Posted on 06/26/2006 1:25:47 PM PDT by Dane
Posted by Chuck Muth June 25, 2006 at 4:46 pm
JOHN JACOB DINGLE-BERRY SCHMIDT
The old axiom that Republicans never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity has never been more in play than in this Tuesday’s GOP primary race in Utah’s 3rd congressional district.
Challenger John Jacob had the money to credibly take on incumbent Rep. Chris Cannon. And he had the hottest of red-hot issues: illegal immigration. Cannon, after all, is well known as a champion of amnesty for illegal aliens and Jacob has been successfully pounding him on it. In addition, Rep. Tom Tancredo’s Team America PAC, led by fire-breathing pit-bull Bay Buchanan, has been hammering Cannon unmercifully in radio ads urging voters to support Jacob.
On issue after issue, Cannon and Jacob, both conservative Republicans, generally found themselves in agreement. But on the immigration issue, they were polar opposites. The entire race, with national implications, would likely turn on this one issue. And the tide was running in Jacob’s direction.
And then the wheels started popping off the apple cart…
IS THAT MY FOOT? HERE, LET ME SHOOT IT
First came the story about how Jacob had unlawfully given money to an immigrant family. Oops. There are details and explanations to the story…but what kind of voter pays attention to details?
Then there was the story about Jacob’s “gambling problem.” Jacob, a Mormon, eventually admitted to gambling in Las Vegas during the Nationals Finals Rodeo…a no-no according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Oops, again.
Then Jacob was forced to admit he had his figures regarding the number of illegals in a Utah prison all wrong. On the campaign trail, Jacob had been telling audiences that 40 percent of prisoners in the Central Utah Correctional Facility were illegal aliens. This week, he had to admit that it was only 8 percent. Oops.
Then last Tuesday, Tad Walch of the Deseret Morning News reported on Jacob’s “FastPass” idea for illegal aliens based roughly on Disneyland’s ticket program which allows some people to go straight to the front of the line. Apparently, Jacob is thinking that illegals who can prove they’ve been in the U.S. for 10 or 20 years would return to the their home country and obtain a FastPass which would put them at the front of the immigration line and allow them to return to the U.S. legally.
To which The Amnesty King responded: “It sounds like what some supporting you call an amnesty.”
Um, yeah.
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
But punting away the winning amnesty issue and all the rest could likely be the least of the Jacob campaign’s worries. On Friday he went off the deep end, likely scaring the be-jeepers out of even the most religious of conservatives in Utah and around the country. Here’s the campaign-crushing Associated Press story from Friday…
“Republican congressional hopeful John Jacob believes the devil is impeding his efforts to unseat five-term Representative Chris Cannon. He says there’s another force that wants to keep him from going to Washington and the devil is what it is. Jacob says that since he decided to run for Congress, Satan has disrupted his business deals, preventing him from putting as much money into the race as he had hoped.”
What the…?
And this wasn’t just a one-time slip of the tongue in the middle of a bad Timothy Leary-like acid trip. Jacob first blamed devil for his campaign troubles at an immigration event on Wednesday, and then reiterated the claim in front of Salt Lake Tribune editors the very next day. And already the story has traveled halfway around the world.
“A candidate seeking the Republican nomination for a Congressional seat in Utah has blamed the devil for problems with his campaign,” reports London’s The Independent newspaper today. “John Jacob, a businessman aiming to oust Republican incumbent Chris Cannon in a party primary this week, told The Salt Lake Tribune that since he had decided to try for Congress, the devil had disrupted his business deals…” The paper added that “Mr. Jacob asked the (Tribune) not to quote him about Satan because he would be marked as ‘one of those screw-loose people’.”
Gee, do ya think?
Now, I know Mormons are very religious folks, but even the most devout must be scratching their heads this weekend wondering if Jacob might be a few fries short of a Happy Meal. As one fellow Mormon close to this race wrote to me after reading about this bizarre charge: “He’s toast. Extra crispy.”
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?
The Jacob campaign is now in full panic mode, with the candidate trying to explain away the unexplainable. “I think the way I tried to explain it was in the last ten months I’ve had more adversity than I’ve had in the last ten years,” Jacob is now saying. “So chalk it up to whom you’d like.”
Um, how ’bout the Tooth Fairy?
The supreme irony here is that Cannon is every bit the “loose screw” that Jacob now appears to be. He once told me face-to-face after the impeachment hearings that he believed the Chinese had implanted a chip into Bill Clinton’s head and that the former president was completely under the control of the ChiComs.
OK, OK. Maybe that’s NOT quite as bizarre as the devil stuff. But it’s close.
In any event, it now appears that the best opportunity to take out the Provo Prevaricator has gone up in smoke. Then again, if the devil can mess up Jacob, maybe the Big Guy upstairs - who, after all, does work in mysterious ways - can still pull out a miracle on Tuesday. Let us pray…
Currently if 44/41 -- in otherwords, a horse race.
According to the polls out today the race is tightening. Granted Cannon probably has the lead but I wish someone knew how the debate between them went today, that might make all the difference tomorrow.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1655646/posts
Before Jacob's remark that satan was out to get him, which I believe broke on June 23rd.
You've convinced yourself Jacob's religious remark is going to destroy him. We'll find out tomorrow, it's up to the voters of Utah now.
Yep it would never happen in California - but this is Utah where politics and religion always mix. Don't count him out by your left coast political standards. What he said will ring true to his constituents. He'll come across as a genuine man with real problems and real tests by the adversary.
It's a very dumb remark, but in the most fervently Mormon area in the nation, it might not single-handedly sink Jacob's campaign.
In any event, Chris Cannon is opposed to national sovereignty. He deserves to lose, Jacob's really dumb remark notwithstanding.
Border security is not a periferal issue. And if Jacob is really that nutty, he can be made a one-termer, provided his replacement is also a believer in national sovereignty (which Chris Cannon is not).
Baloney. You are accusing a tried and true conservative congressman of being against this nations sovereignty. That is as crazy as blaming the devil for a shortage of campaign funds. You folks are dangerous.
Jacob isn't even "right" on that. Jacob is the one who brought up his "fastpass" program.
This is pure spite against a 100% ACU conservative, Chris Cannon, by the tancreepites.
They are going to lose tomorrow.
Blaming Satan is not a good way to gain a majority of voters to punch your ticket.
" The wiser strategy is to settle for the less influential nut, and that would be Jacob."
Very well stated. JOHN JACOB FOR CONGRESS, HE'LL DO LESS DAMAGE TO THE COUNTRY!!!
How in the hell can you say that with a straight face? You folks are sounding exactly like the moonbat libertarians that try to elect guys that turn themselves purple because he is "right" on the drug issue. This is getting ridiculous.
I am right-wing. So are milllions of Californians. Anti-California bigotry is an old, old story on FReep. Trash me if you must, but at least do it in an intelligent, imaginative way.
Granted, the "Satan" comment won't hurt Jacob as much in Utah as it would in many other places (and not just California). But it will hurt, even among people who let religion dictate their politics and people who believe that Satan gets involved in House races. I'd still vote for the guy, but most voters will go by stupid things they do not, not smart things they don't. The power of a comment about Satan (in this case, the power to harm a candidate who talks this way) is that it is something everyone will have an opinion about, no matter how ignorant or confused they may be about politics. It will also push the leaners mostly toward Cannon. Jacob tried to get people to think about a difficult topic, immigration, and many, rather than make a judgement about how exactly to handle immigration, or how much blame Cannon deserves on this issue, will just vote against the guy who talks about Satan. Unfair, but life is unfair.
I stand by my prediction: Jacob loses by 10. And it didn't have to happen.
Only in the borderbots fevered brains.
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