WY-AL: Crush their Spirits, Dick Cheney Edition

It was pretty hard to imagine that Wyoming Republicans could do as bad as Barbara Cubin for the seat that was once Dick Cheney's. After all, this was the woman who, while in the state legislature, handed out penis-shaped cookies to her male colleagues and threatened to slap her wheelchair-bound libertarian opponent in a 2006 debate. Alas, Wyoming won't have Barbara Cubin to kick around any more.

Cynthia Lummis, former state treasurer and Republican nominee for the seat, isn't as...let's say...eccentric as Barbara Cubin, but she's just as likely to pull a nasty stunt. Consider that she hired Cubin's press secretary to work on her campaign and then the staffer tried to play "gotcha" on a closed press call Democrat Gary Trauner was holding to talk about the economy. Not only was it a nasty stunt, attempting to tie Trauner to Nancy Pelosi (not the most popular figure in Wyoming), it was a stupid one. It was clear from the moment she introduced herself as "Sierra," a Trauner supporter, that it was a set-up because the call was only announced to the press.

Nasty and stupid Republican tricks. Perfectly befitting Barbara Cubin. Perfectly befitting Dick Cheney. There's an arrogance to these people that is unimaginable. They will blatantly use every dirty trick in the book to win. And they are arrogant enough to do it because they think they'll get away with it.

Like this little Lummis "gaffe" from a debate last week:

Lummis was questioned about a comment that almost half the households in America pay no income tax.

Enter the gaffe.

"Yet the Osama, uh, the Barack Obama excuse me, the Obama (health care) plan would give those people rebates and they're not paying taxes now," Lummis said.

They're arrogant enough to think they can get away with this kind of crap because they are entitled to win, that political seats are reserved for them, and they shouldn't have to work for them. That was made abundantly clear at a League of Women Voters' forum that was held Thursday in Laramie.

All three Democratic candidates running for Congress attended Thursday night's forum at the Albany Public Library. But all three Republican candidates sent other people to speak in their place.

Democratic House candidate Gary Trauner drove from Teton County to attend. Republican Cynthia Lummis sent her daughter to talk for her.

I can vouch for that, I was there. Here are the young Republicans sent to read letters from the two Senators and the would-be Representative who were all just too busy and too important to come to a non-partisan forum and be responsive to their constituents.

I'm sure they're all nice young people, but they couldn't answer any questions. They couldn't talk about the community's concerns. Because, really, that wasn't what they were there for. They were there because their bosses (and mother) couldn't completely blow off voters, so they did the next best thing, send lackeys. The people they were standing in for don't care about the voters' concerns. It's not the first time this has happened. Just days before, Lummis blew off another LWV forum she was scheduled to be at with Gary, and another group of voters.

That's the kind of arrogance and disrespect for the people and the political process that one-party rule breeds. It's the kind of arrogance and disrespect that got us in the awful mess we're in today.

That's the kind of arrogance and disrespect that Dick Cheney personifies.

Here's the antidote.

Particularly this part:

....what we've been practicing here in this state, and what we've been practicing here in this country for the last--I don't know how long it's been--is what I call the politics of fifty percent. And that is, you know what, you get career politicians that only talk to the people they think will support them, they think will vote for them, or they think will give them money. And that's something that we need to change. I was speaking to someone from the Petroleum Association not that long ago, and he looked at me at the end of the lunch--I don't think I'm going to get his vote, good guy, good lunch--and he said, "You know what, Gary? You didn't have to come do this today." I looked at him and said, "You know what, Bruce? Yeah, I actually did. Because if I win this seat, I'm going to represent you and the people that you represent just as much as I represent anyone else in this state." And until we get past that, until we are willing to talk to others that we may not agree with, nothing is going to change. And if we keep allowing politicians to substitute party label for true leadership, nothing is going to change. And if we keep allowing our career politicians to substitute simple slogans for complex issues that take hard work and dedication and extensive knowledge, nothing is going to change. Wyoming has a really clear choice this time around, and it's about someone who is going to be the politics of the future or someone who is looking back toward the past....

Gary Trauner is the absolute antithesis to Dick Cheney. What could crush the spirit of the Republican party more than to see a Democrat--a progressive Democrat--in Dick Cheney's Congressional seat?

As kos says, "leave everything on the road." End the era of Dick Cheney and everything he represents, everything the Republican party has become. Help Gary Trauner take Dick Cheney's seat.