Have you ever run for office? kthxbai.

Going to be tough to beat. mark my word.

The 5th district is not ready for anyone wearing Magical UnderWare!!!!

Remind me to stay on your good side, or at least 500 yards away.

Yeah, Mo Brooks would probably be strong. I’ve certainly heard of him. I was trying to make a point, however irrelevant it may have been. I also thought it sounded nice coupled with the comment I made afterward.

Some of my intent was to shed a little light on the consultant-driven themes that candidates now almost solely rely on. There is no real originality nor anything unique about a candidate snatching his or her platform from the webpage of whichever national party they identify with. They’re all focused on soundbytes, negative press-mailings, and little door-to-door campaigning. Get out and work. Be a real politician. Have a real damn idea.

I also don’t look very favorably upon another candidate pledging to fight the good fight in Congress on behalf of what basically amounts to his ideology and party affiliation. Like I said earlier, I’ll settle for 200 million in pork a year.

If I wasn’t clear earlier, I don’t see government as a huge failure. The United States Government is clearly superior to any other on the planet. This several decade long and probably infinite tendency to campaign against our government really worries me. If it’s so bad and everyone is clearly so spineless and ignorant says Mo — “who seemingly lack political backbone, an understanding of public policy cause and effect, or both” — then why is he considering joining them? Now I know the dreamer’s answer will be that he’ll be the one to fix it all, but let’s be reasonable here. Bottom line, it ain’t so bad.

I appreciate the space here to do a little rambling and I apologize for any ill will this or any of my posts have generated. Pitifully, I find myself now immersed in the same old name-calling politics I despise.

I have no sources you don’t have. They’re the same ones.

I can still shoot a hole in a gnat’s ass from 500 yards.

Folks on both sides of the aisle are kind enough to exchange emails about this or that news topic. I didn’t ask permission to quote by name the person who believed Brooks would win the nomination if he ran, so I didn’t offer it, but tried to give a broad categorization of what kind of person I was talking about. I am not trying to assert that he is right, simply that there are people who make that case. I understand you are not one of them, but the claim is not solely “self-proclaimed.”

Not really intending to jab you at all, but I confess that I may bow up a little in defense of a public figure who is nice enough to be helpful to the blog. As always, I expect disagreements on these topics, but prefer them to be less personal and more political. I also confess to a little surprise that someone with thoughtful and strong opinions on this had never heard of Mo Brooks.

As for Tom Butler… the problem with writing about a story as slippery and developing as quickly as this one about who is running for AL-05 is that it changes so quickly. What is accurate when it’s written may change later, and the best I know to do is to make sure it’s accurate when I write it. But of course, until a name is on the dotted line, anything can change. If you have a source that trumps what I have, I am glad to know more about it.

That said, I understand the story to be accurate then, and I understand it to be accurate now. The latest I heard (today) is that the announcement of his party switch will come next week.

I was trying to make the point that his comments seemed a little arrogant even given his long political career. As for a “politico who gets paid to think about these kinds of things” — who the hell is that? Everybody and their brother think they’ve got the inside know on state politics.

Honestly, I just didn’t like his comments. They seemed genuine untill he uinveiled his dimestore political agenda.

For the record here, Washington is not broken and neither is Montgomery. I personally had much rather hear someone say that they look forward to working with the brave and honorable men and women serving in higher elected office and though they know that there are some problems, they look forward to working through them. We’ve been listening to candidates lay out the “I’m the one who’ll change all that” message for years. Let me be the one to tell you all, one individual out of 435 isn’t going to change much.

Not to mention, what Republican staffer couldn’t have written out the same old tired “illegal alien” and “lower taxes” crap? Visible stances on those issues make you popular, not productive, nor courageous. I am all for the national debt one though. Strange to hear a Republican on board there.

I do appreciate your jab about my connection to politics and I’ll certainly stick one in the next chance I get ARISE to.

Also, Tom Butler is not running as a Republican. Stop writing it.

Gunney Highway wrote:
your self-proclaimed status as the frontrunner seems a little contrived.

As soon as Cramer’s announcement was made, a politico who gets paid to think about these kinds of things told me that Mo Brooks would win the GOP nomination if he ran, the point being that here are definitely those who believe Brooks would be a frontrunner for the nomination if he ran. If you’ve “really never heard of” Mo Brooks, that may say as much about your connection to politics as it does about his.