It never ceases to amaze me how those who are purportedly on our side can flail about so blindly sometimes. Yesterday’s Daily Times had the slightly dated but not really old story recounted by Joe Gidjunis about a group called “Republicans for Kratovil”, made up primarily from all accounts by disgruntled employees and backers of soon-to-be-former Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. The group will have a fundraising breakfast next week in Chestertown, the heart of Gilchrest’s home base.
Folks, I look at this story and it makes me think of an equally silly analogy. Most of you know I supported and endorsed Rep. Duncan Hunter in his Presidential bid; unfortunately his campaign never really caught fire and he was generally at the bottom of the vote totals in the primaries he entered. In my opinion, the effort by Karen Willis and her co-conspirators would be like me starting a “Hunter Supporters for Obama” group. It makes just as much sense.
Certainly there are a few similarities in what Gilchrest stood for and what Kratovil claims to stand for – particularly regarding the Long War, likely the issue that did in Wayne Gilchrest in his primary bid. (Kratovil sees it solely as a civil war in Iraq.) They’re somehat similar on the environment and immigration, which is the issue Kratovil veers farthest to the right on. However, there are vast differences too, particularly on how much Kratovil wants the federal government to go into health care. And what Frank’s website doesn’t go into is his fiscal stance, which was probably the area where Wayne was farthest to the right. We’re left to infer that Kratovil would be like his supporter Martin O’Malley and wish to raise taxes – in this case, by doing away with President Bush’s tax cuts when they expire in just 2 to 3 years.
(By the way, it’s quite interesting that Kratovil has taken all of his party official endorsements off his website, including that of Governor O’Malley. Pictures of the both of them together too.)
My key point, though, is this. Back in midsummer, there was a party loyalty survey done by CQpolitics. Unfortunately, the links I had no longer work but I summarized the results here. I noted in that post from July 16, 2007:
Only four Democrats held under 75% loyalty to the party. Simply put, despite the Democrat challenger’s tough talk on immigration and the “law and order” approach instilled in him by his job, Frank is very likely to be a reliable vote in the liberal “D” column on at least some issues his district would like him to vote for in a conservative manner. Obviously, he’s also going to favor maintaining the ineffective (if not downright disastrous) leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer in the House as well.
Blinded by rage at their favored candidate losing, the Republicans for Kratovil can’t seem to figure out that their support of the Democrat in the race won’t push him any farther to the right on issues but will enable him to claim a bipartisan mantle for all of his votes, no matter how far on the left wing they fall. If these folks are that disgusted with the Republican voters of the First District electing someone they deem too conservative, perhaps they need to be honest with themselves and rethink their voting affiliation instead of going against the principles for which their originally chosen party stands.
Again, I’m changing subjects at the tail end of a post tonight for two things.
First, regarding last night’s post – thanks to ShoreThings pointing out to me that OpenOffice has a PowerPoint reader. Since I indeed have that program, I flipped through the 35 slides in the presentation. Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct that the GOP plan only cuts the revenues from the not-yet-adopted computer services sales tax and does not roll back additional O’Malley taxation like the overall sales tax increase or the revised income tax rates.
As for Monday’s post regarding in-state tuition for illegals, it’s now 2 down and 9 to go thanks to Delegate Ron George. I got a note from assistant Debbie Yatsuk that let me know he was also against the bill and gave me a heads-up on a bill he’s sponsoring regarding driver’s licenses for illegals, HB288. That bill has a hearing March 19 and she noted that an entire litany of groups will come out in opposition, including CASA de Maryland, Legal Aid Bureau, Public Justice Center, and various churches.
If you go here you can see the esteem one main HB288 opponent, Delegate Joe Vallario, is held in by CASA de Maryland.
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
I will give Kratovil time to show that he can express his own opinions. The fact that Martin O’Malley supports him does not mean that they will agree on every issue.
If candidates are expected to immediately take on the views of those that endorse them, then tomorrow we can expect John McCain to make a speech calling the Catholic church ‘the great whore’ and a ‘false cult system’, since that is what televangelist John Hagee believes. I think that we would all be better off judging the candidates by their actions and not by trying to put words in their mouths.
Nancy Pelosi and Martin O’Malley are not representative of all Democrats. We all know that Martin O’Malley is the governor of Maryland. I bet most people could not tell you what state delegation Nancy Pelosi is part of. At least not without Googling it first.
While Kratovil does state that the war in Iraq was a mistake, he also makes it clear that he does not support a timetable for withdrawal. Most politicians, Democrats included, now use carefully worded statements that express a desire to remove ‘combat troops’ from Iraq, but the concensus seems to be clear that security forces will be in place for an extended period of time.
I hope that the campaign to defeat in-state tuition for illegals is successful, and I admire your effort to influence the issue.
“If these folks are that disgusted with the Republican voters of the First District electing someone they deem too conservative, perhaps they need to be honest with themselves and rethink their voting affiliation…”
Great minds… eh, Michael?
http://mikenetherland.blogspot.com/2008/03/republicans.html
Pretty much, Mike, but I think you and I are fairly close together on issues anyway. Something about common sense? I’d just like to see a little more out of you post-wise!