I am really happy about Grayson’s aggressive campaign. How refreshing to see a Democrat stand up to the forces of extremism, and use it against them, proving that Democrats in conservative areas don’t have to play that Blue Dog game.
Democrats across the country are pawing around in the dark, searching for any way to flick a switch and end the political nightmare for incumbents that is 2010. A searing ad against Florida Republican Dan Webster has the challenger reeling and local media focusing attention on his extreme political positions, and it may serve to show a path forward for other Democrats facing challengers with views far outside the mainstream.
Republican operatives acknowledge that’s the case in Alan Grayson’s Orlando district, where the party faithful nominated former state senate majority leader Dan Webster, backed by religious extremists who push the revisionist view that America was founded as a Christian nation.
In an effort to highlight his more extreme views, Grayson, no slave to the concept of subtlety, has dubbed his opponent “Taliban Dan” in a recently released ad. It’s not the kind of centrist positioning that a Washington consultant might recommend, but judging by the response from local media, it’s working.
A WKMG reporter told Orlando television audiences, in a coup for Grayson: “Yes, Webster is opposed to all abortions, even for victims of rape and incest, an issue he doesn’t want to talk about.”
The reporter then proved his assertion by showing a damning clip of Webster refusing to answer a question from the reporter on the subject. Watch the clip of Webster stonewalling a reporter:
You know, the thing I despise the most about the current corporate theology is the idea that people should be working at 100%, every minute they’re at work. That’s crap, people don’t work that way. Energy levels ebb and flow, concentration wanders. You can’t just divide tasks by the number of hours in a day and come up with a formula — we’re human beings, not machines.
Law of physics: Anything used to its full potential will break.
I really wanted to make this, but I can’t. However, there will be buses leaving from every city within an 8-hour drive:
Hoping to overshadow last month’s rally led by Glenn Beck that drew thousands of Tea Party advocates and other conservatives, a coalition of liberal groups plan to descend on Washington on Saturday to make the case that they, and not the ascendant right, speak for America’s embattled middle class.
Predicting a crowd of hundreds of thousands, some 300 liberal groups — including the N.A.A.C.P., the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the National Council of La Raza and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — are sponsoring a march on Saturday in the hope of transforming the national conversation so it focuses less on the Tea Party. The groups sponsoring the rally, which is called “One Nation Working Together,” say they hope to supplant what they say is the Tea Party’s divisiveness with a message of unity to promote jobs, justice and education.
“The Tea Party has been getting much more media attention than it deserves, and it’s been saying it represents the voice of middle-class America,” said George Gresham, president of 1199 S.E.I.U., a New York health care union local, who says his union has chartered 500 buses to carry 25,000 union members to the rally. “A lot of us feel we have to get a different voice out there speaking for working people, one respecting the diversity of this country, which the Tea Party does not.”
If you don’t belong to Second Life, you can listen here on Blog Talk Radio, and call in with your questions. (Gee, I wonder what people will want to talk about?)
