Posted on 09/15/2008 2:06:01 PM PDT by upchuck
CAYCE -- On a recent Thursday evening, the South Carolina Democrat sharing the top of state ballots with Barack Obama strode through a restaurant parking lot where the bumper stickers featured the presidential candidacies of Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.
Inside the family eatery just outside Columbia, a mix of independents, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Constitution Party members waited. A smattering of members of Southern heritage groups were in attendance. Copies of "Free the South: A Blueprint for Peaceful and Legal Secession," rested on a couple of tables.
In a year when South Carolina voter registration shot up because of Obama's candidacy, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Conley is a decidedly odd fit. It's a role the 43-year-old engineer and flight instructor seems to relish.
"The job of a U.S. senator is to represent his state and the interests of his state and that means the people of the state," said Conley, sporting his trademark flattop haircut and a striped tie. "And that means we go around and we talk to folks of all different strata and philosophy because my job in January is to represent these folks in Washington."
For all his talk of diverse backers, Conley is a man without a base.
He once ran as a Republican for an Indiana state House seat, then bolted for the Reform Party. After moving to North Myrtle Beach, he joined his local GOP committee and backed Ron Paul in this year's South Carolina presidential primary. Five months later, he won a lackluster contest to become the Democratic pick to face powerhouse Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in November.
"He is naive and inexperienced," state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said last week. "I'm not sure where his votes are coming from."
Conley is not publicly endorsing Obama -- that's his personal business, he said, adding that his dream ticket would be led by Pat Buchanan, with Paul as vice president. When asked where he thinks he'll draw support considering his party's leaders don't appear to like him, Conley shoots back, "Democrats, Republican, Libertarians and vegetarians."
"I think the American people and the people of South Carolina are recognizing there's a certain strata in the political class that doesn't represent them," Conley said.
Conley met Paul, the candidate who brought him back to the GOP, after the primary and Paul congratulated him, but won't be publicly backing him against Graham. "He's not endorsing against incumbent Republicans as a matter of policy," Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said.
"It's something we really weren't expecting," Conley says. He's not empty handed, though. The campaign says it picked up an endorsement from Baldwin, the Constitution Party's nominee.
He doesn't pull any punches when talking about Graham, who has emerged this election season as John McCain's wing man. Conley calls him McCain's "mini-me" and "personal valet and bag boy." Conley talks of the need for energy independence, getting out of Iraq, and warns of a North American union of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
A sign of that shows up in North Carolina's newly issued driver's licenses, which have a hologram that outlines North America. "And it's just part of this drive to eliminate our sovereignty and make us part of this new world order that (former President) George Bush was talking about 17 years ago," Conley says.
It all resonates among the three dozen people in the Lizard's Thicket dining room.
"I'd vote for him any day over Lindsey," said Dean Weems, a Lugoff resident who believes Graham went too far in backing illegal immigration legislation that was decried as offering amnesty. "He just votes his mind without regard for the people."
Graham campaign manager Scott Farmer declined to respond to the criticism. For now, Graham's campaign also has not committed to meeting Conley in any pre-election debate. It's a logical move that potentially quashes free publicity for a challenger who finished his primary with a $3,692 debt and $983 cash on hand. Graham had $3.6 million to spend.
The dinner meeting ends with Conley's campaign passing around brown, plastic bread baskets. They come back with a couple of $20s, loads of singles and some checks. Someone brings out a cake and the crowd sings "Happy Birthday" in a week-late recognition of Conley's 43rd.
That he has zero interest in representing us was more than proved last summer when he conspired with McCain, Kennedy (the swimmer) and others to try and ram through a most unpopular amnesty for illegal aliens. We were all screaming NO! Graham totally ignored us. We crashed the Senate switchboard with our tremendous volume of calls. Graham totally ignored us.
If Graham is not going to represent us then he needs to go.
This November, for the first, and I hope last, time in my life I'm going to vote for a Democrat, Bob Conley, to replace Graham.
Please consider joining me. We all agree that one of the most serious problems in Washington is the entrenched insiders that get elected over and over and over and... Here's a chance to make a difference.
Bob Conley represents a real challenge to Graham. I briefed Witherspoon on the immigration issue. He wound up with 33% of the vote in the primary. Conley is far better on immigration than Graham. This race may be closer than some think. If I lived in SC, I would be very tempted to vote for Conley.
Where Waffle House patrons eat after hitting the lottery. :)
Grahmnesty was reportedly pushing McCain really hard to name Lieberman VP.
Besides being a worthless RINO turd, Grahmnesty has always seemed rather light in the loafers to me ...
WoW...talk about bite off your nose to spite your face.
I'm one of those "loud folks" that Lindsay told to "Shut up!"
Screw you, Light Loafers!
I'm one of those "loud folks" that Lindsay told to "Shut up!"
Screw you, Light Loafers!
F(r)agmeister ping!
Sorry upchuck, I loathe Lindsey about as much as I do Obama but there is no way I can vote for a democrat. I told my dad some time back that if he ran for office as a dem that I would not vote for him, and I meant it. I wrote in another thread that it makes it easier if you vote straight repub and that way you don’t have to actually make a ck mark by Lindsey’s name.
Sorry for the double post. Either FR, or my laptop is screwing up.
He’s being bi-partisan just like your boy McLiberal by voting with the ‘Rats. Quite the Maverick doncha know.
Agreed, voting for a Democrat is not smart. I will have to vote for Grahamnesty but I expect we will be rid of him if McCain wins as McCain is likely to award him a cabinet position. Then Gov. Sanford can appoint a real conservative and straighten out the Grahamnesty mess.
Those of you taking me to task for voting for a RAT may be unaware that Graham himself has said Conley is more conservative than he is. Sorry I don’t have a link to that.
We’re also the people he called bigots. I’ve never regretted voting for any candidate until him and I don’t intend to do it again.
BUMP!
He doesn't pull any punches when talking about Graham, who has emerged this election season as John McCain's wing man. Conley calls him McCain's "mini-me" and "personal valet and bag boy." Conley talks of the need for energy independence, getting out of Iraq, and warns of a North American union of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
Finally! Someone calling out Lindsey for what he really is: Juan McQueeg's bitch and effeminate manservant.
In Rome, the Senators had their own “body servants”.
There are conservatives still left within the Democrat Party?!!!!
Where are they and who are they?
So far as I have seen they have been silent as church mice on the slandering of Sarah Palin.
Read the article from The Post and Courier in Charleston just a few days ago.
LG is not worried. He will have a position in the cabinet of the McPain/Sarah Palin adminsitration.
Not sure I would have ever described the cleft between the gluteals as a "wing".
Yeah, right. As a yankee, you obviously think that GOP stands for "God's Own Party". Southern Conservatives have learned that we owe no allegience to any party. Our allegience is to God, Guns, and the LIMITED GOVERNMENT promised by the Constitution.
The Democratic Party has completely abandoned Bob Conley in South Carolina, and his limited funds are coming from "grass roots" Constitutionalists. Bob Conley called for the SC Democratic Chairwoman's resignation after her comment that "Sarah Palin's only qualification for office is that she did not have an abortion"
Free Republic is missing the boat by not championing this conservative for Senate. With Republicans like Lindsey Graham, who needs Ted Kennedy and Barney Franks?
Bob Conley is a life member of the NRA, GOA (Gun Owners of America), he is pro-life, he believes in limited government, a balenced budget, fair-tax, and fiscal responsibility. He reflects Republican Congressman's Duncan Hunter's trade policies. His strong "energy independence" policy ("Drill, baby, drill, and turn coal into gas) is far more realistic than the McCain policy (Don't drill in Anwar...you'll hurt the Polar Bears).
As a Southern Christian Conservative, my dream ticket is Palin/Conley.
Need I say more, the liberal Democrats hate him. I can tell you where his votes are coming from.... We read Free Republic, and any number of conservative publications that realise that party is not as important as principle. We were Reagan Republicans that voted for Floyd Spece and Strom Thurmond. We are the paleo-conservatives, that believed in limited government before the "neo-con-RINOs". We are Christians and Jews, Protestant and Catholic, who believe that life is sacred. We are gun owners, who believe that we should not have to ask for the government's permission to own a firearm. We are small business owners, that understand that government crushes our profits with heavy taxes. We are farmers, industry workers, teachers, parents, and conservatives, that realize that Lindsey Graham has betrayed us, and we need your help. We are also traditional Southern Democrats, who will never vote for the "party of Lincoln" for reasons that you will never fully understand.
Put another Conservative in the Senate, even if he does have a "D" after his name. Help us elect Bob Conley to the US Senate, and help us get rid of Ted Kennedy's best friend.
Another Dem Senator to go along with your Dem president. You Rat operatives must be getting really desperate to be so obvious.
See, what you don't get here is that Free Republic is an independent, grass-roots conservative (not necessarily Republican) forum. That means that we support conservatives of any party.
If given the choice between a conservative Democrat and a quasi-Socialist Republican, I will pick the former...and I suspect quite a few other Freepers would do the same.
Now, kabar has been here for years and years, so the chance that he (or she) is a "Rat operative" is significantly lower than the chance that you are a McCain operative, since all you have done since signing up on June 28 (how convenient) is (more or less) post pro-McCain drivel. So, please, if you want to debate the merits of conservatism, this is the place to do it; if you want to go "rah-rah!" for anyone with an (R) after his or her name, regardless of the underlying philosophy, then Free Republic is probably not the right place for you.
Hear hear!
Free Republic is missing the boat by not championing this conservative for Senate.
The problem is that many newer Freepers are staunch Republicans who support the Party over conservatism. Hell, earlier today I even read threads where Freepers were suggesting that McCain himself has been a conservative all along (which leads me to wonder what those Freepers had been smoking all this time). Even worse, I have read so much vitriol towards small-government Constitutionalists who dare to question the Iraq war (Ron Paul and now Bob Conley might be good examples here), which doesn't make sense since conservatives are supposed to be pro-Constitution and pro-limited government. (Or maybe, the new paradigm is that the WOT takes total priority, and everything else is inconsequential.)
And of course, you've got far too many McCain operatives roaming to and fro, trying to scare Freepers into kowtowing to McCain (or just shutting up).
It's kind of disconcerting, really.
Listen Newbie, Lindsay Grahamnesty is the one who called those of us who are against amnesty bigots and racists. And he did it before La Raza. Amnesty will destroy this country with the stroke of a pen. It is the defining issue of our time. FYI: I don’t live in SC. I am supporting Jim Gilmore in VA.
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