watch this space
I sent the following to the Washington Post this morning. I encourage other subscribers to do the same.
This message is to immediately cancel my subscription to The Washington Post. I am canceling, because of this morning's endorsement of Tom Davis for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the 11th District of Virginia.
The Post's coverage of this race has been appalling. Why should the voters of VA-11 have to wait for a scandal or some already known challenger to knock off an incumbent? Tom Davis likely will be in the minority in the next Congress, making him far less effective at both representing his constituents and delivering for his constituents. Andy Hurst only lacks experience. It should be readily apparent whether the aptitude he's displayed on the campaign trail can translate into effective office holding. The time for change is now, not after bad things start happening.
I also disagree with your endorsement of Wolf for VA-10. Polls there show that Feder has a good chance of knocking off Wolf. Why can't The Washington Post be a leader instead of a late follower?
You do your readers a great disservice in your coverage of local politics and your endorsements. That is why I can no longer be a subscriber.
Joel Rutstein
I prefer to be positive when I can; so, please don't get hung up on this latest post and let it keep you from going to the loving one below; but, I'm feeling rather full of myself and just had to post here a comment I made at gotv.blogspot.com. I guess it's just the nature of this blog to dole out the positive (vote Hurst) and the negative (dump Hurst). If anyone ever does read this stuff and asks, I'd consider labeling the posts to help those who prefer one type over the other.
If the voters of VA-11 give Davis another two years, it won't take long before acute voter's remorse sets in. It was precisely Davis's performance as the head of the NRCC that caused House Republican Leaders to vault him over more senior members of the Gov't Reform Cmte and make Davis Chairman. It was a devil's bargain to begin with and it continues today. Davis chose to spurn his constituents in favor of corrupt leaders. Some of those leaders, like Gingrich and DeLay, have already resigned in disgrace. Next year, Republicans will be in the minority. Hastert probably won't even be Minority Leader; he may not even be in Congress much longer. Jack Abramoff has been given an office by the FBI to facilitate Abramoff's naming of names. Davis has ties to Foley. Davis has ties to Abramoff. Davis has ties to Safavian (is Safavian's wife still working for Davis?). And speaking of wives, how much longer can the feds' attention be kept away from the cozy relationship between Davis, his wife, and her employer? On top of all this traveling on the razor's edge, Davis has the audacity to contemplate succeeding John Warner in the Senate! It's precisely this sort of arrogance that preceded the fall of Gingrich and DeLay. In 13 days, the voters of VA-11 have an amazing opportunity to put a quick end to this agonizingly slow political suicide. Moreover, the option to Davis is a fantastically talented, intelligent, and decent person, Andy Hurst. I really hope we don't blow it.
Another shout out to Bryan at ambivalentmumblings.blogspot.com who posted a great link to a generous guy who's offered to match contributions to Andy Hurst after hearing a very moving testimonial from another guy who apparently is a fellow VA-11 resident.
Please visit Bryan's site or go to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/25/95134/578.
I dare you to read what's been written and consider what's being offered and not contribute.
And an incredibly huge shout out to Alice at gotv.blogspot.com who continues to post amazing stuff and was kind enough to both cut-and-paste a post of mine from here and encourage her readers to visit this site for more.
gotv regularly gets picked up by vapoliticalblogs.com and this particular posting was no exception.
I'm still not on their blogroll, but I really shouldn't get greedy.
This is about electing Andy and ejecting Tom.
Buckle up. These final 13 days are gonna be wild.
I encourage my readers to visit http://www.ambivalentmumblings.blogspot.com. Bryan Scrafford has posted a very brave and important piece on Tom Davis's hypocrisy.
I warned Davis that he'd pay a price for siding with the devils. The attacks will not stop until Davis either drops out of public life or apologizes and renounces the dark side.
Two weeks from today, the voters of VA-11 will have a very distinct choice to make. Only ignorance and complacency borne of Davis's tainted money advantage could account for any voter not knowing the stark differences between Hurst and Davis.
Andy Hurst clearly is a competent and intelligent person. He has youth and energy on his side. He lives in the district and has children attending public school in the district. If elected, he will likely be a member of the majority party in the House of Representatives. He has none of the baggage that Davis brought with him to Congress and has acquired over six terms.
Davis, by his own rhetoric as he entered Congress as part of Newt Gingrich's class of '94, should not even be on the ballot. Newt Gingrich's self-proclaimed revolutionaries said they believed in term limits. Tom Davis was right there with them, promising he'd serve no more than six terms. But, as we all know, trying for a seventh term is just the latest of many promises Davis has broken.
Every Member of Congress is expected to serve both his or her constituents and the best interests of the country at the same time, all while following the dictates of the law and Constitution. It is insulting to the voters of VA-11 that Davis thinks reciting a laundry list of pork he's delivered to us would make us forget the high price he paid to get that pork.
He was OUR servant when he spat on the law and shredded the Constitution and told Gingrich and DeLay and Hastert that if only they'd give him a little pork, he'd do whatever they asked.
When they asked him as head of the campaign fundraising committee for House Republicans to see that Rep. Foley's seat remained in Republican hands, he did, even as others have said Foley's harrassment of boys was widely known.
When they asked him as Chairman of the Government Reform Committee to subpoena Terry Schiavo and slander Terry's husband, he did.
Gingrich resigned in disgrace. DeLay resigned in disgrace. Just today, Hastert presumably told the House Ethics Committee that he conveniently doesn't remember what two other Members of Congress said they told Hastert about Rep. Foley. The point is it doesn't matter who the next Republican Leader is. They are a completely morally bankrupt bunch and whomever they install would tell Davis to do all sorts of nefarious things and he would. No questions asked.
Davis wants to win a seventh term. Davis wants to do the bidding of his corrupt puppetmasters for another two years. Davis wants to succeed John Warner in the U.S. Senate and knows his only chance of winning a Republican primary in 2008 is to prove he's not an untrustworthy moderate maverick from Northern Virginia as his downstate archconservative rivals will charge.
Next year, Davis will do all he can, including again reaching out to his leaders to have his second wife and $78,000 a year part-time "employee" of Davis's former business partner be re-elected to the Virginia State Senate and maybe succeed him as Representative for VA-11.
Davis's primary allegiances are not to the voters of VA-11, if they ever were. Why in the world does he deserve our votes?
There's absolutely no reason to believe that Andy Hurst won't be able to deliver us the services we need without having to sacrifice his principles. Andy won't be beholden to anyone the way Davis is. Let's give Andy a chance. Let's deny Davis any more chances. If Andy doesn't deliver, you can bet with Davis out of the way, plenty of Democratic challengers will vie for our votes in 2008.
You may think you're playing it safe by voting for Davis. You're not. You've already lost a lot and stand to lose a whole lot more.
On the contrary, the possiblities of gain by voting for change, by voting for Andy Hurst, are tremendous.
Be positive. Be hopeful. Vote for change. Vote for the future. Vote for decency. Vote to send the bad guys a message.
Vote for Andy Hurst!
Big picture Sunday. Bush pushed his allies in Congress out on a limb on Iraq. Today's New York Times reports that Bush is cutting off that limb. The sources of the leak are anonymous, but members of the Administration have decided that the situation in Iraq is so dire that the downside risk to Republican incumbents and candidates in Nov. 7's elections is outweighed by the long term risks to the Republican Party (and maybe the country and the world if the leakers are being truly patriotic and not just Rovian). If the Democrats make such gains on Nov. 7 such that no amount of spinning can minimize them (and if the leakers are Rovian they may not want to spin it otherwise), I really hope the Democrats seize the initiative and push hard to end the war. Of course, I think the Democrats should be doing this now, but if it takes a political impetus, so be it.
Why is Tom Davis getting a free pass on Foleygate? Rep. Sue Kelly flipped her lid when someone dared to ask about her time on the Committee that oversees the page program. Davis has to be on a hair trigger with his biggest challenge ever and his Senate dreams slipping away. Someone must ask Davis what he did and said when he handed the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee over to Rep. Reynolds. It's been reported that Reynolds had to contend with pressure from Karl Rove to tell Foley he must stay in Congress to protect the Republican majority, even while Reynolds was getting information on Foley's harassing boys. Reynolds has apologized to the voters in his district and pretty much admitted he should have put the safety of the boys over politics. It's been reported that Foley's troubles long predate Reynolds' being head of the RCCC to the time when Davis was head of the RCCC. What did Davis know and when did he know it? How many times did Davis direct money, support, and pressure to stay to Foley when he knew or should have known that Foley was harassing boys? Make Tom Davis come clean!
I just read in the comments over at the GOTV blog that Andy Hurst may be able to run a TV ad. That would be nice, especially if it was so good or had some sort of newsworthy message or even a technical gimmick that would cause it to be played or described by the press.
The debate with Hurst, Davis, and Greco that was held at the Gov't Center will be replayed by Cox Cable Ch. 10 one more time on Oct. 21 at 9:30 am. It would also be helpful if someone with the knowhow (unfortunately not me) could make a digital recording of it and post postive Hurst clips and negative Davis clips to YouTube.
The bottom line is Andy needs attention. Anyone who follows the news or local politics or does even a little websurfing already knows that Andy is qualified. I don't think very many potential voters do any of those things. They're going to see Davis's ads, see Davis's signs, and they already are familiar with seeing Davis's name on the ballot for years. If they bother to vote at all, I'm afraid they're going to go with the devil they know, not realizing just how devilish Davis has become and how not devilish at all Andy is.
Sadly, going negative works. This blog was mentioned for the very first time in another blog, FCDC, after I commented at GOTV that Davis had hired disgraced ex-Rep. Ed Shrock to a Staff Director position on a subcommittee of the House Gov't Reform Cmte. I think it's arguably legitimate to publicly ask Davis to ask Schrock if he had any knowledge or information about similarly disgraced ex-Rep. Foley.
Dear Tom,
I hope you haven't been taking my blog the wrong way. It's certainly been an oversight on my part to omit all the benefits for you if you withdraw from this race and all future races. Tom, I'm not just trying to save VA-11; I'm trying to save you, too. I would have hoped your wife and children would have said something by now. Or maybe they've seen even uglier things than you've shown the public. But surely, I thought, a close friend could have been enlisted to tell you what you need to hear. Alas, it's apparently up to me. How sad. I don't know you. If I did, I'm not at all certain I'd like you. Our politics are quite different. I hope, however, that our fundamental values are close enough that somehow my message will get through to you.
I think it would be useful to revisit the past together to understand how we got where we are. I'm comfortable going way back, but I understand if for now you have trouble going much past the politically correct turning point, Sept. 11, 2001. I completely understand why about half of the electorate were willing to take a chance on George W. Bush. The economy seemed fine. We were at peace, sort of. The biggest complaint by Republicans about Bill Clinton was that he was ashamed to publicly admit cheating on his wife. How silly that all seems in retrospect. Tom, you of all people probably could relate to how difficult it must have been for Clinton to have to juggle being a public figure, being constantly under attack by political enemies, and having to hide a shameful secret. All in all, though, the country must have been pretty happy. I bet even Newt Gingrich wishes he could turn back the clock. I'm sure you and I wish that, too.
In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, despite clear evidence that Bush just may not have been the best President to have at such a time, a significant majority of Americans rallied behind Bush. That's natural. We were in shock. We didn't know if more attacks were on their way. Most rationally, however, we [or to be technically accurate five craven Supreme Court justices] had put Bush in charge, and we really had no choice but to hope for the best.
I won't waste time here debating our military response to Sept. 11, 2001. Even Clinton, for whom I voted twice, was to the right of me on the use of our military. Nevertheless, there is no evidence to support the notion that Americans' blood lust for revenge wasn't completely sated long before you, and yes, way too many Democrats, voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq.
But, Tom, even your vote then isn't enough for me to honestly say that my fellow voters in the 11th should have voted against you in 2004. I didn't vote for you, but I didn't expect you to lose. Nor did I expect Democrats to regain majorities in Congress. I did expect Kerry to win the Presidency, and I do think that had voting irregularities in Ohio not occurred we would have seen a much closer election, possibly with Kerry winning.
Polls show today, however, that big majorities of Americans do not support the President and do not support Republicans. Bush's entire premise for asking voters to give him another four years was the need to stay the course in Iraq. Now that it's become obvious to virtually all Democrats and some key Republicans, like John Warner and even James Baker, that staying the course is wrong, even to the point of making Americans less safe, it's too late to punish Bush. So, on Nov. 7, voters will be looking to punish whomever they can.
Andy Hurst has clearly stated his view that we need to change direction in the war in Iraq. Tom, I see your dilemma. If you do what I hope your heart tells you and join Andy in this, it could seriously hurt your chances to win this race. Independents will think more highly of Andy, and Republicans will become disheartened. But Tom, every day you resist acting on principle, you look more and more like the very career politicians that you and the other Republicans in the Class of '94 claimed should be ousted in favor of your "revolution." Remember Tom? You guys were all about "reform." You even signed on to the notion of term limits. By your own, self-imposed rules, Tom, you shouldn't even be on this year's ballot!
Tom, you may think it'd be better for you to win than to lose. I understand that. In normal circumstances, that would be the case for all politicians. But you've become a willing participant, even a leader, in the Bush-led Republican effort to say post-9/11 these are not normal circumstances. Listen to what Bush's generals have been saying even very recently. There's no end in sight in this War On Terror. Reportedly, the commission headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton will say (sadly, after the election) that victory in Iraq is no longer an option.
Look at what your fellow alleged moderate Chris Shays just did because he's in a much tighter race in Connecticut (where even the Democrats are being driven nearly insane by the position Bush has put us in). Chris Shays in a debate the other day refused to call what our soldiers did at Abu Ghraib torture! Tom, you haven't had to twist as much, because Virginia isn't near as blue as Connecticut, but Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, is becoming bluer. If you think you're getting heat now, just imagine how hot you'll feel in another two years.
Or, perhaps you manage to sleep at night telling yourself that in two years you'll still be on the ballot, not for the 11th District, but for the Senate. Tom, wake up! You're dreaming. Even if Virginia gets no more blue than it is right now, the very way you've had to fend off Andy Hurst by claiming that you've stood up to Bush will doom you in '08. I'm not sure you could even survive a primary, because surely you'd be opposed by someone who says to the rest of Virginia's Republican primary voters that they shouldn't vote for someone who didn't stick by Bush, who is from Northern Virginia, and who barely beat a liberal political novice like Andy Hurst.
Tom, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. If you do beat Andy on Nov. 7, you're going to immediately tack to the right. You do not want to go there. You will be supporting thousands of more needless deaths in Iraq. You will be supporting further erosion of civil liberties here at home. You will be supporting further enriching of the rich and impoverishment of the poor. You will be supporting discrimination against immigrants who are just chasing the same dream all of our ancestors chased. You will be supporting discrimination against people who only want to be free to privately pursue their sexual preference. You will be leading this country in a very bad direction. You have children. Why would you want them to grow up in a worse place than you did?
Tom, please. I'm begging you. Drop out now.
Sincerely, Joel
NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!
You know, I was starting to let reality get me down. Davis may win this thing, but he will not come out unbruised, at least if I have anything to do with it.
I knew in my heart that Davis had sold his soul to the devils running the Republican Party, but I couldn't come up with new smoking evidence, until today.
Davis has repaid the very puppetmasters who gave Davis the Chairmanship of the House Government Reform Committee over more senior Members.
I don't want to hear anymore crap from Davis about how he stands up to Bush. He doesn't. He hid like a coward during the vote on the bill to shred the Constitution and allow torture. He panders to the worst instincts of people in calling for a ridiculous wall to keep out the immigrants who don't speak like his base or look like his base. Davis is in favor of amending Virginia's Consitution to define marriage as only being between one man and one woman, because we all know how sacred he thinks the institution of marriage is; just ask his first wife.
Worst of all, Davis has done nothing, NOTHING AT ALL, with all his vaunted influence and power in the Republican hierarchy to stop George Bush's mad murderous folly in Iraq. This alone should make all decent people refuse to ever vote for Davis again.
Today, I learned that Davis is a key participant in a scheme to resurrect former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger's stupid admittedly illegal taking of government documents. Why is Tom Davis wasting our time and taxpayer dollars on something that has already been thoroughly investigated? And, why is Tom Davis doing this now? Obviously, this scheme is another lame attempt by Republicans to dredge up every possible questionable act by Democrats in order to distract from their own misdeeds and generally make the public so disgusted with politicians and Washington that they won't even bother to vote, figuring that they're all a bunch of crooks; so what difference does it make who wins?
Well, it makes a HUGE difference! It makes me sick to think how Davis and his puppetmasters came to power pledging to adhere to a completely phony Contract with America. They want those levers of power to steer money to their friends and patrons. They have NO interest in being appropriate public servants. They don't believe in government. They'd do away with it and give all the power to the illegitimate stupid megalomaniac Bush, and they've already made strides in that direction. Give them another two years, and we might not even see another election in 2008. With Bush's own trusted military commanders saying we'll maintain these troop levels in Iraq for many years to come, do you really think they would trust a President-Elect Clinton to carry out their misguided murderous vision?
Well, it's time to fight slime with slime. Mr. Davis where are you in calling for the resignation of Speaker Hastert? Either Hastert knew and did nothing about Rep. Foley's preying on pages (or ex-pages, in any case very much younger men with whom Foley had no business trying to become intimate), or Hastert is allowing his staff to keep collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks when they kept the information from him.
Mr. Davis, where were you when you were head of the National Republican Campaign Committee? Where were you as a member of the Republican Leadership? Where were you as Chairman of the Government Reform Committee? Did you make deals with Rep. Foley? What did you know? Why didn't you do anything?
Mr. Davis, why did you hire disgraced ex-Rep. Ed Schrock to be the staff director for a subcommittee of your committee? What did he know about Foley? Why didn't he do anything?
Come clean Mr. Davis!
So, I heard Tom Davis was going to be on Face the Nation this morning and I freaked out. It's only a half-hour show and the other guest was Hastert-apologist Rep. LaHood. I thought maybe Davis would use the platform to call for Hastert to resign. I posted comments to the top post at Not Larry Sabato, a particularly active blog for a Sunday morning. My posts were off-topic, but what the hell. I also e-mailed James Walkinshaw, Hurst's campaign manager, who had kindly returned a message I sent the campaign's website recently urging them to stay on offense about Foleygate and Davis's cowardly silence. I didn't get reactions from either the other commenters at NLS or from Walkinshaw.
But it turned out that Bob Schieffer chose to host two Republican House Members who were disinclined to call for Hastert to step down. It was defense all the way, and Schieffer did a good job of exposing what a weak defense it was. LaHood rattled off other Members that Hastert was close to or appointed, DeLay (LaHood called him Hastert's "best friend"), Cunningham, and Ney, and said when their misdeeds were exposed Hastert demostrated strong leadership and told them they had to go. Schieffer said that Hastert put Cunningham and Ney there in the first place and pointed out the absurdity of ignoring any blame for that while wanting to take credit for dumping them when their continued tenure became untenable. Davis didn't do much better. He conceded that if the election were held today, Dems would retake the majority in the House. He said there are all these other issues (lowest unemployment in the world, record stock market, lower oil prices) that can't get oxygen because of Foleygate, but Davis so obviously omitted Iraq (only the number one real issue apart from Foleygate which is grabbing the headlines because it's new and the people love to talk about sex). Schieffer called Davis on ignoring Iraq. Davis looked very bad. It's a shame if Davis wins, because it'll only be because he has all the name recognition and all the money to run ads and voters in the 11th are too lazy, uneducated about the issues and Hurst, and complacent. If Davis wins, the 11th deserves what it gets. At best, it'll get two more years of lackluster representation by what I hope will be the ranking minority member of the House Gov't Reform Cmte. At worst, Davis will take the "mandate" and try to represent all of VA in the Senate.
Hangin' in there. Still no breakthrough I've seen for Hurst. I'm hoping Foleygate will have an overall positive effect for Dems. Maybe with the local (and national) spotlight off Allen, Webb will see some benefit in exploiting Foleygate to augment his support in critically important Northern Virginia. I don't know if Webb's campaign is thinking of doing this (or even if anyone ever does this) but why couldn't one build one's own coattails. Throw a little money Andy's way. Anyone driven to the polls to vote for Hurst would certainly vote for Webb higher up on the ballot.
Davis is still pretty tightlipped about Hastert. Over the years, I've noticed Tom's tendency to say some pretty non-party line things about GOP sacred cows like abortion. In today's Post, Davis's named staffer resurrects one of Bush's lowlights in saying "Heckuva job Brownie" in a story about Bush's signing statement reserving the right to ignore Congress's requirement that FEMA Directors actually have prior relevant experience. It's comforting to see that in the wake of Bush's falling poll numbers and Foleygate that Davis is feeling more free to at least sound more like the moderate he needs to pretend to be in order to get re-elected.
I read the endorsement in the latest issue of a local paper called The Chronicle. Interestingly, the paper acknowledged the validity of those seeking change to vote for Hurst. I don't know what The Chronicle said two years ago, but I bet it didn't go that far. Alas, this week, The Chronicle saying it was conflicted, opted in the end to say Davis was "effective" and deserved another two years. Of course, I don't want to overstate the importance of The Chronicle's endorsement, but I'm starting to get the sense that Davis will be re-elected.
In my excitement in starting this blog, I hoped to see that the 11th District really was ready to turn blue enough to dump Davis. I still have hope. My secondary dream was to see Davis dented in order to derail his political future, most importantly the widely held belief that he hopes to succeed Warner in the Senate in '08.
In the end, the principles and values I hold dear are more important than the results in the 11th on Nov. 7. And, I'm confident, the 11th will eventually do the right thing. I must remember that if Hurst does win on Nov. 7, it almost has to mean that Democrats are kicking ass just about everywhere else in the U.S. And, if Hurst loses on Nov. 7, there's still a good chance Davis will be in the minority in the next Congress. Whatever the outcome, I hope I don't forget to thank Andy for fighting the good fight. You can be sure I won't forget to monitor Davis and call him out every time he deserves it.
If Hurst wins, I'm not sure what I'll dedicate this blog to next. If Davis wins, this blog will be re-dedicated to making sure Davis and his ilk fare even worse in 2008.
And, remember Tom; you always can denounce Bush and your leaders, apologize for your misdeeds, and start voting the right way. I dare you to. Make me vote for a Republican for the first time in my life.
Way to go Andy Hurst!
Davis must account for what he knew about Foley and when he knew it. If he can't prove his innocence, he should resign immediately. If Davis can absolve himself, he has to condemn those who clearly can't, including Hastert. Everyday that Davis doesn't come clean and condemn the bad guys is unacceptable.
The only way Davis should win re-election at this point is if the voters don't really know Andy Hurst, chicken out and vote for the devil they think they know. In this case at this time, however, Davis is likely to be a bigger devil than they ever imagined.
If the 11th District doesn't come through for Andy Hurst on Nov. 7, they deserve all the failed leadership they're going to get.
