Pipkin Goes to Alaska? [Update: LeDoux Replies]

There have been some curious congressional campaigns this season, campaigns that will be crucial especially given the candidates currently vying for the presidency. Conservative Republicans will need every single vote to keep the socialist majority in check and to counter the some of the likely disastrous policies that both candidates potentially represent.

Fortunately for MD's District 1, Andy Harris prevailed over both the incumbent and State Senator E.J. Pipkin. Not so much for Alaska's District 1, however. Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth reports the final tally:

LeDoux, Gabrielle 9.34%
Parnell, Sean R. 45.19%
Young, Don E. 45.47%

The biggest factor helping Young survive the challenge was the third candidate in the race, State Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, who spent significant funds out of her own pocket. While she never had a chance to win, there is little doubt she siphoned off a lot of the anti-Young vote.

My letter to Don Young's secret weapon follows:

Dear Ms LeDoux,
I write to you from Annapolis, MD and Congressional District 1 where we Republicans fought a tough primary contest to unseat the incumbent liberal, idiot claiming to represent principled Republicans in Congress.

The ultimately successful campaign was made all the tougher by a late third candidate. We were lucky to have prevailed.

Unfortunately for Alaskans in their only Congressional District, you entered the primary thereby robbing your would-be constituents of principled Republican representation in the form of Lt. Gov Sean Parnell. Now they (and Republicans everywhere) will have to suffer under Don Young another two years.

Now I asked the third candidate in MD's primary why he entered the race knowing full well that by doing so he was virtually guaranteeing that the incumbent would win. He has not seen fit to answer.

So I put it to you, madame. Why did you enter the primary to unseat Don Young in a campaign you couldn't possibly hope to win?

I am curious as to the answer and will share it with you. Since Sen. Pipkin won't give us the benefit of his "wisdom" voluntarily and we sure as heck can't count on the "working press" in this state to ask the hard questions, then we might need to see Ms LeDoux's response.

And here it is!

Dear Mike,
I realize that this can sometimes be a concern, but I do believe that this scenario can be looked at in two ways. First, I did enter the race a few months before Mr. Parnell stated his intention to run, so in that respect you could say that he possibly took votes from me. Also, is it possible that Mr. Parnell had a better showing because constituents would have voted for Mr. Young if they hadn't voted for me?

Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinion.

Sincerely,
Gabrielle LeDoux

Representative, District 36

Visitors and Commenters

Aside from a few blood relatives (my dad being by biggest fan), and other local bloggers, most people come by Mike's Nether Land by accident.

One visitor, however, doesn't fall into the above categories. This person was until this morning, just a nuisance commenter, though a peculiar and foul-mouthed one. That was when I fired up my e-mail account and my StatCounter. The morning's mail brought the familiar comment which I promptly rejected. However, instead of just the usual "Ha Ha..no one reads this [expletive]," the weirdo tacked on a few other gems that has lent some clues as to his identity. He used a phrase to qualify his usual "no one reads this..." admitting that my "blood relatives" as well as he himself might be reading my blog.

This struck me because I had recently used the same phrase to describe the mutinous Eastern Shore "Republicans" in my last post:

It seems that the disaffected Gilchrest staff and blood relatives have taken issue with their brethren in District 1 for turning out their man and have been actively campaigning for Kratovil.

I didn't think much of it after I rejected the comment until I looked at the StatCounter. This is a fascinating free service that any blogger worth his salt should have. It tells you everything about the people who visit your site. Everything. So it is that I know that my obscene commenter is from Stevensville, MD, of all places. Hmmmmmm....who else do I know is from Stevensville and who has borne the brunt of my attacks for the past four years?

[Company Name withheld][IP address withheld] [Label IP Address]
Stevensville, Maryland, United States, 0 returning visits

26th September 2008 20:17:25 search.yahoo.com/search?p=mike%27s netherland (searches yahoo using 'mike's netherland')
26th September 2008 20:18:38 http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9348302&postID=5453437872934769962 (reads the Eastern Shore Philosophy and goes to leave a comment, fails)
26th September 2008 23:08:53 (looks me up again but doesn't try to leave a comment)
27th September 2008 09:54:55 (Back at it again early the next morning. Must be really steamed, takes about a minute to re-read the post, pick up the "blood relative" reference then...)
27th September 2008 09:55:23 http://www.blogger.com/profile/01277682258432084047 (...straight to post a successful comment, that I reject a few minutes later)
27th September 2008 09:55:31 (reviews the post to see if I accepted it.)

I know what you're thinking. Yes technically he is from Kennedyville. I don't know ES-geography that well, but it doesn't matter. I can assume that he doesn't even know that I exist. But there may be others, say the Rockfish Republicans (or as I like to call them, morons) for instance, who may feel a bit singed. So while I don't know his name, I think I know where I can find him and what company he keeps.

My advice: Bookmark my site. Leave a comment that I can publish. Hmmmm? I do encourage people to comment and feel comfortable in debating me and other commenters the issues I bring up.

Eastern Shore Philosophy

The Annapolis Kapital, in its continuing campaign against Maryland Republicans, last night ran an exhaustive, in-depth study of why it thinks Andy Harris should not win the District 1 Congressional seat this November.

Now, to call the Kapital-paper reporting one-sided would be redundant. But the Eastern Shore "Republicans" have given the Kapital-paper (and by extension the Democrats) a gift. Federal election officials might want to investigate whether misguided Republicans have provided essentially an in-kind campaign donation to the Kratovil-for-Congress campaign.

It seems that the disaffected Gilchrest staff and blood relatives have taken issue with their brethren in District 1 for turning out their man and have been actively campaigning for Kratovil. They have noticed how the anti-Republican press (again, redundant) begins to drool when they sense a split in the party, especially when that split would lead to a Democratic victory.

So the "Eastern Shore Philosophy" was born. What is this philosophy? The newshounds over at the Kapital-paper don't tell us. Is it all that important? As long as there is a split in the party that could lead to a Democratic victory, who cares what they call it? Let's take a stab at defining it. Eastern Shore Philosophy:

1. Is what comes galloping WEST across the Bay Bridge every morning, in search of Western Shore philosophy money
2. Is blaming the Western Shore for all the environmentally unfriendly activity, such as forcing gigantic poultry farms onto the peaceful and environmentally-sensitive corn farmers and watermen of the Eastern Shore.
3. Is taking all the Western Shore Tourist dollars then blame them for the beach-going traffic jams.

Here's a message for the "Rockfish Republicans:" Why don't you find some self-respect, change parties and send the Kratovil for Congress campaign, the Sierra Club, the ACLU, the Obama campaign and the Islamic Republic generous donations? As it is, you are hijacking Flight GOP and providing the bottom-feeding press (I know!) with all the red meat they can digest.

You can't have it both ways. You can't have Western Shore money AND Eastern Shore philosophy. Please spare us another sappy, sickening Kapital profile on the Eastern Shore Indians who want nothing more than to live in peace and harmony with nature. I don't much care whether you live or starve on the Eastern Shore, just don't register as Republicans. OK?

Thanks.

Wayne's Mistress

I am speaking, of course, of the Annapolis Kapital. Not just the editorial pages but the whole operation, ostensibly a newspaper produced by professional journalists. But this weekend's Editor's Notebook tried, as a faithful and proud mistress would for her man, to put the best face on the Gilchrest-as-Democratic-supporter news this week.

First, a word on political primary campaigns, especially Republican ones. There is no such thing as a congenial primary campaign. The act of politicking is not to be confused with the activities and goals of a ladies sewing circle or a Boyscout Jamboree. The goal of a political campaign is to win the hearts, minds or votes of a majority of people. If your goal is to conduct a congenial campaign then you might as well not even run. You are not going to win by espousing the virtues of your opponent.

Now, if you are convinced that YOU are the best man for the job, that necessarily means that your opponent is not. Boo. Hiss. How bitter. How nasty! What do you mean implying that I am not right for the job? How dare you even consider running against me! You are so mean and nasty. Ugh. One can hear almost the same kind of rhetoric on any given elementary school playground.

So, can we dispense with the "nasty" and "bitter" qualifiers of any primary campaign in which we are the losers? Can't we just win or lose like grown men and women? Hmm? Thank you.

Now, of course the Kapital-paper editors were not surprised that Gilchrest lost to the better candidate, Andy Harris. That didn't stop the editors from endorsing him. Neither were they shocked when the man-without-a-party pledged his support, whatever that means, for the Democrat to prevail against Harris in November.

But the editors are still grappling with the mood of District 1 GOP voters. Only the Kapital-paper can find irony in the dumping of Wayne Gilchrest after they pretty much laid out in the previous paragraphs how Gilchrest was practically begging to be dumped. How could they vote against one Vietnam veteran (Gilchrest) and for another (McCain)? McCain puts principle above party. Gilchrest is independent, thinks for himself. McCain is a maverick. Gilchrest is not a sheep. One and the same! Right? Cut from whole cloth! Yes? Separated at birth! No?

The editors go on to try to explain the difference between national and congressional campaigns. The national ticket "is won and lost in the middle." National candidates need "some support from moderates and independents." Still struggling with what this has to do with Gilchrest lending his Republican affiliation to support the Democrat? Well, the editors tie all this together in the next paragraph describing how modern computers make Gerrymandering congressional districts a science virtually guaranteeing that incumbents (of the party in power) will never lose! So...you see....that means that poor politicians like Gilchrest are forced to cross party lines in order to get anything done! Aha! Thereby.... uh ...incurring the wrath of the party faithful and losing in a nasty, bitter, evil, dastardly and hurtful primary campaign!

The solution? To what, losing a nasty primary? It doesn't matter. Just go with it. Stop allowing elected officials to Gerrymander (I wonder why they don't use that term?) congressional districts! This will lead to congenial political campaigns? Will this require amending the U.S. or State Constitutions?

Si, Hablo Espaniol?

I am certain that I butchered the spelling and punctuation of the now-ubiquitous disclaimer found on most government written matter. So it was with the Anne Arundel County Public Schools annual letter from the Superintendent welcoming its little liberal\union indoctrinees back to camp. One side of the letter was written in the familiar English while the other side contained its Spanish translation.

I didn't read either version. If I had I'm sure I would be writing about the union propaganda and politically-correct tripe that I am sure the waste of paper contained. The prospect of boring you with yet another gripe about our public school system led to me to ask myself, out loud, some questions about the bilingual bilge water that you and I paid to have written and mailed to us (I assure you, my wife regrets having brought the thing to my attention):

1. What about Arabic or Chinese translations? Does it mean that only the Spanish-speaking minority in this country is apparently incapable of learning the language of their adopted homeland? Apparently the AACPS expects immigrants from other countries to be capable of learning English. If I were Hispanic, I would be insulted that the government thinks so little of me, as an adult parent of school-age children, as to consider me illiterate in English.
2. Where are the immigrant lobbyists and pressure groups for the Korean, Dutch and Russian folks who, after waiting for years for an immigration visa, finally arrive in time to receive important communication from the Superintendent? I guess, since they had to wait so long, they were expected to learn English well enough to recognize union propaganda and politically-correct tripe when they see it.

It continues to amaze me that liberals don't get the nuances involved here. Is this not the "soft bigotry of low expectations" that George Bush described back in 2000?