Posted on 12/02/2007 3:09:54 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
In Tuesday's off-year elections, Democrats continued to gather steam in Virginia and Kentucky--making it even more obvious that these two Southern states are up for grabs in 2008.
Kentucky's Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher, hand-picked for the job by US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2003, did not merely lose his re-election bid to Democrat Steve Beshear--he got pummeled, obliterated and all-around embarrassed by a "has-been" candidate who'd dropped out of politics a decade ago after losing races for governor and Senate. Beshear won almost 60 percent of the vote. Much of Fletcher's trouble was Fletcher himself--he ran in 2003 on a promise to "clean up the mess in Frankfurt," where good-ol'-boy Democrats had long been in charge. Soon enough, though, Fletcher-the-reformer was being brought up on criminal charges for his state hiring practices--and when he struck a deal with prosecutors to drop the charges, he proceeded to pardon everyone in his administration who'd allegedly broken the law.
But this wasn't just about Fletcher--it was also about a rising Democratic tide in Kentucky that became apparent in 2006, when liberal John Yarmuth unseated one of George W. Bush's favorite members of Congress, Anne Northup. A strong antiwar movement in the state, along with a vibrant progressive blogosphere (see DitchMitch.com), has helped revitalize the party with a more progressive tilt. Now polls are showing that McConnell, who built the Republican machine in Kentucky that's now falling apart, could be in real peril when he runs for re-election next year. His water-carrying for the President, especially on Iraq and immigration, have taken his approval ratings to all-time lows.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
The Left is increasingly hopeful about their prospets. The mixed results of 2007 hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Hillary has a shot at KY ONLY if we put up Rudy or another RINO that assures a 3rd party Conservative challenge.
Note that the Nation commies don't bother to mention that the Bush position on immigration was NOT the "red" one. Opposition to the president on immigration does not point to a glorious progressive takeover of the South. Just the opposite.
The Nation. Now there’s a credible source. LOL
I think they are misreading the winds. If there had been a strong Republican candidate for Governor instead of Fletcher who had an administration racked by scandal the race wouldn’t have been nearly as unbalanced. Kentucky or Virginia haven’t stopped being conservative states especially when you look at the Democrats who won. Let us not forget that Bob Corker won while Allen went down to defeat in VA. It had nothing to do with the strength of the Democrat opponents or a desire for liberal policies but rather the weakness of the Campaigns and the candidates on the Republican side. Allen shouldn’t have lost but first he got embroiled in the MaKaka silliness and even foolishly apologized and then went on some pro-feminist retreat at the end of his campaign. I have no idea who was running his campaign but may I recommend they never be employed in a campaign again.
The Democrats will always have a chance if they run semi-conservative candidates in conservative states and the Republicans run individuals who don’t know how to fight or get tied up in silly political games. Corker fought like he needed to...he didn’t hold any punches and won against a tide that could’ve easily swept him away. Republicans should take note that there are no nice guy awards in politics, there are only winners and losers.
Naah! Where do you think all those liberals that screwed up NY, MA, CN, Philly, ect., are moving to now that they are being taxed to death?
Problem is...they never learn, and they're bringing their liberal ideologies with them and will eventually corrupt these two states.
I'm pretty sure that the capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. Franfurt is a city in Germany the European Union.
Then they’re looking at it all wrong....they really should figure out what went wrong for them in LA recently.
Corker was losing the election because he stopped campaigning seriously after the primary nomination. Worse for him, half the base did not want him because of his stench of RINOism (most especially this voter). Junior campaigned as if HE had won the GOP nomination. He lost momentum when a stunt he attempted backfired when he tried to crash a Corker event (what he wanted was big burly White men ejecting a Black man on camera — it didn’t happen, and Corker walked straight up to him, shook his hand, and told him what’s what). First time Corker took a lead in looking like a man. Fred’s campaigning for him also helped to put him over, albeit Corker’s margin was incredibly underwhelming. It was, as it turned out, the only successful open GOP seat we defended last year.
"How can that be? No one I know voted for Nixon!" New Yorker Pauline Kael on the 1972 electoral victory of Richard Nixon over George McGovern.
Last month, newcomer Jim Oganowski almost beat Nikki Tsongas, widow of Saint Paul Tsongas, here in MA for a congressional seat.
Hmmmm well this is interesting Kentucky has been a Democrat State since i can remember its no big deal that they had a Repub Gov
These folks are real American old style dems the ones who know what America is and are thankful for it ...
Not todays Dems who hate anything to do with freedom and love liberal Politics !
Problem is they are gonna get sucked up into the hate America crowd without even knowing they drank the Koolaid.....
I’ve always thought of Kentucky as a swing state. As for Virginia, it’s unfortunate everyone northeast & west coast kook is moving here because of the high taxes in those states. All the kooks keep moving here and they are destroying the once great Commonwealth of Virginia. The 1986 Reagan amnesty proved to be a total disaster for this once great country.
I seem to remember there were also rumors that he had homosexuals working on his staff and no one shot the rumors down.
Virginia would vote for a Democrat in 2008 if someone like John Edwards win. Other than that, Virginia is not likely to become completely blue until 2012 or 2016.
If the Dems win one more state than that fool, John Kerry won, then they are in the White House.
You are absolutely correct, and they will not vote for Hillary or Rudy for that matter. The Old Skool Dems will vote Dem locally, but usually cross lines to Republicans in National elections.
Fletcher in Kentucky was done in by a full-blown witchhunt spearheaded by Attorney General Greg Stumbo. The Fletcher administration didn’t do anything that the Democrats had not been doing for the past 20something years. Fletcher is a good man, he just lost his chance.
Bingo
Another thing about KY Republicans: many never bother to vote. They have very low turnout numbers.
How true it is, to paraphrase that old Reagan supporter Jackie Gleason.
To call this an exaggeration is an understatement. Northup lost very narrowly in a Democrat-leaning district. An election with a very strong Democratic wave with a competitive opponent could have certainly taken her down - and it did. Not to mention, she understandably had a loss of heart for running that race. In less than a years time prior to that election, she had to have major knee surgery, her father died, and worst of all her son had a tragic, unexpected death a few months before the election. Democrat Presidential candidates carried her district every time she ran with a Presidential race - Clinton, Gore, and Kerry.
Moreover, if Fletcher had not gotten into all of those scandals, he would have been re-elected, or with a different candidate given the scandals, we would have had a very good chance of holding that governorship. That had nothing to do with a "blue tide." The two other incumbent Republican officeholders on the ballot, Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, not only were re-elected, but significantly increase their margins over their victories 4 years prior. In addition, Fletcher lost some solid GOP counties - that is not due to them "turning blue" as the voters stuck with the rest of the GOP ticket, and not just Grayson and Farmer, but the relatively weak candidates running on the rest of the ballot.
Republicans have been running well in national races with the Democrats winning the governorship handidly for many decades now. That doesn't mean that it is a given, but this anaylsis stating that Fletcher losing is itself a sign of a "blue tide" is ridiculous.
They all polled well against her - except for Romney, who is the only candidate in opposition that put her at 50%, and him losing to her by double digits.
That’s not true.
However, we can’t hold a candle to the 120% turnout in some Eastern Kentucky Democrat precincts (yes, this has happened).
It’s interesting how some of the GOP candidates poll so differently overall. The biggest argument the RINO candidates make is that they can win rodent-leaning states. All polling data indicates that is simply not true, as there isn’t a single state in which they lead Hillary, and as you point out, we risk losing fairly reliable GOP states with the RINO candidates. Down here in TN, Hillary was tied with Rudy in one poll (which meant she could be conceivably leading him) while in the same poll, she trailed badly behind Fred. It’s one reason why we should just get behind Fred and work hard on duplicating what we won in ‘04. We’re not going to be making a return to the pre-’88 pattern anytime soon, unfortunately (if Dubya couldn’t do it in ‘04, we aren’t going to do it in an open race situation).
Problem is that these old school dems will pull the D lever out of habit, although many will reject the b!tch if she get the nomination...unless they see a carpetbagger on the other side...
Over the weekend, I had a conservation with a Giuliani supporter. He was also a Topinka supporter. He claimed it was unfair for “moderates” to run in Marxist Red districts, while conservatives get to run in safe, True Blue American districts. He hoped that a President Giuliani or McCain, or Romney would appoint a RNC chairman who would “level the playing field” in True Blue American districts for “moderates”. According to him, Jim Edgar is the true voice of rural America.
These RINOs make me sick. The only thing they’re interested in is reducing the Republican party to a small minority that they alone occupy and playing footsie with their rodent masters. Kinda like Massachusetts.
A Join Rudy campaign office opened up a few blocks from my home. So I will have to pass by the office even time I go out.
Illinois is fast turning into a Masshole of the Midwest. The problem is IL is nowhere near as liberal as San Francisco or Cambridge, MA. We have a corrupt RINO establishment and squabbling conservatives who vie for the right to speak for all cosnervatives. For example, the gloves are off in the IL-14 race. Oberweis is calling Lauzen, a fake conservative who kisses up to the Combine. Very Laughable considering, Oberweis’s history.
Does Lauzen kiss up to the Combine ?
Lauzen is no friend of the RINO Establishment. Back in 1998, when Lauzen ran for IL Comptroller, the RINO Establishment wanted Harold Seigel, a wealthy businessman who donated money to Carol Mosty Fraud in 1992. Lauzen beat Seigel in the primary and Il GOP gave little support to Lauzen. Most party support went to Lying Ryan. In 2000, Gov Ryan was pissed that Lauzen refused to vote for his pork spending ways. Ryan recruited a local school board memember, Sunny Abello, to run against Lauzen in the 2000 primary. Lauzen easily warded off Ryan’s challenge.
Yeah, we really messed up their plans in ‘98. Fitzgerald beat the Topinka clone Comptroller Loleta Didrickson (can you have pictured her beating Carol Mostly Fraud ? That race would’ve been like the Blago-Topinka one), and if he hadn’t had any $$, the party would’ve been content to have permitted Carol to stay. Of course, the upside to that is that Obama wouldn’t have been able to leave the legislature to run in ‘04. He couldn’t even make it to the House, because Bobby Rush made it an issue that he wasn’t Black enough to represent the 1st. Gotta love IL politics.
Loleta Didrickson wasn’t sure about running for Senate. The IL GOP wanted a woman candidate from Cook County. Loleta ran because the IL GOP bigwigs wanted her to run. Loleta expected to coast in the primary. When Fitz gained ground on her, she portrayed Fitz as a religious zealot. Real smart move in a GOP primary.
As for Obama. He went thru a makeover. In the 2000 House primary, he wore a bow tie. He reminded me of Steve Urkel. Now with his Presidential run, he is clean shaven and lose some weight. The liberal women in the Chicago Sun Times like to refer to Obama as another Brad Pitt.
That’s what is so funny. The RINO Establishment, rather then backing “fire in the belly” candidates that the Conservatives have been, they drag RINOs into the race that are either openly reluctant or clearly disinterested. How many have there been so far ? Didrickson, Topinka, Bob Kustra (’96 Senate race), Dave O’Neal in 1980...
There, must have truth in ads, here.
Bull, McConnell didn’t handpick Fletcher at all. As I recall, he endorsed Ann Northrup in the beginning.
And it’s spelled “Frankfort.”
Foreigner.
Speaking of Chris Lauzen, is he considered the favorite to win the special election to succeed Dennis Hastert?
Yesterday on a radio interview, Oberweis is claiming that Eric Cantor endorses him. I think the GOP establishment is backing Oberweis, because he is willing to self-finance his campaign. The Dem candidate, Foster, is self-financing his own campaign.
Lauzen is also willing to self-finance. He loaned his campaign over $300K.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.