GOP spin machine spinning out of control

National Public Radio has run a very interesting poll which focuses only on competitive congressional districts. It finds (story, report, questions) that the Republicans are in trouble not just nationally, but in the competitive local races that are the heart of the current fight.

Recent polls based on national samples show about a 10% percent advantage for the Democrats. That's been enough to throw the Republican congress into a frenzy of strange trial balloons on everything from obviously unconstitutional attempts to suppress the names of soldiers killed in Iraq, to "it's mid-term; it must be time for the flag-burning, anti-gay marriage amendment," to bluster over building a wall in the desert to block immigration. After spending most of the year trying to turn stem-cell research into another wedge issue the Republican Congress took a look at the polls that showed it costing them votes and caved in to public opinion recently. Only Bush's first-time ever veto saved the day for irrationality. Heck we've even got the minimum wage--which Boustany say he philosophically opposed to--coming up for a vote! It's been a decade since the Republicans even let that one see the light of day.

But polls based on national samples don't take into account the fact that Congressional races are local, not national. The argument against national data is that it doesn't reflect the fact that there's a huge gap in attention, interest, and passion between locales where there is a real contest and ones where the incumbent is considered unbeatable.

Republicans can say, and have said, that once the race is sharpened up to a choice between two real contestants that their apparent disadvantage will evaporate.

This poll says that's not true. In the fifty most contested districts, where the names of actual candidates can be put in put into the question there's still a substantial spread.

What's even more significant is that the wedge issues (the faux "values") that the Republicans have used to nationalize local races--things like the aforementioned flag-burning amendment, stem cell research, anti-gay marriage amendments, and all manner of "causes" which leave a government censor staring into our bedrooms are not only NOT working for the Republicans this year--they are working against them.

This is worth repeating: wedge issues raised by the Republican Congress to shift the argument to their issues are not only not working for for the Republicans; but have backfired against them. This poll shows that the congressional debate over these non-issues has influenced voters to favor the Democratic position instead of the Republican--by as much as 13 points.The GOP spin machine has spun out of control.

There's a lot of anger out there and the people of the country are ready to throw the fools out. And in districts where there is a real fight people are seeing through the kids of nonsense that has been used to shift the argument away from the real issues of war, the economy, and a living wage.

So what's the message for Louisiana's 7th?

We need to have that sort of fight here. Let's get to it.

Mike for Congress!

Misdirected Outrage at the FEMA villages

After a more than a week of articles in the Advocate our federal representatives have gotten together and decided to be outraged. But their outrage is misdirected.

At issue is the indeed outrageous FEMA rules that prohibit a resident of a FEMA village from talking to the press without FEMA "keeper" trailing along to make sure that the residents don't say anything that cause bad PR. This comes up at a trailer village near Morgan city where Advocate reporters were ordered off the premises for the offense of talking to citizens in the nearly empty village. When they tried to leave behind a business card the FEMA rep called the police.

Really, you can't make stuff like this up. Who'd believe you?

It's not some overly officious underling; it's FEMA policy:

“If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview,” said Rachel Rodi, a FEMA spokeswoman. “That’s just policy.”

"Just policy?" "Just Wrong" is more like it. The institution of public "minders" has long been a trait of totalitarian regimes. We saw it in Russia and see it in China and Cuba still. It's intended to intimidate both citizens and the press.

Our representatives are right to join us in outrage at this clear violation of our civil rights. It'd be nice if they were out ahead of this and didn't have to decide how to react after it had been in the paper for a week. At least they came out on the side of democracy--not at all a certian thing for some of our more supine Republican congressmen whose outrage on the storms seem calibrated to offend the fewest possible administration bureaucrats while leaving the vauge impression that they still care about their citizens.

But every citizen should be outraged by this unconstitutionally arrogant set of policies. A congressman isn't special in that regard. But Congressmen do have some special responsibilities and their delayed outrage at the constitutional issues of the FEMA village conceal how poorly they've done their real job.

The bigger issue is the attitude of FEMA hasn't changed: FEMA remains more interested in protecting their butts from bad publicity than in honorably doing their job of helping citizens. This is what caused a fair portion of the problems last year and this fiasco is evidence that IT HAS NOT changed. Our congressmen not only haven't fixed it; they can't even recognize the real problem it when it rears its ugly head again. FEMA is not ready for another season of storms, not because they don't have the resources or the organization; FEMA is not ready because they care more about saving their careers than they do about saving lives and communities. It isn't complicated. And fixing things like that is why we elect representatives of the people.

We deserve better. Mike for Congress!

John's "Why I'm working for MIke"

Why volunteer for Mike Stagg's campaign?

Well, I’m working for Mike Stagg's campaign to win back the 7th district for the people of Southwest Louisiana.

It's that simple for me.

I think Mike's the man for the job. I worked with him during the Lafayette Fiber To The Home referendum and came away impressed. Mike helped run that successful grassroots campaign. When we got started the "smart money" said that Lafayette couldn't win against the sort of resurces wealthy and powerful corporations like BellSouth and Cox could pour into the contest. The smart money was wrong. The referendum passed 62 to 38 percent in spite of the continued and often deceptive campaign run by the incumbent corporations. That taught me a lesson: smart grassroots campaigning can win.

That campaign showed me that Mike's smart and willing to work like a dog for things that will really help people. He's got a talent for finding the right questions, digging to find real solutions instead of the easy answer, and then grinding away until those solutions are made real.

The 7th district doesn't have someone who represents us right now--and we need one. The people of southwest Louisiana have been through a lot over the last year and we need a congressman whose loyalties aren't divided between his party, his corporate PAC supporters, and finally his constituents. We need a representative who owes his election to nobody but the people of the district.

Anybody who knows Mike knows he doesn't avoid the tough issues or mealy-mouth about them. That's the kind of representative I want. Mostly I even agree with him. For a change, I'm looking forward to having someone to vote for!

I'm with Mike!