Tennessee is getting a lot of net time nowadays. It seems that the fate of the Senate may be up to the ability of Harold Ford, Jr., to run a competent campaign. I have volunteered for his campaign, but he didn't put me up to this. I have a plan. I call it the Tennessee Two-Step.
Step one: Appeal to the middle and undecided
As pointed out by many other people here and in the local news, if given the choice between a Republican and a Republican-lite, most Tennesseans will choose the real Republican, even if they don't particularly agree with him on most of the issues, or even if they don't know anything about the candidate. So we have to point out why not to vote for Bob Corker.
Flips and Flops
When he ran for Senate in 1994 he felt that abortion was wrong but it was not a government issue. In 1994 being pro-choice was still "in". Since 2001 he's been pro-life, because the conservatives took control, so to keep up with the times he changed his mind.
http://www.knoxnews.com/...
Asides from being filthy stinking rich (which should be a crime in itself), Bob Corker not only supported his own pay raise as mayor, but also eliminated cost-of-living raises for city employees and has adamantly opposed a minimum wage at all as recently as July 2006. Now he is all for raising the minimum wage, because there seems to be modest support for raising the minimum wage. Again, he changes his mind to keep up with the times.
http://www.tfponline.com/...
http://www.dscc.org/...
Finally, during the UAE Ports scandal, Corker originally opposed the selling of our ports to a country that harbors terrorists. Until he met with Mr. Frist, of course, who reminded him that the party line was to support President George W. Bush no matter what. So Corker changed his mind and was in support of the port deal. Then public outcry emerged against the port deal, so he changed his mind back to being opposed to the deal.
I found the link to this but it was a subscription-only archive. See also:
http://go4truth.com/...
and
http://go4truth.com/...
Not to mention the alleged hiring of illegal immigrants while overseeing a construction firm, the alleged cover-up of illegal toxic waste dumping, and all the time and money he has spent catering to Big Oil and big business companies. He's a wealthy elitist who has done nothing but harm to Chattanooga during his short stint as mayor there...well nothing but cashing in huge checks from his real estate business.
Step two: Appealing to the liberals.
I can make this a case of two numbers: 46 and 95.
So yeah, Ford's voting record as a member of the House of Representatives looks pretty bad when compared to the more liberal liberals. On the 13 key issues voted on by the 109th Congress he sided with the Democrats 7 times and with the Republicans 6 times. On the surface, he looks Republican-lite, conservative, etc. But what you have to realize is that his votes were a reflection of his constituents. He represented West Tennessee, which although it isn't the most conservative area of Tennessee by a long shot, isn't exactly a hotbed for progressives.
He represented the majority of his voters, which is what our members of Congress are supposed to do.
Bob Corker doesn't have an opinion until he needs one, then he just takes whatever position is fed to him from the Republicans in Washington. Bob Corker represents the minority (and I don't mean he represents minorities). Harold Ford represents the majority, and he will continue to do so if elected. He believes in people-powered government, and I think most liberals would agree with him there. He wouldn't necessarily side with the Democrats just because they say so; his track record would suggest he would side with the Republicans 46% of the time. But you can bet that Corker would side with the Republicans at least 95% of the time, if not 100%.
So there's your numbers, 46 and 95. So it's up to you. You have three choices:
1) Vote for the candidate that votes Republican 46% of the time
2) Vote for the candidate that votes Republican 95% of the time
3) Don't vote, and spend the next 6 years beating yourself in the forehead saying "if only I had voted for Harold Ford..."
Again, it has been said over and over and over that it's worth voting in a conservative Democrat just to get the majority in the Senate. Too many of you kossacks have said this to quote every one of you. Magnifico is a good friend of mine, so I'll just quote him.
Do you like Bush's policies? NO!
Do you want to stop Bush's policies? Heck yeah!
Then vote out his enablers -- the republicans in Congress.
When you vote Democratic, you vote for a Democratic Congress. This will get you:
Congressional oversight of Bush
Investigations of corruption
Power of subpoena
Checks and balances on the executive branch
Progressive legislative agenda
And much, much more
It is very simple -- a vote for a republican is a vote for Bush.
A vote for a Democrat is a vote for AMERICA.
http://www.dailykos.com/...