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Tuesday, November 14, 2006
An ad that’s lingering past the election
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At least one Democrat is distancing himself publicly from the “dogs and waterhoses” ad for John Eaves, the incoming Fulton County Commission chair, which featured voiceovers from Mayor Shirley Franklin, Rep. John Lewis and Ambassador Andrew Young.
“People who hold public office should be willing to call the ad featuring Franklin, Lewis and Young what it is: Wrong. I was appalled when I first listened to this transparently cynical attempt to polarize and inflame the electorate. I still am,” Rep. Mike Jacobs (D-DeKalb) said in a statement.
“Those involved in the creation of the ad should unequivocally apologize for it. I hope elected officials in both parties will join me in denouncing it. The ad didn’t just cross the line. When the ad was done playing, the line was nowhere in sight,” Jacobs said.
Kingston gets a blog nod
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
RedState, the Republican blog, has endorsed Rep. Jack Kingston’s bid for House Republican Conference chairman, the No. 3 position in the GOP House leadership.
Kingston got the nod over Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from suburban Nashville. RedState is backing Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana for minority leader and Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona for GOP House whip.
History Corner: Welcome back, Old Hickory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the peculiar characteristics of a big national election is that in their aftermath, the standings in the past presidential seniors tour get rearranged.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 did wonders for Calvin Coolidge, whose reputation had languished for a good 50 years. William McKinley’s popular historical status increased considerably after the 2000 election, thanks largely to Bush strategist Karl Rove, a self-described “McKinley enthusiast.”
This year some Democrat is sure to move up. Speaking of John Tester, Montana’s newly elected Democratic senator who operates a family farm, a friend told the New York Times last week that he “brings an old-fashioned, Jeffersonian ideal about being tied to the land.” Tester himself mentioned FDR as an inspiration.
But those guys are already way up on the charts. For the big move up in historical standing, our money’s on another Democratic friend of the small farmer and wage earner (and oppressor of Cherokees), Andrew Jackson.
You can find the definitive chapter on this subject in “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,” by the newly elected Democratic senator from Virginia, James Webb.
Jackson, our first president of Scots-Irish descent, has gotten short shrift, Webb writes, because there were no wars or big leaps forward, like the Louisiana Purchase, while he was president. But the former secretary of the Navy and prolific author argues that Jackson actually presided over a pivotal time in the nation’s history, and “rewrote the book on American political leadership just as surely as Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway remade the narrative form of the novel.”
Jackson would have gotten on well with the Blue Dog Democrats whom Newt Gingrich last week said were the new center of political gravity in Congress. So if you want to stay current, brush up on the Second National Bank veto.
