Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Beating a dead political horse (again)
The Nashville Scene's post-election "Corker Crashes Ford" cover created much gnashing of teeth amongst the "progressive," i.e., statist, sorts who read Music City's premier weekly tabloid. Sue Dippold's letter to the Scene's editor was a typical response:
"I voted for Ford because ... his net worth is $150,000 and Corker lives in a 30-room mansion. Class warfare? You bet, it's middle-class warfare."
No, Ms. Dippold, it's actually class envy, and your reason for voting against Bob Corker is quite spurious, indeed.
Bob Corker may have a lot of money, but he earned it by risking his own capital to create a successful construction company. He didn't inherit his wealth like liberal icons Ted Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller; and he's not living off his wife's checkbook like, say, John Kerry, for whom I'm sure Ms. Dippold had no problem voting despite his being able to bed down in a townhouse, mansion, and vacation ski chalet. (Nor did she refrain, I'm guessing, from voting for Phil Bredesen despite his splitting his time between the Executive Residence and his swanky Belle Meade digs.)
Furthermore, Bob Corker's father didn't bestow upon him a safe congressional seat at the age of twenty-six. No, Senator-elect Corker knows what it's like to actually work for a living. He has experience meeting a payroll and complying with state and federal regulations, unlike a certain soon-to-be former U.S. Representative who has no idea what it's like to have to live under the rules and regulations for which he's voted 'cause, well, he's never had a real job.
Branding Bob Corker as an out-of-touch millionaire was perhaps the Junior camp's most ridiculous bit of electioneering. If Junior and his minions were so put off by mansion-dwelling sorts, why didn't they tell Harold Ford the First, who's earned many a penny working as a lobbyist, to stay out of the Junior for Senate campaign?
This Web site quite cogently explained why Junior was unqualified to be U.S. Senator, before and after the campaign. Hopefully, I won't have to explain such again.
"I voted for Ford because ... his net worth is $150,000 and Corker lives in a 30-room mansion. Class warfare? You bet, it's middle-class warfare."
No, Ms. Dippold, it's actually class envy, and your reason for voting against Bob Corker is quite spurious, indeed.
Bob Corker may have a lot of money, but he earned it by risking his own capital to create a successful construction company. He didn't inherit his wealth like liberal icons Ted Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller; and he's not living off his wife's checkbook like, say, John Kerry, for whom I'm sure Ms. Dippold had no problem voting despite his being able to bed down in a townhouse, mansion, and vacation ski chalet. (Nor did she refrain, I'm guessing, from voting for Phil Bredesen despite his splitting his time between the Executive Residence and his swanky Belle Meade digs.)
Furthermore, Bob Corker's father didn't bestow upon him a safe congressional seat at the age of twenty-six. No, Senator-elect Corker knows what it's like to actually work for a living. He has experience meeting a payroll and complying with state and federal regulations, unlike a certain soon-to-be former U.S. Representative who has no idea what it's like to have to live under the rules and regulations for which he's voted 'cause, well, he's never had a real job.
Branding Bob Corker as an out-of-touch millionaire was perhaps the Junior camp's most ridiculous bit of electioneering. If Junior and his minions were so put off by mansion-dwelling sorts, why didn't they tell Harold Ford the First, who's earned many a penny working as a lobbyist, to stay out of the Junior for Senate campaign?
This Web site quite cogently explained why Junior was unqualified to be U.S. Senator, before and after the campaign. Hopefully, I won't have to explain such again.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Wednesday, November 29, 2006 
