the Republicans down in 2006. Sure, there were a number of problems, but when Florida Congressman Mark Foley was publicly exposed in a scandal involving Congressional pages, Republicans tanked everywhere. Images of him on the cover of Time and Newsweek came to symbolize the struggles of the GOP. Now, the GOP is rebuilding, and a lot of momentum is taking shape heading into 2010. That is especially important here in Alabama, where a major Governor’s race, a series of judicial races, and several Congressional races will require major attention. These Republican candidates don’t deserve to deal with a political powderkeg which frankly could explode at absolutely any moment. . . .
Read the rest of that, too. At Friday night’s GOP dinner in Montgomery, I caught sight of King’s Republican primary challenger, Luther Strange. At 6-foot-7, he’s not hard to spot in a crowd:
Based strictly on the number of Luther Strange lapel stickers worn by Republicans at Friday night’s reception — and the large number of attendees who sought out Strange to shake his hands and express their support for him — it would appear that Alabama’s GOP rank-and-file are keen to have “Big Luther” usher in a new era. And when I introduced myself to Luther’s wife, Melissa . . . well, she recognized my name, IYKWIMAITYD.
by Smitty
Interesting News Items gets the IPCC take: Snowpocalypse Hottest Blizzard on Record. Somehow, this storm is more about increasing variability in weather, not about how the AGW crowd is completely full of fertilizer.
The creative, yet logically tenuous, ‘Blame Bush’ angle is missing, so we can only give this post 6 wombats out of 7.
by Smitty
The Blogprof unveils a dangerous YouTube talent in the brewing:
Viva the Internet. Al Gore invented that, too (no, he didn’t). The Internet will be seen by historians as the sword that slew the statist dragon. Barely in time.
by Smitty
Via Pamela Geller.
Remember: it’s largely the same group of fools who brought you anthropogenic global warming who are telling you to pay no mind to atrocities like the Wilders trial. How is it that the bulk of the truly crappy ideas seem to come from one end of the political spectrum?
Update:
Volokh points out that part of the Wilders trial will not be made public, and has a lengthy response from someone familiar with the law. If your case for freedom of speech was going to be tried by a bench of Neville Chamberlains, would you sweat blood or bullets? In this country, we’d have a peaceful Tea Party demonstration in support of transparency and justice. But the US is not the Netherlands, so the conclusion is an exercise for the reader.