Who called Obama unpatriotic before Michelle Bachmann? Jack Kingston!
Who's the leader of the Republican theme team who attacked Obama about a flag pin, the pledge, and his middle name Hussein? Jack Kingston!
Who's worse than Saxby Chambliss the middle class and veterans? Jack Kingston!
Who's the pro war-profiteering king of Georgia military contractor pork? Jack Kingston!
Who's against new bridges, paper ballots, local fruits and vegetables, preserving nature, children's health care, equal pay for equal work for women, unemployment compensation, and an Office of Congressional Ethics? Jack Kingston!
All without even mentioning Abramoff.
So, "Democrat Party", get married and work harder, or replace Kingston with a better Democrat, Bill Gillespie?
Update: See this major endorsement of Bill Gillespie for real criticism of Kingston.
If you watch Colbert, you probably think you know Jack:
On the very first Better Know a District, Jack says he's African-American because he once lived in Ethiopia.
Colbert lampooned Kingston for complaining about a five day work week for Congress.
Colbert probably thinks he's put one over on Kingston. And another. And another. But Kingston is using Colbert to promote his goofy clueless persona, which hides a darker side. As the DNC noted:
...if he thinks he's African-American, why has he supported so many policies that are harmful to the African-American community?" asked Amaya Smith, a spokesperson for the DNC. "Look at his record. He's anti-affirmative action ... and he's been an adamant supporter of Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, which would harm African-Americans that have benefited from Social Security."
Kingston started the "Obama doesn't win a flag pin" flap, even though Jack doesn't wear one himself at home. And here's Bill Maher pointing out that Kingston was also already harping on Obama's middle name Hussein.
Jack's been a paragon of contradiction from the beginning. He signed Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, which included
The Citizen Legislature Act: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators.
Yet Kingston has been in Congress for 16 years! That alone convinces a lot of people to vote against him.
Jack brags about supporting agriculture in his district, yet:
...he voted against providing fresh fruits and vegetables for public schools, using local food whenever possible, as part of the "Buy American" statutes (HR 2419). Wouldn't that promote local farmers and get our children healthy food?
More Jack backwardness:
Jack voted against HR 3999, the National Highway Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act. He voted no to state and local grants to make backup paper ballots available for this years election (HR 2642). Check out how easy the voting machines can be wrong and manipulated.
...
Jack voted against equal pay for equal work for women (HR 1338) and against the establishment of the Office of Congressional Ethics (HR 1031). I think they need a whole building on ethics, not just an office. He voted against an emergency bill to extend unemployment compensation (HR 5749).
Jack not only voted against SCHIP (health care for children), he published against it in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Jack voted against the Anti-Predatory Lending Act (HR 3915), but he was and is for financial deregulation; in 2006 he said:
Despite the critics, it is clear that our economy is rocking and rolling like never before!
On the military front,
Jack voted against an amendment to HR 2642 that provides education funding for eligible members of the Armed Forces. He voted against mandatory rest time for our troops in between deployments (HR 3159).
Kingston, sitting in a Congressional committee, accused Robert Greenwald of being a war profiteer because Greenwald made a documentary about war profiteers; nevermind Greenwald didn't take a dime. Watch this one: Kingston's goofy persona almost hides what he's saying, which is basically he's for war profiteering and anybody who isn't is against profits, anti-capitalist, and probably anti-American.
Jack's war propaganda is so blatant that Chris Matthews slammed him for being lazy and dishonest. Jack's such a hypocrite he wants to commend Rush Limbaugh.
Jack is the king of pork for Georgia, and it's amazing how many military contractors donate to his campaign and coincidentally get earmarks!
Yet Kingston get a C from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA): worse than Saxby Chambliss, who gets a B.
Oh, yeah: Jack is also for building roads in nature reserves.
Update: Kingston gets a whopping zero (<span style="font-size: 200%">0</span>) from the League of Conservation Voters. Even Saxby managed 8%.
Jack claims to be a champion of the middle class, but actually gets an F from the middleclass.org year after year, most recently with 23%, worse than Saxby Chambliss, who got 52%.
Finally, Kingston's curious closeness with Jack Abramoff has never been investigated; more on that in another post.
Kingston comes off as goofy and cheerful. This lets him go on Colbert and Bill Maher, which helps him hide how corrupt he is.
Meanwhile, all we hear from "analysts" is that Kingston will win because he always does and besides it's a red district in a red state. They're living in the past, and they don't even know history very well.
All GA districts surrounding GA-01 are Democratic, including GA-02, where a black man, Sanford Bishop, won by 2/3 majorities his last two elections in that majority white district. GA-01 was Dem before Kingston, who was elected in the early Newt Gingrich reaction against Bill Clinton, which doesn't look nearly so hot these days. Voter registrations are up 10% across Georgia. Obama has cut McCain's GA-Pres lead to 1/3 of a month ago, and Jim Martin is within a hair of beating Saxby Chambliss for GA-Sen. Everybody is sick of expensive gas, retirement accounts that won't, and a war that's eating all the money that could be going to jobs, healthcare, and education.
There's a blue wave rising in Georgia.
With your help, Bill Gillespie can ride that wave! Bill Gillespie wants to end the war and bring renewable energy jobs to south Georgia while improving health and education and preserving the environment. Bill got more votes than Jack in the primaries (first time that's ever happened). Bill's raised more money than any previous challenger. Yes, Kingston has a lot more money, but the Bill to Jack money ratio is similar to Martin and Chambliss before DSCC and O2B and Better Democrats stepped in.
When people hear about Bill, they want to vote for him. Listen to the applause when he speaks.
Hey, you've even got three diarists lauding Bill on dailykos. (If that doesn't persuade you, I don't know what will. :-)
Forget Cobb County: GA-01 is much more pragmatic. Forget Atlanta: it's 4 hours away from Valdosta or Savannah and 5 hours from Brunswick. Florida media markets affect GA-01: when Barack spoke in Jacksonville many Obama volunteers from Valdosta drove 2 hours to hear him. Same when Michelle and Jill spoke in Tallahassee. Put a few ads for Bill on JAX and TLH TV stations.
Media buys in GA-01 are among the cheapest in the country. Bill Gillespie has a TV ad ready to air. A few tens of thousands of dollars can saturate every cable market in the district.
Why wait until 2010 to get rid of Jack Kingston? We've got a real better Democrat running right now. Let's elect Bill Gillespie now.
A letter from Obama's campaign and a few bucks in GA-01 could replace the leader of the GOP theme team with a better Democrat. Obama, DCCC, O2B, openleft, Better Democrats, swingstateproject, I'm looking at you!
Do it now, or leave this district on the road and Jack Kingston in Congress?