Democrats get boost for 2004 [Leftist LA analysis]

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 12/10/02 | Martha Ezzard

[madprof98]

Sorry, Dick, that dog won't hunt anymore.

Vice President Dick Cheney's recorded message to Louisiana hunters to vote for the GOP challenger in the state's U.S. Senate runoff Saturday --- the last day of hunting season --- was one of many messages carefully targeted to white good-ol'-boy groups.

The White House ambassador to the Vatican recorded a message to anti-abortion groups in the heavily Catholic state, and President Bush cut his own homey "vote for Suzy" pitch on behalf of his handpicked candidate, Louisiana elections commissioner Susan Haik Terrell. All those pitches missed the plate: Incumbent Mary Landrieu, a rising young Democratic star, won with 52 percent of the vote.

For the White House, this was a Southern campaign patterned after the defeat of incumbent Georgia Sen. Max Cleland. And Landrieu's victory provided two important clues for Democrats in 2004:

It is possible to criticize Bush and win; and, Democrats don't have to lurch left to distinguish themselves from the GOP. Landrieu, who voted with the president on the tax cut and the resolution authorizing war with Iraq, went after Bush's economic policy in her runoff campaign. Cleland, even after his own disastrous loss, worked on fund-raising for Landrieu. The two were close allies in the Senate, co-sponsoring a major conservation initiative that won bipartisan support but stalled in the GOP-controlled House.

Georgia GOP Chairman Ralph Reed's strategy to oust Cleland --- that of targeting white conservatives to vote against the Democrat --- fell flat in Louisiana. Much to Cleland's delight.

Despite the Cheney push, Louisiana hunters had no beef with Landrieu, who is hardly viewed as a liberal. She had already neutralized the powerful National Rifle Association by promising to vote in favor of lifting the ban on assault weapons. Landrieu is as savvy and Southern as North Carolina Sen.-elect Elizabeth Dole. But unlike Dole, she doesn't feel the need to wear family values on her sleeve. She's a soft-spoken model mother of two, who learned early on to combine steel and lace as the oldest of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu's nine children.

Though I detest Landrieu's pandering to the gun lobby, I admire her steely refusal to back down on her pro-choice position. Her opponent, like other GOP candidates in the South (including Georgia Sen.-elect Saxby Chambliss), endorsed the new radicalism of the Right to Life organization, pledging to support elimination of the incest and rape exceptions to abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

That, of course, is a distinct possibility because it hangs by one vote in the U.S. Supreme Court and Republicans now control the judicial confirmation process.

Landrieu got a lot of early help from fellow Democratic Sen. John Breaux, a conservative similar to Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, who sides with Bush more than most Senate Democrats. Miller supported Cleland in TV ads, but he made few campaign appearances with him.

The most dangerous sign for the GOP in the Landrieu victory is that not just women and minorities see through the president's excessive war talk --- a smokescreen to hide the administration's failure to address domestic pocketbook issues. Hard-working, patriotic Americans, many now jobless, are beginning to see through it, too.

Martha Ezzard's column appears Tuesdays.

mezzard@ajc.com

[madprof98]

Martha Ezzard is a one-issue journalist, and her issue is abortion. (In the past she has even claimed ot be a "Republican" of the Ann Stone stripe.) But I am worried by her analysis here. I think it is likely the Dems will use Louisiana as a model for future campaigns, at least the ones outside the Blue Zone itself.

[tal hajus]

I've heard that the dem said she voted with Bush about 80% of the time and she also won by around 3 points ahead of a lesser known Republican. Doesn't sound like very much of a dem victory to me.

[mware]

The White House ambassador to the Vatican recorded a message to anti-abortion groups in the heavily Catholic state

Interesting, no mention that he was the ambassador to the Vatican under the Clinton Administration.

[puroresu]

Martha must have been asleep when Landrieu promised to support pro-life legislation on a Catholic Church questionnaire.

[alnick]

She also must have been snoozing during that last debate when Mary answered the question, "Are you pro-choice," with, "I'm as pro-life as anyone."

[randita]

I think it is likely the Dems will use Louisiana as a model for future campaigns, at least the ones outside the Blue Zone itself.

National Democrats (Senate, that is) who could get away with the Landrieu MO can be counted on the fingers of one hand with fingers left over. If they tried, their hypocrisy would be laughable.

Democrats, despite their spin, know the Landrieu victory is an anomaly which can't be copied.

[Coop]

I think it is likely the Dems will use Louisiana as a model for future campaigns, at least the ones outside the Blue Zone itself.

What model? They do this in every campaign where the electorate is fairly conservative. Landrieu did nothing new.

[DB]

Wow, the dems win one out of how many losses and it sudden is a big deal... A turning point...

"...one of many messages carefully targeted to white good-ol'-boy groups"

Hunters are now "white good-ol' boys" now... Could it possibly be the writer is racist to boot...

[OldFriend]

Since the dems have 19 senate seats up in 2004 and the repubs have 15 I fail to see the dems dancing in the aisles as yet.

Yes, the dem won in LA, but she won by attaching herself to President Bush and telling the bubba and bubbette to stay away, ditto daschole and company.

[peekaboo]

The democrats are playing up this election as the BIG win of 2004. What the media fails to mention is the fact that Donna Brazille and James Carville, Landrieu, and Bubba had a conference call with Cleo Fields the next black governors candidate, when the turnout in New Orleans was going in the tank. The polls watchers reported back to their headquarters (both-sides) and it looked real bad for Mary. The black voters were pushed and bussed with the backing of the above mentioned players to the polls with the help of bubba, carville, donna and the black caucus.

What the TV media pushed all day was that our president had sent in his big guns along with his visit on Dec. 3rd, laying the loss of the republican candidate for senator, Terrell, at the feet of the president. Even today our paper continues to blame the senate loss on the big guns. They have yet to mention that it was the huge black push in Orleans parish, that won it for Mary.

Now in the 5th congressional race the facts were that Clyde Holloway, the sore loser in the primary held two press conferences, trashing the republican winner of the primary, Lee Fletcher, enabling clyde's campaign workers in Alexandria to turn and help Rodney Alexander in his campaign, even attending Alexander's rallies and volunteering to work in his campaign office in Alexandria. This cost Fletcher the election and also hurt Terrell big time. Suzie lost Alexandria, because these holloway volunteers helped the democrats.Also the turnout was very low. The weather was extremely cold here that day and the annual Natchitoches Christmas lighting was also held that day. Crowds of around 100,00 plus start collecting in Natchitoches about one hour from Alexandria, as early as 1:00 PM. Cheneys' calls to the hunters helped because at the poll area that I was an observer, there were many hunters, who came in to vote.

Our local paper this morning refers to Fletcher's loss as the Clyde factor. They got it right in the congressional race, but they did NOT report the help of Bubba and the blacks in Orleans that pushed Mary over the top.

[peekaboo]

The democrats are playing up this election as the BIG win of 2004. What the media fails to mention is the fact that Donna Brazille and James Carville, Landrieu, and Bubba had a conference call with Cleo Fields the next black governors candidate, when the turnout in New Orleans was going in the tank. The polls watchers reported back to their headquarters (both-sides) and it looked real bad for Mary. The black voters were pushed and bussed with the backing of the above mentioned players to the polls with the help of bubba, carville, donna and the black caucus.

What the TV media pushed all day was that our president had sent in his big guns along with his visit on Dec. 3rd, laying the loss of the republican candidate for senator, Terrell, at the feet of the president. Even today our paper continues to blame the senate loss on the big guns. They have yet to mention that it was the huge black push in Orleans parish, that won it for Mary.

Now in the 5th congressional race the facts were that Clyde Holloway, the sore loser in the primary held two press conferences, trashing the republican winner of the primary, Lee Fletcher, enabling clyde's campaign workers in Alexandria to turn and help Rodney Alexander in his campaign, even attending Alexander's rallies and volunteering to work in his campaign office in Alexandria. This cost Fletcher the election and also hurt Terrell big time. Suzie lost Alexandria, because these holloway volunteers helped the democrats.Also the turnout was very low. The weather was extremely cold here that day and the annual Natchitoches Christmas lighting was also held that day. Crowds of around 100,00 plus start collecting in Natchitoches about one hour from Alexandria, as early as 1:00 PM. Cheneys' calls to the hunters helped because at the poll area that I was an observer, there were many hunters, who came in to vote.

Our local paper this morning refers to Fletcher's loss as the Clyde factor. They got it right in the congressional race, but they did NOT report the help of Bubba and the blacks in Orleans that pushed Mary over the top.

[goldensky]

she must also have missed Breaux's "Mary believes in adoption" radio ad.

[Inyokern]

not just women and minorities see through the president's excessive war talk... Hard-working, patriotic Americans, many now jobless, are beginning to see through it, too.

Does she mean to say that women and minorities are not hard-working patriotic Americans? That is how the sentence reads.

[Nick Danger]

The most dangerous sign for the GOP in the Landrieu victory is that not just women and minorities see through the president's excessive war talk

One of the articles of faith that you have to believe in to be a Democrat posing as a journalist is that only white males ever vote for Republicans, and that all political struggle in the U.S. is between white males and everybody else.

The continual repetition of this mantra by media geniuses who think they are helping the Democrats with this noise has two desireable effects. One, it causes white male Democrats to wonder what the Hell they are doing voting for a party that apparently regards them as The Enemy. And two, it sometimes fools Democratic candidates into believing that women are reliably anti-war, which is most certainly not the case now. Poll after poll shows that as a group, women are more hawkish than men when it comes to the war on terrorism, and that includes Iraq.

It's always a pleasure, though, to see a media genius like this one spread delusions for her fellow Democrats to believe in.

[ServesURight]

Sleaziana is hopelessly controlled by Rats and plantation voting blacks. Big fricking deal that Landrieu won - it wasn't like the Senate was hanging in the balance or anything. The Repubs should let it slide and get to work on cutting the size of the fed gov anyway.

[VRWC_minion]

The rats were on defense when they should not have been threatened at all. The fact that they were vulnerable in a seat that should have been safe due to an incumbent that voted with Bush and was in an off year election is the issue. The fact that they held tight isn't remarkable.

If in the next electon, each rat is as vulnerable as Landrieu was the GOP will control the senate.

[No dems 2002]

Democrats are forgetting that the GOP won 22 out of 34 seats.

Let them take this in their weird spirit of overconfidence.

[Holden Magroin]

Breaux is a disgrace. I've never believed he was truly anti-abortion. The guy voted against Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.