John David Dyche: Some Unsolicited Political Advice For Bruce Lunsford.
An open letter to Bruce Lunsford, the Democrat challenging Kentucky's Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell:
Dear Mr. Lunsford:
Six years ago, this column wrote to senate candidate Lois Weinberg advising, "Risk all on Iraq. … Offer Kentucky voters a choice by opposing preemptive war." Weinberg disregarded this counsel and lost badly.
You will likely do likewise, but can still possibly pull an upset if you are bold enough to try running against McConnell from the right. Changing to this winning strategy involves three-steps: stop what you are doing; identify your biggest problems; and turn them into opportunities.
Why repeat Weinberg's mistake of wasting time and money tying McConnell to big money? Kentuckians long ago acquiesced to his insatiable fundraising.
Energy is not a winning issue for you. Everyone realizes McConnell would produce more domestically, which Kentuckians want.
Quit implying the lie that McConnell got rich from public service and carping about greedy corporate bigwigs. You are one. Spare us homespun tales of tobacco farming. Phony stunts like pumping gas are condescending coming from a multi-millionaire.
You face two major problems. Consecutive gubernatorial losses and anemic outside fundraising suggest that Kentuckians do not like you, trust you, or believe that you stand for anything but yourself. Who can blame them?
Many were hurt badly when your company failed. But you emerged smelling like a rose, making movies, racing horses and jet-setting to ritzy locales like an international playboy.
When you fled 2003's governor's race after Ben Chandler's tough ad, folks figured his charges were true. You backed Republicans, from Ernie Fletcher to McConnell himself, but ran repeatedly as a Democrat. This revealed an absence of core beliefs. People see you as seeking status, not service.
Your other big problem is ultra-liberal national Democrats. Regular Kentuckians recoil from Obama, Pelosi and their elitist ilk. Pandering and populist rhetoric cannot reclaim them. Only center-right Democrats can succeed outside Kentucky's atypical urban areas.
Flanking McConnell from the conservative side is your only hope. Doing so will require shameless ideological inconsistency and cynical opportunism. Since voters already see you that way you might as well use the flexibility to advantage.
Attacking McConnell, and Congress, this way will separate you from Washington's liberal Democrats. Kentucky's conservative breed can then come home. Local liberals hate McConnell so much they will support you anyway. And you can always reverse course again and cozy back up to the left after the election.
McConnell is vulnerable on federal spending, immigration and foreign policy. Hit him there.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste gives him only a 69 percent lifetime rating. The National Taxpayers Union rated him at 77 percent in 2007. Both are well below ratings for real Republican fiscal conservatives.
The federal deficit swelled to a record as McConnell repeatedly voted for vast expansions of government. He boasts about his earmarks benefiting Kentucky, but voters are scared and sick of Washington's larger fiscal fiasco even as they enjoy their own pork.
McConnell backed amnesty for illegal immigrants before public blowback forced him into tepid retreat. Blast him for ignoring illegal immigration's cultural and economic toll on ordinary American workers.
The successful surge means Iraq is receding as an issue. Democrats are rightly assailing the McConnell-backed administration's failure to win in Afghanistan or get Osama bin Laden. But you must make a broader national security case.
Don't mealy-mouth about more diplomacy. Instead, invoke traditional conservative ideas from Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul. America, with McConnell's full support, is overcommitted. Having imprudently ignored George Washington's advice against entangling alliances, we cannot fulfill myriad global commitments.
Our military is too small and spread too thin. Call for prudent pullback from our present imperial posture. Aggressively carry this case to Kentucky's hard-pressed military communities. Call McConnell out for cowardice if he refuses to debate defense issues there.
You may still lose if you heed this advice. Continue your current course and count on it.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Forum. He is completing a biography of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
Editor's comment: I had to look twice to make sure the writer of this piece is John David Dyche, a usual supporter of Senator Mitch McConnell's.
Now that I've seen that it is indeed John David Dyche who wrote the piece, I have a question to ask: Is JDD NOW working for Bruce Lunsford, because the piece sure sounds like it?
And then again, What in the world did Mitch McConnell do to get "under his skin"?
Dear Mr. Lunsford:
Six years ago, this column wrote to senate candidate Lois Weinberg advising, "Risk all on Iraq. … Offer Kentucky voters a choice by opposing preemptive war." Weinberg disregarded this counsel and lost badly.
You will likely do likewise, but can still possibly pull an upset if you are bold enough to try running against McConnell from the right. Changing to this winning strategy involves three-steps: stop what you are doing; identify your biggest problems; and turn them into opportunities.
Why repeat Weinberg's mistake of wasting time and money tying McConnell to big money? Kentuckians long ago acquiesced to his insatiable fundraising.
Energy is not a winning issue for you. Everyone realizes McConnell would produce more domestically, which Kentuckians want.
Quit implying the lie that McConnell got rich from public service and carping about greedy corporate bigwigs. You are one. Spare us homespun tales of tobacco farming. Phony stunts like pumping gas are condescending coming from a multi-millionaire.
You face two major problems. Consecutive gubernatorial losses and anemic outside fundraising suggest that Kentuckians do not like you, trust you, or believe that you stand for anything but yourself. Who can blame them?
Many were hurt badly when your company failed. But you emerged smelling like a rose, making movies, racing horses and jet-setting to ritzy locales like an international playboy.
When you fled 2003's governor's race after Ben Chandler's tough ad, folks figured his charges were true. You backed Republicans, from Ernie Fletcher to McConnell himself, but ran repeatedly as a Democrat. This revealed an absence of core beliefs. People see you as seeking status, not service.
Your other big problem is ultra-liberal national Democrats. Regular Kentuckians recoil from Obama, Pelosi and their elitist ilk. Pandering and populist rhetoric cannot reclaim them. Only center-right Democrats can succeed outside Kentucky's atypical urban areas.
Flanking McConnell from the conservative side is your only hope. Doing so will require shameless ideological inconsistency and cynical opportunism. Since voters already see you that way you might as well use the flexibility to advantage.
Attacking McConnell, and Congress, this way will separate you from Washington's liberal Democrats. Kentucky's conservative breed can then come home. Local liberals hate McConnell so much they will support you anyway. And you can always reverse course again and cozy back up to the left after the election.
McConnell is vulnerable on federal spending, immigration and foreign policy. Hit him there.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste gives him only a 69 percent lifetime rating. The National Taxpayers Union rated him at 77 percent in 2007. Both are well below ratings for real Republican fiscal conservatives.
The federal deficit swelled to a record as McConnell repeatedly voted for vast expansions of government. He boasts about his earmarks benefiting Kentucky, but voters are scared and sick of Washington's larger fiscal fiasco even as they enjoy their own pork.
McConnell backed amnesty for illegal immigrants before public blowback forced him into tepid retreat. Blast him for ignoring illegal immigration's cultural and economic toll on ordinary American workers.
The successful surge means Iraq is receding as an issue. Democrats are rightly assailing the McConnell-backed administration's failure to win in Afghanistan or get Osama bin Laden. But you must make a broader national security case.
Don't mealy-mouth about more diplomacy. Instead, invoke traditional conservative ideas from Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul. America, with McConnell's full support, is overcommitted. Having imprudently ignored George Washington's advice against entangling alliances, we cannot fulfill myriad global commitments.
Our military is too small and spread too thin. Call for prudent pullback from our present imperial posture. Aggressively carry this case to Kentucky's hard-pressed military communities. Call McConnell out for cowardice if he refuses to debate defense issues there.
You may still lose if you heed this advice. Continue your current course and count on it.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Forum. He is completing a biography of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
Editor's comment: I had to look twice to make sure the writer of this piece is John David Dyche, a usual supporter of Senator Mitch McConnell's.
Now that I've seen that it is indeed John David Dyche who wrote the piece, I have a question to ask: Is JDD NOW working for Bruce Lunsford, because the piece sure sounds like it?
And then again, What in the world did Mitch McConnell do to get "under his skin"?
Labels: Stick with Mitch
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 8:16 PM
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