Paid For By the Tennessee Democratic Party
I wasn't surprised by what I found in the mail yesterday. This close to Election Day, with early voting underway in Tennessee, it is not uncommon to find the dirty mailers in the post from candidates of all stripes about their opponents. You know, the bulk mail pieces that essentially say "candidate X is the devil." The one I happened to come across yesterday listed a series of half-truths about the career of Mike Faulk and warned us all that if Faulk is elected to the State Senate, rapists will run free all over the State of Tennessee.I expected to see the obligatory bulk mailer portraying Mike Faulk as one of Satan's Legions after several days worth of circular cards portraying Mike Williams as Jesus Christ (the really phony part was the quote from Bunker Phil calling his tool Williams "my friend"). It only follows that after days of trying to convince voters that you are the Messiah of the 4th District through the Post Office, you must then offer up the notion through the same medium that your opponent represents the Prince of Darkness. Knowing this reality, I would just have shrugged the mail piece off and nearly did until I noticed the fine print: "Paid for by the Tennessee Democratic Party."
From the day Mike Williams left the Republican Party, he said he was becoming an independent. He attempted to say that he would not be tied to either of the two parties, but many of us have long suspected that he is really a Democrat who is not running as one because he knows, as the rest of us do, that the day a candidate wins in this district running as the Democratic nominee, it will be a universal signal that the Apocalypse is upon us. I have a better chance of defeating Barack Obama as a write-in candidate than a Democrat has of winning in the 4th Senate District of Tennessee.
Williams should not be called a Democrat merely because he voted for John Wilder. Yes, the circumstances of that vote were shady because it appears that Williams was out for his own advancement, but in John Wilder's 36 years as Lieutenant Governor, he received many Republican votes at roll call on the day the General Assembly opened. Williams' Democratic sympathies are better ascertained by looking at the company he keeps and the enemies he makes. He is cozy with Democratic Leadership in ways that make it appear as though he is one of their number, and they've even been known to invite him to Caucus meetings. Through the latest anti-Faulk mailer, we now see that the extent of Mike Williams' relationship with the Democrats is so thorough that the Democratic Party is paying for campaign mailings on Williams' behalf.
If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...
The biggest problem with Mike Williams is the reality that he is operating under a cloud of partisan deception wherein he is hiding the reality from his constituents of what his real political party is and where his sympathies truly lay. He is doing so because he knows that to come out and say "I am a Democrat" will likely get him defeated in November. Hence, for fear of losing, he cannot face his constituents and tell them the truth.
Labels: Democrats, Elections, Local politics, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 2:11 AM
6 Comments:
Paid for by the Tennessee Republican Party
So, extending your logic: Because Republicans are paying for attacks on pro-choice liberal Democrat Rosalind Kurita's opponent Tim Barnes, their attacks magically convert Senator Kurita into a Republican?
Not hardly. No matter her allies, Senator Kurita is and will remain a Democrat.
Likewise, Senator Mike Williams is and will remain a Republican who was forced into running as an Independent.
Think on these things.
I hate the religious comparisons, Dave. Mike Williams is no more Jesus than you or I am, but if you're going to use these analogies, you should mention that Mike Faulk most closely resembles Judas. It is Mike Faulk who betrayed the trust the Republican party put in him as their candidate. It is Mike Faulk who sold out his election chances for pleasures of the flesh. I live in Hawkins County and work in Grainger and Claiborne Counties, and I can tell you that Mike Faulk is done. Williams will carry both these counties, and what an irony that is. The very county that knows him best will hand this election to Williams on an olive platter. Like Judas, Faulk can blame his own hypocrisy when it happens. Keep plowing on, good buddy.
Vera;
I didn't make any religious comparisons, I made a political analogy using religious figures to heighten the effect. The point was that Williams' mailers were saying how super good he was, and this one was designed to tell us how wicked Mike Faulk is. It was and is raw politics, and from that standpoint it did not bother me, that is part of the game.
What did bother me is the fact that it is clear that it is the Democratic Party is backing Williams with everything they've got. Yes, I find that disturbing-who will Mike Williams owe his political favors to if he is re-elected?
I'm not arguing the state of the race at this point. As you know, I have written here of my personal feelings on the situation Re: "the affair." This does not negate my concern, however, that Mike Williams is bought and paid for by the Democrats-and no Vera, I do not like that.
Ever heard of Danny Wallace. SENATOR Danny Wallace. He was the DEMOCRAT that held Senate District 4 until Williams beat him. Oh, yeah, ever heard of Ken Givens. REPRESENTATIVE Ken Givens. He was the DEMOCRAT that represented part of Senate District 4 in the House for years.
Democrats can win and have won in that district. Try not to be so uninformed.
Will you run, Dave? No, wait, you won't. You have a moral compass and that guides you. I forgot good guys don't seem to want this job. My bad.
On another note, good luck in your own race. I have good friends in Jeff Co. who have your sign in their yard. They're good people, so I trust their judgement.
Dannyg: What happened to Danny Wallace? Oh, he was beaten by a man purporting to be a Republican...
Williams will not run as a Democrat because he can't win as one. Even the most hard-shelled Democrat around here (most that I know have supported Williams all along) will admit that. Let us face reality.
Vera;
I can't tell you that the day won't come that I won't run for the Senate seat in the 4th District. I also can't tell you that I ever will. I have placed my political career into the hands of two entities: The people of this town, and Almighty God.
If I am elected on the 4th of November, I have promised the people of White Pine that I will give my service and my time to them. I have said that I won't make promises to anyone that I can't keep, and that I will make myself open and accessible to the people who live here...and that I will bring a level of openness to City Council not known in many years.
I am not entering the arena with the idea that I want to do anything more than serve others. If that means that I spend my entire public career in small-town politics, I am beyond happy with that. If it means that I might run for some other office in the years ahead, preferably at the request of others, I'd be honored to do so, provided that my wife is fine with that and it is clear that I am going to a place that God would want me to go.
The rest is up to the people-really.
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