11 a.m. Wednesday. In case you hadn’t noticed, there are two Democrats competing for the honor of facing U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson in the fall.
First we have David White, former Baptist minister and, until he declared his candidacy, a local radio talk show host.
To keep it simple, Mr. White is the moderate in the primary race. In fact, he says that if Mr. Wilson were a Democrat, "I’d be a Barry Goldwater Republican."
Actually, that’s stretching a point. A Rockefeller Republican maybe. But I would say he’s more of a pre-Vietnam Democrat.
His biggest difference with his opponent is over the Iraq war. He says that at this point, it doesn’t matter why we invaded so much as the fact that "we’ve got to find a way to finish what we’ve started," with not only our troops, but ordinary Iraqis laying their lives on the line.
He calls his opponent a "cheerleader for the party," which he would not be. But he insists that "I like Mickey a whole lot."
He saves his real criticism for the man one of them will face in the fall. "Joe Wilson," he says, "has violated his public trust" by being a slave to his party and polls.
"The one thing I admire about George Bush is that he says ‘the polls be damned.’" Mr. Wilson, he says, would never do that.
He is particularly angered by what the incumbent said when it was first confirmed that the late Strom Thurmond had an illegitimate, biracial child. (In 2003, the congressman said, "It’s a smear on the image that (Thurmond) has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina.")
"Mr. Wilson has never even bothered to apologize for that," Mr. White said. He says Mr. Wilson doesn’t provide the "dignity and integrity" that a representative to Congress should have.
Mr. White opposes a constitutional amendment that would limit the definition of marriage to one man and one woman. Instead, he would "encourage monogamy and safe sex for anyone who’s going to have it."
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White is a good man and would make a great congressman. Unfortunatally the majority of people of his district (which happens to be mine) are not likely to vote for even a moderate democrat. The gerrymandered redistricting has assured republican control indefinatelly.
I had heard the rumors about Thurmond’s first daughter for many years so I wasn’t surprised when the news broke in 2003. I’m sure Wilson must have at least considered the fact that the story was true. He should have just kept his mouth shut. But no. Wilson is a shameless opportunist who would do or say anything to get re-elected.
Don’t you wish the voters had paid attention to “the rumors” about Bill Clinton’s whoring and drug use back in 1992, and not nominated him?
Yes Lee, I’m very sorry Bill C was elected president in 1992. We had to suffer through 8 years of phenomenol prosperity. Unemployment plummetted. Job growth went through the roof. The world was at peace to a greater extent than at any any time in world history. Americans were loved and respected abroad. Poverty was in decline. Teen pregnacy rates were in decline. The health of Americans soared. It is really hard to stand so many positive events at one time. But thankfully that all changed with the current leadership.
You must have slept through the 1996 economic slowdown which James Carville feared would cost Clinton re-election, the 1998 tech stock bust, the 1999 stock funds crash, and the 2000 recession on top of the Enron and 1,000 other scandals.
No worry. The meager tax cuts of 2001 turned things around.
There were 38 wars during the 8 years of Clinton, and we were involved in a dozen of them.
Idiot liberals wanted to pretend there was peace while Islamic terrorists were attacking us and laughing at Coward Clinton. Bin Laden said Clinton’s cowardice emboldened him and helped recruit more terrorists.
Lee, If presidential cowardice is such a great recruiting tool that would explain why the number of terrorists (and terrorist acts) have increased so dramatically during the Bush years.
Here’s a summary of unemployment in December during the Clinton years starting with December 1992 the last month before he took office. Detect a pattern? By the way, there was no economic slowdown in 1996. Nor was there a recession in 2000. The record for the DOW – January 14, 2000. I’ve never seen or read anything that supports the nonsense you just wrote. Sounds like some nonsense Rush L. would have said. You need to quit listening to him, he almost never gets his facts right.
1992 – 7.4
1993 – 6.5
1994 – 5.5
1995 – 5.6
1996 – 5.4
1997 – 4.7
1998 – 4.4
1999 – 4.0
2000 – 3.9
And after a year with Bush:
2001 – 5.7
Yes, I know, unemployment has declined since, but it’s still above the best of the Clinton years. And, wages are stagnant, job growth is the slowest its ever been during an economic recovery and the number of people in poverty is far higher now than 5 years ago. Facts are so cruel to the right wing cause.
Joe Wilson will win easily. But the above statement…
“Wilson is a shameless opportunist who would do or say anything to get re-elected ”
is 150% accurate.