(We’re all about CA-50 right now. And we particularly appreciate CarlsbadDem crossposting from DailyKos. – promoted by jsw)
YOU need to care about the CA-50 race (featuring our candidate Francine Busby – donate), because is the best preview we have of how all the other races will go this November.
The candidates debated tonight, let me tell you what happened–with pictures!–below the fold:
In attendance were: Brian Bilbray (R), Bill Boyer (R), Francine Busby (D), Richard Earnest (R), Paul King (Lib), Scott Orren (R), Eric Roach (R), Alan Uke (R) and Chris Young (D – sort of). Much to my disappointment (probably would have made for some good laughs), two Republicans in the lead pack, Howard Kaloogian and Bill Morrow, were not in attendance.
Here is the lineup (in that order, from right to left of the image):
Sing along with me now, “One of these things is not like the other!” All those greyish suits and there’s our Busby standing toe-to-toe and standing out in a good way!
FYI, the Republican front-runners are Bilbray, Roach, Kaloogian, Morrow and Uke (in that order), so watch out for their responses–if we don’t support Busby, they could be in YOUR congress voting on YOUR issues!
First, the fact-checking. Of course there were too many to pick out everything, but these were some of the more egregious ones.
- Brian Bilbray: Asked, Did Bush violate the 4th ammendment when he wiretapped US citizens, and if yes, should he be held accountable?” Bilbray spent his entire response harping (literally he was much more passionate than usual and speaking in a very raised voice) on the fact that people say “domestic” wiretapping, but (he claims) that only international-international and domestic-international, not domestic-domestic calls were tapped. (He dodged the question of whether this broke the law.)
- TRUTH: The Washington Post reported (Feb 5) that some purely domestic calls were monitored.
- Alan Uke: On the same question, Alan Uke claimed that every president since and including Washington, has used domestic spying during wartime.
- TRUTH: Whatever the history pre-1978, the passage of FISA clearly changes the landscape when it comes to whether such actions are legal. Clinton, Carter, and other presidents post-FISA have not violated that law. Bush’s spying–relative to the law at the time–is unprecedented.
- Eric Roach: Asked his opinion on abortion, Roach said he’d “never seen a pro-life bill he wouldn’t support.” He said those words very, very carefully and deliberately, so I can’t believe he wasn’t trying to specifically refer to the South Dakota legislation. He also argued that “you make your choice before” (when you have sex).
- TRUTH: The South Dakota bill does not include an exception for rape. So, when did rape victims make their chioce?
- Roach: He also claimed that we could have border guards posted 24/7 on the US-Mexico border so densely that they could hold hands with each other, across the whole border, for the same cost as our current border enforcement programs. But “special interests” aren’t letting it happen.
- TRUTH: wtf?
I’m not going to bother fact-checking the lesser-known candidates.
Ok just for fun, here are the signs I’ve seen out so far:
Oh yes, that is Busby with by far the coolest design. How embarrassing for Bilbray and Uke to show up wearing the same colors. I guess there are only so many color combinations to go around when you have a dozen candidates. Ok but seriously now, there is something to notice on these signs that relates to the debate: the messages that are on some of them. Bilbray’s says “Proven Tough on Illegal Immigration,” which has been the central (only?) issue of his campaign, and frankly a central issue in this whole race (this being San Diego and all). Note that Uke’s also refers to immigration, “For a more secure America” (that will be interpreted by people here as war on terror as well as immigration). This is the kind of thing that should get our attention: Roach’s and Morrow’s both say “Conservative for Congress” instead of “Republican for Congress.” Two front-runners running as fast as they can from the Republican party, the party of imcompetence and corruption, the party of Katrina, Terri, Iraq, deficits, oil compaines and medicaid cuts. CA-50 is a red district by registration count, and they are running scared from their own party’s label. Not hard to understand why (ahem: 33%), but this is the kind of thing that helps me sleep at night. Read on for more distancing from Republican failures.
Other highlights of the debate:
- Roach asked himself the rhetorical question, “Are we better off than we were X years ago?” (forget what he said exactly for X) And he answered it NO. There you have it folks, Republicans have already conceded the Nov elections! LOL! (one of many examples of them running away from their party’s record)
- Young, the other “Democrat” in the race, used her opening statement to brag about how there is something missing from her campaign web page (very much on purpose)–her party affiliation. Nice. She then went on about how Duke was and is a patriot, and nobody should talk about his “tragedy” as part of this race. Riiiiight…
- Roach was clearly dying to play his emotion card: he used to work in the WTC and knew some people who died there. He trotted that out twice but it came across pretty awkward–didn’t quite fit but he went with it anyway.
- On the domestic spying question, Orren said simply, “He didn’t violate the law, he is the president.” NICE. The other Republicans’ answers were depressingly similar. Even Boyer, who at least had the honor to start his answer with a big, loud “Yes! [he broke the law],” qualified it by saying he got bad advice, and his motives were pure. ALL said almost word for word that we have to support the Commander in Chief during wartime.
- ENERGY: Bilbray supports drilling in ANWR. But most of the Republicans were sounding almost like Jerome a Paris on the question, “How can we become energy independent?” Earnest laid out a bold agenda for getting off foreign oil completely in 15 years. Boyer said if he had his way, this would be the #1 issue at the federal level. Even Bilbray said we should be more like France (haha! I thought that was the ultimate Republican taboo), ie using nuclear energy, a point echoed by several others. And Roach wanted us to use biofuels like Brazil. (yo! another example of them running like mad from their party’s record)
- Every candidate bemoaned earmarks and the out of control spending of this congress. Some even openly admitted it was their party that was out of control. (Roach is especially trying to make himself out as the one who will restore the “true” Republican party, often invoking Reagan.)
- Bilbray said in resposne to the question, “Would you bring our troops home?” that when you give a speech on the floor of the House, “the enemy is listening” and you have to be careful you “don’t give aid and comfort to our enemies” by making them think we might leave Iraq. Ugh! Not that old canard!
- One of the Repubs (I didn’t get his name) is a Vietnam veteran, and in response to the same question, he said we treat Iraq war veterans as badly as Vietnam veterans, only we give (phony) lip service to supporting them and honoring them. It was a very sincere and bitter complaint, and he went on to list some specific problems like veterans benefits cuts. Ouch!! So much for Bush’s/Republican’s “supporting the troops” advantage.
- The South Dakota Effect?? Republican Party has MaryScotts? Amazingly, many of the Republicans sounded like Democrats on the abortion question (notable exceptions of Roach and Bilbray). Earnest sounded almost like MSOC, raising his voice almost to a yell to say, “At the end of the day, government should stay out of the bedroom, out of the living room! [not sure what he was refering to there, maybe the sofa? heehee]… It is between themselves and their mate!…” Uke gave unqualified support to Roe v. Wade, and said if it were overturned (which he didn’t support) he would support legislation to implement in effect the same system as Roe v. Wade. Orren and another R seemed deeply uncomfortable with the subject, staring down at the table while they spoke and stumbling, both saying that although they were personally pro-life and very conflicted, they agreed abortion was needed in society (Orren’s wife is a neonatal nurse and he said she told him stories and cases and he has come to realize it is a very complicated issue). King complained that abortion is such a big fundraising issue, and said it was personal and politicians should just stay out of it. Even Bilbray complained about politicians talking about it as a “black and white issue” (although that came across way less sincere than the others’ statements I thought). As far as interpreting what this means for the rest of the country and November, I think there are two main possible interpretations: (1) note the two front-runners were the exceptions, so maybe there are tons and tons of people who identify as Republicans who are pro-choice and not represented well by their party and not being allowed to seek office in the party, or (2) South Dakota and other recent overreaches past the sensibilities of even most people who consider themselves “pro-life” is turning the political tide in the country.
- Roach was the only one to come out swinging for the fences on the abortion question. He went on and on about the first time he saw a sonogram of his pregnant wife. As noted above, he said he had never seen a pro-life bill he wouldn’t support. Bilbray was also in contrast to the other apparently pro-choice Republicans, saying ‘partial birth abortion’ is “as close to infanticide” as anything he had heard of, and noted he had voted to ban it when he was previously in congress.
- Uke got a nice one-liner in against Young, whose ENTIRE argument for her candidacy and qualifications is that she is a 6th generation San Diegan, and this-and-that was named after her family, blah, blah. Everyone was sick of her bringing that up. Anyway, Uke turned to her (she was sitting next to him) and said, “I can beat your story, I’m part Cherokee.” Haha! It actually worked against Uke because the audience laughed and applauded so long that it cut way into his limited time for his closing statement.
Now for a summary of Busby’s star performance:
- On the domestic spying question, Busby stood strong saying, “Nobody is questioning if he broke the law. He made a decision not to follow [FISA].” Thank you! So tired of the whole is-he/isn’t-he–nobody has seriously put forth that he didn’t break the law (except apparently Bilbray, Uke, Roach and Orren).
- On the Iraq war, she went back to her campaign theme of honesty, that she introduced in her opening comments, “Honesty means knowing what is going on in Iraq.”
- On abortion, Busby is pro-choice. She said it is simply not (or shouldn’t be) a federal issue. Obviously, she supports comprehensive sex ed and she also emphasized the need to provide adequate healthcare to all women regardless of means, to help prevent unwanted pregnancy (as well as the need for access to healthcare for more people in general).
- On budget and corruption (closely tied), Busby has a “Clean House” plan she introduced last fall.
- On energy independence, Busby noted that the other governments who the Republicans were fond of citing, had actually made energy independence a genuine priority (go figure!), unlike Republicans in congress.
- Busby closed with a moving account of her story of going from nothing–no money, no infastructure, to build one of the largest grassroots teams in the country for a congressional candidate, all because she just started speaking her mind on the terrible direction she saw this country going, and shd found that “what I was saying is what people were feeling.” She said she is running as a “mom,” a woman, a regular citizen who is fed up with what she sees going on in Washington. That pretty much sums it up!
- Afterwards, I heard people talking about how they just loved Busby’s sincerity, attitude and story. This is really a very strong intangible selling point for her as a candidate. She has that “It” that makes people want to trust her and feel energized about supporting her.
Well, anyone else who was there can fill in below in the comments. My fingers are getting tired. =)
PS: This was originally posted at dailykos, where I also did this diary about how the North County Times’ letters to the editor are overwhelmingly and enthusiastically in favor of Busby (all related letters of the past 2 weeks are there for reference).
