As the elections draw near, mounting evidence suggests that the Republicans see their gravy train coming untracked and are desperately trying anything to keep that from happening.
Exhibit A:
Darth Novak has pronounced from on high that the Democratic Party has given up on Harry Mitchell.
Umm...not so much.
This distortion has been refuted by Tedski at Rum, Romanism, Rebellion and by Tim at The Word from Arizona's Fifth District.
It's also refuted by the Mitchell campaign's announcement of a fundraiser/barbeque on the 24th (next Tuesday) in Tempe with House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Ambassador Joe Wilson.
If the national Democratic Party thought Harry, why on Earth would a high-ranking member of the House Democratic leadership and presumptive candidate for Speaker or Majority Leader in the next session of Congress visit him? Steny Hoyer has a LOT on his plate right now, including his own re-election campaign.
He wouldn't visit and raise money for a candidate who he thought had no chance of victory, especially two weeks before a hotly-contested general election that has 40 - 50 competitive races.
He would visit with and work with a candidate who should be in a position to vote for him for Speaker, though.
Oh, and there's an almost poetic symmetry at work here - Robert Novak is trying to undermine Harry, and the victim of one of Novak's past political hatchet jobs masquerading as journalism (Valerie Plame, anyone?) is helping Harry.
'Nuff said on that subject.
[BTW - if you are interested in the attending the fundraiser, contact Erin at the Mitchell campaign, 755-3343. Hot food, Hot topics of discussion and Cool Arizona evenings are a great combination. It should be a blast.]
Exhibit B:
JD's press releases and ads are steadily becoming more strident, less truthful, and just plain uncreative.
And they were already strident and distorted propaganda.
His latest ad rehashes a number of lies and distortions he told over the summer, that have been thoroughly refuted and even turned around on him already. Charlie Keating again, JD?
He also started in on factcheck.org's criticism of his ad that claims that Harry supports giving Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. Factcheck.org simply pointed out that under S2611, legalized immigrants who paid into Social Security would be eligible for benefits in the same way as anyone else who paid SS taxes.
Exhibit C:
Last night's meltdown by his chosen surrogate at a candidate forum, already chronicled here.
Related to this is the fact that while JD didn't have time to meet with some of his constituents, he did have time to issue a press release lauding the suspension of habeas corpus and the legalization of torture.
He even had the time to post a statement excoriating the Democrats' questions and criticisms over this issue on The Hill's Congress Blog.
And today, also in the Hill's Congress Blog, he had the time to issue what is basically a campaign press release touting the economic results of Republican tax policies.
- - - He lauded "lower gas prices." That's great, except for the minor fact that they are still a helluva lot higher than just a few years ago. Actually, according to the Department of Energy, the average price per gallon ("all grades, all formulations") has risen from $1.127/gallon when JD took office in 1995 to $2.274 today.
Republicans have controlled Congress for that entire time. If JD wants to take credit for gas prices more than doubling, he can.
- - - He stated that "housing starts are up."
Ummm....where? Not in the Phoenix area.
- - - He stated that the unemployment rate is "historically low."
Yup. And employment at WalMart, McDonald's and other low-wage, low-ceiling businesses is historically high. The Republicans have led the efforts to send high-paying jobs overseas, forcing people into any job that is available to provide for their families. The unemployment rate is lower, but the number of people working multiple lousy jobs to make ends meet seems to be correspondingly higher.
That's not something that most people consider to be an "accomplishment" worth boasting about.
Of course, the reality is that JD has nothing else to brag about, and it worries him that people are realizing that.
On edit: While I was writing this post, JD's campaign posted a press release claiming victory in the debate scheduled to be shown on CSPAN tonight, and Scottsdale's CityCable11 later this week and weekend. This press release is mostly a rehash of previous press releases, and those have already been refuted. I'll watch the actual debate before dissecting it.
Later!
End edit.
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