And the street signs are also in English. So why is the state giving drivers’ license exams in 12 different languages? Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James asks the common-sense question:
Rachel Maddow says the ad “strikes me as just plain mean,” and lefty-blogger Heather at Crooks & Liars says, “This guy is about as subtle as a brick upside your head.”
Considering that this is a Republican primary in Alabama, such indignation from the Left probably means this ad is a winner. Frankly, I doubt the conservative Democratic candidate Artur Davis would dare disagree with James’ proposal.
UPDATE: Just got off the phone with a Tim James campaign operative, who explained that this ad is part of a series with the “common sense” theme. Here’s a couple more:
My operative friend tells me that the James campaign, which has more cash-on-hand than the other candidates in the crowded GOP primary, has restrained its spending on TV advertising — the most expensive part of campaigning — but is now ramping up their TV buys going into the final five weeks before the primary.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Candidates in the three-way GOP primary in Alabama’s 5th District traded sharp jabs Monday night in a candidate forum at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, with ex-Democrat Rep. Parker Griffith trying to establish his conservative bona fides against Mo Brooks and Les Phillip.
“Can I it read first?” replied Madison businessman Les Phillip to a round of applause and laughter from a packed auditorium of about 400. As Phillip read the document aloud, a few audience members yelled out: “Don’t sign that,” and “sleep on it.”
Several people on Twitter asked me afterwards how I thought Les Phillip did in the debate. My basic answer was that he did not lose. Phillip is a first-time candidate up against two experienced politicians, and this was the first GOP forum since Griffith switched parties. Insofar as there were any objective metrics, according to a count made by Alabama political operative Stephen Gordon, Les got more applause lines than any other candidate, and after the forum, Les was surrounded by more audience members.
It’s hard for me to be objective about Les — honestly, he had me at “hello” — and if I were asked to criticize his performance, I’d say he seemed too cautious, in sort of a “prevent defense” mode. Yet he got in some witty lines and, as actors say, he “hit his marks,” outlining his conservative positions on all the issues, and made no major gaffes.
Mo Brooks evidently came into the forum with a strategy of attacking Griffith, which he did repeatedly. In one of the strangest exchanges of the night, Brooks said “politics makes strange bedfellows” in reference to his willingness to work with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi on legislation of importance to the 5th District, which has a large military and aerospace industry dependent on federal spending. Griffith replied by joking, “I’m having a hard time imagining Mo and Nancy Pelosi in the same bed, what about y’all?”
Brooks responded, “I noticed that my wife just walked out. And I think it’s unfortunate that that kind of barb, even in jest, could be made. My wife and I, we’ve been faithful to each other for 34 years. You may not have noticed it, but I was looking at her.”
Brooks’s response shocked me because, the way he said it, he seemed to be insinuating something about Griffith’s own marital fidelity. I immediately called Gordon out of the room and asked him if Brooks was alluding to some known scandal: Had Griffith ever been divorced or anything like that? Gordon knew of no such scandal, nor even any rumor to that effect, so maybe I misunderstood.
Still, the tone of Brooks’s remark struck me as odd. He had been the one to introduce the “strange bedfellows” metaphor, and Griffith’s joke was to the effect that a less-than-metaphorical meaning would be unthinkable. So why did Brooks get angry? I recorded the debate, and shared the audio with Huntsville talk-radio host Ladd Ehlinger Jr., who has a clip of the exchange where you can hear some audience members groan with dismay.
This kind of personal stuff in a Republican primary is unfortunate, but local residents here tell me that there’s been all kinds of craziness behind the scenes, mostly ignored by the mainstream press. Several different whisper campaigns seem to be afoot, including misunderstanding of Les Phillip’s position on public-housing issues and accusations that supporters of Brooks’ opponents have sought to make an issue of Brooks’ Mormon faith, reminiscent of the problems Mitt Romney had with Southern evangelical voters in the 2008 presidential primaries.
It’s hard to tell if any of this will matter in the primary result, or whether the Republican infighting will have any impact on the GOP nominee’s fortunes in the general election. Given the current political climate, whoever wins the Republican nomination in AL-5 will be overwhelmingly favored to win Nov. 2.
UPDATE: A few photos from my Huntsville visit:
Left to right: Mo Brooks, Rep. Parker Griffith, Les Phillip.
Les talks with a Republican voter after the debate.
Merle Phillip greets her husband’s supporters after the debate. Merle is a chef and a New Jersey native whose frank, down-to-earth humor makes her a favorite of my Twitter friend Victoria, who is Les’s most enthusiastic advocate.
Huntsville talk-radio host Ladd Ehlinger Jr., who is also an independent film producer.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — I’m blogging from the studios of WTKI 1490 AM, where today I was a guest on the Film Ladd radio show, a fantastic multimedia experience — radio, chatroom, live video camera. The host, Ladd Ehlinger, is a brilliant independent film director and all-around virtuoso.
Far from the main stage, away from the television cameras and unnoticed by reporters covering the speeches by famous names, other stories were developing, stories of potentially greater importance — and certainly more urgent than the question of who will carry the Republican banner in a presidential election more than two years in the future.
For hundreds of GOP congressional candidates, the only date that matters is not 2012, but Nov. 2 — now less than seven months away — and for many of those candidates, their campaigns will end sooner, as multi-candidate primaries have become the rule rather than the exception in a mid-term free-for-all perhaps destined to be known as the Year of Republican Hope. . . .
Please read the whole thing. I’ll be back to update later with more news, photos and video, as well as the explanation for my 18-hour absence from blogging. The New Orleans voodoo ate my WiFi . . .
Clever slogan against the incumbent, who is hated by Democrats and mistrusted by Republicans in the 5th District.
This is one of the liberal Democrats at Monday’s demonstration who joined with Tea Party activists and local grassroots Republicans in an unusual bipartisan protest.
This sign summarizes widespread resentment of national party interference in local politics.
“It’s another ‘Dede Moment’ for the GOP” — a reminder of notorious RINO Dede Scozzafava — and notice the guy on the right with the “No Griffith” bumper stick on the seat of his pants.
The Crimson Tide made Tim Tebow cry and knocked Colt McCoy out of the game on the fifth play from scrimmage, so there was never any doubt who would emerge as the victor in today’s post-season exhibition match at the White House:
As Coach Bryant once said, “I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude.” I think this team would make him proud, because they’ve got that winning attitude.
Some things are true, even when a Democrat says them.
Not long after invitations were sent out for a Rep. Parker Griffith fundraising event, headlined by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), several local organizations from both sides of the political spectrum announced plans to protest the event. Planned for March 8, 2010 at the Space & Rocket Center, starting at 5:00 pm, the the protest will include members of the Huntsville Tea Party, Left In Alabama, Athens-Limestone Tea Party Patriots, AAMU Democrats Student Club, The Dale Jackson Show, North Alabama Healthcare for All, Madison County Republican Executive Committee, and the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee. AFL-CIO will be holding a press conference at the Marriott Hotel near the Space & Rocket Center in protestation, before the protest event and the fundraiser. Organizers invite the public to attend.
“We are sending a message to the national Republican establishment: stay out of our primary. . . . We’re pushing back against the political machine,” said Christie Carden, founder of the Huntsville Tea Party. . . .
Read all of that. Just as with Cornyn’s support for Crist against Marco Rubio, Boehner’s backing of Griffith puts the national GOP establishment in the position of campaigning against the exact kind of dynamic young leaders they need to be supporting. Republican candidate Les Phillip:
“Congressman Boehner coming to Huntsville to raise money for Parker Griffith goes to show exactly how out of touch Washington D.C. is with the rest of America and their refusal to listen to “We the People”,” remarked Phillip.
“Two of our local Republican executive committees specifically asked the National Republican Congressional Committee to stay out of this race and let the people of North Alabama decide who our best candidate is, but they refuse to listen because they think they know better than we do what is best for the fifth district.” . . .
“John Boehner and the NRCC are supporting Griffith with the notion that he will lure more Democrats to switch parties. This approach does not take into consideration the conservative nature of Republicans in Alabama’s 5th district, or Griffith’s record of voting with Nancy Pelosi nearly 85% of the time, more than many of his former Democrat colleagues.”
Griffith is everybody’s problem. Sure, I won’t agree with everyone at this protest on every single thing — maybe not on most things. But we all agree that Griffith has got to go, and for now that one common purpose will let us stand on the same sidewalk in near perfect harmony.
Wingnuts and Moonbats unite! You have nothing to lose but those clueless morons at the national GOP!
UPDATE: Just got off the phone with a conservative operative who disagrees with my criticism of Boehner. “It’s his job. It’s what he’s got to do.”
Yes, I know, and it’s time for a change in the job description.
National party interference in contested primaries is poisonous, and if Griffith was promised help in the primary in exchange for switching parties, he was promised something that he had no right to expect. And let me explain something else that should be obvious: Good candidates don’t need the national party to bail them out in the primaries.
Just go down the list of worthless assholes that the national GOP has wasted money on in recent years: Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chafee, Charlie Crist — see a pattern here?
Speaking of worthless assholes: Bob Corker. But I digress . . .
As I told my friend in our phone conversation, the major problem at GOP-HQ — encompassing RNC, NRCC, NRSC and the rest of the D.C.-based party apparatus — appears to involve staffers who combine arrogance and incompetence in a particularly dangerous way. I refer you to last October, when House conservatives confronted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions for the Scozzafava screw-up:
Sessions was called out by conservative members of the caucus, and challenged when asked why NRCC resources — cash and personnel — were being used for Scozzafava. “We have a conservative running in this race, and the Republican Party is not with him,” says a conservative House member who attended the meeting. “There are a number of us who are profoundly embarrassed by this race, and while we don’t blame Pete, we do blame the NRCC staff for apparently not doing its job.” . . .
According to NRCC staff, Scozzafava was viewed as the “most cooperative” candidate of a group put forward by local Republican Party bosses in the 23rd District. “She wasn’t going to be a loose cannon and the money was happy with her,” says one NRCC source . . . “Ideally, we wanted someone who could self-finance, but we didn’t have anyone like that,” says the NRCC source. “Then we went with someone who would have a natural pool of donors; [Scozzafava] met that criteria.”
Where do they find idiots like this? Does the NRCC personnel department have a special program for hiring feeble-minded dimwits? Is there a stupid quota at GOP headquarters, or are these staff jobs reserved for particularly inept relatives of major Republican donors? “Don’t worry about flunking out, son. If all else fails, I’ll get you a job with the Republican Party.”
Which brings me to the Powerpoint mess from earlier this week:
The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said. . . .
The 72-page document was provided to POLITICO by a Democrat, who said a hard copy had been left in the hotel hosting the $2,500-a-head retreat, the Gasparilla Inn & Club. Sources at the event said the presentation was delivered by Bickhart and by the RNC Finance Chairman, Peter Terpeluk, a former ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush.
Maybe Jed Clampett is a major Republican donor and Jethro is in charge of graphic design at the RNC. But the point is that the stupidity of the person who designed this Powerpoint presentation is exceeded only by the stupidity of the person who hired the person who designed it, both of whom are less stupid than the idiot responsible for it ending up in the hands of the Politico.
At some point, this kind of stupidity and incompetence at Republican Party headquarters ceases to be a series of random incidents and begins to be discernible as a pattern. Maybe the grassroots activists in Alabama are wrong to blame John Boehner for the deal that requires him to support Parker Griffith, but they are certainly right in their belief that the national GOP has exceeded its stupid quota.
“Rick has the support of the grassroots in the district, which we are seeing more and more is going to make the difference in a close race. It’s not that his opponent is the establishment person. It’s that the grassroots trust and like Rick for who they know him to be and what they know he will do. He’s the type of candidate everyone always says they want to run. Well, he is. We should support him.”
An intense debate over how to spend the money erupted Thursday after the Montgomery City Council voted to raise the cigarette tax from 2 cents to 12 cents a pack.
The city also will collect 10 percent per item selling price on other tobacco items, including cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and snuff. The city had never before collected money on those items. . . . Councilwoman Martha Roby, strongly argued for putting the money in the city’s General Fund . . .
“In looking at what was best for the city, I felt like the tobacco tax was the right thing to do, but I could not vote for a tax that was earmarked for something that we had not had what I felt to be proper discussions,” Roby said afterward. . . .
Please join us in celebrating my husband Rick Barber’s 35th birthday by giving $35.00 to Rick Barber for Congress. You can donate here .
Rick Barber is a conservative Republican, a small business owner and a Marine Corps veteran. He’s also my cutie pie! Rick is running for Congress in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.
Help take our country back by putting a man in Congress who will fight for limited government principles and your conservative values!
Get in the fight! Send a Marine to Washington! Campaigns are expensive! Democrats are donating to keep liberals in Congress. If you want conservative leadership, conservatives must get engaged.
Rick is sacrificing his time, money and energy for this campaign. Bailey and I miss him terribly at home, but we understand that this fight is worth fighting. Please help us put a good man into Congress! Please give a birthday gift of $35.00 to Rick’s campaign.
God bless you all,
Lithia Barber
And guess where Mrs. Barber got her unusual name? She’s from my hometown of Lithia Springs, Ga. Isn’t that cool?
