MINORITY VOTER DECEPTION

THIS FLYER IS SHOWING UP ON DOORS OF MINORITY VOTERS TODAY AROUND FAIRFAX.

Obviously today is NOT election day.

DEVELOPING...

UPDATE:  WOAH WOAH WOAH!!!!  I'm hearing there is a DIFFERENT flyer going out into white neighborhoods- which seems to prove this was intentional.  Trying to get a copy of that now.

UPDATE #2-  Here is the other flyer going out.  Notice it does not have the incorrect info on voting day on it.  WOW.  Jeannemarie's campaign owes us an immediate explanation on why two different flyers are going out.  Do they have two lists or is this targeted by precinct???

Meanwhile, it seems the General Assembly made this a Class One Misdemeanor this year.

UPDATE #3-  THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME JEANNEMARIE HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF TARGETING AFRICAN AMERICANS. SEE THIS 1997 WAPO ARTICLE WHERE SHE DARKENED THE FACE OF HER AFRICAN AMERICAN OPPONENT AND THEN JUSTIFIED IT BY SAYING IT WAS "AN HONEST PICTURE".

Comments

[Not Carl Bernstein]

Do you mean voter Disenfranchisement not intimidation.

[Darrell]

What's so intimidating about that flyer? Looks like just your average doorhanger urging people to vote for that evil woman.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Um, it's not election day.

If you are actually going to try this old scam, you tell the voter that election day has moved to a date AFTER the election, not before which simply gives the pissed off person a chance to vote for your opponent the follow week.

[JeannieMarie's "Box"]

It is legandary around Richmond, but I never thought she would put a picture of it on her flyer. And it's so big...

[Sam]

Yeah, Ben... be careful about words... This isn't intimidation, this is deception. Dispicable, yes, but people will be more outraged and take you more seriously if you call it what it is instead of sound like you're trying to exaggerate.

That being said... What a stupid (see anon 3:12's comment for why I say stupid) bitch....

[Not Larry Sabato]

Fine, I will change from intimidation to deception (I didn't realize there was a big difference).

Actually this is really called plausible deniability.... all the JMDD staff have to say is it was an honest mistake... they picked up the wrong door hangers... they grabbed the ones for next week instead of the one for this weekend.... now the targeting and the fact that to grab the Tuesday November 6th hangers has got to be difficult to actually screw up if you can read English at all.... as I said plausible deniability, something Tom is really good at.....

[Not Chris Jones]

3:14pm, the picture just makes it look that big. It's not really that big. Right Morgan?

You can vote today - fill out a absentee ballot and put it in the mail.

[Tatum]

It is completely credible that they're just this incompetent. These are the same people that brought us the war in Iraq and the Medicare Prescription Drug program.

[Pete in Williamsburg]

It does sound like a clever scam. Scatter a few of these today. But on election day, "mistakenly" hang a few that say vote next week.

I wonder if we'll find that the JMD hangers that say "vote next week" have the "Nov 6" date in tiny print and is hard to find on the hanger.

[Anonymous Is A Woman]

Actually, anybody can go to a government center, or a local branch of it, and cast an absentee ballot if they know they will not be available to vote on election day. That includes if their commute would make it impossible for them to get home in time to vote.

To do this, you would have to affirm that you leave before six in the morning and get home after seven at night

Given the commutes and long workdays in NoVa, that is totally believable.

Having said that, attempting to suppress the vote, especially among minorities, by giving out false election day information, is an old trick.

Usually, though, campaign flyers will list the wrong date as a day after the real election. It's a desperate stunt though.

[TC]

I think the dynamic duo of Tom and JMDD are trying to do all they can to throw the election so when he doesn't run next year they can just go off into the sunset together.

[After]

Interesting Picture - Who's the candidate?

The mans in the chair..... Plus what is with the Blue - alittle afraid oftheir own colors?

[UVA08]

"Having said that, attempting to suppress the vote, especially among minorities, by giving out false election day information, is an old trick."

Sad, but true. I am not commenting on this case in particular because I haven't read the whole story, but I just feel like it's complete BS that we still have to deal with this kind of targeting. Weren't decades of voter suppression enough for these people?

Speaking of which, what ever happened to the people behind the robo calls from last year's election? Remember the stories about minorities in Hampton Roads getting phone calls telling them their voting precinct had been moved? I remember one woman in particular who received such a phone call and traveled from Newport News or Hampton to Norfolk to vote only to find that she had been lied to. She then got back into her car and headed back across the bridge/tunnel to vote. People will continue to do this so long as there is no punishment. Why do we have a Department of Justice if they aren't going to pursue justice?

[Not John S. Mosby]

Moves like this leave little doubt that Tom will not run for re-election next year. This is very low class stuff and if it was down South nobody would remember it. Lucky for us that Fairfax has people who in general are a bit smarter than average and I doubt if stupid deceptions like this do anything more than piss off the people who are actually going to vote.

Double D is going down in flames and her hubby seems all to happy to sit in the backseat and let her auger in.

Still, they will be a very well-paid lobbying duo.

[Joel Rutstein]

With all the national Dem money and involvement being poured into Chap's campaign, I have to believe he's perfectly positioned to figure out whether there's any truth at all to the allegation that Jeannemarie's campaign is peddling false information to likely Dem voters.

We'll have to see if she's more savvy in responding to this than she was in responding to what Chap calls "the mailer from Hell."

If not, it's astonishing to consider what Jeannemarie's done to augment Dem turnout without doing a thing to motivate her voters in the last few days, with election day a little more than one week away.

1) She published Chap's home address, home phone number, and the names of his small children.

2) She refused to apologize or even explain.

3) She accused Chap of putting his own children "in play" by his publishing a family photo with his kids' names.

4) She accused Chap, with absolutely no evidence, of raising the issue of her daughter's criminal conviction and of putting on youtube her old campaign video depicting her first husband and the voice of her second husband.

Are we really going to add another item to this sordid list?

With the power of incumbency, her husband pulling out all the stops to help her, her big money advantage, and the bias toward her by the only major newspaper in the area, it may take more than three strikes to call Jeannemarie out, but we're approaching five.

[Sam]

I do have to say, from a man I even once believed was a political genius, and I woman I privately told a friend of mine is "an unstoppable machine" the pure stupidity in JMDD's campaign of late is astonishing to me... Maybe they really do both want to just retire and to go out with a bang...

[Save Fairfax County]

Did it occur to anyone that perhaps Jeannemarie's campaign had these "VOTE TODAY" door hangers printed for Election Day to be dropped during the night of Nov. 5-6 and throughout the day on Nov. 6. They are probably in a sealed box and one of her campaign staff member told volunteers to get out the door hangers. The volunteer(s) may not have known the difference and took the wrong door hangers. Hence, the one you posted in some neighborhoods and the correct one going out in other neighborhoods. While not smart, this is not earth shattering news. Give me a break.

[Johnny Longtorso]

So this is what, Mistake #417 for the JMDD campaign?

Earth to those of you who are so partisan that you choose not to look at any facts before you form an opinion.

THE FLYER HAS THE CORRECT DATE OF ELECTION DAY ON IT..

some of you folks are waaayyy too rabid..

[Too Conservative]

Ben-

This story is ridiculous.

and I ask you to take off the comment from "TC" which is clearly a deception,misleading, and not me.

[LM]

Commenter at 6:05, the doorhanger that NLS shows with "Vote today" on it does not show the date. Have you seen the flip side of a real one?

[ConsertvativeFlagFan]

Ben, cut the shit. The flier said polls are open 6 am to 7 pm. It doesn't say tomorrow, or a day. Any person who plans to vote ought to know when the election is. Stop blowing things out of proportion; you look foolish and petty.

Everyone here knows you work for Chap.

There's nothing FALSE about Devolites flier, Mr. Hyperbole.

Makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly communicate false information to a registered voter about the date, time, and place of the election or the voter's precinct, polling place, or voter registration status in order to impede his voting.

[Joel Rutstein]

Hi Earth.

We may be rabid, but we see two doorhangers: one that doesn't have a date on it, but says that "today" is election day, which, of course, it isn't; and, the one you seemed to have seen. Both were allegedly distributed today. The one that was wrong about today being election day may have been disproportionately left on the doors of minority households.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Anon 605- The first flyer has NO ELECTION DATE ON IT.

[LM]

I think someone just got hold of the wrong box of hangers. Still, it's a pretty stupid mistake. Jeannemarie's people must be getting a bit rattled...

[Joel Rutstein]

If I knowingly tell someone that today is election day when election day is actually another day later than today, and they try to vote and become discouraged and confused and don't actually vote on election day, arguably, I've impeded their voting and I've violated the law.

[ConsertvativeFlagFan]

I demand NLS take a scan of both door mailings from both sides. I think this is trickery.

But it's not illegal anyway. VOTE Today means nothing.

[Not John S. Mosby]

Of course the excuse will be "canvassing volunteers put out the wrong ones". If it is a mistake it's a pretty stupid one since you would assume the canvassers know THERE IS NO ELECTION TODAY.

What evidence is there that these door hangers are being targeted?

It's all a lie. Tom and JMDD only wear matching shirts.

[Joel Rutstein]

ConservativeFlagFan, from your comment to God's eye. May all those registered voters contacted by Jeannemarie's campaign on election day also think that "vote today" means nothing.

So now she's a racist on top of everything else. So much for being a "RINO" -- she's obviously a Republican all the way!

Chap's family is Korean- maybe this is why she said they were "in play"?????

[Joel Rutstein]

A couple of other funny tidbits from the '97 article: 1) the appearance of LaCivita, raised in the reporting of the illegal call-jamming incident in N.H.; and 2) Jeannemarie's purportedly own device for pronouncing her now middle name, "DEVIL lites."

This is so stupid...its an obvious mistake, because as its been already pointed out, if she was trying to trick people, she would say "Vote November 7th" or something like that. Its a really stupid mistake, but it is not racism...y'all need to take a deep breath.

[UVA08]

I admit, this does seem like an honest mistake. It does make you wonder why elections aren't held on weekends though. I am sure turnout would be higher.

[Joel Rutstein]

While we wait for more facts to come in, and possibly an official reaction from Jeannemarie, it's fun to speculate.

One possibility that would add some irony to the innocent mistake theory is that Jeannemarie may paying the people who actually hang these things on doors. One would think that an unpaid volunteer, like I imagine Chap primarily uses, would care enough about her or his candidate to notice that what she or he was hanging on a door was accurate. Someone being paid a few bucks might just want to do the job without actually reading or thinking much about the message.

"this does seem like an honest mistake."

Not where Tom Davis and Chris LaCivita are concerned, nothing "honest" about it.

[Joel Rutstein]

I heard Jeannemarie is saying that by running that tv ad about how many doors Chap's knocked on, Chap put doors "in play."

[Doug]

My door is definitely in play. Also, he used his hair, so hair is in play.

This is just hilarious. Wish I were back in Fairfax.

Anyone who has actually worked on a campaign knows that in the end-of-season frenzy, it is very easy for someone to grab the wrong box out of the stacks of material piling up in a headquarters. A lot of high school students are doing this type of work to fulfill their government class requirements and they would not necessarily pay close enough attention to notice the mistake.

Also, I am not aware of any "white" neighborhoods in NoVa. There are some neighborhoods that have higher percentages of "minorities" but we have so many educated and successful people of all backgrounds here that even the most affluent neighborhoods are very mixed.

I live in Vienna and got the second one, my hispanic neighbor two doors up got the first one.

[Phil Chroniger]

I'd agree with Anon 7:24...there aren't really any "white" neighborhoods in most of NoVA anymore.

Secondly, as mentioned before, plausible deniability should pretty well blow this whole issue over with everyone except the Democratic bloggers...whether she intended for this to be done or not, we can't actually prove any intentional wrong-doing.

Once again, this proves my point that I'm glad I'm not in this district. Ideologically, I don't like Chap very much...and personally, I don't care for JMDD.

[Matt]

Ouch...D-D has so been caught playing that favorite Republican pastime, Disenfranchise the minorities!
Then again, its the only way she was going to win anyways, so I'm not really surprised. I am disgusted though.

"Ideologically, I don't like Chap very much...and personally, I don't care for JMDD."

Phil Chroniger prefers the nasty RINO who's running to the left of Chap? Weird...

[Too Conservative]

I have the real story on TC...

This is a load of crap Ben, and you know it...come on man...

www.tooconservative.com

and once again...the other "TC" comment is not me.

[George]

I want to be sure I have this correct.

What is being said is that minority voters are getting flyers that say vote TODAY for JMDD, and white voters are getting flyers that say vote for JMDD on Nov. 6th and this information has been drilled down so precisely that even neighbors on the same street get different flyers depending on their color. I must say that I am amazed the JMDD campaign has such a precise database on the demographics of each household.

Does anyone know what flyer goes to the household with a minority and a white couple? Does it say if you are the white spouse vote for me on the 6th (but shhhhhhh. don’t tell your spouse because I am telling them to go out today to look for a polling place so that they get frustrated and do not vote on the real election day..hahaha., lets keep this our little secret).

Does anyone think that if they were actually targeting people like this, that one of these volunteers (many of whom are kids getting school credit hours) would not reveal this scheme?

DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND ABSURD TO ANYONE BUT ME?

Do you guys think people are so stupid that they are going to believe this? Maybe rabid was not the correct word, maybe it should have been partisan to the point of paranoid. Good luck selling this one.

So what Too Conservative wants us to believe is JMDD ordered these flyers in advance, failed to keep them away from the other flyers, had someone open a box of flyers that said VOTE TODAY at the top, sent volunteers out with those flyers (into heavy minority areas it sounds like) and no one noticed until they realized they had committed a crime?

God you Republicans are pathetic.

I can't give Jeanne the benifit of the doubt here after reading the 1997 article. If her mail shop would darken the picture of someone to make them look more black, she would do this. As Ludacris once said "POOF, BITCH BE GONE!"

[LM]

George, I don't know about the Republicans, but there were lots of people PAID by the DPVA this weekend to put out doorhangers. So, those people probably didn't care what the hangers said.

And yes, campaigns target people. A good place to start is with checking voting records -- looking for people with Hispanic names, for instance.

[George]

Upon further investigation I notice that there is a box on the (minority) flyer with JDMM’s name on it and someone putting in what looks like a ballot. They must be trying to make minority voters think that there will be a box at the polls to put votes in and therefore when they get there and see no box they will get frustrated and leave.

WOW, I just noticed that there is a dog in the picture, they must be trying to convince minorities that there will be guard dogs at the polls watching the ballot box (as shown in the flyer) to intimidate them from showing up at the polls.

WAIT.. if you look closely, the dog looks like it has a black eye.. she must have punched it in the eye.. call the SPCA.. not only a racist but an animal abuser also.

The dog is pretty cute.

[Phil Chroniger]

lol @ George's last comment.

LM, were those individuals paid by the DPVA the bulk of the RK conglomerate of bloggers? Just wondering... ;)

[Cornelius]

Methinks the Lady (TC) doth protest too much.

Argue all you want, but the bottom line is pretty clear: she's the candidate and the ONLY one ultimately responsible for for what her campaign distributes.

I really don't understand how Republicans can defend anything she says or does. She has no problem taking big bucks from them, and then campaigns as a RINO. She's not a RINO; she's not a DINO. She is a pathetic politian pandering for votes. Tom bought her last seat; I'm sure she didn't expect a fight.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Ummm, it looks more like a sign of a disorganized and inefficient campaign than any deliberate attempt to trick minority voters, because is simply appears some idiot used election day material today. I mean really, what evidence is there that this was only showing up on minority voter doors, and how on Earth woulod any GOTV operation be able to keep that straight!??

Ben, are you sure someone didn't just goof and use the wrong door hangers!!??

Not everything that doesn't make sense is a scandal.

That said, this crap with Cuccinelli and Frey and the real estate scandal and unpaid grantor's tax! NOW THAT'S WRONGDOING!!!

[ConsertvativeFlagFan]

Once again Ben has gone overboard with another hyperbolic post. He's getting disgusting. I bet he's sitting in his parent's basement in his underwear eating twinkies laughing about this one. Right twinkie eater?

Ben, what does woah mean?

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Anon 7:34 -- I call BS!!

For once, I actually agree with George!!

I got a copy of the Vote Today flyer, and the picture on the back was Jeannemarie WITH A GROUP OF AFRICAN AMERICANS.

Was this on the other flyer?

[George]

dmiv,
you beat me to it... I was gonna say that I agreed w/you on this issue..

[George]

and, I might add that anyone who thinks that a minority would be fooled by something like this has a very low opinion of the intelligence of our minority friends.

(actually, any generalization such as this is probably as wrong and unfair for me to say as it is for those who brought it up I the first place.)

The race card is way out of bounds. The Davis' have a long record of inclusion. Tom Davis appointed the first Asian American to a school board in Virginia. He even had a Korean American Chief of Staff for years.

Stop the anti-Korean bs...

[charles]

When someone claims they got a flyer that tells them to vote the wrong day, they generally are not associated with a campaign.

These flyers are asking people to vote FOR Davis. That can't possibly be a plot to suppress minority voters.

As to the 1997 article, there is no proof of any wrongdoing, just someone opposed to her making a claim about a picture.

One thing this should prove to my conservative friends -- no matter how much of a liberal you run with an "R" beside her name to try to get liberals to vote for republicans, it won't work, because liberals will still attack them exactly the same as they attack conservative republicans.

Phil, at 8:52, what I meant to say was that Republicans could have had paid workers as well.

Just curious Ben...What is the going rate these days for selling one's soul?

Not a Babe

The choice for this election is disappointing. If you're a Democrat and you want a majority in the Senate, you are forced to vote for Petersen who has some pretty Republican votes/actions on his record (marriage amendment and covenant marriage???) and if your a Republican, you're stuck with this political opportunist.

[Not disappointed]

Chap is a solid Democrat. In fact, he was a Democrat long before it was popular (big contrast with JMDD whose positions have always been blown by the political winds). This is an easy choice, unless you're on Tom's payroll and have to volunteer for JMDD.

[Not Charles]

Charles --

well said.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

OK, well if anyone can talk about the marriage amendment, I can. It affects me very personally and continues an unjust oppression of my love and thousands of other couples' love.

So, when I say I support Chap Petersen it is not without some frustration.

However, at least Chap is honest. He will look you in the face and tell you what he believes in his heart. I don't always agree with him. But I'd rather have:

a) Someone I can respect.

b) A Majority that will not railroad minority citizens for political gain.

c) Someone who I believe is educable. Someone who is open-minded.

Jeannemarie will show up in front of Equality Fairfax and tell us how much she loves us, and be all sweet and delicious, then three days later we find an email in our inboxes containing someone's assurances to a church member that she vigorously supported the marriage amendment and in fact cosponsored it, when she never bothered to simply mentioned that upfront at the EF forum, unlike honest Chap.

Chap actually explained that he voted for it when he was in the legislature, but he eventually voted against it in the voting booth as he understood it was unnecessary and a political gimmick.

Whoever used the term "opportunist" nailed it.

[Doug]

I agree with Doug imv, which means I agree with George, I guess. But my word George, this statement of yours is batshit insane:

"and, I might add that anyone who thinks that a minority would be fooled by something like this has a very low opinion of the intelligence of our minority friends. "

When Republican strategists actually do target predominantly minority communities, we aren't saying they are less intelligent. We're saying you are.

Do you need a little logic lesson on how you market things to different groups of people, who have different priorities and views of the world?

You said it! Again, these are old-school R tactics -- they do it every year.

[Church Hill Dem]

Doug,

If I were in Chap's district I'd feel just as conflicted as you. However, whereas Chap voted against equality for political gain and alignment, I truly think JMDD voted for it out of personal belief.

The political climate on equality in Virginia changed quite a bit when Kaine "came out" against the amendment (sorry-- couldn't resist!). When Chap was last in office, you certainly didn't have candidates from both parties trying to curry the GLBT vote.

Hopefully from here Democrats and maybe even the Republicans will realize that's not the issue for which folks go to the polls.

[TC]

Too Conservative wrote:

"Ben-

...and I ask you to take off the comment from "TC" which is clearly a deception,misleading, and not me."

Um. Too Conservative? The letters “TC” are my initials, Einstein. Unclench before you pop a vein.

Take is easy, boys. We still have 8 days to go.

[George]

Doug,
Am I understanding you correctly? Are you actually saying that if you tell (person X), to go to vote on Sunday you believe they are going to try to go vote? And you do not accept that by thinking they will believe Sunday is the day to vote you are expressing a low opinion of their intelligence?

I actually think it to be quite racist for you to think that this “marketing” to a group of people would be successful. Just because someone has different “priorities and views” does not make them stupid enough to try to go vote on the wrong day because you or I tell them so.

Doug, don’t forget to vote today…lol

[Doug]

George- I said I didn't think this was an attempt to get them to vote Sunday. I said I agreed. But every time one of these types of thing (if it was an attempt) I hear "oh you liberals think minorities are stupid". I'm saying that statement is stupid.

Take two groups of 100 people. If you send a note to everyone in the first group that says something as simple as "buy oranges" and you DON'T send that note to the second group of 100 people, I would bet you that more in the group who got the note would buy oranges. Maybe just one or two, but the group who did not get the note, flyer, etc. is not going to be more likely to buy oranges.

Am I getting a little too complicated there for you, champ?

Let's say someone sets up a phone bank that calls predominantly minority locales. And in that phone message, it says how pollsters will be checking IDs and cross checking identities to law enforcement records to see if people have outstanding violations. I would think SOME people receiving those calls would be ignorant (ignorant not dumb) enough to fall for that scam. The people who do NOT receive that call would NOT be likely to fall for it. Not that they aren't ignorant also, but because they do NOT receive the call.

Got it?

[George]

nice try Doug,

However your argument suggests that you believe you “liberals” have to be the savior of the minorities from their own "ignorance" (your word not mine).

I believe this type of thinking is actually very racist.

If I were you I would quit digging

[Donkey Breath]

Hey, isn't that the same powder blue shirt Tom wore in the pictures with the dogs..hey, there's the dog!! Must have taken all their pics at the same time for flyers..?

PS: Say what you will, JMDD looked FAB in her black and white checkerboard coat at the Annandale Halloween Parade on Saturday.. Girlfriend has a DEEP closet and wins as best dressed everytime. And then there is the jewlery!!

[Doug]

no, again, I'm saying the vast majority of people, whatever color, are ignorant. And they are! Well, we all are. I may know a good bit out politics, but hit me up for math and I am very ignorant.

Football, I know a good bit about even if I root for hopeless teams, but make a claim about soccer that's bogus and I am likely to believe you.

This may be shocking, but the vast majority of people in this country are ignorant of how laws are created, enforced, etc. and what politicians actually stand for. That's ignorance. Your arguments, however, are well informed and yet idiotic. Claiming liberals are racist is like claiming that day is night and no matter how many times you say it does not make it more correct. Next you are going to tell me the Civil Rights movement was rooted in conservativism...

To all the JMDD apologists:

As stupid as JMDD, her staff, and volunteers are, even they are not stupid enough to hang a "Vote Today" flyer on a door, in OCTOBER, and not catch the error. There is no level of carelessness or stupidity that would account for an honest mistake here. This was done on purpose.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Church Hill Dem,

I could not disagree with you more strongly.

JMDD arrived at her gay-friendly conclusions because she knows she cannot win without some Democratic votes, including some from the GLBT community. Otherwise she would not turn around and say something contradictory to a church crowd who are looking for the "right" answer on gay rights. Which she just did this year.

Chap, on the other hand, I believe is truly evolving, and he STILL is up front and honest that he will not support us on every issue, even with the changes in his district.

I will give JMDD some credit because at least she is doing the right thing. However, she is not doing it for the right reasons.

I'm sorry, from the day I saw her necking with Tom Davis in a McLean parking lot (while they were still married), to the day I watched her call Leslie Byrne a bitch (in a church!) right in front of me, to the day I saw her give Janet Oleszek a hard time as SHE was being introduced at a forum, I can see right through the Wicked Witch of Vienna. That woman doesn't deserve the vote of a single decent-minded person, gay straight, or anywhere in between.

Okay, too many postings for me to read, but I disagree with all of you folks who think that this is an "oops" or unintentional. Isn't she the one who supported the bill to require voters to bring ID to the polls? Why? I'd never heard that there was a big issue of voter fraud. Republicans do it because it suppresses the vote. In all of Chap's 30+ precincts, only three of them have contested elections other than his an JMDD's. Why? To suppress the vote. This is obviously a pattern of her campaign. Pretty sad.

[George]

If someone would be so kind as to tell Doug and me what party good old Honest Abe belonged to we would appreciate it.

also fyi:
Civil rights act vote totals:

House 289-126 (70%-30%)
Senate 73-27

Democratic party 153-91 (63%-37%)
Republican party 138-34 (80%-20%)

sorry Doug

[Doug]

I said liberal, not democrat. You are certainly very good at twisting history George, but I'm talking about liberals. Lincoln is what one would call a liberal Republican (especially these days).

[Doug]

And Lyndon Johnson ... oh yeah, the guy that caused all the bigotted dixiecrats (except Byrd who changed his views) to leave the Democratic Party and join the new Republicans... he actually was a Democrat.

You are actually going to argue that today's Republican Party is not interested in suppressing minorities? Next you are going to tell me that they know how to fight wars by making them hopelessly political.

So we have a choice of a homophobe and a bitch. Can't Fairfax do better?

All the Byrd Dems became R's. How do you think they got the majority?

[Doug]

Ha, Joe Sudbay tells a story of Tom and JMDD:

http://www.americablog.com/2007/10/gop-political-thuggery-in-va-jeanmarie.html

"That's the kind of ugly politics Virginia gets from Davis and his wife. They have been running this thug type operation for years -- even before they were married to each other.

Ten years ago, in a former job, my organization sent out a mailing against Ms. Devolites when she was running for state delegate. Congressman Tom Davis exploded. He called me screaming about the mailing (which was factual, by the way.) He called my boss screaming. He demanded both of us show up at his Congressional office to yell at us in person about doing a mailing against the beloved Devolites. Yes, we had to show up at his Capitol Hill office to get blasted over a state political issue. Coincidentally, she showed up. He wanted me to see how beautiful and lovely she was. Huh??? It was a very creepy experience -- and left a very bad taste for a number of reasons.
"

[George]

Doug,
Condaleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzalez, Clarence Thomas, Colon Powell, etc..
maybe not all the best picks however minorities are better and better represented in the highest positions of the Rep. Govt...

as far as wars go... I believe that neither party knows how to fight them. and both have forgotten what to do when they win one.

I think the fighting is best left to the military who understand their job well, and of which there is none better than ours.

Doug 2:11
This reminds me of the swift boat ad that was so soundly criticized by the left. I actually have no problem with this activity as I realize that politics is a nasty business, but I think it to be a bit hypocritical. Bet you guys hope the results are as effective.

[Doug]

Anon 226- at what point just before this was Tom Davis awarded 3 purple hearts? Oh, yes, it's exactly the same. What did Tom do in Vietnam again?

Did someone mention Honest Abe to prove Republicans progressive stance on race issues?

You mean the same honest abe you said this during the 4th Lincoln-Douglass debate?

"I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. ... And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." Abe Lincoln -18 September 1858