This morning was the Labor Day Democratic campaign kickoff rally with Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly, Congressman Jim Moran, Congressional candidates Judy Feder and Andrew Hurst, Senate candidate Jim Webb, State Senator Mark Herring, Delegate Jim Scott, State Senator Dick Saslaw, former Congresswoman Leslie Byrne, and over 500 enthusiastic audience members on a rainy day in Fairfax. I should have dozens of photos coming later [UPDATE:
Photo set is uploaded!], plus a video (hopefully) of the event. In the meantime, here are some highlights.
*Gerry Connolly, who apparently just had hernia surgery, still managed to kick things off in typical, enthusiastic, witty Gerry Connolly style. According to Connolly, just a few months ago all the pundits were saying there was no WAY the Democrats could take back the House of Representatives this year, and certainly not the US Senate. Now, we've got a great chance of taking back both the House AND the Senate, with people like Andy Hurst, Judy Feder and Jim Webb.
*Connolly declared, point blank, "we're gonna elect Jim Webb to the U.S. Senate."
*State Senator Mark Herring stated that people in the 10th District were demanding change and accountability. Herring noted that Frank Wolf voted "9 times out of 10 with President Bush," and that "we're not gonna get that kind of change from Frank Wolf." In contrast, Herring introduced Judy Feder as the person to bring "that kind of change to Washington."
*Judy Feder gave a rousing, energetic speech, in which she said that she was going to help change things in Washington. Feder noted that Frank Wolf has been in Congress for 26 years, and that all we're going to get from Wolf is "more of the same."
*Feder asked, rhetorically, whether traffic or gas prices had gotten any better with Frank Wolf and the Republicans in charge (loud audience response: "NO!!"). Feder asked, again rhetorically, whether it was right to give oil companies tax breaks when they were making record profits (loud audience response: "NO!!")
*Feder talked about the cost of heatlh care going up while the quality has gone down, and declared that "this is not acceptable."
*Feder said that she was "not afraid to stand up to powerful lobbies like the HMOs and pharmaceuticals," and noted that she had the "scars to prove it!"
*Jim Scott talked about how this election was more like 1974 - the post-Watergate election in which Democrats picked up 48 House seats - than 1994.
*Introducing Andy Hurst, Del. Scott had a great line, riffing off of Lloyd Bentsen's all-time-great slam of Dan Quayle: "I served on the Board of Supervisors with Tom Davis. I know Tom Davis. And Tom Davis is no Andy Hurst!" That one brought the house down.
*Andy Hurst bounded (does he ever NOT bound? ha) onto the stage in his usual super-energetic fashion. Hurst noted that he had knocked on thousands of doors, and that he was having a great time.
*Hurst talked about how people in the district were receiving glossy mailers from Tom Davis, "paid for at taxpayers expense," and how this wasnn't right. So, Hurst decided to do something about bit and filed a formal complaint against Davis. Good going Andy!
*Hurst joked that Tom Davis was probably "a great guy, cured cancer, loves puppies," but that he's simply wrong on the issues, and part of the problem, that being the Republican leadership in the House.
*The bottom line is that Hurst doesn't "believe what Tom Davis believes in," and he's going to fight Davis all the way. Gotta love Andy Hurst!
*State Sen. Dick Saslaw dismissed George Allen with just three words, noting that he had known Allen for over 20 years and that "he ain't much." Ouch!
*Saslaw mocked Allen's cowboy image, given that "Allen was born and raised in Southern California."
*Saslaw recalled that Allen "didn't have that accent when he came into the [Virginia] General Assembly." Saslaw also recalled that Allen "wasn't the quickest guy around."
*On Allen's racist comments to S.R. Sidarth, Saslaw pointed out that Allen had "tried to gain a political nickel at the expense of someone's nationality, and it's blowing up in his face." Saslaw wondered if Allen would have made those comments if he had not been in Southwest Virginia, surrounded by white Republicans. And Saslaw pointed out that Sidarth "is more of a Virginian than George Allen is!"
*Saslaw mocked Allen for learning his fake cowboy shtick at a "dude ranch while OUR candidate, Jim Webb, was fighting in Vietnam." Saslaw aded the classic line, "George Allen is no more of a cowboy than Jerry Seinfeld."
*Saslaw concluded by urging people to vote for Jim Webb, a man who won't "rubberstamp" bad leadership as Allen has done, but will do "what he believes is right."
*Rep. Jim Moran, who knows Tom Davis and Frank Wolf well, asserted that Davis is "more concerned than he's ever been" about winning re-election, and that Wolf hopefully "is not as scared as he should be."
*The bottom line problem with Davis and Wolf is that they are on the "wrong side of all the most important issues," that they are "loyal members of their political party," and that "this is a gulf that can't be crossed."
*Moran spoke passionately about his recent trip to New Orleans, how this was "the worst natural disaster in U.S. history," and how the Republican-led government had "turned its back on New Orleans."
*Moran went further, saying that what the Bush Administration and Republian Congress have done to New Orleans has been "the result of deliberate policies." Where has all the money gone? To "big contractors who have given money to the Republican Party."
*The bottom line with the Bush family and the Republicans in general is that, to quote FDR, "they are frozen in the ice of their own indifference." In other words, according to Moran, "they simply don't care."
*Moran laid into the Administration for "endemic" corruption, "indifference" and "incompetence." Moran had a GREAT line when he pointed out that "Republicans campaign on the theory that government can't work, then when they're in power, they spend their time proving it!"
*Moran charged the Bush Administration with a "pattern of deliberate deception" to push us into war with Iraq. According to Moran, they "deceived us and now we're stuck in a morass with no viable plan to get out."
*Moran also condemned Republicans for taking "hundreds of billions of dollars from the working class and giving it to the richest who don't need it." According to Moran, "that's stealing."
*The bottom line, in Moran's view, is that "we have NEVER been led by a worse President," and that it's time to "stand up" and "take this country back." Luckily, we have an alternative to George Allen "who will make us proud" - Jim Webb.
*Webb gave a great speech, with many people saying afterwards that it was the best one they'd ever heard him give, and noting how much Webb had improved just in the past few months and how he was really hitting his stride.
*Webb talked powerfully about Hurricane Katrina, noting that "a lot of people think I got into this over national security," but that New Orleans - where his wife is from - was "the final straw."
*Webb talked about how, when South Vietnam fell in 1975, our country was able to take "500,000 people out of [boats in] the ocean" and bring them to America. This demonstrated, according to Webb, that "with the right leadership from the top, we could have taken care of [the people of New Orleans]."
*Instead, according to Webb, New Orleans has been allowed to "just sit there," even as "a lot of profit" has been made by a few people off of that tragedy. That's why we need new leadership, to "rebuild the infrastructure of the United States...[starting] in New Orleans."
*Webb said that he was trying to recall whether or not there had ever been "a time in my life when the stakes were so high" for this country. On foreign policy, Webb said that he is sure this is "the worst ever," and declared that we must "dramatically change the political system."
*Webb slammed the Bush Administration as having "the reverse Midas touch," where "every single foreign policy situation they have touched, it has screwed up."
*Webb referred to his debate at the Homestead with George Allen, and Allen's attempt to mock him for opposing the FIRST Gulf War, back in 1990/1991. At the debate, Allen tried to insult Webb by pointing out that even the FRENCH were for the first Gulf War (kind of funny how Allen always insults the French, given that his own mother is French Tunisian; paging Dr. Freud!). Webb related how his son, Jimmy, had commented that Allen hadn't fought in Vietnam. The classic quote, courtessy of Jimmy Webb: "Dad, even the FRENCH fought in Vietnam!" (tremendous audience laughter and applause)
*Great line by Webb: "This Administration, and people like George Allen who have supported it blindly, threaten to disrupt the very fabric of what we are as Americans."
*Webb talked about how after-tax corporate profits, as a share of national income, were higher than they had ever been, while wages and salaries were the LOWEST they had ever been.
*Webb noted that "one-party government" had led to "abuses of Presidential power" and widespread fraud. "We need to get rid of people [like George Allen] who won't stand up and fight" this kind of thing.
*Webb commented briefly on Allen's "incident" from a few weeks ago. Webb noted that Allen had made a "deliberate mischaracterization of me and my relationship with Southwest Virginia" when Allen stated that Webb had never been there. In fact, according to Webb, he went down the week after Allen made those comments on a long-planned vacation WITH HIS RELATIVES! Webb also noted that he had "been going to down to Southwest Virginia since George Allen was in California!" (Webb also mentioned tending to his greatgrandparents' graves in SWVA)
*Webb asserted that Allen's insult of a young, South Asian-American man, "insults MY culture," by assum[ing] that people form this culture would agree with Allen's exclusive views." In contrast, Webb declared that the culture of Southwest Virginia - WEBB'S culture - was "a very inclusive culture." Webb related a conversation with Sidarth's father, who had done a lot of business in that part of the state some years ago. According to Sidarth's dad, nobody in Southwest Virginia had EVER said something bad about his ethnic background. But George Allen insulted his son. Wow.
*Finally, Webb commented that the Republicans were using an "old Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus" trick, trying to "take peoples' attention off of REAL problems" by talking about divisive wedge issues like gay marriage, burning flags, and excluding people. In contrast, Webb believes in INCLUSIVE government, and particularly in "taking care of people who have no power" or voice in Washington's corridors of power.
All in all, this was a great rally to kick off the Labor Day weekend by a great bunch of Democrats. Now, let's go kick some butt!
[UPDATE: Video of 11th District Congressional candidate Andy Hurst is here Video of 10th District Congressional candidate Judy Feder is here. Webb video coming soon, depending on my friend Eric holding out a while longer! :)]
[UPDATE #2 You can now watch Jim Webb's speech from today's kickoff rally on YouTube. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Enjoy!
P.S. Great work by Greg and Eric of Raising Kaine on all these videos. Especially Eric, who spent the time to put them on YouTube. Thanks!]
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.