There's an excellent post over at CTBlue that rips apart The Day's biased editorial page coverage of the Courtney-Simmons debate. It's complete with video excerpts from the debate used to devastating effect to back up the points made. A case study in what blogs do best.
Rob Simmons and Joe Courtney had a debate tonight and, to hear The Day tell it, Simmons shucked and jived like mad to avoid being associated with his long held pro-war stance.
First, he claimed to have been against the war before he was for it.
Simmons defended the war with allusions to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, saying the Iraq fight had made the United States safer –– while also couching that with the observation that the country’s intelligence had “failed us,” and noting that he had opposed the war as late as 2002 before voting for it.
Shades of John Kerry! Then he claimed that even discussing the war was beside the point.
Simmons scoffed at the talk of policy, which he argued was the responsibility of executive branch officials.
“Joe, we’re running for Congress,” the congressman said. “We’re not running for president.”
Courtney's run a wishy-washy campaign designed, so it would seem, to not antagonize Joe Lieberman. But with Simmons self-destructing like this, things are looking good for Courtney.
Joe Courtney (CT-02) is getting high praise from letter writer Andrew Goodman in the Norwich Bulletin.
I find myself proud of Joe Courtney for honoring the will of the voters and supporting the nominee they chose. That's exactly what's been missing for far too long -- someone who listens to the will of the people. In following Rob Simmons, I've found he only listens to President Bush, while ignoring the will of his constituents here at home.
Frankly, Simmons supporters should use caution before they head into Courtney's piggy bank because Simmons' coffers are filled with corrupt money from Tom DeLay, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham (now sitting in a California jail). He's even taken money from Ohio Republican Bob Ney, who is under federal investigation for his role in the Abramoff scandal and won't seek re-election.
Simmons has also taken more than $20,000 from ExxonMobil and other oil companies -- most likely a reward for voting six times to give them multibillion dollar tax breaks. It's not right he takes their money while I'm forced to adjust my family budget to drive to work.
Maybe in the future, Simmons' supporters should think twice before attacking a good, honorable man like Joe Courtney, who listens to his voters.Courtney has my vote in November.
Joe Courtney's campaign has hit the $1.2 million mark. From a Courtney email:
From April 1 to June 30, we raised an additional $457,326.25 for a grand total of $1,263,071.88 for the 2006 election cycle. We continue to run one of the leanest campaigns in the country with $988,430.42 still in the bank.
. . .
Grassroots support remains the driving force behind our success, with over 85% of our contributions coming from individuals. What's more, over 70% of those individual contributions this quarter were under $200! This is in stark contrast to my opponent who took in nearly 65% of his money from PACs and lobbyists.
Blue Highway, which is blogging the 2006 midterms, casts an eye on the second district.
Districts such as the PA06, PA07, PA08, CT02, CT04, and CT05 all went blue in the 2004 Presidential, but kept their Republican representative in the same cycle. Now, the desire for change is even stronger. As Brian Farber, press secretary for Joe Courtney, points out “There is such a feeling of discontent, no matter what ideology.”
Rob Simmons, throwing in his lot with the whacko lunatic fringe of his party as represented by Peter King of Long Island, has jumped on the Times bashing bandwagon and was promptly taken to task by The Day's Ted Mann:
The Hilltop Brigade is a grassroots effort that began in Guilford. The concept is to mobilize Dems in "safe" districts (like the 1st and 3rd) to volunteer in to get Chris Murphy (CT-05), Diane Farrell (CT-04), and Joe Courtney (CT-02) elected.
Joe Courtney is hammering away at an issue that should have resonance in the Second District, reports Ray Hackett.
Courtney, who is challenging three-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, accused his opponent of supporting the privatization of Social Security. He said the only way to protect the program is for Democrats to take back control of Congress.
"Fundamentally, that is what this election is all about," Courtney said.
In a column of ruminations on politics, Ray Hackett of the Norwich Bulletin buries this interesting tidbit at the very end:
The Courtney campaign is countering the Principi visit with a visit by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in Mystic on June 30. Wilson is the husband of Valerie Plame, the CIA officer allegedly exposed by the White House after Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times accusing the White House of "exaggerating the Iraq threat" in order to justify going to war.
Simmons, a former CIA officer himself, once referred to Plame's outing as "much ado about nothing." I suspect Wilson will have an opinion on that -- and a rather strong one at that.
Joe Courtney's campaign got it's official send off the other day. The report in the Norwich Bulletin makes it sounds like Courtney plans a rather issue-less campaign.
This message is being sent to folks on the New Haven Democratic Party Meetup list:
We can't remove George Bush, but we can limit his powers in
Congress in 2006. Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government
(www.ctcitizens.org, formerly New Haven for Kerry) is working
toward this goal over the next two years. We start at home,
with the three Republican members of the House: Rob Simmons
(2nd district, Stonington), Christopher Shays (4th district,
Bridgeport) and Nancy Johnson (5th district, New Britain).
Remember, the first vote each cast in the current session
resulted in the election of Tom Delay as the Majority Leader.
Every seat we can change in Connecticut is one less seat for
the Republicans and one more for the Democrats.
We are starting today. The first step is to register more
Democratic voters, then have them vote in the 2005 elections.
We will focus on the 2nd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts.
For the next three months we plan to conduct voter registration
drives in the areas where we stand the best chance of bringing
more people into the fold. In November, we will conduct an
absentee ballot and get out the vote drive using phone banks.
This will accomplish three major results. First, we will get
new voters in the habit of voting. Each voter we register will
be another vote in 2006 and one step closer to reducing Bush's
majority in the House. Third, we will use this as a dress
rehearsal for our activities next year.
Keep an eye out for the first drive.
We can change the government in Washington and we will do it
one vote at a time.
-----
The New Haven Democratic Party Meetup group is now active as
Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government. Visit www.
ctcitizens.org for more information about our group and
listings of area political events, or contact ctcitizens@gmail.
com.
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