Dear Georgia Democrats,
You have just been handed a massive hammer. Use it.
If you cannot and do not capitalize on the coming Georgia Republican ethicinfidelapocalypse, then there is no hope for the state party. Three of the five Republicans who are or were running for Governor have somehow been swirled up in this mess of ethical breaches and banging of women other than their spouses. (The lone girl in the field will now benefit from the prevailing myth that women don't cheat on their spouses and can therefore be presumed above the fray and untainted.) Other powerful Republican members of the Legislature are in serious danger of being pulled into the drain swirl any minute now.
So, Georgia Democrats, you have 3 tasks:
1. Make sure every single member of the Democratic caucus is clean as a whistle on professional ethics and keeping it in your pants. NO SLIP UPS, and if they do happen, punish swiftly from within. Set the example.
2. Bang the drum of the dirty cadre of Republicans running this state constantly, loudly, and brutally, for the next year. I want to hear it in every debate, I want to see it in TV commercials and in the paper. I want you to force every candidate to take a stand on whether what these guys have done is wrong, and if they waffle then I want you to use that to make them look weak in the face of clear wrongdoing. You have been handed a massive gift--USE IT.
3. Remember, it's not the boinking of a woman other than their wives that is the problem, it's when that woman is a lobbyist pushing legislation at the same time. It's not the cheating on his wife, it's making criminal threats against her after she leaves him. It's not the blowjobs from women he isn't married to, it's the fact that they work for him and could constitute sexual harassment. FOCUS ON THE DIRTY PART, NOT THE SEXY PART. That is what ties it all together and makes it politically relevant, even if the other stuff is what makes people watch the TV and read the news. And one of the huge benefits of being out of power is that you have no real power to abuse--so emphasize that dramatic difference between Rs and Ds to your advantage.
I'm warning you guys now, if you don't come away with more seats in 2010 and at least one new statewide office, then you're more inept than I thought and I will not be giving the party another red cent of my money to waste wandering in the wilderness. Opportunities like this don't come along very often.
So, Georgia Democrats, you have 3 tasks:
1. Make sure every single member of the Democratic caucus is clean as a whistle on professional ethics and keeping it in your pants. NO SLIP UPS, and if they do happen, punish swiftly from within. Set the example.
2. Bang the drum of the dirty cadre of Republicans running this state constantly, loudly, and brutally, for the next year. I want to hear it in every debate, I want to see it in TV commercials and in the paper. I want you to force every candidate to take a stand on whether what these guys have done is wrong, and if they waffle then I want you to use that to make them look weak in the face of clear wrongdoing. You have been handed a massive gift--USE IT.
3. Remember, it's not the boinking of a woman other than their wives that is the problem, it's when that woman is a lobbyist pushing legislation at the same time. It's not the cheating on his wife, it's making criminal threats against her after she leaves him. It's not the blowjobs from women he isn't married to, it's the fact that they work for him and could constitute sexual harassment. FOCUS ON THE DIRTY PART, NOT THE SEXY PART. That is what ties it all together and makes it politically relevant, even if the other stuff is what makes people watch the TV and read the news. And one of the huge benefits of being out of power is that you have no real power to abuse--so emphasize that dramatic difference between Rs and Ds to your advantage.
I'm warning you guys now, if you don't come away with more seats in 2010 and at least one new statewide office, then you're more inept than I thought and I will not be giving the party another red cent of my money to waste wandering in the wilderness. Opportunities like this don't come along very often.
4 comments:
that's great in theory, but there are any number of reasons why that won't work for the ga dems, other than in races that actually involve the sleazy's in question, this won't translate well to broadening individual races into mandates of statewide signifigance...
I'm sick and tired of Democrats talking themselves out of mounting ANY opposition because they think it probably won't work. If they don't at least try to use this, then they deserve to be ineffectual back benchers in this state. Ethical lapses by a few Republicans helped give Democrats a congressional majority, they can certainly help Democrats win a few close races here...if they're willing to draw the distinction through their words and their actions.
Still, one has to wonder if the state Democratic Party will be able to capitalize on the Georgia GOP's current struggles.
After the do-nothing 2008 legislative session, the Democrats had a litany of issues to pound the Republicans on -- from the lack of a statewide water plan to the complete breakdown of transportation talks on sine die day.
Yet, the Democrats failed to field candidates in 101 legislative races (twenty in the state Senate & eighty-one in the state House).
It's hard to compete when your team doesn't even show up.
Quite honestly, it would be safe to assume that Democrats will leave a large number of House and Senate seats uncontested in 2010, leaving the party's chances of re-claiming the majority standing upon the edge of a knife.
I never for a second thought they had a chance of reclaiming a majority. I said I want them to pick up a couple seats and one statewide office. That's eminently doable.
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