(Photo: Matt Rourke/AFP/Getty Images)
by Matthew Hay Brown, and updated with Boehner comment
It is a measure of how concerned Republicans are about the recent House special election losses in Illinois and Louisiana that Vice President Dick Cheney will be traveling to Mississippi next week to participate in the get-out-the-vote effort for Greg Davis.
Davis, the Republican mayor of Southaven, Miss., is facing a tough fight with Democratic Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers in the May 13 runoff vote in the special election to succeed former Rep. Roger Wicker in the state's First Congressional District.
"This seat is a very important one," Cheney told Mississippi radio host Paul Gallow during an on-air interview this morning. "It's been in conservative hands for a long time, and we'd hate to see the liberals gain control."
House Minority Leader John Boehner, meanwhile, took the unusual step of pledging to help secure Davis a seat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee if he wins.
"Representation on the Veterans' Affairs Committee is important for the thousands of brave men and women in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District who have served this country, and I look forward to working with Greg, the Republican leadership and the members of the Steering Committee to make this happen at the earliest possible opportunity," the Ohio Republican said.
After losing the House majority in 2006, Republicans have been spooked by continued losses this year in Illinois, where Bill Foster won the seat long held by Republican former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Louisiana, where Don Cazayoux took a seat that had been held by Republicans since 1975.
As a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat, Childers has a profile similar to that of Cazayoux, who won last week despite Republican efforts to tie him to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi (in a race analyzed today by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post). Republicans are attempting to paint Childers, who came within several hundred votes of an outright majority in the six-candidate special election last month, with the same brush.
"You can have a guy campaigning as a centrist, a populist, and saying basically, 'I'm going to be my own man,' " Gallow told Cheney. "But when he gets there, he's going to have the handbook from the DNC and Nancy Pelosi on issues such as those tax breaks, the environment, of course the gas situation, and some monumental issues that we have got to solve the next few years."
"That's right," Cheney agreed. "Ultimately they'll have to cast votes on some very important issues. And I think it's important to know what the candidates believe, and obviously to motivate people to get out to the polls and participate in this election."
Cheney talked about the importance of every vote.
"The way I like to explain it, Paul, is to talk about the '03 tax cut. You may remember the president and I inherited a recession, the front end of a recession, and then after 9/11, we lost a million jobs. And what turned the economy around and got us started on a 52-month expansion was the tax package that we passed in the spring of '03. And that tax package passed the Senate by one vote - happened to be my vote; I had to cast the tie-breaking vote that time as vice president. ...
"But the point is that if we'd had one less senator, we wouldn't have had that package. And we've had similar votes in the House, and you get major issues like that - on tax policy, for example, and that was the package that cut the rate on capital gains and dividends, that repealed the death tax, that accelerated the rate reductions in all the brackets. It was a major success, but say it would not have happened if we'd had one less member of the United States Senate.
"In this case, we're talking about a House race where we've had equally close votes there, and one of the big issues over the next few years is whether or not we can make the Bush tax rates permanent, or whether they'll go back to those higher levels. And having Greg Davis in the House could make all the difference."
The seat was left vacant when Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Wicker to complete the term of former Sen. Trent Lott. Wicker, a former Lott aide, had represented the district since 1995.
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Comments
Imagine, someone like Cheney thinking he can HELP a candidate! Mississippi, this ought to be a clue to you to REJECT whatever candidate Cheney's trying to boost! Send a message loud and clear that the Bush/Cheney disaster is OVER!
Posted by: StCMan | May 9, 2008 1:48 PM
its so funny, these guys have no clue that THEY are their own worst enemies!!! Send Cheney to help getout the vote will only help remind the people to vote for the democrats ! LOl What a joke these clueless imbicils are!
Posted by: Scot S. Blakeley | May 9, 2008 2:02 PM
I hope Vice-President Cheney visits all fifty states so we can have a walking disaster prove how incompetent this Republican gang really is!! On top of that, the Bush administration sure took good care of their buddy, Governor Barbour, former Chairman of the RNC, during the disaster in New Orleans!! They didn't want for anything, funds, material, whatever!! Electing Republicans will only encourage more favoritism then is already at play in America. That is also a specialty of Senator McCain's, favoritism, if the price is right!! One thing I would like to thank President Bush and Vice-President Cheney for providing the cover under which the Looney Left looks so much better than this tag-team and the rest of the inept Republicans!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | May 9, 2008 2:17 PM
What the article doesnt tell you is that the guy in LA was trailing the democrat by 30pts and than very late n the game they started running ads linking him to Obama and the election ended up being much closer than anyone thought it would be. Love how they leave that part out of the story.
Posted by: Vinny | May 9, 2008 2:22 PM
Things are getting pretty bad for the Republic Party when they have to send in Darth to scare up votes...and in Mississippi too, which is probably the most natural and custom made 'base" that the Republics have.
Posted by: John E | May 9, 2008 2:25 PM
here you go :
"Republican attack ads continually paired Mr Cazayoux with images of Senator Obama, who as possibly the US's first black president is testing old prejudices in the south like never before.
One of the ads suggested "a vote for Cazayoux is a vote for Obama". Another 30-second spot asked simply: "Is Obama right for Louisiana? ... You decide."
The advertisements may have had some effect, as Mr Cazayoux had been leading by wide margins in the polls until the ads ran. The polls then narrowed and Mr Cazayoux ended up winning narrowly, 49 per cent to 46 per cent."
I love how they leave that part of the story out.
Posted by: Vinny | May 9, 2008 2:29 PM
Is this the race where the democrat refers to Obama as
"politicians in Washington I've never even met?"
This is awesome. Even the downticket candidates in 2004 weren't deserting Kerry this quickly.
Posted by: Jeff | May 9, 2008 2:36 PM
This is awesome. Even the downticket candidates in 2004 weren't deserting Kerry this quickly.
Posted by: Jeff | May 9, 2008 2:36 PM
HAHAHAHA!
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I think (R) Jim Oberweis etc would beg to differ with you.
Posted by: John E | May 9, 2008 2:51 PM
"HALEY BARBOUR SPEAKS"
WE GAVE HIM A 100 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE KATRINA FUND! HE SHOULD WIN!
WE GAVE HIM ALL THE "CASINO MONEY" WOULD COULD, HE SHOULD WIN.
WE GOT THIS "DARTH" YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO COME DOWN FROM THE "DEATHSTAR II" TO MAKE SURE!
WE GOT THIS "BIG POPPY" ALREADY SENT HIS ORDERS "DARTH"
EVERYONE IS "DISINFRANCHISED" WE GOT THIS, MY FAMILY WON'T LET YOU DOWN!
Posted by: Roger Morris | May 9, 2008 2:51 PM
The advertisements may have had some effect, as Mr Cazayoux had been leading by wide margins in the polls until the ads ran. The polls then narrowed and Mr Cazayoux ended up winning narrowly, 49 per cent to 46 per cent."
I love how they leave that part of the story out.
Posted by: Vinny | May 9, 2008 2:29 PM
It's not really as dramatic as you like to make it out to be "Vinny".
If the Republic Party can't close the vote gap or even win in a bright red district in La, then they have some big time problems with their brandname (Republican) and to no ones surprise but yours and Jeff's, they do.
Posted by: John E | May 9, 2008 2:59 PM
Wow Vinny and Jeff that's really something to be proud of, a Republican candidate being helped by racism. That's really what you guys are all about isn't it? Fear and hate is the core of your Party, and you guys love it and call it awesome. Are you going to have nooses decorating the convention? A burning cross?
Posted by: Ris for racist | May 9, 2008 3:03 PM
How is linking Childers' to Barack Obama racist? Obama's own website had a link to donate to Childers in it. Oh I forgot, any criticism of anyone linked to the messiah - not just the messiah himself - is racism.
What's this have to do with Oberweis? Last I checked Foster didn't deny even knowing Obama like Childers has.
Posted by: Jeff | May 9, 2008 3:42 PM
Posted by: Jeff | May 9, 2008 3:42 PM
Yeah, Jeff, no racism there. Just like the Willy Horton ad, right?
You Republicans swim in such a sea of racism you don't even notice the water anymore.
Posted by: R is for Racist | May 9, 2008 3:58 PM
What's this have to do with Oberweis? Last I checked Foster didn't deny even knowing Obama like Childers has.
Posted by: Jeff | May 9, 2008 3:42 PM
You make it out that Dem candidates are deserting Obama because of one guys statement?
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The McCain/Republican crowd is even more desperate for "good news" then I first thought.
Posted by: John E | May 9, 2008 4:00 PM
Dick Cheney is such a good representative for the Republican Party. I sincerely hope they send him all over the country to campaign for GOP candidates. His message that you can't trust even moderate Democrats because they all have that dreaded DNC handbook should inspire laughter and ridicule all across the nation. I can't think of a better way to insure the Democrats win a larger majority in Congress.
Posted by: Tom O | May 9, 2008 4:17 PM
If Cheney were a "closer" in baseball, his approval rating of 15% would be the equivolent of an e.r.a. of 15.00, and announcers would say "running Cheney in is like adding fuel to the fire".
Posted by: dt | May 9, 2008 5:18 PM
Cheney in Mississippi? Maybe he should go to the parts down south where people are still suffering from Katrina because of good ol' Brownie. Would be a good photo op for him.
Posted by: RomanB | May 9, 2008 6:53 PM
Greg Davis has the SON OF SATAN on his side. Very impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lehXXu7LaQ&feature=related
Posted by: DIRTY DICK CHENEY | May 9, 2008 7:44 PM
30 point lead in LA-06? That is completely false. The last poll cam out a week before the special election and had Cazayoux with a 7 point lead at 47-40.
SurveyUSA.
Posted by: Jeff Walters | May 10, 2008 4:00 PM
Duck!
Posted by: Rick/Sneads Ferry, NC | May 10, 2008 4:31 PM