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…
I guess if my pastor asked me to help 2 members of my church and I could afford it, I would propably help them as well. Not only did he do a good deed, but he followed thru and helped them become legal...the legal way.
And they gained American Citizenship. Good for him and good for them.
They are basing their support on who St Tom and St Pat supports..
The Speaker of The California State Assembly and the Speaker of the State Senate are both card carrying members of MEChA
I thought we were talking about UTAH.
It can easily happen to your if you elect officials who support illegal immigration.
Who is? I've known about and despised Cannon even before I heard of Tom Tancredo.
"That needs to be repeated over and over if chuckles wins tomorrow. Strange isn't it we don't see Cannon campaigning for "comprehensive" reform that is supposedly according to the Wall St Journal and Manhattan Institute supported by 80% of Republicans"
It's not strange at all. It's called saying whatever will get u re-elected.
I'm in Fla., so it doesn't matter too much to me, except that we end up with the most conservative Congress possible.
If Jacob's going to lose to a Dem, it would be better to have Cannon. On the other hand, if Cannon is a RINO, and this is a safe GOP seat, then it might be better to show the RINO the door, even if you've gotta put up with a buffoon for the next two years.
ping
Exactly, and it goes to show how phony those open border polls are.
Hypocrisy?
Hypocrisy is having a voting record on immigration 180 degrees different than
the ads currently running to protect your Congressional seat.
The problem, of course, is that buffoon's likely to stay in Congress for years and years, thanks to incumbency.
And the last thing the GOP needs is its own set of moonbats.
"I know you want your pound of flesh, but this isn't a game"
And National Security is not a game either.
Close the borders. Build a wall.
No you and yours are hypocrites for rationalizing the admitted illegal actions of both Jacobs and Tancredo.
Huh, Chris Cannon voted for H.R. 4437, while J.D. Hayworth voted against.
When is your spiteful tancreepite jihad going to begin against him?
Hypocrisy is thy name.
and stick head in sand correct? Do you really think that closing the borders and build a wall is going to solve the problem? What about those who come by sea say from Hati?? Build some kinda of barrier along our shores??
Dane, even the author of this article concedes that Cannon should be voted out of office. He just believes that Jacob isn't the man to do it. But it does reveal that Cannon is unpopular in his district.
That is fine. But then I would be honest when I ran for office as well, not only about what I'd done but about what my views were. I've said that I don't think it's a big deal except for this: Think about the legal student immigrants who play by the rules and are not able to benefit from Jacob's largesse.
You guys can't debate the facts so you're left to posting up stupid pics and graphs.
Will there be fastpass through the wall?
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