The AC in the fancy bus was broken but Howard Dean's fervor was still on target this morning on Canal Street. When he shook my hand, he thanked me for running a great campaign and complimented my website. To remember the winning candidates in 50 states is difficult enough. To remember the losing ones is nothing short of amazing.
Perhaps the name is remembered by Dean from the unhappy Kossack letters that were written to ask why his 50-state strategy did not apply to my district.
LA-01 had a special election in May on a day with torrential rain that collapsed a major road and closed others. The night before, 22 inches of rain fell in Folsom, the Dem stronghold of St. Tammany Parish. Over 310,000 registered voters did not vote and Scalise was elected by less than 10% of constituents—the hard-core bigots and religious right fanatics who would have swum to the polls if need be. The David Duke supporters of yesteryear were at Scalise’s victory party in force. (The Repubs are not the only ones with spies.)
Many Dems were reported to say that there was no use to show up, even in good weather, as the Repubs already had the election sewn up. Every news reporter, political pundit, editor and some dKos frontpagers had reiterated for over a year that LA-01 was a Repub district and would remain so. The expectancy effect worked perfectly, as it had for decades. When local and state union leaders requested funds, their international DC leaders called the DCCC first. The DCCC could have insisted that their candidate was good and their own funds were limited. Public relations support would not have cost a penny.
Repubs did not have to work hard because the Dem Party helped them win by participating in the negative public relations. Scalise worked harder in the Repub primary. Now Jindal is helping the losing Repub candidate Tim Burns recoup some of his losses by participating in a fundraiser—another instance of Repubs taking care of their own. Must be nice.
And where is Scalise today? In ANWR. His familiar "it's all Pelosi's fault" is the same sing-song he repeated ad nauseum in the campaign. Scalise voted AGAINST the bill to prevent gas goughing--and it passed anyway. Now he has a plan to save us all from the rape at the pumps? Give me a break! Drilling every drop in ANWR will be a piddly contribution and would not be usable for years.
I have passed the torch onto another Dem—one with much money of his own. Dems in LA-01 should do better than 22.5% of the vote this time. Geaux, Jim Harlan. I am not a divisive, disgruntled Democrat. I am a hopeful, energized American.
Go, Obama, go! I am thrilled that Howard Dean and Barach Obama have not abandoned us. We have had enough abandonment at the hands of Repubs to last a lifetime. 4 more years of Bush via McShame are incomprehensible!