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Abernathy Strategies
RepublicanGazette
Thursday, February 28, 2008 "When news breaks, we fix it" Published daily except some days
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All opinions are those of The Republican Gazette and its editor, Gary Abernathy, except letters or commentary signed by others, and do not reflect the views of anyone else, including clients of Abernathy Strategies.
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Having Fun With Mojo
Blair, Carmichael rule in debate over lawmaker pay hike
CRAIG BLAIR
MITCH CARMICHAEL
Hoppy Kercheval opened his "Talkline" program on Wednesday with a debate over the merits of a legislative pay raise, and when the dust settled, GOP Delegates Craig Blair and Mitch Carmichael were full because they had already eaten the Democrats' lunch.Opening the show, Blair was paired against Democrat Delegate Mike Caputo, who defended the pay raise. When it was his turn, Blair launched into a counter-attack that gave new meaning to scorched earth. Kercheval sat back and allowed his two guests to go at it, and they provided listeners with the radio equivalent of a raucous Ali-Frazier fight. Blair, who should speak for the GOP more often, said he opposed the pay hike, but did offer a plan whereby legislative pay hikes would be tied to a formula involving the average salary of West Virginia workers. The debate veered into tax cuts, with Caputo getting defensive about the legislature not acting on tax cuts fast enough. Caputo (in typical Democrat fashion) asked Blair where he would come up with the money to fund the tax cuts, and Blair suggested that getting rid of prevailing wage laws would be one place to start.Caputo resorted to the union standby that Blair would take money out of the pockets of working West Virginians, but Blair was readyBlair sees likely retaliation from leadership with bills being pulled
for that, countering that even with prevailing wage, the average West Virginia worker makes $10,000 less a year than workers in surrounding states.
At the end of the segment, there was an uneasy impasse when Hoppy asked the two delegates to shake hands. Blair eventually offered some tepid words of praise for the current Democrat leadership compared to previous years, but the hostility still seemed more real than imagined.In fact, before the day was over, one of Blair's bills had been pulled by Democrat leaders, and he expected more of the same due to his outspoken opposition to the pay hike plan.By comparison, Carmichael's follow-up debate with Delegate John Doyle was downright civil, but Carmichael still managed to out-score his opponent with a populist argument that there were more important items for the Legislature to address before legislative pay hikes, including teacher pay and unfunded liabilities.As stated before, your faithful scribe actually favors legislative pay raises, but Blair and Carmichael came to "Talkline" loaded for bear and hit their target almost without fail.
Buckley gave voice to the right
Before Ronald Reagan, the most persuasive and influential voice of the conservative movement was William F. Buckley, Jr., who passed away Wednesday at 82.Buckley was noted as much for his quirky personality and unique way with words as for his ideas. To watch an hour of his TV program, "Firing Line," was to witness a virtuoso demonstration of erudite verbosity, and while you might not have understood everything he said, you certainly felt smarter just for watching him.Buckley's contributions to mainstreaming conservatism are being well documented elsewhere. But one of his greatest gifts was being able to fiercely fight for his beliefs while maintaining friendships with those who opposed him -- an art almost lost today. WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.
Cunningham the bombastic
Radio host's act at McCain event not a surprise to those who have heard him before
BILL CUNNINGHAM
When Bill Cunningham got himself in hot water with his remarks at a John McCain rally -- then turned on McCain when McCain disavowed what Cunningham had said -- it was a familiar act to someone like me who lived for years in the Cincinnati media market and listened to him daily on WLW radio.
Cunningham was a Cincinnati lawyer who began filling in on weekends at WLW radio, eventually working his way up to full-time talk show host. A former Democrat, Cunningham has built a career on being a conservative shock jock, increasingly injecting himself into Cincinnati and Ohio politics, becoming syndicated, and even lately enjoying a status as somewhat of a regular on Sean Hannity's national radio and TV shows.In case you missed it, Cunningham got himself into trouble this week when he was one of the warm-up acts for a McCain appearance in Cincinnati. Cunningham laced his comments with references to "Barack Hussein Obama" -- which is indeed the candidate's full name -- and called him a "hack Chicago-style Daley politician.’’ Remarks like that are fine by a right-wing host on the air during his own talk show, but not at an event featuring the GOP presidential candidate himself. When told of McCain's repudition of his tone and style, Cunningham did what Cunningham has a history of doing -- denouncing McCain and announcing his support for Hillary Clinton. Why? Because, in his mind, Bill Cunningham is more important than John McCain, or any other candidate, for that matter.In Cincinnati, Cunningham is known for his fickleness. A politician in his favor one week is just as likely to be toast the next week. No one depends much on a Cunningham endorsement, because it changes with his moods.Cunningham is an entertaining and amusing talk show host. His various on-air comments have left him suspended from the air more often than a rubber bat on Halloween. He has a plethora of catch phrases that are repeated by listeners throughout the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana tri-state area. A newspaper editor friend and I typically go through a whole Cunningham routine whenever we get together."Where are you calling from, if anywhere?" I'll ask."Give me full report!" he'll reply, as we spend five minutes invoking Cunningham-isms like some people recite dialogue from Monty Python or Mel Brooks movies.But over the years, Cunningham has clearly become a legend in his own mind, and the ledge he chooses to live on today was one place the McCain campaign should not have looked when seeking their Cincinnati warm-up act. Lack of GOP candidates led Democrats to seek pay hike
Again, just for the record one more time, I'm in complete support of a pay hike and per diem increase for state legislators. But most Republicans in the legislature oppose pay hikes, and are doing a good job of making their case.But Republicans everywhere who are against the pay hike should remember that the reason Democrats feel emboldened to seek a pay increase this year is the sad lack of Republican opponents in this year's election.Countless Democrats are unopposed this year, so they have no voter retribution to fear as they cast their yes votes for pay raises. (In fairness, a few of them would vote for the raise anyway, but not most of them.)When we, as Republicans, fail to do our jobs -- and it is the job of all of us -- by failing to recruit enough candidates to make the Dems worry about reelection, we let the voters down -- even Democrat voters, whose elected officials can behave just about any way they want because they'll walk back into office uncontested.Hey kids! Mojo here! In Washington, I met with other governors to discuss energy! So get this -- I was all over that city, at meetings, on CSPAN, everywhere! It was clear after a couple of days that I had more energy than any of them! Case closed!