And on a voice vote. How brave. I guess some people were embarrassed to go on record in support of Miss California's anti-gay marriage stance. Could be they didn't want to look their colleague Patricia Todd in the face and admit their own bigotry.
Shame on every legislator who wasted our time and money voting for this.
She's even from Dothan, close to, but not quite in Love's district. We don't hear the questions on this video. They were apparently pretty inane -- maybe what era would you visit if you had a time machine?, what do you eat? and what superpower would you like to have? -- but her responses were reasonable and coherent. She admires women who combine femininity with power and wouldn't want a superpower because it might go to her head or tempt her to abuse it. She also has a 4.0 GPA and speaks two foreign languages. Why not commend this young Alabama woman instead of Miss California? She isn't blond and isn't obviously a bigot. Is that a problem for the Alabama Legislature?
A resolution has been introduced in the Alabama House that praises Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for speaking out against gay marriage during Sunday night's televised pageant.
...
The resolution was introduced Tuesday by Republican Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery.
Has Jay Love actually listened to Ms. Prejean's completely nonsensical answer? She didn't lose because she stuck to her convictions, she lost because she didn't make any damned sense.
Carrie Prejean: I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anyone out there but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be between a man and a woman.
Is California a country now, for Pete's sake? Does she think gay marriage is legal in America? "No" is the correct answer to both, although this stunning blonde doesn't seem to get that. Face it, Rep. Love, this woman was on TV for her looks, not her brains or her personal convictions. Beauty pageants are mindless eye candy for lecherous old (and young) men, demeaning to women of all ages and the Alabama Legislature has zero business getting involved in them, especially advocating for incoherent young women from other states.
The Republicans should have nominated Harri Anne Smith to run against Bobby Bright. She had a horrible media consultant, but beat Jay Love all hollow in the brains department.
Looks like Bobby Bright (D, AL-02) may get lucky in 2010 -- the Republicans may nominate 2008 loser Jay Love to challenge him. Love had good name recognition in the area last year, competent campaign staff, plenty of money (almost a million of it was his own) and was running for an open seat, but he still lost. It's hard for me to see how Love's performance will improve in 2010, especially since Bright now enjoys the advantages of incumbency.
Unless Bobby Bright really screws up, I don't see much likelihood that Jay Love can beat him in 2010. Parker Griffith (D, AL-05) should be so lucky as to face 3 time loser Wayne Parker again.
A lesson to Alabamians: when sanctimonious, holier-than-thou, acting-like-they're-nominated-by-Jesus Himself candidates ally themselves with Las Vegas casino billionaires, sometimes, just sometimes, these people get their come-uppance.
I wish Mr. Love no ill will and hope that he'll do well in his future business ventures to the benefit of the Montgomery Area economy. I further hope that if he wishes to continue on with other political aspirations he think twice about accepting helping hands from such greasy, sleazy people who, seems to me, have zero interest in Alabama or the betterment of this wonderful state.
The D-trip has a couple of new Alabama ads up today. Since the Wayne Parker folks played their 9/11 ad after tonights candidate debate, I'll start with the one in AL-05. Remember, the NRCC and Freedom’s Watch both had misleading attack ads invoking 9/11 and terrorism pulled from the air in North Alabama. This is how the DCCC responded:
Wayne Parker and his Washington allies are shamefully using 9/11 to smear Parker Griffith. Even a local TV station refused to run the group's attack ads and the minister hosting the candidate forum said he was shocked by the misuse of Griffith's quote.
Here's the latest Jay Love ad from the DCCC, which I think is pretty darned effective. It's a rather lighthearted way to summarize their previous charges against Love: he didn't provide healthcare for 80% of employees, was supported by Freedom's Watch backer Sheldon Adelson and took travel expenses from the state while living just 8 miles from the State House.
This is a good time to look at the independent expenditures in this race over the last few days, courtesy of Swing State Project. They update the information at that link very frequently and it's a great resource.
That's the new rating of the Bright/Love race from CQ Politics and it represents a change in Bright's direction from the previous "Leans Republican."
The political history of the southeastern Alabama district still suggests an inherent Republican advantage, and the GOP had a strong and very well-funded candidate in state Rep. Jay Love. But Bright has burnished his efforts to build a profile as a conservative Democrat by obtaining the endorsements of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative-leaning House Democrats; the Business-Industry Political Action Committee, which mostly endorses Republican candidates; and perhaps the biggest surprise, state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, a staunch conservative who lost narrowly to Love in the July Republican primary runoff.
Republicans, though, assert they will win by persuading voters that Bright would go to Washington and be a foot soldier for the liberal House Democratic leadership. After using a football analogy arcane to all but fans of the district’s Auburn University and arch-rival University of Alabama, Love campaign spokesman Todd Stacy said, “He’s on the wrong team, so he’s trying to convince people that teams don’t matter. Well, teams do matter.”
Teams do matter, and Bright is on the winning team this year. In spite of all the money Love and his right wing pals have dumped into this race, they're sliding backwards toward election day.
The Republicans, especially "independent" organizations like the National Republican Congressional Committee and Freedom's Watch have been running very negative "gotcha" style ads in an attempt to smear Democrats in Congressional races across the country. Alabama's 2nd District provides a textbook example of how the smear merchants do their dirty work.
Typically, they use only a snippet of some statement by a Democrat. The video below illustrates the technique -- the first 7 seconds or so is footage from this Jay Love ad (note, this is from the Love campaign, not an independent group) which features about 4 seconds of a reporter's question and the response from Mayor Bobby Bright. Clearly, the Love campaign clipped both the question and the answer in mid-sentence. This should always be a red flag. There's more to that Love ad, but the clip at the beginning is an egregious distortion of Bright's words, as you can see for yourself. The remainder of the video below shows the setup of the question and the rest of Bright's response, which runs to about a minute.
The cherrypicking of Bright's words is so blatant in this commercial that it attracted the attention of the reporter heard off-camera asking who Bright supported for president. This is from Eileen Jones of WSFA and the words in bold are the ones used in the Love ad:
And, this was Bright's complete answer to the question. "Are you asking me if I support Barack Obama? " he asked. I then repeated the name, "Barack Obama." Bright then said emphatically, "Yes, but let me tell you why because if he's president I'm going to work with him. I'm going to build that bridge and make sure I don't turn him away before I ever get started. Let me tell you something else that I can elaborate on. You know what? If John McCain gets to be president, you know what; I'm going to support him too."
During an interview with Love, I asked him about the political ad he's running. "The question is why did you leave off that last part?"
Love's response was "Well, the question was do you support Barack Obama? That's what you asked and his answer was ‘yes.'" I then asked another question. "But, his answer was I support Barack Obama and I support John McCain." Love had a quick response. "Well, you can't have it both ways Eileen. Either you support Barack Obama or you support John McCain."
Actually, Bright said a lot more than even Ms. Jones quoted -- he gave a thoughtful answer that can be roughly boiled down to this: "I support whoever is President because he will be the President and I will try to work with him." Bright mentioned Obama, McCain and even George Bush. This isn't a radical position. Many if not most Americans think our going-in position should be to support the current President, whoever it is. Love's campaign went for the cheap shot, cutting a 1 minute response down to 4 seconds in an attempt to link Bobby Bright to Barack Obama. It's intellectually dishonest, the WSFA reporter called them on it and it probably wasn't even worth it in the first place, since linking Democrats to Obama failed spectacularly in special elections earlier this year -- even in the South. Definitely a loser for Love.
The modern Republican party or the modern conservative movement, if you prefer, seems to have a problem with the honest discussion of ideas, maybe because they are out of ideas. They prefer "gotcha" politics of extracting a few words out of context and telling voters what their opponent "really meant" by those few seconds. These clever soundbites don't make for good government and or credit voters for interest in or understanding of the legitimate differences between the candidates. The underlying assumption is that voters are pretty damned stupid and the media is pretty damned lazy. Change those assumptions and "gotcha" smears like this one are apt to backfire on their purveyors, as this one has.
Here's to a better informed populace and a more active media, and the hope that the two will lead to better government for all of us. Remember, cheap shots and "gotcha" smear ads only work if you vote for the smear-mongers.
Bright is up 4 points from the previous poll and now has the support of 50% of those polled. Love has dropped 2 points in the same timeframe. This just in from the DCCC:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee today released a new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll conducted October 20-21 that shows Bobby Bright leading Jay Love by 7 points in the race for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District (50 percent to 43 percent). The poll surveyed 403 likely voters and has a 4.9 percent margin of error.
Voters in Alabama's 2nd District see Bright in a positive light, giving Bright a 2-to-1 favorable rating (49 percent fav to 26 percent unfav) and an extremely high job approval rate for his work as mayor (49 percent excellent/good to 25 percent just fair/poor). Conversely, Jay Love's negative smears have backfired, creating a situation where almost as many people view Love unfavorably as favorably (38 percent fav to 34 percent unfav).
"Voters in Alabama's 2nd District are responding to Bobby Bright's record of fighting to lower taxes and balance budgets," said Kyra Jennings, Southern Regional Press Secretary at the DCCC. "Alabama families are looking to Bright to continue his focus on positive leadership and economic development, and don't trust Jay Love, who has a history of raising taxes and didn't even give his own employees health care."
The last poll in this race was done by Anzalone-Liszt Oct. 5-7 and found Bright leading 46% to 45%. Looks like Love is a few points closer to joining the also rans (Fred, Huck and Mitt) who recently endorsed him.
All negative, all the time isn't working this year. I suspect a poll in AL-05 would show that the smear campaign Republicans are running is damaging their candidate there as well.
With 12 days until the election, campaign spending is now in high gear and the Congressional campaign committees are opening the floodgates. Look at the expenditures by the DCCC and the NRCC in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District and you can see one reason Bobby Bright decided that he would run with a "D" after his name this year. This is from the DCCC in the past week:
AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Phones $271.85 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Direct Mail $19,280.38 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Direct Mail $16,089.85 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Field $2,600.00 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Media Prod. $1,720.00 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Media Buy $9,435.00 AL-02 DCCC 21-Oct Media Buy $169,914.92 AL-02 DCCC 20-Oct Media Prod. $10,301.54 AL-02 DCCC 20-Oct Field $2,300.00 AL-02 DCCC 19-Oct Field $3,400.00 AL-02 DCCC 18-Oct Field $2,500.00 AL-02 DCCC 17-Oct Direct Mail $16,089.85 AL-02 DCCC 17-Oct Direct Mail $19,280.38 AL-02 DCCC 17-Oct Field $2,900.00 AL-02 DCCC 16-Oct Field $1,800.00 AL-02 DCCC 16-Oct Media Buy $15,567.75 AL-02 DCCC 15-Oct Field $2,800.00 AL-02 DCCC 15-Oct Literature $5,736.57
That's almost $302,000 the DCCC has dumped into AL-02, just in the past week. The NRCC is spending there, but doesn't have the resources to help Love at this level. They've committed about $138,000 in the past week.
AL-02 NRCC 22-Oct Direct Mail $20,086.25 AL-02 NRCC 20-Oct Media Buy $82,668.00 AL-02 NRCC 20-Oct Direct Mail $20,086.25 AL-02 NRCC 16-Oct Direct Mail $13,760.10 AL-02 NRCC 16-Oct Direct Mail $1,722.72
This is one of the ads the DCCC is paying for in AL-02, hitting Jay Love for accepting a per diem allowance even though he lives less than 8 miles from the Alabama State House.
What's the common denominator? Could it be, oh, I don't know, just maybe, none of these guys could beat McCain in enough Repub primaries to be anything more than asterisks?
You know, McCain, the Republican Electoral Juggernaut? Yeah, that guy. The one who is currently circling the electoral drain with Caribou Barbie/Bible Spice.
But they are all just so oblivious. They're rearranging deck chairs on the Love Boat.
They may not believe in the iceberg, but the iceberg believes in them...
*yes, I'm on a lyrics kick here - at least I introduced the Beatles to drive the TV theme music out of your head. I'm doing you a favor.
This is today's press release from state Senator Harri Anne Smith:
My Endorsement of Bobby Bright
October 21, 2008
Dear Friend,
I endorsed Mayor Bobby Bright yesterday at the kickoff to his America First Truck Tour. I endorse Bobby wholeheartedly because I believe that he has the conservative values and experience needed to represent the 2nd Congressional District and Alabama in Congress. I know he will have the judgment and ability to bring jobs and opportunity, and to save Ft. Rucker!
A few short months ago I was the target of Jay Love's shameful dishonest smear campaign. Jay is now attacking Bobby with outright lies. I think that it's time to put party politics aside for this race and choose a representative based on his personal qualifications and integrity.
Please join me in sending an honest man to congress. His Ad "Rally" will show you what the people of Montgomery think about his ability to get the job done! Click here to view "Rally" on Youtube
You can help him keep his positive message out there. He needs the money to fight Jay Love's smears & he needs the money for radio, for direct mail and for television.
Please join with us, and send us $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can give to fight against Jay Love's desperate attempts to tear another man down! Contribute Now
Sincerely,
Sen. Harri Anne Smith
Not just an endorsement from Harri Anne Smith, but a fundraising plea as well.Here's the "Rally" ad:
Great ad. I wish Parker Griffith (AL-05) would use Bobby Bright's media consultant. Transcript:
(Bright) What I care about is the people of Alabama.
Washington won't change Bobby Bright.
He gets things done
He brought us the Renaissance Center, the baseball stadium and the riverfront development.
(Bright) We've changed this city.
Look what he's done for Montgomery.
Bobby actually fought the drug company.
(It's not about being a Republican or a Democrat, it's about being an American
I am a Republican but I'm voting for the man for this race.
He's honest, hard working, gets things done.
When Bobby tells you something, you can literally take it to the bank.
(Bright) I'm Bobby Bright and I approved this message and I will never forget where I came from.
NOTE: A version of this was first posted at Daily Kos. Therefore, many of the explainers below might seem unnecessary to an Alabamian. Of course, many North Alabamians know about as much (or little) about the Wiregrass as many Southeast Alabamians know about, say, Monte Sano State Park or Werner von Braun.
"Republican State Senator Harri Anne Smith joined fellow mayor and democrat Bobby Bright as he kicked off his 16 county 'Truck Tour' of the district before the November 4th election.
"Smith said she knows that brights heart is with the Wiregrass and that he represents the region well.
"'I Knew that his heart was here in the Wiregrass and the fact that through this campeign he has not thrown rocks and stones at the republican party ...he has tried to bring people together.'
"Bright compared the across the aisle endorsement to that of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his endorsement of Barack Obama on Sunday. . . "
Pass the popcorn because there's an entertaining show playing down in the Wiregrass. Others here have first hand knowledge of the star players, but I just have to throw out a couple of remarks about state Sen. Harri Anne Smith's endorsement of Democrat Bobby Bright for Congress in Alabama's second district.
First off, Jay Love has now demonstrated that he has zero political skills. If he can't build bridges to his Republican primary opponent, how the heck is he going to work effectively with the Democratic majority in Congress should he be elected? The short answer is that he won't be effective, costing his district dearly as the next round of budget cuts come down the pike. Subway Jay is a creature schooled in the divide and conquer Republican philosophy and he lacks the political skills required to work across the aisle. He is not magnanimous either in victory or in defeat. Attack is the only tool in his box and it won't be enough to get anything done in the next Congress.
Second, Love's snub of Harri Anne Smith after defeating her in the runoff, coupled with the Alabama Republican Party's determination to effectively kick her out of the party -- Chairman Mike Hubbard has indicated she won't be allowed on the ballot as a Republican in the future -- could break up the Republican hold on the Wiregrass. Kicking successful office-holders out of the party is a crazy-ass strategy and I surely hope Hubbard sticks to his guns. If Bobby Bright wins on November 4 and Harri Anne Smith is re-elected as an Independent in 2010 that corner of the state would be looking purple if not downright bluish.
As in all politics, it’s about the posturing and the money. If Bright, indeed, is successful as a conservative Democrat, then other so-called independent conservatives who slip over to the D side of the ballot will bring with them some conservative dollars.
Hardcore Republicans, who have stuck with the party and built it into a powerhouse, want those dollars to win. They want the posture. They seek the position that being a Republican will bring them.
It’s the cracks that begin to appear when those “mavericks” start talking about “crossing the aisle.”
It’s a danger for the solid GOP built up by Nixon’s plan to win his second term through his Southern strategy — the neocons.
As everyone knows, I'm closely following the Alabama 3rd Congressional District race, so I was very enthusiastic to read Rogers and Segall's responses to these questions.
Mike Rogers mostly gave his typical one or two sentence answers including addressing universal health care by saying
Free-market reforms are the best answer.
We need to do new and creative things like authorizing the associated health plans and to do things to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid, which are just absolutely essential to our health-care system.
Of course Segall gave very thoughtful and provoking answers. He talked about the quality and cost of health care at length.
Rogers clearly is a very dim-bulb that gives the standard Republican crafted answers.
Segall on the other hand understands how prescription drug companies can cut the costs in an number of ways including lowering advertising costs.
Mike Rogers has no real answer for stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS through increased federal funding.Rogers never speaks about preventive care.
Now come on Mike, you've been in Congress for six years and you cannot come up with any more than this.
"...The tone of Love's campaign is unfortunately a clear indication of how he would govern if elected - by inciting class warfare and demonizing people who may disagree with him. District Two doesn;t need "leadership" fueled by divisiveness or hatred.
"With a solid and extensive record of achievement, a background more suited to serving taxpayers, and an ability to represent the entire District rather than just a slim fraction of voters narrowly defined by ideology or economic self-interest, the Capital City Free Press whole-heartedly and enthusiastically endorses Bobby Bright."
That's a question we could (and should) ask of many Republicans running for office this year. Campaign contributions are tight and, as a result, GOP candidates are accepting help from independent groups whose aims and financial backers are often difficult to discern. In particular, Freedom's Watch has been running ads on behalf of both Jay Love in AL-02 and Wayne Parker in AL-05. One thing that is clear about Freedom's Watch is that bazillionairre gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson has bankrolled that group in a big way. The DCCC thought the connection was worth highlighting in this ad:
Transcript:
Conservative values. Jay Love talks a lot about them, but who's backing Jay Love's campaign?
Sheldon Adelson -- a Las Vegas casino magnate and America's biggest investor in Communist China is the prime benefactor to the group supporting Jay Love. The Alabama Christian Coalition said "it's quite clear where his heart is: in gambling and in backing the regime in China."
Conservative values? No way. Jay Love: it's wrong.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.
It's a sweet deal if you can get it -- for everyone except the Alabama taxpayers, that is. Does your employer give you an extra allowance for sleeping at home? Mine never did either, but Jay Love has taken over $14,000 in per diem payments from the state of Alabama while living only 7.5 miles from the Alabama State House (see map.)
According to the State Payroll Administrator for the Alabama Comptroller's Office, Jay Love took a per diem a total of 286 days since 2003. Love's per diem payments were $50 a day, totaling $14,300 that Love cheated taxpayers out of for personal gain. Below is a detailed listing from the Alabama Comptroller's Office of how many days per year Love took a per diem while serving as a State Representative:
2003 - 66 days
2004 - 45 days
2005 - 46 days
2006 - 38 days
2007 - 47 days
2008 - 44 days
Jay Love's Montgomery, Alabama home is 7.5 miles from Jay Love's State House office. Alabama state legislators receive $3850 a month adjusted annually to reflect any increase in the cost of living, which comes to $46,200 annually before any cost of living adjustments. Additionally, legislators receive $10 per calendar day, and sessions are limited to 105 calendar days, for an additional $1,050. [Legislator Compensation 2008, National Conference of State Legislators, March 2008 ; Alabama's Legislative Process, Senate Document No. 3] Rules for Per Diem payment:The current allowance for expenses is $50.00 per diem for three days during each week that the Legislature actually meets during any regular session, special session or organizational session, and $3,850.00 per month expenses year round. Each member is also paid $50.00 per diem for the performance of his or her duties as a member of any duly authorized interim legislative committee or subcommittee thereof, conditional upon actual attendance [Alabama's Legislative Process, Senate Document No. 3]
... Jay Love is a millionaire with between $1 and $5 million each in Pike Rd. Invests, LLC and SE Subway Dev, LLC, among his other lucrative assets.[Jay Love personal financial disclosure, 5/10/08]
The per diem is intended to offset the travel expenses of legislators who have to travel to Montgomery to conduct business 3 days a week while the Alabama Legislature is in session. Many of those legislators actually stay in a motel rather than face a long drive home every day, hence the $50 per day per diem. However, Jay Love only has a 7.5 mile drive and I don't think he rented a room during the sessions, but Subway Jay had no problem pocketing the $50 per day from Alabama taxpayers. Is this what he's talking about with those "Alabama values" commercials? Keep your hand out for every penny you can get, maybe?
Y'all may remember that Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin also accepted a per diem from Alaska taxpayers for living in her own residence. She may be in a little trouble with the IRS because she conveniently forgot to report that as income. Seems modern Republicans are pretty good at milking the system for their personal advantage.
As I watch Bobby Bright slowly demolishing Jay Love's hopes of becoming AL-02's next congressman, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a Montgomery County resident at the Democratic Convention in Denver.
My source, after telling me lots of good gossip information (margaritas tend to make people talkative), then begged me not to identify him/her by name. So for fun, let's say it's a man and his name is Scooter (in a nod to that great secret-leaker, Scooter Libby).
Scooter told me that Bright was succeeding for two reasons: he has the political gift to be in the right place at the right time (also called "luck") and he also has the courage to put himself into races when others are afraid to take on what could be a losing campaign.
Scooter's assesment back in August was that Bright is poised to win this race. "All he has to do is keep working, keep his clothes on, and let Jay Love keep acting like he has Jesus as a running mate."
Like most Republicans this election, Jay Love has spent most of his advertising budget attacking his opponent, Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright. The Bright campaign has put together a short video of Love's attacks with Bobby Bright responding directly to the charges.
This is what I like about Bobby Bright ... no nonsense, no fluff, just plain common sense. You know, this is what a real straight talker looks and sounds like.
Pass the popcorn because there's an entertaining show playing down in the Wiregrass. Others here have first hand knowledge of the star players, but I just have to throw out a couple of remarks about state Sen. Harri Anne Smith's endorsement of Democrat Bobby Bright for Congress in Alabama's second district.
